May 15, 2013 ? Using a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a micrometer scale, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have shed new light on what may become a cost-effective way to generate hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight.
Their quarry is a potentially efficient, cost-effective, photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell -- essentially a solar cell that produces hydrogen gas instead of electric current. "A major challenge with solar energy is dealing with solar intermittency," says NIST chemical engineer Daniel Esposito. "We demand energy constantly, but the sun's not always going to be shining, so there's an important need to convert solar energy into a form we can use when the sun's not out. For large-scale energy storage or transportation, hydrogen has a lot of benefits."
At its simplest, a PEC cell contains a semiconducting photoelectrode that absorbs photons and converts them into energetic electrons, which are used to facilitate chemical reactions that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gases. It's not that easy. The best PEC cell has been demonstrated with an efficiency around 12.5 percent,* says Esposito. But, "it's been estimated that such a cell would be extremely expensive -- thousands of dollars per square meter -- and they also had issues with stability," he says. One big problem is that the semiconductors used to achieve the best conversion efficiency also tend to be highly susceptible to corrosion by the cell's water-based electrolyte. A PEC electrode that is efficient, stable and economical to produce has been elusive.
The NIST team's proposed solution is a silicon-based device using a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) design that can overcome the efficiency/stability trade-off. The key is to deposit a very thin, but very uniform, layer of silicon dioxide -- an insulator -- on top of the semiconductor -- silicon -- that is well-suited for doing the photon-gathering work. On top of that is a polka-dot array of tiny electrodes consisting of platinum-covered titanium. The stable oxide layer protects the semiconductor from the electrolyte, but it's thin enough and transparent enough that the photons will travel through it to the semiconductor, and the photo-generated electrons will "tunnel" in the opposite direction to reach the electrodes, where the platinum catalyzes the reaction that produces hydrogen.
The MIS device requires good production controls -- the oxide layer in particular has to be deposited precisely -- but Esposito notes that they used fabrication techniques that are standard in the electronics industry, which has decades of experience in building low-cost, silicon-based devices.
To study the system in detail, the NIST team scanned the surface of the device with a laser beam, illuminating only a small portion at a time to record photocurrent with micrometer resolution. In tandem with the beam, they also tracked an "ultramicroelectrode" across the surface to measure the rate of molecular hydrogen generation, the chemical half of the reaction.** The combination allowed them to observe two bonus effects of the MIS photoelectrode design: a secondary mechanism for hydrogen generation caused by the channeling of electrons through the oxide layer, and a more efficient transport of electrons to the reaction site than predicted.
The NIST team calculates an efficiency of 2.9 percent for their device, which also exhibits excellent stability during operation. While this efficiency is far lower than more costly designs, they note that it is 15 times better than previously reported results for similar silicon-based MIS devices, and the new data from their microanalysis of the system points towards several potential routes to improving performance. The detailed results are found in Nature Materials.
Notes:
* In the 90s by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Study: Antibiotic stewardship program using mass spec system reduces hospital stays, costsPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Lindheim blindheim@brandwidthsolutions.com 212-584-2276 BLL Partners, LLC
In peer-reviewed study, the accuracy and speed of Bruker's Biotyper analyzer integrated into a comprehensive antibiotic stewardship program reduced hospital stays by days & per patient costs substantially
Denver, Colorado May 15, 2013 A co-author of a groundbreaking study documenting reductions in patient length of stay and overall costs from implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program using Bruker's MALDI Biotyper will share her observations at a Bruker symposium to be held during the upcoming American Society for Microbiology (ASM) General Meeting. The study, which is currently available in an online edition1, showed that the average length of stay was reduced by two days for participants in the antibiotic stewardship intervention group and overall costs were reduced by almost $20,000 per patient.
"We know that time is the enemy when dealing with serious infections," noted George Goedesky, Executive Director of Marketing/ Business Development. "This study demonstrates that reducing the time to diagnosis and optimal treatment through use of a rapid and accurate pathogen identification system, such as the MALDI Biotyper, when integrated into a comprehensive antibiotic stewardship program, improves patient care while significantly reducing length of stay and total costs."
