Live free, or elect Sununu in order to prevent freedom.

Abstract

Diverse DNA-deforming processes are impacted by the local mechanical and structural properties of DNA, which in turn depend on local sequence and epigenetic modifications. Deciphering this mechanical code (that is, this dependence) has been challenging due to the lack of high-throughput experimental methods. Here we present a comprehensive characterization of the mechanical code. Utilizing high-throughput measurements of DNA bendability via loop-seq, we quantitatively established how the occurrence and spatial distribution of dinucleotides, tetranucleotides and methylated CpG impact DNA bendability. We used our measurements to develop a physical model for the sequence and methylation dependence of DNA bendability. We validated the model by performing loop-seq on mouse genomic sequences around transcription start sites and CTCF-binding sites. We applied our model to test the predictions of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and to demonstrate that sequence and epigenetic modifications can mechanically encode regulatory information in diverse contexts.

Readable article here

In the case you refer to, the school itself failed to avail itself of the opportunity to register itself as a "religious corporation," which would exempt it from prohibitions against discrimination by a place or provider of public accommodation under the New York City Human Rights Law:

> Yeshiva does not meet the definition of “religious corporation incorporated under the education law or the religious corporation law,” which would exempt it from the prohibitions against discrimination in public accommodations as an organization “deemed to be. . .distinctly private”

Moreover,

> Yeshiva already recognizes LGBTQ+ student organizations at three of its graduate schools, which are legally part of Yeshiva’s corporation, has done so for over 25 years, and made clear as early as 1995 that this recognition did not mean Yeshiva endorsed or accepted the views of those student groups.

Hence,

> Yeshiva University must formally recognize an LGBTQ student group, rejecting the Jewish school's claims that doing so would violate its religious rights and values.

Have these groups formally accepted the school's policies regarding diversity, equity and inclusion? If not, the school can legally refuse to be associated with the group, as they are in violation of the school's regulations.

Same goes for K-12 schools. Students can't force their school to accept a neo-Nazi club. But students remain free to self-organize such a club off campus.

Have they formally accepted the school's policies regarding diversity, equity and inclusion? If not, the school can legally refuse to be associated with the group.

On the contrary, they are protecting freedom of association, as these schools clearly do not wish to be associated with groups advocating bigotry.

Such groups remain free to self-organize off campus.

> “You essentially have to sign a statement of faith that promotes homophobia and transphobia” to be a board member of the coalition, said Taylor Largmann, president of the campus’s chapter of the Lambda student group, which advocates for LGBTQ students. “That does not reflect UNH Law’s values. At least, I would hope not.”
>
> In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a California law school that rejected an application for recognition from the Christian Legal Society. That case hinged on a state law that required all student organizations to allow any student to participate and become an officer in a club. Hastings College of Law argued that because some students could not swear to uphold certain beliefs of the society, it would violate the “all-comers” policy for student groups.

World’s stupidest cop, apparently. What town?

Abstract

Magnetic materials are essential for energy generation and information devices, and they play an important role in advanced technologies and green energy economies. Currently, the most widely used magnets contain rare earth (RE) elements. An outstanding challenge of notable scientific interest is the discovery and synthesis of novel magnetic materials without RE elements that meet the performance and cost goals for advanced electromagnetic devices.

Here, we report our discovery and synthesis of an RE-free magnetic compound, Fe3CoB2, through an efficient feedback framework by integrating machine learning (ML), an adaptive genetic algorithm, first-principles calculations, and experimental synthesis. Magnetic measurements show that Fe3CoB2 exhibits a high magnetic anisotropy (K1 = 1.2 MJ/m3) and saturation magnetic polarization (Js = 1.39 T), which is suitable for RE-free permanent-magnet applications.

Our ML-guided approach presents a promising paradigm for efficient materials design and discovery and can also be applied to the search for other functional materials.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2204485119

The team assembled a device and put it to use on Shenzhen Bay seawater (an inlet north of Hong Kong and Macau). And, by nearly every reasonable performance measure, it worked well.

It maintained performance even after 3,200 hours of use, and electron microscopy of the membrane after use indicated that the pores remained unblocked at this point. The KOH used for the system wasn't completely pure, so it contained low levels of the ions found in seawater. But those levels didn't increase over time, confirming that the system kept the seawater out of the electrolysis chamber. Power-wise, the system used about as much as a standard electrolyzer, confirming that the water purification wasn't exacting any energetic cost.

The KOH solution also was self-balancing, with water diffusion into the device slowing if its internal solution became too dilute. If it gets too concentrated, the efficiency of electrolysis drops, so the elimination of water slows down.

The authors estimate their device would handle pressures down to about 75 meters of seawater. The temperature at those depths might be limiting, however, as the diffusion rate of water across the membrane was six times higher at 30° C than it is at 0° C.

Even with all that good news, there are options for improving performance. Various salts beyond KOH are suitable, and some may perform better. The researchers also found that incorporating KOH into a hydrogel around the electrodes boosted hydrogen production. Finally, it's possible that altering the material or structure of the electrodes used in the water splitting could boost things further.

Finally, the team suggested that this might be useful for things in addition to hydrogen production. Instead of seawater, they immersed one of the devices into a dilute lithium solution and found that 200 hours of operation increased the lithium concentrations by more than 40-fold due to water moving into the device. There are plenty of other contexts, like purifying contaminated water, where this sort of concentration ability could be useful.

Abstract

Electrochemical saline water electrolysis using renewable energy as input is a highly desirable and sustainable method for the mass production of green hydrogen; however, its practical viability is seriously challenged by insufficient durability because of the electrode side reactions and corrosion issues arising from the complex components of seawater. Although catalyst engineering using polyanion coatings to suppress corrosion by chloride ions or creating highly selective electrocatalysts has been extensively exploited with modest success, it is still far from satisfactory for practical applications. Indirect seawater splitting by using a pre-desalination process can avoid side-reaction and corrosion problems, but it requires additional energy input, making it economically less attractive. In addition, the independent bulky desalination system makes seawater electrolysis systems less flexible in terms of size.

Here we propose a direct seawater electrolysis method for hydrogen production that radically addresses the side-reaction and corrosion problems. A demonstration system was stably operated at a current density of 250 milliamperes per square centimetre for over 3,200 hours under practical application conditions without failure. This strategy realizes efficient, size-flexible and scalable direct seawater electrolysis in a way similar to freshwater splitting without a notable increase in operation cost, and has high potential for practical application. Importantly, this configuration and mechanism promises further applications in simultaneous water-based effluent treatment and resource recovery and hydrogen generation in one step.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05379-5

their's there’s there's NOT