While regular browsing and surfing on the internet, I came upon something fascinating. With an interest in window shopping and preparing a wish list for things I would like to buy later, I linger around online shopping portals frequently. The best part of online shopping portals is that you could right away compare the prices of a single product in various other portals and buy it from the one that offers you the cheapest price. I generally order things from Flipkart and books from Infibeam. I never trusted ebay, in reaction to all the terrible experiences people have had. And sometimes the biggest among these players, Amazon. This online shopping destination has been the most busiest in the world and the driving force of the e-commerce industry. And now they are entering India officially.
While looking up on Amazon, I felt the need that this service needs to be here in India so that people could order things without worrying about the huge shipping prices. So, just to check I entered the domain for Amazon with a .in and voila, I was brought to the Indian portal of Amazon. This was great since now I can see people buying things here without worrying about security and sharing their credit card details since Amazon is a favourite and trusted among users.
Currently, amazon[dot]in only has books and movies and the other products are coming soon. This not only means Amazon's entry into the Indian market with a better strategy, but also means serious competition to other Indian counterparts like Flipkart, Infibeam, etc. Though the Indian ones have captured most of the market here, but still Amazon has a strong brand value. Another delightful thing is they are not charging anything for shipping on any product, and they say it would be for a limited period of time only.
Well, I have already started adding a couple of books to my cart at amazon[dot]in, and I think you should too. As soon as rest of the products are available, I would totally start ordering them right away. Go and have a look amazon.in
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a better way to control the flow of ink during the electronics printing process. The new method allows fewer defects in the end-product and also improves its overall electrical efficiency. Printed electronics is used to create lightweight & low-cost solar cells and also in manufacturing flexible electronics screens. However, the big problem with current methods is that the efficiency of these products is far lesser than than traditional electronics products. New process developed at Stanford is called FLUENCE aka fluid-enhanced crystal engineering. The research team expects that this new innovation will accelerate further adoption of printed electronics.
Dr Ying Diao, the lead author of the paper published in Nature Materials says that FLUENCE allows the process to be scaled up to meet the industry requirements. It's interesting to note that printed electronic devices are generally formed using semiconducting crystals. These crystals are grown using special inks containing organic chemicals. The distribution and even flow of ink, which often gets disturbed during rapid printing leads to defects in the final products.
Diao has designed a new printing blade with very tiny pillars embedded in it. These pillars mix the ink in such a way that it forms a uniform film. She has also designed a series of chemical patterns on the organic substrate to make sure that the crystals grow in a regular & uniform pattern. X-Ray studies were carried out at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and it allowed Diao to inspect the progress and keep making improvements in the process. Diao and her team were finally able to produce better arranged crystal which are at least 10x longer than the crystal created with traditional process.
Diao and her team now wants to exhamine the relationship between process & the material. This would provide even better control over the final electronic properties of the printed electronic films.
Iowa State University researchers are employing high-frequency sound waves to break down plant substances for creation of bio-fuel. The research includes pretreating a wide range of feedstocks like witch grass, corn stover, and soft wood with constant ultrasound, thus enhancing the necessary chemical reactions needed to tansform the biomass into high-value biofuels and chemicals. All these findings shall be presented at the 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA 2013) being held from June2-7 in Montreal.
The researchers discovered that they could substantially up the efficiency of removing lignin (the substance that binds cellulose and hemicellulose together in plant cell walls) from biomass in solution. Generally enzymes or chemicals do the trick, but this time the researchers removed lignin by pretreating the plant matter with ultrasound. Once the lignin is removed via this technique, freed sugar gets dissolved within minutes for further processing into biofuel. The team also discovered that hydrolysis of corn starch could be greatly accelerated with ultrasonic. Traditionally, ground corn is steamed with jet cookers at high temperatures, to break down the corn and the remaining starch mash is then cooled and reacted with enzymes to release glucose for fermentation. Ultrasonically, the corn was grounded so small that it provided more surface area for enzymatic action. Economic rewards of this method are great, with less than an year payback period since installation.
A third application for ultrasound in biofuel production is the speeding up of transesterification, the major chemical reaction that transforms oil to bio-diesel. Ultrasounding soybean oil transformed it into bio-fuel within a minute, and not the regular time of 45 minutes.
