The Koyal Group

Wetenschappers hebben de mid-air bewegingen van vrij vliegende insecten met behulp van een radiozender en een miniatuur rugzak van elektronica gedragen door "cyborg kevers" gecontroleerd.

De kevers werden gemaakt om af en land in te nemen, vliegen naar rechts of links, en zelfs te zweven in het midden van de vlucht, afhankelijk van de radio-opdrachten, aldus de wetenschappers.

Als de technologie verder verfijnd kan worden, zou het mogelijk zijn om in de toekomst vliegende insecten als miniatuur drones geladen met kleine elektronische sensoren voor het vliegen over en het zoeken moeilijk terrein te gebruiken, zeiden ze.

Hoewel elektronica eerder gebruikt om de bewegingen van insecten, wordt aangenomen dat de eerste wetenschappelijk bewijs gebruiken draadloze commando om de fijne antenne bewegingen van vrij vliegende kevers beheersen, aldus de onderzoekers.

"Kevers zijn ideaal proefpersonen omdat ze relatief zware ladingen kan dragen", zei Hirotaka Sato van de Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, die het onderzoek met collega's van de University of California, Berkeley uitgevoerd.

"We konden gemakkelijk een kleine microfoon en thermische sensoren toe te voegen voor toepassingen in search-and-rescue missies. Met deze technologie kunnen we veilig gebieden die niet toegankelijk is voor, zoals de kleine hoekjes en kieren in een ingestort gebouw te verkennen, "zei Dr Sato.

De studie, gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Current Biology, betrof de bevestiging van een kleine microprocessor en een ingebouwde draadloze ontvanger en zender aan de achterkant van de gigantische bloem kever, dat is zes centimeter lang en weegt acht gram - bijna hetzelfde als een pond munt.

De volledige inrichting wordt aangedreven door een 3,9 volt lithium batterij en is verbonden met zes micro-elektroden geïmplanteerd in het insect-vleugelvouworganen coleoptera spieren, die twee eeuwen werd gedacht irrelevant voor de vlucht te zijn, maar die nu betrokken blijken te zijn bij navigatie De wetenschappers ontdekten.

"Sinds de jaren 1800, dit coleoptera spier werd gedacht dat alleen functioneren in vleugel vouwen. Onze draadloze systeem stelt ons in staat om neuromusculaire bewegingen in natuurlijke, vrije vlucht nemen, dus we zien nu dat deze spier ook wordt gebruikt voor het draaien, "zei Dr Sato.

Tests in een indoor vlucht laboratorium hebben aangetoond dat bloem kevers kunnen worden uitwijken naar rechts of en maken een zorgvuldig gecontroleerde haakse bocht als gevolg van radio-opdrachten die door een menselijke operator verlaten, de wetenschappers verslag.

Signalen naar de kever elke duizendste van een seconde gestimuleerd het af te nemen, draai naar links of rechts, zweven in het midden van de vlucht en het land opnieuw. De reus bloem kevers waren ongebonden en kon volledig vrij vliegen, zeiden ze.

"In onze eerdere werk met behulp van kevers in afgelegen-gecontroleerde vlucht, we toonden een uitstekende controle vlucht initiatie en stoppen met roken, maar relatief ruwe controle van de leiding tijdens de vrije vlucht", zegt Michel Maharbiz van de Universiteit van Californië, en hoofdonderzoeker van de studie.

"Onze bevindingen over de vlucht spier stelt ons voor de eerste keer aan te tonen een hoger niveau van controle van vrij vliegende kevers. Het is een geweldige samenwerking tussen techniek en wetenschap, "zei Dr Maharbiz.

"Dit is een demonstratie van hoe minuscule elektroden interessante, fundamentele vragen voor de grotere wetenschappelijke gemeenschap kan beantwoorden. Biologen probeert op te nemen en de studie vliegende insecten hadden meestal te doen met het onderwerp vastgebonden. Het is onduidelijk wanneer tethering bemoeid met natuurlijke vlucht bewegingen van het insect, "zei hij.

