Enhanced Supercritical Fluid Extractor

 

Wed, 11/12/2014 - 9:01am

 

Supercritical Fluid Technologies Inc.’s SFT-250 supercritical fluid extractor (SFE) is designed to perform a variety of extractions in supercritical fluid and is engineered to meet the day-to-day rigors of the research laboratory. Additionally, the system may be used for small-scale pilot processing. The SFT-250 is simple to operate and easy to modify for evolving application needs. The SFT-250’s extraction vessel is engineered from durable 17-4-PH stainless steel. Vessels can range in size from 100 mL to 5 L. Larger vessels are suitable for extracting low levels of key components from a raw material or for processing larger amounts of bulk material. A wide range of operation pressures (up to 10,000 psi) and temperatures (ambient to 200 C) ensures the SFT-250 has the flexibility required to meet many application of supercritical fluids. The SFE is controlled by PID controllers that manage pumping rates, pressures, temperature zones and safety interlocks.

Supercritical Fluid Technologies Inc. -  www.supercriticalfluids.com

 

Asus ZenWatch review: Fashion and function start to find balance

 

Gizmag reviews one of the best blends of tech and style yet, the Android Wear-running Asus ZenWatch (Photo: Will Shanklin/Gizmag.com)

Apart from the Nexus 7, Asus isn't exactly a household name in mobile. But if the company's new Android Wear smartwatch, the Asus ZenWatch, is any indiciation, it could make a name for itself in wearables. Read on, for Gizmag's review of the most pleasant smartwatch surprise of the year.

Every Android Wear smartwatch runs the same software. Sure, most manufacturers throw in their own companion apps for your phone or watch, but those are just extras. Unlike on Android phones and tablets, OEMs can't skin or tamper with Wear's core software.

That leaves smartwatch-makers to differentiate their products on a hardware level. Asus has done just that, designing a beautiful watch that provides the best blend of style and technology that I've seen in any wearable.

Most of the early Android Wear watches we've seen have been big and bulky: even the gorgeous Moto 360 looks a little beefy on most people's wrists. But Asus' watch sits on the smaller end of that spectrum. We're going to see smartwatches that get smaller and smaller through the next few years, but for right now, the ZenWatch is right on the money. It doesn't look any bigger than most men's designer watches.

As far as design, the images in this review should speak for themselves. The watch's stainless steel body has rounded corners, with a very slightly curved screen ("2.5D") that adds to the jewelry aesthetic. Everyone is going to have their own reactions to wearable designs, but I think the ZenWatch is a damn good-looking watch.

You can swap the ZenWatch's band with any standard (22 mm) strap, but I'm a fan of the one it ships with. The rose gold-colored stitched leather looks spiffy, and feels great on my wrist.

Its screen gets the job done: not too big, not too small (it's a 1.63-in square); with fairly sharp (278 pixels per inch) resolution. It doesn't have the wow factor of the round screens on the Moto 360 and G Watch R, but it fits this watch's form factor.

The display gets plenty bright on the highest settings, and, though none of the Android Wear watches so far have looked great in direct sunlight, I find the ZenWatch to be perfectly readable on brightness levels 4-5, and readable enough on level 3, while in the sun.

Performance isn't a concern. With the same Snapdragon 400 processor found in the Gear Live and LG G Watch, the ZenWatch is going to give you roughly the same experience. Android Wear is a lightweight operating system anyway, so Qualcomm's chip, combined with 512 MB of RAM, is all these early watches need.

After my first few hours with the ZenWatch, I thought we weren't going to be able to recommend it, as its battery was dropping like a fly. But I eventually realized that was tied to one of Asus' add-ons, a setting that leaves your paired phone unlocked while the watch is nearby. With this setting turned on, the watch dropped between 6-8 percent per hour, even with very light use. But once I turned it back off, battery life ended up being quite good.

With that "Unlock my Phone" setting turned off (it's off by default), and brightness set to "3," my ZenWatch typically drops around 3-4 percent per hour with moderate use. And that's with the always-on (ambient clock face) setting turned on. With normal use, this should be an all-day watch with room to spare.

