Bottleneck | SilverScorpio.Com

UPDATE 1-Australia govt, Telstra agree on broadband project

June 21, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

CANBERRA June 20 (Reuters) – Australian phone giant Telstra Corp (TLS.AX) agreed on Sunday to help build a national broadband network worth up to $37 billion, a deal that could win votes for the government and ease uncertainty for Telstra investors.

Under the deal, Telstra agrees to convert its old copper-wire network into a superfast web of optic-fibre and then rent it out to the government’s National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) in return for A$11 billion ($9.6 billion) in long-term payments.

Australia has slower and more expensive Internet services than many rich nations, a problem viewed as a serious economic bottleneck, but Telstra had been reluctant to become involved with such a costly, political and state-planned project.

That changed last year when the government threatened to split Telstra up and force it to sell one of its crown jewels, a stake in pay-TV firm Foxtel, unless it cooperated. Since then Telstra shares have mostly underperformed the wider market.

“The war is over,” Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said in announcing the heads of agreement with Telstra.

The details of the non-binding deal have yet to be finalised but it envisages NBN Co effectively leasing Telstra’s fixed-line network. In today’s money, the long-term income stream would be worth a total A$11 billion for Telstra, the two parties said.

Telstra will not take equity in the broadband network, which still faces an uncertain future, given the conservative opposition has promised to scrap it if they defeat Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at general elections expected to be held in October.

“It is a commercial transaction which commits NBN to pay for certain prices for access to Telstra assets,” Conroy said. “There is no equity involved,” Conroy said.

PM HOPES BROADBAND PLAN WILL WIN VOTES

Rudd hopes the Telstra deal will remove the last major roadblock for the broadband network, which he promised on assuming power in 2007, and will enable him to tell voters at the next election that he is fulfilling his pledge.

Rudd’s popularity has been sliding in the run-up to the election, with opinion polls suggesting he could lose. Voters are particularly upset at his recent decision to shelve another 2007 election pledge: to set up a national carbon-reduction scheme.

For Telstra shareholders, the agreement at least eliminates a major source of uncertainty over Telstra’s share price.

By signing up to the government’s broadband network plan, Telstra can now keep its stake in Foxtel.

“This agreement reflects a commitment by all parties to reaching a mutually beneficial outcome for Telstra investors, customers, employees and the industry,” Telstra Chairman Catherine Livingstone said in a statement.

The Telstra agreement must still be vetted by the competition regulator, which will want to be sure that the government-controlled NBN Co is a neutral body that allows private operators to compete fairly over the new network.

Under the overall network plan, the government plans to invest A$26 billion over seven years to develop the network and then look to fully privatise it five years after it is launched.

Once crucial details of Sunday’s Telstra deal are hammered out in coming months, shareholder approval will also be needed.

“Should those (detailed) agreements be finalised, Telstra expects they would be put to shareholders in the first half of calendar 2011,” the company said.

(Writing by Mark Bendeich) ($1 = A$0.87)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: bottleneck, Commercial Transaction, Conservative Opposition, Copper Wire, crown jewels, foxtel, general elections, income stream, Kevin Rudd, national broadband network, optic fibre, Pay Tv, phone giant, reuters, roadblock, Stephen Conroy, telstra, Telstra Shares, term payments, uncertain future

Brisbane seeks solutions for Kingsford Smith traffic congestion

April 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman says the Council is looking at a range of options to ease traffic congestion on Kingsford Smith Drive.

One of the possibilities is a two-kilometre, double-storey tunnel under the Brisbane river between Newstead and Hamilton.

Councillor Newman says improving the bottleneck will be a challenge.

“We’ve got a cliff, houses on top of that hill, and the riverbank,” he said.

“We’ve got nowhere to go, nowhere to manoeuvre and that’s why we’re looking at a variety of different options like widening out over the river, a tunnel or a combination thereof so we’re working on those things.

