Description and composition of bio-inspired design patterns: a complete overview

In the last decade, bio-inspired self-organising mechanisms have been applied to different domains, achieving results beyond traditional approaches. However, researchers usually use these mechanisms in an ad-hoc manner. In this way, their interpretation, definition, boundary (i.e. when one mechanism stops, and when another starts), and implementation typically vary in the existing literature, thus preventing these mechanisms from being applied clearly and systematically to solve recurrent problems. To ease engineering of artificial bio-inspired systems, this paper describes a catalogue of bio-inspired mechanisms in terms of modular and reusable design patterns organised into different layers. This catalogue uniformly frames and classifies a variety of different patterns. Additionally, this paper places the design patterns inside existing self-organising methodologies and hints for selecting and using a design pattern.     

Analyzing locality over a P2P computing architecture

A characteristic of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing networks is their huge number of different computational resources scattered across the Internet. Gathering peers into markets according to their multi-attribute computational resources makes it easier to manage these environments. This solution is known as market overlay. In this context, the closeness of the markets with similar resources, known as locality, is a key feature for ensuring good P2P resource management. Thus, the locality feature over a market overlay allows a lack of resources in a given market to be compensated quickly by any other market with similar resources, whenever these are close to each other. Consequently, locality becomes an essential challenge.This paper addresses the analysis of the locality of P2P market over-lays. According to this, a new procedure for measuring locality is applied together with an extensive analysis of some well-known structured P2P overlays. Based on this analysis, a new P2P computing architecture, named DisCoP, oriented towards optimizing locality is proposed. Our proposal gathers the peers into markets according to their computational resources. A Hilbert function is used to arrange multi-attribute markets in an ordered and mono-dimensional space and the markets are linked by means of a Bruijn graph. In order to maintain the DisCoP locality whenever the overlay is not completed, a solution based on the virtualization of markets is also proposed. Finally, the DisCoP locality is tested together with the proposed virtualization method for approximate searches over uncompleted overlays. The simulation results show that approximate searches exploit the DisCoP locality efficiently.     

Probabilistic seismic damage assessment of reinforced concrete buildings considering directionality effects

Most of buildings and structures are usually projected according to two main axes. However, the geographical position of these buildings varies randomly. Such random distributions of the azimuthal positions of structures, in most of the cities, generally, are not accounted for when assessing their seismic risk; certainly, the direction of the seismic loads is another highly random variable. Moreover, an additional important source of uncertainty is related to the structural response, mainly due to the random character of the mechanical properties. There is a consensus that uncertainties must be considered for adequately assessing the seismic risk of structures, but these directionality effects have not been deeply explored so far. In this article, the influence of the high uncertainty involved in these input variables on the expected seismic damage is analysed. Thus, an actual earthquake, which affected the southern part of Spain, is studied. Notably, damages on a group of affected buildings, located close to the epicentre, are analysed and discussed in detail. The results show that the influence of the random azimuthal position of structures is an important source of uncertainty and that it should be taken into account when estimating the expected seismic risk in urban areas.     

Dietary procyanidins lower triglyceride levels signaling through the nuclear receptor small heterodimer partner

Hypertriglyceridemia is an independent risk factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases, and we have previously reported that oral administration of a grape seed procyanidin extract (GSPE) drastically decreases plasma levels of triglycerides (TG) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) in normolipidemic rats, with a concomitant induction in the hepatic expression of the nuclear receptor small heterodimer partner (NR0B2/SHP). Our objective in this study was to elucidate whether SHP is the mediator of the reduction of TG-rich ApoB-containing lipoproteins triggered by GSPE. We show that GSPE inhibited TG and ApoB secretion in human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells and had and hypotriglyceridemic effect in wild-type mouse. The TG-lowering action of GSPE was abolished in HepG2 cells transfected with a SHP-specific siRNA and in a SHP-null mouse. Moreover, in mouse liver, GSPE downregulated several lipogenic genes, including steroid response element binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c), and upregulated carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1A (CPT-1A) and apolipoprotein A5 (ApoA5), in a SHP-dependent manner. In HepG2 cells GSPE also inhibited ApoB secretion, but in a SHP-independent manner. In conclusion, SHP is a key mediator of the hypotriglyceridemic response triggered by GSPE. This novel signaling pathway of procyanidins through SHP may be relevant to explain the health effects ascribed to the regular consumption of dietary flavonoids.     

对话

《中装》:您从小就对建筑设计感兴趣吗?您是何时决定真正要成为一名建筑师的?Joost Ector:我从小就很喜欢画画,并且常常画很多建筑的图画。此外,我还非常喜欢阅读,我会把书中提到的房子和城堡画出来。在我十岁那年,我的父母为我们家建了一座新房子当时我常常会跑去工地观察盖房子的过程。六年后,当我的父母决定要盖另一所房子时,我参与了房子的设计。此后,成为一名建筑师也就成为了我顺理成章的选择。