Federica Natalia Rosati , Margo Lengua, Anna Guerra
et al.
This article explores how design contributes to regeneration processes in marginal and rural areas, by drawing on the outcomes of a participatory mapping activity which involved key informants from different experiences across the Italian peninsula to gather knowledge around design-based regeneration. The discussion articulates and analyses three main aspects: i) the nature and scale of local community involvement in the design process; ii) the role of networks in supporting cultural and design-led regeneration; iii) the importance of self-evaluation mechanisms for reflective practices and monitoring frameworks to assess impacts and inform decision-making. In conclusion, the paper posits that design-driven processes are crucial for addressing challenges in such areas, offering a pathway for a better future and laying a both theoretical and pragmatic foundation for integrating participatory tools into regeneration processes.
انتخاب رنگ نماهای مسکونی، یکی از تصمیمات مهم کارفرمایان در کل مراحل ساخت و ساز است که میتواند بازتابی از شخصیت و ترجیحات فردی کارفرما باشد. این پژوهش با روش توصیفی- تحلیلی و با هدف تبیین تأثیر گرایشهای تیپهای شخصیتی کارفرمایان، در انتخاب رنگ نماهای مسکونی شخصی، در شهر شیراز انجام شده است. برای بررسی فرضیه، پیمایش روی 136 نفر از کارفرمایان منطقه دو شیراز که در بازه 1402-1401 برای ساخت به شهرداری مراجعه نمودهاند، انجام شد. دادهها از طریق پرسشنامه تعیین تیپ شخصتی مایرز (MBTI) و انتخاب تصویر نما با رنگهای مختلف، توسط جامعه آماری جمعآوری شد. سپس تحلیل فرضیه دادهها، در نرمافزار SPSS Statistics 27.0.1 با آزمون کایدو ، کرامر و تحلیل همبستگی یا تحلیل تناظری صورت گرفت. نتایج نشان داد که رنگ سفید در تمام گروهها محبوبیت بالایی دارد و همچنین تنوع و تفاوتهای قابل توجه در ترجیحات رنگی بین گروههای مختلف است و توجه به این تفاوتها، علاوه بر آسانسازی طراحی برای کارفرما و معمار طراح، به ارتقا رضایت و سلامت روانی ساکنان کمک میکند.
In the digital transition scenario, a new culture emerges in which the humanities and scientific disciplines merge and are sometimes contiguous and overlap in terms of expertise, thus opening new lines of research that are strongly interdisciplinary. In the complex process of archaeological research, innovative digital tools define new ways of communicating archaeological contexts through the synergy of technologies, languages and creativity. The paper highlights the dialogue between design and archaeology with reference to the relationship between past and present in the physical-digital space of fruition. In this regard, a reflection on the representation and interpretation of the fragmented nature of archaeological knowledge and the restitution of invisible contexts, artifacts and processes is proposed. This is to foster new configurations by linking physically inaccessible real spaces to usable virtual environments that are enduring over time.
The evolution of space technology in recent years, fueled by advancements in computing such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), has profoundly transformed our capacity to explore the cosmos. Missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made information about distant objects more easily accessible, resulting in extensive amounts of valuable data. As part of this work-in-progress study, we are working to create an atmospheric absorption spectrum prediction model for exoplanets. The eventual model will be based on both collected observational spectra and synthetic spectral data generated by the ROCKE-3D general circulation model (GCM) developed by the climate modeling program at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). In this initial study, spline curves are used to describe the bin heights of simulated atmospheric absorption spectra as a function of one of the values of the planetary parameters. Bayesian Adaptive Exploration is then employed to identify areas of the planetary parameter space for which more data are needed to improve the model. The resulting system will be used as a forward model so that planetary parameters can be inferred given a planet’s atmospheric absorption spectrum. This work is expected to contribute to a better understanding of exoplanetary properties and general exoplanet climates and habitability.
Mechanical drawing. Engineering graphics, Physical and theoretical chemistry
Emanuela Bonini Lessing, Alessandra Bosco, Mario Ciaramitaro
et al.
Digital archiving of documents can contribute to the shared construction of a community's memory. A catalyst for a new awareness of the territory, the realization of a digital collection is able to intercept both the private memories kept by families on analogue formats and the spontaneous sharing of online communities. The community archive, fuelled by participatory dynamics and belonging, promotes the creation of an ecosystem for collective memory in Quero-Vas on which to refound the territory's imagination and cultural programming by renewing the system of relations between governance, citizenship and guests.
