Seismic Fragility Updating of Highway Bridges using Field Instrumentation Data

Seismic fragility assessment of deteriorating highway bridges using analytical methods often rely on empirical, semi-empirical or numerical models to predict the rate and nature of degradation. Consequently, the predicted structural vulnerabilities of bridge components or overall bridge system during seismic shaking are only as good as the adopted deterioration models. For the sake of simplicity and ease of computational modeling, these deterioration models are often far removed from observed manifestations of time-dependent aging. One such example is the nature of corrosion in reinforced concrete bridge components under chloride attacks. While this deterioration mechanism leads to the formation of pits along the length of the rebar, past literature often adopts the simplified uniform area loss model. This study proposes a probabilistic framework that assists in improved deterioration modeling of highway bridges by explicitly modeling pit formation and also provides the opportunity of updating the analytical models with field measurement data using Bayesian techniques. The framework and case-study results presented in this study are believed to render realistic seismic fragilities for highway bridges when located in moderate to high seismic zones.This research was funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board Grant No. ECR/2016/001622. Their support is gratefully acknowledged

PSAT040 Bilateral adrenal infarcts: Initial presentation in concurrent myelodysplastic syndrome and anti-phospholipid syndrome

INTRODUCTION: Bilateral adrenal hemorrhage (BAH) has been noted in several conditions. Bilateral adrenal infarcts (BAI) are rarer but have been seen in anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS). Adrenal insults are not commonly associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). We present a patient who developed BAI as initial presentation of APS in the setting of MDS and discuss management considerations. CASE: A 58-year-old female with MDS diagnosed one month prior presented with abdominal pain, present for one year but acutely worse in the past week. CT A/P showed nodularity of bilateral adrenal glands. She was treated conservatively but continued to experience nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain – repeat CT A/P one month later was suspicious for bilateral peri-adrenal hemorrhages. MRI with adrenal protocol demonstrated bilateral non-hemorrhagic adrenal infarcts. VS were negative for hypothermia or hypotension. Labs showed Na 136 (135-145 mmol/L), K 3.5 (3.4-5.1 mmol/L), BG 108 (mg/dL), DHEA-S 9.3 (8.0-391 mcg/dL), renin 6.7 (0.5-4.0 ng/mL/hr), aldosterone 6.2 (<31.0 ng/dL), 60-minute cortisol after ACTH stimulation test 34.3 (5.2-22.5 mcg/dL), plasma metanephrines <0.10 (0.00-0.49 nmol/L), plasma normetanephrines 0.34 (0.00-0.89 nmol/L), Hgb 11.8 (12.0-15.5 g/dL), and plts 129K (140-450 K/mcL). No history of anticoagulant use, trauma, or VTE. COVID-19 PCR was negative on two separate tests. Hypercoagulability testing noted positive lupus anticoagulant. Anticoagulation was deferred due to underlying bone marrow abnormalities and thrombocytopenia; aspirin was recommended instead by hematology. Outpatient testing revealed 12pm cortisol of 12.6 (5.2-22.5 mcg/dL), ACTH 108.3 (7.2-63.0 pg/mL), and DHEA-S 6.2 (8.0-391 mcg/dL). Patient was empirically started on hydrocortisone for glucocorticoid replacement therapy. CONCLUSION: BAI is not typically associated with MDS but can occur in the setting of a concurrent hypercoagulable process such as APS. The adrenal glands are the most commonly involved glands in APS. Patients often present in adrenal crisis but can present in stable condition as in this case. The adrenal glands are particularly vulnerable due to the "vascular dam" near the zona reticularis. Imaging and laboratory investigation can clarify the nature of the adrenal insult and guide management. Treatment strategy may include anticoagulation to prevent further VTE events, but bleeding risk must be considered. Both glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid replacement should be considered until residual adrenal reserve can be fully elucidated, which may take several months from initial diagnosis. REFERENCES: Rao RH. Bilateral massive adrenal hemorrhage. Med Clin North Am 1995; 79(1): 107-29. Aron DC, Findling JW, Tyrrell JB. Glucocorticoids and adrenal androgens. In: Greenspan's Basic and Clinical Endocrinology. Gardner DG, Shoback D (eds). Mc Graw Hill 2007; pp 367-378. Caron P, Chabannier MH, Cambus JP, Fortenfant F, Otal P, Suc JM. Definitive adrenal insufficiency due to bilateral adrenal hemorrhage and primary antiphospholipid syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1998; 83(5): 1437-9. Presentation: Saturday, June 11, 2022 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m

