Thermal and mechanical properties of polypropylene filaments reinforced with multiwalled carbon nanotubes via melt compounding

This study examined the thermal and mechanical properties of polypropylene filaments reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The MWNTs were functionalized with maleic anhydride polypropylene to increase the interfacial interactions between the CNTs and polypropylene. PP/MWNT composites with different concentrations of MWNTs were prepared by melt compounding using a twin screw extruder. The composites of the filament were then post drawn and heat treated. Tensile tests showed increased strength with the addition of only 0.1 wt% while there were only slight changes in elongation. The thermal properties were also slightly enhanced by the MWNTs.     

Heat resistance,impact strength,and transparency of PET copolymer containing fluorenylidene bis(2-phenoxyethanol)

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) copolymers containing fluorenylidene bis(2-phenoxyethanol) (FBPE) were prepared. The glass transition temperature of copolymers increased continuously with the composition of FBPE. The glass transition temperature of PET/FBPE copolymer at loading of 15 mol% FBPE was 107 °C, which was 35 °C higher than that of PET. The melting temperature of PET/FBPE copolymers was decreased with the composition of FBPE, and it disappeared above 6 mol% of FBPE. The heat deflection temperature of copolymers increased from 60.7 °C for PET to 89.9 °C for the copolymer containing 15 mol% of FBPE. The values of optical transmittance of copolymers were 89-90 % at 550 nm, and no significant change was observed with the FBPE composition. The impact strength value of copolymer at loading of 10 mol% FBPE was 26 J/m, which was 20 J/m higher than that of PET.     

Long-term evaluation of the BMPs scenarios in reducing nutrient surface loads from paddy rice cultivation in Korea using the CREAMS-PADDY model

Curbing nutrient loads from rice cultivation has been an issue for the water quality management of surface water bodies in the Asian monsoon region. The objectives of this study were to develop paddy BMP scenarios and to evaluate their effectiveness on nutrient loads reduction using long-term model simulation. Totally five BMP scenarios were developed based on the three paddy farming factors of drainage outlet height, fertilizer type, and application amount and were compared with conventional practices. CREAMS-PADDY model was chosen for the paddy nutrient simulation, and two-year field experimental data were used for the model calibration and validation. The validated model was used to evaluate the developed BMP scenarios for the 46 years of simulation period. The observed nutrient loads were 15.2 and 1.45 kg/ha for nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively, and mainly occurred by early season drainage and rainfall runoff in summer. The long-term simulation showed that the soil test-based fertilization and drainage outlet raising practice were the two most effective methods in nutrient loads reduction. The combination of these two resulted in the greatest loads reduction by 29 and 37 % for T-N and T-P, respectively (p value < 0.001). Overall the effectiveness of the BMP scenarios was decreased in the wet season. As the conclusion, outlet height control and soil nutrient-based fertilization were suggested as the effective practices in paddy loads reduction and their combination can be a practicable BMP scenario for the paddy nutrient management.     

Synthesis of poly(glycolic acids) via solution polycondensation and investigation of their thermal degradation behaviors

Polyglycolic acid (PGA) was successfully synthesized via solution and melt/solid polycondensations. PGA was synthesized by solution polymerization under vacuum by using diphenylsulfone as solvent and methanesulfonic acid as catalyst and the inherent viscosity of resultant PGA was 0.2 dl/g. The intrinsic viscosity was obtained up to 0.35 dl/g of the PGA synthesized by melt/solid polycondensation. Whereas, PGA synthesized by longer hours of SSP was insoluble in most of the known solvents, which might have higher molecular weight as well as crystallinity. Crystallographic structure of PGA was confirmed by XRD and the resulting PGA polymer was similar in thermal degradation to that of commercially available polyglycolide (Kuredux), synthesized by ring opening polymerization. Both PGAs were characterized for thermal decomposition kinetic studies using thermaogravimetric analysis (TGA), to investigate the effect of end-group and molecular weight on thermal degradation behavior. TGA was performed at 6 different heating rates from 5 to 50 °C/min and data was analyzed by three different approaches to obtain activation energy. Activation energy from Kissinger’s approach was 112 kJ/mol for lab synthesized PGA and 119 kJ/mol for Kuredux, whereas from Flynn and Wall’s method, it was observed as 115 kJ/mol and 121 kJ/mol for solution-polymerized PGA and Kuredux respectively and activation energies calculated from dynamic experiment method was also comparable of both PGAs. From dynamic experiment method linearity curve starts as low as 1 % decomposition and continues as high as 97 % with decomposition temperature ranges 219 to 380 °C for PGA and 230 to 406 °C for Kuredux. Consequently, Kissinger’s method, Flynn and Walls method and the dynamic experiment method reveal that the thermal decomposition behavior of polyglycolic acids and polyglycolide is similar, regardless of end groups and synthetic routes which is supposed to be random chain cession.     

High prevalence of betanodavirus barfin flounder nervous necrosis virus as well as red‐spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus genotype in shellfish

Using two serially executed PCRs, the discriminative multiplex two‐step RT‐PCR (DMT‐2 RT‐PCR) following the detection seminested two‐step RT‐PCR (DSN‐2 RT‐PCR), we found a high frequency presence of BFNNV genotype as well as RGNNV in various domestic and imported shellfish. This was definitely different from the previous reports of outbreaks and asymptomatic infection only by the RGNNV genotype in cultured finfish in Korea. Cultivation of NNV entrapped in shellfish was performed successfully by a blind passage. Thus, in an attempt to elucidate the epidemiology of betanodavirus, experiments conducted on 969 shellfish samples concluded that (i) distribution of NNV genotype, especially BFNNV, in shellfish is clearly different from that found in finfish of the world; (ii) unlike RGNNV, which showed a high rate in summer, BFNNV showed no seasonal variation and this result suggests BFNNVs in the marine environment remain fairly constant throughout the year; and (iii) the entrapped virus in shellfish was alive and culturable in vitro. These results are the first report of high level prevalence of in vitro culturable NNV in shellfish, for both BFNNV and RGNNV, which may present a potential risk in transmitting nodaviruses to host species in a marine environment.     

Pathogenicity comparison of high- and low-virulence strains of Vibrio scophthalmi in olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

Vibrio scophthalmi, a bacterial pathogen of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus, exhibits strain-dependent virulence. No information is available on the comparative pathogenicity of different strains of V. scophthalmi toward olive flounder. In this study, high- and low-virulence strains (HVS and LVS, respectively) were compared in terms of their pathogenic characteristics, including adhesion and survival, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and extracellular products (ECP) of bacterial cells. The cell-mediated defense of macrophages from olive flounder against V. scophthalmi infection in vitro was also investigated. The results demonstrated that the SOD activity of the HVS was higher than that of the LVS. The number of viable cells of the HVS in serum increased by two log units after 18 h, whereas that of the LVS decreased. The number of cells of the HVS in skin mucus increased significantly while that of the LVS remained constant. The LD₅₀ values of the HVS and LVS ECP toward olive flounder were 10.14 and 15.99 μg protein/g fish, respectively. The ECP were positive for naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, lipase, gelatinase, and leucine arylamidase. The extracellular O₂ ^? overflow and intracellular O₂ ^? concentration of macrophages induced by the HVS were lower than those induced by the LVS. Significantly more nitric oxide was produced by the HVS than by the LVS.     

Experimental Analysis on the Longitudinal Shear Resistance of Flat-type Composite Slab

The shear bond behavior of the flat-type composite deck slab, Econdek65-675 is investigated primarily. Based on the Euro code 4, the relevant value, m-k, is achieved based on the test of 18 composite slab specimens. According to the thickness which is 115 mm, 150 mm and 200 mm respectively, these 18 specimens were divided into three groups with two sets in each group. One set was tested for shorter shear span loading and the other one was set for longer shear span loading. It is shown that the Euro code 4 is more accurate than the American code. Meanwhile, the calculation formula of longitudinal shear resistance of the composite slab as well as its relevant curve is presented. Compared with other similar composite slabs, it is proved that Econdek65-675 possesses reliable composite efficiency.     

Analysis of genetic similarity detected by AFLP and PCoA among genotypes of kenaf (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hibiscus cannabinus</Emphasis> L.)

Seventeen kenaf varieties collected from several regions around Asia and Europe were grown in Korea and their genetic diversity was analyzed using morphological characters and AFLP technique. In the morphological analysis, the 17 varieties were divided into two major groups according to stem diameter, plant height, and flowering periods. The late varieties, which could yield more biomass compared with the early-medium varieties, were included in one of two major groups. Nonetheless, it is difficult to identify individual varieties based on morphological characters because of their limited variation. For the AFLP analysis, 34 primer combinations generated a total of 3,193 polymorphic bands (out of 3,914) with a polymorphic rate of 82%. The clusters were divided into two major groups with a similarity coefficient of 0.63 by UPGMA analysis method; but each group did not show a common tendency. Additionally, the results of the AFLP analysis did not show similar tendency compared with morphological data, a result that might be explained in terms of convergent evolution, i.e. the acquisition of morphologically similar traits between distinctly unrelated varieties.