Nature S Machines

Nature’s Machines: An Introduction to Organismal Biomechanics presents the fundamental principles of biomechanics in a concise, accessible way while maintaining necessary rigor. It covers the central principles of whole-organism biomechanics as they apply across the animal and plant kingdoms, featuring brief, tightly-focused coverage that does for biologists what H. M. Frost’s 1967 Introduction to Biomechanics did for physicians. Frequently encountered, basic concepts such as stress and strain, Young’s modulus, force coefficients, viscosity, and Reynolds number are introduced in early chapters in a self-contained format, making them quickly available for learning and as a refresher. More sophisticated, integrative concepts such as viscoelasticity or properties of hydrostats are covered in the later chapters, where they draw on information from multiple earlier sections of the book. Animal and plant biomechanics is now a common research area widely acknowledged by organismal biologists to have broad relevance. Most of the day-to-day activities of an animal involve mechanical processes, and to the extent that organisms are shaped by adaptive evolution, many of those adaptations are constrained and channelized by mechanical properties. The similarity in body shape of a porpoise and a tuna is no coincidence. Many may feel that they have an intuitive understanding of many of the mechanical processes that affect animals and plants, but careful biomechanical analyses often yield counterintuitive results: soft, squishy kelp may be better at withstanding pounding waves during storms than hard-shelled mollusks; really small swimmers might benefit from being spherical rather than streamlined; our bones can operate without breaking for decades, whereas steel surgical implants exhibit fatigue failures in a few months if not fully supported by bone. Offers organismal biologists and biologists in other areas a background in biomechanics to better understand the research literature and to explore the possibility of using biomechanics approaches in their own work Provides an introductory presentation of the everyday mechanical challenges faced by animals and plants Functions as recommended or required reading for advanced undergraduate biology majors taking courses in biomechanics, supplemental reading in a general organismal biology course, or background reading for a biomechanics seminar course

In recent decades, there has been much scholarly controversy as to the basic ontological commitments of the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). The old picture of his thought as strictly idealistic, or committed to the ultimate reduction of bodies to the activity of mind, has come under attack, but Leibniz's precise conceptualization of bodies, and the role they play in his system as a whole, is still the subject of much controversy. One thing that has become clear is that in order to understand the nature of body in Leibniz, and the role body plays in his philosophy, it is crucial to pay attention to the related concepts of organism and of corporeal substance, the former being Leibniz's account of the structure of living bodies (which turn out, for him, to be the only sort of bodies there are), and the latter being an inheritance from the Aristotelian hylomorphic tradition which Leibniz appropriates for his own ends. This volume brings together papers from many of the leading scholars of Leibniz's thought, all of which deal with the cluster of questions surrounding Leibniz's philosophy of body.

Molecular Nature is a richly illustrated guide to the extraordinary diversity of molecules that are responsible for life. David Goodsell, author of the highly-praised book, The Machinery of Life, has synthesized a vast amount of data in a manner that is accessible to the general reader. Molecular Nature examines topics ranging from the shape of cells to the molecules responsible for digestion, immunity, and thought. The author's unique combination of scientific and artistic talents make this a readable, stimulating and highly evocative book. About the Author: David Goodsell is in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. His research involves computer graphics and X-ray crystallography. He is the author of The Machinery of Life (Springer-Verlag, 1992), and his artwork has been shown at exhibitions on science and art.

This book offers a re-examination of the relationship between humans and nature with a new methodology: by examining our entanglement with machines. Using central ideas of critical theory, it uncovers the suppression of nature through technology, tools and engines. It focuses on the ways in which human social forms have actively subjugated and destroyed other species in order to enhance their own social power and accumulation, leading to a new Anthropocene epoch in which human intervention is signalled in the geological record. Beginning with an account of the interactions between humans and other species, the book moves on to explore the hidden history of Marx and his obsession with machines, as well as new attempts to rethink a Marxist ecology, before proceeding to examine the manner in which technologies were used to suppress and destroy one particular species - the Whale of what we call the Cetacean Holocaust. Following this, there are analyses of the emergence of the ‘human encampments’ of the cities and the rise of mobile, locomotive cultures, and consideration of the relationship between machines of memory, and the ‘capturing’ of nature. A radical rethinking of classical social theory that develops new ways of thinking about ecological catastrophe and nature, this book will appeal to scholars of social theory and environmental sociology.

