Notion Of Modularity Research Articles

The construction of the modern factory. The introduction of prefabrication in Terra di Lavoro

This paper focuses on the investigation and understanding of the industrial heritage designed and built in Campania region, between Naples and Caserta, by the most important Italian architects and engineers in the post-war season. The principal aim of this paper is to present the rich and heterogeneous catalogue of factories designed in these years through unpublished drawings and photos from the building sites.
 These examples show a notion of modularity that brings interesting innovations in terms of on-site prefabrication of modular components and construction systems. The construction of these factories is therefore in contrast with Italy’s traditional building techniques based on craft approach and intense use of labour. The project of these factories is the outcome of the effort of famous architects and engineers, such as Lugi Figini e Gino Pollini, Angelo Mangiarotti, Marco Zanuso, Eduardo Vittoria, and Gigi Ghò, who experimented new structural solutions based on the orderly and coherent composition of prefabricated elements. This research stems from the revitalised interest in studies of prefabrication in Italy between the 50's to the 70's of the last century, and about the innovative aesthetic outcomes developed from it. In addition, this paper contributes to evaluate the qualitative connections between construction, geography and labour, assessing the friction between the advanced products and knowledge imported from the North and the agricultural vocation of these regions. The paper will also put in relation the development of prefabrication systems in the less-developed South of Italy in the wider context of the great industrialization boosted by political decisions and state financial helps of “Cassa del Mezzogiorno”.

The construction of the modern factory. The introduction of prefabrication in Terra di Lavoro

This paper focuses on the investigation and understanding of the industrial heritage designed and built in Campania region, between Naples and Caserta, by the most important Italian architects and engineers in the post-war season. The principal aim of this paper is to present the rich and heterogeneous catalogue of factories designed in these years through unpublished drawings and photos from the building sites.
 These examples show a notion of modularity that brings interesting innovations in terms of on-site prefabrication of modular components and construction systems. The construction of these factories is therefore in contrast with Italy’s traditional building techniques based on craft approach and intense use of labour. The project of these factories is the outcome of the effort of famous architects and engineers, such as Lugi Figini e Gino Pollini, Angelo Mangiarotti, Marco Zanuso, Eduardo Vittoria, and Gigi Ghò, who experimented new structural solutions based on the orderly and coherent composition of prefabricated elements. This research stems from the revitalised interest in studies of prefabrication in Italy between the 50's to the 70's of the last century, and about the innovative aesthetic outcomes developed from it. In addition, this paper contributes to evaluate the qualitative connections between construction, geography and labour, assessing the friction between the advanced products and knowledge imported from the North and the agricultural vocation of these regions. The paper will also put in relation the development of prefabrication systems in the less-developed South of Italy in the wider context of the great industrialization boosted by political decisions and state financial helps of “Cassa del Mezzogiorno”.

Frontiers of cosmopolitanism: Educational enclaves and the extractive roots of international schools.

This article situates international expatriate schools in their cultural and political economy by drawing attention to the tensions between a cosmopolitan educational ethos and processes of social, economic and legal enclavement. Based on extensive multi-sited ethnographic research in the international school sector, we show how cosmopolitan claims of openness mirror a relative closure and ‘offshore-like’ enclavement. To do so, we build upon the notions of modularity and extractivism, which we use as heuristics to analyse social and spatial practices of defining boundaries. Gazing beyond the main foundational myth of international schools, we first outline their concomitant extractive roots. Second, we shed light on the conditions of international teachers’ circulation worldwide. Third, we examine the territorial entanglements and disentanglements that characterise international schools. Finally, we investigate the tensions induced by a cosmopolitan educational ethos whose discourse of inclusion is inevitably paired with practices of exclusion.

On the origins and consequences of Simon’s modular approach to bounded rationality in economics

This paper discusses why in the 1950s Herbert Simon introduced bounded rationality as a modular notion—consisting of a “cognitive” and an “environmental” module—and explores the consequences of this choice. Originally, Simon emphasised cognition in economics and the environment in psychology to meet specific disciplinary interests. Continuing adaptively to emphasise cognition in economics has led, then, to significant unintended consequences: (i) the easier assimilation of Simon’s bounded rationality by neoclassical economics, and (ii) the persistent confusion between Simon’s and Kahneman and Tversky’s contribution. Seeing the recognition of his credit endangered, Simon reemphasised the environment when Gigerenzer introduced environment-based ecological rationality.

