Novel graphene-based electrodes for energy storage devices

Graphene sheets have exceptional electrical, mechanical and optical properties. Graphene-based nanocomposites can be utilized as an electrode for the fabrication of energy storage devices for practical applications. Graphene nanosheets were produced by an enhanced technique including graphite oxidation, ultrasonic treatment, expansion, and chemical reduction

Encountering Spirits: Evangelical and Holiness Revivals in Victoria, B.C., and the "Colonial Project"

Christian revivals in British Columbia in the late 1800s were natural extensions of the assimilationist impulse so strongly associated with missionary objectives of controlling, reforming, and re-educating Native peoples. Beyond being a tool of the colonial project, however, Christian missions were also shaped and adapted by First Nations in the region to fit their own social, political, and cultural needs. Evangelical forms prospered and proliferated under the direction of devout and inspired Native Christians. Gender was also a factor in revivalism in the province, especially with regard to the Salvation Army in Victoria, whose officers were overwhelmingly women despite the preponderance of men in the city. Women leaders challenged yet also represented the dominant culture’s assumptions about feminine behaviour in revivalist religion.Les mouvements de renouveau chrétien de la fin des années 1800 en Colombie-Britannique furent des prolongements naturels de l’impulsion assimilationniste si fortement associée aux objectifs missionnaires du contrôle, de la réforme et de la rééducation des peuples autochtones. Bien qu’elles servaient d’outil pour le projet colonial, les missions chrétiennes ont aussi été façonnées et adaptées par les Premières nations de la région pour répondre à leurs propres besoins sociaux, politiques et culturels. Les formes évangéliques ont prospéré et proliféré sous la direction de chrétiens autochtones dévots et inspirés. Le sexe a également été un facteur du « revivalisme » dans la province, surtout en ce qui a trait à l’Armée du Salut à Victoria, dont une écrasante majorité d’officiers étaient des femmes, malgré la prépondérance des hommes dans la ville. Les femmes leaders contestaient tout en incarnant les hypothèses de la culture dominante sur le comportement féminin dans la religion revivaliste

Quantifying Social Entities: An Historical-Sociological Critique

In formulating social policy the administrative arm of government relies heavily on number-based significations of knowledge, such as needs indicators and performance measures. Relying on numbers increases administrators\u27 confidence in their decisions and shifts responsibility for error away from the decision-maker and towards the numbers. A close examination of the technology of social quantification reveals instability in many of the definitions and codes that needs analysts and program evaluators adopt when numerically inscribing social entities. To deal with these risks, bureaucracies must establish ways of explicitly assessing the uncertainty, imprecision and social construction that often lies behind the evidence presented as numbers, evidence that can easily be accepted on face value and be turned uncritically into decision-making rationales

Delegating (Community) Action: Stuart Brisley's Peterlee Project

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam via http://www.stedelijkstudies.com/journal/delegating-community-action-stuart-brisleys-peterlee-project/

The Impact of Online Disinformation on Democracy in Taiwan

Is online disinformation impacting how voters view political parties? Although many scholars claim that online disinformation (or fake news) is having negative effects on democracy, there are few studies that examine the impact of online disinformation at the individual level. In this study I conducted a randomized survey of 400 Taiwanese respondents in order to assess the impact of online disinformation on their political behavior. The respondents completed one of three surveys and were exposed to either a control article or a social media post containing disinformation. Controlled exposure was found to have a significant impact on the party identification of those exposed to the post for the first time compared to those who had previously been exposed to the post. The results of this study show that disinformation can have an effect on party identification, however further studies are necessary to determine the size and direction of this effect

Artistic Labour: Seeking a Utopian Dimension

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from OpenEdition via http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/cadernosaa.1053This article investigates the notion of artistic labour by elucidating how artists can create ethical social relations to perform “a new, possible world” by reinserting labour and advocacy into their practice. An examination of contemporary works by Ahmet Öğüt and Cevdet Erek who attempt to create micro-utopias by situating artistic labour at their core or by emphasising the power of networks and the “commons” to foster social integration are juxtaposed with the discussion of a possible genealogy of such utopian artistic attempts from the late 1960s and 1970s. The historical trajectory delineates the common denominators of artistic practices that proceed from utopian ideals such as anti-isolation, anti social division, anti self-reflexivity, process instead of object-based work, and investment in human value rather than materialistic value

Operational modes for effective recovery of energy from ryegrass using anaerobic digestion

In the United Kingdom a large proportion of agricultural land is laid to grass which is used for grazing and also harvested for animal feed. Grass is also potentially the crop most suited to energy production in the UK because of its high yield, low maintenance and suitability for growing under the climatic conditions. Anaerobic digestion is a potential technology for conversion of grass to energy and the current work looks at the design and operation of digester types that could be used to maximise the energy yield per hectare of crop and take advantage of the requirement to store harvested material over the winter period. Initial experiments established the methane potential of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) to be 0.245 m3 kg-1 VS added. This was determined in a series of conventional batch digestion studies at different inoculum to substrate ratios using an anaerobic sludge taken from a municipal wastewater digester. The research then went on to examine potential energy losses through the use of conventional continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) digester design and from this began to focus on plug flow designs that could be simulated through a batch digestion model. Experimental work used a batch feed cycle to simulate a continuous fed plug flow reactor, although the results are equally applicable to a cyclic batch feeding regime. The minimum feed cycle length to gain 70% of the methane potential was found to be six days at an initial substrate loading rate (ISLR) of 10 g VS L-1 and twelve days at an ISLR of 20 g VS L-1; in both cases this was equivalent to an Organic Loading Rate (OLR) of 1.7 g VS L-1 day-1. In a batch or plug flow system it is necessary to add an inoculum, and experiments were designed to show the advantages and disadvantages associated with using the liquid or solid fractions derived from separated digestate material for this purpose. Both proved to be suitable as an inoculum at a 10 g VS L-1 batch loading, but a higher gas yield was achieved from the separated solids inoculum due to the capturing of residual VS by increasing the solids retention time of the system. Results from a number of experiments indicated that in a ryegrass digestion system mechanical stirring could be problematic, and there were indications that this type of mixing might not be necessary for optimal performance. At an ISLR of 20 g VS L-1 some small advantages were found as a result of stirring during acclimation of the inoculum to the feedstock but this could be compensated for by the adoption of once per day liquid recirculation around the digester. This mixing strategy was therefore adopted in subsequent experiments. 30L digesters were used to test a digester operating mode in which solids were allowed to accumulate over a number of feed cycles, achieved by removing only the liquor which passed a 1 mm mesh at the end of each cycle. The solids accumulation rate for ISLR of 10 g VS L-1 loading on a seven-day cycle would allow the digester to operate for 30 weeks if no solids were broken down. In practice the rate of VS destruction measured extended this by between ~24-67% depending on the initial solids make up of the digester. In a subsequent smaller-scale solids accumulation experiment a specific methane yield of 0.415 L CH4 gVS-1 was achieved over 10 feed cycles (weeks) and showed this reached an optimum at an I:S ratio of 3 – 3.5 on a VS basi