Evaluation of alumina reinforced oil fly ash composites prepared by spark plasma sintering

The thermomechanical behavior of micro/nano-alumina (Al₂O₃) ceramics reinforced with 1-5 wt.% of acid-treated oil fly ash (OFA) was investigated. Composites were sintered using spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique at a temperature of 1400°C by applying a constant uniaxial pressure of 50 MPa. It was evaluated that the fracture toughness of micro- and nanosized composites improved in contrast with the monolithic alumina. Highest fracture toughness value of 4.85 MPam^1/2 was measured for the nanosized composite reinforced with 5 wt.% OFA. The thermal conductivity of the composites (nano-/microsized) decreased with the increase in temperature. However, the addition of OFA (1-5 wt.%) in nanosized alumina enhanced the thermal conductivity at an evaluated temperature. Furthermore, a minimum thermal expansion value of 6.17 ppm*K⁻¹ was measured for nanosized Al₂O₃/5 wt.% OFA composite. Microstructural characterization of Al₂O₃-OFA composites was done by x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Oil fly ash particles were seen to be well dispersed within the alumina matrix. Moreover, the comparative analysis of the nano-/microsized Al₂O₃/OFA composites shows that the mechanical and thermal properties were improved in nanosized alumina composites.     

Piezoelectricity of the Transmembrane Protein ba3 Cytochrome c Oxidase

Controlling the electromechanical response of piezoelectric biological structures including tissues, peptides, and amino acids provides new applications for biocompatible, sustainable materials in electronics and medicine. Here, the piezoelectric effect is revealed in another class of biological materials, with robust longitudinal and shear piezoelectricity measured in single crystals of the transmembrane protein ba₃ cytochrome c oxidase from Thermus thermophilus. The experimental findings from piezoresponse force microscopy are substantiated using a range of control measurements and molecular models. The observed longitudinal and shear piezoelectric responses of ≈ 2 and 8 pm V⁻¹, respectively, are comparable to or exceed the performance of commonly used inorganic piezoelectric materials including quartz, aluminum nitride, and zinc oxide. This suggests that transmembrane proteins may provide, in addition to physiological energy transduction, technologically useful piezoelectric material derived entirely from nature. Membrane proteins could extend the range of rationally designed biopiezoelectric materials far beyond the minimalistic peptide motifs currently used in miniaturized energy harvesters, and the finding of robust piezoelectric response in a transmembrane protein also raises fundamental questions regarding the molecular evolution, activation, and role of regulatory proteins in the cellular nanomachinery, indicating that piezoelectricity might be important for fundamental physiological processes.     

Composite mixed matrix membranes incorporating microporous carbon molecular sieve as filler in polyethersulfone for CO2/CH4 separation

Membrane technology has been considered a key factor for sustainable growth in high-efficiency gas separation. Current mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) technology is rising, but these membranes in the dense structure are having difficulties in operating at high pressures and scale up for commercialization. The purpose of this research is to synthesize composite MMMs (CMMMs) consisting of polyethersulfone (PES), carbon molecular sieve (CMS 1–5 wt %), and Novatex 2471 nonwoven fabric (support layer). The membranes' physical, chemical, and thermal properties were evaluated by different analytical equipment. The morphology of both PES and PES-CMS composite membranes had a porous and asymmetric structure, in which CMS was uniformly distributed in the polymer matrix. The thermal properties showed that the membranes were stable up to 350 °C with a single glass transition temperature. The functional groups in the membrane were confirmed by spectral analysis. The gas performance results showed that carbon dioxide permeance increased with increased CMS concentration and methane permeance decreased due to the hindering effect of CMS under similar operating conditions. The highest selectivity achieved was 12.774 using CMMM of 5 wt % of CMS at 10 bar, which on average was 137.80%, improved selectivity compared to pure PES membrane. The support layer was able to withstand high operating pressures and showed the ability to scale up. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48476.     

Arabic sign language intelligent translator

ABSTRACT

Arabic sign language (ArSL) is method of communication between deaf communities in Arab countries; therefore, the development of systemsthat can recognize the gestures provides a means for the Deaf to easily integrate into society. In this research we implemented a computational structurefor an intelligent interpreter that automatically recognizes the isolated dynamic gestures. The proposed system recognizes and translates gesturesperformed with one or both hands. It comprises five subsystems, building dataset, video processing, feature extraction, mapping between ArSL and Arabictext, and text generation. To apply the system, 100-signs of ArSL was used, which was applied on 1500 video files. It's were divided into five classes:alphabet, numbers, "prepositions, pronouns and question words", Arabic life expressions, and "nouns and verbs". The evaluation indicated that thesystem automatically recognizes and translates isolated dynamic ArSL gestures by highly accurate manner. The results showed that the system accuracy is 95.8%.     

Characterization of biogenic hydroxyapatite derived from animal bones for biomedical applications

In this work, the viability of producing biogenic hydroxyapatite from bio-waste animal bones, namely bovine (cow), caprine (goat) and galline (chicken), through a heat treatment process has been investigated. The animal bones were locally sourced, cleaned to remove collagen and subsequently heat treated in air atmosphere at different temperatures ranging from 600?°C to 1000?°C. From the range of sintering temperatures investigated, it was found that hydroxyapatite derived from bovine bone showed good thermal stability while those produced from caprine and galline bones exhibited phase instability with traces of tri-calcium phosphate (TCP) being detected after heat treatment beyond 700?°C. The porous nature of the bone samples can be observed from the microstructures obtained and supported by low relative density. Heating the bovine and caprine bones at selected temperatures yielded porous HA body, having hardness values that are comparable with human cortical bone. However, the sintered galline bone sample showed higher porosity levels and low hardness when compared to the other two bone types.