Recent trends in biodegradable polymers indicate significant developments in terms of novel design strategies and engineering to provide advanced polymers with comparably good performance. However, there are several inadequacies in terms of either technology or cost of production especially in the case of applications in environmental pollution. So, there is a need to have a fresh perspective on the design, properties and functions of these polymers with a view to developing strategies for future developments. The paper reviews the present state-of-art on biodegradable polymers and discusses the salient features of the design and properties of biodegradable polymers. Special emphasis is given to the problems and prospects of (1) approaches adopted to make non-biodegradable synthetic polymers such as polyethylene biodegradable and (2) biodegradable polymers and copolymers made from renewable resources especially poly(lactic acid) based polymers and copolymers which are emerging as the candidate biodegradable materials for the future.

Biodegradable Polymers- A Review on Recent Trends and Emerging Perspectives

Due to the depleting fossil fuel sources such as crude oil, natural gas, and coal, the present rate of economic growth is unsustainable. Therefore, many sources of renewable energy have been exploited, but the potentials of some other sources such as plastics waste are yet to be fully developed as full scale economic activity. Development and modernization have brought about a huge increase in the production of all kinds of plastic commodities, which directly or indirectly generate waste due to their wide range of applications coupled with their versatility of types and relatively low cost. The current scenario of the plastic recycling technology is reviewed in this paper. The aim is to provide the reader with an in-depth analysis with respect to the pyrolysis of plastic waste as obtained in the current recycling technology. As the calorific value of the plastics is comparable to that of hydrocarbon fuel, production of fuel from plastic waste would provide a good opportunity to utilize the waste as a better alternative to dumpsites. Different techniques of converting plastics waste into fuel including thermal and catalytic pyrolysis, microwave-assisted pyrolysis and fluid catalytic cracking are discussed in detail. The co-pyrolysis of plastics waste with biomass is also highlighted. Thus, an attempt was made to address the problem of plastic waste disposal as a partial replacement of the depleting fossil fuel with the hope of promoting a sustainable environment.

Current state and future prospects of plastic waste as source of fuel: A review

Lipid oxidation is, together with microbial growth, the main cause of spoilage of a great variety of foods, such as nuts, fish, meats, whole milk powders, sauces and oils. It causes a loss of both sensorial and nutritional quality of foods and may even lead to the formation of toxic aldehydes. Some strategies that are commonly used to limit the extent of lipid oxidation of packaged foods are direct addition of antioxidants or packaging under modified atmospheres in which oxygen presence is limited. A novel alternative to these methods is antioxidant active packaging, whose main advantage is that it can provide sustained release of antioxidants during storage. This article reviews the latest advances in antioxidant active food packaging, with special emphasis on antioxidant release systems. The various methods for incorporating antioxidant compounds in the package, the issues to be considered in packaging design, and the various methods employed to date to evaluate the antioxidant effectiveness of active antioxidant materials are reviewed.

Advances in antioxidant active food packaging

Computers and the collaborative experience of learning

The growing use of plastics in agriculture has enabled farmers to increase their crop production. One major drawback of most polymers used in agriculture is the problem with their disposal, following their useful life-time. Non-degradable polymers, being resistive to degradation (depending on the polymer, additives, conditions etc) tend to accumulate as plastic waste, creating a serious problem of plastic waste management. In cases such plastic waste ends-up in landfills or it is buried in soil, questions are raised about their possible effects on the environment, whether they biodegrade at all, and if they do, what is the rate of (bio?)degradation and what effect the products of (bio?)degradation have on the environment, including the effects of the additives used. Possible degradation of agricultural plastic waste should not result in contamination of the soil and pollution of the environment (including aesthetic pollution or problems with the agricultural products safety). Ideally, a degradable polymer should be fully biodegradable leaving no harmful substances in the environment. Most experts and acceptable standards define a fully biodegradable polymer as a polymer that is completely converted by microorganisms to carbon dioxide, water, mineral and biomass, with no negative environmental impact or ecotoxicity. However, part of the ongoing debate concerns the question of what is an acceptable period of time for the biodegradation to occur and how this is measured. Many polymers that are claimed to be ‘biodegradable’ are in fact ‘bioerodable’, ‘hydrobiodegradable’, ‘photodegradable’, controlled degradable or just partially biodegradable. This review paper attempts to delineate the definition of degradability of polymers used in agriculture. Emphasis is placed on the controversial issues regarding biodegradability of some of these polymers.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10924-007-0063-6.pdf

Biodegradation of Agricultural Plastic Films: A Critical Review

Using Digital Tools in Nanoscience Education

The EDUTIC Project proposed under the sectoral operational programme POS-DRU aims to create a Romanian regional education network between pre-university and university institutions, composed by a University (Valahia University Târgoviste) and 9 educational County Inspectorates (Arges, Buzau, Calarasi, Dâmboviţa, Giurgiu, Ialomiţa, Olt, Prahova, Teleorman), with future possibilities of extension. Basically, the project proposed a training programme dedicated to primary and secondary school teachers, structured in three accredited modules, having the following structure (Brezeanu et al., 2010): (a) Module 1: Fundamentals on pedagogical use of ICT in education, e-learning technologies and learning platforms. ICT tools for drawing teaching materials; (b) Module 2: Visual communication and multimedia technology in education. Procedures for integrating multimedia applications in education; (c) Module 3: Teaching methodologies and pedagogical strategies based on the use of virtual instrumentation. Designing learning activities which include the use of virtual experiments in education Module 3. The training sessions were held using blended learning methods. There were provided face-to-face courses (around 20% of allocated training time), but also distant activities having as support the EDUTIC platform (http://moodle.edutic.ssai.valahia.ro/) that was installed, configured and used together with the related resource like: forums, wikis, blogs and assessment features. More than 500 teachers were enrolled in the training process which started in November 2010 and ended in July 2011 with the final evaluation. Their feedback was a positive one, most of them emphasizing on the clear advantages of using the study-time according to their own agenda, learning and solving the proposed tasks in their own rhythm, communicating with colleagues using the platform instruments, receiving the evaluation grades and comments through platform capabilities. But the main gain is represented by the acquired knowledge strongly related to the integration of ICT in the teaching / learning process. Like an important achievement, the teachers who have just graduated become able to use and integrate ICT in their classroom, being familiarized with the new educational opportunities offered by the actual Information Society.

EDUTIC - A Training Programme Dedicated to Primary and Secondary School Teachers with the View to Implement ICTs in Actual Education

Considerations Related to the Efficiency of Sciences Lessons Based on IBSE Strategy

Educating the educators: Reflections related to the assessment of the training process - facts and figures concluded from the VccSSe European project activities

The kinetic approach on thermal stabilization of LDPE in the presence of 7 chalcone compounds is presented. The application of zero order or first order treatment to the experimental date obtained for stabilized LDPE has revealed that the depletion of antioxidant is a first order process. The comparison of the most efficient member of chalcone series and some commercial phenolic antioxidants has provided the following sequence for the prevention of oxidation: ETANOX - 330 > D 4 > IRGANOX -1076 > CYANOX - 2246 > TOPANOL - QC > > purified LDPE.

Laura Monica Gorghiu

Papers

Using Digital Tools in Nanoscience Education

EDUTIC - A Training Programme Dedicated to Primary and Secondary School Teachers with the View to Implement ICTs in Actual Education

Considerations Related to the Efficiency of Sciences Lessons Based on IBSE Strategy

Educating the educators: Reflections related to the assessment of the training process - facts and figures concluded from the VccSSe European project activities

Cinetica consumārii unor antioxidants fenolici la termooxidarea LDPE