Carmakers Unveil New Types of Hybrids

Lean machine: The Jaguar XF will use a flywheel hybrid system.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

ENERGY

Carmakers Unveil New Types of Hybrids

Alternative approaches replace the battery with compressed air or a flywheel.

• BY STUART NATHAN

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Hybrid cars normally combine conventional engines with battery-powered electric motors. But many carmakers are developing alternative types of hybrids—some of which were on display this month at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.

Hybrid systems recover kinetic energy—from the engine or from the vehicle itself—and use it to boost the efficiency of the engine. A typical hybrid car does this by charging up a battery.

Scuderi, based in West Springfield, Massachusetts, has altered the way the internal combustion engine operates to convert kinetic energy into the potential energy of high-pressure air. It splits the four parts of the internal combustion cycle across two cylinders synchronized on the same crankshaft. One cylinder handles the air intake and compression part of the cycle, pumping compressed air via a crossover passage into the second cylinder. The crossover contains the fuel-injection system, and combustion and exhaust are handled in the second cylinder.

When the vehicle does not need power—when traveling downhill, braking, or decelerating—the second cylinder is disabled and the first cylinder's air is diverted into a high-pressure air-storage tank. This air can be used to help run the engine, boosting its efficiency.

Recently, Scuderi has combined this system with a "Miller-cycle" turbocharger, which picks up energy off the exhaust and uses it to compress air into the intake cylinder. This allows the compression side to be shrunk down and reduces the amount of work done through the crankshaft. "The engine is producing much higher output at higher efficiency, we're producing less emissions, and our torque level is very high," said Scuderi group president Sal Scuderi at the Frankfurt show. "Our gasoline engine will rival the torque of any diesel engine on the market, but it does that while maintaining low pressure inside the cylinders, which reduces wear and tear."

Scuderi has now released results of a computer simulation of its engine against a European economy-class engine of comparable power. The air hybrid achieved a fuel economy figure of 65 miles per gallon, compared with 52 miles per gallon for the conventional engine. It also emitted 85 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide, compared with 104 grams per kilometer for the conventional engine.

Across the Atlantic, a team that formerly worked for the Renault Formula 1 team has adapted its motorsport-developed flywheel system for use with conventional vehicles. The team has formed a company, Flybrid Systems, to commercialize the technology, and has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover to trial the Flybrid technology that was originally developed as the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used in Formula 1 racing to provide a boost during racing. But while most KERS systems work by using a flywheel to charge an onboard battery or supercapacitor, Flybrid uses a gearbox system to transfer kinetic energy directly to and from the wheels.

Flybrid cars transfer energy via either a continuously variable transmission or a less complex three-gear system, which allows 15 different gear ratios on a standard five-gear model. "There are always efficiency losses when you convert energy," explains Flybrid's technical director, Doug Cross. "This system eliminates those losses, making it far more efficient."

The flywheel weighs five kilograms and is made from carbon fiber wrapped around a steel core. Because it is so light, it has to spin fast—at 60,000 rpm—which means that its rim is traveling at supersonic speeds. As a result, it has to operate in a vacuum, and Flybrid has developed special seals so that the wheel can be fully enclosed inside a safety container in case of a crash. At top speed, the flywheel can store 540 kilojoules of energy, which is sufficient to accelerate an average-sized automobile from a standing start to 48 kilometers per hour.

"One way you can use this technology is to boost the car during a cruise," Cross said. "We have a system installed on a Jaguar saloon, and that has shown that during a cruise, you can actually switch the engine off for 65 percent of the journey. With a V6 diesel engine, it cuts fuel use by 26 percent, but gives you the power of a V8 petrol engine."

Let's Talk, iPhone

COMPUTING

Let's Talk, iPhone

Could Apple be about to give iPhone users an AI personal assistant? And if so, will people like it?

• BY TOM SIMONITE

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Apple has popularized some revolutions in how we use personal computers in its time: the graphical interface, the mouse, and the touch screen, for example. Next Tuesday could see the company add to that list of milestones in man-machine interaction by letting users control a computer by having a conversation with it.

Apple's new boss, Tim Cook, will take the stage at the company's California headquarters to announce the latest updates to the company's products. Apple's invite to the event says only "Let's Talk iPhone," but the Internet rumor mill has decided that Cook will announce two things: a fifth model of the iPhone; and a voice-activated "Assistant" for iPhone and iPad devices, based on an impressive app called Siri that was bought by Apple last year (see here for one of the more plausible predictions).

We may well get neither of these, but of the two, the second is the most interesting. I may regret saying this, but there are few significant hardware upgrades that Apple could add to the iPhone 5. Some things will get incrementally better; more resolution (camera), faster (processor), or bigger (screen), but there's not a lot left to throw in that makes sense.

On the other hand, making it simple to set up calendar invites or find a nearby movie just by conversing with your iPhone or iPad would break new ground. It's also the kind of achievable revolution that Apple is known for.

The formula is simple: take a bunch of neat technology that has never lived up to its promise, rethink what it's for, do some secretive hard work, and then release a natural, retrospectively obvious experience that redefines what computers can do.

The iPad and iPhone interfaces are good examples of this. Touch screens, mobile browsers, and tablets existed already, but Apple rolled them together and altered the trajectory of personal computing.

