The pace of technological change in trucking over the past decade has been breathtaking. Commercial vehicles rolling off assembly lines now boast standard and optional features that would have been unthinkable on high-end luxury cars just a few years ago.
The proliferation of technology has penetrated virtually every aspect of truck design, from Bluetooth systems that enable drivers to talk on the phone safely to GPS-oriented telematics systems, computer-controlled integrated powertrains and high-pressure common-rail fuel injection systems.
Yet, more fleet managers are becoming less than enthusiastic concerning trucking’s technological explosion. That’s because all the new technology found on today’s commercial vehicles comes with tradeoffs – and many fleets cannot see an end to the new problems that have piggybacked these high-tech models. The most glaring unwanted burden has been skyrocketing truck prices…. At the same time, the exponential leap in new and advanced technologies found on today’s trucks is stressing the industry’s service and support network, which already is struggling with a crippling technician shortage….
Finally, fleet managers say, there is the issue of durability. “I talk to owner-operators leased to our fleet all the time,” says Margret Hogg, general manager of Toronto-based J.G. Drapeau, a long-haul hazmat fleet. “They all drive beautiful old trucks that are dependable day in and day out. They don’t want anything to do with all these new technologies because they run trucks that work when they need them to.”
Hogg believes vehicle reliability has never been lower than it is today. “We still have a 2002 model in our fleet that is far more dependable than a comparable 2012 model,” she says. “We’ve only had six major repairs with the ’02 truck since we got it. In contrast, the ’12 model has already had 11 major breakdowns. That’s not an isolated event, either.”
"At first glance it is a typical countryside scene. Deep in the Derbyshire Dales, young willow trees stretch upwards towards the late spring sun. Birds, bees and the odd wasp provide a gentle soundtrack to the bucolic harmony. But laid out in neat rows in the middle of a field are what appears to be a rather peculiar crop. On closer inspection these are actually upside-down chairs, fully rooted in the sandy soil. Slender willows sprout out of the ground then after a few inches the trunk becomes the back of a chair, the seat follows and finally the legs. The structure is tied to a blue frame and the entire form is clothed in leaves.…" http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32977012 Sent by Jonathan Greene
We introduce a multi-factor stochastic volatility model based on the
CIR/Heston volatility process that incorporates seasonality and the Samuelson
effect. First, we give conditions on the seasonal term under which the
corresponding volatility factor is well-defined. These conditions appear to be
rather mild. Second, we calculate the joint characteristic function of two
futures prices for different maturities in the proposed model. This
characteristic function is analytic. Finally, we provide numerical
illustrations in terms of implied volatility and correlation produced by the
proposed model with five different specifications of the seasonality pattern.
The model is found to be able to produce volatility smiles at the same time as
a volatility term-structure that exhibits the Samuelson effect with a seasonal
component. Correlation, instantaneous or implied from calendar spread option
prices via a Gaussian copula, is also found to be seasonal.
Node.js is on the rise for programming hardware. The full Google V8 version helps run Intel’s Edison chip. The IoT community has already embraced Node.js for embedded devices and robotics, with notable examples including Nodebots and Cylon. And now, even smaller devices like Tessel 2 — a development platform for prototyping hardware — are using JavaScript.
Why is this a big deal? It makes programming hardware much simpler — college students can learn Node.js in a weekend. And it makes it possible to build and program an entire IoT device, from start to finish, in less than four hours. This may very well be the future of hardware programming.
Intel principal engineer Michael McCool will be at O’Reilly’s Solid Conference, June 23-25, 2015, to lead a workshop on using Node.js and HTML5 to program the Internet of Things. “In only three and a half hours, we’re going to walk people through building a complete and sophisticated IoT system,” McCool told me in an interview. That includes building a hardware prototype, hardware interfacing, streaming telemetry, building a UI on the phone, and creating an app. “The Web server part is just five lines of code. The rest of it is similarly simple,” he said. “The complete code is only about 200 lines on the embedded device, plus a little bit more...when you add in graphs of things for streaming data.”
