Flexural behavior of CFRP-strengthened reinforced concrete beams rubberized with finely minced rubber tire

Although using rubber to create reinforced concrete substrates has many benefits, using rubberized concrete substrates, such as beams, is still limited. Where concrete with rubber included in it starts to lose a percentage of its mechanical qualities, such as flexural strength. Conversely, a significant portion of structural uses for strengthening reinforced concrete beams using exterior carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets are for flexural strengthening. This study used externally bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to compensate for the reduction in flexural strength when creating rubberized concrete beams. The reinforced concrete beams used in this study were divided into three groups, each with three beams. Waste tire rubber was replaced (5%) of the fine aggregate volume in the first group and replaced (10%) in the second group. The reference group consists of the third set of beams. The first concrete beam in any group was always devoid of external strengthening, the second beam had one layer and the third beam had two layers of (CFRP) sheet. The third layer of strengthening was numerically represented using ABAQUS, a finite element analysis program. The results indicate that for two-volume replacement rates of fine aggregate (5 and 10) %, a decrease in ductility will have been accompanied by an improvement in the flexural strength of the rubberized concrete beam when externally strengthening with one, two, and three layers of (CFRP) sheets

Myocarditis mimicking acute coronary syndrome - the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of myocardium with a wide range of clinical presentations. Myocarditis may mimic acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and adequate differential diagnosis is not possible by conventional tests. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as a leading imaging modality in the diagnosis of myocarditis in such patients. Here, we report three cases of myocarditis mimicking ACS with normal coronary arteries. CMR was used for confirming the diagnosis of myocarditis in all three patients presented here

Prognostic significance of ischaemic electrocardiographic changes during stress testing in patients with normal nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging

Objective: To evaluate cardiovascular outcomes in patients with normal nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging, but ischaemic electrocardiogram changes during pharmacological or exercise stress tests.Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of patients who underwent either pharmacological or exercise stress myocardial perfusion scan and had a normal scan with ischaemic electrocardiogram changes between January 2013 and December 2014. All cardiac events, including angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, coronary revascularisation and cardiac death, as well as non-cardiac deaths were noted. Data was analysed using STATA 14.2.Results: Of the 2770 patients whose data was initially checked, 296(10.6%) developed ischaemic electrocardiogram changes during the stress test but had normal myocardial perfusion scan. Of them, 181(61%) patients were male, and the overall mean age was 62±15 years. Follow-up data was available for 280(94.5%) of these patients, with a mean follow-up of 48±7 months. Of these patients, 8(2.8%) died, and 1(0.3%) of them died due to inferior wall myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction was found in 2(0.7%) patients, and 1(0.3%) patient was hospitalised with heart failure. Also, 12(4.3%) patients underwent revascularization for stable angina, 9(3.2%) underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and 3(1.07%) needed coronary artery bypass grafting.Conclusions: Ischaemic electrocardiographic changes during stress testing in patients with normal myocardial perfusion scan were not associated with adverse outcomes, and the risk of cardiovascular events was relatively low for an intermediate follow-up period

Retrospective Analysis of Metabolic syndrome: Prevalence and Distribution in Executive Population in Urban Pakistan.

Background. Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is a major public health concern. Objective. The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of MetS, its components, and factors associated with MetS amongst apparently healthy individuals in Pakistan. Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the executive Clinics of Aga Khan Hospital, Pakistan. Medical records of patients aged ≥18 years visiting the clinics from July 2011 to December 2011 were consecutively reviewed. Records in which either MetS components data or 10% of overall data was missing were excluded. A total of 1329 participants’ records was included in final analysis. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 19 and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with MetS. Results. A total of 847 (63.7%) participants had MetS; mean age of the participants were 47.6 ± 11.6 years. About 70.4% were males and 29.6% were females. Approximately 70% of participants had BMI ≥25 kg/m2. MetS was associated with male gender (AOR = 2.1; 95% C.I: 1.6–3.2) and history of diabetes among parents (AOR = 3.0; 95% C.I: 1.6–6.0). Conclusion. This study shows that a large proportion of population has MetS and is overweight or obese. This requires urgent interventions on part of health care providers’ especially family physicians. Educating masses about life style factors can make a difference. Further researches on this issue are warranted