The shabby history of speech recognition, voice control, and virtual assistants (remember Clippy?) is perfect feedstock for this approach. All have been around for decades and have the potential to be so much better than poking buttons or a screen. Never has anyone come close to realizing that potential.

When Siri debuted in 2009, it looked to be the best hope yet of changing that. It was the spawn of a DARPA-funded AI project and some smart thinking on integrating various tools such as maps, restaurant reviews, and movie ticket bookings, and we made it one of our 10 technologies to watch in 2009. A user could have back-and-forth conversations that begin with complex statements like, "I'd like a romantic place for Italian food near my office."

Siri contained several smart technical ideas, but crucially, it condensed them into an easy-to-understand, working conversational interface that was actually useful. Apple could take this a significant step further by making the technology more robust and integrating it with the iPad and iPhone operating system. If they do that, the humble app Siri would be promoted to the role of Assistant, a personal aide that you talk to in normal language and helps with most things you use your phone or tablet for. In essence, it would be your phone's personality.

As will be pointed out in many a discussion thread if this does come to pass, Google was (sort of) there first. The company's Android operating system has a "voice actions" feature that allows users to press and hold a button and request directions to a local business, or dictate a text message. Yet it lacks the power to take actions beyond your phone, such as booking a restaurant. More importantly, it doesn't have a smart conversational interface.

Voice actions on Android feel like a techy side feature, not a new way of interacting with computers. Assistant could and should be a much more cohesive package. If it does arrive on Tuesday, it will likely condense a boatload of technology into one simple thing: a computer interface you converse with. If done well, that could see Apple once again shift what it means to use a computer.

Apple doesn't perform such tricks for free, and is notoriously controlling, though. Should Assistant appear, it will only be available on Apple devices, to drive sales. Any external services it connects with will be carefully approved. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Apple gets a cut of anything sold through Assistant, whether movie tickets or restaurant booking. Still, like the iPhone and Apple's other disruptive ideas, it won't be long before competitors launch mimics.

Questions remain in my mind, though, about the limits Apple will have placed on Assistant to have it live up to the company's own high standards. Creating a voice-based interface is easy, but creating one that, in Steve Jobs's words, "just works" is not.

The fact is that voice recognition has to cheat to be really accurate without extensive pretraining to your voice. It needs some precognition of what you are going to say. Google's voice search mobile app, for example, is incredibly accurate because it draws on piles of data about phrases people search for. Apple Assistant should be fine when taking orders related to things it knows you might talk about, like your calendar, contacts or music playlists. Transcribing speech, such as an e-mail message, when you could say literally anything is another matter, though, and it will be interesting to see if Apple makes it part of its system. I've found Google's voice actions to be infuriating to use for composing messages, and I can't imagine Apple launching a product with such potential to annoy users.

Striking the balance between power and reliability could be the toughest design decision involved in building something like Assistant. It's the type of judgement call that Steve Jobs excelled at, for example, when he put the iPad on hold and launched a smaller version in the form of a phone first. Come Tuesday, we may get a glimpse at how well Jobs's successor negotiates the same trade-off between what could be launched and what meets Apple's unique brand of experience-centric perfectionism.

