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Mixed reality is advancing exponentially in some innovative industries, including manufacturing and aerospace. However, advanced applications of these technologies in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) businesses remain nascent. While it is in demand, the use of these technologies in developing the AEC digital pedagogy and for improving professional competence have received little attention. This paper presents a set of five novel digital technologies utilising virtual and augmented reality and digital twin, which adds value to the literature by showing their usefulness in the delivery of construction courses. The project involved designing, developing, and implementing a construction augmented reality (AR), including Piling AR (PAR) and a virtual tunnel boring machine (VTBM) module. The PAR is a smartphone module that presents different elements of a building structure, the footing system, and required equipment for footing construction. VTBM is developed as a multiplayer and avatar-included module for experiencing mechanisms of a tunnel boring machine. The novelty of this project is that it developed innovative immersive construction modules, practices of implementing digital pedagogy, and presenting the capacity of virtual technologies for education. This paper is also highly valuable to educators since it shows how a set of simple to complex technologies can be used for teaching various courses from a distance, either in emergencies such as corona virus disease (COVID-19) or as a part of regular teaching. This paper is a step forward to designing future practices full of virtual education appropriate to the new generation of digitally savvy students.

The design and construction of synthetic prototissues from integrated assemblies of artificial protocells is an important challenge for synthetic biology and bioengineering. Here we spatially segregate chemically communicating populations of enzyme-decorated phospholipid-enveloped polymer/DNA coacervate protocells in hydrogel modules to construct a tubular prototissue-like vessel capable of modulating the output of bioactive nitric oxide (NO). By decorating the protocells with glucose oxidase, horseradish peroxidase or catalase and arranging different modules concentrically, a glucose/hydroxyurea dual input leads to logic-gate signal processing under reaction-diffusion conditions, which results in a distinct NO output in the internal lumen of the model prototissue. The NO output is exploited to inhibit platelet activation and blood clot formation in samples of plasma and whole blood located in the internal channel of the device, thereby demonstrating proof-of-concept use of the prototissue-like vessel for anticoagulation applications. Our results highlight opportunities for the development of spatially organized synthetic prototissue modules from assemblages of artificial protocells and provide a step towards the organization of biochemical processes in integrated micro-compartmentalized media, micro-reactor technology and soft functional materials. A challenge for synthetic biology is the design and construction of prototissue. Here, the authors spatially segregate layers of enzyme-decorated coacervate protocells as a model prototissue capable of chemical signal processing and modulating outputs of nitric oxide to inhibit blood clot formation.

In order to maintain tissue homeostasis, cells communicate with the outside environment by receiving molecular signals, transmitting them, and responding accordingly with signaling pathways. Thus, one key challenge in engineering molecular signaling systems involves the design and construction of different modules into a rationally integrated system that mimics the cascade of molecular events. Herein, we rationally design a DNA-based artificial molecular signaling system that uses the confined microenvironment of a giant vesicle, derived from a living cell. This system consists of two main components. First, we build an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-driven DNA nanogatekeeper. Second, we encapsulate a signaling network in the biomimetic vesicle, consisting of distinct modules, able to sequentially initiate a series of downstream reactions playing the roles of reception, transduction and response. Operationally, in the presence of ATP, nanogatekeeper switches from the closed to open state. The open state then triggers the sequential activation of confined downstream signaling modules. Cells communicate with the outside world to maintain homeostasis. Here the authors design a synthetic biology DNA-based signalling system AMSsys that responds to the presence of ATP.

Cellular transformations, such as gene expression or temporal protein activities, are controlled by complex stimuli-responsive network circuitries regulated by enzymes, metabolites or transcription factors. Inspired by nature, extensive research efforts are directed to mimic these processes by in vitro chemical systems. Here we report on the assembly of constitutional dynamic networks (CDNs), composed of nucleic acid–enzyme conjugates, that act as modules for triggered, network-driven, biocatalytic cascades and for the intercommunication of network-guided biocatalytic cascades. Two CDNs were assembled—one network includes a constituent module functionalized with glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase in spatially close positions, and the second CDN includes a constituent module modified at sterically intimate positions with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and alcohol dehydrogenase. Biocatalytic cascades proceed in the two networks and, on the triggered reconfiguration of the CDNs, controlled and switchable biocatalytic cascades in the CDNs are demonstrated. The two CDNs are coupled, and the triggered feedback-driven intercommunication of the networks is realized. Extensive research efforts in systems chemistry are directed to the development of in vitro systems that mimic complex natural networks. Now, stimuli-responsive nucleic acid-based networks conjugated to biocatalysts for the triggered and orthogonal control over biocatalytic cascades are reported.

Due to the distortion of projection generated during the production of 360 ∘ video, most quality assessment algorithms used for 2D video have the problem of performance degradation. In this paper, we propose a full-reference 360 ∘ video quality assessment method, utilizing saliency to guide viewport extraction to eliminate the projection distortion. To be more specific, we first predict the visual saliency of each frame with a 360 ∘ saliency prediction network and then select the viewport that optimally represents the video frame through the optimal viewport positioning module (OVPM). Furthermore, we propose the attention-based three-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D CNN) quality assessment network to evaluate the video quality, in which 3D CNN convolution and attention modules can better capture the quality degradation of distorted viewports. Experimental results show that our method achieves superior performance in 360 ∘ video quality assessment tasks.