More Like this

1. Chiral molecules to transmit electron spin

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk5634  

   Subotnik, Joseph E (October 2023, Science)

   Electron transfer through chiral molecules displays a strong spin preference 

   more » « less
2. Synthetic maize centromeres transmit chromosomes across generations

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01370-8  

   Dawe, R. Kelly; Gent, Jonathan I.; Zeng, Yibing; Zhang, Han; Fu, Fang-Fang; Swentowsky, Kyle W.; Kim, Dong Won; Wang, Na; Liu, Jianing; Piri, Rebecca D. (March 2023, Nature Plants)

   Centromeres are long, often repetitive regions of genomes that bind kinetochore proteins and ensure normal chromosome segregation. Engineering centromeres that function in vivo has proven to be difficult. Here we describe a tethering approach that activates functional maize centromeres at synthetic sequence arrays. A LexA-CENH3 fusion protein was used to recruit native Centromeric Histone H3 (CENH3) to long arrays of LexO repeats on a chromosome arm. Newly recruited CENH3 was sufficient to organize functional kinetochores that caused chromosome breakage, releasing chromosome fragments that were passed through meiosis and into progeny. Several fragments formed independent neochromosomes with centromeres localized over the LexO repeat arrays. The new centromeres were self-sustaining and transmitted neochromosomes to subsequent generations in the absence of the LexA-CENH3 activator. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using synthetic centromeres for karyotype engineering applications. 

   more » « less
3. Soft skeletons transmit force with variable gearing

   https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246901  

   Ellers, Olaf; Ellers, Kai-Isaak; Johnson, Amy S; Po, Theodora; Heydari, Sina; Kanso, Eva; McHenry, Matthew J (April 2024, Journal of Experimental Biology)

   A hydrostatic skeleton allows a soft body to transmit muscular force via internal pressure. A human's tongue, an octopus' arm and a nematode's body illustrate the pervasive presence of hydrostatic skeletons among animals, which has inspired the design of soft engineered actuators. However, there is a need for a theoretical basis for understanding how hydrostatic skeletons apply mechanical work. We therefore modeled the shape change and mechanics of natural and engineered hydrostatic skeletons to determine their mechanical advantage (MA) and displacement advantage (DA). These models apply to a variety of biological structures, but we explicitly consider the tube feet of a sea star and the body segments of an earthworm, and contrast them with a hydraulic press and a McKibben actuator. A helical winding of stiff, elastic fibers around these soft actuators plays a critical role in their mechanics by maintaining a cylindrical shape, distributing forces throughout the structure and storing elastic energy. In contrast to a single-joint lever system, soft hydrostats exhibit variable gearing with changes in MA generated by deformation in the skeleton. We found that this gearing is affected by the transmission efficiency of mechanical work (MA×DA) or, equivalently, the ratio of output to input work. The transmission efficiency changes with the capacity to store elastic energy within helically wrapped fibers or associated musculature. This modeling offers a conceptual basis for understanding the relationship between the morphology of hydrostatic skeletons and their mechanical performance. 

   more » « less
4. Transmit Pattern Analysis for Active Incoherent Microwave Imaging

   https://doi.org/10.1109/APUSNCURSINRSM.2019.8888450  

   Vakalis, Stavros; Nanzer, Jeffrey A. (July 2019, 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting)
5. Limits of Transmit Beamforming for Massive MIMO Radar

   https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEECONF51394.2020.9443356  

   Bose, Arindam; Ghauri, Ahsan; Soltanalian, Mojtaba (November 2020, 2020 54th Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers)

   null (Ed.)