Designing the Digital Twins of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems: application on a smart factory

Abstract The emergence of Digital Twins in manufacturing enables in-depth integration of the physical and informational worlds. Meanwhile, the concept of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems exhibits new opportunities and new constraints in the way the manufacturing systems are designed and managed. Among others, the notion of modularity is a prerequisite for both physical components and their informational counterparts. To provide the benefits of Digital Twin to Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems, this paper introduces a modular design of the Digital Twin counterpart of the components. A prototype system is developed to demonstrate the modular design’s benefits, with an application on a reconfigurable learning factory.

Modular forms of virtually real-arithmetic type I: Mixed mock modular forms yield vector-valued modular forms

The theory of elliptic modular forms has gained significant momentum from the discovery of relaxed yet well-behaved notions of modularity, such as mock modular forms, higher order modular forms, and iterated Eichler-Shimura integrals. Applications beyond number theory range from combinatorics, geometry, and representation theory to string theory and conformal field theory. We unify these relaxed notions in the framework of vector-valued modular forms by introducing a new class of $\mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})$-representations: virtually real-arithmetic types. The key point of the paper is that virtually real-arithmetic types are in general not completely reducible. We obtain a rationality result for Fourier and Taylor coefficients of associated modular forms.

New generalizations of Modular spaces

In the present paper, we introduce the concept of $\mathcal{F}$-modular, which is a generalization of the modular notion. Moreover, we introduce a $K_p$-modular and $K$-modular, and then compare these concepts together. Finally, we give a characterization of $\mathcal{F}$-modulars.

Unifying the Notions of Modularity and Core-Periphery Structure in Functional Brain Networks during Youth.

At rest, human brain functional networks display striking modular architecture in which coherent clusters of brain regions are activated. The modular account of brain function is pervasive, reliable, and reproducible. Yet, a complementary perspective posits a core–periphery or rich-club account of brain function, where hubs are densely interconnected with one another, allowing for integrative processing. Unifying these two perspectives has remained difficult due to the fact that the methodological tools to identify modules are entirely distinct from the methodological tools to identify core–periphery structure. Here, we leverage a recently-developed model-based approach—the weighted stochastic block model—that simultaneously uncovers modular and core–periphery structure, and we apply it to functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired at rest in 872 youth of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. We demonstrate that functional brain networks display rich mesoscale organization beyond that sought by modularity maximization techniques. Moreover, we show that this mesoscale organization changes appreciably over the course of neurodevelopment, and that individual differences in this organization predict individual differences in cognition more accurately than module organization alone. Broadly, our study provides a unified assessment of modular and core–periphery structure in functional brain networks, offering novel insights into their development and implications for behavior.

ON THE MAXIMUM OF THE MODULARITY OF RANDOM CONFIGURATION GRAPHS

Configuration graphs with random independent identically distributed vertex degrees are considered. The degrees are equal to the number of vertex semiedges that are numbered in an arbitrary order. The graph is constructed by joining all of semiedges pairwise equiprobably to form edges. Such models can be used to adequately describe the topology of transport, electricity, social networks and the Internet. An important characteristic of the structure of a graph is its modularity. It is a measure for graph clustering in the case vertices are divided into groups (clusters). Graphs with high modularity have dense edges between the vertices within clusters but sparse connections between vertices of different clusters. The notion of modularity and its properties in random configuration graphs are discussed. The maximum modularity of a graph is used to describe the level of graph clustering and to find the best division of vertices. The limit theorem for the maximum modularity as the number of vertices tends to infinity is proved.