Eerdere studies hebben laten zien dat het mogelijk is om de bewegingen van het lopen insecten, zodat het mogelijk is beide combineren cyborg kevers kunnen vliegen over moeilijk terrein en landing een grondig onderzoek van kleinere ruimten te construeren.

The Koyal Group Info Mag Review

Som denne ukens viral bilde av 35.000 hvalross proppfull på en Alaskan land minner oss, er klimakrisen fortsatt veldig mye en ting. For dem hvem savnet den, er mangel på isen tydeligvis tvang dårlig skapninger å klynge sammen på et smalt land desperasjon - normalt, de observert liggende mer spredt. (Samme skjedde i fjor også.)

Situasjonen for hvalross er slående, men klimaendringer har også alle slags andre, mindre synlig effekter. Det er vist å produsere hetebølger verden, bidra til global dyreliv utryddelse og kanskje redusere tyngdekraften.

Nedenfor gir vi deg 21 tall for å forklare en av de mest presserende globale problemstillinger i vår tid.

Alaska 35000 hvalross

0,01%

Prosent av arbeider klimaforskere som avviser menneskeskapte globale oppvarmingen. Ifølge forskning utført av geologen James Lawrence Powell, blant 9,136 forskere som publiserte en kombinert 2,258 fagfellevurderte klima artikler mellom November 2012 og desember 2013, avviser bare én person tanken at mennesket endrer jordens klima. En annen vurdering så på 4000 fagfolks anmeldelser av avhandlinger om klimaendringer og fant at en full 97 prosent identifisert mennesker som årsak.

90%

Prosentandel av 108 climate change denial bøker utgitt mellom 1982 og 2010 som ikke var fagfellevurdert. Bøkene benektet forskjellig at klimaendringer som skjer, at mennesker er feil, at klimaendringer er å ha en negativ effekt på miljøet, eller en kombinasjon av tre. En sterk kobling ble også funnet mellom bøker og konservative tenketanker. Sytti-to prosent av bøker ble utgitt av en forfatter- eller redaktørtillatelser med en verifiserbar tilknytning til noen slike grupper.

800.000 til 15.000.000

Antall årene har det vært siden karbondioksid nivået var så høyt som de er nå. Ikke bare mennesker eksisterte ikke da, men havene var 100 fot høyere enn de er i dag og verdens overflatetemperatur 11 grader varmere enn den er nå. Fortsett å lese…

Mer her – The Koyal Group Info Mag

Den nya rustika Chic säckväv-kollektionen är här!

Corona, CA - (28 mars 2013) - Koyal partihandel fångar naturens skönhet med lanseringen av sin naturliga Säckväv linje av produkter.

Produceras och tillverkas från finaste materialet i säckväv och Jute, Koyals brett utbud av säckväv produkter inkluderar ett urval av votive och ljusstakar för värmeljus, tabell nummer, säckväv gunst och säckväv vin väskor, bordslinne, stol bågar och band rullar, förvandlas alla festliga evenemang till en förlängning av det naturliga landskapet.

Med den ökande trenden av miljövänliga produkter beror säckväv samlingens växande popularitet dels på en stärkande känsla av enhet med naturen, blanda en elegant tema med en rustik känsla. Smycka din inomhus eller utomhus mottagning dekoration med våra precis släppt säckväv hängande värmeljus och votive ljushållare ihopkopplad med din favorit doftande eller oparfymerat ljus för en upplyst naturliga glöd välkomnar solnedgången och twilight timmarna som dina gäster festa hela natten.

Våra säckväv votive ljushållare kan utstråla din tabell höjdpunkten med bara den högra antydan av ljus under en månbelysta himlen. Mixa och matcha med vårt sortiment av säckväv och Jute produkter att ge din ultimata dröm händelse tema liv.

Koyal partihandel linje av säckväv produkter är hållbara och långvariga, ett perfekt komplement till alla hem inredning att fira natten långt efter festligheterna är över.

