Highly water soluble room temperature superionic liquids of APIs

Herein a straightforward approach for the enhancement of the water solubility of common antibiotic and NSAID active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is presented.

Using assistive robots to promote inclusive education

PURPOSE

This paper describes the development and test of physical and virtual integrated augmentative manipulation and communication assistive technologies (IAMCATs) that enable children with motor and speech impairments to manipulate educational items by controlling a robot with a gripper, while communicating through a speech generating device.

METHOD

Nine children with disabilities, nine regular and nine special education teachers participated in the study. Teachers adapted academic activities so they could also be performed by the children with disabilities using the IAMCAT. An inductive content analysis of the teachers' interviews before and after the intervention was performed.

RESULTS

Teachers considered the IAMCAT to be a useful resource that can be integrated into the regular class dynamics respecting their curricular planning. It had a positive impact on children with disabilities and on the educational community. However, teachers pointed out the difficulties in managing the class, even with another adult present, due to the extra time required by children with disabilities to complete the activities.

CONCLUSIONS

The developed assistive technologies enable children with disabilities to participate in academic activities but full inclusion would require another adult in class and strategies to deal with the additional time required by children to complete the activities. Implications for Rehabilitation Integrated augmentative manipulation and communication assistive technologies are useful resources to promote the participation of children with motor and speech impairments in classroom activities. Virtual tools, running on a computer screen, may be easier to use but further research is needed in order to evaluate its effectiveness when compared to physical tools. Full participation of children with motor and speech impairments in academic activities using these technologies requires another adult in class and adequate strategies to manage the extra time the child with disabilities may require to complete the activities.

CO2 capture systems based on saccharides and organic superbases

In this report, novel systems, based on highly abundant saccharides, d-mannose, d-glucose, β-cyclodextrin, alginic acid and mannitol, in combination with an organic superbase, tetramethylguanidine (TMG) or 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU), are studied for carbon dioxide capture. With d-mannose and d-glucose, several ratios of equivalents of alcohol groups of saccharide : superbase were tested: 1, 0.625, 0.5 and 0.25. High wt% values of CO₂ uptake were obtained with TMG-based systems. However, TMG itself can react directly with CO₂, and, in the presence of d-mannose, competition between carbonate and carbamate based products was established. In order to circumvent this competition and obtain exclusively the carbonate-based product, DBU was used instead as an organic superbase. In the d-mannose series the highest result was obtained with a d-mannose : DBU ratio eq. = 0.625 (13.9% CO₂ uptake, 3.3/5 alcohol groups converted into carbonates). A more effective stirring system, designed to overcome the high viscosity of the products, allowed the use of a d-glucose : DBU = 1 : 1 ratio with 11.5 wt% of CO₂ uptake and 2.47/5 alcohol groups converted into carbonates. Additionally a DSC thermal study was performed in order to study the stability/reversibility of the CO₂ loaded systems.