Generalization of the $${\varvec{lq}}$$lq-modular closure theorem and applications

Let k be a field of characteristic $$ p\not =0 $$. For a (purely) inseparable extension K / k the notion of modularity, defined by M.E. Sweedler in the 60s, is a very important property, very much like being Galois for a separable extension. We have defined, together with M. Chellali, a generalization of the notion of modularity, called lower quasi-modularity: K / k is lower quasi-modular (lq-modular) if for some finite extension $$k'$$ over k we have that $$K/k'$$ is modular. In subsequent papers M. Chellali and the author have studied various properties of lq-modular field extensions, including the existence of lq-modular closures in case $$[k{:}k^p]$$ is finite. In this paper we prove a similar result, without the hypothesis on k but with extra assumptions on K / k: the extension needs to be q-finite, that is, there must exist an integer M such that for every positive integer n the field $$K\cap k^{p^{-n}}$$ is generated by at most M elements on k. A number of properties of lq-modular closures are determined and examples are presented illustrating the results.

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of interconnectedness and modularity

In this contribution, we develop a theoretical framework for linking microprocesses (i.e., population dynamics and evolution through natural selection) with macrophenomena (such as interconnectedness and modularity within an ecological system). This is achieved by developing a measure of interconnectedness for population distributions defined on a trait space (generalizing the notion of modularity on graphs), in combination with an evolution equation for the population distribution. With this contribution, we provide a platform for understanding under what environmental, ecological, and evolutionary conditions ecosystems evolve toward being more or less modular. A major contribution of this work is that we are able to decompose the overall driver of changes at the macro level (such as interconnectedness) into three components: (i) ecologically driven change, (ii) evolutionarily driven change, and (iii) environmentally driven change.

Turning Constructionist Intercultural Communicative Competence and Complex Systems Theory into Praxis

While approaches to intercultural communicative competence (ICC) view the phenomenon as a modular notion, recent studies emphasize its constructionist nature. Thus, in this exploratory article we analyze critically current perspectives on ICC and discuss the potential applicability of the theory of complex systems for research on ICC drawing from a constructionist perspective. In order to illustrate the perspective, we evoke research on developing ICC of European teacher trainees of English, non-native speakers of the language. The results of a qualitative analysis indicate that ICC meaning cannot be captured through models advocating either psychological or contextual reductionism. Instead, ICC requires an approach which reconciles the cognitive and the social through a complex systems perspective on the constructionist framework.

From the Internet of Things to Cyber-Physical Systems: The Holonic Perspective

The paper presents a distributed model for implementing Cyber-Physical Systems aimed at controlling physical entities through the Internet of Things. The model tames the inherent complexity of the task by a recursive notion of modularity which makes each module both a controller and a controlled entity. Modules are arranged along part-whole tree-like hierarchies which collectively constitute the system. The behaviour of each module is strictly local since it has visibility only on its controlled modules, but not on the module which controls it. Each behaviour can be thus checked locally at design time against safety and liveness formulas, which still hold when component holons are composed into more complex ones, thus contributing, without the need of additional checks, to the overall safety and liveness of the final system.

Modular sovereignty, security, and debt: The Excessive Deficit Procedure of the European Union

AbstractThe Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) is a political mechanism that aims at ‘multilevel governance’ of state indebtedness in the European Union. As such, it has become the concern of research that asks how sovereignty becomes articulated in this process. This article approaches this question through the conceptualization of a modular notion of sovereignty elaborated through a discussion of work on the finance-security nexus. The article argues that existing accounts of the formation of sovereign power in relation to state debt can be combined into a notion of modular sovereignty when seen through the prism of critiques of contractualism that take issue with liberal notions of state sovereignty and credit security. This way, the indebted state becomes visible as the referent object of multiple, and potentially contradictory, invocations of sovereignty as exercised in the EDP. First, it figures as the seat of budget sovereignty, holding its social substrate liable for its debts while ignoring inequalities in that substrate. Second, it is appealed to, within a biopolitical rationality, as the sovereign guarantor of the financial wellbeing of its population. Third, it is seen as the executor of financial wisdom that is mobilized in struggles between different levels of financial governance in the EDP.

Analysis of the Interaction between Globular Head Modules of Human C1q and Its Candidate Receptor gC1qR.

