Effect of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Latex on Mechanical Properties of Eco Concrete: Limestone Powder Concrete

To make concrete a truly green material, viable cement substitutes are available. This experimental investigation is performed to study the effect of using limestone powder (LSP) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) latex in the concrete mix. In this work, a concrete with 1:1.8:3 cementitious material:sand:gravel and water/cement ratio w/c of 0.5 is produced. First, LSP is used with 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% replacements by weight of cements. The fineness of the LSP is measured using sieve No. 200 and showed about 30% pass. Second, and to improve the matrix of concrete due to the dilution effect, four ratios of SBR latex (0, 5, 10, and 15%) are added by weight of cements to the mix for each LSP ratio. Compressive strength at ages of 3, 7, 14, 28, and 90 days is tested for the concrete specimens mixed with LSP only to examine its effect on concrete strength’s development with time, whereas strengths are recorded at the age of 28 days for the other concretes. Three prisms were cast for each ratio and tested at 28 days. The results show general improvements in terms of compressive and flexural strengths

Contraction of variational principle and optical soliton solutions for two models of nonlinear Schrödinger equation with polynomial law nonlinearity

Our study analyzes the two models of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) with polynomial law nonlinearity by powerful and comprehensible techniques, such as the variational principle method and the amplitude ansatz method. We will derive the functional integral and the Lagrangian of these equations, which illustrate the system's dynamic. The solutions of these models will be extracted by selecting the trial ansatz functions based on the Jost linear functions, which are continuous at all intervals. We start with the Jost function that has been approximated by a piecewise linear function with a single nontrivial variational parameter in three cases from a region of a rectangular box, then use this trial function to obtain the functional integral and the Lagrangian of the system without any loss. After that, we approximate this trial function by piecewise linear ansatz function in two cases of the two-box potential, then approximate it by quadratic polynomials with two free parameters rather than a piecewise linear ansatz function, and finally, will be approximated by the tanh function. Also, we utilize the amplitude ansatz method to extract the new solitary wave solutions of the proposed equations that contain bright soliton, dark soliton, bright-dark solitary wave solutions, rational dark-bright solutions, and periodic solitary wave solutions. Furthermore, conditions for the stability of the solutions will be submitted. These answers are crucial in applied science and engineering and will be introduced through various graphs such as 2D, 3D, and contour plots

The crystal structure of Pneumolysin at 2.0 Å resolution reveals the molecular packing of the pre-pore complex

Pneumolysin is a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin (CDC) and virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae. It kills cells by forming pores assembled from oligomeric rings in cholesterol-containing membranes. Cryo-EM has revealed the structures of the membrane-surface bound pre-pore and inserted-pore oligomers, however the molecular contacts that mediate these oligomers are unknown because high-resolution information is not available. Here we have determined the crystal structure of full-length pneumolysin at 1.98 Å resolution. In the structure, crystal contacts demonstrate the likely interactions that enable polymerisation on the cell membrane and the molecular packing of the pre-pore complex. The hemolytic activity is abrogated in mutants that disrupt these intermolecular contacts, highlighting their importance during pore formation. An additional crystal structure of the membrane-binding domain alone suggests that changes in the conformation of a tryptophan rich-loop at the base of the toxin promote monomer-monomer interactions upon membrane binding by creating new contacts. Notably, residues at the interface are conserved in other members of the CDC family, suggesting a common mechanism for pore and pre-pore assembly

Control and Media Sessions: lAX with RSW Control Criteria

This paper discusses technical issues related to delivery and control of IP multimedia services, such as multimedia conferencing, involving heterogeneous end terminals. In particular, it proposes the design of an experimental system for interworking between InterAsterisk eXchange Protocol and RSW session and call control signaling protocols

Secreted Phosphoprotein 24 kD (Spp24) and Spp14 Affect TGF-β Induced Bone Formation Differently

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have opposing but complementary functions in directing bone growth, repair, and turnover. Both are found in the bone matrix. Proteins that bind to and affect the activity of these growth factors will determine the relative abundance of the growth factors and, therefore, regulate bone formation. Secreted phosphoprotein 24 kD (Spp24) is a bone matrix protein that has been demonstrated to bind to and affect the activity of BMPs. The arginine-rich carboxy terminus of Spp24 is proteolytically processed to produce three other predictable truncation products (Spp18.1, Spp16.0, and Spp14.5). In this work, we report that kinetic data obtained by surface plasmon resonance demonstrate that Spp24 and the three C-terminal truncation products all bind to TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 with a similar but somewhat less affinity than they bind BMP-2; that, as in the case of BMP-2, the full-length (FL) form of Spp24 binds TGF-β with greater affinity than do the truncation products; that FL-Spp24 inhibits TGF-β2 induced bone formation in vivo, but Spp14.5 does not; and that co-administration of FL-Spp24 or Spp14.5 with TGF-β2 in vivo is associated with a reduction in the amount of cartilage, relative to new bone, present at the site of injection. This finding is consistent with the observation that low-dose TGF-β administration in vivo is associated with greater bone formation than high-dose TGF-β administration, and suggests that one function of Spp24 and its truncation products is to down-regulate local TGF-β activity or availability during bone growth and development. The similarities and differences of the interactions between Spp24 proteins and TGF-β compared to the interaction of the Spp24 proteins and BMPs have significant implications with respect to the regulation of bone metabolism and with respect to engineering therapeutic proteins for skeletal disorders. © 2013 Tian et al

