Real Architecture Research Articles

Inhabiting Space in Digital City Models. Exploring Immersive Design in Futuristic Digital Environments

Introduction: Nowadays we find numerous virtual environments that challenge the limits of the imagination. An example of this challenge is the video game Cyberpunk 2077, whose scenario recreates a futuristic environment based on a vertical distribution scheme. In contrast to the horizontal distribution schemes that we normally observe in open-world digital environments, a new field of analysis opens up on how high-rise virtual cities are shaped and designed. Objective: The aim of the research is to extract and understand the design keys that allow the space to be experienced in the most dynamic and immersive way possible in these virtual spaces. Methodology: The methodology uses the case method and seeks to defragment the design codes that make up this digital city, extrapolating them to the physical experience of real architecture. Results: By decomposing the video game and its contents, a whole mapping of information is extracted that allows us to understand the established design links. Discussion: It is observed how the visual language graphed in plan is insufficient to understand the multiplicity of levels that the futuristic city presents, being relevant presence of the elevation when it comes to understanding the space and the magnitude of its interconnections.

Down-regulation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor β in pericytes increases blood-brain barrier permeability and significantly enhances α-synuclein in a Parkinson's Disease 3D cell model in vitro under hyperglycemic condition.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) often presents with a compromised blood-brain barrier (BBB), which hyperglycemia may exacerbate. Pericytes, a key cell for BBB integrity, are potential therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders. Few studies have developed 3D PD cell models incorporating neurovascular units (NVU) through the co-culture of human endothelial, pericytes, astrocytes, and SH-SY5Y cells to evaluate BBB impairment and the role of pericytes under hyperglycemic condition. A 3D PD like cell model was developed using 6-OHDA-affected SH-SY5Y cells, combined with endothelial cells, pericytes, and astrocytes through the Real Architecture for Tissue (RAFT) 3D co-culture system. PD incorporating reduced (30 % and 89 %) PDGFRβ NVU (RPN) with or without hyperglycemic model (HM) were also established. BBB permeability to sodium fluorescein was assessed, and BBB impairment was evaluated using BBB-associated proteins (ZO-1, CD54, CD144), cell-specific proteins (CD31, GFAP, PDGFRβ, CD13), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), α-synuclein, oligomeric α-synuclein, and α-synuclein (ser9). PD 3D cell models incorporating RPN with or without hyperglycemia were successfully established in vitro. Graduately increased BBB impairment was observed in PD, PD with RPN, and PD with RPN combined with HM, indicated by decreased BBB-associated and cell-specific proteins, reduced TH, and increased α-synuclein, oligomeric α-synuclein, and α-synuclein (ser9) compared to the NVU model. Reduced pericyte PDGFRβ could increase BBB permeability, accelerate PD progression, and exacerbate under hyperglycemic condition.

A parametric modeling method for 3D woven composites considering realistic meso-structural characteristics

The precision of mesoscale simulation for three-dimensional woven composites (3DWCs) is intricately linked to the fidelity of the geometric representation. This paper aims to present a novel parametric modeling approach for generating representative volume element (RVE) of the 3DWCs while considering its realistic meso-structural characteristics. The real architecture of 3DWCs is defined to consider the squeezed surface warp tow. Tow geometry is specified, accounting for torsion of tow cross-section and crimp of weft tow path. The RVEs of the composites are geometrically assembled via a specific translational symmetry. The tensile response of the composites with the novel geometry is scrutinized utilizing a progressive damage model, compared with that of the ideal geometry. Additionally, the impact of weft tow size on the tensile response of the composites is explored.

