Authors’ Response: Minimum Confinement Reinforcement for Prestressed Concrete Piles and a Rational Seismic Design Framework

The authors greatly appreciate the reviewer’s interest in “Minimum Confinement Reinforcement for Prestressed Concrete Piles and a Rational Seismic Design Framework,”1 and his useful discussio

Minimum confinement reinforcement for prestressed concrete piles and a rational seismic design framework

The design of prestressed concrete piles in seismic regions is required to include confinement reinforcement in potential plastic hinge regions. However, the existing requirements for quantifying this reinforcement vary significantly, often resulting in unconstructible details. This paper presents a rational approach for designing minimum confinement reinforcement for prestressed concrete piles in seismic regions. By varying key variables, such as the concrete strength, prestressing force, and axial load, the spiral reinforcement quantified according to the proposed approach provides a minimum curvature ductility capacity of about 18, while the resulting ultimate curvature is 28% greater than an estimated target curvature for seismic design. This paper also presents a new axial load limit for prestressed piles, an integrated framework for seismic design of piles and superstructure, the dependency of pile displacement capacity on surrounding soils, and how further reduction to confinement reinforcement could be achieved, especially in medium to soft soils and in moderate to low seismic regions

An axillofemoral bypass graft transgressing the chest wall

xplantation of an infected patent vascular graft does not necessarily require concomitant revascularization procedures. The need for revascularization can be determined by a trial cross-clamping of the graft and clinical assessment of limb perfusion. We report a case of an infected axillofemoral graft transgressing the chest wall in a surgically high risk patient

Ergodicity for the 3D Stochastic Navier-Stokes Equations Perturbed by Lévy Noise

In this work we construct a Markov family of martingale solutions for 3D stochastic Navier–Stokes equations (SNSE) perturbed by Lévy noise with periodic boundary conditions. Using the Kolmogorov equations of integrodifferential type associated with the SNSE perturbed by Lévy noise, we construct a transition semigroup and establish the existence of a unique invariant measure. We also show that it is ergodic and strongly mixing. Abstract © Wiley

Proteinuria in early detection of human leptospirosis

Background: Leptospirosis is an infectious disease caused by spirochetes bacteria Leptospira spp. and is reported from all over the world. As the clinical signs and symptoms of Leptospirosis often are nonspecific and the disease is early mistaken for other major infectious febrile illness, laboratory test to confirm the clinical diagnosis thus is essential for optimal treatment and patient management.Methods: Serum and urine samples were collected from patients clinically suspected cases of Leptospirosis. Preparations of urine concentrate by precipitation and centrifugation.Results: It was interesting to note that immunoglobulins are present in the urine protein concentrate of patients with Leptospirosis on the day of admission in the hospital, with urine albumin reports either positive or negative. By ELISA test it was noted that antibodies present in urine and serum were of both IgM and IgG class against the Leptospiral antigens from three pathogenic serovars and one non-pathogenicserovars. In the immunospot test which was done and compared with standard ELISA test for serum antibodies using same antigen showed that antibodies present in urine protein concentrate, which was collected on the day of admission when patients come with suspecting symptoms of Leptospirosis.Conclusions: Proteinuria is the most frequent abnormality noted in all patients at some stage of illness. This is the first report on the presence of immunoglobulins in urine samples, which were found to be of IgM and IgG classes. These findings are of significant diagnostic potential as a simple immune-spot test can be done for detecting anti-leptospiral antibodies in urine samples of suspected cases. The present attempt was aimed at developing an immunospot test, a simple and rapid diagnostic test to detect Leptospirosis using urine samples of clinically suspected patients of the infection at the earliest. It was found to be in good correlation with standard ELISA method which is being used to detect serum antibodies in Leptospira infected patients using the same antigen

A multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing radiofrequency and mechanical occlusion chemically assisted ablation of varicose veins - final results of the Venefit versus Clarivein for varicose veins trial