டேப்ளட் கணணிகள் தரும் புத்தம் புதிய வசதிகள்

பெர்சனல் கணணியின் இடத்தை விரைவில் பிடித்துவிடும் என அனைவரும் எதிர்பார்க்கும் ஒரு சாதனம் டேப்ளட் பிசி. இன்று இது ஒரு புதிய சாதனம் அல்ல. கைகளில் எடுத்துச் சென்று எங்கும் பயன்படுத்தக் கூடிய மிகச் சிறந்த சாதனமாக டேப்ளட் பிசி உருவாகியுள்ளது. நமக்குப் பிடித்த செய்தி சேனல்களைப் பார்க்கலாம், பிரியமான திரைப்படங்களைப் பார்க்கலாம், மின்னஞ்சல்களைப் பார்க்கலாம், அனுப்பலாம், கேம்ஸ் விளையாடலாம், இசையை ரசிக்கலாம். இப்படி இன்றைய டிஜிட்டல் வாழ்க்கையோடு ஒட்டிய அனைத்து செயல்பாடுகளையும் மேற்கொள்ளலாம். முதலில் வெளியான டேப்ளட் கணணிகள் பயன்படுத்த மிகவும் கடினமாகவும், அதிக எடை கொண்டதாகவும் இருந்தன. ஒரு சில மணி நேரங்களிலேயே அதன் பற்றரிகள் தங்கள் மின் சக்தியை இழந்தன. அதனால் லேப்டாப் கணணியே போதும் என்று மக்கள் அவ்வளவாக இதன் மீது அக்கறை காட்டாமல் இருந்தனர். தற்போது இதன் அனைத்து குறைகளும் களையப்பட்டு சிறப்பான பயன்பாட்டினைத் தரும் பல அம்சங்களை இவை கொண்டுள்ளன. இவற்றைப் பயன்படுத்துவதில் உள்ள சில அனுகூலங்களை இங்கு காணலாம். 1. டேப்ளட் பிசி என்பது முழுமையான ஒரு பெர்சனல் கணணி என்று சொல்லலாம். இன்றைக்கு கணணி பயன்படுத்துபவர்களில் பெரும்பாலானவர்கள் அதனை இன்டர்நெட் பிரவுஸ் செய்திடவும், வீடியோ மற்றும் ஓடியோ ரசிக்க மட்டுமே அதிகம் பயன்படுத்துகின்றனர். இந்த செயல்களை பெர்சனல் கணணிகளில் மேற்கொள்கையில் கட்டாயமாக அதன் முன் அமர்ந்து தான் செயல்பட வேண்டியுள்ளது. ஆனால் ஒரு டேப்ளட் கணணியில் நமக்கு வசதியான இடத்தில் நின்று கொண்டோ, படுத்துக் கொண்டோ, அமர்ந்தோ, சுகவாசியாக டேப்ளட் பிசியைப் பயன்படுத்தலாம். 2. டேப்ளட் பிசியைக் கையாள்வது மிக இயற்கையான ஒரு செயலாக உள்ளது. குறிப்பாக அதன் தொடுதிரையைத் தொட்டுச் செயல்படுவது, மவுஸினைக் கையாள்வதனைக் காட்டிலும் எளிதாகவும், இயற்கையாகவும் உள்ளது. மேலும் டேப்ளட் பிசியைப் பயன்படுத்த, சிறப்பாக எந்த பயிற்சியும் தேவையில்லை. ஒரு குழந்தை கூட எளிதாக இதனைப் பயன்படுத்த முடியும். 3. டேப்ளட் பிசி மிகவும் வேகமாகச் செயல்படுகிறது. இன்டர்நெட் பிரவுஸ் செய்வதில் இதன் வேகம் பெர்சனல் கணணியையும் மிஞ்சி விடுகிறது. 4. நண்பர்களுடன் வீடியோ சேட் செயல்களில் ஈடுபடுவது, பெர்சனல் கணணிகளில் முடியும் என்றாலும் ஒரு டேப்ளட் பிசியில் மேற்கொள்வது இன்னும் இயற்கையாக ஒரு நெருக்கத்தினை நண்பர்களுடன் ஏற்படுத்துகிறது. 5. ஒரு டேப்ளட் பிசியில் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மின் நூல் பக்கங்களை சேவ் செய்து நாம் விருப்பப்படும் நேரத்தில் படிக்க இயலும். தனியாக இதற்கென ஒரு இ–ரீடர் என்னும் சாதனத்தினை வாங்க வேண்டியதில்லை. 6. டேப்ளட் பிசியை எந்த ஒரு சாதனமாகவும் இயக்க பல அப்ளிகேஷன்கள் இலவசமாகவே கிடைக்கின்றன. இதற்கென அப்ளிகேஷன் ஸ்டோர்கள் இணையத்தில் நிறைய இயங்குகின்றன. கமெரா, நூல்கள், மியூசிக் பிளேயர், பருவ இதழ்கள் எனப் பல வசதிகள் கிடைக்கின்றன. 7. பெர்சனல் கணணி பயன்படுத்துவதில் மொனிட்டர் மூலம் நம் கண்களுக்கு ஏற்படும் இடையூறுகள், ஒரு டேப்ளட் பிசியைப் பயன்படுத்துகையில் அறவே நீக்கப்படுகின்றன. இதனை எந்தக் கோணத்திலும் வைத்துப் பயன்படுத்தலாம். நடந்து கொண்டும் படுத்துக் கொண்டும் கூட இதனை எளிதாகப் பயன்படுத்த முடியும். 8. டேப்ளட் பிசிக்கள் வந்த புதிதில், ஒரு பெர்சனல் கணணி விலைக்கே விற்பனை செய்யப்பட்டன. இப்போது பல நிறுவனங்கள் இந்த சந்தையில் இயங்குவதால் இவற்றின் விலை மிக வேகமாகக் குறைந்து வருகிறது. ஒரு பெர்சனல் மற்றும் லேப்டாப் கணணியைக் காட்டிலும் குறைவான விலையில் இதனை வாங்கிப் பயன்படுத்த முடியும்.

மூளைக் கோளாறுக்கு அருமருந்தாகும் சிரிப்பு: ஆய்வுத் தகவல்

சிரிப்பு தான் உலகின் சிறந்த மருந்து என்பது நமக்குத் தெரிந்தது தான். ஆனால் சமீபத்திய ஆய்வு ஒன்று மூளைக் கோளாறால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்களுக்கு சிரிப்பு அருமருந்தாகப் பயன்படுவதாகத் தெரிவித்துள்ளது. பிரிட்டன் தலைநகர் லண்டனில் உள்ள 36 மருத்துவமனைகள் மற்றும் 400 வீடுகளில் கடந்த மூன்றாண்டுகளாக வயதானோரிடையே ஓர் ஆய்வு நடத்தப்பட்டது. நியூ சவுத் வேல்ஸ் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தின் ஆய்வாளர்கள் நடத்திய இதில் விளையாட்டுகள், நகைச்சுவை மற்றும் பாடல்கள் ஆகியவை பயன்படுத்தப்பட்டன. ஆய்வாளர்கள் தினசரி மருத்துவமனைகள் மற்றும் வீடுகளுக்குச் சென்று வயதானோருடன் பேசி சிறிது நேரம் இருப்பர். அப்போது விளையாட்டு, நகைச்சுவை போன்றவற்றை அவர்களுடன் பகிர்ந்து கொள்வர். இந்த ஆய்வில் 200 வீடுகளில் உள்ள வயதானோரைச் சந்திக்கும் ஆய்வாளர்கள், விளையாட்டு போன்ற எதையுமே பயன்படுத்தாமல் வெறுமனே பேசி விட்டு வந்து விடுவர். ஆய்வின் இறுதியில் வயதானோர் குறிப்பாக பல்வேறு நோய்களால் மூளைக் கோளாறு ஏற்பட்டு அதனால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டோர், விளையாட்டு, நகைச்சுவை போன்றவற்றால் மூளைக் கோளாறின் பாதிப்பில் இருந்து 20 சதவீதம் விடுபட்டது தெரியவந்தது.

