The New Pre-Raphaelites

A display of photographs by Sunil Gupta that explore the legacy of the Pre-Raphaelites and their influence on contemporary art, to accompany the major exhibition of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's portraits at the Holburne Museum. In 2008, London-based artist and photographer Sunil Gupta (b.1953, New Delhi) was commissioned by Autograph gallery in London, to produce a body of work connected to LGBTQI+ rights in India. The resulting series of ten photographs referenced the struggle against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Instituted during British rule in the 1860s, it criminalised gay sex between consenting adults and remained in place until it was finally repealed by the Supreme Court of India in September 2018. Known as the Anti-Sodomy Law, Section 377 facilitated the arbitrary arrest and exploitation of LGBTQI+ Indians. In turn, this led to a closeted culture where alternate sexuality was pushed underground and made researching and treating serious medical problems such as STDs and HIV/AIDS extremely difficult. Gupta's photographs allude to works by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic movement founded in 1848, only a few years before Section 377 was introduced. He says: "I was struck first by the vividness of the [paintings'] colours and then by the ambivalent sexuality of their subject matter." Inspired by the Tate's collection, Gupta invited friends and fellow activists to model for him and re-enact the original works; at the time their involvement constituted an act of resistance, courage, and commitment, much like their UK counterparts who campaigned against Section 28 (in effect between 1988 and 2003 in England and Wales). Through Gupta's lens, well-known paintings such as Henry Wallis' Chatterton (1856), Edouard Manet's Olympia (1863), Sir John Everett Millais' Mariana (1851) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Paolo and Francesca da Rimini (1867), take on a new meaning as he reinterprets them. The New Pre-Raphaelites is representative of Gupta's work, which spans three decades and documents his own life and involvement with issues of gender, sexuality, displacement and his own diagnosis in 1995 of being HIV positive. This display of tightly composed images effectively force the viewer to confront a juxtaposition with an alternative social reality. Also, as the Pre-Raphaelites observed in the 1800s, Gupta's photographs transpose the private into the public. In Gupta's photographs, these 'truths' become gay couples, single men and women, and groups posing romantically, glimpsed in moments of passion and emotion. Combining symbolism and realism - just like the paintings that inspired them - the images concentrate on the real people who occupy the space of each print and, in some instances, show what would be deemed criminal intent according to Section 377, but most will recognise as an act of love. Richly coloured, textured and patterned backdrops highlight the sitters’ colourful costumes, and their occasional nudity, Gupta demonstrates his eye for detail. It is important to note that the women portrayed in The New Pre-Raphaelites were at the time living on the margins of society. Although technically free from accusations of committing the crime of sodomy, before 2018 they risked being hunted down and, in some cases, burnt alive by their families who would rather see them dead than face social ostracism

Low temperature desiccants in atmospheric water generation.

Surging global water demand as well as changes to weather patterns and over exploitation of natural water sources, such as ground water, has made potable water a critical resource in many parts of the World already – one rapidly heading towards a crisis situation. Desalination has been adopted as a solution – this is however energy intensive and impractical for most of the developing countries - those most in need of water. A renewable source of energy is solar thermal and solar photovoltaic. A plentiful source of water is the humidity in the atmosphere. This research is to push the envelope in pairing these two facts in solving the ‘water problem’, in the use of existing humidification/dehumidification (HDH) systems using solid desiccants. Solar thermal, notably the simple & affordable systems, do not deliver the high temperature that current HDH systems need. Again, the design of the current HDH systems are better suited for steady state, or near steady state, conditions. Solar energy, as well as atmospheric temperature and humidity, are extremely dynamic and independently variable. The existing desiccants have been found to be the limiting factor in building affordable, simple & maintenance free solar thermal powered HDH systems. The result of this study identifies a promising new lithium oxide nano material that meets or exceeds the specifications for such a desiccant. Specifically, Lithium Aluminate (LiAlO2) nano powder, synthesized using a UofL patented process, was found to be have ultra-fast kinetics (of the order of 2-5 minutes for adsorption as well as desorption), low temperature desorption (60-80oC) and low cost ($20/kg). As a spin-off benefit, a validated system was also built that handles the dynamic environmental factors that such an HDH system will need to manage in real-world installations

Preparation and mechanical properties of Nanoclay-MWCNT/Epoxy hybrid nanocomposites