Sustainability and operational performance assessment of supermarket air-conditioning architectures using secondary fluids and slurries

Secondary loop architectures and phase change material (PCM) slurries could reduce the environmental impact of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems by lowering significantly the amount of primary refrigerants. However, there is a barrier to their industrial development due to the lack of studies on their behaviour in operational scenarios. The present work analyses the behaviour of different secondary loop systems in an industrial context, here the air conditioning of a supermarket in France. For this purpose, a generic approach, developed in previous work, is proposed to assess their potential of adoption. This modelling approach is able to describe the sustainability and operational performance (energy, environmental, economic, social) of refrigeration systems. After validation of the model on real architecture and components, five standard or new architectures were tested: centralized direct expansion system; secondary loop system with ethylene glycol water; secondary loop system with ice slurries, TBPB hydrate slurries or CO2 hydrate slurries. The main results of this study show that new secondary systems using hydrate slurries have better cooling energy performance than direct expansion or classical brine / ice slurry secondary systems. Moreover, even including pumping power, the life cycle climate performance of secondary loop systems is much better than that of direct expansion systems. However, the total cost of ownership of direct expansion systems is lower than that of secondary systems, but with little differences for smaller pipes. Finally, trade-offs between several performances can be proposed. For example, some architectures with suitable pipe diameters could meet TCO/LCCP-based and CAPEX/pumping-based trade-offs.

Low-cost architecture performance evaluation strategy based on pixel difference degree contrast measurement

The time and effort required to manually design deep neural architectures is extremely high, which has led to the development of neural architecture search technology as an automatic architecture design method. However, the neural architecture search convergence process is slow and expensive, and the process requires training a large number of candidate architectures to get the final result. If the final accuracy of an architecture can be predicted from its initial state, this problem can be greatly alleviated. Therefore, this paper proposes a low-cost architecture performance evaluation strategy based on pixel difference degree contrast measurement, which takes 1) the difference matrix value between the feature map generated in the untrained architecture and the original image, and 2) the predicted accuracy of the neural network as evaluation indices. A new multi-index weight comprehensive measurement strategy was introduced to comprehensively score the multi-index, the real architecture performance can be approximately represented by score, which greatly reduces the cost of architecture evaluation. The experimental show that the proposed scoring strategy is highly correlated with real architecture accuracy. In the practical engineering application research, this strategy can search a high-performance architecture with an accuracy of 96.2% within 343.3 s, which proves that the proposed strategy can significantly improve the search efficiency in practical applications, reduce the subjectivity of artificial architecture design, and promote the application of practical time-consuming projects.

Heuristics of constructing the architecture of an interpreted machine learning model

Interpretability is an important vector of development of modern applied artificial intelligence. It is also necessary to understand how and why machine learning models predict the end result. However, the implementation of such models is a complex process due to the need to meet the requirements of interpretability while maintaining high quality approximation. The article presents an overview of heuristics for constructing an interpreted machine learning model, which allows you to determine the most important features when predicting the target class of data. As an example, the subject area of mining was considered, and as a problem - the prediction of seismic hazard in the conditions of mining enterprises. However, the transformed concept of the interpreted machine learning model allows solving problems in many other subject areas, where positive numerical values are defined as input data, and the number of entries in the set does not exceed 50. Such restrictions on the set of input data are dictated by a feature of the real architecture of the interpreted model of applied artificial intelligence. In conclusion, the authors of the article consider methods that will allow to overcome such a “bottleneck” effect.

Exploring the Architecture and Its Influence of Badshahi Mosque Lahore (Bmlh): A Unesco Tentative Heritage Site

Asia has a variety of diverse ancient cultures and civilizations. In this paper, we studied the architecture of a UNESCO tentative heritage site: Badshahi Mosque Lahore (BMLH, 1671–1673), built by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (AA). The site is special since it had the largest mosque title (human capacity = 100,000) in the world from 1673 to 1986, has great architectural importance, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Various mosque architectures (MA) emerged over the past 1400 years worldwide to preserve each region's diversity, identity, and culture. A documentation visit was arranged to study this site and feel the real architecture of the Mughals after decades of preserved form. The study found that BMLH underwent significant alterations while keeping the original MA. This unique study further focused on the basic architecture of the Mughal Era. A detailed study of the architectural themes of BMLH showed that the architectural style of this heritage included regional, cultural, and traditional impacts. By analyzing the architectural themes and distinctive features of BMLH, we have uncovered the distinct regional, religious, and psychological influences that led to Mughal-era mosque architecture's development. Further documentation was reported about the current structural situation of Badshahi Mosque; the number of seepages has been pointed out, and several decays were sighted during our visit. For this significant site's perfect preservation, it was proposed that high-end preservation strategies be implemented in the future.

