612 research outputs found
Textile Dry Cleaning Using Carbon Dioxide: Process, Apparatus and Mechanical Action
No full textFabrics that are sensitive to water, may wrinkle or shrink when washed in regular washing machines and are usually cleaned by professional dry cleaners. Dry cleaning is a process of removing soils from substrate, in this case textile, using a non-aqueous solvent. The most common solvent in conventional dry cleaning is perchloroethylene (PER). Despite its satisfactory cleaning performance, PER has several drawbacks. One approach is to develop an alternative solvent for PER. CO2 is chosen in this study because it has several advantages compared to the other alternative solvents. The main objective of this study is to improve the cleaning performance of CO2 dry cleaning for particulate soils, firstly by studying and solving the redeposition problem, secondly by enhancing the amount of mechanical action applied to the fabric. Another objective of this thesis is to achieve more insight in the cleaning process since little information is available regarding the textile movement inside the rotating drum in the CO2 medium. This has been studied with an endoscopic camera in the 25 L CO2 dry cleaning machine. Experiments with an observation cell equipped with a mechanical actuator were performed to apply well defined forces on the textile, and use these results to perform a quantitative analysis of the mechanical forces. Based on the results of the above, an ideal CO2 dry cleaning machine and process has been designed. This is a combination of best practices, new insights obtained from the results of this study and the best available technologies. The performance and the investment costs of CO2 dry cleaning are not yet comparable with the conventional solvents or the other alternative solvents. However, we believe that CO2 is the only real green solvent for textile dry cleaning and our studies have shown that it has a high potential to replace PER in the future. The economy evaluation also showed that the operating costs for dry-cleaning using CO2 are comparable to the costs using PER.BiotechnologyApplied Science
An Efficient and Robust Method for Lagrangian Magnetic Particle Tracking in Fluid Flow Simulations on Unstructured Grids
No full textIn this paper we report on a newly developed particle tracking scheme for fluid flow simulations on 3D unstructured grids, aiming to provide detailed insights in the particle behaviour in complex geometries. A possible field of applications is the Magnetic Drug Targeting (MDT) technique, on which this paper will be focused. MDT is a promising medical technique that uses locally applied magnetic fields to capture magnetic drug carriers at the desired locations in the human body, strongly increasing the efficiency of medical drugs. The new particle tracking scheme combines the advantages of existing methods and is easy for implementation in a generic numerical code. The scheme is tested and validated for simple MDT cases that include effects of a non-homogeneous magnetic field on deposition of magnetic particles in laminar flow. The first test case is a validation study of the magnetic particle trajectories released in a horizontal circular pipe flow with a current-carrying wire parallel to the flow, for which analytical solutions are reported in literature. The second test case involves particle capture efficiencies in a 90o bent tube for different configurations of the imposed magnetic field. This configuration corresponds more closely to the conditions inside blood vessels, because of the presence of secondary motions. These results are compared with numerical studies from literature too. The obtained results demonstrate that the developed particle tracking scheme is a very robust, efficient and accurate method, which can give detailed insights in particle behaviour in complex geometries. As such it is a good candidate for future applications and optimisations of MDT technique for loco-regional cancer treatment or treatment of cardiovascular diseases.Multi-Scale PhysicsApplied Science
Spherocylindrical coacervate core micelles formed by a supramolecular coordination polymer and a diblock copolymer
No full textWe investigated the hierarchical structure of complex coacervate core micelles formed by mixing a supramolecular coordination polymer and a diblock copolymer. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) on those systems was only possible for very dilute samples and suggested the existence of wormlike micelles or strings of spherical micelles (Y. Yan, N. A. M. Besseling, A. de Keizer, R. Fokkink, M. Drechsler and M. A. Cohen Stuart, J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 11662). Using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) we investigated those mixtures with a concentration of up to 0.6 vol%. Depending on the charge ratio and the concentration the above mixtures was proven to build spherocylindrical objects of different sizes. In the case of charge neutrality spherical micelles are found. Thus, we confirmed by SAXS experiments that the structures seen by cryo-TEM indeed exist in solutio
Swedish integration policy documents: a close dialogic reading
No full textSweden as the great welfare state where everybody is equally welcomed and cared for has for long been the prevailing view. Although Swedish integration policy seems to confirm this view, this is far removed from many people’s experienced reality. I argue that part of this disharmony lies in how West European languages contain and relate to an ‘identity’ construction, which perpetuates and is perpetuated through dichotomies that strengthen the social and political cogency of concepts such as ‘race’, ethnicity and culture. Based on this, I carry out a discourse analysis of Sweden’s major integration policy documents from the mid 1970s up to today.
