Evaluation Of Feasibility And Performance Of Foamed Fire-Resistant Coating Materials

A preliminary study found high-performance cement mortar, geopolymer mortar, and magnesium phosphate cement mortar (MPCM) have the potential as new fire-resistant materials. In this study, foam was added to these three fire-resistant materials to further improve their rheological, mechanical, and fire-resistant performance and reduce costs. Systematic design and experimental programs were conducted. The results showed the addition of foam enhanced workability, adhesiveness, and fire resistance, allowing the materials to withstand higher temperatures and further delay heat transfer. A mixture of 70% MPCM and 30% foam was identified as the optimum design, which could withstand 1000 °C with low heat transfer rates

Feasibility study on novel fire-resistant coating materials

“Over the past decades, wildfires in the United States have caused severe damage and property losses. The California Camp Fire in November 2018 caused 85 civilian fatalities and destroyed 18,793 structures. There is a need to enhance the fire resistance of structures and buildings. The primary purpose of this study was to develop innovative surface-bonded fire-resistant material that can be used as a wall coating with three primary features: (a) workability for application, (b) enough adhesion to the surface of the structure, (c) fire-resistant. This research developed mix designs of innovative fire-resistant coating materials including high-performance cement mortar (HPCM), geopolymer mortar (GPM), and magnesium phosphate (MPCM). And the then the feasibility of HPCM, GPM, and MPCM as fire-resistant coats for structures were investigated. The Taguchi method was used for the proportional design and material optimization of these materials. Then, a variety of performance tests relevant to the fire resistance of the potential fire-resistant coating materials (i.e., HPCM, GPM, and MPCM) were further conducted. The feasibility and potential for these materials as fire-resistant coatings were analyzed and discussed in detail. The present study results show that these developed materials had excellent slip resistance, cohesiveness, and adhesiveness as coating materials. They all had heat insulation to delay the heat transfer into the protected structures for 30 to 40 minutes. The results indicated that the fire-resistant performance of MPCM was better than HPCM and GPM, MPCM had better integrity after heating to 1000℃”--Abstract, page iii

Feasibility Study on Novel Fire-Resistant Coating Materials

Over the last few decades, wildfires in the United States have caused severe damage and property losses. As more houses are being built in areas prone to wildfire, enhancing the fire resistance of structures and buildings is critical and in great need. This paper presents a preliminary study to explore and develop some innovative surface-bonded fire-resistant coating materials for this purpose. The feasibility of these materials [i.e., high performance cement mortar (HPCM), geopolymer mortar (GPM), and magnesium phosphate cement mortar (MPCM)] was assessed considering the workability, adhesion to structure surface, and fire property. The Taguchi-based mix designs of HPCM, GPM, and MPCM were first evaluated and optimized by using Minitab Response Optimizer. The MATLAB image analysis was used to evaluate the slip resistance of the three optimum mix designs. The cohesiveness, adhesiveness, and fire resistance of the three coating materials were analyzed and compared. The spray area expansion ratio of MPCM was approximately 1.7 times of HPCM and GPM, indicating that HPCM and GPM had better slip resistance than MPCM. The HPCM had the best cohesiveness and adhesiveness with its buildup thickness 0.5 and 1.0 mm higher, and its rebound about 5% and 10% lower than GPM and MPCM, respectively. The fire-resistance test including observation of color change and cracking indicated that MPCM could withstand temperatures as high as 1,000°C, and MPCM had better fire resistance than HPCM and GPM

