Polyethylene oxide—fullerene nanocomposites

Polyethylene oxide – fullerene nanocomposites have been prepared by using the solution path with water as solvent (only for the polymer). The dispersion of C60 within the polymer solution was achieved by high power sonication. The study aims to a better understanding on the effect of C60 nanoparticles on the macromolecular chains. Raman Wide Angle X Ray spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, and Thermogravimetric Analysis were used to inspect the interactions between the nanofiller and macromolecular chains. The experimental results revealed a completely different behavior of fullerene dispersed within polymeric matrices than using carbon nanotubes or nanofibers as nanofiller. The observed behavior was explained by the low aspect ratio of C60 compared to nanotubes and by the low thermal conductivity of C60 compared to the thermal conductivity of others carbon nanostructures

Scholarship in Review 86(1)

Scholarship in Review was a magazine highlighting research and scholarly activities at Central Washington University, published by the Office of Graduate Studies and Research.https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/scholarship_in_review/1002/thumbnail.jp

Visual methodologies, sand and psychoanalysis: employing creative participatory techniques to explore the educational experiences of mature students and children in care

Social science research has witnessed an increasing move towards visual methods of data production. However, some visual techniques remain pariah sites because of their association with psychoanalysis; and a reluctance to engage with psychoanalytically informed approaches outside of therapy based settings. This paper introduces the method of ‘sandboxing’, which was developed from the psychoanalytical approach of the ‘world technique’. ‘Sandboxing’ provides an opportunity for participants to create three-dimensional scenes in sand-trays, employing miniature figures and everyday objects. Data is presented from two studies conducted in Wales, UK. The first, exploring mature students’ accounts of higher education, and the second, exploring the educational experiences of children and young people in public care. The paper argues that psychoanalytical work can be adapted to enable a distinctive, valuable and ethical tool of qualitative inquiry; and illustrates how ‘sandboxing’ engendered opportunities to fight familiarity, enabled participatory frameworks, and contributed to informed policy and practice

Boron in Sillimanite

Sillimanite in six granulite-facies, kornerupine-bearing rocks contains 0.035 to 0.43 percent B2O3 and 0.02 to 0.23 percent MgO (by weight). Substitution of boron for silicon and magnesium for aluminum is coupled such that the ratio of magnesium to boron is about 0.5. Sillimanite incorporates more than 0.1 percent B2O3 only at high temperatures in a boron-rich environment at very low partial pressures of water. In the amphibolite facies, the sillimanite boron contents are too low to appreciably affect the stability relations of sillimanite with kyanite and andalusite

CHARACTERISTICS AND GENESIS OF EL SAUZ CHERT, AN IMPORTANT PREHISTORIC LITHIC RESOURCE IN SOUTH TEXAS

Stone tools ranging in age from Early Archaic (3500–6000 B.C.) to Late Prehistoric (A.D. 700 to historic times), made of a distinctive light gray but sometimes colorful chert, have been identified in private collections in south Texas for at least 50 years. The source of this stone, known in the archeological literature as “El Sauz chert,” are two small bedrock outcrops in Starr County associated with altered rhyolitic ash of the Catahoula Formation. Physical characteristics, field evidence and major element chemical composition are used to infer an in situ origin of the chert associated with the devitrification of the volcanic ash and the remobilization of silica by ground and meteoric water. Distinctive characteristics of El Sauz chert include abundant vugs, opalized veins, smeared colorations, high aluminum content, and pale yellowish-green fluorescence under short-wave ultraviolet light. These geologically distinctive characteristics distinguish this material from other cherts and, as a result, have important implications for archaeologists interested in prehistoric exchange and resource procurement