MIT School Research Articles

Protective Effect of Lycopene Rich Tomato Puree on the Development of Atherosclerosis/Heart Diseases in Animal Models

Background: Lycopene as an aliphatic carotenoid promulgated from tomato has gained the attention of new generation food and pharma scientists on the ground of its nutraceutical efficacy. It is a preeminent antioxidant known for its singlet oxygen quenching ability that reduces oxidative stress responsible for non-communicable diseases. In present investigation the health claim exploration ability of lycopene rich tomato puree as a dietary supplement was assessed by animal studies to project its hypolipidemic efficacy effective in reducing risk of heart diseases.
 Aim: The present investigation aims to determine efficacy of tomato puree lycopene in monitoring atherogenesis mechanism through synergic mode of action of notified specialty features (total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol) in Wistar rats.
 Study Design: Wistar rats (Positive control, high fat diet fed, HFD-Stain fed and HFD-tomato puree fed) were examined for general examinations (behavioural changes and body weight), Lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL and HDL cholesterol) on 0, 14 and 28th day of experiment to assess effect of tomato puree administration on wellbeing of rats against healthy, hyperlipidemic and standard drug status.
 Place and Duration of Study: MIT School of Food Technology in collaboration with Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Parbhani (MAFSU, Nagpur), Maharashtra. The overall study duration was for 3 months.
 Methodology: The experimental rats (Wistar) employed in present study were acquired from authorized breeder after the approval of the experimental protocol by Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (IAEC approval resolution no.: IAEC 58/19, Date 20/08/2019). Acclimatization of the animals was undertaken for 20 days during which they were provided with natural diet, pure and safe drinking water. CPCSEA (Committee for the purpose of control and supervision of experiments on animals) guidelines were followed while handling the experimental animals throughout the complete study duration. The experimental animals (32 Wistar rats) were segregated into four different groups (Positive control, high fat diet fed, HFD-Stain fed and HFD-tomato puree fed), containing 8 rats (4 male and 4 female). Animals from four distinguished groups were monitored regularly for general observations (body weights, behavioural changes and mortality changes) throughout the experimental period. The lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, LDL) of blood serum samples was recorded using auto analyser on 0, 14th and 28th day of experiment.
 Results: The data analysis, interpretation and reviewed literature infusion collectively underlined the efficacy of lycopene (tomato puree) in monitoring atherogenesis mechanism through synergic mode of action of notified specialty features (total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol) and projected an effective gateway to support disease infused health claim. The cumulative decrease in total cholesterol (159.99 to 126.40mg/dl), serum triglycerides (114.81 to 107.34mg/dl), LDL cholesterol (40.19 to 32.90mg/dl) and increase in HDL cholesterol (19.99 to 23.87mg/dl) of treated rats represents hypolipidemic efficacy of tomato puree lycopene.
 Conclusion: The tomato puree mass being a viable lycopene source with innate antiatherogenic efficacy has rationally updated the review base critical appraisal leading to development of prototype of CVD to launch health claim. The human clinical study as a confirmation tool, may be the best option for next generation research.

Taking Off the Neoliberal Lens: The Politics of the Economy, the MIT School of Economics, and the Strange Career of Lawrence Klein

Over the last decade, a narrative centered around the rise of neoliberalism has become the dominant framework for explaining recent US, and often global, history. Although this neoliberal lens has repeatedly proven its value, it also obscures major continuities running across the twentieth century. This article highlights one striking example of continuity that becomes easier to see after taking off the neoliberal lens—namely the commitment to discretionary management of the macroeconomy, often short-handed as Keynesianism. It begins with a survey linking the development of a politics centered around managing the economy to the making of what Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek have termed a “policy state.” Next it considers the role of economists within the policy state, paying particular attention to what it calls the MIT school of economics. Then it uses the career of Lawrence Klein, an exemplary product of the MIT school, to illuminate the politics of the economy in a supposedly neoliberal age.

