Effect of water‐absorbing nanospheres on antistatic property of isotactic polypropylene fibers

In this article, novel antistatic isotactic polypropylene (iPP) fibers were prepared through adding ternary polymer water‐absorbing nanospheres (TPWANs) into iPP melt in melt spinning process. The TPWANs were synthesized through emulsion copolymerization of styrene (St), butyl acrylate (BA), and sodium allylsulfonate (SAS). The characterization results of Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT‐IR) and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) confirmed the ternary components in this copolymer. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated the nanospherical shape of TPWANs with the characteristics of 80–90 nm size range of diameter and good dispersion in iPP fibers. The volume resistance of iPP fibers decreased by three orders from 10¹² to 10⁹ Ω cm when the 6 wt % TPWANs was added into iPP fibers, indicating that the blend fibers have good antistatic property. Most importantly, the nanospherical structure of TPWANs imparts both the compatibility and antistatic property into the blend iPP fibers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40568.     

Sustainability indicators for the assessment of nuclear power

Electricity supplies an increasing share of the world’s total energy demand and that contribution is set to increase. At the same time, there is increasing socio-political will to mitigate impacts of climate change as well as to improve energy security. This, in combination with the desire to ensure social and economic prosperity, creates a pressing need to consider the sustainability implications of future electricity generation. However, approaches to sustainability assessment differ greatly in their scope and methodology as currently there is no standardised approach. With this in mind, this paper reviews sustainability indicators that have previously been used to assess energy options and proposes a new sustainability assessment methodology based on a life cycle approach. In total, 43 indicators are proposed, addressing the techno-economic, environmental and social sustainability issues associated with energy systems. The framework has been developed primarily to address concerns associated with nuclear power in the UK, but is applicable to other energy technologies as well as to other countries.     

Whodunnit – Searching for the most important feature types signalling emotion-related user states in speech

In this article, we describe and interpret a set of acoustic and linguistic features that characterise emotional/emotion-related user states – confined to the one database processed: four classes in a German corpus of children interacting with a pet robot. To this end, we collected a very large feature vector consisting of more than 4000 features extracted at different sites. We performed extensive feature selection (Sequential Forward Floating Search) for seven acoustic and four linguistic types of features, ending up in a small number of ‘most important’ features which we try to interpret by discussing the impact of different feature and extraction types. We establish different measures of impact and discuss the mutual influence of acoustics and linguistics.     

Thermophysical property modifications in functional polymers via lanthanide trichloride hydrates

Fourteen water‐soluble trivalent metal chlorides from lanthanum to lutetium in the 1st‐row of the f‐block form complexes with poly(vinylamine) and increase the glass transition temperature from 57°C to well above 100°C at very low molar concentrations of the lanthanide. The large ionic radii of these hard‐acid cations allow several hard‐base amino sidegroups in the polymer to occupy sites in the first shell coordination sphere via ion‐dipole (i.e., electrostatic) interactions, which leads to microclustering of the ligands about a single metal center. The enhancement in the glass transition temperature is explained in terms of multi‐functional coordination crosslinklng. f‐Block salts induce larger increases in T_g, relative to transition metal‐complexes from the d‐block, however CoCl₂(H₂O)₆ performs comparably to some of the more efficient lanthanides. Blends of poly(vinylamine) and trimethoxysilyl‐propylpoly(ethylene imine)hydrochloride form complexes with europium(III) and exhibit synergistic single T_g response. Since lanthanides form very stable complexes with chelating (i.e., bidentate) oxygen ligands, it is possible to increase the elastic modulus of commercially important copolymers of ethylene and methacrylic acid via Eu³⁺ complexation with the carboxylate anion. This claim is verified by infrared spectroscopy. Temperature and pH‐sensitive applications for drug delivery and removal of contaminants from wastewater streams should increase the utility of these lanthanide complexes.     

Pepper's ghost faces the camera

Abstract

The theatrical illusion known as Pepper's Ghost was first conceived by a retired civil engineer named Henry Dircks, who sold it (as the Ætheroscope) in 1862 to John Henry Pepper, director of the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street. The Polytechnic was one of Victorian London's favourite haunts, popular for its scientific entertainments combining instruction and amusement.     

