Investigation of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of needle punched nonwoven fabric produced from conductive silver coated staple polyamide fibre

In this paper, electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of needle-punched nonwoven fabric produced from silver-coated staple polyamide fibre having a fineness of 1.7 dtex was investigated. This production was carried out at Automatex needle punching line, which consists of carding, cross lapper and needle punching machine. After production, the surface resistivity measurements of needle-punched nonwoven fabric was carried out in accordance with ASTM D 257-07 standard. The EMSE of the as-produced needle-punched nonwoven fabric was determined using a network analyzer as specified in ASTM D4935-10 in the frequency range of 15–3000 MHz. Electromagnetic shielding test shows that needle-punched nonwoven fabric produced from 1.7-dtex silver-coated polyamide fibre has the highest shielding value of 36.53 dB in the frequency range of 15–3000 MHz. The EMSE of needle-punched nonwoven fabric with fibre fineness of 1.7 dtex increased from 11.00 dB maximum to 36.53 dB in the 15–3000 MHz frequency range. It was seen that as the frequency increases, reflection values of the needle-punched nonwoven fabric decrease at floating mode, while absorption values of the nonwoven fabric increase at floating mode in the frequency range of 15–3000 MHz. EMSE results of the needle-punched nonwoven fabric produced from 1.7-dtex silver-coated staple polyamide fibres were compared to carbon fabric and needle-punched nonwoven fabric made from stainless steel fibres.     

Attenuation corrected myocardial PET after application of 18FDG: effect on the determination of regional myocardial uptake values

AIM: Post injection transmission measurement (PIT) can be performed using rotating 68Ge/68Ga linesources. This study estimates attenuation coefficients, count densities and relative regional uptake values of PIT corrected cardiac PET (E-PIT) compared to routinely pre-injection transmission measurement (RT). METHODS: A thorax-phantom with homogeneously filled myocardium or with simulated defects and six patients with advanced coronary artery disease were studied using ECAT Exact tomograph (Siemens CTI) equipped with three rotating linesources. Transmission was performed twice (PIT, RT), attenuation coefficients and emission data were analysed, the latter without attenuation correction (E-UK), corrected with PIT (E-PIT) and with RT (E-RT) (count density, standard and relative uptake values). RESULTS: Both in phantom and patient studies attenuation coefficients differed significantly between PIT and RT. Comparing E-PIT and E-RT, regional uptake values were different only in phantom simulation with myocardial radioactivity concentrations higher than 10 kBq x ml-1. The image contrast between defects and remaining myocardium in the phantom studies or the standard and relative uptake values in patient studies did not vary significantly. CONCLUSION: Under clinical conditions a post injection transmission measurement does not influence the accuracy of regional myocardial uptake values relevantly.     

Operational data analysis of MSF desalination plants. A case study of Jeddah I

Monthly operation and maintenance reports of the oldest large MSF plant in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah I, are analyzed to extract information or generic operation and design problems and to seek means for the mitigation of such problems. The accumulated records are quantified to provide estimates of equipment failure rates. Three systems are found to be the major contributors to plant outage namely, make-up water, brine recycle and sea water intake systems. Root causes of the plant unscheduled shutdowns or reductions in water production are assessed to examine generic reasons for deviations of MSF systems from standard expected performance.     

The role of stepover ratio in prediction of surface roughness in flat end milling

Surface roughness prediction studies in end milling operations are usually based on three main parameters composed of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. The stepover ratio is usually neglected without investigating it. The aim of this study is to discover the role of the stepover ratio in surface roughness prediction studies in flat end milling operations. In realising this, machining experiments are performed under various cutting conditions by using sample specimens. The surface roughnesses of these specimens are measured. Two ANN structures were constructed. First of them was arranged with considering, and the second without considering the stepover ratio. ANN structures were trained and tested by using the measured data for predicting the surface roughness. Average RMS error of the ANN model considering stepover ratio is 0.04 and without considering stepover ratio is 0.26. The first model proved capable of prediction of average surface roughness (Ra) with a good accuracy and the second model revealed remarkable deviations from the experimental values.     

