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To explore the use of power ultrasound as an environmentally friendly heating technology for the pre‐treatment of linen fibres with sodium perborate as the halogen free oxidising agent and to study the impact of this process on its dyeability with reactive dyes.

Exploiting power ultrasound in the wet processes of linen fibres was made in two steps, i.e. ultrasonic pre‐treatment with sodium perborate followed by ultrasonic dyeing with reactive dyes. Therefore, comparative studies between conventional and ultrasonic techniques as well as the different factors that may affect these processes were investigated. The effect of the pre‐treatment on fibre fine structure using X‐ray diffraction technique was also investigated.

The results of the increase of whiteness index indicate that ultrasonic pre‐treatment was better at all studied treatment times and at low temperature. X‐ray diffraction studies on blank, ultrasonically and conventionally pre‐treated linen fibres have shown 70.41, 67.51 and 64.90 per cent crystallinity, respectively. The dyeing of the pre‐treated fibres with Reactive Red 24 was simultaneously carried out under both ultrasonic and conventional heating conditions to study the effect of dye concentrations at different dyeing temperatures. The colour strength values obtained for the dyed samples using ultrasonic at 50°C were slightly higher than those obtained using conventional heating at 80°C. Ultrasonic enhancement in the pre‐treatment and dyeing in terms of the percent increase of colour strength of the dyed fabric was estimated to be 157.94 per cent higher than that of conventional heating method. The results of wet fastness properties of the dyed fibres using ultrasonic revealed improvement relative to those obtained using conventional heating method.

The improved wet processes of linen fibres suggest further investigation to exploit power ultrasound in the wet processes of cellulosic fibres at low temperature using different classes of halogen free bleaching agents and dyeing with different classes of heat‐requiring reactive dyes. Also, this work may inspire the synthesis of new generation of heat‐requiring reactive dyes.

The work presented has significant potential industrial application for cleaner production in textile industries.

The present study of linen pre‐treatment with non‐toxic total chlorine free oxidising agent and its dyeability with reactive dyes using power ultrasound is novel and could be used in the wet processes of linen fibres.

This study aims to examine the effects of various physical and chemical pre-treatments on antioxidant properties of tree bean (Parkia roxburghii G. Don) in combination with storage conditions.

The whole pods and seeds of tree bean were treated with gamma rays (γ-rays), sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and stored at room temperature (RT, 25°C) for 30 days. The physical and chemical pre-treated seeds and pods were compared with the same stored at RT and refrigerated storage at 4°C and −20°C. During storage, physical (moisture content) and antioxidants like total phenolics, ascorbate content, reduced glutathione, total flavonoids, along with free radical scavenging activities (FRSA) were measured.

Chemical pre-treatments with NaOCl, ClO₂ and H₂O₂ significantly accelerated (p = 0.05) the total phenolics (1.9 mg/g FW in seeds and 2.4 mg/g FW in pods), flavonoids content (0.3 mg/g FW each in seeds and pods) and ABTS activities (73.3 per cent in seeds and 92.3 per cent in pods) at 30 days of storage. A significant decrease (p = 0.05) in ascorbate content (6.1 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.5 mg/g FW in pods), reduced glutathione (5.1 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.7 mg/g FW in pods), FRAP (0.3 mg equi Fe/g FW in seeds and 0.4 mg equi Fe/g FW in pods) and reducing power (1.8 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.7 mg/g FW in pods) was observed under all the treatments at 30 days of storage. However, DPPH increased under γ-irradiation and decreased under chemical pre-treatments, storage at RT and refrigerated storage. The overall result showed that pre-treatment of H₂O₂ at 10-20 mM maintains antioxidants and radical scavenging activities in tree bean during storage.

The application of H₂O₂ at 10-20 mM prior to storage of tree bean maintains the physical, antioxidant properties and FRSA in tree bean seeds and pods as compared to natural ambient conditions. Hence, this technique will help in improving the keeping quality of this legume and avoid spoilage after harvest for an extended period.