The reasons to use Node.js for hardware are simple: it’s standardized, event driven, and has a very high productivity. And as importantly, said McCool, it’s dynamically typed, which makes it faster to write — perfectly suited for getting a hardware prototype out the door. “With JavaScript, you can build a prototype rapidly, get it in front of users to get feedback, and iterate. It’s also robust enough that you can take it all the way to product,” he explained. “And if you’re concerned about time to market and you want to get a lot of features implemented in a short period of time, then go with Node.js.”
Solid returns to Fort Mason June 23–25, 2015.
Solid covers everything essential and intriguing about the IoT and beyond: from robotics, drones, and wearables to advanced materials, UX design, digital fabrication, security, and hardware prototyping. One attendee called it “more than a bit mind blowing.”
One of the other strengths of Node.js is its huge library of packages, more than 132,000 and growing. Last September, when McCool last taught his course, it was 74,000. Not all of them work for small devices, but they are easy to install with one command. And Node.js also supports a number of other IoT-specific communication systems, such as MQTT, which is designed for fast status updates from small devices.
That said, building in Node.js does require specialized knowledge about how to connect to the Web and other IoT devices. But there are some simple tools that can help. McCool pointed to StackOverflow to help you get started. John Resig’s Stream Playground blog also is a valuable resource for finding well-documented streaming node modules you (mostly) chain together plug-and-play for programming. And two of McCool’s favorite tricks are Browserify and Ecstatic — simple Web server packages that allow you to build in Node.js and turn it into Web content. Browserify can convert many Node.js programs and tools so they run inside the browser’s version of JavaScript. The Ecstatic package makes it possible to set up a simple Web server quickly, using only a few lines of code. “Using any of these packages, you can build a Web server and/or a Web service,” said McCool. “And of course, you can also use Node.js for server-side code.”
While some experts point out that Java is still a viable option for IoT programming, McCool said that JavaScript makes programming way simpler. The reasons have to do with both politics and portability. “Apple discourages use of standard Java implementations in iOS for various reasons, so relatively complex pre-compilation approaches are needed to use it,” he said. “But the fact is, you don't really need Java.” The set of available libraries in JavaScript is equally rich. JavaScript programs run on embedded devices, servers, mobile devices, and desktops. And they are under Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.
In short: for building a complete end-to-end IoT system, JavaScript is the most portable programming system available.
“Suffice it to say that the IoT is a huge mashup of Web services, browser technology, and embedded technology,” said McCool. “JavaScript is pretty useful in all those places."
A study in mice reveals that hormones that dictate a female's attraction towards males do so in part by controlling her sense of smell.
The investigators analyzed female mice at various stages of the ovulation cycle and found that when a female is not ready for reproduction, her hormones (specifically progesterone) block her ability to sense the smell of male pheromones.
These hormones diminish during ovulation, eventually allowing a female mouse to smell a potential partner. When ovulation ends, the cycle repeats, and she is again rendered "odor-blind" to males.
Greenhouse gases from cars and planes could one day be drastically reduced. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley outlined a new method for creating jet fuel and diesel that doesn’t require burning any fossil fuels. Instead, it uses only sugar factory waste.
The research team, led by Alexis Bell, figured out how to create fuels that produce only a fifth of the greenhouse gases that burning standard fossil fuels or ethanol-based biofuels would produce. “All of the carbon and any hydrogen required for the fuel are derived from biomass, rather than fossil fuels,” Bell tells Quartz.
Some of the most expensive ingredients in creating ethanol out of sugar, Bell says, are the enzymes required to break down sugarcane’s cell walls. While effective, these enzymes are needed in large quantities and manufacturing them is costly.
Bell’s team instead used hot water along with a cheaper, renewable catalyst. A catalyst is a substance that gets a reaction going without directly participating in it. For this reason, only tiny quantities of a catalyst are necessary. (For the nerds, the catalysts are magnesium oxide and niobium pentoxide.)
