Tag Archives: north Carolina

New Path to More Efficient Organic Solar Cells Uncovered at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2013Environmentacceptor, advanced light source, affordable, als, als beamlines, amount, berkeley lab, brian collins, christopher mcneill, convert, crystallinity, donor, earth, efficient, electricity, eliot gann, energy use, exciton journey, fossil fuels, fullerene solar film, harald ade, john tumbleston, land mass, nanometers, north Carolina, organic cell, photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic devices, physicist, polymer, r soxs, research, resonant soft, silicon based, size matters, solar cell, solar energy, solvent diiodooctane, state university, stxm, sunlight, ultraviolet light beams, volume, x ray, x ray scattering, zhe li

Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth’s land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency. For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell’s two domains – acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown.

Working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters. (more…)

Researchers ID Ways to Exploit ‘Cloud Browsers’ for Large-Scale, Anonymous Computing

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2012Technologyashwin shashidharan, cloud browser, cloud computing, enck adds, function, Google, joe pletcher, kevin butler, large scale computing, mapreduce, megabytes, north Carolina, oregon, paradigm, service, state university, technique, university, vasant tendulkar, web browsers, web interface, william enck

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of “cloud browser” services.

At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user’s machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational power and storage of multiple computers, allowing shared resources for multiple users. (more…)

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceancient dinosaur, antibodies, backbone, bone cell, brachylophosaurus canadensis, cellular structure, collagen, dinosaurian, DNA, dna molecule, evolutionary change, fibrous material, fibrous matrix, histochemistry, marshall bern, mary schweitzer, mass spectrometry, microbe, microscopy, north Carolina, origin, osteocytes, ostrich osteocytes, palo alto, parc, phex, protein, reactivity, research center, sample contamination, state university, tyrannosaurus rex, vertebrate, wenxia zheng

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells – and possibly DNA – in ancient remains.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen. (more…)

Researchers Create ‘Nanoflowers’ for Energy Storage, Solar Cells

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Scienceacs nano, atomic structure, batteries, carnation, chun li, device, energy storage, flow, flower like, flower structure, gayatri pongur snigdha, germanium sulfide, ges, ges nanoflower, ges powder, ges vapor, graphite, liang huang, linyou cao, lithium ion, marigold, material, micrometer, nanometer, next generation, non-toxic, north Carolina, petal, semiconductor, solar cell, state university, structure, surface area, toxic, useable power, vaporize, yifei yu

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) – a semiconductor material – that have extremely thin petals with an enormous surface area. The GeS flower holds promise for next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells.

“Creating these GeS nanoflowers is exciting because it gives us a huge surface area in a small amount of space,” says Dr. Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. “This could significantly increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, for instance, since the thinner structure with larger surface area can hold more lithium ions. By the same token, this GeS flower structure could lead to increased capacity for supercapacitors, which are also used for energy storage.” (more…)

Researchers Devise More Accurate Method for Predicting Hurricane Activity

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2012Environmentalok choudhary, cross validation, factor, forecasting, fredrick semazzi, historical data, humidity, hurricane season, method, model, motif based, nagiza samatova, network, north atlantic, north Carolina, seasonal hurricane, state university, statistical method, temperature, united states, william hendrix, zhengzhang chen

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques.

“This approach should give policymakers more reliable information than current state-of-the-art methods,” says Dr. Nagiza Samatova, an associate professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “This will hopefully give them more confidence in planning for the hurricane season.” (more…)

Researchers Develop New, Less Expensive Nanolithography Technique

By Guest PostSeptember 3, 2012Scienceabsorb, albena ivanisevic, approach, biomedical application, chapel hill, humidity, marcus a kramer, micron, nanolithography, nanoscale, north Carolina, polymer, silicon strip, spore, state university, substrate surface, surface, technique, water

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications.

“Among other things, this type of lithography can be used to manufacture chips for use in biological sensors that can identify target molecules, such as proteins or genetic material associated with specific medical conditions,” says Dr. Albena Ivanisevic, co-author of a paper describing the research. Ivanisevic is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and associate professor of the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nanolithography is a way of printing patterns at the nanoscale. (more…)

Analysis of Election Factors Points to Romney Win, University of Colorado Study Says

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2012Politicsanalysis, Barack Obama, colorado, democracy, democrat, Economy, election, electoral college, factor, florida, kenneth bickers, michael berry, minnesota, new hampshire, north Carolina, ohio, Pennsylvania, prediction model, republican, romney, trajectory, university of colorado, us president, virginia, White House, wisconsin

A University of Colorado analysis of state-by-state factors leading to the Electoral College selection of every U.S. president since 1980 forecasts that the 2012 winner will be Mitt Romney.

The key is the economy, say political science professors Kenneth Bickers of CU-Boulder and Michael Berry of CU Denver. Their prediction model stresses economic data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including both state and national unemployment figures as well as changes in real per capita income, among other factors.

“Based on our forecasting model, it becomes clear that the president is in electoral trouble,” said Bickers, also director of the CU in DC Internship Program. (more…)

Non-cancerous Brain Tumors Linked to Frequent Dental X-rays

By Guest PostApril 11, 2012Healthbrain tumor, california, central nervous system, connecticut, dental xrays, elizabeth claus, joellen schildkraut, joseph wiemels, lisa calvocoressi, margaret wrensch, massachusetts, melissa bondy, meninges, meningioma, motor control, non cancerous, north Carolina, panorex dental exam, texas, yale

People who received frequent dental X-rays in the past, before dosages were lowered, have an increased risk of developing a meningioma, the most common and potentially debilitating type of non-cancerous brain tumor, a new study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found. The study is published online in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

Meningioma is listed as a rare disease by the National Institutes of Health. The estimated incidence is up to 8 out of 100,000 people, and it occurs more frequently among women than men. Although it is the most frequently diagnosed type of brain tumor, meningioma is listed as a rare disease by the National Institutes of Health. Tumors develop in a membrane that envelops the brain and the central nervous system known as the meninges. They can grow undetected for years and eventually reach the size of a baseball or larger. While they are not cancerous, they can cause debilitating side effects such as headaches, vision problems, and loss of speech and motor control. (more…)