Printing cotton fabrics with reactive dyes of high reactivity from an acidic printing paste

The behaviour of reactive dyes of high reactivity during the printing process of 100% cotton fabrics from an alkaline and acidic printing paste was studied in detail. The printing pastes were stored for different periods of time and then the fabrics were printed. The samples were subjected to two methods of fixation, the first by steaming and the second by thermofixation. The effects of different factors such as alkali and acid concentration, storage time of the printing pastes and method of fixation on the K/S values of the prints were investigated. The fastness properties of the printed areas were also measured to determine the improvement obtained by acidic printing with high-reactivity reactive dyes on cotton fabrics.     

An acidic ionic liquid-conventional alkali-catalyzed biodiesel production process

A study was undertaken to prepare biodiesel via two-step process using ionic liquid as first step catalyst due to the unsuitability of using the straight alkaline-catalyzed transesterification of high FFA presented in crude palm oil (CPO). In the first step, esterification of the FFA presented in the CPO was carried out using butylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate (BIMHSO₄), in which the acid value was reduced from 6.93 to 1.02mg KOH/g and then, KOH-catalyzed transesterification was applied. The conversion rate of FFA attained 85.3% when 4.8 wt% of BIMHSO₄ was applied to the reaction system containing methanol to CPO ratio of 12: 1 reacted at 170 °C for 150min. The final yield in 97.3% revealed that the process proposed in this study could lead to an excellent biodiesel meeting the ASTM requirements. Furthermore, this new two-step catalysis process could solve the old conventional catalysis process drawbacks.     

POLYBiNN: Binary Inference Engine for Neural Networks using Decision Trees

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have gained significant popularity in several classification and regression applications....     

Electrofusion of zona-free mouse embryonic cells in electrolytes and their development in vitro

The influence of increasing the physical electrofusion parameters, direct current (DC) pulse strength, pulse duration, pulse number, alternating current (AC) voltage and alignment time, in electrolytes on the rates of fusion, degeneration and development of zona-free mouse 2-cell embryos were examined. Furthermore, the effects of physiological saline and mannitol as fusion media and various mouse strains were also evaluated. Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum was used as the main fusion solution. A significant increase in the rate of fusion (P < 0.05) was obtained by increasing pulse strength from 30 to 300 V/mm. The embryos fused at the pulse strengths of 30 to 70 V/mm had significantly higher development rates to blastocysts compared with those fused at 100 to 300 V/mm (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the rates of fusion, degeneration and development to blastocysts when the pulse duration was increased from 30 to 90 microseconds. Although fusion rates were increased (P < 0.05) by increasing the pulse number up to 4, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in development to blastocysts was observed when the pulse number was 5. Application of AC voltage prior to the DC pulse tended to increase the fusion rate (89.2-93.8%), compared with fusion with the DC pulse only (75.0%). Prolongation of alignment time from 5 to 15 sec had no effect on the fusion rate. Under the optimum conditions (2 pulses of DC of 70 V/mm, 70 microseconds pulse duration and AC of 5 V/mm for 5 sec), no significant difference was obtained in the fusion and development rates in different mouse strains, nor were fusion and development rates significantly different among PBS, physiological saline and mannitol solutions (P > 0.05).     

A multi-layer perceptron neural network model for predicting the hydrate equilibrium conditions in multi-component hydrocarbon systems

Neural Computing and Applications - This work presents a model based on multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) for the prediction of hydrate equilibrium conditions in hydrocarbon systems. The...     

Current Strategies for the Gene Therapy of Autosomal Recessive Congenital Ichthyosis and Other Types of Inherited Ichthyosis

Mutations in genes such as transglutaminase-1 (TGM1), which are responsible for the formation and normal functioning of a lipid barrier, lead to the development of autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI). ARCIs are characterized by varying degrees of hyperkeratosis and the presence of scales on the body surface since birth. The quality of life of patients is often significantly affected, and in order to alleviate the manifestations of the disease, symptomatic therapy with moisturizers, keratolytics, retinoids and other cosmetic substances is often used to improve the condition of the patients’ skin. Graft transplantation is commonly used to correct defects of the eye. However, these approaches offer symptomatic treatment that does not restore the lost protein function or provide a long-term skin barrier. Gene and cell therapies are evolving as promising therapy for ARCIs that can correct the functional activity of altered proteins. However, these approaches are still at an early stage of development. This review discusses current studies of gene and cell therapy approaches for various types of ichthyosis and their further prospects for patient treatment.     