அலர்ஜி குறித்த சில தகவல்கள்

அலர்ஜி என்றால் ஒவ்வாமை என்று பொருள். அலர்ஜி என்ற பெயரை முதலில் வைத்தவர் டாக்டர் க்ளெமன்ஸ் ப்ரெய்ஹர் வான் பிர்கியூட். அலர்ஜி என்பது மைக்ரோப், பக்டீரியா, வைரஸ் போன்றவற்றால் வரக்கூடிய நோய் அல்ல. நம் உடலின் தற்பாதுகாப்பிற்காக இம்யூன் சிஸ்டம் என்ற ஒரு அமைப்பு உள்ளது. சில நேரங்களில் நம் உடலில் இந்த சிஸ்டம் வேலை செய்யாமல் போய் விடுகிறது. அப்போது சாதாரணமான பொருட்களை சாப்பிட்டாலும் கூட அதைச் சரியாகக் கவனிக்காமல் இது தவறாக செயல்பட்டு விடுகிறது. அதனால் தான் கத்திரிக்காய் கூட சிலருக்கு அலர்ஜியாகத் தெரிகிறது. எதனால் இந்த அலர்ஜி வருகிறது என்று கண்டுபிடிப்பது சற்று சிரமம்தான். ஏனென்றால் ஒரு நாளில் நாம் எத்தனையோ வாசங்களை நுகர்கிறோம். எத்தனையோ பொருட்களை சாப்பிடுகிறோம். அவற்றில் அலர்ஜிக்கு காரணமான பொருள் எது என்று கண்டுபிடித்தால் தான் அவற்றை நாம் ஒதுக்கிவிட்டு அலர்ஜியில் இருந்து விடுபட முடியும். உதாரணமாக ஆஸ்துமா உள்ளவர்களுக்கு அலர்ஜி தான் 40 சதவீதம் காரணமாக உள்ளது. “அனாபைலாக்டிக் ஷாக்” என்று ஒரு நோய் உள்ளது. இதனால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்களுக்கு உடலில் உள்ள திசுக்கள் எல்லாம் வீங்கி விடும். அதைத் தொடர்ந்து வயிற்றுத் தசைகளில் துடிக்கும் படியான வலியும் உண்டாகும். தொண்டைக் குழாய் வீங்கி நெருக்க ஆரம்பிக்கும். மூச்சுத் திணறல், பிளட் பிரஷர் என்று ஒவ்வொன்றாக தாக்க ஆரம்பித்து விடும். அதனால் உடனடியாக மருத்துவ சிகிச்சையை மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டும். இந்த வகையான அலர்ஜிக்கு சில வகை மீன்கள், பூச்சிக்கடி, பெனிசிலின் போன்றவை தான் காரணம். தோல் பரிசோதனையை செய்து கொள்வதன் மூலம் சில நோய்களில் இருந்து அலர்ஜிக்கான காரணத்தைக் கண்டறிகின்றனர். இந்த சோதனையில் அலர்ஜியை உண்டாக்கக்கூடிய பொருளை சிறு ஊசியின் மூலம் உடலில் செலுத்துகின்றனர். அப்போது உடல் ஏதாவது ரியாக்ஷனை வெளிப்படுத்துகிறதா என்று பார்க்கின்றனர். தற்போது உலகம் முழுவதும் அலர்ஜியைப் பற்றிய ஆராய்ச்சிகளும், அதற்கான எதிர்ப்பு மருந்துகளும் கண்டுபிடித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றனர். இங்கிலாந்தைச் சேர்ந்த ஹின்ச் கிளிப் என்பவர் நுகர்வதால் உண்டாகும் அலர்ஜியைத் தடுக்க ஒரு பிளாஸ்டிக்கால் ஆன கருவியைக் கண்டறிந்துள்ளார். இதனுள் ஒரு சிறிய மின்விசிறி சுழன்று கொண்டிருக்கும். இந்த சாதனத்தைத் தலையில் கவிழ்த்துக் கொண்டால் பில்டர் செய்யப்பட்ட சுத்தமான காற்றை சுவாசிக்கலாம். அலர்ஜியைத் தூண்டி விடுவது எது என்று தெரியுமா? உடலுக்குள் இருக்கும் ஆர்க்கிடோனிக் என்ற அமிலம் தான் என்றும் மருத்துவ நிபுணர்கள் கண்டறிந்துள்ளனர்.

Measuring Global Photosynthesis Rate: Earth's Plant Life 'Recycles' Carbon Dioxide Faster Than Previously Estimated

Researchers followed the path of oxygen atoms on carbon dioxide molecules during photosynthesis to create a new way of measuring the efficiency of Earth's plant life. (Credit: © Dmitrijs Dmitrijevs / Fotolia)

Science Daily  — A Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego-led research team followed the path of oxygen atoms on carbon dioxide molecules during photosynthesis to create a new way of measuring the efficiency of the world's plant life.

