                  |
 Net World Directory Your personal directory for the internet | ||
| Net World Directory: Archives of technology blog |
 | ||
Archives Of Technology Blog From NetworlddirectorySubscribe To Technology Blog RSS Feed 
First Neutrons Produced
Research conducted at the SNS will lay the groundwork for the next generation of materials research. Researchers think that the greatly improved ability to understand the structure of materials could lead to a virtually limitless number of innovations, including stronger and lighter airplanes, a new generation of batteries and fuel cells, and time-released drugs that target a specific body organ. Just after 2 p.m. Friday, a pulse of protons from the SNS's accelerator complex, traveling at nearly the speed of light, struck its mercury target. The protons "spalled" neutrons from the nuclei of mercury circulating inside the target. These first neutrons were recorded on equipment specially installed for the commissioning. "To have observed 'first neutrons' on the initial SNS run is a tribute to the men and women who have worked so hard to design, construct, and now operate this magnificent facility," said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the DOE Office of Science. "To bring a project of this scale and cost to completion on budget and ahead of schedule represents a model for all future large scale scientific projects to emulate. All of us owe all who have contributed to this achievement sincere thanks and appreciation for the opportunities you have now created for our world. It is a great moment for science."........ Posted by: Sarah Permalink Source New Software Protects Confidentiality Of Data While Enabling Access
The Privacy-preserving Access Control Toolkit (PACT) acts like a filter but is resilient to eavesdropping or other attacks because of the encryption. "The software automatically regulates access to data, so some information can be exchanged while other data remains confidential and private," said Prasenjit Mitra, assistant professor of information sciences and technology and member of the research team that developed the software. "Often when we implement security, we decide not to give access to data. This tool preserves security while allowing permitted access." Organizations like government agencies, non-profits and corporations frequently need to access data belonging to other organizations. But sharing data is difficult because databases are typically constructed using different terms or vocabularies. Consequently, in order to share data, organizations have to develop special-purpose applications. But organizations also need to protect sources, intellectual property and competitive advantages, so the applications must address security......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source A Biosensor Layered Like Lasagna
This configuration can accommodate a wide range of applications, from ultra-precise blood-sugar monitoring to infectious-agent detection, said Yuehe Lin, who led the research at the Department of Energy campus' W.R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. The technique, described in the current (April) Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, enables enzymes, with the help of a long, noodle-like polymer molecule, to self-assemble layer-by-layer on a single carbon nanotube. Lin and co-author Guodong Liu, a postdoctoral fellow in Lin's group, coaxed electrostatic clinginess in a polymer and an oppositely charged protein-enzyme, in this case glucose oxidase, which reacts in the presence of blood sugar. The catalyzed products from the reaction ping the carbon nanotube; if the tube is connected to an electrode, the tube will carry a signal that corresponds precisely with the amount of glucose detected. The first polymer binds to the carbon nanotube. Enzymes are attracted to the polymer, leaving an outer layer for the next polymer of opposite charge to cling to, and so on......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Gearing Up To Verify Short Range 3-D Imaging
In response, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently established an indoor, artifact-based facility to create new test protocols and performance measures to evaluate such 3D imaging systems. Several prototype artifacts (e.g., spheres, a stairway, and a slotted-disc) are currently being tested for evaluating both instruments and software. NIST scientists reported on progress in establishing the new facility at a recent conference.* The new facility is part of a larger effort to provide standard test protocols and associated facilities for evaluating and calibrating these instruments. In addition to the indoor, artifact-based facility, NIST also operates an indoor 60 meter (m) range calibration facility and is developing a separate 3D facility so that manufacturers or research groups can send in instruments for spatial calibrations. Finally, NIST will establish an outdoor ranging facility for evaluating the performance of 3D imaging systems up to 150 m to 200 m......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Shared Theories on Thought Could Lead to Smarter Machines
Last month, ontologists who have created some of the most advanced logic systems, agreed at a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) workshop to share their leading-edge concepts on such comprehensive ideas as time, space and process. The promise to cooperate, expressed in a 10-item communique* issued at the end of the two-day workshop, eventually could lead to software programs that will equip machines with mutually compatible frames of reference, enabling them to interpret and act on commands with near human common sense. Efforts to equip machines with artificial intelligence capacity have, up to now, been relatively rudimentary. Software programs might, for instance, give machines used to make furniture considerable "understanding" of terms and frames of reference used in the furniture business. But such collected knowledge known as a "lower ontology" is of limited use, and human operation is necessary at virtually every step in the manufacturing process. A machine empowered by programs that incorporate expanded frames of reference of such "higher ontologies" as space and cost might be able to begin making design and shipping decisions virtually on its own......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Software For The Next Generation Of Net Surfers
