Recycling of Steel Scraps as a Strength Enhancement Material in Concrete

The cement industry is very energy consumptive and produces CO2 and also generates greenhouse gases which are the major cause of global warming. The production of cement and the use of concrete are both rising daily. So, to protect the environment, alternate materials are required. The construction industry has several constructional byproducts and wastes as a variant of traditionally used products. In the process of production and working with steel, steel chips are formed as waste material. The best way to reduce environmental pollution and improve waste recycling is to partially replace concrete with steel chips. Due to these factors and the abundance of material, steel chips were used as a partial cement replacement at 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% by the volume of cement. The properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural beam strength, and modulus of elasticity are checked after 7, 14, and 28 days. Comparing these qualities to those of control molds showed that by raising the percentage of steel chips in the concrete up to 1.5%, mechanical characteristics are improved; however, when the percentage is increased to 2%, mechanical properties are also affected

Factors Affecting Investigative Journalism in Pakistan: Exploring Journalists’ Perceptions

Investigative journalism is an important part of journalism practices as it unveils the matters that are deliberately hidden from society. This study aims to examine how journalists perceive the factors affecting investigative journalism in Pakistan. More specifically, how intra, extra, and within-media elements influence media content and decisions of coverage. Through purposive sampling method and for data collection procedure, structured questionnaire tool was utilized. The results showed that certain forces inside and outside the media organizations impact media content in Pakistan. These influences include organizational sources, pressure groups, personal biases, job threats, economic constraints. Thus the study proposes that journalism in Pakistan can meet its true objectives only by dealing or at least minimizing the factors affecting investigative journalism in Pakistan.&nbsp

Dibutylchloro[4-(4-nitrophenyl)piperazine-1-carbodithioato-kappa S-2,S ']tin(IV)

The title complex, [Sn(C4H9)(2)(C11H12N3O2S2) Cl], features an asymmetrically chelating thiocarboxylate ligand. There are two molecules in the asymmetric unit. The Sn atom is five-coordinated within a C2ClS2 donor set that is best described as trigonal-bipyramidal with one S atom and the Cl atom in axial positions, subtending bond angles of 155.67 (2) and 155.11 (2)degrees, respectively

Chlorodiethyl[4-(4-nitrophenyl)piperazine-1-carbodithioato]tin(IV)

The molecule of the title compound, [Sn(C2H5)(2)(C11H12N3O2S2)Cl], features an asymmetrically chelating thiocarboxylate ligand. The Sn atom is five-coordinate within a C2ClS2 donor set that is best described as trigonal bipyramidal with S and Cl atoms in axial positions, defining a bond angle of 156.58 (2)degrees

Tuning the Photoresponse of Nano-Heterojunction: Pressure-Induced Inverse Photoconductance in Functionalized WO3 Nanocuboids

S.R. and S.S. contributed equally to this work. This work was mainly supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11874076), National Science Associated Funding (NSAF, Grant No. U1530402), and Science Challenging Program (Grant No. TZ2016001). D.E. thanks the financial support from Spanish MINECO under Grant No. MAT2016-75586-C4-1-P and from Generalitat Valenciana under Grant Prometeo/2018/123, EFIMAT. The X-ray diffraction measurements were performed at the BL15U1 station, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) in China. The HP XAS measurements were performed at 20 ID-C, APS, ANL. APS is supported by DOE-BES, under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The authors gratefully acknowledge Professor T. Irifune for providing the nanodiamonds for the HP XAS measurements, and K. Yang (SSRF), A. G. Li (SSRF), and C. J. Sun (APS) for their support in the in situ HP measurements.Inverse photoconductivity (IPC) is a unique photoresponse behavior that exists in few photoconductors in which electrical conductivity decreases with irradiation, and has great potential applications in the development of photonic devices and nonvolatile memories with low power consumption. However, it is still challenging to design and achieve IPC in most materials of interest. In this study, pressure-driven photoconductivity is investigated in n-type WO3 nanocuboids functionalized with p-type CuO nanoparticles under visible illumination and an interesting pressure-induced IPC accompanying a structural phase transition is found. Native and structural distortion induced oxygen vacancies assist the charge carrier trapping and favor the persistent positive photoconductivity beyond 6.4 GPa. The change in photoconductivity is mainly related to a phase transition and the associated changes in the bandgap, the trapping of charge carriers, the WO6 octahedral distortion, and the electron–hole pair recombination process. A unique reversible transition from positive to inverse photoconductivity is observed during compression and decompression. The origin of the IPC is intimately connected to the depletion of the conduction channels by electron trapping and the chromic property of WO3. This synergistic rationale may afford a simple and powerful method to improve the optomechanical performance of any hybrid material.Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11874076); National Science Associated Funding (NSAF, Grant No. U1530402); Science Challenging Program (Grant No. TZ2016001); Spanish MINECO MAT2016-75586-C4-1-P; Generalitat Valenciana under Grant Prometeo/2018/123, EFIMAT; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

