Successful Use of Newspapers in Curriculum Development for First-year College Students

The course, Fashion and Society, is designed to provide first-year Clothing and Textiles major students with an integrated view of fashion as social phenomenon. From the survey on the first-year students’ perceptions about fashion, we have found that many students considered fashion tend to be irrelevant, something fancy and distant to their daily life, and difficult to understand. Based on the comments, we need teaching materials that can be perceived to be “not difficult” (and fun) and relevant. We also needed to design the course to provide students opportunities to apply their knowledge to real life. Thus, we developed the course using several newspapers to help students experience various fashion expressions and reflections a society carries in

Atomic Layer Deposition of 2D Metal Dichalcogenides for Electronics, Catalysis, Energy Storage, and Beyond

2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are among the most exciting materials of today. Their layered crystal structures result in unique and useful electronic, optical, catalytic, and quantum properties. To realize the technological potential of TMDCs, methods depositing uniform films of controlled thickness at low temperatures in a highly controllable, scalable, and repeatable manner are needed. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a chemical gas-phase thin film deposition method capable of meeting these challenges. In this review, the applications evaluated for ALD TMDCs are systematically examined, including electronics and optoelectonics, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis, energy storage, lubrication, plasmonics, solar cells, and photonics. This review focuses on understanding the interplay between ALD precursors and deposition conditions, the resulting film characteristics such as thickness, crystallinity, and morphology, and ultimately device performance. Through rational choice of precursors and conditions, ALD is observed to exhibit potential to meet the varying requirements of widely different applications. Beyond the current state of ALD TMDCs, the future prospects, opportunities, and challenges in different applications are discussed. The authors hope that the review aids in bringing together experts in the fields of ALD, TMDCs, and various applications to eventually realize industrial applications of ALD TMDCs.Peer reviewe

Successful Use of Newspapers in Curriculum Development for First-year College Students

The course, Fashion and Society, is designed to provide first-year Clothing and Textiles major students with an integrated view of fashion as social phenomenon. From the survey on the first-year students’ perceptions about fashion, we have found that many students considered fashion tend to be irrelevant, something fancy and distant to their daily life, and difficult to understand. Based on the comments, we need teaching materials that can be perceived to be “not difficult” (and fun) and relevant. We also needed to design the course to provide students opportunities to apply their knowledge to real life. Thus, we developed the course using several newspapers to help students experience various fashion expressions and reflections a society carries in.</p

Magnetorheology of Core–Shell Structured Carbonyl Iron/Polystyrene Foam Microparticles Suspension with Enhanced Stability

The sedimentation stability of a carbonyl iron (CI)-based magnetorheological (MR) fluid was improved by wrapping CI particles with a polystyrene (PS) foam layer. The PS layer on the CI particles was synthesized via conventional dispersion polymerization and was subsequently foamed using a supercritical carbon dioxide fluid to produce core–shell structured particles. The density of particles decreased after the PS-layer wrapping and subsequent PS-layer foaming. The surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the specific surface areas were determined by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) adsorption measurements. Both modifications (PS-layer wrapping and foaming) increased the surface roughness of the particles, yet preserved particle’s spherical shape. The effect of the volume expansion after modification on the magnetorheological properties was investigated by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and a rotational rheometer. All suspensions tested presented similar MR behaviors with the only difference in their yield stress strengths. Finally, the sedimentation properties of the synthesized particles was examined using a Turbiscan apparatus. MR fluids containing the newly developed CI particles wrapped with the foamed PS layer exhibited remarkably improved stability against sedimentation due to the reduced mismatch in density between the particles and the carrier medium