Better Regulations: The National Performance Review’s Regulatory Reform Recommendations

Skiftesverk 2.0 undersöker i vilken utsträckning en kontexts befintliga och historiska material, tekniker, former och strukturer kan användas i gestaltandet av ny bebyggelse. Detta för att hitta ett sätt att skapa ett mervärde i kontemporär arkitektur genom starkare kopplingar till en historisk kontext.Projektet beskriver ett sätt att utgå ifrån skiftesverk på Öland och sedan modernisera och omforma såväl själva byggtekniken som befintliga typologier. I presentationsmaterialet redovisas först teknikens bakgrund, historia och egenskaper tillsammans med material från fältstudier. Utifrån detta presenteras förslag på hur själva tekniken kan effektiviseras och industrialiseras. Sedan följer gestaltningar av en moderniserad version av skiftesverk i såväl teknik som traditionell form och byggstruktur.Projektet är tänkt att belysa ett sätt att förhålla sig till hållbar arkitektur i termer såsom inte bara ekonomiska utan även ekologiska och kanske även sociala aspekter.SKIFTESVERK 2.0 (POST-PLANK 2.0) examines the extent to which the context of existing and historical materials, techniques, forms and structures can be used in the shaping of new settlements. This is to find a way to add value in contemporary architecture through stronger links to a historical context.This project describes a way to first look at post-plank on Öland and then modernize and reshape both the actual construction technique that existing typologies. The presentation material starts with describing the background of the technology with its history and characteristics along with material from field studies. Based on this, a proposal is presented showing how the technology itself can be streamlined and industrialized. Then follows a design of a modernized version of post-plank in both technology and traditional shape and construction structure.The project is meant to illustrate a way of relating to sustainable architecture in such terms as not only economic but also ecological and perhaps even social aspects

The Regulatory Reform Recommendations of the National Performance Review

Of ten recommendations Mr. Lubbers discusses, several were of particular interest. These include encouraging consensus-based rule making and ADR in enforcement, as well as ranking risks and improving regulatory science

Risk Regulation at the Federal Level: Administrative Procedure Constraints and Opportunities

An introduction to the legal framework within which employees of the twigs on our fourth branch of government must operate. Particular attention is given to research sponsored by the Administrative Conference of the United States which has dealt with, for example, process problems in resolving specific issues and in building consensus on broad policy matters. [Excerpt] “Administrative agencies - the twigs on our fourth branch of government - are established to handle the details of administration deemed too painstaking, technically complex or even controversial for direct Congressional or Presidential involvement. In the current government structure, sometimes called the modem administrative state, these details of administration have taken on a paramount importance to us all. The Risks to public health and safety have become so well documented and ventilated that the various acronymic agencies that have been created to deal with the Risks (e.g., OSHA, FDA, EPA) have become highly visible twigs indeed. But the task of these agencies in the Risk regulation area is not an easy one. It is, indeed, extremely complex, painstaking and controversial - so much so that the increasingly robust Congressional and Presidential bureaucracies have gladly delegated major Risk management responsibilities to these agencies while seeking only to retain enough oversight and other controls to prevent political problems from penetrating the moat that separates the agency from the elected official. To understand the task that awaits the federal Risk regulator, one must understand the legal framework in which he or she must operate. Of course, science, engineering, medicine and philosophy (not to mention politics) play a crucial role in the substantive decision to be made, but the process requirements often affect the timing and nature of the ultimate decision.

Hierarchical modeling of molecular energies using a deep neural network

We introduce the Hierarchically Interacting Particle Neural Network (HIP-NN) to model molecular properties from datasets of quantum calculations. Inspired by a many-body expansion, HIP-NN decomposes properties, such as energy, as a sum over hierarchical terms. These terms are generated from a neural network--a composition of many nonlinear transformations--acting on a representation of the molecule. HIP-NN achieves state-of-the-art performance on a dataset of 131k ground state organic molecules, and predicts energies with 0.26 kcal/mol mean absolute error. With minimal tuning, our model is also competitive on a dataset of molecular dynamics trajectories. In addition to enabling accurate energy predictions, the hierarchical structure of HIP-NN helps to identify regions of model uncertainty

Excess Floppy Modes and Multi-Branched Mechanisms in Metamaterials with Symmetries

Floppy modes --- deformations that cost zero energy --- are central to the mechanics of a wide class of systems. For disordered systems, such as random networks and particle packings, it is well-understood how the number of floppy modes is controlled by the topology of the connections. Here we uncover that symmetric geometries, present in e.g. mechanical metamaterials, can feature an unlimited number of excess floppy modes that are absent in generic geometries, and in addition can support floppy modes that are multi-branched. We study the number $\Delta$ of excess floppy modes by comparing generic and symmetric geometries with identical topologies, and show that $\Delta$ is extensive, peaks at intermediate connection densities, and exhibits mean field scaling. We then develop an approximate yet accurate cluster counting algorithm that captures these findings. Finally, we leverage our insights to design metamaterials with multiple folding mechanisms.Comment: Main text has 4 pages and 5 figures, and is further supported by Supplementary Informatio

Symmetric and Asymmetric Coalescence of Drops on a Substrate

The coalescence of viscous drops on a substrate is studied experimentally and theoretically. We consider cases where the drops can have different contact angles, leading to a very asymmetric coalescence process. Side view experiments reveal that the "bridge" connecting the drops evolves with self-similar dynamics, providing a new perspective on the coalescence of sessile drops. We show that the universal shape of the bridge is accurately described by similarity solutions of the one-dimensional lubrication equation. Our theory predicts a bridge that grows linearly in time and stresses the strong dependence on the contact angles. Without any adjustable parameters, we find quantitative agreement with all experimental observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Drops on soft solids: Free energy and double transition of contact angles

The equilibrium shape of liquid drops on elastic substrates is determined by minimising elastic and capillary free energies, focusing on thick incompressible substrates. The problem is governed by three length scales: the size of the drop $R$, the molecular size $a$, and the ratio of surface tension to elastic modulus $\gamma/E$. We show that the contact angles undergo two transitions upon changing the substrates from rigid to soft. The microscopic wetting angles deviate from Young's law when $\gamma/Ea \gg 1$, while the apparent macroscopic angle only changes in the very soft limit $\gamma/ER \gg 1$. The elastic deformations are worked out in the simplifying case where the solid surface energy is assumed constant. The total free energy turns out lower on softer substrates, consistent with recent experiments