Numerical Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Circular Columns Strengthening With CFRP under Concentric and Eccentric Loadings

The purpose of this study is to explore the numerical behavior of circular RC short columns with different degrees of confinement with CFRP (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%) wraps under concentric and eccentric loading. The numerical analysis carried out by using an improved concrete plastic-damage model (CDPM) implemented in ABAQUS software for finite element (FE) analysis. The FE model simulated a total of twenty-four numerical specimens. The findings were matched to published experimental test results in the literature. The findings of the FE model and the experimental data were good similar. As a consequence, the model was found to be valid. The numerical results shows that as load eccentricity increased, the load carrying capacity of columns decreased for unconfined specimens, whereas the decline in strength for confined specimens becomes limited as the degrees of confinement ratio increased. In addition, increasing the CFRP confinement ratio improves the column's load-bearing capability at the same load eccentricity

Characteristics of Polymeric Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composite (PFRCC) under Uniaxial Compression

This study aimed to evaluate the compressive characteristics and toughness of polymeric fiber reinforced cementitious composites (PFRCC). In the experimental program, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers were used to prepare two groups of PFRCC cylinders with different fiber contents. The main factor considered in this study was the reinforcing index. Several parameters were investigated, i.e. compressive strength, elastic modulus, strain at peak stress, Poisson’s ratio and toughness of PFRCC. The results revealed that there was a reduction in both compressive strength and elastic modulus as the reinforcing index increased, while a significant increase in the strain at peak stress was observed. Moreover, a comparison was made between different methods of toughness estimation and it was found that 7.9 was the best reinforcing index for PVA fibers  based on the energy absorption performance and ductility of PFRCC. Furthermore, an empirical model is proposed in this paper to predict the PFRCC-PVA compressive stress-strain curve. The proposed model features new formulas to calculate a number of important coefficients to plot the curve based on the reinforcing index value. Besides that, the model had good convergence compared to the experimental results, with perfect values for both variance and correlation coefficient

Numerical analysis of reinforced concrete circular columns strengthening with CFRP under concentric and eccentric loadings

The purpose of this study is to explore the numerical behavior of circular Reinforced Concrete (RC) short columns with different degrees of confinement with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%) wraps under concentric and eccentric loading. The numerical analysis carried out by using an improved Concrete Damage plasticity (CDP) model implemented in ABAQUS software for finite element (FE) analysis. The FE model simulated a total of twenty-four numerical specimens. The findings were matched to published experimental test results in the literature. The findings of the FE model and the experimental data were good similar. As a consequence, the model was found to be valid. The numerical results shows that as load eccentricity increased, the load carrying capacity of columns decreased for unconfined specimens, whereas the decline in strength for confined specimens becomes limited as the degrees of confinement ratio increased. In addition, increasing the CFRP confinement ratio improves the column's load-bearing capability at the same load eccentricity

Fighting the COVID-19 Infodemic:Modeling the Perspective of Journalists, Fact-Checkers, Social Media Platforms, Policy Makers, and the Society

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the political and the medical aspects of disinformation merged as the problem got elevated to a whole new level to become the first global infodemic. Fighting this infodemic has been declared one of the most important focus areas of the World Health Organization, with dangers ranging from promoting fake cures, rumors, and conspiracy theories to spreading xenophobia and panic. Addressing the issue requires solving a number of challenging problems such as identifying messages containing claims, determining their check-worthiness and factuality, and their potential to do harm as well as the nature of that harm, to mention just a few. To address this gap, we release a large dataset of 16K manually annotated tweets for fine-grained disinformation analysis that (i) focuses on COVID-19, (ii) combines the perspectives and the interests of journalists, fact-checkers, social media platforms, policy makers, and society, and (iii) covers Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, and English. Finally, we show strong evaluation results using pretrained Transformers, thus confirming the practical utility of the dataset in monolingual vs. multilingual, and single task vs. multitask settings

Screening and diagnostic testing protocols for HIV and Syphilis infections in health care setting in Qatar: Evaluation and recommendations