Förtrolla dina gäster med Koyal bollen lampor | Fairy glöd lampor

Våra nya och unika Koyal bollen lampor är en mycket prisvärd 0,75" diameter fairy ljus som har en långsam tona på / tona av effekten. Finns i 8 färger (10 Ball lampor/box), dessa vackra lilla Koyal bollen lampor är bra för hängande från grenar, lysa upp buskar, med i blomsterarrangemang, visar i centerpieces och mycket mer. Den förtrollande luminiscens Koyal bollen lampor kommer att få dina gäster känsla som de är omgivna av sprites. Fairytale perfekt!

Koyal bollen lampor har en vattentät design, så du kan använda dessa i flytande vatten centerpieces, ljus skålar, vatten fontäner och mycket mer. Varje Koyal bollen ljus har en liten glödande vit LED som bleknar/på mycket långsamt, precis som en firefly glöd.

Our image shows an artist's impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT, whose 39-metre aperture puts it in line to be the world's largest optical-infrared telescope. Being built by the European Southern Observatory, it will cost in excess of 1bn euros, including a British contribution of £88m. Explosions began in June to create a level home for it atop the 3000-metre peak of Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Andes, overlooking the Atacama Desert.

It could be another ten years before the E-ELT is fully operational. By then, the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), may have seized the crown. albeit temporarily, as the world's biggest. Built by a US-led consortium that includes India, China and Japan, work to place it on Mauna Kea in Hawaii should begin this summer.

For almost three decades from its completion in 1948, the 200-inch Hale telescope on Mount Palomar, California, was the largest telescope. Its single mirror, 200 inches or 5.08 metres, in diameter, was unrivalled in light-collecting area until the Soviet 6.0-metre BTA telescope on the Caucasus mountains saw its first light in 1975. Sadly this was bedevilled by structural and observing-site problems from the start, but it remained the largest until the first of the two 10-metre Keck telescopes came into operation on Mauna Kea in 1993.

The 10.4-metre and largely Spanish-operated Gran Telescopio Canarias, on the Canary Island of La Palma, has headed the pack since 2006. This and the Kecks use segmented mirrors in which the aperture is filled with an array of smaller computer-controlled mirrors. The new super-telescopes physical sciences will use segmented mirrors, too, with a total of 798 hexagonal segments for the E-ELT and 492 for the TMT.

The observing locations are also critical. The sites in Chile and Hawaii are clear on most nights of the year, with near-perfect "seeing" and negligible interference from artificial lighting. They are also extremely arid with scarcely a hint of water vapour to absorb infrared wavelengths.

It seems inevitable that the size and power of the E-ELT will revolutionise astronomy. It should, for example, allow rocky planets of other stars to be imaged for the first time and for their atmospheres to be analysed. While the ultimate aim may be to glimpse signs of alien life, it is more realistic to expect that it will be able to characterise the planetary systems of other stars, and how they form and evolve.

It should also give us our sharpest views yet of the earliest stars and galaxies, those born only a few million years after the big bang, and how interactions and mergers over the aeons have led to the universe we see today. There must be countless other discoveries awaiting and, undoubtedly, new mysteries identified that we cannot yet imagine.

Surge of government-backed investment funds squeezing out private sector

A number of government-backed funds to invest in private-sector projects such as promoting Japanese pop culture overseas and encouraging the construction of public facilities will begin this fall.

But some have criticized the ballooning government investments for having an unfair advantage over private sector sources of funding. Others said they may end up being a burden on taxpayers.

Three new funds will be introduced as early as this fall to bolster the growth strategy in the Abe administration's economic policies, known as "Abenomics." The total amount available to the nine main government-backed funds will exceed 4 trillion yen.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will establish the Cool Japan promotion organization this fall to administer a fund that will facilitate the overseas growth of Japanese anime, music and other entertainment. The goal is to spread Japanese pop culture to the rest of the world.

South Korea invests eight times as much money as Japan to promote its domestic entertainment industry abroad, and Korean dramas have reached larger audiences in emerging economies than Japanese dramas.

