Experimental Study on Previous Concrete with Various Mix Ratios

The pervious concrete is designed with cementitious material content just enough to coat the coarse aggregate particles so that a configuration that allows the passage of water at a much higher rate than conventional concrete. The pervious concrete has many advantages that improves city environment, recharges the ground by rain water and could be used as pavement for light vehicles, pedestrian pathways, parking lots, also it reduces the tire pavement interaction noise etc. In this paper, structural property and permeability of pervious concrete made without and with different ratios of fine aggregate and pozzolan. 9.5 mm maximum size of crushed gravel and constant aggregate/cement ratio of 3.6 were used. Mix design void content is tested 20%. The specific gravity of fine aggregate 2.53 and the specific gravity of crushed stone 2.56. Type I Portland cement and water- reducing and retarding concrete admixture were used. Mix design is based on the no slump method from the American Concrete Institute’s Committee 211.3R-02, “Standard Practice for Selecting Proportions for No Slump Concrete.” This research work was divided into third/three sections. The first section is without pozzolan and fine aggregate and second section is with two different ratios of pozzolan third section is without pozzolan and with fine aggregate. Pozzolan is used as a supplementary cementitious material to partially replace Portland cement in pervious concrete mixes up to 20% by weight. Fine aggregate partially replace as a coarse aggregate in pervious concrete mixes up to 10% by weight. Mix design void content is tested 20%. This concrete is tested for its properties, such as density, void content, compressive strength and water permeability. The most important property of pervious concrete is its water permeability

A Case of Cardiac Calcified Amorphous Tumor Presenting with Concomitant ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Occipital Stroke and a Brief Review of the Literature

Cardiac calcified amorphous tumor (CAT) is an extremely rare benign intracavitary tumor of the heart. It may mimic other cardiac tumors and can present with signs or symptoms of systemic embolization. There are limited data regarding CAT in the literature. We report a case of a 68-year-old woman with a cardiac CAT and mitral annular calcification (MAC), who presented with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and occipital stroke. After extensive review of the literature, we believe that this case is possibly the first description of a cardiac CAT presenting with STEMI. The CAT was surgically removed, and the diagnosis was confirmed by histology. The patient tolerated the surgery and reported no events at 6-month follow-up

A Rare Case of Carotid Web Presenting with Ischemic Stroke in a Young Woman and a Brief Review of the Literature

Carotid web is a radiological description of a shelf-like intraluminal filling defect in the carotid bulb. It is histologically defined as atypical fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), with abnormal fibrosis and smooth muscle cell hyperplasia in the tunica intima. The spur-like intraluminal protrusion can serve as a nidus for thrombus formation, which could cause systemic embolism and ischemic strokes. We report a case of a 20-year-old female patient presenting with acute ischemic stroke in the ipsilateral middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory. We also discuss the incidence, the prevalence, the pathophysiology, the treatment, and the recurrence of carotid web based on the currently available literature

Controlling Electronic States of Few-walled Carbon Nanotube Yarn via Joule-annealing and p-type Doping Towards Large Thermoelectric Power Factor

Flexible, light-weight and robust thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted much attention to convert waste heat from low-grade heat sources, such as human body, to electricity. Carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn is one of the potential TE materials owing to its narrow band-gap energy, high charge carrier mobility, and excellent mechanical property, which is conducive for flexible and wearable devices. Herein, we propose a way to improve the power factor of CNT yarns fabricated from few-walled carbon nanotubes (FWCNTs) by two-step method; Joule-annealing in the vacuum followed by doping with p-type dopants, 2,3,5,6-tetrafluo-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ). Numerical calculations and experimental results explain that Joule-annealing and doping modulate the electronic states (Fermi energy level) of FWCNTs, resulting in extremely large thermoelectric power factor of 2250 mu Wm(-1) K-2 at a measurement temperature of 423K. Joule-annealing removes amorphous carbon on the surface of the CNT yarn, which facilitates doping in the subsequent step, and leads to higher Seebeck coefficient due to the transformation from (semi) metallic to semiconductor behavior. Doping also significantly increases the electrical conductivity due to the effective charge transfers between CNT yarn and F4TCNQ upon the removal of amorphous carbon after Joule-annealing