Stewart Myers and the MIT School of Real Options and Capital Structure

The thinking and writings of America's most accomplished living corporate finance scholar, MIT professor Stewart Myers, are presented as “a life in three Acts.” Starting with Stew's collaboration with Stanford's Alex Robichek on capital structure and valuation in Act I, the scene then shifts to the subjects of corporate strategy and “real options,” and their import for both valuation and investment and financing decisions. And following an Act III that explores the effects of information costs on capital structure and financing choices, the Epilogue recounts Stew's late forays (with colleague James Read) into the question of risk capital—that is, how much, as well as what kinds of, capital do companies need to support their operations and strategic investment?As the article says in closing,Stew's work can be seen as ending where it began. The truly important goal in designing a company's financial and capital structure, as virtually all of his work during the past nearly 60 years has tried to show, is to help ensure that corporate managers are making the best investment and operating decisions. Which in turn brings us back full circle to the first principle of modern corporate finance. For, as we saw earlier when discussing M&M and the Chicago school theory, it is those investment decisions that are the primary source of long‐run corporate efficiency and value.

Review: Environmental Design: Architecture, Politics, and Science in Postwar America

Review: <i>Environmental Design: Architecture, Politics, and Science in Postwar America</i>

Site-Archive-Medium

Abstract: The Palestinian village of Lifta, located beneath the western entrance to the city of Jerusalem, holds a deep history within its site. Evacuated by the newly established Israeli military forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war – or the Nakba (‘The Catastrophe’) as it is referred to by the Palestinian population – the village and its remains are a unique locus of conflicted histories, archaeology and landscape, and of collective memories. This article presents the work conducted during an experimental design research workshop within the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Taking Lifta’s site, as well as it historical and archaeological complexity, both real and imagined, as its archive, students developed their thematics following site-visits, interviews and research, and designed virtual experiences of the village, its multiple histories and narratives. The efforts provide epistemological and experiential cross-sections through the problematics of the site’s complex history. In the process of designing a possible platform for a critical historiography of Lifta, the projects aim to further the potential of immersive technologies as a pedagogical tool. Keywords: Architecture, History, Lifta, Israel-Palestine, Virtual Reality

Studying Friendship in Housing the MIT School of Architecture at MIT in the Postwar Years

The architect Burnham Kelly hired social scientist Leon Festinger to analyze friendship among residents living in veteran housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946. Festinger accomplished this by linking friendship to mundane social events—such as neighbors chatting in common courtyards—and he attributed these events to the subtle but meaningful ways that architecture organized people in space. In studying social relations between neighbors, Festinger wondered if class or racial attitudes played a role in whether or not tenants became friends. Festinger framed his housing study in apolitical terms, but his research provided a methodological framework for later analyses of desegregated public housing that had major political consequences. These studies of racially integrated housing found their way into the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, where they provided evidence for the plaintiff’s claim that desegregation could be accomplished peacefully.

Site-Archive-Medium: VR, Architectural History, Pedagogy and the Case of Lifta

Abstract: The Palestinian village of Lifta, located beneath the western entrance to the city of Jerusalem, holds a deep history within its site. Evacuated by the newly established Israeli military forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war – or the Nakba (‘The Catastrophe’) as it is referred to by the Palestinian population – the village and its remains are a unique locus of conflicted histories, archaeology and landscape, and of collective memories. This article presents the work conducted during an experimental design research workshop within the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Taking Lifta’s site, as well as it historical and archaeological complexity, both real and imagined, as its archive, students developed their thematics following site-visits, interviews and research, and designed virtual experiences of the village, its multiple histories and narratives. The efforts provide epistemological and experiential cross-sections through the problematics of the site’s complex history. In the process of designing a possible platform for a critical historiography of Lifta, the projects aim to further the potential of immersive technologies as a pedagogical tool. Keywords: Architecture, History, Lifta, Israel-Palestine, Virtual Reality

The MIT Leaders for Global Operations Program

In 2014, the MIT Leaders for Global Operations Program (LGO) was awarded the third annual UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research. In this paper, we describe the innovative, interdisciplinary education of the two-year dual-degree LGO program, which trains students for careers in operations and manufacturing through a three-way partnership between the MIT School of Engineering, the MIT School of Management, and industry. The first-of-its-kind program includes a six-month research internship that results in a master’s thesis. This paper will discuss the LGO approach to preparing students for practicing operations research and the impact that the program has made on operations in manufacturing and services companies.

