Industry News

August 2019
APEC 2020 Sponsors Continue Student Travel Support Program
New Orleans, LA – The joint sponsors of the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) have announced the continuation of the popular Student Attendance Travel Support Program of up to $1,000 to cover a portion of the travel and conference expenses for as many as 60 students to attend APEC 2020 in New Orlea
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Date:
08/29/2019
Gallium Oxide Power Transistors with Record Values

Gallium oxide chip with transistor structures and for measurement purposes, processed at FBH via projection lithography.

Powerful electronic components are indispensable for future communications, for the digital transformation of society and for artificial intelligence applications. On a footprint as small as possible, they should offer low energy consumption and achieve ever higher power densities, thus working more efficiently. Th
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Date:
08/27/2019
Laser Printing Produces Waterproof E-Textiles in Minutes

Dr. Litty Thekkakara, RMIT researcher and co-developer of new technology for rapidly fabricating textiles embedded with energy storage devices.

The next generation of waterproof smart fabrics will be laser printed and made in minutes. That's the future imagined by the researchers behind new e-textile technology. Scientists from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a cost-efficient and scaleable method for rapidly fabricating textiles t
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Date:
08/27/2019
Augmented Reality Glasses may help People with low Vision

Graphic representation of what a patient sees when wearing an augmented reality low vision aid.

LOS ANGELES - Nearly one in 30 Americans over the age of 40 experience low vision -- significant visual impairment that can't be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, medication or surgery. In a new study of patients with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease that results in poor visio
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Date:
08/26/2019
Study Demonstrates Silicon's Energy-Harvesting Power

Dr. Mark Lee, head of the Department of Physics in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, explains his research into the thermoelectric harvesting ability of silicon "nanoblades."

A University of Texas at Dallas physicist has teamed with Texas Instruments Inc. to design a better way for electronics to convert waste heat into reusable energy. The collaborative project demonstrated that silicon's ability to harvest energy from heat can be greatly increased while remaining mass-producible. Dr. Mark Lee, profess
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Date:
08/26/2019
Detraction-Free Light-Matter Interaction

Sven Scholz (left) and Arne Ludwig are experts for generating quantum dots in semiconductors.

Certain semiconductor structures, so-called quantum dots, might constitute the foundation of quantum communication. They are an efficient interface between matter and light, with photons (light particles) emitted by the quantum dots transporting information across large distances. However, structures form by de
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Date:
08/26/2019
A 2 nm Sized Nanomachine able to Transfer Rotational Energy
With the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing this year, it could be argued that the greatest science of the 20th Century was about big machines that could travel the universe. The rise of nanotechnology is suggesting that the 21th Century will be dedicated to much smaller machines that can tr
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Date:
08/26/2019
Coating Brings Lithium Metal Battery Closer to Reality

Lead authors and Ph.D. students David Mackanic, left, and Zhiao Yu with their battery tester at right. Yu holds a dish of already tested cells that they call "the battery graveyard."

Hope has been restored for the rechargeable lithium metal battery - a potential battery powerhouse relegated for decades to the laboratory by its short life expectancy and occasional fiery demise while its rechargeable sibling, the lithium-ion battery, now rakes in more than $30 billion a year. A new coati
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Date:
08/26/2019
Dangerous Wild Grass will be Used in Batteries

Hogweed

Hogweed, which has grown over vast territories of Russia, can be useful as a material for batteries. Scientists from NUST MISIS have investigated the possibilities of fibrous substances in the plant stems. They have turned them into electrodes -- elements of devices capable of storing energy. It was experimentally pr
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Date:
08/26/2019
Teaching Robots how to Trek Through Unknown Terrains
A team of Australian researchers has designed a reliable strategy for testing physical abilities of humanoid robots - robots that resemble the human body shape in their build and design. Using a blend of machine learning methods and algorithms, the research team succeeded in enabling test robots to effectively re
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Date:
08/23/2019
A Hallmark of Superconductivity, Beyond Superconductivity

Rice University physicists (from left) Liyang Chen, Panpan Zhou and Doug Natelson and colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Connecticut found evidence of electron pairing -- a hallmark feature of superconductivity -- at temperatures and energies well above the critical threshold where superconductivity occurs. The research appears this week in Nature.

HOUSTON -- Physicists have found "electron pairing," a hallmark feature of superconductivity, at temperatures and energies well above the critical threshold where superconductivity happens. Rice University's Doug Natelson, co-corresponding author of a paper about the work in this week's Nature, sai
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Date:
08/22/2019
DOE Issues Small Business R&D Funding Opportunity
The Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs issued its first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Fiscal Year 2020. The Phase I Release 1 FOA, with approximately $31.5 million in available funding, will allow small businesses to
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Date:
08/22/2019
California's Rooftop-Solar Boom Leaves Equity Gap
OAKLAND, CA - California leads the nation in the adoption of rooftop solar systems, but information on which communities do, and do not, benefit from these installations has been limited to broad income classifications and anecdotal observations. Now, the data is in: The adoption of distributed solar - rooftop in
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Date:
08/22/2019
Method Classifies Brain Cells Based on Electrical Signals

MIT Professor Earl Miller

For decades, neuroscientists have relied on a technique for reading out electrical "spikes" of brain activity in live, behaving subjects that tells them very little about the types of cells they are monitoring. In a new study, researchers at the University of Tuebingen and MIT's Picower Institute for Lea
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Date:
08/22/2019
Carbon-Neutral Fuels from air and Green Power

The world's first integrated Power-to-Liquid (PtL) test facility to synthesize fuels from the air-captured carbon dioxide. (Photo: P2X project/Patrick Langer, KIT)

Several challenges associated with the energy transition can be managed by coupling the sectors of electric power and mobility. Green power could be stored in the long term, fuels of high energy density could be used in a carbon-neutral way. Sector coupling has now been demonstrated by the partners of the P2X Ko
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Date:
08/22/2019
Indiana Launches 5G Zone to Accelerate Innovation

Participants of the Indy 5G Summit, held earlier this summer, laid the groundwork to establishing Indianapolis as one of only two metro areas in the U.S. selected for the launch of both AT&T and Verizon 5G broadband networks.

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana will launch a new 5G hub to drive the testing and development of 5G-enabled technologies and assist businesses and innovators by propelling research and development with faster speeds, lower data latency and increased reliability. As one of only two metro areas in the U.S. selected for the l
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Date:
08/22/2019
Rechargeable Aqueous Battery Versus Lithium-ion Dominance

The newly designed high voltage aqueous Zn anode batteries can challenge Li-ion's current dominance.

A new rechargeable high voltage manganese dioxide zinc battery, exceeding the 2 V barrier in aqueous zinc chemistry, is the latest invention by City College of New York researchers. With a voltage of 2.45-2.8V, the alkaline MnO2|Zn battery, developed by Dr. Gautam G. Yadav and his group in the CCNY-based CUNY En
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Date:
08/21/2019
Tools to Minimize Risks in Shared Augmented-Reality

The team tested ShareAR with three case study apps: Cubist Art (top panel), which lets users create and share virtual artwork with each other; Doc Edit (bottom left panel), which lets users create virtual notes or lists they can share or keep private; and Paintball (bottom right panel), which lets users play paintball with virtual paint.

A few summers ago throngs of people began using the Pokemon Go app, the first mass-market augmented reality game, to collect virtual creatures hiding in the physical world. For now, AR remains mostly a solo activity, but soon people might be using the technology for a variety of group activities, such as p
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Date:
08/21/2019
A Battery-Free Sensor for Underwater Exploration
To investigate the vastly unexplored oceans covering most our planet, researchers aim to build a submerged network of interconnected sensors that send data to the surface -- an underwater "internet of things." But how to supply constant power to scores of sensors designed to stay for long durations in
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Date:
08/21/2019
New Tool Makes Web Browsing Easier for the Visually Impaired
Researchers have developed a new voice assistant that allows people with visual impairments to get web content as quickly and as effortlessly as possible from smart speakers and similar devices. In a new study, led by University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics student, Alexandra Vtyurina, who collaborated with Micr
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Date:
08/19/2019
Nylon as Building Block for Transparent Electronic Devices?

Transparent nylon could be an important building block for the development of transparent electronic circuits in the future.

As the microelectronic industry is now shifting toward wearable electronic gadgets and electronic (e-)textiles, the comprising electronic materials, such as ferroelectrics, should be integrated with our clothes. Nylons, a family of synthetic polymers, were first introduced in the 1920s' for women's stockings and
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Date:
08/16/2019
A Heat Shield 10 Atoms Thick to Protect Electronic Devices

This greatly magnified image shows four layers of atomically thin materials that form a heat-shield just two to three nanometers thick, or roughly 50,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper.

Excess heat given off by smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices can be annoying, but beyond that it contributes to malfunctions and, in extreme cases, can even cause lithium batteries to explode. To guard against such ills, engineers often insert glass, plastic or even layers of air as insulatio
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Date:
08/16/2019
A Laser for Penetrating Waves

An international research team has been able to show that it is relatively easy to generate terahertz waves with an alloy of mercury, cadmium and tellurium.

The "Landau-level laser" is an exciting concept for an unusual radiation source. It has the potential to efficiently generate so-called terahertz waves, which can be used to penetrate materials as well as for future data transmission. So far, however, nearly all attempts to make such a laser reality ha
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Date:
08/16/2019
Scientists Create Long-Life Fast-Charging Batteries
A group of researchers led by Skoltech Professor Pavel Troshin studied coordination polymers, a class of compounds with scarcely explored applications in metal-ion batteries, and demonstrated their possible future use in energy storage devices with a high charging/discharging rate and stability. The results of
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Date:
08/15/2019
Stronger Graphene Oxide 'Paper' Made with Weaker Units
Want to make a super strong material from nano-scale building blocks? Start with the highest quality building blocks, right? Wrong -- at least when working with "flakes" of graphene oxide (GO). A new study from Northwestern University researchers shows that better GO "paper" can be made by m
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Date:
08/15/2019
Europe has Onshore Capacity for Global Energy Demand

Map showing the power density potential for each European country.

Europe has the capacity to produce more than 100 times the amount of energy it currently produces through onshore windfarms, new analysis from the University of Sussex and Aarhus University has revealed. In an analysis of all suitable sites for onshore wind farms, the new study reveals that Europe has the p
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Date:
08/14/2019
Breakthrough in Magnetic Monopoles Signals new Technologies
A breakthrough in understanding how the quasi-particles known as magnetic monopoles behave could lead to the development of new technologies to replace electric charges. Researchers at the University of Kent applied a combination of quantum and classic physics to investigate how magnetic atoms interact with each
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Date:
08/14/2019
A Miniature Stretchable Pump for Next Gen of Soft Robots
Soft robots have a distinct advantage over their rigid forebears: they can adapt to complex environments, handle fragile objects and interact safely with humans. Made from silicone, rubber or other stretchable polymers, they are ideal for use in rehabilitation exoskeletons and robotic clothing. Soft bio-inspired ro
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Date:
08/14/2019
Community-Driven Data Science to Advance Microbiome Research
The National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC), a new initiative aimed at empowering microbiome research, is gearing up its pilot phase after receiving $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Spearheaded by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in partnership
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Date:
08/13/2019
WVU Programmed to Fill Cybersecurity Jobs with NSF Award

By 2021, an estimated 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs across the globe will be unfilled. The WVU Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering hopes to help plug the demand with a project called 'ACCESS' that cultivates cybersecurity experts through scholarships.

When West Virginia University first offered cybersecurity classes in 2003, the gravest fear of a casual Internet user might have been opening an infected email attachment that erased computer files or reset their homepage. And who could forget landing on some dodgy website that would generate a never-ending
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Date:
08/13/2019
Mapping the Energetic Landscape of Solar Cells

Artistic representation of an energetic landscape that determines the movement of photo-induced positive (h+) and negative (e-) charges in photovoltaic devices.

