778 research outputs found
Unpacking the thinking and making behind a slow technology research product with slow game
Motivated by prior work on everyday creativity, we adopt a design-oriented approach seeks to move beyond designing for explicit interactions to also include the implicit, incremental and, at times even, unknowing encounters that slowly emerge among people, technologies, and artifacts over time. We contribute an investigation into designing for slowness grounded in the practice of making a design artifact called Slow Game. We offer a detailed critical-reflective accounting of our process of making Slow Game into a research product. In attending to key design moves across our process, we reveal hidden challenges in designing slow technology research products and discuss how our findings can be mobilized in future work
MEPicides: Potent antimalarial prodrugs targeting isoprenoid biosynthesis
AbstractThe emergence of Plasmodium falciparum resistant to frontline therapeutics has prompted efforts to identify and validate agents with novel mechanisms of action. MEPicides represent a new class of antimalarials that inhibit enzymes of the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis, including the clinically validated target, deoxyxylulose phosphate reductoisomerase (Dxr). Here we describe RCB-185, a lipophilic prodrug with nanomolar activity against asexual parasites. Growth of P. falciparum treated with RCB-185 was rescued by isoprenoid precursor supplementation, and treatment substantially reduced metabolite levels downstream of the Dxr enzyme. In addition, parasites that produced higher levels of the Dxr substrate were resistant to RCB-185. Notably, environmental isolates resistant to current therapies remained sensitive to RCB-185, the compound effectively treated sexually-committed parasites, and was both safe and efficacious in malaria-infected mice. Collectively, our data demonstrate that RCB-185 potently and selectively inhibits Dxr in P. falciparum, and represents a promising lead compound for further drug development.</jats:p
Random walks on finite lattice tubes
Exact results are obtained for random walks on finite lattice tubes with a
single source and absorbing lattice sites at the ends. Explicit formulae are
derived for the absorption probabilities at the ends and for the expectations
that a random walk will visit a particular lattice site before being absorbed.
Results are obtained for lattice tubes of arbitrary size and each of the
regular lattice types; square, triangular and honeycomb. The results include an
adjustable parameter to model the effects of strain, such as surface curvature,
on the surface diffusion. Results for the triangular lattice tubes and the
honeycomb lattice tubes model diffusion of adatoms on single walled zig-zag
carbon nano-tubes with open ends.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
Bandgap Change of Carbon Nanotubes: Effect of Small Tensile and Torsional Strain
We use a simple picture based on the electron approximation to study
the bandgap variation of carbon nanotubes with uniaxial and torsional strain.
We find (i) that the magnitude of slope of bandgap versus strain has an almost
universal behaviour that depends on the chiral angle, (ii) that the sign of
slope depends on the value of and (iii) a novel change in sign
of the slope of bandgap versus uniaxial strain arising from a change in the
value of the quantum number corresponding to the minimum bandgap. Four orbital
calculations are also presented to show that the orbital results are
valid.Comment: Revised. Method explained in detai
The strain energy and Young's Moduli of single-wall Carbon nanotubules calculated from the electronic energy-band theory
The strain energies in straight and bent single-walled carbon nanotubes
(SWNTs) are calculated by taking account of the total energy of all the
occupied band electrons. The obtained results are in good agreement with
previous theoretical studies and experimental observations. The Young's modulus
and the effective wall thickness of SWNT are obtained from the bending strain
energies of SWNTs with various cross-sectional radii. The repulsion potential
between ions contributes the main part of the Young's modulus of SWNT.
The wall thickness of SWNT comes completely from the overlap of electronic
orbits, and is approximately of the extension of
orbit of carbon atom. Both the Young's modulus and the wall thickness
are independent of the radius and the helicity of SWNT, and insensitive to the
fitting parameters.
