Energy Storage

Though considered a promising large-scale energy storage device, the vanadium redox battery's use has been limited by its inability to work well in a wide range of temperatures and its high cost. But new research indicates that modifying the battery's electrolyte solution significantly improves its performance. So much so that the upgraded battery could improve the electric grid's reliability and help connect more wind turbines and solar panels to the grid.

In a paper published by the journalAdvanced Energy Materials, researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that adding hydrochloric acid to the sulfuric acid typically used in vanadium batteries increased the batteries' energy storage capacity by 70 percent and expanded the temperature range in which they operate.

"Our small adjustments greatly improve the vanadium redox battery," said lead author and PNNL chemist Liyu Li. "And with just a little more work, the battery could potentially increase the use of wind, solar and other renewable power sources across the electric grid."

Unlike traditional power, which is generated in a reliable, consistent stream of electricity by controlling how much coal is burned or water is sent through dam turbines, renewable power production depends on uncontrollable natural phenomena such as sunshine and wind. Storing electricity can help smooth out the intermittency of renewable power while also improving the reliability of the electric grid that transmits it. Vanadium batteries can hold on to renewable power until people turn on their lights and run their dishwashers. Other benefits of vanadium batteries include high efficiency and the ability to quickly generate power when it's needed as well as sit idle for long periods of time without losing storage capacity.

A vanadium battery is a type of flow battery, meaning it generates power by pumping liquid from external tanks to the battery's central stack, or a chamber where the liquids are mixed. The tanks contain electrolytes, which are liquids that conduct electricity. One tank has the positively-charged vanadium ion V5+ floating in its electrolyte. And the other tank holds an electrolyte full of a different vanadium ion, V2+. When energy is needed, pumps move the ion-saturated electrolyte from both tanks into the stack, where a chemical reaction causes the ions to change their charge, creating electricity.

To charge the battery, electricity is sent to the vanadium battery's stack. This causes another reaction that restores the original charge of vanadium ions. The electrical energy is converted into chemical energy stored in the vanadium ions. The electrolytes with their respective ions are pumped back into to their tanks, where they wait until electricity is needed and the cycle is started again.

A battery's capacity to generate electricity is limited by how many ions it can pack into the electrolyte. Vanadium batteries traditionally use pure sulfuric acid for their electrolyte. But sulfuric acid can only absorb so many vanadium ions.

Another drawback is that sulfuric acid-based vanadium batteries only work between about 50 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 40 Celsius). Below that temperature range, the ion-infused sulfuric acid crystallizes. The larger concern, however, is the battery overheating, which causes an unwanted solid to form and renders the battery useless. To regulate the temperature, air conditioners or circulating cooling water are used, which causes up to 20 percent energy loss and significantly increasing the battery's operating cost, the researchers noted.

Wanting to improve the battery's performance, Li and his colleagues began searching for a new electrolyte. They tried a pure hydrochloric acid electrolyte, but found it caused one of the vanadium ions to form an unwanted solid. Next, they experimented with various mixtures of both hydrochloric and sulfuric acids. PNNL scientists found the ideal balance when they mixed 6 parts hydrochloric acid with 2.5 parts sulfuric acid. They verified the electrolyte and ion molecules present in the solution with a nuclear magnetic resonance instrument and the Chinook supercomputer at EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL.

Tests showed that the new electrolyte mixture could hold 70 percent more vanadium ions, making the battery's electricity capacity 70 percent higher. The discovery means that smaller tanks can be used to generate the same amount of power as larger tanks filled with the old electrolyte.

And the new mixture allowed the battery to work in both warmer and colder temperatures, between 23 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 to 50 Celsius), greatly reducing the need for costly cooling systems. At room temperature, a battery with the new electrolyte mixture maintained an 87 percent energy efficiency rate for 20 days, which is about the same efficiency of the old solution.

The results are promising, but more research is needed, the authors noted. The battery's stack and overall physical structure could be improved to increase power generation and decrease cost.

"Vanadium redox batteries have been around for more than 20 years, but their use has been limited by a relatively narrow temperature range," Li said. "Something as simple as adjusting the batteries' electrolyte means they can be used in more places without having to divert power output to regulate heat."

This research was supported by DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and internal PNNL funding
.