A new spectroscopic method now makes it possible to measure and visualise the energetic landscape inside solar cells based on organic materials. It was developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr Yana Vaynzof, a physicist at Heidelberg University. This novel visualisation technique enables scientists to study th
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Date:
08/13/2019
Growth of Wind Energy Points to Future Challenges, Promise

Advances in adapting the technology and better methods for predicting wind conditions have fanned significant growth of the use of wind turbines for electricity in the last 40 years.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Advances in adapting the technology for cold climates and offshore use and better methods for predicting wind conditions have fanned significant growth of the use of wind turbines for electricity in the last 40 years. A new report takes stock of where the field is now and what lies ahead. A team of r
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Date:
08/13/2019
How do Atoms Vibrate in Graphene Nanostructures?

Schematic representation of local lattice vibrations in graphene excited by a wavefront of transmitted fast electrons.

In order to understand advanced materials like graphene nanostructures and optimize them for devices in nano-, opto- and quantum-technology it is crucial to understand how phonons - the vibration of atoms in solids - influence the materials' properties. Researchers from the University of Vienna, the Advanced Ins
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Date:
08/12/2019
It's not you, it's the Network
The result of the 2016 US presidential election was, for many, a surprise lesson in social perception bias -- peoples' tendency to assume that others think as we do, and to underestimate the size and influence of a minority party. Long documented in psychological literature, a panoply of social perception biases pla
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Date:
08/12/2019
Laser and Sensor Research Advanced by new Inquiries

Schemes of PPC with equal effective refractive index and structure period. a 1D PPC and b 3D opal-like PPC

A group of researchers led by Professor Myakzyum Salakhov has been working on the problem of optical states in plasmonic-photonic crystals (PPCs). The group mostly consists of young scientists, some of whom started their participation in the project during their student years. First Category Engineer Artyom Ko
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Date:
08/12/2019
Solutions to Elderly Falls: Drones, Smartphones and Sensors

Falls account for 40% of injury-related deaths in people aged over 65 years.

Drones, smartphones and sensors could provide a lifeline to the world's growing elderly population at risk of falls, helping to cut global hospital costs. A new system has been designed by a team of researchers from Iraq and the University of South Australia to remotely monitor elderly people, detecting abnormalit
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Date:
08/12/2019
Sharp Meets Flat in Tunable 2D Material

Adjacent crystal structures of rhenium diselenide (top) and molybdenum diselenide form a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure with sharply separated domains. The unique material created at Rice University shows promise for optoelectronic applications.

HOUSTON - A Rice University lab wants its products to look sharp, even at the nanoscale. Its latest creation is right on target. The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan has created unique two-dimensional flakes with two distinct personalities: molybdenum diselenide on one side of a sharp divide wi
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Date:
08/12/2019
TTI, Inc. Announces Sponsorship of Annual ERA Conference
Fort Worth, Texas – TTI, Inc., is proud to announce the TTI Family of Companies sponsorship at the Patron Level for the upcoming 2020 ERA Conference to be held in Austin, Texas, February 23-25, 2020, at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. The TTI Family of Companies is honored to be sp
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Date:
08/12/2019
A New Mass Spectrometric Technique Using Laser and Graphene

Chair-professor Dae Won Moon in the Department of New Biology (left) and Research Fellow Jae Young Kim in the Department of Robotics Engineering (right)

A technology that can obtain high-resolution, micrometer-sized images for mass spectrometric analysis without sample preparation has been developed. DGIST Research Fellow Jae Young Kim and Chair-professor Dae Won Moon's team succeeded in developing the precise analysis and micrometer-sized imaging of bio samples usi
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Date:
08/09/2019
Employees Less Upset at Being Replaced by Robots Than People
Generally speaking, most people find the idea of workers being replaced by robots or software worse than if the jobs are taken over by other workers. But when their own jobs are at stake, people would rather prefer to be replaced by robots than by another employee. That is the conclusion of a study by the Technical Un
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Date:
08/09/2019
Enhancing AI Quality by Moving Beyond the Quantitative
Artificial Intelligence engineers should enlist ideas and expertise from a broad range of social science disciplines, including those embracing qualitative methods, in order to reduce the potential harm of their creations and to better serve society as a whole, a pair of researchers has concluded in an analysis th
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Date:
08/09/2019
The Future of Perovskite-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