Data protection based neural cryptography and deoxyribonucleic acid

The need to a robust and effective methods for secure data transferring makes the more credible. Two disciplines for data encryption presented in this paper: machine learning and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to achieve the above goal and following common goals: prevent unauthorized access and eavesdropper. They used as powerful tool in cryptography. This paper grounded first on a two modified Hebbian neural network (MHNN) as a machine learning tool for message encryption in an unsupervised method. These two modified Hebbian neural nets classified as a: learning neural net (LNN) for generating optimal key ciphering and ciphering neural net CNN) for coding the plaintext using the LNN keys. The second granulation using DNA nucleated to increase data confusion and compression. Exploiting the DNA computing operations to upgrade data transmission security over the open nets. The results approved that the method is effective in protect the transferring data in a secure manner in less tim

The Efficiency of the Eichhornia Crassipes (Mart)Solms in the Absorption Contamination Water before Discharge in the Tigris River

Carried out this study in the College of Agriculture and forestry / Mosul University during growing season of the water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes (Mart)Solms  for 2012 included the experiment two factors , first the quality of the water and second time periods of sampling where the measurement of the proportion of heavy elements from the stream of the valley of the Al-Kraze , which is in the effluent  of AL-kosar , and then the Tigris River .in a week if I took samples of the water before entering the receptacle of cultivated plants is the water hyacinth, and then take samples after the presence of water with the plants for two days . Showed results high efficiency water hyacinth in the absorption of mineral elements including heavy with salts with modification number  the EC of the water course of the valley of the Al-Kraze, where it is absorbed by the water entering into the zone of plant growth through the summer months quantities of salinity, nitrate, phosphate, copper, zinc, lead and cadmium of up to 6,4٪ , 55,9٪ , 38,7٪ , 65,8٪ , 51,3٪ , 51,9٪ , 65,6٪ respectively also reduced the number the pH of the water at a rate of 0,21 . Although there is variation in the rates of salinity and the elements present in the water during the time periods of July to September , it has obsorp the plant higher amounts of the element of copper, lead and cadmium in the month of September, while, obsorp the highest level of salinity, nitrate, phosphorus, and zinc, in the month of July . Keywords: pollution, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart)Solms , period of time, quality of water, waste water, heavy meta

Flexural behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete beams comprising coarse and fine rubber and strengthened by CFRP sheets

Despite having many advantages, using rubber to produce reinforced concrete members like beams is still restricted. When there is more waste tire rubber in concrete structures, rubber concrete's flexural and compressive strengths gradually decrease. However, this study used steel fibers to improve compressive strength and externally bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to increase flexural strength. Four groups of three reinforced concrete beams each were established for the study's use. The first and third groups of concrete beams used a volumetric replacement of fine and coarse aggregates with 5% and 10% waste tire rubber. However, steel fibers were added to the second and third groups at a rate of 1.25% of the concrete volume. Waste tire rubber and steel fibers were not replaced or added to the fourth group, the main reference group. The dimensions of each beam were 2.1×0.2×0.3 m. A concrete beam's first member is always free of external reinforcement, followed by its second member, which has one layer, and its third member, which has two layers of CFRP sheet. ABAQUS, a finite element analysis program, was used numerically to represent the third strengthening layer. The results showed that strengthening the reinforced rubberized concrete beams with a single layer of CFRP sheets increased the load at first crack and failure by 8.57% and 17.64%, respectively, compared to the unreinforced reference beam, compensating for the loss caused by the production of rubberized concrete and adding additional flexural strength. These loads increased by 31.43% and 26.45%, respectively, due to the steel fibers added to the beams containing these waste tire rubber. Strengthening with two layers of CFRP sheets increased the load at first crack and failure by 17.14 and 34.27, respectively. The steel fibers added to the beams that contained these amounts of waste tire rubber, on the other hand, caused these loads to increase by 42.86 and 49.23%, respectively. Strengthening with three layers numerically results in an exponential increase in load at the first crack and the failure by 8.03 and 52.88%, respectively. On the other hand, the loads on the beams that contained these quantities of waste tire rubber increased by 50.49% and 104.47%, respectively, when steel fibers were added to them

SOLID PHASE MICROBIAL FERMENTATION OF ANABOLIC STEROID, DIHYDROTESTOSTERONE WITH ASCOMYCETE FUNGUS FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM

Objective: Microbial catalysis is used in the commercial production of many bioactive steroids. Solid phase microbial fermentation of anabolic steroid, dihydrotestosterone (DHT, 1), was carried out with ascomycete fungal strain Fusarium oxysporum (NRRL-1392).Methods: Sabouraud-4% glucose-agar was used to cultivate the fungal cultures as solid phase medium. Substrate 1 was incubated with Fusarium oxysporum (NRRL-1392) for 8 days. Microbial transformed metabolites were purified by using column chromatographic technique. Results: Ascomycete fungal strain Fusarium oxysporum (NRRL-1392), transformed dihydrotestosterone (1) to four oxidative metabolites 2-5  using solid phase microbial transformation metod. During biotransformation process the hydroxy group was incorporated in inactivated methine carbon atoms at C-7 and C-11 positions. Their structures were elucidated by means of a homo and heteronuclear 2D NMR and by HREI-MS techniques as 17b-hydroxyandrosta-1, 4-dien-3-one 2, androsta-1, 4-diene-3, 17-dione 3, 7a, 17b-dihydroxyandrosta-1, 4-dien-3-one (4), and 11a-hydroxyandrosta-1, 4-diene-3, 17-dione 5. The relative stereochemistry of newly incorporated hydroxy groups were deduced by 2D NOESY experiment.Conclusion: In conclusion, microbial biocatalysis is an attractive alternative tool for the preparation of new bioactive steroids, which might be difficult to prepare by conventional chemical routes. Furthermore, microbial-catalyzed biotransformations can produce commercially valuable steroidal pharmaceuticals for the pharmaceutical industry.Â

SOLID PHASE MICROBIAL REACTIONS OF SEX HORMONE, TRANS-ANDROSTERONE WITH FILAMENTOUS FUNGI

Objective: A microbial biotransformation study was performed on trans-androsterone (1) using solid phase medium. In the present context, trans-androsterone (1), a sex hormone was fermented with two filamentous fungi, Rhizopus stolonifer (black bread mold) and Fusarium lini.Methods: Sabouraud-4% glucose-agar were used to cultivate the fungal cultures as solid phase medium. Substrate 1 was incubated with R. stolonifer (ATCC 10404) and F. lini (NRRL 68751) for 8 days. Microbial transformed metabolites were purified by using column chromatographic technique. Results: The metabolism study of 1 revealed that various metabolites were detected when incubated with filamentous fungi. A total of 3 transformed products were obtained. The reactions occurred that exhibited diversity; including selective hydroxylation at C-6 and C-7 along with oxidation occurs at C-3 positions. Their structure and identified on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data (NMR, HREIMS, IR and UV) as 3b,7b-dihydroxy-5a-androstan-17-one 2 in a good yield (58%), 6b-hydroxy-5a-androstan-3,17-dione 3, and 3b,6b-dihydroxy-5a-androstan-17-one 4.Conclusion: Solid phase microbial transformation method can successfully be used for the development of new steroidal drugs. The modified steroidal molecules could favor when compared to their natural counterparts due to several medicinal advantages.Â

MICROBIAL OXIDATION OF FINASTERIDE WITH MACROPHOMINA PHASEOLINA(KUCC 730)

Objectives: New  microbial oxidative derivatives of Finasteride [17β-(N-tert-butylcarbamoyl)-4-aza-5α-androst-1-en-3-one] (1) has been investigated with Macrophomina phaseolina (ATCC730).Methods: Fermented media of  Macrophomina phaseolina (ATCC730) was prepared to cultivate the fungal cultures . Substrate 1 was incubated in liquid media for 16 days. After sixteen days, filtration and extraction of the fermented media was carried out with 9 L DCM in three portions. Resulting organic extract was dried using anhydrous (Na2SO4), and evaporated to afford a brown gum (950 mg). This on chromatographic purification with MeOH in CH2Cl2 afforded the metabolites 2-4 . Results: Three oxidised metabolites of finasteride (1) which were identified as 15-oxo-finasteride (2), 11a-hydroxyfinasteride (3), and 15β-hydroxyfinasteride (4). Metabolite 2 was found to be new. The structure of the oxidised metabolites were elucidated by 1-D (1H, 13C) and 2-D NMR (COSY, HMBC, HMQC, NOESY) techniques and MS analyses.Conclusion: As a result of these study, oxidation at C-7, C-11 and C-15 positions were found. Metabolite 2 was identified as a new metabolite