Conceptual photography in the digital age

In the context of the contemporary digital age, the aerospace field is the most representative of technological development; at the same time, in a rapidly developing social environment, there is a phenomenon that people are intimidated by avoiding new problems and dilemmas in the face of the unknown. This research draws on the work of Chinese artists Miao Xiaochun and Yang Yongliang to convey this idea through the use of digital software. The research uses both documentary and case study methods to investigate the theoretical content of the work, using conceptual photography as a blueprint and combining it with digital technology in order to achieve a high degree of unity between content and form. Using the spirit of astronaut exploration as a starting point, the work 'Exploration' uses digital technology to merge real architecture with the unknown space, presenting the viewer with a set of creative images of self-knowledge, self-reflection and self-discovery. The aim is to guide people to face and explore any problem and not to run away or give up.

General Overview of the Three-dimensional Architectural Models as Acroteria in Medieval Georgia

Medieval architecture of the South Caucasus developed a unique tradition of making acroteria shaped as three-dimensional models of churches. Since the church-shaped acroteria have never been thoroughly explored in Georgia, this paper focuses on examples surviving in the region. Special attention is paid to analyzing the architectural and sculptural aspects of the acroteria, as well as their function. This paper aims at discussing both the formal and functional aspects of the church-shaped acroteria from Georgia. It is intended to explore what kind of church models were usually created in Georgia, how they were designed, and to what extent they resemble or differ from the real architecture. Typically, the model erected on the top of the gables of a church was made of stone, though glazed ceramic acroterion can be found as well, such as that of the Alaverdi Cathedral in Georgia. As the research has shown, the models do not replicate real architecture; they represent abridged images of actual buildings, repeating only their general layout (cross-domed or, rarely, single-nave structure) and a selected number of elements that were evidently considered essential or were typical elements of the architectural repertoire of the period in which the acroterion were created.

A neural architecture generator for efficient search space

Neural architecture search (NAS) has made significant progress in recent years. However, the existing methods usually search architectures in a small-scale, well-designed architecture space, discover only one architecture in a single search, and hardly rework, which severely limits their potential. In this paper, we propose a novel neural architecture generator (NAG) that can efficiently sample architectures in a large-scale architecture space. Like a generative adversarial network (GAN), our model consists of two components: (1) a generator that can generate directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) as cells or blocks of neural architectures and (2) a discriminator that can estimate the probability that a DAG comes from cells of real architectures rather than the generator. Furthermore, we employ a random search with NAG (RS-NAG) to discover the optimal architecture according to the customized requirements. Experimental results show that the NAG can generate diverse architectures with our customized requirements multiple times after one adversary training. Furthermore, compared with the existing methods, our RS-NAG achieves the competitive results with 2.50% and 25.5% top-1 accuracies on two benchmark datasets – CIFAR-10 and ImageNet.

On the accuracy of a homogenized continuum model of lattice structures in modal analyses

In this paper, a multi-scale modeling approach is proposed to determine the undamped natural frequencies of lattice structures (LSs) and the related mode shapes. At the macroscopic scale, the LS is modeled as an equivalent homogenized medium whose elastic properties are determined through the strain energy-based homogenization technique. The accuracy of the finite element (FE) model of the homogenized continuum (denoted as low-fidelity FE model) in predicting the undamped natural frequencies and the associated modes is assessed by comparing them to those provided by a high-fidelity FE model of the real architecture of the LS (wherein all the geometrical features of the LS are explicitly modeled). In this context, the influence of the number of representative volume elements (RVEs) to be considered at the macroscopic scale on the relative error on the natural frequencies, resulting from both FE models of the LS, is investigated. Moreover, the influence of the geometrical imperfections induced by the additive manufacturing technology on the accuracy of the low-fidelity FE model is also investigated. These analyses are carried out for different topologies of LS taken from the literature. Results highlight that the accuracy of the low-fidelity FE model in predicting the undamped natural frequencies and their related mode shapes mainly depends upon the LS RVE topology and on the number of RVEs considered at the macroscopic scale.

