Alginate@Layered Silicate Composite Beads: Dye Elimination,Box–Behnken Design Optimization and Antibacterial Property

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - The discharge of industrial waste comprising organic pollutants into aquatic environment induces numerous health risks. Crosslinked...     

Asymptotic stability for the Lamé system with fractional boundary damping

We consider a Lamé system damped by fractional boundary damping of Neumann type. We prove well-posedness by semigroup theory. Moreover, we prove stabilization by using multipliers method and Rellich type relation combined with the frequency domain method.     

Physico-chemical analysis of tannery solid waste and structural characterization of its isolated humic acids after composting

In Marrakech, solid by-products from tanneries are highly polluting, generating large amounts of nitrogenous and organic matter. In the present study composting is tested as a cost-effective method for waste management to overcome many of the environmental hazards and produce a stable, rich material for soil fertilization. Two composting trials were conducted after neutralization by ammonia or lime. The aim of the neutralization was to avoid the antimicrobial effects of the acidity in the tannery waste, thus ensuring correct composting. Different techniques such as elemental analysis and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy were applied to analyse humic acids isolated from raw and composted materials, and to monitor the process of tannery waste composting, and the stability and maturity of the final product according to the means of neutralization. Comparison of data showed similar behaviour in both trials, but the composting process appeared to be more complete following neutralization with lime. The C, H and N content decreased, while the O increased. The FTIR and ¹³C NMR spectra show the decrease of aliphatic compounds demonstrated by the reduction of absorbance around 2922 cm⁻¹ and of the resonance in the C-alkyl area around 0–55 ppm. The humic acids newly formed during composting were richer in the O–N alkyl and oxidized aromatic structures that increased almost twofold on composting after neutralization with lime. The first principal component axis PC1 (54%) separated C-aliphatic, C-carboxylic and other less stable and less polycondensed compounds such as polyphenols from the more polycondensed O–N alkyl and oxidized C-aromatic compounds.     

A belief function-based forecasting link breakage indicator for VANETs

Wireless Networks - In Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, a link failure may occur due to non-optimal channel conditions, congestion or node mobility which causes data loss. Common proposed approaches try...     

Amoxicillin Magadiite Derivatives: Advanced Materials for Antibacterial and Drug Delivery Applications

Silicon - Herein, a pure and well crystallized Na-magadiite was synthesized by hydrothermal method. It was then used as a host matrix to prepare hybrid materials by intercalation of zwitterionic...     

The purpose driven privacy preservation for accelerometer-based activity recognition

Accelerometer-based activity recognition (AAR) attracted a lot of attentions due to the wide spread of smartphones with energy-efficiency. However, since accelerometer data contains individual characteristics; AAR might raise privacy concerns. Although numerous privacy preservation approaches, such as ”privacy filtering, differential privacy, and inferential privacy”, have been proposed to conceal sensitive information, unfortunately they cannot address the privacy problem associated with AAR. In this paper, we report our efforts to control the use of the AAR while preserving the privacy. To achieve this task, our method leverages a connection to agglomerative information bottleneck, through which the amount of disclosed data can be compressed so that irrelevant private information can be reduced, and a connection to general privacy statistical inference framework, where both of the privacy leakage and utility accuracy are considered as mutual information. Our experimental results have shown that the proposed solution can greatly reduce privacy leakage while maintaining a relative good utility.     

A kernel discriminant analysis for spatially dependent data

Distributed and Parallel Databases - We propose a novel supervised classification algorithm for spatially dependent data, built as an extension of kernel discriminant analysis, that we named...     

Synthesis and Characterization of Bulk Bi-2212 Superconducting Ceramic Using Photopolymerization Reaction-Based Method

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - This study highlights the synthesis of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi-2212) superconducting ceramic using the photopolymerization reaction (PPR) and...     

Development of value-added polyethylene grades with extended service lifetime: Weathering resistant flame retarded materials for outdoor applications

The current article deals with the development of different novel, tailor-made polyolefin formulations exhibiting both low flammability and high weathering resistance, so as to provide value-added polyethylene grades with extended service lifetime. Two low-density (LDPE) and one linear low-density (LLDPE) polyethylene grades were modified via melt compounding with an additive system comprising: (a) a nitrogen-phosphorous intumescent system for flame retardance and (b) a hindered amine light stabilizer and a benzophenone-type UV absorber for UV/heat stabilization, at a total loading of 30–35 wt%. The target was to reach V0 classification in UL94V flammability tests, while to a large extent maintaining the mechanical properties, such as, tensile and impact strength of the investigated polymers, thus ensuring that the additives do not interfere significantly with the material quality. Subsequently, the compounds were subjected to separate artificial UV and heat aging at 100°C for 1500 h; the formulations showed good flame retardance, even after prolonged artificial weathering, but there was an observable, although acceptable, decrease in the mechanical properties. Nevertheless, all the results show that the developed polyethylene compounds are very promising for outdoor applications, such as, irrigation piping and profiles, where long-term weathering stability is important, and where flame retardance is important for safety during storage.