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Expert briefing
Publication date: 9 June 2023

It does so in a complicated migratory environment. Migration flows are diversifying and show no sign of abating, anti-migration movements are vocal, press coverage of the issue is…

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2016

Antonio Fiorentino, Cesare Piazza and Elisabetta Ceretti

The purpose of this paper is to focus on tracheal stent production with the aim of investigating the available devices and improving their performances. The biomedical field is a…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on tracheal stent production with the aim of investigating the available devices and improving their performances. The biomedical field is a continuously growing area of the market always in search of the most innovative and competitive solutions for healthcare. Beside the actual critical period of the world economy, it shows continuous improvements in research and innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Within a market analysis and the collaboration between engineering and biomedical research fields, it was outlined a new product concept able to satisfy the patient’s and physician’s requirements with the focus on the enhancement of the stent anchorage. As a result, the concept of a custom- or tailor-made stent was identified as a potential solution. Moreover, additive technologies were identified as the economically sustainable processes for manufacturing these innovative stents. In the present paper, different types of stents were derived from the proposed concept, they were designed, manufactured and their anchorage capability was tested. In particular, the procedures adopted for their design are described and discussed. Moreover, silicone fused deposition modelling was adopted and two types of deposition method, namely, layer-by-layer and continuous, were used to manufacture the devices identifying their pro, cons and limits. Finally, the stents were tested against migration and results were compared with one of the most widely used today.

Findings

The results show how additive manufacturing allowed to manufacture more efficient and migration resistant stents.

Originality/value

It is expected that this new stent design will reduce the risk of complications in stenting, as granulation, thanks to a more uniform stress distribution on the trachea tissues. These improved characteristics will allow to enhance the quality of both the product and the patient’s healthcare.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Globalization, Political Economy, Business and Society in Pandemic Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-792-3

Expert briefing
Publication date: 21 June 2018

Ruling party struggles.

Expert briefing
Publication date: 8 July 2016

Large-scale emigrations of Eritreans factor into Asmara's foreign relations. Eritrean migration is more than a humanitarian concern; it is shaping relationships with the EU and…

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB212266

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Article
Publication date: 5 September 2016

Benjamin Tawiah, Liping Zhang, Anli Tian and Shai Shao Fu

The purpose of this paper is to colour aluminium pigment to the highest chroma using SiO2 and organic silane with dichlorotriazine reactive dye and investigate its reaction…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to colour aluminium pigment to the highest chroma using SiO2 and organic silane with dichlorotriazine reactive dye and investigate its reaction mechanism, chemical stability and thermal properties to improve its applicability in surface coatings.

Design/methodology/approach

Aluminium pigment was encapsulated by the catalysed sol-gel method using SiO2, followed by modification with γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS). Purified reactive dye (1-Amino-4-[3-(4,6-dichlorotriazin-2-ylamino)-4-sulfophenylamino]anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid (X-BR)) was covalently immobilized onto modified SiO2 to obtain coloured aluminium pigment. The reaction mechanism, chemical stability and thermophysical properties were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA).

Findings

The results showed that X-BR was covalently attached to modified Al/SiO2 with maximum colour grafting of 95 per cent when the dosage of GPTMS and X-BR per weight of modified Al/SiO2 was 25 and 15 per cent, respectively, at pH 8.5 and a temperature of 40°C. The coloured aluminium pigment had good chemical stability with excellent anti-migration properties in many solvents.

Research limitations/implications

The organic silane used required a careful control of pH to ensure maximum colour grafting efficiency meanwhile other silanes with amine groups could also be used effectively with different kinds of colorants besides reactive dyes.

Practical implications

The method used is less cumbersome and provides a simple route to preparing coloured aluminium pigment.

Originality/value

The use of organic-inorganic SiO2/γ- GPTMS with purified reactive dye to covalently colour aluminium pigment to the highest chroma is novel and will help advance the frontiers of knowledge on coloration of aluminium pigments.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 45 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1982

E.R. Wood

Condensation of atmospheric moisture on electrical circuits and components can have a dramatic adverse effect on both performance and physical state. If the assembly is not…

Abstract

Condensation of atmospheric moisture on electrical circuits and components can have a dramatic adverse effect on both performance and physical state. If the assembly is not suitably protected against moisture ingress, reductions in performance can be expected that are due to shorting and/or corrosion of circuit elements and component leads. Many of the available resinous coatings contain ‘active’ residues which, in the presence of moisture, may themselves cause shorting and corrosion. A new coating material based on a non‐curing fluorochemical polymer gives excellent moisture and electrical protection and contains no active residues which might cause corrosion. It can be removed easily with solvents for ease of repair and component replacement.

