Effect of Elevated Temperature on the Compressive Strength and Durability Properties of Crumb Rubber Engineered Cementitious Composite

This paper reports the findings of the effect of elevated temperature on the compressive strength and durability properties of crumb rubber engineered cementitious composite (CR-ECC). The CR-ECC has been tested for its compressive strength and chemical resistance test against acid and sulphate attack. Different proportions of crumb rubber (CR) in partial replacement to the fine aggregate and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber have been utilized from 0 to 5% and 0 to 2%. The experiments were designed based on a central composite design (CCD) technique of response surface methodology (RSM). After 28 days curing, the samples were preconditioned and exposed to high temperatures of 100 °C, 200 °C, 300 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C, and 1000 °C for one hour. Although the residual compressive strength of CR-ECC was negatively affected by elevated temperature, no explosive spalling was noticed for all mixes, even at 1000 °C. Results indicated that CR-ECC experiences slight weight gain and a reduction in strength when exposed to the acidic environment. Due to the reduced permeability, CR-ECC experienced less effect when in sulphate environment. The response models were generated and validated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The difference between adjusted R-squared and predicted R-squared values for each model was less than 0.2, and they possess at least a 95% level of confidence

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN