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"technology concept"
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Technofeudalism : what killed capitalism
Drawing on stories from Greek Myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis explains this game-changing transformation and how it holds the key to understanding our times.
Book
The Mitcham Score: quantifying students’ descriptions of technology
A central issue when measuring students’ attitudes toward an object is the children’s understanding of that object, in this case, technology. Studies have shown that schoolchildren often describe technology narrowly as different kinds of technological objects; more specifically, modern electrical objects. This may mean that we have been measuring students’ attitudes toward modern technological objects for more than 30 years. This study intends to research what other aspects students potentially describe, when describing technology, and how the descriptions can be implemented in attitudes toward technology research. To visualize and analyze different aspects of technology, Carl Mitcham’s philosophical framework of the manifestations of technology is used. The deductive method used for analysis quantifies students’ descriptions of technology, for use in attitude, and other quantitative, studies. In this study, descriptions of technology and technology education from 164 students (aged 12–15) are analyzed, classified and quantified within Mitcham’s typology (technology as Object–Activities–Knowledge–Volition). The student descriptions are compared to the typology and students score a point for every one of the four aspects of technology they describe. The sum of aspects in the description is named The Mitcham Score. The results of this study show that students can describe technology in a broad way using all four aspects of Mitcham’s typology. In line with previous studies, the most common way is to describe technology as objects and activities using the objects. Technological knowledge has not been in focus in previous studies of student descriptions. In this study, 44.5% of the students mention technological knowledge in their descriptions of technology. Measurement using the Mitcham Score provides a method to study both students’ concepts of technology and the factors that might affect this. The Mitcham Score is potentially one more factor to use in analyzing students’ attitudinal profiles. The method is sufficiently reliable and enables a broad understanding of students’ attitudes.
Journal Article
Innovation Blindness: Culture, Frames, and Cross-Boundary Problem Construction in the Development of New Technology Concepts
This paper has three goals. The first is to understand why members of one organizational department are blind to the reasons why members of another department do not share their ideas for a new technology-what I call a \"technology concept.\" The second is to understand what consequences this \"innovation blindness\" has for the development of technology concepts across organizational and occupational boundaries. The third is to uncover strategies organizations might use to successfully develop a new technological artifact from the technology concept even if innovators never understand the nature of their own blindness. To achieve these goals, I draw on research on organizational cultural toolkits to construct a framework suggesting that technology concepts frame cultural resources, which are then used to construct the very problems the technological artifact will be built to solve. From this perspective, culture does not directly shape technological artifacts. Rather, a technology concept activates culture as it draws frames around resources that will guide people's problem construction practices. By acting as a frame through which problems can be constructed, technology concepts play a key role in selecting the set of cultural resources that will be used to develop technological artifacts. I explore this framework through a qualitative study of computer simulation software in a major automotive engineering firm.
Journal Article
Regulation of stem cell fate and function by using bioactive materials with nanoarchitectonics for regenerative medicine
Nanoarchitectonics has emerged as a post-nanotechnology concept. As one of the applications of nanoarchitectonics, this review paper discusses the control of stem cell fate and function as an important issue. For hybrid nanoarchitectonics involving living cells, it is crucial to understand how biomaterials and their nanoarchitected structures regulate behaviours and fates of stem cells. In this review, biomaterials for the regulation of stem cell fate are firstly discussed. Besides multipotent differentiation, immunomodulation is an important biological function of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs can modulate immune cells to treat multiple immune- and inflammation-mediated diseases. The following sections summarize the recent advances of the regulation of the immunomodulatory functions of MSCs by biophysical signals. In the third part, we discussed how biomaterials direct the self-organization of pluripotent stem cells for organoid. Bioactive materials are constructed which mimic the biophysical cues of in vivo microenvironment such as elasticity, viscoelasticity, biodegradation, fluidity, topography, cell geometry, and etc. Stem cells interpret these biophysical cues by different cytoskeletal forces. The different cytoskeletal forces lead to substantial transcription and protein expression, which affect stem cell fate and function. Regulations of stem cells could not be utilized only for tissue repair and regenerative medicine but also potentially for production of advanced materials systems. Materials nanoarchitectonics with integration of stem cells and related biological substances would have high impacts in science and technology of advanced materials.
Journal Article
Metal nitride-based nanostructures for electrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen production
The over-dependence on fossil fuels is one of the critical issues to be addressed for combating greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen, one of the promising alternatives to fossil fuels, is renewable, carbon-free, and non-polluting gas. The complete utilization of hydrogen in every sector ranging from small to large scale could hugely benefit in mitigating climate change. One of the key aspects of the hydrogen sector is its production via cost-effective and safe ways. Electrolysis and photocatalysis are well-known processes for hydrogen production and their efficiency relies on electrocatalysts, which are generally noble metals. The usage of noble metals as catalysts makes these processes costly and their scarcity is also a limiting factor. Metal nitrides and their porous counterparts have drawn considerable attention from researchers due to their good promise for hydrogen production. Their properties such as active metal centres, nitrogen functionalities, and porous features such as surface area, pore-volume, and tunable pore size could play an important role in electrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen production. This review focuses on the recent developments in metal nitrides from their synthesis methods point of view. Much attention is given to the emergence of new synthesis techniques, methods, and processes of synthesizing the metal nitride nanostructures. The applications of electrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen production are summarized. Overall, this review will provide useful information to researchers working in the field of metal nitrides and their application for hydrogen production.
