The Effect of Lithium Disilicate Ceramic Surface Neutralization on Wettability of Silane Coupling Agents and Adhesive Resin Cements

This in vitro study was aimed to evaluate the possible changes in wettability of an etched glass ceramic surface to silane primers, adhesive resin and resin cement when the surface had been neutralized by a special neutralizing agent after etching. Rectangular shaped specimens were cut from the CAD blocks of an e-max lithium disilicate glass ceramic, cut specimens were sequentially polished and ultrasonically cleaned. All the specimens were etched for 20 s with 5% hydrofluoric acid and ultrasonically cleaned. Specimens were randomly assigned to one control group (without neutralization) and one treatment group (with neutralization) having 20 specimens each. The specimens of each group were further divided into two subgroups having 10 specimens each and tested to determine the effect of neutralizing agent on wettability of experimental and commercial silanes. Each subgroup specimen was tested for wettability to adhesive resin and commercial resin cement. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA. Neutralizing the ceramic surface did not show a significant effect on wettability to the silanes and the resin based materials, but the experimental silane showed better wettability than the commercial silane. The adhesive resin had statistically significant lower contact angle (high wettability) values than the commercial resin cement. The results of the current study suggested that the neutralizing agent did not have an impact on the wettability of the etched ceramic. However, there were differences in wetting properties of the silane primers, and adhesive resin versus resin composite luting cements.     

Recent progress in synthesis of antifogging agents and their application to agricultural films: a review

Antifogging agents are very important for use on agricultural films. Fogging reduces crop yield and causes other negative effects. To overcome fogging problems on agricultural films, several approaches including surface coating and reactive extrusion methods have been used. To date, researchers have designed a variety of agents to prepare antifogging films. The mechanism and rules for the composition of such agents have also been reported. However, reported antifogging films do not exhibit satisfactory results. Therefore, antifogging methods require further improvement. In this review, different preparation methods for antifogging agents and films are summarized, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Moreover, test methods for antifogging performance are introduced.     

Revisiting the accessibility of Saudi Arabia government websites

Universal Access in the Information Society - With the significant inclusion of the Internet in nearly all aspects of our daily lives, achieving accessible e-government services that enable...     

Integrating renewables economic dispatch with demand side management in micro-grids: a genetic algorithm-based approach

Economic dispatch and demand side management are two of the most important tools for efficient energy management in the grid. It is a casual observation that both these processes are intertwined and thus complement each other. Strategies aiming to optimize economic dispatch have implications for demand side management techniques and vice versa. In this paper, we present a genetic algorithm-based solution which combines economic dispatch and demand side management for residential loads in a micro-grid. Our system collects preferences of demand data from consumers and costs of energy of various sources. It then finds the optimal demand scheduling and energy generation mix for the given time window. Our evaluations show that the given approach can effectively reduce operating costs in a single- and multiple-facility micro-grids for both suppliers and consumers alike.     

Internet of things and cloud computing‐based energy management system for demand side management in smart grid

A smart grid is an electricity network, which deals with electronic power conditioning and control of production, transmission, and distribution of electrical power by employing digital communication technologies to monitor and manage local changes in electricity usage. In the traditional power grid, energy consumers remain oblivious to their power consumption patterns, resulting in wasted energy as well as money. This issue is severely pronounced in the developing countries where there is a huge gap between demand and supply, resulting in frequent power outages and load‐shedding. For electrical energy savings, the smart grid employs demand side management (DSM), which refers to adaptation in consumer's demand for energy through various approaches such as financial incentives and awareness. The DSM in future smart grid must exploit automated energy management systems (EMS) built upon the state‐of‐the‐art technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and cloud and/or fog computing. In this paper, we present the architecture framework, design, and implementation of an IoT and cloud computing‐based EMS, which generates load profile of consumer to be accessed remotely by utility company or by the consumer. The consumers' load profiles enable utility companies to regulate and disseminate their incentives and incite the consumers to adapt their energy consumption. Our designed EMS is implemented on a Project Circuit Board (PCB) to be easily installed at the consumer premises where it performs the following tasks: (a) monitors energy consumption of electrical appliances by means of our designed current and voltage sensors, (b) uploads sensed data to Google Firebase cloud over many‐to‐many IoT communication protocol Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) where consumer's load profile is generated, which can be accessed via a web portal. These load profiles serve as input for implementing the various DSM approaches. Our results demonstrate generated load profiles of consumer load in terms of current, voltage, energy, and power accessible via a web portal.     

Optimizing acido-basic profile of support in Ni supported La2O3+Al2O3 catalyst for dry reforming of methane

The increasing alarm of global warming always draws interest in reactions like dry reforming of methane (DRM) where both global warming gases (CO₂ and CH₄) are converted into value-added chemical building blocks, such as syngas. Nickel catalyst active sites along with support acid-base profiles play a key role in DRM. Herein, xLa₂O₃+(100-x) Al₂O₃ (x = 0, 10, 15, 20%) supports are prepared and followed by NiO dispersion over the produced support by impregnation method. It was tested for DRM reaction and characterized with TGA, XRD, TEM, IR, Surface area and porosity measurement, H₂-TPR, CO₂-TPD and NH₃-TPD techniques. Upon increasing the basic lanthana proportion in the acidic alumina support, the crystallinity of alumina and acidity of total support decline. Up to 15% Lanthana addition in support claims a low acid and rich basic surface including super basic sites (related to unidentate carbonates) which governed optimum catalytic performance 64% CH₄ conversion, 79% CO₂ conversion and H₂/CO ~ 1 up to 460-min in time on stream test. 20% lanthanum oxide loading led to inferior performance due to rapid loss of surface area, pore-volume, pore diameter, acidity and medium basic strength sites. Fine-tuning of acid-base lanthana-alumina support with dispersed Ni species are a means for understanding DRM.     

Visibly Active FeO/ZnO@PANI Magnetic Nano-photocatalyst for the Degradation of 3-Aminophenol

Topics in Catalysis - The water management sector is becoming extremely challenging these days because of poor water quality which is due to the presence of noxious pollutants at an...