Borçka Dam and HEPP

Borçka Dam and HEPP was designed and built on the Çoruh River, 30 km from the Artvin City in the Black Sea Region, by an international consortium where Yüksel is a member. Borçka Dam is a central clay cored fill and has a crest length of 728 m, it enjoys a 7.785.000 m³ backfill volume, and a 300 MW installed capacity and the eventual goal is to generate 1.039 GWh of power annually. The Civil Construction of the Dam was undertaken by Yüksel - Strabag (Austria) - Temelsu; while its electro-mechanical and hydro-mechanical works were undertaken by Austrian firms Va Tech Elin, Va Tech Voest, Verbundplan and Voith Sulzer. Later on, transfer of the Borçka-Artvin State Highway to over the dam lake is also included into the contract and this is being executed by Yüksel İnşaat A.Ş.

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RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing - ends an uphill struggle in Whitstable

Resin Solutions Ltd, (Kent) was approached by the skipper of a fishing trawler in Whitstable who was having problems with his macadam driveway.

The drive was on a fairly steep slope and this combined with the lack of slip resistance provided by the macadam meant that vehicles could not get off the drive in icy conditions. As the driveway owner needed to be able to get to work in all weathers he needed to find a surface that would provide sufficient grip for vehicles to pass at sub zero temperatures. Another problem encountered was that the macadam was becoming uneven in places and
breaking away from the surface, causing stones to get trodden into the house.

Resin Solutions Ltd discussed various surfacing options with the client and a decision was made to use RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing. It was chosen for its long life expectancy and because it could be used to level off minor surface irregularities in the macadam.

The clients wanted the driveway to incorporate a clearly defined pedestrian area as they had young grandchildren. Resin Solutions Ltd discussed various aggregate combinations that would provide a contrast and advised that a 1m wide border should be included at the perimeter to provide a pedestrian walkway.

The Midnight aggregate blend was selected for the vehicle areas and Terracotta was chosen for the walkway; a steel trim was installed by Resin Solutions Ltd to provide a well defined separation between the walkway and the drive. The work on the 237 square metres of driveway including all preparation was completed within two days. “The client is ‘over the moon’ with his new drive and people have shown a lot of interest in the new surface. He is especially pleased that even with winter’s snow and ice he had no problem getting out of the drive.”

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National Park a step nearer more affordable homes

A new plan that will see more affordable housing being built in the Yorkshire Dales National Park comes into force today (June 26).

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority voted to adopt a new housing development plan that should see more land being released over the next 10 years for homes for local people.

It identifies 29 new sites for development – ranging in size from two houses to up to 30 – and potentially providing up to 236 new homes. Half would be affordable homes to rent or buy, probably through the involvement of a local housing association. The remainder would be open market housing with a legal agreement restricting their occupancy to people who need to live or work in the National Park.

In January the document went before planning inspector David Vickery, who rejected four other small sites in the Upper Dales. Authority Members today repeated their disappointment that Mr Vickery had ignored their plea to reinstate those sites, but expressed their satisfaction with the rest of the Plan.

Authority chairman Carl Lis said: “Our new housing policy remains, unashamedly, one of trying to support those who need to live or work in the National Park. As well as allocating new sites for housing, we have widened the definition of ‘local need’ so that more local households are eligible for housing. We have also increased the number of settlements in the National Park where barns can be converted to houses, or where brownfield land can be developed for new housing, to meet local needs.”

“Our focus now will be to get on with working with landowners, house builders and parish councils to get new houses onto these sites.”

Peter Stockton, the YDNPA’s Head of Sustainable Development, said: “The large gap between local incomes and house prices in the National Park prevents many local people from getting onto the housing ladder or renting more appropriate accommodation – so forcing them away or into longer commuting.

“This plan releases new land for a mixture of future affordable and local market housing, which should help some of those people to stay in the area and should also help to sustain viable local communities and services, like local schools.”

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Ballast Nedam and Microbeton Join Forces

The co-founders of Concrete Valley, Ballast Nedam and Microbeton will focus on specialised solutions in the concrete industry. Concrete Valley consists of two companies, Waco Lingen Beton from Bergen op Zoom and Microbeton from Krimpen aan den IJssel. Microbeton will transfer its operations from Krimpen aan de IJssel to Waco Lingen Beton's current site at Bergen op Zoom.

Waco Lingen Beton (a Ballast Nedam company), focuses on the development, production and delivery of high quality, serially produced prefabricated concrete elements for use in groundwork, road building, and hydraulic engineering. These include pipe drops, culverts, tunnels, and noise barriers. The company possesses the expertise and ability to tackle major projects, elements, and the associated production facilities.

