Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher
December 07, 2012 - 07:00 GMT
Location:
Shanghai
KEYWORDS:
China
,
crude steel output
,
Cisa
,
China Iron & Steel Assn
China?s crude steel output for the last 10 days of November increased by 0.4% from the middle of the month, according to estimates by China Iron & Steel Assn (Cisa).
Daily crude steel output totalled 1.9599 million tonnes in late November, compared with 1.952 million tonnes in the second 10 days of the month.
Cisa members, including state-owned and large steel mills, contributed a daily volume of 1.641 million tonnes, up 0.5% over the same period.
?Though the fall in long product prices in November gave some steel mills a hard time, firm prices of flats offset the negative effect and encouraged steel mills to produce more,? an industry analyst in Beijing said.
The average daily crude steel output for the whole of November was 1.956 million tonnes.
editorial@steelfirst.com
All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. ?
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.
You may have wondered how to require an email subscription for access to your high-quality content, the stuff you can?t find just anywhere on the Web.
After all, you spend a lot of time and energy putting it together. You brainstorm, dig around the Internet doing research and polish your message like a well-loved shoe.
You could charge for your content, but you know that subscribers, of course who will read and respond to your emails will be more valuable in the long-term.
So how do you make the trade?
Require A Subscription For Access To Your Most Valuable Content
Hiding your content behind your email sign-up is called ?gating? the content. It?s an effective way to motivate your web site visitors to subscribe, and it?s easy for you to set up.
You see, when you set up your web form, you choose a ?confirmation success? page ? a page your new subscribers land on after filling out your web form.
Generally, that page will confirm the reader?s subscription and thank them for their support.
In this case, however, you?ll redirect your new subscribers to a custom confirmation success page where your high-quality content resides. (Here?s how to set it up.)
You?ll want to make sure that a word of thanks for signing up is still included, ideally above your promised content.
One last detail: make sure your ?gated? web page isn?t linked to from anywhere else, or you?ll have would-be subscribers hopping the fence!
You Can Gate Files As Well
If you want to offer an e-book, a whitepaper or even an MP3, you can use the same process. Just put the link to your download on your new confirmation success page.
Up-front Payment Or Email Addresses?
Some people charge a straight-up, one-time payment for their content. Others use the strategy above, asking for email addresses in return for premium information.
Which do you prefer? Is marketing to your subscribers over the long-term a better alternative to a one-time sale?
For youtube videos, paste embed code directly in the text box
-
Members do not need to provide an address
-
Rate Article
1
2
3
4
5
Total votes: 0
Select Comment Validation Method Member Name/URL (Guest) FaceBook (Guest) Member Commenting:
Authenticate with Facebook before submitting
OR
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. Please verify that you are human:Register for LabSpaces Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more.
Please authenticate before trying to post a comment.
If you would like to remain anonymous, please enter a new name and link below
An unidentified man carries items out of a Kansas City home shared by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his 22-year-old girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Belcher shot and killed Perkins at their home Saturday before driving to Arrowhead Stadium, where Belcher committed suicide in the practice facility's parking lot after meeting with head coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli, police said. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
An unidentified man carries items out of a Kansas City home shared by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his 22-year-old girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Belcher shot and killed Perkins at their home Saturday before driving to Arrowhead Stadium, where Belcher committed suicide in the practice facility's parking lot after meeting with head coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli, police said. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Recordings of a 911 call show Jovan Belcher's mother begging her son's dying girlfriend to stay alive after the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker shot her.
Cheryl Shepherd called 911 Saturday shortly after Belcher shot 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins at their home. Belcher then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and shot himself in the head in the presence of his general manager and coach.
On the Kansas City Fire Department recordings, Shepherd yells at Perkins: "Stay with me, the ambulance is on the way. Stay with me."
Shepherd tells the dispatcher that Perkins is "just barely" breathing and that she is bleeding.
Belcher's mother also says her son and Perkins were arguing and that he had left the house.
Police say they found Perkins body on the bedroom floor with multiple gunshot wounds.
Travelers heading to Iraq may soon have more airline options for their journey.
In a Final Rule published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that starting in January, U.S. carriers will be allowed to provide service to and from Erbil and Sulaymaniyah International Airports in northern Iraq.
The decision comes 16 years after U.S. airlines were banned from operating in the region because of concerns they might become targets.
When the first Gulf War ended in 1991, the U.S. and its allies established no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, but then-President Saddam Hussein told his air defense forces to ignore both zones and to attack ?any air target of the aggressors,? according to the FAA. The agency worried that the threat could apply to passenger flights, so the ban was put in place in 1996.
Much has changed since then.