The authors from The Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas set out to assess how patient care could be improved and cost savings achieved by a combination of rapid pathogen identification and a systematic approach to antimicrobial stewardship. Study patients with gram-negative blood infections were assigned to either routine care or to the intervention program, which included rapid pathogen identification and immediate antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the MALDI Biotyper, along with protocols for timely communication of results to inform therapeutic decisions.
The study authors report that in the pre-intervention period, final pathogen identification and susceptibility results took on average 47.1 hours, and in the intervention period, final results took 24.4 hours on average. The mean time to organism identification was 36.6 hours in the pre-intervention group versus 10.2 hours in the intervention arm. The mean length of stay in the pre-intervention group was 11.9 days with a mean hospital cost of $45,709. In the intervention group, length of stay averaged 9.3 days at an average cost of $26,162.
Patricia Cernoch, Manager of the Microbiology Laboratory at Methodist Hospital and a study co-author, commented, "At a time when pressures to reduce costs while improving patient care are escalating, we are delighted to show that combining a rapid and accurate pathogen detection system such as the MALDI Biotyper with common sense improvements in communication and treatment protocols produced such positive results for both patients and the hospital. We look forward to helping to implement similar programs throughout our system."
The MALDI Biotyper is the market-leading system for microbial identification based on MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. It is widely used in clinical microbiology, industrial microbiology, animal health and food safety and has become the laboratory standard for next generation microbial identification. The Biotyper system covers a broad range of more than 4,600 microbial isolates from gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, yeasts, multi-cellular fungi and mycobacteria. Microbial identification with the MALDI Biotyper uses a proteomic fingerprint and allows for instantaneous identification of colonies from a plate. This unique species-specific pattern is automatically compared with reference spectra in the MALDI Biotyper library. In addition, the MALDI Biotyper supports the Open Microbiology Concept which allows customers to generate their own database entries from regional isolates.
The Bruker MALDI Biotyper is currently available for research use in the U.S. FDA clearance for clinical use is expected later this year.
###
1. Arch Pathol Lab Med. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2012-0651- OA. Published Online December 6, 2012.
Visit Bruker's ASM booth #715 to learn more about the MALDI Biotyper. The 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology will be held in Denver, Colorado May 18- 21, 2013. For more information, visit http://gm.asm.org/
About the Bruker MALDI Biotyper
The dedicated MALDI Biotyper solution enables molecular identification, and taxonomical classification or de-replication of microorganisms like bacteria, yeasts and fungi. Classification and identification of microorganisms is achieved reliably and quickly using proteomic fingerprinting by high-throughput MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Applications include clinical routine microbial identification, environmental and pharmaceutical analysis, taxonomical research, food and consumer product safety and quality control, as well as marine microbiology. The robust MALDI Biotyper method requires minimal sample preparation and offers low consumables cost. The MALDI Biotyper is available in a research-use-only version, or in an IVD-CE version according to EU directive EC/98/79 in various European countries. In the United States, the MALDI Biotyper is available for research use only, and not for use in diagnostic procedures.
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker Corporation is a leading provider of high-performance scientific instruments and solutions for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.bruker.com.
[ | 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.
Study: Antibiotic stewardship program using mass spec system reduces hospital stays, costsPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barbara Lindheim blindheim@brandwidthsolutions.com 212-584-2276 BLL Partners, LLC
In peer-reviewed study, the accuracy and speed of Bruker's Biotyper analyzer integrated into a comprehensive antibiotic stewardship program reduced hospital stays by days & per patient costs substantially
Denver, Colorado May 15, 2013 A co-author of a groundbreaking study documenting reductions in patient length of stay and overall costs from implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program using Bruker's MALDI Biotyper will share her observations at a Bruker symposium to be held during the upcoming American Society for Microbiology (ASM) General Meeting. The study, which is currently available in an online edition1, showed that the average length of stay was reduced by two days for participants in the antibiotic stewardship intervention group and overall costs were reduced by almost $20,000 per patient.
