Here Is a Summary of the Materials We Read at the K-SEC Meeting on June 19, 2017

K-SEC

Meeting Summary

June 19,2017

Here is a summary of the materials we read at the K-SEC meeting on June 19, 2017.

Attendees (in ABC order):

Kanzawa, Kotake, Nishimura, Nishiwaki,Sekiguchi, Shirashouji,

Tomozawa, Tsurumoto, Umemura(Total of9)

Materials read:

Device pulls water from dry air,powered only by the sun - Nishiwaki

This article is a publication from UC Berkeley, dated April 13, 2017.

The prototype, under conditions of 20-30 percent humidity, was able to pull 2.8 liters (3 quarts) of water from the air over a 12-hour period, using one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF. Rooftop tests at MIT confirmed that the device works in real-world conditions.

Omr Yaghi invented metal-organic frameworks more than 20 years ago, combining metals like magnesium or aluminum with organic molecules in a tinker-toy arrangement to create rigid, porous structures ideal for storing gases and liquids. Since then, more than 20,000 different MOFs have been created by researchers worldwide.

In 2014, Yaghi and his UC Berkeley team synthesized a MOF – a combination of zirconium metal and adipic acid – which binds water vapor, and he suggested to Evelyn Wang, a mechanical engineer at MIT, that they join forces to turn the MOF into a water-collecting system.

The system Wang and her students designed consisted of more than two pounds of dust-sized MOF crystals compressed between a solar absorber and a condenser plate, placed inside a chamber open to the air. As ambient air diffuses through the porous MOF, water molecules preferentially attach to the interior surfaces.

Sunlight entering through a window heats up the MOF and drives the bound water toward the condenser, which is at the temperature of the outside air. The vapor condenses as liquid water and drips into a collector.

The current MOF can absorb only 20 percent of its weight in water, but other MOF materials could possibly absorb 40 percent or more. The material can also be tweaked to be more effective at higher or lower humidity levels.

2. Native English speakers are the world’s worst communicators - Tsurumoto

By Lennox Morison BBC Capital 31, October 2016

English has by now become the world’s communicating language. People using English as a second or third language frequently communicate with those who are native speakers as well as non-native speakers over business and other issues.

Non-native speakers often use English purposefully and carefully. On the other hand, native speakers speak fast, use jokes, slangs and silly abbreviations.

While the English language has become the world’s communicating tool, a lot of Anglophones feel relieved because they do not need to spend much time to learn other foreign languages and consequently they lack ability to become receptive, adaptable and to tune in to different ways of using English.

In the article there was one incident mentioned which caused loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars due to a misunderstanding of just one word. The article does not specify what word it was but effectively describe that there can be many other situations where misunderstandings occur or meanings intended by native English speakers are lost, thus causing costly problems. This article says that it is usually the native speakers who are to beblamed. They are worse at delivering their messages.

In order to alleviate the situation, ex-French marketing executive at IBM Jean-Paul Nerriere devised Globish 1500. According to Globish 1500, non-native speakers can communicate with other non-natives and Anglophones as well without causing misunderstanding each other.

The 1500 words are roughly similar to the number of words that we are required to learn in three years at junior high schools. If this standard has become a norm and been adapted widely in the world, it would be pressure-relieving for most of the Japanese students and adults.

Having been a war-losing country, under the military occupation and long-lasting cultural influences thereafter, we Japanese have been pressured to elevate our English capability to as close as to Americans. We may not need to be concerned so much about our level of English any more.

We should proudly demand now, “You Americans, learn and speak Globish so we can communicate with you well.”

Role assignment for July3, 2017

Nishimura, Sadayasu