"It's really hard to measure rates of photosynthesis for forests, let alone the entire globe. For a single leaf it's not so hard, you just put it in an instrument chamber and measure the CO₂ decreasing in the chamber air," said Welp. "But you can't do that for an entire forest. What we have done is to use a naturally occurring marker in atmospheric CO₂ that let us track how often it ended up inside a plant leaf, and from that we estimated the mean global rate of photosynthesis over the last few decades."

A team led by postdoctoral researcher Lisa Welp considered the oxygen atoms contained in the carbon dioxide taken up by plants during photosynthesis. The ratio of two oxygen isotopes in carbon dioxide told researchers how long the CO₂ had been in the atmosphere and how fast it had passed through plants. From this, they estimated that the global rate of photosynthesis is about 25 percent faster than thought.

The authors of the study, published in the journal Nature, said the new estimate of the rate of global photosynthesis enabled by their method will in turn help guide other estimates of plant activity such as the capacity of forests and crops to grow. Understanding such variables is becoming increasingly important to scientists and policymakers attempting to understand the potential changes to ecosystems that can be expected from global warming.

"It speaks to the question, how alive is the Earth? We answer that it is a little more alive than previously believed," said study co-author and director of the Scripps CO₂ Research Group, Ralph Keeling.

The key to this new approach was establishing a means of linking the changes in oxygen isotopes to El Niño, the global climate phenomenon that is associated with a variety of unusual weather patterns including low amounts rainfall in tropical regions of Asia and South America. The naturally occurring forms of oxygen known as 18O and 16O are present in different proportions to each other in water inside leaves during dry periods in the tropics. This signal in leaf waters is passed along to CO₂ when CO₂ mingles with the water inside leaves. This exchange of oxygen between CO₂ and plant water also occurs in regions outside of the tropics that aren't as affected by El Niño and eventually returns this 18O/16O ratio to its norm. Welp's team used the time it took for this return to normal to infer the speed at which photosynthesis is taking place. They discovered that the ratio returned to normal faster than previously expected.

From this, the team revised the rate of global photosynthesis upward. The rate is expressed in terms of how much carbon is processed by plants in a year. From the previous estimate of 120 petagrams of carbon a year, the team set the annual rate between 150 and 175 petagrams. One petagram equals one trillion kilograms.

Keeling added that part of the value of the study is its validation of the importance of long-term measurement series and of making multiple independent measurements of the same phenomena. The researchers conducted isotope analyses of air that has been collected by the Scripps CO₂ group at several locations around the world since 1977. It was only after decades of measurements that the researchers saw that the several bumps in the isotope record matched the timing of El Niño events. They compared their data to samples collected by Australia's Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The redundancy was needed to make sure the data from Scripps' own samples weren't the result of measurement errors, said Keeling, whose research group maintains the famous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration known as the Keeling Curve. Keeling's father, Charles David Keeling, established the CO₂ measurements in 1958.

"Supporting long-term measurements is not easy through the normal funding mechanisms, which expect to see results on time scales of typically four years or less," said Keeling. "Few science agencies are happy to commit to measuring variables over longer periods but the value of tracking changes in the atmosphere doesn't stop after four years. Decades of measurements were required to unravel the features highlighted in this paper."

Other co-authors of the report were Harro A.J. Meijer from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; Roger Francey and Colin Allison from CSIRO; and Alane Bollenbacher, Stephen Piper, and Martin Wahlen from Scripps and Kei Yoshimura of University of Tokyo. The National Science Foundation and the federal Department of Energy have provided long-term support for collection of the data used in the study.

Early nights cut teen obesity

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Kids who went to bed late and got up late were 1.5 times more likely to become obese. Image: JBryson/iStockphoto Research from the University of South Australia and published today in the leading international journal, SLEEP, shows that an early night may be a key factor in reducing obesity and improving fitness for teenagers. The study co-authored by postdoctoral fellow at UniSA, Dr Carol Maher and Professor Tim Olds examined the bedtimes and waking times of more than 2000 Australians aged between 9 and 16 years comparing their activity in their free time and their weight. The results showed that even with equal actual amounts of sleep, young people who went to bed early and woke early were likely to be slimmer and fitter that their counterpart night owls. “We found that kids who went to bed late and got up late were 1.5 times more likely to become obese and 2.9 times more likely to be physically inactive,” Dr Maher said. “The night owls more often spent their free time playing computer or video games, watching TV or engaged in other sedentary or screen-based activities. “While scientists have already made the connection between less sleep and poor health outcomes around obesity and fitness, what is interesting and new here is that the timing of sleep may be an important factor in predicting health in young people.” Dr Maher said given teenagers’ natural inclination to stay up and sleep in, the study may help to alert people to the dangers of taking that habit to extremes. “We know that evenings tend to be the time of day when there are more sedentary activity options,” she said. “The most attractive TV programming is in the evening and it is a time when people hop onto facebook or socially interactive online gaming options so the incentives are there for teenagers to stay up and stay sedentary. At the same time, when they sleep in they are missing the opportunities for sports and other physical activities that tend to be held or undertaken in the mornings.” The study showed young people who habitually went to bed early and woke up earlier than their late-sleeping contemporaries accumulated 27 minutes more moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Night owls spent an average of 48 minutes longer playing video games, watching TV or engaging online than those who turned in early. In fact, on a broad scale, they replaced 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity with 30 minutes of sedentary behaviour each day. And in the line-up of indicators for poorer health outcomes, the night owls had higher Body Mass Index (BMI) scores and were more likely to be obese or overweight. The night owls were also more likely to live in major cities, come from lower SES households, work part time and have fewer brothers and sisters. “It is only when you do the research and unpack the dynamic relationships between health and habits that you find trends that can potentially be altered with modifications to behaviour and the social environment,” Dr Maher said. “The research may help to support education around teen-age health and give them the knowledge to improve their own health and well being.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

