This paper aims to investigate the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams considering fire resistance by adding Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregates (LECA) to the concrete mix as partial coarse aggregate replacement. LECA is a type of porous clay with a uniform pore structure with fine, closed cells and hard, tightly sintered skin. The experimental work comprised four reinforced self-compacted concrete beams. All the specimens were identical in their geometrical layout of 1600×240×200 mm, reinforcement details, and support condition (simply supported). For all the beams, the main reinforcement was provided by two bars, each having a diameter of 12 mm, while a bar of 6 mm diameter was employed for the top and shear reinforcement. Each beam had a different replacement ratio of LECA for coarse aggregates (0, 10, 20, and 30%). All the specimens were tested under static two concentrated loads after being exposed to the fire of steady-state temperature (500 oC), 1 hr duration, and sudden cooling process. The results showed that adding LECA reduced the number and width of the generated cracks due to fire and reduced the deterioration of the ultimate load capacity and beam rigidity (stiffness).
In this work, p-n junctions were fabricated from highly-pure nanostructured NiO and TiO2 thin films deposited on glass substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The structural characterization showed that the prepared multilayer NiO/TiO2 thin film structures were highly pure as no traces for other compounds than NiO and TiO2 were observed. It was found that the absorption of NiO-on-TiO2 structure is higher than that of the TiO2-on-NiO. Also, the NiO/TiO2 heterojunctions exhibit typical electrical characteristics, higher ideality factor and better spectral responsivity when compared to those fabricated from the same materials by the same technique and with larger particle size and lower structural purity.
Titanium oxide nanoparticles-modified smectite (SMC-nTiO2) as a low-cost adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solutions. The adsorbents (SMC and SMC-nTiO2) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The effects of various parameters like contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, and temperatures were examined. Three kinetic equations (pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), and intra-particle diffusion) were used to evaluate the experimental kinetic of the data and the results showed that the adsorption process is in line with the PSO kinetic model. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms were modeled using La
... Show MoreYeasts are distributed in all environments and have been reported as potential biocontrol agents against various phytopathogenic fungi. To investigate their enzymatic and biological activities, 32 yeasts were isolated from 15 date vinegar samples. Evaluation of the antagonistic activities of isolated yeasts against the plant pathogens Fusarium oxysporium, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and Macrophomina phaseolina indicated that there are two yeasts had the highest inhibitory effect against plant pathogens, these yeasts identified as Kluyveromyces marxianus and Torulaspora delbrueckii using traditional and molecular methods. These yeast isolates were tested for fungal cell wall degrading enzymes (in vitro), and results indicated that the
... Show MoreThe aim of this work is to shed light on the importance of medicinal plants, especially those that have extracts that have a direct effect on human health. The study and identification of botany is necessary because human life has become closely linked to the life of plants as food. In addition to using plants as food, primitive man did not stop at this point, but rather developed their use to hunt prey and also used toxic plant materials in wars. With the passage of time, the ancient man was able to link the wild plants that cover the surface of the earth and the diseases that afflict him, so he used these plants or Parts of it are for treatment. A medicinal plant is defined as one or more of its parts that contain one or more chemicals in
... Show MoreThis study aimed to determine the effect of green bismuth oxide (BiO) NPs against multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) from wound infections. Among 450 wound samples collected from patients admitted to the hospital, 200 P. aeruginosa isolates were identified. MDR strains of P. aeruginosa were detected by disc diffusion method. BiO NPs were synthesized using wild Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) strain and infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. The antibacterial effect of the NPs compared to antibiotics against MDR strains was evaluated using a standard disk diffusion method. BiO NPs were synthesized at 0.005 M concentration of solution. According to the SEM im
... Show MoreIn this study, simple, low cost, precise and speed spectrophotometric methods development for evaluation of sulfacetamide sodium are described. The primary approach contains conversion of sulfacetamide sodium to diazonium salt followed by a reaction with p-cresol as a reagent in the alkaline media. The colored product has an orange colour with absorbance at λmax 450 nm. At the concentration range of (5.0-100 µg.mL-1), the Beer̆ s Low is obeyed with correlation coefficient (R2= 0.9996), limit of detection as 0.2142 µg.mL-1, limit of quantification as 0.707 µg.mL-1 and molar absorptivity as 1488.249 L.mol-1.cm-1. The other approach, cloud point extraction w
... Show MoreThis work describes the enhancement of phenol red decolorization through immobilizing of laccase in chitosan and enzyme recycling. Commercial laccase from white rot fungus, Trametesversicolor (Tvlac), was immobilizedin to freshly prepared chitosan beads by using glutaraldehyde as a cross linker. Characterization of prepared chitosan was confirmed by FTIR and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Tvlac (46.2 U/mL) immobilized into chitosan beads at 0.8 % glutaraldehyde (v/v) within 24 hrs. Synthetic (HBT) and natural (vanillin) mediators were used to enhance dye decolorizoation. It was found that 89 % of phenol red was decolorized by chitosan beads within 180 min. in the absence of enzyme and mediator, while decolorization percenta
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to evaluate the levels of trace elements Magnesium (Mg), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), and Selenium (Se) in blood sera of asthmatic patients by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). The concentrations of Mg, Cu, and Zn have been determined by Flame Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS), and Se with flameless Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (GFAAS). The study involves (55) asthmatic patients as study group and (28) subjects as control from both genders. Serum levels of Mg, Cu, and Se were significantly higher (p<0.001 for all) in patients when compared with healthy subjects, while Zn level was relatively significant (p<0.05). Our observations confirm the efficacy and applicability of (AAS) in
... Show MoreIn this research, Mn-doped TiO2 thin films were grown on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates by R.F magnetron sputtering technique with thicknesses (250 nm) using TiO2:Mn target under Ar gas pressure and power of 100 Watt. Through the results of X-ray diffraction, the prepared thin films are of the polycrystallization type after the process of annealing at 600°C for two hour The average crystalline size were 145.32, 280.97 and 261.23 nm for (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass, Si and OIT/glass substrates respectively, while the measured surface roughness is between 0.981nm and 1.14 nm. The fabricated (TiO2:Mn) thin film on glass sensors have high sensitivity for hydrogen( H2 reducing gas) compared to the sensitivity for hydrogen gas on Si and OIT/
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper was to investigate the removal efficiencies of Zn+2 ions from wastewater by adsorption (using tobacco leaves) and forward osmosis (using cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane). Various experimental parameters were investigated in adsorption experiment such as: effect of pH (3 - 7), contact time (0 - 220) min, solute concentration (10 - 100) mg/l, and adsorbent dose (0.2 - 5)g. Whereas for forward osmosis the operating parameters studied were: draw solution concentration (10 - 150) g/l, pH of feed solution (4 - 7), feed solution concentration (10 - 100) mg/l. The result showed that the removal efficiency by using adsorption was 70% and the removal efficiency by using forward osmosis was 96.2 %.
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