Experimental study of the brittle–ductile transition in hot cutting of SG iron specimens

The present paper investigates the brittle–ductile transition (BDT) of the primary shear zone during cutting of spheroidal graphite (SG) iron in the austenitization temperature range (around 1000 °C). The experimental tests were performed using a cutting test bench in the cutting speed range of 0.8–1.6 m s^?1. The cut surfaces were studied using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis techniques. The obtained results revealed either consequent deep fractured regions governed by a brittle-cracking regime (BCR) or a crack-free cut surface governed by a ductile-shear regime (DSR) with large plastic deformations.When cutting data were discussed with respect to the influences of cutting parameters and obtained cut surface, the correlation is significantly rich. Both cut surface integrity, cutting force curves and metallographic results show a BDT indicating a change in the dominating hot cutting process mechanism. Such a transition is associated with the dynamic recrystallization promoting strain softening and hot cutting by ductile shearing.     

Relations between neighborhood factors, parenting behaviors, peer deviance, and delinquency among serious juvenile offenders.

The present study examined relations among neighborhood structural and social characteristics, parenting practices, peer group affiliations, and delinquency among a group of serious adolescent offenders. The sample of 14-18-year-old boys (N = 488) was composed primarily of economically disadvantaged, ethnic-minority youth living in urban communities. The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending. The authors also find that community social ties may confer both pro- and antisocial influences to youth, and they advocate for a broad conceptualization of neighborhood social processes as these relate to developmental risk for youth living in disadvantaged communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological consequences of an exercise training program for a paraplegic man: A case study.

Examined the effects of a 12-wk exercise training program on the mood states (assessed via the Profile of Mood States [POMS]) of a 27-yr-old spinal-cord-injured male in a rehabilitation hospital. S was administered the POMS immediately before and after the program and once each week during the program. S demonstrated major mood changes following exercise training, indicating a significant decrease in tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion and a significant increase in vigor. Findings support the hypothesis that vigorous physical exercise can be a useful therapeutic strategy with the disabled. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of prognostic information on global ratings of psychotherapy outcome.

30 graduate students in clinical psychology (raters) viewed a videotape recording of an interview with a patient after having read 1 of 3 types of posttherapy information about the patient. One group of raters was presented information associated with a good prognosis, one group was presented information associated with a poor prognosis, and the last group received neutral information about the patient. Half of the members of each group were told that the interview was made at the termination of therapy, the other half were told that it was a 1-yr follow-up interview. All raters then completed scales regarding patient's level of adjustment, psychic distress, amount of change, and success of patient's therapy. Only ratings of pre- to posttherapy patient change varied as a function of prognostic information. Results suggest that although poor prognosis patients are perceived as exhibiting more change than good prognosis patients, only final level of functioning determines global judgments of psychotherapy outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dual source fourier transform polarization modulation spectroscopy: an improved method for the measurement of circular and linear dichroism

It is shown that the use of two sources in a four-port interferometer equipped with cube-corner mirrors leads to increased signal-to-noise ratios in Fourier transform (FT-IR) circular and linear dichroism spectra. The output beam to the sample is a superposition of two interferograms, one from each source, having opposite Fourier phases. These two interferograms cancel one another to the degree that the two sources are matched in intensity. If the radiation from each of the two sources is first polarized orthogonally with respect to the other and passed through a polarization modulator before reaching the sample, the resulting polarization-modulation interferograms are out of Fourier phase and out of polarization-modulation phase. As a result, the polarization-modulation interferograms, due to circular or linear dichroism in the sample, from the two sources combine positively rather than negatively. An improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of up to two (or a factor of four in scan-time reduction for the same signal-to-noise ratio) compared to single source operation can be realized, while at the same time, the potential for saturation of the detector signal is significantly reduced due to the reduction in magnitude of the combined ordinary infrared transmission interferogram. Absorption and circular dichroism spectra from a dual-source FT-IR spectrometer are presented and analyzed.