Microbeton is a specialist in the development, production, and delivery of distinctive concepts. Its ferro-cement products are characterised by a slender, lightweight construction which delivers 70% savings in terms of materials usage and weight. Microbeton's sustainable products are used in top-quality architectural designs for new construction, renovation, and redevelopment projects.

The Concrete Valley joint venture is fully in keeping with Ballast Nedam's strategy. Concrete Valley delivers distinctive capacity by harnessing the innovative abilities of supply companies and specialist companies. Hans van der Meer, the head of Ballast Nedam Supplies, notes that "Combined solutions based on Microbeton's lightweight products and Concrete Waco Lingen's prefabricated concrete products create a range of promising opportunities in areas such as groundwork, road-building, and hydraulic engineering, in addition to residential and utilities construction. One example would be the use of sandwich panels as facade elements."

Pieter Nap, the managing director of Microbeton points out that "Concrete Valley's facilities enable us to keep on growing. In Ballast Nedam, we have a partner who shares our ambitions. Concrete Valley will develop into an inspiring environment within which various companies can cooperate with one another. Their common goal will be to develop products and solutions that add value for our customers!"

Ballast Nedam has a leading position in construction and infrastructure. The company operates mainly in the Netherlands on integrated and other projects for companies, public authorities and housing consumers, in the fields of mobility, housing, employment, leisure and energy. Ballast Nedam operates internationally in various areas of expertise. Ballast Nedam supplies project, process and contract management in the development, implementation and management phases. The company also provides specialized know-how and skills, and semi-finished and finished products. Ballast Nedam is listed on NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam. The share is included in the Amsterdam Small Cap Index.
Source: Ballast Nedam NV

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Helping employers identify growth opportunities is the Green Deal

On offer from SummitSkills is an easy-to-follow guide to help businesses take advantage of opportunities in the move to low and zero carbon buildings and homes, the sector skills council for the building services engineering (BSE) sector. SummitSkills commissioned the report – Low Carbon Buildings and Homes: Skills and Opportunities – from the Zero Carbon Hub as a way to help businesses get to grips with the current and emerging legislation and regulations affecting the growing ‘green’ agenda.

The document also summarises the policies and initiatives that the UK-wide Government and the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have put in place to encourage the move to low-carbon buildings. Although its primary target is building services engineering operatives, the report will be a useful guide for any businesses operating in the wider built environment sector who are planning ahead and looking for development opportunities.

Keith Marshall OBE, chief executive of SummitSkills, said: “We wanted to produce a guide that brought together everything businesses need to know, which would enable them to spot the opportunities for growth. With a recent BIS report showing that the ‘green’ sector is growing much more strongly than the overall UK economy, now is the time for employers to plan ahead to maximise their future success.

“It was encouraging to see so many people at our launch of this report recently, and I was pleased that it generated lively discussion about the way forward for built environment employers. “

Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Zero Carbon Hub, said: “With the changing requirements affecting nearly every aspect of the construction process, Zero Carbon Hub has been working with many different sectors to try and provide as much information as possible about what’s happening. It is great that SummitSkills are taking this forward for the building services engineering sector and I hope that this is only the beginning of much more collaborative working between SummitSkills and the Zero Carbon Hub.”

The report was launched in London recently by SummitSkills, together with partner Rushlight Events, at an event chaired by Lord Martin O’Neill. Head of Zero Carbon Policy at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Henry Demaria, spoke at the launch along with chief executive of the Zero Carbon Hub Neil Jefferson, Ian Millard from Climate Energy Homes, John Bootland from the Good Homes Alliance, SummitSkills’ own Nigel Hollett and Kevin Schofield from BDO who hosted the event at their Baker Street offices. The event is the first in a series of business seminars that SummitSkills and Rushlight Events plan to run, focusing on the green agenda.

The guide covers the key points of changes to the Zero Carbon Homes definition, Parts L, F and J of the Building Regulations, the Feed-In-Tariff, the Renewable Heat Incentive, the forthcoming Green Deal, the Code for Sustainable Homes, the new National Planning Policy Framework and where this leaves existing local plans. It concludes with a summary of the new skills required to engage in the ever-moving arena and ensure businesses are best placed to profit from the new and exciting opportunities.

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Redecorate Your Interior Mediterranean Style

Mediterranean style is distinctive because it is a powerful phenomenon impinging on millions of people. Indeed, it is just not all that hard to see it at work in your life or the lives of people you know, maybe. As you learn more, you will easily realize there is a great deal more than meets they eye. There is sufficient understanding surrounding this so people know what to anticipate. You will just have the ability to make better choices and acquire more options when you know more of the details. So in that spirit, here are numerous important points concerning this subject you may appreciate knowing

The Mediterranean style is the ideal blend between natural elements, elegance, and relaxation. Something as fundamental as having a hammock, some exotic plants, and an anchor on a wall can create that Mediterranean feel.