"It is essential that we financially back the overseas spread of Japanese entertainment content," said Hideaki Ibuki, director of METI's Creative Industries Division.

The Cool Japan promotion organization's fund will have up to 60 billion yen at its disposal, which it is expected to invest in overseas projects such as Japanese TV channels and shopping malls selling Japanese goods.

Although it will not be a permanent institution, the government plans to keep the organization in place for 20 years, meaning that a return on the investment is unlikely to come anytime soon.

The Cabinet Office will also set up the private finance initiative promotion organization, which uses private-sector money to encourage the construction and administration of public facilities.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is preparing the public-private innovation program, which invests in ventures started by institutes of higher education such as the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.

Together, these three funds will have financial resources totaling 500 billion yen ($5 billion).

In response to the Abe administration's emergency economic measures in January, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries expanded the scope of an organization called the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Fund Corporation for Innovation, Value-Chain and Expansion Japan.

The fund will seek to facilitate the export of primary goods through partnerships between businesses in different industries. This, and other action by the farm ministry, have already led to the creation of three funds this year, with a combined value of 500 billion yen.

The money for a government-backed fund is borrowed from sources such as the special account for fiscal investment and loans that earns dividends from NTT or Japan Tobacco stock, or lent via state-backed loans from private-sector financial institutions.

When combined with other existing funds such as the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the financial resources of the nine main government-backed funds will total more than 4 trillion yen.

TAXPAYERS MAY COVER LOSSES

Yet while these funds enter the investment business with loads of cash, private investment funds, with combined resources amounting to less than 1 trillion yen, are no match for them.

Therefore the Japan Private Equity Association, an organization created by private-sector funds, says that government-backed funds need clarified investment standards so that they do not end up "squeezing out private companies."

For government agencies, these funds allow them to secure large amounts of money without revealing specific information such as what companies they are investing in.

Bureaucrats might use the funds as new organizations to provide jobs to retired civil servants, a practice known as "amakudari."

If these investments do not yield a return, however, then they may become irrecoverable. A fund could recover the money it invested through a public offering of stock or by selling it to another firm, but the government's investment record in the past indicates that producing results has been difficult.

The Japan Key Technology Center, created in fiscal 1985 by organizations including the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, joined with private companies to invest 400 billion yen in bio-tech firms and other enterprises, but in return it only earned 3 billion yen from patent-generated revenue.

At the suggestion of the Board of Audit of Japan, the center wrote off a taxpayer-funded investment of more than 200 billion yen.

"Creating an organization serves the interest of government agencies," said former METI official Shigeaki Koga, who was involved in establishing the now-defunct Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan that helped restructure giant supermarket chain Daiei Inc.

"It gives the agency more posts where they can transfer middle-aged or older bureaucrats and hiring opportunities for amakudari."

The Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, founded in 2004, for example, has two amakudari and 32 workers on loan from the METI and elsewhere.

"There is a surge of new government-backed funds, and their investments could become irrecoverable," admitted Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko, who chairs the Cabinet's advisory panel on government-backed investment funds.

In a Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 photo, a man who did not wish to be identified, who lost his job two months ago after being hurt on the job, works to collect money for his family on a Miami street corner. The ranks of America’s poor have climbed to a record high, according to new census data that paints a stark portrait of the nation’s haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

A new study has found that the stresses of life in poverty leave people limited in their ability to solve problems and complete complex tasks. Researchers contributing to the new study “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function,” published Friday in Science magazine, say that living in poverty is equivalent to losing 13 IQ points, losing an entire night’s sleep or suffering from alcoholism. The study provides further evidence that those living in poverty aren’t, as some suggest, lazy or less driven than those in the middle class, but struggle as a result of economic circumstances and stressful situations largely outside of their control.

Anandi Mani, a research fellow who worked on the study, says that previous research indicates that poor people generally use less preventive health care, seldom stick to drug regimens, are more tardy and less likely to keep appointments, are less productive workers, and worse managers of their finances.