Hot-water treatment is usually used to separate sugar from sugarcane anyway. Bell’s method takes one extra step, employing renewable catalysts to convert the leftover sugarcane biomass into fuel.
The process is simple. First, fermentation breaks down the biomass into chemicals containing only a handful of carbon atoms, such as in ethanol, acetone, or butanol. Next, Bell’s catalyst kicks off a chemical reaction that joins up smaller molecules to make chemicals that are comprised of longer chains of carbon atoms that can be used as diesel, jet fuel, or a lubricant.
Bell says burning this fuel puts no additional burden on to the environment, because the carbon comes from plants, rather than fossils that were dug up, burned, and added to the atmosphere. “It’s a closed loop,” he says.
But it’s unlikely that oil companies are going to be dismantling their rigs any time soon. This work is still in the research phase, and it’s uncertain how cost-effective it would be to make fuel from sugarcane on a large scale.
The team’s work, Bell says, is sponsored by BP, which has large sugarcane plantations in Brazil that produce ethanol for flex-fuel cars. While Bell can’t confirm the economic viability of his team’s fuel, he says that BP were encouraged enough by what they saw to keep funding the research. BP was not immediately available for comment on its involvement in the research.
Late on June 04, Nestle India announced a nationwide recall of its popular instant noodle brand, Maggi. For weeks now, the iconic Indian comfort food has been in the middle of a soup over alleged high levels of monosodium glutamate and lead, which were found in samples tested by authorities in India.
Although the Swiss food conglomerate remained tightlipped about any potential revenue loss or a definite timeline for when Maggi could be back on Indian shelves, it’s clear that Nestle is currently dealing with a rather significant crisis.
India is the second largest single market for Nestle’s Maggi brand, with retail sales worth $623 million in 2014 across noodles, table sauces and other products, according to Euromonitor International. And the prepared dishes and cooking aids category, which includes Maggi, contributes nearly 30% of Nestle India’s revenue, according to a January 2015research report by French banking and financial services firm, Societe Generale.
“In India, Maggi is synonymous with noodles and completely dominates the market with 63% share in 2014. This means that the brand has a lot to lose,” Lianne van den Bos, a food analyst at Euromonitor, said in a note.
This chart shows how Maggi rules India’s noodles segment:
Maggi has been the market leader since 2009, and that’s perhaps why Nestle flew in global CEO Paul Bulcke from Switzerland to India to handle the worsening situation. On June 5, Bulcke addressed a press briefing where he said that Maggi is safe to be consumed and does not contain high levels of monosodium glutamate or lead. The government authorities remain unconvinced.
Nonetheless, Nestle needs to sort the mess soon, because India’s noodles market isn’t likely to slow down, with or without its favorite brand.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has launched a new capability within its Wealth Management Services (WMS) business to streamline the processing of internal account transfers for alternative investments.
The hedge fund industry redeemed USD850 million (0.03% of assets) in March, a turnabout from February’s inflow of USD5.4 billion (0.2% of assets), according to the latest research from BarclayHedge and TrimTabs.
New York (HedgeCo.NET) Most of the time when you hear that the Obama administration has warned the hedge fund industry about a topic, you automatically think it is in regards to legislation about practices. That wasn’t the case at last week’s SALT conference in Las Vegas. This time the administration was warning the industry about hackers and cyber terrorists.
The Department of Justice sent John Carlin, assistant attorney general, to the conference for a closed-door meeting with hedge fund managers. Carlin urged managers to share information with the government when there is an attempted attack and he demanded that managers increase the attention paid to attempted attacks.Carlin stated that, “Hedge funds hold a tremendous amount of capital, incredibly sensitive proprietary information, and valuable algorithms, but they are small shops and they often have very weak IT.”
The Department of Justice is also attempting to put pressure on fund managers by targeting hedge fund investors with their message. “Investors should demand funds set out their cyber security policies,” Mr Carlin said.
The secretive nature of many hedge funds makes this a difficult situation as the funds don’t want to expose themselves to legal liability or antitrust issues.