Agentic AI is poised to usher in a seismic paradigm shift in Software Engineering (SE). As technologists rush head-along to make agentic AI a reality, SE researchers are driven to establish agentic SE as a research area. While early visions of agentic SE are primarily focused on code-related activities, early empirical evidence calls for a consideration of a wider range of socio-technical activities and concerns to make it work in practice. This paper contributes to the emerging visions by: (a) recommending an expansion of its scope beyond code, toward a 'whole of process' vision, grounding it in SE foundations and evolution and emerging agentic SE frameworks, (b) proposing a preliminary set of values and principles to guide community efforts, and (c) sharing guidance on designing and using well-defined vocabulary for agentic SE. It is hoped that these ideas will encourage collaborations and steer the SE community toward laying strong foundations of agentic SE so it is not limited to enabling coding acceleration but becomes the next process-level paradigm shift.
Hydro-Science and Engineering (Hydro-SE) is a critical and irreplaceable domain that secures human water supply, generates clean hydropower energy, and mitigates flood and drought disasters. Featuring multiple engineering objectives, Hydro-SE is an inherently interdisciplinary domain that integrates scientific knowledge with engineering expertise. This integration necessitates extensive expert collaboration in decision-making, which poses difficulties for intelligence. With the rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs), their potential application in the Hydro-SE domain is being increasingly explored. However, the knowledge and application abilities of LLMs in Hydro-SE have not been sufficiently evaluated. To address this issue, we propose the Hydro-SE LLM evaluation benchmark (Hydro-SE Bench), which contains 4,000 multiple-choice questions. Hydro-SE Bench covers nine subfields and enables evaluation of LLMs in aspects of basic conceptual knowledge, engineering application ability, and reasoning and calculation ability. The evaluation results on Hydro-SE Bench show that the accuracy values vary among 0.74 to 0.80 for commercial LLMs, and among 0.41 to 0.68 for small-parameter LLMs. While LLMs perform well in subfields closely related to natural and physical sciences, they struggle with domain-specific knowledge such as industry standards and hydraulic structures. Model scaling mainly improves reasoning and calculation abilities, but there is still great potential for LLMs to better handle problems in practical engineering application. This study highlights the strengths and weaknesses of LLMs for Hydro-SE tasks, providing model developers with clear training targets and Hydro-SE researchers with practical guidance for applying LLMs.
Modern engineering, spanning electrical, mechanical, aerospace, civil, and computer disciplines, stands as a cornerstone of human civilization and the foundation of our society. However, engineering design poses a fundamentally different challenge for large language models (LLMs) compared with traditional textbook-style problem solving or factual question answering. Although existing benchmarks have driven progress in areas such as language understanding, code synthesis, and scientific problem solving, real-world engineering design demands the synthesis of domain knowledge, navigation of complex trade-offs, and management of the tedious processes that consume much of practicing engineers' time. Despite these shared challenges across engineering disciplines, no benchmark currently captures the unique demands of engineering design work. In this work, we introduce EngDesign, an Engineering Design benchmark that evaluates LLMs' abilities to perform practical design tasks across nine engineering domains. Unlike existing benchmarks that focus on factual recall or question answering, EngDesign uniquely emphasizes LLMs' ability to synthesize domain knowledge, reason under constraints, and generate functional, objective-oriented engineering designs. Each task in EngDesign represents a real-world engineering design problem, accompanied by a detailed task description specifying design goals, constraints, and performance requirements. EngDesign pioneers a simulation-based evaluation paradigm that moves beyond textbook knowledge to assess genuine engineering design capabilities and shifts evaluation from static answer checking to dynamic, simulation-driven functional verification, marking a crucial step toward realizing the vision of engineering Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Erin Chambers, Brittany Terese Fasy, Erfan Hosseini Sereshgi
et al.
