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Background: Integrating additional factors into the TNM staging system is needed for more accurate risk classification and survival prediction for patients with cutaneous melanoma. In the present study, we introduce machine learning as a novel tool that incorporates additional prognostic factors to improve the current TNM staging system. Methods and findings: Cancer-specific survival data for cutaneous melanoma with at least a 5 years follow-up were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute and split into the training set (40,781 cases) and validation set (5,390 cases). Five factors were studied: the primary tumor (T), regional lymph nodes (N), distant metastasis (M), age (A), and sex (S). The Ensemble Algorithm for Clustering Cancer Data (EACCD) was applied to the training set to generate prognostic groups. Utilizing only T, N, and M, a basic prognostic system was built where patients were stratified into 10 prognostic groups with well-separated survival curves, similar to 10 AJCC stages. These 10 groups had a significantly higher accuracy in survival prediction than 10 stages (C-index = 0.7682 vs 0.7643; increase in C-index = 0.0039, 95% CI = (0.0032, 0.0047); p-value = 7.2×10−23). Nevertheless, a positive association remained between the EACCD grouping and the AJCC staging (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient = 0.8316; p-value = 4.5×10−13). With additional information from A and S, a more advanced prognostic system was established using the training data that stratified patients into 10 groups and further improved the prediction accuracy (C-index = 0.7865 vs 0.7643; increase in C-index = 0.0222, 95% CI = (0.0191, 0.0254); p-value = 8.8×10−43). Both internal validation using the training set and temporal validation using the validation set showed good stratification and a high predictive accuracy of the prognostic systems. Conclusions: The EACCD allows additional factors to be integrated into the TNM to create a prognostic system that improves patient stratification and survival prediction for cutaneous melanoma. This integration separates favorable from unfavorable clinical outcomes for patients and improves both cohort selection for clinical trials and treatment management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Laryngopharyngeal herpes simplex virus infection is rare and presents typically in the supraglottis. Findings on presentation can range from small mucosal lesions to fungating obstructive masses mimicking neoplasm. Laryngopharyngeal herpes is a medically treated disease. Objectives: Identify potential treatment in cases that are refractory to antiviral medications. Methods: Individual case with treatment adapted from other case report. Case Presentation: We report a case of bulky, obstructive supraglottic and glottic herpes virus laryngitis that presented with dysphonia, dysphagia, and airway complaints resistant to acyclovir analogues that was treated effectively with intralesional cidofovir injection. Conclusions: Our promising initial response suggests a potential novel treatment for this unusual condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study aims to (1) determine barriers in the pediatric cochlear implantation process specific to publicly insured patients, wherein delayed implantation has been reported, and (2) compare the perceived barriers between publicly and privately insured patients. Setting Tertiary care cochlear implantation center at academic pediatric hospital. Study design Cross-sectional survey, retrospective chart review. Methods The validated, 39 item Barriers to Care Questionnaire was administered to the parents of 80 recipients of cochlear implantation by two surgeons between 2013 and 2016. Survey results and diagnosis to implant interval were compared based on public or private insurance status. Two-tailed Mann-Whitney and Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis. Results Of 110 cochlear implants, 27 of 80 (34%) English-speaking parents completed the survey. 15 were privately insured and 12 were publicly insured. 23 of 27 respondents received cochlear implantation for pre-lingual sensorineural hearing loss. Publicly insured patients had significantly longer median time from diagnosis to implant than privately insured (19 vs. 8 mo, p = 0.01). The three worst scoring barrier categories for privately insured families in order were Pragmatics, Expectations, and Marginalization, whereas for publicly insured families it was Pragmatics, Skills, and Expectations. The worst scoring question for privately insured patients was “Having to take time off work”. For the publicly insured, it was “Lack of communication.” Conclusion Privately insured patients reported more barriers on the Barriers to Care Questionnaire than publicly insured patients did. Although pragmatics was the worst-scoring barrier category for both groups, difficulties found on the survey ranked differently for each group. This information can help providers address disparities and access barriers for vulnerable patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blending Nomex® with cotton improves its affordability and serviceability. Because cotton is a highly flammable fiber, Nomex®/cotton blend fabrics containing more than 20% cotton require flame-retardant treatment. In this research, combination of a hydroxyl functional organophosphorus oligmer (HFPO) and 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) was used for flame