10 dicas e truques para aprender qualquer idioma

 

de John-Erik Jordan Matthew Youlden fala nove idiomas fluentemente e entende, pelo menos, mais de doze. Nós trabalhamos no mesmo escritório em Berlim, assim, frequentemente, eu o vejo em ação utilizando suas ferramentas, trocando de idioma como um camaleão muda de cor. Na verdade, por um bom tempo, eu sequer sabia que ele era britânico. Quando eu contei ao Matthew a batalha que foi para eu aprender um segundo idioma, ele me deu os seguintes conselhos. Dessa forma, se você acreditar que você nunca poderá ser bilíngue, preste bem atenção nas próximas linhas! 1. SAIBA  PORQUÊ VOCÊ ESTÁ FAZENDO ISSO Isso parece óbvio mas se você não tiver uma boa razão para aprender um idioma, haverá menos probalidade de você se manter motivado durante a longa caminhada. Querer impressionar falantes do inglês com o seu francês não é uma boa razão: já, querer conhecer um francês ou uma francesa no seu próprio idioma, é algo completamente diferente. Não interessa o seu motivo, uma vez que você decidiu aprender um idioma, é fundamental se manter firme em sua decisão: “Tudo bem, eu quero aprender esse idioma e, por isso, vou fazer tudo o que puder neste idioma, com este idioma e por esse idioma.” 2. MERGULHE DE CABEÇA Então, você fez a promessa. E agora, como fica? Como continuar? Há uma maneira certa, um caminho apropriado para aprender? Matthew recomenda a abordagem máxima de 360°: não importa quais ferramentas você usar, é fundamental praticar seu novo idioma todos os dias. “Eu tenho uma tendência de querer absorver o máximo possível no início. Assim, se eu estou aprendendo algo eu mergulho no aprendizado e tento usar o que estou aprendendo sempre que posso e todos os dias. Conforme os dias passam, eu tento pensar, escrever e falar comigo mesmo neste idioma. Para mim é preciso colocar em prática aquilo que você está aprendendo - seja escrevendo um e-mail, falando sozinho, ouvindo música, ouvindo rádio. Envolver-se, mergulhar na nova cultura é extremamente importante.” Lembre-se, a melhor forma de falar um idioma é fazer com que as pessoas falem com você. Ser capaz de ter uma simples conversa com alguém é uma enorme recompensa para si mesmo. Atingir metas como essas no início, tornará mais fácil a tarefa de manter-se motivado e continuar praticando: “Eu sempre tenho em mente que o melhor caminho é adaptar o próprio jeito de pensar ao jeito de pensar daquele idioma. Obviamente, o falante do espanhol ou o falante do hebraíco ou o falante do holandês não possue somente uma forma única de pensar, mas a ideia é utilizar o idioma para criar o seu próprio mundo linguístico.” 3. ENCONTRE UM PARCEIRO Matthew aprendeu vários idiomas junto com o seu irmão gêmeo Michael (eles decifraram o seu primeiro idioma estrangeiro, o grego, quando tinham apenas oito anos). Matthew e Michael ou os irmãos super-poliglotas, como eu gosto de chamá-los, ganharam seus superpoderes através de uma saudável rivalidade entre irmãos. “Nós estávamos sempre muito motivados e ainda estamos. Nós nos provocamos constantemente, praticamente empurramos um ao outro para conseguirmos chegar lá de verdade. Se ele percebe que estou conseguindo mais que ele, ele fica meio enciumado e tenta me alcançar (talvez porque ele seja meu irmão gêmeo) - e vice-versa.” Mesmo que você não tenha um irmão para viver sua aventura linguística, ter qualquer outro tipo de parceiro estimulará os dois a sempre se esforçarem um pouco mais e não deixar a bola cair: “Eu acho que essa é uma forma muito boa de aprender. Ter alguém com quem você possa falar é a ideia atrás do aprendizado de um idioma.” 4. CONCENTRE-SE NAQUILO QUE É IMPORTANTE Se você fizer da conversação o seu objetivo desde o início, você provavelmente não ficará se perdendo nos livros didáticos. Assim, conversar com pessoas que falam esse idioma será a parte mais relevante do seu processo de aprendizado: “Você está aprendendo um idioma para ser capaz de usá-lo. Você não vai falá-lo consigo mesmo. O lado criativo de aprender um idioma, é realmente colocá-lo em uso em situações do dia a dia - seja escrevendo letras de música, conversando com pessoas ou usando-o quando você viaja para o exterior. Se bem que você não precisa, necessariamente, viajar para o exterior para usá-lo, você pode ir no restaurante grego ali na esquina e pedir em grego.” 5. DIVIRTA-SE COM O APRENDIZADO Usar o seu novo idioma é, de qualquer forma, um ato criativo. Os irmãos super-poliglotas praticavam seu grego compondo e gravando músicas. Pense em algumas formas divertidas de praticar seu novo idioma: faça um programa de rádio com um amigo, desenhe histórias em quadrinhos, escreva poemas ou simplesmente fale, fale e fale o máximo que você puder. Se você não conseguir descobrir uma forma de se divertir com o seu novo idioma, é possível que você não esteja seguindo o passo número quatro. 6. VIRE CRIANÇA NOVAMENTE Isto não quer dizer que você deva sair por aí gritando sem parar, tendo ataques de choro ou que você deva melecar seu cabelo com comida quando for a um restaurante, mas sim, que você deve tentar aprender do jeito que as crianças aprendem. A ideia de que crianças aprendem melhor do que adultos tem provado ser apenas um mito. Novas pesquisas não puderam encontrar uma ligação direta entre idade e habilidade para aprender. A chave para aprender tão rápido como as crianças deve estar simplesmente em agir, em certas situações, da mesma forma que elas agem: por exemplo, a espontaneidade em falar aquilo que lhes vem à cabeça, o jeito com que brincam com tudo, inclusive com o idioma e a inexistência de bloqueios. Crianças, normalmente, não têm medo de dizer bobagens na hora de falar. Nós aprendemos errando. No caso das crianças espera-se que elas cometam alguns erros, já no caso dos adultos, isso parece ser um tabu. Pense em como é mais fácil ouvir de uma pessoa adulta, “Eu não sei”, do que, “ Eu ainda não aprendi isso” (Eu não sei nadar, eu não sei dirigir, eu não sei falar espanhol). Ser visto errando (ou tentando acertar) é um tabu social que não atinge as crianças. Aprender um idioma admitindo que você não sabe tudo (e que isso não é um problema) é a chave para se desenvolver e ser livre. Assim, deixe pra lá suas inibições do mundo adulto! 