“We actually have made an early submission to Infrastructure Australia for a sum of $693 million.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, bottleneck, brisbane, Brisbane Lord Mayor, Brisbane River, building-and-construction, business-economics-and-finance, Cliff Houses, councillor, government-and-politics, Hamilton, industry, Infrastructure, Kingsford Smith Drive, Local Government, Mayor Campbell, Newstead, possibilities, Qld, riverbank, road transport, submission, Traffic Congestion

Brazil needs investment to spur growth-Coutinho

April 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

SAO PAULO, April 11 (Reuters) – Investment in Brazil should hit 18 percent in 2010, and must stay at multiples of economic expansion to keep the country growing, the president of Brazil’s state development bank told newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo on Sunday.

The important thing “is that investment grow two to three times gross domestic product and pulls up growth,” said Luciano Coutinho, president of the BNDES bank. “This year, I expect investment to rise 18 percent and the GDP just under 6 percent. The relationship is holding, which assures sustainability.”

Nor is it time yet to start foreseeing inflation, Coutinho told the newspaper.

“It’s very early to prognosticate the appearance of inflationary pressures,” he said. “Right now, there’s no bottleneck in supply.”

Brazil’s rebounding economy has sparked fears of inflation, leading analysts to see the country’s central bank hiking the benchmark interest rate, the Selic, from its record-low 8.75 percent at an April 27-28 meeting.

When markets unraveled late in 2008, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva instructed BNDES to shore up debt-laden firms and foster mergers among those facing bankruptcy, easing fears of mass layoffs and company defaults in Latin America’s largest economy.

Brazil’s National Treasury has pumped more than $40 billion in fresh capital into BNDES since the onset of the global financial crisis at the end of 2008.

There remains a place for BNDES in the lending market, Coutinho said, while still maintaining space for private lending.

“Contributions (from the Treasury) on the scale of the past two years reflected a moment of crisis,” Coutinho said. “I don’t foresee a necessity for contributions on that scale. What matters is to put in place a virtuous process of financial development in Brazil.”

(Reporting by Luciana Lopez; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Benchmark Interest Rate, Bndes, bottleneck, economic expansion, global financial crisis, gross domestic product, inacio, inflationary pressures, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Lula Da Silva, Mass Layoffs, National Treasury, President Luiz Inacio Lula, President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, President Of Brazil, Private Lending, reuters, s central, Selic, Supply Brazil

Indonesian supervolcano’s eruption caused decade of fatal winters 74,000 years ago

July 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 4 (ANI): Climate model simulations by a team of scientists has suggested that Indonesia’s Toba supervolcano, when it erupted about 74,000 years ago, triggered a 1,000-year episode of ice sheet advance, and also may have produced a short-lived “volcanic winter”, which drastically reduced the human population at the time.

Previous climate model simulations of the eruption have been unable to produce the glaciation, and there are no climate observations to support the volcanic winter.

To investigate additional mechanisms that may have enhanced and extended the effects of the Toba eruption, as well as the volcanic winter, Alan Robock and his team from Rutgers University, US, have conducted six climate model simulations using state-of-the-art models that include vegetation death effects on radiation budgets, and stratospheric chemistry feedbacks that might affect the lifetime of the volcanic cloud.

The researchers used a wide variety of aerosol injection volumes, ranging from 33 to 900 times that of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo injection.

They found that none of the models initiate glaciation.

Nonetheless, they produce a decade of severe volcanic winter, which would likely have had devastating consequences for humanity and global ecosystems, supporting the idea that the Toba eruption produced a genetic bottleneck in human evolution. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: advance, Aerosol, Alan Robock, ANI, Art Models, bottleneck, budgets, chemistry, climate, Climate Model Simulations, Climate Observations, cloud, death, decade, episode, eruption, evolution, feedbacks, Genetic Bottleneck, glaciation, Global Ecosystems, human evolution, human population, humanity, ice, idea, Indonesia, injection, July, lifetime, model, mount pinatubo, none, Pinatubo, population, radiation, Rutgers, rutgers university, sheet, Stratospheric Chemistry, supervolcano, team, time, Toba, Toba Eruption, Toba Supervolcano, University, US, variety, vegetation, Volcanic Cloud, Volcanic Winter, Washington, winter, year

Northern spotted owl loses genetic diversity with drop in numbers

June 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 28 (ANI): A new study has determined that with a drop in its numbers, the northern spotted owl has also lost genetic diversity.

