Just over eight years ago, Apple introduced podcasts as an integral part of iTunes, and along the way, it helped shape how we consume information and entertainment. Now, the company's announcing a rather significant milestone in the field: something to the tune of 1 billion subscriptions. Of course, the road to this achievement has been marred with some unpleasant bumps, but today's all about celebration. In that spirit, Apple's highlighting some of its most popular podcasts of all time, such as This American Life, TWiT and All Songs Considered, along with up and coming programs such as The Alton Browncast. Granted, it's not quite the fanfare as you'll find when Apple celebrates App Store milestones -- the most recent being 50 billion downloads -- but it's hard to get bent out of shape given all the free content. So grab your earbuds and do some celebrating. Cupcakes are entirely optional.
2 in 1 solution for low cost polymer LEDs and solar cellsPublic release date: 21-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eunhee Song ehsong@unist.ac.kr 82-522-171-224 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST)
Considerable improvement in device performance of polymer-based optoelectronic devices is reported today by researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea. The new plasmonic material, can be applied to both polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) and polymer solar cells (PSCs), with world-record high performance, through a simple and cheap process.
The contrary demands of these devices mean that there are few metal nanoparticles that can enhance performance in PLEDs and PSCs at the same time.
Most semiconducting optoelectronic devices (OEDs), including photodiodes, solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and semiconductor lasers, are based on inorganic materials. Examples include gallium nitride for light-emitting diodes and silicon for solar cells.
Due to the limited availability of raw materials and the complex processing required to manufacture OEDs based on inorganic materials, the cost of device fabrication is increasing. There is great interest in thin-film OEDs that are made from alternative semiconductors.
Among these materials, organic semiconductors have received much attention for use in next-generation OEDs because of the potential for low-cost and large-area fabrication using solution processing.
Despite extensive efforts to develop new materials and device architectures enhancing the performance of these devices, further improvements in efficiency are needed, before there can be widespread use and commercialization of these technologies.
The material prepared by the UNIST research team is easy to synthesize with basic equipment and has low-temperature solution processability. This low-temperature solution processability enables roll-to-roll mass production techniques and is suitable for printed electronic devices.
"Our work is significant also because it anticipates the realization of electrically driven laser devices by utilizing carbon dot*-supported silver nanoparticles (CD-Ag NPs) as plasmonic materials." says said Prof. Byeong-Su Kim. "The material allows significant radiative emission and additional light absorption, leading to remarkably enhanced current efficiency."
Surface Plasmon resonance is an electro-magnetic wave propagating along the surface of a thin metal layer and the collective oscillation of electrons in a solid or liquid stimulated by incident light. SPR is the basis of many standard tools for measuring adsorption of materials onto planar metal (typically gold and silver) surfaces or onto the surface of metal nanoparticles.
The team demonstrated efficient PLEDs and PSCs using surface Plasmon resonance enhancement with CD-Ag NPs. The PLEDs achieved a remarkably high current efficiency (from 11.65 to 27.16 cd A-1) and luminous efficiency (LE) (from 6.33 to 18.54 lm W-1).
PSCs produced in this way showed enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) (from 7.53 to 8.31%) and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) (from 91 to 99% at 460 nm). The LE (18.54 lm W-1) and IQE (99%) are among the highest values reported to date in fluorescent PLEDs and PSCs, respectively.
"These significant improvements in device efficiency demonstrate that surface Plasmon resonance materials constitute a versatile and effective route for achieving high performance polymer LEDs and polymer solar cells," said Prof. Jin Young Kim. "This approach shows promise as a route for the realization of electrically driven polymer lasers."
###
The fellow researchers include Hyosung Choi, Seo-Jin Ko, Yuri Choi, Taehyo Kim, Boram Lee, and Prof. Myung Hoon Song from UNIST, and researchers from Chungnam National University, Pusan National University, and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
This research was supported by a WCU (World Class University) program through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant, the Korea Healthcare technology R&D Project, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Korea and the International Cooperation of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korean government Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
*Carbon-dot: Carbon dots (CDs) consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with a quasi-spherical structure in which the carbon shows the character of crystalline graphite.
