553 research outputs found
The fine-grained metaphysics of artifactual and biological functional kinds
No full textIn this paper we consider the emerging position in metaphysics that artifact functions characterize real kinds of artifacts. We analyze how it can circumvent an objection by David Wiggins (Sameness and substance renewed, 2001, 87) and then argue that this position, in comparison to expert judgments, amounts to an interesting fine-grained metaphysics: taking artifact functions as (part of the) essences of artifacts leads to distinctions between principles of activity of artifacts that experts in technology have not yet made. We show, moreover, that our argument holds not only in the artifactual realm but also in biology: taking biological functions as (part of the) essences of organs leads to distinctions between principles of activity of organs that biological experts have not yet made. We run our argument on the basis of analyses of artifact and biological functions as developed in philosophy of technology and of biology, thus importing results obtained outside of metaphysics into the debate on ontological realism. In return, our argument shows that a position in metaphysics provides experts reason for trying to detect differences between principles of activities of artifacts and organs that have not been detected so far.Engineering and reflectionTechnology, Policy and Managemen
Notes for an Aesthetics of Social Innovation: A Reading Through the Lenses of Jacques Rancière’s Philosophy
No full textVermaas, P. et Vial, S. (Eds.), 603 p. This volume presents 25 essays on the philosophy of design. With contributions originating from philosophy and design research, and from product design to architecture, it gives a rich spectrum of state of the art research and brings together studies on philosophical topics in which design plays a key role and design research to which philosophy contributes.
Coverage zooms in on specific and more well-known design disciplines but also includes less-studied disciplines, such as graphic design, interior architecture and exhibition design. In addition, contributors take up traditional philosophical issues, such as epistemology, politics, phenomenology and philosophy of science. Some essays cover philosophical issues that emerge in design, for instance what design can do in addressing societal problems, while other essays analyze main-stream philosophical issues in which design is part of the argument, as for instance abduction and aesthetics.
Readers will discover new research with insightful analyses of design research, design thinking and the specificity of design. Overall, this comprehensive overview of an emerging topic in philosophy will be of great interest to researchers and students
The interaction of quinones, herbicides and bicarbonate with their binding environment at the acceptor side of photosystem II in photosynthesis
No full textIn this thesis experiments are described which are directed towards a further characterization of the interaction of the native bound plastoquinone Q B , artificial quinones, herbicides and bicarbonate with their binding environment at the acceptor side of Photosystem II in the thylakoid membrane. The most important thylakoid component involved in binding of, e.g. , herbicides and quinones appears to be the lysine-free, rapidly turned-over 32,000 M r protein that is attacked readily by trypsin. This protein, that is involved in creating the herbicide/quinone binding environment is designated in this thesis "ABP-32" (azidoatrazine- binding protein of 32,000 M r ). Chapter 3 describes, however, that a lysine-containing protein complex also appears to modify binding of the herbicides atrazine and bromoxynil. This protein complex might be related to the Photosystem II reaction center (Section 3.3). In many earlier reports, where polypeptide staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue was used for monitoring the polypeptide content of a preparation, herbicide binding was assigned to the wrong 32,000 M r protein. The ABP-32 is poorly stainable with Coomassie Brilliant Blue. The other 32,000 M r protein associated with Photosystem II is probably related to the water splitting process (Section 3.1).Chapter 4 shows that herbicides and quinones appear to displace each other from the binding environment in a seemingly competitive fashion. However, after covalent linkage of a quinone to the binding site herbicide binding still occurs, albeit with a low affinity (Section 4.3). This can be taken as evidence of an allosteric interaction between herbicide and quinone binding: upon binding of one the affinity of the other is decreased. This hypothesis is supported by other data in this thesis, which show differential effects on binding of quinones and different types of herbicides. However, we consider the interaction of two related molecules (for example, two herbicides belonging to related chemical groups) for binding to the binding environment to be truly competitive.Herbicide/quinone interactions were studied not only under equilibrium conditions, but the binding and release rates of the inhibitor to the site were also estimated and calculated (Chapter 5). Herbicides like diuron, atrazine, bromoxynil and phenisopham exchange slowly with the native quinone, whereas phenol-type inhibitors (for example, dinoseb), o -phenanthroline, cyanoacrylates and synthetic quinones exchange faster (>0.1s -1 at 50 % inhibition of electron transport). In the case of o -phenanthroline a good fit between experimental data and theoretical values calculated from a model of competitive quinone/ inhibitor interaction could be obtained. When using a phenol-type inhibitor, fitting of experimental data and theory was less successful in the sense that the results obtained could not be fitted in a scheme where Q B and Q B H 2 have a low binding affinity and Q B- has a high affinity. It is possible that this is caused by an interaction between Q B and the phenol-type inhibitor, which is not, to a first approximation, competitive.During the last decade triazine-resistant biotypes of weeds have developed in fields that were sprayed repeatedly with triazine herbicides (for example, atrazine). All triazine-resistant biotypes characterized thus far differ from the "wild type" by one amino acid in the ABP-32. This minor change leads to a large effect on, for example, the affinity of some herbicides and quinones, and on the semiquinone equilibrium between the first electron-accepting quinone in Photosystem II, Q A , and Q B . This equilibrium is shifted to the Q A side considerably in triazine-resistant plants, thus decreasing photosynthetic efficiency under limiting light intensity (Chapter 6).Photosynthetic electron transport on the acceptor side of Photosystem II can also be modified by bicarbonate, at least in the presence of formate (Chapter 7). Absence of bicarbonate /CO 2 leads to an inhibition of electron transport whereas readdition of HCO 3- restores electron flow through Q B . The binding site of HCO 3- is functionally close to that of herbicides: herbicide affinity is sensitive to CO 2 -depletion and HCO 3- -readdition (Section 7.2). Although the precise role of HCO 3- in electron transport is not yet known, it is speculated here that HCO 3- may be involved in protonation of reduced Q B . Bicarbonate depletion also appears to slow down Q A- oxidation by the water splitting system, and to block the reduction of the S 2 and S 3 state of the water splitting system by -probably- a bound quinol (Section 7.3).In conclusion, this thesis provides many detailed data and analyses, which may add to form a basis for the understanding of the molecular mechanism of ligand binding at the Photosystem II acceptor side and of electron transfer from Q A to the plastoquinone pool. At this moment, however, the description of electron transport, inhibition and quinone binding at Photosystem II is still rather phenomenological. For a thorough understanding of the underlying molecular processes much more research, especially interdisciplinary, is required. In this way progress in solving this problem, that contains (bio)physical, (bio)chemical, physiological and genetic components, may best be made.<p/
If engineering function is a family resemblance concept: Assessing three formalization strategies.