The northern spotted owl has been a controversial conservation icon for years, ever since large swaths of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest were set aside to protect the threatened bird 15 years ago.
That decision angered logging companies and forced them to take a financial hit. Still, despite the extra protection, spotted owl populations have continued to decline.

Now, according to a report in Discovery News, a new study helps explain why: With a drop in numbers, the birds have lost genetic diversity.

In addition to habitat loss and competition from other owl species, this type of genetic bottleneck makes the species more vulnerable to inbreeding problems and less resilient in the face of disease, climate change, and other challenges.

“It provides additional evidence that spotted owls are not doing great right now,” said Chris Funk, a population geneticist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
“It also points out that we might have to think about another threat to spotted owls, which is the threat from loss of genetic variation,” he added.

Northern spotted owls live in old-growth forests throughout the Pacific Northwest, from southwest British Columbia to northwest California.

The owls have brown feathers with white spots, deep dark eyes, and a nearly 4-foot wingspan. Their distinctive hooting helps define the untouched forests of the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s a species that a lot of people like and enjoy,” said Robert Fleischer, an evolutionary and conservation geneticist at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C.

“It’s hard to put a value on something like that, but it would be a far less rich experience to have Pacific Northwest woods that were lacking spotted owls,” he added.
The owl’s numbers have been dropping by 3 to 4 percent each year.
Habitat loss remains a problem, too. Funk and colleagues suspected that genetic bottlenecking might also add to the owl’s woes.
For their study, the researchers scanned DNA from more than 350 northern spotted owls across the animal’s range.

Then, they ran a bottleneck test, which looks for the loss of certain rare gene-forms, or alleles.

Analyses showed signs that populations of northern spotted owls had indeed shrunk, especially in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.
The loss of genetic diversity is an added blow to the loss of individual birds.
“We knew from census data that there was a problem,” Fleischer said. “We didn’t know it was something that we would see in genetic variation at this stage,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: addition, ANI, animal, bird, blow, bottleneck, Brown Feathers, Cascade Mountains, census, change, Chris Funk, climate, Colorado, colorado state university, competition, conservation, dc, decision, discovery, discovery news, disease, diversity, dna, drop, evidence, experience, face, foot, Foot Wingspan, forest, Fort Collins, Genetic Bottleneck, genetic diversity, genetic variation, geneticist, habitat, habitat loss, hit, icon, June, loss, lot, national, NEWS, northern, Northern Spotted Owl, Northern Spotted Owls, northwest, northwest California, Northwest Woods, Old Growth Forests, owl, Owl Populations, Owl Species, pacific, percent, population, Population Geneticist, problem, protection, range, report, Robert Fleischer, Smithsonian, Smithsonian National Zoo, something, southwest British Columbia, stage, state, study, test, threat, type, University, Untouched Forests, value, variation, Washington, wingspan, year, zoo

Battling TB could be possible by just ‘flipping a switch’ in immune response

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): Fighting tuberculosis or other airborne pathogens could only be a matter of manipulating what is called the “switching time” in immune response, say researchers at Ohio State University.

They define ‘switching time’ as the point at which a highly regulated immune response gives way to powerful cells that specialize in fighting a specific invading bug.

For dealing with tuberculosis, the researchers are using mathematical modelling to determine whether a change to the natural switching time would result in a more effective immune response.

They are also analysing which parts of the immune response are most important to striking a balance between properly timing the switch and killing the microbe.

The complex modelling considers the huge assortment of cells and molecules at work in the human immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the microbe that causes TB.