Reeb graphs are simple topological descriptors with applications in many areas like topological data analysis and computational geometry. Despite their prevalence, visualization of Reeb graphs has received less attention. In this paper, we bridge an essential gap in the literature by exploring the complexity of drawing Reeb graphs. Specifically, we demonstrate that Reeb graph crossing number minimization is NP-hard, both for straight-lined and curved edges. On the other hand, we identify specific classes of Reeb graphs, namely paths and caterpillars, for which crossing-free drawings exist. We also give an optimal algorithm for drawing cycle-shaped Reeb graphs with the least number of crossings and provide initial observations on the complexities of drawing multi-cycle Reeb graphs. We hope that this work establishes the foundation for an understanding of the graph drawing challenges inherent in Reeb graph visualization and paves the way for future work in this area.
We present a general approach to visualizing uncertainty in static 2-D statistical graphics. If we treat a visualization as a function of its underlying quantities, uncertainty in those quantities induces a distribution over images. We show how to aggregate these images into a single visualization that represents the uncertainty. The approach can be viewed as a generalization of sample-based approaches that use overlay. Notably, standard representations, such as confidence intervals and bands, emerge with their usual coverage guarantees without being explicitly quantified or visualized. As a proof of concept, we implement our approach in the IID setting using resampling, provided as an open-source Python library. Because the approach operates directly on images, the user needs only to supply the data and the code for visualizing the quantities of interest without uncertainty. Through several examples, we show how both familiar and novel forms of uncertainty visualization can be created. The implementation is not only a practical validation of the underlying theory but also an immediately usable tool that can complement existing uncertainty-visualization libraries.
The purpose of developing the colour coding system is to create better awareness and help consumers monitor and understand the sugar content of foods. Our research focused on food products (dairy products and cereal products on the Slovenian market) that contain so-called hidden sugars, as these can cause many health risks. The aim of the study was to raise awareness of the sugar content in dairy products and cereals through a packaging design with a uniform labelling and coding system. During the process of this research, few answers were provided to the following questions: How can a labelling system be designed to be clear and impartial, what is the hierarchy and layout of food information on packaging, and how can the system be coherently integrated with existing packaging? The impact of the information design on the consumer in the food packaging industry, which helps in further execution, was analysed. Based on the research, variants of a multi-colour labelling system were created, differing in primary information graphics, colour, placement and formats. The packaging for an imaginary brand and the placement of the code system were designed. Finally, the packaging design was implemented in the 3D models for each food group. The result of this research is a collection of packaging models with a labelling system that informs consumers about sugar content, facilitates decision-making and helps them control their food intake. The colour-coded labels were applied to the packaging in a uniform and coherent manner, which can provide sufficient attention and information.
Traditional requirements engineering tools do not readily access the SysML-defined system architecture model, often resulting in ad-hoc duplication of model elements that lacks the connectivity and expressive detail possible in a SysML-defined model. Further integration of requirements engineering activities with MBSE contributes to the Authoritative Source of Truth while facilitating deep access to system architecture model elements for V&V activities. We explore the application of MBSE to requirements engineering by extending the Model-Based Structured Requirement SysML Profile to comply with the INCOSE Guide to Writing Requirements while conforming to the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148 standard requirement statement patterns. Rules, Characteristics, and Attributes were defined in SysML according to the Guide to facilitate requirements definition, verification & validation. The resulting SysML Profile was applied in two system architecture models at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, allowing us to assess its applicability and value in real-world project environments. Initial results indicate that INCOSE-derived Model-Based Structured Requirements may rapidly improve requirement expression quality while complementing the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook checklist and guidance, but typical requirement management activities still have challenges related to automation and support in the system architecture modeling software.
It is well established from various pieces of observational evidence that the relative abundance of baryonic matter in the Universe is less than 5%. The remaining 95% is made up of dark matter (DM) and dark energy. In view of the negative results from dark matter detection experiments running for several years, we had earlier proposed alternate models (which do not require DM) by postulating a minimal field strength (analogous to minimal curvature) and a minimal acceleration. These postulates led to the Modification of Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Modification of Newtonian Gravity (MONG), respectively. Some of the independent results that support the existence of non-baryonic matter are the mass–radius relation (that holds true for any gravitationally bound large-scale structure), Eddington luminosity, etc. Here, we discuss how these physical implications can be accounted for from the results of MONG without invoking DM.
