design, utopia, alteration, prototyping, progetto, and alterazione

The purpose of this paper is to re-explore the relationship between utopia and architecture, trying first and foremost to challenge the way utopia has been conceived by architectural thought: i.e., as the prefiguration of a future seen as an ‘otherness’ distinct from the present, as far as the totality of its spatial, social, and political dimensions are concerned. Such vision – as we will argue – turns out to be deeply linked to a design logic of ‘projection’ and ‘prescription’; this, however, is not the only possible logic of design. Through a reflection upon some contemporary architectural practices, we will try to highlight a new horizon for design action, in which even utopia abandons its traditional ‘projective’ role and takes on a new meaning: rather than being the non-place of a possible future, utopia stands for what doesn’t have place in the present but can emerge from its alteration. Such notion of utopia as a form of ‘situated critique’, in a concrete space and time, helps to dig more deeply into the political potential of many contemporary forms of architectural and urban design.
Il proposito di questo contributo è tornare a esplorare la relazione tra utopia e architettura, cercando innanzitutto di mettere in questione il modo in cui l’utopia è stata concepita tradizionalmente nel pensiero architettonico: vale a dire, come la prefigurazione di un futuro concepito come alterità rispetto al presente, nella totalità delle sue dimensioni spaziali, sociali e politiche. Tale visione - come si cercherà di illustrare - è intimamente legata a una certa logica “proiettiva” e “prescrittiva” che, tuttavia, non è l’unica logica possibile del progetto. Attraverso una riflessione su alcuni modi del progetto di architettura contemporaneo, si cercherà infatti di mettere in evidenza una nuova logica progettuale, in cui anche l’utopia abbandona il suo carattere proiettivo tradizionale per acquisire un nuovo senso: non più il non-luogo di un futuro possibile, bensì ciò che non ha luogo nel presente e che può tuttavia emergere dalla sua alterazione. Questa nozione di utopia come “critica situata” concretamente in uno spazio e in un tempo aiuta a comprendere più in profondità il potenziale politico di molte delle forme contemporanee di progetto architettonico e urbano.

Algorithm, Electric filters -- Usage, Electric filters -- Analysis, Electric filters -- Models, Algorithms -- Analysis, and Algorithms -- Models

The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of "smart" urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for validating hypotheses about the future performance of products or policies, prototyping is based on the idea of generating original knowledge through the failures produced during the testing process. Through the study of an experimentation and prototyping project developed in Santiago de Chile called "Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District," I analyse the technique of prototyping as a political device that can make visible (or invisible) certain entities and issues, determining what the experimental entities can do and say. I will show how the technique of prototyping defines modes of participation, what is visible and thinkable, what can be spoken and what is unspeakable. In this sense, I examine two ambivalent capacities of prototyping: as a mechanism of management and enrolment that seeks to prescribe normativities (problem-validating prototype) and as an event that can make frictions tangible, articulating matters of concern and ways to open up alternative scenarios (problem-making prototype).
(© 2019 London School of Economics and Political Science.)

Satellite communications, Antennas (Electronics) -- Design and construction, Waveguides -- Design and construction, Sintering, 3D printing, and Computer-aided design

Keywords: additive manufacturing; fused filament fabrication; phase shifter; reconfigurable; selective laser sintering; waveguide Abstract This work presents the design and manufacturing of a K-band reconfigurable phase shifter completely implemented in waveguide technology for reduced insertion loss, good matching, and large phase shifting range. The device is based on the combination of a short slot coupler and two tunable reactive loads implemented as a section of short-circuited waveguide where an adjustable metallic post is inserted. Three prototypes of this design have been manufactured using different techniques (conventional computer numerical control machining, a low-cost fused filament fabrication technique and direct metal laser sintering) in order to assess its performance for different applications. The prototypes have been characterized experimentally and the achieved results are evaluated and compared. The proposed phase shifter, since it is fully developed in waveguide technology, eliminates the need of adding transitions to planar structures in order to integrate lumped components like pin diodes or varactors. Therefore, this device has a great potential in high-power beam steering phased arrays. Biographical information: Lucas Polo-Lopez received the BSc and MSc degrees in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Since 2015 he has been with the Radiofrequency Circuits, Antennas and Systems (RFCAS) group of this same university, where he works toward the PhD degree. His current research interests include the computer-aided design of horn antennas and passive waveguide devices, as well as the application of additive manufacturing techniques to the construction of waveguide devices. Jose L. Masa-Campos received the Master degree in 1999 and the PhD Degree in 2006, from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain. From 1999 to 2003 he developed his professional activity in the R&D department of the company RYMSA with the design of base station antennas for mobile communications and satellite antennas. From 2002 to 2003 he directed the R&D department of RYMSA. From 2003 to 2007, he worked as Researcher for Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and in 2005 he joined to Universidad Autonoma de Madrid as Associate Professor in the Radiofrequency Circuits, Antennas and Systems (RFCAS) group. His main current research interests are in active and passive planar array antennas. Jorge A. Ruiz-Cruz received the Ingeniero de Telecomunicacion degree and the PhD degree from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Since 2006, he has been with the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, where he became an Associate Professor in 2009. His current research interests include the computer-aided design of microwave passive devices and circuits (filters, multiplexers, and orthomodes). Byline: Lucas Polo-Lopez,Jose L. Masa-Campos,Jorge A. Ruiz-Cruz

Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce sustainable chemicals has emerged as an important part of the global bioeconomy. Unfortunately, efforts to design and engineer microbial cell factories are challenging because design-build-test cycles, iterations of re-engineering organisms to test and optimize new sets of enzymes, are slow. To alleviate this challenge, we demonstrate a cell-free approach termed in vitro Prototyping and Rapid Optimization of Biosynthetic Enzymes (or iPROBE). In iPROBE, a large number of pathway combinations can be rapidly built and optimized. The key idea is to use cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) to manufacture pathway enzymes in separate reactions that are then mixed to modularly assemble multiple, distinct biosynthetic pathways. As a model, we apply our approach to the 9-step heterologous enzyme pathway to limonene in extracts from Escherichia coli. In iterative cycles of design, we studied the impact of 54 enzyme homologs, multiple enzyme levels, and cofactor concentrations on pathway performance. In total, we screened over 150 unique sets of enzymes in 580 unique pathway conditions to increase limonene production in 24 h from 0.2 to 4.5 mM (23-610 mg/L). Finally, to demonstrate the modularity of this pathway, we also synthesized the biofuel precursors pinene and bisabolene. We anticipate that iPROBE will accelerate design-build-test cycles for metabolic engineering, enabling data-driven multiplexed cell-free methods for testing large combinations of biosynthetic enzymes to inform cellular design.
(Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Directivity and gain in microphone array systems for hearing aids or hearable devices allow users to acoustically enhance the information of a source of interest. This source is usually positioned directly in front. This feature is called acoustic beamforming. The current study aimed to improve users' interactions with beamforming via a virtual prototyping approach in immersive virtual environments (VEs). Eighteen participants took part in experimental sessions composed of a calibration procedure and a selective auditory attention voice-pairing task. Eight concurrent speakers were placed in an anechoic environment in two virtual reality (VR) scenarios. The scenarios were a purely virtual scenario and a realistic 360° audio-visual recording. Participants were asked to find an individual optimal parameterization for three different virtual beamformers: (i) head-guided, (ii) eye gaze-guided, and (iii) a novel interaction technique called dual beamformer, where head-guided is combined with an additional hand-guided beamformer. None of the participants were able to complete the task without a virtual beamformer (i.e., in normal hearing condition) due to the high complexity introduced by the experimental design. However, participants were able to correctly pair all speakers using all three proposed interaction metaphors. Providing superhuman hearing abilities in the form of a dual acoustic beamformer guided by head and hand movements resulted in statistically significant improvements in terms of pairing time, suggesting the task-relevance of interacting with multiple points of interests.

We present a real-time time-dependent four-component Dirac-Kohn-Sham (RT-TDDKS) implementation based on the BERTHA code. This new implementation takes advantage of modern software engineering, including the prototyping techniques. The software design follows a three step approach: (i) the prototype implementation of a time-propagation algorithm in nonrelativistic real-time TDDFT within the Psi4NumPy framework, which provides a suitable environment for the creation of a clear, readable, and easy to test reference code in Python, (ii) the design of an original Python application programming interface for the relativistic four-component code BERTHA (PyBERTHA), which has an efficient computational kernel for relativistic integrals written in FORTRAN, and (iii) the porting of the time-propagation scheme enveloped within the Psi4NumPy framework to PyBERTHA. The propagation scheme consequently resides in a single readable Python computer code that is easy to maintain and in which the key quantities, such as the Dirac-Kohn-Sham and dipole matrices, can be accessed directly from the PyBERTHA module. For linear algebra operations (matrix-matrix multiplications and diagonalization) we use the highly optimized procedures implemented in the popular NumPy library. The overhead introduced by the Python interface to BERTHA is almost negligible (less than 1% evaluated on the SCF procedure), and the interoperability between different programming languages (FORTRAN, C, and Python) does not affect the numerical stability of the time-propagation scheme. Our new RT-TDDKS implementation has been employed to investigate the stability of the time-propagation procedure in combination with a density-fitting algorithm (both for the Coulomb and for the exchange-correlation matrix construction), which are employed in BERTHA to speed up the Dirac-Kohn-Sham matrix evaluation. On the basis of systematic calculations, employing several density-fitting basis sets of increasing accuracy, we showed that quantitative agreement can be achieved in combination with extended-fitting basis sets, with an error in the Coulomb energy below 1 μ-hartree. Convergence of the transition energies increasing of quality of the fitting basis sets has been also observed. Our data suggest that the error in the Coulomb energy may also represent a good estimate of the fitting basis set quality for real-time electron dynamics simulations. Further, we study the applicability of the RT-TDDKS method in combination with both weak- and extreme strong-field regime. Numerical results of excited-state transitions for the Group 12 atoms are reported and compared with a previous real-time Dirac-Kohn-Sham implementation (Repisky et al. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015, 11, 980-991). Finally, calculations of high harmonic generation in the hydrogen molecule and Au dimer have been also carried out. We were able to generate high harmonics with relatively well-defined peaks up to the 21st and 13th order in the case of H 2 and Au 2 , respectively. Our findings show that the four-component structure of the Dirac-Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian provides a suitable theoretical framework, with no intrinsic unfavorable features, to study molecules in the strong-field regime.