New way rids old unsafe tyres

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY

“There is a world-wide need to address the issue of disposing of end-of-life tyres in a responsible, environmentally friendly manner." Image:Falcor_/iStockphoto A new recycling process could be the answer to alleviating the environmental burden of old tyres. Researchers with Deakin University’s Institute for Technology Research and Innovation worked with industry partner VR TEK Global to develop a new cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for turning old tyres into high quality ingredients for the manufacture of new rubber products. “What we have developed is a significant breakthrough in tyre recycling that is superior to the current practices of shredding and burying tyres in landfill, burning tyres or recycling them into low quality materials of limited use,” explained Deakin research engineer Chris Skourtis. “Our process does not rely on chemicals and uses less power—making it more environmentally friendly. It also results in high quality ingredients that can replace virgin and synthetic rubbers in the manufacture of products such as new tyres, car parts, insulation materials, conveyor belts and ashphalt additive for roads.” Each year more than 20 million tyres in Australia, and one billion world-wide, reach the end of their working lives. Only a small percentage of these tyres are recycled with most making their way into landfill; placing a burden on the environment and human health. “There is a world-wide need to address the issue of disposing of end-of-life tyres in a responsible, environmentally friendly manner,” Mr Skourtis said. “Tyres simply dumped or placed in landfill are known to leach harmful chemicals into the environment; cause fires; and provide a perfect breeding ground for pests like mosquitoes and rats. “We have come up with a way of giving new life to old tyres that should eliminate the need for them to end up in landfill.” The Deakin researchers, led by Professor Qipeng Guo, developed a small scale facility at the University’s Waurn Ponds Campus to test and refine the recycling technology developed and patented by VR TEK Global. “We now have a technology that is far better than any other tyre recycling processes,” Mr Skourtis explained. “First, the tyres are segmented in a way that allows for each part to be treated differently which eliminates impurities and results in a higher quality end product. For example, the steel reinforcement in the tyre is separated without fragmenting, which is not common in current tyre recycling. “We have then created an efficient means of devulcanising and activating the tyres into rubber powders for recycling into rubber products. “Devulcanisation essentially reverses the chemical process used to create the tyres. This is normally done using environmentally harmful chemicals. We have developed a mechanical method that requires no chemicals. “We have also developed a way of using ozone gas to activate the rubber powder which makes it more compatible with other materials. This extends the usability of the powder for producing a wider range of rubber and plastic products than currently possible.” This breakthrough in tyre recycling technology is the result of four years of research and development between VR TEK Global and CSIRO and Deakin University. The project has been funded by the Federal Government (via the Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre) and the Victorian State Government (through the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing). Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Peer pressure driving sexting

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

"...if boys refrained from engaging in the activity they were labeled ‘gay’ or could be ostracized from the peer group. " Image: manley099/iStockphoto Both young men and women experience peer pressure to share sexual images via the new phenomenon of ‘sexting’, preliminary findings from a University of Melbourne study has found. ‘Sexting’ is the practice of sending and receiving sexual images on a mobile phone.  The study is one of the first academic investigations into ‘sexting’ from a young person’s perspective in Australia. The findings were presented to the 2011 Australasian Sexual Health Conference in Canberra. Ms Shelley Walker from the Primary Care Research Unit in the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne said the study not only highlighted the pressure young people experienced to engage in sexting, it also revealed the importance of their voice in understanding and developing responses to prevent and deal with the problem. “The phenomenon has become a focus of much media reporting; however research regarding the issue is in its infancy, and the voice of young people is missing from this discussion and debate,” she said. The qualitative study involved individual interviews with 33 young people (15 male and 18 female) aged 15 – 20 years. Preliminary findings revealed young people believed a highly sexualized media culture bombarded young people with sexualized images and created pressure to engage in sexting. Young people discussed the pressure boys place on each other to have girls’ photos on their phones and computers. They said if boys refrained from engaging in the activity they were labeled ‘gay’ or could be ostracized from the peer group. Both genders talked about the pressure girls experienced from boyfriends or strangers to reciprocate on exchanging sexual images. Some young women talked about the expectation (or more subtle pressure) to be involved in sexting, simply as a result of having viewed images of girls they know. Both young men and women talked about being sent or shown images or videos, sometimes of people they knew or of pornography without actually having agreed to look at it first. Ms Walker said ‘sexting’ is a rapidly changing problem as young people keep up with new technologies such as using video and Internet via mobile phones. The Australian Communication & Media Authority reported in 2010 that around 90 percent of young people aged 15-17 owned mobile phones. “Our study reveals how complex and ever-changing the phenomenon of ‘sexting’ is and that continued meaningful dialogue is needed to address and prevent the negative consequences of sexting for young people,” she said. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

ETV2 Teertha Yatra - Sri Sai Baba Mandir - Shaikpet - 02

Unbelievable!!