7. SAIA DA SUA ZONA DE CONFORTO Boa vontade para cometer erros significa estar preparado para se colocar em situações embaraçosas. Eu sei, isso pode dar um medo danado, mas é a única maneira de se desenvolver e progredir. Não interessa o quanto você aprende, você não vai conseguir falar um idioma sem se mostrar: fale com estrangeiros na sua língua materna, pergunte pelo caminho, peça a comida no restaurante, tente contar uma piada. Quanto mais vezes você fizer isso, maior se tornará a sua zona de conforto e ficará muito mais fácil se sair bem em novas situações: “No início, você vai encontrar dificuldade: talvez com a pronúncia, talvez com a gramática, a sintaxe, ou você não conseguirá realmente entender as palavras. Mas eu acho que o mais importante é estar sempre desenvolvendo essa sensibilidade. Todo falante nativo tem uma sensibilidade para a sua língua materna e isto é o que faz dele um falante nativo - a capacidade de fazer do idioma o seu próprio idioma.” 8. OUÇA COM ATENÇÃO Para aprender a desenhar, você precisa primeiro aprender a olhar, a observar. Da mesma forma, você precisa primeiro aprender a escutar para depois aprender a falar. O som de qualquer idioma parece meio estranho quando você o escuta pela primeira vez. Assim, quanto mais contato você tiver com esse idioma melhor. Os sons se tornarão cada vez mais familiares e, assim, será mais fácil falá-lo corretamente: “ Nós somos capazes de pronunciar qualquer coisa, nós só não estamos acostumados a fazer isso. Por exemplo, o “r” rolado não existe na minha forma do inglês. Quado eu estava aprendendo espanhol havia palavras com esse “r” duro como em perro e reunión. Para mim, a melhor forma de lidar com a situação era ouvir constantemente e visualizá-lo ou imaginar como ele deveria ser pronunciado, pois para cada som há uma parte específica da boca e da garganta que nós usamos para conseguirmos produzir aquele som.” 9. OBSERVE AS PESSOAS FALAREM Idiomas diferentes exigem diferentes movimentos da sua língua, lábios e garganta. A pronúncia é muito mais um processo físico do que mental. “Uma forma de treino - e isso pode parecer bem estranho - é realmente olhar uma pessoa enquanto ela está pronunciando aquele som que você não consegue produzir e tentar imitar esse som o máximo de vezes que você puder. Confie em mim, vai parecer ser bem difícil no começo, mas você vai conseguir. Na verdade, pronúncia é algo bem fácil de ser feito corretamente; você só precisa treinar.” Se você não pode observar um falante nativo ao vivo e a cores, assistir filmes estrangeiros ou televisão pode ser um bom substituto. 10. FALE SOZINHO Não há problema algum em falar sozinho quando você não tem ninguém para conversar. “Isso pode parecer muito estranho mas, na verdade, falar sozinho no idioma é uma forma excelente de praticá-lo se você não pode utilizá-lo o tempo todo.” Esse método pode manter novas frases e palavras na sua mente e ajudá-lo a melhorar sua confiança na próxima vez que você conversar com alguém.  RELAXE! Você não chateará as pessoas se não falar bem o idioma delas. Se você começar uma conversa dizendo “Eu estou aprendendo e gostaria de praticar…”, a maioria das pessoas será paciente, encorajando você e sentido-se feliz em ajudar. Além disso, há aproximadamente um bilhão de falantes do inglês não-nativos no mundo todo, a maioria deles preferiria falar o seu próprio idioma se pudesse escolher. Tomar a iniciativa para entrar no mundo linguístico de alguém pode deixá-lo à vontade e fazer com que todos se sintam bem: “Com certeza, você pode viajar para o exterior falando seu próprio idioma mas você aproveitará muito mais se puder realmente se sentir à vontade no lugar onde está - conseguindo se comunicar, entender, interagir em todo tipo de situação que você possa imaginar.” MAS QUAL É O SENTIDO? Nós demos uma introdução em COMO começar a aprender um idioma mas talvez você ainda esteja pensando em PORQUE aprendê-lo? Matthew tem uma última observação a esse respeito: “Eu acho que cada idioma revela uma forma de ver o mundo. Se você fala um determinado idioma, você terá uma forma diferente de analisar e interpretar o mundo da do falante de um outro idioma. Até mesmo idiomas que são bem próximos como espanhol e português, que podem ser considerados mutuamente inteligíveis, são da mesma forma dois mundos diferentes - duas mentalidades diferentes. Por isso, depois de ter aprendido outros idiomas e de estar cercado por outros idiomas , eu não poderia renunciar a qualquer um deles pois eu estaria renunciando a possibilidade de ver o mundo de formas diferentes. Não somente de uma forma, mas de diferentes formas. O estilo de vida monolingual para mim, é muito triste, muito só, é uma forma mais chata de ver o mundo. Há tantas vantagens em aprender um idioma; eu realmente não consigo achar nenhuma outra razão para não fazer isso.” Traduzido por: Pedro Werneck