retardant finishing of the 65/35 Nomex®/cotton blend woven fabric. The system contains HFPO as a flame retardant, BTCA as a bonding agent, and triethenolamine (TEA) as a reactive additive used to enhance the performance of HFPO/BTCA. Addition of TEA improves the hydrolysis resistance of the HFPO/BTCA crosslinked polymeric network on the blend fabric. Additionally, TEA enhances HFPO's flame retardant performance by reducing formation of calcium salts and also by providing synergistic nitrogen to the treated blend fabric. The Nomex®/cotton blend fabric treated with the HFPO/BTCA/TEA system shows high flame resistance and high laundering durability at a relatively low HFPO concentration of 8% (w/w). The heat release properties of the treated Nomex®/cotton blend fabric were measured using microscale combustion calorimetry. The functions of BTCA; HFPO and TEA on the Nomex®/cotton blend fabric were elucidated based on the heat release properties, char formation, and fire performance of the treated blend fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nylon/cotton blend fabrics have long been used in military protective clothing. Because fire risk has drastically increased in recent warfare, developing flame retarded military nylon/cotton fabrics becomes extremely important for protecting military personnel. It was previously discovered that a hydroxy-functional organophosphorus oligomer (HFPO) was bound to a nylon fabric in the presence of dimethyloldihydroxylethyleneurea (DMDHEU) as a bonding agent. In this research, the bonding mechanism of HFPO/DMDHEU on the nylon/cotton blend fabrics was investigated. HFPO was bound to the nylon/cotton blend fabrics by (1) forming HFPO/DMDHEU crosslinked polymeric networks on both nylon and cotton and (2) forming a DMDHEU bridge between cellulose and HFPO on cotton. The relative quantity of the HFPO/DMDHEU crosslinked networks and that of the DMDHEU-bridging formed on the treated blend fabrics was controlled by the HFPO-to-DMDHEU ratio. The HFPO/DMDHEU system was an effective and durable flame retarding treatment system for nylon/cotton military blend fabrics. The treated fabrics passed the fabric vertical burning test after 50 home laundering cycles. The fire performance and hydrolysis-resistance of different nylon/cotton blend fabrics treated with HFPO/DMDHEU was fully evaluated, and the performance data were analyzed in relation with the bonding mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flame retardant nylon/cotton blend fabrics are widely used in the fields of industrial and military protective uniforms. In this research, we investigate the heat release properties and flammability of the 50/50 nylon/cotton blend fabric treated with a self-crosslinkable durable organophosphorus flame retardant system. For the nylon/cotton blend fabric without treatment, the blend has lower total heat release and higher percent char yield than the arithmetic sum of those of cotton and nylon as single fibers. In addition, both the peak heat release rate (PHHR) and the temperature at peak heat release ( T PHRR ) for cotton increases whereas both PHRR and T PHRR decrease for nylon when those two fibers are blended to form a fabric. Thus, the data indicated that interaction takes place between cotton and nylon during the decomposition process of the blend. The presence of the organophosphorus flame retardant system reduces PHRR, T PHRR and increase char formation for both cotton and nylon as single fibers. When the cotton and nylon are blended and then treated with the flame retardant, the PHRR of the blend becomes even lower and the percent char yield of the blend becomes even higher than those of the treated cotton and nylon as single-fiber fabric. The char length for the treated blend decreases compared with that of the treated cotton and nylon as single-fiber fabrics. We conclude that cotton and nylon interact with each other during the degradation process of the treated nylon/cotton blend fabric and such interaction reduces the flammability of the blend fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we studied cross-linking of cottonfabrics usingthe combination of itaconic acid (ITA) and sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2). ITA, a bifunctional carboxylic acid, wasable to esterify cotton cellulose to form a single ester linkage,but it was not able to form cross-linking between two cellulose molecules.In the presence of NaH2PO2, the amount of esterformed on cotton fabric was increased substantially and the esterificationtemperature of ITA was reduced. Therefore, NaH2PO2functioned as a catalyst for esterification of cotton by ITA. Moreover,we found that wrinkle resistance of the cotton fabric was significantlyimproved when cotton fabrics were treated with the combination ofITA and NaH2PO2.We also found that phosphoruswas bound to the treated cotton fabric and that the increase in thewrinkle recovery angle of the treated fabric was correlated to theincrease in the amount of phosphorus bound to cotton. All the dataindicated that H–P–H of sodium hypophosphite probablyreacts with the >CC< of two ITA molecules, which arealsoesterified with cellulose, thus forming a cross-linkage between thetwo cellulose molecules. The cotton fabrics treated with the ITA/NaH2PO2system demonstrated a high level of durablepress performance with significantly lower tensile strength loss thanthose treated with the formaldehyde-based dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Polycarboxylic acids have been used