Enhancement of mechanical properties for reinforced Iraqi bentonite clay polyvinyl chloride composite using ultrasonic technique

This research is depended an accurate style in preparing homogenous solution of PVC- Iraqi Bentonite clay composite adoption of careful balance mechanism in the selection of the ratio of solvent and mixing time according to the speed of mixing 450 rpm . Particle sizes selected for Bentonite clay is <75 & <150µm and the calcination process was performed at 300, 700, and 900oC for 2hr. The Bentonite particles were mixed with known concentration of PVA solution at 80oC for half an hour, then dried, milled, and sieved for particle sizes as mention above. Mixture of PVC solution with reinforced Bentonite clay is used to prepare the composite under study. Effect of mentioned parameters on mechanical properties of PVC were performed by ultrasonic technique using frequency of 30 KHz. Addition of reinforced Bentonite generally enhanced the mechanical properties of PVC. Evidently the composite prepared from reinforced powder <75µm is a good medium for transfer ultrasound waves particularly at calcination temperature 300oC, that is mean it has a good stability against mechanical waves, so they can be used as a coated material for objects that we don’t want them to be detected by sonar, while in the case of particles <150?m is not. Failure to obtain the same result at temperatures higher than 300oC and the granular size <150µm due to the presence strong intermolecular interaction that is responsible for reducing the elasticity of composite , in other words, leave it semi-brittle, i.e. not have good stability. Highest enhancement in the absorption coefficient appears at 900oC with preference to the specimen of particles <150?m,and the composite becomes good absorber for ultrasound. Moreover the addition causing a reduction in compressibility, thus there is a small strain in the composite as a result of ultrasonic stress. Keywords: PVC composite, Bentonite clay, Ultrasonic techniqu

Entrepreneurs’ intention to invest in current business: an empirical study of Malaysian SME entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs’ intention to invest in their current businesses may play an important role in determining future sustainability, survival and growth of these businesses. Using a theoretical framework based on entrepreneurs’ goals attainment theory (EGAT), this study evaluated the relationship between entrepreneurs’ personal goal attainment and their intention to invest. The study employed a positivist methodological framework and gathered primary data from 285 Malaysian entrepreneurs through self-administered survey questionnaires. Regression analyses showed that entrepreneurs’ attainment of economic and intrinsic reward goals had significant positive relationships with their intention to invest. Desire for independence was considered as an important motivation for entrepreneurship. However, it was found that attainment of independence goals had no significant influence on entrepreneurs’ intention to invest. Further, it was also found that more educated entrepreneurs had stronger intention to invest in their current businesses

Enhancement Mechanical Properties of Some Cosmetics and Their Effect on Human Skin by Ultrasonic Technique

Some physical properties were  studied such as density, velocity, absorption coefficient, relaxation amplitude, compressibility, modulus of elasticity, and acoustic Impedance for four types of cosmetics available locally before  and after added polymer CMC for these cosmetics the results show that the addition of CMC polymer led to improve these properties, except compressibility decreased due to the addition of polymer, so we can deduce that the addition of polymer leads to improve the characteristics of cosmetics practically . Keywords: Carboxy methyl cellulose; Cosmetics; Mechanical properties; Ultrasound technique

Transformed Pedagogical Environment: Humanoids for social skilling of mentally challenged children

The purpose of the paper is to describe the transformed pedagogical environment in Malaysia with regards to mentally challenged children. Through interviews with teachers and parents of children schooled at the special, integrative classes in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, the results indicated non-readiness for the teachers and the parents to embrace the assistive technology, the humanoids. Besides the high cost of purchasing the humanoid for each child to be placed at home, social skilling these special children requires human touch. Cultural, and religious aspects abound that negates the progress of pedagogy using humanoids.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Pedagogy; children; humanoids; social skil

Study the Effect of adding Polyacrylamide on Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Carboxymethyle cellulose Polymer as aqueous solutions

In this paper, we investigated the Rheological and mechanical  properties of Carboxymethyle cellulose dissolves in distilled water at different concentrations (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% ,0.5 ,%,0.6 %,0.7% and 0.8%) (gm./ml) before and after adding (0.5, 1) gm. of PAAM for all concentrations, the Rheological properties such as shear viscosity, relative viscosity, specific viscosity, reduced viscosity and Viscosity Average Molecular weight are measured, all the viscosities depend on density and concentration, The results show that adding PAAM lead to increase the values of different types of viscosities then chose before. Also the research included study of the Mechanical properties by ultrasonic waves velocity technique at frequency( 25 KHz), these properties are absorption coefficient of ultrasonic waves, relaxation time, relaxation amplitude, specific acoustic impedance, compressibility, and bulk modules had been measured and all the results showed that all properties are increasing with the increase of the polymer concentration except compressibility is decreasing with the increase of the concentration before and after adding PAAM. Keywords: Carboxymethyle cellulose, Polyacrylamide ,Rheological properties, Mechanical properties

Enhancement the mechanical properties of a product porcelain by a ceramic additives using ultrasonic technique

