Search

It is well-know that PC is vulnerable to sudden failure under ‘tensile’ and/or ‘flexural’ loading; hence, it yields large structural dimensions when used for tensile load applications. A discrete fiber-reinforcement advances the ductility and tensile strength of Plain concrete (PC); therefore, Fiber-reinforced concretes (FRCs) require structural dimensions smaller than PC under same tensile loading conditions. In this study, the effect of fiber type and content is evaluated and analyzed on the life cycle cost and CO2-footprint of concrete pavement. Namely three types of fiber-reinforced concretes, i.e., Steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFC), Glass fiber-reinforced concrete (GFC), and Polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete (PFC) were considered for pavement application and three different fiber contents, i.e., 0, 0.5 and 1% (by volume). For the case study, location of design pavement was considered in the Islamabad city. Pavement thickness was designed for three types of streets, i.e., residential, collector, and major arterial (consideration for low to high traffic volumes). Analysis of results revealed that for different loading conditions or types of streets, PC pavement produces higher CO2-emission and is uneconomical compared to the FRC pavements. The results show the superiority of SFC over GFC and PFC in overall mechanical performance. SFC has higher associated footprint than other FRCs. Despite lesser mechanical performance compared to SFC; GFCs and PFCs show the highest reductions in the cost and CO2-footprint of the pavement (i.e., Cost per unit area of pavement (CPA) and Global warming potential per unit area of pavement (GWPPA)).

• This is a 2-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 101 patients, evaluating the relative efficacy of intermittent medication (given only when the patient shows early signs of relapse) compared with moderate doses of maintenance medication for stable schizophrenic outpatients. Patients were dropped from the study if they had three prodromal episodes in 1 year or if an episode lasted more than 9 weeks. Fourteen percent of patients given maintenance treatment were dropped from the study compared with 46% of intermittently treated patients. Relapse rates were 16% for patients given maintenance treatment and 30% for intermittently treated patients, a nonsignificant difference. Intermittently treated patients were receiving significantly less medication, but there were no differences found in drug side effects. There appears to be no advantage in using the intermittent approach, but we found that the use of an early intervention strategy reduced the relapse and rehospitalization rates for these patients.

For centuries, philosophers and physicians have noted the beneficial impact of work for the restoration and maintenance of mental health. This paper reports the findings from a survey in which all the principal components (both providers and consumers in one catchment area) contributed data about the degree to which vocational rehabilitation was integrated into systems of care for the mentally ill. The major repetitive themes found at the interface of each participating sector were rigidity, isolation, compensatory ad hoc operations, and narrow frames of reference. Vocational and other forms of rehabilitation were accomplished by persistent, energetic personnel inventing ingenious solutions to the roadblocks set up at system interfaces. Their problem-solving techniques pointed to ingredients that might help to integrate treatment and rehabilitation efforts. These key elements were flexibility, collaboration, data-based training, and a unified theoretical framework.