Background HIV and Syphilis are common STIs, which have become a concern and burden on healthcare systems, as many infections go untreated and lead to potentially serious complications. HIV is usually diagnosed with Western blot, PCR, and p24 antigen testing. Whereas, Syphilis is mainly diagnosed through clinical findings and serologic testing. The Medical Commission Department (MC) under MOPH is responsible for screening all newcomers to Qatar, aiming to keep the country free from serious infectious diseases. Objective We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the protocols used in the MC for screening HIV and Syphilis infections. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of samples analyzed by 4th Generation ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo and Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) between January to December 2019. ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo positive samples were confirmed by INNO-LIA™ HIVI/II and RT-PCR. RPR-reactive samples were confirmed by ARCHITECT® Syphilis Treponema pallidium Antibody (Syphilis TPA) assay. Results For HIV, data were collected from 585,587 individuals, of which 595 (0.1%) were positive by the ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo (Analyzer A). When all initially positive sera were retested on newly collected blood samples using different ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo analyzer (analyzer B), 99.8% (594/595) of samples were also positive, suggesting high reproducibility. The positive predictive value (PPV) between ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo and the INNO-LIA™ HIVI/II confirmatory assay was 31.8%. The PPV between ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo and HIV-PCR assay was 26.8%. Retrospective data for Syphilis were collected from a total of 97,298 individuals who visited the MC, of which 198 (0.20%) were initially positive by RPR. The PPV between RPR and Syphilis TPA confirmatory assay was 36.6%. Conclusion Despite the high rate of false positivity using ARCHITECT® HIV Ag/Ab Combo and RPR screening assays, both assays have proven to be highly effective as screening testing methods

Performance of Retrofitted Self-Compacting Concrete-Filled Steel Tube Beams Using External Steel Plates

Self-compacting concrete-filled steel tube (SCCFST) beams, similar to other structural members, necessitate retrofitting for many causes. However, research on SCCFST beams externally retrofitted by bolted steel plates has seldom been explored in the literature. This paper aims at experimentally investigating the retrofitting performance of square self-compacting concrete-filled steel tube (SCCFST) beams using bolted steel plates with three different retrofitting schemes including varied configurations and two different steel plate lengths under flexure. A total of 18 specimens which consist of 12 retrofitted SCCFST beams, three unretrofitted (control) SCCFST beams, and three hollow steel tubes were used. The flexural behaviour of the retrofitted SCCFST beams was examined regarding flexural strength, failure modes, and moment versus deflection curves, energy absorption, and ductility. Experimental results revealed that the implemented retrofitting schemes efficiently improve the moment carrying capacity and stiffness of the retrofitted SCCFST beams compared to the control beams. The increment in flexural strength ranged from 1% to 46%. Furthermore, the adopted retrofitting schemes were able to restore the energy absorption and ductility of the damaged beams in the range of 35% to 75% of the original beam ductility. Furthermore, a theoretical model was suggested to predict the moment capacity of the retrofitted SCCFST beams. The theoretical model results were in good agreement with the test results

THE ROLE OF RNA METABOLISM IN NEUROLOGICAL DISEASES

ABSTRACT Neurodegenerative disorders are commonly encountered in medical practices. Such diseases can lead to major morbidity and mortality among the affected individuals. The molecular pathogenesis of these disorders is not yet clear. Recent literature has revealed that mutations in RNA-binding proteins are a key cause of several human neuronal-based diseases. This review discusses the role of RNA metabolism in neurological diseases with specific emphasis on roles of RNA translation and microRNAs in neurodegeneration, RNA-mediated toxicity, repeat expansion diseases and RNA metabolism, molecular pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia, and neurobiology of survival motor neuron (SMN) and spinal muscular atrophy

Can commercial automated immunoassays be utilized to predict neutralizing antibodies after SARS-CoV-2 infection? A comparative study between three different assays.

Background: High-throughput assays that can infer neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 are of great importance for assessing the immunity induced by natural infection and COVID-19 vaccines. We aimed to evaluate the performance and degree of correlation of three fully automated anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoassays with neutralization activity using a surrogate virus-neutralizing test (sVNT) from GenScript, targeting the receptor-binding domain. Methods: 110 sera collected from PCR-confirmed asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals were tested for neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) using the sVNT. Positive samples were tested on three automated immunoassays targeting different viral antigens: Mindray CL-900i®, Abbott Architect, and Ortho VITROS®. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, agreement, and correlation with the sVNT were assessed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine optimal thresholds for predicting the presence of neutralizing activity by each assay. Results: All three assays showed 100% specificities. The highest sensitivity was 99.0%, demonstrated by VITROS®, followed by 94.3%, for CL-900i®, and 81.0%, for Architect. Both VITROS® and CL-900i® had the strongest correlation with the sVNT (ρ = 0.718 and ρ = 0.712, respectively), while Architect showed a moderate correlation (ρ = 0.618). ROC curve analysis indicated that the manufacturer’s recommended cutoff values are adequate for predicting the presence of nAbs and providing a strong correlation with the sVNT. Conclusion: VITROS® and CL-900i® serological assays, which detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, could serve as reliable assays to predict neutralization activity after infection or vaccinatio