Architectural Principles in the Age of Cybernetics

Architectural Principles in the Age of Cybernetics
Author: Christopher Hight
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2007-12-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1134173857

A theoretical history of anthropomorphism and proportion in modern architecture, this volume brings into focus the discourse around proportion with current problems of post-humanism in architecture alongside the new possibilities made available through digital technologies. The book examines how the body and its ordering has served as a central site of architectural discourse in recent decades, especially in attempts to reformulate architecture’s relationship to humanism, modernism and technology. Challenging some concepts and categories of architectural history and situates current debates within a broader cultural and technological context, Hight makes complex ideas easily accessible. Extensively illustrated and written without academic jargon for an informed but non-specialized architectural audience, this book elucidates the often obscure debates of avant-garde architectural discourse and design, while demonstrating how these debates have affected everyday places and concepts of architecture. As a result, it will appeal to professional architects, academics and students, combining as it does an insightful introduction to the fundamental issues of architectural history and theory over the past fifty years with entirely new formulations of what that history is and means.

Biological Nitrogen Fixation

Biological Nitrogen Fixation
Author: Frans J. de Bruijn
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 2250
Release: 2015-06-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118637216

Nitrogen is arguably the most important nutrient required by plants. However, the availability of nitrogen is limited in many soils and although the earth's atmosphere consists of 78.1% nitrogen gas (N2) plants are unable to use this form of nitrogen. To compensate , modern agriculture has been highly reliant on industrial nitrogen fertilizers to achieve maximum crop productivity. However, a great deal of fossil fuel is required for the production and delivery of nitrogen fertilizer. Moreover carbon dioxide (CO2) which is released during fossil fuel combustion contributes to the greenhouse effect and run off of nitrate leads to eutrophication of the waterways. Biological nitrogen fixation is an alternative to nitrogen fertilizer. It is carried out by prokaryotes using an enzyme complex called nitrogenase and results in atmospheric N2 being reduced into a form of nitrogen diazotrophic organisms and plants are able to use (ammonia). It is this process and its major players which will be discussed in this book. Biological Nitrogen Fixation is a comprehensive two volume work bringing together both review and original research articles on key topics in nitrogen fixation. Chapters across both volumes emphasize molecular techniques and advanced biochemical analysis approaches applicable to various aspects of biological nitrogen fixation. Volume 1 explores the chemistry and biochemistry of nitrogenases, nif gene regulation, the taxonomy, evolution, and genomics of nitrogen fixing organisms, as well as their physiology and metabolism. Volume 2 covers the symbiotic interaction of nitrogen fixing organisms with their host plants, including nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation, plant and microbial "omics", cyanobacteria, diazotrophs and non-legumes, field studies and inoculum preparation, as well as nitrogen fixation and cereals. Covering the full breadth of current nitrogen fixation research and expanding it towards future advances in the field, Biological Nitrogen Fixation will be a one-stop reference for microbial ecologists and environmental microbiologists as well as plant and agricultural researchers working on crop sustainability.

Structures and Architecture. A Viable Urban Perspective?

Structures and Architecture. A Viable Urban Perspective?
Author: Marie Frier Hvejsel
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2022-07-07
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1000786102

Structures and Architecture. A Viable Urban Perspective? contains extended abstracts of the research papers and prototype submissions presented at the Fifth International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA2022, Aalborg, Denmark, 6-8 July 2022). The book (578 pages) also includes a USB with the full texts of the papers (1448 pages). The contributions on creative and scientific aspects in the conception and construction of structures as architecture, and on the role of advanced digital-, industrial- and craft -based technologies in this matter represent a critical blend of scientific, technical, and practical novelties in both fields. Hence, as part of the proceedings series Structures and Architecture, the volume adds to a continuous exploration and development of the synergetic potentials of the fields of Structures and Architecture. With each volume further challenging the conditions, problems, and potentials related to the art, practice, and theory of teaching, researching, designing, and building structures as vehicles towards a viable architecture of the urban environment. The volumes of the series appear once every three years, in tandem with the conferences organized by the International Association of Structures and Architecture and are intended for a global readership of researchers, practitioners, and students, including architects, structural and construction engineers, builders and building consultants, constructors, material suppliers, planners, urban designers, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, artists, product manufacturers, and other professionals involved in the design and realization of architectural, structural, and infrastructural projects.

The Quest for Nitrogen Fixation in Rice

The Quest for Nitrogen Fixation in Rice
Author: Jagdish Kumar Ladha
Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2000
Genre: Bacteria, Nitrifying
ISBN: 9712201120

This book features the latest research advances made in developing nitrogen-fixing rice.

Auxins, Cytokinins and Gibberellins Signaling in Plants

Auxins, Cytokinins and Gibberellins Signaling in Plants
Author: Tariq Aftab
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2022-08-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 303105427X

Plant hormones have pivotal roles in the regulation of plant growth, development, and reproduction. Their signaling pathways are interconnected in a complex network, which provides plants with an enormous regulatory potential to rapidly adapt to their environment and to utilize their limited resources for growth and survival in a cost-efficient manner. Auxin is a hormone molecule whose activity levels are most important for its regulatory roles during plant cell, organ, and tissue development. Therefore, the precise regulation of auxin levels is an essential mechanism to fine-tune the activity of this powerful hormone during plant growth and development. Likewise, cytokinins exhibit a wide range of physiological functions, including regulation of shoot and root apical meristems, stimulation of branching, vascular development, chloroplast differentiation, stabilization of the structure and function of the photosynthetic machinery, delay of senescence, stomata opening, and elevation of the sink strength and nutritional signaling. Moreover, gibberellins also regulate many aspects of plant growth and development including seed germination, stem elongation, leaf expansion, and flower and fruit development. The broad implication of gibberellins in plant development is strictly associated with tight regulation of their metabolism by multiple environmental and endogenous factors, ranging from light and temperature to other hormones including feedback control. Understanding the significant roles of these phytohormones in plant biology, the current subject has attracted the attention of scientists from across the globe. This comprehensive volume “Auxins, Cytokinins and Gibberellins Signaling in Plants” highlights the various prospects involved in the current scenario. The book comprises the chapters from diverse areas dealing with biotechnology, molecular biology, proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, etc.

Branching and Rooting Out with a CT Scanner: The Why, the How, and the Outcomes, Present and Possibly Future

Branching and Rooting Out with a CT Scanner: The Why, the How, and the Outcomes, Present and Possibly Future
Author: Pierre Dutilleul
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 93
Release: 2016-04-13
Genre:
ISBN: 2889197913

Until recently, a majority of the applications of X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning in plant sciences remained descriptive; some included a quantification of the plant materials when the root-soil isolation or branch-leaf separation was satisfactory; and a few involved the modeling of plant biology processes or the assessment of treatment or disease effects on plant biomass and structures during growth. In the last decade, repeated CT scanning of the same plants was reported in an increasing number of studies in which moderate doses of X-rays had been used. Besides the general objectives of Frontiers in Plant Science research topics, “Branching and Rooting Out with a CT Scanner” was proposed to meet specific objectives: (i) providing a non-technical update on knowledge about the application of CT scanning technology to plants, starting with the type of CT scanning data collected (CT images vs. CT numbers) and their processing in the graphical and numerical approaches; (ii) drawing the limits of the CT scanning approach, which because it is based on material density can distinguish materials with contrasting or moderately overlapping densities (e.g., branches vs. leaves, roots vs. non-organic soils) but not the others (e.g., roots vs. organic soils); (iii) explaining with a sufficient level of detail the main procedures used for graphical, quantitative and statistical analyses of plant CT scanning data, including fractal complexity measures and statistics appropriate for repeated plant CT scanning, in experiments where the research hypotheses are about biological processes such as light interception by canopies, root disease development and plant growth under stress conditions; (iv) comparing plant CT scanning with an alternative technology that applies to plants, such as the phenomics platforms which target leaf canopies; and (v) providing current and potential users of plant CT scanning with up-to-date information and exhaustive documentation, including clear perspectives and well-defined goals for the future, for them to be even more efficient or most efficient from start in their research work.

Botanical Architecture

Botanical Architecture
Author: Paul Dobraszczyk
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2024-11-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1789149649

An original call to reorient architecture around our relationship to plants. When we look at trees, we see a form of natural architecture, and yet we have seemingly always exploited trees to make new buildings of our own. Whereas a tree creates its own structure, humans generally destroy other things to build, with increasingly disastrous consequences. In Botanical Architecture, Paul Dobraszczyk looks closely at how elements of plants—seeds, roots, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, and canopies—compare with and constitute human-made buildings. Given the omnipresence of plant life in and around our structures, Dobraszczyk argues that we ought to build as much for plants as for ourselves, understanding that our lives are always totally dependent on theirs. Botanical Architecture offers a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture.