The Raman Spectrum of Boron Trifluoride Gas

The Raman spectrum of BF3 was photographed using a purified preparation obtained from the thermal decomposition of C6H5N2BF4. Of the lines observed, that with the frequency 888 cm^—1 is certainly, and the band at 439–513 cm^—1 is probably due to BF3. The Raman frequencies and the infra-red results of Bailey et al. are assigned to the fundamental modes of vibrations

Dynamic walking stability of the TUlip robot by means of the extrapolated center of mass

The TUlip robot was created to participate in the teensize league of Robocup. The TUlip robot is a bipedal robot intended for dynamic walking. It has six degrees of freedom for each leg: three for the hip, one for the knee and two for the ankle. This paper elaborates on the algorithm for the sideways control during gait. The algorithm uses the extrapolated center of mass (XcoM) to achieve limit cycle stability. The algorithm is tested in simulation using a linear inverted pendulum and, then, experimentally applied to the TUlip robot. The result is an adaptive behavior of the TUlip robot, promising for future application to legged robot stability

Role of a Conserved Glutamate Residue in the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e SecA ATPase Mechanism

Escherichia coli SecA uses ATP to drive the transport of proteins across cell membranes. Glutamate 210 in the “DEVD” Walker B motif of the SecA ATP-binding site has been proposed as the catalytic base for ATP hydrolysis (Hunt, J. F., Weinkauf, S., Henry, L., Fak, J. J., McNicholas, P., Oliver, D. B., and Deisenhofer, J. (2002) Science 297, 2018–2026). Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that mutation of glutamate 210 to aspartate results in a 90-fold reduction of the ATP hydrolysis rate compared with wild type SecA, 0.3 s–1versus 27 s–1, respectively. SecA-E210D also releases ADP at a slower rate compared with wild type SecA, suggesting that in addition to serving as the catalytic base, glutamate 210 might aid turnover as well. Our results contradict an earlier report that proposed aspartate 133 as the catalytic base (Sato, K., Mori, H., Yoshida, M., and Mizushima, S. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 17439–17444). Re-evaluation of the SecA-D133N mutant used in that study confirms its loss of ATPase and membrane translocation activities, but surprisingly, the analogous SecA-D133A mutant retains full activity, revealing that this residue does not play a key role in catalysis

Utilization of Polyspecific Antiserum for Specific Radioimmunoassays: Radioimmunoassays for Rat Fetuin and Bikunin Were Developed by Using Antiserum Against Total Rat Serum Proteins

Polyspecific antiserum against total rat serum proteins was used to develop specific and sensitive radioimmunoassays for fetuin and bikunin, two minor protein components of rat plasma. The radioimmunoassays proved to be highly useful to trace bikunin and fetuin in the course of developing isolation procedures, since neither specific functional assays nor monospecific antisera were available. The two examples demonstrate that, in general, it will be possible to develop a specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay with antiserum raised against a crude antigen preparation, such as a body fluid or a tissue extract, provided that a minute amount of pure antigen is available for preparing the radioiodinated antigen

Peer Evaluation of Video Lab Reports in a Blended Introductory Physics Course

The Georgia Tech blended introductory calculus-based mechanics course emphasizes scientific communication as one of its learning goals, and to that end, we gave our students a series of four peer-evaluation assignments intended to develop their abilities to present and evaluate scientific arguments. Within these assignments, we also assessed students' evaluation abilities by comparing their evaluations to a set of expert evaluations. We summarize our development efforts and describe the changes we observed in student evaluation behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, submitted to Summer 2014 PERC Proceeding

The Initial State of Students Taking an Introductory Physics MOOC

As part of a larger research project into massively open online courses (MOOCs), we have investigated student background, as well as student participation in a physics MOOC with a laboratory component. Students completed a demographic survey and the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation at the beginning of the course. While the course is still actively running, we have tracked student participation over the first five weeks of the eleven-week course.Comment: Accepted to PERC Proceedings 201

Polonia Apartment (Green Architecture)

Medan City, Indonesia's third largest city with a strategic position as the main gateway of Indonesia in the western region, must prepare itself to develop in facing variousopportunities and challenges as a metropolitan city. Polonia's ex-terminal complex post-relocation Polonia Airport is a region with the high potential to become a strategic trading center in Medan. Taking into consideration the availability of the existing area, the concept of vertical-shelter construction is chosen that can be used as a trading place, office or second residence is known as an apartment. The apartment can be defined as a building consisting of several residential units arranged in stages, and has the same space and facilities, to overcome the problem of density of occupancy rate and limited land in urban areas. Therefore, the concept of "Green Architecture" is considered appropriate to address the environmental issues. Where the concept of green architecture (Green Architecture) is an approach to the building that can minimize the various harmful effects on human health and the environment

The Dynamical State of Barnard 68: A Thermally Supported, Pulsating Dark Cloud

We report sensitive, high resolution molecular-line observations of the dark cloud Barnard 68 obtained with the IRAM 30-m telescope. We analyze spectral-line observations of C18O, CS(2--1), C34S(2--1), and N2H+(1--0) in order to investigate the kinematics and dynamical state of the cloud. We find extremely narrow linewidths in the central regions of the cloud. These narrow lines are consistent with thermally broadened profiles for the measured gas temperature of 10.5 K. We determine the thermal pressure to be a factor 4 -- 5 times greater than the non-thermal (turbulent) pressure in the central regions of the cloud, indicating that thermal pressure is the primary source of support against gravity in this cloud. This confirms the inference of a thermally supported cloud drawn previously from deep infrared extinction measurements. The rotational kinetic energy is found to be only a few percent of the gravitational potential energy, indicating that the contribution of rotation to the overall stability of the cloud is insignificant. Finally, our observations show that CS line is optically thick and self-reversed across nearly the entire projected surface of the cloud. The shapes of the self-reversed profiles are asymmetric and are found to vary across the cloud in such a manner that the presence of both inward and outward motions are observed within the cloud. Moreover, these motions appear to be globally organized in a clear and systematic alternating spatial pattern which is suggestive of a small amplitude, non-radial oscillation or pulsation of the outer layers of the cloud about an equilibrium configuration.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal; 23 pages, 8 figures; Manuscript and higher resolution images can be obtained at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~ebergin/pubs_html/b68_vel.htm

Singular factorizations, self-adjoint extensions, and applications to quantum many-body physics

We study self-adjoint operators defined by factorizing second order differential operators in first order ones. We discuss examples where such factorizations introduce singular interactions into simple quantum mechanical models like the harmonic oscillator or the free particle on the circle. The generalization of these examples to the many-body case yields quantum models of distinguishable and interacting particles in one dimensions which can be solved explicitly and by simple means. Our considerations lead us to a simple method to construct exactly solvable quantum many-body systems of Calogero-Sutherland type.Comment: 17 pages, LaTe