Search Results (10)

A typical Mashrabiya in Islamic architecture represents an integral climatic and sustainable solution, not only by offering recycling and the responsible use of small pieces of wood assembled in stunning geometrical and natural abstract lattice panels, but also because it offers air cooling, filtration, and flow from the exterior to the interior of a building. This leads to the air flow being cooled by the water spray offered by the interior patio fountains, in addition to protecting the sanctity and privacy of a building’s inhabitants, which complies with religious beliefs and social considerations. This integral sustainable solution acts on multiple scales: material recycling and responsible use, as well as climatic and socio-cultural considerations similar to Gaudi’s approach with Trencadís technology, not far from the Arabic and Islamic architectural influence revived in the Catalan Modernism contemporary to his time. In these footsteps, we explore the Mashrabiya of our time: an interactive and living architectural membrane, a soft interface that reacts by growing, giving shade, filtrating air, and transforming in time. Despite attempts to design a contemporary concept of the Mashrabiya, none of them have adopted the living organism to form an interactive living lattice architectural system. In this work, we propose the biodigital micro-cellular Mashrabiya as a novel idea and a proof of concept based on employing the authors’ previously published research findings to utilize eco-friendly biopolymers inoculated with useful native–domestic microbial strains to act as soft and living membranes, where these organisms grow and vary in their chemical and physical characteristics, sustainable function, and industrial value. This study implements an analytical–descriptive methodology to analyze the key characteristics of a traditional Mashrabiya as an integral sustainable solution and how the proposed micro-cellular biodigital Mashrabiya system can fulfill these criteria to be integrated into the built environment, forging future research trajectories on the bio-/micro-environmental compatibility of this biomaterial-based biodigital Mashrabiya system by understanding these materials’ physical, chemical, and physiological traits and their sustainable value. In this work, a biodigital Mashrabiya is proposed based on employing previous research findings on experimentally analyzed biomaterials from a biomineralized calcium-phosphate-based hydrogel and bio-welded seashell–mycelium biocomposite in forging the lattice system of a biodigital Mashrabiya, analyzing the feasibility and sustainability impact of these systems for integration into the architectural built environment. Full article

The structure of skyrmion and spiral solutions, investigated within the phenomenological Dzyaloshinskii model of chiral magnets near the ordering temperatures, is characterized by the strong interplay between longitudinal and angular order parameters, which may be responsible for experimentally observed precursor effects. Within the precursor regions, additional effects, such as pressure, electric fields, chemical doping, uniaxial strains and/or magnetocrystalline anisotropies, modify the energetic landscape and may even lead to the stability of such exotic phases as a square staggered lattice of half-skyrmions, the internal structure of which employs the concept of the “soft” modulus and contains points with zero modulus value. Here, we additionally alter the stiffness of the magnetization modulus to favor one- and two-dimensional modulated states with large modulations of the order parameter magnitude. The computed phase diagram, which omits any additional effects, exhibits stability pockets with a square half-skyrmion lattice, a hexagonal skyrmion lattice with the magnetization in the center of the cells parallel to the applied magnetic field, and helicoids with propagation transverse to the field, i.e., those phases in which the notion of localized defects is replaced by the picture of a smooth but more complex tiling of space. We note that the results can be adapted to metallic glasses, in which the energy contributions are the same and originate from the inherent frustration in the models, and chiral liquid crystals with a different ratio of elastic constants. Full article

In a soft environment, we investigated several (classical) structures such as ideals, filters, grills, etc. It is well known that these structures are applied to expand abstract concepts; in addition, some of them offer a vital tool to address some practical issues, especially those related to improving rough approximation operators and accuracy measures. Herein, we contribute to this line of research by presenting a novel type of soft structure, namely “soft primal”. We investigate its basic properties and describe its behaviors under soft mappings with the aid of some counterexamples. Then, we introduce three soft operators ${(·)}^{\diamond }$, $C{l}^{\diamond }$ and ${(·)}^{\square }$ inspired by soft primals and explore their main characterizations. We show that $C{l}^{\diamond }$ satisfies the soft Kuratowski closure operator, which means that $C{l}^{\diamond }$ generates a unique soft topology we call a primal soft topology. Among other obtained results, we elaborate that the set of primal topologies forms a natural class in the lattice of topologies over a universal set and set forth some descriptions for primal soft topology under specific types of soft primals. Full article

The ES structure described by soft subsets or soft M-subsets does not yield a lattice structure due to its restriction on parameter sets, and so cannot be used in information theory. This study proposes a new ES structure on soft sets that addresses the deficiencies of the prior structure. Using mathematical concepts, we can construct and entirely new system of soft sets. As a result, the ES structure is derived from a finite collection of basic soft sets and offers complicated soft sets via its ES components, allowing for it to be operated by computers, as this is more acceptable to conventional mathematical viewpoints. We rewrote this using a soft J-subset and demonstrated that (ES, ${\tilde{\vee }}_{ES}$, ${\tilde{\wedge }}_{ES}$) is a distributive lattice. This will play an important role in decision-making problems and contribute to a better understanding of human recognition processes. During the process of reaching a decision, several groups of parameters develop, and the ES structure in this article takes these parameters into consideration in order to handle the intricate issues that arise. In soft set theory, this research gives insight into the cognitive field. Full article

