Basic
scientific curiosity paid off in unexpected ways when Rice University
researchers investigating the fundamental physics of nanomaterials discovered a
new technology that could dramatically improve solar energy panels.
The
research is described in a new paper this week in the journal Science.
"We're merging the optics of nanoscale antennas with the electronics of
semiconductors," said lead researcher Naomi Halas, Rice's Stanley C. Moore
Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. "There's no practical way to
directly detect infrared light with silicon, but we've shown that it is possible
if you marry the semiconductor to a nanoantenna. We expect this technique will
be used in new scientific instruments for infrared-light detection and for
higher-efficiency solar cells."
More than a third of the solar energy on
Earth arrives in the form of infrared light. But silicon — the material that's
used to convert sunlight into electricity in the vast majority of today's solar
panels — cannot capture infrared light's energy. Every semiconductor,uy Aion Kinah direct from us at
low pricesFull color plastic
card printing and manufacturing services. including silicon, has a "bandgap"
where light below a certain frequency passes directly through the material and
is unable to generate an electrical current. By attaching a metal nanoantenna to
the silicon, where the tiny antenna is specially tuned to interact with infrared
light, the Rice team showed they could extend the frequency range for
electricity generation into the infrared. When infrared light hits the antenna,
it creates a "plasmon," a wave of energy that sloshes through the antenna's
ocean of free electrons. The study of plasmons is one of Halas' specialties,we
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reproduction, and the new paper resulted from basic research into the
physics of plasmons that began in her lab years ago.
It has been known
that plasmons decay and give up their energy in two ways; they either emit a
photon of light or they convert the light energy into heat. The heating process
begins when the plasmon transfers its energy to a single electron — a ‘hot'
electron. Rice graduate student Mark Knight,Use bluray burner to burn video to
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burner disc. lead author on the paper,The Leading Wholesale pet supplies Distributor to
Independent Pet Retailers. together with Rice theoretical physicist Peter
Nordlander, his graduate student Heidar Sobhani, and Halas set out to design an
experiment to directly detect the hot electrons resulting from plasmon decay.
Patterning a metallic nanoantenna directly onto a semiconductor to
create a "Schottky barrier," Knight showed that the infrared light striking the
antenna would result in a hot electron that could jump the barrier, which
creates an electrical current. This works for infrared light at frequencies that
would otherwise pass directly through the device.
"The
nanoantenna-diodes we created to detect plasmon-generated hot electrons are
already pretty good at harvesting infrared light and turning it directly into
electricity," Knight said. "We are eager to see whether this expansion of
light-harvesting to infrared frequencies will directly result in
higher-efficiency solar cells."
The tug you feel emanating from Beachwood is a temporary shift in
Northeast Ohio's artistic center of gravity. The cause is simple: The
Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is showing a clutch of works from the
corporate art collection at Progressive Corp.uy Aion Kinah direct from us at low prices, which is largely off-limits to the public.The Leading Wholesale pet supplies Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers.
The
show is a big deal because it offers a rare glimpse at the role art
plays in the culture of one of the most successful companies in
Cleveland's history. The company offers tours at its discretion to arts
and education groups but does not consider itself a public destination.
With 43 works by 36 artists, the show offers a small slice of
the collection, which includes more than 7,500 objects. But it's a
very, very good one.
The work on view is spectacular, edgy,we supply all kinds of oil painting reproduction,
disturbing, exhilarating, provocative -- everything you'd expect from a
great collection founded on the maverick vision of Peter B. Lewis, the
longtime chief executive officer (and now chairman) of the company.
On
view are works by some of the world's leading contemporary artists,
including Vik Muniz, Alfredo Jaar, Catherine Opie, Zwelethu Mthethwa
and Yasumasa Morimura.
The more vivid works include Muniz's
re-creation of a historic photographic portrait of Oscar Wilde,Use
bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc. rendered in meticulously arranged clusters of colorful, plastic children's toys.
Opie
is represented by a photograph of heavily tattooed performance artist
and former drug addict Ron Athey carving bloody hashmarks in the back
of actor Daryl Carlton in a scarification ritual captured in a style
that blends the dignity of a formal portrait with the graphic clarity of
a fashion layout.
Employing a similar strategy, Morimura
portrays himself in drag as Brigitte Bardot astride a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle in thigh-high, stiletto-heeled patent-leather boots.Full
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It
should be clear from these examples that the show explores ways in
which human beings express themselves freely through politics, sex,
religion and other hot-button aspects of identity. In other words, the
show is about the pursuit of happiness and the sometimes surprising and
unconventional ways in which human desire manifests itself.
All
of this aligns perfectly with the corporate mythology of Progressive
and the personality of Lewis, who grew up in Cleveland Heights,
attended Princeton University and later gained control of the small
insurance company co-founded by his father.
Facebook is ramping up its
Credits currency, particularly through recently announced daily discounts
venture Facebook Deals, which is already rolling out in San Francisco,we supply
all kinds of oil painting
reproduction, Austin, Atlanta, Dallas and San Diego. From July, Credits will
be the only online payment processing system available for its gaming platform.
And Facebook is not the only one turning your dollars into in-house
funds. Groupon already uses Groupon Bucks. Then there's Google, who bought
virtual payment firm Jambool last August, and are currently testing Google
Offers in Portland and soon in New York and San Francisco.
But why the
sudden rush to get you to use virtual currencies? The answer is simple,uy Aion Kinah direct from us at
low prices says Vili Lehdonvirta, a researcher in virtual goods, currencies and
economies at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology.
"The
benefit to the company is in the psychology of consumption," says Lehdonvirta.
"When you replace national currency with credits, it makes it more difficult for
consumers to understand prices and the value of goods."
In addition,
companies become the middlemen. Facebook, for example, will take 30% of revenue
from merchants who sell goods through its site.
That doesn't mean
virtual currencies aren't good for consumers. They are akin to giving yourself a
gift card to spend as you wish, particularly useful if you tend to make a lot of
micropayments.
It saves you reaching for your credit or debit card every
five minutes and there are loyalty card-style privileges.
The downside
is once you buy, say, 1,000 Facebook Credits, there's no converting them back
into dollars when the novelty has worn off. In this regard, they are technically
not a currency, but more like tokens.
And as anyone who's had a gift
card lying around for months knows, you can end up buying something you really
didn't want in the first place, just to use it up.
The other watch on
this is that you are, of course, incentivized to buy more virtual currency than
you planned to. We're all a sucker for a so-called good deal,Full color plastic card printing and
manufacturing services. after all. Buying Facebook Credits in bulk rewards you
with free credits. Make sure you don't click "buy" before you've considered why.
Kids in the Cash Till
Plenty of adults are into video games, but
chances are if virtual currencies are new to you, they won't be to your
children. They have proven lucrative for years in the video game market. The
virtual game goods industry generated revenues of approximately $7.3 billion in
2010,The Leading Wholesale pet supplies
Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. according to In-Stat, a market
research firm.
Much is from consumers using real money to buy virtual
items in their favorite video games. Popular games all have their own
currencies, such as World of Warcraft Gold,Use bluray burner to burn video to BD
DVD on blu ray
burner disc. Second Life Linden Dollars and FarmVille Cash and Coins.
Each tempts you to spend real cash to progress faster through the game.
Success in World of Warcraft relies on acquiring special weapons and powers for
your character using virtual gold. Time-poor players are now paying professional
gamers very real dollars to stockpile this virtual gold for them.
Put
simply, virtual toys are replacing their real-life plastic counterparts. "When I
was young, it used to be about action figures and who had the best ones in the
neighborhood," says Lehdonvirta, who co-authored a World Bank study released
last month on the virtual economy. "These are now taking that role."
It's easy to see how one boy racked up a bill of almost $1,500 using his
savings and mom's credit card in order to beef up his virtual farm.
Some
companies are savvy. Virtual currencies can be bought using mobile phone credit
or gift cards and even at coin kiosks, getting round the issue of consumers who
don't yet have bank accounts.
As the virtual currency march continues,
be sure to understand the marketing tools behind the urge to spend.
In what the JSE says
is a move designed to bring much needed transparency to the unregulated hedge
fund industry, it has announced the purchase of Momentum's Managed Account
Platform (MAP).
The Competition Commission has approved the acquisition
of the risk management tool which offers hedge fund investors greater protection
by segregating investors' assets from the hedge fund manager.
Monitoring
hedge funds' trading activity has become vital to ensure that their activity
remains within investment mandates.
