Influence of fly ash blending on hydration and physical behavior of Belite-Alite-Ye'elimite cements

A cement powder, composed of belite, alite and ye’elimite, was blended with 0, 15 and 30 wt% of fly ash and the resulting lended cements were further characterized. During hydration, the presence of fly ash caused the partial inhibition of both AFt degradation and belite reactivity, even after 180 days. The compressive strength of the corresponding mortars increased by increasing the fly ash content (68, 73 and 82 MPa for mortars with 0, 15 and 30 wt% of fly ash, respectively, at 180 curing days), mainly due to the diminishing porosity and pore size values. Although pozzolanic reaction has not been directly proved there are indirect evidences.This work is part of the Ph.D. of D. Londono-Zuluaga funded by Beca Colciencias 646—Doctorado en el exterior and Enlaza Mundos 2013 program grant. Cement and Building materials group (CEMATCO) from National University of Colombia is acknowledged for providing the calorimetric measurements. Funding from Spanish MINECO BIA2017-82391-R and I3 (IEDI-2016-0079) grants, co-funded by FEDER, are acknowledged

Characterisation of Perovskites in a Calcium Sulfo Aluminate Cement

International audienceCalcium sulfo aluminate cement (CSA) is a promising low CO2 footprint alternative to Portland cement. The phase assemblage of a commercial CSA cement was investigated by a combination of XRD, SEM-EDX and selective extraction techniques. This study focused on the composition of perovsite phases present in the cement

Biomarkers of therapeutic responses in chronic Chagas disease: state of the art and future perspectives

The definition of a biomarker provided by the World Health Organization is any substance, structure, or process that can be measured in the body, or its products and influence, or predict the incidence or outcome of disease. Currently, the lack of prognosis and progression markers for chronic Chagas disease has posed limitations for testing new drugs to treat this neglected disease. Several molecules and techniques to detect biomarkers in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected patients have been proposed to assess whether specific treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is effective. Isolated proteins or protein groups from different T. cruzi stages and parasite-derived glycoproteins and synthetic neoglycoconjugates have been demonstrated to be useful for this purpose, as have nucleic acid amplification techniques. The amplification of T. cruzi DNA using the real-time polymerase chain reaction method is the leading test for assessing responses to treatment in a short period of time. Biochemical biomarkers have been tested early after specific treatment. Cytokines and surface markers represent promising molecules for the characterisation of host cellular responses, but need to be further assessed.RICET RD12/0018/0010. RICET RD12/0018/0021. AGAUR 2014SGR26. Plan Nacional de I+D+I SAF2012-35777. Plan Nacional de I+D+I SAF2013-48527-R. NIMHD/NIH 2G12MD007592. Financial support: CRESIB and IPBLN research members were partially supported by the RICET (RD12/0018/0010, RD12/0018/0021), M-JP and JG received research funds from AGAUR (2014SGR26) and Fundación Mundo Sano, M-CT and M-CL were supported by Plan Nacional de I+D+I (MINECO-Spain) (SAF2012-35777, SAF2013-48527-R and FEDER), ICA was partially supported by NIMHD/NIH (2G12MD007592). Financial support: CRESIB and IPBLN research members were partially supported by the RICET (RD12/0018/0010, RD12/0018/0021), M-JP and JG received research funds from AGAUR (2014SGR26) and Fundación Mundo Sano, M-CT and M-CL were supported by Plan Nacional de I+D+I (MINECO-Spain) (SAF2012-35777, SAF2013-48527-R and FEDER), ICA was partially supported by NIMHD/NIH (2G12MD007592).Peer reviewe

Differential Phenotypic and Functional Profiles of TcCA-2 -Specific Cytotoxic CD8+ T Cells in the Asymptomatic versus Cardiac Phase in Chagasic Patients

It has been reported that the immune response mediated by T CD8+ lymphocytes plays a critical role in the control of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and that the clinical symptoms of Chagas disease appear to be related to the competence of the CD8+ T immune response against the parasite. Herewith, in silico prediction and binding assays on TAP-deficient T2 cells were used to identify potential HLA-A*02:01 ligands in the T. cruzi TcCA-2 protein. The TcCA-2-specific CD8+ T cells were functionality evaluated by Granzyme B and cytokine production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from Chagas disease patients stimulated with the identified HLA-A*02:01 peptides. The specific cells were phenotypically characterized by flow cytometry using several surface markers and HLA-A*02:01 APC-labeled dextramer loaded with the peptides. In the T. cruzi TcCA-2 protein four T CD8+ epitopes were identified which are processed and presented during Chagas disease. Interestingly, a differential cellular phenotypic profile could be correlated with the severity of the disease. The TcCA-2-specific T CD8+ cells from patients with cardiac symptoms are mainly effector memory cells (TEM and TEMRA) while, those present in the asymptomatic phase are predominantly naive cells (TNAIVE). Moreover, in patients with cardiac symptoms the percentage of cells with senescence features is significantly higher than in patients at the asymptomatic phase of the disease. We consider that the identification of these new class I-restricted epitopes are helpful for designing biomarkers of sickness pathology as well as the development of immunotherapies against T. cruzi infection.This work was supported by grants SAF2012-35777 and SAF2013-48527-R from Programa Estatal I+D+i (MINECO); Network of Tropical Diseases Research RICET, grants RD12/0018/0021 and RD12/0018/0018 (MSSSI, Spain) and FEDER. MS and BC were also supported by grant FIS, 2009SGR385 from ISCIII (MSSSI, Spain). Coauthor Concepción Marañón is employed by Genomic Medicine Department, GENYO. Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research: Pfizer / University of Granada / Andalusian Regional Government. Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research: Pfizer / University of Granada / Andalusian Regional Government provided support in the form of salaries for author Concepción Marañón, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the author contributions section.Peer reviewe