Evaluation of Multiple Stress-Creep Recovery Test on Alaskan Asphalt Binders

Although the multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR) test has shown its superiority in predicting rutting resistance of asphalt binders, concerns have been raised regarding the testing protocol and procedures. To evaluate the rutting resistance and investigate the suitability of the standard MSCR test method for Alaskan binders, nine typical Alaskan asphalt binders from three different suppliers were collected from paving projects and tested using MSCR tests with four different testing protocols and procedures. The results indicated that the modified binders had better rutting resistance than the neat binder regardless of performance grade (PG). The nonlinear stress limits of most modified binders were all found to be less than 3.2 kPa, which indicated that the stress level of 3.2 kPa included in current specifications could identify their nonlinear behavior. A higher stress level was recommended for identifying the nonlinearity of Binder 3 (PG 64-40 from Supplier A). The recovery time and the number of load cycles had significant effects on the nonrecoverable creep compliance (Jnr) and percent recovery (R) values of polymer-modified binders. Based on the testing results, it was recommended that at least 30 load cycles be included at each stress level and that the strain data from the last five cycles be used to calculate the Jnr and R values. The Jnr-diff included in current one current standard was found unwarranted to evaluate the stress sensitivity of the Alaskan polymer-modified binders used in this study

Knockdown of PKM2 Suppresses Tumor Growth and Invasion in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Accumulating evidence shows that activity of the pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) isoform is closely related to tumorigenesis. In this study, we investigated the relationship betweenPKM2 expression, tumor invasion, and the prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed 65 cases of patients with lung adenocarcinoma who were divided into low and a high expression groups based on PKM2immunohistochemical staining. High PKM2 expression was significantly associated with reduced patient survival. We used small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology to investigate the effect of targeted PKM2-knockout on tumor growth at the cellular level. In vitro, siRNA-mediated PKM2-knockdown significantly inhibited the proliferation, glucose uptake (25%), ATP generation (20%) and fatty acid synthesis of A549 cells, while the mitochondrial respiratory capacity of the cells increased (13%).Western blotting analysis showed that PKM2-knockout significantly inhibited the expression of the glucose transporter GLUT1 and ATP citrate lyase, which is critical for fatty acid synthesis. Further Western blotting analysis showed that PKM2-knockdown inhibited the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which are important in degradation of the extracellular matrix and angiogenesis, respectively. These observations show that PKM2 activates both glycolysis and lipid synthesis, thereby regulating cell proliferation and invasion. This information is important in elucidating the mechanisms by which PKM2 influences the growth and metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma at the cellular and molecular level, thereby providing the basic data required for the development of PKM2-targeted gene therapy

Quantitative assessment of HLA-DQ gene polymorphisms with the development of hepatitis B virus infection, clearance, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases, which leads to public health problems in the world, especially in Asian counties. In recent years, extensive human genetic association studies have been carried out to identify susceptible genes and genetic polymorphisms to understand the genetic contributions to the disease progression of HBV infection. HLA-DQ gene variations have been reported to be associated with HBV infection/clearance, disease progression and the development of hepatitis B-related complications, including liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the results are either inconclusive or controversial. Therefore, to derive a more precise estimation of the association, a meta-analysis was performed. Our data revealed that the HLA-DQ alleles rs2856718-G, rs7453920-A and rs9275319-G were significantly associated with decreased risk of HBV infection and HBV natural clearance. Logistic regression analyses showed that HLA-DQ alleles rs9275572-A significantly increased HBV infection clearance, and decreased HBV natural clearance. However, rs2856718-G and rs9275572-A were not associated with development of cirrhosis. The HLA-DQ polymorphisms (rs2856718 and rs9275572) were associated with a decreased HBV-related HCC risk in all genetic models, but rs9272105-A increased the risk of HBV-related HCC. In addition, no significant association was observed between HLA-DQ rs9275319-G polymorphism and HBVrelated HCC. These stratified analyses were limited due to relatively modest size of correlational studies. In future, further investigation on a large population and different ethnicities are warranted. Our findings contribute to the personalized care and prognosis in hepatitis B.Anhui Provincial Natural Science Research Project of University [KJ2013A188, KJ2014A164, KJ2016A472]; International Science and Technology Cooperation Project-Key Research and Development Program of Anhui Province [1604b0602026]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [81570011]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]