The full article is: Enclosed is our manuscript entitled, "Surface plasmon resonance of carbon dot-supported silver nanoparticles: Versatility in polymer optoelectronic devices". Nature Photonics. DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.181
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology http://www.unist.ac.kr
Homepage of Prof. Jin Young Kim http://ngel.unist.ac.kr
Homepage of Prof. Byeong-Su Kim http://bskim19.unist.ac.kr
The press release can be found at
http://www.unist.ac.kr/board/view.sko?boardId=Notice&boardSid=5037&menuCd=AB07002001000&contentsSid=8297&orderBy=register_dt&startPage=1&searchType=&keyword=&searchStartDt=&searchEndDt=&categoryCode1=&categoryCode2=&categoryCode3=&dataSid=1858567
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
2 in 1 solution for low cost polymer LEDs and solar cellsPublic release date: 21-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eunhee Song ehsong@unist.ac.kr 82-522-171-224 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST)
Considerable improvement in device performance of polymer-based optoelectronic devices is reported today by researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea. The new plasmonic material, can be applied to both polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) and polymer solar cells (PSCs), with world-record high performance, through a simple and cheap process.
The contrary demands of these devices mean that there are few metal nanoparticles that can enhance performance in PLEDs and PSCs at the same time.
Most semiconducting optoelectronic devices (OEDs), including photodiodes, solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and semiconductor lasers, are based on inorganic materials. Examples include gallium nitride for light-emitting diodes and silicon for solar cells.
Due to the limited availability of raw materials and the complex processing required to manufacture OEDs based on inorganic materials, the cost of device fabrication is increasing. There is great interest in thin-film OEDs that are made from alternative semiconductors.
Among these materials, organic semiconductors have received much attention for use in next-generation OEDs because of the potential for low-cost and large-area fabrication using solution processing.
Despite extensive efforts to develop new materials and device architectures enhancing the performance of these devices, further improvements in efficiency are needed, before there can be widespread use and commercialization of these technologies.
The material prepared by the UNIST research team is easy to synthesize with basic equipment and has low-temperature solution processability. This low-temperature solution processability enables roll-to-roll mass production techniques and is suitable for printed electronic devices.
"Our work is significant also because it anticipates the realization of electrically driven laser devices by utilizing carbon dot*-supported silver nanoparticles (CD-Ag NPs) as plasmonic materials." says said Prof. Byeong-Su Kim. "The material allows significant radiative emission and additional light absorption, leading to remarkably enhanced current efficiency."
Surface Plasmon resonance is an electro-magnetic wave propagating along the surface of a thin metal layer and the collective oscillation of electrons in a solid or liquid stimulated by incident light. SPR is the basis of many standard tools for measuring adsorption of materials onto planar metal (typically gold and silver) surfaces or onto the surface of metal nanoparticles.
The team demonstrated efficient PLEDs and PSCs using surface Plasmon resonance enhancement with CD-Ag NPs. The PLEDs achieved a remarkably high current efficiency (from 11.65 to 27.16 cd A-1) and luminous efficiency (LE) (from 6.33 to 18.54 lm W-1).
PSCs produced in this way showed enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) (from 7.53 to 8.31%) and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) (from 91 to 99% at 460 nm). The LE (18.54 lm W-1) and IQE (99%) are among the highest values reported to date in fluorescent PLEDs and PSCs, respectively.
"These significant improvements in device efficiency demonstrate that surface Plasmon resonance materials constitute a versatile and effective route for achieving high performance polymer LEDs and polymer solar cells," said Prof. Jin Young Kim. "This approach shows promise as a route for the realization of electrically driven polymer lasers."
###
The fellow researchers include Hyosung Choi, Seo-Jin Ko, Yuri Choi, Taehyo Kim, Boram Lee, and Prof. Myung Hoon Song from UNIST, and researchers from Chungnam National University, Pusan National University, and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
This research was supported by a WCU (World Class University) program through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant, the Korea Healthcare technology R&D Project, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Korea and the International Cooperation of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korean government Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
*Carbon-dot: Carbon dots (CDs) consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen with a quasi-spherical structure in which the carbon shows the character of crystalline graphite.
