1,073 research outputs found
Current State-of-the-Art and Perspectives in the Design and Application of Vitrimeric Systems
Full text linkTo fulfill the current circular economy concept, the academic and industrial communities are devoting significant efforts to plastic materials’ end-of-life. Unlike thermoplastics, which are easy to recover and re-valorize, recycling thermosets is still difficult and challenging. Conversely, because of their network structure, thermosetting polymer systems exhibit peculiar features that make these materials preferable for several applications where high mechanical properties, chemical inertness, and thermal stability, among others, are demanded. In this view, vitrimers have quite recently attracted the attention of the scientific community, as they can form dynamic covalent adaptive networks that provide the properties typical of thermosets while keeping the possibility of being processed (and, therefore, mechanically recycled) beyond a certain temperature. This review aims to provide an overview of vitrimers, elucidating their most recent advances and applications and posing some perspectives for the forthcoming years
Japan 2023: Still walking in Abe Shinzō’s footsteps
No full textOn the basis of a wide range of critically assessed and triangulated secondary and primary sources, including elite interviews and official documentation often in the original language, this article suggests that Japan’s domestic politics, and also its foreign and security policies, displayed a remarkable degree of continuity with the path set by the late Abe Shinzō, and thus carry his imprint. Notable exceptions are Kishida’s initiatives in the energy, economic, and fiscal realms. Amid major scandals and internal readjustments in the majority party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan’s domestic politics appear to be dominated by a single party maintaining its edge over possible adversaries in a fundamentally non-competitive democratic system. This trend has been further reinforced by growing political disaffection. Public trust in the government in 2023 was at a minimum, while surveys show that more than 40% of the Japanese electorate did not support any specific political party. Against this backdrop, however, the Kishida administration was successful in ending a long-lasting period of deflation in the Japanese economy and coming to terms with the legacy of former PM Abe Shinzō. In fact, the lasting influence of Abe lives on in the LDP’s factional balance, influencing Kishida’s policy stance.
Especially in the realm of Japan’s security policy and international relations, 2023 testified to Abe’s legacy. Japan’s changes in its military doctrine and its force posture, together with its strategic outreaches to its east Asian neighbours and European and Pacific players, mirror US grand strategy. In fact, Japan also worked in lockstep with US-led minilateral diplomacy aimed at purposeful multi-layered security ententes, often on an ad hoc basis, to balance China militarily, counter the expansion of its regional diplomatic and economic influence and maintain the status quo along the first island chain. The seeds sown by the second Abe administration bore fruit in Japan’s security embrace of Taiwan, an embrace which capitalised on Abe’s poorly understood 2015 legislative and strategic revolutions.
With a focus on the geopolitics of the first island chain, the article then looks at Japan’s burgeoning security cooperation with South Korea and European states. It does so to argue that while Kishida’s Japan is seemingly reactive to US grand strategy, it acts in broad continuity of the course set by the two Abe administrations. After all, under Abe, Japan expanded its strategic partnerships to include European players and NATO. Moreover, while Kishida is not a revisionist nationalist, unlike Abe, Japan’s reset of its relations with Seoul is a by-product of the new Yoon administration’s ability to compromise rather than a result of the Japanese government’s concessions.
After analysing the burgeoning Japan-NATO relations, the article concludes with a discussion of Japan’s successful G7 presidency, the apex of minilateral diplomacy in 2023
Toward the optimization of the optical behavior of transparent wood: current state of the art and perspectives
Full text linkTransparent wood (TW) is a type of bio-based optical composite that combines wood’s hierarchical microstructure with polymers’ tailored optical properties to achieve high transmittance and controlled light scattering. TW is developed by removing lignin or modifying lignin chromophores and infiltrating a polymer whose refractive index closely matches that of the delignified wood framework. This review critically examines the parameters governing transparency in millimeter-thick TW, including the influence of wood
species, delignification and bleaching strategies, and polymer selection for infiltration and polymerization/curing. The discussion emphasizes the interplay between microstructural anisotropy, refractive index matching, and processing-induced defects, which collectively determine light transmittance and haze. The review summarizes current progress toward achieving glass-like transparency in the millimeter range, highlighting the advances and remaining challenges in optimizing TW for scalable structural and functional applications
UV-LED curable acrylic films containing phosphate glass powder: effect of the filler loading on the thermal, optical, mechanical and flame retardant properties
Full text linkIn this work, we thoroughly investigate the effects of the incorporation of a phosphate glass micrometric powder on the morphology, as well as on the thermal, optical, mechanical and flame retardant properties of UV-LED curable acrylic films. To this aim, the filler loading was changed within 10 and 50 wt.%. UV-LED initiated curing was selected as a fast and reliable system, as the standard UV-curing process was not suitable because of the presence of the glass powder that decreased the quantum efficiency during the UV exposure, hence preventing the transformation of the liquid system into a solid network. The glass powder slightly increased the glass transition temperature of the acrylic network, hence showing a limited effect on the chain segments mobility; besides, increasing filler loadings were responsible for a progressive decrease of the transparency of films, irrespective of a marginal effect on their refractive index. Conversely, the presence of increasing amounts of phosphate glass improved the thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of the cured products. Besides, phosphate glass was capable of remarkably enhancing the flame retardance of the acrylic network at 50 wt.% loading, which achieved self-extinction in vertical flame spread tests (and was V-0 rated). This formulation, as assessed by forced-combustion tests, also displayed a remarkable decrease of peak of Heat Release Rate and Total Heat Release (by 44 and 33%, respectively) and of Total Smoke Release and Specific Extinction Area (by 53 and 56%, respectively). Further, the filler promoted an increase of the stiffness and surface hardness of the films, at the expense of a decrease in ductility. All these findings may justify the potential use of these composite films as flame retardant coatings for different flammable substrates
The European Union’s strategy toward the Indo-Pacific
No full textPublished online: 08 February 2025The European Union (EU) has a long-standing and proactive engagement with Asia. Growing attention to the risks and challenges stemming from China’s rise has shifted discourse away from a traditional focus on the “Asia-Pacific” toward the novel concept of the “Indo-Pacific”. The latter has been coined in response to a number of powers in and outside the region to demarcate a wider area, stretching from the East coast of Africa to the Western Pacific, that is a zone of immense geopolitical relevance and economic potential. This chapter unpacks the geopolitical and geo-economic factors driving the EU’s regional engagement, before concluding with a summary of the main achievements, limitations, and future outlook.Parts of this book chapter are based on the following academic article: Giulio Pugliese, “The European Union and an ‘Indo-Pacific’ Alignment”, Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 31 (1), 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/13439006.2024.2334182
The European Union’s Strategy towards the Indo-Pacific
No full textThe European Union (EU) has a long-standing and proactive engagement with Asia. Growing attention to the risks and challenges stemming from China’s rise has shifted discourse away from a traditional focus on the “Asia-Pacific” toward the novel concept of the “Indo-Pacific”. The latter has been coined in response to a number of powers in and outside the region to demarcate a wider area, stretching from the East coast of Africa to the Western Pacific, that is a zone of immense geopolitical relevance and economic potential. This chapter unpacks the geopolitical and geo-economic factors driving the EU’s regional engagement, before concluding with a summary of the main achievements, limitations, and future outlook
Un progetto "nostrano". Valorizzazione dell’artigianato pugliese e del rapporto tra design e artigianato
No full textLAUREA SPECIALISTICAIl tema cardine di questo lavoro è incentrato sulla valorizzazione dell’artigianato pugliese
e sul rapporto tra designer e artigiano.
Il panorama attuale dell’artigianato locale è segnato da un problema di veloce perdita dei
saperi tradizionali sul quale occorre intervenire, se si vuole che abilità e competenze
vengano trasmesse alle nuove generazioni.
Lo scopo di questa tesi è giungere a un elaborato progettuale, tangibile, che rappresenti
quelli che sono i valori legati alla tradizione locale pugliese, all’artigianato autoctono e alla
naturalità dei gesti legati al mondo gastronomico; valori che, in maniera evidente, stanno
scomparendo in concomitanza al perfezionamento di tecnologie che cercano sempre più
di presentarsi come dei surrogati del benessere, distogliendo l’attenzione dell’uomo
(utente) da quello che è l’effettivo piacere.
Nella prima parte della ricerca si è voluto indagare sul ruolo che l’artigiano ha ricoperto
nella storia e quali sono state le diversità che hanno distinto i due sessi, maschile e femminile,
fino a comprendere le motivazioni per le quali l’artigianato col tempo ha perso di
valore senza lasciare erede alcuno della tecnica giostrata sino ad allora.
Successivamente sono state individuate le problematiche legate a questo mondo culturale,
fatto di saperi e conoscenze, mettendo a confronto l’industria, nelle vesti della contemporaneità,
con l’artigianato, ovvero, la tradizione.
Continuando questo percorso conoscitivo sull’artigianato, partito da una panoramica
piuttosto generale, si incontra una raccolta delle arti e mestieri appartenenti al territorio
pugliese, in cui vengono messi a confronto i luoghi con le lavorazioni e le maestranze
operanti nelle varie aree della regione.
Questo lavoro di ricerca, infine, si conclude con la progettazione di una famiglia di oggetti
per la tavola, realizzati con i “materiali della tradizione”, e basati sugli utilizzi e bisogni del
passato. L’auspicio di questi elaborati è che possano divenire un punto di discussione sugli
effettivi bisogni dell’uomo ed uno stimolo ad instaurare un rapporto più solido tra il
designer e l’artigiano visto come “portatore sano di capacità” (cit. Giulio Iacchetti)
Linguistic repertoires in Italian L2 classes: implications of the use of pidgin languages for learning and teaching
Full text linkResearch on language teaching to migrant students is currently being informed by a conceptual shift from the marginal role of their native/home languages to a view of these as a valuable asset for learning the target language. This paper presents an exploratory study on Nigerian Pidgin English as used by learners and, occasionally, by the teacher, during L2 Italian classes. Adopting a conversation analysis approach to audio-recorded naturally occurring interactions, we discuss some excerpts to show how the pidgin dialogue emerging pursues immediate communicative goals and further learning objectives. This paper not only highlights the need to take into consideration students’ non-standard, as well as standard languages, but also suggests an interactional view of language – and subsequent empirical analysis – as the crucial starting point for conceiving effective approaches to teacher training
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