Search

Biointerfaces bridge across inorganic and biological substances within a watercontaining environment. It is related to health care, environmental engineering and bioenergy generation. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding of bonding and stability of biointerfaces, due to limited capabilities of experimental techniques. The research project employs molecular dynamics (MD) as the basic methodology to study selected biointerfaces, involving five carbon surfaces (amorphous carbon surface, basal graphite surface, basal graphite surface doped with hydrogen and hydroxyl groups, basal graphite surface with Stone-Wales defects, and edge graphite surface). The selected molecules are: a small alpha-helix and a beta-sheet peptide, each with 16 amino acids; and a mid-sized peptide (amyloid peptide). The systematic study of the molecular adsorption on carbon surfaces has shown that it is a very complex process, which depends on several factors such as the molecular structure, the hydropathy of the peptide molecule, the charge and defects of the substrate surface, and the orientation of the molecule upon adsorption. It is clear that the amino acids which face the surface initiate the adsorption process and influence subsequent stages of adsorption. The considered carbon surfaces have different levels of reactivity for the molecule adsorption. The amorphous and charged surfaces tend to stabilise the beta sheet secondary structure. The interaction between the amyloid peptide and the carbon surfaces seems to depend on its molecular orientation, as well as the nature of the carbon surface: it was clearly attracted to the hydrophobic basal surface of graphitic carbon but pushed away from the hydrophilic charge-doped surface in one of the orientations (the second), but the opposite is true for another orientation (the third). Details of the structural change were shown in the Ramachandran plot. The energy change of the system mainly comes from the configurational variation, and electrostatic interactions are more prominent than the others. Water molecules tend to accumulate above a hydrophobic surface, forming a dense water layer, with an estimated distance of 2.9 Å from the carbon surface, whereas they distribute relatively evenly on hydrophilic surfaces.

This is an inquiry into the educational experience of three women doctoral students with international backgrounds in the United States--Zehra, Kathryn, and myself with Zehra and Kathryn as immigrants by marriage from Turkey and South Yugoslavia and myself as an international student from the P. R. China. Theoretically, my dissertation draws upon a wide array of works such as multiculturalism (e.g., Asher, 2001, 2002; Au, 2009; Phillion, 1999, 2002; Phillion, He, & Connelly, 2005; Phillion & He, 2007; Chan, 2007; Schlein & Chan, 2013), languages (e.g., Igoa, 1995; Soto, 1997; Valdez, 1996, 2001), cultures (e.g., Carger 1996; He, 1998, 1999, 2005; Igoa, 1995; Valdés, 1996, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999), identities (e.g., Delpit & Dowdy, 2002; Maalouf, Maalouf, & Bray, 2012), in-betweenness (He, 2003, 2006), exile pedagogy (He, 2010), diaspora curriculum (He, 2021, 2022), representations of the intellectual (Saïd, 1994), reflections on exile (Saïd, 2000), and third space (Soja, 1996/2010). Methodologically building on multicultural narrative inquiry (Phillion, 2002), cross-cultural narrative inquiry (He, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2022) and personal, passionate, and participatory inquiry (He & Phillion, 2008), Zehra, Kathryn, and I tell our stories of experience of displacement and unbelonging--feeling of belonging to nowhere but in the midst of a space between the contested places (He, 2010). Six findings have emerged from my dissertation research. Promoting immigrant and international students’ social and emotional learning and wellbeing lies in our courage to overcome the homesickness, isolation, helplessness to fight against marginalization, oppression, and exclusion to thrive in academic and other life pursuits in a foreign land. Recognizing that a quadruple invisibility of transnational mother scholars/educators shatters stereotypical and negative images imposed upon us and liberates us to beat the odds, which becomes the light for our children and children of other immigrants. To coerce immigrant and international students to assimilate into mainstream languages and cultures subtracts (Valenzuela, 1999) our heritage languages, cultures, and identities. During pandemics (Ladson-Billings, 2021), unprecedented challenges for immigrant and international students has soared as “white supremacy, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia are perpetuated by hatred of differences” (He, 2021, p. 10), which engenders our search for an exile space in-between the contested places (He, 2010). Cross-cultural narrative inquiry is a fluid inquiry which helps maintain the comparability of research phenomena, purposes, questions, and theoretical frameworks with the changing quality of cross-cultural lives and identities. (6) There is an increasing need to develop a culturally and linguistically relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1994/2009), responsive (Gay, 2000/2010), and sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2017) curriculum and pedagogy where educators, policy makers, professors, and other cultural workers work together to cultivate a welcoming, caring, and inclusive learning environment for immigrant and international students as they cross cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and ideological boundaries to become world citizens (Nussbaum, 1997) who contribute to human flourishing (UNESCO, 2020) in a contested world.

Due to the escalating demand for cosmetics skincare products and a growing number of beauty products putting people’s health at risk by counterfeits or using chemical ingredients in order to give a better skincare result, people start to have more concerns about the quality of cosmetics and skincare products. Today, many companies strive to make the transparency of the ingredients by labeling on the packaging and knowledge their customers about the benefits of the ingredients they are using. However, the consumers unable to find out how does the product being produced by the original company, and being transferred to the department store or other retailer. This study aims to use data and analysis from Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Get it Beauty Program, to provide comprehensive information on a skincare product from Production, Quality Inspection, Transportation to Marketing to assist consumers to determine whether the product is safe or not, also gathering consumers’ skin related information and skincare concerns to evaluate the product in particular for their skin type and provide recommendations. This paper investigates why it is essential to show a product from choosing raw material to the production process, shipment and when they are buying from the (online) store with after-sales support. To achieve this, a blockchain system of products’ lifespan development that built-in many online websites to the spurious with the genuine and help users find safer products was discussed and evaluated based on the 52 users with different skin conditions background.