Sustainable BIM - Building Information Modeling -

 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 9:52am Lindsay Hock, Managing Editor Computational fluid dynamics analysis of a nine-story lab in an urban environment. Image: Payette Building information modeling (BIM), now a standard tool throughout most architecture sectors, is critical for complex building types like healthcare and lab projects. Clients are finding great use for these models in facilities maintenance and long-term campus facilities planning. Owners also see great benefit with BIM, as many are interested in the long-term maintenance and scheduling abilities it offers. Others are more interested in increased accuracy in documentation, resulting in fewer unforeseen conflicts during the construction process. The benefits of efficiency and coordination are just the tip of the iceberg for BIM. While foundationally a software, the distinction between BIM as software or as a process is important. “The same tools can be used either way,” says Chris Blomquist, Payette. “But for the BIM to be useful and intelligent, one must approach it as a process.” This is very clear when A/E/C firms look at the way their design processes have changed as a result of BIM software. Most use the same model from the earliest design massing studies through completion of construction. Using one model throughout all phases of the project allow it to gather intelligence and refinement throughout the process. “At times the design team may extract model geometry from Revit to plug into parametric analysis software like Grasshopper for façade studies or software like Autodesk Ecotect for specific tasks,” says Blomquist. “These programs allow us to study design alternatives for aesthetics or rough energy efficiency and daylighting performance.” And while most people think of BIM as Autodesk’s Revit, it’s much more. “There are many software options that contribute to BIM before and after the design and building elements make their way into the primary documentation software,” says Cara Pomeranz, Payette. “When a design concept makes its way from a napkin sketch to the CNC router, that’s BIM in action.” BIM and collaboration The BIM approach varies from project to project and can be driven by a number of project-specific constraints or requirements. Whether the project requires a year-long collocation effort involving the design team and key trade contractors, or a week-long session to focus on one element of a project, great value is seen by A/E/C firms in this collaborative approach. With a BIM approach, design firms can share a model with a structure steel fabricator or façade detailer on a weekly, even daily, schedule. The result: real-time coordination and a streamline shop drawing review process. “There are instances where a specialized trade contractor is brought into an office for a one-week working session to focus on a particular project piece,” says Blomquist. “This type of collaboration eliminates the design team’s guessing as to how something might be fabricated.” With BIM, a whole design-build team is able to work through the details, fabrication and understand any impacts to the design from the people who are doing the fabrication early on which eliminated surprises in the shop drawing phase. Overall, BIM allows multiple disciplines access to the same body of information in real time, as most models are housed in a central location like the cloud. It enhances collaboration by streamlining the amount of time it takes for changes across disciplines to appear in drawings. “The use of clash detection, which identifies areas of the model that need further coordination, allows teams to channel more energy into finding solutions to problems rather than finding the problem itself,” says Pomeranz. BIM vs. CAD: Is there a clear winner? A BIM is only as useful as the information put into it or extracted from it. The advantages lie in how it’s used. BIM allows simultaneous collaboration with colleagues, consultants and trade contractors through the design process from the beginning of the design-assist process. The best BIM will eliminate change orders and conflicts during the construction phase. It will also, ideally, be the repository for all vital building information. BIM should be the archive owners go to for the life of the building. “A well-organized BIM eliminates redundant drawing, which in turn increases consistency,” says Blomquist. “Drawing in 3-D allows you to quickly generate legible views to share with clients, and allows team members to understand how parts of the project they are working on affect their colleagues’ work instantaneously.” The scheduling component of BIM allows users to produce equipment and finish schedules for the users. BIM and sustainable design BIM, by its definition, is an integrated approach focused on coordination between different trades. This allows design teams to set a comprehensive, sustainable agenda from the beginning site layouts to the final execution of a building’s programmatic layout and its associated services. “Initial site layout studies, with proper benchmarking, can provide project teams with a good understanding of the projected energy utilization for a project,” says Rishi Nandi, Associate, Payette. “As a project develops, BIM studies help inform a project team of the most efficient layouts for individual spaces accounting for metrics, such as user thermal comfort, initial coordination with the structure and architecture of a space and actual physical appearance of the space.” As a part of the construction documents phase, BIM allows the project team to layout the core components of a space in a coordinate way, ensuring the usability of the space for the end users. This aspect is critical when considering labs. Labs are energy-intensive facilities. By understanding the layout of the building within its site and the particular programmatic spaces, design teams can focus on energy-saving ideas like how to reduce static pressure within duct runs to reduce net fan energy to site layouts and the greatest benefit when considering renewables. “Daylighting studies focused on building orientation can help inform a project team on the best way to maximize daylighting while effectively managing solar heat gain and cutting down on lighting energy usage,” says Nandi. “All these benefits can be found through utilization of BIM, although there’s no one platform/program that allows teams to do all these things simultaneously.” Sustainable BIM case study Payette, at the Northeastern Interdisciplinary Sciences and Engineering Complex (ISEC) utilized BIM in a variety of ways. Initial studies sited the building in a way that located high-energy-use spaces where the least amount of solar exposure was found, according to Nandi. The design then focused on the creation of a repetitive passive solar sunshading device that helped reduce the solar heat gain on the sides with the most exposure. This information was then transferred into an energy model which allowed the team to understand the expected energy usage of the facility. Computational fluid dynamic models were then run on the assumed layouts within the spaces, resulting in the most efficient layout within the space and the highest level of user thermal comfort, according to Nandi. All studies were conducted in four different programs and between three different firms on the design team side. The result: A LEED Gold-certified building currently trending Platinum. The building resulted in a total energy savings of over 40% when compared to an ASHRAE baseline building, and has a projected EUI of 103. According to Pomeranz, she is working on a current project that’s a nine-story, 170,000-sf lab building in an urban environment. Prior to having Payette’s wind analysis consultant on board, the team was able to model the building in its context and perform an in-house CFD study to gain a better understanding of where air entrainment issues might occur. “This early study gave us enough information to educate our client and make early design decisions regarding air intakes, massing and building placement,” says Pomeranz. “Now, many months later, those early design decisions are still relevant.” BIM’s sustainable future While still in its infancy, the next step of BIM is to look beyond trade coordination to the creation of “intelligent” models where each component carries a certain amount of programmed information. “The result is more of a computational approach rather than the current drafting approach,” says Nandi. As known, lab buildings are one of the most system-intensive building types. With BIM firms are able to manage, organize and visualize data in models, significantly helping with coordination and project development efforts of a team. “As we look toward the future, many teams are trending toward A/E/C collocation efforts with the primary goal of yet further improving the benefits of BIM coordination,” says Pomeranz. “Design-assist effort with architects and contractors are also occurring earlier in the design process, and with more frequency.” With the widespread adoption of the process and its budgetary savings, the A/E/C industry will continue to pursue BIM in its design efforts.