To duplicate the Mediterranean style in your home, you will need to use a color palette that has the aspects of the coast like blue for the ocean, pale yellow for sand and white for sunshine.

Mediterranean style is based on a lot of components of nature versus others based on industrial design. Even though alternative styles are likely to involve metals and plastics, Mediterranean takes advantage of more natural and lighter substances like cotton and wood.

When you upgrade the floor, pick out a light wooden parquet like pine. Natural stone is even an alternative. But don’t use excessive stones since that could impact the warm feeling you want to create. If you toss in floor heating, you are going to feel like that you’re walking on hot Mediterranean sand.

The kind of furniture you select will need to be simple in design. You have to have light colors and you could add some components of classicism if you desire. If you want to feel as if you are really going for a walk on the beach, you must also add decorative elements such as flowers, scallops, and colored sand. Setting this along in the hallway is a great way to set the atmosphere for your guests. That’s why it’s a good idea to incorporate some type of seaside symbol at your entrance. Utilizing something like an anchor would be great for the entrance. You can also have something like a transparent glass flower vase with some scallop shells and withered flowers to incorporate some flare.

You might make your living to be your relaxation oasis. Should you have sufficient space, you can make the hammock the center piece of your room. You should have strong hooks on your hammock and get palm trees to complete the effect. If you happen to include some colored stones, you’ll have your relaxing oasis. For the couch, you’ve got to maintain the same basic colors of white, yellow and blue. Don’t fill your room with too many items, just have some bamboo tables and armchairs. You can emphasize the gallery of shells, scallops, and stones by putting them in a transparent drawer.

For your window treatments, you can have styles with vertical blue and white stripes. You can certainly keep the walls basic but having some works of art of the seaside can add some charm.

Not a lot of decorators will opt for the wooden boat since it is a bit pass. But whenever you have room and you really want it, then do it. The best models are the large hand made ones.

It’s possible to have your bedroom look tropical with fine white lingerie. We believe the above thoughts and tips must be taken into account in any conversation on Mediterranean decor. Of course we strongly recommend you discover more about them. It is difficult to ascertain all the different means by which they can serve you. Once your knowledge is more complete, then you will feel more confident about the subject. But we have kept the best for last, and you will understand what we mean once you have read through. You may also place a bowl of sand and fragrant flowers next to your bedside also. You can even place a bamboo panel for a great effect, even if you don’t find it useful.

We have laid the very basic foundation for you in this article. The thing about it is that the typical person is way too consumed and lacks time to know all there is about Mediterranean style decoration. If you want to get the most from your work, then it is a must to learn all you can. A lot of people see the mountains of info online and they get intimidated in a short time.

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Roller Compacted Concrete RCC

Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is, as it name implies, concrete compacted by roller. It is therefore differs from conventional concrete in its consistence as it must support rollers in its unhardened state.

The RCC concrete mix must be dry enough to prevent the sinking of the roller but wet enough to permit adequate distribution of the binder during mixing and compaction operations. The development of RCC has caused a major shift in the practice of constructing mass concrete dams which can now be finished as much as 1 to 2 years earlier than conventional mass concrete dams. Up tp 18 000 cubic meter of RCC can be placed in one day.
RCC is constructed similarly to layer-works in road construction and using similar equipment. RCC is placed using dump trucks or conveyors, spread by bulldozers or special modified asphalt pavers. Extenders are extensively used in RCC to reduce costs and to control temperature rises during hydration of cement. RCC is proportioned by using both soil compaction principle and basic concrete technology.
The first Roller Compacted Concrete RCC dam built in the USA was the Willow Creek Dam on Willow Creek, a tributary in Oregon of the Columbia River. RCC is also extensively used for concrete pavements, particular in Canada and Spain. Some low-volume roads have been build in South Africa.
Get more knowledge on RCC placement and other specifications for hydropower plants.

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ISG Knightsbridge Double Awarded by Cadogan

The latest schemes, at 123 Sloane Street and 12 Herbert Crescent by prestigious Chelsea-based property investment company is chaired by Viscount Chelsea, who has taken over recently from his father the Earl of Cadogan, whose family assets make up its portfolio, added to the live projects ISG is currently carrying out for Cadogan at 107-109 Cadogan Gardens and 18 Cadogan Garden.

The fit out of 123 Sloane Street will see ISG carry out a complete refurbishment of the Grade II listed terraced building, which is an 18th century town house retaining many of its original heritage features. The challenging 22-week scheme involves reconfiguration of the internal layout within strict English Heritage guidelines and includes lowering the floor level in the basement to increase headroom.

