Dyeing of cotton with thyme and pomegranate peel

Application of natural dyes for textiles is increasing due to awareness of environment, ecology, and pollution control. The purpose of this study is to determine the color, antimicrobial, and fastness properties of cotton fabrics dyed with thyme and pomegranate peel without a mordanting process. In this way, it was planned to avoid use of metallic mordants (heavy-metal salts) and prevent heavy-metal pollution for ecological production. Additionally, a variety of the most commonly used mordants, namely potassium aluminum sulfate, copper(II) sulfate, iron(II) sulfate, and tin(II) chloride, were used for mordanting of cotton fabrics in order to compare the differently mordanted and unmordanted dyed fabrics’ color efficiencies (K/S) and CIE L ^* a ^* b ^* color values. It was found that mordant type had an effect on color efficiency and the color coordinates of fabrics dyed with both thyme and pomegranate fruit peel. Moreover, the antimicrobial properties of the fabrics only dyed directly with thyme and pomegranate peel without any mordanting process were determined to demonstrate the usability of these natural dye sources without use of any mordanting agents. The obtained antimicrobial activities were compared with undyed samples. Undyed samples showed no antimicrobial activity, whereas significant antimicrobial activity was obtained after the dyeing procedure using thyme and pomegranate peel on unmordanted fabrics. Washing, rubbing, perspiration, and lightfastness properties of dyed fabrics were also evaluated. Thyme and pomegranate fruit peel as natural dye sources revealed sufficient results even for unmordanted samples.     

Characterization,slab-pair modeling and phase analysis of circular fishnet metamaterials

Planar metamaterials, which have incident to normal plane excitation unlike SRR-type structures and that are easily fabricated in multilayer form, have received great interest in recent years. In this paper, one-dimensional and polarization independent circular fishnet metamaterials and their equivalent discontinuous slab-pair modeling for tuning resonance frequencies are introduced. After the numerical and experimental demonstration of the inclusions, the standard retrieval characterization methods and the correspondent/related backward-wave propagation observation are realized in order to check the physical explanation mentioned in the paper. In addition, a detailed phase analysis is performed in order to demonstrate the application of the suggested structure as a phase compensator.     

Viability with Probabilistic Knowledge of Initial Condition, Application to Optimal Control

In this paper we provide an extension of the Viability and Invariance Theorems in the Wasserstein metric space of probability measures with finite quadratic moments in ? ^d for controlled systems of which the dynamic is bounded and Lipschitz. Then we characterize the viability and invariance kernels as the largest viability (resp. invariance) domains. As application of our result we consider an optimal control problem of Mayer type with lower semicontinuous cost function for the same controlled system with uncertainty on the initial state modeled by a probability measure. Following Frankowska, we prove using the epigraphical viability approach that the value function is the unique lower semicontinuous proximal episolution of a suitable Hamilton Jacobi equation.     

Electrowetting-Based Variable-Focus Lens for Miniature Systems

The meniscus between two immiscible liquids of different refractive indices can be used as a lens. A change in curvature of this meniscus by electrostatic control of the solid/liquid interfacial tension leads to a change in focal distance. It is demonstrated that two liquids in a tube form a self-centred variable-focus lens. The optical properties of this lens were investigated experimentally. We designed and constructed a miniature camera module based on this variable lens suitable for mobile applications. Furthermore, the liquid lens was applied in a Blu-ray Disc optical recording system to enable dual layer disc reading/writing.     

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Parameter Optimization of Laminated Multiferroic Composites

Mechanics of Composite Materials - The voltage coefficient of a multiferroic laminated composite consisting of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases is minimized by optimization of physical...     

