The Future of Architecture: Measuring the Sustainability of Paradigm Shifting Architectural Interventions

Sustainable development in the built environment seems paradoxical given that the architecture, construction, and buildings sector is one of most polluting, wasteful, and inefficient industries. Despite this notion, the role of the architect is evolving and their influence on design is expanding beyond ideas for physical structures and into designing interactions between the built environment and components such as policy, material usage, sustainability, and urban regeneration. Architects that are able to implement paradigm shifting design ideas that improve the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability can be catalytic for systemic change and act as a vehicle to move away from linear systems and into circular models. This study aims to review international building sustainability assessment methods (BSAM) used by architects to assess the extent that sustainable building criteria are being fulfilled. The study will then address the limitations that these models have in measuring sustainability criteria through a process-based lens. The paper presents specific modifications to the Simplified Method for Evaluating Building Sustainability (SMEBS) which was also created to address limitations in BSAM. Modifications to the SMEBS model will be implemented through the context of Lisbon’s historical and current sustainability initiatives

The Abundance of X-Shaped Radio Sources I. VLA Survey of 52 Sources With Off-Axis Distortions

Cheung identified a sample of 100 candidate X-shaped radio galaxies using the NRAO FIRST survey; these are small-axial-ratio extended radio sources with off-axis emission. Here we present radio images of 52 of these sources that have been made from archival Very Large Array data with resolution of about 1 arcsec. Fifty-one of the 52 were observed at 1.4 GHz, seven were observed at 1.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and one was observed only at 5 GHz. We also present overlays of the SDSS red images for 48 of the sources, and DSS II overlays for the remainder. Optical counterparts have been identified for most sources, but there remain a few empty fields. Our higher resolution VLA images along with FIRST survey images of the sources in the sample reveal that extended extragalactic radio sources with small axial ratios are largely (60%) cases of double radio sources with twin lobes that have off-axis extensions, usually with inversion-symmetric structure. The available radio images indicate that at most 20% sources might be genuine X-shaped radio sources that could have formed by a restarting of beams in a new direction following an interruption and axis flip. The remaining 20% are in neither of these categories. The implications of this result for the gravitational wave background are discussed in Roberts, Saripalli, and Subrahmanyan.Comment: ApJ Supplements (accepted

Diamond optomechanical crystals

Cavity-optomechanical systems realized in single-crystal diamond are poised to benefit from its extraordinary material properties, including low mechanical dissipation and a wide optical transparency window. Diamond is also rich in optically active defects, such as the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers, which behave as atom-like systems in the solid state. Predictions and observations of coherent coupling of the NV electronic spin to phonons via lattice strain has motivated the development of diamond nanomechanical devices aimed at realization of hybrid quantum systems, in which phonons provide an interface with diamond spins. In this work, we demonstrate diamond optomechanical crystals (OMCs), a device platform to enable such applications, wherein the co-localization of ~ 200 THz photons and few to 10 GHz phonons in a quasi-periodic diamond nanostructure leads to coupling of an optical cavity field to a mechanical mode via radiation pressure. In contrast to other material systems, diamond OMCs operating in the resolved-sideband regime possess large intracavity photon capacity (> 10$^5$) and sufficient optomechanical coupling rates to reach a cooperativity of ~ 20 at room temperature, allowing for the observation of optomechanically induced transparency and the realization of large amplitude optomechanical self-oscillations

Comparing serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as methods for routine structure determination from small macromolecular crystals.

Innovative new crystallographic methods are facilitating structural studies from ever smaller crystals of biological macromolecules. In particular, serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) have emerged as useful methods for obtaining structural information from crystals on the nanometre to micrometre scale. Despite the utility of these methods, their implementation can often be difficult, as they present many challenges that are not encountered in traditional macromolecular crystallography experiments. Here, XFEL serial crystallography experiments and MicroED experiments using batch-grown microcrystals of the enzyme cyclophilin A are described. The results provide a roadmap for researchers hoping to design macromolecular microcrystallography experiments, and they highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods. Specifically, we focus on how the different physical conditions imposed by the sample-preparation and delivery methods required for each type of experiment affect the crystal structure of the enzyme