The software uses machine learning technology to predict the information needs of web surfers by refining search engine queries and filtering out irrelevant search results based on surfers' past surfing results. WebIC is a "complete Web recommendation system" says one of its creators, Tingshao Zhu, a doctoral student in the U of A Department of Computing Science. "Surfing the Web can be time-consuming and frustrating, but this product can simplify things a lot". The software can be incorporated with search engines (e.g. Google) or be downloaded directly onto to individual computers. It works by anticipating users' info needs; users can click on an icon that leads to suggested sites the user may be looking for, which is a step beyond the usual search engine index retrievals. It can also be used to filter emails and find specific articles online (not simply direct you to related sites). "On most search engines the order of the keyed words is very important as the associations are made sequentially," Zhu said. "But our software uses machine learning to transfer human inquiries into the type of inquiries a computer can fully understand. Our system can point you directly to the sites that you want and not just to sites that are related to your keyed words"......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Unexpected Plasmonic Discovery
Mittleman and graduate student Kanglin Wang reported their findings in the April 21 issue of Physical Review Letters. Their explanation for the odd phenomenon arises from the unique way that T-rays interact with the sea of electrons flowing across the surface of the metal wire. "A similar variation in wave velocity is well-documented for higher frequency radiation in the visible portion of the spectrum, but this was a real puzzle because no one had predicted it for such low frequencies," said Mittleman, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Mittleman and Wang discovered the phenomenon during follow-up experiments to last year's groundbreaking development of the first T-ray wire waveguides. Their discovery that T-rays propogate down bare metal wires has allowed them to make T-ray endoscopes that can carry T-rays around corners and into tight places - like pipes and metal containers - where it hasn't been feasible to place a T-ray generator. Mittleman hopes to use the technique to design a new class of chemical sensors that port security officers can use to quickly determine whether explosives are hidden inside shipping containers......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Water and Nanoelectronics Will Mix to Create Ultra-Dense Memory Storage Devices
A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University has proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments of water. Ferroelectrics are technologically important "smart" materials for a number of applications because they have local dipoles, which can switch up and down to encode and store information. The team's work is published in the recent issue of Nano Letters. "It is astonishing to see that a single wire of even a few atoms across can act as a stable and switchable dipole memory element," Jonathan Spanier, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Drexel, said. Spanier and colleagues successfully demonstrated the benefits of using water to stabilize memory bits in segments of oxide nanowires that are only about 3 billionths of a meter wide. "We have been interested in how water sticks to oxides," Alexie Kolpak, Penn graduate student in theoretical physical chemistry, said. "We are especially excited that water is the key ingredient in making these wires 'remember' their state"......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Revolutionary One-metre Wide Vehicle
The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a £1.5 million collaborative project which has involved nine European partners from industry and research, including the University of Bath. The three-year international project has produced a tilting three-wheeled vehicle that is fully enclosed and has seats for the driver and a passenger. Its strengthened frame protects the driver in a crash and the vehicle has a top speed of approximately 60 mph (about 100 kph) and an acceleration of 0-40 mph (60 kph) in seven seconds. At just over three feet (1 metre) wide, it is 20 inches (0.5 metres) narrower than a micro-car, and three feet narrower than a medium sized conventional car. This reduced width means more efficient parking bays, and the possibility of narrower lanes for such vehicles. The vehicle is different from previous attempts to create a small urban vehicle in that it is fully enclosed in a metal framework, is stylishly designed and is much safer. Its roof is as high as conventional cars, and it carries one passenger, who sits behind the driver......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source Truck Stop Electrification Station Maps Help Truckers Reduce Idling
Idle reduction systems hold great promise for the approximately 500,000 long-haul trucks with sleeper cabs currently operating in the United States. Estimates show idle reduction technologies could reduce diesel fuel use by about 800 million gallons annually, with a potential savings to the trucking industry of $2 billion each year. In addition, idle reduction strategies can reduce NOX emissions by approximately 150,000 tonnes per year and particulate matter emissions by up to 3,000 tonnes per year. By reducing the amount of time that trucks idle, typically 6 hours per night, drivers can significantly reduce engine wear and associated maintenance costs. Routine maintenance can be performed less often and trucks can travel farther before needing an engine overhaul. The Truck Stop Electrification Station Locator (TSE) was developed through an interagency agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The project resulted from a collaboration between FHWA and the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities activity......... Posted by: Kevin Permalink Source |
||
| Net World Directory: Navigation |