(A) Photoluminescence and (B) electroluminsecence in low-dimensional and 3D perovskite-based devices. Photoluminescence (PL) refers to the emission of light caused by the absorption of incident photons, whereas electroluminescence (EL) is the emission of light owing to the energy supplied by an electric current. Although low-dimensional perovskite exhibits better PL properties than 3D perovskite, the latter has better EL properties, which can be exploited to design very bright and efficient PeLEDs.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology discover a new strategy to design incredibly efficient perovskite-based LEDs with record-setting brightness by leveraging the quantum confinement effect. Several techniques for generation of light from electricity have been developed over the years. Devices that can
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Date:
08/08/2019
Revving up Solar Technology to Power Space Vehicles

Dr. Randall Ellingson, professor in the UToledo Department of Physics and Astronomy, analyzes the response of solar cells in his laboratory at The University of Toledo.

The U.S. Air Force awarded a team of physicists at The University of Toledo $7.4 million to enhance the reliability and efficiency of lightweight power to improve the safety and effectiveness of Department of Defense missions. Dr. Randall Ellingson, professor in the UToledo Department of Physics and Astronomy
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Date:
08/08/2019
High-Energy Lasers to Treat Alzheimer's Disease
Amyloid fibrils are a type of self-assembled proteins/peptides that take on a stacked sheet-like formation. Amyloid fibril aggregates are known to be a cause of several diseases--including Alzheimer's--and therefore, it is of immense scientific interest to understand how these aggregates can be broken. Some type
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Date:
08/08/2019
Graphite Intercalation Compounds to Prolong Battery Life

Optical micrographs showing transition of stage-2 GIC to stage-1 HOPG GIC. Reflected light. The stage-2 areas are greenish-white. The stage-1 areas are blue. The red-colored areas are the mixed stage. Note, the greenish tint of graphite surface on panels (a,b) is the artifact of the digital processing; the actual color is almost white. The white shapeless feature on the right of the micrographs is an air bubble. Acquired with the SPI-3 HOPG sample.

The beginning of this project dates back to 2012-2013, when team leader Ayrat Dimiev was working at Rice University, Houston, TX, USA, with Professor James Tour. Together with Natnael Behabtu, at that time a PhD student of Professor Matteo Pasquali, they discovered a phenomenon that could be observed in optical mi
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Date:
08/08/2019
Orion Fans Gets Quality in Business Certification from ITC
DALLAS, TX -- Orion Fans has been recognized by the renowned International Trade Council (ITC) with the illustrious Quality in Business Certification. As a global peak-body Chamber of Commerce, the ITC offers independent certifications that demonstrate an organization's adherence to global best business practices as
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Date:
08/08/2019
Neural Networks Will Help Manufacture Carbon Nanotubes

This is a scheme of the proposed method.

Thin films made of carbon nanotubes hold a lot of promise for advanced optoelectronics, energy and medicine, however with their manufacturing process subject to close supervision and stringent standardization requirements, they are unlikely to become ubiquitous anytime soon. "A major hindrance to unlock
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Date:
08/08/2019
Base Station Semiconductor Market to Double Despite Huawei
CAMPBELL, Calif./PRNewswire/ -- Mobile Experts just released a report that tracks the rapidly transforming RF Semiconductor market. According to the report, Massive MIMO is the main driver of the change; the sheer numbers of massive MIMO transceivers is causing a significant boost in the RF semiconductor market, to m
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Date:
08/07/2019
SwRI Concepts Advance in NREL Energy Storage Competition

Pumped storage hydropower uses dual-reservoir "storage" systems to improve the availability of energy by pumping and releasing water between the reservoirs to generate electricity to meet peak demands. To accelerate pumped storage hydropower implementation, SwRI is developing different strategies for efficiently building the reservoirs, illustrated here with an upper reservoir sited atop a mesa and a lower reservoir created by damming canyons below.

SAN ANTONIO -- The FAST Commissioning for Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) prize competition selected two Southwest Research Institute PSH concepts among nine winners advancing to the next stage of the competition. The FAST prize -- which stands for "Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time Commissioning for Pumpe
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Date:
08/06/2019
Ion Heating by Plasma Oscillations for Fusion Energy

Plasma oscillations driven by high-energy particles in a plasma in LHD.

