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This chapter explores how coming into contact with the narratives of environmental victims helps to develop different forms of reflexivity useful for imagining and confronting environmental crises. The generation and sharing of environmental data and of visual and narrative experiences of lived environmental harms by ‘ordinary people’ amounts to more than merely supplying robust data to fellow citizens, scientists and decision-makers. It is also a proactive claim for social and environmental justice, especially when these people are silenced or even criminalised. While forms of civic monitoring can be regarded as a contribution to environmental governance, they have instead often been labelled as ‘subversive’ or illegal practices. In this contribution, the authors explore how ‘green’ activist criminology may help in the challenge to have these voices enabled and listened. The challenge has to be taken up by developing an active listening attitude towards the voices of people (‘folk voices’) affected by/exposed to environmental harms, enhancing visual imagination and complexity about the contested notion of the environmental victim, together with new ways of taking care and a new paradigm of the ‘active victim’. In the conclusion, the authors acknowledge the potential of an art-based inquiry that is inclusive of civic imaginaries and knowledge. However, they also stress that cultural barriers and ideologies may hamper this potential. Critical attitude and integrity of any scientific approach should be sought and preserved.

People involved in the cotton industry, from growers to spinners, have been concerned about the problem of stickiness encountered during cotton processing from fibres to yarn. Many methods have been successfully developed to identify and measure stickiness and also to reduce the effect of these contaminations. Yet due to the poor fundamental scientific knowledge regarding the mechanisms of sugar adhesion on fibres, the major part of these methods is empirically based. Today, gaining knowledge about stickiness seems impossible without the help of a fundamental study on the accurate composition of honeydew and on the mechanisms of honeydew adhesion. This paper introduces a new quantitative analysis method for honeydew adhesion behaviour measurement. Adhesion measurement has been carried out on both individual sugar and sugar mixture and it reveals a strong influence of moisture content on adhesion energy and a weak influence of the type of metallic surface on adhesion energy.

Continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites are being widely used in industry, but the fundamental understanding of their properties is still limited. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively study the effects of carbon fiber content on the tensile strength of continuous carbon fiber-reinforced polylactic acid (CCFRPLA) fabricated through additive manufacturing using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process.

The strength of these materials is highly dependent on the interface that forms between the continuous fiber and the plastic. A cohesive zone model is proposed as a theoretical means to understand the effect of carbon fiber on the tensile strength properties of CCFRPLA. The interface formation mechanism is explored, and the single fiber pulling-out experiment is implemented to investigate the interface properties of CCFRPLA. The fracture mechanism is also explored by using the cohesive zone model.

The interface between carbon fiber and PLA plays the main role in transferring external load to other fibers within CCFRPLA. The proposed model established in this paper quantitatively reveals the effects of continuous carbon fiber on the mechanical properties of CCFRPLA. The experimental results using additively manufacturing CCFRPLA provide validation and explanation of the observations based on the quantitative model that is established based on the micro-interface mechanics.

The predict model is established imagining that all the fibers and PLA form a perfect interface. While in a practical situation, only the peripheral carbon fibers of the carbon fiber bundle can fully infiltrate with PLA and form a transmission interface. These internal fibers that cannot contract with PLA fully, because of the limit space of the nozzle, will not form an effective interface.

This paper theoretically reveals the fracture mechanism of CCFRPLA and provides a prediction model to estimate the tensile strength of CCFRPLA with different carbon fiber contents.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of sodium metabisulfite (SMB) and ascorbic acid (AA) either alone or in combination as anti-browning agents in industrially processed potatoes.

The experiment was carried out in the production line of an agricultural industry located in the state of Paraná, Brazil, testing the following chemical treatments in the immersion process of the potatoes: T1 (control, without additives), T2 (0.5 percent AA), T3 (0.5 percent SMB), T4 (0.5 percent SMB + 0.5 percent AA) and T5 (0.25 percent SMB + 0.25 percent AA). The statistical significance of the difference between chemical treatments (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5) and storage periods (1, 5, 10 and 15 days) was evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Additionally, multifactorial ANOVA was carried out in a 2² factorial experimental design with 3 central points to estimate the influence of independent variables on the results. The analyses performed on the samples of the different treatments were total soluble solids content, pH, total titratable acidity, instrumental color and browning index.