Structural alterations to the basement and ground floor levels will require ISG to underpin the front retaining wall and a bespoke kitchen and dining area will be created in the newly enhanced basement. ISG will also install highly efficient mechanical and electrical services within the luxury accommodation, delivering advanced A/V, lighting and security systems, as well as an energy efficient climate control installation.

The high specification fit out of the property includes conservation of original features and the installation of reclaimed parquet flooring throughout the common areas. Externally, ISG will construct a link between the building and the client’s neighbouring property and the contractor will also landscape the garden to a new design.

At 12 Herbert Crescent, ISG will carry out a 44-week refurbishment programme that will create a luxury, contemporary town house residence, setting a new benchmark for Cadogan’s rental portfolio. Located close to the world famous Harrods store in the heart of Knightsbridge, the property will retain its external façade but ISG will comprehensively strip back the interior to create a high quality, contemporary residence. The internal fit out will include a fitted wine cellar in the basement, a bespoke kitchen and high specification A/V equipment throughout, including a home cinema.

Externally, ISG will demolish an existing extension to the rear of the property and replace this with a new two-storey structure, which incorporates a roof terrace.

Grahame Roberts, divisional managing director of ISG Fit Out, commented: “These latest projects are part of a continuing programme of estate improvement by Cadogan and the quality of the completed refurbishments combined with their stunning locations will place these properties amongst the most prestigious rental accommodation in the world.

“Delivering the quality of finish required to create such aspirational homes demands a contractor that has vast experience of meeting exacting standards. ISG has the proven expertise to address the challenges of listed building restrictions, enclosed city sites and fast-track programmes, and we are delighted to be building upon our relationship with Cadogan.”

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First Ever International Facility Management Show to be launched in Singapore

By 2017, the global facilities management market forecasts growth up to US$394.69 billion with companies seeing the need to recalibrate their property strategy, building maintenance, communications infrastructure, administration, and space management into a better and more cost-effective solution.

Here in Singapore, the creation of real estate investment trusts (REITs), a result of a robust property market, is a major driver of the integrated facilities management (IFM) services market as the returns from a well-managed property can be profitable for both investors and property owners. Fund managers and other property managers have a part to play in indirectly driving the practice of outsourcing facilities management to qualified third-party providers that are expected to ensure that the property and facilities are well managed and appreciate in value. Technological advances in terms of new software development and new hardware usage also contribute to the growth of the IFM services market in the long term.

The Singapore Government’s efforts to actively promote the concept of IFM and its initiatives to outsource the management of major Government departments and facilities to third-party providers have had a major impact on the country’s IFM services market.

Singapore is poised to hold its first dedicated international trade show targeted for the facility management industry from May 7 to 9, 2013 at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. A conference is also in the pipeline, in tandem with the show for the industry.

iFaME will be a timely exhibition to cater to the needs of a growing market with both real and projected increases in commercial office spaces and industrial buildings and estates. The newly-completed Marina Bay Financial Centre marks a new phase for the industry. At the end of the first quarter 2011, there was a total supply of almost 994,000 sqm in gross floor area of office space in the pipeline. Of this, some 705,000 sqm are expected to be completed by 2013.

“As the building stock in Singapore increases and undergoes significant re-building, the need for expertise to maintain and manage these properties becomes crucial. While it is the responsibility of the facility managers to manage and coordinate the variety of goods and services the specialist trades have to offer, it is the specialist tradesmen that are ultimately responsible for the execution and end-quality of these re-building projects,” said Mr Nelson Tee, President of Specialists Trade Alliance of Singapore (STAS), Host of iFame 2013.

International Facility Management Expo 2013 or iFaME 2013, is supported by the Building & Construction Authority of Singapore, Asian Intelligent Building Institute (AIIB) and Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau and, hosted by the Specialists Trade Alliance of Singapore (STAS) which is a federation of 10 associations serving the building services industry.

“With the focus on sustainable green building, as well as, workplace health and safety issues, there will be increased pressure on facility managers to perform beyond their stipulated roles and responsibilities. iFaME will not only be an exhibition for their procurement needs, but it would also be a learning platform for facility managers to further their knowledge of the discipline. We are pleased to have the Singapore Chapter of the International Facility Management Association as our Strategic Partner,” said Mr Edward Liu, Group Managing Director, Conference & Exhibition Management Services Pte Ltd (CEMS), Organiser of iFaME 2013.

The show is expected to gather 200 exhibitors from 20 countries and: 6,000 visitors from 15 countries and occupy a floor area of 4,500sqm. iFaME 2013 will be co-located with LEDTEC Asia 2013 exhibition, the only specialized LED event in South East Asia. The combined exhibition floor space will be 8,000sqm.

