This study uses an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to examine the constitutive relationships of the Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) residual tensile strength at elevated temperatures. The objective is to develop an effective model and establish fire performance criteria for concrete structures in fire scenarios. Multilayer networks that employ reactive error distribution approaches can determine the residual tensile strength of GFRP using six input parameters, in contrast to previous mathematical models that utilized one or two inputs while disregarding the others. Multilayered networks employing reactive error distribution technology assign weights to each variable influencing the residual tensile strength of GFRP. Temperatur

Zerumbone (ZER), a natural compound has been extracted from Zingiber zerumbet with known pharmacological activities. The aim was to determine the anti-human Burkitt’s lymphoma (Raji) cell effect of ZER. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5,-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to determine cytotoxic effect while the Annexin-V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide-PI flow cytometric assays was used to determine apoptotic effect of ZER on the human Burkitt’s lymphoma (Raji) cell (ATCC CCL-86) cell line. The expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, and c-Myc genes were determined via real-time PCR. ZER suppressed the proliferation of Raji cells with a 48 h IC50 value of 5.1 μg/mL. Treated Raji cells also underwen

This research aims to improve the radiation shielding properties of polymer-based materials by mixing PVC with locally available building materials. Specifically, two key parameters of fast neutron attenuation (removal cross-section and half-value layer) were studied for composite materials comprising PVC reinforced with common building materials (cement, sand, gypsum and marble) in different proportions (10%, 30% and 50% by weight). To assess their effectiveness as protection against fast neutrons, the macroscopic neutron cross-section was calculated for each composite. Results show that neutron cross-section values are significantly affected by the reinforcement ratios, and that the composite material PVC + 50% gypsum is an effect

The presence of dyes in wastewater has become a major issue all over the world. The discharge of dyes in the environment is concerned for both toxicological and esthetical reasons. In this study, the removal of dyes from aqueous solution by electrocoagulation using aluminum electrodes as cathode and anode were investigated with the electrocoagulation cell of 1litter. The study included: the impact of various operating parameters on the dyes removal efficiency like pH, NaCl concentration, distance between electrodes, voltage, initial dyes concentration and type of electrodes. The dye (congo red) concentrations were (50, 100, 150, and 200 ppm), stirring speed was 120 rpm at room temperature. pH used was maintained constant

The surplus glycerol produced from biodiesel production process as a by-product with high quantity can be considered as a good source to prepare glycerol carbonate (GC) whereas with each 1000 kg from biodiesel obtains 100 kg from glycerol. Glycerol converted to glycerol carbonate over bio-char as a catalyst prepared by slow pyrolysis process under various temperatures from 400 ᴼC to 800 ᴼC. The char prepared at 700 ᴼC considered as a best one between the others which was manufactured to activate the transesterification reaction. GC have large scale of uses such as liquid membrane in gas separation, surfactants ,detergents , blowing agent , in plastics industry, in  Pharmaceutical industry and electrolytes in lithium batteries.

Polyaniline (PANI) and Ag/PANI nanocomposite thin films have prepared by microwave induced plasma. The Ag powder of average particle size of 50 nm, were used to prepare Ag/PANI nanocomposite thin films. The Ag/PANI nanocomposite thin films prepared by polymerization in plasma and characterized by UV-VIS, FTIR, AFM and SEM to study the effect of silver nanoparticles on the optical properties, morphology and structure of the thin films. The optical properties studies showed that the energy band gap of the Ag/PANI (5%wt silver) decreased from 3.6 to 3.2 eV, where the substrate location varied from 4.4 to 3.4 cm from the axis of the cylindrical plasma chamber. Also the optical energy gap decreased systematically from 3.3 to 3 eV with increas

Colloidal crystals (opals) made of close-packed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were fabricated and grown by Template-Directed methods to obtain porous materials with well-ordered periodicity and interconnected pore systems to manufacture photonic crystals. Opals were made from aqueous suspensions of monodisperse PMMA spheres with diameters between 280 and 415 nm. SEM confirmed the PMMA spheres crystallized uniformly in a face-centered cubic (FCC) array. Optical properties of synthesized pores PMMA were characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy. It shows that the colloidal crystals possess pseudo photonic band gaps in the visible region. A combination of Bragg’s law of diffraction and Snell’s law of refraction were used to calculate t

Consuming of by-product or waste materials in highway engineering is significant in the construction of new roads and/or in renovations of the existing ones. Pulverised Fuel ash (PFA), which is a by-product material of burning coal in power stations, is one of these materials that might be incorporated instead of mineral filler in hot asphalt mixtures.

Two types of surface course mixtures have been prepared one with conventional mineral filler i.e. ordinary Portland cement (OPC) while the second was with PFA. Several testings have been conducted to indicate the mechanical properties which were Marshall Stability and Indirect Tensile Strength tests. On the other hand, moisture damage and ageing have been evaluated

In this investigation, Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to calculate the natural frequencies of rectangular isotropic and laminated symmetric and anti-symmetric cross and angle ply composite plate with general elastic supports along its edges. Each of the admissible functions here is composed of a trigonometric function and an arbitrary continuous function that is introduced to ensure the sufficient smoothness of the so-called residual displacement function at the edges. Perhaps more importantly, this study has developed a general approach for deriving a complete set of admissible functions that can be applied to various boundary conditions. Several numerical examples are studied to demonstrate the accuracy and convergence of the current s