as nonformaldehyde crosslinking agents for cotton with sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2) as the catalyst to replace the formaldehyde-based dimethyloldihydroxyethleneurea (DMDHEU). Maleic acid (MA), an α, β-unsaturated bifunctional carboxylic acid, can esterify cotton but is not able to form crosslinking between two cellulose molecules by itself. In this research, we discovered that the wrinkle resistance of the cotton fabric treated with MA and NaH2PO2 was significantly increased and phosphorus was bound to cotton when the treated fabric was exposed to temperatures higher than that required for esterification of cotton by MA. Elevation of the fabric wrinkle resistance and increase in quantity of the phosphorus bound to cotton had similar dependency on curing temperature, on MA concentration, and on NaH2PO2 concentration. All the data support the hypothesis that H–P–(residual of NaH2PO2) added to >Cf the MA already bound to cotton by esterification, thus forming a new crosslink between two cotton cellulose molecules. The cotton fabrics treated by MA/NaH2PO2 showed fabric wrinkle resistance similar to that treated with DMDHEU, but the breaking strength and tearing strength of the MA-treated cotton fabrics were significantly improved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multifunctional carboxylic acids have been used as durable press finishing agents for cotton with sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2) as the most effective catalyst. In our previous research, we found that cellulose cross-linking takes place when cotton fabric treated with a combination of maleic acid and NaH2PO2is cured at ≥150 °C. The data suggested that H−P−H of hypophosphite likely reacts with >CC< of the maleic acid already esterified with cotton cellulose, thus making it possible to form cross-linking on cotton. In this research, we studied the effect of the maleic acid (MA) and NaH2PO2treatment on the fire performance of cotton using microscale combustion calorimetry. We found that esterification of cotton by MA reduces the flammability of the cotton cellulose. NaH2PO2catalyzes the esterification of MA on cotton, thus further reducing the cotton fabric’s flammability by increasing esterification on cotton. The quantity of ester formed on cotton reaches the optimum range when the curing temperature is increased to ≥140 °C. When the curing temperature reaches ≥150 °C, the reaction between NaH2PO2and MA takes place on cotton. The bonding of hypophosphite to cotton further enhances the flame retardancy of the MA-treated cotton fabric as indicated by further decrease in heat release rate and further increase in char formation. The cotton fleece treated with the combination of maleic acid and NaH2PO2at low concentrations is able to achieve class 1 flammability specified by 16 CFR 1610 at low concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Effective testing methods are critical for developing new flame retardant textiles by the industry. However, the current testing methods all have limitations. In this research, we applied micro-scale combustion calorimetry (MCC) for evaluating the flammability of the cotton woven fabric treated with a traditional reactive organophosphorus flame retardant in combination with a synergistic nitrogen-containing additive and the nylon-6,6 woven fabric treated with a hydroxyl-functional organophosphorus oligomer and crosslinkers. We found that MCC is capable of differentiating small differences among the treated fabric samples with similar flammability. MCC is able to make quantitative measurement of the peak heat release rate, the most important parameter related to fire hazard of materials, of textile whereas such analysis is more difficult using cone calorimetry due to textile fabrics’ low thickness. By using the thermal combustion parameters measured by MCC, we were able to calculate the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of various treated cotton fabric samples with near-perfect agreement between the experimentally measured and the predicted LOI values of treated cotton fabrics. We also compared the capability of MCC and differential scanning calorimetry for analyzing flame retardant cotton textiles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Evaluating and analyzing the performance of flame retardant (FR) textiles are a critical part of research and development of new FR textiles products by the industry. The testing methods currently used in the industry have significant limitations. Most analytical and testing techniques are not able to measure heat release rate (HRR), the single most important parameter in evaluating the fire hazard of materials. It is difficult to measure HRR of textile fabrics using cone calorimetry because textile fabrics are dimensionally thin samples. The recently developed micro-scale combustion calorimetry (MCC) is able to measure the following flammability parameters for textile using milligram sample sizes: heat release capacity, HRR, temperature at peak heat release rate (PHRR), total heat release and char yield. In this research, we applied MCC to evaluate the flammability of different textile fabrics including cotton, rayon, cellulose acetate, silk, nylon, polyester, polypropylene, acrylic fibers, Nomex and Kevlar. We also studied the cotton fabrics treated with different flame retardants. We found that MCC is able to differentiate small differences in flammability of textile materials treated with flame retardants. We were also be