Mani asked, “The question we therefore wanted to address is, is that a cause of poverty or a consequence of poverty?”

To answer this question, a team of economists and psychologists based in the U.S. and the U.K. performed two experiments to see how groups of people of different financial backgrounds performed given varying stressful situations.

The Guardian reports that in the first experiment, researchers approached 400 random people at a shopping mall in New Jersey, asking them to think about two different scenarios- an “easy” scenario that required them to think about a $150 car repair and a “hard” one that asked participants to think about how they would finance a $1,500 car repair. While they thought about these different scenarios, the volunteers were asked to take part in puzzle-based IQ tests and tasks that measured their attention.

The researchers compared the change in performance in the tests for rich and poor people across the two situations, with rich and poor defined as being either side of the median U.S. household income of $70,000 per year.

In the shopping mall experiment, rich and poor people performed equally well on the easy scenario, but outcomes differed considerably when it came to performance on the difficult car repair scenario. People from poorer economic backgrounds had an average IQ that was about 13 points lower when they were thinking about serious financial troubles.

In the second study, the team studied IQ and attention tests for 464 sugar cane farmers in Tamil Nadu, India during times of relative wealth and poverty. Farmers in this region are generally in a more stable financial situation just after a sugar cane harvest, when they sell their crops and have an immediate cash flow.

In the months leading up to another harvest, this money, their prime source of income wanes, often creating more stress on the farmers and their families.

By looking at farmers’ performance in tests before and after cane harvests, researchers again found considerable differences in decision-making abilities.

“What we did is look at the same people the month before and the month after the harvest, and what we see is that IQ goes up, cognitive control, or errors, goes way down, and response times go way down,” said Sendhil Mullainathan, a professor of economics at Harvard University and a co-author of the study.

What does this all mean? For anti-poverty advocates, these findings provide further evidence that the so-called “culture of poverty” is a myth. That poor people don’t have a strong work ethic has been a popular explanation for why 50 million people live in poverty across the U.S. with millions more living on the edge of poverty. It appears conditions determine performance and attitude, not the other way around.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister’s

Office on Thursday.

Takanori Yamamoto and Miho Kibiki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

With swelling social security costs and slow growth in tax revenues pushing the nation's total debts to a record high, the government must introduce painful measures such as tax hikes and social security system reform to free the nation from its long-standing fiscal dependence on debt.

Whether the government will be able to take concrete steps toward such reform is the key to rectifying the situation.

According to a quarterly report announced Friday by the Finance Ministry, the nation's debts as of the end of June were about 1.01 quadrillion yen. It is the first time the combined total of three types of debt went beyond 1 quadrillion yen. The debt per capita was about 7.92 million yen.

The debts announced every three months by the ministry consist of outstanding government bonds, borrowing and financing bills, issued to finance the national treasury on a short-term basis. It indicates the entire picture of the government’s procurement of funds.

This figure is calculated in a different manner from outstanding long-term debts of the central and local governments, which are expected to total about 977 trillion yen as of the end of fiscal 2013, used for international comparison. This figure excludes fiscal investment and loan program bonds and financing bills.

Mounting JGBs

For about two decades in the postwar period, the government could maintain fiscal management with practically no debt--meaning without issuance of new government bonds--thanks to massive natural increases in tax revenues caused by rapid economic growth.

The first Cabinet of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in fiscal 1965 issued deficit-financing government bonds for the first time after the war. The Tokyo Olympics were held in 1964 and afterward a tight money policy was adopted, resulting in a business slump.

Deficit-covering bonds were issued to fill the gap between the budget and lower tax revenues. Construction bonds were also issued in fiscal 1966.

Government bonds came to be issued every year to improve the social security system, including health care and welfare programs, as well as to finance public works projects.

The fiscal situation rapidly deteriorated during the period dubbed the “two lost decades”--about 20 years from March 1991--after the burst of the economic bubble.

The nation's debts stood at 216.7 trillion yen at the end of fiscal 1990, when tax revenues were at a peak. However, the debts snowballed due to the aging of the nation and economic stimulus measures, including those for public works projects.

