Innovation of science and technology is the impetus for the promotion of human civilization, and the fostering of innovators of science and technology has become an important educational goal in the era of knowledge economy. The purpose of the present study is to mobile the teachers, who have long supervised students in science exhibition competition, to develop innovative science teaching material, and to conduct an instruction experiment to examine the effect of such a material on elementary pupils¡¦ creativity, problem solving, and science subject performance. The instruments of the present study include 1) Creativity Test (Verbal-bamboo chopsticks, figure-¤H) developed by Wu, et al. (1998), 2 )Creative Problem Solving Test, and Subject Knowledge and Concept Test developed by researchers (2002). The study consists of three stages. Firstly, a team of ¡§Innovative Science Teaching Material¡¨ is organized by 7 elementary school science teachers with average 20 years of working experience, five of which have been awarded as the first rank more than five times in science exhibition competitions held for elementary schools in Kaohsiung. An appropriate Creative Thinking Instruction Model (CTIM) is constructed through panel discussion and shared teaching expertise on weekly basis in a 17-week period, and teaching material is developed on the basis of the constructed CTIM. Secondly, an experiment is conducted to test the effect of the developed teaching material. The three teachers in the treatment group will receive a 3-day instruction demonstration and reflection from the workshop by the team of ¡§Innovative Science Teaching Material,¡¨ while the three teachers in the contrasted group do not. Then, a total of 206 fifth grade pupils in three Kaoshiung elementary schools are selected, on a quasi-experiment design, with pre-, and post tests on unequal number subjects, for the treatment group in a 10-week-session innovative instruction . Third, a follow up test is done 6 months after the experiment. The data are analyzed through One-Way MANCOVA to test the effect of the innovative science teaching material on pupils¡¦ learning. The results indicate that¡G1) a general consensus is reached by the team of ¡§Innovative Science Teaching Material,¡¨ through 17 panel discussions, and the essentials of Inquiry approach and STS(Science/Technology/Society) approach are combined on the basis of CTIM, which then be classified into ¡§Creativity of teachers,¡¨ and ¡§Creativity of the pupils, ¡¨ which were further differentiated into six steps: setting design, problem finding, hypothesis formation, testing design, results interpretation, and application promotion, which form an instruction loop; 2) On instruction effect, students in the experimental group perform better on verbal creativity, figure creativity, problem solving competence, and global science subject knowledge than those in the contrasted group; 3) On the follow up test (6 months after the experiment), students in the experimental group perform better on verbal fluency and verbal originality creativity than those in the contrasted group, which indicates a lasting effect of the instruction, but there is no significant difference between subjects.

This work explores how the idea of collage as ”components put together to create a new whole” can be used in the creation of garments and visual expressions in fashion design. As collage in fashion often is reduced to mere decoration in e.g. print design added to predetermined shapes, this work wishes to have the collage be the dominant factor in the creation of the garments in this collection. By two-dimensional material collages this exploration aims to investigate composition of material, colour, surfaces and shapes in dress. The technique of fusing is used to attach the different materials to each other using the material Vliesofix and heat. The garments are created flat with the possibility to enter in-between the layers of the materials and give shape on the body. By collaging with materials this work tries to bring the creation of material and construction closer together in the design process as well as bring the sketch closer to the final result by sketching directly in the material. The potential of having the material development be present in all the design steps is that it creates a greater relation between the material and shape. The result is a collection of eight outfits proposing new ways of constructing garments at the same time as exploring materials and the technique of fusing. The garments are somewhere in-between sketches and final results and the collection can be looked upon as a fashion collection or as a series of examples of possible outcomes from working with this method.