A research team of fusion scientists succeeded in proving that ions can be heated by plasma oscillations driven by high-energy particles. This has been confirmed by performing a large-scale simulation with a newly developed hybrid-simulation program that links calculations for plasma oscillations, high-energy pa
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Date:
08/06/2019
Seeing How Computers 'Think' Helps Humans Stump Machines
One of the ultimate goals of artificial intelligence is a machine that truly understands human language and interprets meaning from complex, nuanced passages. When IBM's Watson computer beat famed "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings in 2011, it seemed as if that milestone had been met. However, anyone who
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Date:
08/06/2019
Ionic Thermal Up-Diffusion Boosts Energy Harvesting

(a) Schematic illustration of the ion concentration profiles with asymmetric transmembrane temperature differences. (b) Electric power under different temperature differences. (c) At small transmembrane concentration intensities, both positive and negative temperature differences contribute to the electric power. At high transmembrane concentration intensities, a negative temperature difference promotes the power extraction and a positive temperature difference hinders the electric power.

Salinity gradient energy is recognized as a promising candidate for the substitution of the traditional fossil fuels. Recently, nanofluidic salinity gradient energy harvesting via ion channels or membranes has drawn increasing concerns due to the advances in materials science and nanotechnology, which could of
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Date:
08/06/2019
A Wearable Device so Thin and Soft you Won't Even Notice it
Wearable human-machine interfaces - devices that can collect and store important health information about the wearer, among other uses - have benefited from advances in electronics, materials and mechanical designs. But current models still can be bulky and uncomfortable, and they can't always handle multiple fun
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Date:
08/05/2019
Cislunar Blueprint to Propel Next 50 Years of Space Research
In its inaugural call to action, Purdue Engineering's Cislunar Initiative took a giant leap forward in advancing humankind's presence in space and the development of the economy in the "cislunar region," the orbital area encompassing the Earth and moon. A video about the project can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.c
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Date:
08/05/2019
Eye imaging Technology Provides Biotechnology Opportunities

In her doctoral dissertation, M.Sc. Sanna Haavisto, researched the flow properties of aqueous microcellulose suspensions.

In her doctoral dissertation, M.Sc. Sanna Haavisto, researched the flow properties of aqueous microcellulose suspensions. Optical coherence tomography, an imaging technology commonly used in medical imaging of eye, was applied in a novel way in her study. The measurement methods developed in the doctoral thesis ca
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Date:
08/05/2019
Is it Safe to use an Electric fan for Cooling?

This is Associate Professor Ollie Jay at work in the climatic chamber at the University of Sydney.

The safety and effectiveness of electric fans in heatwaves depend on the climate and basing public health advice on common weather metrics could be misleading, according to a new study from the University of Sydney. The research calls into question current guidelines from most public health authorities, including
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Date:
08/05/2019
Army Innovators Join Forces at Science-Concept Workshop
In order to maintain overmatch on the ever-changing battlefield, the Army and Soldiers of the future will need innovative science and technology that extends beyond the bounds of what exists today. To foster this innovation, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Task Force Ignite designed a
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Date:
08/05/2019
How Deep Space Travel Could Affect the Brain

Radiation exposure alters the electrophysiological properties of neurons in the hippocampus.

Exposure to chronic, low dose radiation -- the conditions present in deep space -- causes neural and behavioral impairments in mice, researchers report in eNeuro. These results highlight the pressing need to develop safety measures to protect the brain from radiation during deep space missions as astronauts prepare to
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Date:
08/05/2019
From Greenhouse Gas to Fuel

From left to right: Former UD postdoctoral associate Qi Lu, current assistant professor Bingjun Xu, and current postdoctoral associate Xiaoxia Chang recently revealed a new approach that utilizes a series of catalytic reactions to electrochemically reduce carbon dioxide to methane.

