Electric and magnetic characteristics of a material which could be used in spintronics: Promising doped zirconia

May 17, 2013 ? Materials belonging to the family of dilute magnetic oxides (DMOs) -- an oxide-based variant of the dilute magnetic semiconductors -- are good candidates for spintronics applications. This is the object of study for Davide Sangalli of the Microelectronics and Microsystems Institute (IMM) at the National Research Council (CNR), in Agrate Brianza, Italy, and colleagues.

They recently explored the effect of iron (Fe) doping on thin films of a material called zirconia (ZrO₂ oxide). For the first time, the authors bridged the gap between the theoretical predictions and the experimental measurements of this material, in a paper about to be published in The European Physical Journal B.

Spintronics exploit an intrinsic property of the electrons found in semi-conductors called spin, akin to the electrons' degree of freedom. This determines the magnetic characteristics, known as magnetic moment, of the material under study. The challenge is to create such material with the highest possible temperature, as this will ensure that its magnetic properties can be used in room-temperature applications.

To study iron-doped zirconia, they examined its magnetic properties and its electronic structure from both a theoretical and experimental perspective. They then compared theory and experiments to find the most stable configuration of the material. Theoretical work included first-principles simulations. In parallel, their experimental work relied on many different well-established analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and alternating gradient force magnetometer measurements.

Sangalli and colleagues therefore gained a better understanding of doped zirconia, which features oxygen vacancies, playing a crucial role in providing its unique electronic and magnetic characteristics. They have also predicted theoretically how the deviation from the standard structure influences this material's properties. They are currently investigating, experimentally, how the magnetism evolves with changing concentrations of iron and oxygen vacancies to confirm theoretical predictions.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Davide Sangalli, Elena Cianci, Alessio Lamperti, Roberta Ciprian, Franca Albertini, Francesca Casoli, Pierpaolo Lupo, Lucia Nasi, Marco Campanini, Alberto Debernardi. Exploiting magnetic properties of Fe doping in zirconia. The European Physical Journal B, 2013; 86 (5) DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2013-30669-3

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/GcElie8Nbh8/130517094600.htm

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Nvidia's portable gaming console Shield will hit retail in June for ...

Video games

Yannick LeJacq NBC News contributor

23 hours ago

Nvidia

Nvidia's new mobile gaming console, "Shield," will hit the shelves next month with a hefty starting price tag of $349.

The portable gaming console formerly known as "Project Shield" will arrive at select online and brick-and-mortar retailers next month, developer Nvidia announced Tuesday.

Nvidia first unveiled its mobile gaming device in a surprise move at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) under the comic book-like moniker "Project Shield." Now known simply as "Shield," the new Android-powered mobile gaming device and the first to be produced by a company best known for its line of graphics processing units (GPUs) and mobile processors will debut for $349 ? a high price point for a fading part of the market for gaming hardware.

Units will begin shipping to select stores including GameStop, Newegg, Micro Center, and Canada Computers in June, Nvidia said in blog post Prospective fans can begin pre-ordering the device on May 20, though anyone who previously signed up for the device's newsletter through Nvidia's website can begin pre-ordering the device immediately.

A major challenge that any mobile console developer faces is in securing enough quality software to make the device worth it. Seeing as Shield will enter the market at more than twice the price of the current market leader, Nintendo's 3DS, and without the proprietary Mario and Donkey Kong games that make its competitor such a unique product, this is a particularly pressing dilemma for Nvidia to resolve.

Given the relative openness of Google's Play store, the company may have found its savior in the Android operating system ? though, like PowerA's Moga controller or PlayJam's GameStick, the Shield console would still need to optimize Android games to the new hardware to make spending the extra cash actually worth it for customers.

Nvidia said that in addition to an unspecified number of Google Play store games and apps that will be compatible with the device, the Shield will come with two games, "Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2," an "Expendable: Rearmed." The company also said that it has entered into partnerships for five additional games ? "Costume Quest" and "Broken Age" from Kickstarter wunderkind Double Fine, "Flyhunter: Origins" from Steel Wool Games, "Skiing Fred" from Dedalord Games and "Chuck's Challenge" from Niffler.

Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at ylejacq@gmail.com.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/nvidias-portable-gaming-console-shield-will-hit-retail-june-349-1C9921539

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Vermont Aid-In-Dying Bill Passes House, Moves To Governor

MONTPELIER, Vt. ? The Vermont House approved a measure Monday night that would allow doctors to provide lethal medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives.

If Gov. Peter Shumlin ? a strong supporter of the bill ? signs on, Vermont will join Oregon, Washington and Montana as states allowing physicians to provide deadly doses of medication to dying patients who seek it.

The vote was a reversal of the defeat of similar legislation in the House in 2007 and marked the first time any legislature in the country had seen such a measure all the way to passage.

By a 75-65 roll call vote, the House approved a bill largely copies a law passed by Oregon voters in 1997 for three years and then shifts to a system with less government monitoring.

For the first three years, Vermont's law would closely follow the Oregon model, which allows for several safeguards, including requirements that patients state three times ? once in writing ? that they wish to die. Others include a concurring opinion from a second doctor that a patient has less than six months to live and a finding that the patient is of sound mind.

"It's an important step for terminally ill Vermont patients," Dick Walters, president of Patient Choices-Vermont, said after the vote. "It's a big step forward for the region and for the country as a whole."

The bill's passage likely will be seen as the most historic event of the 2013 legislation session, which is expected to wrap up Tuesday.

Vermont would be the first state east of the Mississippi to allow doctors to help patients die by writing a prescription for a lethal dose of medication. Oregon passed the first-in-the-nation law by referendum in 1997; Washington state followed suit in 2006 and a court order in Montana made it legal in that state.

Debate included two packed Statehouse hearings in which supporters and opponents took turns voicing their views on the legislation, sometimes dubbed "death with dignity" by backers and "physician-assisted suicide" by opponents.

Critics continued to voice their concerns during House debate on Monday, while supporters, who knew they had the votes to pass the bill, were more muted.

"There is potential here for abuse of the disabled," said Rep. Carolyn Branagan, R-Georgia, "especially disabled elders," she said. "This is not medical care. It is the opposite."

Sen. Richard McCormack, D-Windsor, watched the debate from the House gallery. "This bill makes no judgment about the value of anybody's life," he said after the vote. "It makes a very positive judgment about the value of personal freedom and the right to make one's own choices."

After July 1, 2016, Vermont would move to a model pushed by some senators who complained of too much government intervention in the Oregon system. Those changes would require less monitoring and reporting by physicians. However, there's widespread expectation that lawmakers may push to eliminate the changes set to take effect in 2016, leaving an Oregon-style law in place.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/vermont-aid-in-dying-bill_n_3269508.html

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Twitter buys Lucky Sort startup to help visualize your tweets

Twitter just acquired Lucky Sort, a Portland, Oregon-based startup that built TopicWatch, a visualization and navigation engine known for presenting large amounts of data in an easy-to-digest format. With more than 200 million users in more than 160 countries, Twitter certainly has more than enough data to warrant the acquisition, which means hashtag infographics like the one above could be available for Twitter users in the near future. Fans of Lucky Sort's TopicWatch product, on the other hand, will have to find some other venue for their data fix, for the service is set to shutter in the months ahead. Shocking, we know.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Lucky Sort

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/13/twitter-buys-lucky-sort/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Watch NASA's Emergency ISS Spacewalk Live Right Now (Updating)

Two days ago, astronauts on the ISS discovered some little white flakes suspiciously floating away from the station. And now, they're already floating outside in zero gravity to fix it. From planning to go-time, this has been the most impromptu spacewalk in NASA history, and you can tune in below.

Free live streaming by Ustream

The goal of the jaunt is to fix the liquid ammonia cooling system needed to power one of the station's solar arrays. It's not a life or death situation fortunately, but it's a big enough deal to get to astronauts out to fix it, pronto.

So far, mission control has been painstakingly walking astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn through the process step by step by step by step, since there was no time to really brief them on the walk beforehand. This is one of the types of emergencies astronauts prepare for, so this should go off without a hitch, but there's about 6.5 hours of work to be done. When all is said and done, there's going to be some well-deserved sleeping going on in orbit. [NASA]

Update: Just 2.5 hours in and the busted pump has been successfully replaced.

