•Review of the recent progress on the uses of waste tire in concrete.•Rubber can be used in concrete as replacement of aggregates, binders, and fibers.•Rubberized concrete leads to satisfactory ...mechanical and durability performances.•Finer rubber aggregates showing better performance than coarser ones.
Accumulation of waste is subsequently increased to hazardous levels. Tire waste is one of them that cause serious environmental issues because of the rapid rise in and numerous variations of modern developments worldwide. Thus, recycling waste tire rubber in the form of aggregates as supplementary construction material is advantageous. This paper reviews the source of waste tire rubbers and rubberized cementitious composites along with their material properties, usages, durability, and serviceability performances. This study also aims to provide a fundamental insight into the integrated applications of rubberized concrete (RuC) composite materials to improve construction methods, including applications to enhance environmental sustainability of concrete structures in the construction industry. Inclusion of recycled rubber aggregate (RA) lightens concrete, increases its fatigue life and toughness, advances its dynamic properties, and improves its ductility. Concrete with recycled RA performs well in hot and cold weather and achieved significant results under critical exposure and various loading conditions. Though RuC possesses low mechanical strength in general, specific treatment and additives inclusion can be a good solution to improve those properties reliably. Investigations of RuC as materials are available significantly, but researches on the structural members of RuC should be enriched.
Every year, the world is producing around 100 million tons of waste glass (WG), the majority of them are going to landfills that create massive environmental problems. One approach to solve this ...problem is to transform waste glass into construction materials. Glass is recyclable; however, the melting temperature of the glass is highly dependent on its colour that requires sorting before recycling. To overcome this challenge, many researchers and end-users are using broken glass in concrete either as a binder or aggregates. While significant investigations have done in this area, however, the outcomes of these studies are scattered, and difficult to reach a firm conclusion about the effectiveness of WG in concrete. In this study, the roles of WG and its impact on microstructural and durability properties for both cement and geopolymer concrete are critically reviewed. This review reveals that the amorphous silica in WG effectively participate to the hydration and geopolymerization process and improve concrete microstructural properties. This behaviour of WG help to produce durable concrete against shrinkage, chemical attack, freeze-thaw action, electrical and thermal insulation properties. The optimum replacement volume of binders or natural aggregates and particle size of WG need to be selected carefully to minimise the possible alkali-silica reaction. This review discusses a wide range of parameters for durability properties and challenges associated with WG concrete, which provides necessary guidelines for best practice with future research directions.
•Identified the common mode of failures for FRP strengthen RC structures.•Accumulated theoretical models for different failures.•Suggestions provided to increase the acceptance of FRPs in ...strengthening RC structures.•Identified the research gaps for future investigations.
Structures are often subjected to extreme loading conditions that lead to their premature deterioration, and replacement of those structures before the end of their design lives is very expensive. The rehabilitation of deteriorated structures by using externally bonded fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is gaining popularity in the construction sector owing to its high strength, optimum durability and compatibility with concrete structures during application. This paper aims to review the current state-of-the-art on the performances, challenges and future opportunities of FRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) structures under different loading scenarios. FRP strengthening leads to satisfactory performances under static, dynamic and extreme environmental conditions. Debonding and FRP rupture are the common types of failure observed, however, the failure mechanisms operating under the combined action of service loads and environmental exposures are still unclear. The acceptance and application of FRPs in strengthening RC structures will further increase upon developing techniques for utilising the full FRP strength, reducing the brittleness, risk of fires and accidental damage, minimising the energy consumption as well as carbon emission during production, and reducing the high initial cost. This paper also identifies the gaps in the present state of knowledge and the potential research directions for FRP-strengthened structures that lead to better understanding and establishment of design guidelines.
This paper investigates the sources of growth for the 100 largest Canadian credit unions (CUs) over the past decade. We identify the existence of diseconomies of scale in growth for these credit ...unions. Our result suggests that these credit unions may have fully exploited gains from scale in their provincial markets. There is potential for noninterest income to generate growth. A lower cost-to-income ratio enhances growth, while a higher capital–asset ratio hinders growth. Interestingly, mergers do not affect one-year growth one, two, or three years after the merger. We also find that the acquiring CU does not outperform peer CUs (matched on size and growth) one year after the merger. However, the acquiring CU outperforms the same peers when growth is calculated over two years. Multivariate analysis reveals that mergers affect growth through the quadratic term of the size variable. Our result helps to explain the recent trend in the federalization of large CUs and has implications for smaller CUs that cannot justify federalization.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the extracellular accumulation of the amyloid β in the form of amyloid plaques and the intracellular deposition of the microtubule-associated protein tau in ...the form of neurofibrillary tangles. Most of the Alzheimer's drugs targeting amyloid β have been failed in clinical trials. Particularly, tau pathology connects greatly in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Tau protein enhances the stabilization of microtubules that leads to the appropriate function of the neuron. Changes in the quantity or the conformation of tau protein could affect its function as a microtubules stabilizer and some of the processes wherein it is involved. The molecular mechanisms leading to the accumulation of tau are principally signified by numerous posttranslational modifications that change its conformation and structural state. Therefore, aberrant phosphorylation, as well as truncation of tau protein, has come into focus as significant mechanisms that make tau protein in a pathological entity. Furthermore, the shape-shifting nature of tau advocates to comprehend the progression of Alzheimer's disease precisely. In this review, we emphasize the recent studies about the toxic and shape-shifting nature of tau in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are extensively used in advanced concrete technology given their superiority over traditional steel reinforcements. These materials possess high strength ...capacity and corrosion resistance and can be employed as the main reinforcements in combination with adhesives and anchorages to strengthen reinforced concrete (RC) beam members. RC beams are designed to provide resistance against flexure, shear, torsion, fatigue, impact, and blast loading. The strength and ductility of RC beams can be improved via FRP strengthening techniques with a combination of fibers. The overall strength of FRP composites in RC beams is controlled by fiber type, configuration, and materials and strengthening technique. This review focuses on the characteristics and behaviors of FRP-strengthened RC beams under various loading conditions. It also presents the typical FRP composites with the properties, features, and applications. This review demonstrates that FRP composites can be used to recover the strength of damaged and corroded beams and exhibit good durability and insulation performance. It also provides a straightforward perspective of strengthening and retrofitting techniques for RC beams using FRP composites.