How sf is embodied in level structures

The experience of game intrinsic space is an architectural mode of perception more congruent to actual experiences of physically real architecture than to filmic space. This paper thus centres on the aesthetics of production, concerning the game worlds’ geometry, level structures and game mechanics, within the broader context of how sf and computer games are inextricably merged. This is to investigate how game intrinsic spaces communicate properties of sf or a media-specific ‘science fiction-ness’ through their aesthetics and digital condition. By first building a foundation on the topic of singular space and its liminality, I will then proceed with a few remarks on sf theory, sf imagery and the staging of (im)possible worlds in relation to the concept of ontological possibility space. For this purpose, I refer to two authors of sf theory: Vivian Sobchack and Simon Spiegel. Based on these two sections, I will give an introductory overview on game intrinsic space, its non-linear properties and the incorporation of the player. Here, differences between filmic and game intrinsic space will also be emphasised through a brief discussion. Thus, sf theory and film theory are interwoven with spatial theory and game studies in order to analyse the ontological possibility space that goes beyond the player-character’s everyday experience in actuality. Several examples clarify the theoretical groundwork while Portal 2 (2011) and Echo (2017) function as case studies.

A New Efficient Architecture for Adaptive Bit-Rate Video Streaming

The demand for multimedia content over the Internet protocol network is growing exponentially with Internet users’ growth. Despite high reliability and well-defined infrastructure for Internet protocol communication, Quality of Experience (QoE) is the primary focus of multimedia users while getting multimedia contents with flawless or smooth video streaming in less time with high availability. Failure to provide satisfactory QoE results in the churning of the viewers. QoE depends on various factors, such as those related to the network infrastructure that significantly affects perceived quality. Furthermore, the video delivery’s impact also plays an essential role in the overall QoE that can be made efficient by delivering content through specialized content delivery architectures called Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). This article proposes a design that enables effective and efficient streaming, distribution, and caching multimedia content. Moreover, experiments are carried out for the factors impacting QoE, and their behavior is evaluated. The statistical data is taken from real architecture and analysis. Likewise, we have compared the response time and throughput with the varying segment size in adaptive bitrate video streaming. Moreover, resource usage is also analyzed by incorporating the effect of CPU consumption and energy consumption over segment size, which will be counted as effective efforts for sustainable development of multimedia systems. The proposed architecture is validated and indulged as a core component for video streaming based on the use case of a Mobile IPTV solution for 4G/LTE Users.

City and Video Games: Moving Towards Each Other

The article is devoted to the problem of the city new imagery, the steady convergence of real architecture and virtual architecture. Although the connection between these phenomena has been the subject of reflection by specialists from various science branches for the past decades, it has not been sufficiently manifested. Another attempt at manifestation is made in this article, within the fundamental problems of art theory and history. Its novelty consists in activating the classical category “image of the city” in the virtual space centre of video games as the most active link between artistic and empirical images of the city. On the example of real architectural objects in the cities of the last quarter of the 20th — 21st centuries and architectural objects, existing only in the popular video games locations of the last generation, the interaction mechanisms of artistic images and their transition into the empirical images sphere with a gradual blurring of the transition boundaries are studied. The contemporary architecture trend is seen as the purposeful programming of sophisticated associative games through the production of images of the city that make you doubt the reality of the world, the difference between authenticity and imaginary. In turn, cities in video games simulate the same dubiously humane worlds, only in addition they can be managed, tested for viability online. The exacerbation of gaming in architecture is seen as a postmodern provocation to critically, ironic deconstruct reality in the fullness of its contradictions, and the videogame set of cities as an ideal platform to work on the deconstruction experience and, perhaps, to reset personal relationships with the world. It shows how the artistry of video games turns into the everyday background of life, changing the perception of the urban environment and the world as a whole.

