#Scaffolding Components

[tianjinwellmadescaffold]

Lower Adjustable Components for Formwork Frame Tower System - Wellmade C...

[upaboveroofing]

A scaffolding structure provides strong, formidable support to the workers in a construction project. The entire structure plays a major role in providing easy access to greater heights. As a result, constructing buildings becomes much more efficient and takes less time.

[yaccessmfg]

5 Reasons to Avoid Mixing Scaffold Tower Components

Safety is the number one priority in construction and maintenance. This is especially true when erecting scaffold towers to work at heights. However, a concerning practice is growing in the industry: mixing and combining tower components from several manufacturers to create a single tower. 

Despite its clear simplicity, this approach has significant safety and liability risks that should not be ignored.  Through this article, we aim to shed light on clear warnings against such practices, highlighting the significant safety and liability concerns they entail. Assembling scaffold towers requires rigorous attention to detail and respect for established processes.

Youngman India, as the exclusive manufacturer of essential components used to construct the Aluminium Ladderspan, stairway, Fitout master, and all other variations of Aluminium Mobile Access Towers, is best positioned to advise on the safety concerns associated with combining components from various manufacturers into a single structure.

1. Expert Advice & Guideline:

Sumit, The Safety First, Scaffold Tower specialist, explains: that Mobile Access Tower systems have been developed, built, and independently certified as per the most recent relevant European Standard, EN 1004-1:2020, which includes material specifications, dimensions, maximum working loads, and safety calculations. Make shifting of different category components in one structure can affect the tower's structural compatibility, rigidity and load-bearing capacity which leads to life-threatening hazards during height work

The Safety First, a major training organization specializing in access tower safety education, has issued a computability standard outlining the strict standards that must be completed before constructing and operating a combination of towers in their training programs

Access Tower Training: Towers For Users

Article: Why Integrated Vertical Ladder is Better Than Staircase Towers? 

2. Certified Standards:

The structure of the combination of towers, which requires combining components from multiple manufacturers, is subject to major standards imposed by a third-party certification independence recognized by the EA. This certification is essential because it guarantees adherence to the rigorous standards established in EN 1004-1:2020, confirming the tower's structural integrity and safety measures.

Article: Advantages of Aluminium 6082 T6 Scaffold Strength-to-Weight Ratio

3. Comprehensive Manuals For Non-Compliant Towers:

Furthermore, instruction manuals for combination towers must be 3rd-party certified to EN 1004-2:2021. They must include enough information to properly explain any differences between the components of the 'Compatible' and 'Other' towers.

The combination of towers does not meet the standard requirements, and there are no third-party approved bodies capable of providing the necessary certification for such towers. Therefore, it cannot be constructed or used.

Article: Guide to Scaffolding (Mobile Access Tower) Safety: Dos and Don'ts You Should Know

4. Complexity, Confusion & Violation of Standards:

Building a combination of towers adds unnecessary complexity and confusion, leaving the possibility for error and confusion, which might result in major injury or worse for users, and subjects manufacturers to greater costs and issues with product liability. combination of towers violates the fundamental principles of the EN 1004 standard.

Article: How Do You Ensure Your Scaffolding Is Safe to Use?

5. Loss of the Guarantee:

If such non-Youngman tower components have been used, the tower structure is no longer certified to fulfill EN 1004-1:2020 specifications, which terminates the guarantee in most situations.

Youngman India, as a manufacturer of these mobile access towers, cannot allow the mixing of tower components from multiple manufacturers, and we are educating our clients about this to assist in guaranteeing that safety and compliance stay at the core of our business.

Article: Types of Scaffolding: Which One is the Right Fit for Your Business Need?

Conclusion:

The practice of mixing and matching tower components from multiple manufacturers poses an unacceptable risk to safety and compliance. Youngman India urges stakeholders across the industry to prioritize adherence to standardized protocols and resist the temptation of compromise. By upholding rigorous safety standards, we can collectively safeguard lives, preserve integrity, and foster a culture of unwavering commitment to excellence in construction and maintenance operations.

Contact Youngman Experts

If you are looking for an access solution to prioritize safety, then check Youngman Manufacturing's range of work-at-heigh products. Our products are designed to provide superior protection while ensuring maximum durability and longevity. Don't compromise on safety, choose Youngman Manufacturing for all your scaffold needs.  Reach out to us at: sales@ymfg.co.in or call: +91-9015964626  

[o-craven-canto]

Rough timeline of the discovery of genes and DNA

(mostly condensed from the first half of S. Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History, 2016, and this 1974 paper)

1857-1864: Gregor Mendel experiments with breeding peas at the monastery of Brno. The results show that information about flower color, pod shape etc. is transmitted in discrete blocks that do not mix, and can persist unexpressed in a generation to manifest again in the next.

1865-1866: Mendel's results are published in a minor journal and effectively forgotten for 35 years. He corresponds with physiologist Carl von Nägeli, who dismisses them as "only empirical" (???).

1868: Unaware of Mendel's work, Darwin proposes pangenesis as mechanism of heredity: every body part produces "gemmules" that carry hereditary information and merge to form gametes. This does not explain how new traits aren't immediately diluted out of existence, or why acquired changes aren't inheritable.

1869: Friedrich Miescher extracts a mysterious substance from pus on used bandages and salmon sperm. He calls it nuclein (later: chromatin), as it seems to be concentrated in cell nuclei.

1878: Albrecht Kossel separates nuclein into protein and a non-protein component, which he calls nucleic acid, and breaks it down in five nucleotides.

1882: Darwin dies, bothered -- among other things -- by the lack of a plausible mechanism to transmit new variation. Legend has it that Mendel's paper lay on a bookshelf of his study, unread.

1883: August Weissmann, noting that mice with cut tails always give birth to fully-tailed mice, theorizes that hereditary information is contained in a "germplasm" fully isolated from the rest of the body, contra pangenesis. At each generation, only germplasm is transmitted, and gives separate rise to a somatic line, i.e. the body, which isn't.

ca. 1890: Studying sea urchin embryos in Naples, Theodor Boveri and Wilhelm von Waldeyer-Hartz notice large coiled masses of nuclein inside cell nuclei which can be dyed blue with aniline. They call them chromosomes, literally "colorful bodies". Simultaneously, Walter Sutton discovers chromosomes in grasshopper sperm.

1897: Hugo de Vries, after collecting hundreds of "monstrous" plant varieties near Amsterdam, realizes (also unaware of Mendel's work) that each trait is due to a single discrete particle of information, never mixing with the others, which he calls pangene in homage to Darwin. He also notices the appearance of completely new variants, which he calls mutants. In the same year, Carl Correns -- a former student of Nägeli, who had completely neglected to mention Mendel's work -- reproduces it exactly in Tubingen with pea and maize plants.

1900: Having finally found out about Mendel's publication, De Vries rushes to publish his model before he can be accused of plagiarism, which happens anyway. Correns does the same. Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg also independently recreates Mendel's results with pea plants in Vienna. Come on, guys, this is embarassing.

1902: Boveri and Sutton independently propose that hereditary information is carried by chromosomes. Supporters of this hypothesis generally hold that information is carried by proteins, with the simpler nucleic acids (only 5 nucleotides vs. 20 aminoacids) serving as scaffold.

1905: William Bateson coins the word genetics to describe the field growing mostly from De Vries' work. He realizes it should be possible to deliberately select organisms for specific individual genes. Meanwhile, Boveri's student Nettie Stevens discovers in mealworms a strangely small chromosome that is found only in males -- chromosome Y. This is the first direct evidence that chromosomes do, in fact, carry genetic information.

1905-1908: Thomas Hunt Morgan and his students breed and cross thousands of fruit flies in a lab in New York. Contra Mendel, they notice that traits are not passed down in a completely independent way: for example, male sex and white eyes usually manifest together. This suggests that their information particles are attached to each other, so that the physically-closest traits are more likely (but not guaranteed!) to be transmitted together.

1909: Phoebus Levene and his coworkers break down nucleic acids by hydrolysis into sugars, phosphate, and nucleobases. They assume that nucleobases must repeat along a chain in a repetitive sequence. In a treatise on heredity, Wilhelm Johannsen shortens "pangene" to gene. It's a purely theoretical construct, with no known material basis.

1911: Using Morgan's data on trait linkage, his student Alfred Sturtevant draws the first genetic map, locating several genes along a fruit fly chromosome. Genetic information now has a physical basis, although not yet a mechanism of transmission.

1918: Statistician Ronald Fisher proposes that traits appearing in continuous gradients, such as height, can still be explained by discrete genes if multiple genes contribute to a single trait, resolving an apparent contradiction. (Six genes for height, for example, are enough to produce the smooth bell curve noticed half a century earlier by Francis Galton.)

ca. 1920: Bacteriologist Frederick Griffith is studying two forms of pneumococcus, a "smooth" strain that produces deadly pneumonia in mice (and people) and a "rough" strain that is easily dispatched by immunity. He finds out that if live "rough" pneumococci are mixed with "smooth" ones killed by heat, the "rough" can somehow acquire the deadly "smooth" coating from the dead.

