Effect of Silane Coupling Agents on Rice Straw Fiber/Polymer Composites

The effect of coupling agents and electron beam (EB) irradiation dose on the mechanical properties of composites made from rice straw fibers and polymers have been studied. Samples were made by hot pressing of mix composition at 130°C. The pressed samples were subjected to electron beam irradiation dose ranged from 10 to 50?kGy. Increasing the electron beam irradiation dose increased the value of flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and impact strength. It was also observed that, the properties of composites containing γ-aminopropyltrimethoxy silane (A-1100) are lower than those of composites containing N-(2aminoethyl)-3-amino propyltrimethoxy silane (A-700) coupling agents. These are attributed to a hydrogen bonding formation between the amine or protonated amine and the hydroxyl groups of rice straw fibers. The presence of coupling agents in the composites during the EB irradiation process produce a more free radicals which are enough to form a chemical bonding between the rice straw fiber and polymer. The thickness swelling and water absorption values decrease with increasing the EB irradiation dose with presence of coupling agents in the composite.     

Four-wave mixing reduction technique based on smart filter approach

This paper proposed a new technique to suppress the four-wave mixing (FWM) effect by using a smart filter technique. The behaviour of FWM and the performance of wavelength division multiplexing systems with 4 and 16 channels were simulated in the presence of the proposed technique. The simulation was also performed under different parameters such as input power, number of channels and channel spacing. The FWM power drastically decreases by 12 and 19 dB for the 4 and 16 channels, respectively, when the smart filter is used as compared with the conventional system. In terms of system performance, the suggested approach for 4 and 16 channels at the first channel offers low bit error rate (BER) values of 3.23 × 10^?23 and 1.7 × 10^?21, respectively. The smart filter with the channel spacing variation for the 4-channel system subsequently improved the BER value at the fourth channel. Results confirm that the smart filter approach is an active solution that can suppress the FWM effect in optical transmission systems.     

Chaotic encryption of speech signals

This paper introduces a speech encryption approach, which is based on permutation of speech segments using chaotic Baker map and substitution using masks in both time and transform domains. Two parameters are extracted from the main key used in the generation of mask. Either the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) or the Discrete Sine Transform (DST) can be used in the proposed cryptosystem to remove the residual intelligibility resulting from permutation and masking in time domain. Substitution with Masks is used in this cryptosystem to fill the silent periods within speech conversation and destroy format and pitch information. Permutation with chaotic Baker map is used in to maximize the benefits of the permutation process in encryption by using large-size blocks to allow more audio segments to be permutated. The proposed cryptosystem has a low complexity, small delay, and high degree of security. Simulation results prove that the proposed cryptosystem is robust to the presence of noise.     

Multivariate statistical monitoring of the aluminium smelting process

This paper describes the development of a new ‘cascade’ monitoring system for the aluminium smelting process that uses latent variable models. This system is based on the changes of variability patterns within a feeding cycle which are used to provide indications of faults and their possible causes. The system has been tested offline using 31 data sets. The performance of the system to detect an anode effect has been compared with a typical latent variable model that monitors the change of behaviour at every time instant. The results show that the ‘cascade’ monitoring system is able to detect abnormal events. It was possible to relate each event with specific patterns associated with abnormalities thus facilitating later fault diagnosis.     

Microstructure and phase composition of cordierite-based co-clinker

The aim of this work is to study the effect of phase composition and microstructure of cordierite-based co-clinkers on the electrical properties and coefficient of thermal expansion of cordierite briquettes. To achieve this aim talc and kaolinite samples were collected from quarries in the Egyptian desert. The samples are characterized using XRD, XRF, polarized light, cathodoluminescence and SEM microscopy attached with EDAX, in addition to X-ray micro-computed tomography (3D- µXCT). The electrical properties and coefficient of thermal expansion of the cordierite briquettes are determined using HiTESTER instrument and automatic Netzsch DIL402 PC dilatometer, respectively.Five talc-based batches were shaped and fired in the temperature range 1000–1350 °C for 2 h. The microstructural and physical characteristics of the resulted cordierite-based co-clinkers depend mainly on the viscosity of the liquid phase developed during firing. The microchemistry of the cordierite briquettes confirms their enrichment of both cordierite and ferroan-cordierite crystallized directly from locally developed melts. The dielectric constant and loss factor values for cordierite briquettes allow their possible use as insulator components in electronic applications.     

