Evaluation of FRP concrete compression member under repeated load and harsh environment

Strengthening and rehabilitation have been increasingly applied in many structures to improve their capacity and serviceability. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials are universally known for their ability to improve the load capacity of damaged structural elements because of their high linear-elastic behavior. However, enhancing the capacity of structural elements that are exposed to repeated load coupled with harsh environment is an area that requires further investigation. This research focused on experimental analysis of the behavior and response of confined and unconfined concrete compression members (300mm x 150mm) under repeated load while exposed to 1440 cycles of seawater splash zone in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Confining concrete compression members with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) sheets have increased the load capacity compared to the control sample at room temperature by 110% and 84%, respectively. Results showed that the average value of compressive strength for the confined concrete exposed to sea water splash zone conditions for CFRP and GFRP specimens has decreased by 33% and 23%, respectively, compared to the confined concrete in the room temperature. However, GFRP specimens showed higher performance in compressive strength under sea water splash zone than those of the CFRP specimens. Different mode of failures such as delamination, de-bonding and combination of such modes were observed and related to various exposure factors and mechanical properties

COMPARATIVE BIOAVAILABILITY (BIOEQUIVALENCE) STUDY FOR FIXED DOSE COMBINATION TABLET CONTAINING AMLODIPINE, VALSARTAN, AND HYDROCHLOROTHIAZIDE USING A NEWLY DEVELOPED HPLC-MS/MS METHOD

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the bioequivalence between a newly developed generic tablet containing fixed-dose combination of amlodipine besylate, valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide (10/160/25 mg), and the reference brand product Exforge HCT® tablet; using a newly developed HPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of these drugs in human plasma.Methods: The brand (reference) and the test (generic) products were administered to thirty-nine healthy subjects. A fasting, laboratory blind, single-dose, two-treatment, two-period, two-sequence, randomized crossover design was conducted with 14 d washout period between dosing. Serial blood samples were withdrawn from each subject immediately before dosing (zero time), and then at 0.33, 0.66, 1.0, 1.33, 1.66, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0, 9.5, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 24, 48 and eventually at 72 h post dosing. Plasma samples were analyzed for simultaneous determination of amlodipine, valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide by a newly developed HPLC coupled with MS/MS detector. The linearity of the method was established for plasma concentration ranges of 0.2-12 ng/ml, 50-8000 ng/ml, and 2-250 ng/ml for amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide, respectively.Results: Plasma concentration-time data of each individual were analyzed by non-compartmental method to measure the pharmacokinetics parameters; Cmax, Tmax, AUC0-t, AUC0-¥, lZ, T1/2. For amlodipine truncated AUC72hr was calculated. The 90% confidence interval for the pharmacokinetic parameters used for bioequivalence evaluation (Cmax and AUC) for amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide were well within FDA acceptable ranges of 80-125%.Conclusion: It is concluded that the newly devolved generic product is bioequivalent with the brand product Exforge HCT® tablet. Thus, both products are clinically interchangeable.Keywords: Amlodipine, Valsartan, Hydrochlorothiazide, Pharmacokinetics, Bioequivalence, HPLC-MS/M

Very low prevalence of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein expression and gene amplification in Saudi breast cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Breast cancers which demonstrate EGFR protein expression, gene amplification and/or gene mutations may benefit therapeutically from tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In Western studies, EGFR protein expression has been demonstrated in 7-36% of breast cancer patients, while gene amplification has been found in around 6% of cases and mutations were either absent or extremely rare. Studies addressing EGFR protein expression and gene amplification in Saudi breast cancer patients are extremely scanty and the results reported have been mostly non-conclusive. Herein we report the prevalence of EGFR protein expression and gene amplification in a cohort of Saudi breast cancer patients.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We noticed a remarkably low incidence of EGFR protein expression (1.3%) while analyzing the spectrum of molecular subtypes of breast cancer in a Saudi population by immunohistochemistry. Also, <it>EGFR </it>gene amplification could not be demonstrated in any of 231 cases studied using silver enhanced <it>in situ </it>hybridization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The extremely low incidence of EGFR protein expression and gene amplification in Saudi breast cancer patients as compared to Western populations is most probably ethnically related as supported by our previous finding in the same cohort of a spectrum of molecular breast cancer types that is unique to the Saudi population and in stark contrast with Western and other regionally based studies. Further support to this view is provided by earlier studies from Saudi Arabia that have similarly shown variability in molecular breast cancer subtype distribution between Saudi and Caucasian populations as well as a predominance of the high-grade pathway in breast cancer development in Middle East women. More studies on EGFR in breast cancer are needed from different regions of Saudi Arabia before our assumption can be confirmed, however.</p

The Effect of Vitamin C and Antacid Tablets (SDI) on the Pharmacokinetics of Aspirin Tablets (SDI) in Human

The study explored the effect of vitamin c and antacid on the pharmacokinetics of aspirin in human subjects.  The study was conducted in 12 healthy adults volunteers who were asked to take in the first study, two tablets of aspirin (300 mg) alone. In a second study, the same subjects were given  two tablets of aspirin (300 mg) together with one tablet of vitamin c 500 mg. Eventually, in the third study,  the subjects were administered  two tablets of aspirin (300 mg) and one capsule containing NaHCO3 (500 mg). The three studies were separated by one week wash out period.  In each study, urine was collected from each individual participated in the study at specific time intervals for up to24 hours post dosing to calculate the cumulative amount of salicylate excreted in urine. The excretion rate was plotted against the mid-time sampling time to calculate the elimination rate constant (K), and the elimination half-life (T0.5).  It was found from the current investigation that administration of vitamin c tablet with aspirin tablets reduce (K) values and elongate T0.5, whereas, NaHCO3 intake elevate K values and reduce T0.5 in all subjects participated in the study.             It can be concluded from the current investigation that administration of weak acid drugs like vitamin c, or weak base drugs like antacid have considerable effect on the residence of aspirin in the body and consequently its intensity and duration of clinical effect

Accurate Reader Identification for the Arabic Holy Quran Recitations Based on an Enhanced VQ Algorithm

The Speaker identification process is not a new trend; however, for the Arabic Holy Quran recitation, there are still quite improvements that can make this process more accurate and reliable. This paper collected the input data from 14 native Arabic reciters, consisting of “Surah Al-Kawthar” speech signals from the Holy Quran. Moreover, this paper discusses the accuracy rates for 8 and 16 features. Indeed, a modified Vector Quantization (VQ) technique will be presented, in addition to realistically matching the centroids of the various codebooks and measuring systems’ effectiveness. Note that the VQ technique will be utilized to generate the codebooks by clustering these features into a finite number of centroids. The proposed system’s software was built and executed using MATLAB®. The proposed system’s total accuracy rate was 97.92% and 98.51% for 8 and 16 centroids codebooks, respectively. However, this study discussed two validation tactics to ensure that the outcomes are reliable and can be reproduced. Hence, the K-mean clustering algorithm has been used to validate the obtained results and discuss the outcomes of this study. Finally, it has been found that the improved VQ method gives a better result than the K-means method

High-sensitive detection and quantitation of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) from capillary/fingerstick and venepuncture whole-blood using fluorescence-based rapid lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA)