Civilian planes have been allowed to fly above 20,000 feet over Iraq since 2003 and the FAA notes that non-U.S. airlines have operated at the Erbil and Sulaymaniyah International Airports for years without incident.
U.S. flights may now be conducted safely to these two airports ?under certain conditions,? including the requirement that any U.S. carrier that wants to fly there must receive approval from the Transportation Security Administration. Commercial airlines also may not land at any other Iraqi airports, except in an emergency.
So far, no U.S. airlines have signed up. Airlines for America ? which represents major U.S. airlines ? is not aware of any U.S. passenger carriers that have expressed interest in starting service there, said Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman for the group.
But Erbil International Airport welcomed the FAA?s decision, saying it would also benefit private jets and cargo services.
"The lifting of the ban after 16 years is a boost to the region,? said Talar Faiq, the airport?s director, in a statement.
?(We) look forward to welcoming U.S. registered planes in the coming months and years. The move enables us to enhance the connectivity profile of the airport and is a vote of confidence for all of us.?
Several major non-U.S. carriers already provide service to and from Erbil International Airport, including Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Emirates. Sulaymaniyah International sees carriers such as Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian.
Fliers include people seeking to do business in the region, travelers whose families live there and some tourists. The Kurdistan Regional Government, which oversees Erbil, boasts that the area is ?is an ideal destination for those seeking unspoiled mountain scenery and ancient archeological sites off the beaten track.?
Morphing DNA hydrogel flows like liquid but remembers its original shapePublic release date: 5-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Carberry johncarberry@cornell.edu 607-255-5353 Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. A bit reminiscent of the Terminator T-1000, a new material created by Cornell researchers is so soft that it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape.
Rather than liquid metal, it is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like a sponge. It qualifies as a "metamaterial" with properties not found in nature and may be the first organic metamaterial with mechanical meta-properties.
Hydrogels have already been considered for use in drug delivery the spaces can be filled with drugs that release slowly as the gel biodegrades and as frameworks for tissue rebuilding. The ability to form a gel into a desired shape further expands the possibilities. For example, a drug-infused gel could be formed to exactly fit the space inside a wound.
Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering, and colleagues describe their creation in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The new hydrogel is made of synthetic DNA. In addition to being the stuff genes are made of, DNA can serve as a building block for self-assembling materials. Single strands of DNA will lock onto other single stands that have complementary coding, like tiny organic Legos. By synthesizing DNA with carefully arranged complementary sections Luo's research team previously created short stands that link into shapes such as crosses or Y's, which in turn join at the ends to form meshlike structures to form the first successful all-DNA hydrogel. Trying a new approach, they mixed synthetic DNA with enzymes that cause DNA to self-replicate and to extend itself into long chains, to make a hydrogel without DNA linkages.
"During this process they entangle, and the entanglement produces a 3-D network," Luo said. But the result was not what they expected: The hydrogel they made flows like a liquid, but when placed in water returns to the shape of the container in which it was formed.
"This was not by design," Luo said.
Examination under an electron microscope shows that the material is made up of a mass of tiny spherical "bird's nests" of tangled DNA, about 1 micron (millionth of a meter) in diameter, further entangled to one another by longer DNA chains. It behaves something like a mass of rubber bands glued together: It has an inherent shape, but can be stretched and deformed.
Exactly how this works is "still being investigated," the researchers said, but they theorize that the elastic forces holding the shape are so weak that a combination of surface tension and gravity overcomes them; the gel just sags into a loose blob. But when it is immersed in water, surface tension is nearly zero there's water inside and out and buoyancy cancels gravity.
To demonstrate the effect, the researchers created hydrogels in molds shaped like the letters D, N and A. Poured out of the molds, the gels became amorphous liquids, but in water they morphed back into the letters. As a possible application, the team created a water-actuated switch. They made a short cylindrical gel infused with metal particles placed in an insulated tube between two electrical contacts. In liquid form the gel reaches both ends of the tube and forms a circuit. When water is added, the gel reverts to its shorter form that will not reach both ends. (The experiment is done with distilled water that does not conduct electricity.)
The DNA used in this work has a random sequence, and only occasional cross-linking was observed, Luo said. By designing the DNA to link in particular ways he hopes to be able to tune the properties of the new hydrogel.
###
The research has been partially supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Morphing DNA hydrogel flows like liquid but remembers its original shapePublic release date: 5-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: John Carberry johncarberry@cornell.edu 607-255-5353 Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. A bit reminiscent of the Terminator T-1000, a new material created by Cornell researchers is so soft that it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape.
Rather than liquid metal, it is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like a sponge. It qualifies as a "metamaterial" with properties not found in nature and may be the first organic metamaterial with mechanical meta-properties.
