Synthesis of TiO2 Nanofiber by Solution Blow Spinning (SBS) Method

Synthesis of ceramic nanofibers is commonly carried out through electrospinning method. However, with the emergence of solution blow spinning (SBS) technology, spinning of nanofiber and its composites has resulted in a more straightforward and commercially scalable process. In this study, ceramic nanofibers (i.e., TiO2 nanofibers) were synthesized through SBS followed by calcination. Three critical parameters were investigated (i.e., precursor concentration, calcination temperature and time) to produce ready-to-use composite membranes and pure ceramic nanofibers. Characterizations of ceramic membranes and pure nanofibers include scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) for elemental component analysis. Insights on the transformation of composite membranes into pure ceramic nanofibers and the role of calcination are also discussed.

Fullerene Nanoarchitectonics with Shape-Shifting

This short review article introduces several examples of self-assembly-based structural formation and shape-shifting using very simple molecular units, fullerenes (C60, C70, and their derivatives), as fullerene nanoarchitectonics. Fullerene molecules are suitable units for the basic science of self-assembly because they are simple zero-dimensional objects with only a single elemental component, carbon, without any charged or interactive functional groups. In this review article, self-assembly of fullerene molecules and their shape-shifting are introduced as fullerene nanoarchitectonics. An outline and a background of fullerene nanoarchitectonics are first described, followed by various demonstrations, including fabrication of various fullerene nanostructures, such as rods on the cube, holes in the cube, interior channels in the cube, and fullerene micro-horns, and also a demonstration of a new concept, supramolecular differentiation.

An in situ XAS study of high surface-area IrO2 produced by the polymeric precursor synthesis

In situ XAS measurements show that iridium oxide electrocatalysts manufactured by the polymeric precursor synthesis method contain a significant fraction of elemental iridium metal and that potential cycling only oxidises a thin layer of the elemental component of the composite.

Efficient Comparator Design for Motion Estimation on FPGA

Motion Estimation(ME) operationinvolves predicting the frames and identifying motion vectors sothat redundancy can be exploited by eliminating the transfer ofsimilar information between successive frames.The most efficientand simple technique to estimate the motion vectors is Summation ofAbsolute Difference(SAD) where comparator forms one of an elemental component in SAD computation.This paper proposes two different comparator designs where propoundcircuit I is based on efficient look ahead comparator andpropound circuit II uses alteredone’s complement and conditional sum adder method. Results shows that propound circuit I reduces delay by 23%but with 16% increase in number of slice LUTs whereas the propoundcircuit II reduces delay by 11% and gives 33% reduction in number of slice LUTsas compared to traditional circuit. The propound hardwarecircuits are implemented on Virtex 7 FPGA and synthesized using Verilog as HDL language on Xilinx ISE 14.2.

Ernährungstherapie des Intensivpatienten

Nutritional therapy is an elemental component of intensive care treatment. Therapeutic goals are the enteral or parenteral provision of calories, protein, electrolytes, vitamins and trace elements. Pathophysiologically, metabolism in critical illness is characterized by a catabolic stress status. This results from an underlying systemic inflammatory response and is associated with increased rate of infections, multiple organ failure and unfavourable outcome. In this article, the principles and strategies of nutrition support therapy in critically ill patients are presented, based on current guidelines.

Ni-Ru/CeO2 Catalytic Hydrothermal Upgrading of Water-Insoluble Biocrude from Algae Hydrothermal Liquefaction

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of algae is a promising crude bio-oil (biocrude) production technology, which can convert wet algae into water-insoluble biocrude and other coproducts. In this work, algae HTL at 350°C and 20 min was conducted to obtain water-insoluble biocrude (B1), which was then hydrothermally upgraded at 450°C, 60 min, or with added H2 and/or homemade catalyst (i.e., Ni-Ru/CeO2 or Ni/CeO2) for the first time. The characteristics (e.g., yield, elemental component, energy recovery, and molecular and functional group compositions) of upgraded water-insoluble biocrude (B2) as well as light biocrude thereof were analyzed comprehensively. The results show that Ni-Ru/CeO2+H2 led to the highest yield and HHV (higher heating value), the best elemental compositions quality of B2, and the largest fraction and the best light of light biocrude in B2. Ni-Ru/CeO2+H2 had good catalytic desulfurization effect and could transform high-molecular-weight compounds into low-molecular-weight compounds in B1 upgrading. At the condition above, 46.2% of chemical energy in the initial algae could be recovered by B2, while average 54.9% of chemical energy in B2 was distributed in its light biocrude (hexane-soluble) portion. On the whole, Ni-Ru/CeO2+H2 can be considered as the optimal additive in all tested cases.

Introduction

This book traces the lineage of humane insight and spectacles of black suffering and death in the past century and a half, from the abolitionist movement to the murder of Emmett Tilland and the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Humane insight refers to a kind of looking in which the onlooker's ethics are addressed by the spectacle of others' embodied suffering. It is an ethics- based look that turns a benevolent eye, recognizes violations of human dignity, and bestows or articulates the desire for actual protection. This book investigates incidents in African American visual culture that depend upon the recognition of humanity as an elemental component of human identity to be sought and secured. It examines how the image of the mortal, wounded, and dead black body grounds a politics of racial equity and justice in the language of pathos. By focusing on how pain and even death among African Americans are rendered discussable, the book reveals how black pain has been made to make sense.

Natural Kinds in Chemistry

Chemical substances such as gold and water provide paradigm examples of natural kinds: They are so central to philosophical discussions on the topic that they often provide the grounds for quite general philosophical claims—in particular that natural kinds must be hierarchical, discrete, and independent of interests. In this chapter I will argue that chemistry in fact undermines such claims. In what follows I will (i) introduce the main kinds of chemical kinds, namely chemical substances and microstructural species; (ii) critically examine some general criteria for being a natural kind in the light of how they apply to chemical kinds; and finally (iii) present two broad theories of how chemical substances are individuated. The primary purpose of this article is to bring scientific detail and sophistication to a topic—natural kinds—which has a long but not always honorable history in philosophy, but chemists can also learn something from these discussions. Chemistry is in the business of making general claims about substances, a fact which is embodied in the periodic table, as well as in the systems of nomenclature and classification published by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). At several points in the history of their subject, chemists appear to have faced choices about which general categories should appear in these systems. Understanding why these choices were made, and the alternatives rejected, gives us an insight into whether chemistry might have developed differently. This is central to understanding why chemistry looks the way it does today. So, what are the chemical kinds? Chemists study the structure and behavior of substances such as gold, water and benzene, and also of microscopic species such as gold atoms, and water and benzene molecules. They group together higher kinds of substances: groups of elements such as the halogens and alkali metals, broader groups of elements such as the metals, and classes of compounds that share either an elemental component (e.g., chlorides), a microstructural feature (e.g., carboxylic acids), or merely a pattern of chemical reactivity (e.g., acids).