[EN] Among the various kinds of reinforcing element, Multi Wall Carbon Nano-tubes (MWCNT) and Nanoclay have found much more attention as a filler element to upgrade the mechanical properties of polymer composite material. In this paper, production of hybrid nanocomposites and the effect of MWCNT and nanoclay on mechanical properties of hybrid nanocomposites have been evaluated. In hybrid nanocomposites, MWCNT and nanoclay are embedded in epoxy resin. The processing of hybrid nanocomposite is always been a difficult task for researcher to prepare defects free samples. Here, the processing of Epoxy/Nanoclay-MWCNT hybrid composites has been done by using homogenizer and ultrasonic techniques for complete dispersion of nanoparticles into epoxy resin. The MWCNT and nanoclay were embedded into epoxy resin in different weight fractions and mixtures were used for tensile test and hardness specimen production. The tensile modulus and tensile strength values have been calculated via tensile tests. The test result shows that tensile modulus of samples increases as the filler content increase up to certain extent but then start decreasing. Also the elongation reduces as the filler content rises in the epoxy which shows the brittleness present in the samples. Rockwell hardness on B-scale was conducted on Nanocomposite samples and found that increasing the filler content excessively does not improve hardness as much.Kumar, S.; Gupta, A. (2021). Preparation and mechanical properties of Nanoclay-MWCNT/Epoxy hybrid nanocomposites. Journal of Applied Research in Technology & Engineering. 2(1):17-21. https://doi.org/10.4995/jarte.2021.14239OJS172121Alsafee, A.B., Al-ajaj, I.A., Khalili, A.S. (2014). Concentration effect of multi walled carbon nanotube on mechanical properties of epoxies composites. International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management, 3(2), 334-343.Ayatollahi, M.R., Shadlou, S., Shokrieh, M.M. (2011a). Mixed mode brittle fracture in epoxy/multi-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposites. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 78, 2620-2632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2011.06.021Ayatollahi, M.R., Shokrein, M., Shadlou, S., Kefayati, A.R. (2011b). Mechanical and electrical properties of epoxy/multiwalled carbon nanotube/Nanoclay nanocomposites. Iranian Polymer Journal, 20(10), 835-843.Bhuvaneshwaran Mylsamy, Sathish Kumar Palaniappan, Sampath Pavayee Subramani, Samir Kumar Pal., Karthik Arucham. (2019). Impact of nanoclay on mechanical and structural properties of treated Coccinia indica fibre reinforced epoxy composites. Journal of Material research and Technology, 8(6), 6021-6028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.09.076Gojny, F.H., Wichmann, M.H.G., Fiedler, B., Karl, S. (2005). Influence of different carbon nanotubes on the mechanical properties of epoxy matrix composites - a comparative study, Composites Science and Technology, 65, 2300-2313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2005.04.021Ho, M.W., Lam, C.K., Lau, K.T., Ng, D.H.L., Hui, D. (2006). Mechanical properties of epoxy-based composites using Nano clays. Composite Structures 75, 415-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2006.04.051Karatas, S., Apohan, N.K., Demirer, H., Gungor, A. (2007). Polyimide-silica hybrid coatings: morphological, mechanical, and thermal investigations. Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 18(6), 490-496. https://doi.org/10.1002/pat.909Kim, M.T., Rhee, K.Y., Lee, J.H., Hui, D., Lau, A. K.T. (2011). Property enhancement of a carbon fiber/epoxy composite by using carbon nanotubes". Composites Part B: Engineering, 42(5), 1257-1261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2011.02.005Lakshmi, M.S., Narmadha, B., Reddy, B.S.R. (2008). Enhanced thermal stability and structural characteristics of different MMT-clay/epoxy-nanocomposite materials. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 93(1), 201-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2007.10.005Lee, D., Song, S.H., Hwang, J., Jin, S.H., Park, K.H., Kim, B.H., Hong, S.H., Jeon, S. (2013). Enhanced mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites by mixing noncovalently functionalized boron nitride nanoflakes. Small, 9(15), 2602-2610. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201203214Liu, W.D., Zhu, B.K., Zhang, J., Xu, Y.Y. (2007). Preparation and dielectric properties of polyimide/silica nanocomposite films prepared from sol-gel and blending process. Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 18(7), 522-528. https://doi.org/10.1002/pat.910Mat Yazik, M.H., Sultan, M.T.H., Norkhairunnisa Mazlan, Abu Talib, A.R., Naveen, J., Shah, A.U.M., Safri, S.N.A. (2020). Effect of hybrid multi-walled carbon nanotube and montmorillonite nanoclay content on mechanical properties of shape memory epoxy nanocomposite, Journal of Material research and Technology, 9(3), 6085-6100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.04.012Mahesh, Hosur, Tanjheel, H. Mahdi, Mohammad E. Islam, Jeelani, S. (2017). Mechanical and viscoelastic properties of epoxy nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanotubes, nanoclay, and binary nanoparticles, Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites, 36(9), 667-684. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731684417691365Mahesh, Hosur, Tanjheel, Mahdi, Jeelani, S. (2018). Studies on the performance of multi-phased carbon/epoxy composites with nanoclay and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Multiscale and Multidiscip. Model. Exp. and Des., 1, 255-268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41939-018-0017-9Rozenberg, B.A., Tenne, R. (2008). Polymer-assisted fabrication of nanoparticles and nanocomposites. Progress in Polymer Science, 33(1), 40-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2007.07.004Sun, D., Chu, C.C., Sue, H.J. (2010). Simple approach for preparation of epoxy hybrid nanocomposites based on carbon nanotubes and a model clay. Chemistry of Materials, 22(12), 3773-3778. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm1009306Zhou Y. X., Wu P. X., Cheng Z-Y., Ingram J., Jeelani S. (2011). Improvement in electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of epoxy by filling carbon nanotube. Express Polymer Letters, 2(1), 40-48. https://doi.org/10.3144/expresspolymlett.2008.