Details

Circuit World, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-6120

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2022

Gráinne McMahon and Rhetta Moran

The participatory action research project described in this chapter took place with an established campaigning and research organisation in Manchester. The young activists who…

Abstract

The participatory action research project described in this chapter took place with an established campaigning and research organisation in Manchester. The young activists who were part of the work were all living without legal status in the UK, and had all been failed by the asylum system and cast as the ‘abject’ (Tyler, 2013) and unwanted. Building upon decades of protest against racist and ‘othering’ polices in Britain (Copsey, 2016; England, 2019), the project illustrates a powerful example of young people who are very much on the margins, neglected and disbelieved by the state, and vilified by wider society and deliberate distortions of what it means to ‘seek asylum’, coming together to activate and find a voice in public to call for justice and change. Utilising Voloshinov’s (1929/1986) method of ‘language creation from below’ to create a shared understanding of their experiences in the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ (Goodfellow, 2019), the young activists engaged in consciousness-raising together to explore the commonality of their lives as ‘(young) people seeking asylum’. Rejecting the dominant ideological sign of ‘asylum seeker’, they created a play, ‘Faceless’, to depict the reality of their experiences, to present a counterstatement (Voloshinov, 1929/1986), in the public sphere (Fraser, 1990), and to exercise what Castells (2015) refers to as ‘counterpower’.

Details

Reshaping Youth Participation: Manchester in a European Gaze
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-358-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2017

Ioanna Ferra and Dennis Nguyen

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the transnational discourse on the migrant crisis materialized on Twitter; it analyses how different stakeholders make use of online…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the transnational discourse on the migrant crisis materialized on Twitter; it analyses how different stakeholders make use of online platforms to engage in the transnational digital public sphere in a crisis context.

Design/methodology/approach

The case study combines insights from research on transnational public discourses with web sphere theory for the methodological angle; it also applies social network and semantic analysis as empirical methods for data analysis. Twitter data related to #migrantcrisis and published on the 26 of February 2016 were collected, processed and visualised with NodeXL.

Findings

The social network and semantic analysis of 4,277 tweets identified the key actors/stakeholders who dominated the transnational web discourse and the main topics subsumed under the #migrantcrisis. The results suggest that the hierarchical structures that shaped the “offline” public sphere resonate in the digital public sphere. Simultaneously, strong links with general EU politics and other crisis events that caused turmoil in the transnational public sphere emerged as well.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides an exploratory mapping of noticeable tendencies in a data set that is limited to the 26 of February 2016, which marked the closing of borders along the so-called “Balkan Route” to Europe.

Originality/value

This paper examines the usage of Twitter and the formation of the transnational web discourse by focusing the examination of a key date and event as regards to the unfolding of the migrant crisis in Europe.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 July 2018

Sarah McBride and Peter Kevern

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors influencing the scale and nature of intercountry adoption (ICA) between the People’s Republic of China and the USA, and to…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors influencing the scale and nature of intercountry adoption (ICA) between the People’s Republic of China and the USA, and to describe the significance and contribution of each to ICA processes.

Design/methodology/approach

A documentary data analysis approach based upon the quantitative grounded theory: first, interpreting available data, and second, conducting a thematic analysis of the literature to generate a theory of key factors.

Findings

The results showed that changes in policies, ethical narratives and ideological shifts (principally the rise of nationalism) were highly influential in determining the scale and type of ICAs in successive years.

Practical implications

This paper concluded that China: US ICA is likely to continue only in small numbers with older and special needs children. However, China: US adoptions provide some examples of “best practice”. Understanding the interplay of factors explored theoretically in this study may guide future ICA arrangements between other country pairs.

Originality/value

Although a range of data has been collected on China: US ICA over a number of years, no systematic attempt has been made to link changes in those data to changes in the legal, social or cultural climate in which such adoptions take place. As well as providing new insights into the dynamics of ICA, the paper develops an original method which could be applied to parallel arrangements between other countries.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 38 no. 7-8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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