Search

Reusing recycled waste materials in buildings is gaining more and moreattention for what it offers economic, environmental, and energy benefits;and many researchers are nowadays working on producing new sustainableconstruction materials incorporating recycled wastes. In this scope, thiswork uses an experimental approach aiming at understanding the effect ofincorporating Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) beads in concrete and proposingthermally improved concrete mixtures for the production of hollow blocksin Lebanese constructions by substituting fine aggregates with recycledproducts such as EPS in order to promote their insulating properties. Threedifferent diameters of EPS beads (2 mm ~ 3 mm, 3 mm ~ 4 mm and 4 mm ~5 mm) are studied with different volumetric ratios (20%, 40%, 60% and80%) in order to investigate the effect of EPS on the thermal properties ofconcrete. The results showed that the only the percentage of incorporatedEPS beads impacted the thermal performance of the concrete mixtureswhile the EPS diameters have a negligible effect on the thermal propertiesof the concrete samples.

International audience; Molecular data concerning the prevalence and subtype (ST) distribution of the intestinal parasite Blastocystis sp. remain scarce in the Middle East. Accordingly, we performed the first molecular epidemiological survey ever conducted in the Syrian population. A total of 306 stool samples were collected from Syrian refugees living in 26 informal tented settlements (ITS) subjected or not to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions in North Lebanon, then screened for the presence of Blastocystis sp. by real-time polymerase chain reaction followed by subtyping. The overall prevalence of the parasite was shown to reach 63.7%. Blastocystis sp. colonization was not significantly associated with gender, age, symptomatic status, abdominal pain or diarrhea. In contrast, WASH intervention status of ITS was identified as a risk factor for infection. Among a total of 164 subtyped isolates, ST3 was predominant, followed by ST1, ST2, and ST10. No particular ST was reported to be associated with age, gender, symptomatic status, digestive disorders, or WASH intervention status of ITS. Intra-ST diversity of ST1 to ST3 was low suggesting large-scale anthroponotic transmission. Moreover, comparative analysis of ST1 to ST3 genotypes revealed that the circulation of the parasite between Syrian refugees and the host population was likely limited.