Geological Alterations and Chemical Treatment of a Polluted Limestone Foundation

A large factory for the production of concentrated sulphuric acid is constructed in 1977 and located in the west of Iraq near Al-Kaim city. The footings carrying the installations rest on calcareous rocks which extend deep into the ground. For many years, about 1.5 tons per day of acid seeped and percolated into the ground apart from frequent accidents when larger amounts took their path down into the ground. A record of the footings movement revealed that the footings experienced significant heave and settlement indicating a cyclic movement which depends on the frequency of seepage. The results of the past geotechnical and geochemical investigations have been carefully studied in order to trace the geological alterations occurring in the ground due to the percolation of sulphuric acid over years. It appeared that at certain depths the limestone rock has been almost converted to dough and that a significant amount of dolomitization has taken place in the factory ground. Contaminated samples have been obtained from boreholes executed in the factory site. Many chemical materials have been chosen to treat the contaminated samples. Among these materials are sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, sodium silicate plus calcium chloride, barium sulfate, aluminum oxide, ferric oxide and bentonite. Unconfined compression, ultrasonic wave, physical, wet chemical and XRD tests were performed on intact, contaminated and treated specimens. The results proved that sodium silicate is the best alternative to be used for chemical grouting of the ground. The use of calcium chloride with sodium silicate did not show an additional advantage. Samples contaminated to the degree of having the form of dough have almost regained their original solid state strength when treated with sodium silicate

Knowledge and Attitudes of Young People toward Mental Illness: A Cross Sectional Study

The aim of the study was to investigate young Jordanians’ knowledge and attitudes toward people who have a mental illness. A cross sectional design was utilized. A convenient sample of 858 participants aged between 15–24 years old completed a survey. Participants under 19 years were accessed through their schools and those 19 years and above were accessed through universities. Results showed that although the majority of university and school students’ responses were generally consistent, they disagreed on 11 items on the survey; for example, 186 (39.3%) of university students agreed that mental illness has a biological origin compared with only 119 (30%) of school students. The majority of young people 737 (85.9%) were willing to learn and 792 (92.3%) felt that they have to help people with mental illness, which make them willing to learn. In conclusion, the findings provide insights for decision makers and researchers in Jordan about young peoples’ knowledge and attitudes toward mental illness. Increasing young adults’ literacy through introducing educational programs such as mental health first aid courses will enrich their knowledge; help change attitudes and reduce stigma toward people living with mental illness

Effectiveness of Sterilization by Microwave Irradiation on Polyvinyl Siloxane Contaminated with Candida Albicans: An Invitro Study

Aims: This in-vitro study aimed to evaluate the effect of microwave irradiation on polyvinyl siloxane impression material contaminated with candida Albicans. Materials and methods: 30 samples were fabricated from the acrylic mold with disk shape 5*2 (diameter*thickness). Samples incubated with Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI) media containing Candida albicans. Then were divided into 30 samples into 6 groups: C (positive control); 5 non-irradiated specimens, 3MWD ( samples irradiated for 3minute in dry condition), 6MWD (samples irradiated for 6minute in dry condition), 3MWW (samples irradiated for 3minute in wet condition), 6MWW (samples irradiated for 6minute in wet condition), CHX (samples immersed in 0.5% chlorhexidine) After incubation of all samples for 24 hours at 37°C, the samples were got vortex and then serial dilution carried out of suspensions then cultured on Sabouraude Dextrose Agar after incubation for 24 hours at 37°C bacteria were counted. A further 7 days of incubation for microwaved samples was done to verify the effectiveness of both dry and wet microwave sterilization for two periods of time. Results: There was a significant reduction in cfu /ml of candida albicans at 24 hours of incubation. No growth of C. albicans was recorded after 7 days of incubation. Conclusions: Microwave irradiation at 640W for both wet and dry conditions for 3 and 6 min was proved to be effective in the disinfection of polyvinyl siloxane specimens contaminated with. Candida. albicans

Effectiveness of Microwave Sterilization on Surface Roughness of Polyvinyl Siloxane Impression Material

