Improving easy care nonformaldehyde finishing performance using polycarboxylic acids via precationization of cotton fabric

Cotton fabric were first subjected to quaternization (cationization) reaction using 3‐chloro‐2‐hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride commercially known as Quat®‐188. Cationization was carried out under different conditions for optimization of the preparation of cationized cotton with different degrees of cationization, using the pad‐batch method. Also, established was the optimal condition for cationization that involves Quat‐188/NaOH molar ratio 1/2 at 70°C for 4 h. Besides, a thorough investigation of factors affecting reaction of these cationized cotton with citric acid (CA) or 1,2,3,4‐butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) was carried out with a view of improving the ease of care characteristics of nonformaldehyde finishing. The dependence of fabric performance as measured by strength properties, dry wrinkle recovery angles, whiteness index, and dyeability with reactive dyes was also evaluated. It was postulated that reaction of cationized cotton with either CA or BTCA involves estercrosslinking as well as ionic crosslinking. This, indeed, was largely positively reflected on the fabric performance especially when the properties of both uncationized cotton were compared with those of the cationized cotton. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 2697–2704, 2006     

Rendering flax fibre dyeable with basic dyes via partial carboxymethylation

Carboxymethylation of flax has been carried out by first treating the fibres with sodium hydroxide followed by the sodium salt of monochloroacetic acid. The treatment was carried out under a variety of conditions. Variables studied included concentrations of monochloroacetic acid and sodium hydroxide in the impregnating solutions, as well as duration and temperature of the reaction. it was found that the extent of carboxymethylation increased substantially by controlling the concentrations of alkali and monochioroacetic acid, and by reacting for 6d min at 70d?C. The behaviour of selected samples of partially carboxymthylated flax towards basic dyes was also studied.     

Effect of carbon black and thermal aging on the conduction mechanism of natural and styrene butadiene rubbers

Two types of carbon black namely fast extrusion furnace black (FEF) and high abrasion furnace black (HAF) were incorporated with a concentration of 50 phr into styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and natural rubber (NR). The effect of the time of aging and temperature on the electrical conductivity was studied. It was found that a thermal aging at 95°C leads to the appearance of minimum in conductivity (σ) in both FEF/NR and HAF/NR. This was explained by a competition between two factors: degradation and increase of crosslinking density in the rubber matrix. In case of FEF/SBR and HAF/SBR it seems that these factors have comparable effects on the conductivity after 10 days of aging. From the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics the carrier concentration, trap density, and the drift mobility were calculated. The minimum found in the temperature dependence of σ for FEF/NR is discussed and found to be controlled by the relative dimension of carbon and rubber aggregates.     

Drop formation mass transfer coefficients in extraction columns

Mass transfer coefficients (MTC) of single liquid drops during drop formation period, in the presence and absence of down flow of the continuous phase, were measured in an extraction column. The effects of formation time, needle size, and flow rates of the continuous and dispersed phase were evaluated experimentally. It was found that the drop size increases with increasing formation time and decreasing down flow of the continuous phase. The mass transfer coefficients are the largest in the initial stages of drop formation when convection is the most significant. Both flow rates have a significant effect on the rate of the mass transfer, and the convection caused by the dispersed phase flow is more important than the continuous phase. The mass transfer coefficient and the degree of extraction increase with increasing down flow rate of the continuous phase.     