The ZenWatch's charger is a cradle that reminds me of a cross between Samsung's Gear chargers and the original G Watch's charger. It isn't as elegant as the Moto 360's wireless charging dock, but if using this charger helped Asus to keep the price down, I won't argue with that decision.

The ZenWatch has a lower water resistance rating than most smartwatches: they're typically IP67, but the ZenWatch is IP55 (the same as the original Galaxy Gear). That means it protects against splashes and maybe the occasional rain shower, but not full submersion.

All Android Wear watches can double as fitness trackers, and the ZenWatch is no exception. One notable difference is that its heart rate sensor is on its front bezels, instead of the watch's backside. So whenever you want to check your pulse, you'll need to put two fingers (like you're making a peace sign) on either side of the watch's front.

Asus' software extras are fairly run-of-the-mill: a ZenWatch manager companion app lets you find your watch if you lose it, adds a compass and flashlight, and allows you to tweak settings like muting a phone call by covering the screen. There's also that "unlock my phone" feature, but, again, I'd avoid that if you want the watch's battery to last a full day.

Asus also threw in its own fitness-tracking app, Asus Wellness, that logs your exercise and measures your heart rate. It has an idle alert option (like on Jawbone trackers) that can remind you to get up and move if you've been vegging out for too long. The watch can also both measure your heart rate directly, and use it to give you a "relaxation score." It's a solid addition to Wear's built-in fitness tracking.

If you would have told me a few months ago that my favorite wearable of 2014 would come from Asus, I probably wouldn't have believed you. But that's just what happened here. It's still early days for smartwatches, but the ZenWatch provides the best combination yet of tech and style.

Ringing up at US$200, the ZenWatch also happens to be one of the cheapest Android Wear watches you can buy. If you're shopping for a smartwatch this holiday season, we recommend putting the ZenWatch near the top of your list.

For more on what the ZenWatch can (and can't) do, you can hit up Gizmag's Android Wear review from earlier this year.

Product page: Asus

 

VW premieres fuel cell-powered Golf SportWagen HyMotion at LA Auto Show

 

Volkwagen's Golf SportWagen HyMotion in Los Angeles (Photo: C.C. Weiss/Gizmag)

 

Joining the likes of Toyota and Honda, Volkswagen has chosen this week to unveil a new fuel cell vehicle – the Golf SportWagen HyMotion. According to VW, the demo car illustrates the automaker's strategy of implementing alternative drives into existing high-production vehicles, as opposed to starting from scratch by creating entirely new models.

The HyMotion incorporates both a fuel cell and a 12-volt lithium-ion battery, along with an electric motor adapted from the e-Golf. The dual system's total power is 100 kW (136 PS).

The fuel cell, motor and transmission are located in the engine compartment, as are associated components such as the cooling system; a tri-port converter for regulating the voltage between the motor, fuel cell and battery; and a turbo compressor that supplies the fuel cell with oxygen.

The battery is in the rear section of the car, and is used to store kinetic energy recovered from regenerative braking, to assist in starting up the fuel cell, and to boost the car's acceleration. Four carbon fiber tanks situated in the underbody store the hydrogen used in the fuel cell, giving the vehicle a range of 310 miles (499 km). The tanks can be refilled in just three minutes.

As far as performance goes, the HyMotion can reportedly accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in an even 10 seconds.

The vehicle utilizes VW's Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) mechanical design system. Volkswagen claims that this system has made it possible for the Golf line "to become the world's first vehicle model series that can host all conceivable drive types." Along with the fuel cell-powered HyMotion, there are already gas, diesel, battery electric, natural gas and plug-in hybrid Golfs.

Before the HyMotion can become a commercial model, however, VW has stated that a better hydrogen infrastructure will need to be established.

Source: Volkswagen

 

New technique allows ultrasound to penetrate bone, metal

 

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Using a new technique, “it’s as if the aberrating layer isn’t even there,” says researcher Yun Jing.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that allows ultrasound to penetrate bone or metal, using customized structures that offset the distortion usually caused by these so-called "aberrating layers."