According to Anthony Scaramucci, founder of hedge fund of funds SkyBridge Capital, “You do not feel insecure until you are breached,” he said. “The average person in the financial sector — myself included — is not as focused on these threats as they need to be.”
This year the award goes to David Cuartielles from Malmö University for his open source platform Arduino, which is based on easy to use hardware and software to develop interactive projects.
This award – David said – has been possible thanks to the kind support of the Arduino family, Malmö Högskola and most importantly, the open source community.
On March 27, 2015, the distinguished scientist, technologist and entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram visited the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS).
He had a conversation with the HITS researchers who delve into data-driven science, approaching problems in cell biology as well as in astrophysics with mathematical models and computer simulations.
Afterwards Stephen Wolfram gave a talk in the Studio Villa Bosch conference center: “The Future of Computation & Knowledge.”
It is a far ranging talk that h+ Magazine readers will find interesting.
Filmmaker Wes Anderson has a knack for creating fictional spaces with attention paid to the last excruciating detail. His latest space is real, though, and even better, you can get a drink there.
On May 9, the Fondazione Prada, which is fashion brand Prada’s foundation to support the arts, architecture, film, and “philosophy projects” is opening its newly expanded Milan complex to the public. Three new buildings, which were part of a century-old distillery and transformed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koohaas, will now house art rather than alcohol. But for the thirsty there’s also a new bar, called Bar Luce, that Anderson designed himself.
We got next on the Zissou pinball machine.(Courtesy of Prada)
According to the press release, it’s modeled after a “typical Milanese café.” Being that this is a Wes Anderson project, however, that “typical” café is from the 1950s, and it’s got his fingerprints all over it.
Sage and pale pink, as well as Anderson’s beloved wood panelling, which filled the aging Tenenbaum manor in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” dominate the decor. It also has pinball machines, one based on his movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” a juke box, and last but not least, a beautifully lit bar.
“The seats, formica furniture, floor, veneered wood wall panels and the range of colors employed are reminiscent of Italian popular culture and aesthetics from the 1950s and 1960s,” the press release states.
Anderson evidently wanted it to be the sort of place people could spend a few hours in, sipping espresso or Negronis.
“It is for real life, and ought to have numerous good spots for eating, drinking, talking, reading, etc.” he said in a statement. “I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in.”
{{inline-ad}}
It’s also a good place to get a bite to eat, if you need a quick recharge as you walk the complex grounds.
The complex’s attractions go far beyond the bar. The first exhibition in the new space, “Serial Classic,” examines the way Roman artists copied their Greek forebears. It includes a series of stunning sculptures assembled in an equally stunning space.
The determination of the most central agents in complex networks is important because they are responsible for a faster propagation of information, epidemics, failures and congestion, among others. A challenging problem is to identify them in networked systems characterized by different types of interactions, forming interconnected multilayer networks. Here we describe a mathematical framework that allows us to calculate centrality in such networks and rank nodes accordingly, finding the ones that play the most central roles in the cohesion of the whole structure, bridging together different types of relations. These nodes are the most versatile in the multilayer network. We investigate empirical interconnected multilayer networks and show that the approaches based on aggregating—or neglecting—the multilayer structure lead to a wrong identification of the most versatile nodes, overestimating the importance of more marginal agents and demonstrating the power of versatility in predicting their role in diffusive and congestion processes.
This displays the five pathways toward superintelligence that Bostrom describes in chapter 2 and returns to in chapter 14 of the text. According to Bostrom, brain-computer interfaces are unlikely to yield superintelligence. Biological cognition, i.e., the enhancement of human intelligence, may yield a weak form of superintelligence on its own. Additionally, improvements to biological cognition could feed back into driving the progress of artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation. The arrows from networks and organizations likewise indicate technologies feeding back into AI and whole brain emulation development.
Artificial intelligence and whole brain emulation are two pathways that can lead to fully realized superintelligence. Note that neuromorphic is listed under artificial intelligence, but an arrow connects from whole brain emulation to neuromorphic. In chapter 14, Bostrom suggests that neuromorphic is a potential outcome of incomplete or improper whole brain emulation. Synthetic AI includes all the approaches to AI that are not neuromorphic; other terms that have been used are algorithmic or de novo AI.