Journal Article
Porous carbon architectures with different dimensionalities for lithium metal storage
Lithium metal batteries have recently gained tremendous attention owing to their high energy capacity compared to other rechargeable batteries. Nevertheless, lithium (Li) dendritic growth causes low Coulombic efficiency, thermal runaway, and safety issues, all of which hinder the practical application of Li metal as an anodic material. In this review, the failure mechanisms of Li metal anode are described according to its infinite volume changes, unstable solid electrolyte interphase, and Li dendritic growth. The fundamental models that describe the Li deposition and dendritic growth, such as the thermodynamic, electrodeposition kinetics, and internal stress models are summarized. From these considerations, porous carbon-based frameworks have emerged as a promising strategy to resolve these issues. Thus, the main principles of utilizing these materials as a Li metal host are discussed. Finally, we also focus on the recent progress on utilizing one-, two-, and three-dimensional carbon-based frameworks and their composites to highlight the future outlook of these materials.
Journal Article
A phenomenographic study of Chinese primary school students’ conceptions about technology
Although there are some researches conducted about students’ conceptions of technology, little research has been conducted to reveal the primary school students’ conceptions concerning technology in China. This research investigated Chinese primary school students’ (aged 9–12) conceptions of technology as regards their understanding of (a) the concept of technology, (b) the impact of technology on human life and nature, and (c) the relationship between technology and science. Phenomenography as the methodological framework was adopted for this study. A total of 63 primary school students were chosen as participants in the study to probe their conceptions about technology through picture/photo eliciting activities, and semi-structured, personal interviews in a website video format. It is found that the primary school students defined technology from diverse perspectives, including the dimensions of its attributes, production, operation and use, function, with most of them regarding technology as a double-edged sword. It is also found that they lack a comprehensive and rational understanding of the concept of technology and cannot understand the relationship between science and technology properly. This study contributes better to understanding primary school students’ conceptions about technology in mainland China and beyond, thus providing an empirical basis for improving technology education policy, curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the future for China and other countries.
Journal Article
Metal doped polyaniline as neuromorphic circuit elements for in-materia computing
Polyaniline-based atomic switches are material building blocks whose nanoscale structure and resultant neuromorphic character provide a new physical substrate for the development next-generation, nanoarchitectonic-enabled computing systems. Metal ion-doped devices consisting of a Ag/metal ion doped polyaniline/Pt sandwich structure were fabricated using an in situ wet process. The devices exhibited repeatable resistive switching between high (ON) and low (OFF) conductance states in both Ag
+
and Cu
2+
ion-doped devices. The threshold voltage for switching was>0.8 V and average ON/OFF conductance ratios (30 cycles for 3 samples) were 13 and 16 for Ag
+
and Cu
2+
devices, respectively. The ON state duration was determined by the decay to an OFF state after pulsed voltages of differing amplitude and frequency. The switching behaviour is analagous to short-term (STM) and long-term (LTM) memories of biological synapses. Memristive behaviour and evidence of quantized conductance were also observed and interpreted in terms of metal filament formation bridging the metal doped polymer layer. The successful realization of these properties within physical material systems indicate polyaniline frameworks as suitable neuromorphic substrates for in materia computing.
Journal Article
Octacalcium phosphate with incorporated carboxylate ions: a review
Octacalcium phosphate (OCP) belongs to a family of calcium phosphate compounds. OCP has unique crystal-chemical properties; among calcium phosphate compounds, only OCP can incorporate carboxylate ions into its crystal lattice. An OCP with incorporated carboxylate ions is called an OCP carboxylate (OCPC). OCPCs are investigated for applications in novel adsorbents, electrochemical devices, and biomaterials. Several wet methods are available for the synthesis of OCPCs, and the characteristics and advantages of each method are explained. Representative characterization methods, i.e. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, used for the detection of carboxylate ion incorporation into the OCP interlayers are explained. Various carboxylic acids can be incorporated into OCP, and these types of carboxylic acid are presented with reference to the latest research results. The incorporation of carboxylate ions into OCP represents a modification of the OCP crystal at the molecular level and can impart various functions. Challenging physicochemical and biomaterial applications of OCPCs are thus introduced, although they are still in the research phase. Finally, future perspectives and challenges for OCPC research are described.
Journal Article