"We know that time is the enemy when dealing with serious infections," noted George Goedesky, Executive Director of Marketing/ Business Development. "This study demonstrates that reducing the time to diagnosis and optimal treatment through use of a rapid and accurate pathogen identification system, such as the MALDI Biotyper, when integrated into a comprehensive antibiotic stewardship program, improves patient care while significantly reducing length of stay and total costs."
The authors from The Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas set out to assess how patient care could be improved and cost savings achieved by a combination of rapid pathogen identification and a systematic approach to antimicrobial stewardship. Study patients with gram-negative blood infections were assigned to either routine care or to the intervention program, which included rapid pathogen identification and immediate antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the MALDI Biotyper, along with protocols for timely communication of results to inform therapeutic decisions.
The study authors report that in the pre-intervention period, final pathogen identification and susceptibility results took on average 47.1 hours, and in the intervention period, final results took 24.4 hours on average. The mean time to organism identification was 36.6 hours in the pre-intervention group versus 10.2 hours in the intervention arm. The mean length of stay in the pre-intervention group was 11.9 days with a mean hospital cost of $45,709. In the intervention group, length of stay averaged 9.3 days at an average cost of $26,162.
Patricia Cernoch, Manager of the Microbiology Laboratory at Methodist Hospital and a study co-author, commented, "At a time when pressures to reduce costs while improving patient care are escalating, we are delighted to show that combining a rapid and accurate pathogen detection system such as the MALDI Biotyper with common sense improvements in communication and treatment protocols produced such positive results for both patients and the hospital. We look forward to helping to implement similar programs throughout our system."
The MALDI Biotyper is the market-leading system for microbial identification based on MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. It is widely used in clinical microbiology, industrial microbiology, animal health and food safety and has become the laboratory standard for next generation microbial identification. The Biotyper system covers a broad range of more than 4,600 microbial isolates from gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, yeasts, multi-cellular fungi and mycobacteria. Microbial identification with the MALDI Biotyper uses a proteomic fingerprint and allows for instantaneous identification of colonies from a plate. This unique species-specific pattern is automatically compared with reference spectra in the MALDI Biotyper library. In addition, the MALDI Biotyper supports the Open Microbiology Concept which allows customers to generate their own database entries from regional isolates.
The Bruker MALDI Biotyper is currently available for research use in the U.S. FDA clearance for clinical use is expected later this year.
###
1. Arch Pathol Lab Med. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2012-0651- OA. Published Online December 6, 2012.
Visit Bruker's ASM booth #715 to learn more about the MALDI Biotyper. The 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology will be held in Denver, Colorado May 18- 21, 2013. For more information, visit http://gm.asm.org/
About the Bruker MALDI Biotyper
The dedicated MALDI Biotyper solution enables molecular identification, and taxonomical classification or de-replication of microorganisms like bacteria, yeasts and fungi. Classification and identification of microorganisms is achieved reliably and quickly using proteomic fingerprinting by high-throughput MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Applications include clinical routine microbial identification, environmental and pharmaceutical analysis, taxonomical research, food and consumer product safety and quality control, as well as marine microbiology. The robust MALDI Biotyper method requires minimal sample preparation and offers low consumables cost. The MALDI Biotyper is available in a research-use-only version, or in an IVD-CE version according to EU directive EC/98/79 in various European countries. In the United States, the MALDI Biotyper is available for research use only, and not for use in diagnostic procedures.
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker Corporation is a leading provider of high-performance scientific instruments and solutions for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.bruker.com.
[ | 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.
It's turning out to be the worst-kept secret of this year's Google I/O -- 'Google Play Games' has cropped up once again in game changelogs ahead of its presumed launch during today's keynote. Eufloria HD has been updated with support for "Google Play Games achievements," and a note adding "We hope you enjoy using Google Play Games to save and share achievements!" A number of Gameloft titles have been updated too, with more subtle references "game services" support being included.
