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Sustainability in Fashion
Get PDFIn a world where fashion is constantly changing, clothing constantly being produced, how do we help make the fashion industry a sustainable one? Through my research and multiple classes at the University of Rhode Island on sustainability in the fashion industry, I learned we do have the power to make a change. The fashion industry is one of the leading causes of pollution, so it must be able to have a big reverse impact if efforts are made to reduce this pollution. My project focuses on the dyeing process of fabrics. Many dyes contain harsh chemicals that pollute our oceans and air. Using natural dyes, which I experimented with using berries, can help solve this problem. In doing this project, I also realized that reusing fabrics to make clothing, and making clothing on your own, is an option to help reduce unsustainable practices. I hope my work will demonstrate how small changes can make a big difference, and creating clothing from what you already have is doable. I also researched other ways to create more sustainable practices in the fashion industry, and how we can all help make the clothing industry more environmentally friendly. Sustainability means generations to come can enjoy resources the way we do, and if we want that to be possible, we all need to make small changes now
Acid Attacks: An Overview of Legal Measures and Motivation Trends in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, and Cambodia
Get PDFVitriolage is a form of widespread violence around the world. This research analyzed legislative measures against the practice adopted by India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Colombia, and Cambodia. The strengths and weaknesses of the different legal systems were examined. Motivational trends on why the violence was committed were reviewed in the literature in these countries. It was found that acid attacks are a form of gender-based violence. Countries where the measures were adopted to prevent attacks but failed to achieve the goal did not consider the attacks as a part of a broader problem. The only country that seems to have achieved the goal of reducing acid attacks is Bangladesh, where the law aggravated the penalties and implemented awareness raising about vitriolage. Bangladesh also promoted research and studies on the subject. The findings of the article could be helpful for governments in countries where acid attacks occur to create a policy to eradicate the problem
Confronting the Postmodern Intersection of Markets, Development, Globalization, and Technology: The Necessary Radical Vision of Nikhilesh Dholakia
Get PDFAn extensive and complex literature precedes Nikilesh Dholakia critical perspectives on globalization, post-modernity, technology, and development. He invites readers to rethink everything that the Dominant Social Paradigm, capitalist forms of exchange, and western cultures have implanted in mainstream marketing academia. His literature inspires and dares the researcher to explore radical propositions in the intersections of marketing and postmodernity: from early studies on electronic marketspaces and the role of technology in global consumption culture, the developmental analysis of non-aligned and non-represented countries, to the essential analysis of marketing and postmodernism. Nikilesh Dholakia has embraced a critical mindset which encourages brave revisionary approaches, interdisciplinary permeability and collaboration, theoretical openness, and to radically challenge neoliberal paradoxes in globalized markets. He remains hopeful of finding cooperative solutions among international scholars who are unafraid to question capitalist dogmas
Artificial light at night alters diurnal and nocturnal behavior and physiology in green anole lizards
No full textArtificial light at night (ALAN) disrupts biological rhythms across widely diverse organisms. To determine how energy is allocated by animals in different light environments, we investigated the impacts of ALAN on behavior and physiology of diurnal green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis). Two groups of 24 adult lizards (half males, half females) were maintained in a controlled lab setting for six weeks. One group was exposed to a simulated natural summer light-dark cycle; the other was exposed to ALAN that simulated urban, nocturnal light exposure. After an acclimation period, we conducted four behavioral trials. One trial examined behavioral time allocation over two 24 h periods, and three others were conducted during mid-day and mid-night: open field tests, to examine exploratory behavior; foraging trials, to examine prey consumption; and social interaction trials, to examine same-sex interactions. We then measured each lizard\u27s snout-vent length and mass of its body, abdominal fat pads, liver, and, for males, testes. Lizards exposed to ALAN were more likely to be awake at night, using nocturnal light to explore, forage, and display to conspecifics. However, during the day, ALAN lizards were less likely to be awake, slower to move, and females displayed less frequently. ALAN lizards had heavier fat pads and testes, but ALAN did not impact body mass, liver mass, or snout-vent length. In sum, ALAN appears to cause a broad shift towards increased nocturnal activity and may alter metabolic and reproductive processes. Future work should examine the fitness consequences of these behavioral and physiological changes
Insight Into Battery Cell Production and Battery Performance with Digital Twins and Operando Measurement Techniques
Get PDFLithium-ion batteries have been consecutively optimized in the past decades and are close to reach their maximum practical energy density. However, more insight into the relation of production parameters and battery performance is still required. Likewise, more and more methods – both model based and analytical – are developed to gain understanding of the physio-chemical interactions, which take place within the battery and how these affect performance and durability. In this talk, two examples for the model-based analysis of lithium ion batteries (numerical optimization of NMC cathode composition; fast charge of graphite anode) and one example for their advanced experimental analysis (acoustic emission scanning) will be presented. The underlying approaches and the potential of the methods will be outlined, and an outlook on their use in the context of battery recycling will be given. The tools presented can be further adapted to account for different cell chemistries / cell materials as well as different routes of manufacturing and different use cases of the battery cells
