1,721,056 research outputs found
Multifunctional green composites based on plasma-activated and GO-coated dwarf palm fibers
Full text linkIn this work, we propose a green method for decorating natural fibers derived from dwarf palm waste with graphene oxide (GO) sheets. In detail, plasma-treatment was used to activate fiber surface for the subsequent GO-coating, which was performed in water. Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT)-based composites incorporating 50 % of either raw, plasma-modified or hybrid fibers were prepared by compression moulding and thoroughly analysed to investigate the processing-structure-properties relationships of these systems. The outcomes reveal that combining plasma treatment and GO coating enables fabricating green composites with significantly improved mechanical performance (stiffness and tensile strength increments of up to 500 % and 300 %, respectively) and electrical conductivity on the order of 10(-6) S/m
Electrospun polymeric nanohybrids with outstanding pollutants adsorption and electroactivity for water treatment and sensing devices
Full text linkGraphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were loaded at different mutual ratios into poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) matrix and electrospun to construct mats that were assessed as smart sorbents for decontaminating water from methylene blue (MB) pollutant, while ensuring the additional possibility of detecting the dye amounts. The results revealed that sorption capacity enhances upon increasing GO content, which is beneficial to wettability and active area. Equilibrium adsorption of these materials is precisely predicted by the Langmuir isotherm model and the maximum capacities herein achieved, ranging from 120 to 555 mg/g depending on the formulation, are higher than those reported for similar systems. The evolution of the structure and properties of such materials as a function of dye adsorption was studied. The results reveal that MB molecules prompted the increase of electrical conductivity of the samples in a dose-dependent manner. Mats containing solely CNTs, while displaying the worst sorption performance, showed the highest electrical performances, displaying interesting changes in their electrical response as a function of the dye amount adsorbed, with a linear response and high sensitivity (309.4 mu S cm-1 mg-1) in the range 0-235 mu g of dye adsorbed. Beyond the possibility to monitor the presence of small amounts of MB in contaminated water and the saturation state of sorbents, this feature could even be exploited to transform waste sorbents into high-added value products, including flexible sensors for detecting low values of pressure, human motion, and so on
Physical properties of green composites based on poly-lactic acid or Mater-Bi® filled with Posidonia Oceanica leaves
No full textThis work focuses on the evaluation of Posidonia Oceanica leaves as effective reinforcing agent for ecofriendly, fully biodegradable polymer composites. Posidonia leaves were washed, ground and sieved in order to achieve two different size distributions and aspect ratios. They were then added to either a stiff or a ductile biodegradable polymer matrix, respectively poly-lactic acid (PLA) and MaterBi® (MB), at two different filler contents (10 wt% and 20 wt%). The materials were fully characterized from a spectroscopic, morphological, rheological, and mechanical point of view. In particular, the outcomes of tensile tests were statistically analyzed by using a Full Factorial Design in order to examine the main effect of type of polymer, filler size and filler content (as well as their mutual interactions) on two properties of great concern, such as elastic modulus and toughness
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Structure-property relationship of PLA-Opuntia Ficus Indica biocomposites
No full textIn this work, a lignocellulosic flour was achieved by grinding the cladodes of Opuntia Ficus Indica and then added to a poly-lactic acid (PLA) in order to prepare biocomposites by melt processing. The influence of filler content and size on the morphological, rheological, and mechanical properties of the green composites was assessed. Moreover, solvent-aided filler extraction enabled to evaluate the homogeneity of filler dispersion, as well as the effect of processing on the geometrical features of the fillers. The experimental data obtained by tensile tests proved to be remarkably higher than those predicted by Halpin–Tsai model, presumably due to the capability of the polymer to enter the empty channels of the fillers, thus dramatically increasing the interphasic region
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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