Hydrogels have already been considered for use in drug delivery the spaces can be filled with drugs that release slowly as the gel biodegrades and as frameworks for tissue rebuilding. The ability to form a gel into a desired shape further expands the possibilities. For example, a drug-infused gel could be formed to exactly fit the space inside a wound.
Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering, and colleagues describe their creation in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The new hydrogel is made of synthetic DNA. In addition to being the stuff genes are made of, DNA can serve as a building block for self-assembling materials. Single strands of DNA will lock onto other single stands that have complementary coding, like tiny organic Legos. By synthesizing DNA with carefully arranged complementary sections Luo's research team previously created short stands that link into shapes such as crosses or Y's, which in turn join at the ends to form meshlike structures to form the first successful all-DNA hydrogel. Trying a new approach, they mixed synthetic DNA with enzymes that cause DNA to self-replicate and to extend itself into long chains, to make a hydrogel without DNA linkages.
"During this process they entangle, and the entanglement produces a 3-D network," Luo said. But the result was not what they expected: The hydrogel they made flows like a liquid, but when placed in water returns to the shape of the container in which it was formed.
"This was not by design," Luo said.
Examination under an electron microscope shows that the material is made up of a mass of tiny spherical "bird's nests" of tangled DNA, about 1 micron (millionth of a meter) in diameter, further entangled to one another by longer DNA chains. It behaves something like a mass of rubber bands glued together: It has an inherent shape, but can be stretched and deformed.
Exactly how this works is "still being investigated," the researchers said, but they theorize that the elastic forces holding the shape are so weak that a combination of surface tension and gravity overcomes them; the gel just sags into a loose blob. But when it is immersed in water, surface tension is nearly zero there's water inside and out and buoyancy cancels gravity.
To demonstrate the effect, the researchers created hydrogels in molds shaped like the letters D, N and A. Poured out of the molds, the gels became amorphous liquids, but in water they morphed back into the letters. As a possible application, the team created a water-actuated switch. They made a short cylindrical gel infused with metal particles placed in an insulated tube between two electrical contacts. In liquid form the gel reaches both ends of the tube and forms a circuit. When water is added, the gel reverts to its shorter form that will not reach both ends. (The experiment is done with distilled water that does not conduct electricity.)
The DNA used in this work has a random sequence, and only occasional cross-linking was observed, Luo said. By designing the DNA to link in particular ways he hopes to be able to tune the properties of the new hydrogel.
###
The research has been partially supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
In a discovery that helps clear a new path toward quantum computers, University of Michigan physicists have found elusive Dirac electrons in a superconducting material.
Quantum computers use atoms themselves to perform processing and memory tasks. They promise dramatic increases in computing power because of their ability to carry out scores of calculations at once. They could factor numbers dramatically faster than conventional computers, and would be game-changers for computer security.
The combination of properties the researchers identified in a shiny, black material called copper-doped bismuth selenide adds the material to an elite class that could serve as the silicon of the quantum era. Copper-doped bismuth selenide is a superconducting material.
Superconductors can?at cold enough temperatures?conduct electricity indefinitely from one kickstart of energy. They have no electrical resistance. Dirac electrons, named after the English physicist whose equation describes their behavior, are particles with such high energy that they straddle the realms of classical and quantum physics.
"They're a bridge between the worlds," said Lu Li, assistant professor of physics in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and leader of a study published in the current edition of Physical Review Letters.
Other research teams had theorized that copper-doped bismuth selenide contained Dirac electrons, but no one had ever detected them. Li and his colleagues were able to observe the electrons' tell-tale quantum oscillations in the material by cooling it to cryogenic temperatures and exposing it to a strong magnetic field. Materials rotate under intense magnetic fields, and the researchers could detect the quantum oscillations by varying the strength of the magnetic field and the temperature.
In quantum computers, "qubits" stand in for the 0s and 1s of conventional computers' binary code. A conventional bit can be either a 0 or a 1. A qubit can be both at the same time?until you measure it. Measuring a quantum system perturbs it into picking just one phase, which eliminates its most enticing attribute.
As one of the major hurdles to developing practical quantum computers, research groups are exploring ways to get around this so-called "local noise" problem. The new class of materials that copper-doped bismuth selenide belongs to?topological superconductors?present a new possibility. The Dirac electrons within them have the ability to clump together into a new kind of qubit that changes the properties of the material in a way that's detectable to an observer, but not to the qubits. So the qubits can carry on calculating without knowing they're being measured.
"Schr?dinger's cat can stay alive and dead at the same time," said Li, referring to Austrian physicist Erwin Schr?dinger's famous thought experiment about quantum mechanics. "The so-called qubit is no longer the object we're looking at. This material could be a promising way to make quantum computers."
###
University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu/
Thanks to University of Michigan for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher 
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. 
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Dec-2012
Share ]