NBF believes that the primarily hardware based approaches to superintelligence tend to be more narrow solvers. If very good quantum computer computers are realized. The systems are cracking mathematically hard problems and assisting the process to improve machine learning.
Powerful solvers have human involvement to put in and get out answers and do not have the runaway AI scenario.
A startup company called Optalysis is trying to invent a fully-optical computer that would be aimed at many of the same tasks for which GPUs are currently used. Amazingly, Optalysis is claiming that they can create an optical solver supercomputer astonishing 17 exaFLOPS machine by 2020.
Deep Learning + 17 exaFLOP optical computer = 17 ExaFLOP Deep learning system by 2020.
The GPGPUs that implemented the Baidu Deep learning brain may be replaced by new optical computers.
It also doubles as genius marketing for a local engineering university in Peru.
When city soil is too polluted to grow fresh vegetables, there may be another way to practice urban farming: Build a hydroponic greenhouse on a billboard.
Pando readers will likely remember Artiphon as the winner of our staff pick Pando Prize at our annual Nashville conference last year. The company’s electronic instrument that could be played like a guitar, a violin, and countless other traditional music-makers was a hit with the audience too, and was even played on stage at the event by Moon Taxi’s Trevor Terndrup.
(Yes, the photo above really does show the conference — note the PayPal sponsor logo in the background and Atlasssian in the far corner. Pando conferences look a bit different to other tech events.)
Not long after Pandoland, the company set out to raise $75k on Kickstarter to get its instrument into production. That campaign just closed having raised… more than $1.3 million.
As I wrote in my post about the project, commenting on the event’s non-Pando judges who expressed cynicism over the device:
I’ll give the startup competition judges this: Instrument 1 does look like a toy. It’s hard to believe, based on the shots Artiphon has posted to its Kickstarter project page, that anyone could use the device as more than a glorified “Guitar Hero” controller.
But I don’t have to believe it — I saw it. Now if only I could convince my fiancée that we could part with the $899 for the hardwood-backed “Nashville” edition of the instrument…
Artiphon’s Kickstarter campaign was meant to help it deliver the Instrument 1 — an improved version of the instrument played on stage at last year’s event — to consumers. It needed to raise around $75,000 to make that happen… and it did just that in the 5 hours and 23 minutes after the campaign was introduced.
The company says that more than 3,000 backers from some 70 countries contributed to this campaign. Instrument 1 is the most-backed instrument in Kickstarter history, and is also one of the most popular tech projects, too.
Now it just has to ship all those futuristic instruments out to consumers. That might be easier said than done: crowdfunded gadgets have long struggled to keep up with demand, because the more funding they receive from people, the more work they have to do in order to keep all the promises to their backers.
Artiphon said on its Kickstarter page that backer rewards — including the tiers that offered an actual Instrument 1 — will begin shipping in January 2016.
Think your startup could be the next Artiphon? Entries for the Pandoland 2015 startup contest close May 1st: enter here. Tickets for the event (June 15th-17th in Nashville, TN) are available here.
Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott is a staff writer for PandoDaily, covering startups and technology from New York.
tl:dr : I hacked open an intel QX3 toy microscope, replaced the crummy sensor with a Picamera, installed RPI_cam_web_interface on it and now have a wireless electronic microscope that you can control using a web interface. It’s a great little teaching tool, and the camera can live with the microscope permanently, the Pi can be detached and used for other projects.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
You can create some beautiful patterns and textures by stamping leather, but there are only so many options for pre-made leather stamps. I was excited by the idea of having full creative control over my leather projects with my own custom designed stamps, and I wanted to see if I could do it with 3D printing.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
Amateur radio is the ultimate hacker’s hobby. You can design, build, and put on the air your own high power transceivers. And with this homemade gear you are able to reach out directly, not relying on any infrastructure whatsoever, to connect with people all over the world. It is a thrilling experience to communicate with that long distance station using equipment you created, where you know at that instant what every single transistor is doing as you key down the mic.