Word2Box: Capturing Set-Theoretic Semantics of Words using Box Embeddings

Learning representations of words in a continuous space is perhaps the most fundamental task in NLP, however words interact in ways much richer than vector dot product similarity can provide. Many relationships between words can be expressed set-theoretically, for example, adjective-noun compounds (eg. "red cars"$\subseteq$"cars") and homographs (eg. "tongue"$\cap$"body" should be similar to "mouth", while "tongue"$\cap$"language" should be similar to "dialect") have natural set-theoretic interpretations. Box embeddings are a novel region-based representation which provide the capability to perform these set-theoretic operations. In this work, we provide a fuzzy-set interpretation of box embeddings, and learn box representations of words using a set-theoretic training objective. We demonstrate improved performance on various word similarity tasks, particularly on less common words, and perform a quantitative and qualitative analysis exploring the additional unique expressivity provided by Word2Box

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO by a series of organometallic Re(I)-tpy complexes

A series of organometallic Re(I)(L)(CO)3Br complexes with 4'-substituted terpyridine ligands (L) has been synthesised as electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction. The complexes' spectroscopic characterisation and computationally optimised geometry demonstrate a facial geometry around Re(I) with three cis COs and the terpyridine ligand coordinating in a bidentate mode. The effect of substitution on the 4'-position of terpyridine (Re1–5) on CO2 electroreduction was investigated and compared with a known Lehn-type catalyst, Re(I)(bpy)(CO)3Br (Re7). All complexes catalyse CO evolution in homogeneous organic media at moderate overpotentials (0.75–0.95 V) with Faradaic yields of 62–98%. The electrochemical catalytic activity was further evaluated in the presence of three Brønsted acids to demonstrate the influence of the pKa of the proton sources. The TDDFT and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) studies showed combined charge transfer bands of ILCT and MLCT. Amongst the series, the Re-complex containing ferrocenyl substituted terpyridine ligand (Re5) shows an additional intra-ligand charge transfer band and was probed using UV-Vis spectroelectrochemistry

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants: A Review of Its Mutations, Its Implications and Vaccine Efficacy

The widespread increase in multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants is causing a significant health concern in the United States and worldwide. These variants exhibit increased transmissibility, cause more severe disease, exhibit evasive immune properties, impair neutralization by antibodies from vaccinated individuals or convalescence sera, and reinfection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified SARS-CoV-2 variants into variants of interest, variants of concern, and variants of high consequence. Currently, four variants of concern (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, and B.1.617.2) and several variants of interests (B.1.526, B.1.525, and P.2) are characterized and are essential for close monitoring. In this review, we discuss the different SARS-CoV-2 variants, emphasizing variants of concern circulating the world and highlight the various mutations and how these mutations affect the characteristics of the virus. In addition, we discuss the most common vaccines and the various studies concerning the efficacy of these vaccines against different variants of concern

Abstracts of Scientifica 2022

This book contains the abstracts of the papers presented at Scientifica 2022, Organized by the Sancheti Institute College of Physiotherapy, Pune, Maharashtra, India, held on 12–13 March 2022. This conference helps bring researchers together across the globe on one platform to help benefit the young researchers. There were six invited talks from different fields of Physiotherapy and seven panel discussions including over thirty speakers across the globe which made the conference interesting due to the diversity of topics covered during the conference. Conference Title:  Scientifica 2022Conference Date: 12–13 March 2022Conference Location: Sancheti Institute College of PhysiotherapyConference Organizer: Sancheti Institute College of Physiotherapy, Pune, Maharashtra, Indi