Crack Calculation of Beams from Self-Compacted Concrete

The latest developments of construction of high rise buildings like skyscrapers and different towers indicate that building such constructions with conventional concrete of low consistency is impossible due to the hard concreting process, mounting/demounting of scaffolding and the duration of concrete curing. Lately the most widely used material for construction of special buildings is self-compacting concrete because of the ability to fill entire section of formworks without compaction and vibration and better homogeneity between concrete and reinforcement. With massive USAge of Self Compacted Concrete (SCC) in special buildings, series of researches are conducted all over the world analyzing cracks, mechanical characteristics and deformations of SCC. These researches shows that calculation of concrete elements with normal concrete do not give adequate results according to EC2 because of the concrete class consistency and amount of reinforcement in the cross section. The SCC as raw material provides better results in term of concrete consistency gives better cross section homogeneity and it is vibration free. However SCC concrete cracks, deformations, creep, deflections are different than normal concrete and as such must be calculated and analyzed before application. In this paperwork we have presented calculation of cracks on long term process of SCC beam element after period of t=400 days from concreting and comparison of results with the theoretical ones in line with Eurocode 2 (EC2) requirements

A Review of Aggregate and Asphalt mixture Specific Gravity measurements and their Impacts on Asphalt Mix Design Properties and Mix Acceptance

Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) mixtures rely on stone-to-stone contacts among particles to resist applied forces, and permanent deformation. Aggregates in SMA should resist degradation (fracture and abrasion) under high stresses at the contact points. Current practices for asphalt mix design and acceptance testing rely on volumetric properties. Vital to the calculation of mix volumetric properties are specific gravity measurements of the mixture and the aggregate in the mixture. For the Motorways wearing course,SMA stone grid must fulfil the mineralogical-petrographic condition to be on rock of igneous and/or metamorphic origin but of silicate composition, specific weight and LA method on resistance to fragmentation. During the construction of the Kosovo motorway for wearing course was used the SMA as asphaltlayer for providing longer lifetime to the road construction. The super-pave mix design for SMA wearing course has been composed considering the available stone with high mineralogical and petrographic composition. The stone used for the wearing course on this motorway has resistance to crushing of LA =18 which is below the standard criteria for heavy traffic roads and motorways wearing courses. Thespecific weight of used stone was 3100 kg/m3which is about 15% heavier than standard weight. For this specific stone were prepared special super-pave design mix with binder content 4.5% which was well below than typical SMA composition of 6.0−7.0% binder rather of mixture was 3100 kg/m3. In this paperwork it is described the design mix of SMA composed with relatively high specific weight and their impacts on asphalt mix design properties used in Kosovo Motorway

Determination of Total Antioxidant Content in Various Drinks by Amperometry

In the present work the total content of phenolic antioxidants in juice of some fruit and vegetables, in wines, water extracts of tea and herb were measured by amperometry. Efficiency of the method allowed determining the total antioxidant content in their binary and multimixes, including processes of frosting-defrosting and juice diluting as well. The deviation of experimentally received values of the total antioxidant content in some drink mixes from the values calculated proceeding from the additivity principle of the antioxidant content in separate drinks has been revealed

Launch of the Space experiment PAMELA

PAMELA is a satellite borne experiment designed to study with great accuracy cosmic rays of galactic, solar, and trapped nature in a wide energy range protons: 80 MeV-700 GeV, electrons 50 MeV-400 GeV). Main objective is the study of the antimatter component: antiprotons (80 MeV-190 GeV), positrons (50 MeV-270 GeV) and search for antimatter with a precision of the order of 10^-8). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, 15, 2006 in a 350*600 km orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. The detector is composed of a series of scintillator counters arranged at the extremities of a permanent magnet spectrometer to provide charge, Time-of-Flight and rigidity information. Lepton/hadron identification is performed by a Silicon-Tungsten calorimeter and a Neutron detector placed at the bottom of the device. An Anticounter system is used offline to reject false triggers coming from the satellite. In self-trigger mode the Calorimeter, the neutron detector and a shower tail catcher are capable of an independent measure of the lepton component up to 2 TeV. In this work we describe the experiment, its scientific objectives and the performance in the first months after launch.Comment: Accepted for publication on Advances in Space Researc

PAMELA - A Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics

The PAMELA experiment is a satellite-borne apparatus designed to study charged particles in the cosmic radiation with a particular focus on antiparticles. PAMELA is mounted on the Resurs DK1 satellite that was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on June 15th 2006. The PAMELA apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a magnetic spectrometer, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail catcher scintillator and a neutron detector. The combination of these devices allows antiparticles to be reliably identified from a large background of other charged particles. This paper reviews the design, space qualification and on-ground performance of PAMELA. The in-orbit performance will be discussed in future publications.The PAMELA experiment is a satellite-borne apparatus designed to study charged particles in the cosmic radiation with a particular focus on antiparticles. PAMELA is mounted on the Resurs DK1 satellite that was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on June 15th 2006. The PAMELA apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a magnetic spectrometer, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail catcher scintillator and a neutron detector. The combination of these devices allows antiparticles to be reliably identified from a large background of other charged particles. This paper reviews the design, space qualification and on-ground performance of PAMELA. The in-orbit performance will be discussed in future publications