Effects of intercropping, Bradyrhizobium inoculation and chicken manure fertilisation on the chemical composition and physical characteristics of soybean seed

A field experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of two Bradyrhizobium strains (local and imported), chicken manure fertilisation (7 t/ha) and intercropping with sorghum on the chemical composition and physical characteristics of soybean seed. For both monocropping and intercropping systems, moisture content slightly increased for both systems and for all treatments, while ash, fibre and carbohydrate contents fluctuated for both systems and treatments. The protein content of the seeds was significantly (p ? 0.05) increased for all treatments. Tannin content was increased significantly (p ? 0.05) with a concomitant decrease in protein digestibility for both systems and for all treatments. The seed weight (100 seeds), hydration coefficient and cookability were increased for all treatments. Mineral composition of the seeds was increased and the increment varied with different treatments.     

Fibril density reduction in keratoconic corneas

This study aims to estimate the reduction in collagen fibril density within the central 6 mm radius of keratoconic corneas through the processing of microstructure and videokeratography data. Collagen fibril distribution maps and topography maps were obtained for seven keratoconic and six healthy corneas, and topographic features were assessed to detect and calculate the area of the cone in each keratoconic eye. The reduction in collagen fibril density within the cone area was estimated with reference to the same region in the characteristic collagen fibril maps of healthy corneas. Together with minimum thickness and mean central corneal refractive power, the cone area was correlated with the reduction in the cone collagen fibrils. For the corneas considered, the mean area of keratoconic cones was 3.30 ± 1.90 mm². Compared with healthy corneas, fibril density in the cones of keratoconic corneas was lower by as much as 35%, and the mean reduction was 17 ± 10%. A linear approximation was developed to relate the magnitude of reduction to the refractive power, minimum corneal thickness and cone area (R² = 0.95, p < 0.001). Outside the cone area, there was no significant difference between fibril arrangement in healthy and keratoconic corneas. The presented method can predict the mean fibril density in the keratoconic eye''s cone area. The technique can be applied in microstructure-based finite-element models of the eye to regulate its stiffness level and the stiffness distribution within the areas affected by keratoconus.     

Effect of Rhizobium inoculation and nitrogen fertilization on yield and protein content of six chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars in marginal soils under irrigation

A field experiment was carried out for two consecutive seasons 1994/95 and 1995/96 at ElRwakeeb (a sandy clay loam) to study the effect of Rhizobium sp. (Cicer) inoculation and N fertilization on six chickpea cultivars (Baladi, Gabel marra, NEC 25–27, NEC 2010, ILC 1919, and Flip 85–108). Plants were either inoculated with three Rhizobium sp. (Cicer) strains (TAL 480, TAL 620 and TAL 1148) separately, or N fertilized (50 kg N ha-1). The results of the two seasons indicated the absence of infective strains for chickpea in the soil. Rhizobium inoculation or N fertilization significantly increased the total nodule number per plant, 100 seed weight, yield and protein content of seeds. The results indicated that the three Rhizobium strains are infective and effective in nitrogen fixation. Inoculation with Rhizobium strain TAL 1148 resulted in a significant increment in most of the parameters studied, compared to other strains and untreated control. Cultivar ILC 1919 was the best yielding cultivar, whereas, cultivar NEC 2010 contained the highest protein content, however cultivar Gabel marra showed the highest amount of protein due to inoculation or N fertilization, in the two seasons. Inoculation with Rhizobium strain TAL 1148 increased yield by 72 and 70%, whereas, 50 kg N ha-1 increased it by 70 and 69% in the first and second seasons, respectively. The amounts of protein accumulated (kg ha-1) due to N or Rhizobium inoculation were determined for all cultivars. The results obtained from the inoculation were comparable to those of 50 kg N ha-1.