Gramazio Kohler Research,Automated Diversity: New Morphologies of Vertical Urbanism

Automated fabrication techniques are currently largely confined to the production of discrete objects or building elements. To notch up the potential of robotics for architectural design, it is necessary to start to push the limits and experiment at a larger urban scale. Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler are pioneers in this field. Here, with Jan Willmann , they describe the research that they are undertaking as part of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) located at the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability (SEC) and ETH Zurich, in which robotic fabrication technologies are employed to realize 1:50 physical models of mixed-use high-rise structures that are unique in their spatial layouts.     

Oncostatic-Cytoprotective Effect of Melatonin and Other Bioactive Molecules: A Common Target in Mitochondrial Respiration

For several years, oncostatic and antiproliferative properties, as well as thoses of cell death induction through 5-methoxy-N-acetiltryptamine or melatonin treatment, have been known. Paradoxically, its remarkable scavenger, cytoprotective and anti-apoptotic characteristics in neurodegeneration models, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are known too. Analogous results have been confirmed by a large literature to be associated to the use of many other bioactive molecules such as resveratrol, tocopherol derivatives or vitamin E and others. It is interesting to note that the two opposite situations, namely the neoplastic pathology and the neurodegeneration, are characterized by deep alterations of the metabolome, of mitochondrial function and of oxygen consumption, so that the oncostatic and cytoprotective action can find a potential rationalization because of the different metabolic and mitochondrial situations, and in the effect that these molecules exercise on the mitochondrial function. In this review we discuss historical and general aspects of melatonin, relations between cancers and the metabolome and between neurodegeneration and the metabolome, and the possible effects of melatonin and of other bioactive molecules on metabolic and mitochondrial dynamics. Finally, we suggest a common general mechanism as responsible for the oncostatic/cytoprotective effect of melatonin and of other molecules examined.     

Scheduling links for heavy traffic on interfering routes in wireless mesh networks

We consider wireless mesh networks and the problem of scheduling the links of a given set of routes under the assumption of a heavy-traffic pattern. We assume some TDMA protocol provides a background of synchronized time slots and seek to schedule the routes’ links to maximize the number of packets that get delivered to their destinations per time slot. Our approach is to construct an undirected graph G and to heuristically obtain node multicolorings for G that can be turned into efficient link schedules. In G each node represents a link to be scheduled and the edges are set up to represent every possible interference for any given set of interference assumptions. We present two multicoloring-based heuristics and study their performance through extensive simulations. One of the two heuristics is based on relaxing the notion of a node multicoloring by dynamically exploiting the availability of communication opportunities that would otherwise be wasted. We have found that, as a consequence, its performance is significantly superior to the other’s.     

HCI and education: a blended design experience

Teaching HCI in an undergraduate course for computer scientists is often a challenging experience, because the skills that characterize HCI are different from scientific and computational thinking that are the focus of most subjects of the curriculum. Often HCI teaching is organized as a set of lectures that are useful to learn concepts, but don’t increase the design skills of the students. This work reports the results of an educational experience where both learners and teachers were actively involved in a process of knowledge construction and design. This process usually happens in other domains, such as architecture or industrial design, but is not part of most computer science curricula. We chose as project a challenging theme: the design of eco-feedback interfaces that inform people about the consequences of their actions for the environment and help to take decisions for lowering energy consumption. Eco-feedback interfaces are also representative of the gap between the products available on the market and the results of scientific studies, evidenced also by a recent workshop about HCI education. The workshop evidenced a number of pitfalls in HCI education that in our educational experience we tried to overcome with appropriate methodologies. An additional challenging task was the attempt to organize all the design activities taking advantage of a platform for remote learning, stressing its limits. The paper will discuss all these issues, evidencing where the applied methodologies gave good results and where they need further improvements, with the final goal of giving useful advices for HCI educational experiences to come.     

Age and productivity as determinants of firm survival over the industry life cycle

This paper contributes to fill the gap between the literature on the determinants of firm survival and the empirical works on the industry life cycle (ILC). Using a representative sample of Spanish firms with 10 or more employees over the period 1993–2009, the role played by firm age and productivity in firm survival is empirically analysed across three stages of the life cycle of forty-seven 3-digit manufacturing sectors. In the ‘early’ stage of the ILC, firm age is negatively correlated with hazard rates while firm productivity is not. Firm productivity is associated with lower hazard in the ‘mature’ stage of the ILC, when competition is primarily efficiency-driven, while firm age does not play a significant role for firm survival. In the ‘intermediate’ stage, both age and productivity play a role in reducing firms’ hazard rates.     

Bimorph actuator with monolithically integrated CMOS OFET control

We present an electrostrictive polymer bimorph controllable with low voltage through an integrated CMOS OFET control system. We have actuated the device by applying voltages up to 400 V to the control system, and can actuate the control with 60 V switching. The electrostrictor material was used both as the substrate for the transistors and as the dielectric layer for the control circuitry. This allows for a reduction in the number of layers in the structure, minimizing the clamping effect that would compromise the strain capabilities of the device. We have characterized the macroscopic displacement of the structure through a radius of curvature measurement, ranging from 11.4 mm to 7.5 mm depending on the supply voltage provided. The architecture proposed can be scaled to larger system with higher supply voltages.     

Colour features and pigment composition of Italian carbonic macerated red wines

Thirty commercially available Italian carbonic macerated young red wines, have been analysed by HPLC–DAD–MS with the aim to characterise their pigment composition and find possible correlations with the colour features evaluated by means of spectrophotometric measurements. The composition in anthocyanin monoglucosides, acetates, p-coumarates as well as that in pyranoanthocyanins and direct and ethyl-bridged adducts with flavanols, was studied. Because of the peculiar maceration process, carbonic macerated wines demonstrated to be qualitatively rich in pyranoanthocyanins and pigment adducts. A number of ethyl-bridged anthocyanin isomers was found, together with significant contents of vitisin A and vitisin B (up to 15.5 mg/L as a sum). Malvidin-3-glc-4-vinylphenol was the main pyranoanthocyanin-vinylphenol adduct (up to 1.10 mg/L). The colour features of the wines were broadly distributed as a consequence of the percentage of carbonic macerated wine present in the marketed product. The statistical treatment of the entire data set revealed that pyranoanthocyanins are positively correlated with colour density (while no correlation was found for monoglucosides) and that direct adducts and/or ethyl-bridged compounds can play a role for what concerns the hue of carbonic macerated wines.