Abstract 334: Creation and analysis of advanced in vitro cancer models in the real architecture for 3D tissue (RAFT™) culture system

Abstract Conventional in vitro assays are based on cells grown on two-dimensional (2D) substrates, which are not representative of the true in vivo cell environment. In tissue environments, cells interact with neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture methods allow cells to grow in structures more resembling the in vivo environment. The RAFT™ 3D Culture System uses a collagen matrix at physiologically relevant concentrations. In the presented applications, cells from the colon cancer line HCT 116 and neutralized collagen are mixed and subsequently incubated at 37°C to allow the formation of a cell-seeded hydrogel. Specialized RAFT™ Absorbers are placed on top of the hydrogels. Those absorbers gently remove abundant medium, thus compacting the cell/collagen hydrogel prior futher culture. Additional cell types like fibroblasts, endothelial or epithelial cells may be added to allow the creation of more complex models. While 3D cultures more closely mimic the in vivo cell environment, it is often difficult to apply transient transfection methods to these dense, tissue-like structures. Here we give a guideline how to use the electroporation-based Nucleofector™ Technology for creating transiently transfected cells for further culture in the RAFT™ System. HCT 116 was harvested and transfected with pmaxGFP™ Vector in suspension using the 4D Nucleofector™ System X-Unit. Subsequently, cells were embedded in RAFT™ Cultures. Overall transfection efficiencies and cell viabilities were comparable between RAFT™ 3D Cultures and standard 2D cultures. Transfection efficiencies of more than 90% were observed in both formats. GFP expression was still detectable 4 days after transfection. Innovative gene-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas nuclease-based systems could be used to obtain more long-term transgene expression. Another challenge is the analysis of cells in dense, tissue-like structures compared to 2D monolayer culture. HCT 116 cells formed compact aggregate-like structures in RAFT™ 3D Cultures that resembled small tumors in vivo. Therefore, we developed a protocol for immunocytochemistry that allows effective antibody staining of HCT 116 containing RAFT™ Cultures. In addition, we will explain how to measure cell viability in RAFT™ Cultures with the ViaLight™ Plus Cell Proliferation and Cytotoxicity BioAssay. The ViaLight™ Assay is based on the bioluminescent detection of cellular ATP as a measure of cell viability. Only minor modifications of the standard 2D cell culture protocol are required for using the assay for RAFT™ Cultures. By elongating the lysis step of the Vialight™ Assay from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, a similar performance of the assay was observed for HCT 116 containing 2D and RAFT™ Cultures. In summary, we show how easily genetically modified in vitro 3D cancer models can be generated in the RAFT™ 3D Cell Culture System and how such models can be analyzed using standard methods like immunocytochemistry and the ViaLight™ Viability Assay. Citation Format: Sabine Schaepermeier, Theresa D'Souza, Aurita Menezes, Claudia Schwartz, Jenny Schroeder. Creation and analysis of advanced in vitro cancer models in the real architecture for 3D tissue (RAFT™) culture system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 334.

Oral Mucosa Tissue Equivalents for the Treatment of Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency

Cultured limbal and oral epithelial cells have been successfully used to treat patients with limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). The most common culture method for these cell therapies utilizes amniotic membrane as a cell support and/or murine 3T3s as feeder fibroblasts. The aim of this study is to refine the production of autologous oral mucosal cell therapy for the treatment of LSCD. Real architecture for 3D tissue (RAFT) is used as an alternative cell culture support. In addition, oral mucosal cells (epithelial and fibroblast) are used as autologous alternatives to donor human limbal epithelial cells (HLE) and murine 3T3s. The following tissue equivalents are produced and characterized: first, for patients with bilateral LSCD, an oral mucosa tissue equivalent consisting of human oral mucosal epithelial cells on RAFT supported by human oral mucosal fibroblasts (HOMF). Second, for patients with unilateral LSCD, HLE on RAFT supported by HOMF. For both tissue equivalent types, features of the cornea are observed including a multi-layered epithelium with small cells with a stem cell like phenotype in the basal layer and squamous cells in the top layers, and p63α and PAX6 expression. These tissue equivalents may therefore be useful in the treatment of LSCD.