Oreos

Oct. 15, 2013 — Connecticut College students and a professor of neuroscience have found "America's favorite cookie" is just as addictive as cocaine -- at least for lab rats. And just like most humans, rats go for the middle first.

In a study designed to shed light on the potential addictiveness of high-fat/ high-sugar foods, Professor Joseph Schroeder and his students found rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain's "pleasure center" than exposure to drugs of abuse.

Schroeder, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Connecticut College, will present the research next month at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego, Calif.

"Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do," Schroeder said. "It may explain why some people can't resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them."

Schroeder said he and his students specifically chose to feed the rats Oreos because they wanted a food that is palatable to humans and contributes to obesity in the same way cocaine is pleasurable and addictive to humans.

The research was the brainchild of neuroscience major Jamie Honohan, who graduated in May. She worked with Schroeder and several other students last year to measure the association between "drug" and environment.

On one side of a maze, they would give hungry rats Oreos and on the other, they would give them a control -- in this case, rice cakes. ("Just like humans, rats don't seem to get much pleasure out of eating them," Schroeder said.) Then, they would give the rats the option of spending time on either side of the maze and measure how long they would spend on the side where they were typically fed Oreos.

While it may not be scientifically relevant, Honohan said it was surprising to watch the rats eat the famous cookie. "They would break it open and eat the middle first," she said.

They compared the results of the Oreo and rice cake test with results from rats that were given an injection of cocaine or morphine, known addictive substances, on one side of the maze and a shot of saline on the other. Schroeder is licensed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to purchase and use controlled substances for research.

The research showed the rats conditioned with Oreos spent as much time on the "drug" side of the maze as the rats conditioned with cocaine or morphine.

Schroeder and his students then used immunohistochemistry to measure the expression of a protein called c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, in the nucleus accumbens, or the brain's "pleasure center."

"It basically tells us how many cells were turned on in a specific region of the brain in response to the drugs or Oreos," said Schroeder.

They found that the Oreos activated significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine.

"This correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/ high-sugar foods are addictive," said Schroeder.

And that is a problem for the general public, says Honohan.

"Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability," she said.

Robotics

Human Robot Getting Closer: iCub Robot Must Learn from Its Experiences

A robot that feels, sees and, in particular, thinks and learns like us. It still seems like science fiction, but if it's up to University of Twente (UT) researcher Frank van der Velde, it won't be. In his work he wants to implement the cognitive process of the human brain in robots. The research should lead to the arrival of the latest version of the iCub robot in Twente. This human robot (humanoid) blurs the boundaries between robot and human.

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Decades of scientific research into cognitive psychology and the brain have given us knowledge about language, memory, motor skills and perception. We can now use that knowledge in robots, but Frank van der Velde's research goes even further. "The application of cognition in technical systems should also mean that the robot learns from its experiences and the actions it performs. A simple example: a robot that spills too much when pouring a cup of coffee can then learn how it should be done."

Possible first iCub in the Netherlands

The arrival of the iCub robot at the University of Twente should signify the next step in this research. Van der Velde submitted an application together with other UT researchers Stefano Stramigioli, Vanessa Evers, Dirk Heylen and Richard van Wezel, all active in the robotics and cognitive research. At the moment, twenty European laboratories have an iCub, which was developed in Italy (thanks to a European FP7 grant for the IIT). The Netherlands is still missing from the list. Moreover, a newer version is currently being developed, with for example haptic sensors. In February it will be announced whether the robotics club will actually bring the latest iCub to the UT. The robot costs a quarter of a million Euros and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) will reimburse 75% of the costs. Then the TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the universities of Groningen, Nijmegen, Delft and Eindhoven can also make use of it. Within the UT, the iCub can be deployed in different labo

ratories thanks to a special transport system.

Robot guide dog

The possibilities are endless, according to Van der Velde. "The new iCub has a skin and fingers that have a much better sense of touch and can feel strength. That makes interaction with humans much more natural. We want to ensure that this robot continues to learn and understands how people function. This research ensures, for example, that robots actually gather knowledge by focusing on certain objects or persons. In areas of application like healthcare and nursing, such robots can play an important role. A good example would be that in ten years' time you see a blind person walking with a robot guide dog."

