Synthesis and Applications of Inorganic/Organic-Polymer Nanocomposites

This research work focuses on developing new synthesis routes to fabricate polymer nanocomposites tailored towards different applications. A simple, one-step method has been devised for synthesizing free-standing, flexible metal nanoparticlepolydimethylsiloxane films. This process simplifies prevalent methods to synthesize nanocomposites, in that here nanoparticles are created in situ while curing the polymer. This route circumvents the need for pre-synthesized nanoparticles, external reducing agents and stabilizers, thereby significantly reducing processing time and cost. The resulting nanocomposite also demonstrates enhancement in mechanical and antibacterial properties, with other envisaged applications in biomedical devices and catalysis. Applying the same mechanism as that used for the formation of bulk metalsiloxane nanocomposites, metal core-siloxane shell nanoparticles and siloxane nanowires were synthesized, with octadecylsilane as the precursor and in situ formed metal nanoparticles (gold, silver) as the catalyst. This method offers some unique advantages over the previously existing methods. This is a room temperature route which does not require high temperature refluxing or the use of pre-synthesized nanoparticles. Furthermore, this synthesis process gives a control over the shape of resulting nanocomposite structures (1-D wires or 0-D spherical particles). High thermal stability of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) makes it viable to alternatively synthesize metal nanoparticles in the polymer matrix by thermal decomposition process. This technique is generic across a range of metals (palladium, iron, nickel) and results in nanoparticles with a very narrow size distribution. Membranes 111 with palladium nanopartic1es demonstrate catalytic activity in ethylene hydrogenation reaction. Additionally, a new nanocomposite electrode has been developed for flexible and light-weight Li-ion batteries. Flexible films were prepared by the integration of the poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) polymer electrolyte with the three-dimensional (3D), nanostructured electrode composed of aligned carbon nanotube (CNT)-copper oxide hybrid. This hybrid electrode was fabricated by a combination of chemical vapor deposition and electrodeposition techniques. Embedding it in PVDF polymer results in a flexible system and also renders an external separator redundant. This new design shows an improvement in electrochemical performance over pure CNTs as both CNTs and CU20 contribute towards electrochemical activity. Efforts have also been undertaken towards synthesizing synthetic adhesives by mimicking the design principles found in nature. Aligned patterned CNTs have been used to replicate the fibrillar structure found in geckos' toes which generates adhesion through van der Waals forces. The adhesive forces in CNTs were found to be higher than in geckos and the key to this phenomenon lies in the extensive side-wall contact obtained on compressing CNTs against a surface

Systematic Approaches for Telemedicine and Data Coordination for COVID-19 in Baja California, Mexico

Conference proceedings info: ICICT 2023: 2023 The 6th International Conference on Information and Computer Technologies Raleigh, HI, United States, March 24-26, 2023 Pages 529-542We provide a model for systematic implementation of telemedicine within a large evaluation center for COVID-19 in the area of Baja California, Mexico. Our model is based on human-centric design factors and cross disciplinary collaborations for scalable data-driven enablement of smartphone, cellular, and video Teleconsul-tation technologies to link hospitals, clinics, and emergency medical services for point-of-care assessments of COVID testing, and for subsequent treatment and quar-antine decisions. A multidisciplinary team was rapidly created, in cooperation with different institutions, including: the Autonomous University of Baja California, the Ministry of Health, the Command, Communication and Computer Control Center of the Ministry of the State of Baja California (C4), Colleges of Medicine, and the College of Psychologists. Our objective is to provide information to the public and to evaluate COVID-19 in real time and to track, regional, municipal, and state-wide data in real time that informs supply chains and resource allocation with the anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases. RESUMEN Proporcionamos un modelo para la implementación sistemática de la telemedicina dentro de un gran centro de evaluación de COVID-19 en el área de Baja California, México. Nuestro modelo se basa en factores de diseño centrados en el ser humano y colaboraciones interdisciplinarias para la habilitación escalable basada en datos de tecnologías de teleconsulta de teléfonos inteligentes, celulares y video para vincular hospitales, clínicas y servicios médicos de emergencia para evaluaciones de COVID en el punto de atención. pruebas, y para el tratamiento posterior y decisiones de cuarentena. Rápidamente se creó un equipo multidisciplinario, en cooperación con diferentes instituciones, entre ellas: la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, la Secretaría de Salud, el Centro de Comando, Comunicaciones y Control Informático. de la Secretaría del Estado de Baja California (C4), Facultades de Medicina y Colegio de Psicólogos. Nuestro objetivo es proporcionar información al público y evaluar COVID-19 en tiempo real y rastrear datos regionales, municipales y estatales en tiempo real que informan las cadenas de suministro y la asignación de recursos con la anticipación de un aumento de COVID-19. 19 casos.ICICT 2023: 2023 The 6th International Conference on Information and Computer Technologieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3236-