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Self-healing Electronics Could Work Longer and Reduce Waste

When one tiny circuit within an integrated chip cracks or fails, the whole chip -- or even the whole device -- is a loss. But what if it could fix itself, and fix itself so fast that the user never knew there was a problem? A team of University of Illinois engineers has developed a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less time than it takes to blink. Led by aerospace engineering professor Scott White and materials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos, the researchers published their results in the journal Advanced Materials.

"It simplifies the system," said chemistry professor Jeffrey Moore, a co-author of the paper. "Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself."

As electronic devices are evolving to perform more sophisticated tasks, manufacturers are packing as much density onto a chip as possible. However, such density compounds reliability problems, such as failure stemming from fluctuating temperature cycles as the device operates or fatigue. A failure at any point in the circuit can shut down the whole device.

"In general there's not much avenue for manual repair," Sottos said. "Sometimes you just can't get to the inside. In a multilayer integrated circuit, there's no opening it up. Normally you just replace the whole chip. It's true for a battery too. You can't pull a battery apart and try to find the source of the failure."

Most consumer devices are meant to be replaced with some frequency, adding to electronic waste issues, but in many important applications -- such as instruments or vehicles for space or military functions -- electrical failures cannot be replaced or repaired.

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UCLA Neuroscientists Demonstrate Crucial Advances İn 'Brain Reading'

At UCLA's Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ computerized machine learning (ML) methods to study these patterns and identify the cognitive state -- or sometimes the thought process -- of human subjects. The technique is called "brain reading" or "brain decoding." In a new study, the UCLA research team describes several crucial advances in this field, using fMRI and machine learning methods to perform "brain reading" on smokers experiencing nicotine cravings.

The research, presented last week at the Neural Information Processing Systems' Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging workshop in Spain, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is interested in using these method to help people control drug cravings.

In this study on addiction and cravings, the team classified data taken from cigarette smokers who were scanned while watching videos meant to induce nicotine cravings. The aim was to understand in detail which regions of the brain and which neural networks are responsible for resisting nicotine addiction specifically, and cravings in general, said Dr. Ariana Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow in the Integrative Neuroimaging Technology lab and the study's lead author.

"We are interested in exploring the relationships between structure and function in the human brain, particularly as related to higher-level cognition, such as mental imagery," Anderson said. "The lab is engaged in the active exploration of modern data-analysis approaches, such as machine learning, with special attention to methods that reveal systems-level neural organization."

For the study, smokers sometimes watched videos meant to induce cravings, sometimes watched "neutral" videos and at sometimes watched no video at all. They were instructed to attempt to fight nicotine cravings when they arose.

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New Technique Makes İt Easier To Etch Semiconductors

Creating semiconductor structures for high-end optoelectronic devices just got easier, thanks to University of Illinois researchers. The team developed a method to chemically etch patterned arrays in the semiconductor gallium arsenide, used in solar cells, lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), field effect transistors (FETs), capacitors and sensors. Led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, the researchers describe their technique in the journal Nano Letters.

A semiconductor's physical properties can vary depending on its structure, so semiconductor wafers are etched into structures that tune their electrical and optical properties and connectivity before they are assembled into chips.

Semiconductors are commonly etched with two techniques: "Wet" etching uses a chemical solution to erode the semiconductor in all directions, while "dry" etching uses a directed beam of ions to bombard the surface, carving out a directed pattern. Such patterns are required for high-aspect-ratio nanostructures, or tiny shapes that have a large ratio of height to width. High-aspect-ratio structures are essential to many high-end optoelectronic device applications.

While silicon is the most ubiquitous material in semiconductor devices, materials in the III-V (pronounced three-five) group are more efficient in optoelectronic applications, such as solar cells or lasers.

Unfortunately, these materials can be difficult to dry etch, as the high-energy ion blasts damage the semiconductor's surface. III-V semiconductors are especially susceptible to damage.

To address this problem, Li and her group turned to metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch), a wet-etching approach they had previously developed for silicon. Unlike other wet methods, MacEtch works in one direction, from the top down. It is faster and less expensive than many dry etch techniques, according to Li. Her group revisited the MacEtch technique, optimizing the chemical solution and reaction conditions for the III-V semiconductor gallium arsenide (GaAs).

The process has two steps. First, a thin film of metal is patterned on the GaAs surface. Then, the semiconductor with the metal pattern is immersed in the MacEtch chemical solution. The metal catalyzes the reaction so that only the areas touching metal are etched away, and high-aspect-ratio structures are formed as the metal sinks into the wafer. When the etching is done, the metal can be cleaned from the surface without damaging it.

