An optimized skin texture model using gray-level co-occurrence matrix

Neural Computing and Applications - Texture analysis is devised to address the weakness of color-based image segmentation models by considering the statistical and spatial relations among the group...     

Synthesis of polyamidoxime chelating ligand from polymer‐grafted corn‐cob cellulose for metal extraction

A conventional free‐radical initiating process was used to prepare graft copolymers from acrylonitrile (AN) with corn‐cob cellulose with ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator. The optimum grafting was achieved with corn‐cob cellulose (anhydroglucose unit, AGU), mineral acid (H₂SO₄), CAN, and AN at concentrations of 0.133, 0.081, 0.0145, and 1.056 mol/L, respectively. Furthermore, the nitrile functional groups of the grafted copolymers were converted to amidoxime ligands with hydroxylamine under basic conditions of pH 11 with 4 h of stirring at 70°C. The purified acrylic polymer‐grafted cellulose and polyamidoxime ligand were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis. The ligand showed an excellent copper binding capacity (4.14 mmol/g) with a faster rate of adsorption (average exchange rate = 7 min), and it showed a good adsorption capacity for other metal ions as well. The metal‐ion adsorption capacities of the ligand were pH‐dependent in the following order: Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Cr³⁺ > Fe³⁺ > Zn²⁺ > Ni²⁺. The metal‐ion removal efficiency was very high; up to 99% was removed from the aqueous media at a low concentration. These new polymeric chelating ligands could be used to remove aforementioned toxic metal ions from industrial wastewater. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40833.     

Sixty-four years of informetrics research: productivity,impact and collaboration

This paper analyses the information science research field of informetrics to identify publication strategies that have been important for its successful researchers. The study uses a micro-analysis of informetrics researchers from 5,417 informetrics papers published in 7 core informetrics journals during 1948–2012. The most productive informetrics researchers were analysed in terms of productivity, citation impact, and co-authorship. The 30 most productive informetrics researchers of all time span several generations and seem to be usually the primary authors of their research, highly collaborative, affiliated with one institution at a time, and often affiliated with a few core European centres. Their research usually has a high total citation impact but not the highest citation impact per paper. Perhaps surprisingly, the US does not seem to be good at producing highly productive researchers but is successful at producing high impact researchers. Although there are exceptions to all of the patterns found, researchers wishing to have the best chance of being part of the next generation of highly productive informetricians may wish to emulate some of these characteristics.     

Enhancement of etch rate for preparation of nano-sized ion-track membranes of poly(vinylidene fluoride): Effect of pretreatment and high-LET beam irradiation

We investigated how pretreatment and high-LET beam irradiation affected the ion-track dissolution rate in poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films by SEM observations and conductometric analysis in order to develop the preparation methodology of nano-sized ion-track membranes. PVDF thin films irradiated with four types of ion beams were exposed to a 9 mol/dm³ KOH aqueous solution after their storage in air at 120 °C. This heating treatment was found to enhance the etch rate in the latent track, both in the inner core and outer halo regions, without changing that in the bulk, probably due to the formation of parasitic oxidation products facilitating the introduction of the etching agent to improve the etchability. Additionally, the irradiation of heavier higher-LET ions, causing each track to more activated sites (like radicals), was preferable for achieving effective etching.     

Durable pressure filtration membranes based on polyaniline–polyimide P84 blends

A pressure filtration membrane from conducting polymer polyaniline (PANI) is known to possess low mechanical strength and thermal stability. Therefore, it is believed that the properties of the membrane can be enhanced by blending PANI with a conventional polymer like polyimide (PI), which possesses high mechanical strength and thermal stability. A thermal analysis revealed that polymer chain of blend membranes started to break beyond the melting temperature of pure PANI membrane indicating that the addition of PI hindered the degradation of PANI and thus slowed down the decomposition process. Mechanical tests further showed that PANI/PI membrane had a tensile strength that was 60% higher than pure PANI membrane. Furthermore, the surface hydrophilicity and negativity of the blend membrane increased as it was doped in acid, thereby reflecting the exploitation of advantages of both polymers. Rejection at various molecular ranges of PEGs showed that PANI/PI membrane was initially in the ultrafiltration (UF) range, but later fell into the nanofiltration (NF) range when an acid dopant was introduced to the membrane. According to the long‐term filtration performance, the PANI/PI membrane was able to sustain a rejection of up to 99% in Congo red solution with just a slight reduction in flux. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:E82–E92, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Simulation of a hydrogen/natural gas engine and modelling of engine operating parameters

At the present work for improving the engine performance and decrease of emissions, a port injection gasoline engine is converted into direct injection. Engine performance behavior was investigated by AVL Fire software with adding hydrogen to natural gas from 0% up to 30%. Validation of the simulated model and experimental results show good confirmation. To determine the relationship between independent variables engine speed, ignition timing, injection timing and H₂% versus the dependent variables including engine performance parameters, specific fuel consumption, CO and statistical analysis models were used. Comparison between different errors models shows that Radial basis function model with training algorithm Bayesian regularization back propagation can estimate better engine performance variables. The results showed that adding hydrogen to natural gas cause the output power, torque, fuel consumption efficiency increase and specific fuel consumption drop. Also, CO decreases when ignition and injection timing be advanced and engine speed reaches to its largest.     

Particles settling studies using ultrasonic techniques

Effects of acoustic velocity and attenuation measurements during settling of 43-, 110- and 168-μm glass beads in water are reported. Ultrasonic waves were generated at a frequency of 3.2 MHz. An abrupt increase in acoustic velocity and a sharp peak in the attenuation characterized the onset of settled bed. The observed attenuation peak at the transition between suspended and settled bed was attributed to dissipation caused by viscous absorption losses. The critical concentration at which increase in acoustic velocity and attenuation peak occurred was estimated for these particle sizes.     

Synthesis of pure zeolite Y using soluble silicate, a two-level factorial experimental design

Four methods were used for the synthesis of pure zeolite Y using soluble silicate as a silica source: (1) the gelling of soluble silicate to silica–alumina gel, by aluminate (or aluminium sulphate), (2) the precipitation of soluble silicate to precipitated silica–alumina gel, by aluminate (or aluminium sulphate), (3) the gelling of soluble silicate by sulphuric acid plus alumina impregnation, and (4) the precipitation of soluble silicate by sulphuric acid plus alumina impregnation. A 2⁴ two-level factorial design was used to study the influence of four different variables on the purity of zeolite Y (expressed in terms of degree of crystallinity). The ageing time turned out to be the most significant variable. Synthesis time, alkalinity and mixing rate were also found to be statistically significant. X-ray diffraction patterns were used to characterize the samples, which ranged from well-crystallized faujasite structures to amorphous materials. The highest purity achieved in method (1) was 38%. The best synthesis condition derived from method (1) was applied to the other three methods. Only method (4) yielded the pure zeolite Y. Therefore, the effect of silica–alumina precursor preparation on producing the pure zeolite Y is extremely important.