Distribution of oil in olefinic thermoplastic elastomer blends

The distribution of processing oil in two olefinic thermoplastic elastomer (OTPE) blends was determined using dielectric spectroscopy. The OPTE blends are blends of dynamically vulcanised EPDM with polypropylene (PP), TPVs, and blends of PP with SEBS. Both blend types contain paraffinic oil, which is present in both the PP and in the elastomer phase. The determination of the actual oil concentration by measuring the reduction in the glass transition temperatures (T_g) is inaccurate using DSC or DMA, because the glass transition dynamics of the two phases overlap. The blends were made sensible for dielectric spectroscopy by the addition of a probe molecule. The oil distribution was determined by modelling of the dielectric loss of the OPTE blends in the T_g regime from the ones of the binary mixtures. The mean value for the oil distribution coefficient was found to be 0.6 for PP/SEBS blends and 0.63 for TPVs.     

Games, Virtual Reality, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The paper discusses the aspects of games and virtual reality in human happiness.In the past few decades, scientists have focused most of their attention on developing technologies that sharpen only the minds or relieve minds and bodies of certain duties. The people become smarter but incredibly unhealthy. Health games seem to offer one solution to this problem. Entertainment based health interventions have a huge potential to transform healthcare. Most people love games.Play is a fundamental mode of expression, fulfills the human need to connect with the "other," and can even be fun. Serious play is also great exercise for the mind and spirit. The Nintendo Wii was a good start for motivating people to get off the couch. But Wii isn't good enough for virtual reality (VR) fans due to easy sensor cheats, but Wii is the first step toward liberation. For many people, the Wii is as close to VR as they've ever gotten. Health games and sensor based experiences have recently become the new, shiny promise of hope and change in our field. However, an affordable, untethered full body VR experience is still the Holy Grail. Playing Flower game was as close to VR. Liberated from complex controller buttons, the author role played a flower petal by using the controller's tilt sensor to navigate a sublime landscape.It was exhilarating, and for once, appreciated all the special realtime graphics effects that compensated for the absence of head tracking and stereoscopy, luxuries that was always expected from VR. The author concluded that health games is an exciting research area today. It's an opportunity to reuse what learned from decades of CG, VR, and digital game research, merge that with knowledge with other areas, and release new ideas into the world.     

Morphology and gas transport properties of acrylic resin/bentonite nanocomposite coatings

This is a study of the addition of hydrophilic bentonite nano-platelets in acrylic polymer resin to make nano-composite coatings. The mechanism of the dispersion of the nano-platelets during film formation and curing form aqueous suspensions is described. The morphological features of the coating and the degree of exfoliation are examined via X-ray diffraction. The impact of the solvent evaporation rate on the properties of the film is studied. The influence of the shape of the nano-sized objects and their dispersion level on the transport characteristics of the nanocomposite film is measured and their effect on the polymer free volume is discussed.