•FRP possesses high strength to weight ratios, good fatigue properties, high corrosion resistance.•Externally bonded FRP wraps with RC beam reveals amazing performance in shear and torsion carrying capacity.•Fatigue life of FRP strengthened RC beam controlled by the tensile steel and bond between FRP-concrete.•High impact and blast resistance provides by FRP due to its high ductility and absorption capacity.•CFRP strengthening is more advantageous in terms of strength gain and critical environmental conditions.
Microglial activation plays a central role in poststroke inflammation and causes secondary neuronal damage; however, it also contributes in debris clearance and chronic recovery. Microglial pro- and ...antiinflammatory responses (or so-called M1-M2 phenotypes) coexist and antagonize each other throughout the disease progress. As a result of this balance, poststroke immune responses alter stroke outcomes. Our previous study found microglial expression of interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) and IRF4 was related to pro- and antiinflammatory responses, respectively. In the present study, we genetically modified the IRF5 and IRF4 signaling to explore their roles in stroke. Both in vitro and in vivo assays were utilized; IRF5 or IRF4 small interfering RNA (siRNA), lentivirus, and conditional knockout (CKO) techniques were employed to modulate IRF5 or IRF4 expression in microglia. We used a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion model to induce stroke and examined both acute and chronic stroke outcomes. Poststroke inflammation was evaluated with flow cytometry, RT-PCR, MultiPlex, and immunofluorescence staining. An oscillating pattern of the IRF5-IRF4 regulatory axis function was revealed. Down-regulation of IRF5 signaling by siRNA or CKO resulted in increased IRF4 expression, enhanced M2 activation, quenched proinflammatory responses, and improved stroke outcomes, whereas down-regulation of IRF4 led to increased IRF5 expression, enhanced M1 activation, exacerbated proinflammatory responses, and worse functional recovery. Up-regulation of IRF4 or IRF5 by lentivirus induced similar results. We conclude that the IRF5-IRF4 regulatory axis is a key determinant in microglial activation. The IRF5-IRF4 regulatory axis is a potential therapeutic target for neuroinflammation and ischemic stroke.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are electronically-stored health information in a digital format. EHRs are typically shared among healthcare stakeholders and face power failure, data misuse, lack of ...privacy, security, and audit trail. On the other hand, blockchain is the revolutionary invention of the twentieth century that offers a distributed and decentralized setting to communicate among nodes in a list of networks without a central authority. It can address the limitations of EHRs management and provide a safer, secured, and decentralized environment for exchanging EHRs data. Three categories of blockchain-based potential solutions have been proposed by researchers to handle EHRs: conceptual, prototype, and implemented. This study focused on a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to find and analyze articles submitted either conceptual or implemented to manage EHRs using blockchain. The study examined 99 papers that were collected from various publication categories. The deep technical analysis focused on evaluating articles based on privacy, security, scalability, accessibility, cost, consensus algorithms, and the type of blockchain used. The SLR found that blockchain technology promises to provide decentralization, security, and privacy that traditional EHRs often lack. Moreover, results obtained from the detailed studies would provide potential researchers with the type of blockchain for future research. Finally, future research directions, in the end, would direct enthusiasm to combine new blockchain-based systems to manage EHRs properly.
Bangladesh positioned as third rice producing country in the world. In Bangladesh, regional growth and trend in rice production determinants, disparities and similarities of rice production ...environments are highly desirable. In this study, the secondary time series data of area, production, and yield of rice from 1969-70 to 2019-20 were used to investigate the growth and trend by periodic, regional, seasonal and total basis. Quality checking, trend fitting, and classification analysis were performed by the Durbin-Watson test, Exponential growth model, Cochrane-Orcutt iteration method and clustering method. The production contribution to the national rice production of Boro rice is increasing at 0.97% per year, where Aus and Aman season production contribution significantly decreased by 0.48% and 0.49% per year. Among the regions, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Bogura, Jashore, Rajshahi, and Chattogram contributed the most i.e., 13.9%, 9.8%, 8.6%, 8.6%, 8.2%, and 8.0%, respectively. Nationally, the area of Aus and Aman had a decreasing trend with a -3.63% and -0.16% per year, respectively. But, in the recent period (Period III) increasing trend was observed in the most regions. The Boro cultivation area is increasing with a rate of 3.57% per year during 1984-85 to 2019-20. High yielding variety adoption rate has increased over the period and in recent years it has found 72% for Aus, 73.5% for Aman, and 98.4% for Boro season. As a result, the yield of the Aus, Aman, and Boro seasons has been found increasing growth for most of the regions. We have identified different cluster regions in different seasons, indicating high dissimilarities among the rice production regions in Bangladesh. The region-wise actionable plan should be taken to rapidly adopt new varieties, management technologies and extension activities in lower contributor regions to improve productivity. Cluster-wise, policy strategies should be implemented for top and less contributor regions to ensure rice security of Bangladesh.
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