Factors Affecting the Slenderness Limit for RC Columns-The Use of the (ACI-318M-05) Provisions

The current ACI code and many other codes permit the moment magnification method for design of slender reinforced concrete (RC) columns. Manually, the design/analysis procedure is tedious, so that the codes state a pre-prediction if the column is slender or not. In other words, before starting design codes provide slenderness limits to be considered to decide whether a column is slender or not. This work will concentrate on the slender RC column provisions of the latest ACI Code. Using this method some columns are found to be short. In the proposed method of this work, it is found that some of these short columns are found to be long , thus needing moment magnification. Since column analysis/design represents dealing with one of the most critical parts of RC buildings, this proposed magnification is presented in this work

Ten antenna array using a small footprint capacitive-coupled-shorted loop antenna for 3.5 GHz 5G smartphone applications

ABSTRACT: A self-isolated 10-element antenna array operating in the long-term evolution 42 (LTE42) frequency band is proposed for 5G massive MIMO smartphone applications. The proposed antenna elements are placed in a 2D array configuration; they are placed symmetrically along the two long edges of the mobile chassis. The proposed antenna structure is a shorted loop antenna resonating at half-wavelength mode, which is rarely deployed by researchers due to its large size compared to other quarter wavelength antenna structures. It is a printed, shorted, and compact loop antenna of a total footprint area of 6 × 6.5 mm2 (λ/14.3 ×λ/13.2, where λ is the free space wavelength at 3.5 GHz). A small capacitive coupling flag-shaped strip is used to excite the proposed loop antenna. The compactness is achieved using an inward meandering that forms an internal loop in the element. The position and the dimensions of this loop are used to tune the resonant frequency and matching level at 3.5 GHz. The results (theoretical, simulated, and measured) show that the 3.5 GHz band (3.4-3.6 GHz) is achieved with impedance matching better than −10 dB, and total efficiency higher than 65%. A 10 × 10 MIMO system is formed and it has an excellent MIMO and diversity performance in-terms of the envelope correlation coefficient (below 0.055), and apparently it has the highest channel capacity (about 54.3 bps/Hz) among other MIMO systems of the same order. Simulation results of the specific absorption rate (SAR) demonstrates that the proposed antenna solution satisfied SAR criterion. Thus, the proposed ten-element MIMO antenna represent an excellent candidate for sub-6 GHz 5G smartphone applications

The impact of Oligo-miocene basaltic intrusions on the petroleum system in Gulf of Suez rift basin, Egypt: new insights into tikhermal maturity and reservoir quality

In recent years, the petroleum industry has prioritized the exploration of new and unconventional petroleum reservoirs. As a result, this study assessed the significance of basaltic intrusions from two key aspects: their impact on the thermal maturity of pre-rift source rocks and their potentiality as reservoirs. The present study attempts to integrate surface field investigations of basaltic dykes in Wadi Nukhul and Wadi Matulla as surface analogs with petroleum system modeling of pre-rift source rocks containing subsurface basaltic intrusions in the Abu Rudeis-Sidri field. Therefore, the fracture networks were observed in Wadi Nukhul and Wadi Matulla, suggesting that both the basaltic dykes and host rocks have interconnected fractures, which is critical for a high-quality reservoir of the dykes and efficient oil expulsion. As a result, the analysis of burial history, temperature, maturity, generation, transformation ratio, and expelled oil quantity revealed a significantly high value for basaltic intrusions. Moreover, the Abu Rudeis-Sidri field had a good petroleum system with thermally mature source rocks by basaltic intrusions. Furthermore, the fractured basaltic intrusions presented a high-quality oil reservoir well-sealed by the thick Rudeis Formation. Oil production has doubled since the discovery of this reservoir. This study introduces a novel approach to understanding the distribution pattern of basaltic intrusions in subsurface and surface analogs, which can serve as a model for exploring new potential unconventional basaltic reservoirs in the Gulf of Suez rift basin

Opinion article: Neurosurgical treatment for neuro-ophthalmologic conditions

A significant role of the neuro-ophthalmologist is to counsel patients on appropriate management and anticipated visual prognosis for conditions affecting the afferent and efferent visual systems, including those requiring neurosurgical treatment. However, the literature regarding anticipated neuro- ophthalmologic prognosis after neurosurgical intervention for cerebral aneurysms, sellar lesions, optic pathway tumors, and elevated intracranial pressure is limited with many key questions unanswered. For example, if a cerebral aneurysm is equally amenable to clipping or endovascular coiling, is there a preferred approach in terms of visual prognosis based on aneurysm location? Is dural venous sinus stenting (VSS) for idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) superior, equivalent or inferior to shunting in terms of visual recovery and safety profile? Landmark studies on pituitary tumors using pre-operative optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of the optic nerve head to predict visual recovery after surgical decompression of the optic chiasm have changed neuro-ophthalmologic practice and enabled patients to be better informed regarding expected visual outcomes. 1,2 In order to optimize an interdisciplinary team approach to patient care, further studies of visual outcomes for neuro- ophthalmologic conditions requiring neurosurgical intervention are needed