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

Tailoring excitonic states of van der Waals bilayers through stacking configuration, band alignment and valley-spin

Excitons in monolayer semiconductors have large optical transition dipole for strong coupling with light field. Interlayer excitons in heterobilayers, with layer separation of electron and hole components, feature large electric dipole that enables strong coupling with electric field and exciton-exciton interaction, at the cost that the optical dipole is substantially quenched (by several orders of magnitude). In this letter, we demonstrate the ability to create a new class of excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) hetero- and homo-bilayers that combines the advantages of monolayer- and interlayer-excitons, i.e. featuring both large optical dipole and large electric dipole. These excitons consist of an electron that is well confined in an individual layer, and a hole that is well extended in both layers, realized here through the carrier-species specific layer-hybridization controlled through the interplay of rotational, translational, band offset, and valley-spin degrees of freedom. We observe different species of such layer-hybridized valley excitons in different heterobilayer and homobilayer systems, which can be utilized for realizing strongly interacting excitonic/polaritonic gases, as well as optical quantum coherent controls of bidirectional interlayer carrier transfer either with upper conversion or down conversion in energy

Bayesian Belief Network Model Quantification Using Distribution-Based Node Probability and Experienced Data Updates for Software Reliability Assessment

Since digital instrumentation and control systems are expected to play an essential role in safety systems in nuclear power plants (NPPs), the need to incorporate software failures into NPP probabilistic risk assessment has arisen. Based on a Bayesian belief network (BBN) model developed to estimate the number of software faults considering the software development lifecycle, we performed a pilot study of software reliability quantification using the BBN model by aggregating different experts' opinions. In this paper, we suggest the distribution-based node probability table (D-NPT) development method which can efficiently represent diverse expert elicitation in the form of statistical distributions and provides mathematical quantification scheme. Besides, the handbook data on U.S. software development and V&V and testing results for two nuclear safety software were used for a Bayesian update of the D-NPTs in order to reduce the BBN parameter uncertainty due to experts' different background or levels of experience. To analyze the effect of diverse expert opinions on the BBN parameter uncertainties, the sensitivity studies were conducted by eliminating the significantly different NPT estimates among expert opinions. The proposed approach demonstrates a framework that can effectively and systematically integrate different kinds of available source information to quantify BBN NPTs for NPP software reliability assessment

Fabrication of photonic band gap materials using microtransfer molded templates

A method of manufacturing photonic band gap structures operable in the optical spectrum has been presented. The method comprises the steps of creating a patterned template for an elastomeric mold, fabricating an elastomeric mold from poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or other suitable polymer, filling the elastomeric mold with a second polymer such as epoxy or other suitable polymer, stamping the second polymer by making contact with a substrate or multilayer structure, removing the elastomeric mold, infiltrating the multilayer structure with ceramic or metal, and heating the multilayer structure to remove the second polymer to form a photonic band gap structure

Assessment of density functional approximations for the hemibonded structure of water dimer radical cation

Due to the severe self-interaction errors associated with some density functional approximations, conventional density functionals often fail to dissociate the hemibonded structure of water dimer radical cation (H2O)2+ into the correct fragments: H2O and H2O+. Consequently, the binding energy of the hemibonded structure (H2O)2+ is not well-defined. For a comprehensive comparison of different functionals for this system, we propose three criteria: (i) The binding energies, (ii) the relative energies between the conformers of the water dimer radical cation, and (iii) the dissociation curves predicted by different functionals. The long-range corrected (LC) double-hybrid functional, omegaB97X-2(LP) [J.-D. Chai and M. Head-Gordon, J. Chem. Phys., 2009, 131, 174105.], is shown to perform reasonably well based on these three criteria. Reasons that LC hybrid functionals generally work better than conventional density functionals for hemibonded systems are also explained in this work.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

Semicrystalline woodpile photonic crystals without complicated alignment via soft lithography

We report the fabrication and characterization of woodpile photonic crystals with up to 12 layers through titania nanoparticle infiltration of a polymer template made by soft lithography. Because the complicated alignment in the conventional layer-by-layer fabrication associated with diamondlike symmetry is replaced by a simple 90° alignment, the fabricatedphotonic crystal has semicrystalline phase. However, the crystal performs similarly to a perfectly aligned crystal for the light propagation integrated from the surface normal to 30° at the main photonic band gap

Conformal Symmetry for Rotating D-branes

We apply the Kerr/CFT correspondence to the rotating black p-brane solutions. These solutions give the simplest examples from string theory point of view. Their near horizon geometries have structures of AdS, even though black p-brane solutions do not have AdS-like structures in the non-rotating case. The microscopic entropy which can be calculated via the Cardy formula exactly agrees with Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.Comment: 15 pages, references adde

