This Chapter summarizes some of the well known stigmergic computational techniques inspired by nature, mainly for optimization problems developed by mimicking social insects’ behavior. Some facts about social insects namely ants, bees and termites are presented with an emphasis on how they could interact and self organize for solving real world problems. We focused on ant colony optimization al...

Artificial immune systems (AISs) to date have generally been inspired by naive biological metaphors. This has limited the effectiveness of these systems. In this position paper two ways in which AISs could be made more biologically realistic are discussed. We propose that AISs should draw their inspiration from organisms which possess only innate immune systems, and that AISs should employ syst...

To the Editor: With great interest I have read the article under the title “Inspiration during the sleep stages without and after preceding exercise, as a factor supporting circulation of blood and the “resting procedure” by Grammaticos P, Daskalopoulou E, Grammaticou-Zilidou E, Kallistratos E, Daskalopoulos E. I think after testing this on a greater number of subjects it may be of major impact...

This contribution introduces and investigates a modelling approach for love dynamics and inspiration by means of System Dynamics, for Laura’s and Petrarch’s emotions as well as for a modern couple in love. In principle, emotions and inspiration emerge from a source and are fading into a sink. But the controlling parameters for increase and decrease of emotion create a broad variety of emotional...

The electromyographic (EMG) activity of human upper airway muscles, particularly the genioglossus, has been widely measured, but the relationship between EMG activity and physical movement of the airway muscles remains unclear. We aimed to measure the motion of the soft tissues surrounding the airway during normal and loaded inspiration on the basis of the hypothesis that this motion would be a...

,n this article ,vor 6amuels, one of FOC86’s most constant collaborators, discusses the growing use of design codes in (ngland and the inÁuence of 1ew 8rbanism. +e does so by e[amining Fairfield Park and 8pton, two recent successful development schemes, as well as a design code for the :est (nd, O[ford which he coauthored. +e concludes by discussing the feasibility of design codes as well as th...

—In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust P because chrysanthemums bloom well into the autumn and come in an array of colors and varieties, these hardy flowers have inspired poets, writers, and artists for millennia. French Impressionist artist Claude Monet celebrated this flower in a series of four still-life paintings in 1897, including Chrysanthemum, 1897, selected for this mo...

Reusing or modifying known design concepts cannot meet new challenges for engineering systems. However, engineers can find inspiration outside their traditional domains in order to develop novel design concepts. The key to progress and knowledge acquisition is found in inspiration from diverse domains. This chapter explores abstract knowledge acquisition for use in conceptual design. This is ac...

To start this discussion meeting on the new chemistry of the elements held on 12 May 2014, Martyn Poliakoff, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, was invited to give the opening remarks. As a chemist and a presenter of the popular online video channel 'The periodic table of videos', Martyn communicates his personal and professional interest in the elements to the public, who in turn use thes...

We are investigating face, hand and body expressions to be applied to avatars of a virtual environment to improve their communication capabilities and enrich and facilitate their perception by users of the environment . We support the idea that avatars have to be designed in such a way as to express state of mind, mood and emotions that are easily understood by the users of the environment. We ...