Text-to-speech (TTS) systems are ubiquitous. From Siri to Alexa to customer service phone call options, listening in a real-world context requires language learners to interact with TTS. Traditionally, language learners report difficulty when listening due to various reasons including genre, text, task, speaker characteristics, and environmental factors. This naturally leads to the question: how do learners perceive TTS in instructional contexts? Since TTS allows controls on speaker characteristics (e.g. gender, regional variety, speed, etc.) the variety of materials that could be created--especially in contexts in which native speakers are difficult or expensive to find--makes this an attractive option. However, the effectiveness of TTS, namely, intelligibility, expressiveness, and naturalness, might be questioned for those instances in which the listening is more empathic than informational. In this study, we examined participants' comprehension of the factual details and speaker emotion as well as collected their opinions towards TTS systems for language learning. This study took place in an intensive English Program (IEP) with an academic focus at a large university in the United States. The participants had ACTFL proficiency levels ranging from Novice High to Advance Low. The participants were divided into two groups and through a counterbalanced design, were given a listening assessment in which half of the listening passages were recorded by voice actors, and other half were generated by the TTS system. After the assessment, the participants were given a survey that inquired their opinion towards TTS systems as learning tools. We did not find significant relationships between the voice delivery and participants' comprehension of details and speakers' emotions. Furthermore, more than half of the participants held positive views to using TTS systems as learning tools; thus, this study suggested the use of TTS systems when applicable.

In our practice the choice of materials is mostly driven by practical reasons, aesthetics and a given budget, and it is often applied rather at the end of the process – rarely is it the driver of any design process. What often gets forgotten is that materials can carry an immaterial layer of connotations. This means that materials are not perceived neutrally but are instead always loaded with certain meanings and values we attribute to them which in return can evoke different emotions in us. In my thesis project I explore the effect of analternative design process that uses materials as the point of departure.Through experimental explorations I have produced my own materials and investigated possibilities to use them in a spatial context. I created different scenarios to speculate about the potential these materials could have. Could they become applicable materials for interior and furniture design as well as for being a carrier of meaning?

As mankind attempts to halt climate change and global warming, large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies are viewed as an indispensable approach to curb CO2 emission. This thesis focused on better understanding CO2-amine interactions during adsorption, while developing in parallel covalently immobilized polyethylenimine (PEI) adsorbents for CO2 adsorption. In addition, catalyst reusability issues reported in the synthesis of cyclic carbonates (CCs) from CO2 and epoxides using metal-free supported immobilized quaternary ammonium salts are addressed, while developing new organosilicas for the synthesis of CCs. The reaction between CO2 and amine was investigated at the gas-solid interface in an attempt to provide a unified CO2-amine interaction both in adsorption and absorption. A combination of density functional theory calculations and experimental data (FTIR and 13C NMR) showed that the formation of the zwitterion intermediate often reported in the literature is highly unlikely, instead a six-atom centered zwitterion mechanism involving the “assisting” effect of water, amine or other functional groups was found to be more feasible due to its lower activation energy. Moreover, evidence was provided to suggest that under humid conditions, bicarbonate and carbonate are formed from the reaction between water and CO2, and not the widely reported carbamate hydrolysis. With a goal of minimizing the leaching of amines on PEI-impregnated adsorbents, PEI was covalently immobilized on mesoporous aluminosilica using 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane or 3-triethoxysilylpropyl isocyanate as linkers. The resultant materials were found to be more resistant to leaching (in ethanol) and degradation (air at 100 oC) compared to their impregnated counterparts. Further enhancement in oxidation stability was achieved by covalently grafting epoxide-functionalized PEI onto mesoporous aluminosilica. CO2 uptake over amine-containing adsorbents is widely reported to be enhanced in the presence of moisture. However, the same cannot be said for other adsorbents, such as, carbonaceous and zeolite-based materials, and most MOFs. In a soon to be submitted review manuscript, a comprehensive analysis on the role of water on CO2 uptake (equilibrium and kinetics), material structure and regeneration over a wide range of adsorbents is presented. As for CO2-epoxides fixation to cyclic carbonates, a quaternary ammonium salt supported on SBA-15 was used to investigate the observed literature trend between product yield and substrate type with catalyst reuse. Under mild reaction conditions (1.0 MPa CO2, 100 oC and 4 h), 1,2-butylene carbonate was obtained in high yields (> 95%) over 5 cycles as the substrate is easy to activate and the product can be completely removed from the catalyst surface due to its low boiling point. Nonetheless, using styrene oxide led to decrease in yield over reuse cycles, mainly because styrene carbonate crystals were trapped on the catalysts surface (13C MAS NMR and TGA data), thereby blocking access to active sites. By extensively washing all spent catalysts in acetone and using chromatographic grade SiO2 as support material, styrene carbonate was obtained in very good yield (> 93%) over five cycles. Finally, novel quaternary ammonium iodide-based organosilicas, grouped into disordered, ordered and periodic mesoporous organosilicas, were prepared and tested for the cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxide to yield cyclic carbonates. Under mild reaction conditions (0.5 MPa CO2, 50 oC and 10 – 15 h) catalysts with the ordered mesoporous organosilicas structure were found to be more active owing to their larger surface area and pore volume, enhancing the accessibility of active sites by epoxides.