~2.5 hrs into #ISS #Exp35 #spacewalk @astromarshburn & Chris Cassidy have remove & replaced pump. Watch live: nasa.gov/ntv

? NASA (@NASA) May 11, 2013

Update 2: The pump is up and running, and now pumping ammonia. So far, everything's going fine, but we won't know if everything is definitely fixed for sure until its had a chance to work for a while.

Update 3: The astronauts are undergoing a "bake-out" and letting the sun get any excess ammonia off them before they head back inside.

Update 4: They're headed back towards the airlock now.

Update 5: Looks like mission accomplished; everyone is back inside.

#ISS #Exp35 #spacewalk done at 2:14p ET. All required tasks complete. @astromarshburn & Chris Cassidy are back in #ISS after 6.5 hrs outside

? NASA (@NASA) May 11, 2013

Source: http://gizmodo.com/watch-nasas-emergency-iss-spacewalk-live-right-now-501627379

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China Slams Japan's Protest over US Military Island Okinawa in Sovereignty Row

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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Friday, May 10, 2013
Ryukyu Islands belong to Beijing, according to China?s Communist party mouthpiece People?s Daily. ...

Source: http://www.ibtimes.comhttp:0//www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/466675/20130510/china-japan-okinawa-row-ryukyu.htm

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Bangladesh fire kills 8 as collapse toll hits 912

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ? A fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh killed eight people, including a top official in the country's powerful clothing manufacturers' trade group, as the death toll from the collapse of another garment building passed 900 on Thursday.

The fire Wednesday night raced through the lower floors of the 11-story building housing the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. Factory ? which had closed for the day ? as well as apartments, fire official Nazrul Islam said. Fire officials said the cause of the blaze was not yet known.

The fire burned parts of the first and second floors, which housed the factory, and parts of the third, which housed apartments.

By early Thursday, firefighters had confirmed the deaths of eight people, Islam said. All the dead had been found in a stairwell, apparently trying to flee the building.

The dead included the factory's managing director, Mahbubur Rahman, who was also a top official with the powerful Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. A police official was also among the dead, according to fire officials.

It took more than three hours for firefighters to get control of the blaze, which began soon after the factory's roughly 300 workers had gone home for the day, officials said.

The country's powerful garment industry has been plagued by a series of disasters in recent months, including a November fire at the Tazreen factory that killed 112.

However, last month's collapse of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, which housed five garment factories, stands out as the worst tragedy in the history of the global garment manufacturing industry.

More than two weeks after the collapse, workers with cranes and other heavy equipment were still pulling apart the rubble and finding more bodies. On Thursday, authorities said the death toll had risen to 912 and it was unclear how many more people remained missing. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive after the April 24 accident.

Maj. Ohiduzzaman, an army official who uses only one name, said 100 decomposing bodies have been kept at a makeshift morgue at a local school ground and were to be sent to hospitals in Dhaka for DNA testing to identify them.

A total of 648 bodies have so far been handed over to the families, he said. Some of those who authorities have been unable to identify have been buried by the government.

The European Union's delegation to Bangladesh urged the government Wednesday to "act immediately" to improve working conditions in the country's $20 billion garment industry.

Abdul Latif Siddiqui, head of special Cabinet committee to inspect garment factories that was formed days after the Rana Plaza collapse, said the government has closed 18 garment factories in recent days for failing to meet work and safety standards. He did not say whether the closures were temporary or permanent.

Authorities also began disbursing salaries and other benefits to workers from the Rana Plaza factories, after they protested demanding compensation.

About 2,000 people gathered at a military athletic field in the Dhaka suburb of Savar on Wednesday to receive their salaries, but the process was slow because many had no identity cards, said Faruk Hossain, an inspector for the Industrial Police.

He said factory supervisors were helping identify workers who did not have ID cards or other proof that they were employed by the five factories.

Rafiqul Islam, an official with the garment manufacturers' association, said the disbursement would continue in phases.

The workers, many of whom made little more than the national minimum wage of about $38 per month, are demanding at least four months' salary.

Local government administrator Yousuf Harun has said no salary remained unpaid except for the month of April and there was an agreement for the workers to receive an additional three months of pay.

Officials say the owner of Rana Plaza illegally added three floors and allowed the garment factories to install heavy machines and generators, even though the structure was not designed to support such equipment.

The owner and eight other people including the owners of the garment factories have been detained.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-fire-kills-8-collapse-toll-hits-912-055455194.html

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