1926: Hermann Muller, another student of Morgan, finds out he can produce arbitrary amounts of new mutant flies by exposing their parents to X-rays.

1928: Griffith describes the acquired "transformation" of bacteria in an extremely obscure journal.

1929: Levene identifies the sugars in "yeast nucleic acid" and "thymus nucleic acid" as ribose and deoxyribose, respectively. The two will henceforth be known as ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

ca. 1930: Theodosius Dobzhansky, who also had worked with Morgan, discovers in wild-caught fruit flies variations of wing size, eye structure etc. that are produced by genes arranged in different orders on the chromosome. This rearrangement is the first physical mechanism for mutation discovered.

1940: Oswald Avery repeats Griffith's experiments with pneumococci, looking for the "transforming principle". Filtering away the remains of the cell wall, dissolving lipids in alcohol, destroying proteins with heat and chloroform does not stop the transformation. A DNA-degrading enzyme, however, does. Therefore, it is DNA that carries genetic information.

1943: By mixing flies with different gene orders and raising the mixed populations at different temperatures, Dobzhansky shows that a particular gene order can respond to natural selection, increasing or decresing in frequency.

1944: Avery publishes his results on transforming DNA. Physicist Erwin Schrödinger writes a treatise (What Is Life?) in which he states, on purely theoretical ground, that genetic information must be carried by an "aperiodic crystal", stable enough to be transmitted, but with a sequence of sub-parts that never repeat.

1950: In Cambridge, Maurice Wilkins starts using X-ray diffraction to try and make a picture of the atomic structure of dried DNA (as Linus Pauling and Robert Corey had done earlier with proteins). He is later joined by Rosalind Franklin, who finds a way to make higher-quality pictures by keeping DNA in its hydrated state. By hydrolyzing DNA, Erwin Chargaff notes that the nucleobases A and T are always present in exactly the same amount, as if they were paired, and so are C and G -- but A/T and C/G can be different amounts.

1951: Pauling publishes a paper on the alpha-helix structure of proteins. Having attended talks by Wilkins and Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick attempt to build a physical model of DNA, a triple helix with internal phosphate, but Franklin notes it's too unstable to survive.

1952: Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase mark the protein envelope of phage viruses with radioactive sulfur, and their DNA with radioactive phosphorus. The phosphorus, but not the sulfur, is transmitted to host bacteria and to the new generation of phages. This indicates that DNA is not just exchanged as "transforming principle", but passed down through generations.

1953: Pauling and Corey also propose a structure of DNA, but they make the same mistake as Watson and Crick. These receive from Wilkins an especially high-quality photo (taken in 1952 by either Franklin or her student Ray Gosling). Combining this picture with Chargaff's measurements, they conclude that DNA must be a double helix, with a sugar-phosphate chain outside, and nucleobases meeting in pairs on the inside (A with T, C with G). The complementary sequences of bases give a clear mechanism for the storage and replication of genetic information.

1950s: Jacques Monod and François Jacob grow the bacterium Escherichia coli alternately on glucose and lactose. While its DNA never changes, the RNA produced changes in step with the production of glucose-digesting and lactose-digesting enzymes. So DNA is not directly affected, but different sequences are copied onto RNA depending on need.

1958: Arthur Kornberg isolates DNA polymerase, the enzyme that builds new DNA strands in the correct sequence. By inserting into DNA a heavier isotope of nitrogen, Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl show that each strand remains intact, separating during replication and then serving as template for a new one.

1960: Sydney Brenner and Jacob purify messenger RNA from bacterial cells. This seems to copy the sequence of a single gene and carry it to ribosomes, where proteins are built. RNA must encode the sequence of aminoacids of a protein, presumably in sets of 3 nucleotides (the smallest that can specify 20 aminoacids).

1961-1966: Multiple labs working in parallel (Marshall Nirenberg-Heinrich Matthaei-Philip Leder, Har Khorana, Severo Ochoa) map every possible triplet of nucleotides to a corresponding aminoacid. Synthetic RNA is inserted into isolated bacterial ribosomes, and aminoacids are marked one at a time with radioactive carbon to check the sequence of the resulting proteins.

1970: Paul Berg and David Jackson manage to fuse DNA from two viruses into a single sequence ("recombinant DNA") using DNA-cutting enzymes extracted from bacteria.

1972-1973: Janet Mertz joins Berg and Jackson, and proposes inserting the recombinant DNA into the genome of E. coli, exploiting the bacterium for mass production. Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen perform a similar experiment merging bacterial DNA, and linking it to an antibiotic-resistance gene so that the recombinant bacteria can be easily isolated.

1975-1977: Frederick Sanger isolates template strands of DNA to build new ones with DNA polymerase, but uses altered and marked nucleobases that stop polymerization. By doing so, then segregating the shortened sequences by length and recognizing their final base with fluorescence, it's possible to read the exact sequence of bases on a DNA strand.

[taylor-titmouse]

now that cadogan and his little guys are their own things i can explore freely, i want to talk a little about how they're made. lore subject to change of course, but the general idea i'm working from atm...

the in-universe term for what they are is "chimeric homunucli", but for ease i usually refer to them as cadogan's servants. they are not familiars. familiars are different. the three most basic components a chimeric homunculi must have are bones, blood, and semen. other elements can be added to better determine the form of the guy, but you won't get anywhere without those three things. bones are the scaffolding on which the body is built, blood forms the flesh, and semen provides the spirit. all three of these will have some effect on the personality and behavioral traits, but that mostly comes from the blood and semen. the blood imbues instincts, semen imbues intelligence and creative thought.

cadogan prefers to use gnome bones as his base because they're easy to get and because they make his creations conveniently pocket-sized. it's easier and safer for him to only make them big when necessary, with magic. for one thing it would require Significantly more material to make a full-scale creature, which is difficult to acquire and properly prepare. for another, they're much harder to control when big. obviously. if they were big all the time he'd never get anything done.

madog's basic components are gnome bones, manticore blood, and goblin jism. the manticore blood is where he gets his aggression and territoriality, and much of his strength when big. the goblin jism gives him the ability to think rationally and understand commands, and also the ability to work as part of a group. you'd never think it, but he's very good at teamwork. altogether he's a dedicated, completely loyal servant who'll take to tasks with vigor and gusto. good for a brute fighter to send out in times of trouble. he'd defend cadogan to the death. he also has manticore hair and imp wing membrane. these don't have any real effect on his personality or behavior, and are purely functional. the hair is to give him his fluffy appearance, the wing membrane is so he can fly.

myrddin's components are again, gnome bones, but also sea serpent's blood and troll jism. the sea serpent's blood attunes him to the water, giving him his hydrodynamic shape and skill at swimming. it's also given him patience and the instincts of a hunter that rarely feeds. he's not overly quick to action. the troll jism provides a greater intelligence than the goblin jism, closer to the level of a human. he is a much more rational thinker than madog, able to slow down and think fully through a problem rather than rush in to meet it. his secondary components are serpent fin and mermaid hair. these are almost entirely aesthetic, but the mermaid hair Does make him silky smooth to the touch and keeps wild animals from attempting to eat him.

and that's most of what i've thought out! before anyone asks, human bones + human blood + human jism would create an undead abomination and We Don't Do That. human blood and jism are alright to use but human bones are a taboo that crosses into necromancy. human wizards care less about the personhood of tailed species, so that's more okay (though it isn't really)

[windienine]

befriend rats & kill god in a lush portal fantasy adventure by jenna moran

come on a journey with me?

there - past the scaffolding, past the rafters, up above past the windows and gables and fire escapes, if you make it to the roofs -

you'll encounter environments not of this world. rooftop gardens that have twisted themselves into dense forests, church spires that have , tiled expanses that stretch into the horizon and become meadows, gutter-lakes, deserts, mountains...

you'll encounter them, too, if you really look: the rats.

they want to show you these places, navigate them, map them, study them, know them. they want to befriend you, guide you, tell you their stories and weave new ones where you feature alongside them. if you want to make any headway, up there on the roofs, you'll need their help.

after all,

this is a place where the gods do tread. if they find you creeping about their domains, they will find you, kill you, transform you, dig their hooks into your very soul and never let go.

the rats know a secret.

gods can be killed.

you are the key.

the far roofs, currently crowdfunding, is home to some of the best role-playing game i've ever had. participating in several playtests has completely sold me on its viability as a system. notable are its set of unique oracle mechanics that tie into its freeform roleplay system, determining the physical and emotional outcomes of different events. gather hands of cards and tiles to weave together magic that can alter even monumental fates, fight peril with dice rolls, and collect components for spells and make headway on character advancement by spending time getting to know your companions, both human and murine.

it is, of course, written by dr. jenna moran, best known for previous innovative ttrpg experiences about divinity, such as nobilis, glitch, chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine, and wisher, theurger, fatalist (WTF).

the philosophy of the far roofs is that dungeoneering is about the journey - the sights you see, the meals you make, the tales you tell, the companions you gain and lose - as much as the monster-slaying. each combat is a descriptive crescendo of the experiences faced up until that point, encompassing everything you've felt thus far. if any of this intrigues you, then, well... come on a journey with me?

