Researchers at Washington State University(WSU) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory(PNNL) have developed a Sodium ion battery that is as much efficient as Lithium ion battery.Hence ,it creates a potentially viable battery technology out of cheap and abundant materials.

The research was led by Yuehe Lin, professor in WSU’s school of Mechanical and Materials Engineering ,Xiaolin Li , senior research scientist at PNNL and Junhua Song ,a WSU PhD graduate. Research finding of team- Sodium ion battery is able to provide capacity similar to some Li-ion batteries and to recharge successfully , retaining more than 80 percent of its charge after 1,000 cycles. Advantage of Na-ion battery over Li-ion battery
Li-ion batteries are made from materials such as Lithium and Cobalt which are rare and expensive.In future demand for electricity storage and electric vehicles can rise so it will harder to get raw materials for Li-ion batteries and cost of Li-ion may also rise.
Sodium ion batteries will be manufactured by using Sodium which is cheap and abundant.Sodium could be good choice for large scale energy storage
Challenges in development of Sodium ion battery- 1.Sodium -ion have problem being recharged as would be required for effective energy storage.Layer of inactive Sodium crystals builds up at the cathode , hence stopping the flow of Sodium ions and consequently, exhausting the battery. 2.Battery should have high energy density and good cycle life. How researchers overcame above difficulty? The research team overcame above difficulty by creating a layered metal oxide cathode and liquid electrolyte that included extra Sodium ions, thereby preventing inactive surface crystal build-up and allowing for unrestricted electricity generation. Now, researchers are working to better understand the important exchange between their electrolyte and cathode, so that researchers can work with other materials for better design of battery. They also want to develop a battery that does not use Cobalt ,another rare and relatively expensive material. “This work paves the way toward practical sodium-ion batteries, and the fundamental insights we gained about the cathode-electrolyte interaction shed light on how we might develop future cobalt-free or low cobalt cathode materials in sodium-ion batteries as well as in other types of battery chemistries,” Song said. Ref:- https://news.wsu.edu/2020/06/01/researchers-develop-viable-sodium-battery/ Link of original article on my blog -https://www.piyushknowledgeblog.education/2020/06/sodium-ion-battery-alternate-to-li-ion.html

DevOps practices have become quite popular with IT organizations as they help to reduce the software development life cycle and offer continuous delivery with no compromise in quality. With the constant trend of remote teams, it has become necessary to bring DevOps culture within operations for optimized performance.

Especially DevOps solution providers, today, act as a glue between organizations and teams to help them accomplish their tasks within the deadlines. They are offering their expertise with tools, project management, and a complete lifecycle to help them grow in the right direction.

Here are the five tips to help you grow stronger remote teams for helping leaders, managers, and supervisors to build a more productive environment.

Recruitment and Hiring process

First of all, organizations must establish hiring and recruitment policies for professionals. Human resources need to use their industry contacts to filter potential candidates in remote areas. They are training human resource employees to conduct interviews online, as well as through videos, and phone for analysing skills expertise of professionals. Expanding your hiring strategies means letting your hiring team be aware of the DevOps standards they need to follow in their performance effectively. Taking the direction of DevOps service provider can be quite helpful in enjoying a qualitative work performance.

Reducing Barriers

With remote teams, one of the significant causes of concern are barriers of language, timing, and working in collaboration. Here DevOps services can help you build effective practices, guidelines, tools, and schedules in leveraging the smooth workflows to get desired results. With teams from multiple countries, it may become difficult in the beginning to get a collective approach among each other.

Team leads have to be proactive to know members personally and create a friendly atmosphere, especially for new members. Introducing new members and letting them accustomed to the environment will help them add their opinions and ideas to the projects. It’s all about making them feel comfortable in the whole process. Project managers at least need to use the same language to clear their doubts and achieve given tasks. Although English is standard among international teams, local or regional languages can still impact the understanding of ideas.