able to calculate the limiting oxygen index (LOI) using the thermal combustion properties of various textile samples measured by the MCC. The calculated LOI data have yielded good agreement with experimental LOI results. Thus, we conclude that MCC is an effective new analytical technique for measuring textile flammability and has great potentials in the research and development of new flame retardants for textiles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this research, we studied the mechanism of bonding a hydroxy-functional organophosphorus oligomer (HFPO) to nylon 6.6 fabric using the formaldehyde derivatives of urea and melamine, including dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) and trimethylolmelamine (TMM), as the bonding agents. The nylon fabric treated with HFPO/DMDHEU or HFPO/TMM retained significant amount of phosphorus after multiple launderings. The laundering durability of the HFPO applied to nylon was probably attributed to the formation of a crosslinked polymeric network on the nylon fiber. The nylon fabric treated with HFPO/DMDHEU showed higher percent phosphorus retention than that treated with HFPO/TMM. The percent phosphorus retention of the treated nylon increased as the DMDHEU or TMM concentration was increased, and the nylon fabric''s stiffness follows the same trend. The micro-scale combustion calorimetry and thermal analysis data indicate that the HFPO bound to nylon reduced peak heat release rate and heat release capacity of the nylon fabric, decreased decomposition temperature and promoted the char formation of the treated fabric. The nylon/cotton blend military fabric treated with HFPO/DMDHEO or HFPO/TMM demonstrated flame retardant performance after 10 laundering cycles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Flame retardancy is a desirable property for silk textiles, and it becomes necessity when silk textiles are for interior decorative use in building with public access. However, the flame retardant finishing technology available for silk has significant limitations. In this research, we studied the use of the combination of a hydroxyl-functional organophosphorus oligomer (HFPO) and 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) as a formaldehyde-free flame retardant finishing system for silk. When BTCA is applied to silk, most of BTCA reacts with the hydroxyl group on silk by single ester linkage. In the presence of HFPO, BTCA is able to bond HFPO onto silk by either a BTCA “bridge” between silk and HFPO or a BTCA–HFPO–BTCA cross-linkage between two silk protein molecules. We evaluated the flammability and physical properties of the silk fabric treated with HFPO and BTCA. The treated silk fabric demonstrated a high level of flame retardancy with modest loss in fabric tensile strength. The treated silk passed the vertical flammability test after 15 hand wash (HW) cycles. Increasing the HFPO concentration from 20% to 30% does not show significant improvement in the flame retardant performance of the treated silk. The thermal analysis data demonstrated that HFPO reduces silk''s initial thermal decomposition temperature and promotes char formation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: N-Methylol dimethylphosphonopropionamide (MDPA) is one of the most commonly used durable flame retardant agents for cotton. In our previous research, we developed a new flame retardant finishing system based on a hydroxy-functional organophosphorus oligomer (HFPO) and bonding agents, such as dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) and trimethylolmelamine (TMM). In this research, we compared the flame resistant performance as well as physical properties of the cotton fabric treated with these two flame retardant finishing systems. The cotton fabric treated with MDPA/TMM has a higher initial limiting oxygen index (LOI) than that of the fabric treated with HFPO/TMM due to higher nitrogen content in the system. The LOI of the cotton fabric treated with the HFPO and MDPA systems becomes identical when the treated fabric contains equal amount of phosphorus and nitrogen. The MDPA/TMM shows higher laundering durability on cotton than HFPO/TMM system. The fabric treated with HFPO/TMM and MDPA/TMM has low wrinkle resistance and low strength loss whereas the fabric stiffness significantly increases when the TMM concentration is increased. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: N-Methylol dimethylphosphonopropionamide (MDPA), known as “Pyrovatex CP” and “Pyrovatex CP New” commercially, has been one of the most commonly used durable flame retardant agents for cotton for many years. In our previous research, we developed a flame retardant finishing system for cotton based on a hydroxy-functional organophosphorus oligomer (HFPO) in combination with a bonding agent such as trimethylolmelamine (TMM) and dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU). In this research, we investigated the bonding of these two flame retardant finishing agents to cotton. We found that the majority of MDPA is bound to cotton by its N-methylol group and that the use of TMM as a co-reactant modestly increases the fixation of MDPA onto cotton. For HFPO, however, the use of a bonding agent is necessary to form a covalent linkage between HFPO and cotton. Both the fixation of HFPO on cotton and its laundering durability are influenced by the effectiveness and concentration of the bonding agent. The commercial product of HFPO contains approximately 33% more phosphorus than that of MDPA and the percent fixation of HFPO on cotton is also moderately higher than that of MDPA. The bonding between MDPA and cotton is significantly more resistant to hydrolysis during multiple launderings than that between HFPO and cotton. The selection of catalyst also plays a significant role in influencing the bonding of the flame retardant agents to cotton. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cotton/nylon blends have been commonly used as the material for protective clothing, but those blend fabrics are not flame retardant finished because of the unavailability of effective flame retardant finishing systems. Previously, we investigated the use of a hydroxyl-functional flame retardant organophosphorus oligomer (FR) in combination with the mixture of dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) and trimethylolmelamine (TMM) as the binders for flame retardant finishing of cotton. In this study, we investigated the application of FR to the 50/50 cotton/nylon fabric. When the FR/DMDHEU/TMM system is applied to the fabrics of nylon-6,6 and nylon-6, approximately 40% of the FR applied is permanently bound to the nylon fabrics. FR is bound to the nylon fabrics mainly through the formation of a FR/TMM crosslinked polymeric network, thus becoming durable to multiple launderings. The cotton/nylon blend treated with FR shows high levels of flame retardant performance and excellent laundering durability. The treated fabric passes the vertical flammability test even after 50 home laundering cycles. The fabric stiffness as a result of the finishing process is still an obstacle to be overcome for practical use of this finishing system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In our previous research, we developed flame retarding systems for cotton based on a hydroxy-functional organophosphorus oligomer (FR) and a binder, such as 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA), dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) and melamine–formaldehyde (M–F), which are able to form covalent binding between FR and cotton. In this research, we used a factorial experimental design method to study the performance of the flame retarding system based on FR and the mixture of DMDHEU and M–F. We found that an increase in the DMDHEU/(DMDHEU + M–F) ratio in the mixture increases the amount of FR bound to cotton, increases the laundering durability of FR on cotton, and reduces the fabric tensile strength retention. DMDHEU and M–F also function as nitrogen providers and enhance the flame retarding performance of the treated fabric due to phosphorus–nitrogen synergism. M–F is a more efficient nitrogen provider than DMDHEU. The effect of reduced phosphorus–nitrogen synergism as a result of increasing the relative amount of DMDHEU in the mixture (DMDHEU + M–F) outweighs that of the improved bonding of FR to cotton. An increase in FR concentration in a formula increases the amount of FR bound to cotton, whereas it reduces the percent retention of FR on the fabric and also reduces the fabric strength loss. Desirable performance of treated cotton fabrics can be achieved by adjusting the concentrations of FR and the ratio of the two binders in a formula. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on a study which explored the formation of cyclic anhydride intermediates by different isomers of cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid to elucidate the effects of molecular structure on the formation of the anhydride intermediates. Experimental framework of the study; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

Presents a study which investigated the formation of cyclic anhydride intermediates by 1,2,3,4-butane-tetracarboxylic acid and itaconic acid in the presence of sodium hypophosphite. Methodology; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

Abstract: Integrating additional prognostic factors into the tumor, lymph node, metastasis staging system improves the relative stratification of cancer patients and enhances the accuracy in planning their treatment options and predicting clinical outcomes. We describe a novel approach to build prognostic systems for cancer patients that can admit any number of prognostic factors. In the approach, an unsupervised learning algorithm was used to create dendrograms and the C‐index was used to cut dendrograms to generate prognostic groups. Breast cancer data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute were used for demonstration. Two relative prognostic systems were created for breast cancer. One system (7 prognostic groups with C‐index = 0.7295) was based on tumor size, regional lymph nodes, and no distant metastasis. The other system (7 prognostic groups with C‐index = 0.7458) was based on tumor size, regional lymph nodes, no distant metastasis, grade, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and age. The dendrograms showed a relationship between survival and prognostic factors. The proposed approach is able to create prognostic systems that have a good accuracy in survival prediction and provide a manageable number of prognostic groups. The prognostic systems have the potential to permit a thorough database analysis of all information relevant to decision‐making in patient management and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to understand the molecular level response of crosslinked cellulose chain segments upon deformation, in order to develop new agents which convey high durable-press (DP) rating to cellulose fibers with minimal