-Template matching is a fundamental technique of pattern recognition. Although this technique is very general, its applicability has been limited because of the difficulty often encountered when fitting templates to natural data. Natural patterns are often distorted, misshapen, stretched in size, fuzzy, rotated, translated, observed at an unusual perspective, etc. Flexible templates (rubber mas...

The impacts of economic forest on global environmental change (GEC) are one of the hot issues in environmental study. Based on the 3-year observation data and 40-year climate data, GEC and analysis of the hydrological dynamic characteristics of rubber plantations and estimate of the water balance in the rubber plantations in Hainan Island were made. The results showed that the rainfall intercep...

Petroleum-based plastics have many drawbacks: the large amount of energy required to produce the plastic, the waste generated as a result of plastic production, and the accumulation of waste due to slow degradation rate. It is because of these negative attributes of conventional plastic use that attention is being focused on environmentally friendly plastics from alternative sources. Albumin pr...

Bacteria able to grow on purified natural rubber in the absence of other organic carbon sources were isolated from soil. Ten isolates reduced the weight of vulcanized rubber from latex gloves by >10% in 6 weeks. Scanning electron microscopy clearly revealed the ability of the microorganisms to colonize, penetrate, and dramatically alter the physical structure of the rubber. The rubber-metaboliz...

Non-catalytic hydrogenation of liquid natural rubber (LNR) via thermal decomposition 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonylhydrazide (MSH) is reported in this study. Parameter studies the reaction were performed by utilizing combination response surface methodology and central composite rotatable design (RSM/CCRD). The effects each variable interaction between two variables (i.e. MSH:LNR weight ratio t...

An experimental study and a method for simulating the constitutive response of elastomers at temperatures in the chemorheological range (90–150 1C for natural rubber) are presented. A comprehensive set of uniaxial experiments for a variety of prescribed temperature histories is performed on natural rubber specimens that exhibit finite elasticity, entropic stiffening with temperature, viscoelast...

A new polymeric composite based on natural rubber reinforced with hemp has been processed by electron beam irradiation and characterized by several methods. The mechanical characteristics: gel fraction, crosslink density, water uptake, swelling parameters, and FTIR of natural rubber/hemp fiber composites have been investigated as a function of the hemp content and absorbed dose. Physical and me...