We're sure it'll all be official in just a couple of hours or so. Stay tuned to our Google I/O keynote liveblog for all the latest.
May 14, 2013 ? Even with a greater muscle mass, a sprinter cannot win a marathon. His specially-trained and strengthened muscles will fatigue faster than the endurance-trained muscles of a long distance runner. The research group of Prof. Christoph Handschin of the Biozentrum, University of Basel, shows that during endurance exercise the protein PGC-1? shifts the metabolic profile in the muscle.
The results are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Marathon runners complete a special training program to improve their endurance capacity. Accordingly, their muscles are able to sustain the provision of energy using aerobic, hence oxygen consuming processes. Untrained athletes and also bodybuilders reach however, in a much earlier stage, a condition where their muscles produce energy without oxygen. This results in the production of lactate in the muscles. At the same time, the muscles begin to fatigue and the legs become heavy.
Less Lactate with Endurance Training
The reason for this difference: the muscles switch their metabolism during endurance training. Importantly, amongst others, the production of the protein PGC-1? is stimulated. Mice with a permanently increased PGC-1? develop the same high endurance muscles as those in trained athletes. Handschin and his team were able to show in these mice that PGC-1? prevents the formation and accumulation of lactate in the muscles. For this, the researchers trained the mice for an hour on the treadmill. After a few minutes, the lactic acid rates increased in the untrained mice, followed by performance degradation and exhaustion. Mice with a high PGC-1?, however, maintained their performance levels until the end of the training. Their lactate levels remained low despite a high training load. "As it turned out," said Handschin, "PGC-1? changed the composition of an enzyme complex. This reduced the formation of lactate. Also, the remaining lactate in the muscle is converted and used immediately as energy substrate."
Sport Therapy for Diabetics
Also in human skeletal muscle, PGC-1? controls the balance between the formation and degradation of lactate. Disturbances in lactate metabolism are common in obese and diabetic patients. The stimulation of PGC-1? production by endurance exercise activity is therefore an important approach to improve the metabolism in these patients. This could help prevent the resulting damage and progressive physical limitations to the body caused by metabolic diseases.
LONDON (Reuters) - Four British hackers who took part in 2011 cyber-attacks on targets ranging from the CIA to Sony were audacious, arrogant men whose motivation was "anarchic self-amusement", a court heard on Wednesday.
The men, who have pleaded guilty to a variety of offences, were members of the hacking collective LulzSec, which caused millions of dollars of damage to corporate and government computer networks during an online crime spree that they boasted about on Twitter.
"They are at the cutting edge of a contemporary, emerging species of international criminal offending known as cyber crime," prosecutor Sandip Patel told a London court at the start of the men's sentencing hearing.
Among other attacks, the men hacked into Pentagon computers, crashed the CIA's website, stole millions of items of private individuals' data such as passwords and user names from companies including Fox and Sony and posted them online on sites such as Pirate Bay.
"LulzSec saw themselves as latter-day pirates," Patel said, who described them as being motivated by "anarchic self-amusement".
Their exploits, as they described them, also included hacking into News International's computer system to post a fake story, purporting to be from the Sun tabloid, announcing that owner Rupert Murdoch had committed suicide.
Ryan Cleary, 21, whose online moniker was ViraL, had constructed an illegal network of computers known as a "botnet" through which he was covertly in control of up to 100,000 computers at a time.
Cleary, who has pleaded guilty to six charges relating to computer misuse, provided the botnet to other hackers so they could attack websites by flooding them with traffic.
Cleary, who has Asperger's syndrome, became obsessed with computers during a childhood and adolescence spent alone in his bedroom without friends, his lawyer John Cooper told the court.
"CHAIN OF EVENTS"
In addition to the hacking offences, Cleary has pleaded guilty to charges of downloading pornographic images of babies and children, including rape scenes.
