Accelerating corrosion in a laboratory set-up for corrosion-fatigue of offshore steels

Corrosion-fatigue is a dangerous failure mechanism that is not yet fully understood. Structures subjected to corrosion-fatigue are over conservative in design, which is economically unfavourable. To counter this, representative laboratory experiments simulating the corrosion-fatigue conditions of an offshore structure should be performed. Lab testing is, for obvious reasons, performed at frequencies much higher than these of wave and wind actions. However, this means that corrosion needs to be accelerated in the same manner. In this work two different ways to accelerate corrosion were selected, namely temperature and oxygen content adaptation. S-N curves were determined in different test conditions in order to evaluate the damage evolution. It has been found that high temperatures and high levels of oxygen content will result in earlier failure. The fracture surfaces are somewhat different than fracture surfaces obtained due to fatigue in air. More crack initiation sites can be observed and the fracture surface is generally rougher due to corrosion

Towards a national web in a federated country : a Belgian case study

Although the .be domain was introduced in June 1988, the Belgian web is currently not systematically archived. As of August 2016, 1.550.147 domains are registered by DNS Belgium. Without a Belgian web archive, the content of these websites will not be preserved for future generations and a significant portion of Belgian history will be lost forever. In this paper we present the initial findings of a research project exploring the policy, legal, technical and scientific issues around archiving the Belgian web. The aim of this project is to a) identify current best practices in web-archiving b) pilot a Belgian web archive and c) identify research use cases for the scientific study of the Belgian web. This case study is seen as a first step towards implementing a long-term web archiving strategy for Belgium

Adherence to the combination of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine and artesunate in the Maheba refugee settlement, Zambia.

Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is one strategy recommended to increase cure rates in malaria and to contain resistance to Plasmodium falciparum. In the Maheba refugee settlement, children aged 5 years or younger with a confirmed diagnosis of uncomplicated falciparum malaria are treated with the combination of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (1 day) and artesunate (3 days). To measure treatment adherence, home visits were carried out the day after the last treatment dose. Patients who had any treatment dose left were considered certainly non-adherent. Other patients' classification was based on the answers to the questionnaire: patients whose caretakers stated the child had received the treatment regimen exactly as prescribed were considered probably adherent; all other patients were considered probably non-adherent. Reasons for non-adherence were assessed. We found 21.2% (95% CI [15.0-28.4]) of the patients to be certainly non-adherent, 39.4% (95% CI [31.6-47.6]) probably non-adherent, and 39.4% (95% CI [31.6-47.6]) probably adherent. Insufficient explanation by the dispenser was identified as an important reason for non-adherence. When considering the use of ACT, the issue of patient adherence remains challenging. However, it should not be used as an argument against the introduction of ACT. For these treatment regimens to remain efficacious on a long-term basis, specific and locally adapted strategies need to be implemented to ensure completion of the treatment

Assessing the risk of importing dengue and chikungunya viruses to the European Union

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Isolation and sequence of cDNA encoding the motilin precursor from monkey intestine. Demonstration of the motilin precursor in the monkey brain

AbstractThe motilin precursor cDNA has been isolated and sequenced from a cDNA library prepared from monkey small intestine. The sequence indicates a 345 bp open reading frame, a 63 bp 5′ untranslated region and a 154 bp 3′ untranslated region. The sequence encodes a 115 amino acid motilin precursor composed of a 25 amino acid signal peptide, the 22 amino acid motilin peptide and a 68 amino acid motilin associated peptide (MAP). Compared with the human motilin precursor cDNA, there are two amino acid substitutions in the signal peptide, one in motilin and four in the MAP. The presence of the motilin precursor in hypothalamus, hippocampus and cerebellum was demonstrated by RT-PCR

High mortality associated with an outbreak of hepatitis E among displaced persons in Darfur, Sudan

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes acute onset of jaundice and a high case-fatality ratio in pregnant women. We provide a clinical description of hospitalized case patients and assess the specific impact on pregnant women during a large epidemic of HEV infection in a displaced population in Mornay camp (78,800 inhabitants), western Darfur, Sudan. METHODS: We reviewed hospital records. A sample of 20 clinical cases underwent laboratory confirmation. These patients were tested for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody to HEV (serum) and for amplification of the HEV genome (serum and stool). We performed a cross-sectional survey in the community to determine the attack rate and case-fatality ratio in pregnant women. RESULTS: Over 6 months, 253 HEV cases were recorded at the hospital, of which 61 (24.1%) were in pregnant women. A total of 72 cases (39.1% of those for whom clinical records were available) had a diagnosis of hepatic encephalopathy. Of the 45 who died (case-fatality ratio, 17.8%), 19 were pregnant women (specific case-fatality ratio, 31.1%). Acute hepatitis E was confirmed in 95% (19/20) of cases sampled; 18 case-patients were positive for IgG (optical density ratio > or =3), for IgM (optical density ratio >2 ), or for both, whereas 1 was negative for IgG and IgM but positive for HEV RNA in serum. The survey identified 220 jaundiced women among the 1133 pregnant women recorded over 3 months (attack rate, 19.4%). A total of 18 deaths were recorded among these jaundiced pregnant women (specific case-fatality ratio, 8.2%). CONCLUSIONS: This large epidemic of HEV infection illustrates the dramatic impact of this disease on pregnant women. Timely interventions and a vaccine are urgently needed to prevent mortality in this special group

Self-consistent Coulomb picture of an electron-electron bilayer system

In this work we implement the self-consistent Thomas-Fermi approach and a local conductivity model to an electron-electron bilayer system. The presence of an incompressible strip, originating from screening calculations at the top (or bottom) layer is considered as a source of an external potential fluctuation to the bottom (or top) layer. This essentially yields modifications to both screening properties and the magneto-transport quantities. The effect of the temperature, inter-layer distance and density mismatch on the density and the potential fluctuations are investigated. It is observed that the existence of the incompressible strips plays an important role simply due to their poor screening properties on both screening and the magneto-resistance (MR) properties. Here we also report and interpret the observed MR Hysteresis within our model.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR