Dodecyl methacrylate as a crosslinker in the preparation of tough polyacrylamide hydrogels

Copolymerization of acrylamide with dodecyl methacrylate (C12) solubilized in aqueous micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate produces tough hydrogels exhibiting moduli of elasticity around 1 kPa. Swelling and gel fraction measurements show that the hydrophobic associations acting as temporary crosslinks are too strong to be destroyed in water during the expansion of the gel network. An order of magnitude larger value of loss factor tan δ of the hydrogels formed using the hydrophobe C12 as compared to the conventional hydrogels indicates the dynamic nature of their crosslink zones. The hydrogels are more homogeneous than the corresponding gels prepared by a chemical crosslinker, as determined by the static light scattering measurements. Mechanical tests indicate that, in addition to the dodecyl domains, permanent crosslinks are also needed to obtain hydrogels that are mechanically stable up to 250% elongation ratios.     

Experimental Investigation of Aluminum Alloy and Steel Core Buckling Restrained Braces (BRBs)

International Journal of Steel Structures - Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) display balanced hysteretic behavior under reversed cyclic tension and compression forces and dissipate a significant...     

Occurrence of aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2) in herbal tea consumed in Turkey

Aflatoxin contents in 12 types of herbal teas were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detector using immunoaffinity column clean-up. Forty eight samples were collected from four local herbal shops in Manisa, Turkey. Of the 48 samples analyzed, 43 were aflatoxin positive. The highest concentration of aflatoxin (34.18 µg/kg) was determined in a sample of camomile tea. The occurrence of AFB1, B2, G1 and G2 was found in samples at levels of 54, 29, 71 and 46 %, respectively. Aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 contamination levels varied from 0 to 14.2, 0 to 12.4, 0 to 13.5 and 0 to 28.7 µg/kg, respectively. Aflatoxin was not detected in five samples consisting of linseed, lime and fennel tea.     

The initial stage of dam-break flow

The liquid flow and the free surface shape during the initial stage of dam breaking are investigated. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to derive the leading-order uniform solution of the classical dam-break problem. The asymptotic analysis is performed with respect to a small parameter which characterizes the short duration of the stage under consideration. The second-order outer solution is obtained in the main flow region. This solution is not valid in a small vicinity of the intersection point between the initially vertical free surface and the horizontal rigid bottom. The dimension of this vicinity is estimated with the help of a local analysis of the outer solution close to the intersection point. Stretched local coordinates are used in this vicinity to resolve the flow singularity and to derive the leading-order inner solution, which describes the formation of the jet flow along the bottom. It is shown that the inner solution is self-similar and the corresponding boundary-value problem can be reduced to the well-known Cauchy–Poisson problem for water waves generated by a given pressure distribution along the free surface. An analysis of the inner solution reveals the complex shape of the jet head, which would be difficult to simulate numerically. The asymptotic solution obtained is expected to be helpful in the analysis of developed gravity-driven flows.     

Visual-Perceptual Dysfunctions Are Possible Endophenotypes of Schizophrenia: Evidence From the Psychophysical Investigation of Magnocellular and Parvocellular Pathways.

Visual information processing is impaired in schizophrenia patients and their biological relatives. The authors measured vernier thresholds in 72 schizophrenia patients, their 86 siblings, and 60 healthy control subjects. Subjects were asked to detect the direction of the horizontal displacement of 2 stimuli (left or right). During magnocellular (M) pathway tests, stimuli were dots with low contrast (5%) or counterphase-modulated gratings (25 Hz). For parvocellular (P) pathway tests, isoluminant blue-red dots with yellow-green background were used. Results revealed that patients with schizophrenia and their siblings were more impaired in M pathway conditions than in P pathway conditions. There was no color-specific impairment. The patients and their siblings displayed lower performances on tests of executive functions, psychomotor speed, and verbal memory compared with the controls. Visual-perceptual and neuropsychological data did not correlate. In conclusion, M pathway dysfunction is a potential endophenotype of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of cooling water temperature on the efficiency of a pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant

In this study, the influence of the cooling water temperature on the thermal efficiency of a conceptual pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant is studied through an energy analysis based on the first law of thermodynamics to gain some new insights into the plant performance. The change in the cooling water temperature can be experienced due to the seasonal changes in climatic conditions at plant site. It can also come into the question of design processes for the plant site selection. In the analysis, it is considered that the condenser vacuum varies with the temperature of cooling water extracted from environment into the condenser. The main findings of the paper is that the impact of 1°C increase in temperature of the coolant extracted from environment is predicted to yield a decrease of ～0.45 and ～0.12% in the power output and the thermal efficiency of the pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant considered, respectively. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Field performance of organically propagated and grown strawberry plugs and fresh plants

This research was carried out during the growing seasons of 2003–2004 and 2004–2005 years in Ayd?n province in Turkey. Ayd?n is 50 km from the Aegean Sea, at an altitude of 74 m. Field performance of strawberry plants that were propagated and grown organically were investigated in order to determine the marketable yield. Chandler and Camarosa runner plants were planted separately in trays containing either perlite, peat, a 1:1 mix of perlite + peat, or sand for rooting. Fifty‐cell plug trays filled with peat were used for rooting plug plants. Rooted plants grown in either peat, perlite, the 1:1 mixture or sand were considered as fresh plants. Cold‐stored and bare‐root (frigo) nursery plants were used as controls. Results of the present study showed that peat‐grown and plug plants rooted and grew more vigorously than those grown in perlite, the perlite + peat mix or sand in the rooting unit. Plug plants had a high field performance in terms of marketable yield in organic conditions. Yields were higher and better than fresh plants and equal to bare‐root cold‐stored plants. In conclusion we suggest that strawberry runner plants can be easily propagated in plugs under organic conditions and used successfully for growing strawberries organically. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Clinoptilolite-rich mineral as a novel carrier for the active constituents present in Ginkgo biloba leaf extract

The possible use of clinoptilolite-rich mineral as a novel carrier for the active constituents present in Ginkgo biloba leaf extract solutions was investigated. The flavonoid aglycone constituents were found to be selectively adsorbed on the clinoptilolite surface. The antioxidant activity determinations of the extract solutions were performed by the Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC) assay. The antioxidant activity measurements performed for the Ginkgo leaf extract solutions showed decreasing antioxidant activities due to adsorption. The decrease in antioxidant activity was attributed to the adsorption of phenolic constituents on the clinoptilolite surface.     

A grasshopper optimizer approach for feature selection and optimizing SVM parameters utilizing real biomedical data sets

Neural Computing and Applications - Support vector machines (SVM) are one of the important techniques used to solve classifications problems efficiently. Setting support vector machine kernel...