This work intends to develop an effective heavy metal-free modifier having properties comparable to traditional stabilizers and flame retardants, simultaneously being environmentally friendly and may be superior in many aspects. The important requirement focused on is: how to increase thermal stability and flame retardancy of flexible poly(vinyl chloride). Due to the typical materials now used with poly(vinyl chloride), which increases health and environmental concerns, utilizing a novel heavy metal-free additive will make poly(vinyl chloride) substantially safer. We have used an artificial silicate for this aim, which proved to be an efficient flame retardant and surprisingly showed excellent heat stabilizing effect. Thermal stability of flexible poly(vinyl chloride) was tested by both discoloration and hydrochloric-acid release methods. Fire properties were tested by limiting oxygen index (L.O.I) method. And penetration resistance of poly(vinyl chloride) has been tested by vicat test. The improvement rate in the thermal stability time during the dehydrochlorination test was 110.7% at 160°C and 90.1% at 180°C. Also, the improvement rate in the L.O.I test was 22.2%, which increased from 21.6% for the poly(vinyl chloride) to 26.4% when 5wt.% of artificial silicate was added. The artificial silicate also increases the thermal stability of the poly(vinyl chloride) and maintains its appearance of more saturated chromatic saturated (brighter). In addition, artificial silicate increases the resistance to hot penetration of poly(vinyl chloride). Where the resistance of poly(vinyl chloride) increased by 8.9% after adding 5wt.% of artificial silicate.
Background: Female basketball players often face difficulties in maintaining free throw accuracy, particularly under psychological and neural pressure. Traditional training emphasizes physical skills, often neglecting cognitive and neurophysiological factors essential for precision performance. Objective: This study examined the effect of neurofeedback training on free throw accuracy in female basketball players at the University of Baghdad, comparing outcomes between an experimental group and a control group, and assessing associated neural changes. Methods: A quasi-experimental design involved two groups: an experimental group receiving neurofeedback to regulate brainwave activity, and a control group undergoing traditional traini
... Show MoreThis work investigates the impacts of eccentric-inclined load on ring footing performance resting on treated and untreated weak sandy soil, and due to the reduction in the footing carrying capacity due to the combinations of eccentrically-inclined load, the geogrid was used as reinforcement material. Ring radius ratio and reinforcement depth ratio parameters were investigated. Test outcomes showed that the carrying capacity of the footing decreases with the increment in the eccentric-inclined load and footing radius ratio. Furthermore, footing tilt and horizontal displacement increase with increasing the eccentricity and inclination angle, respectively. At the same time, the increment in the horizontal displacement due t
... Show MoreThe thermal performance of a flat-plate solar collector (FPSC) using novel heat transfer fluids of aqueous colloidal dispersions of covalently functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) has been studied. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of (< 8 nm) and (20–30 nm) having specific surface areas (SSAs) of (500 m2/g) and (110 m2/g), respectively, were utilized. For each Ala-MWCNTs, waterbased nanofluids were synthesized using weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1%. A MATLAB code was built and a test rig was designed and developed. Heat flux intensities of 600, 800, and 1000 W/m2; mass flow rates of 0.6, 1.0, and 1.4 kg/min; and inlet fluid temperatures of 30, 40, an
... Show MoreThermal pyrolysis kinetics of virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was investigated. Thermal pyrolysis of HDPE was performed using a thermogravimetric analyzer in nitrogen atmosphere under non-isothermal conditions at different heating rates 4, 7, 10 °C/min. First-order decomposition reaction was assumed, and for the kinetic analysis Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose(KAS), Flynn-Wall-Ozawa(FWO) and Coats and Redfern(CR) method were used. The obtained values of average activation energy by the KAS and FWO methods were equal to137.43 and 141.52 kJ/mol respectively, these values were considered in good agreement, where the average activation energy value obtained by CR equation methods was slightly different which equal to 153.16 kJ/
... Show MoreExploring the B-Spline Transform for Estimating Lévy Process Parameters: Applications in Finance and Biomodeling Exploring the B-Spline Transform for Estimating Lévy Process Parameters: Applications in Finance and Biomodeling Letters in Biomathematics · Jul 7, 2025Letters in Biomathematics · Jul 7, 2025 Show publication This paper, presents the application of the B-spline transform as an effective and precise technique for estimating key parameters i.e., drift, volatility, and jump intensity for Lévy processes. Lévy processes are powerful tools for representing phenomena with continuous trends with abrupt changes. The proposed approach is validated through a simulated biological case study on animal migration in which movements are mo
... Show MoreIn this paper, two elements of the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna had been used to study the five (3.1-3.55GHz and 3.7-4.2GHz), (3.4-4.7 GHz), (3.4-3.8GHz) and (3.6-4.2GHz) 5G bands of smartphone applications that is to be introduced to the respective US, Korea, (Europe and China) and Japan markets. With a proposed dimension of 26 × 46 × 0.8 mm3, the medium-structured and small-sized MIMO antenna was not only found to have demonstrated a high degree of isolation and efficiency, it had also exhibited a lower level of envelope correlation coefficient and return loss, which are well-suited for the 5G bands application. From the fabrication of an inexpensive FR4 substrate with a 0.8 mm thickness level, a loss tang
... Show MoreA recently reported Nile red (NR) dye conjugated with benzothiadiazole species paves the way for the development of novel organic-based sensitizers used in solar cells whose structures are susceptible to modifications. Thus, six novel NR structures were derived from two previously developed structures in laboratories. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) calculations and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) were used to determine the optoelectronic properties of the NR-derived moieties such as absorption spectra. Various linkers were investigated in an attempt to understand the impact of π-linkers on the optoelectronic properties. According to the findings, the presence of furan species led to the planarity of the molecule and a reduction
... Show MoreIn this study tungsten oxide and graphene oxide (GO-WO2.89) were successfully combined using the ultra-sonication method and embedded with polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) to prepare novel low-fouling membranes for ultrafiltration applications. The properties of the modified membranes and performance were investigated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle (CA), water permeation flux, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection. It was found that the modified PPSU membrane fabricated from 0.1 wt.% of GO-WO2.89 possessed the best characteristics, with a 40.82° contact angle and 92.94% porosity. The permeation flux of the best membrane was the highest. The pure water permeation f
... Show MoreIn this research, a novel synthesis of CaONPs has been developed via an environmentally friendly, green method. Garlic extract (Allium sativum) was used as a green-reducing and stabilizing agent for CaONPs. The average particle size of CaONPs was approximately 24.42 nm. The synthesized CaONPs were identified by using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, U.V.-vis spectrum, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and zeta potential (Zp) analysis. The current study highlights the notable applications for CaONPs. First, an antimicrobial assay revea
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