Electrothermal and Optical Properties of Hybrid Polymer Composites

The Electrothermal and optical properties of hybrid polymer composites made of poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) matrix filled with different zinc oxide (ZnO) concentrations (0, 2, 4, 6 and 12 wt %), and strengthened with iodine (0.1 wt %) have been investigated. The electrical properties have been studied using the impedance technique as a function of ZnO concentrations, applied frequency ranges from 10 KHz to 3 MHz, and temperature in range (25-55 ˚C). The AC electrical properties showed frequency, temperature, and zinc oxide dependence. It was found that with increasing the ZnO concentration and with decreasing the applied frequency the dielectric loss and dielectric constant will be increased. The determined activation energy decreases with increasing the ZnO content and iodine charge complexes. The thermal conductivity has been studied, and it was found that the thermal conductivity increases with both ZnO concentration and temperature. The optical properties have been examined as a function of ZnO concentration, and applied UV-wavelength ranges from 300 to 800 nm. The determined optical dispersion parameters, such as the optical energy and refractive index are discussed

Phytantriol based smart nano-carriers for drug delivery applications

From the last couple of decades, lyotropic liquid crystals have garnered enormous attentions in medical and pharmaceutical sciences. Non-toxic, chemically stable, and biocompatible properties of these liquid crystal systems are contributing to their applications for drug delivery. Among a large variety of liquid crystal phases, inverse bicontinuous cubic and inverse hexagonal mesophases have been extensively investigated for their ability to encapsulate and controlled release of bioactive molecules of various sizes and polarity. The concept of changing the drug release rate in situ by simply changing the mesophase structure is much more fascinating. The encapsulation of bioactive compounds in mesophase systems of desirable features in sub-micron sized particles such as hexosomes and cubosomes, at ambient and high temperature is bringing innovation in the development of new drug applications. This review article outlines unique structural features of cubosomes and hexosomes, their methods of productions, factors affecting their formations and their potential utilization as smart nano-carriers for biopharmaceuticals in drug delivery applications

Environmental impact of concrete structures reinforced with GFRP bars: A simplified study on columns

Federation Internationale du Beton (fib) - International Federation for Structural Concrete, 2019. Concrete has a significant influence on the global warming due to its high usage in the construction industry. There are a few different strategies to increase the sustainability potential of concrete structures. Most of these strategies involve reduction of the total clinker content. One strategy, which is often neglected due to its complexity, is to increase the durability of the concrete structure. By increasing the durability, the need for repair and maintenance is reduced and thus less resources are consumed during the service life. One of the main deterioration mechanisms in concrete structures is the corrosion of steel reinforcement. A strategy to increase the service life of concrete structures in harsh environment would therefore be to increase the durability of concrete or to use low- or non-corrosive reinforcement instead of traditional steel reinforcement. This paper focuses on the latter. Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars are non-corrosive and have emerged as an alternative to steel bars in reinforced concrete structures in harsh environment. They have other mechanical properties than steel and opens for alternative mix designs for concrete. However, the environmental impact of concrete structures reinforced with GFRP bars has not been fully investigated and most life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies have an exchange ratio of 1:1 between GFRP and steel bars despite differences in the mechanical properties. This paper studies the climate impact of concrete columns reinforced with GFRP bars through an LCA methodology, focusing on the functional unit

Design of an Emotion Elicitation Framework for Arabic Speakers

The automatic detection of human affective states has been of great interest lately for its applications not only in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, but also for its applications in physiological, neurobiological and sociological studies. Several standardized techniques to elicit emotions have been used, with emotion eliciting movie clips being the most popular. To date, there are only four studies that have been carried out to validate emotional movie clips using three different languages (English, French, Spanish) and cultures (French, Italian, British / American). The context of language and culture is an underexplored area in affective computing. Considering cultural and language differences between Western and Arab countries, it is possible that some of the validated clips, even when dubbed, will not achieve similar results. Given the unique and conservative cultures of the Arab countries, a standardized and validated framework for affect studies is needed in order to be comparable with current studies of different cultures and languages. In this paper, we describe a framework and its prerequisites for eliciting emotions that could be used for affect studies on an Arab population. We present some aspects of Arab culture values that might affect the selection and acceptance of emotion eliciting video clips. Methods for rating and validating Arab emotional clips are presented to derive at a list of clips that could be used in the proposed emotion elicitation framework. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate a basic version of our framework, which showed great potential to succeed in eliciting emotions