Faculty of Arts and Sciences
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Publication Description Changes in Architecture: Identity Rules in Shape Grammars and Multiplicity in Design Datasets(Kim Williams Books, 2025-06) Moustroufis, Nicolaos; Haridis, AlexandrosThis paper argues that changes or shifts in descriptions of architectural objects or elements have played a critical role in advancing architectural design across history. Description changes are possible when the elements are amenable to a multiplicity of interpretation, to shifts in their structural configuration, appearance, or stylistic meaning. An original compilation of examples is presented that illustrates such descriptive changes across history. These range from the formation of the Doric order to Romanesque, Gothic, Modern and Postmodern architecture. These descriptive changes are shown to have stimulated important generative processes, from forming the triglyph to crafting a Gothic pinnacle or spatially and structurally organizing Terragni's Danteum. The diversity of the examples demonstrates the relevance of descriptive change to all aspects of architecture: from purely structural to purely ornamental. "Description changes" are represented as rule-based computational processes guided by identity rules, a class of shape rules developed within the design computing theory area of shape grammars. The compilation of the examples illustrates how visual calculating with identity rules can be applied to real architectural contexts. Due to the rising interest in data-driven machine learning, whether for classification or for generative modeling, current architectural design discourse often revolves around a need for creating digital datasets that statically represent a record of architectural knowledge (e.g., plans, three-dimensional geometries, building component libraries). By raising the importance of description changes that have characterized architectural innovation, this paper argues for adopting a new lens in the representation of architectural knowledge in data, namely, one that embraces the possibility and need for changes in descriptions of architectural elements and a multiplicity in their meanings.Publication Critical quantum liquids and the cuprate high temperature superconductors(2025-06-25) Sachdev, SubirPublication Pupillometry signatures of neural activity and serotonin release within the auditory cortex of behaving miceQuarshie, Selorm; Takesian, AnneThe auditory cortex receives bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down neuromodulatory inputs that convey information about behavioral states, such as arousal, attention, and reward acquisition. Therefore, the auditory cortex is uniquely positioned to integrate sensory and behavioral signals. Indeed, behavioral states have been shown to modulate the activity of auditory cortical neurons as well as performance in behavioral auditory tasks. However, the mechanisms by which these states modulate auditory behavioral performance are not yet fully understood. To answer these questions, optical fibers were implanted into the primary auditory cortex (A1) of adult mice. Mice were head-fixed in an operant chamber, where two cohorts of mice were trained on two distinct auditory behavioral tasks, one assessing perceptual discrimination and the other associative learning. We performed in-vivo fiber photometry imaging of bulk fluorescence activity, measuring changes in the fluorescent signals from either a calcium indicator (GCaMP6s) to measure neuronal activity or a serotonin (5-HT) sensor (GRAB-5HT) to measure serotonin release. This was done while simultaneously recording pupil size and whisker motion data as measures of animal behavioral state using infrared video. We observed that behavioral states correlate with activity within A1 and reflect performance during auditory discrimination tasks. We found that performance was best at arousal states when pupil size was neutral or slightly constricted. Furthermore, pupil size correlated closely with excitatory pyramidal neuron activity within A1. Auditory associative learning was associated with an increase in 5-HT release in A1, and ongoing work is determining how this 5-HT release correlates with arousal, as measured using pupillometry. Understanding how behavioral states and neuromodulation affect A1 will further elucidate the mechanisms underlying auditory perception and behavioral performancePublication How the SO(5) k=1 WZW near-CFT3 explains the underdoped regime of the cuprate high temperature superconductors(2025-06-03) Sachdev, SubirPublication Spin liquids and the cuprate superconductors(2025-05-19) Sachdev, SubirPublication Critical quantum spin liquids, SYK models, and the cuprate high temperature superconductors(2025-05-30) Sachdev, SubirPublication FL* theory of the pseudogap, d-wave superconductivity, and charge order in the cuprates(2025-05-05) Sachdev, SubirPublication Spin liquids, Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models, and the cuprate superconductors(2025-04-15) Sachdev, SubirPublication The foot, the fan, and the pseudogap(2025-03-23) Sachdev, SubirPublication Subir Sachdev - 20 selected papers with commentaries(2025-06) Sachdev, Subir