Discurso directo

O texto discute a arquitetura cenográfica enquanto arquitetura de fato, arquitetura real. Para construir este argumento, trabalha-se a ideia de que a cultura arquitetônica é majoritariamente construída a partir de representações, sendo o cinema aquela que mais se aproxima da experiência real, pois se constrói com o movimento. No cinema, a percepção do espaço é intencionalmente construída e vivenciada pela arquitetura cenográfica, o que permite uma identificação com os personagens porque eles são coincidentes com o espaço arquitectónico que habitam. Também debate a influência do cinema na arquitetura e suas limitações, a arquitetura e o cinema enquanto contadores de histórias, e o descompasso entre os desejos e projeções do arquiteto e a realidade, muito mais diversa e mutante. Assim, instiga-se que os arquitetos devem projetar um edifício, construí-lo e depois libertá-lo para a vida. O texto debate, ainda, a arquitetura enquanto imagem e a perda de simbolismo na cidade contemporânea e as tentativas do pós-modernismo de problematizar a questão. Por fim, o texto narra as intenções do curta-metragem Sizígia, filmado nas Piscinas das Marés, projeto de Álvaro Siza.

A new parallel DSP hardware compatible algorithm for noise reduction and contrast enhancement in video sequence using Zynq-7020

Various video processing applications such as liquid crystal display processing, high quality video photography, terrestrial video recording and medical imaging systems requires robust noise reduction and contrast enhancement technique which provides visually pleasing for real time implementation novel hardware architecture has been designed using look-up-table (LUT) acceleration approach which helps achieve high speed processing. Until now, a lot of researchers have worked on noise removal and contrast enhancement of digital videos, but the developed algorithms works with only some verity of noises and failed to produce desirable results for various types of distortions and real time implementation is still remaining a challenge. Hence, appropriate filter needs to be designed which address both kinds of errors. In this paper, adaptive trilateral filter has been designed for noise reduction the results are measured using qualitative and quantitative analysis which has aided in better utilisation of hardware for real time implementation. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides a frame rate of 40 fps on an average and has a resolution of 720 × 576. The proposed algorithm was implemented on ZedBoard Znyq-7020 development kit by Xilinx.

Analytical Performance Models for NoCs with Multiple Priority Traffic Classes

Networks-on-chip (NoCs) have become the standard for interconnect solutions in industrial designs ranging from client CPUs to many-core chip-multiprocessors. Since NoCs play a vital role in system performance and power consumption, pre-silicon evaluation environments include cycle-accurate NoC simulators. Long simulations increase the execution time of evaluation frameworks, which are already notoriously slow, and prohibit design-space exploration. Existing analytical NoC models, which assume fair arbitration, cannot replace these simulations since industrial NoCs typically employ priority schedulers and multiple priority classes. To address this limitation, we propose a systematic approach to construct priority-aware analytical performance models using micro-architecture specifications and input traffic. Our approach decomposes the given NoC into individual queues with modified service time to enable accurate and scalable latency computations. Specifically, we introduce novel transformations along with an algorithm that iteratively applies these transformations to decompose the queuing system. Experimental evaluations using real architectures and applications show high accuracy of 97% and up to 2.5× speedup in full-system simulation.

Photography Trilateration Indoor Localization with Image Sensor Communication

Localization has become an important aspect in a wide range of mobile services with the integration of the Internet of things and service on demand. Numerous mechanisms have been proposed for localization, most of which are based on the estimation of distances. Depending on the channel modeling, each mechanism has its advantages and limitations on deployment, exhibiting different performances in terms of error rates and implementation. With the development of technology, these limitations are rapidly overcome with hybrid systems and enhancement schemes. The successful approach depends on the achievement of a low error rate and its controllability by the integration of deployed products. In this study, we propose and analyze a new distance estimation technique employing photography and image sensor communications, also named optical camera communications (OCC). It represents one of the most important steps in the implemented trilateration localization scheme with real architectures and conditions of deployment which is the second our contribution for this article. With the advantages of the image sensor hardware integration in smart mobile devices, this technology has great potential in localization-based optical wireless communication