[gildedphoenix]

Fire Escape - Dead on MAYn Day 1

Prompts uses: -Courting rituals -Flickering -Dinner interrupted by a fight -“Are they gone yet”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Not beta read. 6k words. Jason has a stressful day and shares dinner with his downstairs neighbor, Danny. The following week, Danny leaves something for him. A courting ritual between busy, stressed disasters.

AO3: Fire Escape Dead on MAYn Blog @deadonmayn

Fire Escape 

Life as a vigilante was stressful. Their world was not always easy. Cases did not always wrap up nicely in thirty minutes with everyone skipping off, hand in hand. 

This was definitely one of those bad days. 

A child trafficking case, after dragging on for the last 3 months, ended horribly. The head of the ring got away before Hood and Nightwing could to box him in. Most of the kids were already gone, whisked away to another location while Jason and Dick were fighting to reach them. And the kids they were able to find? Jason took a deep breath. This wasn’t a night he would be able to forget anytime soon. 

He wouldn’t be sleeping tonight so after Dick left, Jason cooked. He made chicken and bacon stuffed shells with a creamy marinara sauce. The recipe always took forever but it was a welcome distraction. Jumbo shells, chicken, bacon, broccoli, cheese, and sauce and a dozen other components to prep and cook. No time to think of anything else.

Two hours later, Jason was still wired, but he had stuffed shells. Enough for his whole family, if he was honest with himself. Enough to feed those kids who didn’t make it. Enough to fill the stomachs that hadn’t been full in so long but would never be hungry again. 

Jason was broken out of his despair by a noise on the fire escape. His gun was in his hand without conscious thought. Slow, steady steps took him closer to the window until he could see the potential intruder. 

Jason's shoulders dropped back down as he spotted his downstairs neighbor outside their window. It wasn’t unusual to see Danny out on the fire escape, one level down. Nothing unusual. Nothing to be concerned about. 

Jason reupholstered his gun before Danny spotted him and turned back to the kitchen. They’d introduced themselves when Danny moved in a few weeks ago at the beginning of the fall semester but hadn’t interacted much since then. 

Grabbing the casserole dish and an extra plate and fork, Jason stepped out onto his level of the scaffolding and called down to Danny. 

“Hey, you want some food? I made too much and can’t possibly eat it all.” Jason set the dish down between himself and the stairs and started in on his own plate. 

“Oh my god, Yes! I haven’t had food all day! You are a life saver. A knight in shiny armor.” Danny made his way up the stairs and peeked his head just above Jason’s level. He reached slowly for the extra plate and serving spoon while watching Jason. Jason motioned a little ‘go ahead’ with his own fork and Danny’s face lit up as he scooped a modest portion of shells onto his plate. “I was stuck in meetings all day. The council just wanted to drag everything out and every issue solved spawned two more. And it’s not even like they listen to me,” he stopped, eyes wide and he put the serving spoon back in the dish and looked intently at his own plate. “Not that they would. You know. I’m just a,you know, just an intern. I’m not even paid. Just an unpaid internship. Yep. I’m just there to take notes and get college credit. I’m an engineering student at Gotham U.” He glanced over at Jason, eyes a little panicked as he tried to sell his obvious lie. “But I don’t wanna bore you. You probably have a real job with real stress. I’m just an intern student. Aaaaaaand I’m gunna stop rambling now and go eat. Yep. Thank you.” 

Danny clammered back down the stairs (and Jason could swear he missed that last step based on the noises) before settling down against the wall next to his window. With a chuckle, Jason took another bite of his food. “You’re right, my job is stressful. That doesn’t mean you’re day can’t be stressful too, though. Stress is relative. We all handle it differently. It’s how I ended up making too much food. I’ve got a big family and I just went on autopilot and before I knew it I’d made enough to feed them all, even though none of them are over tonight. It’s still a nice way to decompress. I’ll give them a call tomorrow to see if any of them want some but this dish is better fresh.” He leaned back against his own wall, eyes closed, taking in the steady constant noises of the city. The chatter of Crime Alley and the more distant rumble of Gotham. It was several minutes before Jason heard Danny call up again. 

“This is amazing. I don't think I’ve eaten anything this good since….Actually never. I definitely can’t make anything like this and my parents didn’t really do home cooked meals.” 

Jason glanced down through the grates and Danny was scraping the sauce off the plate onto his fork. Jason decided to show some mercy before the poor guy started licking the plate. “Feel free to grab more. I’m not gonna eat this all and my siblings should have clairvoyantly known I was cooking if they really wanted any.” Jason chuckled a bit but it also didn’t seem that unrealistic. 

“Thanks! I’m going to be full for a week after this.” Danny popped back up the stairs, his face lit up in joy, as he pulled the dish over to him, spooning out a full plate of shells this time. “I guess their loss is my gain.” He went back down to lounge against his own wall. 

An easy silence fell. The noises of the city a distant juxtaposition to the bubble they had created. Just two people enjoying food. Enjoying a little down time. Enjoying peace.

****

A few days later, Jason came home to a surprise. He didn’t expect to really hear from his neighbor again beyond the occasional waves and hellos they had previously established. Just the coming and going in the stairs or passing on the street. But there on the outside of his window was a sticky note. Black with tiny nebulas, Jason’s name was scrawled with silver glitter gel pen and an arrow pointing down.

He opened the window and looked down to see if Danny was out, Jason spotted a ziplock bag full of cookies and a thermos. With Danny nowhere in sight, Jason inspected the note again and on the other side was more writing.

“I can’t cook anything near as good as what you made, but these are my favorite cookies from the bodega by campus. I like them with cardamom tea.” 

Jason opened the bag and caught a whiff of the cookies. He had fully intended to run them through a spectrometer but the enticing scent of ginger snaps and some urge deep within his soul overrode his caution. He took a small bite. And they were delicious. The spices were deep and warm. The molasses earthy. Setting them aside for a moment, he opened the thermos and took a tentative sip. The tea was still warm and lightly sweetened. The sharp spices of the tea playing well off the warmth of the cookies. 

He’d never had anyone leave him offerings like this. The thought stopped him for a moment. 

Gifts. Not offerings, gifts. He shrugged and grabbed a book from his TBR shelf. Settling in with the cookies and tea to relax before he had to go out for patrol. His mind was distracted by stray thoughts of what he might be able to leave his neighbor in return. 

****

Danny hated his teachers. He hated this city. He hated his creaky apartment. Though he didn’t mind the eye candy of his upstairs neighbor when they passed on the stairs. And if Danny turned around once in a while to watch Jason go up the stairs and enjoy the view? Well that was just the payment he deserved from the universe for the elevator always being out. There were other perks too, Danny decided thoughtfully. He and Jason had been leaving each other little offerings on the fire escape and it had become the best part of Danny’s day. It wasn’t every day, maybe more like once a week. But the joy he got when there was a little package outside his window? Unparalleled. As if matching Danny’s galaxy post it note energy, Jason left notes with his gifts on stationary that looked like old parchment paper, quotes from classic authors printed along the bottoms. Just a little explanation of what the gift was and where it was from. Or sometimes, if it were a homemade dish, Jason would include where he’d got the recipe from. Danny was on the look out for a larger notepad that was still space themed. He found he was running out of space on his post its and using two seemed like trying too hard, as if going out and buying all new stationary wasn’t also trying too hard. But Jason didn’t have to know it was new. Danny could have already had this. 

To Danny’s joy, there was a take out box outside under his window today. No Jason to be seen, but they rarely made it outside at the same time. Their schedules rarely lined up.

“I found a new korean place over off Vermont St. I got you some char sui pork buns. I hope they help tonight while you’re studying for finals. The things you’ve left for me have always made my evenings better.  -Jason”

And at the bottom, the little book quote read “‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’” -Charlotte’s Web

What had started as a simple shared meal from Jason making too much food after work had become the best part of Danny’s week. And it seems like Jason might feel the same. A lovely give and take of food offerings. A courtship. Or at least, Danny liked to think of it that way. But even just simple friendship was a welcome feeling. At least now he knew Jason also liked their little dance and this wasn’t out of some misconstrued obligation. And Jason even remembered that he was a student and that it was finals week. That extra thought had Danny blushing as he took the buns to his kitchen counter and stuck the note on his fridge with a comet shaped magnet. Danny kept all the notes Jason left. Luckily the fridge couldn’t be seen from the window because otherwise Danny would die (again) of embarrassment. As it was, he simply enjoyed his dinner while rereading Jason’s words.

****

“Wait a minute” Dick interrupted Jason’s story description of Danny’s most recent gift of curry and boba tea. “So you and this guy-” “Danny,” Jason corrected. Dick nodded, a conspiratorial smile growing. The kind of smile your brother gets when he stumbles across potential blackmail material on you. “So you and Danny” Jason did not like that tone, ��have been leaving gifts outside each others windows.” Jason nodded, “Every week, or MORE,” Dick looked pointedly at Jason for confirmation, to which Jason nodded again. “And you FINALLY tell him that his gifts ‘make your day better’ and you use the page with a quote from Charlotte’s Web about FRIENDSHIP?” 