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Pitt Researchers Propose New Model To Design Better Flu Shots

The flu shot, typically the first line of defense against seasonal influenza, could better treat the U.S. population, thanks to University of Pittsburgh researchers. New research that focuses on the composition and timing of the shot design was published in the September-October issue of Operations Research by Pitt Swanson School of Engineering faculty members Oleg Prokopyev, an assistant professor, and Professor Andrew Schaefer, both in the Department of Industrial Engineering, and coauthors Osman Ozaltin and Mark Roberts, professor and chair in Pitt's Department of Health Policy and Management. Ozaltin, who is now an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, did his research for the study as a Pitt graduate student in the Swanson School; he earned his Pitt PhD degree in industrial engineering earlier this year.

The exact composition of the flu shot is decided every year by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the decision is complicated.

"The flu's high rate of transmission requires frequent changes to the shot," said Prokopyev. "Different strains can also cocirculate in one season, which gives us another challenge for figuring out the composition."

The Pitt researchers used powerful optimization methods from engineering to examine whether they could improve the yearly decisions made regarding what strains of influenza should be included in the current year's vaccine. The strains of flu that will be most likely to appear in the regular flu season are not known with certainty, but waiting longer to finalize the composition of the vaccine and observing what strains are occurring in other parts of the world improves the accuracy of the selection. However, the longer the FDA waits to make the decision, the more likely it is that there will be insufficient vaccine produced by the start of flu season. The model developed by the Pitt researchers balances these two important characteristics of the flu selection decision and integrates the composition and timing decisions of the flu shot design.

The model allows examination of the effect of many changes to the design and production of the vaccine, such as how many strains to include in the shot, when to make the final decision, how many times the FDA should meet to re-examine the current information concerning strains in other parts of the world, and the potential benefits from improved production methods.

"With this model, several policy questions can be addressed," said Schaefer. "For example, incorporating more than three strains might increase the societal benefit substantially, particularly under more severe flu seasons."

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New Device Could Bring Optical İnformation Processing

Researchers have created a new type of optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers. The "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring 10 microns in diameter, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair. Unlike other optical diodes, it does not require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.

The diode is capable of "nonreciprocal transmission," meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Minghao Qi (pronounced Chee), an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

"This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," said Qi, working with a team also led by Andrew Weiner, Purdue's Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The diodes are described in a paper to be published online Dec. 22 in the journal Science. The paper was written by graduate students Li Fan, Jian Wang, Leo Varghese, Hao Shen and Ben Niu, research associate Yi Xuan, and Weiner and Qi.

Although fiberoptic cables are instrumental in transmitting large quantities of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyberattack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa.

"This translation requires expensive equipment," Wang said. "What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fiber directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security."

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Go To Work On A Christmas Card

If all the UK's discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times, according to the researchers behind a new scientific study. The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, demonstrates that industrial quantities of waste paper could be turned into high grade biofuel, to power motor vehicles, by fermenting the paper using microorganisms. The researchers hope that biofuels made from waste paper could ultimately provide one alternative to fossil fuels like diesel and petrol, in turn reducing the impact of fossil fuels on the environment.

According to some estimates 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper are thrown away by UK residents over the Christmas period. They currently go to landfill or are recycled in local schemes. This amount of paper could provide 5-12 million litres of biofuel, say the researchers, enough to run a bus for up to 18 million km.

"If one card is assumed to weigh 20g and one square metre of wrapping paper is 10g, then around 38,300 tonnes of extra paper waste will be generated at Christmas time," said study author Dr Richard Murphy from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London. "Our research shows that it would be feasible to build waste paper-to-biofuel processing plants that give energy back as transport fuel."

Co-author and PhD student Lei Wang, also from Imperial's Department of Life Sciences, said: "The fermentation process could even cope with festive paper and card which has been 'contaminated' with the likes of glitter and sellotape. The cellulose molecules in sellotape would be broken down into glucose sugars and then fermented into ethanol fuel, just like the paper itself. Insoluble items like glitter are easy to filter out as part of the process."

Dr Murphy added: "People should not stop recycling their discarded paper and Christmas cards because at the moment there is no better solution. However, if this technology can be developed further, waste paper might ultimately provide a great, environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. There's more work to do to assess the effectiveness and benefits of the technology, but we think it has significant potential."

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Shearing Triggers Odd Behavior İn Microscopic Particles

Microscopic spheres form strings in surprising alignments when suspended in a viscous fluid and sheared between two plates -- a finding that will affect the way scientists think about the properties of such wide-ranging substances as shampoo and futuristic computer chips. A team of scientists at Cornell University and the University of Chicago have imaged this behavior and have explained the forces causing it for the first time. Its findings appear in the Dec. 19-23 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The experimental breakthrough revealed that these string structures were perpendicular to the shear instead of parallel to it, contrary to what many in the field were expecting," said Aaron Dinner, associate professor in chemistry at UChicago and a study co-author.

