Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and two types of organoclay (OMMT) including a fatty amide and ocatdecylamine montmorillonite (FA-MMT and ODA-MMT) were employed to produce polymer nanocomposites by melt blending. Materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical properties were also investigated for these nanocomposites. The nanocomposites showed increasing mechanical properties and thermal stability. XRD results indicated that the materials formed nanocomposites. SEM morphology showed that increasing content of OMMT reduc

The focus of this work is on systematically understanding the effects of packing density of the sand grains on both the internal and bulk mechanical properties for strip footing interacting with granular soil. The studies are based on particle image velocimetry (PIV) method, coupled with a high resolution imaging camera. This provides valuable new insights on the evolution of slip planes at grain-scale under different fractions of the ultimate load. Furthermore, the PIV based results are compared with finite element method simulations in which the experimentally characterised parameters and constitutive behaviour are fed as an input, and a good level of agreements are obtained. The reported results would serve to the practicing engineers, r

The cost of microalgae harvesting constitutes a heavy burden on the commercialization of biofuel production. The present study addressed this problem through economic and parametric comparison of electrochemical harvesting using a sacrificial electrode (aluminum) and a nonsacrificial electrode (graphite). The harvesting efficiency, power consumption, and operation cost were collected as objective variables as a function of applied current and initial pH of the solution. The results indicated that high harvesting efficiency obtained by using aluminum anode is achieved in short electrolysis time. That harvesting efficiency can be enhanced by increasing the applied current or the electrolysis time for both electrode materials, where 98

Polyaniline (PANI) has been prepared by the oxidation method in order to fabricate it with various concentrations of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) which produced using the reduction method. Various techniques have characterized pure PANI and PANI doped CuNPs composites, such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which were provided important information about the structure and morphology of the fabricated polymer nanocomposites. The properties of dielectric permittivity (έ), dielectric loss (ἔ) and electrical conductivity (σ_AC) properties were studied at room temperature versus a range

Newcastle Disease is one of the most important disease world wide distributions which invade the flock in different age resulting in large economic losses. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of treatment with 4 different concentrations (0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 %) of Sodium deoxycholate (SDC) on the vaccinal virus (La Sota) using inoculation in the fragments of Chorioallantoic membrane. The treatment with each of the above 4 concentrations of SDC resulted in an increase in the Hemagglutination titer (HA) of the virus (28, 29.6, 211.6, 214.6) respectively as compared to the HA titer value for the untreated virus (26.6). No significant differences were noticed among all concentrations with regard to their effect on the HA titer, except

This study is concerned with revealing the semiotics of thresholds, and its role in building textual coherence at the form and semantic level in Sunset Garden Diwan of the Saudi poet Ghazi Al-Qasaibi. This research aims to spotlight on the semiotic theme of the title threshold and its relation to other thresholds. As the death phenomenon and absence dominated the poetic achievement space through intertwined semiotic relationships that lead to each other through the parallel text semiotics.This study is based on the semiotic method which concerns with searching for the interpretive connotations and revealing the profound symbols in the threshold structure and its role in the whole formation of the Diwan. Among the most prominent conclusio