Effect of Ceramic Dust as Partial Replacement of Cement on Lightweight Foamed Concrete

Disposal of waste into the landfill causes a severe impact on the environment. One of the waste products is ceramic waste. Ceramic waste has some excellent properties in its durability, hardness, and highly resistant to biological, chemical, and physical degradation forces. These excellent properties of the ceramic waste may make it suitable to be used in concrete. This study investigates the effect on the compressive strength of lightweight foamed concrete with different percentage of ceramic dust replacement level towards the cement and three different levels of water-cement ratio. 0%, 5%, 15%, and 25% of replacement level with 0.52, 0.56, and 0.60 water-cement ratios respectively for each replacement level was used as the parameter to investigate the fresh properties, and strength performance of lightweight foamed concrete. The stability and consistency of every mix are studied as well. From this study, it was observed that the incorporation of ceramic waste dust partially replaced the cement did not affect on the fresh properties of the foamed concrete. However, the compressive strength of foamed concrete affected by ceramic waste dust partially replaced the cement

Behavioural Study of Concrete Surface Crack Filling Conditions on Surface Rayleigh Wave

In the recent studies of concrete surface crack non-destructive test (NDT), the environmental factors are seldom to be taken into assessment consideration using Rayleigh wave (R-wave) propagation method. Dust, fine sand or water that accumulated in the concrete surface cracks might potentially affect the behaviour of R-wave when it propagated through the cracks. In this study, the effects of filling conditions in concrete surface crack to the properties of R-wave were examined. The targeted parameters that used for studying the behaviour of R-wave are the arrival time of R-wave and its corresponding amplitude. Numerical simulations were conducted for determining the changes of R-wave amplitudes and arrival time when it propagated through a concrete model with a surface crack which containing various filling conditions. Sand and charcoal powder were the materials used for filling the concrete cracks. The results of numerical simulations were then justified by experimental measurements. The comparison between the results of numerical simulation and experimental measurement generated a conclusion where R-wave arrival time and its corresponding amplitude is independent from the predefined filling conditions of concrete surface crack

Acoustic properties of lightweight foamed concrete with eggshell waste as partial cement replacement material

Nowadays, almost every industry needs to undergo green and sustainable industrial revolution due to pollutions like waste dumping and noise that deteriorating the environment. Therefore, feasibility study on application of eggshell waste as partial cement replacement in lightweight foamed concrete was conducted by aiming to solve environmental and acoustical issues, i.e. reduce eggshell waste and improve acoustic properties. In this study, compressive strength and acoustic properties of 1300 kg m-3 lightweight foamed concrete with and without 5% eggshell powder as partial cement replacement material were tested. Optimal water to cement ratio of 0.6 was obtained for acoustic properties test by comparing compressive strength result. The result shows that application eggshell powder has generally reduced 7 days compressive strength but improved 28 days compressive strength, and either improve or maintain acoustics properties, in which lightweight foamed concrete that containing eggshell powder has improved noise reduction coefficient at testing ages of 7, 28, and 90 days and improved sound transmission class at testing age of 56 and 90 days. Based on these results, 5% of eggshell powder is feasible to be incorporated into lightweight foamed concrete as partial cement replacement material for sound insulation and strength development purposes

Replication and Meta-analysis of the Association between BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism and Cognitive Impairment in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) adversely affects cancer patients. We had previously demonstrated that the BDNF Val66Met genetic polymorphism is associated with lower odds of subjective CRCI in the multitasking and verbal ability domains among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. To further assess our previous findings, we evaluated the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with subjective and objective CRCI in a temporally separate cohort of patients and pooled findings from both the original (n = 145) and current (n = 193) cohorts in a meta-analysis. Subjective CRCI was assessed using FACT-Cog. Objective CRCI was evaluated using computerized neuropsychological tests. Genotyping was carried out using Sanger sequencing. The association of BDNF Val66Met genotypes and CRCI was examined with logistic regression. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted using the inverse variance method. In the meta-analysis (n = 338), significantly lower odds of CRCI were associated with Met allele carriers based on the global FACT-Cog score (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.94). Furthermore, Met allele carriers were at lower odds of developing impairment in the domains of memory (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70), multitasking (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.18-0.59), and verbal ability (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.88). Consistent with the previous study, lower odds of subjective CRCI among patients with the BDNF Met allele was observed after adjusting for potential confounders in the multitasking (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.67) domain. In conclusion, carriers of the BDNF Met allele were protected against global subjective CRCI, particularly in the domains of memory, multitasking, and verbal ability. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of CRCI pathophysiology

