4101 research outputs found
Sort by
Flexible surface acoustic wave devices and its applications in microfluidics
No full textFlexible electronics and microsystems are an emerging technology with a tremedous impact to the future electronics and information technology and widespread applications. Various devices and microsystems have been developed. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are a type of essential device for electronics, microsensors and microsystems; however there is no activity on the development of flexible SAW devices yet. This paper reports the development of flexible SAW devices on cheap, bendable and disposable plastic films. Flexible SAW devices with resonant frequency of 198.1 MHz and 447 MHz for the Rayleigh and Lamb waves respectively have been obtained with a large transmission signal up to 18dB. The flexible SAW devices have also demonstrated their ability for acoustic streaming with a velocity up to 3.4 cm/s and for particle concentration. The results have clearly demonstrated that the flexible SAW devices have great potential for applications in electronics and microsystems
My teacher is not an App, it's an educator!
No full textThis presentation reports on an action-research project planned and designed to explore the current use of technologies, and in particular, mobile applications (including social media) by a number of initial teacher trainees attending a full-time teacher training course (Teaching for the lifelong Learning Sector in Education: Professional Diploma in Education – PDE- and Professional Graduate Diploma in Education – PGDE, and PGDE-M-) in the United Kingdom (UK). The initial findings intend to inform the sector on how aware new teacher trainees are with regard to the pedagogic impact of emerging mobile applications and their potential use
Absorbent alginate fibres modified with hydrolysed chitosan for wound care dressings - II. Pilot scale development
No full textFibres have been used extensively in wound dressing applications as they provide a high surface area for absorption, ease of fabrication and softness. It is common practice for commercial wound dressings to be produced from natural materials, such a marine polysaccharides, as they are predominantly biocompatible, non-toxic, and often display bioactive properties, such as inherent antimicrobial activity. In this study hydrolysed chitosans were utilised as a sole coagulant for the production of alginate-chitosan fibres via a one-step, direct wet-spinning extrusion process. The levels of chitosan incorporated into the fibres were analysed quantitatively via elemental analysis and qualitatively by staining using Amido Black 10B. It was estimated that the fibres contained between 4.50 and 5.10% (wt.%) chitosan. The presence of chitosan improved tensile properties such as elongation and tenacity of the base alginate fibres. The increased incorporation of chitosan into the fibres also improved the absorption of the fibres in both saline and distilled water; reaching maximum of >30 g/g and >50 g/g, respectively. This work suggests that the observed hydrolysed chitosan content within the fibre may be optimal for the preparation of a novel fibre for wound care application
A new carbohydrate-based wound dressing fibre with superior absorption and antimicrobial potency
No full textHeavily exudating wounds can lead to infection and unnecessary trauma if they are not adequately managed. Manufacturers involved in production and marketing of high absorption silver dressings, besides emphasising high absorptions of their dressings are keen to highlight potent antimicrobial abilities of their products against all kinds of pathogens including MRSA. However, there are little or no credible reports on minimal but potent quantities of silver needed in a dressing to eliminate bacteria spread and growth or how effectively the silver within a dressing is released over time. This paper introduces a new hybrid biomaterial fibre made from polysaccharide-based polymers with inbuilt ability to gel and absorb large quantities of pseudo exudates. Furthermore, it will be reported that the new fibre carries up to six times less silver than it is conventionally used in silver dressings and displays a very slow rate of release whilst maintaining full potency over time against known Gram positive, Gram negative micro-organisms including MRSA. The paper concludes that the developed hybrid fibre has long lasting antimicrobial and gelling properties comparable, if not better, than Acticoat AA and Aquacel Ag, two commercially available silver dressings
Thermal degradation of DNA-treated cotton fabrics under different heating conditions
No full textOur recent work has demonstrated that deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) can act as an effective flame retardant when applied to cotton fabrics as a thin coating. DNA acts as a Lewis acid and promotes the dehydration of cotton cellulose to form char, limiting the production of volatile species. Here, the effect of heating rates on thermal degradation behaviour has been studied in order to understand the thermo-oxidation behaviour under slow heating and fast (flash) pyrolysis. The low heating rate effect has been studied using thermogravimetry coupled with infrared spectroscopy and pyrolysis-combustion flow calorimetry, whereas high heating rates effect was obtained by performing thermogravimetry at 200 – 500oC/min and flash-pyrolysis tests coupled with infrared spectroscopy. The information obtained by the latter has been successfully employed in order to i) better explain the results collected from combustion tests and ii) demonstrate that the type of the gaseous species and their evolution, as well as the char formation, as a consequence of the fabric thermo-oxidation, are independent of the adopted heating rate
Improving strategy formulation and implementation in Higher Education institutions in Malawi :an empirical study.