The modelling suggests that the average switching time occurs about 50 days after tuberculosis invades the lung, which roughly coincides with clinical expectations that a skin test will turn up positive for TB between four and eight weeks after infection.

But, by that time, bacteria have settled in and are harder to kill, even with the more robust immune response.

The launch of the stronger immune response goes unnoticed in about 90 percent of infections Because TB is highly evolved and adapted to the human host.

With less adapted but virulent pathogens, on the other hand, an individual becomes acutely ill, and sometimes dies, when the switching time occurs.

Scientists say that the mathematical models that predict relationships and interactions in the immune response could guide planning for therapies that would be designed to either accelerate or slow the switching time, depending on the pathogen.

“A great problem in developing drugs and vaccines against airborne pathogens is this apparent bottleneck in the immune response and the inability to quickly and effectively eradicate microbes in the lung environment. Understanding that bottleneck is an important part of this paper, and brings new insight into how to override the problem with tuberculosis and other pathogens,” said Larry Schlesinger, a senior author of the study.

In this research, the scientists sought to determine what it would take to shorten the switching time and reduce the number of bacteria in the lung.

“If we could shorten the treatment for TB, that would be very powerful in breaking the transmission cycle,” said Schlesinger.

The researchers could use the precision of the modelling to simulate outcomes resulting from multiple tweaks to the values assigned to the various immune response activities.

The research is scheduled to appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: academy, Airborne Pathogens, ANI, assortment, author, bacteria, balance, battling, bottleneck, bug, cells, change, cycle, edition, environment, fighting, hand, host, Human Host, Human Immune Response, inability, infection, insight, June, june 23, Larry Schlesinger, launch, lung, Mathematical Modelling, Mathematical Models, matter, microbe, molecules, Mycobacterium, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, national, number, Ohio, ohio state university, Online, paper, part, pathogen, percent, point, precision, problem, proceedings, Research, response, skin, Skin Test, state, study, switch, switching, Tb, test, time, transmission, treatment, tuberculosis, understanding, University, vaccines, virulent, Washington, way, work

Engineers discover fundamental flaw in understanding of transistor noise

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 22 (ANI): Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a fundamental flaw in the understanding of transistor noise, a phenomenon affecting the electronic on-off switch that makes computer circuits possible.

While exploring transistor behavior, the team found evidence that a widely accepted model explaining errors caused by electronic “noise” in the switches does not fit the facts.

A transistor must be made from highly purified materials to function; defects in these materials, like rocks in a stream, can divert the flow of electricity and cause the device to malfunction.

This, in turn, makes it appear to fluctuate erratically between “on” and “off” states.

For decades, the engineering community has largely accepted a theoretical model that identifies these defects and helps guide designers’ efforts to mitigate them.

Those days are ending, says NIST’s Jason Campbell, who has studied the fluctuations between on-off states in progressively smaller transistors.

The theory, known as the elastic tunneling model, predicts that as transistors shrink, the fluctuations should correspondingly increase in frequency.

However, Campbell’s group at NIST has shown that even in nanometer-sized transistors, the fluctuation frequency remains the same.

“This implies that the theory explaining the effect must be wrong,” Campbell said.

“The model was a good working theory when transistors were large, but our observations clearly indicate that it’s incorrect at the smaller nanoscale regimes where industry is headed,” he added.

The findings have particular implications for the low-power transistors currently in demand in the latest high-tech consumer technology, such as laptop computers.

Low-power transistors are coveted because using them on chips would allow devices to run longer on less power.

But, according to Campbell, the fluctuations his group observed grow even more pronounced as the power decreased.