Copper on the brain at rest

 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 8:59am Lynn Yarris, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Two-photon imaging of CF3 in cultured dissociated hippocampal neurons shows how the addition of the BCS chelator shrinks the presence of labile copper pools.In recent years it has been established that copper plays an essential role in the health of the human brain. Improper copper oxidation has been linked to several neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Menkes’ and Wilson’s. Copper has also been identified as a critical ingredient in the enzymes that activate the brain’s neurotransmitters in response to stimuli. Now a new study by researchers with the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has shown that proper copper levels are also essential to the health of the brain at rest. “Using new molecular imaging techniques, we’ve identified copper as a dynamic modulator of spontaneous activity of developing neural circuits, which is the baseline activity of neurons without active stimuli, kind of like when you sleep or daydream, that allows circuits to rest and adapt,” says Chris Chang, a faculty chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Div. who led this study. “Traditionally, copper has been regarded as a static metabolic cofactor that must be buried within enzymes to protect against the generation of reactive oxygen species and subsequent free radical damage. We’ve shown that dynamic and loosely bound pools of copper can also modulate neural activity and are essential for the normal development of synapses and circuits.” Chang, who also holds appointments with the Univ. of California (UC) Berkeley’s Chemistry Dept. and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is the corresponding author of a paper that describes this study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Co-authors are Sheel Dodani, Alana Firl, Jefferson Chan, Christine Nam, Allegra Aron, Carl Onak, Karla Ramos-Torres, Jaeho Paek, Corey Webster and Marla Feller. Although the human brain accounts for only two-percent of total body mass, it consumes 20% of the oxygen taken in through respiration. This high demand for oxygen and oxidative metabolism has resulted in the brain harboring the body’s highest levels of copper, as well as iron and zinc. Over the past few years, Chang and his research group at UC Berkeley have developed a series of fluorescent probes for molecular imaging of copper in the brain. “A lack of methods for monitoring dynamic changes in copper in whole living organisms has made it difficult to determine the complex relationships between copper status and various stages of health and disease,” Chang said. “We’ve been designing fluorescent probes that can map the movement of copper in live cells, tissue or even model organisms, such as mice and zebra fish.” For this latest study, Chang and his group developed a fluorescent probe called Copper Fluor-3 (CF3) that can be used for one- and two-photon imaging of copper ions. This new probe allowed them to explore the potential contributions to cell signaling of loosely bound forms of copper in hippocampal neurons and retinal tissue. “CF3 is a more hydrophilic probe compared to others we have made, so it gives more even staining and is suitable for both cells and tissue,” Chang says. “It allows us to utilize both confocal and two-photon imaging methods when we use it along with a matching control dye (Ctrl-CF3) that lacks sensitivity to copper.” With the combination of CF3 and Ctrl-CF3, Chang and his group showed that neurons and neural tissue maintain stores of loosely bound copper that can be attenuated by chelation to create what is called a “labile copper pool.” Targeted disruption of these labile copper pools by acute chelation or genetic knockdown of the copper ion channel known as CTR1 (for copper transporter 1) alters spontaneous neural activity in developing hippocampal and retinal circuits. “We demonstrated that the addition of the copper chelator bathocuproine disulfonate (BCS) modulates copper signaling which translates into modulation of neural activity,” Chang says. “Acute copper chelation as a result of additional BCS in dissociated hippocampal cultures and intact developing retinal tissue removed the copper which resulted in too much spontaneous activity.” The results of this study suggest that the mismanagement of copper in the brain that has been linked to Wilson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders can also contribute to misregulation of signaling in cell−to-cell communications. “Our results hold therapeutic implications in that whether a patient needs copper supplements or copper chelators depends on how much copper is present and where in the brain it is located,” Chang says. “These findings also highlight the continuing need to develop molecular imaging probes as pilot screening tools to help uncover unique and unexplored metal biology in living systems.” Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Best Compact Cameras 2014 - republishing -

 

Which are the best compact cameras of the year? Here's our pick of the Best Compact Cameras Olympus TG 1 While there’s no arguing that the compact camera market is coming under increasing pressure for both the smartphone and CSC market, there’s still a lot to be said for having a dedicated camera with a fixed lens that you can easily take everywhere.The good news is that there’s still a broad range of attractive compacts cameras on the market, and of a wide range of varieties to suit every need.                                 Here are some of the best compact cameras currently on the market. Sony RX100 III Sony RX100 III Street price: £699 If you’re looking for the very best in compact cameras, Sony’s RX100 series has long been the place to turn to. The RX100 III represents the third in the series, and is arguably the best yet. It features a pop-up electronic viewfinder, vari-angle LCD screen and Sony’s impressive Bionz processor. It also retains the 1in sensor that has made the range so popular, delivering some excellent images along the way. At around the seven hundred pound mark the RX100 III is certainly not cheap, although it’s one of the most complete compacts going. Best Compact Camera for: The very best in pocketable imaging Read our Sony Cybershot RX100 III review Panasonic Lumix TZ60 Panasonic Lumix TZ60 Street price: £330 If you’re in the market for a travel compact, the chances are that you’re aware of, or have been pointed in the direction of, Panasonic’s TZ range. The TZ60 is the latest in a long line of impressive travel compacts and boasts all of the range’s hallmarks. These include a large 30x optical zoom, HD video capture and a large LCD screen. The model now also benefits from Raw capture as well JPEG capture, as as a result you could argue its the most complete travel compact to date. Best Compact Camera for: Those wanting excellent image quality in a body suitable for long travels Read our Panasonic Lumix TZ60 review Olympus TG-3 Olympus TG-3 Street price: £340 There are a wide range of waterproof and generally lifeproof cameras on the market, with Olympus certainly producing more than its fair share. Sitting at the top of its tough compact tree is the TG-3 – a model that’s so much more than simply a tough compact. The camera features an impressive 5fps burst mode, excellent battery life and will stand up to all life can throw at it. Best Compact Camera for: Putting through its paces on the beach or the slopes Read our Olympus TG-3 review Sony RX1 Street price: £1850 Sony RX1 Despite being priced well outside the reach of most people’s wallets, the Sony RX1 is nonetheless a serious prospect for the well-heeled enthusiast. Where the RX1 is really excels is with regards to image quality, as Sony have managed to cram a huge full-frame sensor in to its relatively compact body. The model also features a fixed 35mm Carl Zeiss lens that’s as sharp as a pin, along with a wide range of other high-end features. If you’re looking for the very best in compact imaging and have a large budget, the RX1 is the one for you. Best Compact Camera for: The very best in image quality Read our full review of the Sony RX1

Could electric clay be the world's next wonder-material?

 

A fan of conductive clay? (Photo: Drexel University) Image Gallery (8 images) Researchers at Drexel University have hit upon a conductive clay which they claim is an "exceptionally viable candidate" to one day replace the electrode materials used in batteries and supercapacitors. Sure, another day another super material, but MXene, as it's called, does boast some rather intriguing properties. Why's it good, then? You don't beat about the bush, do you? Very well. The three main properties of MXene that caught our eye are: 1. It's hydrophilic. That means, unlike graphene, it loves water. And that's good news because it means... 2. It's very malleable. You can mold it into complicated forms, or roll or press it very flat – both of which are potentially very handy for a material with conductivity supposedly is up there with metals. 3. The material has a very healthy capacitance of 900 F/cm3 – and that's basically at the first attempt. The team has done nothing to improve that performance. But perhaps more intriguing still is the claim that MXene lost no capacitance after more than 10,000 charge cycles. How do you say MXene? The researchers pronounce it mex-een. And this is a new material? Yes and no. MXene was first discovered in 2011. It's a material composed of two-dimensional titanium carbide derived from MAX phases. What's new is the researchers' ability to make it as a clay, a form which is not only useful, but much quicker and safer than the old method, and using readily-available materials. It used to take the researchers a day to make a MXene electrode. Now they can do it in 15 minutes. What does it look like under an electron microscope? This: So we can expect clay batteries from tomorrow, then? No. This is absurdly early stages for the material. And so far we've only read the press release, which tend not to emphasize any shortcomings or problems that may exist. We'll track down a copy of the paper and will update this article if we spot any major caveats. All of that said, the researchers do seem rather excited. "We’re talking about quite a special lump of clay here," said doctoral student Maria Lukatskaya.   Source: Drexel University

Thermographic camera

 

Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared ("thermal") light (false-color) A thermographic camera (also called an infrared camera or thermal imaging camera) is a device that forms an image using infrared radiation, similar to a common camera that forms an image using visible light. Instead of the 450–750 nanometer range of the visible light camera, infrared cameras operate in wavelengths as long as 14,000 nm (14 µm). Their use is called thermography.   History Precursors Infrared was discovered by Sir William Herschel as a form of radiation beyond red light. These "infrared rays" (infra is the Latin prefix for "below") were used mainly for thermal measurement. There are four basic laws of IR radiation: Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, Stefan-Boltzmann law, Planck’s law, and Wien’s displacement law. The development of detectors’ was mainly focused on the use of thermometer and bolometers until World War I. Leopoldo Nobili fabricated the first thermocouple in 1829, which paved the way for Macedonio Melloni to show that a person 10 meters away could be detected with his multielement thermopile. The bolometer was invented in 1878 by Langley. It had the capability to detect radiation from a cow from 400 meters away, and was sensitive to differences in temperature of one hundred thousandth of a degree Celsius. The first advanced application of IR technology in the civil section may have been a device to detect the presence of icebergs and steamships using a mirror and thermopile, patented in 1913.This was soon outdone by the first true IR iceberg detector, which did not use thermopiles, patented in 1914 by R.D. Parker. This was followed up by G.A. Barker’s proposal to use the IR system to detect forest fires in 1934. The technique was not truly industrialized until it was used in the analysis of heating uniformity in hot steel strips in 1935. First thermographic camera In 1929, Hungarian physicist Kálmán Tihanyi invented the infrared-sensitive (night vision) electronic television camera for anti-aircraft defense in Britain.[7] The first conventional thermographic cameras began with the development of the first infrared line scanner. This was created by the US military and Texas Instruments in 1947[8] and took one hour to produce a single image. While several approaches were investigated to improve the speed and accuracy of the technology, one of the most crucial factors that needed to be considered dealt with scanning an image, which the AGA company was able to commercialize using a cooled photoconductor. This work was further developed at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in the UK when they discovered mercury cadmium telluride could be used as a conductor that required much less cooling. Honeywell in the United States also developed arrays of detectors which could cool at a lower temperature, but they scanned mechanically. This method had several disadvantages which could be overcome using an electronically scanning system. In 1969 Michael Francis Tompsett at English Electric Valve Company in the UK patented a camera which scanned pyro-electronically and which reached a high level of performance after several other breakthroughs throughout the 1970s. Tompsett also proposed an idea for solid-state thermal-imaging arrays, which eventually led to modern hydridized single-crystal-slice imaging devices. Smart sensors One of the most important areas of development for security systems was for the ability to intelligently evaluate a signal, as well as warning for a threats’ presence. Under the encouragement of the United States Strategic Defense Initiative, "smart sensors" began to appear. These are sensors that could integrate sensing, signal extraction, processing, and comprehension. There are two main types of Smart Sensors. One, similar to what are called "vision chips" when used in the visible range, allow for preprocessing using Smart Sensing techniques due to the increase in growth of integrated microcircuitry. The other technology is more oriented to a specific use and fulfills its preprocessing goal through its design and structure. Towards the end of the 1990s the use of infrared was moving towards civil use. There was a dramatic lowering of costs for uncooled arrays, which along with the large increase in developments lead to a dual way use market between civil and military. These uses include environmental control, building/art analysis, medical functional diagnostics, and car guidance and collision avoidance systems. Theory of operation A thermal image showing temperature variation in a hot air balloon. Infrared energy is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which encompasses radiation from gamma rays, x-rays, ultra violet, a thin region of visible light, infrared, terahertz waves, microwaves, and radio waves. These are all related and differentiated in the length of their wave (wavelength). All objects emit a certain amount of black body radiation as a function of their temperatures. Generally speaking, the higher an object's temperature, the more infrared radiation is emitted as black-body radiation. A special camera can detect this radiation in a way similar to the way an ordinary camera detects visible light. It works even in total darkness because ambient light level does not matter. This makes it useful for rescue operations in smoke-filled buildings and underground. In use Thermographic image of a ringtailed lemur Images from infrared cameras tend to have a single color channel because the cameras generally use an image sensor that does not distinguish different wavelengths of infrared radiation. Color image sensors require a complex construction to differentiate wavelengths, and color has less meaning outside of the normal visible spectrum because the differing wavelengths do not map uniformly into the system of color vision used by humans. Sometimes these monochromatic images are displayed in pseudo-color, where changes in color are used rather than changes in intensity to display changes in the signal. This is useful because although humans have much greater dynamic range in intensity detection than color overall, the ability to see fine intensity differences in bright areas is fairly limited. This technique is called density slicing. For use in temperature measurement the brightest (warmest) parts of the image are customarily colored white, intermediate temperatures reds and yellows, and the dimmest (coolest) parts black. A scale should be shown next to a false color image to relate colors to temperatures. Their resolution is considerably lower than that of optical cameras, mostly only 160 x 120 or 320 x 240 pixels, although more expensive cameras can achieve a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels. Thermographic cameras are much more expensive than their visible-spectrum counterparts, though low-performance add-on thermal cameras for smartphones became available for hundreds of dollars in 2014. Higher-end models are often deemed as dual-use and export-restricted, particularly if the resolution is 640 x 480 or greater, unless the refresh rate is 9 Hz or less. The export of thermal cameras is regulated by International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. All FLIR VOx microbolometers are restricted to 7.5 Hz for export outside of the US. In uncooled detectors the temperature differences at the sensor pixels are minute; a 1 °C difference at the scene induces just a 0.03 °C difference at the sensor. The pixel response time is also fairly slow, at the range of tens of milliseconds. Thermography finds many other uses. For example, firefighters use it to see through smoke, find people, and localize hotspots of fires. With thermal imaging, power line maintenance technicians locate overheating joints and parts, a telltale sign of their failure, to eliminate potential hazards. Where thermal insulation becomes faulty, building construction technicians can see heat leaks to improve the efficiencies of cooling or heating air-conditioning. Thermal imaging cameras are also installed in some luxury cars to aid the driver, the first being the 2000 Cadillac DeVille. Some physiological activities, particularly responses such as fever, in human beings and other warm-blooded animals can also be monitored with thermographic imaging. Cooled infrared cameras can be found at major astronomy research telescopes, even those that are not infrared telescopes. source : Wikipedia

New electrolyte for construction of magnesium-sulfur batteries

 

Electron microscopy of the cathode composite. The Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) established by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is pushing research relating to batteries of the next and next-but-one generations: A research team has now developed an electrolyte that may be used for the construction of magnesium-sulfur battery cells. With magnesium, higher storage densities could be achieved than with lithium. Moreover, magnesium is abundant in nature, it is non-toxic, and does not degrade in air. The new electrolyte is now presented in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. In many electrical devices, lithium-ion and metal-hydride batteries are applied for energy storage. Scientists are also studying alternatives to these established battery systems in order to enhance the safety, cost efficiency, sustainability, and performance of future devices. It is their objective to replace lithium by other elements. For this purpose, all battery components have to be newly developed and understanding of electrochemical processes is required. Magnesium-based battery cells are presently considered an attractive option to replace lithium in batteries. In principle, magnesium allows higher storage densities to be reached than lithium. Other advantages of magnesium are its high abundance in nature, its non-toxicity, and its low degradation in air in contrast to lithium. So far, progress achieved in this area has been limited. For the design of magnesium batteries of high storage capacity and power density, suitable electrolytes are needed that can be easily to produced, that are stable, and can be used in high concentrations in different solvents. At the HIU, a research team headed by Maximilian Fichtner and Zhirong Zhao-Karger has now presented a new promising electrolyte, which might allow for the development of an entirely new generation of batteries. The new electrolyte is characterized by a number of promising properties. It possesses an unprecedented electrochemical stability window and a very high efficiency. In addition, the electrolyte can be used in various solvents and at high concentrations. Moreover, the electrolyte is chemically compatible with a sulfur cathode, which can be discharged at a voltage close to the theoretical value. Another advantage is the very simple production of the electrolyte. "Two commercially available standard chemicals, a magnesium amide and aluminium chloride, are applied. They are added to the solvent desired and subjected to stirring. This simple mixture can then be used directly as an electrolyte in the battery.," Maximilian Fichtner says. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Zhirong Zhao-Karger, Xiangyu Zhao, Di Wang, Thomas Diemant, R. Jürgen Behm, Maximilian Fichtner. Performance Improvement of Magnesium Sulfur Batteries with Modified Non-Nucleophilic Electrolytes. Advanced Energy Materials, 2014; DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201401155

Scanning tunneling microscopy: Computer simulations sharpen insights into molecules

 

Simulations of different types of scanning probe microscopy with atomic-scale sensors: Simulated atomic force microscopy image (left), simulated scanning tunnelling microscopy image (centre), simulation of an inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy image (right). The resolution of scanning tunnelling microscopes can be improved dramatically by attaching small molecules or atoms to their tip. The resulting images were the first to show the geometric structure of molecules and have generated a lot of interest among scientists over the last few years. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague have now used computer simulations to gain deeper insights into the physics of these new imaging techniques. One of these techniques was presented in the journal Science by American scientists this spring. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. "A comparison between the experimental results and our simulations shows excellent agreement and that, therefore, our theoretical model is able to explain the mechanism behind the microscopic images in this family of techniques," says Prof. Tautz from Forschungszentrum Jülich. "This comparison is essential for analysing the images." Together with his colleagues from the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-3), in 2008 Tautz introduced the method of attaching single molecules -- initially hydrogen molecules, later molecules such as carbon monoxide -- to the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope and using them as extremely sensitive measuring probes. The scientific community responded with great interest to this method, and the technique has since been continuously refined. It enables scanning tunnelling microscopes to be used as a kind of atomic force microscope that is able to image the geometric structure of molecules with unprecedented accuracy. "The valence charge clouds of complex organic molecules often spread over the entire molecule, thus concealing its atomic structure," says Tautz. Flexibly bound molecules at the microscope tip can be utilized as tailor-made sensors and signal transducers that are able to make the atomic structure visible nevertheless. In the last few years, such atomic sensors have also proven useful for work with atomic force microscopes. Then, in May 2014, scientists from the University of California, Irvine, showed for the first time that these sensors can also be used to improve signals in a related imaging mode known as inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy. In this case, it is the vibration of the sensor molecule against the microscope tip that reacts sensitively to the surface potential of the scanned sample. "Our calculations show the effect of the electrostatic forces on the high-resolution AFM, STM, and IETS images," explains Dr. Pavel Jelínek from the Institute of Physics at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague. "We believe that the results of this work are an important contribution to the use of inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy that will allow the technique to be used as an additional source of information in materials science and to derive additional parameters from the images." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Forschungszentrum Juelich. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal References: Prokop Hapala, Ruslan Temirov, F. Stefan Tautz, Pavel Jelínek. Origin of High-Resolution IETS-STM Images of Organic Molecules with Functionalized Tips. Phys. Rev. Lett., 25 November 2014 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.226101 Prokop Hapala, Georgy Kichin, Christian Wagner, F. Stefan Tautz, Ruslan Temirov, Pavel Jelínek. Mechanism of high-resolution STM/AFM imaging with functionalized tips. Physical Review B, 2014; 90 (8) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.085421