Lunar Mining: Designing a Robust Robotic Mining System

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface. This year, Utah Student Robotics sought to improve upon the design from last year. The 2019-2020 rover is based on proven NASA concepts, such as the RASSOR 2.0 digging drum, and the Rocker-Bogie mobility platform

The JWST PEARLS View of the El Gordo galaxy cluster and of the structure it magnifies

We dedicate this study to the memory of Jill Bechtold, scholar and mentor, who with her great patience and investment in undergraduate and graduate education set many of us onto a career path in astronomy. We thank Sergey Cherkis for useful conversations and the anonymous referee for suggestions that improved the manuscript. B.L.F. obtained student support through a Faculty Challenge Grant for Increasing Access to Undergraduate Research and the Arthur L. and Lee G. Herbst Endowment for Innovation and the Science Deanʼs Innovation and Education Fund, both obtained at the University of Arizona. R.A.W. was funded by NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G, and 80GNSSC18K0200 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The BGU lensing group, L.J.F., and A.Z., acknowledge support by grant 2020750 from the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), grant 2109066 from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel. K.I.C. acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) and also from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), through the award of the Vici Grant VI.C.212.036. We thank the JWST Project at NASA GSFC and JWST Program at NASA HQ for their many-decades-long dedication to making the JWST mission a success. We especially thank Tony Roman, the JWST scheduling group, and Mission Operations Center staff at STScI for their continued dedicated support to getting the JWST observations scheduled. This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with JWST program 1176. This work is also based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The data were obtained from the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the Associationof Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555 for HST. This research has made use of data obtained from the Chandra Data Archive and software provided by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) in the application package CIAO

The JWST discovery of the triply imaged type Ia Supernova H0pe and observations of the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0

A Type Ia supernova (SN) at z = 1.78 was discovered in James Webb Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera imaging of the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0 (G165; z = 0.35). The SN is situated 1.5–2 kpc from the host-galaxy nucleus and appears in three different locations as a result of gravitational lensing by G165. These data can yield a value for Hubble's constant using time delays from this multiply imaged SN Ia that we call "SN H0pe." Over the cluster, we identified 21 image multiplicities, confirmed five of them using the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, and constructed a new lens model that gives a total mass within 600 kpc of (2.6 ± 0.3) × 1014M⊙. The photometry uncovered a galaxy overdensity coincident with the SN host galaxy. NIRSpec confirmed six member galaxies, four of which surround the SN host galaxy with relative velocity ≲900 km s−1 and projected physical extent ≲33 kpc. This compact galaxy group is dominated by the SN host galaxy, which has a stellar mass of (5.0 ± 0.1) × 1011M⊙. The group members have specific star formation rates of 2–260 Gyr−1 derived from the Hα-line fluxes corrected for stellar absorption, dust extinction, and slit losses. Another group centered on a strongly lensed dusty star-forming galaxy is at z = 2.24. The total (unobscured and obscured) SFR of this second galaxy group is estimated to be (≳ 100 M⊙ yr−1), which translates to a supernova rate of ∼1 SNe yr−1, suggesting that regular monitoring of this cluster may yield additional SNe.This paper is dedicated to PEARLS team member and collaborator Mario Nonino, whose enthusiasm for the science and generosity have been an inspiration for us. We thank the two anonymous referees for suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. B.L.F. was funded by NASA JWST DD grant (PID 4446; PI: Frye) from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). B.L.F. obtained student support through a Faculty Challenge Grant for Increasing Access to Undergraduate Research, and the Arthur L. and Lee G. Herbst Endowment for Innovation and the Science Deans Innovation and Education Fund, both obtained at the University of Arizona. R.A.W. was funded by NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5- 12460, NNX14AN10G, and 80GNSSC18K0200 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. We thank the JWST Project at NASA GSFC and JWST Program at NASA HQ for their many decades long dedication to make the JWST mission a success. We especially thank Peter Zeidler, Patricia Royale, Tony Roman, and the JWST scheduling group at STScI for their continued dedicated support to get the JWST observations scheduled. This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the STScI, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with JWST programs 1176 and 4446. This work is also based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the STScI, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555 for HST