Single-Row Transformation of Complete Graphs

A complete graph is a fully-connected graph where every node is adjacent to all other nodes in the graph. Very often, many applications in science and engineering are reducible to this type of graph. Hence, a simplified form of a complete graph contributes in providing the solutions to these problems. In this paper, we present a technique for transforming a complete graph into a single-row routing problem. Single-row routing is a classical technique in the VLSI design that is known to be NP-complete. We solved this problem earlier using a method called ESSR, and, the same technique is applied to the present work to transform a complete graph into its single-row routing representation. A parallel computing model is proposed which contributes in making the problem modular and scalable. We also discuss the application of this work on the channel assignment problem in the wireless cellular telephone networks.     

Temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity in 4, 4′ bis(2-thenylideneamino)biphenyl and 4, 4′ bis(thenyldiphenyl-phosphinylmethyleneamino)biphenyl compounds

Correlation of the molecular structure and utilizing measurements of the electrical conductivity, activation energy of conduction of 4,4 bis(2-thenylideneamino)biphenyl (SB) and 4,4 bis(thenyl-diphenylphosphinylmethyleneamino)biphenyl (OPSB) compounds have been carried out. The results of the activation energies, obtained from the electrical conductivity measurements, as well as the energy gaps calculated from ultraviolet (u.v.) and visible spectra in the solid state indicate that the investigated compounds behave like semiconducting materials. The delocalized -electrons in addition to the lone pairs of electrons on the nitrogen atoms of the two compounds as well as the donor effect of diphenylphosphinyl groups of OPSB compound were considered as the main sources participating in the conduction processes.     

Dissolution Rates of Commercial Phenylbutazone Tablets: Inter-And Intra-Brand Effects

A study has been carried out to investigate the dissolution rate profiles of twelve batches of sugar-coated phenylbutazone tablets belonging to four commercial brands. Using the rotating basket method, significant inter-brand and inter-batch variations in dissolution rates were found. Only two batches of one brand passed the B.P. dissolution limit whilst other batches had percentages dissolution between 0.3 and 58 after 45 min. Batches with poor dissolution characteristics exhibited significant tablet-to-tablet variations in dissolution rates; a finding which was not observed in the relatively fast-dissolving batches. When the paddle method was substituted for the B.P. basket method, the dissolution rates were relatively faster but similar dissolution failure was found. However, the tablet-to-tablet dissolution variability was decreased in some of the batches. The observed differences in dissolution rates of the batches examined were unrelated to their disintegration times. Inspite of the poor dissolution characteristics of most of the batches studied, no apparent chemical degradation was found. It is recommended that when evaluating the dissolution rates of brands of phenylbutazone tablets, a number of batches from each brand should be tested.     

Aqueous polymerization of methyl methacrylate in presence of casuarina sawdust and composites thereof

The technique of polymerizing methyl methacrylate (MMA) in water using sodium bisulphite as initiator in presence of various substances and metal powders was extended to Casuarina sawdust which was used either without or after being washed with water or solvents. The percentage of conversion of monomer to polymer increased with increase of Casuarina sawdust and with increase of temperature. In absence of sawdust, the average molecular weights of the polymers obtained increased with increasing concentration of sodium bisulphite initiator under the studied conditions, while the reverse was true in the presence of sawdust. Some of the Casuarina sawdust-PMMA-composites prepared had high compressive strength depending on the content of polymer and its distribution in the composite.     

An analysis of the mechanical behavior of Al-Al3Ni composites

Commercial purity Al-Al₃Ni eutectic composites have been prepared by directional solidification at growth rates ranging from 9.63 x 10^-3 to 1.0 mm/s. The composites were tested in tension and in compression and the results were analyzed using a simple model taking into consideration the difference in Poisson’s ratio of the phases, interfiber spacing, and discontinuity and premature fracture of fibers. The theoretically predicted values of the tangent modulus and strength in tension and compression were shown to closely fit the experimental results up to a growth rate of about 0.3 mm/s. Beyond this value, the excessive misalignment of the fibers caused some deterioration in the mechanical properties and a change in the mode of fracture. It has been concluded that the elastic constrained matrix exerts considerable effect on the mechanical properties thus providing an effective means of improving them by increasing the surface area of the fiber-matrix interface.