Measles: An overview of a re-emerging disease in children and immunocompromised patients

Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, in 2018, around 350,000 measles cases were reported worldwide, which resulted in an estimate of 142,300 deaths from measles. Additionally, in 2017, global measles cases spiked, causing the death of 110,000 people, mostly children under the age of 5 years and immunocompromised adults. The increase in measles incidence is caused by the ongoing reduction of vaccination coverage. This event has triggered public and scientific interest. For this reason, we reviewed the pathophysiology of measles infection, focusing on mechanisms by which the virus spreads systemically through the host organism. By reaching the lymphocytes from the airways through a \u201ctrojan horse\u201d strategy, measles induces an immunosuppression status. H and F glycoproteins, both expressed in the envelope, ensure attachment of the virus to host cells and spreading from one cell to another by binding to several receptors, as described in detail. The severity of the disease depends both on the age and underlying conditions of patients as well as the social and health context in which epidemics spread, and is often burdened by sequelae and complications that may occur several years after infection. Particular attention was paid to special groups that are more susceptible to severe or atypical measles. An overview of microbiology, symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment completes and enriches the review

The electrophysical properties of polytolans and polydiphenylbutadiyne and the relationship between these and supermolecular structure

A polymer of tolan, obtained by thermal polymerization, and polymers of tolan and diphenylbutadiyne, obtained by anionic polymerization, have been studied by the space charge-limiyted current method. The energy of activation for conduction, the mobility and concentration of the charge carriers and the density and depth of the traps were found. It is shown that in polymers containing a conjugated double bond system there are traps grouped about fundamental trapping level. © 1977

Continuous infusion OPAT via elastomeric pumps: effectiveness, safety, and cost-saving potential in a real-world Italian cohort

Purpose To evaluate clinical outcomes, safety, patient-reported satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness of elastomeric pump-based Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) over six years at an Italian tertiary center. Methods This retrospective single-center study included 76 adult patients treated with continuous-infusion OPAT via elastomeric pumps between 2019 and 2024 at the University Hospital of Trieste, Italy. Results A total of 1,934 elastomeric pump-based OPAT days were delivered (median duration of 22.9 days). Clinical cure was achieved in 85.5% of patients; recurrence and failure occurred in 6.2% and 7.9%, respectively. Most frequent indications were skin/soft tissue and surgical site infections (25.9%), complicated urinary tract infections (22.4%), and bone/joint infections (16.4%). Pathogens were mainly Gram-negative (70.7%), including Enterobacterales (40.2%, 57.6% ESBL-producing), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (26.8%), and Staphylococcus aureus (17.1%, 28.6% methicillin-resistant S. aureus). The most used antibiotics were piperacillin/tazobactam (51.3%), cefepime (12.5%) and ceftolozane/tazobactam (7.5%). Adverse events were observed in 13.75% of treatments, primarily vascular access-related (5.7 events/1,000 OPAT-days); drug-related adverse events occurred in 7.8% of patients (3.1 events/1,000 OPAT-days). Among contacted patients (75% response rate), 83.7% expressed willingness to reuse the pump. Total OPAT costs were €62,190.64 compared to an estimated €773,600.00 for inpatient care, yielding a 92% cost reduction (€711,409 saved). Conclusion Elastomeric pump-based OPAT is a clinically effective, well-tolerated, and economically advantageous option for selected infections. Its integration into stewardship programs supports broader implementation within modern, sustainable infectious disease care models

The influence of solid state information and descriptor selection on statistical models of temperature dependent aqueous solubility.

Predicting the equilibrium solubility of organic, crystalline materials at all relevant temperatures is crucial to the digital design of manufacturing unit operations in the chemical industries. The work reported in our current publication builds upon the limited number of recently published quantitative structure-property relationship studies which modelled the temperature dependence of aqueous solubility. One set of models was built to directly predict temperature dependent solubility, including for materials with no solubility data at any temperature. We propose that a modified cross-validation protocol is required to evaluate these models. Another set of models was built to predict the related enthalpy of solution term, which can be used to estimate solubility at one temperature based upon solubility data for the same material at another temperature. We investigated whether various kinds of solid state descriptors improved the models obtained with a variety of molecular descriptor combinations: lattice energies or 3D descriptors calculated from crystal structures or melting point data. We found that none of these greatly improved the best direct predictions of temperature dependent solubility or the related enthalpy of solution endpoint. This finding is surprising because the importance of the solid state contribution to both endpoints is clear. We suggest our findings may, in part, reflect limitations in the descriptors calculated from crystal structures and, more generally, the limited availability of polymorph specific data. We present curated temperature dependent solubility and enthalpy of solution datasets, integrated with molecular and crystal structures, for future investigations