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) has been increasingly employed for polymer surface modifications. In this paper, plasma gases of oxygen and argon were used for pre-treating polyester fabrics before conducting chemical silver plating, aiming to increase the amount of metal content and improve the performance of the polyester fabrics. After LTP pre-treatment, there was a thin plasma layer generation on the fabric surface which was in good contact with the fibre. Based on the observation of micro-structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that there was an increase in the amount of silver particles deposited on the fibre surface after the LTP pre-treatment. The surface observation implies that the LTP pre-treatment could enhance the hydrophilicity of fibre surface and help facilitate the absorption of silver particle layer to reach the necessary level of uniformity and adhesive strength.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the rates of HIV risk-taking behavior and sexual violence among clients with co-occurring addiction and intimate partner violence (IPV). The current study also aims to determine whether HIV risk-taking behaviors (e.g. trading sex for money or drugs, having unprotected sex with multiple partners) differ among substance using IPV offenders with and without a history of sexual aggression.

Secondary analyses were conducted from Easton et al.’s (2017) randomized controlled trial of substance use domestic violence treatment among substance using IPV offenders. Correlational analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between pre-treatment sexual aggression, HIV risk-taking behaviors, substance use and aggression. Analyses of covariance were conducted in order to determine differences in participants’ HIV risk-taking behaviors based on their history of sexual aggression while controlling for hours of contact with the female partners.

In a sample of 63 participants, males with higher rates of sexual aggression were more likely to engage in sexual risk-taking behaviors. This study encountered a correlation between pre-treatment risk-taking behavior and verbal and physical aggression, as well as a correlation between pre-treatment risk-taking behaviors and cocaine use. Results neither suggest a relationship between sexual aggression and alcohol use nor HIV risk-taking behaviors and alcohol use at pre-treatment.

The present study is limited by sample size and power.

This study is among the first of its kind to investigate HIV risk-taking behaviors among substance using offenders of IPV. This study provides support for the inclusion of treatment targeting HIV risk-taking behaviors among IPV offenders.

The aim of this work was to investigate which parameters affect the long‐term performance of coil coated galvanised steel sheet. Therefore, the paint adhesion and corrosion resistance of selected painted pre‐treated galvanised steel substrates were studied. The systems investigated included chromate‐free pre‐treatments and primers. The polymer coated panels were tested by using: T‐bend, combined cross cut and adhesion, prohesion and QUV‐A tests. The surface energy of the painted panels was determined by contact angle measurements and outdoor testing of the panels was also initiated. The test results showed that the primer was the most important parameter for painted metal alloy coated steel, but the long‐term performance of the system also depends on the compatibility of all four layers, i.e. substrate, pre‐treatment, primer and topcoat.

In this study, the polyester fabrics were treated with low temperature plasma before Cu sputtering. The effect of oxygen gas plasma pre-treatment on the surface structures, electrical properties, and mechanical properties of samples was investigated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A laboratory direct current (DC) magnetron sputter coating system was used to deposit the nanoscale copper (Cu) films onto the surface of polyester plain fabric at room temperature.

The crystal structure of the sputtered copper films did not show any obvious change on the O₂-plasma-treated fabric, but the surface roughness and surface particle size increased significantly. Improvement in electrical properties of copper films was closely related to the deposition time. The tensile test results indicated that the mechanical properties of the plasma-treated polyester fabrics were also improved after copper coating.

The research reports on the functional textiles, and the experiment results and analysis are original. There is a great potential to commercialize such functional textiles.

As the concentration of environmental samples was generally very low and existing analytical instruments had limited sensitivity, developing mini pre-treatment systems for effectively concentrating the components was very important and necessary. The purposed of this paper is to develop mini pretreatment system integrated with micro pre-concentrator and micro GC column.

In this work, a mini pre-treatment system integrated with a micro pre-concentrator and a micro gas chromatograph (GC) column was proposed. The micro pre-concentrator filled with single-walled carbon nanotubes as adsorbent materials was able to effectively concentrate the trace environmental sample, which dramatically improved the response of detectors. In addition, instead of conventional columns, micro GC columns were able to effectively separate gas mixtures, which are able to overcome low resolution and poor anti-interference ability of portable instruments.