The heterotrimeric globular head (gC1q) domain of human C1q is made up of the C-terminal ends of the three individual chains, ghA, ghB, and ghC. A candidate receptor for the gC1q domain is a multi-functional pattern recognition protein, gC1qR. Since understanding of gC1qR and gC1q interaction could provide an insight into the pleiotropic functions of gC1qR, this study was undertaken to identify the gC1qR-binding site on the gC1q domain, using the recombinant ghA, ghB, and ghC modules and their substitution mutants. Our results show that ghA, ghB, and ghC modules can interact with gC1qR independently, thus reinforcing the notion of modularity within the gC1q domain of human C1q. Mutational analysis revealed that while Arg162 in the ghA module is central to interaction between gC1qR and C1q, a single amino acid substitution (arginine to glutamate) in residue 114 of the ghB module resulted in enhanced binding. Expression of gC1qR and C1q in adherent monocytes with or without pro-inflammatory stimuli was also analyzed by qPCR; it showed an autocrine/paracrine basis of C1q and gC1qR interaction. Microscopic studies revealed that C1q and gC1qR are colocalized on PBMCs. Cell proliferation assays indicated that ghA, ghB, and ghC modules were able to attenuate phytohemagglutinin-stimulated proliferation of PBMCs. Addition of gC1qR had an additive effect on the anti-proliferative effect of globular head modules. In summary, our results identify residues involved in C1q-gC1qR interaction and explain, to a certain level, their involvement on the immune cell surface, which is relevant for C1q-induced functions including inflammation, infection, and immunity.

Beyond the structure of SAT formulas

Nowadays, many real-world problems are encoded into SAT instances and efficiently solved by modern SAT solvers. These solvers, usually known as Conflict-Driven Clause Learning (CDCL) SAT solvers, include a variety of sophisticated techniques, such as clause learning, lazy data structures, conflict-based adaptive branching heuristics, or random restarts, among others. However, the reasons of their efficiency in solving real-world, or industrial, SAT instances are still unknown. The common wisdom in the SAT community is that these technique exploit some hidden structure of real-world problems. In this thesis, we characterize some important features of the underlying structure of industrial SAT instances. Namely, they are the community structure and the self-similar structure. We observe that most industrial SAT formulas, viewed as graphs, have these two properties. This means that (i) in a graph with a clear community structure, i.e. having high modularity, we can find a partition of its nodes into communities such that most edges connect nodes of the same community; and (ii) in a graph with a self-similar pattern, i.e. being fractal, its shape is kept after re-scalings, i.e., grouping sets of nodes into a single node. We also analyze how these structures are affected by the effects of CDCL techniques during the search. Using the previous structural studies, we propose three applications. First, we face the problem of generating pseudo-industrial random SAT instances using the notion of modularity. Our model generates instances similar to (classical) random SAT formulas when the modularity is low, but when this value is high, our model is also adequate to model realistic pseudo-industrial problems. Second, we propose a method based on the community structure of the instance to detect relevant learnt clauses. Our technique augments the original instance with this set of relevant clauses, and this results into an overall improvement of the efficiency of several state-of-the-art CDCL SAT solvers. Finally, we analyze the classification of industrial SAT instances into families using the previously analyzed structure features, and we compare them to other classifiers commonly used in portfolio SAT approaches. In summary, this dissertation extends the understandings of the structure of SAT instances, with the aim of better explaining the success of CDCL techniques and possibly improve them, and propose a number of applications based on this analysis of the underlying structure of SAT formulas.

Control configuration synthesis using agglomerative hierarchical clustering: A graph-theoretic approach

This paper addresses the synthesis of control configurations that have optimal structural coupling characteristics between manipulated inputs and controlled outputs in terms of relative degrees. A recently developed agglomerative hierarchical clustering approach is reformulated in a graph theoretic setting. This allows the efficient generation of decentralized control configuration as well as the entire hierarchy of block decentralized control configurations. In addition, a notion of modularity is used to evaluate the compactness and separation of the resulting clusters, allowing the identification of optimal control configurations. The application of the proposed method is illustrated through case studies on an energy integrated fuel-cell system and a heat exchanger network.

