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This paper aims to prepare alkyd protective paint by using modified alkyd with 3,6-dichloro benzo[b]thiophene-2-carbonyl glutamic acid (DCBTGA) as a source of dicarboxylic acid and evaluating their anticorrosive properties compared with those of unmodified alkyd coatings for steel protection.

Short, medium and long oil alkyds, which represented as (0, 10, 20 and 30% excess-OH) according to the resin constants (Patton, 1962), were prepared through a condensation polymerization reaction via a solvent process in a one-step reaction. The modification of alkyd was carried out by using DCBTGA as a source of dicarboxylic acid. The prepared modified alkyd was confirmed by IR and NMR spectral analysis. The physicochemical, mechanical and anticorrosion performance properties of the considered modified coating formulations against unmodified blank coating were studied to confirm their application efficiency.

The best results in terms of physicochemical, mechanical and anticorrosion performance properties were found according to the following of this order activity: 30 replacements of the modifier (DCBTGA) for each hydroxyl continent were 30% Ex-OH > 20% Ex-OH > 10% Ex-OH > 0% Ex-OH, compared with that formulation containing unmodified alkyd, especially with increasing the modifier percent.

The prepared DCBTGA-modified resins can be used for different applications based on the type of alkyd and application.

This study aims to show the dyeing behaviour of polyester fabrics using four novel heterocyclic disperse dyes.

The four dyes were synthesized based on 5, 5'-(1, 4-phenylene) bis (1, 3, 4-thiadiazol-2-amine) as a diazonium compound. The UV/Vis absorption spectroscopic data of these disperse dyes while dyeing polyester fabrics were investigated. Following this, the dyeing properties of these dyes on polyester fabrics were investigated under acid condition.

The results showed that increasing the dyeing temperature from 80°C to 100°C led to an increase in dye uptake for all dyes, but further increases of the temperature to 130°C led to higher dye uptake for dye 3 as the dye exhaustion increased by about 50% from 55.9% to 91.4%.

This study is important as it introduces new dyes for the dyeing of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres with colours that range from yellowish orange to bluish yellow and scarlet red and all with excellent brightness, levelness and depth of shade.

This paper aims to synthesize new screen-printing ink formula based on new derivatives of azo thiadiazol disperse dyes and evaluate their characteristics after being printed on polyester fabric substrates.

New dispersed dyes based on 1, 3, 4-Thiadiazole derivatives (dyes 1 and 2) were prepared and confirmed by different analyses, infrared (IR), mass and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and then formulated as colored materials in the screen-printing ink formulations. Printing pastes containing the prepared dyestuffs and other ingredients were used for printing polyester using screen-printing or traditional printing. The characteristics of printed polyester fabric substrates were measured by color measurements such as a*, b*, L*, C*, E, Ho, R% and color strength, as well as light, washing, crock and alkali perspiration fastness, and finally, the depth of penetration was evaluated.

The prepared 1, 3, 4-Thiadiazole derivatives (dyes 1 and 2) were obtained from the reaction of 5,5’-(1,4-phenylene)bis(1,3,4-Thiadiazole-2-amine) with resorcinol and m-toluidine as a coupling component. The suitability of the prepared dyestuffs for silk screen-printing on polyester fabrics has been investigated. The prints obtained from a formulation containing dye 1 possess high color strength as well as good overall fastness properties if compared to those obtained using dye 2.

The method of synthesis of the new dyestuffs and screen-printing ink provides a simple and practical solution to prepare some new heterocyclic disperse azo dyes, and they are formulated in the screen-printing inks for printing on a polyester fabric substrate.

The prepared disperse dyes based on 1,3,4-Thiadiazole derivatives (dyes 1 and 2) could be used in textile printing of polyester on an industrial scale.

Innovative health-promoting approaches of the era have verified phytoceutics as one of the prime therapeutic tools to alleviate numerous health-related ailments. The purpose of this paper is to probe the nutraceutic potential of ginger flowers and leaves against hyperglycemia.

The aqueous extracts of ginger flowers and leaves were observed on Sprague Dawley rats for 8 weeks. Two parallel studies were carried out based on dietary regimes: control and hyperglycemic diets. At the end of the experimental modus, the overnight fed rats were killed to determine the concentration of glucose and insulin in serum. The insulin resistance and insulin secretions were also calculated by formulae by considering fasting glucose and fasting insulin concentrations. Furthermore, the feed and drink intakes, body weight gain and hematological analysis were also carried out.

In streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic rats, the ginger flowers extract depicted 5.62% reduction; however, ginger leaves extract reduced the glucose concentration up to 7.11% (p = 0.001). Similarly, ginger flowers extract uplifted the insulin concentration up to 3.07%, while, by ginger leaves extract, the insulin value increased to 4.11% (p = 0.002). For the insulin resistance, the ginger flower showed 5.32% decrease; however, the insulin resistance was reduced to 6.48% by ginger leaves (p = 0.014). Moreover, the insulin secretion increased to 18.9% by flower extract and 21.8% by ginger leave extract (p = 0.001). The feed intake and body weight gain increased momentously by the addition of ginger flowers and leaves; however, the drink intake and hematological analysis remained non-significant by the addition of ginger parts.

Conclusively, it was revealed that leaves have more hypoglycemic potential as compared to flowers.

Architectural theorists have a long tradition of acknowledging the centrality of building users to architectural production. This article contributes to the discourse on architecture, actor–network theory (ANT), and users by proposing a typology of user translations ranging from supporting to tinkering to adjusting to resisting.