“This is a real bottleneck in our development of transistors for low-power applications,” he said. “We have to understand the problem before we can fix it,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ANI, behavior, bottleneck, campbell, community, Computer, Computer Circuits, Consumer, Consumer Technology, decades, demand, Development, device, effect, electricity, Electronic Noise, engineering, Engineering Community, evidence, flaw, flow, Flow Of Electricity, fluctuation, fluctuations, frequency, Fundamental Flaw, group, guide, industry, institute, Jason Campbell, laptop, laptop computers, Low-power, malfunction, May, model, nanoscale, national, national institute of standards, national institute of standards and technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIST, noise, phenomenon, power, Power Transistors, problem, regimes, standards, stream, switch, team, Technology, Theoretical Model, theory, transistor, turn, understanding, Washington, working

Yamuna Satyagraha activists protest against metro rail expansion in Delhi

May 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 11 (ANI): The activists of Yamuna Satyagraha here on Sunday protested against the expansion of the Delhi metro rail line touching the banks of river.

The activists observed the opening day of the Yamuna Bank station as “Black Day” in protest against “DMRC’s continues encroachment on the Yamuna’s floodplain in the form of the Yamuna metro complex”.

“We are protested against the encroachment of Yamuna’s floodplains by the Delhi Metro Rail,” said Manoj Mishra, activist, ‘Yamuna Satyagraha’.

Complaining that the new Yamuna Bank depot is located within 300 metres of the river in violation of Delhi High Court orders, the Yamuna activists have written a letter to the to Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Construction, E. Sreedharan that while on the one hand all slum clusters were removed from the riverbed in keeping with this order, the DMRC now has been allowed to construct on the floodplains.

On the other hand after inaugurating the Yamuna Bank station, E. Shreedharan said there is no chance of degradation of the Yamuna floodplains because of this new metro rail line.

“We are not letting out any pollutant water or pollutants into the river from this side. But then just imagine what tremendous convenience it would be to the people because we have to definitely come over here to go to Noida and Vaishali areas. There is no other way. So we had to occupy this place but we have ensured that there is no degradation at all,” he added.

The opening of this new extension is likely to reduce the road traffic from the two main bridges namely Nizamuddin Bridge and ITO Bridge connecting East Delhi with the rest of the city as both the bridges are major bottleneck points in terms of traffic. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: activists protest, bottleneck, delhi high court, delhi metro rail, DMRC, e sreedharan, east delhi, encroachment, floodplain, floodplains, noida, opening day, pollutants, rail construction, rail expansion, riverbed, road traffic, satyagraha, slum, Vaishali

Haj pilgrims in Uttar Pradesh to be chosen by computerised lots

May 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lucknow, May 6 (ANI): The Haj Committee for Uttar Pradesh has come up with a novel mode of computerised system through which the aspiring devout Muslims will be chosen by lots for the pilgrimage to Mecca and Madina, known as the Haj.

The first list of pilgrims chosen through such lots was released in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Thousands of aspiring pilgrims waited anxiously to hear their names confirmed from the data that was compiled by the Haj Committee and uploaded on its website, prior to the draw of lots.

Sheikh Mohammad Khan, an applicant contended that it is the Lord Almighty’s call when one’s name gets selected through the online system of lots.

“What a better moment of happiness can we get? This is such an opportunity, which only a fortunate person can get. A lot of this fortune depends on the blessings of Lord Allah. A person experiences a divine feeling when he gets selected through the computerised system of lots,” he said.

According to official figures of Central Haj Committee, the total number of Haj seats allotted to India during 2009 is 1,60,000 of which 45,000 will be earmarked for Haj trips organised by private operators.

Out of the 160 thousand, 27,378 Haj pilgrims are from the state of Uttar Pradesh itself.

Another applicant Haleem Farooqi mentioned that his family and friends have been praying for him so that he gets an opportunity to undertake this holy pilgrimage.

The escalated number of applicants in India had created a problem for the respective Haj Committees in various states in finalising the list of pilgrims.

To overcome this bottleneck and crisis, the choosing of names through computerised lots was introduced in 2007.

Saudi Arabia grants Haj visas to countries based on certain strict ratio of quotas but has increased the numbers over the past couple of years.