Communication

With remote teams, one of the major constraints is conveying the right message to the right person. Managers, supervisors, or team leaders will assign tasks on CMS or project management tools with notifications to the respective member. Though, any common convergence points or collaboration activities can create confusion among team members. Communication here plays a major role as remote teams work together, achieving organizational goals.

Team leaders have to be pro-active in arranging regular meetings between developers and members to bring their combined opinion for the work discussion. Combining activities, rewarding project completion, and personalization can enhance the understanding among remote team members.

Maintain Expectations – Don’t overburden employees

Both employers and employees must have a clear idea of the expectations. Rather than overloading employees with extra work and aspirations, roles and responsibilities need to be identified from the beginning. Overburdening remote teams with extra work will discourage the spirits of employees, and often projects fail due to such expectations. With remote teams, you need to put separate measures efficiently to manage specific tasks and roles within projects to avoid any pitfall later.

Employees need to understand the efforts they bring to this environment and how to affect the overall goals. Employees need to work at their optimum level to showcase them to the teams and gain the right impressions from the employer’s perspective.

Embrace the New DevOps Culture

With DevOps, adaptability is the key to deliver high performance. With a DevOps mindset, businesses are always looking to improve, refine, and bring more productivity through their environment. Sometimes it can be difficult for members to accept the routine of a remote working environment, and this can distract them, and furthers the lower performance to meet the organizational goals. Team leads should use their skills and expertise to build a more engaging environment to streamline DevOps culture within the organization.

Conclusion

Following tips can help businesses to build stronger teams and bring a more productive environment. High-level professionals must use them strategically to maintain optimum DevOps standards and stay competitive all the time. The trend for remote working has improved significantly in the last few years, and with the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe, it seems to continue for the long-term. Organizations now strictly follow DevOps standards, and remote teams need to understand them quickly to streamline collective efforts.

Cuelogic is an established IT organization offering DevOps solutions for businesses to involve and evolve these best practices in their premises. We provide complete consultation, tools, and support for teams to get adjusted with DevOps to perform at their optimum level always.

In this article, we will introduce you to the 5 most important WordPress plugins for search engine optimization and explain what distinguishes each. Better yet, we will also provide real data to justify why we believe each plugin is essential.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is by far the most popular SEO tool in the WordPress landscape and it is easy to understand why it is one of our most needed plugins. Not only can it help you improve your SEO, but it can also analyze the readability of your content. About 75% of users can only your posts and pages, so the more accessible your copy is, the better your chances of attracting their attention.

When it comes to SEO, there are many ways to drive traffic to your site. However, none offer as much potential as search engines. Google performs nine billion searches every day. It is no exaggeration to say that organic traffic can make or break a website and in most cases, it is not possible to buy it. To bring that point home, only 5% of search engine traffic leads users to paid results. Therefore, working on keyword strategy is critical for any website.

Main features:

Optimize Meta title and description of your website page or posts.
Find out how your content is currently optimized and easily make improvements.
Improve the readability of your content with easy tips.
Jetpack

Jetpack is a suite of plugins that combines the essential features of WordPress into one great plugin. It lets you manage the features you want to use, and can turn off unwanted features.

But as your website grows, you may want to expand beyond Jetpack. You may need advanced capabilities offered in some third-party WordPress plugins.

In these cases, it makes sense to look at Jetpack alternatives for the specific features you need.

Easy Table of Contents

This plugin includes several advanced applications and is perfect for anyone just starting web design.

Automatically generate a table of contents for your custom posts, pages, and post types by analyzing content in the headers. You can choose where and when the table of contents can be inserted into your articles. You also get several options for setting up the table of contents and controlling how it will appear.

The Simple Index supports smooth controls and multi-pillar counter formats. It allows the user to hide the table of contents of the posts if desired.

If you think this add-on is not useful, you can recommend it to the developers. If your recommendation is valid, they will surely add to the add-on.

Inline Related Posts

Inline articles are different from other plugins in this list. Instead of displaying related articles below, this plugin shows them in articles. This type of inline visualization is very popular on news sites and blogs.

Pros:

Display related articles when users are interested in content and more clickable. Installation is easy and you can control which links to your profile.