The full article is: Enclosed is our manuscript entitled, "Surface plasmon resonance of carbon dot-supported silver nanoparticles: Versatility in polymer optoelectronic devices". Nature Photonics. DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.181
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology http://www.unist.ac.kr
Homepage of Prof. Jin Young Kim http://ngel.unist.ac.kr
Homepage of Prof. Byeong-Su Kim http://bskim19.unist.ac.kr
The press release can be found at
http://www.unist.ac.kr/board/view.sko?boardId=Notice&boardSid=5037&menuCd=AB07002001000&contentsSid=8297&orderBy=register_dt&startPage=1&searchType=&keyword=&searchStartDt=&searchEndDt=&categoryCode1=&categoryCode2=&categoryCode3=&dataSid=1858567
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Sinbad just got a brand new degree from debt school ... and all it cost him was $11 MILLION ... TMZ has learned.
If you recall, the '90s comic -- who starred opposite Scott Bakula in "Necessary Roughness" ("Andre does not eat raw meat, 'cause Andre's a vegetarian!" God we loved that movie) -- is broke now and filed for bankruptcy back in April.
But in order to enjoy the full benefits of bankruptcy (the govt. wiping away debts) ... he was required to complete a course on personal financial management -- and guess what, HE PASSED!
It's great news for Sinbad, considering he owes $10,991,715 in debts ... and claims he's only got $131,000 in assets.
So congrats, Sinbad ... not just for graduating debt school, but for knocking Robert Loggia on his ass back in 1991!!!! (god, we loved that movie)
As civil war rages on in Syria, humanitarian suffering is reaching new catastrophic levels. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
By Erika Solomon, Reuters
BEIRUT - The local commander of a Syrian rebel group affiliated to al Qaeda was freed on Sunday after being held by Kurdish forces in a power struggle between rival organizations fighting President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
However, the pro-opposition activists gave conflicting reports of how the Islamist brigade commander in the Syrian town of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border had come to be free.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamist rebels had exchanged 300 Kurdish residents they had kidnapped for the local head of their group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). Other activist groups challenged this account, saying Islamist fighters had freed Abu Musaab by force, with no Kurdish hostages released.
Sporadic fighting over the past five days in towns near the frontier with Turkey has pitted Islamists trying to cement their control of rebel zones against Kurds trying to assert their autonomy in mostly Kurdish areas.
The trouble highlights how the two-year insurgency against 43 years of Assad family rule is spinning off into strife within his opponents' ranks, running the risk of creating regionalized conflicts that could also destabilize neighboring countries.
The factional fighting could also help Assad's forces, who have launched an offensive to retake territory.
Belt around Damascus
Assad has been trying to secure a belt of territory from Damascus through Homs and up to his heartland on the Mediterranean coast and, with the help of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, has won a string of victories in Homs province and near the capital.?
On Sunday his forces ambushed and killed 49 rebels in the Damascus suburb of Adra, the Observatory said.
The town was once a critical point along the route used by rebels to bring weapons to the capital, but Assad's forces recaptured it a few months ago and have been working to cut off rebel territories in the area.
To the north, activists reported Turkish troops reinforcing their side of the frontier near Tel Abyad, but the army could not be reached for comment. Turkish forces exchanged fire with Syrian Kurdish fighters in another border region earlier in the week.
The Observatory said the alleged prisoner exchange was part of a ceasefire agreed after a day of fierce clashes in Tel Abyad, but other activists said there was no deal and reported that many Kurdish residents were being held by ISIS fighters.
The Observatory said the fighting in Tel Abyad started when the local ISIS brigade asked Kurdish Front forces, which have fought with the rebels against Assad, to pledge allegiance to Abu Musaab, which they refused to do.
Other activists said the clashes were an extension of fighting that broke out last week in other parts of the northern border zone.
Activists: Family of 13 massacred
Opposition activists also reported the killing of at least 13 members of a family in the Sunni Muslim village of Baida on Sunday, in what they described as a second sectarian massacre there.
