Analysis of Above-Ground Steel Storage Tanks Resting Over Piles or Stone Columns

Static and dynamic behavior of above-ground steel storage oil tanks resting on end bearing piles or stone columns are studied and analyzed using ADINA (2019) program. The studied soil profile is an upper soft clay soil layer, followed by an extended dense sand layer. The main purpose of this research is to explore to what extent stone columns can be used as an effective alternative to concrete piles under steel storage tanks. Therefore, many three-dimensional numerical models are conducted to analyze and study the performance of such tanks in both static and dynamic cases. Ten of the studied cases are steel tanks resting over stone columns with different numbers and properties. On other hand, one model studied the behavior of steel tank resting on large diameter concrete piles. Results indicate that stone columns can be used instead of end bearing piles as long as the computed settlements are safe. In addition, stone columns are behaving better than concrete piles in decreasing of hoop stress in tank shell. It is also noticed that stone columns with high elastic modulus are effective in reducing the sloshing height of the oil surface during earthquakes

Assessment for the Environmental Impacts of Chemical Constituents’ Percentage Variation for Ceramic Manufacturing

Ceramic tile manufacturing process is energy intensive since within several stages the product is subject to thermal treatment. The source of thermal energy used is by combustion of natural gas. Unfortunately, the oxidation of this fossil fuel produces greenhouse gases. The impact severity on environment and humans is influenced by the chemical composition of ceramic. Hence the objective of this research is to study the effect of changing the percentage of seven samples with the most effective composition of ceramic used in many countries.  The selected impact categories for the study were global warming, Climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and human toxicity. The constituents’ percentages of ceramic manufacturing have been evaluated using GABI vs OpenLCA. It was found that lowering the percentage of Silicon dioxide in the mixture from 51.01% to 87.8 leads to an overall emission reduction of 28% and the differences between the results were close for both software

What the Analysis of 136 Studies from 1960 to 2020 Tells Us About Comparative Regionalism Studies

International audienceIn recent years (from the late 1990s to 2020), the number of studies comparing regional integration processes around the world has increased significantly. However, the number of papers aiming to group and analyse these studies in order to determine the main trends in the field is still very limited. We attempt to fill this gap by analysing 136 studies (journal articles, book chapters, institutional reports, working papers, research centre publications and university papers such as dissertations and theses) from 1960 to 2020. In this article, we identify the main terms used in comparative regionalism studies and their evolution. We present the historical development of the field and identify the main organisations that are often compared in these studies. We also present the main points of comparison and the methods used in these studies, and discuss the case of the European integration model in comparative regionalism studies (the n=1 problem). This work creates and analyses one of the largest databases available on comparative regionalism studies. It can therefore facilitate the work of students and researchers interested in comparative regionalism and contribute to the development of this field of research

Pseudo-lesions of a tortuous right coronary artery during percutaneous coronary intervention: Accordion phenomena

Guidewire-induced pseudo-lesions are referred to accordion phenomenon and are infrequent occurrences during percutaneous coronary intervention of tortuous coronary arteries. Their occurrence can be a diagnostic challenge to the interventionist and might lead to unnecessary intervention. Ischemia and hemodynamic compromise are possible complications, if not managed promptly. The differential diagnosis includes coronary dissection, thrombus, and spasm. We describe a patient who developed pseudo-lesions of the tortuous right coronary artery in multiple segments during PCI. The pseudo-lesions were refractory to intracoronary nitrogycerin

Early predictors of cardiac dysfunction in Egyptian children with chronic kidney disease

Background: Cardiovascular morbidity (CVM) is the main etiology of mortality in children and adolescents with chronic kidney disease (CKD). CKD associated cardiovascular mortality is more common in children with diastolic cardiac dysfunction which was considered as an early indicator for death, while increased left ventricular mass (LVM) is a strong independent risk factor for these patients. Vitamin D deficiency was previously studied as one of the risk factors for CVM. Aim: The aim of the work was to investigate the relationship between biomarkers of mineral bone disorder including serum 25(OH) Vitamin D3 (25-OH D3), phosphorus and calcium × phosphorus (Ca×Po4) product with diastolic cardiac function and LVM in children and adolescents with CKD. Subjects and Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study. Participants were classified into two groups: Group I including 86 pediatric patients with CKD (stages 4 or 5) and Group II including 40 healthy controls. Group I was subdivided into IA included children with diastolic dysfunction and IB included cases without diastolic dysfunction. 25-OH D3 level was measured by enhanced chemiluminescence method and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) by electrochemiluminescence method. Parameters for diastolic function and LVM were assessed by Doppler echocardiography, tissue Doppler imaging, and M-mode echocardiography. Results: 25-OH D3 level was significantly lower in Group I when compared to Group II. Diastolic dysfunction was present in 48.8% of the studied patients and was significantly associated with increased serum phosphorus and calcium-phosphorus product but not with decreased level of 25-OH D3. There was a significant positive correlation between LVM and iPTH. Conclusions: Hyperphosphatemia and high Ca×Po4 product were considered of prognostic value as they predict early diastolic dysfunction and increased LVM in children with CKD

PERFORMANCE OF ORTHOGON AL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (OFDM) UNDER THE EFFECT OF WIRELESS TRANSMISSION SYSTEM DRAWBACKS

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple xer (OFDM) technology is a key technique for achieving the high dat a rate and spectral efficiency requirements for wireless communicati on systems of the near future. This paper presents a modeling and simulati on of OFDM by MATLAB& Simulink. Different modulation schemes hav e been used, such as BPSK, QPSK, DBPSK, DQPSK, 8PSK and 16PSK. The paper concentrated on Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK) as a modulation scheme since it achieved high data rate and very good per formance. As part of this, an investigation of detrimental effe cts of wireless transmission system drawbacks on OFDM is presented, showing the effect of band pass filtering, Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) on modulation Bit Error Rate (BER). The paper also presents how OFDM deal with other transmission drawbacks such as attenuation, multipath, delay spread and Doppler shif

Role of interleukin-35 in rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis and its relation to disease activity and joint damage

Aim This study aimed to discuss the role of interleukin-35 (IL-35) in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its relation to disease activity and radiological severity. Patients and methods Thirty patients diagnosed with RA were selected from the outpatient clinic and inpatient unit of Physical Medicine, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Department, Tanta University Hospitals fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism 2010 criteria for the diagnosis of RA, and 20 apparently healthy individuals who were matched in age and sex participated as controls. Patients with other autoimmune diseases, malignancy, or any current infections were excluded. Disease activity score in 28 joints was assessed for all patients. Rheumatoid factor, anticyclic citrullinated peptide, complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein and serum level of IL-35 measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were evaluated. The degree of joint destruction was assessed by Larsen score. Results Of the RA patients, 73.3%showed low serum levels of IL-35 with significant difference compared with controls, and its levels showed negative association with disease activity. IL-35 serum levels were significantly correlated with hemoglobin level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and rheumatoid factor and not correlated with anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies. Also IL-35 serum levels significantly correlated with radiological disease severity were assessed by Larsen score. Conclusion IL-35 had an immunoregulatory role in RA pathogenesis as its serum level is significantly low in RA patients and correlated with different parameters of disease activity and radiological severity