Single-atom gold catalysts may offer path to low-cost production of fuel and chemicals

 

November 27, 2014 Tufts University New catalysts designed and investigated by engineering researchers have potential to greatly reduce processing costs in future fuels like hydrogen. The catalysts are composed of a unique structure of single gold atoms bound by oxygen to sodium or potassium atoms, supported on non-reactive silica materials. They demonstrate comparable activity and stability with catalysts comprising precious metal nanoparticles on rare earth and other reducible oxide supports when used in producing highly purified hydrogen. New catalysts designed and investigated by Tufts University School of Engineering researchers and collaborators from other university and national laboratories have the potential to greatly reduce processing costs in future fuels, such as hydrogen. The catalysts are composed of a unique structure of single gold atoms bound by oxygen to several sodium or potassium atoms and supported on non-reactive silica materials. They demonstrate comparable activity and stability with catalysts comprising precious metal nanoparticles on rare- earth and other reducible oxide supports when used in producing highly purified hydrogen. The work, which appears in the November 27, 2014, edition of Science Express, points to new avenues for producing single-site supported gold catalysts that could produce high-grade hydrogen for cleaner energy use in fuel-cell powered devices, including vehicles. "In the face of precious metals scarcity and exorbitant fuel-processing costs, these systems are promising in the search for sustainable global energy solutions," says senior author Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos's research group has been active in designing catalysts requiring a lower amount of precious metals to generate high-grade hydrogen for use in fuel cells. The water-gas shift reaction, in which carbon monoxide is removed from the fuel gas stream by reacting with water to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen, is a key step in the process. Catalysts, such as metal oxide supported precious metals like platinum and gold, are used to lower the reaction temperature and increase the production of hydrogen. The Tufts group was the first to demonstrate that atomically dispersed gold or platinum on supports, such as cerium oxide, are the active sites for the water-gas shift reaction. Metal nanoparticles are "spectator species" for this reaction. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos says the new research suggests single precious metal atoms stabilized with alkali ions may be the only important catalyst sites for other catalytic reactions. "If the other particles are truly 'spectator species', they are therefore unnecessary. Future catalyst production should then focus on avoiding particle formation altogether and instead be prepared solely with atomic dispersion on various supports," says Flytzani-Stephanopoulos. The just published research describes how single gold atoms dispersed on non-reactive supports based on silica materials can be stabilized with alkali ions. As long as the gold atoms, or cations, are stabilized in a single-site form configuration, irrespective of the type of support, the precious metal will be stable and operate for many hours at a range of practical temperatures. "This novel atomic-scale catalyst configuration achieves the maximum efficiency and utilization of the gold," says Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, who directs the Tufts Nano Catalysis and Energy Laboratory. "Our work showed that these single-site gold cations were active for the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction and stable in operation at temperatures as high as 200°C." "Armed with this new understanding, practitioners will be able to design catalysts using just the necessary amount of the precious metals like gold and platinum, dramatically cutting down the catalyst cost in fuels and chemicals production processes," she adds. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Tufts University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal References: Ming Yang, Sha Li, Yuan Wang, Jeffrey A. Herron, Ye Xu, Lawrence F. Allard, Sungsik Lee, Jun Huang, Manos Mavrikakis, and Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos. Catalytically active Au-O(OH)x- species stabilized by alkali ions on zeolites and mesoporous oxides. Science, 27 November 2014 DOI: 10.1126/science.1260526 Y. Zhai, D. Pierre, R. Si, W. Deng, P. Ferrin, A. U. Nilekar, G. Peng, J. A. Herron, D. C. Bell, H. Saltsburg, M. Mavrikakis, M. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos. Alkali-Stabilized Pt-OHx Species Catalyze Low-Temperature Water-Gas Shift Reactions. Science, 2010; 329 (5999): 1633 DOI: 10.1126/science.1192449

Long-term complication rate low in nose job using patient's own rib cartilage

 

Using a patient's own rib cartilage (autologous) for rhinoplasty appears to be associated with low rates of overall long-term complications and problems at the rib site where the cartilage is removed, according to a report published online by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. Autologous rib cartilage is the preferred source of graft material for rhinoplasty because of its strength and ample volume. However, using rib cartilage for dorsal augmentation to build up the bridge of the nose has been criticized for its tendency to warp and issues at the cartilage donor site, such as pneumothorax (a collapsed lung) and postoperative scarring. Jee Hye Wee, M.D., of the National Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, and co-authors reviewed the available medical literature to evaluate complications associated with autologous rib cartilage and rhinoplasty. Authors identified 10 studies involving 491 patients with an average follow-up across all studies of 33.3 moths. Results indicate that combined complication rates from the studies were 3.08 percent for warping, 0.22 percent for resorption, 0.56 percent for infection, 0.39 percent for displacement, 5.45 percent for hypertrophic chest scarring (keloids), 0 percent for pneumothorax and 14.07 percent for revision surgery. "The overall long-term complications associated with autologous rib cartilage use in rhinoplasty were low. Because warping and hypertrophic chest scarring had relatively high rates, surgeons should pay more attention to reduce these complications. ... Future analysis should include studies with larger pools of patients, clearer definitions of complications and longer-term follow-up to obtain more reliable results," the study concludes. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by The JAMA Network Journals. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Jee Hye Wee, Min-Hyun Park, Sohee Oh, Hong-Ryul Jin. Complications Associated With Autologous Rib Cartilage Use in Rhinoplasty. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, 2014; DOI: 10.1001/jamafacial.2014.914