BACKGROUND: Endovenous thermal ablation has revolutionised varicose vein treatment. New non-thermal techniques such as mechanical occlusion chemically assisted endovenous ablation (MOCA) allow treatment of entire trunks with single anaesthetic injections. Previous non-randomised work has shown reduced pain post-operatively with MOCA. This study presents a multi-centre randomised controlled trial assessing the difference in pain during truncal ablation using MOCA and radiofrequency endovenous ablation (RFA) with six months' follow-up. METHODS: Patients undergoing local anaesthetic endovenous ablation for primary varicose veins were randomised to either MOCA or RFA. Pain scores using Visual Analogue Scale and number scale (0-10) during truncal ablation were recorded. Adjunctive procedures were completed subsequently. Pain after phlebectomy was not assessed. Patients were reviewed at one and six months with clinical scores, quality of life scores and duplex ultrasound assessment of the treated leg. RESULTS: A total of 170 patients were recruited over a 21-month period from 240 screened. Patients in the MOCA group experienced significantly less maximum pain during the procedure by Visual Analogue Scale (MOCA median 15 mm (interquartile range 7-36 mm) versus RFA 34 mm (interquartile range 16-53 mm), p = 0.003) and number scale (MOCA median 3 (interquartile range 1-5) versus RFA 4 mm (interquartile range 3-6.5), p = 0.002). 'Average' pain scores were also significantly less in the MOCA group; 74% underwent simultaneous phlebectomy. Occlusion rates, clinical severity scores, disease specific and generic quality of life scores were similar between groups at one and six months. There were two deep vein thromboses, one in each group. CONCLUSION: Pain secondary to truncal ablation is less painful with MOCA than RFA with similar short-term technical, quality of life and safety outcomes

InfoCrop – a crop simulation model for assessing the climate change impacts on crops

This study presents results of evaluation in terms of its validation and impact of climate change on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea), sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) and maize (Zea mays) by using the crop simulation model, ‘InfoCrop’. Simulated results of mustard model showed a spatial variation in yield among all five regions in both irrigated and rainfed mustard. Under irrigated conditions, the yield reduction in 2020, 2050 and 2080 would be highest in Eastern-IGP (Indo-Gangetic Plain) region followed by Central-IGP. This was due to maximum projected rise in temperature in Eastern-IGP where maximum and minimum temperature would rise by 5.1° and 5.6°C in 2080. The reduction of irrigated mustard yield was least in Northern-IGP under almost all scenarios. But in western India, yield reduction gradually increased from 2020 to 2080. In future climate change scenarios, the rainfall would be projected to increase in 2050 irrespective of the locations. But in 2020 and 2080 rainfall would reduce in Northern-IGP, Western and Central India. This was reflected higher yield reduction in rainfed mustard in these three locations. In sorghum, the future climate change scenario analysis showed that the yields (CSH 16 and CSV 15) are likely to reduce at Akola, Anantpur, Coimbatore and Bijapur. But yield of CSH 16 will increase slightly in Gwalior (0.1%) at 2020 and thereafter it will decline. At Kota the sorghum yield is likely to increase in 2020 (3.3 and 1.7 % in CSH 16 and CSV 15 respectively) with no change in 2050 and yields will be reduced at 2080 in both varieties. Maize trend is similar from the sorghum impact except in the UIGP where rainfall could be projected to increase in the future. In MIGP and SP(Southern Plateau), expected reduction would be 5%, 13%, 17% and 21%, 35%, 35% in 2020, 2050 and 2080 respectively from the current level

Coexistence of Ferroelectric Triclinic Phases and Origin of Large Piezoelectric Responses in Highly Strained BiFeO3 films

The structural evolution of the strain-driven morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in BiFeO3 films has been investigated using synchrotron x-ray diffractometry in conjunction with scanning probe microscopy. Our results demonstrate the existence of mixed-phase regions that are mainly made up of two heavily tilted ferroelectric triclinic phases. Analysis of first-principles computations suggests that these two triclinic phases originate from a phase separation of a single monoclinic state accompanied by elastic matching between the phase-separated states. These first-principle calculations further reveal that the intrinsic piezoelectric response of these two low-symmetry triclinic phases is not significantly large, which thus implies that the ease of phase transition between these two energetically close triclinic phases is likely responsible for the large piezoelectric response found in the BiFeO3 films near its MPB. These findings not only enrich the understandings of the lattice and domain structure of epitaxial BiFeO3 films but may also shed some light on the origin of enhanced piezoelectric response near MPB.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures and 1 tabl