Generating SAT instances with community structure

Nowadays, modern SAT solvers are able to efficiently solve many industrial, or real-world, SAT instances. However, the process of development and testing of new SAT solving techniques is conditioned to the finite and reduced number of known industrial benchmarks. Therefore, new models of random SAT instances generation that capture realistically the features of real-world problems can be beneficial to the SAT community. In many works, the structure of industrial instances has been analyzed representing them as graphs and studying some of their properties, like modularity.In this work, we use the notion of modularity to define a new model of generation of random SAT instances with community structure, called Community Attachment. For high values of modularity (i.e., clear community structure), we realistically model pseudo-industrial random SAT formulas. This model also generates SAT instances very similar to classical random formulas using a low value of modularity. We also prove that the phase transition point, if exists, is independent on the modularity. We evaluate the adequacy of this model to real industrial SAT problems in terms of SAT solvers performance, and show that modern solvers do actually exploit this community structure. Finally, we use this generator to observe the connections between the modularity of the instance and some components of the solver, such as the variable branching heuristics or the clause learning mechanism.

Editorial: Modularity in motor control: from muscle synergies to cognitive action representation.

Mastering a rich repertoire of motor behaviors, as humans and other animals do, is a surprising and still a poorly understood outcome of evolution, development, and learning. Many degrees-of-freedom, non-linear dynamics, and sensory delays provide formidable challenges for controlling even simple actions. Modularity as a functional element, both structural and computational, of a control architecture might be the key organizational principle that the central nervous system employs for achieving versatility and adaptability in motor control. Recent investigations of muscle synergies, motor primitives, compositionality, basic action concepts, and related work in machine learning have contributed, at different levels, to advance our understanding of the modular architecture underlying rich motor behaviors. However, the existence and nature of the modules comprising the control architecture is far from settled. For instance, regularity and low-dimensionality of the motor output are often taken as an indication of modularity but they could simply be a byproduct of optimization and task constraints. Moreover, what are the relationships between modules at different levels, such as muscle synergies, kinematic invariants, and basic action concepts? One important reason for the new interest in understanding modularity in motor control from different perspectives is the impressive development in cognitive robotics. In comparison to animals and humans, the motor skills of today's best robots are limited and inflexible. However, robot technology is maturing to the point at which it can start approximating a reasonable spectrum of different perceptual, cognitive, and motor capabilities. These advances allow researchers to explore how these motor, sensory, and cognitive functions might be integrated into meaningful architectures and to test their functional limits. Such systems provide a new test bed to explore different concepts of modularity and to experimentally investigate possible interactions between motor and cognitive processes. Thus, the goal of this Research Topic is to review, compare, and debate theoretical and experimental studies of the modular organization of the motor control system at different levels. By bringing together researchers seeking to understand the building blocks of coordinating many muscles, planning endpoint and joint trajectories, and representing motor and behavioral actions in memory we aim at promoting new interactions between often disconnected research areas and approaches and providing a broad perspective on the notion of modularity in motor control.

Modular architectures and informational encapsulation: a dilemma

Amongst philosophers and cognitive scientists, modularity remains a popular choice for an architecture of the human mind, primarily because of the supposed explanatory value of this approach. Modular architectures can vary both with respect to the strength of the notion of modularity and the scope of the modularity of mind. We propose a dilemma for these modularity approaches, no matter how they vary along these two dimensions. First, if a modular architecture commits to the informational encapsulation of modules, as it is the case for modularity theories of perception, then modules are on this account impenetrable. However, we argue that there are genuine cases of the cognitive penetrability of perception and that these cases challenge any strong, encapsulated modular architecture of perception. Second, many recent massive modularity theories weaken the strength of the notion of module, while broadening the scope of modularity. These theories do not require any robust informational encapsulation, and thus avoid the incompatibility with cognitive penetrability. However, the weakened commitment to informational encapsulation greatly weakens the explanatory force of the approach and, ultimately, is conceptually at odds with the core of modularity.