Objective: To describe a method to fabricate donor tooth replica to assist surgeons in preparation of recipient socket during tooth autotransplantation.
Materials and Methods: A total of 28 compromised molars in 27 patients were transplanted with third molars using computer-aided rapid prototyping (CARP) technique. Surgery time and extra-alveolar time were documented. Postoperatively, the distance between cervix of transplanted tooth and the alveolar wall was measured. The degree of postoperative pain experienced was assessed with visual analog scale at day 1, 3, and 7.
Results: From 28 clinical cases, the average extra-alveolar time and surgery time were 2.5 minutes (±1.3) and 44 minutes (±6.8), respectively. Postoperatively, the average distance between cervix of transplanted tooth and the alveolar wall was 0.87 mm (±0.15) at the mesial-cervix, 0.95 mm (±0.17) at the distal-cervix, 0.88 mm (±0.18) at the buccal-cervix, and 0.95 mm (±0.13) at the lingual-cervix. The value of visual analog scale score significantly decreased from day 1 to day 3.
Conclusions: CARP is a reliable technique for fabrication of tooth like surgical replicas in conventional autotransplantation.
Clinical Significance: CARP technique minimized extra-oral time, reduced iatrogenic damage, and consequently increased the survival rate of tooth autotransplantation.
(© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Bio-based production of industrial chemicals using synthetic biology can provide alternative green routes from renewable resources, allowing for cleaner production processes. To efficiently produce chemicals on-demand through microbial strain engineering, biomanufacturing foundries have developed automated pipelines that are largely compound agnostic in their time to delivery. Here we benchmark the capabilities of a biomanufacturing pipeline to enable rapid prototyping of microbial cell factories for the production of chemically diverse industrially relevant material building blocks. Over 85 days the pipeline was able to produce 17 potential material monomers and key intermediates by combining 160 genetic parts into 115 unique biosynthetic pathways. To explore the scale-up potential of our prototype production strains, we optimized the enantioselective production of mandelic acid and hydroxymandelic acid, achieving gram-scale production in fed-batch fermenters. The high success rate in the rapid design and prototyping of microbially-produced material building blocks reveals the potential role of biofoundries in leading the transition to sustainable materials production.
(Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Implant dentures -- Methods, Implant dentures -- Usage, Rapid prototyping -- Methods, and Rapid prototyping -- Usage

Byline: Mohamed Farid Shehab, Nabila Mohammed Abdel Hamid, Nevien Abdullatif Askar, Ahmed Mokhtar Elmardenly Keywords: CAD-CAM, electron beam melting; immediate mandibular reconstruction; patient-specific titanium mesh; rapid prototyping Abstract Background Immediate mandibular reconstruction was performed using a patient-specific titanium mesh tray fabricated by electron beam melting (EBM) /rapid prototyping techniques. Methods Patient-specific titanium trays were virtually designed and fabricated using EBM technology/rapid prototyping for patients requiring mandibular resection and immediate reconstruction using an iliac crest bone graft. Dental implants were placed in the grafted sites and the patients received prosthetic rehabilitation with a follow-up of one year. Clinical data, postoperative bone formation and complications were evaluated. Results A symmetric appearance of facial contours was achieved. The titanium tray incorporated the particulate iliac crest bone graft that provided significant bone formation (mean 18.97 [+ or -] 1.45 mm) and predictable results. Stability of the dental implants was achieved. Conclusion The patient-specific titanium meshes and immediate particulate autogenous bone graft showed satisfactory clinical and surgical results in improving patients' quality of life and decreasing the overall treatment time with adequate functional rehabilitation.