It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
IMAGE: ASST. PROF. BARIŞ YILDIZ, KOÇ UNIVERSITY, ISTANBUL, 2022.view more
CREDIT: KOÇ UNIVERSITY
Our ways of coming together and transporting goods and services are changing drastically with huge implications for cities, their residents, and the environment day by day. But even so, the current city logistics (CL) paradigm does not consider the mobility of goods a social need but a business problem. Current trends therefore limit our capacity to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by this profound change.
Asst. Prof. Barış Yıldız from Koç University Department of Industrial Engineering recently received a Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project tackling the issue with a new perspective. It is the first ERC project focused on logistics.
“GoodMobility: A New Perspective on City Logistics: Concepts, Theory, and Models for Designing and Managing Logistics as a Service” proposes to replace techno-business-centric smart thinking with network-centric wise logistics. While designing the future of urban logistics, the project will consider public value as its priority and follow three main objectives.
Firstly, the public value will be constructed as a measurement system to assess and guide CL planning and management. Principles, models, and tools for logistics as a service (LaaS) infrastructure design will be developed as a second step. The third objective will be to develop a theoretical framework and models for the operating procedures of LaaS, introducing the logistics markets to ensure efficiency and reliability and secure public value in matching logistics demand and supply.
GoodMobility envisions laying the foundations of a new theory of CL with significant scientific and practical implications. It aims to realize new transportation technologies and business models that have not been considered before, in a way that will maximize social benefit, with public-private partnerships. The project aims to deliver products and services that will increase the innovation capacity and quality of life of cities to the residents in a much faster, more economical, and environmentally friendly manner. The novel ideas, concepts, and methodologies will open new research perspectives in transport and logistics with far-reaching social, economic, and environmental consequences.
Such a legend has accrued to this movement that the story of the SI now demands to be told in a contemporary voice capable of putting it into the context of ...
View PDF. Revisiting Guy Debord and the Situationist International ... For the early SI, “psychogeography”—the “study of the precise laws and specific ...
2 Guy Debord, 'Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography' in Knabb, SI Anthology, pp. 5-8 (p. 5). For examples of psychogeographical analyses of urban ...
Psychogeographic Committee of London at the launch of the SI was expelled a bit later for failing to complete his psychogeographical report of Venice on ...
Then, we continue to explore psychogeography within the theories of Situationist. International (SI) where the term psychogeography is theorised and put ...
pdf. (accessed 22 January 2021). Brace C and Johns-Putra A (2010) Recovering inspiration in the spaces of creative writing. Transactions of the. Institute of ...
VIDEO: A NEW MODEL BY A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS LED BY PENN STATE DESCRIBES HOW BIOLOGICAL OR TECHNICAL SYSTEMS FORM COMPLEX STRUCTURES EQUIPPED WITH SIGNAL-PROCESSING CAPABILITIES THAT ALLOW THE SYSTEMS TO RESPOND TO STIMULUS AND PERFORM FUNCTIONAL TASKS WITHOUT EXTERNAL GUIDANCE.view more
CREDIT: PENN STATE
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — From a distance, they looked like clouds of dust. Yet, the swarm of microrobots in author Michael Crichton’s bestseller “Prey” was self-organized. It acted with rudimentary intelligence, learning, evolving and communicating with itself to grow more powerful.
A new model by a team of researchers led by Penn State and inspired by Crichton’s novel describes how biological or technical systems form complex structures equipped with signal-processing capabilities that allow the systems to respond to stimulus and perform functional tasks without external guidance.
“Basically, these little nanobots become self-organized and self-aware,” said Igor Aronson, Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics at Penn State, explaining the plot of Crichton’s book. The novel inspired Aronson to study the emergence of collective motion among interacting, self-propelled agents. The research was recently published in Nature Communications.
Aronson and a team of physicists from the LMU University, Munich, have developed a new model to describe how biological or synthetic systems form complex structures equipped with minimal signal-processing capabilities that allow the systems to respond to stimulus and perform functional tasks without external guidance. The findings have implications in microrobotics and for any field involving functional, self-assembled materials formed by simple building blocks, Aronson said. For example, robotics engineers could create swarms of microrobots capable of performing complex tasks such as pollutant scavenging or threat detection.
“If we look to nature, we see that many living creatures rely on communication and teamwork because it enhances their chances of survival,” Aronson said.
The computer model conceived by researchers from Penn State and Ludwig-Maximillian University predicted that communications by small, self-propelled agents lead to intelligent-like collective behavior. The study demonstrated that communications dramatically expand an individual unit’s ability to form complex functional states akin to living systems.
The team built their model to mimic the behavior of social amoebae, single-cell organisms that can form complex structures by communicating through chemical signals. They studied one phenomenon in particular. When food becomes scarce, the amoebae emit a messenger chemical known as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), which induces the amoebae to gather in one place and form a multicellular aggregate.
"The phenomenon is well known," co-author Erwin Frey of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München said in a release. "Before now, however, no research group has investigated how information processing, at a general level, affects the aggregation of systems of agents when individual agents – in our case, amoebae – are self-propelled."
For decades, scientists have been pursuing a better understanding of "active matter," the biological or synthetic systems which transform energy stored in the environment, e.g., a nutrient, into mechanical motion and form larger structures by means of self-organization. Taken individually, the material has no intelligence or functionality, but collectively, the material is capable of responding to its environment with a kind of emergent intelligence, Aronson explained. It’s an ancient concept with futuristic applications.
Aristotle articulated the theory of emergence some 2,370 years ago in his treatise “Metaphysics.” His language is commonly paraphrased as “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” In the not-so-distance future, Aronson says research into emergent systems could lead to cell-sized nanobots that self-organize inside the body to combat viruses or swarms of autonomous microrobots that can coordinate in complex formation without a pilot.
“We typically talk about artificial intelligence as some kind of sentient android with elevated thinking,” Aronson said. “What I’m working on is distributed artificial intelligence. Each element doesn’t have any intelligence, but once they come together, they’re capable of collective response and decision-making.”
There is currently a great demand for distributed artificial intelligence in the field of robotics, Aronson explained.
“If you’re designing a robot in the most cost-effective way possible, you don’t want to make it too complex,” he said. “We want to make small robots that are very simple, just a few transistors, that when working together have the same functionality as a complex machine, but without the expensive, complicated machinery. This discovery will open new avenues for applications of active matter in nanoscience and robotics.”
Aronson explained that from a practical standpoint, distributed artificial intelligence could be used in any kind of substance that has microscopically dispersed particles suspended within it. It could be deployed within the body to deliver a drug to fight disease or activate tiny electronic circuits in mass-manufactured microrobots.
“Despite its importance, the role of communication in the context of active matter remains largely unexplored,” the researchers wrote. “We identify the decision-making machinery of the individual active agents as the driving mechanism for the collectively controlled self-organization of the system.”
The other co-authors on the paper are Alexander Ziepke, Ivan Maryshev, and Erwin Frey of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The research of Igor Aronson was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation.
A new model by a team of researchers led by Penn State and inspired by Crichton’s novel describes how biological or technical systems form complex structures equipped with signal-processing capabilities that allow the systems to respond to stimulus and perform functional tasks without external guidance.
CAPTION
In this computer model, conceived by researchers from Penn State and Ludwig-Maximillian University, communications by small, self-propelled agents led to intelligent-like collective behavior. The simulation shows snapshots in time and displays droplet ripening, vortex-controlled aggregation and the merging of vortices.
CREDIT
Courtesy Igor Aronson/Penn State
Igor Aronson describes active matter discovery (VIDEO)
A new model by a team of researchers led by Penn State describes how biological or technical systems form complex structures equipped with signal-processing capabilities that allow the systems to respond to stimulus and perform functional tasks without external guidance.
MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR DYNAMICS AND SELF-ORGANIZATION
IMAGE: A SET OF BUILDING BLOCKS CAN BE SPONTANEOUSLY REARRANGED TO FROM A NEW STRUCTURE WITH A NOVEL CONFIGURATION.view more
CREDIT: MPI-DS / LMP
The concept of remodeling is familiar to most people: those who have ever played with Lego bricks know that many combinations and structures possible from the same components. Typically, an attached manual describes the arrangement of the individual blocks and the shape of the final structure. Initially assembling only a few pieces can thereby already determine the way all other parts have to be attached. “Our model describes the rearrangement of building blocks in physical systems from a given structure”, explains Saeed Osat, the first author of the study. “If only a few pieces in a given structure are changed, they function as a seed that results in an entirely new composition.”
Like in a Lego manual, there are certain rules on how the blocks need to be arranged. In the researcher’s model, the instructions for assembly are derived from a list of possible molecular interactions. These depend on the energy state of the system, the size of the seed and the non-reciprocal interactions between the components. “Under certain conditions, we can then observe multifarious reorganization into new shapes”, explains Ramin Golestanian, head of the Living Matter Physics department and director at the MPI-DS. “We identified a new learning rule which causes structures to dynamically shift their shape, depending on the non-reciprocal interactions between their parts”, he summarizes the results of the study.
In biology, rearrangement of building blocks happens constantly. Instead of disposing complex structures as a whole, they are disassembled into their individual parts which are used to build new compositions. The model may thus help to understand the principles of self-organization in living matter. Likewise, the principle of non-equilibrium synthetic and autonomous self-assembly may be useful in devising engineering strategies to design molecular robotic shape-shifters.
IMAGE: THE UPNA/NUP RESEARCHERS WHO ARE THE AUTHORS OF THIS ARTICLE. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ÍÑIGO EZCURDIA, XABIER SANDÚA, JOSU IRISARRI, ASIER MARZO, IÑAKI PÉREZ DE LANDAZÁBAL AND ITZIAR GALARRETA.view more
CREDIT: UPNA/NUP-PUBLIC UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRE
Researchers from the Public University of Navarre (UPNA/NUP), that belong to the Smart Cities (ISC) and InaMat2 institutes, have remotely manipulated a composite made of thermoplastic and iron powder using heat and magnetic fields, achieving “a degree of control never seen before”. The composite, which is classified as programmable matter, can be remotely manipulated in air, water or inside biological tissue, thus opening up possibilities for the development of biomedical devices, tactile displays and object manipulators.
The authors of this research, published in the latest issue of the journal “Nature Scientific Reports”, are Josu Irisarri, Íñigo Ezcurdia, Xabier Sandúa, Itziar Galarreta, Iñaki Pérez de Landazábal and Asier Marzo.
Programmable matter is defined as a material capable of modifying its properties in a programmatic way. “It can change its shape, stiffness or other physical properties in a controlled way,” says Asier Marzo. Until now, optical or magnetic methods have been used to control matter remotely. “However, both procedures have limitations: the former, in terms of strength; and the latter, regarding the minimum size of the achievable details –spatial resolution–,” he explains.
Control of matter using heat and magnetic fields
The UPNA/NUP researchers used a composite of thermoplastic and iron powder. The former is rigid at 27°C, but becomes malleable when heated in a process that is reversible; on the other hand, iron powder can be mixed with the thermoplastic and is attracted by magnetic fields. The compound was subjected to thermal patterns and magnetic fields. Thanks to this combination, “an unprecedented degree of control is demonstrated”, according to the article's lead author, Josu Irisarri. To do this, the compound is heated at specific locations which become malleable and can be attracted by magnetic fields. “The hot areas solidify when they cool down and the process can be repeated,” adds Josu Irisarri.
The researchers performed multiple remote manipulations using light, heat and magnets on the composite, as can be seen in this video. For example, a filament was heated at the centre, making it malleable. Afterwards, a magnetic field pulled from the sides to bend it along the pre-heated area. The filament solidified upon cooling down. This process was repeated several times to form different letters using a single strand.
In a second experiment, a sheet of material was heated up by a laser at specific points. Afterwards, a magnetic field attracted these points and, as they cooled down, they became solid forming a Braille pattern. This process was repeated for more complex patterns.
In the third experiment, a block of material was heated with infrared light, and raised by a magnetic field to form a column. Then, a point on the column was heated, and again, using a magnetic field, a secondary branch was pulled out, forming a tree.
In the final test, the material was inserted into a lung simulator balloon, which is optically opaque. It was heated with microwaves, and when the magnetic fields were applied, the material inside the balloon could be expanded to a certain size.
To summarize, the material can be moved, rotated, bent, stretched, contracted, split, fused, raised, melted and sculpted into figures or Braille patterns. Moreover, in its solid state, it can support heavy weights.
Complex manipulations
“We have demonstrated complex manipulations on 3D blocks, 2D sheets and 1D filaments, which will have applications in tactile displays and object manipulation,” says Asier Marzo.
Apart from tactile technologies, UPNA/NUP researchers foresee other possibilities. “Due to the low transition temperature and the capability of heating through opaque materials using microwave, the composite can be manipulated inside biological tissue, offering great potential for biomedical devices.” concludes Asier Marzo.