The tested antioxidants did not affect the content of total soluble solids and total titratable acidity but significantly influenced the pH, color and browning index. The treatment T3, containing only SMB (0.5 percent m/v), and the treatment T5, a combination of SMB (0.25 percent m/v) and AA (0.25 percent m/v), were the most effective in the controlling the browning reaction. In these treatments, the formation of brown color in potatoes after cooked was significantly reduced (p<0.05) using relatively lower concentration of antioxidants.

The novelty of the research is focused on reducing the use of chemical agents to control the browning of the processed potatoes (peeled, steamed, sterilized and vacuum packed) ready for consumption and widely marketed. During processing of this commercial potato, the tissue damage caused by mechanical processes, as well as the heat treatment employed during cooking, induces the development of enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning reactions. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the influence of industrially employed chemical agents in order to maintain the quality of this product, with stable color and the lowest possible concentration of additives. The reduction of chemical additives offers viable solutions to many of the problems the Sustainable Development Goals are meant to tackle, as they ensure healthy lives, availability and sustainable management of water and promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization.

The main aim of this study is to characterise and identify specific chemo-sensory profiles of ciders from the Canary Islands (Spain).

Commercial samples of Canary ciders were compared to ciders from the Basque Country and Asturias. In total, 18 samples were studied, six for each region. The analysis comprised their sensory profiling and chemical characterisation of their polyphenolic profile, volatile composition, conventional chemical parameters and CIELAB colour coordinates. In parallel, the sensory profile of the samples from the Canary Islands was first compared with their Basque and Asturian counterparts by labelled sorting task. Then, their specific aroma profile was characterised by flash profile. Further quantification of sensory-active compounds was performed by GC–MS and GC-FID to identify the volatile compounds involved in their aroma profile.

Results show that Canary ciders present a specific chemical profile characterised by higher levels of ethanol, and hydroxycinnamic acids, mainly t-ferulic, t-coumaric and neochologenic acids, and lower levels of volatile and total acidity than their Asturian and Basque counterparts. They also present a specific aroma profile characterised by fruity aroma, mainly fruit in syrup and confectionary, and sweet flavours related to their highest levels of vinylphenols formed by transformation of hydroxycinnamic acids.

An integrated strategy to explore the typicity of the currently existing Canary ciders in the market was developed. The results are important in that they will help other regions to identify specific typical chemo-sensory profiles and to promote the creation of certifications supporting regional typicity.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate the scaffolds with different pore architectures using additive manufacturing and analyze its mechanical and biological properties for bone tissue engineering applications.

The polylactic acid (PLA)/composite filament were fabricated through single screw extrusion and scaffolds were printed with four different pore architectures, i.e. circle, square, triangle and parallelogram with fused deposition modelling. Afterwards, scaffolds were coated with hydroxyapatite (HA) using dip coating technique. Various physical and thermo-mechanical tests have been conducted to confirm the feasibility. Furthermore, the biological tests were conducted with MG63 fibroblast cell lines to investigate the biocompatibility of the developed scaffolds.

The scaffolds were successfully printed with different pore architectures. The pore size of the scaffolds was found to be nearly 1,500 µm, and porosity varied between 53% and 63%. The fabricated circular pore architecture resulted in highest average compression strength of 13.7 MPa and modulus of 525 MPa. The characterizations showed the fidelity of the work. After seven days of cell culture, it was observed that the developed composites were non-toxic and supported cellular activities. The coating of HA made the scaffolds bioactive, showing higher wettability, degradation and high cellular responses.

The research attempts highlight the development of novel biodegradable and biocompatible polymer (PLA)/bioactive ceramic (Al₂O₃) composite for additive manufacturing with application in the tissue engineering field.

Bales of cotton run through the gins and textile mill instruments, stick to them and make it cumbersome for the ginning mill workers. This is so because more time and money have to be invested in cleaning these instruments. The stickiness of cotton causes health hazards to the workers, decreases the yarn quality and economic loss to the textile industry. The effect of cotton stickiness on textile ginning, various methods for cotton stickiness detection and the steps for reduction are discussed.