Artificial Neural Network estimation of wheel rolling resistance in clay loam soil

Despite of complex and nonlinear relationships imparting soil–wheel interactions, however, logical, non-randomized, and manifold relations tackle to express and model the interactions which are valid for variety of conditions and are likely to be established whereas mathematical equations are restricted to present. A 3-10-1 feed-forward Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with back propagation (BP) learning algorithm was utilized to estimate the rolling resistance of wheel as affected by velocity, tire inflation pressure, and normal load acting on wheel inside the soil bin facility creating controlled condition for test run. The model represented mean squared error MSE of 0.0257 and predicted relative error values with less than 10% and high coefficient of determination (R²) equal to 0.9322 utilizing experimental output data obtained from single-wheel tester of soil bin facility. These rewarding outcomes signify the fitting exploit of ANN for prediction of rolling resistance as a practical model with high accuracy in clay loam soil. Derived data revealed rolling resistance is less affected by applicable velocities of tractors in farmlands nevertheless is much influenced by inflation pressure and vertical load. An approximate constant relationship existed between velocity and rolling resistance implying that rolling resistance is not function of velocity chiefly in lower ones. Increase of inflation pressure results in decrease of rolling resistance while increase of vertical load brings about increase of rolling resistance which was measured to be function of vertical load by polynomial with order of two model validated by conventional models such as Wismer and Luth model.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Image pattern recognition in big data: taxonomy and open challenges: survey

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Image pattern recognition in the field of big data has gained increasing importance and attention from researchers and practitioners in many domains of science...     

Influence of processing conditions on the physicochemical and sensory properties of sesame milk: A novel nutritional beverage

Production of sesame milk is one of the methods for increasing consumption of sesame as an excellent nutritional resource. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of sodium bicarbonate concentration in soaking water (0, 0.5 and 1 g/100 mL NaHCO₃), roasting temperature (0 and 145 °C) and blanching time (0, 15 and 30 min) on physicochemical and sensory properties of sesame milk. Changes promoted by these processing conditions were also evaluated via color analysis and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The processing parameters mainly affected pH, total solids, protein, fat, ash, lipoxygenase activity, stability, specific gravity, viscosity, color features and sensory properties. Sensory evaluation revealed that overall acceptability was higher in all treatments than the control. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that 7S globulins decreased by roasting and soaking while 11S globulins of sesame milk proteins increased by roasting. The optimum processing conditions were found to be soaking in water containing 0.5 g/100 mL NaHCO₃, blanching for 15 min and without any roasting when desirability function method was applied.     

Improvement of the electrochemical performance of nanosized α-MnO2 used as cathode material for Li-batteries by Sn-doping

Sn-doped MnO₂ was prepared by hydrothermal reaction between KMnO₄ as oxidant, fumaric acid C₄H₄O₄ as reductant and SnCl₂ as doping agent. XRD analysis indicates the cryptomelane α-MnO₂ crystal structure for pure and doped samples. Thermal stabilization was observed for both oxides as detected from thermogravimetric analysis. SEM and TEM images show changes in the morphology of the materials from spherical-like particles for pristine P-MnO₂ to rod-like structure for Sn-MnO₂. Electrochemical properties of the electrode materials have been tested in lithium cells. Improvement in capacity retention and cycling ability is observed for doped oxide at the expense of initial capacity. After 35 cycles, the Li//Sn doped MnO₂ cell display lower capacity loss.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Some Utilization of Cellulose/Melamine Formaldehyde/Methylamine Anion Exchange Resin

Cellulose, melamine formaldehyde precondensate (MF), and methylamine hydrochloride (MA.HCl) were reacted in aqueous medium at different conditions, including time, temperature, MF/MA.HCl molar ratio, and liquor-to-cellulose ratio (LR). Reaction conditions were selected to prepare a cellulose/MF/MA anion exchanger having a total nitrogen and an amino nitrogen of 23.1% and 131 mEq/100 g, respectively. Potentiometric titration showed that the strength, pK_b , of this resin was 7.2. The resin lost about 3% and 9% of its total and amino nitrogen, respectively, during the first five cycles of the durability test, after which it suffered no losses up to 25 cycles. The resin was utilized in the removal of three anionic dyestuffs (direct, acid, and reactive) as well as permanganate and dichromate anions from aqueous solutions at different pH values ranging from 3 to 12. Maximum extents of removal were manifested at a pH value of 3, at which they followed the descending order: (permanganate ～ acid dye) > (reactive dye ～ dichromate) » direct dye.