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ROSENSTIEL SCHOOL OF MARINE, ATMOSPHERIC, AND EARTH SCIENCE
IMAGE: CLAIRE PARIS, PROFESSOR OF OCEAN SCIENCES (CENTER LEFT), AND CO-AUTHOR JEAN-OLIVIER IRISSON (CENTER RIGHT) DEPLOY THE DRIFTING IN SITU CHAMBER (DISC), EQUIPPED WITH AN IMAGING SYSTEM DESIGNED TO RECORD LARVAL FISH SWIMMING BEHAVIOR IN THEIR NATURAL SETTINGS DURING AN EXPEDITION AT THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM LIZARD ISLAND RESEARCH STATION.view more
CREDIT: LYLE VAIL
MIAMI —The first global analysis of larval orientation studies found that millimeter-size fish babies consistently use external cues to find their way in the open ocean. There are many external cues available to marine fish including the Sun, Earth’s magnetic field, and sounds. The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science offers important insight into understanding this perilous phase of marine fish.
Understanding the mechanisms that fish larvae use during their pelagic journey is critical for scientists to better predict their dispersal, the connectivity of marine protected areas, and the structure of marine fish populations.
“This study highlights the importance of a deeper understanding of larval orientation mechanisms and suggests the concept of vector-navigation in the early life history of fish,” said the study’s senior author Claire Paris, a professor of ocean sciences at the Rosenstiel School.
Once considered passive drifters relying on ocean currents to get them to their nursery grounds, the Rosenstiel School researchers, together with multiple collaborators, showed that for many species around the world from tropical to temperate regions, fish larvae are able to control their destination and migrate by keeping a bearing.
The researchers analyzed nearly two decades of studies using two methods to collect data on an unprecedented number of larvae of multiple species and locations. One method used a Drifting In Situ Chamber instrument invented by Paris that consists of an underwater chamber with an imaging system to record larval fish swimming behavior in their natural settings. The second method used is the Following method developed by Jeff Leis, an ichthyologist at the University of Tasmania, in which two scuba divers follow late-stage larvae while recording the bearing and swimming speed. Movement patterns obtained by these two experimental methods were compared to theoretical movement patterns expected under strict use of internal cues. The results from this combined approach strongly supported oriented movement by fish larvae.
"Our study is the first to show that this is achieved using external directional cues, providing a systematic and global indication for a robust use of external cues by fish larvae for orientation. This is important since a better understanding of the larval stages can facilitate the management and conservation of marine populations” said the study’s lead author Igal Berenshtein, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the Rosenstiel School.
“It’s extraordinary that these tiny fish larvae find their way in a vast ocean” said Paris. “We can learn from them to fundamentally advance fisheries models and the science of underwater navigation.”
The study, titled “Evidence for a consistent use of external cues by marine fish larvae for orientation,” was published December 2, 2022, in the journal Communications Biology. The study’s authors include: Claire Paris, Igal Berenshtein, Robin Faillettaz from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, Jean-Oliver Irisson from the Laboratory of Oceanology of Villefranche-sur-Mer and the CNRS; Moshe Kiflawi from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Ulrike Siebeck from University of Queensland; and Jeffery Leis from University of Tasmania.
The study was supported by a National Science Foundation grant (NSF-OCE 1459156).
About the University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private research university and academic health system with a distinct geographic capacity to connect institutions, individuals, and ideas across the hemisphere and around the world. The University’s vibrant and diverse academic community comprises 12 schools and colleges serving more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students in more than 180 majors and programs. Located within one of the most dynamic and multicultural cities in the world, the University is building new bridges across geographic, cultural, and intellectual borders, bringing a passion for scholarly excellence, a spirit of innovation, a respect for including and elevating diverse voices, and a commitment to tackling the challenges facing our world. Founded in the 1940’s, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science is one of the world’s premier marine and atmospheric research institutions. Offering dynamic interdisciplinary academics, the Rosenstiel School is dedicated to helping communities to better understand the planet, participating in the establishment of environmental policies, and aiding in the improvement of society and quality of life. www.earth.miami.edu.
IMAGE: SCIENTISTS AT PENN STATE RECENTLY PUBLISHED RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF SPOTTED LANTERNFLY FEEDING ON IMPORTANT ORNAMENTAL AND FOREST TREES.view more
CREDIT: BRIAN WALSH/PENN STATE
Short-term, heavy feeding by adult spotted lanternflies on young maple trees inhibits photosynthesis, potentially impairing the tree’s growth by up to 50 percent, according to a new study by Penn State scientists.
According to the researchers, the findings can help production nurseries and forest managers make management decisions to protect their inventories.