Cons:

To find related articles at the end of each post, you need to install another plugin. Two plugins connected to a site can be successful.

W3 Total Cache

To perform better SEO we need to speed up our website or blog to load faster. But there some heavy CSS, js, or images that can be a reason for slow speed.

W3 Total Cash is another popular plugin to improve speed. This goes beyond being a simple cache plugin.

There are excellent options to support and a variety of caching methods.

Improved support for Cloudflare and other CDN services.

But the reality is that there are so many options that it is not easy to configure. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can break something. This is why I recommend this plugin to experienced users.

It is also worth noting that uninstalling this plugin can be complicated: it takes more than the typical disable and deletes to get rid of it.

Source: How to Use Tumblr for Blogging and Social Networking

Tumblr is much popular amongst the youngsters of this generation. It’s an online platform where they can share photos, gifs, videos, etc. You can chat, like, and comment on other’s posts just like any other social media site. But the community game of Tumblr is stronger than it is anywhere else. You can choose what you see and follow trends. In fact, did you know the ‘aesthetic’ trend was initially started by Tumblr? If you are new to it, you must be wondering how it works. Well, here’s all you need to know about it.

Sign Up for a Tumblr Account and Access Your Dashboard
Tumblr is both a blogging platform and social media. It’s quite similar to Instagram, Facebook, etc. You can post pictures, videos, short blogs, infographics, etc. The blogs on Tumblr are mostly in the form of pictures and short blogs. You can follow the things you like and post amazing stuff. Things on Tumblr can go viral in just an hour.

To create a Tumblr ID, go to Tumblr.com or download the app. Fill in the login form, with your email ID and an unique username. Once you log in, it will show you various gifs related to various fields out of which you choose your areas of interest. Tumblr will recommend your blogs related to your interests only. At your dashboard, you will see posts from accounts you choose to follow and at the top, there will be icons through which you can post what you like.

Customize Your Blog Theme and Options
The fun thing in Tumblr is that you can change your profile layout anytime you want. On Tumblr, you get the option to choose from a platter of paid and free themes. To change your profile theme, click the ‘user’ icon at the top of the menu > ‘Your Blog Name’ > Edit Appearance. You can now customize your profile by adding a profile photo, a description, or a blog title. You can change the theme, username, and also encrypt your profile for security. You can allow or restrict people from watching what posts you like and which accounts you follow. Tumblr also gives you the option to connect your Instagram and Twitter handles.

Explore Tumblr to Follow Blogs You Like
There are plenty of ways to follow the blogs you like. You can use the search bar to find people you like or you can use keywords of your choice or hashtags to find out all the blogs who use those words and hashtags. Along with this, Tumblr also suggests your blogs based on your search and following. You may find out about one of your friends through the suggestions or come across some really interesting accounts. If you come across a blog you find really interesting, notice the ‘follow’ option at the top right corner. Click on that to follow.

Start Posting Content on Your Tumblr Blog
When you start posting on Tumblr, go visual. Tumblr is all about amazing pictures, funny videos, and gifs. It also has its own GIF search engine. To make people discover your posts easily, start using tags related to your posts. You can also use the ‘extra’ options when you write posts to add pictures, lines, and other media. Remember, in order to be popular, you need to post regularly. You can also schedule your posts to be published.

Interact With Other Users and Their Posts
To attract people, you need to interact with them. Start by liking and commenting on the posts you like. You can also reblog them on your page by clicking the double arrow button. Follow people you like and submit a post to their blog. If they are accepting submissions, and they chose to post your blog, you can gain a lot of notice from their audience. You can ask questions to people publicly or connect with them to direct messages or mail. When you interact with people, you make them notice you and that’s the secret of gaining more followers.

That’s all you need to know guys if you are just starting with Tumblr. Rest, you can discover on your own once you start using it. Go on people, use Tumblr, and post amazing content.

Laura barton is a Norton product expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2002. As a technical expert, Daniel has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as norton.com/setup.