Advancements in Design Research. 11 PhD Theses on Design as we do in Polimi

The book is part of a series that, since 2017, documents the production of the Politecnico di Milano Design Programme, presenting a summary of the doctoral theses defended each year. In the variety of the researched topics (Design Education; Collaborative Processes; Cultural and Creative Companies; Technology for Social Change), a common trait can be found in the continuous need of updated ways of addressing complex problems. It is such need that drives the evolving boundaries of design research forward, not just within our Doctoral Programme, but within all the national and international Doctoral Programmes in Design we are acquainted with

Microlensing and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Are microlensing searches likely to discover planets that harbor life? Given our present state of knowledge, this is a difficult question to answer. We therefore begin by asking a more narrowly focused question: are conditions on planets discovered via microlensing likely to be similar to those we experience on Earth? In this paper I link the microlensing observations to the well-known "Goldilocks Problem" (conditions on the Earth-like planets need to be "just right"), to find that Earth-like planets discovered via microlensing are likely to be orbiting stars more luminous than the sun. This means that light from the planetary system's central star may contribute a significant fraction of the baseline flux relative to the star that is lensed. Such blending of light from the lens with light from the lensed source can, in principle, limit our ability to detect these events. This turns out not to be a significant problem, however. A second consequence of blending is the opportunity to determine the spectral type of the lensed spectral type of the lensed star. This circumstance, plus the possibility that finite-source-size effects are important, implies that some meaningful follow-up observations are likely to be possible for a subset Earth-like planets discovered via microlensing. In addition, calculations indicate that reasonable requirements on the planet's density and surface gravity imply that the mass of Earth-like planets is likely to be within a factor of $\sim 15$ of an Earth mass.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journa

Chemical bonding in cuprous complexes with simple nitriles: Octet rule and resonance concepts: Versus quantitative charge-redistribution analysis

Chemical bonding in a set of six cuprous complexes with simple nitriles (CN-, HNC, HCN, CH3NC, and CH3CN) is investigated by means of a recently devised analysis scheme framed in density-functional theory and quantitatively singling out concurrent charge flows such as \u3c3 donation and \u3c0 backdonation. The results of our analysis are comparatively assessed against qualitative models for charge redistribution based on the popular concepts of octet rule and resonance structures, and the relative importance of different charge-flow channels relating to \u3c3 donation, \u3c0 back-donation, polarization, and hyperconjugation is discussed on a quantitative basis

Chemical promenades: Exploring potential-energy surfaces with immersive virtual reality

The virtual-reality framework AVATAR (Advanced Virtual Approach to Topological Analysis of Reactivity) for the immersive exploration of potential-energy landscapes is presented. AVATAR is based on modern consumer-grade virtual-reality technology and builds on two key concepts: (a) the reduction of the dimensionality of the potential-energy surface to two process-tailored, physically meaningful generalized coordinates, and (b) the analogy between the evolution of a chemical process and a pathway through valleys (potential wells) and mountain passes (saddle points) of the associated potential energy landscape. Examples including the discovery of competitive reaction paths in simple A + BC collisional systems and the interconversion between conformers in ring-puckering motions of flexible rings highlight the innovation potential that augmented and virtual reality convey for teaching, training, and supporting research in chemistry