The use of natural (Pinus pinaster) resin in the production of printing ink and the printability effect

Alkyd resins are generally used in the production of printing inks. All industries look for alternative raw materials in the production of ink with the growing inclination toward using natural products. Resins forming the vehicle of the ink to be obtained from natural resources will provide benefits for the environment, nature, and living creatures. The aim of the study was to promote the use of natural resin in the ink system. Natural Pinus pinaster resin was added into vegetable and mineral oil-based solvents in pure form with alkyd resin in different amounts and ink varnishes of different combinations were prepared. Then, printing inks were produced from these varnishes in pure and hybrid form. Following the assessment of the rheological properties of the inks prepared, printing tests were conducted to assess the printing quality parameters. Ideal mixing ratios of the natural resins in the ink were determined for printability. The environmental importance and advantages of the use of natural resins were discussed. Recommendations were given in line with the results to encourage widespread use of natural resins in near future.     

Facile growth of novel morphology correlated Ag/Co-doped ZnO nanowire/flake-like composites for superior photoelectrochemical water splitting activity

In this paper, novel morphology correlation between silver nanowires (AgNWs) and cobalt (Co)-doped ZnO (Co-ZnO) flake-like thin films (nanowire/flake-like) has been proposed for enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting activity. Here in, high-quality AgNWs/Co-ZnO heterostructures enabled superior visible light water splitting activity compared to the pure ZnO and AgNWs/ZnO. To address the strategic effect of AgNWs coupling and transition metal (Co-2?at%) doping into the ZnO host lattice, we have carried out the X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–Vis transmittance, water contact angle and PEC analyses. In this way, PEC water splitting activity was mainly examined by linear sweep voltammetry (I-V), amperometric I-t and photoconversion efficiency (η) studies. The experimental results provide clear evidence of morphology correlation between AgNWs and Co-ZnO flake-like structures for strong visible light absorption. Specifically, AgNWs/Co-ZnO composites exhibited significant enhancement in the photocurrent density (7.0?×?10^?4 A/cm²) than AgNWs/ZnO (3.2?×?10^?4 A/cm²) and pure ZnO (1.5?×?10^?6 A/cm²). As a result, detailed AgNWs/Co-ZnO geometry has great potential for photoconversion efficiency (0.73%). In a word, the merits of controllable AgNWs/Co-ZnO heterostructure are proposed to improve the visible light harvesting and charge carrier generation for energy conversion devices.     

Evaluation of antioxidant level and protein oxidation of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fillets during rigor and post-rigor

In this study, the relationship between stunning techniques and protein oxidation which are accepted as the main cause of food spoilage was investigated. For this purpose, the antioxidant status, in vivo myofibrillary protein (MP) oxidation and sensitivity, and postmortem oxidation (inducted with hydroxyl radical system) of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fillets killed by hitting to head (T1), neck crushing (T2), and convulsion (T3) methods, were investigated. Statistically significant differences (p < .05) were found among all parameters examined and it was observed that the most stressing technique was the convulsion method. It was determined that in protein profiles myosin were influenced too much from stunning technique and in actin observed oxidation-induced reductions. Reductions in S-S and S-H were also found to be increased in carbonyl concentrations, but the most effective values in both processes were determined by the convulsive technique. Our results show that short-term stunning techniques (hitting to head, neck crushing) give better meat quality results in terms of O. mykiss welfare and low MP oxidation rates. In general, we can say that T3 group fillets are more sensitive to oxidative damage, while T1 and T2 groups give better results in maintaining meat quality with low MP oxidation rates.     

Impulsive Noise Suppression from Highly Distorted Images with Triangular Interpolants

In this paper a new filter, Triangular Interpolant Based Impulsive Noise Suppression Filter (SF), is proposed to restore images corrupted by fixed valued impulsive noise (IN). The proposed filter comprises two main stages: detection of noise and restoration of corrupted pixels. The SF achieves the restoration of the detected noisy pixels by using one of the Triangular Interpolant techniques and leaves the other pixels unaltered. Simulation results reveal that the proposed filter shows better performance than the highly approved IN suppression filters across a wide noise density ranging from 10% to 90%. The proposed filter also perfectly achieves the robustness anddetail preservation with reduced computational complexity.