A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (

A crucial area of research in nanotechnology is the formation of environmentally benign nanoparticles. Both unicellular and multicellular play an important role in synthesis nanoparticles through the production of inorganic materials either intracellularly or extracellularly. The agents (pigments, siderophores, cell extracted metabolites and reducing compounds) were used to prepare silver nanparticles with different sizes and shapes. The color variations (dark yellow, slightly dark yellow and golden yellow) arising from changes in the composition, size, and shape of nanoparticles, surrounding medium can be monitored using UV-visible spectrophotometer. These effects are due to the phenomena called surface plasmon resonance. The silver nanopa

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     Despite their long successful use, synthetic dyes have several problems due to their carcinogenic and toxic effects. Besides providing bright colors, some natural pigments have shown notable antimicrobial activity; thus, they could be utilized as functional dyes in many applications such as making colored antimicrobial textiles. In this work, a yellow pigment produced by Streptomyces thinghirensis AF7 and has a notable antimicrobial activity was used to produce a colored antimicrobial textile. The extracted yellow pigment was subjected to a purification step using silica gel column eluted with di ethyl ether solvent. The FTIR, GC-MS and NMR analysis showed that the colorings in this type of product are due to t