After an eclectic reading of discourses on migration and integration terminology, ‘identity’ and language, I assert the centrality of ‘identity’ construction to everything we do. With this in mind, taking the dialogism promoted by the Bakhtinian Circle as the dichotomy to monologism, I carry out a close dialogic reading in the tradition of Lynn Pearce (1994) and Peter Stallybrass and Allon White (1986).
Contextualising the policy documents, I present the history of migration and integration from a Swedish perspective. Focusing on the last five decades, I divide the different historic tendencies into themes ranging from: emigration to labour migration, refugee migration and the European Union, and from immigrant policy to integration policy.
Believing that the conceptualisation and the handling of categorisation, segregation, culture, discrimination and racism are all central to a successful integration policy, I analyse the policy documents thematically accordingly. I show how the interdependence of the common ‘identity’ constructions and language sometimes obscures and frequently counteracts the intention of the author. As a result, I argue that the Bakhtinian Circle holds the key to a better understanding of the invincibility of stereotyping within racialised discourses, through applying absolute ‘identity’ constructions in monologic speech, and how this may be counteracted in order to strive for a dialogic approach to the world
Boundary spanning in a for-profit research lab: An exploration of the interface between commerce and academe
No full textIn innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries. In a quantitative case study of one firm in the biopharmaceutical sector, we explore the consequences of scientific publication-an instance of public disclosure-for a core set of activities within the firm. Specifically, we link publications to human capital management practices, showing that scientists' bonuses and the allocation of managerial attention are tied to individuals' publications. Using a unique electronic mail dataset, we find that researchers within the firm who author publications are much better connected to external (to the company) members of the scientific community. This result directly links publishing to current understandings of absorptive capacity. In an unanticipated finding, however, our analysis raises the possibility that the company's most prolific publishers begin to migrate to the periphery of the intra-firm social network, which may occur because these individuals' strong external relationships induce them to reorient their focus to a community of scientists beyond the firm's boundary.
Social simulation comparison in arbitrary problem domains: first steps towards a more principled approach
No full textWe outline a simulation development process, backed by a software framework, which focuses on developing and using a partial conceptual model as a ‘lens’ to compare and possibly re-implement existing models in a chosen problem domain (as well as to design new models). To make this feasible for existing models of arbitrary structure and background social theory, we construct our (partial) conceptual model in a way that acknowledges that it is a base representation which any individual model will typically add detail to, and abstract away from, in various ways which we argue can be formalised. A given model’s design is fitted to the conceptual model to capture how its structural architecture (and selected aspects of the system’s state and driving processes) map to the conceptual model. This fit can be used to produce incomplete skeleton code which can then be extended to produce a simulation. Along the way, we discuss how the field of robust decision-making provides a useful context for this, and how it differs from other approaches. This is inevitably a preliminary approach to a broad and difficult problem, so we end by discussing some of the main issues and what might be needed next
The effectiveness of the ASBO - a practitioner perspective
No full textAcademics, politicians and the media have debated the merits of the ASBO for over a decade. Much of this discussion has been associated with negative connotations and there are currently government proposatls to abolish the order in favour of a Crime Prevention Injunction (CPI). This study seeks to provide a practitioner perspective to further inform this debate
Combining the production and the valorization of academic research: A qualitative investigation of enacted mechanisms.
No full textThe emergence of knowledge-based societies over the past decades has spurred research on the specific role of universities in innovation systems. The notion of academic entrepreneurship has gained acceptance among communities of researchers, practitioners and policy makers (Etzkowitz et al., 1998). At the same time, this acceptance seems impregnated by a constant alertness for the tensions that may arise. Concerns are uttered about shifts of the academic research agenda towards industry needs, resulting in fewer investments in basic research. Furthermore, the conflicting nature of the normative principles that guide academia and business has been warned for: competitive considerations and secrecy practices would stand in direct opposition to the principle of free dissemination of scientific knowledge (Dasgupta and David, 1987; Florida and Cohen, 1999; Geuna, 1999; Noble, 1977).Agency; Applicant; Assignee; Assignment; Business; Companies; Country; Data; EPO; Indicators; Information; Innovation; Institutional; Inventors; Methods; Order; Patent; Patent statistics; Patentee; Performance; Policy; Regions; Research; Researchers; Sector; Sector assignment; Technology; Time; University; USPTO; Innovation systems; Systems; Academic entrepreneurship; Community; Research agenda; Industry; Industries; Investments; Investment; Basic research; Principles; Dissemination; Knowledge;
Jews and gender in British literature 1815-1865.
