COMPARISON OF MOISTURE RELATED PROPERTIES OF PET/CV BLENDED NONWOVEN FABRICS

Moisture related properties of polyester (PET) / viscose (CV) nonwoven fabrics were investigated in this research. Four different nonwoven fabrics, PCV0, PCV1, PCV2 and PCV3, having different viscose proportion namely 0%, 30%, 50% and 70% were selected, respectively. The manufacturing techniques and fabric thickness values were kept the same for the comparison of tested fabrics. Moisture absorption, vertical water wicking, air and water vapor permeability tests were carried out and also moisture transmission performance of the blended nonwoven fabrics was examined in order to evaluate the effects of fiber ratios on moisture related properties of the blended fabrics. It was determined that higher viscose content in the blended fabrics result in higher vertical water vicking performance of the fabric. The moisture content of the fabrics also increased with increasing viscose proportion. This is most probably because of the high moisture absorption capacity of the viscose fibers. The wetting time and wetting radius results are in reverse ratio with the viscose proportion of the fabrics in moisture management test. It can be also stated that permeability properties depend not only viscose content but also fabric structural parameters

Surface treatments of jute fabric: The influence of surface characteristics on jute fabrics and mechanical properties of jute/polyester composites

WOS: 000296110700003In this study, jute fabrics were modified by alkali, micro-emulsion silicon (MS) and fluorocarbon based agents (FA) in order to enhance the interfacial adhesion between the polyester matrix and the jute fiber. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements were used to characterize fiber surfaces. The effects of various surface treatments on the mechanical and morphological of jute/polyester composites were also studied. All surface treatments were shown to improve the tensile, flexural strengths and interlaminar shear strengths of the composites. Moreover, the maximum improvement in the mechanical properties was obtained for the FA treated jute/polyester composites. SEM micrographs of the tensile fracture surface of jute/unsaturated polyester composites also exhibited improvement of interfacial and interlaminar shear strengths by the alkali, MS and FA treatments of jute fibers. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Physical and mechanical properties of randomly oriented coir fiber-cementitious composites

WOS: 000334133900006In this study; important mechanical and physical properties of cement composites prepared with fine aggregate and coir fibers were investigated. In addition to control mortar mixtures without fiber addition, coir fiber incorporated composites were prepared by adding 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.75% coir fiber by weight of total mixtures, respectively. The effect of coir fibers on the mechanical properties of composites under compressive and flexural loads, water absorption capacity and thermal conductivity of mortars were investigated. Moreover, similar mixtures were prepared with alkali treated coir fibers having same ratios and the findings were discussed. As a result, fiber incorporation affects water absorption capacity of mortars, enhances their mechanical and thermal properties and decreases their unit weight. These effects become more significant by increasing amount of fibers and when alkali treated coir fibers are replaced with untreated ones. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in Turkey: results of a nationwide multicenter study

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease that is prevalent among eastern Mediterranean populations, mainly non-Ashkenazi Jews, Armenians, Turks, and Arabs. Since a large proportion of all the FMF patients in the world live in Turkey, the Turkish FMF Study Group (FMF-TR) was founded to develop a patient registry database and analyze demographic, clinical, and genetic features. The cohort was composed of 2838 patients (mean age, 23.0 +/- 13.33 yr; range, 2-87 yr), with a male:female ratio of 1.2:1. There was a mean period of 6.9 +/- 7.65 years from disease onset to diagnosis; the period was about 2 years shorter for each decade since 1981. Ninety-four percent of patients were living in the central-western parts of the country; however, their familial origins (70% from the central-eastern and Black Sea regions) reflected not only the ongoing east to west migration, but also the historical roots of FMF in Turkey. Patients' clinical features included peritonitis (93.7%), fever (92.5%), arthritis (47.4%), pleuritis (31.2%), myalgia (39.6%), and erysipelas-like erythema (20.9%). Arthritis, arthralgia, myalgia, and erysipelas-like erythema were significantly more frequent (p < 0.001) among patients with disease onset before the age of 18 years. Genetic analysis of 1090 patients revealed that M694V was the most frequent mutation (51.4%), followed by M680I (14.4%) and V726A (8.6%). Patients with the M694V/M694V genotype were found to have an earlier age of onset and higher frequencies of arthritis and arthralgia compared with the other groups (both p < 0.001). In contrast to other reported studies, there was no correlation between amyloidosis and M694V homozygosity in this cohort. However, amyloidosis was still remarkably frequent in our patients (12.9%), and it was prevalent (27.8%) even among the 18 patients with a disease onset after age 40 years. Twenty-two patients (0.8%) had nonamyloid glomerular diseases. The high prevalence of vasculitides (0.9% for polyarteritis nodosa and 2.7% for Henoch-Schonlein purpura) and high frequency of pericarditis (1.4%) were striking findings in the cohort. Phenotype II cases (those patients with amyloidosis as the presenting or only manifestation of disease) were rare (0.3% or less). There was a high rate of a past diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever, which suggested a possible misdiagnosis in children with FMF presenting with recurrent arthritis. To our knowledge, this is the largest series of patients with FMF reported from 1 country. We describe the features of the disease in the Turkish population and show that amyloidosis is still a substantial problem