Chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion in blended cement concretes expores to chloride-sulfate environments

This paper reports the results of a study conducted to investigate the influence of sulphate concentration and associated cation type on chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion in blended cement concretes. Reinforced concrete specimens were exposed to chloride plus sulphate solutions for a period of 1200 days. The exposure solutions contained a fixed concentration of 5% sodium chloride and the sulphate concentration was varied from 0 to 4% SO4 2 . The effect of cation type associated with sulphate ions, namely Naþ and Mgþþ, on chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion was also evaluated. Reinforcement corrosion was assessed by measuring corrosion potentials and corrosion current density at regular intervals. The results indicated that the presence of sulphate ions in the chloride solution increased the corrosion current density, but no significant effect on the time to initiation of reinforcement corrosion was noted. Further, the corrosion current density increased with increasing sulphate concentration and the period of exposure. The corrosion current density on steel in the blended cement concrete specimens was much less than that in the plain cement concrete specimens, indicating that the corrosion resistance of blended cements was much better than that of plain cements. The cation type associated with sulphate ions did not significantly influence either the initiation or rate of reinforcement corrosion

An exploratory study of a NoSQL database for a clinical data repository

The need to implement a distributed Clinical Data Repository (CDR) at a healthcare facility, rose in large part due to the high volume of data and the discrepancy of their sources. Over the years, Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) began to present difficulties in responding to the needs of various organizations when it comes to manipulating a large amount of data and to its scalability. Therefore, it was necessary to explore other techniques to choose the appropriate technology to build the CDR. In this way, NoSQL emerged as a new type of database that is quite useful to work with multiple and different types of data. In addition, NoSQL introduces a number of user-friendly features such as a distributed, scalable, elastic and also fault tolerant system. In this way, Oracle NoSQL Database was the NoSQL solution chosen to develop this case study, using the key-value storage. This article was motivated to propose a CDR architecture based on Oracle NoSQL Database functionalities. A one-single node database was deployed for better comprehension, in order to enhance their features for future implementation.The work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/CEC/00319/2019 and DSAIPA/DS/0084/2018

Analyzing Phytohormone Levels in Fruits of Date Palm Phoenix dactylifera L. Derived from Tissue Culture under Different Pollination Treatments

This study evaluated three male date palm varieties, namely, Red-Ganami, Red-Ganami + Khakri Al-Adi and Red-Ganami + Al-Canary, in three age of spathes  (early, late and middle) in a private orchard at Al-Seebah district, Basrah province. The plants were subjected to two pollination dates immediately after opening of female flowers and three days after opening of female flowers. The contents of auxin-like substances, gibberellin and abscisic acid in the flowers were determined. The second pollination date resulted in the highest contents of auxins, gibberellins and abscisic acid, with values of 24.305, 138.660 and 12.355 µg.gm-1, respectively. The mixture of Red-Ganami + canary cultivars had the highest concentrations of auxin 24.512 µg.gm -1 and gibberellins 136.842 µg.gm-1, whereas Red-Ganami had the highest concentration of abscisic acid 3.554 μg.gm-1. Early age of spathes showed significant differences in the concentrations of auxin and abscisic acid, with average values of 26.015 and 14.031 µg.gm-1, respectively. Late postmenopausal age recorded the highest concentration of gibberellins at 136.842 μg.gm-1. For the two- and three-way interactions, a statistically significant superiority was observed in most of the study coefficients. In conclusion, the contents of auxins, gibberellins and abscisic acid significantly differed with the pollination date and the pollin cultivar combinations showed the highest concentrations of these substances. The different ages of male puberty also affected pollination and fertilizatio

Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes among Youths in Jordan: Incidence and Trends for the period (2011-2016)

This study aimed at analyzing the incidence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes among youths in Jordan for the period (2011-2016), the researchers adopted the survey methodology for the period of five years from the records of the medical centers (public and private) in Jordan. Also investigated the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in diagnosis and treatments. Results showed significant upward trend in the incidence of type 1 diabetes was observed overall with considerable variation across demographic subgroups of age, sex. And also showed among youths who were 10 to 19 years of age, unadjusted models revealed significant increases in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with increases observed across all age and sex

Developing a Collaborative Strategy to Manage and Preserve Cultural Heritage During the Libyan Conflict. The Case of the Gebel Nafusa

