Self-assembled nanostructures enable a low-power phase-change memory for mobile electronic devices

Mar. 18, 2013 ? Nonvolatile memory that can store data even when not powered is currently used for portable electronics such as smart phones, tablets, and laptop computers. Flash memory is a dominant technology in this field, but its slow writing and erasing speed has led to extensive research into a next-generation nonvolatile memory called Phase-Change Random Access Memory (PRAM), as PRAM's operating speed is 1,000 times faster than that of flash memory.

PRAM uses reversible phase changes between the crystalline (low resistance) and amorphous (high resistance) state of chalcogenide materials, which corresponds to the data "0" and "1," respectively. Although PRAM has been partially commercialized up to 512 Mb by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., its writing current should be decreased by at least one-third of its present level for the mass production of mobile electronics applications.

A team of Professors Keon Jae Lee and Yeon Sik Jung in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST has developed phase-change memory with low power consumption (below 1/20th of its present level) by employing self-assembled block copolymer (BCP) silica nanostructures.

BCP is the mixture of two different polymer materials, which can easily create self-ordered arrays of sub-20 nm features through simple spin-coating and plasma treatments. PRAM can lower switching power consumption by making the contact area smaller between the heating layer and phase change materials. Professor Lee's team successfully decreased the size of the contact area and the level of power consumption by incorporating self-assembled silica nanostructures on top of conventional phase-change materials. Interestingly, these self-assembled nanomaterials are able to reduce power much more than expected with localized nano-switching mechanisms.

Professor Keun-Jae Lee said, "This is a very good example that self-assembled, bottom-up nanotechnology can actually enhance the performance of electronic devices. We also achieved a significant power reduction through a simple process that is compatible with conventional device structures and existing lithography tools."

The research team is currently investigating self-assembled BCP applications for resistive random access memory and flexible electronic devices.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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. Woon Ik Park, Byoung Kuk You, Beom Ho Mun, Hyeon Kook Seo, Jeong Yong Lee, Sumio Hosaka, You Yin, C. A. Ross, Keon Jae Lee, Yeon Sik Jung. Self-Assembled Incorporation of Modulated Block Copolymer Nanostructures in Phase-Change Memory for Switching Power Reduction. ACS Nano, 2013; : 130311083523009 DOI: 10.1021/nn4000176

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/F0jsrrSt0l0/130318105317.htm

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Live from Expand: Lenovo ThinkPad: From Research to Design (video)

Lenovo's ThinkPad line is now 20 years old, and we're taking sometime to chat with Lenovo execs to discuss what's made the brand so popular among business-minded folks. In addition, we'll also take a look at how the outfit has kept the line relevant, and nab an exclusive glimpse of the outfit's future plans.

March 17, 2013 1:45 PM EDT

For a full list of Expand sessions, be sure to check out our event hub.

Filed under: Laptops

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/17/live-lenovo/

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Khaleeji Commercial Bank offers optimum Personal Finance ...

The campaign comes as part of KHCB's strategy to continuously enhance its products and services to offer customers the easiest financial solutions. A fully Shari'ah compliant financing scheme, KHCB's Personal Financing solutions enable customers to avail finance up to BD200,000 at a most competitive profit rate and approval within 24 hours of application submission and they can also enjoy a grace period of 90 days.

Commenting on the launch of their Personal Finance campaign, Mr. Fuad Taqi, Deputy General Manager - Commercial Banking of KHCB said, "We at Khaleeji Commercial Bank aim to offer our customers the utmost in value and benefit through our consumer finance products. Our Personal Financing solutions have been designed to provide our customers with fast, fair and affordable financing for all their needs."

"Moreover, in line with our corporate goals to support the economy of Bahrain, the launch of this service demonstrates Khaleeji Commercial Bank's commitment to enhance the lives of the Bahraini citizens by expanding their access to finance via our scheme," Mr. Fuad continued.
KHCB's Personal Finance is available to employees who are Bahraini citizens and expatriates, retirees and self-employed individuals.

"Customers are a top priority at Khaleeji Commercial Bank. That's why our Personal Finance scheme consists of result-driven and cost-effective finance solutions that cater to the different needs of individual clients, ensuring that the personal touch is not merely a slogan but a practice", Mr. Fuad concluded.

Headquartered in the kingdom of Bahrain, Khaleeji Commercial Bank BSC is a fast growing Islamic retail bank that endeavors to achieve its vision to be a leading domestic and regional Islamic Bank, providing a comprehensive range of high quality Shari'ah compliant banking and Investment products, services and investment opportunities to their customers and corporate clients.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/khaleeji-commercial-bank-offers-optimum-personal-333686

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Small Businesses Self-Insure, Evading Obamacare Requirements ...

FlaglerLive | March 16, 2013

Surely they self-insure.