This is the case of 1 photographer taking photographs of a 2nd photographer.
The following photos were taken by Hans van de Vorst from the Netherlands at the Grand Canyon, Arizona .
The descriptions are his own.
The identity of the 2nd photographer is unknown.

Look carefully at the photographer.
He has a camera, a tripod and a plastic bag, either on his shoulder or in his left hand.
Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem.
He landed low - his right hand and right foot are slipping.
At this very moment, I took this shot.
He then pushed his body against the rock, waited for a few seconds, threw his stuff up on the flat rock , climbed up and walked away, presumably to a bathroom to change his shorts.
I know I had to change mine - and I was only watching !

 

Beyond Growth: Is investing in infrastructure good for people’s well-being?

SUBMITTED BY JORDAN SCHWARTZ 

In our last blog, we asked whether it is possible for an infrastructure investment in Latin America and the Caribbean  to hit the triple win: spur growth, aid societal well-being, and help the environment.

One young woman, on the World Bank Facebook page, posted this plea : "We as citizens have to demand these types of investments from our governments: modern roads, clean energy, investments that create employment without contaminating." ("Nosotros como ciudadanos tenemos que exigir ese tipo de inversiones a nuestros gobiernos: vías modernas, energía limpia que dé trabajo y no contamine.")

I take this as a signal that we should move beyond growth, so...

We explored the first linkage and found that the bonds are indeed strong between infrastructure investment and growth, both short-term and long-term. And while growth is crucial to poverty alleviation, growth can’t do the job alone. A more holistic view of development will help us to judge whether investment in infrastructure is good for society’s well-being. From both an economic and a personal perspective, we want to know if an investment is helping to include its users in the economy, to bring opportunity or advancement to its households.

One proxy of inclusiveness is income equality, and the research shows that, yes, larger stocks and higher quality infrastructure help improve the distribution of wealth. Although income equality tugs at our sense of fairness, as a sole indicator of inclusiveness it feels very indirect and somewhat impersonal. That is, money ain’t everything. For an investment to be truly inclusive, it needs to do something… to provide a service that makes people healthier and happier.

Although the application of Economic Impact Evaluation to the infrastructure sectors is in its infancy, we can see some linkages between infrastructure and development outcomes without stretching our imaginations beyond the evidence. We can say, with some confidence, that:

• Better public transport networks get us more reliable access to job markets and create cities with less congestion and pollution.


• Better water and sanitation mean less schistosemiasis (snail fever), diarrhea and infant health problems. 


• More reliable electricity means more time to study and learn, and the freedom to work out of the home.

All season roads mean better access to markets, schools and hospital… and to cheaper goods.

But does the average citizen paying fuel taxes, utility bills and bus fees think about these indirect impacts?

If not, what do the people want from infrastructure investment? It turns out the answer is tautological: We want the infrastructure service that the infrastructure is supposed to provide. During public consultations for a national Infrastructure Strategy in El Salvador not too long ago, an elderly man in the village of Villa Belen expressed this better than I could.

“The truth is that nobody would move to this town, because there is not a single basic service here. Those who are here now are truly desperate…we are on a boat with many problems, but if we abandon it, we will drown. If somebody would offer me money, I would take it and leave everything here. There is no light, no water, no basic services.”

Time after time, when the poor are asked what their priorities are, it is the infrastructure service itself that surfaces to the top.

The “well-being” of the poor is improved when they have household sewerage connections and running tap water they can trust. Period. Their lives are better when they have reliable electricity and when they can get get to a good road easily. Period. City dwellers want better public transport because they want better public transport. It means less waiting, less stress, more time for the important things in life. Studying the impact of infrastructure services is crucial to design and to investment prioritization.

But we don’t need regression analysis or experiments with control groups to grasp the truth of the importance of infrastructure services for the poor. They tell us themselves and, ultimately, this is the link between infrastructure and inclusiveness.

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Neuroscientists Record Novel Responses to Faces from Single Neurons in Humans

This figure shows the kind of stimuli used in the study: whole faces (left) and only partly revealed faces. According to the researchers, the surprising finding was that although neurons respond most strongly to seeing the whole face, they actually respond much less to the middle panel than to the far right panel, even though the middle panel is more similar to the whole face. (Credit: Ralph Adolphs, California Institute of Technology)

Science Daily  — Responding to faces is a critical tool for social interactions between humans. Without the ability to read faces and their expressions, it would be hard to tell friends from strangers upon first glance, let alone a sad person from a happy one. Now, neuroscientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with the help of collaborators at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, have discovered a novel response to human faces by looking at recordings from brain cells in neurosurgical patients.

"The finding really surprised us," says Ueli Rutishauser, first author on the paper, a former postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, and now a visitor in the Division of Biology. "Here you have neurons that respond well to seeing pictures of whole faces, but when you show them only parts of faces, they actually respond less and less the more of the face you show. That just seems counterintuitive."The finding, described in the journalCurrent Biology, provides the first description of neurons that respond strongly when the patient sees an entire face, but respond much less to a face in which only a very small region has been erased.

