Solamen Vaillanti Mollusk powder as an efficient biosorbent for removing cobalt ions from aqueous solution: Kinetic and equilibrium studies

In this research, Solamen Vaillanti mollusk (SVM) skin biosorbent was synthesized and used as a low-cost and environmentally friendly adsorbent to eliminate cobalt (Co2+) heavy metal ion from aqueous solution. The surface morphology and specific surface area of SVM were analyzed by SEM and BET analyses. Also, the impact of various effective factors like pH, temperature, contact time, biosorbent dose, and cobalt ion concentration was studied on the uptake process. According to our study, the highest biosorption efficiency of Co2+ (97.31%) was attained at pH 5, a mixing speed of 200 rpm, Co2+ ion concentration of 5 mg l-1, and biosorbent dosage of 2 g l-1 after 50 min. Also, the maximum biosorption capacity of SVM biosorbent was 16.23 mg l-1, which was achieved at pH 5 and temperature of 25 °C. Moreover, kinetic and equilibrium studies demonstrated that the quasi-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model are better compatible with the experimental data. Furthermore, the reusability of the bioadsorbent showed that it can be reused in 4 cycles in the bioadsorption process.Campus Lima Centr

LOAD TRANSFER FROM HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE COLUMNS THROUGH ORDINARY STRENGTH CONCRETE SLABS

This paper describes the results of tests of nine reinforced concrete column- slab specimens, in which the columns are of very strong concrete having about 10 k/sq in. compressive strength. While the intervening floor slabs are much weaker. The slab concretes range from about 3 - 6 k/sq in. compressive strength. In addition to the variation in the concrete strength, two different slab thicknesses are included. The interest in this series of tests is axial load transmission through the weaker slab concrete, and no moments are imposed on the slab-column connection. The data along with previously available data are analysed with three objectives. Firstly, to investigate the general adequacy of section 10.15 of the 1995 ACI code ( AC/ 318 - 95 ). The provisions do not appear to be conservation when the column concrete is extremely strong. Secondly, to develop a better understanding of the problem, and to develop a better prediction method or procedure. The third objective is to find out the appropriate parameters for the estimation of the apparent strength of the floor concrete to be used in calculation of the load carrying capacity of columns

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical science. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

The past 2 years, during which waves of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants swept the globe, have starkly highlighted health disparities across nations. Tegally et al. show how the coordinated efforts of talented African scientists have in a short time made great contributions to pandemic surveillance and data gathering. Their efforts and initiatives have provided early warning that has likely benefited wealthier countries more than their own. Genomic surveillance identified the emergence of the highly transmissible Beta and Omicron variants and now the appearance of Omicron sublineages in Africa. However, it is imperative that technology transfer for diagnostics and vaccines, as well the logistic wherewithal to produce and deploy them, match the data-gathering effort

Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived with Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups from 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Importance: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) provided systematic estimates of incidence, morbidity, and mortality to inform local and international efforts toward reducing cancer burden. Objective: To estimate cancer burden and trends globally for 204 countries and territories and by Sociodemographic Index (SDI) quintiles from 2010 to 2019. Evidence Review: The GBD 2019 estimation methods were used to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 and over the past decade. Estimates are also provided by quintiles of the SDI, a composite measure of educational attainment, income per capita, and total fertility rate for those younger than 25 years. Estimates include 95 uncertainty intervals (UIs). Findings: In 2019, there were an estimated 23.6 million (95 UI, 22.2-24.9 million) new cancer cases (17.2 million when excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) and 10.0 million (95 UI, 9.36-10.6 million) cancer deaths globally, with an estimated 250 million (235-264 million) DALYs due to cancer. Since 2010, these represented a 26.3 (95 UI, 20.3-32.3) increase in new cases, a 20.9 (95 UI, 14.2-27.6) increase in deaths, and a 16.0 (95 UI, 9.3-22.8) increase in DALYs. Among 22 groups of diseases and injuries in the GBD 2019 study, cancer was second only to cardiovascular diseases for the number of deaths, years of life lost, and DALYs globally in 2019. Cancer burden differed across SDI quintiles. The proportion of years lived with disability that contributed to DALYs increased with SDI, ranging from 1.4 (1.1-1.8) in the low SDI quintile to 5.7 (4.2-7.1) in the high SDI quintile. While the high SDI quintile had the highest number of new cases in 2019, the middle SDI quintile had the highest number of cancer deaths and DALYs. From 2010 to 2019, the largest percentage increase in the numbers of cases and deaths occurred in the low and low-middle SDI quintiles. Conclusions and Relevance: The results of this systematic analysis suggest that the global burden of cancer is substantial and growing, with burden differing by SDI. These results provide comprehensive and comparable estimates that can potentially inform efforts toward equitable cancer control around the world.. © 2021 American Medical Association. All rights reserved