Extremes of Heat Conduction: Pushing the Limits of Thermal Transport
Get PDFRapid miniaturization and faster working speeds in electronic devices has led to mean-free-paths of energy carriers approaching or even surpassing typical length scales in materials, thus rendering the use of the macroscopic Fourier’s law ineffective in describing the thermal conductivity in these devices. However, thermal conductivity of the constituent materials in the nano-devices, even though a very critical parameter in their design, is mostly an afterthought and the thermal performance of the device is mainly controlled through packaging techniques. It would be advantageous for a diverse spectrum of technologies, to control and tune their thermal properties at the submicron length scale and femto-to-picosecond time scales. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of how heat flows across nanosystems and identifying the limits of thermal transport and what we can do to possibly approach them would prove to be quintessential for the design of the next generation of electronic devices. In this talk, I will focus on some of our works that have pushed the limits to heat transfer and drastically increased the understanding of heat conduction on the atomic and nanometer scales
Eggshells assemblages and stable isotope composition in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) El Gallo Formation of Baja California, Mexico: Paleoenvironmental inferences
No full textFossil eggshells were recovered from the El Gallo Formation, Baja California, northwest Mexico, is one of the few North American Campanian continental outcrops outside the Western Interior Basin. Based on microstructure, the eggshells are referred to ornithopod (ootaxon Spheroolithus), theropods (ootaxa Prismatoolithus, two Tubercuoolithidae eggshells, Continuoolithus, Tristraguloolithus, Disperituberoolithus, Pseudogeckoolithus, Laevisoolithidae? eggshells and Enantiornithine indet.), and one crocodylomorph (cf. Neokrokolithes). While some of these ootaxa were associated with the modest, but diverse osteological record preserved there; others reveal the presence of small theropods, including as the first evidence of enantiornithine birds in the formation. Because the stable isotopic compositions of the eggshells differ from those of pedogenic carbonate nodules, we infer minimal diagenetic influence. We thus propose that the C3 plants had δ13C compositions between −27‰ and −29‰ and that warm evaporative conditions led to enriched δ18O in ingested water compared to meteoric water at least during the short period of dinosaur eggshell formation
U-Pb detrital zircon analysis of sedimentary rocks of the southeastern New England Avalon terrane in the U.S. Appalachians: Evidence for a separate crustal block
Get PDFThe Avalon terrane of southeastern New England is a composite terrane in which various crustal blocks may have different origins and/or tectonic histories. The northern part (west and north of Boston, Massachusetts) correlates well with Avalonian terranes in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, Canada, based on rock types and ages, U-Pb detrital zircon signatures of metasedimentary rocks, and Sm-Nd isotope geochemistry data. In the south, fewer data exist, in part because of poorer rock exposure, and the origins and histories of the rocks are less well constrained. We conducted U-Pb laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry analysis on zircon from seven metasedimentary rock samples from multiple previously interpreted subterranes in order to constrain their origins. Two samples of Neoproterozoic Plainfield Formation quartzite from the previously interpreted Hope Valley subterrane in the southwestern part of the southeastern New England Avalon terrane and two from the Neoproterozoic Blackstone Group quartzite from the adjacent Esmond-Dedham subterrane to the east have Tonian youngest detrital zircon age populations. One sample of Cambrian North Attleboro Formation quartzite of the Esmond-Dedham subterrane yielded an Ediacaran youngest detrital zircon age population. Detrital zircon populations of all five samples include abundant Mesoproterozoic zircon and smaller Paleoproterozoic and Archean populations, and are similar to those of the northern part of the southeastern New England Avalon terrane and the Avalonian terranes in Canada. These are interpreted as having a Baltican/Amazonian affinity based primarily on published U-Pb and Lu-Hf detrital zircon data. Based on U-Pb detrital zircon data, there is no significant difference between the Hope Valley and Esmond-Dedham subterranes. Detrital zircon of two samples of the Price Neck and Newport Neck formations of the Neoproterozoic Newport Group in southern Rhode Island is characterized by large ca. 647-643 and ca. 745-733 Ma age populations and minor zircon up to ca. 3.1 Ga. This signature is most consistent with a northwest African affinity. The Newport Group may thus represent a subterrane, terrane, or other crustal block with a different origin and history than the southeastern New England Avalon terrane to the northwest. The boundary of this Newport Block may be restricted to the boundaries of the Newport Group, or it may extend as far north as Weymouth, Massachusetts, as far northwest as (but not including) the North Attleboro Formation quartzite and associated rocks in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and as far west as Warwick, Rhode Island, where eastern exposures of the Blackstone Group quartzite exist. The Newport Block may have amalgamated with the Amazonian/Baltican part of the Avalon terrane prior to mid-Paleozoic amalgamation with Laurentia, or it may have arrived as a separate terrane after accretion of the Avalon terrane. Alternatively, it may have arrived during the formation of Pangea and been stranded after the breakup of Pangea, as has been proposed previously for rocks of the Georges Bank in offshore Massachusetts. If the latter is correct, then the boundary between the Newport Block and the southeastern New England Avalon terrane is the Pangean suture zone