In a previous post I described how SSB radio equipment worked and provided an example of a single-band 20m SSB transceiver. In this post I will discuss a multi-band SSB transceiver, an entire homemade amateur station including amplifiers, and conclude with software defined radio (SDR) that you can make in one weekend.
10m and 6m Dual-Band SSB
My second SSB transceiver was dual-band spanning both 6m and 10m wavelengths. I built this radio as part of the ARRL ‘home brew challenge 3′. This followed the same block diagrams as those shown in the previous post except that the two frequency bands of interest spanned one whole octave at 28 MHz and 54 MHz, resulting in additional switching and a wider bandwidth VFO.
Similar fabrication techniques were used, resulting in an old-school appearance.
Schematics and details are found in the full article in March 2013 QST, and design notes here. The interesting thing about this radio is that its VFO, power amplifier, and front-end cover all HF bands up to the VHF band 2m. This radio could quite easily be made into an all-band radio if the filters were built-out.
An Entire Station!
The most impressive home built station I’ve ever seen was by Mark Mandelkern, K5AM. Mark published details of all this gear in QEX magazine back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with schematics, block diagrams, and more are available here.
In Mark’s Own Words
“All the gear was newly designed and built from scratch. But I was not about to reinvent the superheterodyne. Each project begins with a thorough study of the handbooks and relevant magazine articles. I glean ideas from all previous builders, to whom many thanks are due. Design means selecting and choosing the best ideas which will help produce the intended results. Individual circuits are described in the handbooks; the real design work is to combine them into a complete functioning unit. Getting a whole station built in a finite interval of time meant using mostly tried-and-true methods, and setting to work without trying to invent a new circuit for each stage.”
There’s More
Others who have made their own multi and single-band SSB transceivers:
And others suggest searching on YouTube for on-air demos of some of these radios or post in the comments section.
Phasing SSB and Software Defined Radio
There are other methods to implement SSB equipment, including direct-conversion using phasing (either digital or analog). In this architecture, an I/Q image rejection mixer is used to mix up (for transmit) or down (for receive) to directly modulate or demodulate SSB signals. The back end after the IQ mixer can be implemented with either op-amps or digitization. This is one of the common architectures for early SSB transmitters and today this is the preferred architecture for entry-level software defined radio (SDR) receivers and transmitters.
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
SDR might be a great option for those of you who are more interested in building a kit or writing code instead of building a scratch-built design. In many cases the software is already written. And let’s face it, SDR is the future of radio by pushing what was previously analog circuitry into the digital domain, which trades CPU cycles for reductions in analog circuit complexity.
The best performing software-defined (or DSP) receivers use a hybrid architecture mixing the best practices of analog design with an SDR back-end (sometimes known as a ‘roofing filter‘). This provides the high-dynamic range architecture of an analog radio with the flexibility of a software defined radio. This is why the Elecraft K3 is a top performing radio (it is also available as a kit).
Build It
The only way to get started is to build something. Start small, check out the QRP community, try making a single-conversion receiver, try an entry-level SDR, and finally move up to something with a crystal IF filter. Borrow and scale circuits from books such as these:
Or leverage complete ICs and modules like those from Mini-Circuits. There is nothing like making that first long distance contact on radio gear you created from scratch.
Acknowledgement
My cousin, Juliet Hurley, MBA, MSF, MAC for type editing this post.
