Standardized and modular microfluidic platform for fast Lab on Chip system development

A systematic and robust approach to generating complex protein nanomaterials would have broad utility. We develop a hierarchical approach to designing multi-component protein assemblies from two classes of modular building blocks: designed helical repeat proteins (DHRs) and helical bundle oligomers (HBs). We first rigidly fuse DHRs to HBs to generate a large library of oligomeric building blocks. We then generate assemblies with cyclic, dihedral, and point group symmetries from these building blocks using architecture guided rigid helical fusion with new software named WORMS. X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy characterization show that the hierarchical design approach can accurately generate a wide range of assemblies, including a 43 nm diameter icosahedral nanocage. The computational methods and building block sets described here provide a very general route to de novo designed protein nanomaterials.

In this paper, we present a systematic methodology for designing Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMTs). The synthesis methodology takes as input a set of functional requirements — a set of process plans and outputs a set of kinematically-viable reconfigurable machine tools that meet the given design specifications. We present a mathematical framework for synthesis of machine tools using a library of building blocks. The framework is rooted in (a) graph theoretic methods of enumeration of alternate structural configurations and (b) screw theory that enables us to manipulate matrix representations of motions to identify appropriate kinematic building blocks. The methodology described in this paper provides a mathematical framework to address dynamic stiffness, and accuracy prediction of the kinematically-viable designs that are generated by the synthesis procedure. This methodology has been implemented in a program, called PREMADE (PRogram for REconfigurable MAchine tool DEsign), and the results are validated against commercial machine tool designs.

Shape-anisotropic colloids: Building blocks for complex assemblies

Molecular self-assembly has often been suggested as the ultimate route for the bottom-up construction of building blocks atom-by-atom for functional nanotechnology, yet structural design or prediction of nanomolecular assemblies is still far from reach. Whereas nature uses complex machinery such as the ribosome, chemists use painstakingly engineered step-by-step approaches to build complex molecules but the size and complexity of such molecules, not to mention the accessible yields, can be limited. Herein we present the discovery of a palladium oxometalate {Pd(84)}-ring cluster 3.3nm in diameter; [Pd(84)O(42)(OAc)(28)(PO(4))(42)](70-) ({Pd(84)}≡{Pd(12)}(7)) that is formed in water just by mixing two reagents at room temperature, giving crystals of the compound in just a few days. The structure of the {Pd(84)}-ring has sevenfold symmetry, comprises 196 building blocks, and we also show, using mass spectrometry, that a large library of other related nanostructures is present in solution. Finally, by analysis of the symmetry and the building block library that construct the {Pd(84)} we show that the correlation of the symmetry, subunit number, and overall cluster nuclearity can be used as a "Rosetta Stone" to rationalize the "magic numbers" defining a number of other systems. This is because the discovery of {Pd(84)} allows the relationship between seemingly unrelated families of molecular inorganic nanosystems to be decoded from the overall cluster magic-number nuclearity, to the symmetry and building blocks that define such structures allowing the prediction of other members of these nanocluster families.

Now that we’ve looked at the basic building blocks of databases, we’ll begin to identify these building blocks within the preliminary information you gathered during Chapter 2. During the information gathering phase, you collected a mass of information and notes that are probably pretty much of a mess at this point. In this chapter, you’ll add structure to this information as you look for the basic database building blocks, and then gain an overview by summarizing it. You’ll go through everything—identifying and assigning initial names to entities, relationships, attributes, and business rules—so make sure that you consult your users for any additional information.

Dynamic system simulation of small satellite projects

Complex electronic systems are designed by following the modular, similar to Lego Bricks, approach. Each of the basic electronic building blocks is first designed and studied separately, and thereafter it becomes only the designers imagination and creativity that limits how complicated or how unusual the new circuit design will be. Nevertheless, thorough understanding the basic building blocks behaviour is the first step on the road to great designs and inventions.

The high-throughput exploration and screening of molecules for organic electronics involves either a 'top-down' curation and mining of existing repositories, or a 'bottom-up' assembly of user-defined fragments based on known synthetic templates. Both are time-consuming approaches requiring significant resources to compute electronic properties accurately. Here, 'top-down' is combined with 'bottom-up' through automatic assembly and statistical models, thus providing a platform for the fragment-based discovery of organic electronic materials. This study generates a top-down set of 117K synthesized molecules containing structures, electronic and topological properties and chemical composition, and uses them as building blocks for bottom-up design. A tool is developed to automate the coupling of these building blocks at their C(sp2/sp)-H bonds, providing a fundamental link between the two dataset construction philosophies. Statistical models are trained on this dataset and a subset of resulting top-down/bottom-up compounds, enabling on-the-fly prediction of ground and excited state properties with high accuracy across organic compound space. With access to ab initio-quality optical properties, this bottom-up pipeline may be applied to any materials design campaign using existing compounds as building blocks. To illustrate this, over a million molecules are screened for singlet fission. tThe leading candidates provide insight into the features promoting this multiexciton-generatingprocess.

A 0.9-1.6-V, 1-MHz, 8-b microcontroller based on the 68HC08 architecture is presented. In addition to standard digital microcontroller functions, the chip features RAM, ROM, phase-locked loop (PLL) clock synthesis, and liquid crystal displays (LCD) drive capabilities operating from the voltage supply range of a single AA or AAA battery. The design used a library of CMOS microcontroller building blocks, converted into a low-voltage technology using unilateral transistors. The design approach was to optimize the conversion strategy for each functional block and to provide new designs when the conversion was insufficient. The chip exceeded specifications with blocks showing full functionality down to 0.7 V.

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Buckling is exploited to design a new class of three-dimensional metamaterials with negative Poisson's ratio. A library of auxetic building blocks is identified and procedures are defined to guide their selection and assembly. The auxetic properties of these materials are demonstrated both through experiments and finite element simulations and exhibit excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement.

One of the key selling points of the next-generation network (NGN) architecture is that it facilitates the rapid deployment of numerous applications onto the same core infrastructure. Before this advantage can be fully realized, however, new methods for traffic estimation are needed to assess the performance impact of new applications and ensure adequate quality of service (QoS). We have created a method to assist network operators with such estimates as part of comprehensive design, capacity planning, or business case analyses. The method identifies the key input parameters that impact traffic, provides a library of application building blocks, assembles them to model new applications quickly, and provides a method for calculating the aggregate signaling and bearer traffic for a given set of applications. In this way, a new network model for each application can be created quickly, and the impact of introducing a new set of applications can be estimated without requiring detailed systems engineering expertise on each aspect of the network.

4 - Material platforms for integrated photonics

As a consequence of the self-assembly of small organic molecules in water, supramolecular hydrogels are evolving from serendipitous events during organic synthesis to become a new type of materials that hold promise for applications in biomedicine. In this Focus Review, we describe recent advances in the use of basic biological building blocks for creating molecules that act as hydrogelators and the potential applications of the corresponding hydrogels. After introducing the concept of supramolecular hydrogels and defining the scope of this review, we briefly describe the methods for making and characterizing supramolecular hydrogels. We then discuss representative hydrogelators according to the categories of their building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleobases, and saccharides, and highlight the applications of the hydrogels when necessary. Finally, we offer our perspective and outlook on this fast-growing field at the interface of organic chemistry, materials, biology, and medicine. By providing a snapshot for chemists, engineers, and medical scientists, we hope that this Focus Review will contribute to the development of multidisciplinary research on supramolecular hydrogels for a wide range of applications in different fields.

Utilizing charge reconfigurations of quantum-dot cells in building blocks to design nanoelectronic adder circuits