Reminiscences on Laymon Miller's remarkable twenty seven year consulting career at Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge

Laymon Miller joined the noise control engineering consulting staff of Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) on August 1, 1954, bringing an impressive record of experience in acoustics from Harvard University's top secret Underwater Sound Lab (HUSL) during WWll followed by ten years as head of the acoustics section at Penn State's Ordinance Research Lab (ORL). Laymon provided invaluable mentoring for many new BBN consulting staff members like this author whose only experience in acoustics were introductory courses in architectural acoustics taught by Physics Professor Richard Bolt at MIT's School of Architecture and the MIT Acoustics Lab, Laymon quickly established a reputation among BBN employees and clients alike as an outstanding teacher and contributed to BBN's unofficial title as the “third important graduate school in Cambridge.” He documented his diverse consulting career through numerous technical papers and articles, through technical brochures he prepared for clients like the US Army Corps of Engineers,manufactures like the Baltimore Air Coil Company and through reports he prepared for thousands of BBN projects on which he served as principal consultant. Laymon retired from BBN in 1981 after a remarkable 27 year career making quieter buildings, concert halls, workplaces, communities, transportation vehicles, and in general, “the world a better place.”

Characterizing CDK12 and CDK13 Activity in Transcription and mRNA Biogenesis in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

The RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) C‐terminal domain (CTD) heptapeptide repeat (YSPTSPS) is dynamically phosphorylated during transcription. Serine 2 phosphorylation of the RNAPII CTD (Ser2P) occurs upon the transition to productively elongating RNAPII and extends through the gene body. Ser2P recruits mRNA processing machinery, histone modifying enzymes, chromatin remodelers, and transcription elongation factors directly to the transcription machinery consequently coupling transcription and mRNA processing. Recently, two paralogous kinases in mammals, CDK12 and CDK13, were identified as members of the family of cyclin‐dependent kinases responsible for Ser2P. Additionally, CDK12 has been identified as a tumor suppressor in several tumor types. However, the function of each kinase in regulating transcription and mRNA biogenesis remains unclear.Here, we report the establishment of a genetic system to interrogate CDK12 and CDK13 activity. CDK12 or CDK13 knockouts were generated in mouse embryonic stem cells using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. The rescue of knockout cells with an inducible CDK12 or CDK13 epitope‐tagged expression system permits high‐confidence genomic characterization. Currently RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing (ChIP‐seq) with antibodies specific for phosphorylated and total RNAPII, CDK12, and CDK13 are being performed in knockout and rescued cells. The derivation of this cell system and progress in CDK12 and CDK13 characterization will be presented.NIH RO1‐CA133404 to P.A. Sharp, NIH Pre‐Doctoral Training Grant T32GM007287 to MIT Biology Dept., and MIT School of Science Fellowship in Cancer Research Award to S. Dubbury supported this work.

Leon Battista Alberti and His Somniatic Troubles

November 01 2018 Leon Battista Alberti and His Somniatic Troubles Mark Jarzombek Mark Jarzombek Mark Jarzombek is Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. He has an architecture diploma from the ETH and a PhD from the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at MIT. He has published widely on numerous topics and has been a fellow at CASVA, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. His books include the textbook A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006) and The Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (Wiley Press, 2013). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Mark Jarzombek Mark Jarzombek is Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. He has an architecture diploma from the ETH and a PhD from the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at MIT. He has published widely on numerous topics and has been a fellow at CASVA, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. His books include the textbook A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006) and The Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (Wiley Press, 2013). Online Issn: 2572-7338 Print Issn: 1091-711X © 2015 Mark Jarzombek2015Mark Jarzombek Thresholds (2015) (43): 102–309. https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00060 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Mark Jarzombek; Leon Battista Alberti and His Somniatic Troubles. Thresholds 2015; (43): 102–309. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00060 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsThresholds Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2015 Mark Jarzombek2015Mark Jarzombek Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Mixed-Use Sidewalk

