Betão auto-compactável eco-eficiente de reduzido teor em cimento com incorporação de elevado volume de cinzas volantes e metacaulino

A produção de betão assume um papel muito importante na indústria da construção uma vez que mais de 10 biliões de toneladas são produzidas anualmente, sendo a indústria do cimento responsável pela emissão de cerca de 7% das emissões de CO2 para a atmosfera. Portanto, a produção de betões auto-compactáveis (BAC) eco-eficientes, contendo baixos teores de cimento na sua formulação, contribuirá para a sustentabilidade das construções devido à redução do uso de cimento portland, ao aproveitamento de resíduos industriais, para além da minimização da energia necessária para a sua colocação e compactação. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho pretende avaliar a viabilidade da produção de BAC com baixos teores de cimento através da determinação das propriedades no estado fresco e endurecido de betões com elevado volume de cinzas volantes (CV) e metacaulino (MK). Para tanto foram formuladas 6 composições de betões tendo como base duas referências fabricadas com 300 e 500 kg/m3 de cimento, sendo analisada a sua substituição por: 60% de CV e 50% de CV mais 20% de MK, além da adição de cal hidratada nestes dois traços com adições. Para avaliar a auto-compactabilidade foram realizados testes de espalhamento, T , Anel-J, Funil-V e Caixa-L, tendo sido determinada a resistência à compressão aos 3, 7, 14, 21 e 28 dias. Os resultados mostraram que é possível produzir BAC com baixos teores de cimento através do recurso a elevados teores de adições minerais, atendendo aos requisitos reológicos para a autocompactabilidade, com resistências moderadas de 25 a 30 MPa

Avaliação da hidratação de pastas cimentícias com elevados teores de adições minerais

O uso de adições minerais é uma prática comum na produção de materiais cimentícios. No entanto, a possibilidade de substituir elevados teores de cimento Portland por adições minerais em betões torna pertinente e necessário o estudo da interacção química dessas adições na hidratação conjunta com o cimento. Este artigo avalia a hidratação de misturas de cimento Portland e adições minerais, recorrendo a técnicas de TG/DTG, difracção de raios X e resistência à compressão. Foram analisadas substituições de 50% a 70% da massa de ligante (entendido como a soma do cimento e das adições minerais usadas) por combinações de cinzas volantes e metacaulino, tendo sido ainda avaliadas duas pastas sem adição mineral e duas pastas com a adição de cal. Os resultados demostram que as técnicas de TG/DTG e DRX são indicadas para avaliação da cinética das reacções de hidratação dos materiais cimentícios, sendo possível quantificar a forte redução nos teores de portlandite nas pastas hidratadas com adições minerais em comparação com aquelas sem a adição

Dead or Alive? Implications of the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment for 3-3-1 Models

We have witnessed a persistent puzzling anomaly in the muon magnetic moment that cannot be accounted for in the Standard Model even considering the large hadronic uncertainties. A new measurement is forthcoming, and it might give rise to a $5\sigma$ claim for physics beyond the Standard Model. Motivated by it, we explore the implications of this new result to five models based on the $SU(3)_C \times SU(3)_L \times U(1)_N$ gauge symmetry and put our conclusions into perspective with LHC bounds. We show that previous conclusions found in the context of such models change if there are more than one heavy particle running in the loop. Moreover, having in mind the projected precision aimed by the g-2 experiment at FERMILAB, we place lower mass bounds on the particles that contribute to muon anomalous magnetic moment assuming the anomaly is resolved otherwise. Lastly, we discuss how these models could accommodate such anomaly in agreement with existing bounds.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figure

Harnessing ligand design to develop primary and self-calibrated luminescent thermometers with field-induced single ion magnet behaviour in Dy3+ complexes