The experiment was led by Itai Cohen, associate professor of physics at Cornell, who custom-built a device that would enable him simultaneously to exert shearing forces on suspended colloids (the spheres) and image the resulting motion at 100 frames per second with a confocal microscope. Imaging speed was critical to the experiment because the string-like structures appear only at certain shear rates.

"This issue of strings has been pretty controversial. I'm not sure that we've solved all the controversies associated with them, but at least we've made a step forward," Cohen said.

Shearing forces affect the dynamic behavior of paint, shampoo and other viscous household products, but an understanding of these and related phenomena at the microscopic level has largely eluded a detailed scientific understanding until the last decade, Dinner noted.

Futuristically speaking, these forces potentially could be harnessed to produce microscopic patterns on computer chips or biosensors via special paints that flow easily when layered in one direction, but becomes hard when layered in another direction.

Cohen's objective was more scientifically immediate: to devise an experiment that would overcome the technical difficulties associated with measuring the mechanical properties of the colloidal strings while also imaging their formation. "The holy grail is to be able to understand how the structure leads to the mechanical properties and then to be able to control the mechanical properties by influencing the structure," Cohen explained.

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Sunlight and Bunker Oil A Fatal Combination For Pacific Herring

The 2007 Cosco Busan disaster, which spilled 54,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, had an unexpectedly lethal impact on embryonic fish, devastating a commercially and ecologically important species for nearly two years, reports a new study by the University of California, Davis, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The study, to be published the week of Dec. 26 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even small oil spills can have a large impact on marine life, and that common chemical analyses of oil spills may be inadequate.

"Our research represents a change in the paradigm for oil spill research and detecting oil spill effects in an urbanized estuary," said Gary Cherr, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and a study co-author.

On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, when the container ship collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, bunker oil contaminated spawning habitats for the largest U.S. coastal population of Pacific herring -- a month before spawning season.

The new study, which analyzed Pacific herring embryos following the spill, highlights the effects of bunker oil on fish embryos in shallow water, the potential significance of sunlight interacting with oil compounds, and the extreme vulnerability of fish in early life stages to spilled oil.

Specifically, the study found that components of Cosco Busan bunker oil accumulated in naturally spawned herring embryos, then interacted with sunlight during low tides to kill the embryos. Laboratory-fertilized eggs, caged in deeper waters, were protected from the lethal combination of sunlight and oil, but still showed less severe abnormalities associated with oil exposure.

Crude oil is naturally occurring, liquid petroleum. Bunker oil is a thick fuel oil distilled from crude oil and burned on ships to fuel their engines. It is contaminated with various, sometimes unknown, substances.

The study builds on research following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which released up to 32 million gallons of crude oil into the comparatively pristine environment of Prince William Sound, Alaska. That research established a new paradigm for understanding the effects of oil toxicity on fish at early life stages.

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Irikaitz Archaeological Site Host To A 25,000-year-old Pendant

The recent discovery of a pendant at the Irikaitz archaeological site in Zestoa (in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa) has given rise to intense debate: it may be as old as 25,000 years, which would make it the oldest found to date at open-air excavations throughout the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. This stone is nine centimetres long and has a hole for hanging it from the neck although it would seem that, apart from being adornment, it was used to sharpen tools. This is one of a number of interesting findings made by the team led by Álvaro Arrizabalaga at this location: "Almost every year some archaeological artefact of great value is discovered; at times, even 8 or 10. It is a highly fruitful location."

Irikaitz lies behind the bath spa in Zestoa, on the other side of the river Urola, 14 metres from the river bank. The archaeologist from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has been carrying out excavations here summer after summer, together with students and researchers from this and other universities and in cooperation with Aranzadi Science Society. Since 1998 they have uncovered 32 square metres; nothing compared to the eight hectares (at least) that this "gigantic" open-air site covers. This is archaeology, demanding a lot of patience, but the results are worth it: "You feel as if you have found something that has been waiting to fall into your hands for 200,000 years."

It is like a lottery

The tasks pertaining to an archaeological site are complex and lengthy in any case, but particularly so at Irikaiz. To start with, because it is in the open air. In the case of caves, it is known that they served as refuges for our ancestors and, once their location is identified, it is highly possible that archaeological treasures are found there. Open air archaeological sites, on the other hand, are discovered when some civil engineering infrastructure has to be built, and it is difficult to predict what will be found. Moreover, in Zestoa there are remains from the Lower Paleolithic, when there are hardly any references from this period in the Basque Country. According to Mr Arrizabalaga, when they started, "it was like a lottery. We did not know what to expect -- either about its chronology or about the kinds of remains likely to be uncovered."