The neurons are located in a brain region called the amygdala, which has long been known to be important for the processing of emotions. However, the study results strengthen a growing belief among researchers that the amygdala has also a more general role in the processing of, and learning about, social stimuli such as faces.

Other researchers have described the amygdala's neuronal response to faces before, but this dramatic selectivity -- which requires the face to be whole in order to elicit a response -- is a new insight.

"Our interpretation of this initially puzzling effect is that the brain cares about representing the entire face, and needs to be highly sensitive to anything wrong with the face, like a part missing," explains Ralph Adolphs, senior author on the study and Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and professor of biology at Caltech. "This is probably an important mechanism to ensure that we do not mistake one person for another and to help us keep track of many individuals."

The team recorded brain-cell responses in human participants who were awaiting surgery for drug-resistant epileptic seizures. As part of the preparation for surgery, the patients had electrodes implanted in their medial temporal lobes, the area of the brain where the amygdala is located. By using special clinical electrodes that have very small wires inserted, the researchers were able to observe the firings of individual neurons as participants looked at images of whole faces and partially revealed faces. The voluntary participants provided the researchers with a unique and very rare opportunity to measure responses from single neurons through the implanted depth electrodes, says Rutishauser.

"This is really a dream collaboration for basic research scientists," he says. "At Caltech, we are very fortunate to have several nearby hospitals at which the neurosurgeons are interested in such collaborative medical research."

The team plans to continue their studies by looking at how the same neurons respond to emotional stimuli. This future work, combined with the present study results, could be highly valuable for understanding a variety of psychiatric diseases in which this region of the brain is thought to function abnormally, such as mood disorders and autism.

Engineers 'Cook' Promising New Heat-Harvesting Nanomaterials in Microwave Oven

Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed new thermoelectric nanomaterials, pictured above, that could lead to techniques for better capturing and putting this waste heat to work. The key ingredients for making marble-sized pellets of the new material are aluminum and a common, everyday microwave oven. (Credit: Rensselaer/Ramanath)

Science Daily  — Waste heat is a byproduct of nearly all electrical devices and industrial processes, from driving a car to flying an aircraft or operating a power plant. Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed new nanomaterials that could lead to techniques for better capturing and putting this waste heat to work. The key ingredients for making marble-sized pellets of the new material are aluminum and a common, everyday microwave oven.

However, a team of researchers led by Ganpati Ramanath, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, in collaboration with the University of Wollongong, Australia, have demonstrated a new way to decrease zinc oxide's thermal conductivity without reducing its electrical conductivity. The innovation involves adding minute amounts of aluminum to zinc oxide, and processing the materials in a microwave oven. The process is adapted from a technique invented at Rensselaer by Ramanath, graduate student Rutvik Mehta, and Theo Borca-Tasciuc, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE). This work could open the door to new technologies for harvesting waste heat and creating highly energy efficient cars, aircraft, power plants, and other systems.

Harvesting electricity from waste heat requires a material that is good at conducting electricity but poor at conducting heat. One of the most promising candidates for this job is zinc oxide, a nontoxic, inexpensive material with a high melting point. While nanoengineering techniques exist for boosting the electrical conductivity of zinc oxide, the material's high thermal conductivity is a roadblock to its effectiveness in collecting and converting waste heat. Because thermal and electrical conductivity are related properties, it's very difficult to decrease one without also diminishing the other.

"Harvesting waste heat is a very attractive proposition, since we can convert the heat into electricity and use it to power a device -- like in a car or a jet -- that is creating the heat in the first place. This would lead to greater efficiency in nearly everything we do and, ultimately, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels," Ramanath said. "We are the first to demonstrate such favorable thermoelectric properties in bulk-sized high-temperature materials, and we feel that our discovery will pave the way to new power harvesting devices from waste heat."

Results of the study are detailed in a paper published recently by the journal Nano Letters.

To create the new nanomaterial, researchers added minute quantities of aluminum to shape-controlled zinc oxide nanocrystals, and heated them in a $40 microwave oven. Ramanath's team is able to produce several grams of the nanomaterial in a matter of few minutes, which is enough to make a device measuring a few centimeters long. The process is less expensive and more scalable than conventional methods and is environmentally friendly, Ramanath said. Unlike many nanomaterials that are fabricated directly onto a substrate or surface, this new microwave method can produce pellets of nanomaterials that can be applied to different surfaces. These attributes, together with low thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity, are highly suitable for heat harvesting applications.

"Our discovery could be key to overcoming major fundamental challenges related to working with thermoelectric materials," said project collaborator Borca-Tasciuc. "Moreover, our process is amenable to scaling for large-scale production. It's really amazing that a few atoms of aluminum can conspire to give us thermoelectric properties we're interested in."

This work was a collaborative effort between Ramanath and Shi Xue Dou, a professor at the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the University of Wollogong, Australia. Wollongong graduate student Priyanka Jood carried out the work together with Rensselaer graduate students Rutvik Mehta and Yanliang Zhang during Jood's one-year visit to Rensselaer. Co-authors of the paper are Richard W. Siegel, the Robert W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; along with professors Xiaolin Wang and Germanas Peleckis at the University of Wollongong.

This research is funded by support from IBM through the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center; S3TEC, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences; the Australian Research Council (ARC); and the University of Wollongong.