Effect of natural rubber/epoxidized natural rubber (90/10) on mechanical and thermal properties of linear low density polyethylene.

The effects of blending different amounts of (90/10) natural rubber/epoxidized natural rubber (NR/ENR-50) with metallocene linear low density polyethylene (mLLDPE) on the tensile strength, elongation at yield point, Young’s modulus, hardness and thermal properties were investigated. In this study, N, N-m-phenylenebismaleimide (HVA-2) was used as compatibilizer for the blends. The highest tensile strength was observed in the blend of 90/(9/1) mLLDPE/NR/ENR-50. With increasing mixed rubber content, the tensile modulus is found to decrease continuously, but interestingly the hardness and elongation at yield point is shown to increase. The crystallinity percentage of 10% rubber/mLLDPE was the lowest percentage. The maximum physical crosslinks occur in 90/(9/1) mLLDPE/NR/ENR-50 composite blend. The FTIR showed that the epoxy and double bond groups were found to be absent in all blends indicating thermal stability and compatibility of mLLDPE/rubber blends were improved by addition of 10 and 30% loading of rubber, in the presence of HVA-2 as compatibilizer

Culture and the capital-performance nexus in dual banking systems

While recent surveys have taken a special interest in culture to explain the failure of existing regulation, empirical evidence on the role of culture in influencing the regulation-performance link is still largely unexplored. In this paper, we ask the following: Should regulators and policy makers make room for culture as an effective tool for a successful bank regulatory environment? We identify three proxies for cultural values derived from Hofstede (1980, 2001) and the World Values Survey and investigate to what extent individualism, masculinity, and trust can enhance or impede the regulation-performance link for conventional and Islamic banks. Analyzing a panel of 729 banks operating in 33 countries from 1999 to 2013, our paper provides empirical evidence that cultural values enhance the regulation-performance link for the two bank types. Our results have important policy implications: our paper represents a first initiative and provides evidence that culture has merits and can be used as an additional tool to implement regulatory guidelines in a successful way. JEL classification: G21, G2

(E)-Methyl 2-(3-cinnamoyl­thio­ureido)acetate

In the title compound, C13H14N2O3S, the methyl 2-(3-formyl­thio­ureido)acetate fragment and the phenyl ring adopt an E configuration. The mol­ecule exhibits an intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond, which completes a six-membered ring. The crystal packing is stabilized by inter­molecular N—H⋯S contacts, generating a two-dimensional hydrogen-bonding network

Evaluation of Bond Strength Between Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Composites with Modified Epoxy Resins and Concrete

Rehabilitation and strengthening of concrete structures are becoming more significant in civil engineering applications. The use of externally bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) is one of the methods to strengthen and rehabilitate reinforced concrete members, providing noticeable improvement to their capacity in resisting load. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) is used along with epoxy resins to evaluate the bond strength of two commercially available epoxies (EPON 828 and EPON 862) between CFRP and concrete. In addition, three new combinations that resulted from mixing the two epoxies were examined. The mechanical properties of epoxy resins are significantly weaker than this of the CFRP making the epoxy characteristics the determining factor in the quality of the bond strength. Three-point flexural test was conducted to examine the bond strength between the CFRP composites and concrete. Further, differential scanning calorimetry was conducted to examine the glass transition temperature of the resultant epoxies. The results showed that the optimum composition was a mixture of 70% of epoxy 828 and 30% of epoxy 862. Therefore, achieving better bond strength and high glass transition temperature, resulting in CFRP composite with higher fire resistance

EFFECTS OF POLY-ALUMINUM CHLORIDE, STARCH , ALUM AND ROSIN ON THE ROSIN SIZING, STRENGTH AND MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCE OF PAPER PREPARED FROM OLD CORRUGATED CONTAINER (OCC) PULP

The influence of rosin (0.1-0.3%), alum (0.4-0.6%), polyaluminum chloride (0.3-0.7%), and starch (0.5-1.5%) in the making of paper from old corrugated container (OCC) pulp on the freeness, breaking length, tear index, and burst index of pulp and paper sheets was studied. Using a full factorial design to identify the optimum operating conditions, equations relating the dependent variables to the operational variables of the chemical additives were derived that reproduced the former with errors lower than 5%. Using a high starch (1.5%), high PAC (0.7%), low alum (0.4%), and low rosin (0.1%) combination led to pulp that was sufficient to obtain paper with good strength properties (breaking length 5720m; burst index: 3.1 kPam2g-1; tear index: 6.2mNm2/g; Cobb test: 94; fold endurance: 1.52) SEM analysis show increasing in bonding between fibers together at this level of additives. The influence of starch on Cobb test values was not significant