“What’s the matter with that? It’s not like I picked it specifically. It was just the next page.” Jason was beginning to regret sharing this joy with his dick of a brother.

“Ok, So.” Dick threw his arm around Jason’s shoulders, “We need to either work on your delivery, or get you some stationary with better quotes. You’re clearly over the moon about this guy-” “Hey, what makes you say that? I just- It’s- I…”Jason stuttered, trying to gather his scrambled thoughts. “Having something to look forward to after I get off patrol is nice. And having someone go out of their way to do that for me…” 

Dick really looked at his brother. It wasn’t often that Jason managed to look small these days. But there he sat, shoulders hunched, fingers fiddling with Danny’s most recent note. It wasn’t a sticky note size, but a small half page. Very much like Jason’s own notepad with the quotes from famous authors. He was absentmindedly folding the paper back and forth, making lines from star to star among the constellations decorating the page. “Jason,” Dick dropped his teasing tone and waited for his little brother to look up. “It sounds like you’ve got a good thing going here. I wouldn’t want you to mess it up by being impatient. You laid out your cards, in a small careful way, and you received something in turn,” he nodded to the creased note. “Keep taking those steps. I can see how happy this has made you, even as simple as it is. Keep finding things you think he’ll like. Keep leaving your little courtship gifts. And maybe just flip through your stationary and pick the quotes a bit more deliberately,” Dicks eyes glinted dangerously, “You lit’ nerd.” Dick quickly flipped backwards from sitting into several handsprings across the training mat, his maniacal laughter echoing across the cave as he tried to escape the very predictable ire of his younger brother.

“Oh that’s it! You’re in for it now!” Jason rolled up onto the mats to chase Dick, joy in his heart and violence on his mind. Danny’s note settled to the floor, waiting for Jason’s response. “I hope you like curry! I got a medium spicy, but eat it with the naan if it’s too hot. Your gifts are the highlight of my day whenever you leave me something.” And then, hand written at the bottom of the page where Jason’s stationary had quotes, “With all the stars in the sky, and all the people in the world, I’m glad I ended up in a constellation next to you.”

****

“Guys, I’m going to die.” Danny declared and then promptly face planted into Sam’s couch. They were having their monthly catch up dinner and hang out. Sam was attending Metropolis University for Law with a minor in environmental studies. Her parents weren’t happy with her obvious post grad plans, but she was fulfilling their terms of getting a traditional, respectable degree, so they were footing the bill. That included her off campus apartment because no daughter of theirs was about to live in those dingy college dorm rooms. 

Tucker was attending MIT while also building a name for himself in the hacker community. Two streams he was desperately trying to keep from crossing, lest MIT expel him on ethics. 

Danny, of course, was attending Gotham U for aerospace engineering and astronomy. Their schedules made it hard to find a common evening once a month that they were all free. Danny’s ability to make portals (thanks to a new set of powers and abilities that came with being Ghost King of the infinite realms) made it slightly easier to get everyone in the same room once they found the time. Danny’s muffled voice drifted up from the couch cushions. 

“What was that Danny? I couldn’t quite get that through the literal couch in your face.” Sam sassed.

Danny lifted his face from the fluff and whined, “I left Jason the sappiest note and by the time I came to my senses, he had already taken iiiiiiiiiit! And now he’s read it and he hates me and he’s never going to talk to me again or leave me homemade cookies or anything else ever again and it’s all because I read too deep into a quote from fucking Charlotte’s Web!” He flopped onto his back and then slowly melted off the couch, thumping to the floor when Sam pushed him to make room to sit down with her pho bowl. 

“Come on man, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” Tucker said. “Tell us what you wrote.” “No.”

“Don’t make me check the security footage. You know we’ve got HD cameras on your place.” Tucker, horrible friend that he was, was already pulling up the footage. The cameras had been installed as a valid security measure but were mostly used to retrieve blackmail footage against Danny by his friends. Danny had a tendency to glow and float as he stargazed on rare clear nights in Gotham and Sam and Tucker gave him no end of shit about it. 

“Did you find it?” Sam asked excitedly, crowding closer while holding Danny off with a boot to the face. 

“Yep! Let’s see, ‘Hope you like curry,’ blah blah blah, oh here. ‘With all the stars in the sky, and all the people in the world, I’m glad you ended up in a constellation next to me.’ You’re right.” Tucker declared solemnly. “It is bad. He’s never going to talk to you again. He’s gunna move states. Dye his hair. Change his name! You’ll never find him again and you’ll never find love.” Tucker lost his deadpan demeanor and dissolved into laughter. 

Danny glared at him and phased the couch out from under him. Tucker hit the floor still laughing and didn’t stop. 

“Captain Chuckles can stay on the floor, but please re-solidify my couch. I like it to exist in this dimension.” Sam nudged Tucker ever so gently out of the way so that the couch could exist again. 

“But really. Was it too much?” Danny asked Sam, since Tucker was clearly just going to be useless. 

“I think it was honest and forward. I think if you guys had been going on traditional dates, then it might be too much.” Dannys face fell and his shoulders slumped. “But!” Sam interjected quickly, “That is not what you guys are doing. For better worse, you have some archaic courting ritual going on. You’ve only been exchanging words and gifts. Small offerings of your heart and soul. To give less than your full self in this situation would be disingenuous. I don’t think it was too soon, especially since he initiated the sentiment. Sure, writing down undying love,” Danny and tucker both chuckled at the ‘undying’ part and Sam kicked them both for it, “Would have been too much. But directly stating that you enjoy the little dance you have going on? And that you like him? Nah. I think you did good. Especially since he’s clearly a literary nerd.”

“Yeah” Tucker chimed in, “He matches well with your space nerd!” 

“Oh that’s it! You’re in for it now!” Danny rolled off the couch and chased Tucker around Sam’s spacious apartment, promising to freeze him to the ceiling once he caught him. 

****

Jason decided to take a night off patrol. Nothing major should be going on tonight. The Alley could do without him being a helicopter parent for one evening. He wanted to make a more involved meal for Danny. There was a good chance that they would see each other tonight. Jason had connected some dots and realized that Danny, the beautiful face and soul that he was, liked to stargaze on clear Gotham nights. This would be the first clear night in weeks and there was no way that Danny would miss the opportunity. 

So Jason got started early. Rissoto didn’t look fancy but it took skill to get right. The results, when done right, were amazing. Jason had also picked up a bottle of wine. Call it wishful thinking, but he hoped Danny would share it with him and they might sit down and really get to know each other. That would be nice. 

****

As Jason stood, stirring his hopes and risotto, Danny was one floor down trying not to burn the entire building down. This was his fourth night trying to make the same thing.  He’d watched so many videos. So many tutorials. All of them said this could be done by a beginner cook if they just followed the steps. None of them really sold how difficult it was though. Someone needed to start a cooking channel where an average person tried to follow these recipes. 

The first attempt, several nights ago, ended in him realizing that he could not melt sugar on top of a creme brulee in a plastic ramekin. Fire plus plastic is bad. That was the first batch ruined. 

The second batch didn’t set in the oven. Which didn’t make sense because he’d done everything the same as the first batch, which had turned out fine. 

The third batch, he turned the oven up just a but realized while he was cleaning up egg shell that he’d never actually put eggs into the second batch. By the time he got the third batch out of the oven, they were horribly over cooked. 

For the fourth batch, he laid out all his ingredients, portioned and in order of use. Set his oven back to the right temperature and gave an offhanded prayer to Clockwork for proper timing. 

The timer dinged, the custards wobbled ever so slightly and Danny about collapsed with relief as he got them safely removed from the oven and set on his counter. He took a moment to contemplate how he’d ended up cooking the same dessert four nights in a row. These were way too complicated for him. But he’d done this to himself. He’d looked up “impressive desserts to make for your date” and Creme Brulee topped half the lists. Last step was to toast the tops with a micro torch after they cooled. 

Danny returned to his homework while he waited.

****

Jason opened his window, two servings piping hot seafood risotto plated and ready. He’d heard muffled cursing from downstairs, so he knew Danny was home. Most likely cursing one of his professors. Jason left the bottle of wine just inside his window. He was hopeful that the evening would go well but no sense in being presumptuous. He wasn’t even sure if Danny liked wine, or drank at all! 

Starting down the fire escape, Jason was surprised to see Danny already out. He was peering into the eyepiece of a telescope muttering to himself. Danny did talk to himself a lot now that he thought about it. Not wanting to startle him, Jason waited on the upper level of the fire escape and simply watched. Admired the object of his affections these past months. It was odd to think how much they’d both put into the relationship so far for how little time they’d actually spent together. Danny sat on the stairs in his Nasa hoodie and some Justice League pajama pants, which caused Jason to chuckle quietly to himself.