Haj, one of the largest manifestations of religious devotion in the world, retraces the path of Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago after he defeated pagan forces in Mecca. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: allah, ANI, applicant, blessings, bottleneck, call, central, Central Haj Committee, choosing, committee, couple, crisis, devotion, divine, draw, family, family and friends, Farooqi, feeling, Fortunate Person, fortune, haj, Haj Committees, haj pilgrims, haleem, happiness, holy pilgrimage, India, list, Lord Allah, Lord Almighty, lot, Lucknow, madina, Manifestations, May, mecca, mode, mohammad, Mohammad Khan, moment, Moment Of Happiness, name, novel, Novel Mode, number, Online, opportunity, pagan, path, person, pilgrimage, pilgrimage to mecca, pradesh, Private Operators, problem, prophet, Prophet Mohammad, Quotas, ratio, Religious Devotion, Saudi Arabia, sheikh, state, system, Tuesday, uttar, website, world

Scientists develop unique approach for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 7 (ANI): Scientists at the Weizmann Institute’s Organic Chemistry Department in the US have developed a unique approach for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The design of efficient systems for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, driven by sunlight is among the most important challenges facing science today, underpinning the long term potential of hydrogen as a clean, sustainable fuel.

But, man-made systems that exist today are very inefficient and often require additional use of sacrificial chemical agents.

In this context, it is important to establish new mechanisms by which water splitting can take place.ow, a unique approach developed by Professor David Milstein and colleagues of the Weizmann Institute’s Organic Chemistry Department, provides important steps in overcoming this challenge.

During this work, the team demonstrated a new mode of bond generation between oxygen atoms and even defined the mechanism by which it takes place.

In fact, it is the generation of oxygen gas by the formation of a bond between two oxygen atoms originating from water molecules that proves to be the bottleneck in the water splitting process.

The new approach that the Weizmann team has recently devised is divided into a sequence of reactions, which leads to the liberation of hydrogen and oxygen in consecutive thermal- and light-driven steps, mediated by a unique ingredient – a special metal complex that Milstein’s team designed in previous studies.

Moreover, the one that they designed – a metal complex of the element ruthenium – is a ‘smart’ complex in which the metal center and the organic part attached to it cooperate in the cleavage of the water molecule.

The team found that upon mixing this complex with water, the bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms break, with one hydrogen atom ending up binding to its organic part, while the remaining hydrogen and oxygen atoms (OH group) bind to its metal center.

This modified version of the complex provides the basis for the next stage of the process: the ‘heat stage.’

When the water solution is heated to 100 degrees Celsius, hydrogen gas is released from the complex – a potential source of clean fuel – and another OH group is added to the metal center.

“But the most interesting part is the third light stage,” said Milstein.

“When we exposed this third complex to light at room temperature, not only was oxygen gas produced, but the metal complex also reverted back to its original state, which could be recycled for use in further reactions,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Atoms Molecules, bind, bottleneck, cleavage, efficient systems, element ruthenium, hydrogen atom, liberation, milstein, modified version, new approach, organic chemistry department, oxygen atoms, oxygen gas, potential of hydrogen, professor david, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, water molecule, water molecules, water splitting, weizmann institute

Scientists use ‘rogue’ laser waves to build better light sources

March 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 6 (ANI): Scientists are putting rogue laser waves to work in order to produce brighter, more stable white light sources, a breakthrough in optics that may pave the way for better clocks, faster cameras, and more powerful radar and communications technologies.

The rogue waves of light, rare and explosive flare-ups that are mathematically similar to their oceanic counterparts, have been developed by a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Rogue bursts of light were first spotted a year ago during the generation of a special kind of radiation called supercontinuum (SC).

SC light is created by shooting laser pulses into crystals and optical fibers.

Like the incandescent bulb in a lamp, it shines with a white light that spans an extremely broad spectrum. But unlike a bulb’s soft diffuse glow, SC light maintains the brightness and directionality of a laser beam.