Relationship of Anthropometric Indicators of General and Abdominal Obesity with Hypertension and Their Predictive Performance among Albanians: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

Anthropometric indicators of general and abdominal obesity can predict cardiovascular disease outcomes. Their performance in predicting hypertension (HTN) varies across populations. We aimed to analyze the relationship of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and conicity index (CI) with HTN, to examine their predictive performance and to determine their optimal cut-offs in a nationally representative sample of Albanians aged 15–59 years (n = 20,635). Logistic regression models were fitted and sex-specific receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed. The indicators were positively associated with HTN. Sex modified the relationships, as associations appeared significantly stronger among females than males in the highest categories of the indicators. The area under ROC curves (AUCs) for BMI were 0.729 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.720–0.738) among females and 0.648 (95% CI: 0.633–0.663) among males, and AUCs for WHtR were 0.725 (95% CI: 0.716–0.734) among females and 0.637 (95% CI: 0.622–0.652) among males. However, the AUCs for BMI and WHtR did not differ significantly among females (p = 0.279) and males (p = 0.227). BMI outperformed WC and CI in both sexes. The optimal BMI cut-offs were 27.0 kg/m2 among females and 25.6 kg/m2 among males, and that for WHtR were 0.53 among females and 0.54 among males. BMI and WHtR demonstrated similar discriminatory power, and the identified cut-offs may inform initiatives for structured HTN screening in Albania

Field Demonstration of the Performance of Wastewater Treatment Solution (WTS®) to Reduce Phosphorus and other Substances from Dairy Lagoon Effluent

In 1998 two upper North Bosque River segments were designated as impaired due to point source and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution of phosphorus (P) in these segments of the watershed. As a result, two Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) were applied, which called for the reduction of annual loading and annual average soluble reactive P (SRP) concentrations by about 50%. Under the Clean Water Act (Section 319(h)), a new technologies demonstration project was funded by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region 6 and administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) for reducing water pollution associated with dairy animal production systems. As part of this demonstration, the efficacy of a prospective new technology (i.e. wastewater treatment solution, WTS®) was evaluated, which may assist dairy farmers in reducing P from lagoon effluent. In many cases, this effluent is applied to waste application fields (WAF) as irrigation water. Therefore, reducing P in the effluent can have a direct impact on NPS pollution in the watershed. Before treating a dairy’s anaerobic lagoon with WTS® and an oxygenating additive, O2T, three separate background (pre-treatment) samplings were conducted to gather baseline information on nutrients (e.g., total phosphorus [TP], soluble reactive phosphorus [SRP], and total Kjeldahl nitrogen [TKN]) and solids (e.g., total solids [TS], total suspended solids [TSS], total dissolved solids [TDS]) data prior to inoculation. Following the third pre-treatment sampling in September 2007, the anaerobic lagoon was treated with WTS® at an averaged application rate of 1 gallon/head as a start-up. Thereafter, WTS® was applied at a rate of 0.5 gal/100 head-day (based on 600 heads), while O2T was applied at a rate of 0.1 gal/100 head-day (based on 600 heads). To mimic the repeatability of lagoon treatment, two large tanks were filled with untreated flushed manure to assess the treatment effect on flushed manure from free-stall. Tank 1 (T1) was treated manually on a monthly basis, with WTS® at a rate of 16 oz (0.5 L) and with O2T at a rate of 7 oz (0.25 L) and Tank 2 (T2) was used as the control (no treatment was applied). Following treatment, lagoon samples were collected monthly or bi-monthly from two different profiles: lagoon supernatant (LS), sampled from the top of the liquid level to 2 ft (0.61 m) depth and lagoon profile (LP), sampled from the entire depth of the lagoon using a sludge judge (a sampling tube with a check valve at the bottom to take lagoon sample at different depths). For each LP and LS, 27 samples (3 samples per location × 9 locations) were collected during each sampling event. A set of 9 LP and 9 LS samples were mixed separately to get two composites of each for nutrients including P, solids, pH, conductivity and metals. Similarly, samples were collected from tank supernatant (1 ft or 0.30 m below liquid surface) and profile (from the entire depth of the tank) in each sampling event. During each sampling event, a total 36 (9 samples per tank × 2 tanks × 2 profiles) samples were collected from the two tanks. Each set of 9 tank supernatant and 9 tank profile sample bottles were mixed separately to get two tank supernatant (T1S and T2S) and two tank profile (T1P and T2P) composite samples of each for analysis. WTS® treatment was somewhat effective in reducing sludge depth by 10% compared to its pre-treatment level. This reduction of sludge depth was due to microbial treatment, which will likely improve lagoon effluent characteristics, increase lagoon capacity and reduce maintenance cost for this lagoon. This treatment system increases pH in the LS significantly as compared to LP. Similar to lagoon pH, the treated tank T1 had a slightly higher pH as compared to untreated tank T2 in both tank profiles, although differences were not statistically significant. There was no significant reduction in TS either in lagoon or tank environments due to WTS® treatment. Overall TSS was reduced by 7% and 9% for LP and LS, respectively, when concentrations of these parameters averaged across post-treatment events were compared with the averages across pre-treatment events. There were no differences in TSS concentrations of treated and untreated tank samples at either LS or LP. Following microbial treatment of the lagoon, TDS concentration both in LS and LP increased, although no significant differences were observed between the two profiles. Overall, the TDS concentration in LS was 13% higher than that of LP. There was not a significant reduction in TP in either lagoon sampling profile. TP concentration in the treated tank profile was reduced by 17%, yet increased by 2% in the untreated tank profile samples. However, TP reduction values for treated and untreated tank supernatant samples were 60 and 55%, respectively. This suggested that the differences in TP reduction between treated and untreated samples were due to treatment effects. SRP concentration in both LP and LS samples increased gradually, although differences were not significant between LP and LS. A similar SRP increasing trend was also observed for tank samples, but differed in that the treated tank had a higher SRP concentration than that of untreated tank samples, due to greater TDS in tank supernatant. TKN in LP and LS reduced by 29 and 19%, respectively, but a greater TKN reduction was observed in tank profile (60 and 47% in treated and untreated tank profile samples, respectively) and tank supernatant samples (88 to 86% in treated and untreated tank supernatant samples, respectively) as compared to lagoon samples. Following the microbial treatment, the conductivity and potassium (K) concentration increased in both profiles of the lagoon and treated tank (T2). Three chemical quality parameters indicate the effectiveness of a wastewater treatment system such as biological oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids, and TP (van Loon and Duffy 2000). Suspended solids and TP were both monitored in this study and had insignificant variation between pre-treatment and post-treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of WTS® in reducing P and other substances from lagoon effluent to be applied to WAFs. Therefore, this treatment system was not very effective in reducing phosphorus and other nutrients from the lagoon effluent, especially soluble parameters. Conclusions indicate that more studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of this treatment over a longer time period

