Scientists have developed a user- interactive colour changing electronic skin inspired by chameleons that could be used in robotics, prosthetics and wearables. While science has been able to replicate the ability of animals such as chameleons, octopus and squids to change colour with artificial skin, the colour changes are often only visible to the naked eye when the material is put under huge mechanical strain.
Now, researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a new type of user-interactive electronic skin, with a colour change perceptible to the human eye, and achieved it with a much-reduced level of strain. The team employed flexible electronics made from graphene, in the form of a highly-sensitive resistive strain sensor, combined with a stretchable organic electrochromic device.
Researchers explored the substrate (underlying) effect on the electromechanical behaviour of graphene. To obtain good performance with a simple process and reduced cost, they designed a structure to use graphene as both the highly sensitive strain-sensing element and the insensitive stretchable electrode of the electric current density (ECD) layer.
“We found subtle strain – between zero and 10 per cent – was enough to cause an obvious colour change, and the RGB (red green blue) value of the colour quantified the magnitude of the applied strain,” said Tingting Yang from Tsinghua University. “Graphene, with its high transparency, rapid carrier transport, flexibility and large specific surface area, shows application potential for flexible electronics, including stretchable electrodes, super capacitor, sensors, and optical devices,” said Hongwei Zhu, professor at Tsinghua University.
However, our results also show that the mechanical property of the substrate was strongly relevant to the performance of the strain sensing materials, Zhu said. “It’s important to note that the capability we found for interactive colour changes with such a small strain range has been rarely reported before. This user-interactive e-skin should be promising for applications in wearable devices, robots and prosthetics in the future,” Yang added. The study was published in the journal 2D Materials.
Chennai, Jul 26: The Madras High Court today made singing of the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ mandatory in schools across Tamil Nadu at least twice a week.
Private and government schools in the state should ensure that their students sing the national song at least twice a week, preferably on Monday and Friday, Justice M V Muralidharan said, without giving reasons for the order.
He, however, cited article 226 of the Constitution which bestows on High Courts sweeping powers to pass orders within their areas of jurisdiction to any person or authority, to back his ruling.
The judge said in case any person or organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the song, they shall not be compelled or forced to sing it. They will, however, have to give valid reasons for not doing so.
Noting that the song can also be played in government and private establishments at least once a month, the judge said, “If people feel it is difficult to sing the song in Bengali or in Sanskrit, steps can be taken to translate the song in Tamil.”
The judge said, “The youth of this country are the future of tomorrow and the court hopes and trusts that this order shall be taken in the right spirit and also implemented in letter and spirit by the citizenry of this great nation.”
Interestingly, the court’s order came on a petition moved by K Veeramani, who had failed to clear the written test for recruitment of teachers.
He petitioned to the court that he could not clear the test as, replying to an objective type question, he had written that the national song was originally penned in Bengali.
The answer was declared wrong by the board and he was awarded 89 marks against the minimum 90 to be eligible for appointment.
Claiming that he had failed to get the job by just one mark due to ‘wrong’ evaluation, the petitioner had sought award of the extra mark, treating his answer as correct.
When the matter first came up on July 7, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee had written the national song in both Bengali and Sanskrit.
The additional government pleader, on the other hand, argued that it was penned only in Sanskrit and was later translated into Bengali.
The petitioner contended that in all the books he had read, Bengali was mentioned as the language in which the national song was originally written.
Following this, the judge had directed the Advocate General to apprise the court of the correct answer in order to settle the dispute over the linguistic origin of the song.
When the case came up on July 13, Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy informed the court that the national song was of Sanskrit origin, but had originally been penned in Bengali by Chatterjee.
Islamabad, Jul 26: Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit has sought early retirement and his request has been accepted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a media report said today.
Basit, who was set to retire from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April 2018, had “submitted an application to Prime Minister Sharif for his early retirement which was accepted,” Geo News reported, citing sources.
The senior Pakistani diplomat has already completed his three-year tenure in New Delhi.
Basit would be replaced by Sohail Mahmood who is expected to take up his responsibilities as the High Commissioner to India next month, the channel reported.