NMR imaging of white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporis) at various magnetic fields

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been applied to visualize physiological phenomena in plants and agricultural crops. Imaging sequences that result in contrast of a combination of parameters (e.g., proton density, ) cannot be used for a correct and unique interpretation of the results. In this study multiecho imaging together with monoexponential T₂ decay fitting was applied to determine reliable proton density and T₂ distributions over a mushroom. This was done at three magnetic field strengths (9.4, 4.7, and 0.47 T) because susceptibility inhomogeneities were suspected to influence the T₂ relaxation times negatively, and because the inflences of susceptibility inhomogeneities increase with a rise in magnetic field strength. Electron microscopy was used to understand the different T₂'s for the various tissue types in mushrooms. Large influences of the tissue ultrastructure on the observed T₂ relaxation times were found and explained. Based on the results, it is concluded that imaging mushrooms at low fields (around or below 0.47T) and short echo times has strong advantages over its high-field counterpart, especially with respect to quantitative imaging of the water balance of mushrooms. These conclusions indicate general validity whenever NMR imaging contrast is influenced by susceptibility inhomogeneities.     

Iterative tandem catalysis of secondary diols and diesters to chiral polyesters

The well-known dynamic kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols and esters was extended to secondary diols and diesters to afford chiral polyesters. This process is an example of iterative tandem catalysis (ITC), a polymerization method where the concurrent action of two fundamentally different catalysts is required to achieve chain growth. In order to procure chiral polyesters of high enantiomeric excess value (ee) and good molecular weight, the catalysts employed need to be complementary and compatible during the polymerization reaction. We here show that Shvo's catalyst and Novozym 435 fulfil these requirements. The optimal polymerization conditions of 1,1'-(1,3-phenylene) diethanol (1,3-diol) and diisopropyl adipate required 2 mol% Shvo's catalyst and 12 mg Novozym 435 per mmol alcohol group in the presence of 0.5 M 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanol as the hydrogen donor. With these conditions, chiral polyesters were obtained with peak molecular weights up to 15 kDa, an ee value up to 99% and with 1-3 % ketone end groups. Also with the structural isomer, 1,4-diol, a chiral polyester was obtained, albeit with lower molecular weight (8.3 kDa) and slightly lower ee (94%). Aliphatic secondary diols also resulted in enantio-enriched polymers but at most an ee of 46 % was obtained with molecular weights in the range of 3.3-3.7 kDa. This low ee originates from the intrinsic low enantioselectivity of Novozym 435 for this type of secondary aliphatic diols. The results presented here show that ITC can be applied to procure chiral polyesters with good molecular weight and high ee from optically inactive AA-BB type monomers.     

Microscopic imaging of slow flow and diffusion: a pulsed field gradient stimulated echo sequence combined with turbo spin echo imaging.

In this paper we present a pulse sequence that combines a displacement-encoded stimulated echo with rapid sampling of k-space by means of turbo spin echo imaging. The stimulated echo enables the use of long observation times between the two pulsed field gradients that sample q-space completely. Propagators, constructed with long observation times, could discriminate slowly flowing protons from diffusing protons, as shown in a phantom in which a plug flow with linear velocity of 50microm/s could clearly be distinguished from stationary water. As a biological application the apparent diffusion constant in longitudinal direction of a transverse image of a maize plant stem had been measured as a function of observation time. Increasing contrast in the apparent diffusion constant image with increasing observation times were caused by differences in plant tissue: although the plant stem did not take up any water, the vascular bundles, concentrated in the outer ring of the stem, could still be discerned because of their longer unrestricted diffusional pathways for water in the longitudinal direction compared to cells in the parenchymal tissue. In the xylem region of a tomato pedicel flowing water could be distinguished from a large amount of stationary water. Linear flow velocities up to 0.67 mm/s were measured with an observation time of 180 ms.     

Chiral oligomers by iterative tandem catalysis

Iterative tandem catalysis is presented as a flexible tool for obtaining chiral macromolecules from racemic or prochiral monomers. Here, we combine lipase-catalyzed ring-opening of omega-substituted lactones with ruthenium-catalyzed racemization. In a two-pot system, enantioenriched oligomers of 6-methyl-epsilon-caprolactone were synthesized, which could not have been obtained by enzymatic ring-opening alone. A one-pot experiment proved highly promising in developing a novel route toward enantiopure polyesters.