In diesem Beitrag werden die magnetischen Eigenschaften von ferromagnetischen Proben, welche mittels des neuen 3D-Multimaterialdruckverfahrens (3DMMD) hergestellt wurden, mit herkömmlichen Magnetkreismaterialien verglichen. Dazu wird zunächst die Technologie des Druckverfahrens sowie das Messprinzip und der Versuchsstand beschrieben. Im Weiteren wird ein Überblick über die Materialentwicklung gegeben und die Messergebnisse diskutiert. Es folgt die Betrachtung relevanter Einflüsse bei der Herstellung von Magnetkreisen sowie der Vergleich der Messergebnisse verschiedener Materialien. / In this paper, the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic samples produced using the new 3D multi-material printing process (3DMMD) are compared with conventional magnetic circuit materials. First the technology of the printing process as well as the measuring principle and the test bench are described. Furthermore, an overview of the material development is given and the measurement results are discussed. This is followed by the consideration of relevant influences in the production of magnetic circuits and the comparison of the measurement results of different materials.

Juxtaposing in art and design is a commonly used method of creating something new by recomposing already existing elements. The hybrid outcome allows the spectator to re-evaluate the elements merged, and the new relationship set up between them. Hybrids is an attempt to find such meetings through investigating possible material combinations through a series of fabric manipulating techniques, with the aim to generate volume and expression. Parts of the development, with emphasis on print making, have been conducted in a generative methodological way, using randomization and the computer as an autonomous co-creator. Two fabric manipulating techniques were developed during the course of the work; laser cutting mesh and combining stretchy with stiff materials. The common feature of these techniques is their ability to transform from 2D to 3D. Hybrids questions the hierarchy of the traditional fashion design process where form dictates the choice of material. Instead, material comes first, while form relating to body follows. The result is expressive and bold, positioning itself at the intersection of fashion and textile design.

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<p>  </p> <p>In this thesis, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) filaments were produced for 3D printing applications using melt extrusion. The use of CNF reinforcement has the potential to improve the mechanical properties of PLA, making it a more suitable material for various 3D printing applications. To produce the nanocomposites, a master batch with a high concentration of CNFs was premixed with PLA, and then diluted to final concentrations of 1, 3, and 5 wt% during the extrusion process. The dilution was carried out to assess the effects of varying CNF concentrations on the morphology and mechanical properties of the composites. The results showed that the addition of 3 wt.% CNF significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of the PLA composites. Specifically, the tensile strength increased by 77.7%, the compressive strength increased by 62.7%, and the flexural strength increased by 60.2%. These findings demonstrate that the melt extrusion of CNF reinforced PLA filaments is a viable approach for producing nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties for 3D printing applications. In conclusion, the study highlights the potential of CNF reinforcement in improving the mechanical properties of PLA for 3D printing applications. The results can provide valuable information for researchers and industries in the field of 3D printing and materials science, as well as support the development of more advanced and sustainable 3D printing materials.</p>

Brain of Materials ist eine Plattform für innovative und smarte Materialien, die Designern, Entwicklern und Ingenieuren diverser Branchen dabei hilft, ihre Produktentstehungsprozesse zu optimieren und zu beschleunigen.