"We've designed complementary metamaterials that will make it easier for medical professionals to use ultrasound for diagnostic or therapeutic applications, such as monitoring blood flow in the brain or to treat brain tumors," says Tarry Chen Shen, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of a paper on the work. "This has been difficult in the past because the skull distorts the ultrasound's acoustic field."

"These metamaterials could also be used in industrial settings," says Dr. Yun Jing, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and senior author of the paper. "For example, it would allow you to use ultrasound to detect cracks in airplane wings under the wing's metal 'skin.'"

Ultrasound imaging works by emitting high frequency acoustic waves. When those waves bounce off an object, they return to the ultrasound equipment, which translates the waves into an image.

But some materials, such as bone or metal, have physical characteristics that block or distort ultrasound's acoustic waves. These materials are called aberrating layers.

The researchers addressed this problem by designing customized metamaterial structures that take into account the acoustic properties of the aberrating layer and offsetting them. The metamaterial structure uses a series of membranes and small tubes to achieve the desired acoustic characteristics.

The researchers have tested the technique using computer simulations and are in the process of developing and testing a physical prototype.

In simulations, only 28 percent of ultrasound wave energy makes it past an aberrating layer of bone when the metamaterial structure is not in place. But with the metamaterial structure, the simulation shows that 88 percent of ultrasound wave energy passes through the aberrating layer.

"In effect, it's as if the aberrating layer isn't even there," Jing says.

The technique can be used for ultrasound imaging, as well as therapeutically -- such as using ultrasound to apply energy to brain tumors, in order to burn them.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by North Carolina State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Chen Shen, Jun Xu, Nicholas X. Fang, Yun Jing. Anisotropic Complementary Acoustic Metamaterial for Canceling out Aberrating Layers. Physical Review X, 2014; 4 (4) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.4.041033

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WHO: Democratic Republic of Congo is Ebola-free

 

A man moves down the escalator at the arrivals section of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday, November 19. A 26-year-old Indian man who recovered from Ebola in Liberia has been placed in isolation at the New Delhi airport after traces of the virus were found in his semen, according to India's Health Ministry. Health officials say the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the deadliest ever. More than 5,400 people have died there, according to the World Health Organization.

Health workers in protective suits transport Dr. Martin Salia from a jet that brought him from Sierra Leone to a waiting ambulance in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday, November 15. Salia died early Monday, November 17, after being brought to the U.S. for treatment of Ebola.

A child who survived the Ebola virus is fed by another survivor at a treatment center on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, during a Tuesday, November 11, ceremony at which 63 survivors at the center were discharged.

Health workers in Monrovia, Liberia, cover the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on Friday, October 31.

Kaci Hickox leaves her home in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend on Thursday, October 30. Hickox, a nurse, recently returned to the United States from West Africa, where she treated Ebola victims. State authorities wanted her to avoid public places for 21 days -- the virus' incubation period. But Hickox, who twice tested negative for Ebola, said she would defy efforts to keep her quarantined at home.

Crew members at an airport in Accra, Ghana, unload supplies sent from China on Wednesday, October 29.

Health officials in Nairobi, Kenya, prepare to screen passengers arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday, October 28.

Amber Vinson, one of the two Dallas nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola, embraces Emory University Hospital epidemiologist Dr. Bruce Ribner after being discharged from the Atlanta hospital on October 28. Vinson and the other nurse, Nina Pham, have both been declared Ebola-free.

Hickox sent CNN this image of the tent where she was initially being isolated for Ebola monitoring Sunday, October 26, in New Jersey. Hospital officials told CNN the indoor tent was in a climate-controlled extended-care facility adjacent to a hospital.

U.S. President Barack Obama hugs Ebola survivor Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, October 24. Pham, one of the two Dallas nurses who were diagnosed with the virus, was declared Ebola-free after being treated at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

Police officers on Thursday, October 23, stand outside the New York City apartment of Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned from West Africa and tested positive for Ebola. He was later declared Ebola-free.

Health workers in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, transport the body of a person who is suspected to have died of Ebola on Tuesday, October 21.

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, talks to reporters in Sacramento, California, after meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss the Ebola crisis on October 21.

