Improved confinement of reinforced concrete columns

AbstractTraditional steel ties reinforcement cannot provide superior confinement for reinforced concrete (RC) columns due to the constraints on tie spacing and disturbance of concrete continuity. This paper presents a practical confinement configuration consisting of single Expanded Metal Mesh (EMM) layer in additional to regular tie reinforcement. The EMM layer is warped above ties. The proposed transverse reinforcement, with various volumetric ratios of ties, was investigated in sixteen square short RC column specimens categorized in two groups according to their slenderness ratios. The specimens were cast in vertical position simulating the construction field and they were tested under concentric compression till failure. The results indicated that the columns, confined with proposed lateral reinforcement, revealed significant improvement in the strength and ductility. Also, high reduction in ties volumetric ratio with no loss in ultimate load could be achieved by installing the EMM layer

On manimax theory in two Hilbert spaces

In this paper, we investigated the minimax of the bifunction J:H1(Ω)xV2→RmxRn, such that J(v1,v2)=((12a(v1,v1)−L(v1)),v2) where a(.,.) is a finite symmetric bilinear bicontinuous, coercive form on H1(Ω) and L belongs to the dual of H1(Ω)

Formal Specification and Automatic Verification of Conditional Commitments

Developing and implementing a model checker dedicated to conditional logic with the user interface are urgent requirements for determining whether agents comply with their commitment protocols

Acute lower respiratory tract infection due to respiratory syncytial virus in a group of Egyptian children under 5 years of age

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background and aim</p> <p>Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most important causes of acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI) in infants and young children. This study was conducted to describe the epidemiology of ALRTI associated with RSV among children ≤ 5 years old in Egypt.</p> <p>Patients and Methods</p> <p>We enrolled 427 children ≤ 5 years old diagnosed with ALRTI attending the outpatient clinic or Emergency Department (ED) of Children Hospital, Cairo University during a one- year period. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained from the patients, kept on ice and processed within 2 hours of collection. Immunoflourescent assay (IFA) for RSV was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>91 cases (21.3%) had viral etiology with RSV antigens detected in 70 cases (16.4%). The RSV positive cases were significantly younger than other non-RSV cases (mean age 8.2 months versus 14.2 months, p <0.001). RSV cases had significantly higher respiratory rate in the age group between 2-11 months (mean 58.4 versus 52.7/minute, p < 0.001) and no significant difference in the mean respiratory rate in the age group between 12-59 months. More RSV cases required supplemental oxygen (46% versus 23.5%, p < 0.001) with higher rate of hospitalization (37.1% versus 11.2%, p < 0.001) than the non-RSV cases. 97% of RSV cases occurred in winter season (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>RSV is the most common viral etiology of ALRTI in children below 5 years of age, especially in young infants below 6 months of age. It is more prevalent in winter and tends to cause severe infection.</p

Age and sex-related differences in performance, carcass traits, hemato–biochemical parameters, and meat quality in Japanese quails

ABSTRACT The effect of sex and age of Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) on their performance, blood biochemical parameters, carcass traits, and meat quality was evaluated in this experiment. A total of 450, 3-wk-old Japanese quails (225 males and 225 females) were equally divided into six groups (75 birds each) in a 2 × 3 factorial design, including two sex (male and female) and three slaughter ages (5, 6, and 7 wk of age). Each group was subdivided into five replicates each of 15 birds. The body weight (BW) and feed intake (FI) values were significantly higher in female quails than in males, and these values showed an increasing trend with age. Female quails recorded the higher percentages of liver and giblets, and lower heart percentage than males. Sex × age interaction had a significant impact on carcass parameters except for breast and thigh yield. No significant sex-based differences were detected for quail meat chemical composition except for meat fat content. Moisture and ash content of meat were gradually deceased with age. Meat from female showed higher values for tenderness, intramuscular fat percentage (IMF), and meat lightness, but showed lower values of water holding capacity (WHC) and meat redness. Meat juiciness and tenderness decreased, while WHC, IMF, and meat redness increased with age. Mean values of red blood cells (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb), and white blood cells (WBC) were higher (