NorthBay Adventure is the kind of small business that could be expected to buy medical insurance for workers under sweeping health-act rules taking effect in 2014. But executive director George Comfort says that?s not likely to happen.

Instead, NorthBay became self-insured last year, paying most of its workers? health costs directly, a practice more typical of large employers.? The decision to self-insure was about free choice, savings and what?s best for his company, Comfort says.

But others see it as a threat to the Affordable Care Act. As more small employers like NorthBay avoid the health act?s requirements through self-coverage, small-business marketplaces intended to cover millions of Americans could break down and become unaffordable, they say.

?What you?ve got is basically a loophole for the small employer to get out of the ACA requirements,? says Robert Laszewski, a Virginia-based consultant and former insurance executive.

To employees, medical self-insurance looks like a regular health plan. Self-insured employers pay for most worker health costs directly, though they contract with an insurer or other company to administer claims. The employers also buy coverage known as stop-loss for claims exceeding a certain amount. Brokers say a growing number of firms see such plans as low-cost alternatives to conventional coverage because they?re exempt from ACA requirements such as insurance taxes and specified benefits.

NorthBay, which is located on the north shore of Maryland?s Chesapeake Bay and delivers outdoors education to sixth-graders, saves some 45 percent on self-insured health costs for its 60 or so covered employees compared with the price of regular coverage, says Comfort.

?We have a very young workforce,? says Comfort. ?Our average age is at or below 30. So we have a very healthy group.?

But if too many small companies take a similar route, insurance plans for small businesses will be stuck with older and sicker members, say policy scholars.

Under some conditions, such a dynamic could drive up the cost of traditional insurance by as much as 25 percent, says Matthew Buettgens, a researcher at the Urban Institute, at a time when many already worry about the affordability of coverage next year.

?If it becomes too easy to self-insure, you?re inviting employers to choose one kind of coverage if their workers are healthy and a different kind of coverage if they?re sick,? says Mark Hall, a law professor at Wake Forest University.

That undermines a basic feature of the exchanges: the ?community rating? obliging insurers to offer similar prices to all comers, spreading the cost of care among well and sick alike. In a worst-case scenario, small employers will self-insure when workers are healthy, avoiding community rating, and then immediately buy price-controlled coverage on the exchanges if someone becomes gravely ill.

Health-act advocates especially worry that firms with fewer than 50 employees will self-insure. Those companies aren?t required to offer policies under the health law but many are expected to buy in online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, scheduled to open in October.

However, self-insurance might be the only way some struggling employers can afford medical coverage, says Michael Ferguson, chief operating officer at the Self-Insurance Institute of America, an industry group.

Even so, he disputes the notion that firms and stop-loss companies can ?cherry pick? the system by self-insuring only when workers appear healthy. Even young people have accidents and get sick, he says, adding that companies often know less about employees? health than they think.

?The idea about employers gaming the system is just a canard,? he says.

The key to self-insurance for small companies is stop-loss coverage, which often kicks in when medical costs per worker are as low as $10,000 or $20,000, limiting the employer?s risk almost as well as a regular plan. Brokers report brisk sales of self-insured plans and this backstop coverage.

?Last year we saw a huge uptake of self-funded or partial self-funded business,? says David Fear, a Roseville, Calif., consultant who helps brokers and agents issue stop-loss coverage.

The average size of self-insured companies Fear handles is between 25 and 30 workers, he estimates. His business for firms with fewer than 100 employees doubled in the last year, he says.

At BSI Strategic Consulting, a Fresno, Calif., firm that helps small companies self-insure, ?our business has more than doubled in the last six months,? says CEO Lawrence Thompson. ?There?s a lot more interest in self-funding than I?ve seen in the last 32 years.?

At insurance giant Cigna, self-coverage for small employers grew by a fifth last year, says Julie McCarter, vice president of product development for Cigna Select, which sells medical stop-loss coverage and claims processing.

?A lot of it comes down to what?s going on in Washington,? says Donald Drelich, CEO of D.W. Van Dyke, a Connecticut insurance consultant. ?People are seeing the cost of insurance rising because of the things that are being added [under the ACA], so they?re exploring other possibilities.?

Self-coverage is exempt from ACA premium taxes estimated to raise prices from 2 percent to 4 percent, as well as from the health law?s ?essential benefit? and community rating rules. Employers such as NorthBay?s Comfort say that gives them the flexibility to tailor plans for their workers.

For insurers, there may be another reason to promote stop-loss policies: They aren?t subject to the health act?s limit on profits, which requires at least 80 percent of premiums for small business to be spent on medical care.

Officials in some states are trying to limit self-coverage. California, Rhode Island and Minnesota are considering legislation that raises the point at which stop-loss insurance kicks in, reducing or eliminating small firms? ability to self-insure.

