Seismic behaviour of traditional timber frame walls: experimental results on unreinforced walls

Timber frame buildings are well known as an efficient seismic resistant structure and they are used worldwide. Moreover, they have been specifically adopted in codes and regulations during the XVIII and XIX centuries in the Mediterranean area. These structures generally consist of exterior masonry walls with timber elements embedded which tie the walls together and internal walls which have a timber frame with masonry infill and act as shearwalls. In order to preserve these structureswhich characterizemany cities in theworld it is important to better understand their behaviour under seismic actions. Furthermore, historic technologies could be used even in modern constructions to build seismic resistant buildings using more natural materials with lesser costs. Generally, different types of infill could be applied to timber frame walls depending on the country, among which brick masonry, rubble masonry, hay and mud. The focus of this paper is to study the seismic behaviour of the walls considering different types of infill, specifically: masonry infill, lath and plaster and timber frame with no infill. Static cyclic tests have been performed on unreinforced timber frame walls in order to study their seismic capacity in terms of strength, stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation. The tests showed how in the unreinforced condition, the infill is able to guarantee a greater stiffness, ductility and ultimate capacity of the wall.The authors would like to acknowledge Eng. Filipe Ferreira and A.O.F. (Augusto Oliveira Ferreira & C Lda.) for their expertise and collaboration in the construction of the wall specimens. The first author would also like to acknowledge the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) for its financial support through grant SFRH / BD / 61908 / 2009

Examination of metallic impurities of 68Ge/68Ga generators used for radioactive labeling of peptides in clinical PET applications

Background/aim Especially suitable for PET due to its nuclear physical and radiochemical properties, the positron emitter Gallium-68 (68Ga) occurs by electron capture from Germanium-68 (68Ge). In such a radionuclide generator, the germanium is bound to an insoluble, inert column matrix and forms a secular radioactive balance with 68Ga obtained in the hour. As a result of the limited radiochemical selectivity of the elution process, the eluate obtained is basically contaminated with the main nuclide traces, so that the eluate becomes a mixture of 68Ga and 68Ge radionuclides. Also, the generator eluate contains a number to metal cations that reduce specific radioactivity and can compete with 68Ga. The presence of toxic metal that can be found in the eluate carries the risks of contamination at every step from the production of generators to radiopharmaceutical production. Materials and method In our study, by collecting the eluate of the 68Ge/68Ga generators used with different identities in different centers in Turkey, we report comparative analysis of metal contamination in the generator eluate. The eluates of 68Ge/68Ga generators to five different identities were collected. Eluates were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Results and Conclusion As a result, each generator contains metallic impurities different from its certificate. Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

68Ga-citrate positron emission tomography/computed tomography findings in an experimental model of acute appendicitis in rabbits

Objective: Acute appendicitis (AA) is a common urgent surgical situation of the gastrointestinal tract. Gal-lium-68 (68Ga)-citrate has been recently investigated as a radiopharmaceutical for infection and inflammation imaging. Aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of68Ga-citrate positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging in rabbits with experimentally induced AA. Materials and Methods: In the AA group (n=6), the appendices of the rabbits were surgically ligated. The sham group (n=6) was used as control. Gallium-68-citrate was synthesized. All rabbits were imaged using 68Ga-citrate PET/CT at 36th h following the establishment of experimental models, and at 36th h, all rabbits were appendectomised. Appendices were examined histopathologically. Blood samples were drawn from all rabbits at the beginning and end of the experimental process. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (Pct) levels were measured. Acute appendicitis was confirmed histopathologically and biochemically. Results: Gallium-68-citrate PET/CT showed acute appendicitis in all rabbits. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of68Ga-citrate PET/CT in AA were 100%, 83.3% and 91.7%, respectively. Conclusion: Acute appendicitis is accurately imaged in an experimental rabbit model by using 68Ga-citrate with PET/CT. © 2020 P.Ziti and Co. All rights reserved

Changes in regional cerebral blood flow demonstrated by 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT in euthymic bipolar patients

Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with 99mTc-HMPAO was used to compare regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in patients with bipolar disorder and in healthy controls. The sample of this study consisted of 16 euthymic bipolar patients who met the DSM-IV criteria and 10 healthy control subjects. The mean regional cerebral blood flow values of the bipolar euthymic patients were significantly lower than those of the controls in the bilateral medial-basal temporal, occipital; medial frontal; parietal regions and in the cingulate gyrus; the hypoperfusion in the cingulate had the highest significant P value (.001, Bonferroni correction). No significant differences in rCBF emerged between right and left-brain regions. The most important findings of the current study are the presence of regional cerebral perfusion alterations, particularly in the cingulate gyrus in the euthymic bipolar patients. Our results imply that underlying brain dysfunction may be independent from manic or depressive episodes in bipolar disorder. Because of the small number of subjects, however, this finding should be viewed as preliminary. © 2007 Springer

Civil society and state relations in Turkey: Opposing trajectories of two Islamist women’s civil society organizations

The Islamic women's civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey entered a new phase with the lifting of the headscarf ban, which had long been the focus of Islamic women's activism against authoritarian gender policies in the country. Based on research conducted in 2012 and 2018 on two Islamist women's CSOs that have been active here during the last two decades, AKDER (Women's Rights Organization against Discrimination) and BKP (Capital City Women's Platform Association), this paper aims to understand these groups and their positions regarding the civil society-state relationship under an altered climate vis-a-vis gender. While AKDER represented a shift from an oppositional to a close relationship with the state from 2012 to 2018 respectively, the BKP in 2018 represented a more conflictual and oppositional stance towards the state compared to 2012. This paper argues that the combined impact of the revocation of the ban and an increasingly authoritarian climate in Turkey has led to a shrinking of space for struggle by the women's movement in general and for the Islamist women in particular. When the headscarf issue disappeared, the solidarity that prevailed among Islamist women started to weaken and divergences emerged