Sitting next to Danny was an open notebook, Danny’s chaotic handwriting scattered over the page along with some very precise charts. Jason almost didn’t believe they were hand drawn except that they were penned in the same aggressively bright neon green sparkly gel pen as the chicken scratch writing. What a strange dichotomy. Next to the notes sat a tray with two ramekins of creme brulee. As Dannys hand moved down to make some notes Jason noticed several bandaids with burns peeking out from under them. Had Danny made the creme brulees himself? He’d mentioned a few times that he was hopeless in the kitchen. Had he gone to all that trouble and apparently pain, to make something for Jason? 

For no particular reason, Jason needed to clear his throat, which startled Danny of his concentration trance. “Oh! You’re here!” Danny said. He capped the eyepiece and looked around. “I made you something. You’re always making things for me and I’ve just been buying things so I wanted to put more work into your gifts. So I made these. For….For us. I was hoping you’d eat with me? I waited out here for you. Also it was a great night for some stargazing so I was just doing that while I waited, of course, because sometimes you come home really late. Not that I’m watching you!” Danny’s hands came up defensively, a blush coloring his cheeks as he rambled. Eyes darting away, he started clearing off the stairs for them to sit. Moving his notebooks and the creme brulees. Jason just smiled at the disaster he was already half in love with. He couldn’t wait to learn all of Danny’s quirks and habits. Would he always ramble on or was this just jitters? Would Danny’s face light up the same way every time Jason came home from patrol? He hoped so. He wanted to make this work. He wanted to come home to that face.

“I’m actually really glad you’re out here,” Jason said, saving Danny from himself. “I’ve seen your telescope and noticed that you like to come out on clear nights. I was hoping you’d have dinner with me again. I made seafood risotto. It’s shrimp and muscles. Would you like some?” Jason presented the plates to Danny as he came down the stairs. 

“Yeah. I’d love to have dinner with you. I like any food that doesn’t try to eat my back. I don’t think I’ve ever had risotto. Let me just finish moving my junk.” He smiled as he set everything off to the side in a pile.

Jason settled down and handed one of the plates and a fork over to Danny. “How has school been going? I think you mentioned you were going for engineering?” Danny nodded. “What made you pick Gotham U? Most people are trying to leave the city, not come here.”

“Oh, that’s easy. But two reasons really. First, Gotham U has the Wayne Tech scholarship program and the great internship programs. I’ve also heard hush-hush rumors about some great job opportunities that recruit from Wayne Tech. If it’s true, I want to be here.” Danny gazed up longingly at the sky. Wayne Tech of course had partnerships with NASA but that was a well known connection. It wasn’t hush hush. The only thing Jason could think of that Danny would be alluding to would be jobs on the Watchtower. They did hire civilians, but the Justice League hand selected the best of the best. Bruce and Lucius kept their eyes out for those people. Not that he supported nepotism, but Jason wouldn’t mind making sure Danny’s name got added to the hat once he was ready. 

“The other reason,” Danny said, breaking Jason out of his future planning, “is that Gotham is the only city I could find with even half the amount of crazy as Amity, my home town. We had some crazy super villains and after growing up with that daily madness, I can’t settle down in a peaceful city.” He took a moment to savor the food, bliss coming across his face. It made Jason want to make more food for him. Jason wanted to bring him that joy again. To provide for Danny and take care of him. “This is really good! I love your food. Best thing I’ve ever had every time. I just hope what I made doesn’t give us both food poisoning.” “Hey, I’m sure it’s great. Did you burn your fingers making that? I saw the band aids. Even if you need chaos, I’m sure you don’t need to make more by burning yourself making dessert. Just walk through the alley in the daytime and I’m sure you’ll get enough excitement.” 

“Nah, Muggers are small potatoes.” Danny contested. “Most exciting thing that can come of that is Red Hood showing up. And I’m typically not out while he’s patrolling. Hood keeps most of the rif raf out of the area, so I generally feel safer here than the rest of Gotham.” 

“Hmmm. So Hood is doing better than the bats and birds? I’m sure Batman would love to hear that.” Jason bumped Danny’s shoulder playfully. “Since you’ve been here for a few months now, do you have a favorite bat or bird?”

“Red Hood.” Danny said quickly and decisively. “Definitely Red Hood. Not only does he have his area on lock down, so much so that even the other Bats stay out. Black Mask? Nope. Traffickers? Gone. Most violence? Low level. I know some of the bigger name rogues will ignore all the boundaries but they’re really not known for following the rules so they don’t really count. And also he’s….” Danny stopped abruptly, a blush coming over his cheeks. “But what about you? You grew up here. Who’s your favorite?” 

“That’s a hard choice. I remember when it was just Batman and Robin OG. So I would say it was original Robin, then Nightwing, but then he abandoned us for Bludhaven. Now It’s probably BlackBat. Though the current Robin is also doing a great job. He gets a lot of shit for being so young and violent but what do people expect? Of course he’s violent. Being Robin is not easy. It’s- And now I’m rambling on.” Jason chuckled. “BlackBat. She’s my favorite. For now.” 

“Hmmm. I haven’t heard a lot about her. It makes sense since what I have heard is that she’s the stealthiest of the bats.” 

Some time during the conversation they had relaxed, no longer holding a strict gap between their bodies. Forks clinked as they sat shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip on the narrow fire escape staircase. A peaceful silence fell around them like a cozy blanket. 

“Can I try one of the creme brulees?” Jason asked, having finished his food already. “I would hate to see all your hard work, pain, and suffering go unappreciated.”

“Sure, but you’re taking your life into your own hands. Just do me a favor and lie to me about how good it is.” Danny passed one of the desserts and a small spoon over to Jason. Their hands touched and they both paused, but neither pulled away. 

A gentle smile grew on Jason’s face as a blush returned to Danny’s cheeks but still neither pulled away.  The world seems to pause around them, allowing them this moment. The soft light coming from the windows flickered….and then went out. 

“Um…What just happened?” Danny asked, looking around. The ambient glow of Gotham still loomed in the distance but most of the closer lights had gone out, just street lamps remained. Down at the end of the street, a red glow flickered. The glow of fire. “I gotta go.” They both said at the same time. Their eyes met in the dim light. Shadows made masks on their faces and sudden understanding lit their eyes. A mutual epiphany.

“Be safe.” Danny said to Red Hood. “You too.” Jason responded before darting back up the stairs and into his apartment. 

****

Danny’s mind was reeling. How could he not have noticed? All the clues were there in hindsight. The late nights. The tired days. The various bruises and scrapes. Even the vague half answers and glaring lack of personal info in their brief conversations. But in that moment of calamity, Jason’s entire demeanor shifted. His shoulders squared and resolution threaded every fiber of his frame, and what a great frame it was. On the plus side, Danny felt less conflicted about staring at Red Hood’s ass while courting Jason. They were the same ass. The same thighs. The same broad shoulders that Danny had way too many private thoughts about. 

Focus Danny!

Once he got into his closet, he transformed. While he no longer shouted “Going Ghost” at the top of his lungs (He was young, leave him alone), he didn’t have any way to dampen the bright flash of light his transformation gave off. So into the closet he went. 

Flying through his apartment walls and over the battle zone he quickly assessed the lay of the land. There seemed to be two groups shooting at each other from opposite corners of the street. Behind every available place of cover and down every alley, people were hiding. Sneaking into the intersection from their apartment was Red Hood, also assessing the situation from the ground. His eyes raked over both factions, the civilians, the fire escapes and windows, and even the rooftops. Danny was impressed because few people thought to look up. Danny allowed himself to pop back into the visible spectrum as Jason’s gaze passed over the rooftop Danny was hovering over. Nobody else was looking up. Nobody ever looked up.

Danny pointed at Hood, then at the violence. Then after a pause, pointed at himself and circled his hand around to indicate the surrounding area. He hoped Hood would catch that Danny was going to take care of the civilians and general crowd control. Jason nodded and took out two of his guns, checking the safety and loads before focusing on the task ahead. Danny faded back to invisibility and looked around for the most vulnerable of the civilians to get them out first.

****

The firefight took much longer to handle than Danny expected. He was used to one on one or maybe himself versus a group, but never a gang war like this. Never with so many people. So many combatants. So many innocents in the line of fire. 

The noise in the streets had been like listening to a bag of popcorn. Shots overlapping. Echoing endlessly. A constant incomprehensible cacophony of gunfire. As Danny got more civilians to safety, the density of noise began to wane. Little by little the gunfire spread out as Hood disabled the shooters and their weapons until it went from constant noise to just isolated pops to silence. 

Danny allowed himself to become visible atop the same roof as earlier when he noticed Jason looking for him once more. Danny held his fist out, thumb to the side, head cocked in question. Red Hood returned the thumb out fist and turned it up briefly, before pointing with his thumb over his shoulder back towards their apartments. Danny turned up his thumb to match and nodded before disappearing and leaving Hood to the mercy of the converging Bats. Danny didn’t even remember them showing up. He was so focused on getting people to safety. He was glad Jason had help though. He sped back to his own apartment to wait. To pace restlessly and hope that Hood hadn’t been hurt.