Mahmood, 55, currently Pakistan’s envoy in Turkey, is a career diplomat who joined the Foreign Service in 1985.
The channel did not give any reason for Basit s premature retirement but foreign office sources earlier told PTI that he was unhappy over the appointment of current foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua, who is junior to Basit.
Basit joined the Foreign Service in 1982 and held several diplomatic assignments at Pakistani missions abroad.
Prior to his appointment as the High Commissioner to India in 2014, Basit had served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Germany from May 2012 till March 2014.
San Francisco, Jul 25 : Google parent Alphabet has reported a quarterly profit of USD 3.5 billion, with a massive fine by the European Commission biting into earnings.
The technology giant yesterday reported that revenue grew to USD 26 billion in the recently ended quarter, and that profit would have tallied nearly USD 6.3 billion if it weren’t for a USD 2.74 billion antitrust fine levied on search engine Google by the European Commission.
Revenue was up 21 percent from the same quarter last year, according to earnings figures.
“We’re delivering strong growth with great underlying momentum, while continuing to make focused investments in new revenue streams,” said Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat.
Alphabet shares slid about 2.9 percent to .
969.03 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures.
Investors have been concerned about what the regulatory trouble in Europe means for Alphabet, which gets most of its money from Google advertising while investing in “other bets” such as self-driving cars.
Alphabet took in USD 248 million in revenue and posted a narrowed loss of USD 772 million in its “other bets” category in the recently ended quarter.
Meanwhile, Google and the EU are gearing up for a battle that could last years, with the Silicon Valley behemoth facing a relentless challenge to its ambition to expand beyond search results.
Brussels has already spent seven years targeting Google, fueled by a deep apprehension of the company’s dominance of Internet search across Europe, where it commands about 90 percent of the market.
In a verdict that could redraw the online map worldwide, the EU’s top antitrust sheriff Margrethe Vestager in June imposed a record fine on Google for illegally favoring its shopping service in search results.
The EU accuses Google of giving its multitude of services too much priority in search results to the detriment of other price comparison services.
The decision — if it survives an expected appeal process – could prove to be momentous for Google, as well as for competition law in general.
The EU is also examining Google’s AdSense advertising service and its Android mobile phone software.
Income taxpayer base moved up substantially to 6.26 crore at the end of the last fiscal, from nearly 4 crore earlier, CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said today.
Clearing the air on disclosure of bank account details of non-resident Indians (NRIs), expats, as well as foreigners with investments in private equity in India, Chandra also said that such accounts need to be disclosed only when a refund is due to the assessee. The chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that post demonetization the department has taken a host of measures to increase tax base and the statement of financial transaction (SFT) report filed by banks shows widening of taxpayer base.
“As on date, we have got 6.26 crore assessees. It is a myth that we have 3-4 crore… (These) assessees who have filed returns, paid advance tax or tax has been deducted at source. This is a large jump from earlier years,” he said speaking at the Income Tax Day celebrations here. The challenge before the taxmen now remains how to widen the tax net and officials are working towards it, he said. Chandra said that with the enactment of the amended Benami law, the tax officials have found out clusters and persons who have invested money in real estate without filing tax returns.
New Delhi, July 25: Leading stock exchange BSE will auction investment limits tomorrow for foreign investors to purchase government debt securities worth Rs 10,922 crore.
The auction will be conducted on BSE’s ebidxchange platform from 1530 hours to 1730 hours, after the close of market hours.
The exchange said in a circular today that the debt auction quota gives overseas investors the right to invest in the debt up to the limit purchased.
A mock bidding session would be conducted today to check the system’s performance after the close of markets.
“Live bidding session for allocation of debt investment limits (of Rs 10,922 crore) for FII/FPI/sub-accounts shall be conducted on July 25, 2017 on exchange’s ‘ebidxchange’ platform,” BSE said.
In an online auction conducted earlier this month, government debt securities had attracted bids worth Rs 29,950 crore from foreign investors as against Rs 20,397 crore on offer.
To boost inflows of foreign funds into Indian capital markets, regulator Sebi earlier this month raised the FPI investment limit in government securities to Rs 1,87,700 crore. Prior to that the limit was Rs 1,84,901 crore.