“Spotted lanternfly will feed on important ornamental and forest trees such as silver and red maple, which are used to make products and are abundant across urban, suburban and rural landscapes throughout Pennsylvania,” said Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, who added that Pennsylvania’s forest products industry has a total economic impact of $36 billion.
This planthopper, which originated in Asia, was found for the first time in the U.S. in Berks County in 2014 and since has spread to 45 Pennsylvania counties and surrounding states. The pest uses its piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on sap from more than 100 plant species, with a strong preference for tree-of-heaven — also an invasive species — and wild and cultivated grapes.
“While the spotted lanternfly likely co-evolved with its preferred host, tree-of-heaven, in its native range, the effects on the health and physiology of tree hosts native to the U.S. have not been investigated,” Hoover said.
The scientists began their two-year study in 2019 in a common garden area in Blandon. They collected spotted lanternflies at two ages: adults and fourth instar nymphs, the last stage of development before adulthood. The researchers then placed the insects in different “densities” — or number of insects per plant — on silver maple, red maple, black walnut and tree-of-heaven saplings.
During the first year, they looked at how feeding pressure on a single branch affected tree physiology. In the second year of the study, when the trees were more established, the team investigated the effect of nymph and adult feeding using whole-tree enclosures. The scientists defined heavy feeding as when the number of pests blanketed the tree.
They evaluated how insect density by life stage influenced physiological plant responses, most notably gas exchange attributes, which include photosynthesis — the process of converting carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and sugar. Sugars are used as food by the plant.
“This process produces the nonstructural carbohydrates that trees need to grow and produce flowers or fruit,” Hoover said. “When plants are under stress, they use a variety of strategies to defend themselves; they may shift rates of photosynthesis and alter the allocation of carbon and nitrogen resources to growth or induced plant defenses.”
The team’s findings, recently published in Frontiers in Insect Science, show that adult spotted lanternfly feeding does thwart photosynthesis, thereby stunting the growth of young saplings. However, there was variation depending on tree species, pest density and time post-infestation.
The researchers found that nymphs on a single branch of red maple or silver maple at different densities had no significant effects on gas exchange
In contrast, 40 adults confined to a single branch of red or silver maple rapidly suppressed photosynthesis and reduced nitrogen concentration in leaves. Soluble sugars in branch wood were reduced in the fall for silver maple and in the following spring for red maple.
Silver maples exposed to nymphs in whole tree enclosures showed significantly stunted diameter growth during the next growing season, and the decline was proportional to spotted lanternfly density (0, 40, 80 or 120 insects per tree). Compared to controls with no lanternflies, treatments with the highest spotted lanternfly density (120) reduced diameter growth by 55%, and moderate (80) and low (40) densities caused 42% and 38% reductions, respectively.
In contrast, instars in whole tree enclosures had no effects on black walnut. Spotted lanternflies enclosed on tree-of-heaven at a density of 80 adults per tree suppressed photosynthesis after two weeks of feeding. Still, it did not alter nonstructural carbohydrates, nitrogen concentrations or tree growth.
The scientists also noted that each year, spotted lanternfly adults feed heavily on maples in mid- to late-September — when tree-of-heaven begins to go dormant — and this lasts until the pest dies from a hard frost. As a result, they said, it is important for production nurseries, forest managers and homeowners to monitor and protect maple and black walnut saplings during that time. Hoover pointed to the Penn State Extension spotted lanternfly website for management options.
“The bottom line is that the older the insects, the more damaging they are,” she said. “If spotted lanternfly is feeding on your rosebush, especially the nymphs, or if they are confined to the underside of the leaves of your maple trees, they’re probably not going to do much harm. But, when they are blanketing young trees, treatment with biopesticides or insecticides might be needed.”
Penn State scientists are examining spotted lanternfly feeding on other species, including weeping willow and river birch, and the impact on more-established trees. “If trees are stressed, we cannot rule out that even larger trees may suffer reduced health and growth given that no long-term studies have been done on mature trees in response to spotted lanternfly feeding,” Hoover said.
The team at Penn State included David Eissenstat, professor of woody plant physiology, and Emily Lavely and Edward Primka, former doctoral candidates, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Osariyekemwen Uyi and Lidiia Iavorivska, former postdoctoral scholars, Department of Entomology; Jeremy Harper, education program associate, Department of Biology; and Brian Walsh, horticulture educator, Penn State Extension.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through its Specialty Crop Research Initiative, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture funded this project.