The results demonstrated that the proposed pre-treatment system was able to concentrate the trace sample with a concentration factor of 15 and effectively separate the gas mixtures with a resolution over 1.5.

A mini pre-treatment system integrated with a micro pre-concentrator and a micro GC column was proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare anionically surface‐modified organic pigment/binder ink jet inks for printing on chitosan‐pre‐treated silk fabrics.

Anionically surface‐modified organic pigment/binder ink jet inks were prepared in four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). The pigment‐to‐binder ratio was controlled at 1:6.4 for the cyan, magenta and yellow inks, and 1:3.4 for the black ink. Ink formulations (by weight) were assembled and mixed as follows: 8 per cent pigment dispersion, 10 per cent diethylene glycol, 12 per cent glycerol, 5 per cent urea, 10 per cent polyacrylate emulsion binder and 55 per cent deionised water. They were characterised in terms of their particle size, zeta‐potential, particle morphology, viscosity, surface tension and pH. The inks were printed onto silk or the chitosan pre‐treated silk fabrics using a piezo‐type ink jet printer. The fabrics were then heat cured and analysed for the effect of chitosan pre‐treatment on colour gamut, wash fastness and crock fastness.

The formulated ink jet inks yielded an acceptably good ink jetting reliability, one‐year stability and printability. The chitosan pre‐treated silk fabrics gave a wider colour gamut and colour saturation than the non‐treated one. Crock fastness and wash fastness of the chitosan pre‐treated fabrics were relatively better than those of non‐treated fabrics.

The surface‐modified pigments are transparent and thus their inks printed on the chitosan pre‐treated fabrics produced slightly low K/S values of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colours because the limited chitosan concentration in the pre‐treatment is controlled by its solubility in acidic solution. The higher loading of chitosan pre‐treatment gave higher K/S values and a stiffer touch of the fabrics.

The water‐based pigmented inks having the sulphonate group on the pigment surface can be printed on the fabric surface pre‐treated with chitosan molecules which have the protonated amino groups to give good colour appearance. It is anticipated that this type of ink can be applied to any textile surface which has been pre‐treated with the protonated chitosan.

The modified organic pigments having the sulphonate group on their surface can be used to produce novel water‐based ink jet inks which can print on the chitosan pre‐treated silk fabric. Ionic interactions between the sulphonate group of the pigment and protonated amino groups of chitosan in conjunction with polyacrylate binder enhance colour strength, widen colour gamut and chroma, and produce good adhesion for fabric operational properties such as wash fastness and crock fastness.

Following five years of research and development, and a period of controlled commercial use. Albright and Wilson have released details of Accomet C, a chromium compound intended for use as a pre‐treatment chemical.

Lengthy and complex routes to specialist care may negatively affect clinical profiles of trauma survivors accessing mental health services. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics and referral pathways of a cohort of clients accepted by a specialist trauma service in England; and investigate the associations between referral pathways and clients’ clinical profiles, namely, pre-treatment levels of post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic growth.

Data on 117 consecutive, accepted referrals were extracted from clients’ clinical records. Information on demographics, trauma histories, clinical presentations and referral pathways was synthesised through summary statistics. Correlational analyses were conducted to test associations with pre-treatment scores.

Clients accessing the service were highly complex and mostly experienced prolonged, interpersonal trauma. Pathways to the service varied, but 50% of the sample had at least four “steps” in their referral histories and seven previous clinical contacts. The average time between trauma and specialist referral was 16.34 years. The number of referral steps positively, significatively and moderately correlated with anxiety and stress at pre-treatment.

Limitations include issues around collecting past referral information, the small sample size for clients with available pre-treatment data and the lack of post-treatment scores.

This evaluation provides an informative overview of the characteristics and referral pathways of clients accessing a specialist trauma service. It also offers preliminary insights on the relationship between clients’ routes into the service and their clinical profiles. Practice, commissioning and research implications are discussed.