Under the circumstance of soft fractured surrounding rock with high geo-stress, the support technology of tunnel has become a major challenge. Traditional I-shaped steel and bar lattice girder, which cross-sections are often designed to be left-right symmetrical, may have insufficient strength and stiffness. Based on the concept of symmetry, a new support technology of spatial steel tubular grid (SSTG) arch is designed with high strength and large stiffness. In order to clarify the mechanical properties and failure mechanism of SSTG arch used as primary support, through laboratory and numerical experiments, this paper carries out the bending tests for the circumferential joint of SSTG arch components combined with the excavation tunnel project of Panyu Square Station in Guangzhou, and the analyses of the ultimate bearing capacity, deflection displacement, failure modes, and stress–strain evolution laws of joint components are conducted in detail. The results show that during the whole process of loading, the arch components have experienced elastic growth stage, plastic development stage, and final failure stage. The average ultimate bending capacity of SSTG arches is 340.5 kN·m, and the joint opening is 13.9 mm. The joint form of high-strength bolt + rigid flange plate proposed in the paper has reasonable stress state and high safety redundancy, which can bear the load of surrounding rock effectively, and ensure the safety in tunnel construction. The research results could provide a theoretical basis for the design and application of SSTG arch support in related projects. Full article

We introduce the notion of the reduct of soft contexts, which is a special notion of a consistent set for soft contexts. Then, we study its properties and show that this notion is well explained by the two classes, $1^0$ and $2^0$ , of independent attributes. In particular, we describe in detail how to extract a reduct from a given consistent set. Then, based on this extraction process, we propose a six-step method for constructing a reduct from a given consistent set. Additionally, to apply this method to formal contexts, we examine the relationship between the reducts of a given formal context and the reducts of the associated soft context. We finally illustrate the process of obtaining reducts in a formal context using this relationship and the six-step method using an example. Full article

Contemporary research has refined systems with complex fuzzy sets in order to improve the design and model of real-life applications. Symmetry and antisymmetry are basic characteristics of binary relations used when modeling the decision maker’s preferences. A recent focus has been the analysis of a complex data set using the properties of fuzzy concept lattice and the complex soft set. We will introduce a new concept to represent the information which utilizes the time factor, called fuzzy parameterized complex multi-fuzzy soft expert set ( $FP$ - $\mathcal{CMFSES}$ ), and investigate part of its fundamental properties. This $FP$ - $\mathcal{CMFSES}$ model allows us to validate the information provided by an expert, at a given phase of time, using the properties of complex fuzzy sets. We then construct an algorithm based on this concept by converting it from the complex state to the real state. Eventually, we implement it to a decision-making problem to demonstrate the applicability of the suggested method. A comparison among $FP$ - $\mathcal{CMFSES}$ and other existing methods is made to expose the dominance of the suggested method. Apart from that, we also propose the weighted fuzzy parameterized complex multi-fuzzy soft expert set and investigate its application to decision-making. Full article

We introduce the notion of consistent sets of soft contexts and investigate its characterizations. For the purpose of studying the characterizations of consistent sets, we introduce the notions of $1^0$ and $2^0$ classes of independent attributes. By studying the characterizations, we determined that every consistent set has to contain the special class $1^0$ called the Essential Zone of consistent sets. This is very important information that we should consider when constructing consistent sets of a given soft context. Additionally, we study the fundamental theorems necessary to construct the consistent sets of a given soft context. In particular, we apply the Fundamental Theorem 2 to obtain the consistent sets of a given soft context, and show that this fundamental theorem provides a more effective way of constructing the consistent sets of a formal context. Full article

This research explores a new realm of soft robotic materials where the stiffness magnitude, directionality, and spatial resolution may be precisely controlled. These materials mimic biological systems where localized muscle contractions and adjustment of tissue stiffness enables meticulous, intelligent movement. Here we propose the use of a low-melting-point (LMP) metal lattice structure as a rigid frame using localized heating to allow compliance about selectable axes along the lattice. The resulting shape of the lattice is modeled using product of exponentials kinematics to describe the serial chain of tunably compliant axes; this model is found to match the behavior of the physical test piece consisting of a Field’s metal (FM) lattice encased in silicone rubber. This concept could enable highly maneuverable robotic structures with significantly improved dexterity. Full article

The formation of crystals and symmetry on the atomic scale has persistently attracted scientists through the ages. The structure itself and its subtle dependence on boundary conditions is a reflection of three principles: atomic attraction, repulsion, and the limitations in 3D space. This involves a competition between simplicity and high symmetry on the one hand and necessary structural complexity on the other. This work presents a simple atomistic crystal growth model derived for equivalent atoms and a pair potential. It highlights fundamental concepts, most prominently provided by a maximum number of equilibrium distances in the atom’s local vicinity, to obtain high symmetric structural motifs, among them the Platonic Solids. In this respect, the harmonically balanced interaction during the atomistic nucleation process may be regarded as origin of symmetry. The minimization of total energy is generalized for 3D periodic structures constituting these motifs. In dependence on the pair potential’s short- and long-range characteristics the, by symmetry, rigid lattices relax isotropically within the potential well. The first few coordination shells with lattice-specific fixed distances do not necessarily determine which equilibrium symmetry prevails. A phase diagram calculated on the basis of these few assumptions summarizes stable regions of close-packed fcc and hcp, next to bcc symmetry for predominantly soft short-range and hard long-range interaction. This lattice symmetry, which is evident for alkali metals as well as transition metals of the vanadium and chromium group, cannot be obtained from classical Morse or Lennard-Jones type potentials, but needs the range flexibility within the pair potential. Full article