Aims: The study aimed to investigate the effect of sterilization by microwave irradiation at 640W on the surface roughness of polyvinyl siloxane. Materials and methods: 30 samples of addition silicone impression material with a thickness of 20mm and 3mm as diameter. The acrylic mold was used for the samples' fabrication. The samples were divided into six groups each group had five specimens (C) control (3MWD) Samples irradiated for 3minute in dry conditions, (6MWD) samples irradiated for 6minute in dry conditions, (3MWW) samples irradiated for 3minute in wet condition, (6MWW) samples irradiated for 6minute in wet condition and (CHX) samples immersed in chlorhexidine with 0.5% concentration for one hour. A profilometer (Talysurf 10, R.P.I. LTD, Metrology Division) is used for measuring surface roughness by taking the means of three points with the aid of a stylus. Results: There were statistical differences between the control group and the tested groups. Mann-Whitney showed that only 3MWD had no statistical differences from the control group. Conclusions: Disinfection of polyvinyl siloxane using the microwave at 640W for 3 minutes is safe or recommended regarding its least effect on the surface roughness

Accounting for Endogeneity in Maintenance Decisions and Overlay Thickness in a Pavement-Roughness Deterioration Model

Pavement deterioration models are an important part of any pavement management system. Many of these models suffer from endogeneity bias because of the inclusion of independent variables correlated with unobserved factors, which are captured by the model's error terms. Examples of such endogenous variables include pavement overlay thickness and maintenance and rehabilitation activities, both of which are not randomly chosen but are in fact decision variables selected by pavement engineers based on field conditions. Inclusion of these variables in a pavement deterioration model can result in biased and inconsistent model parameter estimates, leading to incorrect insights. Previous research has shown that continuous endogenous variables, such as pavement overlay thickness, can be corrected using auxiliary models to replace the endogenous variable with an instrumented variable that has lower correlation with the unobserved error term. Discrete endogenous variables, such as the type of maintenance and rehabilitation activities, have been accounted for by modeling the likelihood of each potential outcome and developing individual deterioration models for each of the potential responses. This paper proposes an alternative approach to accommodate discrete endogenous variables-the selectivity correction method-that allows a single model to incorporate the impacts of all discrete choices. This approach is applied to develop a pavement-roughness progression model that incorporates both continuous and discrete endogenous variables using field data from Washington State. The result is a roughness progression model with consistent parameter estimates, which have more realistic values than those obtained in previous studies that used the same data

Genetic analysis : therapeutic drug monitoring of metformin and glimepiride on diabetic patients’ plasma including genetic polymorphism

Diabetes is a widespread disease that needs to be controlled. Therapeutic monitoring of drugs is very helpful in maintaining desirable doses. To study a correlation between the blood level of metformin (to a lesser extent, glimepiride) and genotyping (mainly the SULT1A1 genotype). Determine drug levels using a validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) tool. A validated LC-MS/MS method was developed to determine metformin and glimepiride levels in human plasma. DNA extraction was performed using Jena Bioscience’s Blood DNA preparation, in which a column kit was used to extract DNA for genetic polymorphism. The investigation was carried out using both medications in type 2 diabetes patients alongside the genetic polymorphism. One hundred and six patients were assessed. The prevalence of homozygosity for SULT1A1 and wild-type CYP2D6 * 4 were 72.6% and 73.6%, respectively. After adjustment for daily intake of metformin, three patients out of five with the highest levels of metformin had no homozygosity (SULT1A1 genotype). Statistically, variables that demonstrated an insignificant correlation with the level of metformin were body mass index (rs (87) = 0.32, P = 0.011) and age (rs (87) =0.26, P = 0.017). The homozygous (SULT1A1 genotype) correlation was moderate (rs (87) =0.21, P = 0.052). According to the findings, patients with the wt/wt CYP2D6 genotype had considerably greater levels of endoxifen than those with the v/v CYP2D6 genotype. The study’s results reported a probable correlation between the blood level of metformin (to a lesser extent, glimepiride) and genotyping (mainly the SULT1A1 genotype). Genotype-guided drug therapy may provide a novel contribution to maximize drug efficacy and/or minimize toxicity