Slow Strategies for Student (and staff) engagement.

The past two years have seen an explosion of interest in the Slow Movement as a response to stress and overwork in universities. Many staff are working less and giving themselves appropriate breaks from academic life. Yet the theoretical and practical tactics and ideas for slowing down have not been shared with students, even as students suffer from overwork and employability concerns. At the same time, many universities have sought to engage students through new research-led approaches to teaching. We suggest that student engagement can be defined as the extent to which a student feels they belong to a department and that a department cares about them. We offer two methods of increasing this type of engagement. First, introduce students to the slow movement and second, take seriously the issue of staff engagement. We evaluate our own efforts to foster slow student and staff engagement through a Shut Up and Write sessions adopted by the Geography Department at UCL

NMR Structure Determination of KTM: A Rationally Designed Alpha-Conotoxin Targeting Parkinson\u27s-Relevant Receptor Isoforms

KTM is a rationally designed alpha-conotoxin predicted to have optimal binding affinity for the rat α3β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor isoform, a homology model for the human α6α4β2β3 receptor isoform implicated in Parkinson’s Disease. Validation of computational accuracy will help adjust computational parameters to give more accurate predictions of receptor binding, which are critical to receptor understanding and effective drug development for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s. The NMR structure of KTM is currently being solved in order to validate computational results. Current progress indicates that the NMR structure follows the predicted structure well, but is not highly constrained

Modeling and Design of Polythiophene Gate Electrode ChemFETs for Environmental Pollutant Sensing

Water-borne pollutants such as volatile organic compounds are a serious environmental concern, which has increased the demand for chemical sensing elements. Solidstate sensors based on catalytic gate devices are a subject of current research, however they are restricted in practical applications because of their inability to operate at room temperature. Conducting polymer FETs, which employ a conducting gate polymer, have received much attention due to their unique electronic and optical properties. Polythiophene is chosen as the semi-conductive gate polymer in this work. A functional group attached to the polythiophene is used to detect analytes (i.e., mercury in this work) of interest. The selectivity of the derivitized polythiophene to mercury can he rationalized based on the size of the ring, presence of oxygen and nitrogen donor atoms. In this paper, the modeling and design of a polythiophene gate electrode ChemFET will he discussed. Specifically the model development and resultant device simulations using Silvaco TCAD will be presented. Using this model various current-voltage characteristics of the ChemFET corresponding to parameters such as substrate doping, gate oxide thickness, various gate stacks, and device geometries are presented

The Strayed Reveller, No. 2

The second issue of The Strayed Reveller.https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/reveller/1001/thumbnail.jp

The Strayed Reveller, No. 3

The third issue of The Strayed Revellerhttps://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/reveller/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Strayed Reveller, No. 1

The Strayed Reveller is a literary magazine of stories, songs, poems, essays, reviews and artwork by students at Stephen F. Austin State University. It is published monthly andsponsered by the School of Liberal Arts and Department of English.https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/reveller/1000/thumbnail.jp

Mars Earth Return Vehicle (MERV) Propulsion Options

The COMPASS Team was tasked with the design of a Mars Sample Return Vehicle. The current Mars sample return mission is a joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) mission, with ESA contributing the launch vehicle for the Mars Sample Return Vehicle. The COMPASS Team ran a series of design trades for this Mars sample return vehicle. Four design options were investigated: Chemical Return /solar electric propulsion (SEP) stage outbound, all-SEP, all chemical and chemical with aerobraking. The all-SEP and Chemical with aerobraking were deemed the best choices for comparison. SEP can eliminate both the Earth flyby and the aerobraking maneuver (both considered high risk by the Mars Sample Return Project) required by the chemical propulsion option but also require long low thrust spiral times. However this is offset somewhat by the chemical/aerobrake missions use of an Earth flyby and aerobraking which also take many months. Cost and risk analyses are used to further differentiate the all-SEP and Chemical/Aerobrake options

Circadian signaling in Homarus americanus: Region-specific de novo assembled transcriptomes show that both the brain and eyestalk ganglia possess the molecular components of a putative clock system

Essentially all organisms exhibit recurring patterns of physiology/behavior that oscillate with a period of ~24-h and are synchronized to the solar day. Crustaceans are no exception, with robust circadian rhythms having been documented in many members of this arthropod subphylum. However, little is known about the molecular underpinnings of their circadian rhythmicity. Moreover, the location of the crustacean central clock has not been firmly established, although both the brain and eyestalk ganglia have been hypothesized as loci. The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is known to exhibit multiple circadian rhythms, and immunodetection data suggest that its central clock is located within the eyestalk ganglia rather than in the brain. Here, brain- and eyestalk ganglia-specific transcriptomes were generated and used to assess the presence/absence of transcripts encoding the commonly recognized protein components of arthropod circadian signaling systems in these two regions of the lobster central nervous system. Transcripts encoding putative homologs of the core clock proteins clock, cryptochrome 2, cycle, period and timeless were found in both the brain and eyestalk ganglia assemblies, as were transcripts encoding similar complements of putative clock-associated, clock input pathway and clock output pathway proteins. The presence and identity of transcripts encoding core clock proteins in both regions were confirmed using PCR. These findings suggest that both the brain and eyestalk ganglia possess all of the molecular components needed for the establishment of a circadian signaling system. Whether the brain and eyestalk clocks are independent of one another or represent a single timekeeping system remains to be determined. Interestingly, while most of the proteins deduced from the identified transcripts are shared by both the brain and eyestalk ganglia, assembly-specific isoforms were also identified, e.g., several period variants, suggesting the possibility of region-specific variation in clock function, especially if the brain and eyestalk clocks represent independent oscillators

Human Exploration Using Real-Time Robotic Operations (HERRO)- Crew Telerobotic Control Vehicle (CTCV) Design

The HERRO concept allows real time investigation of planets and small bodies by sending astronauts to orbit these targets and telerobotically explore them using robotic systems. Several targets have been put forward by past studies including Mars, Venus, and near Earth asteroids. A conceptual design study was funded by the NASA Innovation Fund to explore what the HERRO concept and it's vehicles would look like and what technological challenges need to be met. This design study chose Mars as the target destination. In this way the HERRO studies can define the endpoint design concepts for an all-up telerobotic exploration of the number one target of interest Mars. This endpoint design will serve to help planners define combined precursor telerobotics science missions and technology development flights. A suggested set of these technologies and demonstrator missions is shown in Appendix B. The HERRO concept includes a crewed telerobotics orbit vehicle as well three Truck rovers, each supporting two teleoperated geologist robots Rockhounds (each truck/Rockhounds set is landed using a commercially launched aeroshell landing system.) Options include a sample ascent system teamed with an orbital telerobotic sample rendezvous and return spacecraft (S/C) (yet to be designed). Each truck rover would be landed in a science location with the ability to traverse a 100 km diameter area, carrying the Rockhounds to 100 m diameter science areas for several week science activities. The truck is not only responsible for transporting the Rockhounds to science areas, but also for relaying telecontrol and high-res communications to/from the Rockhound and powering/heating the Rockhound during the non-science times (including night-time). The Rockhounds take the place of human geologists by providing an agile robotic platform with real-time telerobotics control to the Rockhound from the crew telerobotics orbiter. The designs of the Truck rovers and Rockhounds will be described in other publications. This document focuses on the CTCV design