A test method for measuring chloride diffusion coefficients through partially saturated concrete. Part II: The instantaneous plane source diffusion case with chloride binding consideration

A test method is proposed for measuring chloride diffusion coefficients through partially saturated concrete specimens with well characterized water contents. It includes an experimental procedure for supplying a limited amount of Cl⁻ to the tested concrete surface, and two mathematical models for processing the experimental Cl⁻ content profiles obtained at selected diffusion times. The use of the more refined model, taking into account the chloride binding by concrete, allows to increase the reliability of the determined diffusion coefficients. For the two tested Portland cement concretes, (water/cement ratios 0.6 and 0.5), the Cl⁻ diffusion coefficient decreases about two orders of magnitude, from 6 · 10^− 12 to 2 · 10^− 14 m²/s, when the relative humidity of the atmosphere in equilibrium with concrete is lowered from 95% to 54% approximately.     

Sigmoidal thermal inactivation kinetics of Listeria innocua in broth: Influence of strain and growth phase

Listeria innocua inactivation was studied within the temperature range 52.5–65.0 °C, comparing two different strains (10528 and 2030c) and two growth phases (exponential and stationary). Survival curves may present a sigmoidal behaviour, with an initial shoulder (L), followed by a maximum inactivation rate (k_max) period and a final tailing tendency. A Gompertz-inspired model was used to fit experimental data, and kinetic parameters (L, k_max and tail) were estimated by non-linear regression analysis. The influence of temperature, growth phase and strain on kinetic parameters was studied using a 2³ factorial experimental design. Results showed that temperature and growth phase were the most significant variables affecting the kinetic parameters. Listeria thermal inactivation varied from a log-linear tendency till a pronounced sigmoidal behaviour, depending on the studied factors.     

Vitamin D and skeletal muscle: A narrative review focusing on chronic kidney disease and dialysis

Morphological, molecular, and physiological effects of vitamin D on skeletal muscle have been analyzed both in animals and humans. Vitamin D may be a potential therapeutic for increasing muscle mass and function. The presence of vitamin D receptors in skeletal muscle cells is already established. However, there is still need for more evidence about the effect of vitamin D on muscle. Some studies have associated vitamin D and skeletal muscle in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients; most of these studies enrolled hemodialysis patients. FGF-23 and Klotho were recently described in mineral and bone disorders in CKD, resulting in reductions in calcitriol levels. Therefore, both Klotho and FGF-23 may play a role in muscle loss in CKD, which is related to morbidity and mortality risk. Therefore, this article presents a narrative review, aiming to discuss the available information associating skeletal muscle and vitamin D, highlighting the results in CKD and dialysis patients.     

NIR spectroscopy and chemometric tools to identify high content of deoxynivalenol in barley

ABSTRACT

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the mycotoxins produced mainly by the Fusarium graminearum species complex in small grain cereals, including barley. This toxin can cause alimentary disorders, immune function depression and gastroenteritis. The negative health effects associated with DON coupled to the increasing concern about green and rapid methods of analysis motivated this study. In this context, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy data were applied for exploratory analysis to distinguish barley with high and low levels of DON contamination (> or <1250 µg/kg according to the European Union threshold), by Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), and to verify the performance of Partial Least Squares-Regression (PLS-R) to predict DON concentration in barley samples. Maximum values of specificity and sensitivity were achieved in the calibration set; 90.9% and 81.9% were observed in the cross-validation set for the PLS-DA classification model. PLS-R quantification of DON in barley presented low values of error (RMSEC = 101.94 µg/kg and RMSEP = 160.76 µg/kg). Thus, we found that NIR in combination with adequate chemometric tools could be applied as a green technique to monitor DON contamination in barley.     

Smart Home Tracking: A Smart Home Architecture for Smart Energy Consumption in a Residence with Multiple Users

Wireless Personal Communications - In this project, an architecture is implemented that can monitor and assist users in calculating their energy consumption by means of IoT technologies. It is...     

Corrective factors for author- and journal-based metrics impacted by citations to accommodate for retractions

Scientometrics - Citation-based metrics are frequently used to evaluate the level, or quality, of a researcher, or their work, often as a function of the ranking of the journal in which they...