No full textPhDThis thesis examines the variety of relationships between Jews and gender in early
to mid-nineteenth century British literature, focussing particularly on representations
of and by Jewish women. It reconstructs the social, political and literary context in
which writers produced images and narratives about Jews, and considers to what
extent stereotypes were reproduced, appropriated, or challenged. In particular it
examines the ways in which questions of gender were linked to ideas about religious
or racial difference in the Victorian period.
The study situates literary representations of Jews within the context of
contemporary debates about the participation of the Jews in the life of the modern
state. It also investigates the ways in which these political debates were gendered,
looking in particular at the relationship between the cultural construction of
femininity and English national identity.
It first considers Victorian culture's obsession with Rebecca, the Jewess created in
Walter Scott's influential novel Ivanhoe (1819). It examines Rebecca's refusal to
convert to Christianity in the context of Scott's discussion of racial separatism and
modern national unity.
Evangelical writers like Annie Webb, Amelia Bristow and Mrs Brendlah were
prolific literary producers, and preoccupied with converting Jewish women.
Particularly during the 18'40s and 1850s, evangelical writing provided an important
forum for the construction and consolidation of women's national identity.
Grace Aguilar's writing was an attempt to understand Jewish identity within the
terms of Victorian domestic ideology. In contrast, Celia and Marion Moss, in their
historical romances, offered narratives of female heroism and national liberation,
drawing on the contemporary debate about slavery.
Benjamin Disraeli's construction of a "tough version of Jewish identity was a
response both to the contemporary stereotype of the feminised Jew and to the debate
about Jewish emancipation. It also drew on the virile ideology of the Young England
movement of the 1840s
As vozes femininas de Orlanda Amarílis
No full textThis study aims at analyzing the Cape Verdean feminine condition from the
perspective of Orlanda Amarílis. The author reveals singularities of feminine life in
Cape Verde, Africa, and in diaspora since she herself was a diasporic woman who
wrote her literary work in European land concerned with the position of subalternity
and resignation of her country female mates. Henceforth her characters are analyzed
under the perspective of cultural identities and gender based on theoretical and critic
apparatus with works by Stuart Hall, Frantz Fanon, Benjamin Abdala, Joan Scott and
Thomas Bonnici among others. The entire research is focused on the analysis of four
female characters of four short stories selected to compose the corpus of this
dissertation: “Desencanto” (Disenchantment), “A casa dos mastros” (The house of
the masts), “Thonon-les-bains” and “Luna Cohen”. From those narratives, questions
are raised such as how women face adverse social and financial situations in
diaspora and also violence inside the context of Cape Verde and Europe.Esta pesquisa pretende analisar a situação feminina cabo-verdiana por meio da
perspectiva de Orlanda Amarílis. A autora revela particularidades das vivências
femininas em Cabo Verde e na diáspora, uma vez que ela também é uma mulher
diaspórica tendo escrito sua obra em terras europeias sem, contudo, deixar de se
preocupar com a posição de subalternidade e resignação de suas conterrâneas.
Dessa forma, são analisadas também as personagens orlandianas sob o viés de
identidades culturais e de gênero a partir de suporte teórico e critico de autores
como: Stuart Hall, Frantz Fanon, Benjamin Abdala, Joan Scott e Thomas Bonnici,
entre outros. Toda a pesquisa está voltada à analise de quatro personagens
femininas de quatro contos selecionados para o corpus desta dissertação, sendo
eles: “Desencanto”, “A casa dos mastros”, “Thonon-les-bains” e “Luna Cohen”.
Dessas narrativas, são levantadas questões de como a mulher enfrenta situações
sociais e financeiras adversas na diáspora e, também, a violência dentro do contexto
de Cabo Verde e Europa
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