Author Bio Gregory L. Charvat only operates radio equipment he builds from scratch, is the author of Small and Short-Range Radar Systems, co-founder of Hyperfine Research Inc., Butterfly Network Inc. (both of which are 4catalyzer companies), visiting research scientist at Camera Culture Group Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, editor of the Gregory L. Charvat Series on Practical Approaches to Electrical Engineering, and guest commentator on CNN, CBS, Sky News, and others. He was a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where his work on through-wall radar won best paper at the 2010 MSS Tri-Services Radar Symposium and is an MIT Office of the Provost 2011 research highlight. He has taught short radar courses at MIT where his Build a Small Radar course was the top-ranked MIT professional education course in 2011 and has become widely adopted by other universities, laboratories, and private organizations. Starting at an Early Age, Greg developed numerous radar systems, rail SAR imaging sensors, phased-array radar systems; holds several patents; and has developed many other sensors and radio and audio equipment. He has authored numerous publications and has received press for his work. Greg earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering in 2007, an MSEE in 2003, and a BSEE in 2002 from Michigan State University, and is a senior member of the IEEE where he serves on the steering committee for the 2010, 2013, and 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology and chaired the IEEE AP-S Boston Chapter from 2010-2011.
March. Hmm… it means two things to me right now. One is turn the page on the Yurt Foundation calendar, the other is to march, get going, quit fooling around. This is the month that my schedule picks up. So rather than just picking up whatever project happens to catch my fancy at any given moment, it’s time to knuckle down and get some stuff done.
Oak:
spoons:
oak:
spoons:
I keep shifting back & forth. I have to ignore these spoons in the daylight right now, and get to work on my desk box, and the 2 chests with drawers I have underway. At least by having these spoons roughed out, I can carve them at night.
Daylight is for heavier bench work…so the goal for this week is to get the desk box all cut and ready to assemble, then work on cutting joinery and laying out carving for the chest with drawer that’s the focus of my class beginning later this month.
by Diane Saunders, Research Fellow in Computational Biology at The Genome Analysis Centre and at John Innes Centre
Yellow Rust spores can be seen bursting out of a wheat leaf from the inside, tearing their way through the epidermis.
Kim Findlay/John Innes Centre, CC BY-NC-SA
One of the major diseases of wheat is caused by the yellow rust fungus, Puccinia striiformis, which threatens all major wheat-producing areas of the world. Ominously, we have discovered that the UK population of this pathogen is shifting dramatically, with the emergence of new strains which can overcome some of our most important wheat varieties.
We have developed a genetic technique that helps us characterise the pathogen, allowing farmers to make informed decisions about which wheat varieties to plant.
In 2013, I joined forces with colleagues at the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge to develop a new genomics-driven surveillance method to track the devastating yellow rust fungus and investigate the genetic basis of the new pathogen population.
Our new “field pathogenomics” method is a fast way to analyse fungal diseases from field samples and pinpoint the exact genotype. Current techniques rely on time-consuming phenotypic characterisation – checking the response of different plant varieties to infection by the pathogen – or costly in-lab processes. These methods can only sample a relatively small proportion of the fungal population.
With help from contributors to the UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey, we collected wheat samples infected with the wheat yellow rust pathogen from 17 different counties across the UK. We then used our newly developed “field pathogenomics” method to characterise the genotypes of the samples. As each field sample consists of both the pathogen and its host plant, we were able to analyse both the pathogen and the susceptible host. In the future, this will provide a rapid means for confirming the presence of disease on wheat varieties that may have previously been resistant to disease.
Under siege: wheat is a major global crop, but threatened by fungal pathogens.
Takkk, CC BY-SA
Invasive pathogens
We found that the wheat yellow rust pathogen population has undergone a major shift in recent years. Interestingly, the yellow rust population detected in the UK in 2013 was completely different at the genetic level to previous UK populations. This difference seems to represent a number of recent exotic introductions into the UK and could have serious implications for wheat production in the UK.
A subset of the new pathogen population was able to infect the same wheat varieties as a subset of the older UK pathogen population. Because the same varieties are infected, this new pathogen population would have been missed if analysis were based on traditional phenotypic characterisation alone. Spotting this new pathogen population is important, because even if it infects the same wheat varieties it could still have serious implications for disease incidence. The new pathogen population may have other important traits or infect other wheat varieties not included in our test set.