The research utilises an ANT-inspired ethnography of sustainable lighting scripts at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST). It comprises semi-structured interviews with MIST designers and students, and site visits and participant observation to understand how the users interpret the scripts and how they interact and change them on a daily basis.

There is a shared understanding that users do not simply receive architectural designs but interpret and change them to suit their preferences. The findings reveal the multiple ways that users interpret and respond to the assumptions of designers and in the process, recast the relations between themselves and their material surroundings.

The research contributes to acknowledging the centrality of users to architectural design processes and the interpretation of design scripts, addressing the limitation in current literature in demonstrating the diversity of ways that users react to such scripts. The research suggests that user actions have significant implications on long-term building performance. It accordingly points to the need for devising multiple means of user involvement in the design process and allowing greater flexibility in design scripts to improve the alignment with user preferences.

This study aims at unpacking the multiplicity of the sitting activity in public spaces through the lens of actor-network theory. In line with previous urban research focussing on outdoor activities, such empirical investigation aims to show the importance of the physical aspects of spaces, including seating, in supporting sitting activities as a way of encouraging the use of public space.

This study adopts the overlap between actor–network theory and affordances. It utilises ethnographic research involving frequent users in Dahiyat Al Hussein Park in Amman-Jordan. Data were gathered on the different seat–user relations and the translated sitting activity networks.

Analysis demonstrates different cases of alignment, misalignment and realignment between what is intended and experienced, and where these relations are maintained, disrupted or changed. These findings reveal the multiplicity of sitting activities; this is significant for understanding how they are maintained.

The research suggests a new way of conceptualising the relationship between the physical environment and users and an approach for examining sitting activities. Some studies have applied actor–network theory and/or the concept of “affordance” by highlighting relations between the object and its user and how they create sitting activities. However, only few studies have problematised the multiplicity of sitting when considering seating uses.

Although Islamic banks offer superior financial services than other interest-based conventional banks, they could not expand their share and dominate the markets in several Islamic countries. This problem could be attributed to some causes not addressed. The current study proposes Islamic financial literacy as an important factor that could help aggress this problem. Due to a wide variety of Islamic financial services and the lack of understanding of these services, the banks' small business customers are indifferent between Islamic and interested-based conventional services to finance their business.

This study uses the exploratory technique of multiple correspondence analysis to detect any potential role of Islamic financial literacy in customers' preference for Islamic banks over conventional ones. The potential effect was tested with other essential factors, such as the customers' age, gender, and educational level. This analysis was conducted on a data set from 2061 banks' small businesses customers using the mall-intercept survey method.

The study shows a low level of Islamic financial literacy among Yemeni banks' small business owners' customers. Furthermore, despite integrating some critical factors that could influence the actual bank selection process among Yemini banks' customers, the authors found a decisive potential role of Islamic financial literacy as one of the key determinants of bank selection preferences.

This is the first paper to explore the potential role of Islamic financial literacy on the actual selection between Islamic Banks and their counterparts: the conventional banks in Yemen. The research results could build a more comprehensive theoretical model on Islamic banks' customer behavior.

This paper aims to examine the determinant factors that influence the adoption of mobile banking by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Palestine. The aim of this paper has supported with the objectives to identify the role of mobile banking practices in enhancing sustainable growth and development of Palestine SMEs; determining the factors that influencing the SMEs as a service and products providers’ intention to adopt mobile banking and proposing a conceptual model for adoption mobile banking development by SMEs sectors in Palestine

Hypotheses were developed guided by the technology organisation-environment (TOE) model. The primary data was collected from 408 SMEs in Palestine using questionnaires and 8 interviews.

The empirical results are based on partial least squares analysis and statistical package for the social sciences. The findings presented in this paper reveal that SMEs factors, enabling environment and business model are the main determinant factors affecting the intention to adopt mobile banking by the SMEs sector in Palestine.

The main contribution of this study is the concise identification of the obstacles and facilitators to SMEs’ mobile banking, especially in developing countries. A suggestion for further study was made. The findings could be useful to policymakers, government institutions and agencies especially in Palestine and other development partners in designing and directing their policy intervention.

This study contributes significantly to the theoretical understanding of mobile banking through the development of a mobile banking framework for the SMEs’ sector in Palestine. A major contribution of this study is to the existing knowledge and literature in mobile banking by developing a TOE framework for providers (supply-side) factors in general and in particular in Palestine to fill the gaps in past studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate non-linear radiation heat transfer problem for stagnation-point flow of non-Newtonian fluid obeying the power-law model. Power-law fluids of both shear-thinning and shear-thickening nature have been considered.

Boundary layer equations are non-dimensionalized and then solved for the numerical solutions by fourth-fifth order Runge-Kutta integration based shooting technique.

The results reveal an existence of point of inflection for the temperature distribution for sufficiently large wall to ambient temperature ratio. Moreover temperature increases and heat transfer from the plate decreases with an increase in the radiation parameter. Heat transfer rate at the sheet is bigger in dilatant (shear-thickening) fluids when compared with the pseudoplastic (shear-thinning) fluids.

Different from the linear radiation heat transfer problem (which can be simply reduced to rescaling of Prandtl number by a factor containing the radiation parameter), here the energy equation is strongly non-linear and it involves an additional temperature ratio parameter _w =T _w /T _∞. This parameter allows studying the thermal characteristics for small/large temperature differences in the flow.