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Around the globe, streets and sidewalks in cities are being contested as spaces that should be used for more than transportation. This article challenges our understanding of both property rights and public space by applying a property rights framework to situate sidewalk use debates. It analyzes and maps the sidewalk property regimes of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, through a novel integration of surveying and ethnography. The case illuminates the feasibility of a mixed-use sidewalk that can be shared between various kinds of uses and users. A mixed-use sidewalk that is both cooperative and livable is possible if planners incorporate time into planning space in order to expand the sidewalk's flexibility and if local society can renarrate and enforce new legitimacies on the sidewalk. Takeaway for practice: Sidewalk space deserves more attention as an important public space. In our era of historic urbanization, we should reconceive sidewalks as a mixed-use space rather than an exclusively pedestrian zone. Moreover, North American planners would benefit from engaging with public space experiments happening in cities in the developing world. Research support: This research was supported by MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Proof of Concept Centers: Accelerating the Commercialization of University Innovation

Innovation drives economic growth. Economic growth leads to longer, healthier lives by transforming yesterday's luxuries into better, cheaper, and more efficient goods and services. University research is a key component of our nation's innovative capacity. In an increasingly dynamic and global economy, the institutional infrastructure is inefficient at moving university innovations to the marketplace. University researchers often face convoluted procedures with insufficient guidance to commercialize their innovations. As angel investors and venture capitalists increasingly invest in later-stage enterprises, researchers face difficulty finding early stage funding to develop and test prototypes and conduct market research. In order to fill this funding gap and accelerate the commercialization of university innovations, a new type of organization has emerged - the proof of concept center. This analysis examines two such centers: the Deshpande Center at the MIT School of Engineering and the von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and provides valuable insights into how proof of concept centers can facilitate the transfer of university innovations into commercial applications.

Aptitude or attitude? Lawrence Summers' recent remarks reflect what little progress has been made in the public's understanding why women are under-represented in science.

Lawrence Summers' recent remarks reflect what little progress has been made in the public's understanding of why women are under-represented in science

The ‘making’ of an entrepreneur: testing a model of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students at MIT

In the present study a covariance structure model is tested to identify the causes of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students. Specifically, we explore whether steady personal dispositions or whether perceptions of contextual founding conditions have an impact on the intention to found one’s own business. The survey of 512 students at the MIT School of Engineering broadly confirms the model. Personality traits have a strong impact on the attitude towards self–employment. The entrepreneurial attitude is strongly linked with the intention to start a new venture. The students’ personality therefore shows an indirect effect on intentions. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial intent is directly affected by perceived barriers and support factors in the entrepreneurship–related context. The findings have important implications for policy makers inside and outside universities.