The effect of manganese on the microstructure and mechanical properties of zinc–aluminium based ZA-8 alloy

In this investigation, the effect of manganese as an alloying element in the range 0.01%–0.53 wt.%, on the hardness, 0.2% yield, tensile and impact strength, and creep properties of a gravity cast Zn–Al based ZA-8 alloy has been investigated. It was found that addition of Mn over the entire range of concentrations has a useful effect on the hardness of the alloy. Also, the 0.2% yield and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the samples did not change significantly with Mn additions up to 0.045 wt.% but decreased with a further increase in Mn content. Furthermore, the impact strength of the alloy improved with increasing Mn up to 0.045 wt.% and then decreased gradually with a further increase in Mn content. On the other hand, the creep resistance of the alloy increased continuously with increasing Mn content up to 0.53 wt.% Mn. Metallographic studies showed that addition of Mn resulted in microstructural modifications of the alloy involving the formation of complex intermetallic compound identified as MnAl₆. The increase in creep resistance and decrease in tensile and impact strength were thought to have been caused by the changing morphology and amount of the intermetallic.     

HR 720, a novel angiotensin receptor antagonist inhibits the angiotensin II-induced trophic effects, fibronectin release and fibronectin-EIIIA+ expression in rat aortic vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro

The aim of this study was to evaluate the direct trophic effects of angiotensin II (AII) on rat vascular smooth muscle cells obtained from a single cellular isolate. Cell volume, protein synthesis, fibronectin (FN) release and FN-EIIIA+ mRNA isoform expression were analyzed in parallel. The effects of HR 720, a novel AT1 angiotensin receptor antagonist with some AT2 receptor affinity, were compared with those of selective AT1 antagonist EXP 3174. Both HR 720 and EXP 3174 inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner the maximum increase in cell volume induced by 10(-9) M Sar1-All (IC50 = 0.49 x 10(-9) M and 0.79 x 10(-9) M, respectively). Maximum [3H]leucine incorporation was also achieved at 10(-9) M All. HR 720 blocked the increase in protein synthesis with potency similar to EXP 3174; the respective IC50 values were 1.04 x 10(-9) M and 1.36 x 10(-9) M. All dose-dependently increased FN release, which was also equally inhibited by about 50% with both compounds at 10(-6) M. Furthermore, All enhanced FN-EIIIA+ mRNA in rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), which indicated a modulation of FN isoform expression which was inhibited by angiotensin II antagonists. In conclusion, All induced parallel and concentration-dependent increases in cell volume, protein synthesis, FN release and FN-EIIIA+ mRNA expression in vascular smooth muscle cells. These effects appeared to be essentially mediated by AT1 receptor stimulation as indicated by the equal inhibitory effects of HR 720 and EXP 3174.     

Development of Cutting Tool Through Superplastic Boronizing of Duplex Stainless Steel

In this study, a cutting tool is developed from duplex stainless steel (DSS) using the superplastic boronizing technique. The feasibility of the development process is studied, and the cutting performances of the cutting tool are evaluated and compared with commercially available carbide and high-speed steel (HSS) tools. The superplastically boronized (SPB) cutting tool yielded a dense boronized layer of 50.5 µm with a surface hardness of 3956 HV. A coefficient of friction value of 0.62 is obtained, which is lower than 1.02 and 0.8 of the carbide and HSS tools. When tested on an aluminum 6061 surface under dry condition, the SPB cutting tool is also able to produce turning finishing below 0.4 µm, beyond the travel distance of 3000 m, which is comparable to the carbide tool, but produces much better results than HSS tool. Through superplastic boronizing of DSS, it is possible to produce a high-quality metal-based cutting tool that is comparable to the conventional carbide tool.     

Anomalous Optical Properties of xSrO–10PbO–(90 − x)B<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Glass System

Raman and UV–Vis spectral analysis of xSrO–10PbO–(90 ? x)B₂O₃ glasses were carried out to elucidate the structural and optical behaviour due to borate anomaly. Raman analysis revealed that the glasses consisted of mainly trigonal groups (metaborate) and tetrahedral groups (ditri/dipentaborate and diborate) at lower SrO content. Concentration of diborate groups reached a maximum value at x = 30 mol% and were replaced by pyroborate, metaborate and orthoborate groups as SrO content in the glass increased. Maximum value of optical band gap (E _opt ) and minimum values of electronic polarizability (α_O2?), optical basicity (Λ) and refractive index (n) were obtained when x = 25 mol%, which was lower compared to maximum of diborate group (x = 30 mol%) as observed from Raman spectroscopic analysis. Observed mismatch in diborate groups and E _opt maxima was attributed to the formation of weak coordinated covalent bonds during structural transformation and addition of cation with high polarizability to the xSrO–10PbO–(90 ? x)B₂O₃ glass.