Mechanical drawing. Engineering graphics, Physical and theoretical chemistry
Whether an algebraic or a geometric or a phenomenological prescription is applied, the first fundamental form is unambiguously related to the modeling of the curved spacetime. Accordingly, we assume that the possible quantization of the first fundamental form could be proposed. For precise accurate measurement of the first fundamental form <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>d</mi><msup><mi>s</mi><mn>2</mn></msup><mo>=</mo><msub><mi>g</mi><mrow><mi>μ</mi><mi>ν</mi></mrow></msub><mi>d</mi><msup><mi>x</mi><mi>μ</mi></msup><mi>d</mi><msup><mi>x</mi><mi>ν</mi></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, the author derived a quantum-induced revision of the fundamental tensor. To this end, the four-dimensional Riemann manifold is extended to the eight-dimensional Finsler manifold, in which the quadratic restriction on the length measure is relaxed, especially in the relativistic regime; the minimum measurable length could be imposed ad hoc on the Finsler structure. The present script introduces an approach to quantize the fundamental tensor and first fundamental form. Based on gravitized quantum mechanics, the resulting relativistic generalized uncertainty principle (RGUP) is directly imposed on the Finsler structure, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>F</mi><mo>(</mo><msubsup><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mn>0</mn><mi>μ</mi></msubsup><mo>,</mo><msubsup><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mn>0</mn><mi>ν</mi></msubsup><mo>)</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, which is obviously homogeneous to one degree in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msubsup><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mn>0</mn><mi>μ</mi></msubsup></semantics></math></inline-formula>. The momentum of a test particle with mass <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mover accent="true"><mi>m</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover><mo>=</mo><mi>m</mi><mo>/</mo><msub><mi>m</mi><mi mathvariant="monospace">p</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> with <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>m</mi><mi mathvariant="monospace">p</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> is the Planck mass. This unambiguously results in the quantized first fundamental form <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>d</mi><msup><mover accent="true"><mi>s</mi><mo>˜</mo></mover><mn>2</mn></msup><mrow><mo>=</mo><mo>[</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>+</mo></mrow><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>+</mo><mn>2</mn><mi>β</mi><msubsup><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mn>0</mn><mi>ρ</mi></msubsup><msub><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mrow><mn>0</mn><mi>ρ</mi></mrow></msub><mo>)</mo></mrow><msup><mover accent="true"><mi>m</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover><mn>2</mn></msup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mo>|</mo></mrow><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>¨</mo></mover><msup><mrow><mo>|</mo><mo>/</mo><mi mathvariant="script">A</mi><mo>)</mo></mrow><mn>2</mn></msup><mrow><mo>]</mo></mrow><msub><mi>g</mi><mrow><mi>μ</mi><mi>ν</mi></mrow></msub><mi>d</mi><msup><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mi>μ</mi></msup><mi>d</mi><msup><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>^</mo></mover><mi>ν</mi></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>¨</mo></mover></semantics></math></inline-formula> is the proper spacelike four-acceleration, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="script">A</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> is the maximal proper acceleration, and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi>β</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> is the RGUP parameter. We conclude that an additional source of curvature associated with the mass <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mover accent="true"><mi>m</mi><mo>¯</mo></mover></semantics></math></inline-formula>, whose test particle is accelerated at <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mrow><mo>|</mo></mrow><mover accent="true"><mi>x</mi><mo>¨</mo></mover><mrow><mo>|</mo></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, apparently emerges. Thereby, quantizations of the fundamental tensor and first fundamental form are feasible.
Mechanical drawing. Engineering graphics, Physical and theoretical chemistry
Semi-structured explanation depicts the implicit process of a reasoner with an explicit representation. This explanation highlights how available information in a specific query is utilised and supplemented with information a reasoner produces from its internal weights towards generating an answer. Despite the recent improvements in generative capabilities of language models, producing structured explanations to verify a model's true reasoning capabilities remains a challenge. This issue is particularly pronounced for not-so-large LMs (e.g., FLAN-T5-XXL). In this work, we first underscore the limitations of supervised fine-tuning (SFT) in tackling this challenge, and then introduce a carefully crafted reward engineering method in reinforcement learning (RL) to better address this problem. We investigate multiple reward aggregation methods and provide a detailed discussion which sheds light on the promising potential of RL for future research. Our proposed method on two semi-structured explanation generation benchmarks (ExplaGraph and COPA-SSE) achieves new state-of-the-art results.