Health workers bury a body on the outskirts of Monrovia on Monday, October 20.

Christine Wade, a registered nurse at the University of Texas Medical Branch, greets Carnival Magic passengers disembarking in Galveston, Texas, on Sunday, October 19. Nurses met passengers with Ebola virus fact sheets and were available to answer any questions. A Dallas health care worker was in voluntary isolation aboard the cruise ship because of her potential contact with the Ebola virus. She had shown no signs of the disease, however.

Garteh Korkoryah, center, is comforted during a memorial service for her son, Thomas Eric Duncan, on Saturday, October 18, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, died October 8 in a Dallas hospital. He was in the country to visit his son and his son's mother, and he was the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola.

An airplane carrying Nina Pham arrives at an airport in Frederick, Maryland, on Thursday, October 16. Pham is one of the two nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola after treating Duncan. Pham was sent to Maryland to be treated at a National Institutes of Health hospital, and she was declared Ebola-free several days later.

Boys run from blowing dust as a U.S. military aircraft leaves the construction site of an Ebola treatment center in Tubmanburg, Liberia, on Wednesday, October 15.

Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event October 15 in Monrovia. The group performs street dramas throughout Monrovia to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and how to handle people who are infected with the virus.

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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the media about Ebola during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on October 15. Obama said his administration will respond to new Ebola cases "in a much more aggressive way," taking charge of the issue after the second Texas nurse was diagnosed with the disease.

A U.S. Marine looks out from an MV-22 Osprey aircraft before landing at the site of an Ebola treatment center under construction in Tubmanburg on October 15. It is the first of 17 Ebola treatment centers to be built by Liberian army soldiers and American troops as part of the U.S. response to the epidemic.

A man dressed in protective clothing treats the front porch of a Dallas apartment where one of the infected nurses resides on Sunday, October 12.

Ebola survivors prepare to leave a Doctors Without Borders treatment center after recovering from the virus in Paynesville, Liberia, on October 12.

A member of the Liberian army stands near a U.S. aircraft Saturday, October 11, in Tubmanburg.

A woman crawls toward the body of her sister as a burial team takes her away for cremation Friday, October 10, in Monrovia. The sister had died from Ebola earlier in the morning while trying to walk to a treatment center, according to her relatives.

Ebola survivor Joseph Yensy prepares to be discharged from the Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Paynesville on Sunday, October 5.

Sanitized boots dry at the Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Paynesville on October 5.

Residents of an Ebola-affected township take home kits distributed by Doctors Without Borders on Saturday, October 4, in New Kru Town, Liberia. The kits, which include buckets, soap, gloves, anti-contamination gowns, plastic bags, a spray bottle and masks, are meant to give people some level of protection if a family member becomes sick.

A person peeks out from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, was staying on Friday, October 3.

A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia home on Thursday, October 2, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward.

Marie Nyan, whose mother died of Ebola, carries her 2-year-old son, Nathaniel Edward, to an ambulance in the Liberian village of Freeman Reserve on Tuesday, September 30.

A health official uses a thermometer Monday, September 29, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria.

Children pray during Sunday service at the Bridgeway Baptist Church in Monrovia on Sunday, September 28.

Residents of the St. Paul Bridge neighborhood in Monrovia take a man suspected of having Ebola to a clinic on September 28.

Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28.

Medical staff members at the Doctors Without Borders facility in Monrovia burn clothes belonging to Ebola patients on Saturday, September 27.

A health worker in Freetown, Sierra Leone, sprays disinfectant around the area where a man sits before loading him into an ambulance on Wednesday, September 24.

Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leone's Freetown-Lungi International Airport on Monday, September 22.

A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on Sunday, September 21. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes.

Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, September 20. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations.

A child stops on a Monrovia street Friday, September 12, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola.

Health workers on Wednesday, September 10, carry the body of a woman who they suspect died from the Ebola virus in Monrovia.

A woman in Monrovia carries the belongings of her husband, who died after he was infected by the Ebola virus.

Health workers in Monrovia place a corpse into a body bag on Thursday, September 4.

After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on Wednesday, September 3.