BackgroundIn the last decade, point of care testing (POCT) such as lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) were developed for rapid TSH measurement. Most of these TSH-LFIAs are designed for qualitative measurements (i.e., if TSH values > 5, or >15 IU/L) and as screening tests for primary hypothyroidism in children and adults. Serum or plasma, but not venepuncture whole-blood or fingerstick/capillary, are usually used to quantify TSH accurately. Studies on performance evaluation of TSH-LFIAs POCT using venepuncture or fingerstick whole-blood are limited. Additionally, limited studies evaluated the performance and validity of TSH-LFIAs POCT compared to valid and reliable reference methods. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate three different blood withdrawal techniques for evaluating POCT of TSH. AimWe aim to evaluate the performance of a new fluorescence-based LFIA and its Finecare™ fluorescent reader for quantitative measurement of TSH from a fingerstick, venepuncture whole-blood, and serum. Methods102 fingerstick, venepuncture whole-blood, and serum samples (with normal and abnormal TSH values) were analyzed by Finecare™ Rapid Quantitative LFIA test and Roche cobas® e 601 as a reference test. ResultsUsing serum, when compared to cobas® e 601 reference method, Finecare™ showed high sensitivity [90.5 % (69.6–98.8)] and specificity [96.3 % (89.6–99.2)] for diagnosis of thyroid abnormalities (4.5 mIU/L). The actual test values (mIU/L) of Finecare™ showed excellent agreement (Cohen's Kappa = 0.85) and strong correlation (r = 0.93, p < 0.0001) with cobas® e 601. Using venepuncture whole-blood samples, Finecare™ showed similar results to serum with high sensitivity [95.2 % (76.2–99.9)], specificity [97.5 % (91.4–99.7)], excellent agreement (Cohen's Kappa = 0.91), and very strong correlation (r = 0.95, p < 0.0001) with cobas® e 601. These results suggest that Finecare™ can be used for quantitative measurement of TSH using serum or venepuncture whole-blood. These key performance indicators were slightly decreased when fingerstick whole-blood samples were used: sensitivity [85.7 %(63.7–97)], specificity [90.0 %,(81.5–96)], good agreement (Cohen's Kappa = 0.7) and very strong correlation (r = 0.9, p < 0.0001) with cobas® e 601. A subgroup analysis of abnormal TSH samples revealed a strong and significant correlation between the reference, Finecare™ whole-blood (r = 0.692; p = 0.0015), and fingerstick test Finecare™ (r = 0.66; p = 0.0025). A very strong correlation was also observed between cobas® e 601 serum and Finecare™ serum (r = 0.88; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: In comparison to the reference assay, our study demonstrates that Finecare™ exhibits high sensitivity, specificity, agreement, and a strong correlation. These findings provide evidence that Finecare™ is a reliable, valid, and accurate point-of-care test for TSH screening and quantitative measurement, especially in non- or small laboratory settings.This work was funded by NPRP13S-0128-200185 grant from the Qatar National Research Fund

Calm Vessels: Cultural Expectations of Pregnant Women in Qatar

This article explores emerging themes from the first stage of ethnographic research investigating pregnancy and loss in Qatar. Issues around the development of foetal personhood, the medical management of the pregnant body and the social role of the pregnant woman are explored. Findings suggest that Qatari women are expected to be calm vessels for their growing baby and should avoid certain foods and behaviours. These ideas of risk avoidance are linked to indigenous knowledge around a mother’s influence on a child’s health and traits. Motherhood holds a particularly important place in Qatari culture and in Islam, and women are ultimately responsible for protecting and promoting fertility and for producing healthy children

Long-term drivers of broadband traffic in next-generation networks

This paper is concerned with long-term (20+ years) forecasting of broadband traffic in next-generation networks. Such long-term approach requires going beyond extrapolations of past traffic data while facing high uncertainty in predicting the future developments and facing the fact that, in 20 years, the current network technologies and architectures will be obsolete. Thus, "order of magnitude" upper bounds of upstream and downstream traffic are deemed to be good enough to facilitate such long-term forecasting. These bounds can be obtained by evaluating the limits of human sighting and assuming that these limits will be achieved by future services or, alternatively, by considering the contents transferred by bandwidth-demanding applications such as those using embedded interactive 3D video streaming. The traffic upper bounds are a good indication of the peak values and, subsequently, also of the future network capacity demands. Furthermore, the main drivers of traffic growth including multimedia as well as non-multimedia applications are identified. New disruptive applications and services are explored that can make good use of the large bandwidth provided by next-generation networks. The results can be used to identify monetization opportunities of future services and to map potential revenues for network operators

Scaled metal forming experiments: A transport equation approach

The focus of this paper is on a method for the design of bespoke small-scale pilot, metal-forming processes and models that accurately represent corresponding industrial-scale processes. Introducing new complex metal forming processes in industry commonly involves a trial and error approach to ensure that the final product requirements are met. Detailed process modelling, analysis and small-scale feasibility trials could be carried out instead. A fundamental concern of scaled experiments, however, is whether the results obtained can be guaranteed to be representative of the associated industrial processes. Presently, this is not the case with classical approaches founded on dimensional analysis providing little direction for the design of scaled metal-forming experiments. The difficulty is that classical approaches often focus predominantly on constitutive equations (which indirectly represent micro-structural behaviour) and thus focus on aspects that invariably cannot be scaled. This paper introduces a new approach founded on scaled transport equations that describe the physics involved on a finite domain. The transport approach however focuses on physical quantities that do scale and thus provides a platform on which bulk behaviour is accurately represented across the length scales. The new approach is trialled and compared against numerically obtained results to reveal a new powerful technique for scaled experimentation