Precisely because of this lack of references, they were fascinated when they came across "totally exotic" raw material: volcanic stones. "In the first dig, we thought at first that someone may have brought the rocks there when they were building the Urola railway, to use them as ballast. It was all so surprising and incredible," said the archaeologist. But no; this phenomenon had another logical explanation: "It is a geological rarity. In the Urola River valley there is a layer of volcanic stones; the river cut through these, took them to the surface and brought them to this place. This is why humans from prehistory came here -- there was no other place in the Basque Country with stones like these."

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Brain's Connective Cells Are Much More Than Glue

Glia cells, named for the Greek word for "glue," hold the brain's neurons together and protect the cells that determine our thoughts and behaviors, but scientists have long puzzled over their prominence in the activities of the brain dedicated to learning and memory. Now Tel Aviv University researchers say that glia cells are central to the brain's plasticity -- how the brain adapts, learns, and stores information. According to Ph.D. student Maurizio De Pittà of TAU's Schools of Physics and Astronomy and Electrical Engineering, glia cells do much more than hold the brain together. A mechanism within the glia cells also sorts information for learning purposes, De Pittà says. "Glia cells are like the brain's supervisors. By regulating the synapses, they control the transfer of information between neurons, affecting how the brain processes information and learns."

De Pittà's research, led by his TAU supervisor Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob, along with Vladislav Volman of The Salk Institute and the University of California at San Diego and Hugues Berry of the Université de Lyon in France, has developed the first computer model that incorporates the influence of glia cells on synaptic information transfer. Detailed in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, the model can also be implemented in technologies based on brain networks such as microchips and computer software, Prof. Ben-Jacob says, and aid in research on brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy.

Regulating the brain's "social network"

The brain is constituted of two main types of cells: neurons and glia. Neurons fire off signals that dictate how we think and behave, using synapses to pass along the message from one neuron to another, explains De Pittà. Scientists theorize that memory and learning are dictated by synaptic activity because they are "plastic," with the ability to adapt to different stimuli.

But Ben-Jacob and colleagues suspected that glia cells were even more central to how the brain works. Glia cells are abundant in the brain's hippocampus and the cortex, the two parts of the brain that have the most control over the brain's ability to process information, learn and memorize. In fact, for every neuron cell, there are two to five glia cells. Taking into account previous experimental data, the researchers were able to build a model that could resolve the puzzle.

The brain is like a social network, says Prof. Ben-Jacob. Messages may originate with the neurons, which use the synapses as their delivery system, but the glia serve as an overall moderator, regulating which messages are sent on and when. These cells can either prompt the transfer of information, or slow activity if the synapses are becoming overactive. This makes the glia cells the guardians of our learning and memory processes, he notes, orchestrating the transmission of information for optimal brain function.

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Types Of Swimming Pool Covers

All across the United States, thousand and thousands of people own swimming pools. A swimming pool can provide a lot of fun and excitement, although it can also be dangerous. As many of us already know, it only takes a few seconds for a child to drown. To stop this from happening, you should use a pool cover to cover your swimming pool.
Along with protecting your swimming pool, covers have other uses as well. You can get solar powered pool covers, which will help to keep your water warm from the heat of the sun and protect your pool at the same time. For those looking for the best in protection, there are hard top swimming pool covers out there that are very sturdy and can keep just about anything out of your pool.
If you live in a warm climate area, you may want to get a basic plastic cover for your pool, which will keep it clean and protected. These covers will keep dust, dirt, and leaves out of your pool when you aren’t using it. Depending on where you live and what needs you have, the cover you need will vary.
Covers for your swimming pool come in several different choices as well, such as net, mesh, vinyl, and so on. Mesh pool covers are very popular, as they offer a tight fitting barrier which helps to keep your pool clean and free of debris, reduce maintenance, reduce evaporation, and keep your pool from unauthorized access.
Vinyl pool covers on the other hand, provide an amazing source of security. These pool covers operate via key, and help to keep debris out of your pool. They are also great for insulating and retaining heat, along with reducing any loss of chemicals. Vinyl is a very popular type of pool cover, being used by hundreds of thousands of pool owners.
No matter what type of pool cover you select, you can rest assured that it will do a lot in protecting your swimming pool. They don’t cost you a lot of money, yet they can go a long way in helping to prevent a child from accidental drowning. Depending on the type of swimming pool you have, the type of covers you have to choose from will vary.
From above ground pools to in ground pools, a swimming pool cover is something that you absolutely must have. There are many different types available, designed to fit all swimming pools. Before you buy a swimming pool cover you should first look at the package and make sure that it will work with your swimming pool. Some types of swimming pool covers may not work with your swimming pool – which makes it all the more important to double check.

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