Complete genome characterization of two wild-type measles viruses from Vietnamese infants during the 2014 outbreak

A large measles virus outbreak occurred across Vietnam in 2014. We identified and obtained complete measles virus genomes in stool samples collected from two diarrheal pediatric patients in Dong Thap Province. These are the first complete genome sequences of circulating measles viruses in Vietnam during the 2014 measles outbreak

Genome sequences of a novel Vietnamese bat bunyavirus

To document the viral zoonotic risks in Vietnam, fecal samples were systematically collected from a number of mammals in southern Vietnam and subjected to agnostic deep sequencing. We describe here novel Vietnamese bunyavirus sequences detected in bat feces. The complete L and S segments from 14 viruses were determined

Concrete strains under transient thermal conditions: A state-of-the-art review

Extensive research has been carried out over the past four decades on the behaviour of mechanically loaded concrete under transient thermal conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide a concise review of the existing experimental and analytical works with a strong focus on the load-induced thermal strain (LITS) component. In order to eliminate ambiguities in definitions, the existing terms used to describe the strain components that develop in concrete under a transient thermal regime are compared and a clear definition of LITS and its components is given. The analysis of the existing experimental work shows that LITS is: a strain occurring only during first heating of loaded concrete to a given temperature; significantly influenced by the moisture flux in the temperature range 100–250 °C; and independent of aggregate type for temperatures up to about 400 °C. Examination of the existing multiaxial test data demonstrates that LITS is the result of markedly confinement-dependent phenomenon and that experiments on concrete subjected to triaxial compression and transient temperatures above 250 °C are needed. In the light of the experimental evidence, for temperatures up to about 400 °C LITS seems to be mainly due to chemical reactions and microstructural changes taking place in the cement paste, such as dehydration, drying and rearrangement of the water molecules within the cement paste. By contrast, for higher temperatures, thermomechanical damage due to thermal incompatibility between cement paste and aggregates is believed to contribute significantly to the development of LITS. Moreover, the necessity for modelling explicitly the LITS component in the case of Heating-Cooling (HC) cycles is discussed. Finally, a review of the main existing uniaxial and multiaxial explicit LITS models is given, and the advantages and drawbacks of each model are outlined

A multiaxial load-induced thermal strain constitutive model for concrete

The paper presents a novel thermomechanical 3D Load-Induced Thermal Strain (LITS) model that captures the experimentally demonstrated behavior of concrete in the case of heating under multiaxial mechanical load, for temperatures up to 250 °C. In contrast to the models available in the literature, the new model takes into account the observed dependency of LITS on stress confinement. Such a dependency is introduced through a confinement coefficient which makes LITS directly proportional to the confinement of the stress state. Also, a new practical bilinear LITS model is proposed and proved to be suitable for fitting the general trend of the curves experimentally obtained for different loading conditions. The presented model is embedded in a thermoelastic material constitutive law, and then verified and validated against experiments performed on concrete specimens subjected to transient temperatures up to 250 °C under uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial compressive stress states. Once calibrated and validated, the constitutive model is used to evaluate the effects of LITS on the structural behavior of a Prestressed Concrete Pressure Vessel (PCPV) of a typical Advanced Gas cooled Reactor (AGR) subjected to a heating-cooling cycle simulating a temporary fault in its cooling system. The results of this study indicate that the development of LITS significantly influences the stress redistribution in the structure. Moreover, it is shown that in the case of PCPVs (and by extension similar structures) it is crucial to consider the LITS dependence on the stress confinement

A confinement-dependent load-induced thermal strain constitutive model for concrete subjected to temperatures up to 500 °C

This paper proves that, given a Load-Induced Thermal Strain (LITS) curve able to accurately describe the uniaxial LITS development for a specific type of concrete and temperatures up to 500 °C, a more accurate prediction of the 3D LITS state is obtained through a confinement-dependent 3D implementation than through the classic confinement-independent approach. In particular, a new model is presented, obtained by extending to 3D a fourth order polynomial LITS derivative function in a way that allows the effects of the stress confinement to be taken into account. For comparison purposes, the same fourth order polynomial LITS derivative function is also implemented in 3D through the classic confinement-independent modelling approach. These constitutive relationships are adopted to model transient experiments performed on concrete subjected to constant uniaxial and biaxial compressive loads. The results show that the confinement-dependent modelling approach gives a better prediction of the LITS state developing in the case of biaxial compression than the classic confinement-independent approach. Finally, the validated confinement-dependent model is applied to evaluate the LITS-related stress redistribution taking place in a typical Prestressed Concrete Pressure Vessel (PCPV) subjected to heating to 500 °C and cooling back to the normal operating temperature of 50 °C. It is found that including the effects of three dimensional LITS behaviour has significant effects on the predicted stress states

Genetic profiling and individualized prognosis of fracture

Fragility fracture is a serious public health problem in the world. The risk of fracture is determined by genetic and nongenetic clinical risk factors. This study sought to quantify the contribution of genetic profiling to fracture prognosis. The study was built on the ongoing Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study, in which fracture and risk factors of 858 men and 1358 women had been monitored continuously from 1989 and 2008. Fragility fracture was ascertained by radiologic reports. Bone mineral density at the femoral neck was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Fifty independent genes with allele frequencies ranging from 0.01 to 0.60 and relative risks (RRs) ranging from 1.01 to 3.0 were simulated. Three predictive models were fitted to the data in which fracture was a function of (1) clinical risk factors only, (2) genes only, and (3) clinical risk factors and 50 genes. The area under the curve (AUC) for model 1 was 0.77, which was lower than that of model II (AUC=0.82). Adding genes into the clinical risk factors model (model 3) increased the AUC to 0.88 and improved the accuracy of fracture classification by 45%, with most (41%) improvement in specificity. In the presence of clinical risk factors, the number of genes required to achieve an AUC of 0.85 was around 25. These results suggest that genetic profiling could enhance the predictive accuracy of fracture prognosis and help to identify high-risk individuals for appropriate management of osteoporosis or intervention. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research