No full textAs Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) become increasingly accountable for the quality and value for money of their teaching and learning, universities need to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the way that they operate. Strategic Management is viewed as one of the major sources of sustainable competitive advantage for these institutions. Though strategic management has gained prominence in the private and public sector organisations, evidence suggests gaps in strategy formulation and implementation in HEIs in Malawi that have led to failure to achieve superior performance. This study aims at developing a framework for strategy formulation and implementation in HEIs which can be adapted to any situation.The study takes a systematic approach to investigating strategy formulation and implementation in Higher Education Institutions. Informed by an interpretivist epistemology and ontology, a qualitatitive methodology is employed to inform the researcher’s perspective where in-depth case studies were conducted at four universities, a commercial bank and a multinational telecommunications company, to investigate the process of strategy formulation and implementation. Semi-structured interviews were administered with senior, managers and operational staff who play significant roles in strategic management, and selected operational personnel involved in strategy implementation. A review of the extant literature and a range of internal organisational documents provided a basis for the empirical analysis.An analysis of the findings of the study has led to the identification of Twenty One (21) factors influencing strategy formulation and implementation in HEIs. These factors include leadership, resource allocation, simplicity and undue complexity, organisational culture, organisational structure, communication, human resources management, organisational learning and development, performance management, strategy formulation planning and strategy implementation planning, change management, total quality management, systems and procedures. Consequently, a strategic management framework has been developed by combining the identified SM factors into four dimensions namely: Planning, Organisation, Managerial and Individual (POMI) based on Alashloo’s (2005) framework. The POMI framework integrates the findings of this study with current literature in the SM subject arena. Since strategic management is an important process in organisations, improving formulation and implementation processes contributes to the overall performance of an organisation.The POMI framework will provide HEI Managers in Malawi and other similar sub-Sahara African countries with tools and techniques that will help improve performance through provision of a useful visualization of the key components which they must have to consider in formulating and implementing strategy
Critical thinking and the much maligned media production degree – an action research project
No full textThis action research project focusses on inherent problems within the delivery of Media Production degree courses; problems that stem, evidence suggests, from a misalignment of student/employer expectations, and can be summed up thus: The majority of students attend Media Production courses to improve employment prospects within the industry and believe that this is best achieved by focusing primarily on learning technical/practical skills. As a result they are often reluctant to engage with broader aspects of education associated with critical thinking. Potential employers, however, are not overly concerned with new recruits having expertise of current technologies. Of equal, if not of more importance are ‘soft’ or ‘transferable’ skills, many of which can be developed through critical thinking exercises.As a result, each year graduates from Media Production courses enter the work-place believing they are sufficiently prepared for what is a very competitive industry, but, in reality, they lack the skills employers look for. Inevitably the academic reputation and credibility of media courses is continually and progressively undermined, and graduate dissatisfaction increased.It is the case, however, that the process of creating media product draws heavily on the same transferable skills most employers seek in new recruits. The proposition, then, is that an increased critical thinking element within these courses will simultaneously enable students to perform better at subject level AND increase their employability, both within their area of study and beyond - this report does not advocate a vocationalist approach. But how might this be achieved given that many students feel it is not primary to their career ambitions
A novel approach for designing nonwoven hybrid wound dressings: Processing and characterisation
No full textThe paper focuses on the development of novel absorbent nonwoven structures by using natural biodegradable carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), alginate and polylactic acid (PLA) fibres. These fibres have been blended and reinforced with synthetic hollow polyester (HPES), polypropylene (PP) and hollow viscose (HV) fibres. The main aim was to enhance the wicking properties of the structures for minimising the pooling of exudate and maceration. It is also aimed to enhance the integrity of structures to minimise the contamination of wounds due to loose fibres. The incorporation of PLA into wound dressings has been attempted for the first time and their functional properties have been studied. The single-fibre, blended and hybrid fabrics have been engineered. The results demonstrate that HPES reinforcement has a critical importance for CMC fabric in terms of wicking properties, tensile properties and air permeability. It has also been demonstrated that the contribution of PLA in the wound dressings is to enhance the properties such as absorbency, wicking, flexural rigidity and air permeability
Multi-indexed Graph Based Knowledge Storage System
No full textWith the rapid development of information technologies, knowledge management systems are facing the problem of how to manage the massive volume of data and make an efficient usage for the data. In this paper, we analyzed the current challenge of knowledge management system and proposed a multi-indexed graph based knowledge storage system to avoid the data duplication and optimized for parallel processing