strength loss. In this work models of amorphous cellulose crosslinked with both rigid and flexible crosslinks were constructed computationally for this purpose. Rigid crosslinks bound cellulose molecular segments together and blocked the chain slippage, providing cellulose models with a higher initial modulus and better elastic response. However, the loss of the chain slippage led to stress being distributed unevenly among cellulose chains. Chains in some regions were subjected higher stress and these regions were opened up much more than the rest of the cellulose, which presumably caused models to fail. When conformationally flexible crosslinks were used, breaking strain of cellulose was not significantly reduced but deformation recovery was not improved either, in comparison with the models of untreated cellulose. Conformational transitions were observed in the flexible crosslinks during extension. These results help to explain how and why rigid crosslinks work to provide wrinkle resistant properties and why they also lower tensile strength, and that just using a conformationally flexible crosslinking will not provide any recovery. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Molecular modeling was utilized to provide insight into the yielding behavior and poor recovery from applied strain for cellulose. Amorphous cellulose models were successfully built and examined with the use of force field pcff_300_1.01. High-temperature molecular dynamics, followed by minimization, was used to generate relaxed structures for amorphous cellulose. Properties related to inter-molecular interactions were calculated for these models and found to be comparable with literature values. The observed yielding for these models, which occurred at approximately 7–8% strain, was found to be due to the disruption of hydrogen bonds between cellulose chain segments. New hydrogen bonds were formed in extension but only 1/3 of these were broken during recovery. These newly formed hydrogen bonds were found to hold the cellulose chain segments in the new positions thus resulting in poor deformation recovery. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Exceedinglyhigh temperatures (normally ∼98 °C) areused to perform hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) bleachingof cotton fabrics in textile industrial practice. Such harsh conditionslead to high energy consumptions and high fabric mass loss. In recentyears, the industry and academic communities have conducted extensiveresearch to reduce the temperature for industrial cotton bleaching.In this research, we developed a new H2O2activatorbased on amino nitriles. All of the data demonstrated that in thepresence of the new H2O2activator, the combinedscouring/bleaching of the knitted cotton fabric could be performedat 60 °C. The cotton knit fabric treated using the low temperatureprocedure also has lower fabric weight loss; some of the hydrophobicsubstances were retained on the fiber surface after the process. Wefound that the residual hydrophobic substances had little effect onthe whiteness of the treated fabrics after application of opticalbrighteners, and had little effect on the shade-depth and colorfastnessto washing and rubbing of the treated fabrics after dyeing. The higherwas the weight retention, the more value of the treated cotton knittedfabrics was increased. The removal of less substance from cotton alsoresulted in lower chemical oxygen demand in the wastewater, thus providingadditional environmental benefits. Moreover, the low temperature scouring/bleachingprocedure had significantly lower energy consumption than the traditionalprocedure. The possibility and effectiveness of this new technologyhas been confirmed in our industrial scale trials. The disadvantageof this method was that it required higher quantity of chemicals forthe treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The applications of water-resistant and stain-resistant finishes to apparel have become widespread in recent years due to high consumer demand. In our previous research, we studied the formation of highly hydrophobic surfaces on cotton and polyester fabrics using a two-step treatment procedure, i.e., first forming silica sol by hydrolysis and subsequent condensation of tetraethoxysilane under alkaline conditions, applying the sol to the surfaces of cotton and polyester fabrics, and then applying hydrolyzed hexadecyltrimethoxysilane on the treated fabrics to impart hydrophobicity to the surfaces of the fabrics. In this research, we developed a novel one-step procedure to form highly hydrophobic surfaces on cotton and polyester fabrics using different modified silica sols. The first series of modified silica sol (“sol A”) was prepared by the reactions of a sol formed by alkaline hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane and alkyltrialkoxysilanes in a NH4OH−ethanol solution. A second series (“sol B”) was prepared by the reactions of a sol formed by the same method, followed by adding (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane and alkyltrialkoxysilanes to the sol. The cotton and polyester fabrics treated with the two modified silica sol systems showed excellent water repellency with the water contact angle above 150° on cotton and above 140° on polyester under the optimum treatment conditions. The treated cotton and polyester had significantly improved hydrolysis resistance and maintained high levels of hydrophobicity after 30 laundering cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]