In order to frame this question, and as a rhetorical device, I would like to set up a straw target as a caricature of what a closed system could look like. Central to the idea of a closed system is the concept of intellectual property as the equivalent of physical property, understood as owned in terms of some sort of title, either by an individual or corporate group, and available for sale or ...

‎The notion of (Boolean) uni-soft filters‎ ‎in MTL-algebras is introduced‎, ‎and several properties of them are‎ ‎investigated‎. ‎Characterizations of (Boolean) uni-soft filters are discussed‎, ‎and some (necessary and sufficient) conditions‎ ‎for a uni-soft filter to be Boolean are provided‎. ‎The condensational property for a Boolean uni-soft filter is established.

Predictive State Representations (PSRs) [10] are a model for a discrete-time finite action and observation stochastic systems, presented as an alternative to HMMs and POMDPs. A PSR represents the system’s state as a set of predictions of the observable outcomes of tests performed in the system. Unlike hidden variable models no latent variables are assumed or required – only observable outcomes ...

Numerical simulations and experimental observations reveal that unsteady fluid systems can be divided into regions of qualitatively different dynamics. The key to understanding transport and stirring is to identify the dynamic boundaries between these almost-invariant regions. Recently, ridges in finite-time Lyapunov exponent fields have been used to define such hyperbolic, almost material, Lag...

As a renewable building material with low embodied energy characteristics, wood has gained more and more attention in the green and sustainable building industry. In terms of material resource and physical properties, scrimber composite not only makes full use of fast-growing wood species, but also has better mechanical performance and less inherent variability than natural wood material. In th...

Biofilm structure plays an important role in biofilm function and control. It is thus important to determine the extent to which mechanics may determine structure in biofilms. We consider a generic qualitative constitutive description of biofilm incorporating as assumptions a small number of fundamental physical properties of biofilm viscoelasticity and cohesion. Implications of cohesive energy...