Simultaneous adsorption of a mixture of paraquat and dye by NaY zeolite covered with alkylsilane

The surfaces of NaY zeolite particles were modified by the alkylsilylation of n-octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS). Two kinds of modified NaY zeolites were prepared; one with its external surface partially and the other fully covered with alkylsilyl groups. Since the size of OTS is bigger than the pore diameter of NaY, it is attached on the external surface, leaving the internal pore accessible to adsorbate molecules. As a result of alkylsilylation, the adsorption properties of these sorbents were improved. The adsorption properties of these materials were tested by their reaction in a mixture of paraquat and blue dye. The results demonstrate that the alkysilylated NaY materials are capable of simultaneous adsorption of paraquat and blue dye. Paraquat was selectively adsorbed into the internal pore of the zeolite whereas the dye on the externally attached alkylsilyl groups of the sorbent; displaying the unique bimodal amphiphilic character of the alkylsilylated NaY zeolites.     

Thermal and mechanical behavior of natural rubber latex‐silica aerogel film

A major problem in most natural rubber latex (NRL) commonly encountered like other polymer is susceptibility to mechanical properties and thermal degradation; particularly in thin film due to the presence of double bonds in the main chain. Therefore, it is desirable to seek for ways of improving these properties. Silica aerogel is a material with extraordinary properties was believed to have potential enhance properties in NRL films because of its high specific surface area. Therefore, based on the unique character of silica aerogel, NRL‐silica aerogel film was developed by latex compounding and dry coagulant dipping to form thin film where silica aerogel acts as filler. Silica aerogel, synthesized from rice husk was dispersed in a ball‐mill using distilled water for NRL compounding. Results indicate that increasing silica aerogel loading enhances the mechanical properties of the NRL‐silica aerogel film. Effects of postvulcanization processes were also investigated, whereby the best reinforcing effect was obtained at 4 phr silica aerogel loading with leaching postvulcanization condition. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Dependence of Magnetic Hysteresis on Evolving Single-Sample Sintering in Fine-Grained Yttrium Iron Garnet

Mono-dispersed yttrium iron garnet nanoparticles have been synthesized via mechanical alloying technique, and some attendant qualitative relationships between evolving microstructural parameters and magnetic properties have been clearly revealed. A rarely employed single-sample sintering scheme was adopted where only one sample was sintered repeatedly from 600 °C to 1400 °C prior to an analysis of evolution of microstructure-dependent magnetic properties after each sintering. A brief, yet detailed characterization of the sample was carried out using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and B–H Hysteresis graph. A scrutiny of the B–H Hysteresis graph results showed a transition from disordered to ordered magnetism which belongs to three different magnetically dominant groups, namely weak ferro-, moderately strong ferro-, and strongly ferromagnetic groups. Three factors were found to strongly influence the ordered magnetism of the sample, namely the crystallinity degree of the crystalline phase, the number of grains with size larger than a critical diameter, and the number of large enough grains for magnetic order accommodation.     

Effect of microstructural evolution from nano to micron grain size regime towards structural,magnetic, electrical and microwave properties of gadolinium iron garnet (Gd3Fe5O12)

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The influence of microstructural changes from nano to micron grain size regime towards their structural, magnetic, electrical and microwave...     

Influence of evolving microstructure on magnetic-hysteresis characteristics in polycrystalline nickel–zinc ferrite,Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4

We report some research findings on the parallel evolutions of microstructural properties and magnetic hysteresis-loop properties; we attempt to elucidate their relationships. The Ni_0.3Zn_0.7Fe₂O₄ toroidal samples were prepared via high-energy ball milling and subsequent moulding; the samples with nanometer/submicron sized compacted powder were sintered from 600 °C to 1400 °C using 100 °C increments. An integrated analysis of phase, microstructural and hysteresis data would point to the existence of three distinct shape-differentiated groups of B–H hysteresis loops which belong to samples with weak, moderate and strong magnetism. The observed grain size with respect to the magnetic-hysteresis behaviour varied from 0.19 μm to 0.23 μm, 0.24 μm to 0.43 μm and 1.07 μm to 4.98 μm for weak, moderate and strong ferromagnetic behaviour respectively. The first occurrence of a strikingly erect and well-defined sigmoid-shape was observable only when sufficient single-phase purity and crystallinity and a sufficiently high volume fraction of multi-domain grains (>0.25 μm) were attained.     

Empirical evaluation of the fault detection effectiveness and test effort efficiency of the automated AOP testing approaches

Context

Testing process is a time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive activity in any software setting including aspect-oriented programming (AOP). To reduce the testing costs, human effort, and to achieve the improvements in both quality and productivity of AOP, it is desirable to automate testing of aspect-oriented programs as much as possible.

Objective

In recent past years, a lot of research effort has been devoted to testing aspect-oriented programs but less effort has been dedicated to the automated AOP testing. This denotes that the current research on automated AOP testing is not sufficient and is still in a stage of infancy. In order to advance the state of the research in this area and to provide testers of AOP-based projects with a comparison basis, a detailed evaluation of the current automated AOP testing approaches in a thorough and experimental manner is required. Thus, the objective of this paper is to provide such evaluation of the current approaches.

Method

In this paper, we carry out an empirical study based on mutation analysis to examine four (namely Wrasp, Aspectra, Raspect, and EAT) existing automated AOP testing approaches, particularly their underlying test input generation and selection strategies, with regard to fault detection effectiveness. In addition, the approaches are compared in terms of required effort in detecting faults as part of efficiency evaluation.

Results

The experimental results and comparison provided insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of automated AOP testing with their respective strengths and weaknesses. Results showed that EAT is more effective than the other automated AOP testing approaches but not significant for all approaches. EAT was found to be significantly better than Wrasp at 95% confidence level (i.e. p < 0.05), but not significantly better than Aspectra or Raspect. Concerning the test effort efficiency, Wrasp was significantly (p < 0.05) efficient with requiring the lowest amount of test effort compared to the other approaches. Whereas, EAT showed to be not very efficient by recording the highest amount of test effort.

Conclusion

This implies that EAT can currently be the most effective automated AOP testing approach but perhaps less efficient. More generally, search-based testing (as underlying strategy of EAT approach) might achieve better effectiveness but at the cost of greater test effort compared to random testing (as underlying strategy of other approaches).