As we move forward, “field pathogenomics” could be applied to the surveillance of many pathogens besides wheat yellow rust pathogens, and could contribute to addressing human, animal and plant health issues. Such detailed knowledge of shifts in pathogen populations is important for both understanding and managing emerging diseases. For wheat yellow rust, our new technology could provide farmers with early indications of changes in the pathogen population, and have a positive impact on decisions regarding which varieties to plant in the field.
Nicholas Negroponte prefers extrapolations based on research to predictions. But if pushed he will make a guess about future innovation. Negroponte imagines a future where information will be delivered directly to the brain by tiny robots in your blood.
At the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the leading sensor manufacturer Sensirion will present a new multi-pixel gas sensor, plus a new barometric pressure sensor. Both new sensors, which rank among the smallest yet most accurate in their class worldwide, are capable of measuring indoor air quality (IAQ), the gases in a person’s breath, and barometric air pressure, as required for indoor navigation applications. The new sensors complement Sensirion’s existing product offering for wearables, smartphones, tablets, and the Internet of Things (IoT), and confirm the company’s status as the only sensor manufacturer to offer a complete solution all the way from sensor to cloud. With its trusted humidity and temperature sensors already established on the market, Sensirion is now expanding its range of environmental sensors to include gas and pressure sensors.
Sensirion presents the smallest and most accurate Gas and Pressure Sensors – [Link]
Wave energy could become practical using a system that mimics the human heart, say engineers in Sweden. The system allows a wave power generator to produce five times more energy per tonne of device for one-third of the cost of competing state-of-the-art technologies, they claim.
Ocean waves could satisfy up to 20 percent of the world’s electricity [pdf] needs if scientists could find a way to harness them, according to London-based nonprofit Carbon Trust. Moreover, ocean waves are more stable and predictable than wind and solar power, making wave energy easier to accommodate on the grid.
CorPower plans a pilot installation in the Atlantic Ocean in 2016
However, "there is still no solution to harvest energy from ocean waves that has been proven commercially viable," says Patrik Möller, CEO of CorPower in Stockholm. The challenge lies in developing a device that is strong enough to survive violent storms, while at the same time capable of generating enough power to pay back the costs of such a robust system. "So far wave energy converters have been too large and costly compared to their energy output, which has prevented commercial harvesting," Möller explains.
Now CorPower suggests it may have cracked this challenge. Its device consists of a buoy connected by a mooring line to the seafloor. As the buoy moves up and down with ocean waves, this motion drives a turbine that generates electricity.
The new device is based in part on Swedish cardiologist Stig Lundbäck's research into how the heart works. "Heart muscle can only pump in one direction...the return motion is provided by hydraulically stored energy," Möller says. Using a similar principle, a system of gas springs in the buoy helps it harvest energy when it goes both up and down with the waves.
The buoys are up to 80 percent lighter than ones used in other wave energy systems, which helps them rise and fall easily to better harvest wave energy. These buoys also require less weight to moor them, saving on construction material costs overall.
“We do expect significant challenges offered by the aggressive environment of the Atlantic"—Patrik Möller, CorPower
Furthermore, the buoys are designed so they can reach the greatest heights possible no matter what the height or length of incoming waves. That allows “a large amount of energy to be harvested using a small device," Möller says. Finally, its gear technology allows it to efficiently convert the system's motion to electricity.
A CorPower unit with an 8-meter-wide buoy can generate up to 300 kilowatts in typical Atlantic waters and sells for €500,000 ($570,000), Möller says. A wave energy park with 100 buoys could generate up to 30 megawatts. "Wave power really has great potential when using the right solutions to harvest it," Möller says.
The company plans to demonstrate how well its technology survives and performs with a pilot installation on the open sea in early 2016 in cooperation with Iberdrola Engineering & Construction in Spain and WavEC Offshore Renewables in Portugal, Möller says.
Ribbons of red aluminium create a woven texture across the facade of this office block completed by Japanese studio Aisaka Architects in Tokyo (+ slideshow). (more…)
The pace of technological change in trucking over the past decade has been breathtaking. Commercial vehicles rolling off assembly lines now boast standard and optional features that would have been unthinkable on high-end luxury cars just a few years ago.
