Meilinda Sun – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Fri, 07 Aug 2015 16:35:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Meilinda Sun – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Maples Pavilion to receive new display https://stanforddaily.com/2015/08/06/maples-pavilion-new-display/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/08/06/maples-pavilion-new-display/#respond Fri, 07 Aug 2015 05:10:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1102643 Stanford University’s Maples Pavilion, which is home to Stanford volleyball, basketball and gymnastics, will receive a new Daktronics four-corners LED display system.

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(BOB DREBIN/stanfordphoto.com) The display system at Maples Pavilion is being updated this summer to make the screens visible from any seat in the venue.
(BOB DREBIN/stanfordphoto.com) The display system at Maples Pavilion is being updated this summer to make the screens visible from any seat in the venue.

Stanford University’s Maples Pavilion, which is home to Stanford volleyball and basketball, will receive a new Daktronics four-corners LED display system.

Maples Pavilion was built in 1969 and underwent a $26 million makeover in 2004. The renovation introduced a new 29,000-square-foot concourse, locker rooms, student-athlete lounges, a strength and conditioning room, an athletic training room and a Courtside Room for banquets. The updated Maples Pavilion featured a four-sided scoreboard hung in the center of the pavilion, which could replay videos. This summer, Maples Pavilion is getting a fresh new display.

Each face of the display is approximately 15.5 feet wide and eight and a half feet high. According to the makers, the size and orientation of the screens are designed to ensure the screen’s visibility in any of the 7,233 seats in the house. The display will employ variable content zoning, which allows for either one large picture to be displayed across four screens or for smaller zones, combining instant replays, live video, up-to-the-minute scoring information and advertisements.

The new LED display extends from the partnership between Stanford University and Daktronics. In August 2013, Stanford Stadium received two LED video displays and a fascia display from the company.

“It is an honor to continue our long-standing partnership that spans over three decades with Stanford University,” Daktronics sales representative Eric Cain tells Digital Signage Connection. “Daktronics is grateful to play a part in Stanford’s rich history of tradition and excellence. The new center-hung and auxiliary displays will add yet another level of excitement to an already outstanding game-day experience in Maples Pavilion.”

The display system is to be built this summer and is scheduled to be complete in late August.

Contact Meilinda Sun at meilinda.sun ‘at’ gmail.com.

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Researchers find that CT scans may increase chances of cancer https://stanforddaily.com/2015/07/29/researchers-find-that-ct-scans-may-increase-chances-of-cancer/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/07/29/researchers-find-that-ct-scans-may-increase-chances-of-cancer/#respond Thu, 30 Jul 2015 05:34:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1102536 A recent study led by Stanford School of Medicine scientists has found that CT scans can cause cellular damage, with the main concern being cancer.

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A recent study led by Stanford School of Medicine scientists has found that CT scans can cause cellular damage, with the main concern being cancer.

In an article by the Stanford Medicine News Center, Patricia Nguyen, a lead author of the study and assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine, explained, however, that the cancer is not necessarily caused by CT scans but that it remains a concern.

“I think there are legitimate concerns about the exposure to low-dose radiation, but the problem is that it is difficult to prove a causal relationship with cancer,” Nguyen said. “Even though we show some damage is occurring at a cellular level, this damage is being repaired.”

“It is the damage that escapes repair, or the cells that are not eliminated and are mutated, that go on and produce cancer,” she added. “We can’t track those cells with current technology.”

The study examined the effects of low doses of radiation that patients experience during CT scans. Researchers found that the CT scan, a full-body scan, exposes its patients to 150 times more radiation than a chest X-ray. As a result, there is a possibility that while some cell damage is repaired, other damaged cells mutate and reproduce as cancer cells.

Yet, Nguyen explained that the exact effects of low-dose radiation are still unclear.

“[W]e don’t know much about the effects of low-dose radiation — all we know is about high doses from atomic bomb blast survivors,” Nguyen said.

Despite these uncertainties, one conclusion from the study was clear: CT scans result in an increase of cell death and DNA damage, albeit by a small percentage. Nguyen also noted, however, that “patients receiving the lowest doses of radiation and who were of average weight and had regular heart rates” did not experience DNA damage.

