Static and dynamic experimental study of strengthened inforced short concrete corbel by using carbon fabrics, crack path in shear zone

The paper presents an experimental analysis of tracking the path of the cracks and crack growth instrengthened or repair reinforced concrete short corbels bonded by carbon fiber fabrics under static anddynamic loads.The reinforced short concrete corbel is a used precast element, for industrial buildings and structures. In fact,their functioning interestingly unconventional is compared to classical beam type elements. Then the effects ofbending and shearing are combined in this case. The horizontal reinforced steel is localized to resist to tensilestrength induced in bending top and a transversal strength-absorbing contribution.The introduction of carbon fiber composite in the field of Civil Engineering allows to strengthen or repairreinforced concrete structures using adhesive. So the carbon fiber material has many advantages as its lowweight, flexibility, easier handling and also interesting physicochemical properties. However maintenance of civil engineering works is to protect them by ensuring better sealing or limiting corrosion. Then strengthening is to repair structures by using bonding technique to compensate their rigidity loss and limit the cracking. This allows to improve their performance and durability. Bonding of composite material in tensile zone of corbel retrieves most tensile stress and allows the structure to extend their load-bearing capacity. The local behavior of the structure is measured by means of the extensometer technique based on electrical strain gauges. This technique allowed to measure strains of steel, carbon fiber fabrics and concrete.The results of this investigation showed that strengthened reinforced concrete corbel bonded by carbon fiberfabrics can improve the ultimate load to twice and stiffens less than a third. The ultimate load, strain anddisplacement of the specimen are compared to reference experimental model of monotonic and cyclic appliedloads. The success of strengthening depends strongly on surface preparation conditions. The crackingmechanisms and collapse modes under static and dynamic loadings are presented. The strengthened reinforced concrete short corbel behavior can be presented in three areas: overall elastic area, crack propagation area and opening of diagonal crack area

Identification of genomic groups in the genus Stenotrophomonas using gyrB RFLP analysis

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates have been recovered from various clinical samples, including the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, but this organism is also widespread in nature. Previously it has been shown that there is a considerable genomic diversity within S. maltophilia . The aims of our study were to determine the taxonomic resolution of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the polymerase chain reaction-amplified gyrB gene for the genus Stenotrophomonas . Subsequently, we wanted to use this technique to screen a set of S. maltophilia isolates (with emphasis on a specific subset, isolates recovered from CF patients), to assess the genomic diversity within this group. In this study we investigated 191 Stenotrophomonas sp. isolates (including 40 isolates recovered from CF patients) by means of gyrB RFLP. The taxonomic resolution of gyrB RFLP, and hence its potential as an identification tool, was confirmed by comparison with results from published and novel DNA–DNA hybridisation experiments. Our data also indicate that the majority of CF isolates grouped in two clusters. This may indicate that isolates from specific genomic groups have an increased potential for colonisation of the respiratory tract of CF patients.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72378/1/S0928-8244_03_00307-9.pd

APOBEC3G variants and protection against HIV-1 infection in Burkina Faso

Studies on host factors, particularly the APOBEC3G gene, have previously found an association with AIDS progression in some populations and against some HIV-1 strains but not others. Our study had two main objectives: firstly, to screen a population from Burkina Faso for three variants of APOBEC3G previously described, and secondly to analyze the effect of these three variants and their haplotypes on HIV-1 infection with Circulating Recombinant Forms (CRFs) present in Burkina Faso. This case control study involved 708 seropositive and seronegative individuals. Genotyping was done by the TaqMan allelic discrimination method. Minor allele frequencies of rs6001417 (p<0.05), rs8177832 (P<0.05), and rs35228531 (P<0.001) were higher in seronegative subjects. The rs6001417 and rs8177832 SNPs were associated with HIV-1 infection in an additive model (P<0.01). Furthermore the SNP rs35228531 was also associated with HIV-1 infection in a dominant model (P<0.001). Odds ratio analysis of genotypes and alleles of the different APOBEC3G variants showed that there is a strong association between the minor genetic variants, genotype of the three SNPs, and HIV-1 status. Haplotype analysis demonstrated that rs6001417, rs8177832, and rs35228531 are in linkage disequilibrium. The haplotype GGT from the rs6001417, rs8177832 and rs35228531 respectively has a protective effect OR = 0.54 [0.43-0.68] with P<0.001. There was also associations between the haplotypes GGC OR = 1.6 [1.1;-2.3] P<0.05, and CGC OR = 5.21 [2.4-11.3] P<0.001, which increase the risk of infection by HIV-1 from almost two (2) to five (5) fold. This study demonstrates an association of rs6001417, rs8177832, and rs35228531 of APOBEC3G with HIV-1 infection in a population from Burkina Faso

Static and dynamic experimental study of strengthened reinforced short concrete corbel by using carbon fabrics, crack path in shear zone

The paper presents an experimental analysis of tracking the path of the cracks and crack growth in strengthened or repair reinforced concrete short corbels bonded by carbon fiber fabrics under static and dynamic loads. The reinforced short concrete corbel is a used precast element, for industrial buildings and structures. In fact, their functioning interestingly unconventional is compared to classical beam type elements. Then the effects of bending and shearing are combined in this case. The horizontal reinforced steel is localized to resist to tensile strength induced in bending top and a transversal strength-absorbing contribution. The introduction of carbon fiber composite in the field of Civil Engineering allows to strengthen or repair reinforced concrete structures using adhesive. So the carbon fiber material has many advantages as its low weight, flexibility, easier handling and also interesting physicochemical properties. However maintenance of civil engineering works is to protect them by ensuring better sealing or limiting corrosion. Then strengthening is to repair structures by using bonding technique to compensate their rigidity loss and limit the cracking. This allows to improve their performance and durability. Bonding of composite material in tensile zone of corbel retrieves most tensile stress and allows the structure to extend their load-bearing capacity. The local behavior of the structure is measured by means of the extensometer technique based on electrical strain gauges. This technique allowed to measure strains of steel, carbon fiber fabrics and concrete. The results of this investigation showed that strengthened reinforced concrete corbel bonded by carbon fiber fabrics can improve the ultimate load to twice and stiffens less than a third. The ultimate load, strain and displacement of the specimen are compared to reference experimental model of monotonic and cyclic applied loads. The success of strengthening depends strongly on surface preparation conditions. The cracking mechanisms and collapse modes under static and dynamic loadings are presented. The strengthened reinforced concrete short corbel behavior can be presented in three areas: overall elastic area, crack propagation area and opening of diagonal crack area

X-ray reflectivity studies of a microemulsion surface

The surface structure of the AOT (sodium di-2-ethylsulfosuccinate) microemulsion system with equal volume fractions of D2O and decane, for AOT volume fractions of 0.42, 0.305, and 0.181, has been studied by a combination of x-ray specular reflectivity and scattering from the bulk. Scattering from the bulk material below the surface is consistent with Kotlarchyk’s interpretation of densely packed spherical micelles. Specular reflectivity from the surface implies a surface electron-density profile consistent with one to two layers of microemulsion droplets. The size of and distance between droplets is consistent with the respective values for the droplets in the bulk phase.Engineering and Applied Science