This makes it suitable for a wide variety of applications – a fact recognized by the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded in part to scientists who used SC light to measure atomic transitions with extraordinary accuracy.

Despite more than 40 years of research, SC light has proven to be difficult to control and prone to instability.

Though rogue waves are not the cause of this instability, the UCLA researchers suspected that a better understanding of how noise in SC light triggers rogue waves could improve their control of this bright white light.

Rogue waves occur randomly in SC light and are so short-lived that the team had to employ a new technique just to spot them.

By tinkering with the initial laser pulses used to create SC light, Solli and his team discovered how to reproduce the rogue waves, harness them, and put them to work.

His results demonstrate that a weak burst of light, broadcast at the perfect “tickle spot,” produces a rogue wave on demand.

Instead of disrupting things, it stabilizes SC light, reducing fluctuations by at least 90 percent. The seed wave also decreases the amount of energy needed to produce a supercontinuum by 25 percent.

This new-and-improved white light could help to push forward a range of technologies.

Solli and Bahram Jalali are developing time-stretching devices that slow down electrical signals; such devices could be used in new optical analog-to-digital converters 1,000 times faster than current electronic versions.

These converters could help to overcome the current conversion-rate bottleneck that holds back advanced radar and communication technologies.

Stabilized SC light could also be used to create super-fast cameras for laboratory use or incorporated into optical clockworks. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ''cause, 2005 Nobel Prize In Physics, accuracy, amount, ANI, Atomic Transitions, Bahram, beam, bottleneck, breakthrough, Broad Spectrum, broadcast, bulb, burst, California, california los angeles, communication, Communications Technologies, control, demand, diffuse, Diffuse Glow, directionality, energy, fact, flare ups, generation, glow, group, harness, incandescent, Incandescent Bulb, instability, Jalali, kind, Laboratory, lamp, laser, Laser Beam, Laser Pulses, light, Light Sources, Los Angeles, March, Nobel, Nobel Prize In Physics, noise, Optical Fibers, order, part, percent, physics, prize, radar, radiation, range, Research, rogue, Rogue Wave, Rogue Waves, seed, Solli, spectrum, spot, Stabilized, supercontinuum, team, technique, tickle, Tickle Spot, tinkering, ucla, Ucla Researchers, understanding, University, university of california los angeles, ups, use, variety, Washington, wave, way, year

Jammu traders body share cross-LoC trade concerns with EU team

March 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jammu, Mar.1 (ANI): A delegation of the European Union (EU) Troika mission, headed by Czech Ambassador Hynek Kmonicek, visited the Chamber of Commerce, Jammu, today and discussed issues related to cross-border trade.

An appeal was made to the visiting delegation to exert pressure on Pakistan to remove impediments to cross-LOC trade.

In a memorandum submitted to the visiting delegation at a function here, the Chamber of Commerce, Jammu, accused Pakistan of not reciprocating to measures initiated by India and the Jammu and Kashmir Government to boost trade between the two Kashmirs.

The traders also demanded that cross-LoC trade should not be restricted to two days a week, but should be opened throughout the week.

They also referred to the absence of a banking facility for currency exchange, saying that it was a major bottleneck.

The EU Troika team assured all possible help to traders in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ambassador Kmonicek said the EU was formed out nations who fought many wars against each other, and added that bringing them together was an uphill task.

“It took almost a decade to form their union,” he added.

The EU today comprises of 27 member countries, all working together with complete coordination among them, he said adding that India and Pakistan shall follow the same path to promote cross-LoC trade.

The delegation assured that it would take up the issue with both India and Pakistan. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: absence, Ambassador Kmonicek, ANI, appeal, banking, body, bottleneck, chamber, commerce, coordination, cross, currency, Czech, decade, delegation, European, exchange, facility, function, Government, help, Hynek, India, issue, jammu, Kashmir, Kashmirs, LOC, mar, member, memorandum, mission, Pakistan, path, pressure, share, task, team, today, trade, troika, union, week