Application of cyclodextrin to the textile dyeing and washing processes

Cyclodextrins can form inclusion complexes with different molecules with the aid of their special chemical (molecular) structures. Physical and chemical properties of molecules can change after the formation of complex. This special feature enables the usage of dextrins in different industry areas. In this study, applicability of cylcodextrins in textile dyeing and washing processes was investigated. With this aim, β‐cyclodextrin was used in direct dyeing of cellulosic fabrics and in rinsing processes of direct dyed fabrics. Retarder/leveling effect of β‐cyclodextrin in dyeing process has been studied and the results were compared with that of a commercial product. In general, cyclodextrins were used in washing processes to remove the absorbed surfactants. It has been investigated whether this effect was the same for washing of dyed fabrics. Eight different direct dyes, for which the chemical structures are known, were used in dyeing and washing processes, and effect of β‐cyclodextrin on different chemical structures was investigated. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 208–218, 2006     

Development of a component-based machining centre selection model using AHP

Machining centres are widely used in manufacturing companies all over the world. Since investments in machining centres are long-term and expensive, selection of the most appropriate machining centre is an important decision for manufacturing companies. There has been considerable effort spent in developing crisp and fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models that use technical specifications provided by machining-centre manufacturers such as, axis size, power, spindle speed, tolerance, repeatability, cutting-tool change time, and number of cutting tools along with other economical and commercial factors. However, the technical specifications are directly taken from machining-centre manufacturers’ catalogues without checking their correctness, adequacies, or ability to represent the areas that are used for measurement. In such a case, one cannot be sure whether the outcomes are sound or not without a detailed check of the technical specifications, which can only be performed after actual usage of the machine itself. To overcome all such problems, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model that evaluates the machining centre components is developed in this paper. The new component-based AHP model is then compared with two MCDM models that use only technical specification values.     

Nanoscopic characterization of two-dimensional (2D) boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) produced by microfluidization

A microfluidizer high pressure fluid processor is successfully conducted for the first time to exfoliate few layer two dimensional (2D) boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) from micro-sized hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) precursors of large flakes. The mixture of N,N-dimethylformamide and chloroform is conducted as solvent. In determination of to what extent the high pressure microfluidizer successfully assisted with exfoliation of 2D BNNSs from h-BN precursors of large flakes, secondary electron-scanning electron microscopy (SE-SEM) imaging, bright field-transmission electron microscopy (BF-TEM) imaging, energy filtering (EF)TEM-3 window elemental mapping, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), high resolution (HR)TEM imaging and nano beam electron diffraction (NBED) techniques are carried out. Based on the nanoscopic-scale evidences of few layer 2D BNNSs through various TEM techniques, the sheets are observed to have micrometer dimensions in plane whereas nanometer dimensions through their thicknesses depending on the number of layers stacked together. More specifically, the thickness of 2D BNNSs is calculated to be around between 8 and 12 nm using EELS analysis. This value suggests that BNNSs are composed of approximately between 20 and 30 monatomic 2D graphene-like h-BN layers. We are in the opinion that this study has thrown new light on fabricating large scale of 2D BNNSs, which is cited as a highly promising nanomaterial of the future to be utilized in a variety of potential industrial applications including optoelectronic nanodevices, functional polymer composites, support films, hydrogen accumulators and electrically insulating substrates.     

Fibromyalgia in Beh?et's syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the frequency of fibromyalgia (FM) in Beh?et's syndrome (BS) and to evaluate the relationship of FM to Beh?et's disease activity. METHOD: Self-questionnaires were completed by 108 patients with BS. Each patient was evaluated by an observer blinded to diagnosis; evaluation included assessment of tender points by palpation. Another observer determined the disease activity of patients at that time. RESULTS: Ten of 108 patients (9.2%) met the American College of Rheumatology criteria for FM. Nine of the patients who met the criteria for FM were women. In contrast to patients without FM, patients with FM had mild to moderate disease activity in which musculoskeletal complaints were common. CONCLUSION: There is a trend for an increased frequency of FM in female BS patients.     

Effect of receiver shape and volume on the Alzheimer disease for molecular communication via diffusion

Nano‐devices are featured to communicate via molecular interaction, the so‐called molecular communication (MC). In MC systems, the information is carried by molecules where the amount of molecules constitutes the level of the signal. In this study, an MC‐based system was analysed with different receiver topology and related parameters, such as size, shape, and orientation of receptors on the receiver. Also in the concept of nano‐medicine, the effect of amyloid‐beta (Aβ), which is believed as the main cause of Alzheimer disease, on the successful reception ratio of molecules with the proposed receiver models was investigated. It was demonstrated that the cubic receiver model is superior to sphere one in terms of the correct reception ratio of the molecular signal. A cubic model where its edge (not rotated around the centre) is placed across the transmitter demonstrated a better performance in reducing the effect of Aβ as compared to the sphere model while a cubic model where its corner (rotated around the centre) is placed across the transmitter demonstrated a worse performance than the spherical model. From this expression, it may be concluded that with the adjustment of topological system parameters the probability of successful reception ratio in MC may be possible.Inspec keywords: diseases, molecular biophysics, neurophysiology, probabilityOther keywords: receiver shape, Alzheimer disease, molecular communication, nanodevices, molecular interaction, smart medicine, neuronal communication, MC systems, high signal level, low‐signal level, topological parameters, MC‐based system, nanomedicine, cubic receiver model, correct reception ratio, molecular signal, cubic model, spherical model, topological system parameters     