Caffeic acid phenethyl amide ameliorates ischemia/reperfusion injury and cardiac dysfunction in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

BACKGROUND: Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) has been shown to protect the heart against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury by various mechanisms including its antioxidant effect. In this study, we evaluated the protective effects of a CAPE analog with more structural stability in plasma, caffeic acid phenethyl amide (CAPA), on I/R injury in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic rats. METHODS: Type 1 diabetes mellitus was induced in Sprague–Dawley rats by a single intravenous injection of 60 mg/kg STZ. To produce the I/R injury, the left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 45 minutes, followed by 2 hours of reperfusion. CAPA was pretreated intraperitoneally 30 minutes before reperfusion. An analog devoid of the antioxidant property of CAPA, dimethoxyl CAPA (dmCAPA), and a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor (Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester [l-NAME]) were used to evaluate the mechanism involved in the reduction of the infarct size following CAPA-treatment. Finally, the cardioprotective effect of chronic treatment of CAPA was analyzed in diabetic rats. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, CAPA administration (3 and 15 mg/kg) significantly reduced the myocardial infarct size after I/R, while dmCAPA (15 mg/kg) had no cardioprotective effect. Interestingly, pretreatment with a NOS inhibitor, (l-NAME, 3 mg/kg) eliminated the effect of CAPA on myocardial infarction. Additionally, a 4-week CAPA treatment (1 mg/kg, orally, once daily) started 4 weeks after STZ-induction could effectively decrease the infarct size and ameliorate the cardiac dysfunction by pressure-volume loop analysis in STZ-induced diabetic animals. CONCLUSIONS: CAPA, which is structurally similar to CAPE, exerts cardioprotective activity in I/R injury through its antioxidant property and by preserving nitric oxide levels. On the other hand, chronic CAPA treatment could also ameliorate cardiac dysfunction in diabetic animals

A Wireless sEMG Recording System and Its Application to Muscle Fatigue Detection

Surface electromyography (sEMG) is an important measurement for monitoring exercise and fitness. Because if its high sampling frequency requirement, wireless transmission of sEMG data is a challenge. In this article a wireless sEMG measurement system with a sampling frequency of 2 KHz is developed based upon a MSP 430 microcontroller and Bluetooth transmission. Standard isotonic and isometric muscle contraction are clearly represented in the receiving user interface. Muscle fatigue detection is an important application of sEMG. Traditional muscle fatigue is detected from the median frequency of the sEMG power spectrum. The regression slope of the linear regression of median frequency is an important muscle fatigue index. A more negative slope value represents a higher muscle fatigue condition. To test the system performance, muscle fatigue detection was examined by having subjects run on a pedaled-multifunctional elliptical trainer for approximately 30 minutes at three loading levels. Ten subjects underwent a total of 60 exercise sessions to provide the experimental data. Results showed that the regression slope gradually decreases as expected, and there is a significant gender difference

Molecular events associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells in the absence of Epstein-Barr virus genome

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important process in tumor metastasis. The EMT-related events associated with metastasis of NPC in the absence of EBV have not been elucidated. We established an EBV-negative NPC cell line from a bone marrow biopsy of an NPC patient. Using a Matrigel system we isolated an invasive and non-invasive sublines, designated NPC-BM29 and NPC-BM00. NPC-BM29 acquired an invasive-like phenotype characterized by EMT, marked by down-regulation of E-cadherin and β-catenin with concomitant increased expression of Ets1. NPC-BM29 cells expressed ≥ 10-fold higher of MMP-9 than NPC-BM00 cells. NPC-BM29 cells grew better in 2% serum than NPC-BM00 cells, with a population doubling-time of 26.8 h and 30.7 h, respectively. A marked reduction in colony-formation ability of NPC-BM00 cells compared to NPC-BM29 was observed. Wound-healing assay revealed that NPC-BM29 cells displayed higher motility than NPC-BM00 and the motility was further enhanced by cell treatment with TPA, a PKC activator. Cell surface markers and tumor-associated molecules, AE3, MAK6 and sialyl-Tn, were up-regulated in NPC-BM29 cells, whereas the expression of HLA-DR and CD54 was significantly increased in NPC-BM00 cells. NPC-BM29 consistently released higher levels of IL-8 and IL-10 than NPC-BM00, with low levels of IL-1α expression in both cell lines. Higher level of VEGF production was detected in NPC-BM00 than NPC-BM29 cells. These data show that EBV is not required for exhibiting multiple metastatic phenotypes associated with EMT. More studies that target right molecules/signalings associated with the EMT may offer new therapeutic intervention options for NPC invasion and metastasis