PVA, Starch/PVA, and Starch/PVA/sugar samples of different
concentrations (10, 20, 30 and 40 % wt/wt) were prepared by casting
method. DSC analysis was carried; the results showed only one glass
transition temperature (Tg) for the samples involved, which suggest
that starch/PVA and starch/PVA/sugar blends are miscible. The
miscibility is attributed to the hydrogen bonds between PVA and
starch. This is in a good agreement with (FTIR) results. Tg and Tm
decrease with starch and sugar content compared with that for
(PVA). Systematic decrease in ultimate strength, due to starch and
sugar ratio increase, is attributed to (PVA), which has more hydroxyl
groups that made its ultimate strength higher than that for
starch/PVA, and starch/PVA/sugar blends. It is observed from water
uptake tests that the solubility time decreases with starch ratio; it is
attributed to decrease in hydroxyl groups caused by PVA ratio
decrease. The inter- and inter-molecular bonds of the hydroxyl
groups enhanced the solubility process of the starch/PVA blends in
water. The water immersion causes hydrogen bonds (inter and
intermolecular bonds) to decompose, that increases the film
solubility. Water absorption and capacity of degradability are most
important in biodegradable materials. The results suggest the samples
that have undergone investigation, can be used for shopping, and
food packaging.
The study of soil burial for the sample at (3cm) depth, and at (13cm)
depth has exhibited weight loss increase with soil burial time. The
biodegradability rapidly increases at the first (6-7) weeks; it is found
that the weight loss at (3cm) depth is greater than that at (13cm) that
was attributed to the differences in the availability of oxygen ratio. It
is found that PVA undergoes lowest weight loss, the weight loss
changes with starch, and sugar content. In dry soil, the weight loss is
lower. The results proved that the biodegradation decreases with soil
burial time after seven weeks of burial. It is concluded that the
samples involved are biodegradable material that can be used for
packaging applications and biologically friendly synthetic polymer
blends to solve the solid waste accumulation problem.
A novel analytical method is developed for the determination of azithromycin. The method utilizes continuous flow injection analysis to enhance the chemiluminescence system of luminol, H2O2, and Cr(III). The method demonstrated a linear dynamic range of 0.001–100 mmol L-1 with a high correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9978, and 0.001–150 mmol L-1 with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9769 for the chemiluminescence emission versus azithromycin concentration. The limit of detection (L.O.D.) of the method was found to be 18.725 ng.50 µL−1 based on the stepwise dilution method for the lowest concentration within the linear dynamic range of the calibration graph. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D. %) for n = 6 was less than 1.2%
... Show MoreA system was used to detect injuries in plant leaves by combining machine learning and the principles of image processing. A small agricultural robot was implemented for fine spraying by identifying infected leaves using image processing technology with four different forward speeds (35, 46, 63 and 80 cm/s). The results revealed that increasing the speed of the agricultural robot led to a decrease in the mount of supplements spraying and a detection percentage of infected plants. They also revealed a decrease in the percentage of supplements spraying by 46.89, 52.94, 63.07 and 76% with different forward speeds compared to the traditional method.
3D models delivered from digital photogrammetric techniques have massively increased and developed to meet the requirements of many applications. The reliability of these models is basically dependent on the data processing cycle and the adopted tool solution in addition to data quality. Agisoft PhotoScan is a professional image-based 3D modelling software, which seeks to create orderly, precise n 3D content from fixed images. It works with arbitrary images those qualified in both controlled and uncontrolled conditions. Following the recommendations of many users all around the globe, Agisoft PhotoScan, has become an important source to generate precise 3D data for different applications. How reliable is this data for accurate 3D mo
... Show MoreVarious theories have been proposed since in last century to predict the first sighting of a new crescent moon. None of them uses the concept of machine and deep learning to process, interpret and simulate patterns hidden in databases. Many of these theories use interpolation and extrapolation techniques to identify sighting regions through such data. In this study, a pattern recognizer artificial neural network was trained to distinguish between visibility regions. Essential parameters of crescent moon sighting were collected from moon sight datasets and used to build an intelligent system of pattern recognition to predict the crescent sight conditions. The proposed ANN learned the datasets with an accuracy of more than 72% in comp
... Show MoreThe consumption of fossil fuels has caused many challenges, including environmental and climate damage, global warming, and rising energy costs, which has prompted seeking to substitute other alternative sources. The current study explored the microwave pyrolysis of Albizia branches to assess its potential to produce all forms of fuel (solid, liquid, gas), time savings, and effective thermal heat transfer. The impact of the critical parameters on the quantity and quality of the biofuel generation, including time, power levels, biomass weight, and particle size, were investigated. The results revealed that the best bio-oil production was 76% at a power level of 450 W and 20 g of biomass. Additionally, low power levels led to enhanced
... Show MoreRock engineers widely use the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of rocks in designing
surface and underground structures. The procedure for measuring this rock strength has been
standardized by both the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) and American Society
for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Akram and Bakar(2007).
In this paper, an experimental study was performed to correlate of Point Load Index ( Is(50))
and Pulse Wave Velocity (Vp) to the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) of Rocks. The effect
of several parameters was studied. Point load test, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and
Pulse Wave Velocity (Vp) were used for testing several rock samples with different diameters.
The predicted e