Measuring long-term performance of a manufacturing firm using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach

This paper provides a multicriteria performance measurement model to measure a manufacturing firm's performance in terms of areas of success, which can be defined as critical areas in generating revenues and controlling costs in the operations of a manufacturing firm. In developing the performance measurement model, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach is used. The ANP approach, which is the general form of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology, is recommended when independence among different elements of a system assumption is violated. In a manufacturing system, the system's attributes are interrelated. Furthermore, the relative importance of these attributes with respect to each other and their contribution to the overall performance are affected by the competitive strategies applied by the manufacturing firms. The performance evaluation model developed here incorporates the competitive strategies and interdependence between the system attributes in its hierarchical structure and achieves a more realistic and accurate representation of the firm's long-term performance.     

Novel quantization‐based spectrum sensing scheme under imperfect reporting channel and false reports

In this paper, a novel sensing scheme, uniform quantization for cooperative sensing (UniQCS), that employs a uniform quantizer is proposed. UniQCS is based on energy detection and uses weight vector for global decision function. It performs better than hard decision algorithms such as majority and k‐out‐of‐n in terms of probability of detection and false alarm at the cost of a marginal increase in overhead bits under imperfect reporting channel and false reports. The probability of detection is maximized for a given probability of false alarm constraint by the proposed method. For detailed analysis, the UniQCS is compared with equal gain combiner scheme, which performs far better than hard decision algorithms, via highest bandwidth requirement. The proposed algorithm performs close to equal gain combiner. Moreover, the robustness of UniQCS to sensing error is analyzed when some nodes always report false decisions to the fusion center and the reporting channel is imperfect. For probability of false alarm equal to 0.01, performance gain of UniQCS is at least 45% compared with the other methods when there are two false reporting nodes. UniQCS performance gain is at least 15% compared with other methods for probability of reporting channel error equal to 0.001. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Location estimation‐based radio environment map construction in fading channels

Latest regulations on TV white space communications and trend toward spectrum access through geolocation databases relax the regulatory constraints on cognitive radios. Radio environment map (REM) is a kind of improved geolocation database and an emerging topic with the latest regulations on TV white space communications. It constructs a comprehensive temperature map of the cognitive radio network operation area by utilizing multi‐domain information from geolocation databases, characteristics of spectrum use, geographical terrain models, propagation environment, and regulations. REMs act as cognition engines by building long‐term knowledge via processing spectrum measurements collected from sensors to estimate the state of locations without any measurement data. Active transmitter LocatIon Estimation based REM construction technique is proposed and compared with the well‐known REM construction techniques such as Kriging and inverse distance weighted interpolation in shadow and multipath fading channels. The simulation results suggest that the LocatIon Estimation based REM construction outperforms the compared methods in terms of RMSE and correct detection zone ratio by utilizing additional information about channel parameters that can be estimated by classical least squares method easily.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of sintering conditions and heat treatment on the properties,microstructure and machining performance of α-β-SiAlON ceramics

The properties of SiAlON ceramics are strongly affected by the composition and structure of the intergranular phase, which are controlled by dopants, sintering conditions and starting silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) powder characteristics. In this study, 25α:75β SiAlON compositions were designed with different molar ratios of Y:Sm:Ca (9:0.5:0.5 and 3:6:1). The effects of cation ratios, different cooling profiles (50 °C/min and 5 °C/min) and further heat treatment under different conditions (at 1600 °C for 2, 4 and 6 h) on the final phase composition, the type of the intergranular phase (amorphous or crystalline) formation, the resulting microstructures and the machining performance were studied. It is found that slow cooling and heat treatment have a great influence on crystallisation behaviour and in turn the crystallisation enhance the machining performance of SiAlON materials in cutting tool applications.     

An experimental and theoretical examination of the effect of sulfur on the pyrolytically grown carbon nanotubes from sucrose-based solid state precursors

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized through pyrolysis of the sulfuric acid-carbonized byproduct of sucrose. While the presence of sulfur in the reaction media has a key role in the formation and population density of MWCNTs, we have not observed the formation of Y-junctions or encountered other novel carbon nanotube formations. Results indicate the presence of sulfur in catalyst particles trapped inside nanotubes, but failed to find sulfur in the side-walls of the CNTs. In order to verify and explain these findings, we analyzed the behavior of sulfur and its possible effects on the side-wall structure of CNTs by using density functional theory-based calculations on various atomic models depicting sulfur inclusion in the side-walls. The results of the computational study were in line with the experimental results and also provided a new perspective by suggesting that the defects such as pentagons may act as nucleation sites for the Y-branches. The results indicated that sulfur prefers to adsorb on these defective regions, but it is not responsible for the formation of these structures or defects.