Pan-genome and resistome analysis of extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli: A multi-setting epidemiological surveillance study from Malaysia

Daniel Reidpath - ORCID: 0000-0002-8796-0420 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8796-0420Objectives This study profiled the prevalence of extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) in the community and compared their resistome and genomic profiles with isolates from clinical patients through whole-genome sequencing. Methods Fecal samples from 233 community dwellers from Segamat, a town in southern Malaysia, were obtained between May through August 2018. Putative ESBL strains were screened and tested using antibiotic susceptibility tests. Additionally, eight clinical ESBL-EC were obtained from a hospital in the same district between June through October 2020. Whole-genome sequencing was then conducted on selected ESBL-EC from both settings (n = 40) for pan-genome comparison, cluster analysis, and resistome profiling. Results A mean ESBL-EC carriage rate of 17.82% (95% CI: 10.48%– 24.11%) was observed in the community and was consistent across demographic factors. Whole-genome sequences of the ESBL-EC (n = 40) enabled the detection of multiple plasmid replicon groups (n = 28), resistance genes (n = 34) and virulence factors (n = 335), with no significant difference in the number of genes carried between the community and clinical isolates (plasmid replicon groups, p = 0.13; resistance genes, p = 0.47; virulence factors, p = 0.94). Virulence gene marker analysis detected the presence of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) in both the community and clinical isolates. Multiple blaCTX-M variants were observed, dominated by blaCTX-M-27 (n = 12), blaCTX-M-65 (n = 10), and blaCTX-M-15 (n = 9). The clinical and community isolates did not cluster together based on the pan-genome comparison, suggesting isolates from the two settings were clonally unrelated. However, cluster analysis based on carried plasmids, resistance genes and phenotypic susceptibility profiles identified four distinct clusters, with similar patterns between the community and clinical isolates. Conclusion ESBL-EC from the clinical and community settings shared similar resistome profiles, suggesting the frequent exchange of genetic materials through horizontal gene transfer.This study was funded by the 2017 Monash Malaysia Strategic Large Grant Scheme (LG-2017-01-SCI) to LSM and the grant FRGS/1/2019/SKK01/MUSM/01/1 to SR from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.026514217pubpub

The impact of using recycled culture medium to grow Chlorella vulgaris in a sequential flow system: Evaluation on growth, carbon removal, and biochemical compositions

Excessive of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and water pollution have been identified as the two primary challenges to humans and environment. Hence, biological carbon sequestration by microalgae is recommended as an environmentally friendly approach to capture and convert this CO2 into value-added products. However, research related to the development of efficient system to concurrently overcome low CO2 solubility in water and reduction of water footprint in microalgae cultivation is still limited in the literature. In this study, the CO2 capture by Chlorella vulgaris in a recycled cultivation medium was exploited using a sequential flow photobioreactor system. The study revealed that nutrient replenished recycled medium did not significantly affect the growth performance and lipid content of C. vulgaris. It was also observed that the CO2 capture efficiency and protein content were gradually increased from the first (SFB-RWN1) to the third (SFB-RWN3) cycle of cultivation due to the increment of carbon and nitrogen content in the microalgae cell. Besides, the lipid profile of C. vulgaris cultivated in the recycled medium comprised of high concentration of saturated (up to 32.41%) and polyunsaturated (up to 43.21%) fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The present study suggested that growing C. vulgaris in a recycled medium is a feasible solution to fix CO2 from the atmosphere and help to reduce water footprint in the microalgae cultivation system