The paper discusses the potential of a collaborative scheme for the development of a protocol for recording and managing the cultural heritage in Libya. The critical political situation in the country urges the development of cultural heritage management policies in order to protect it more thoroughly and consistently. Moving on from the numerous international initiatives and projects dealing with a mostly “remote” approach to the issue, the project here presented to engages with staff members of the Department of Antiquities (DoA) in the development of a joint strategy for the application of remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) to the preservation and monitoring of Libyan cultural heritage. A series of training courses resulted in an initial development of new ways of recording and analysing field data for a better awareness of the full range of threats that the archaeology of the country is subject to. Focussing on the case of the Jebel Nafusa, the training involved the assessment of site visibility on satellite imagery, the analysis of high-resolution satellite datasets for archaeological mapping, the creation of a GIS spatial database of field data, and the mapping of risks and threats to archaeology from remote sensing data. This led to the creation of of a risk map showing the areas that are affected by a number of threats, thus giving the DoA a tool to prioritise future fieldwork to keep the assessment of site damage up to date. Only a collaborative approach can lead to a sustainable strategy for the protection of the invaluable cultural heritage of Libya

Closing in on a new treatment for sleeping sickness

A chemoproteomics approach has been employed to identify a kinase that could be used as a druggable target in efforts to develop new treatments for African sleeping sickness

P73 Preliminary results of the Study of Acute Liver Transplant (SALT): NSAID exposure and risk of acute liver failure leading to transplantation in 7 European countries

n/

Generation of polyclonal antibody with high avidity to rosuvastatin and its use in development of highly sensitive ELISA for determination of rosuvastatin in plasma

In this study, a polyclonal antibody with high avidity and specificity to the potent hypocholesterolaemic agent rosuvastatin (ROS) has been prepared and used in the development of highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for determination of ROS in plasma. ROS was coupled to keyhole limpt hemocyanin (KLH) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) using carbodiimide reagent. ROS-KLH conjugate was used for immunization of female 8-weeks old New Zealand white rabbits. The immune response of the rabbits was monitored by direct ELISA using ROS-BSA immobilized onto microwell plates as a solid phase. The rabbit that showed the highest antibody titer and avidity to ROS was scarified and its sera were collected. The IgG fraction was isolated and purified by avidity chromatography on protein A column. The purified antibody showed high avidity to ROS; IC50 = 0.4 ng/ml. The specificity of the antibody for ROS was evaluated by indirect ELISA using various competitors from the ROS-structural analogues and the therapeutic agents used with ROS in a combination therapy. The proposed ELISA involved a competitive binding reaction between ROS, in plasma sample, and the immobilized ROS-BSA for the binding sites on a limited amount of the anti-ROS antibody. The bound anti-ROS antibody was quantified with horseradish peroxidase-labeled second anti-rabbit IgG antibody (HRP-IgG) and 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as a substrate for the peroxidase enzyme. The concentration of ROS in the sample was quantified by its ability to inhibit the binding of the anti-ROS antibody to the immobilized ROS-BSA and subsequently the color intensity in the assay wells. The assay enabled the determination of ROS in plasma at concentrations as low as 40 pg/ml

Linked read technology for assembling large complex and polyploid genomes

Background: Short read DNA sequencing technologies have revolutionized genome assembly by providing high accuracy and throughput data at low cost. But it remains challenging to assemble short read data, particularly for large, complex and polyploid genomes. The linked read strategy has the potential to enhance the value of short reads for genome assembly because all reads originating from a single long molecule of DNA share a common barcode. However, the majority of studies to date that have employed linked reads were focused on human haplotype phasing and genome assembly. Results: Here we describe a de novo maize B73 genome assembly generated via linked read technology which contains ~ 172,000 scaffolds with an N50 of 89 kb that cover 50% of the genome. Based on comparisons to the B73 reference genome, 91% of linked read contigs are accurately assembled. Because it was possible to identify errors with \u3e 76% accuracy using machine learning, it may be possible to identify and potentially correct systematic errors. Complex polyploids represent one of the last grand challenges in genome assembly. Linked read technology was able to successfully resolve the two subgenomes of the recent allopolyploid, proso millet (Panicum miliaceum). Our assembly covers ~ 83% of the 1 Gb genome and consists of 30,819 scaffolds with an N50 of 912 kb. Conclusions: Our analysis provides a framework for future de novo genome assemblies using linked reads, and we suggest computational strategies that if implemented have the potential to further improve linked read assemblies, particularly for repetitive genomes