Symbiotic Architecture

This article tackles an old, classical problem, which is acquiring a new epochal relevance with the techno-aesthetic processing of form and substance, expression and content. The field of digital architecture is embarked in the ancient controversy between the line and the curve, binary communication and fuzzy logic. Since the 1990s, the speculative qualities of digital architecture have exposed spatial design to the qualities of growing or breeding, rather than planning. However, such qualities still deploy the tension between discrete spaces and continual curving. In this context, the article suggests the computational coexistence of discrete coding with continual morphing, defying any easy resolution for an aesthetic of continuity or discontinuity, the superiority of the analog or the meta-logic of the digital. The metaphysical dimension of such coexistence needs to include the abstract capacities of experiencing the transition from one state to another as the registering of algorithmic processing. Computation is intrinsic to microperceptions, incomputable quantities deploying the infectious property of the digital code. The article draws on the digital architecture of Greg Lynn to explore whether the computational nature of the digital calculus has the potential to challenge the bifurcation between the biological and the mathematical, the physical and the mental.

A Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus-Based Retroviral Vector Pseudotyped by the Insect Retroviral gypsy Envelope Can Infect Drosophila Cells

ABSTRACT The gypsy element of Drosophila melanogaster is the first retrovirus identified so far in invertebrates. Previous data suggest that gypsyENV-like ORF3 mediates viral infectivity. We have produced in the 293GP/LNhsp70lucL.3 human cell line a Moloney murine leukemia virus-based retroviral vector pseudotyped by the gypsyENV-like protein. We have shown by immunostaining that thegypsy envelope protein is produced in 293GP/LNhsp70lucL.3 cells and that vector particles collected from these cells can infect Drosophila cells. Our results provide direct evidence that the infectious property of gypsy is due to its ORF3 gene product.

OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING A PERSISTING INFECTION OF HELA CELLS WITH POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS

A culture of HeLa cells has been subjected to prolonged observation with the finding that periodically Type III poliomyelitis virus could be isolated from it. A requirement of the culture for survival was the presence in it of serum of certain individuals who had had previous experience with poliomyelitis virus. In the presence of serum containing no antibodies to poliomyelitis virus, the culture demonstrated spontaneous cytopathology. From certain series of passages virus could be isolated while attempts were unsuccessful from others also showing cellular disintegration. The conclusion is reached that the virus does not persist in the culture always in a state exhibiting the infectious property, rather what persists is the potentiality of the culture to give rise to fully active virus. The immune serum could inhibit the cytopathogenic effect of the virus without eliminating the infection.

GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS OF INFLUENZA VIRUS CONCERNING THE BINDING OF VIRUS BY HOST CELLS

Under certain conditions, influenza virus may bind to chorioallantoic membrane and the infectious property is retained upon prolonged incubation of the complex. Apparently the bound active virus is not functioning in the initiation of viral increase. The bound infectious virus may be partially removed by extensive washing. The characteristics of the washing are suggestive of a reversible equilibrium type of binding. Binding will also occur when the tissue has been pretreated with RDE or in the presence of AMPS. However, under these conditions the binding is of a lesser degree. When the tissue has been treated with RDE and AMPS is present, no stable binding occurs. In the presence of AMPS, the initiating activity is bound but cannot function in promoting viral increase. It is proposed that active virus is held by two types of binding at the same site; one type of binding is sensitive to the action of RDE; the second type is sensitive to the blocking effect of AMPS. Virus can be held to the receptor site by either type of binding or both. It is further suggested that the bound infectious virus is a result of an abortive attempt at initiating infection. The nature of the binding of infectious virus is of significance for understanding the binding of initiating activity.

THE INACTIVATION OF THE VIRUS OF EPIDEMIC INFLUENZA BY SOAPS

The capacity of certain fatty acids at pH 7.5 to inactivate the virus of epidemic influenza has been demonstrated. Most effective of these are oleic, linolic, and linolenic acids. Studies were made of such variables as pH, rate of inactivation, and ratios of reactant concentrations, using oleic acid as a prototype of the effective acids. Attempts to recover active virus from inactive mixtures by decrease in pH, dialysis, dilution, or addition of calcium chloride solution to inactivated virus have been unsuccessful. The stability of virus at different hydrogen ion concentrations has been determined. Quantitative comparisons have been made of the immunizing capacity of fully active virus and virus rendered non-infectious by treatment with oleic acid. It was found that while the infectious property of the virus is removed the immunogenic capacity is essentially unaltered. The possible mechanism by which the soaps act upon influenza virus has been discussed.