The killings followed a rare eruption of fighting between Assad's forces and rebels in the coastal province of Tartous, an enclave of Assad's Alawite minority sect that has remained largely unscathed by the civil war.?
Syria's marginalized Sunni majority has largely backed the insurrection while minorities such as the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, have largely supported Assad, himself an Alawite.
The Observatory said four women and six children were among those killed in Baida.
"A relative came to look for them today and found the men shot outside. The women's and children's bodies were inside a room of the house and residents in the area said some of the bodies were burned," said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory.
In May, pro-Assad militias killed more than 50 residents of Baida and over 60 in the nearby town of Banias. In those killings, some bodies, many of them children, were found burned and mutilated.
The anti-Assad revolt has evolved from its origins as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people and turned markedly sectarian.
The ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling both Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels. Kurds argue they support the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
The Kurdish people, scattered over the territories of Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, are often described as the world's largest ethnic community without a state of their own.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
MADRID (Reuters) - Barcelona were mourning the enforced exit of ailing coach Tito Vilanova on Saturday but there was also a sense the Spanish champions were prepared to move swiftly to appoint a successor and focus on preparations for next season.
Club president Sandro Rosell made the announcement late on Friday that Vilanova, who has been battling throat cancer the past two years, needed more treatment that meant he would be unable to remain in charge of the first team.
A replacement for the 44-year-old, who was promoted from assistant coach to succeed Pep Guardiola at the end of the 2011-12 season, would likely be announced early next week, Rosell added.
Many of the first team squad were at Rosell's news conference, including World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, and the club canceled a friendly they were due to play against Polish side Lechia Gdansk on Saturday and suspended training until Monday.
"Life goes on," Rosell said. "Obviously this is a very hard blow to take but Barca has suffered many blows in our history and we have always come through. This will be no different."
Vilanova posted an open letter on Barca's website (www.fcbarcelona.com) on Saturday in which he expressed his gratitude for the messages of support that have flooded in from the world of sport and beyond.
"The treatment I have to have, according to the doctors, is not compatible with me dedicating myself 100 percent to the real tasks of a coach of a team as demanding as FC Barcelona," he wrote.
"But I will stay very close and continue to work for this club which I love so much doing other jobs," he added.
Meanwhile the wait for a successor to be named continues, with less than a month to the start of the new La Liga season.
Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia reported that Joan Francesc Ferrer, known as "Rubi", could be in line to take over, while daily Sport said the former Girona coach might be a temporary replacement.
Ferrer led Girona to the second division playoffs last season and was appointed Vilanova's assistant for the coming campaign to help with technical analysis of Barca's rivals.
Other names mentioned, all former Barca players, were Swansea's Danish manager Michael Laudrup, Celta Vigo's Spanish coach Luis Enrique and Dutchman Frank de Boer of Ajax Amsterdam.
Jupp Heynckes, who led Bayern Munich to an unprecedented treble of Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League titles last season before being replaced by Guardiola, and Argentine Marcelo Bielsa, who was in charge at Athletic Bilbao until the end of last term, were also named as possible candidates.
German Heynckes, who turned 68 in May, had a stint at Bilbao before leading Barca's arch rivals Real Madrid to the Champions League title in 1998.
His reputation was enhanced when Bayern thumped Barca 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals of Europe's elite club competition last season and he was complimentary about the club after the second leg.
"I know Spanish football very well, especially Barcelona," he told a news conference.
"I know the way they like to play and their philosophy. Barca are not only an extraordinary club but a fantastic team."
Barca are due to play a friendly against Bayern in Munich on Wednesday and they launch their bid for a fifth La Liga title in six years at home to Levante on the weekend of August 17/18.
The first leg of the Spanish Super Cup against King's Cup winners Atletico Madrid is on August 21 at Atletico's Calderon stadium and the return leg is a week later at the Nou Camp.
According to colleagues, constituents, employees, and his ex-fianc?e, San Diego's Democrat Mayor Bob Filner is a threat to women. He has been accused of "forcibly kissing" them, groping them, and propositioning them. Former Councilwoman Donna Frye put it bluntly: "Bob Filner is tragically unsafe for any woman to approach."