Nguyen explained that more research on low-dose radiation is imperative because the effects are definitely not benign. A bill is currently going to Congress to request more funding for such studies.

 

Contact Meilinda Sun meilinda.sun ‘at’ gmail.com.

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Stanford researchers create a single-catalyst water splitter for clean energy https://stanforddaily.com/2015/07/12/stanford-researchers-create-a-single-catalyst-water-splitter-for-clean-energy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/07/12/stanford-researchers-create-a-single-catalyst-water-splitter-for-clean-energy/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2015 05:16:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1102335 To optimize the process of using hydrogen to generate clean energy, Stanford University scientists have spearheaded efforts to develop a cheap and efficient single-catalyst water splitter.

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Haotian Wang holds the single-catalyst water splitter created by him and his fellow researchers. (Courtesy of Linda Cicero/Stanford News Service)

To optimize the process of using hydrogen to generate clean energy, Stanford University scientists have spearheaded efforts to develop a cheap and efficient single-catalyst water splitter.

Climate change has concerned world leaders for decades, and scientific organizations have scrambled to develop clean energy methods. Hydrogen has proved to be a promising method of generating energy, but one of the most difficult aspects of hydrogen energy is the inefficiency with which hydrogen can be created.

Yi Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, told the Stanford News Service that their low-voltage, single-catalyst water splitter “continuously generates hydrogen and oxygen for more than 200 hours.”

Catalysts are chemicals that stimulate or accelerate chemical reactions. Cui attributes the water splitter’s low cost to lithium-ion batteries which cheaply create one catalyst: nickel-iron oxide.

“Our group has pioneered the idea of using lithium-ion batteries to search for catalysts,” Cui said. “Our hope is that this technique will lead to the discovery of new catalysts for other reactions beyond water splitting.”

This catalyst plays the role of two separate catalysts: The lithium-ion battery converts the nickel-iron oxide into small particles, and these particles are effective at producing more hydrogen gas.

The single-catalyst water splitter differentiates itself from two conventional methods of procuring hydrogen fuel: using electrolysis and reforming natural gas.

Electrolysis is a process that uses two chemical reactions to generate hydrogen and oxygen gas. Its disadvantage lies in that one of the two reactions is destructive and inefficient. According to Stanford graduate student Haotian Wang, a fifth-year student in applied physics who played a key role in authoring a study about the project, the oxidation reaction required in electrolysis is actually destructive to its catalyst and corrodes its own “fuel.”

The second method of generating industrial hydrogen fuel is reforming natural gas, a process which emits carbon. Reforming natural gas, explained Wang, has harmful consequences.

“The process will produce a lot of greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming,” Wang said.  “Also, if you want to use hydrogen as a fuel in a fuel cell, the hydrogen needs to be very pure. But if you have carbon inside, you need to purify it. [Industrial] hydrogen is not pure and not good for fuel cells.”

Typical industrial water splitters involve two catalysts, platinum and iridium, which Wang described as “benchmark catalysts,” albeit rare and expensive. These catalysts spur water-splitting reactions.

To respond to the environmental challenges posed by commercial water splitters, Stanford scientists have developed more efficient water-splitting mechanisms. One such method invented in 2014 by Hongjie Dai, a Stanford professor of chemistry, served as a basis for the single-catalyst water splitter. Instead of involving rare metals such as platinum and iridium, Dai’s invention called only for two catalysts: iron and nickel.

Cui and his colleagues have expanded upon Dai’s technology, using nickel-iron oxide as the single catalyst. The water splitter has been described by Cui and his co-authors as showing promise on a wider scale as a renewable hydrogen fuel that  can be consumed by transportation and industry sectors.

By using only one pervasive catalyst, the water splitter significantly drives down the cost of hydrogen energy production. Wang explained that they hope to further increase its efficiency through methods such as raising of temperature of the water.

“Right now, we can run the water splitting for more than 200 hours, but if [we] want to lower the cost even more, [we would have to] run the splitting for 2,000 hours,” Wang said.

“If we can mass produce clean electricity just from sunlight and solar cells to drive water-splitting process to produce hydrogen, the entire process will have zero emissions and the energy will be completely clean,” he added.

 

Contact Meilinda Sun at meilinda.sun ‘at’ gmail.com.

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