Mythemesis: The Human Way of Knowing and Believing

Although science, philosophy, literature, and religion each have a different way of formulating explanations, they are all telling stories of why and how. The author describes how the human propensity to seek explanation through narrative can he understood as the product of an embodied mind. He offers a hypothesis ( \"mythemesis\" ) to explain the process and goes on to show that it may provide an opportunity to reduce scientific-religious conflict by transcending the dichotomy between first- and third-person modes of experience

CMOS VLSI design technology research

Issued as Report, Project no. E-21-622 (includes E-21-612

CoGeNT, DAMA, and Light Neutralino Dark Matter

Recent observations by the CoGeNT collaboration (as well as long standing observations by DAMA/LIBRA) suggest the presence of a $\sim 5$-10 GeV dark matter particle with a somewhat large elastic scattering cross section with nucleons ($\sigma\sim 10^{-40}$ cm$^2$).Within the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), neutralinos in this mass range are not able to possess such large cross sections, and would be overproduced in the early universe. Simple extensions of the MSSM, however, can easily accommodate these observations. In particular, the extension of the MSSM by a chiral singlet superfield allows for the possibility that the dark matter is made up of a light singlino that interacts with nucleons largely through the exchange of a fairly light ($\sim$30-70 GeV) singlet-like scalar higgs, \hi. Such a scenario is consistent with all current collider constraints and can generate the signals reported by CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA. Furthermore, there is a generic limit of the extended model in which there is a singlet-like pseudoscalar higgs, \ai, with \mai\sim \mhi and in which the $\chi^0\chi^0$ and b\anti b, s\anti s coupling magnitudes of the \hi and \ai are very similar. In this case, the thermal relic abundance is automatically consistent with the measured density of dark matter if \mchi is sufficiently small that \chi^0\chi^0\to b\anti b is forbidden.Comment: 6 pages, published versio

Where Do Riders Park Dockless, Shared Electric Scooters? Findings from San Jose, California

Dockless, shared, electric kick-scooters started popping up on U.S. city streets without warning in 2017. Reaction to the shared scooters came swiftly and strongly. On the one hand, the scooters have proven popular with riders, attracting investment capital and expanding service to additional cities. But others have been less enthusiastic, with a central complaint being how shared scooters are parked. This perspective explores the extent to which parked shared scooters pose a problem to others on streets, sidewalks, and public spaces, using empirical evidence documenting where scooters have been parked in downtown San Jose, California

Light Neutralino Dark Matter in the NMSSM

Neutralino dark matter is generally assumed to be relatively heavy, with a mass near the electroweak scale. This does not necessarily need to be the case, however. In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) and other supersymmetric models with an extended Higgs sector, a very light CP-odd Higgs boson can naturally arise making it possible for a very light neutralino to annihilate efficiently enough to avoid being overproduced in the early Universe. In this article, we explore the characteristics of a supersymmetric model needed to include a very light neutralino, 100 MeV < \mcnone < 20 GeV, using the NMSSM as a prototype. We discuss the most important constraints from Upsilon decays, $b \to s \gamma$, $B_s \to \mu^+ \mu^-$ and the magnetic moment of the muon, and find that a light bino or singlino neutralino is allowed, and can be generated with the appropriate relic density. It has previously been shown that the positive detection of dark matter claimed by the DAMA collaboration can be reconciled with other direct dark matter experiments such as CDMS II if the dark matter particle is rather light, between about 6 and 9 GeV. A singlino or bino-like neutralino could easily fall within this range of masses within the NMSSM. Additionally, models with sub-GeV neutralinos may be capable of generating the 511 keV gamma-ray emission observed from the galactic bulge by the INTEGRAL/SPI experiment. We also point out measurements which can be performed immediately at CLEO, BaBar and Belle using existing data to discover or significantly constrain this scenario.Comment: References updated, accepted for publication in PR

Synthesis and characterisation of novel ferrocenyl thienyl and thiazolyl systems

Ferrocenyl derivatives are currently under investigation by our group and several series containing both amidothienyl and amidothiazolyl systems have been synthesised and characterised. The incorporation of thienyl/thiazolyl groups into a ferrocenyl- or ferrocenylphenyl system greatly enhances the number of potential donor atoms for coordination with metal fragments e.g. PtII, PdII with a view to platinum anti-cancer studies and/or interaction with guest molecules through suitable hydrogen bonding interactions. In nature, thiazole has been found to be vital in certain natural products: examples include the antibiotic bacitracin and the siderophore yersiniabactin. In therapeutic studies the antitumour compound epothilone A and myxothiazole (inhibitor) have been extensively studied