In conversation

October 01 2019 in conversation Edith Ackermann, Edith Ackermann Edith Ackermann is a developmental psychologist; she investigates collaborative learning, constructive play, and creative work/design in technology-mediated environments. She is currently Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Aix-Marsellle, France, and Visiting Professor in the Design Technology Group at the MIT School of Architecture. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Krsysztof Wodiczko Krsysztof Wodiczko Krzysztof Wodiczko is an internationally renowned artist and Professor in the Visual Studies Program of the Department of Architecture at MIT, where he is also Director of the Interrogative Design Work Group at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). He has realized more than 70 Public Projections throughout the world and developed several public intervention instruments, like the Homeless Vehicle. 1988-89, Alien Staff, 1992, Mouthpiece, 1994, and Aegis, 1998. Wodiczko is recipient of the fourth Hiroshima Art Prize for his contribution to world peace. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Edith Ackermann Edith Ackermann is a developmental psychologist; she investigates collaborative learning, constructive play, and creative work/design in technology-mediated environments. She is currently Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Aix-Marsellle, France, and Visiting Professor in the Design Technology Group at the MIT School of Architecture. Krsysztof Wodiczko Krzysztof Wodiczko is an internationally renowned artist and Professor in the Visual Studies Program of the Department of Architecture at MIT, where he is also Director of the Interrogative Design Work Group at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). He has realized more than 70 Public Projections throughout the world and developed several public intervention instruments, like the Homeless Vehicle. 1988-89, Alien Staff, 1992, Mouthpiece, 1994, and Aegis, 1998. Wodiczko is recipient of the fourth Hiroshima Art Prize for his contribution to world peace. Online Issn: 2572-7338 Print Issn: 1091-711X © 1999 Edith Ackermann and Krsysztof Wodiczko1999Edith Ackermann and Krsysztof Wodiczko Thresholds (1999) (19): 57–63. https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00487 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Edith Ackermann, Krsysztof Wodiczko; in conversation. Thresholds 1999; (19): 57–63. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00487 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsThresholds Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 1999 Edith Ackermann and Krsysztof Wodiczko1999Edith Ackermann and Krsysztof Wodiczko Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Thermodynamics: Energy of nonsimple systems and second postulate

By means of new definitions of separable system, separable state and energetic process, the first postulate of thermodynamics and the definition of energy are rigorously extended to nonsimple systems. The definition of energy for open systems presented in a previous paper (Zanchini,Nuovo Cimento B,101, 453 (1988)) is simplified. Then, the statement of the second postulate proposed by the MIT school of thermodynamics is stated in a more precise form, which does not present the undefined concept of parameters. As an application of the logical scheme so obtained, the Gibbs equations for systems contained in electric or magnetic fields are deduced rigorously.

CITY SENSE AND CITY DESIGN: WRITINGS AND PROJECTS OF KEVIN LYNCH

Kevin Lynch's books are the classic underpinnings of modern urban planning and design, yet they are only a part of his rich legacy of ideas about human purposes and values in built form. Sense and City Design brings together Lynch's remaining work including professional design and planning projects that show how he translated many of his ideas and theories into practice. An invaluable sourcebook of design knowledge, Sense and City Design completes the record of one of the foremost environmental-design theorists of our time and leads to a deeper understanding of his distinctively humanistic philosophy. editors, both former students of Lynch, provide a cogent summary of his career and of the role he played in shaping and transforming the American urban design profession during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Each of the seven groups of writings and projects that follow begins with a short introduction explaining their thematic content and their background. essays in part I focus on the premises of Lynch's work. his novel reading of large-scale built environments and the notion that the design of an urban landscape should be as meaningful and intimate as the natural landscape. Next, excerpts from Lynch's travel journals reveal his early ideas on how people perceive and interpret their surroundings, ideas that culminated in his seminal work The Image of the City. This part of the book also presents Lynch's experiments with children and his assessment of environmental-perception research. examples of both smallscale and large-scale analysis of visual form in part III are followed by three parts on city design. These include Lynch's more theoretical works on complexplanning decisions involving both functional (spatial and structural organization) and normative (how the city works in human terms) approaches, articles discussing the principles that guided Lynchs teaching and practice of city design, and descriptions of Lynch's own projects in the Boston area and elsewhere. book concludes with essays written late in Lynch's career, fantasy pieces on utopias and offering new design freedoms and scenarios warning of horrifying cacotopias to come. Kevin Lynch (1918-1984) studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin and later obtained a Bachelor of City Planning degree from MIT. After a long and distinguished career on the faculty of the MIT School of Architecture and Urban Planning, he was named Professor Emeritus of City Planning. Tridib Banerjee is Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Southern California. Michael Southworth is a Professor of Urban Design and Environmental Planning at the University of California at Berkeley.