****

Jason was annoyed. Bruce was annoying for trying to act like he was in charge while standing in Jason’s damn apartment. Tim was annoying, standing off to the side while silently judging Jason’s lack of coffee choices. Oracle was annoying for sending Bats his way when she heard him get winged by a stray round at the beginning of the firefight. He was even annoyed with himself for somehow missing that Danny was apparently a vigilante? Or maybe a rogue? He needed them to leave. He needed to check on Danny. There was clearly some kind of powers involved but nothing to say that Danny couldn’t be hurt. That he wasn’t hurt. He’d seen Danny peek his head around the window frame three separate times before literally disappearing from view each time. Clearly waiting until Jason was alone again to talk.

“Look.” Jason interrupted whatever Bruce was saying. “I’m tired. I was already in for the night before that clusterfuck even began. I need you both out of my place because I have a date with a cup of tea and possibly a shot of whiskey.” Jason stalked over and opened the front door in clear invitation to leave. “Out. And tell O to mind their own business and butt out of my feeds.” Jason continued to motion out the door. Gentleman that he was, he even waited politely until their capes were all the way out the door before slamming it behind them. Jason took a deep breath and turned around as he felt the air shifting.

“Are they gone yet?” Danny asked. His inexplicable white hair from the battlefield was gone but he was floating a couple inches off the floor. 

Jason wondered if he knew he was doing it as he walked over to retrieve the bottle of wine. 

“Yeah. They’re gone for now. Let’s talk.” 

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Metastable marvel: X-rays illuminate an exotic material transformation

A dry material makes a great fire starter, and a soft material lends itself to a sweater. Batteries require materials that can store lots of energy, and microchips need components that can turn the flow of electricity on and off. Each material's properties are a result of what's happening internally. The structure of a material's atomic scaffolding can take many forms and is often a complex combination of competing patterns. This atomic and electronic landscape determines how a material will interact with the rest of the world, including other materials, electric and magnetic fields, and light. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, as part of a multi-institutional team of universities and national laboratories, are investigating a material with a highly unusual structure—one that changes dramatically when exposed to an ultrafast pulse of light from a laser.

Read more.

[efangamez]

Yoooooo the GRIM expansion "The Palace of Eyes" has some actually NUTS lore. The work for the content is almost finished, but it needs to get fine tuned for publication while I include it in the handbook.

I'll be talking a bit about it here, so if you don't wanna possibly get ANY spoilers, you can dip now!!!

Okay so because I have pretty chronic pain in my fingers I'm going to be using text to speech or speech to text to share some of this information. So this will be my first time writing something that has like time travel and dimension travel shenanigans and the way that I was inspired by Metal Gear Solid to have these wild storylines all going on at once with some twists and turns but it's still kind of holds together through lower explanations is really really cool. I've honestly had a blast making every one of the story beats come together in one giant epic of a story to be honest with you.

There are actual pieces of lore in here that were crafted not only because they were cool but because they are thematic and have almost a cinematic and ideological feel to them. I think that the more that I build worlds and the more that I come to terms with who I am as a person the more fleshed out and well built stories can be created through my games. I kind of realized that when I made Neon Nights and some of my other games. I thought that if I just made a system that had a little bit of scaffolding I think that would be enough but to me I really do think that just like in a video game playing in a world where you are able to explore and uncover mysteries and be shocked by events I think it's really really cool and I like that. I think that's because one of my strengths and interests is in narrative and while I've gotten older I don't really have the patience too much anymore for prose, but I have fallen in love even more with World building and creating narratives with that World building if that makes sense.

I think that this expansion will not only be a really fun thing to explore within the GRIM multiverse but to also kind of look within yourself and to relate to some of these characters in their struggles and to kind of be invested in their stories and what's cool about tabletop games is that their stories are not fleshed out all the way. The scaffolding is there with strong connections to the world but the way that you the players will interact and the way that the watcher who is basically the standing for GM or DM in a game will be completely unique. I think that that's one of the powerful components of an RPG. And while GRIM may not have the most robust mechanics for role-playing in a system or using a system to roleplay rather you can still create Grand narratives by just being interpersonal with your players.

I don't know I just kind of wanted the info dump a little bit and not have my fingers hurt while I type so that's why I use speech to text. I'm really really excited working on this. I have over 34 pages of content in a document that hasn't even been designed yet. This thing is going to be a big lad probably over 100 pages at least. It's going to be kind of hard also to price this at $9.99 but I think that to me what matters most is getting this out there and kind of showing off my talents as well as giving people an awesome epic to play along with GRIM.

Anywho I hope you have a fantastic day today! Make sure you drink your water you eat your food and you take care of yourselves. Love ya!

[ai-botz]

You:

explain crispr mRNA

Ai:

CRISPR RNA (crRNA) is a sophisticated, programmable molecular tool that leverages the prokaryotic adaptive immune system's mechanism of defense against invasive genetic elements. This RNA-based component serves as a guide to direct the Cas9 nuclease enzyme toward specific genomic loci for targeted editing.

The crRNA structure consists of three distinct regions: the scaffold, the repeat sequence, and the protospacer. The scaffold provides structural support and facilitates binding with the Cas9 protein, while the repeat segment is derived from the CRISPR array in the bacterial genome and promotes crRNA-Cas9 complex formation.

The protospacer region, which constitutes the majority of the crRNA sequence, harbors the desired target specificity information. It possesses a complementarity to a predefined genomic sequence (the target site), thereby enabling the crRNA-guided Cas9 endonuclease to recognize and cleave the target DNA at the precise location.

crRNA synthesis typically involves in vitro transcription from a DNA template or ribosomal RNA processing in vivo. The resulting mature crRNAs are then processed into their functional forms through 5' and 3' trimming, which removes non-essential regions and generates a single-stranded structure that can base-pair with the target site.

Upon binding to Cas9, the crRNA acts as an adaptor, positioning the nuclease at its cognate genomic location. Upon encountering the target sequence, the Cas9-crRNA complex excises the DNA, creating a double-strand break (DSB). The DSB can then be repaired by the cell's endogenous pathways, which may result in precise gene editing via homology-directed repair (HDR) or introduce insertions/deletions (indels) through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), effectively creating a mutation at the targeted site.

The programmable nature of crRNAs allows researchers to tailor them for specific applications, including gene knockouts, point mutations, and even precise base editing. Moreover, advances in RNA engineering have enabled the development of complex crRNA designs capable of targeting multiple genomic loci simultaneously or recognizing non-canonical target sites.

In summary, CRISPR RNA is a highly specialized, versatile molecular tool that empowers scientists to precisely manipulate genomes through its intricate interactions with Cas proteins and cellular repair machinery. Its unique properties have revolutionized the field of genome engineering, offering unprecedented control over genetic information.

You:

explain how a virus can be used as an mRNA encapsulate to deliver crisper RNA

Ai:

Viruses, particularly those in the families Lentiviridae (e.g., HIV-1), Adenoviridae (e.g., adenovirus serotype 5), and AAVidiae (adeno-associated viruses), can be engineered to function as mRNA encapsulation vectors for CRISPR RNA delivery.

The process typically involves:

Cloning the desired crRNA sequence into an expression plasmid, which is then transfected into virus-producing cells. The viral vector is assembled with its capsid protein and genomic RNA, replacing the original viral genetic material. The modified virus acquires the CRISPR RNA as a passenger payload, encapsulated within its lipid envelope or protein capsid. Upon infection of target host cells, the virus delivers its crRNA cargo into the cytoplasm via endocytosis and lysosomal escape. After entering the nucleus through nuclear pore complexes, the released crRNA can then interact with Cas proteins to initiate genome editing at the desired loci.

The choice of viral vector largely depends on factors such as host specificity, transduction efficiency, and immunogenicity concerns. Lentiviral vectors, for example, are capable of infecting non-dividing cells but may elicit stronger immune responses compared to AAV or adenoviral alternatives. AAVs, being less immunogenic, have become popular choices for gene therapy applications.

Incorporating CRISPR RNA into viral delivery systems offers several advantages over direct crRNA administration. It enables targeted and efficient transduction of cells, enhances the stability of crRNA in circulation, reduces off-target effects due to improved tissue specificity, and can facilitate simultaneous editing or multiplexed gene modifications.

However, challenges persist, including concerns over potential off-target effects from viral-mediated delivery itself, immune responses against the viral vector, and the need for further optimization of viral design and packaging strategies to ensure precise genome editing with minimal collateral damage. Continued research is necessary to refine this approach and maximize its therapeutic potential in various applications, ranging from treating genetic diseases to agricultural biotechnology.

————————————————————————

Virus AI describes as being the likely candidate for spreading crisper RNA

“A digital cryo-electron micrograph of the Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad-5)/HVR5-33RGD vector. Adenoviruses are non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA viruses that cause cold-like infections of the upper respiratory tract.”