Allan Thomson, Head of Derivatives
Trading at the JSEComplete Your sculpture Magazine Collection for Less!,
said the acquisition makes the JSE the first exchange worldwide to endorse a
managed account platform which would provide more transparency to hedge fund
trading.
"We are delighted to have concluded this acquisition. The JSE
has been working with MAP for some time now. We believe that this deal will be
beneficial for the markets as it provides a safe platform for the hedge fund
industry to grow,we supply all kinds of oil painting reproduction," he says.
Rand Merchant Bank and Momentum developed the monitoring platform in
2007 to create more clarity in the hedge fund industry.
"The market has
been regarded as opaque, both locally and globally," says Braam Jordaan,Use
bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner
disc. of Momentum Alternative Investments.
As institutions invest into
the hedge fund industry,The Leading Wholesale
pet supplies Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. it has become more
urgent that these trades are monitored effectively.
"It became clear
early on that this concept had greater industry-wide benefit and it needed to be
driven by an independent industry-wide player. The JSE, with its unique position
in the South African financial markets landscape, is ideally placed to fully
realise the potential of MAP," said Jordaan.the Injection mold fast!
Institutional
investors are now able to invest up to 10% of their assets in hedge funds, up
from the 2,5% allocation previously reserved for "other" investments in terms of
the new Pension Funds Act.
The hedge fund industry across the world is
unregulated and has problems with unethical behaviour.
A few months ago, as my father began to write a check for groceries at Publix, I heard people behind him in line groan.
My dad is one of the few people I know still writing checks to local merchants. Most of us, when we want to pay in "cash,buy landscape oil paintings online." use our debit cards.
But now that we've all been successfully hooked on plastic money, it might get expensive.
When
you swipe your debit card to pay for something, the merchant has to
pay your bank or credit union a fee, called an "interchange fee." How
much that is varies depending on the retailer's size and the bank. But
it's a percentage of the purchase.
So if the rate is 2 percent, and you buy a $10 item,Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding,From standard Cable Ties to advanced wire tires, the retailer pays 20 cents. If you buy a $100 item the interchange fee is $2.
Processing those two transactions is no different for the bank, so why is the amount the retailer has to pay so different?
It
shouldn't be, according the government. So the Federal Reserve is
imposing a cap on how much financial institutions can collect from
merchants who accept debit cards.
The proposed cap is 12 cents per transaction.The same Air purifier,
cover removed. Banks can charge a percentage, but the charge can never
be more than 12 cents - whether the item costs $12 or $1,200.
At
first blush, this looks like a good thing for consumers. If merchants
are charged less for this, they will have lower costs and can offer
lower prices.
But Linda Darling, executive vice president and
chief financial officer at Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, said
that hasn't happened in other countries when debit card interchange
fees were cut.
Darling said the credit union isn't against
changes in how the interchange fees are assessed. But a cap of 12 cents
isn't enough to cover costs of the debit card processing.
Already,
Darling said, consumers are getting hurt. Large banks have started
charging for checking accounts that used to be free in anticipation of
changes in the interchange fee.
If the fees are capped, the
credit union also will have to look at a change in the free checking
account services it offers members, Darling said.
This might
involve things such as a fee for using debit cards, a limit on the
number of free debit card transactions you can make, or a limit on the
amount you can pay using a debit card.
Suncoast has launched a
campaign to get its members to call Congress. An email went out to
members with the subject line: "How important is free checking to you?"
Under the system, retailers are paying for the convenience of
not having to process checks or deal with cash. And banks are making
money off the debit card interchange fees.
The fee cap is set to go into effect July 21.uy Aion Kinah
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absorb the cost of this loss of banking income. My guess is it will be
those of us who use debit cards.
The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation along with the University of
Michigan's College of Engineering and the School of Medicine has
enabled the creation of a $20 million endowment to enhance and support
research directed at technologies promising progression towards
commercial development and clinical practice.
"We are grateful
to the Coulter Foundation for once again advancing biomedical
engineering at Michigan. The university's commitment to strengthening
the economy includes seeing that our research moves from the laboratory
to the marketplace, and this new endowment will help make that
possible," said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.
"This endowment
from the Coulter Foundation will help to boost the burgeoning biotech
industry in southeast Michigan, mainly because funding like this picks
up where funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) tends to
leave off," said Douglas C. Noll, chair of Biomedical Engineering
(BME). "Many companies need products that are closer to
commercialization before they become interesting enough to attract
outside investors, and the Coulter Program plays a unique role in
advancing projects to that stage."