The results show that continuum elasticity theory can serve well to describe
the mechanical properties of SWNTs.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Deep seafloor arrivals : an unexplained set of arrivals in long-range ocean acoustic propagation
Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 126 (2009): 599-606, doi:10.1121/1.3158826.Receptions, from a ship-suspended source (in the band 50–100 Hz) to an ocean bottom seismometer (about 5000 m depth) and the deepest element on a vertical hydrophone array (about 750 m above the seafloor) that were acquired on the 2004 Long-Range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment in the North Pacific Ocean, are described. The ranges varied from 50 to 3200 km. In addition to predicted ocean acoustic arrivals and deep shadow zone arrivals (leaking below turning points), “deep seafloor arrivals,” that are dominant on the seafloor geophone but are absent or very weak on the hydrophone array, are observed. These deep seafloor arrivals are an unexplained set of arrivals in ocean acoustics possibly associated with seafloor interface waves.The LOAPEX source deployments, the moored DVLA receiver deployments, and some post-cruise data reduction and analysis were funded by the Office of Naval Research under Award Nos. N00014-1403-1-0181, N00014-03-1-0182, and N00014-06-1-0222. Additional post-cruise analysis support was provided to RAS through the Edward W. and Betty J. Scripps Chair for Excellence in Oceanography. The OBS/Hs used in the experiment were provided by Scripps Institution of Oceanography under the U.S. National Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrumentation Pool (SIO-OBSIP—http://www.obsip.org). To cover the costs of the OBS/H deployments funds were paid to SIO-OBSIP from the National Science Foundation and from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Deep Ocean Exploration Institute
Vacuum structure of Toroidal Carbon Nanotubes
Low energy excitations in carbon nanotubes can be described by an effective
field theory of two components spinor. It is pointed out that the chiral
anomaly in 1+1 dimensions should be observed in a metallic toroidal carbon
nanotube on a planar geometry with varying magnetic field. We propose an
experimental setup for studying this quantum effect. We also analyze the vacuum
structure of the metallic toroidal carbon nanotube including the Coulomb
interactions and discuss some effects of external charges on the vacuum.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
Relative Reactivity of the Metal-Amido versus Metal-Imido Bond in Linked Cp-Amido and Half-Sandwich Complexes of Vanadium
Treatment of (η5-C5H4C2H4NR)V(N-t-Bu)Me (R = Me, i-Pr) and CpV(N-p-Tol)(N-i-Pr2)Me (Cp = η5-C5H5) with B(C6F5)3 or [Ph3C][B(C6F5)4] results in formation of the corresponding cations, [(η5-C5H4C2H4NR)V(N-t-Bu)]+ and [CpV(N-p-Tol)(N-i-Pr2)]+. The latter could also be generated as its N,N-dimethylaniline adduct by treatment of the methyl complex with [PhNMe2H][BAr4] (Ar = Ph, C6F5). Instead, the analogous reaction with the linked Cp-amido precursor results in protonation of the imido-nitrogen atom. Sequential cyclometalation of the amide substituents gave cationic imine complexes [(η5-C5H4C2H4NCR'2)V(NH-t-Bu)]+ (R' = H, Me) and methane. Reaction of cationic [(η5-C5H4C2H4NR)V(N-t-Bu)]+ with olefins affords the corresponding olefin adducts, whereas treatment with 1 or 2 equiv of 2-butyne results in insertion of the alkyne into the vanadium-nitrogen single bond, affording the mono- and bis-insertion products [(η5-C5H4C2H4N(i-Pr)C2Me2)V(N-t-Bu)]+ and [(η5-C5H4C2H4N(i-Pr)C4Me4)V(N-t-Bu)]+. The same reaction with the half-sandwich compound [CpV(N-p-Tol)(N-i-Pr2)]+ results in a paramagnetic compound that, upon alcoholysis, affords sec-butylidene-p-tolylamine, suggesting an initial [2+2] cycloaddition reaction. The difference in reactivity between the V-N bond versus the V=N bond was further studied using computational methods. Results were compared to the isoelectronic titanium system CpTi(NH)(NH2). These studies indicate that the kinetic product in each system is derived from a [2+2] cycloaddition reaction. For titanium, this was found as the thermodynamic product as well, whereas the insertion reaction was found to be thermodynamically more favorable in the case of vanadium.
The Majorana Project
Building a \BBz experiment with the ability to probe neutrino mass in the
inverted hierarchy region requires the combination of a large detector mass
sensitive to \BBz, on the order of 1-tonne, and unprecedented background
levels, on the order of or less than 1 count per year in the \BBz signal
region. The MAJORANA Collaboration proposes a design based on using high-purity
enriched Ge-76 crystals deployed in ultra-low background electroformed Cu
cryostats and using modern analysis techniques that should be capable of
reaching the required sensitivity while also being scalable to a 1-tonne size.
To demonstrate feasibility, the collaboration plans to construct a prototype
system, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, consisting of 30 kg of 86% enriched \Ge-76
detectors and 30 kg of natural or isotope-76-depleted Ge detectors. We plan to
deploy and evaluate two different Ge detector technologies, one based on a
p-type configuration and the other on n-type.Comment: paper submitted for the 2008 Carolina International Symposium on
Neutrino Physic
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