COVID-19 and civil unrest undoing steady gains in karst conservation and herpetological research in Myanmar, and an impediment to progress

The COVID-19 pandemic and political turmoil in Myanmar has dealt a severe blow to the country’s progress in herpetological research and the protection of limestone habitats. Both afflictions have reversed much of the scientific and conservation gains made in the past decade, and continue to hinder exploratory surveys and continued monitoring of threatened karst ecosystems. There is an urgent need to resume field studies and conservation efforts as soon as possible and continue enhancing the capacity of local scientific and technical staff in Myanmar

Age Related Changes in Hematological Values of Myanmar Local Puppies

The hematological parameters were used to monitor the health status and its components also changed according to the ages. However, there were no reports for this issues in Myanmar local dogs. Thus, this study was carried out to investigate the age-related changes on the hematological parameters of local puppies in Myanmar. Ten local puppies with the age of 2-3 month old were used in this experiment, which was lasted for 8 weeks.The daily clinical examinations were conducted throughout the entire experimental period for general health check-up. Haematological parameters (Total WBC count and its differential counts, and RBC, HCT, MCV, HGB, MCH, MCHC and platelets) were measured bi-weekly with Abacus Vet-5 automate haematology analyser. According to the results, the total WBC and eosinophil counts were not significantly different (P>0.05), while lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils and basophils were significantly different (P<0.05) with the aging of experimental animals. The values of RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC and platelets were not significantly different (P>0.05) throughout the experimental periods. Thus, the age-related changes were observed on cell counts of lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, basophils in Myanmar local puppies

Sex Chromosome Turnover in Bent-Toed Geckos (\u3cem\u3eCyrtodactylus\u3c/em\u3e)

Lizards and snakes (squamates) are known for their varied sex determining systems, and gecko lizards are especially diverse, having evolved sex chromosomes independently multiple times. While sex chromosomes frequently turnover among gecko genera, intrageneric turnovers are known only from Gekko and Hemidactylus. Here, we used RADseq to identify sex-specific markers in two species of Burmese bent-toed geckos. We uncovered XX/XY sex chromosomes in Cyrtodactylus chaunghanakwaensis and ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes in Cyrtodactylus pharbaungensis. This is the third instance of intrageneric turnover of sex chromosomes in geckos. Additionally, Cyrtodactylus are closely related to another genus with intrageneric turnover, Hemidactylus. Together, these data suggest that sex chromosome turnover may be common in this clade, setting them apart as exceptionally diverse in a group already known for diverse sex determination systems

A study on health-related quality of life and comorbidity among elderly population in rural Sabah, Malaysia

Ageing is a global phenomenon. In Malaysia, a projected model estimated that the number of elderly would be 3.4 million in 2020 which is more than 10% of the population. A cross-sectional study targeted the elderly population of three villages in rural Sabah, Malaysia aimed to investigate the health-related quality of life, comorbidity, and the socio-demographic profile amongst the elderly in the community. Participants (60 years and above) were selected for face-to-face interviews using health-related quality of life questionnaires (SF-36). SPSS 21 was used for statistical analyses. Results showed that mean (sd) of age; 67.71 (6.95) years. Five common co-morbidities were hypertension (67%), bone and joint pain (63%), gastric pain (67%), poor vision (58%), and hearing problems (33%). The highest HRQoL score was social functioning (67.96) whereas the lowest HRQoL score is role limitation due to emotional problems (30.54). There is a significant relationship between HRQoL domains and socio-demographic factors (gender, marital status, membership in association), and health condition (co-morbidities and access to healthcare, bone and joint pain or arthritis and treatment, hearing impairment and treatment) which indicated need for health and social support like participating in association and access to health care for rural elderly in future programme. We recommend a further study to compare elderly HRQoL in rural, urban and institutional settings for future health-care planning