Nano-neural circuits

A recent line of research that is in line with this profile is the development of electronic circuits that resemble a web of neurons in the human brain. Contacts have already been made to start this research in Twente. In the iCub robot, this can for example be used for the robot's visual perception. This requires a lot of relatively simple operations that must all be performed in parallel. This takes a lot of time and energy in the current systems. With electronic circuits in the form of a web of nerve cells this is much easier.

"These connections are only possible at the nanoscale, that is to say the scale at which the material is only a few atoms thick. In combination with the iCub robot, it can be investigated how the experiences of the robot are recorded in such materials and how the robot is controlled by nano-neural circuitry. The bottleneck of the existing technical systems is often the energy consumption and the size. The limits of Moore's Law, the proposition that the number of transistors in a circuit doubles every two years through technological advances, are reached. In this area we are therefore also on the verge of many new applications."

MTM Tricks & Tips

Microsoft Test Manager Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Test Manager 2010 (MTM) is a testing utility for managing and running manual and automated test cases for a TFS Team Project. It integrates really well with Visual Studio 2010 and the Visual Studio 2010 web client (http://icstfsweb). However, there are several helpful tips and tricks that can make using MTM a better overall experience. This article contains some of those helpful hints and will continue to grow as new things are discovered.The first thing that must be done to improve the MTM experience is to install Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1. There were some significant bug fixes and improvements to MTM that were released in SP1 due to a lot of customer complaints when it was initially released in April 2010. The Microsoft site has the full list of SP1 improvements to MTM. To install SP1, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=75568aa6-8107-475d-948a-ef22627e57a5&displaylang=en.Installing SP1 and SP2
The Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 has a number of testing features that expand MTM including capture and playback for Silverlight 4 web applications, using action recording to fast forward through manual tests, and support for coded UI tests using Firefox. It is cumulative so FP2 includes everything in FP1. For more information about Visual Studio 2010 FP2, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=75568aa6-8107-475d-948a-ef22627e57a5&displaylang=en.

Pausing and Resuming a Manual Test

There is a handy little trick that Microsoft did a poor job of making visible, so you may not be aware of it. When running a manual test in Test Runner, there may be a need for return to MTM while running a test (that is, to look at the Test Case details). There is a Pause button, but that will not return to MTM to view details about the Test Plan or Test Cases.

At the top of the Test Runner GUI, there is an icon that will allow you to pause the current run (even if you are creating an Action Recording). If you hover over the icon, the tooltip says, "Return to the Testing Center" (see Figure 1).

"Return to the Testing Center" icon (Figure 1).

When inside the Testing Center, you can view Test Cases, change Test Plan properties, or whatever you wish. When you want to resume the running of the manual test, click on the Return to Test Runner icon in the upper right-hand area of the Testing Center (see Figure 2). When hovering over the icon, the tooltip displays "Return to Test Runner." This icon is only visible when you have paused a manual test run.

"Return to Test Runner" icon (Figure 2).

Speeding Things Up in Test Runner

By default, a local set of Test Settings is created so you can immediately start running manual tests in Test Runner. However, the default settings may not be the best for the testing you are doing. You can go into the Lab Center and create a new set of Test Settings under theSettings tab, by clicking on the New button (see Figure 3).

Creating New Test Settings (Figure 3).

This will open up a new form where you can specify your customized Test Settings. On the first page of the New Test Settings Manager, type in a name, description (optional), and specify if these will be used for Manual Tests or Automated Tests (see Figure 4). Then click on the Nextbutton.

General Test Settings (Figure 4).

On the next page you can select the Roles that your test machine will use. Typically this would be either Desktop Client or Web Client depending the type of application you are testing. The simplest Role would be Local if you are just running manual tests on your laptop. After selecting one (or more) of the Roles, click the Next button.

The next page is where you can select and configure the Data and Diagnostics that you want to have saved off for each running Test Case. These settings can affect your performance (see Figure 5).

Data and Diagnostics Test Settings (Figure 5).

The biggest slow down can come if you have IntelliTrace turned on. Typically you would want this turned off until you have a failing test that you want to debug. In that scenario you would turn it on so you get more information to determine what the problem is.

The Video Recorder setting is a great option to turn on when you have automated tests running overnight. You can actually see what happened while your test was running (you will need Microsoft Expression Encoder installed). There is a setting in the configuration of the Video Recorder options to save videos of passing tests. It will save a lot of disk space if you deselect that option – videos of failing tests will still be saved (see Figure 6).