Occurrence of a Likely Tuff Bed between the Middle and Upper Siwaliks, Taunsa area, Dera Ghazi Khan, Eastern Sulaiman Range, Pakistan

A likely tuff bed lies along the gradational contact of the Middle and Upper Siwaliks in eastern Sulaiman Range, Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistan. This tuffaceous unit is 0.5–3 m thick and extends for 10 km along the north-south strike in the eastern limb of the Zindapir anticline. It is greyish white to white on fresh surface, fine-grained to silty at the bottom and clayey at the top and thus shows a fining upward grain-size grading. The lower part of the ash bed shows a prominent lamination defined by megascopically visible abundant biotite, while the central and upper parts are so fine-grained that the individual minerals cannot be seen in hand sample. Unlike the lower well-laminated part, the central and upper parts are crudely laminated to apparently massive. The bulk samples analysed with X-ray diffraction consist of quartz, feldspar (plagioclase), biotite, clays, calcite and some ore mineral likely spinel, while the clay-size fractions contain illite, chlorite, biotite and probably their mixed-layered varieties. The colour, texture, presence of abundant biotite and stratigraphic position of the Taunsa tuff correlate with those reported from Potwar plateau and from Kashmir basin. However, the apparent absence of smectite from the XRD pattern makes the Taunsa ash bed different from both Potwar and Kashmir tuffs. The present stratigraphic position of the tuff bed corresponds to shallow diagenetic zone, while the absence of smectite in the tuff and crystallinity of illite suggest that the tuff is probably derived upon reworking from a deeper diagenetic zone belonging to a lower stratigraphic level. The Eocene or other older pre-Siwalik units in Pakistan may have or had some primary ashfall deposits as reported in the northwestern Himalayas of India. This older volcanic ash may have been reworked to its present site of occurrence along the gradational contact of the Middle and the Upper Siwaliks in Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan. However, the primary source of the Taunsa tuff may belong more likely to Chagai arc in Pakistan than to Dacht-e-Nawar volcanic complex in Afghanistan