Effect of Vulcanization System and Carbon Black on Mechanical and Swelling Properties of EPDM Blends

EPDM (Ethylene propylene diene monomer) is one of synthetic rubber that widely used in automotive. It must be vulcanized and added by other materials before used. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of vulcanization system and the addition of carbon black (CB) to the mechanical properties and swelling characteristic of EPDM. This research used three vulcanization system, conventional vulcanization (CV), efficient vulcanization (EV) and semi-efficient vulcanization (SEV) with the variation of carbon black 50, 60, 70 phr (per hundred resin). This research showed that EV system resulted faster vulcanization time and lower delta torque than SEV and CV systems. This system also performed the highest tensile strength, elongation, and tear strength, while SEV system resulted the highest hardness. Furthermore, the conventional vulcanization system resulted the lowest swelling index

Narrating Ambivalence of Maternal Responsibility

Early motherhood and caring for the infant involve a moral ambiguity that is related to the questions of responsibility and vulnerability. By means of the ethics of care, motherhood can be understood as belonging to the moral domain, as relational, and as linked with everyday social situations. The culturally dominant narratives of \'good mothering\' easily naturalise and normatise maternal agency. This study illustrates the process of adopting responsibility for the infant and the moral ambivalence that is inscribed in early maternal care. The data consist of four interview sessions with each of seven first-time mothers conducted during pregnancy and the first post-natal year. The interviews concentrated on events, relationships, routines, thoughts and feelings related to the mothers\' daily caring for the baby. The women talked about their experiences drawing on two different narratives. The narrative of desirable responsibility unfolded the positive aspects of caring and responsibility for the baby. By means of this narrative, the women were able to give coherence to their lives as new mothers and to narrate the pleasure they felt in taking responsibility for their baby. In contrast, the narrative of maternal vulnerability showed the shadow side of maternal care focusing on the mothers\' tiredness and distress. This narrative embodied \'moral monitoring\' and \'epistemological struggles\' between the dominant cultural narratives and the mothers\' personal narratives. The study shows that early mothering is morally laden in two different ways simultaneously. Mothering itself is a moral disposition and practice characterised by ambivalence. The cultural narratives of \'good mothering\' play a dual role in this process: they tempt women into pursuing intensive mothering, but at the same time they create an elusive moral imperative.Care, Cultural Narratives, Ethics of Care, Morality, Motherhood, Narrative Research, Pleasure, Vulnerability

On a family of a'-corrected solutions of the Heterotic Superstring effective action

This work has been supported in part by the MINECO/FEDER, UE grants FPA2015-66793-P and FPA2015-63667-P, by the Italian INFN and by the Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) through the grant IFT Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2016-059

In situ ozone data for evaluation of the laser absorption spectrometer ozone remote sensor: 1979 southeastern Virginia urban plume study summer field program

Ozone data from the 1979 Southeastern Virginia Urban Study (SEV-UPS) field program are presented. The SEV-UPS was conducted for evaluation of an ozone remote sensor, the Laser Absorption Spectrometer. During the measurement program, remote-sensor evaluation was in two areas; (1) determination of the remote sensor's accuracy, repeatability, and operational characteristics, and (2) demonstration of the application of remotely sensed ozone data in air-quality studies. Data from six experiments designed to provide in situ ozone data for evaluation of the sensor in area 1, above, are presented. Experiments consisted of overflights of a test area with the remote sensor aircraft while in situ measurements with a second aircraft and selected surface stations provided correlative ozone data within the viewing area of the remote sensor

Neutrophil extracellular traps enhance early inflammatory response in Sendai virus-induced asthma phenotype

Paramyxoviral infection in childhood has been linked to a significant increased rate of asthma development. In mice, paramyxoviral infection with the mouse parainfluenza virus type I, Sendai virus (Sev), causes a limited bronchiolitis followed by persistent asthma traits. We have previously shown that the absence of cysteine protease dipeptidyl peptidase I (DPPI) dampened the acute lung inflammatory response and the subsequent asthma phenotype induced by Sev. Adoptive transfer of wild type neutrophils into DPPI-deficient mice restored leukocyte influx, the acute cytokine response, and the subsequent mucous cell metaplasia that accompanied Sev-induced asthma phenotype. However, the exact mechanism by which DPPI-sufficient neutrophils promote asthma development following Sev infection is still unknown. We hypothesize that neutrophils recruited to the alveolar space following Sev infection elaborate neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that propagate the inflammatory cascade, culminating in the eventual asthma phenotype. Indeed, we found that Sev infection was associated with NET formation in the lung and release of cell-free DNA complexed to myeloperoxidase (MPO) in the alveolar space and plasma that peaked on day 2-post infection. Absence of DPPI significantly attenuated Sev-induced NET formation in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, concomitant administration of DNase 1, which dismantled NETs, or inhibition of peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4), an essential mediator of NET formation, suppressed the early inflammatory responses to Sev infection. Lastly, NETs primed bone marrow derived cells to release cytokines that can amplify the inflammatory cascade