Design revolutions: IASDR 2019 Conference Proceedings. Volume 1: Change, Voices, Open

In September 2019 Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University was honoured to host the bi-annual conference of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) under the unifying theme of DESIGN REVOLUTIONS. This was the first time the conference had been held in the UK. Through key research themes across nine conference tracks – Change, Learning, Living, Making, People, Technology, Thinking, Value and Voices – the conference opened up compelling, meaningful and radical dialogue of the role of design in addressing societal and organisational challenges. This Volume 1 includes papers from Change, Voices and Open tracks of the conference

The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Russia Studies

This open access handbook presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted perspective on how the ‘digital’ is simultaneously changing Russia and the research methods scholars use to study Russia. It provides a critical update on how Russian society, politics, economy, and culture are reconfigured in the context of ubiquitous connectivity and accounts for the political and societal responses to digitalization. In addition, it answers practical and methodological questions in handling Russian data and a wide array of digital methods. The volume makes a timely intervention in our understanding of the changing field of Russian Studies and is an essential guide for scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying Russia today

The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Russia Studies

This open access handbook presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted perspective on how the ‘digital’ is simultaneously changing Russia and the research methods scholars use to study Russia. It provides a critical update on how Russian society, politics, economy, and culture are reconfigured in the context of ubiquitous connectivity and accounts for the political and societal responses to digitalization. In addition, it answers practical and methodological questions in handling Russian data and a wide array of digital methods. The volume makes a timely intervention in our understanding of the changing field of Russian Studies and is an essential guide for scholars, advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying Russia today

Maine State Government Administrative Report 2012-2013

https://digitalmaine.com/me_annual_reports/1039/thumbnail.jp

Bioaccumulation potential of 'Meeker' and 'Willamette' raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) fruits towards macro- and microelements and their nutritional evaluation

Raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) is the most important type of berry fruit in the Republic of Serbia. The bioaccumulation factor (BF) for the elements detected in the fruits of the raspberry cultivars 'Willamette' and 'Meeker' was calculated to determine their bioaccumulation potential. In addition, the nutritional quality of fruits in relation to nutritionally essential elements was evaluated and compared with the recommended daily intake. For determining the concentrations of 19 macro- and microelements in fruits and the soil, the analytical technique of optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma was used. Among the analyzed elements, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Li and Mo were below the limit of detection in the fruits of both raspberry cultivars, whereas Na and Ni were detected only in fruits of the 'Meeker' cultivar. All analyzed elements were detected in the soil. The results of the work indicated the high potential of the studied cultivars to accumulate nutritional elements K and Ca. In both raspberry cultivars, there were no substantial differences in the bioaccumulation of most elements. However, two elements (B and Mn) can be singled out; the BF for B in the 'Willamette' fruit was 3 times lower compared to the BF in the 'Meeker' fruit, whereas, the BF value for Mn in the 'Willamette' fruit was almost 8 times higher compared to the BF value for the 'Meeker' fruit. Furthermore, the cultivars did not tend to accumulate potentially toxic elements such as Ba, Co, Cu and Ni. The nutritional evaluation revealed that the studied raspberry fruits are a good source of K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn and Cu. Based on the BF values, differences observed in the accumulation of B, Ba, Na, Ni and Mn may be attributed to the characteristics of the cultivars

Efficient Passive Clustering and Gateways selection MANETs

Passive clustering does not employ control packets to collect topological information in ad hoc networks. In our proposal, we avoid making frequent changes in cluster architecture due to repeated election and re-election of cluster heads and gateways. Our primary objective has been to make Passive Clustering more practical by employing optimal number of gateways and reduce the number of rebroadcast packets