Recently, increasing material prices coupled with more acute environmental awareness and the implementation of regulation has driven a strong movement toward the adoption of sustainable construction technology. In the pavement industry, using low temperature asphalt mixes and recycled concrete aggregate are viewed as effective engineering solutions to address the challenges posed by climate change and sustainable development. However, to date, no research has investigated these two factors simultaneously for pavement material. This paper reports on initial work which attempts to address this shortcoming. At first, a novel treatment method is used to improve the quality of recycled concrete coarse aggregates. Thereafter, the treated recycled aggregates were used in warm mix asphalt at varied rates to replace virgin raw coarse aggregates. The asphalt concrete mixes produced were tested for modulus, tensile strength, permanent deformation, moisture susceptibility and fatigue life. The comparison of these properties with that of the mixes using the same rates of untreated course aggregates from the same source has demonstrated the effectiveness of the new technology. Lastly, the cost, material and energy saving implications are discussed.
Background:
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease believed to be the result of autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system, characterised by inflammation, demyelination, and axonal transection, affecting primarily young adults. Disease modifying therapies have become widely used, and the rapid development of these drugs highlighted the need to update our knowledge on their short- and long-term safety profile.
Objective:
The study aim is to evaluate the impact of disease-modifying treatments on thyroid functions and thyroid autoantibodies with subsequent effects on the outcome of the disease.
Materials and Methods:
A retro prospective study
... Show MoreTwo groups of chronic hepatitis B and C virus patients were divided into Pre-treated patients (25 CHB patients with positive HBs Ag for more than 6 months and 40 CHC patients), and post-treated patients [12 CHB patients (4, 6, and 2 were treated with lamivudine, IFN-? and combination of LMV + IFN-? respectively), and 27 patients for CHC (3, 13 and 11 patients were treated with Ribavirin, IFN-? and combination therapy (RBV+ IFN-?) respectively].These patients were followed up for 6 months. By using ELISA technique, levels of IL-6, IL-10, IFN-? and TNF-? were measured in vivo and in vitro (supernatant of PBMCs stimulated with PHA) and compared with healthy control. The mean level of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-? in CHB patients showed significant dif
... Show MoreThe main objective of this work is to propose a new routing protocol for wireless sensor network employed to serve IoT systems. The routing protocol has to adapt with different requirements in order to enhance the performance of IoT applications. The link quality, node depth and energy are used as metrics to make routing decisions. Comparison with other protocols is essential to show the improvements achieved by this work, thus protocols designed to serve the same purpose such as AODV, REL and LABILE are chosen to compare the proposed routing protocol with. To add integrative and holistic, some of important features are added and tested such as actuating and mobility. These features are greatly required by some of IoT applications and im
... Show MoreIndividuals across different industries, including but not limited to agriculture, drones, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing, are increasingly using thermal cameras to achieve various safety and security goals. This widespread adoption is made possible by advancements in thermal imaging sensor technology. The current literature provides an in-depth exploration of thermography camera applications for detecting faults in sectors such as fire protection, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, non-destructive testing and structural material industries. The current discussion builds on previous studies, emphasising the effectiveness of thermography cameras in distinguishing undetectable defects by the human eye. Various methods for defect
... Show MoreSecure storage of confidential medical information is critical to healthcare organizations seeking to protect patient's privacy and comply with regulatory requirements. This paper presents a new scheme for secure storage of medical data using Chaskey cryptography and blockchain technology. The system uses Chaskey encryption to ensure integrity and confidentiality of medical data, blockchain technology to provide a scalable and decentralized storage solution. The system also uses Bflow segmentation and vertical segmentation technologies to enhance scalability and manage the stored data. In addition, the system uses smart contracts to enforce access control policies and other security measures. The description of the system detailing and p
... Show MoreVideo steganography has become a popular option for protecting secret data from hacking attempts and common attacks on the internet. However, when the whole video frame(s) are used to embed secret data, this may lead to visual distortion. This work is an attempt to hide sensitive secret image inside the moving objects in a video based on separating the object from the background of the frame, selecting and arranging them according to object's size for embedding secret image. The XOR technique is used with reverse bits between the secret image bits and the detected moving object bits for embedding. The proposed method provides more security and imperceptibility as the moving objects are used for embedding, so it is difficult to notice the
... Show MoreAbstract
The vegetative filter strips (VFS) are a useful tool used for reducing the movement of sediment and pesticide in therivers. The filter strip’s soil can help in reducing the runoff volume by infiltration. However, the characteristics of VFS (i.e., length) are not recently identified depending on the estimation of VFS modeling performance. The aim of this research is to study these characteristics and determine acorrelation between filter strip length and percent reduction (trapping efficiency) for sediment, water, and pesticide. Two proposed pesticides(one has organic carbon sorption coefficient, Koc, of 147 L/kg which is more moveable than XXXX, and another one
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