No full textIn this paper we argue that the challenge of the formalization of functions not merely consists of analyzing and formalizing yet another concept; the challenge may also consist of formalizing a concept that is to be taken as a family resemblance concept in the Wittgensteinian sense. We focus on engineering for giving this argument and indicate briefly how the argument can also be given for biological functions. We demonstrate that in engineering there are a number of different meanings attached to the term “function”, and observe that engineers moreover seem to hold that having all these meanings is useful in their field. This observation make plausible that function indeed is to be taken as a family resemblance concept. Then we describe three strategies for the formalization of functions – the revisionary, the overarching and the descriptive strategies – and relate them to a number of the current proposals for this formalization. Assessing the strategies with the meta-ontological goals for formalizations of adequacy and minimality, we argue that if function indeed is to be taken as a family resemblance concept, then the descriptive strategy is to be preferred
TopoTools: Release 1.6 with CHARMM export in topogromacs
No full text<p>This version contains a few bugfixes and adds support for creating fully functional gromacs topology files for CHARMM force field simulation with code contributed by Josh Vermaas. This specific feature requires VMD version 1.9.2 or newer. For all other features this should also work with older versions of VMD. The use of the 1.9.2 release version is highly recommended because of the many other improvements, though. For users of gromacs, please also install the update for the gromacs-related molfile plugins, as the ones bundled with 1.9.2 have several bugs.</p>
Engineering Systems Design: A Look to the Future
No full textEngineering Systems Design is an emerging perspective with a growing community. The preceding chapters in the Handbook of Engineering Systems Design presented the engineering systems perspective, models for describing and methods for designing interventions in engineering systems, as well as reflections on the use of those methods and upcoming practice, educational and policy challenges. In this chapter, we are taking a look at the future of Engineering Systems Design. We start by highlighting productivity, sustainability and resilience as three societal objectives, and proceed to discuss critical paradoxes we must address through engineering systems interventions: providing a high standard of living for everyone, without paying the environmental price; a fast minimisation and mitigation of climate change without taking risks; and the challenge of global transformations respecting local needs. We continue to discuss what we consider three critical engineering systems design capabilities we must develop to resolve these paradoxes: the ability to manage systems requirements at societal scale; the development of scale-covariant engineering systems; and mastering connectability. We conclude the chapter with a call to action for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to advance theory, design methods and tools, and stakeholder outreach development to strengthen our engineering systems design capabilities
The ICE-function theory
No full textWith our use-plan approach to artefact using and designing, and with the review of existing function theories, we have collected the means to formulate a function theory that is adequate to the technical domain. This theory is constructed against the background of, specifically, our use-plan analysis of designing, and incorporates elements from the intentional, causal-role and evolutionist function theories. For this reason, we call this central result of our work the ICE-function theory.</p
Function theories
No full textIn the previous chapter we analysed the using and designing of artefacts in terms of the goals, beliefs and actions of the agents involved. In this chapter we switch to a perspective on artefact teleology that is more common in philosophy and engineering. This object-oriented perspective brings us to our central project of developing an adequate theory of technical functions.</p
Two ontology-driven formalisations of functions and their comparison
No full textIn this paper, we give formalisations of two engineering concepts of technical function and present in more general terms the project of supporting functional description translation by ontological analysis. The formalisations are given within the foundational dolce ontology and the concepts formalised are as follows: (1) the function as defined in the Functional Representation approach by Chandrasekaran and Josephson and (2) the function as defined in the Functional Basis approach by Stone and Wood. These two concepts represent two main ways of understanding functions in engineering: the first by means of the behaviour of artefacts, and the second by means of operations on flows as performed by artefacts. We analyse the similarities and differences between these concepts by means of the formalisations and show how the formalisations support the automated translation between functional descriptions based on these two concepts. In addition, we compare our strategy of formalising different engineering concepts of function within one foundational ontology with other strategies in the ontology-driven formalisation, such as defining a single formalised concept of function, either for replacing existing engineering concepts, or for use as a reference by which such existing concepts can be related. We compare these strategies and sketch the merits and shortcomings of our strategy
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