A growing number of scientists are looking for fast, cost-effective ways to convert carbon dioxide gas into valuable chemicals and fuels. Now, an international team of researchers has revealed a new approach that utilizes a series of catalytic reactions to electrochemically reduce carbon dioxide to methane,
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Date:
08/02/2019
ADLINK Signs on as NVIDIA Jetson Preferred Partner
SAN JOSE, Calif. — ADLINK Technology, Inc., has now signed on as an NVIDIA Jetson Preferred Partner. This collaboration strengthens ADLINK’s portfolio for artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge by empowering edge AI platforms with NVIDIA Jetson modules and accelerating edge AI deployment. Edge AI optimizes operations an
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Date:
08/01/2019
Artificial Intelligence Could Help Air Travelers Save Money

Industrial and enterprise systems engineering professor Lavanya Marla and collaborators used artificial intelligence to design a customized pricing model for airline customers.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers are using artificial intelligence to help airlines price ancillary services such as checked bags and seat reservations in a way that is beneficial to customers' budget and privacy, as well as to the airline industry's bottom line. When airlines began unbundling the costs of flights
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Date:
08/01/2019
Hubble Finds 'Heavy Metal' Exoplanet Shaped like a Football

This artist's illustration shows an alien world that is losing magnesium and iron gas from its atmosphere. The observations represent the first time that so-called "heavy metals" -- elements more massive than hydrogen and helium -- have been detected escaping from a hot Jupiter, a large gaseous exoplanet orbiting very close to its star.The planet, known as WASP-121b, orbits a star brighter and hotter than the Sun. The planet is so dangerously close to its star that its upper atmosphere reaches a blazing 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 times greater than any known planetary atmosphere. A torrent of ultraviolet light from the host star is heating the planet's upper atmosphere, which is causing the magnesium and iron gas to escape into space. Observations by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph have detected the spectral signatures of magnesium and iron far away from the planet.The planet's "hugging" distance from the star means that it is on the verge of being ripped apart by the star's gravitational tidal forces. The powerful gravitational forces have altered the planet's shape so that it appears more football shaped.The WASP-121 system is about 900 light-years from Earth.

How can a planet be "hotter than hot?" The answer is when heavy metals are detected escaping from the planet's atmosphere, instead of condensing into clouds. Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal magnesium and iron gas streaming from the strange world outside our solar system known as WA
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Date:
08/01/2019
Is your Supercomputer Stumped? Might be a Quantum Solution

This is Chia Cheng 'Jason' Chang

Some math problems are so complicated that they can bog down even the world's most powerful supercomputers. But a wild new frontier in computing that applies the rules of the quantum realm offers a different approach. A new study led by a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), publ
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Date:
08/01/2019
Japanese Basket Weaving art to Nanotechnology with Ion Beams

The traditional Japanese basket weaving pattern (kago-mé: basket with eyes) served as an inspiration for an array of fluxon traps produced with a helium-ion microscope in a high-temperature superconductor. The anchored fluxons are represented by blue figures (based on the symbol Φ0 for the flux quantum), the purple fluxons are trapped by their neighbors like in a cage.

The properties of high-temperature superconductors can be tailored by the introduction of artificial defects. An international research team around physicist Wolfgang Lang at the University of Vienna has succeeded in producing the world's densest complex nano arrays for anchoring flux quanta, the fluxons. This was
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Date:
08/01/2019
Battery Production at Record Speed

Precise edges at new record speed: new process considerably increases production capacity of battery electrodes. (Photo: Ralf Diehm, KIT)

With a new coating process, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have produced electrodes for lithium-ion batteries at record speed. At the same time, the new process improves the quality of electrodes and reduces production costs. When producing electrodes for batteries, electrode material
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Date:
08/01/2019
Heterophase Nanostructures Contribute to Efficient Catalysis

(a) TEM image of a-PdCu nanosheets. (b) XRD patterns of the as-synthesized (0 day) a-PdCu and the a-PdCu after aging for 14 days. (c) Hydrogenation reaction of 4-nitrostyrene (room temperature, H2 balloon). (d) The catalytic results of 30-min hydrogenation reaction using a-PdCu with different aging time as catalysts.

Selective catalysis plays a key role in various applications, such as fine chemical industry and oil refining, hence, developing catalysts with high efficiency and excellent chemoselectivity has become a research hotspot. Compared with other materials, noble metals, especially ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) no
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Date:
08/01/2019
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