Configure Video Recorder (Figure 6).

Click the Next button to see the Summary page, and then click Finish. You can set these Test Settings to be used by default on all manual tests by going to the Test Plan Properties page.

Test Controller on a lab Virtual Machine

There is a trick to getting a Test Controller to work properly on a Virtual Machine (VM) in the lab. The problem is that if you are at your desk on your machine, you will not be able to send tests that you want to run to that Test Controller. It has a problem resolving the name of the machine. Even though the machine is registered and added to the TFS Collection, your machine will not be able to resolve the name. It has to do with DNS. You can do either of two things to overcome the problem (the second option is recommended).

1. You can add the IP address of the VM to your local hosts file. To do this you would find out the IP address of the VM, then go to (usually)C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc, and then add the IP address of the VM to the hosts file.
2. The other option is to contact the lab team (Alan Keeler, Rodney Harrison, among others) and ask them to add the VM bane to the DNS on ldschurc.org. This will allow any user that has rights to see the Test Controller to send tests to it.

One last thing to remember is that you must have Test Agents registered with the Test Controller to actually run the tests. The Test Controller only does the coordination of sending out the tests to the Agents and routing the results back to the TFS database.

Video Recording

You can turn on Video Recording which will take a video of Tests that are running or even ad hoc manual testing. To make this option available, it will be required to install Microsoft Expression Encoder 4.0. This is a free download from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24601. The files are stored in a "Expression Encoder Screen Capture" format and saved it with a ".XESC" extension. To turn this feature on, see Figure 5 above in the Speeding Things Up in Test Runner section.

There may be some people that will want to replay the recording but don't want to install Expression Encoder. There is a way to get the minimal pieces to see the encoding by installing the codec at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=10732 and theninstalling the video data adapter.

There is one other option which is that you could open the video recording .XESC file in Microsoft Expression Encoder and save it in WMV or MP4 format. Test Runner will save the video recording file automatically to a bug when created from a failed Test Case in the default XESC format. It is possible to open the file, convert it, attach the WMV or MP4 file to the bug, and then delete the XESC file. Then anyone can replay the videos without installing anything.

Adding Special Suites

By default, the only Work Item Type (WIT) that can be added as a suite (also known as a requirement) to a Test Plan in MTM 2010 is a "User Story." If you try to add any other type of item to the Test Plan it will fail and possibly crash. The way to add more WITs as acceptable suites or requirements is to use the witadmin utility which is located in Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE.

To see the options available to pass in on the command-line to witadmin.exe, type:

Witadmin /?.

First, export the existing Categories settings document which specifies the Work Item Types that can be used throughout TFS, Visual Studio, and MTM. To export the XML file, type:

Witadmin exportcategories /collection:http://icstfs.ldschurch.org/tfs/UpgradeFromICSTFS2008 /p:<Your Project Name> /f:”C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Documents\TFScategories.xml”

Once that is downloaded to your machine, you can modify it and then import it back to the TFS Server. Open the TFSCategories.xml file and find the category to be changed. In the case of adding more acceptable WITs to become suites in MTM, look for the following section:

<CATEGORY refname="Microsoft.RequirementCategory" name="Requirement Category">
  <DEFAULTWORKITEMTYPE name="User Story" />
</CATEGORY>

Make the desired modifications by adding lines that specify the other WITs to be added. The changes should look something like the following:

<CATEGORY refname="Microsoft.RequirementCategory" name="Requirement Category">
  <DEFAULTWORKITEMTYPE name="User Story" />
  <WORKITEMTYPE name="Requirement" />
  <WORKITEMTYPE name="Task" />
</CATEGORY>

Once the XML file contains the desired changes, it needs to be saved and imported to TFS. Type the following to import it:

Witadmin importcategories /collection:http://icstfs.ldschurch.org/tfs/UpgradeFromICSTFS2008 /p:<Your Project Name> /f:”C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Documents\TFScategories.xml”

It will be necessary to close and restart Microsoft Test Manager if it was open while making the changes. After restarting MTM, it should be possible to add Work Items of the newly added types to the Test Plan as suites (or requirements).