Failure mode transition and energy dissipation in naturally occurring composites

The microstructural aspects of compressive inelastic deformation in balsa wood are investigated with emphasis on the failure mode transition and its effects on energy dissipation characteristics. The architectural features as well as the composite character of cell wall ultrastructure are discussed in a framework to understand the complex interrelationship between microstructure and macroscopic behavior in this extremely lightweight cellular biocomposite. Based on this discussion and experimental results, it is concluded that the biomimetic approach may prove to be a viable strategy in designing composite structures with high specific energy absorption capacity.     

Replacement of beef fat in Frankfurters by interesterified palm,cottonseed and olive oils

Three interesterified vegetable oils (IVOs) prepared from palm, cottonseed, and olive oil, respectively, have been studied for application to Frankfurters. Beef fat (10%) was replaced by one of the IVOs at 20, 60 or 100%. Fatty acid composition of the lipid fraction in the Frankfurters and saturated/unsaturated ratios were established for all batches. We found that total or partial replacement of beef fat by IVOs did not lead to significant changes in appearance, colour, texture, flavour or sensory score. We conclude that IVOs may be successfully applied as beef fat substitutes in Frankfurters.     

N,N-dimethylglycyl-amido derivative of minocycline and 6-demethyl-6-desoxytetracycline, two new glycylcyclines highly effective against tetracycline-resistant gram-positive cocci

The in vitro activities of the N,N-dimethylglycyl-amino derivative of minocycline (DMG-MINO) and 6-dimethyl-6-dexoxytetracycline (DMG-DMDOT), members of a new generation of tetracyclines, were evaluated by an agar dilution method and were compared with those of tetracycline and minocycline against 224 tetracycline-resistant and 73 tetracycline-susceptible recent clinical isolates of gram-positive cocci, including multiple-antibiotic-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. The MICs of DMG-MINO and DMG-DMDOT were up to 500- to 2,000-fold lower than those of tetracycline against methicillin-resistant S. aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae (MIC for 50% of strains tested [MIC50], < 0.06 microgram/ml). Against Streptococcus groups A, B, C, and G and Enterococcus faecalis, the MIC50 was 0.5 microgram/ml. MIC50s were greater only for coagulase-negative staphylococci (2 micrograms/ml). These data indicate that DMG-MINO and DMG-DMDOT are very potent drugs, and further in vitro and in vivo studies are warranted.     

Methacrylate-functionalized POSS influence on cross-linking and mechanical properties of styrene-butadiene rubber

Iranian Polymer Journal - The addition of methacrylate-functional polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (MA-POSS) nanoparticles to styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) composites was evaluated in terms of...     

Face relighting using discriminative 2D spherical spaces for face recognition

As part of the face recognition task in a robust security system, we propose a novel approach for the illumination recovery of faces with cast shadows and specularities. Given a single 2D face image, we relight the face object by extracting the nine spherical harmonic bases and the face spherical illumination coefficients by using the face spherical spaces properties. First, an illumination training database is generated by computing the properties of the spherical spaces out of face albedo and normal values estimated from 2D training images. The training database is then discriminately divided into two directions in terms of the illumination quality and light direction of each image. Based on the generated multi-level illumination discriminative training space, we analyze the target face pixels and compare them with the appropriate training subspace using pre-generated tiles. When designing the framework, practical real-time processing speed and small image size were considered. In contrast to other approaches, our technique requires neither 3D face models nor restricted illumination conditions for the training process. Furthermore, the proposed approach uses one single face image to estimate the face albedo and face spherical spaces. In this work, we also provide the results of a series of experiments performed on publicly available databases to show the significant improvements in the face recognition rates.     

Use of ultrasonic energy in reactive dyeing of cellulosic fabrics

The use of ultrasonic energy in dyeing cotton fabrics with monochlorotriazine and vinylsulphone reactive dyes has been studied spectrophotometrically. The dyeings carried out conventionally and by the use of ultrasonic techniques were compared in terms of percentage exhaustion, total amount of dye transferred to the washing bath after dyeing, fastness properties and colour values of the dyed materials. Overall results have shown that the use of ultrasound in reactive dyeing of cellulosic fabrics can result in energy savings, less water consumption, increased depth of colour and better process conditions.     

Production of NiO,NiO/Ag,NiO/Au,and NiO/Pt hollow spheres by using block copolymer stabilized microspheres as a template

Hollow spheres of nickel oxide (NiO) and silver, gold, and platinum nanoparticle loaded NiO composites were successfully produced by using polystyrene (PS) latexes as hard template. Due to the presence of tertiary amine based diblock copolymer stabilizer on the surface of PS, the tertiary amine functional groups provided homogene deposition of nickel hydroxide, and then the precursor NiO salt production on the surface of PS latexes with a controlled precipitation technique. Then, NiO and NiO/metal NP hollow spheres were produced by calcination at 600 °C. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that the amounts of NiO and NiO-composite after calcination were in the range of 21.1–29.7 wt%. The diameters of metal oxide spheres were in the range of 2.0–2.7 μm and the shell thickness were in the range of 250–350 nm. These structures had very low densities due to their porous and hollow structures and had outer layers with highly rough surfaces due to formation of nanosheets, which may offer important advantages for catalysis studies.     

Unsupervised Multiway Data Analysis: A Literature Survey

Two-way arrays or matrices are often not enough to represent all the information in the data and standard two-way analysis techniques commonly applied on matrices may fail to find the underlying structures in multi-modal datasets. Multiway data analysis has recently become popular as an exploratory analysis tool in discovering the structures in higher-order datasets, where data have more than two modes. We provide a review of significant contributions in the literature on multiway models, algorithms as well as their applications in diverse disciplines including chemometrics, neuroscience, social network analysis, text mining and computer vision.