Kolkata, Jul 25: The CBI on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung, his wife Asha and 20 others from a city court in connection with the Madan Tamang murder case.
The CBI counsel prayed to the chief judge of the City Sessions Court Kundan Kumar Kumai that the arrest warrant be issued against the 22 accused, who were absent at today’s hearing.
Out of the 48 accused in the case against whom CBI has prayed sought framing of charges for the murder of All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang in the heart of Darjeeling in 2011, 26 accused were present.
The Calcutta High Court had on July 19 asked all the accused against whom CBI has sought framing of charges to be present before the court of the chief judge of City Sessions Court, which had fixed today for commencement of hearing.
A division bench presided over by acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre had directed the trial court to hold day-to-day hearing and conclude framing of charges by August 17.
Noting that several accused were not present during the hearing for framing of charges on earlier occasions also, the division bench had directed the CBI to ensure their presence in court.
Among the 26 accused present before the court today were former GJM MLA Harka Bahadur Chetri, Captain Ramesh Allay and Rabin Subba.
Apart from Bimal Gurung, senior GJM leaders Asha Gurung, Roshan Giri, Binay Tamang and Devendra Sharma were among those absent.
Those accused who were absent in the court made written prayer before the court seeking to be represented by their lawyers.
CBI counsel Arun Bhagat opposed the prayers, submitting that the high court had expressly ordered their presence before the trial court for the hearing. He sought arrest warrants against them for being absent.
Citing the high court’s noting that CBI did not oppose the prayers of the accused to be represented by their lawyers during earlier hearings, the CBI counsel submitted that he had vehemently raised objection, but it was not recorded.
Claiming that it led to the adverse noting by the high court, Bhagat prayed before the Chief Sessions Judge that his opposition on earlier occasions be recorded.
Debasish Roy, counsel for Bimal Gurung, Asha and some other accused claimed that the notice for appearance before the court was not served at the homes of the these persons and was pasted in marketplaces.
Bhagat submitted that CBI had tried its best to communicate the high court order through SMS, mail or through messenger, but many were not found at their addresses and as such the officials had to paste the notice on the walls of their houses.
The CBI counsel submitted that order be passed on the applications of the accused persons for not being personally present before commencement of hearing on framing of charges.
The judge, after hearing all the parties, adjourned the matter till tomorrow.
London, Jul 23 : The Indian women’s cricket team let slip a historic title triumph with nerves getting the better of it in a tense summit clash against England, leaving Mithali Raj’s giant-slaying side with the runners-up tag for a second time in the ICC World Cup, here today.
It was an anti-climactic result for India since they were well on course for a memorable triumph, sitting pretty at 191 for three in 42.5 before a batting collapse saw them bowled out for 219 in 48.4 overs.
Needing just 38 runs off 43 balls,the Indian lower middle order committed harakiri losing seven wickets for 28 runs in 6.5 overs.
Opener Punam Raut (86) and Harmanpreet Kaur’s (51) steady half centuries had set the platform but once they departed it was far from a smooth ride as England’s consistent strikes turned it into a cliff-hanger.
Veda Krishnamurthy (35 off 34 balls), Sushma Verma’s (0) and Jhulan Goswami (0) were dismissed in space of nine balls.
Krishnamurthy had raised hopes with a cameo but her sloppy shot selection off Anya Shrubsole in the 45th over changed the script as it exposed the tailenders to a pressure situation which they could not cope with.
Nevertheless, Indian women team emerged as a force in world cricket with some inpsiring peformances such as Harmanpreet Kaur’s fearless strokeplay.
However, it was one last chance for captain Mithali Raj and veteran Jhulan Goswami to have a World title in their cupboards. India were making their second appearance in a World Cup final. They lost their previous final, against Australia in Centurion, by 98 runs in 2005.
A proven performer for far too long, Jhulan delivered with three wickets in the most widely watched game in the history of women’s cricket as India restricted the hosts to 228 for seven.
Smriti Mandhana (0) must have been desperate to break her run-less streak but a four-ball duck ended her campaign in the tournament as Anya Shrubsole crashed through her defence in the second over of the Indian innings.