The two-volume set LNAI 8856 and LNAI 8857 constitutes the proceedings of the 13th Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, MICAI 2014, held in Tuxtla, Mexico, in November 2014. The total of 87 papers plus 1 invited talk presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 348 submissions. The first volume deals with advances in human-inspired computing and its applications. It contains 44 papers structured into seven sections: natural language processing, natural language processing applications, opinion mining, sentiment analysis, and social network applications, computer vision, image processing, logic, reasoning, and multi-agent systems, and intelligent tutoring systems. The second volume deals with advances in nature-inspired computation and machine learning and contains also 44 papers structured into eight sections: genetic and evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, machine learning, machine learning applications to audio and text, data mining, fuzzy logic, robotics, planning, and scheduling, and biomedical applications.

This book reviews the latest developments in nature-inspired computation, with a focus on the cross-disciplinary applications in data mining and machine learning. Data mining, machine learning and nature-inspired computation are current hot research topics due to their importance in both theory and practical applications. Adopting an application-focused approach, each chapter introduces a specific topic, with detailed descriptions of relevant algorithms, extensive literature reviews and implementation details. Covering topics such as nature-inspired algorithms, swarm intelligence, classification, clustering, feature selection, cybersecurity, learning algorithms over cloud, extreme learning machines, object categorization, particle swarm optimization, flower pollination and firefly algorithms, and neural networks, it also presents case studies and applications, including classifications of crisis-related tweets, extraction of named entities in the Tamil language, performance-based prediction of diseases, and healthcare services. This book is both a valuable a reference resource and a practical guide for students, researchers and professionals in computer science, data and management sciences, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“The story is told by THE inventor-pioneer-master in the field and is accompanied by amazing illustrations… [it] will become an absolute reference and a best seller in chemistry!” Alberto Credi “… the great opus on the mechanical bond. A most impressive undertaking!” Jean-Marie Lehn Congratulations to co-author J. Fraser Stoddart, a 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. In molecules, the mechanical bond is not shared between atoms—it is a bond that arises when molecular entities become entangled in space. Just as supermolecules are held together by supramolecular interactions, mechanomolecules, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, are maintained by mechanical bonds. This emergent bond endows mechanomolecules with a whole suite of novel properties relating to both form and function. They hold unlimited promise for countless applications, ranging from their presence in molecular devices and electronics to their involvement in remarkably advanced functional materials. The Nature of the Mechanical Bond is a comprehensive review of much of the contemporary literature on the mechanical bond, accessible to newcomers and veterans alike. Topics covered include: Supramolecular, covalent, and statistical approaches to the formation of entanglements that underpin mechanical bonds in molecules and macromolecules Kinetically and thermodynamically controlled strategies for synthesizing mechanomolecules Chemical topology, molecular architectures, polymers, crystals, and materials with mechanical bonds The stereochemistry of the mechanical bond (mechanostereochemistry), including the novel types of dynamic and static isomerism and chirality that emerge in mechanomolecules Artificial molecular switches and machines based on the large-amplitude translational and rotational motions expressed by suitably designed catenanes and rotaxanes. This contemporary and highly interdisciplinary field is summarized in a visually appealing, image-driven format, with more than 800 illustrations covering both fundamental and applied research. The Nature of the Mechanical Bond is a must-read for everyone, from students to experienced researchers, with an interest in chemistry’s latest and most non-canonical bond. Read the Preface

This second edition integrates many new findings into the underlying enzymatic mechanisms and the catalytic machinery for building the varied and complex end product metabolites. This text will serve as a reference point for chemists of every subdiscipline, including synthetic organic chemists and medicinal chemists.