28 research outputs found

    Production of high internal phase emulsions using rising air bubbles

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    High internal phase water in oil emulsions were produced by air sparging the two-phase system. The air sparging provided a mechanism for the incremental addition of the aqueous phase into the oil phase, and in turn the formation of aggregates of the aqueous droplets. Over time, a space-filling network of the droplets developed throughout the whole container. We refer to this critical state as a homogeneous, high internal phase coarse emulsion. Once the coarse emulsion was produced, the air bubbles were forced to perform useful work on the network, causing a refinement in the size of the droplets, with a concomitant increase in the emulsion viscosity. The emulsification process was reliable, however, over only a narrow range of air addition rates. At very low rates, the thin film drainage of the oil from between the aqueous droplets was more extensive, and hence the aqueous droplets coalesced and returned to the lower aqueous zone. At higher rates, the air flow tended to disrupt the droplet network. When expanded metal mesh was inserted into the vessel, with each horizontal layer of mesh separated by 40 mm, the process was found to be significantly more robust. Thus, using higher air rates, it was possible to achieve more than an order of magnitude increase in the emulsification rate. A well-defined coarse emulsion was also generated using gravity, by firstly causing aqueous phase droplets to detach from an upper surface, and secondly sediment to form a bed of droplets below. A given dispersed phase volume fraction was produced by fluidising the bed. Once the required bed concentration was formed, a refined emulsion was readily generated by air sparging

    Young and Elderly Fashion Influencers

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    The aim of this paper is to analyse a new phenomenon that has emerged in the fashion system: the advent of female fashion influencers over 70. To outline all the novelties this brings with it, we produced a comparison between elderly and young fashion influencers along the evolution of the fashion system in the last decade. We considered both the first wave of fashion blogging (2012–15) populated by young fashion bloggers and the second wave (2015–19) in which we considered especially elderly fashion influencers. At the operational level, we selected the four fashion bloggers who were most followed on Facebook in 2011 in Italy: Chiara Ferragni (theblondesalad.com), Veronica Ferraro (thefashionfruit.com), Nicoletta Reggio (scentofobsession.com), and Irene Colzi (ireneccloset.com). Regarding old women, in 2019 we selected the top 20 elderly influencers over 70, identified using Instagram’s search feature to detect age-related trends (i.e., using hashtags such as #over70 or #advancedstyle). While the four young fashion influencers are Italian, for the older fashion influencers we needed to select English-speaking women from across the globe, as this phenomenon is still just beginning in Italy. We applied qualitative and quantitative methods to capture bloggers’ online strategies and activities for two weeks at both the discursive and visual levels. The results show that while young fashion influencers have been incorporated into the fashion system, fashion influencers over 70 are still producing an important discourse for women, the elderly, and the whole society, although the initial attempts on the part of fashion houses to colonize them are emerging
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