[tianjinwellmadescaffold]

Ringlock Scaffolding Planks Manufacturing Video - Metal Planks & Steel P...

[blightoath]

if i were to tweak feyn's history/verse for inquisition and veilguard to be a fen'harel double agent...

because they traveled together some during the blight, leliana knows that feyn is an excellent hunter and tracker, and if anyone has a hope of finding the hof, it would be him. she reaches out to him about the wardens and asks in his help searching for the hof and the wardens in general. having been mentored by the hof in amaranthine, feyn has some ideas on where to go or what to do, and takes off to deliver the messages leliana needs.

by the time feyn gets back, he's set his sights on continuing the scouting, spying, delivery work with leliana--he spends literally 100% of his time in the field, getting things to or from leliana (or charter or others) via dead drops and pass offs to middlemen or other agents

(at this point, he's awol from the wardens. most assumed he died at adamant, which suits him just fine)

by the time of trespasser, no one thing can be contributed to feyn, he's made nearly no big moves himself nor been given anything of huge import, but his loyalty to the inquisition is known, and that's key

regardless of whether the inquisition is disbanded or given to the chantry, the current spy roster has to be shaken up to faces unfamiliar--so feyn gets brought in from the field to take on bigger and more influential work

eventually they decide they need a man on the inside and feyn, with his years of independent work, excellent memory, charm, tracking knowledge, dalish background, and warden improvements, makes a fine agent

feyn heads immediately to tevinter to start a long undercover mission. gets himself captured, enslaved, and put to work in a shipyard and storage warehouse, moving goods around

assists a fen'harel agent, who frees him in return and recruits him to the cause

after doing a few odd jobs here and there, it's revealed he has a talent as a tracker and is put to work to find various components needed in some of solas' rituals

his identity is discovered once during a mission. during the mission, one of the other agents in their three person squad had died in the line of duty, and rather than risk his time as a double agent coming to light, he killed the second agent. feyn was regarded suspiciously for a time since he was the only survivor to return, but eventually his skills as a tracker were needed

he is the agent who finds the lead on the red lyrium idol and tracks it to the auction house in llomerryn. part of his ability to find the lyrium idol is by tapping into his warden ability to sense darkspawn by focusing on the call of the blight within the lyrium. when asked, however, he just says he has a lucky streak and a good gut for guessing

feyn is one of the agents tasked with protecting solas during the evanuris prison transfer. while he's at the temple, he positions himself in such a way that he can kill solas with an arrow to the heart. he fully intends on doing so until varric appears and messes with his aim--the shot goes wide and in a stroke of incalculable bad luck, shatters some of the scaffolding holding up the statues

unsure if his cover is blown or not, feyn books it down to the center platform to at least steal away the lyrium dagger. two outcomes can occur:

1) rook makes it to varric first, gets ko'd, and feyn helps neve and harding escape to the lighthouse. until anyone knows any wiser, feyn keeps to his cover as an agent of fen'harel. saving rook, harding, and neve then was a choice made by him, showing that solas was actually interested in minimizing casualties, as he figured other agents in the area would fend for themselves after seeing solas shoved into the fade.

2) feyn makes it to the dagger but cuts his palm trying to get it and varric away from the emerging evanuris. neve and harding rush out to help and catch varric's last exclaimed word as "rook"--feyn's codename amongst leliana's reports. feyn then takes the place as rook, though he's torn between loyalties and ideologies

[communist-manifesto-daily]

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Part 8

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In Calvinism, the second great bourgeois upheaval found its doctrine ready cut and dried. This upheaval took place in England. The middle-class of the towns brought it on, and the yeomanry of the country districts fought it out. Curiously enough, in all the three great bourgeois risings, the peasantry furnishes the army that has to do the fighting; and the peasantry is just the class that, the victory once gained, is most surely ruined by the economic consequences of that victory. A hundred years after Cromwell, the yeomanry of England had almost disappeared. Anyhow, had it not been for that yeomanry and for the plebian element in the towns, the bourgeoisie alone would never have fought the matter out to the bitter end, and would never have brought Charles I to the scaffold. In order to secure even those conquests of the bourgeoisie that were ripe for gathering at the time, the revolution had to be carried considerably further – exactly as in 1793 in France and 1848 in Germany. This seems, in fact, to be one of the laws of evolution of bourgeois society.

Well, upon this excess of revolutionary activity there necessarily followed the inevitable reaction which, in its turn, went beyond the point where it might have maintained itself. After a series of oscillations, the new centre of gravity was at last attained and became a new starting-point. The grand period of English history, known to respectability under the name of "the Great Rebellion", and the struggles succeeding it, were brought to a close by the comparatively puny events entitled by Liberal historians "the Glorious Revolution".

The new starting-point was a compromise between the rising middle-class and the ex-feudal landowners. The latter, though called, as now, the aristocracy, had been long since on the way which led them to become what Louis Philippe in France became at a much later period: "The first bourgeois of the kingdom". Fortunately for England, the old feudal barons had killed one another during the War of the Roses. Their successors, though mostly scions of the old families, had been so much out of the direct line of descent that they constituted quite a new body, with habits and tendencies far more bourgeois than feudal. They fully understood the value of money, and at once began to increase their rents by turning hundreds of small farmers out and replacing them with sheep. Henry VIII, while squandering the Church lands, created fresh bourgeois landlords by wholesale; the innumerable confiscation of estates, regranted to absolute or relative upstarts, and continued during the whole of the 17th century, had the same result. Consequently, ever since Henry VII, the English "aristocracy", far from counteracting the development of industrial production, had, on the contrary, sought to indirectly profit thereby; and there had always been a section of the great landowners willing, from economical or political reasons, to cooperate with the leading men of the financial and industrial bourgeoisie. The compromise of 1689 was, therefore, easily accomplished. The political spoils of "pelf and place" were left to the great landowning families, provided the economic interests of the financial, manufacturing, and commercial middle-class were sufficiently attended to. And these economic interests were at that time powerful enough to determine the general policy of the nation. There might be squabbles about matters of detail, but, on the whole, the aristocratic oligarchy knew too well that its own economic prosperity was irretrievably bound up with that of the industrial and commercial middle-class.

From that time, the bourgeoisie was a humble, but still a recognized, component of the ruling classes of England. With the rest of them, it had a common interest in keeping in subjection the great working mass of the nation. The merchant or manufacturer himself stood in the position of master, or, as it was until lately called, of "natural superior" to his clerks, his work-people, his domestic servants. His interest was to get as much and as good work out of them as he could; for this end, they had to be trained to proper submission. He was himself religious; his religion had supplied the standard under which he had fought the king and the lords; he was not long in discovering the opportunities this same religion offered him for working upon the minds of his natural inferiors, and making them submissive to the behests of the masters it had pleased God to place over them. In short, the English bourgeoisie now had to take a part in keeping down the "lower orders", the great producing mass of the nation, and one of the means employed for that purpose was the influence of religion.

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[erhangwang]

DP3 - The Lost Boys: “It’s OK to Cry”

Week 11:

During the break I started designing the facade and wall systems for the concept of a layered building that gets eroded/decays over time. My original idea is to have a scaffolding that never decays and casting of oyster concrete (in different grades) on the scaffolding that decays and gradually reveals the central core memorial.

This week's tutorial suggests that this strategy needs to be changed: considering "sacrificial scaffolding" as a key speculative idea for this project, the skeleton frame of the building, i.e. scaffolding, can be sacrificial and gets eroded over time; oyster castings can go on top of the scaffolding and gradually taking it up. This strategy challenges the existing method of construction maintenance: when structures in marine conditions gets corroded and an existing structural components gets repaired or replaced by a new one. The key idea is to explore a strong permanent oyster castings that "grow" on top of the sacrificial scaffolding and prevents accidents to happen in the future.

I should do some computer modeling of facade details of the sacrificial scaffolding and oyster castings in relation to a space to reveal the idea described above. Simple structural diagrams can be used to communicate how the structure is going to be held together.

I also worked on the space planning of the "nose cone" RNLI building. I made design decisions based on case studies of existing RNLI spaces and the circulation of two group of users: RNLI staff favoring the efficiency of using the spaces and visitors going through the spaces for experiential and learning purposes. I should now focus on the Life boat station for the next 3-4 weeks to detail the space (logical circulation, facade, interiors, mechanical details) before moving on to another space.

Some ideas to be kept in mind:

Stephen Biesty cutaway drawings

Exploration of the sensorial qualities of spaces: e.g. Peter Zumthor's Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, cathedrals.

Paternoster using water energy to transport

Physical Model of erosions: using water pressure to achieve?

Nguchi Playground

Look up fire stations?

Regent Street Disease

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NASA's Roman space telescope's 'exoskeleton' whirls through major test

A major component of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just took a spin on the centrifuge at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Called the Outer Barrel Assembly, this piece of the observatory is designed to keep the telescope at a stable temperature and shield it from stray light.

The two-part spin test took place in a large, round test chamber. Stretching across the room, a 600,000-pound (272,000-kilogram) steel arm extends from a giant rotating bearing in the center of the floor.