Cooper said he was "not some career sexual pervert" but rather that the images were also part of his compulsive behaviour, driven by Asperger's.
"He was obsessed with his computer and with what he could find on his computer," the lawyer said.
In the dock alongside Cleary were Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Mustafa Al-Bassam, 18, and Jake Davis, 20. In their hacker days, they were known as Kayla, tFlow and Topiary, respectively.
The court heard that Davis, who has pleaded guilty to two counts, had become a reclusive Internet obsessive during an isolated childhood marked by several tragic deaths in the remote Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland.
"Without friends, he sought companionship in cyberspace, a world that is artificial and potentially corrosive. He was sucked into a chain of events," said Davis's lawyer, Simon Mayo.
Lawyers for Ackroyd and Bassam, who have pleaded guilty to one and two counts respectively, will address the court about mitigating factors regarding those two defendants on Thursday, after which judge is expected to pass sentence on the four.
Patel said LulzSec was a splinter group that had evolved out of Anonymous, a bigger, shapeless "hacktivist" collective, but that LulzSec lacked the libertarian political agenda of Anonymous.
The name LulzSec is a combination of "lulz", a distortion of the commonly used "LOL" or "laugh out loud", and security.
The alleged ringleader of LulzSec was U.S.-based Hector Xavier Monsegur, known as "Sabu", who was arrested in June 2011 but agreed to cooperate, maintaining his online persona for a time and leading the FBI to other members of the group.
NEW YORK (AP) ? There are apparently a few more Sundays left in Billy Crystal.
The star of "City Slickers" and "When Harry Met Sally" said Tuesday he will reprise his funny and poignant one-man autobiographical show "700 Sundays" on Broadway for a 9-week stand this fall.
"700 Sundays" was a Broadway success during the 2004-2005 season, playing to sold-out houses and winning a Tony Award for special theatrical experience. Crystal took it on the road, both in America and abroad.
Previews of its return engagement will begin Nov. 5 at the Imperial Theatre, with an opening night set for Nov. 13. The final performance is scheduled for Jan. 5.
In a statement, the New York-bred Crystal said the show ? which makes its first return to New York since its Broadway debut ? will mark its final performances.
"I've now decided to tell this story one last time in my own backyard, where it all took place," he said. "It is a privilege to return to Broadway to say goodbye to one of the greatest thrills of my life."
Loss triggers the stories in "700 Sundays," the centerpiece being the death of Crystal's father, Jack, who died of a heart attack at age 54 when his son, Billy, was 15.
The show's title comes from a calculation by Crystal that father and son spent that many Sundays together before Jack Crystal died. Sunday was the one day of the week the two had to enjoy each other's company since Jack Crystal always held two or three jobs.
Other relatives from Crystal's suburban Long Island childhood pop up, too, in "700 Sundays": Uncle Milt, who founded the legendary Commodore Records; Uncle Berns and Aunt Sheila, among others.
The show, written with good friend Alan Zweibel, will also feature its original director, Des McAnuff. It became the highest grossing nonmusical in Broadway's history.
In 2009, Crystal reprised the show with engagements in six major cities, including Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The work was also turned into a book.
Crystal forged his comedy career in such diverse television shows as "Soap" and "Saturday Night Live," and movies such as " Deconstructing Harry" and "Analyze This" as well as gigs on the Academy Awards.
If you have a smartphone connected to AT&T, you just got a bit more incentive to hop over to WiFi whenever possible. The new Google+ Hangouts app group video chat feature appears to be disabled whenever you attempt to connect via the cellular network. We tested the feature using a Verizon handset as well -- we were able to stream video just fine. It's not entirely clear whether AT&T has specifically blocked access to the service, but regardless of the reason, we're all too familiar with the carrier's desire to keep video chat off the airwaves. We can only hope that we'll be able to use Hangouts to its full potential soon, just as we can with Apple's FaceTime.
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Public release date: 15-May-2013
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