This investigation is concerned on the influence of addition ZnO , ZrO2 ,TiO2 on the mechanical properties of a porcelain body. Porcelain body is prepared from Iraqi clays (Kaolin Duekhla & Ardhma sand glass), and Feldspar Potash with different weight percent (40% Kaolin, 30% sand glass Ardhma, and 30% Feldspar Potash) , and granular sizes less than (100µm Kaolin, and 50µm for each of  sand glass and feldspar). A prepared disk sample of 27mm in diameter was formed by compaction 75 Mpa for 5 min. The circumstances of heat treatment is 1300oC for 2hr and an elevation speed of 2 oC/min. Effect of the proportion added on mechanical properties of PVC were performed by ultrasonic technique using frequency of 30 KHz. Experimentally, it was found that the adding 2% ZnO + 1% TiO2 made composite good medium for transferring ultrasound waves, so they can be used as a coated material for objects that we don’t want them to be detected by sonar. Adding 1% ZrO2 +2% TiO2 enhances the absorption coefficient of porcelain and the composite becomes good absorber for ultrasound. Adding 2%ZrO2 +2%TiO2 made composite not good medium for transferring ultrasound waves , and adding 1%ZnO enhances the compressibility because it has the heights value and ZnO molecules fills the vacancies of porcelain chains. Keywords: porcelain bodies, kaolin clay, ultrasonic waves

Stable electrical, morphological and optical properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles affected by annealing temperature

Different TiO2 synthesization processes give different properties. Most of researches in material studies only focus on the morphological and optical properties of TiO2 while lacking in the effort of achieving stable electrical properties of the material. In engineering, stable electrical properties are vital in order to develop a device. Moreover, current technology needs more nanostructure application to enhance the performance of devices. In this paper, TiO2 nanoparticle was synthesized by sol–gel method using 1:0.1:9 ratios of titanium isopropoxide:acetic acid:ethanol, respectively. This synthesized TiO2 was able to respond in extremely small and consistent electrical reading (nanoampere). This metal oxide is good enough to be used as a material to develop ultra-high sensitive biosensor. Annealing process on the TiO2 film was able to improve its’ electrical conductivity. The three layers TiO2 coating were annealed at 400, 500, 600 and 700 °C and the surface morphologies, structural also electro-optical properties were studied using FESEM, XRD, UV–Vis and Keithley 6485 picoammeter. The XRD pattern shows the presence of stable anatase and rutile structures even at low temperature, whereas FESEM shows that annealingtemperature affects the particle size. The optical band gap of TiO2 thin films decreases from 3.74 to 3.34 eV as the annealing temperature increases. The current-to-voltage characteristics show that the conductivity decreases as the annealing temperature varies from 400to 700 °C. The output measurements indicated an improvement in electrical properties with annealing temperature

Effect of graphite particles on physical and mechanical properties of nickel matrix composite

The composite materials have effective properties and characteristics for use in most modern and important applications such as space and transportation applications, especially in internal combustion engines as well as applications and marine industries. In this study, Nickel – 5 vol.% Zirconium dioxide composites with 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 vol. % of graphite particles are prepared by powder metallurgy technique. The samples are pressed at 900 MPa for 1 min after mixing the hybrid composite powders for 15 min by using a mechanical mixer, followed by sintering at 1160 oC for 3 hours. The hybrid composites are characterized by using an optical microscope. The wear test under dry sliding conditions was performed under various loads of 5, 10, 15 and 20 Newton and at a fixed sliding distance of around 1810 m. It is found that increasing graphite content results decrease in bulk and apparent densities in contrast with total porosity, apparent porosity, and water absorption. Alternatively, the increasing volume fraction of graphite particles improves the micro-hardness, diametral compressive strength and wear resistance till an optimum value up to 4 %, then severely reduction is observed. Whereas the wear resistance decreased by increasing the applied loads for all reinforcement content. The results, in conclusion, reveal that the hybrid composites at 4 % graphite particles relatively have high mechanical and wear properties, and it could be considered a suitable because of high corrosion resistance in our daily life applications

Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle-Based Interdigitated Electrodes: A Novel Current to Voltage DNA Biosensor Recognizes E. coli O157:H7

Nanoparticle-mediated bio-sensing promoted the development of novel sensors in the front of medical diagnosis. In the present study, we have generated and examined the potential of titanium dioxide (TiO2) crystalline nanoparticles with aluminium interdigitated electrode biosensor to specifically detect single-stranded E.coli O157:H7 DNA. The performance of this novel DNA biosensor was measured the electrical current response using a picoammeter. The sensor surface was chemically functionalized with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) to provide contact between the organic and inorganic surfaces of a singlestranded DNA probe and TiO2 nanoparticles while maintaining the sensing system’s physical characteristics. The complement of the target DNA of E. coli O157:H7 to the carboxylate- probe DNA could be translated into electrical signals and confirmed by the increased conductivity in the current-to-voltage curves. The specificity experiments indicate that the biosensor can discriminate between the complementary sequences from the base-mismatched and the non-complementary sequences. After duplex formation, the complementary target sequence can be quantified over a wide range with a detection limit of 1.0 x 10- 13M. With target DNA from the lysed E. coli O157:H7, we could attain similar sensitivity. Stability of DNA immobilized surface was calculated with the relative standard deviation (4.6%), displayed the retaining with 99% of its original response current until 6 months. This high-performance interdigitated DNA biosensor with high sensitivity, stability and non-fouling on a novel sensing platform is suitable for a wide range of biomolecular interactive analyses

Concomitant malaria among visceral leishmaniasis in-patients from Gedarif and Sennar States, Sudan: a retrospective case-control study

In areas where visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and malaria are co-endemic, co-infections are common. Clinical implications range from potential diagnostic delay to increased disease-related morbidity, as compared to VL patients. Nevertheless, public awareness of the disease remains limited. In VL-endemic areas with unstable and seasonal malaria, vulnerability to the disease persists through all age-groups, suggesting that in these populations, malaria may easily co-occur with VL, with potentially severe clinical effects