Novel complexes {[Dy(LN6en)(OAc)2](NO3)}·2H2O (1·2H2O) and {[Dy(LN6prop)(OAc)2](NO3)}·CHCl3 (2·CHCl3), containing partially flexible symmetric N6 macrocycles, are reported. We explore the influence of the spacer length between two symmetrical N3 rigid moieties of the ligand on their structural, magnetic, and luminescence properties. Crystallographic analysis reveals the presence of Dy3+ ions in distorted tetradecahedral (1·2H2O) or bicapped square antiprism (2·CHCl3) environments. This underscores the increased flexibility of the LN6prop ligand, resulting in greater distortion of the N6 macrocycle plane. Both complexes exhibit single-molecule magnet behaviour under an optimal field of 2000 Oe, with 2·CHCl3 displaying the highest Ueff value of 127 K, despite its less planar N6 macrocycle. Luminescence measurements indicate that the ratio between the integrated intensity of the ligands and that of the the Dy3+ 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 transition can define secondary luminescent thermometers. Maximum relative thermal sensitivity values of 2.3 (1·2H2O) and 5.1% K−1 (2·CHCl3) are achieved. Furthermore, deconvolution of the 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 transition in 2·CHCl3 supports the previous determination of the energy barrier for magnetic relaxation. This permits the demonstration of the first example of a Dy3+ primary luminescent thermometer based on two thermally coupled Kramer's doublets of the 4F9/2 level. Remarkably, 2·CHCl3 is also the first self-calibrated luminescent thermometer with magnetic relaxation operating within the 86–211 K range, showcasing its potential in precise temperature sensing applicationsThis work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020, and LA/P/0006/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). This article is also based upon work from COST Action CA22131, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with Dr Alban N. Carneiro Neto (University of Aveiro) concerning ligand-tometal energy transfer. J. C. V. also thanks Xunta de Galicia for his postdoctoral fellowship (ED481B-2022-068)S

Biochemical and structural characterization of a novel arginine kinase from the spider <i>Polybetes pythagoricus</i>

Energy buffering systems are key for homeostasis during variations in energy supply. Spiders are the most important predators for insects and therefore key in terrestrial ecosystems. From biomedical interest, spiders are important for their venoms and as a source of potent allergens, such as arginine kinase (AK, EC 2.7.3.3). AK is an enzyme crucial for energy metabolism, keeping the pool of phosphagens in invertebrates, and also an allergen for humans. In this work, we studied AK from the Argentininan spider Polybetes pythagoricus (PpAK), from its complementary DNA to the crystal structure. The PpAK cDNA from muscle was cloned, and it is comprised of 1068 nucleotides that encode a 384-amino acids protein, similar to other invertebrate AKs. The apparent Michaelis-Menten kinetic constant (Km) was 1.7 mM with a kcat of 75 s-1. Two crystal structures are presented, the apoPvAK and PpAK bound to arginine, both in the open conformation with the active site lid (residues 310-320) completely disordered. The guanidino group binding site in the apo structure appears to be organized to accept the arginine substrate. Finally, these results contribute to knowledge of mechanistic details of the function of arginine kinase.Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plat

Biochemical and structural characterization of a novel arginine kinase from the spider <i>Polybetes pythagoricus</i>

Energy buffering systems are key for homeostasis during variations in energy supply. Spiders are the most important predators for insects and therefore key in terrestrial ecosystems. From biomedical interest, spiders are important for their venoms and as a source of potent allergens, such as arginine kinase (AK, EC 2.7.3.3). AK is an enzyme crucial for energy metabolism, keeping the pool of phosphagens in invertebrates, and also an allergen for humans. In this work, we studied AK from the Argentininan spider Polybetes pythagoricus (PpAK), from its complementary DNA to the crystal structure. The PpAK cDNA from muscle was cloned, and it is comprised of 1068 nucleotides that encode a 384-amino acids protein, similar to other invertebrate AKs. The apparent Michaelis-Menten kinetic constant (Km) was 1.7 mM with a kcat of 75 s-1. Two crystal structures are presented, the apoPvAK and PpAK bound to arginine, both in the open conformation with the active site lid (residues 310-320) completely disordered. The guanidino group binding site in the apo structure appears to be organized to accept the arginine substrate. Finally, these results contribute to knowledge of mechanistic details of the function of arginine kinase.Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plat

Fault-tolerant aggregation: Flow-Updating meets Mass-Distribution

Flow-Updating (FU) is a fault-tolerant technique that has proved to be efficient in practice for the distributed computation of aggregate functions in communication networks where individual processors do not have access to global information. Previous distributed aggregation protocols, based on repeated sharing of input values (or mass) among processors, sometimes called Mass-Distribution (MD) protocols, are not resilient to communication failures (or message loss) because such failures yield a loss of mass. In this paper, we present a protocol which we call Mass-Distribution with Flow-Updating (MDFU). We obtain MDFU by applying FU techniques to classic MD. We analyze the convergence time of MDFU showing that stochastic message loss produces low overhead. This is the first convergence proof of an FU-based algorithm. We evaluate MDFU experimentally, comparing it with previous MD and FU protocols, and verifying the behavior predicted by the analysis. Finally, given that MDFU incurs a fixed deviation proportional to the message-loss rate, we adjust the accuracy of MDFU heuristically in a new protocol called MDFU with Linear Prediction (MDFU-LP). The evaluation shows that both MDFU and MDFU-LP behave very well in practice, even under high rates of message loss and even changing the input values dynamically.- A preliminary version of this work appeared in [2]. This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (CNS-1408782, IIS-1247750); the National Institutes of Health (CA198952-01); EMC, Inc.; Pace University Seidenberg School of CSIS; and by Project "Coral - Sustainable Ocean Exploitation: Tools and Sensors/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000036" financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prognostic value of discharge heart rate in acute heart failure patients: More relevant in atrial fibrillation?