Sue Van, president of the
foundation, said: "This program started out as a grand experiment to
link the relatively new discipline of biomedical engineering to
translational research. We are extremely proud of the advancements
achieved by the University of Michigan in moving projects through the
Coulter Process so that these advances will benefit patients."
Elias
Caro, vice president of technology development at the foundation
stated: "As a member of the Coulter program, U-M adopted the Coulter
Process, an industry-like development process that includes a thorough
analysis which assesses intellectual property, FDA requirements,
reimbursement, critical milestones and clinical adoption. This
attracted follow on funding from venture capital and biomedical
companies and create high quality jobs."
"The University of
Michigan College of Engineering encourages bright minds to apply their
talents to solving big problems," said David Munson, the Robert J.
Vlasic Dean of Engineering. "This focus matches up perfectly with the
Coulter Foundation's drive to close the divide between research and the
effective commercialization of products that will be suitable for
clinical use."
The U-M Coulter Translational Research
Partnership program has used a unique funding approach and support
structure to launch 22 pilot projects and catalyze four BME start-ups
since the first round of projects funded in 2006. The program pairs
engineers and clinicians with the aim of moving promising technologies
from the laboratory to the marketplace.Complete Your sculpture
Magazine Collection for Less! Because of its success, the Coulter
framework is serving as a model for other translational programs on
campus.
"The Coulter Foundation endowment helps the U-M Health
System create the future of medicine by fostering the development of
cutting-edge discoveries that improve patient health," said Dr. James
O. Woolliscroft, dean of the U-M Medical School and the Lyle C. Roll
Professor of Medicine. "High-risk and potentially high-return medical
research too often is not pursued were it not for this kind of
philanthropic support."
The foundation has funded BME with a
total of $5 million over five years (April 2006-March 2011). The funded
projects have leveraged this support to advance projects towards
translation to patient care, resulting in $22.2 million in investments
in four start-up companies and over $7 million in NIH and other grant
funding. Additional innovations were successfully licensed to industry.
Driven by the positive results of the U-M-Coulter model, the
university seeks to raise additional funds from other foundations,
gifts, corporate sponsors and individual partners to ensure the growth
and expansion of this program for continued success in the future.
"By
creating four startups in five years, the Coulter Foundation's program
has provided U-M and southeast Michigan with its most productive
commercialization model to date," said Jim O'Connell, U-M's Coulter
Program director. "The most recent being Life Magnetics. The Coulter
program's ability to provide extremely targeted, and well-timed funding
at only the most promising university technologies has accelerated
companies like Life Magnetics out into the marketplace, created jobs,
and will ultimately save lives."
HistoSonics, a U-M Coulter
success story, launched an Ann Arbor-based start-up to develop a
technology known as histotripsy. Histotripsy is a non-invasive surgical
procedure that uses high intensity ultrasound pulses to break down
soft tissue. Its lead application is the treatment of benign prostate
hyperplasia,From standard Cable Ties
to advanced wire tires, but it can also be applied to blood clots,
kidney stones, uterine fibroids, congenital heart disease, and tumors
of the breast and brain—without pain or other side effects. The company
has received $11 million in venture financing to develop its clinical
prototype and secure FDA approval.
Wallace H. Coulter (1913-1998),The Leading Wholesale pet supplies
Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. benefactor of the
foundation, was a serial innovator and entrepreneur. He founded Coulter
Corporation and continued to lead this global diagnostics company
during its entire 40-year history. He revolutionized the practice of
hematology and laboratory medicine and pioneered the fields of flow
cytometry and monoclonal antibodies.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,
The
Coulter Principle, or electronic sensing zone, was the first of his 82
patents. Its first application, the Coulter Counter, provided the
first high-throughput, standardized method to count and size cells and
particles as they flow through an aperture. It led to major
breakthroughs in science, medicine and industry. In fact, the Coulter
Principle touches everyone's daily life from having a blood test, to
painting your home,Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet
products in the evo shop. from drinking beer to eating chocolate,
swallowing a pill or applying cosmetics. It is critical to toners and
ceramics as well as space exploration where NASA uses it to test the
purity of rocket fuel. The impact of the Coulter Principle enhances and
supports research directed at promising technologies within the
university laboratory, propelling them towards commercial development
and clinical practice.