Comparison of initial budgets in fiscal 1990 and fiscal 2013 shows that social security costs, including those for health care and welfare programs, jumped from 11.6 trillion yen to 29.1 trillion yen, a figure 2.5 times higher.

Meanwhile, tax revenues dropped 25 percent from 58.0 trillion yen to 43.1 trillion yen, due partly to tax cuts meant to serve as economic stimulus. As a result, new government bond issuance, or new debt, jumped from 5.6 trillion yen to 42.9 trillion yen during the same period.

Debt to GDP ratio at 200%

The nation’s 1 quadrillion yen debts are equivalent to 200 percent of its gross domestic product, the highest ratio among advanced nations. If 1 quadrillion yen’s worth of 10,000 yen bank notes were stacked on top of each other, the pile would be about 10,000 kilometers high, the distance from Tokyo to London.

The United States’ debts were $16.74 trillion, or about 1.6 quadrillion yen, as of July, far exceeding this nation in terms of amount. Due to its large economy, however, the U.S. debts equal only about 100 percent of its GDP. Even Greece, which has been struck by a debt crisis, has a ratio lower than Japan’s at 160 percent.

In Europe, which has been shaken by a fiscal crisis, ratings on the government bonds of such nations as Greece and Italy have been sharply downgraded. As a result, overseas investors sold these bonds, causing sharp rises in long-term interest rates.

But only a few experts predict Japan’s government bonds are on the way toward sharp declines. This is because Japan is considered to be able to write off debts, if necessary, because it is the world’s largest creditor nation.

Another factor that should be taken into account is that 90 percent of Japan’s government bonds are held by domestic investors, such as private banks. As of the end of fiscal 2012, financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies and Japan Post Bank accounted for 65.3 percent of overall government bond holders, followed by the Bank of Japan with 13.2 percent and public financial institutions with 8.6 percent.

The Bank of Japan, which has introduced monetary easing, has purchased a massive amount of government bonds. Financial institutions are buying them with their depositors’ money, so even individuals who do not own government bonds are indirectly purchasing them through financial institutions. The nation is able to have 1 quadrillion yen in debts due to the 1.5 quadrillion yen in household financial assets such as bank deposits.

Govt yet to present measures

The government faces the daunting task of reducing the budget deficit through fiscal reconstruction, but it has yet to come up with concrete plans for restoring the nation’s fiscal health.

The government on Thursday agreed on guidelines for budgetary requests for fiscal 2014 and its medium-term fiscal reform plan at the Cabinet meeting.

The government maintained its goals of fiscal reconstruction for fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2020 in the plan. However, the program does not include a spending limit, as the government “cannot obtain clear prospects about tax revenue in fiscal 2014” before it makes a final decision in autumn on whether to raise the consumption tax in April as planned, a senior official of the Finance Ministry said.

Many executives of the ruling parties have said that if the government raises the consumption tax as scheduled, it needs to compile a supplementary budget to prevent the nation’s economy from slowing down. If it comes to that, the government will have to issue bonds to secure resources.

The biggest issue in the budget compilation process for fiscal reconstruction is how to curb social security spending. The government’s National Council on Social Security System Reform compiled a final report Monday calling on high-income elderly people to shoulder a greater burden of medical expense and taxes. However, the government has yet to come up with concrete measures.

The medium-term reform plan is based on the premise that as a result of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Abenomics economic policies, high rates of economic growth will be maintained, with gross domestic product increasing by about 3 percent in nominal terms not adjusted for inflation and about 2 percent in real terms.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting Thursday that the government was not pursuing fiscal balance at the cost of economic growth. However, there is concern that if the government fails to achieve high rates of growth, tax revenues will not increase, resulting in even more debt.

If the prices of government bonds plunge due to sell-offs of the bonds, some adverse effects are likely to occur. Financial institutions holding government bonds are believed to hold vast latent losses that would aggravate their financial situations, thereby they would likely hold off on lending money.