Aims: The prognostic impact of heart rate (HR) in acute heart failure (AHF) patients is not well known especially in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of admission HR, discharge HR, HR difference (admission-discharge) in AHF patients with sinus rhythm (SR) or AF on long- term outcomes. Methods: We included 1398 patients consecutively admitted with AHF between October 2013 and December 2014 from a national multicentre, prospective registry. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between admission HR, discharge HR and HR difference and one- year all-cause mortality and HF readmission. Results: The mean age of the study population was 72+/-12years. Of these, 594 (42.4%) were female, 655 (77.8%) were hypertensive and 655 (46.8%) had diabetes. Among all included patients, 745 (53.2%) had sinus rhythm and 653 (46.7%) had atrial fibrillation. Only discharge HR was associated with one year all-cause mortality (Relative risk (RR)=1.182, confidence interval (CI) 95% 1.024-1.366, p=0.022) in SR. In AF patients discharge HR was associated with one year all cause mortality (RR=1.276, CI 95% 1.115-1.459, p</=0.001). We did not observe a prognostic effect of admission HR or HRD on long-term outcomes in both groups. This relationship is not dependent on left ventricular ejection fraction. Conclusions: In AHF patients lower discharge HR, neither the admission nor the difference, is associated with better long-term outcomes especially in AF patients

B→τμ(X)B\to\tau\mu (X) decays in SUSY models without R-parity

Being strictly forbidden in the standard model, experimental detection of the lepton flavor violating decays $B(\bar B)\to\tau^+\mu^-$ and $b(\bar b)\to X\tau^+\mu^-$ would constitute an unmistakable indication of new physics. We study these decays in supersymmetric models without R-parity and without lepton number. In order to derive order of magnitude predictions for the branching ratios, we assume a horizontal U(1) symmetry with horizontal charges chosen to explain the magnitude of fermion masses and quark mixing angles. We find that the branching ratios for decays with a $\tau\mu$ pair in the final state are not particularly suppressed with respect to the lepton flavor conserving channels. In general in these models {\rm B}[b\to\mu^+\mu^-(X)]\lsim {\rm B}[b(\bar b)\to\tau^+\mu^-(X)] \lsim {\rm B}[b\to\tau^+\tau^-(X)]. While in some cases the rates for final states $\tau^+\tau^-$ can be up to one order of magnitude larger than the lepton flavor violating channel, due to better efficiencies for muon detection and to the absence of standard model contributions, decays into $\tau\mu$ final states appear to be better suited to reveal this kind of new physics.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 3 ps-figures (uses epsfig.sty) Minor typos corrected, one normalization factor added to Eq. (3.11). To be published on Phys. Rev.

The APOGEE-2 Survey of the Orion Star Forming Complex: I. Target Selection and Validation with early observations

The Orion Star Forming Complex (OSFC) is a central target for the APOGEE-2 Young Cluster Survey. Existing membership catalogs span limited portions of the OSFC, reflecting the difficulty of selecting targets homogeneously across this extended, highly structured region. We have used data from wide field photometric surveys to produce a less biased parent sample of young stellar objects (YSOs) with infrared (IR) excesses indicative of warm circumstellar material or photometric variability at optical wavelengths across the full 420 square degrees extent of the OSFC. When restricted to YSO candidates with H < 12.4, to ensure S/N ~100 for a six visit source, this uniformly selected sample includes 1307 IR excess sources selected using criteria vetted by Koenig & Liesawitz and 990 optical variables identified in the Pan-STARRS1 3$\pi$ survey: 319 sources exhibit both optical variability and evidence of circumstellar disks through IR excess. Objects from this uniformly selected sample received the highest priority for targeting, but required fewer than half of the fibers on each APOGEE-2 plate. We fill the remaining fibers with previously confirmed and new color-magnitude selected candidate OSFC members. Radial velocity measurements from APOGEE-1 and new APOGEE-2 observations taken in the survey's first year indicate that ~90% of the uniformly selected targets have radial velocities consistent with Orion membership.The APOGEE-2 Orion survey will include >1100 bona fide YSOs whose uniform selection function will provide a robust sample for comparative analyses of the stellar populations and properties across all sub-regions of Orion.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