Electronic Amplifier Capable Of Functioning In Extreme Temperatures Developed
Research Analyzes Flow Structure Under Breaking Waves
Faster-Charging Batteries
A Robot Inspects Wind Energy
Nanocups brim with potential
How to Use Social Software in Higher Education
5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World
WIPO Guide to Using PATENT INFORMATION
Research Letters in Electronics
The Idiots' Guide to Highways Maintenance
Food Engineering Subject Guide
IEEE Global History Network
Electronic Amplifier Capable Of Functioning In Extreme Temperatures Developed
“ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2009) — Missions to space require “warm” boxes, which protect electronic circuitry from extreme temperatures and exposure to radiation. Electrical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have designed and successfully tested an electronic micro amplifier that can operate directly in the space environment without protection from a warm box.”
Read more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090309210239.htm
Research Analyzes Flow Structure Under Breaking Waves
“In landlocked South Dakota, hundreds of miles and 1,600 feet of elevation from the nearest ocean, South Dakota State University professor Francis Ting studies the structure of breaking waves like those that pound the world’s coastlines. … South Dakota offers few opportunities to study breaking waves at the beach, so Ting makes his own in the lab. He uses a 92-foot flume in the SDSU College of Engineering Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. The flume is a Plexiglas tank equipped with a computer-controlled wave maker. A measurement system consisting of a laser and two cameras captures the fluid motion produced by the waves as they break on a sloping bottom.”
Read more at http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/549327/
Faster-Charging Batteries
Elizabeth K. Wilson. “Method creates lithium-ion battery that charges and discharges in seconds. By merely tweaking a synthetic strategy for making a popular lithium-ion battery material, scientists have produced a battery that charges and discharges in a matter of seconds, rather than the minutes needed for typical lithium-ion batteries. Used in cell phones, laptops, and other devices, Li-ion batteries are attractive because they can hold a lot of charge, yet they're relatively slow to put it out or take it up. The new battery's swift charging and discharging could help make possible the use of Li-ion batteries in applications such as electric cars. To build the battery, materials science professor Gerbrand Ceder and graduate student Byoungwoo Kang at MIT synthesized a popular modern Li-ion battery material, LiFePO4 (Nature 2009, 458, 190).”
Read more at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/87/i11/8711notw2.html
A Robot Inspects Wind Energy
"Converters The material of wind energy converters must withstand intense forces. Are rotor blades damaged? A new robot inspects wind energy converters more precisely than a human ever could. It detects the minutest damage – even below the surface. It appears reliably and appears alone. Nimbly and quickly, it pulls itself up a rope meter for meter until it reaches a wind energy converter’s giant rotor blades. Then it goes to work. It thoroughly inspects every centimeter of the rotor blades’ surface. Nothing escapes it. It registers any crack and any delamination in the material and relays their exact positions. In this job, a robot is superior to humans. The researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF are experts in robotics – regardless of whether to clean facades, inspect sewer lines or assist humans. Their latest helper is RIWEA, a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters. "
Read more at http://www.fraunhofer.de/EN/press/pi/2009/01/ResearchNews012009Topic1.jsp
Nanocups brim with potential
" Light-bending metamaterial could lead to superlenses, invisibility cloaks. Researchers at Rice University have created a metamaterial that could light the way toward high-powered optics, ultra-efficient solar cells and even cloaking devices. Naomi Halas, an award-winning pioneer in nanophotonics, and graduate student Nikolay Mirin created a material that collects light from any direction and emits it in a single direction. The material uses very tiny, cup-shaped particles called nanocups. In a paper in the February issue of the journal Nano Letters, co-authors Halas and Mirin explain how they isolated nanocups to create light-bending nanoparticles. In earlier research, Mirin had been trying to make a thin gold film with nano-sized holes when it occurred to him the knocked-out bits were worth investigating. Previous work on gold nanocups gave researchers a sense of their properties, but until Mirin's revelation, nobody had found a way to lock ensembles of isolated nanocups to preserve their matching orientation. "
Read about it at http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=12297&SnID=1375936377
How to Use Social Software in Higher Education
"This handbook attempts to make the results of three years of work within the specifi c, targeted research of the iCamp project accessible. In the European Commission funded iCamp project we have investigated how Web 2.0 technologies can be implemented in higher education settings. More specifi cally, we have focused on a setting in formal higher education in which actors are distributed geographically, culturally, and across disciplines and have designed an approach through which learning processes in this setting can be supported with social software."
Read the whole document at http://www.icamp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/icamp-handbook-web.pdf
5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World
" By Alexis Madrigal March 03, 2009. ... Here we present five of the largest green tech projects that have broken ground, or plan to, in 2009. Each one of them is slated to be among the largest green-tech projects in the world. Though each is as big as a large coal plant, your average fossil fuel plant will generate more kilowatt-hours because they can burn round the clock every day the year, not just when the sun is shining or the wind blowing. "
Read about it at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/devworldgreen.html
WIPO Guide to Using PATENT INFORMATION
The contents are - How does the patent system work? Protection Disclosure Why use patent information? What information does a patent document contain? Where can patent information be found? Which strategies can be used to search patent information? - Search by keyword Search by patent classification Search by number/date ranges Search by applicant/assignee name or by inventor name Search in specific data fields Using citations and reference information - Good practices in searching patent documentation How can patent information be used? Prior art searches Gathering business intelligence Avoiding patent infringement Patent valuation Identifying key trends in technology development Where can non-patent literature be located?
Learn about patents from http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/patents/434/wipo_pub_l434_03.pdf
Research Letters in Electronics
is devoted to very fast publication of short, high quality manuscripts in the broad field of electronics. Manuscripts should not exceed 4 pages in their final published form. Average time from submission to publication shall be around 60 days.
Read the pdfs at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/rle/contents.html
The Idiots' Guide to Highways Maintenance
Copyright © 2000/09, C.J.Summers. "I must point out that the "Highways" bit of the "Idiot's Guide to Highways Maintenance" is pretty specific. Highways Maintenance is in fact a very, very wide subject and my knowledge and hence this site deals predominantly with the road pavement, the materials employed in its construction/maintenance and its surface characteristics. If there is this much to know about just this one aspect of the profession it gives you an indication as to how much knowledge and experience is required to fulfill the complete Highways Maintenance function to a high standard. " See information on roads maintenance, road surfaces, pavements, asphalt, aggregates, bitumen, bitumenous surfaces, drainage, compaction, consolidation, failures, skid resistance and road markings at http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/contents.htm
Food Engineering Subject Guide
"The Information and Library Service compiles occasional subject guides for engineers and students. The aim is to highlight sources of information available in the library and the Institution itself, along with some useful websites to take you further afield. "
Check it at http://www.imeche.org/industries/process/food-engineering/guides.htm
IEEE Global History Network
The IEEE Global History Network (GHN) intends to be the world’s premier site for the documentation, analysis and explanation of the history of electrical, electronic, and computer technologies, the scientists, engineers and business people who made these technologies happen, and on the history of the organizations to which these men and women belonged. "
Read about it at http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/GHN:About