But Filner won't resign -- despite the flood of allegations against him. Top Democrat leaders have yet to denounce his harassment habits. And, most appallingly and hypocritically, top Democrat women have remained silent.
Where's Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Where's Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Californian, who served with Filner for two decades in the House of Representatives? And where are California's senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein?
This man is accused of physically attacking women -- and not one of these leaders has stood up on their side.
City Hall employees have described "The Filner Headlock" -- his habit of wrapping his arm around the necks of female employees. And to avoid his sexual advances they have resorted to what they've dubbed "The Filner Dance" -- their practice of ducking and dodging the handsy septuagenarian.
One constituent described the mayor putting his hand in her bra. Another said that during a meeting
with Filner, he told a staffer to leave the room and then tried to kiss her against her will.
Last week, Filner admitted, "I need help," though he insists he's innocent of sexual harassment. He did say, however, that he was "embarrassed to admit that I have failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and at times I have intimidated."
Even if we were to give him the benefit of the doubt about the sexual harassment charges, he has still admitted to discriminating against the women in City Hall and treating them unfairly. That alone should make him unfit to serve the people of San Diego.
Sadly, the litany of charges paints a much more disturbing picture. To say he "failed to fully respect" seems to be an insidious understatement. Nevertheless, Wasserman Schultz, Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein and company remain conspicuously silent. These women are doing their own version of the "Filner Dance," desperately trying to avoid the issue, more concerned about their party's image than protecting women.
If Filner has been watching what's played out on the other side of the country in New York City lately, it's no wonder he thinks his party doesn't really care about these allegations. Democrats have embraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer as though they never did anything wrong.
In the Democrat Party, misogyny has become acceptable so long as the guilty party is a Democrat. So if Democrat women want to talk about a "war on women," let's talk about their fellow partisans first -- and not their hackneyed shallow attacks. Sexual harassment isn't something to be taken lightly. But until these Democrat women call for Filner's resignation, they are doing just that: not giving the serious charges against him the attention they warrant.
I have to wonder: In the Filner-Spitzer-Weiner Party, where do women draw the line?
If Bob Filner stays in office, he won't just be a stain on the Democrat Party; he will demean the office he holds and make a mockery of public service.
The mayor has asked his constituents for patience as he begins "to work with professionals in sexual harassment training." He clearly needs help and plenty of training, but City Hall is no self-help group. The mayor has a serious problem -- possibly a criminal problem -- and should leave office.
The people of San Diego owe him no patience. Nor should women have any patience with the Democrat leaders who are failing them with their silence. They deserve better than Bob Filner, and they deserve better than leaders who won't stand up when it really matters.
Sharon Day is a co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Scott Huffman, Google?s engineering director, says the company?s intention is to ?transform the ways people interact with Google?. That means having conversations similar to those you would have with humans. No longer will we have to go to ?settings? to recalibrate our devices ? we will simply order them to make the desired changes. And those devices will not be in our pockets ? but all around us in every room.
?If you look back 10 years there was a computer on my desk and today there?s a computer in my pocket and it still has a screen and a keyboard,? says Huffman.
?But fast forward a bit and? I think there is going to be a device in the ceiling with microphones, and it will be in my glasses or my wristwatch or my shirt. And like the Google Glass it won?t have a keyboard? you just say ?OK Google, blah-blah-blah? and you get what you want.?
Where will it end? Gomes agrees that a chip embedded in the brain is far from a sci-fi fantasy. ?Already people are beginning to experiment with handicapped people for manoeuvring their wheelchairs,? he says. ?They are getting a few senses of direction with the wheelchair but getting from there to actual words is a long ways off. We have to do this in the brain a lot better to make that interaction possible. We have impatience for that to happen but the pieces of technology have to develop.?
Full article here
This article was posted: Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 6:33 am
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Public release date: 21-Jul-2013
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Sinbad just got a brand new degree from debt school ... and all it cost him was $11 MILLION ... TMZ has learned.