Two years ago then-New Jersey Commissioner of Banking and Insurance Thomas Considine warned stop-loss insurers to cease ?selectively marketing? to small employers with young workers. He pledged to issue regulations prohibiting the practice but, following industry protests, they were never published. A proposal to recommend limiting stop-loss insurance with low trigger thresholds stalled recently at the insurance commissioners? association, also after industry lobbying.

Last month the self-insurance institute formed an alliance with the National Retail Federation and other business groups to oppose such measures. If the idea behind the ACA is to increase health coverage, such groups ask, why would anybody want to limit small businesses? ability to offer self-insured plans?

?To the employers it looks like health insurance, it feels like health insurance, and it?s less costly,? says David Burton, general counsel for the National Small Business Association. ?Do you want to set up a situation where an IBM or a GM can be self-insured ? or even a small company with 100 or 150 employees ?and the smaller guys don?t have that option?? I don?t see the logic in that.?

?Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News, with USA Today

Please support FlaglerLive. Go to our Contributions/Donations Page.

Source: http://flaglerlive.com/51786/small-business-insurance/

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Important Informatinon!

The Hunt, Things to know

1. The Hunt is going to be gruesome and violent and because I have grown to love all the characters and am quite fond of all of them, were going to pretend that there are a few other families involved so that there will be death, those other families will be NPC played by all of us, you may kill and torture them however you wish. But unless you drop out or request it your character will not be killed. Your character can be severely injured, but NOT KILLED!

2. The hunted (our characters) are not allowed back onto Westwick Hall grounds, they will be locked out and released into the African plains, to keep them from escaping the eight hundred acres of the Westwick property is fenced off by a tall electric fence.

3. Wild animals such as lions, cheetahs, elephants, hyena, and other animals native to Africa freely live on the eight hundred acres of land, they are not tame in anyway and are very dangerous. Not to mention the poisons snakes, spiders, and plants. So make sure your characters are extra careful!

4. The parents will be hunting for their children so the children may have to kill their parents at some point. Also the children will have to band together, make sure while in the roleplay we are involving everyone so no one is bored or by their selves for too long!!!!

5. Most of these kids have lived pampered live styles, so none of them are going to have amazing survival skills, they are going to have to LEARN their skills OVERTIME, not overnight, naturally the boys may be a little more adjusted, but the girl will catch on fairly quick.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/6g0zmGtWm1c/viewtopic.php

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Google's Niantic Labs Will Soon Launch An eBook Spin-Off Of Its Ingress AR Game

This is a bit of an odd story: according to paidContent – and as first reported by to PublishersLunch – Google’s Niantic Labs, the somewhat mysterious division of Google that is home to Field Trip, the Niantic Project and Ingress, will soon start co-publishing a series of eBooks based on Ingress, its popular augmented reality game. A Google spokesperson confirmed to us that this report is indeed correct. The series, which, according to PublishersLunch, will be called ALIGNMENT and written and co-published with the help of Thomas Greanias;?the first installment (ALIGNMENT: Ingress) will be published in April. The books are supposedly designed as prequels to Greanias’ Raising Atlantis series. It looks like Greanias has long been interested in the Ingress story, and the overall theme of the game seems to fit in well with his earlier books. For Google, though, this – just like Ingress and most everything else that has come out of Niantic Labs – is a bit of a departure. The company isn’t exactly known for launching games. And to then turn the game into a series of books is obviously new territory for Google, though Niantic Labs does seem to operate pretty independently from the rest of the company.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JDtVaBt_jnA/

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Factbox: Outlines of Cyprus' bailout by the euro zone

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone ministers struck a deal on Saturday to hand Cyprus a bailout worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion) to stave off bankruptcy. Under the program, the island's debt should fall to 100 percent of economic output by 2020.

Here are the outlines of the financial package:

- Nicosia will impose a 9.9 percent one-off levy on deposits above 100,000 euros in Cypriot banks and a tax of 6.75 percent on smaller deposits from March 19. The levy will generate 5.8 billion euros.

Depositors will be compensated by equity in the banks.

There will also be a tax on interest that the deposits generate.

- Cyprus has agreed to increase its nominal corporate tax rate by 2.5 percentage points to 12.5 percent, which could bring in up to 200 million euros a year.

- The International Monetary Fund is expected to contribute to the rescue package, but the amount is still to be determined.

- Russia will likely help finance the program by extending a 2.5 billion euro loan already made to Cyprus by five years to 2021 and reducing the interest rate, which is now at 4.5 percent.

- Cyprus may be required to privatize the Cypriot telecoms company, the electricity company and the ports authority.

- Cyprus will have to downsize its banking sector, reducing it to the EU average by 2018. The size of the banking sector in Cyprus is more than eight times the size of the economy, compared to around 3.5 times in the EU.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-outlines-cyprus-bailout-euro-zone-051941220--business.html

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