Mithali Raj (17 off 31) and Punam Raut added 38 runs for the second wicket before the captain trudged back to pavilion following a lazy run out. Surprisingly, Raj gave up half way after Raut called her for a run.
India were steady, going little under four an over, but England were fielding well to ensure there were no freebies.
Harmanpreet came to the crease with a bag of burden on her shoulder and batted with maturity.
In company of Raut, she kept the scoreboard ticking and twice lofted left-arm sppiner Alex Hartley over the ropes, siganling that things were very much under control.
India reached 100 in the 27th over and Raut rasied her half-century with a single off Shrubsole. Harmanpreet too got to the milestone soon when she glanced Brunt to fine leg.
With two batswomen going about their business untroubled, India had a firm control over the proceedings. But England got exactly what India did not want to lose at that time: Harmanpreet’s wicket.
The Moga girl swept Hartley straight to Beaumont at deep square leg when even England had not expected a wicket and that too of the most dangerous batter in Indian line-up.
She did not set the field on fire like the way she batted against Australia but it was a significant knock, although it did not prove to be enough in the end.
Earlier, the coin landed in the opponents’ favour at the toss was hardly a deterrent as India went about the task in a professional manner.
Leading the show was the redoubtable Goswami, who scythed through the English middle-order.
The highlight of the lanky Bengali’s outing was the back-to-back dismissals of Sarah Taylor and Fran Wilson, which pegged England back.
Taylor is a legend of the women’s game and Sciver entered the marquee match on the back of two centuries, and Jhulan had them caught behind and trapped in front of the wicket.
In what could be her last match, Taylor walked off to an ovation from the almost sell-out Lord’s crowd after scoring 45 off 62 balls. The veteran English batswoman, surprisingly, could not hit a boundary in her innings.
The in-from Sciver struck 51 off 68 balls, hitting five boundaries in the process, before her recovery act was cut short by Jhulan in the first ball of the 38th over.
A former ICC Player of the Year, Jhulan finished her spell with impressive figures of 3/23 in the allotted 10 overs, which included three maidens.
The end of Jhulan’s spell proved to be a boon for England, who rode on Katherine Brunt’s 42-ball 34 and Jenny Gunn’s 25 off 38 balls towards the end to sign off with a respectable total.
After Jhulan, leg-spinner Poonam Yadav was the most impressive bowler, finishing with two 2/36 in her quota of 10 overs.
England were off to a decent start with openers Lauren Winfield (24) and Tammy Beaumont (23) putting on 47 runs in a little over 11 overs. Rajeshwari Gayakwad gave the spirited visitors their first breakthrough when she removed Winfield.
Yadav dismissed the other opener and skipper Knight in a span of two overs to leave England in a spot of bother at 63 for three in the 17th over.
Taylor and Sciver steadied the ship with a partnership before spearhead Jhulan returned and removed Sciver.
The hosts then got some useful runs from the willows of Brunt and Gunn.
The Pentagon has encouraged India and China to engage in a direct dialogue free of any “coercive aspects”.
“We encourage India and China to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions and free of any coercive aspects,” said Gary Ross, a Defence Department spokesman.
Over the past week, the US State Department too have been making similar statements, but Pentagon has sought direct dialogue between India and China on reducing tension “free of any coercive aspects”.
Notably, in recent past few years, almost all the Chinese neighbours have been accusing Beijing of coercive tactics to settle border disputes.
The month-long India-China border standoff in the Sikkim sector is seen as part of same Chinese coercive tactics to change the status quo. India has taken a strong stand against such a Chinese move.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval heads to Beijing to attend a meeting of BRICS later this month. During his visit, Doval is expected to talk with his Chinese counterpart on this issue.
Responding to questions, the Pentagon refused to take sides on the issue.
“We refer you to the Governments of India and China for further information. We encourage India and China to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions. We are not going to speculate on such matters,” Ross said when asked if the Pentagon fears escalation of tension between India and China.
Early this week, a top Pentagon Commander told lawmakers that China is exploiting its economic leverage as a way to its regional political objectives.