The test itself is like a sophisticated version of a popular carnival attraction, designed to apply centrifugal force to the rider—in this case, the outer covering for Roman's telescope. It spun up to 18.4 rotations per minute. That may not sound like much, but it generated force equivalent to just over seven times Earth's gravity, or 7 g, and sent the assembly whipping around at 80 miles per hour.

"We couldn't test the entire Outer Barrel Assembly in the centrifuge in one piece because it's too large to fit in the room," said Jay Parker, product design lead for the assembly at Goddard. The structure stands about 17 feet (5 meters) tall and is about 13.5 feet (4 meters) wide. "It's designed a bit like a house on stilts, so we tested the 'house' and 'stilts' separately."

The "stilts" went first. Technically referred to as the elephant stand because of its similarity to structures used in circuses, this part of the assembly is designed to surround Roman's Wide Field Instrument and Coronagraph Instrument like scaffolding. It connects the upper portion of the Outer Barrel Assembly to the spacecraft bus, which will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and support it while there. The elephant stand was tested with weights attached to it to simulate the rest of the assembly's mass.

Next, the team tested the "house"—the shell and a connecting ring that surrounds the telescope. These parts of the assembly will ultimately be fitted with heaters to help ensure the telescope's mirrors won't experience wide temperature swings, which make materials expand and contract.

To further protect against temperature fluctuations, the Outer Barrel Assembly is mainly made of two types of carbon fibers mixed with reinforced plastic and connected with titanium end fittings. These materials are both stiff (so they won't warp or flex during temperature swings) and lightweight (reducing launch demands).

If you could peel back the side of the upper portion –– the house's "siding" –– you'd see another weight-reducing measure. Between the inner and outer panels, the material is structured like a honeycomb. This pattern is very strong and lowers weight by hollowing out portions of the interior.

Designed at Goddard and built by Applied Composites in Los Alamitos, California, Roman's Outer Barrel Assembly was delivered in pieces and then put together in a series of crane lifts in Goddard's largest clean room. It was partially disassembled for centrifuge testing, but will now be put back together and integrated with Roman's solar panels and Deployable Aperture Cover at the end of the year.

In 2025, these freshly integrated components will go through thermal vacuum testing together to ensure they will withstand the temperature and pressure environment of space. Then they'll move to a shake test to make sure they will hold up against the vibrations they'll experience during launch. Toward the end of next year, they will be integrated with the rest of the observatory.

IMAGE: This structure, called the Outer Barrel Assembly, will surround and protect NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from stray light that could interfere with its observations. In this photo, engineers prepare the assembly for testing. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

[giangiaothienphu]

Maintenance and Upkeep When Renting Construction Scaffolding

In construction, scaffolding is an essential material for every project, providing workers with safe access to elevated areas and supporting equipment from below. Proper maintenance and regular upkeep of scaffolding are not only important for ensuring quality but also for extending its lifespan, increasing durability, preventing rust, and ultimately ensuring worker safety during high-altitude work.

Periodic Inspection of Scaffolding

Periodic inspections of scaffolding are crucial during the maintenance process. Every time new scaffolding is set up or after a project is completed, it is essential to conduct a thorough inspection to ensure that the scaffolding meets safety and quality standards.

Components to Check:

Scaffolding Frames: The frames should be checked for any signs of bending, cracking, or looseness. If any frames are bent, broken, or damaged, they should be immediately replaced to maintain the stability of the entire structure.

Connections: The joints between scaffolding bars are weak points that can lead to accidents. These should be inspected for looseness or rust. If any joints are loose, they should be tightened and replaced if necessary.

Metal Parts: The metal components of scaffolding, such as bolts, nuts, locks, and connectors, should be regularly checked for rust or damage. Rust can significantly weaken the metal, leading to potential breakage or failure during use. If any metal parts are rusted or damaged, they should be replaced.

Floorboards and Steps: Components like floorboards and steps should be thoroughly inspected. If floorboards are cracked or broken, they can pose a risk to workers. Any signs of wear or damage should be addressed immediately by replacing the affected parts.

Regular inspections help identify and address issues promptly, ensuring that the scaffolding operates safely and effectively throughout the construction process.

Cleaning Scaffolding After Use

Scaffolding should be cleaned after each use to maintain its quality and prevent the accumulation of materials that can cause damage. Dirt, cement, grease, and other construction materials can accumulate on the scaffolding, reducing its functionality.

Cleaning Steps:

Use a Soft Brush or Damp Cloth: After use, scaffolding should be cleaned with a soft brush or damp cloth to remove dust, debris, and leftover construction materials. This helps keep the scaffolding free from material buildup and minimizes the risk of abrasion or chemical residue.

Remove Grease and Cement Stains: If the scaffolding is covered in grease, cement, or other sticky substances, it should be cleaned with a mild detergent. This prevents metal parts from rusting and extends the life of the scaffolding.

Rinse if Necessary: If the scaffolding is heavily soiled and cannot be cleaned by the usual methods, it can be washed with water and mild soap, then allowed to dry completely before being stored.

Timely Repairs of Damaged Components

Over time, scaffolding may experience damage due to environmental factors or the stresses of construction work. If any parts of the scaffolding are found to be damaged, they should be repaired or replaced immediately to prevent accidents.

Common Damages and Repair Methods:

Broken or Bent Scaffolding Bars: Scaffolding bars may break or bend during use, especially if the scaffolding is subjected to excessive weight or impact. If this occurs, the damaged bars should be replaced to maintain the structural integrity of the scaffolding.

Rust on Metal Parts: Scaffolding's metal components are susceptible to rust when exposed to water, moisture, or chemicals. If rust is found, affected parts should be replaced or treated with rust-resistant paint to prevent further damage.

Loose Joints or Bolts: Bolts, nuts, and joints may loosen over time due to weight stress or wear. These should be regularly checked and tightened to ensure the scaffolding remains stable and secure.

Cracked or Damaged Floorboards and Steps: Floorboards and steps should be regularly inspected. If any floorboards or steps are cracked or broken, they must be replaced immediately to ensure the safety of workers.

Ensuring Safety When Using Scaffolding

One of the most important aspects of scaffolding use is ensuring the safety of workers. Scaffolding is designed to create a safe working environment, but this is only true when it is installed and maintained correctly.

Safety Measures When Using Scaffolding:

Proper Installation: Scaffolding must be installed according to the correct procedures, especially the manufacturer's guidelines. It should be placed on a stable surface and capable of supporting the weight of workers and materials. All components must be securely connected and checked thoroughly before use.

Check for Anti-Slip Features: Steps and floorboards should not be slippery. In high-humidity environments, anti-slip materials should be used for scaffolding. Ensure that surfaces on the scaffolding provide good traction to prevent workers from slipping.

Safety Barriers: Handrails, guardrails, or safety ropes must be properly installed to protect workers from falling. These safety systems must be secure and free of any looseness. Additionally, warning signs and safety instructions should be posted to remind workers of the regulations when working on scaffolding.

Proper Storage of Scaffolding When Not in Use

When scaffolding is not in use, proper storage is vital to prevent damage and prolong its lifespan. Scaffolding should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated area away from elements that may cause deterioration.

Scaffolding Storage Guidelines:

Store in a Dry Place: Scaffolding should be stored in a location that is free from high humidity to prevent rust and degradation of materials. Avoid storing scaffolding in areas that are exposed to rain or moisture.

Avoid Direct Sunlight: UV rays from sunlight can weaken the materials of scaffolding, especially plastic or rubber parts. Scaffolding should be stored in shaded areas, away from direct sunlight.

Organize Neatly: Scaffolding should be stacked neatly and not too high. Proper organization helps prevent strong impacts and reduces the risk of damaging parts.

Checking Load Capacity and Adjusting Scaffolding When Needed

Scaffolding must be able to support the weight of workers and materials throughout the construction process. Therefore, regularly checking the load capacity and making adjustments when necessary is crucial to ensure that the scaffolding remains within safe operating limits.

Load Capacity Checks:

Check Maximum Load Capacity: Scaffolding must be designed to withstand the maximum allowable load, including the weight of workers, materials, and equipment. Before use, ensure that the scaffolding is able to handle the required load.

Adjust as Necessary: If the load exceeds the allowed limits, adjustments must be made to redistribute the weight. This can be achieved by altering the scaffolding structure or adding additional supports to alleviate pressure on weaker areas.

Conclusion

Maintenance and upkeep are essential in the construction industry. Regular inspections, proper storage, and timely repairs will help scaffolding function effectively, ensuring its durability and stability. This ensures the safety of workers and prevents unexpected accidents. Scaffolding is not just a tool for construction but a key factor in ensuring the safety of the entire project. Therefore, always maintain and care for scaffolding properly to ensure it is always in optimal condition.

Additionally, when renting scaffolding, it is important to research the rental company’s reputation, past customer feedback, and credibility to ensure you select a trustworthy provider for your project.

Link: https://giangiaoviet.com/bao-tri-bao-duong-gian-giao.html