The different methods that are available for detecting and measuring cotton stickiness are described. The sugars that cause stickiness are either of plant origin (physiological sugars) or from the feeding insects (entomological origin). The methods for stickiness detection and reduction are discussed under physical, chemical and biological categories.

This review suggests possible ways to mitigate cotton stickiness.

One of the major issues of the textile industry is honeydew-contaminated cotton stickiness. However, there are few papers on detection methods for analyzing honeydew cotton stickiness along with the approaches to reduce stickiness. This paper summarizes different methods along with a study for detection as well as reduction of cotton stickiness.

Delamination is a common and crucial damage mode which occurs during manufacturing of layered composites or their service life. Its existence leads to degradation in mechanical properties or even structural failure of composites. Hence, the purpose of this article is to study the effect of induced delamination on flexural performance of CFRP composites.

In this article, the flexural behaviors of intact and delaminated carbon/epoxy laminates were investigated under pure bending. A circular PTFE film was introduced during fabrication to create artificial delamination. Moreover, finite element models were developed for intact and delaminated composites using ANSYS. The created models were discretized using 3D structural eight node solid elements.

The delamination influenced considerably flexural properties of composite. The composite exhibited a linear elastic nature prior to the damage of top ply on the compression side. The flexural strength and stiffness of the composite reduced to 44.5% and 18.2% respectively due to the existence of artificial delamination. The results of four point bending experiments and finite element analysis agreed for both intact and delaminated composites within acceptable error. Finally for same composites, first ply failure analysis was carried out using Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu and Hashin failure criteria.

In pure bending, beam section of the middle portion is free from shear. It is not so in case of three-point bending. Hence, the effect of embedded artificial defect on bending performance of CFRP composite due to pure bending has been investigated.

In the analysis of structures in a fire situation by simplified and analytical methods, one assumption is that the fire resistance time is greater than or equal to the required fire resistance time. Among the methodologies involving the fire resistance time, the most used is the tabular method, which associates fire resistance time values to structural elements based on minimum dimensions of the cross section. The tabular method is widely accepted by the technical-scientific community due to the fact that it is safe and practical. However, its main criticism is that it results in lower fire resistance times than advanced thermal and thermostructural analysis methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the fire resistance time of reinforced concrete beams and compare it with the required fire resistance time recommended by the tabular method of NBR 15200 (ABNT, 2012).

The fire resistance time and required fire resistance time of reinforced concrete beams were evaluated using, respectively, numerical models developed based on the finite element method and the tabular method of NBR 15200 (ABNT, 2012). The influence of the following parameters was investigated: longitudinal reinforcement cover, characteristic compressive strength of concrete, beam height, longitudinal reinforcement area and arrangement of steel bars.

Among the evaluated parameters, the covering of the longitudinal reinforcement proved to be more relevant for the fire resistance time, justifying that the tabular method of NBR 15200 (ABNT, 2012) being strongly and directly influenced by this parameter. In turn, more resistant concretes, higher beams and higher steel grades have lower fire resistance time values. This is because beams in these conditions have greater resistance capacity at room temperature and, consequently, are subject to external stresses of greater magnitude. In some cases, the fire resistance time was even lower than the required fire resistance time prescribed by NBR 15200 (ABNT, 2012). Both the fire resistance time and the required fire resistance time were not influenced by the arrangement of the longitudinal reinforcements.

The present paper innovates by demonstrating the influence of other important design variables on the required fire resistance time of the NBR 15200 (ABNT, 2012). Among several conclusions, it was found that the load level to which the structural elements are subjected considerably affects their fire resistance time. For this reason, it was recommended that the methods for calculating the required fire resistance time consider the load level. In addition, the article quantifies the security degree of the tabular method and exposes some situations for which the tabular method proved to be unsafe. Moreover, in all the models analyzed, the relationship between the span and the vertical deflection associated with the failure of the beams in a fire situation was determined. With this, a span over average deflection relationship was presented in which beams in fire situations fail.