“The Chinese have shown their willingness to exploit their economic leverage as a way to advance their regional political objectives. As China’s military modernisation continues, the United States and its allies and partners will continue to be challenged to balance China’s influence,” General Paul Selva, USAF, said in written response to questions to the Senate Armed Services Committee for his nominee for reconfirmation as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Selva said deterring war is an exercise in influencing China’s decision calculus, making diplomacy preferable to conflict and managing crises in such a manner that they do not unintentionally escalate.
“To do this, the Joint Force will engage with the Chinese military within Congressionally mandated limits, build alliance capacity through close cooperation, and uphold international law through appropriate operations,” he said in written response to the questions.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice And Empowerment has recommended that a transgender should have the option to choose their gender independent of surgery or hormones.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 defines a transgender as someone who is neither wholly female not wholly male, a combination of female or male or neither female nor male and whose sense of gender does not match with the gender assigned to the person at the time of birth.
The committee felt that the proposed definition of transgender in the bill is in stark contrast to global developments, where transgenders have been granted the right to self determine and to seek benefits according to such identity.
“More so, it not only violates the fundamental rights to equality, dignity, autonomy, but also freedom of transgender persons guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the constitution,” the committee said.
It further observed the definition of transgender was unscientific and primitive and based on biological attributes.
It said the definition fails to recognise that many persons are born with ambiguous or typical sexual organs, whether external or internal, and identify themselves as male, female or transgender.
The standing committee also recommended a change in Clause 2(c) in bill which defines “inclusive education” for transgenders.
“Inclusive education means a system of education wherein transgender and gender non-conforming students along with other students learn together without the fear of bullying, singling out and other forms of harassment and the system of teaching and learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs of such students,” it said.
The committee also recommended that a definition of ‘discrimination’ be included in chapter I of the Bill which must cover a range of violations that transgenders face.
It also recommended that central and state governments and civil society should adopt measures for generating awareness regarding transgenders.
The committee headed by Ramesh Bais, also stated that it would like to assure and remind all the members of the transgender community that “a historic shift is underway, you are not alone in your struggle for the end of violence and discrimination.
“It is a shared struggle. Transgender is not an anomaly. It is a part of the spectrum of people’s realities. While there is no shame in being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex or even straight – there is a must shame and dishonour in being a homophobe, a transphobe and a bigot.”
Physicists believe they have discovered a particle that is both matter and anti-matter, an idea that was first theorised 80 years ago.
When the Big Bang created the universe out of nothing, scientists believe the explosion created equal amounts of matter and anti-matter.
And, if they were ever to meet, they would annihilate each other – returning to ‘nothing’ apart from a burst of energy.
However, in 1937 an Italian theoretical physicist, Ettore Majorana, predicted the existence of a strange class of particles called fermions that were their own anti-particles.
And now, in an article in the prestigious journal Science, researchers report they have found the first evidence of just such an object, which they dubbed the “Angel Particle” after Dan Brown’s thriller Angels and Demons which involves a bomb made from a combination of matter and anti-matter.
Professor Shoucheng Zhang, a Standford University physicist who proposed how an experiment to find the particle could be carried out, said: “Our team predicted exactly where to find the Majorana fermion and what to look for as its ‘smoking gun’ experimental signature.
“This discovery concludes one of the most intensive searches in fundamental physics, which spanned exactly 80 years.”
It is thought the existence of fermions could be used to help bring about the technological revolution promised by quantum computers, which are many times more powerful than existing machines.
One problem that has limited their development has been they must be insulated from environmental noise.
It is thought a single qubit, or quantum bit, of information could be stored in two separate Majorana fermions. So even if the interference affected information in one, the other would almost certainly keep it safe.
Other scientists hailed the research as a breakthrough.
“It does seem to be a really clean observation of something new,” said Professor Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“It’s not fundamentally surprising, because physicists have thought for a long time that Majorana fermions could arise out of the types of materials used in this experiment.
“But they put together several elements that had never been put together before, and engineering things so this new kind of quantum particle can be observed in a clean, robust way is a real milestone.”
And Professor Tom Devereaux, also of Stanford University, said: “This research culminates a chase for many years to find chiral Majorana fermions. It will be a landmark in the field.”
Based on The Independent report.