Crowds cheer and celebrate in the streets Saturday, August 30, after Liberian authorities reopened the West Point slum in Monrovia. The military had been enforcing a quarantine on West Point, fearing a spread of the Ebola virus.

A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on Friday, August 29.

Volunteers working with the bodies of Ebola victims in Kenema, Sierra Leone, sterilize their uniforms on Sunday, August 24.

A guard stands at a checkpoint Saturday, August 23, between the quarantined cities of Kenema and Kailahun in Sierra Leone.

A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on Friday, August 22.

Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on Thursday, August 21, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus.

Family members of West Point district commissioner Miata Flowers flee the slum in Monrovia while being escorted by the Ebola Task Force on Wednesday, August 20.

An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20.

Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on Tuesday, August 19. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saah's mother and brother died in the holding center.

A burial team wearing protective clothing retrieves the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim from his home near Monrovia on Sunday, August 17.

lija Siafa, 6, stands in the rain with his 10-year-old sister, Josephine, while waiting outside Doctors Without Borders' Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on August 17. The newly built facility will initially have 120 beds, making it the largest-ever facility for Ebola treatment and isolation.

Brett Adamson, a staff member from Doctors Without Borders, hands out water to sick Liberians hoping to enter the new Ebola treatment center on August 17.

Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17.

A body, reportedly a victim of Ebola, lies on a street corner in Monrovia on Saturday, August 16.

Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax.

A crowd enters the grounds of an Ebola isolation center in the West Point slum on August 16. The mob was reportedly shouting, "No Ebola in West Point."

A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward Friday, August 15, in Monrovia.

A boy tries to prepare his father before they are taken to an Ebola isolation ward August 15 in Monrovia.

Kenyan health officials take passengers' temperature as they arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday, August 14, in Nairobi, Kenya.

A hearse carries the coffin of Spanish priest Miguel Pajares after he died at a Madrid hospital on Tuesday, August 12. Pajares, 75, contracted Ebola while he was working as a missionary in Liberia.

Health workers in Kenema screen people for the Ebola virus on Saturday, August 9, before they enter the Kenema Government Hospital.

Paramedics in protective suits move Pajares, the infected Spanish priest, at Carlos III Hospital in Madrid on Thursday, August 7. He died five days later.

Nurses carry the body of an Ebola victim from a house outside Monrovia on Wednesday, August 6.

A Nigerian health official wears protective gear August 6 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sit in on a conference call about Ebola with CDC team members deployed in West Africa on Tuesday, August 5.

Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country.

Nigerian health officials are on hand to screen passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Monday, August 4.

Nurses wearing protective clothing are sprayed with disinfectant Friday, August 1, in Monrovia after they prepared the bodies of Ebola victims for burial.

A nurse disinfects the waiting area at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia on Monday, July 28.

In this photo provided by Samaritan's Purse, Dr. Kent Brantly, left, treats an Ebola patient in Monrovia. On July 26, the North Carolina-based group said Brantly tested positive for the disease. Days later, Brantly arrived in Georgia to be treated at an Atlanta hospital, becoming the first Ebola patient to knowingly be treated in the United States.

A doctor puts on protective gear at the treatment center in Kailahun on Sunday, July 20.

Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20.

Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20.

Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on Friday, July 18.

Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18.

A doctor works in the field laboratory at the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on Thursday, July 17.

Doctors Without Borders staff prepare to enter the isolation ward at an Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 17.

Dr. Mohamed Vandi of the Kenema Government Hospital trains community volunteers who will aim to educate people about Ebola in Sierra Leone.

A woman has her temperature taken at a screening checkpoint on the road out of Kenema on Wednesday, July 9.

A member of Doctors Without Borders puts on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry on Saturday, June 28.

Airport employees check passengers in Conakry before they leave the country on Thursday, April 10.

A Guinea-Bissau customs official watches arrivals from Conakry on Tuesday, April 8.

Egidia Almeida, a nurse in Guinea-Bissau, scans a Guinean citizen coming from Conakry on April 8.

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus Thursday, April 3, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea.

Health specialists work Monday, March 31, at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea.

The Ebola epidemic