Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a sudden surge in the production and utilization of disposable, single-use facial masks has been observed. Delinquency in proper disposal of used facial masks endangers the environment with a new form of non-biodegradable plastic waste that will take hundreds of years to break down. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the resourceful recycling of such waste in an environmentally friendly way. This study presents an efficient solution by using waste masks in fibered or crushed form to produce environmentally friendly and affordable green concrete. This investigation assessed the mechanical and durability properties of waste masks-incorporated concrete. A total of six mixes were prepared for standardized tests to determine compressive strength, split cylinder tensile strength and rapid chloride penetration test (RCPT), and freeze-thaw resistance. The percentage of mask fibers used were 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2% of concrete by volume, while crushed masks were used at 0.5% only. The mask waste in both forms was found suitable to be used in concrete. One percent of waste mask fibers was found as an optimum value to increase compressive and tensile strength, reduce chloride permeability, and increase freeze-thaw resistance. Besides this, 0.5% crushed mask fiber also performed well, especially for producing less permeable and highly durable concrete. It is thus corroborated that waste masks that increase pollution worldwide can be utilized sustainably to help build green buildings. By reutilizing waste masks to produce improved concrete with better strengths and higher durability, circular economy and sustainability are achieved, along with efficient waste management. The consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE), including facial masks, has dramatically increased worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in the use of COVID-19 sanitary masks has given rise to new environmental challenges by adding vast plastic particle waste to the environment . Almost Face masks are a direct source of microplastics and pollutants in the environment . The disUnlike biomedical wastes, waste masks mainly were disposed of in mixed methods and not treated as bio-medical waste . InfectiDisposing of waste masks mindfully and avoiding environmental pollution is a new challenge for researchers ,18. The There exist critical environmental and socio-economic issues tied to an increase in mask waste. There is a need to find a valuable way to use this waste, a topic that has been the subject of considerable research across the globe. This investigation explores the possibility of utilization of waste mask fiber and shredded masks. This research primarily focuses on laboratory experimentation and incorporates waste mask fiber and shredded mask into concrete without compromising its fundamental mechanical and physical properties. The scope of this study was accomplished by carrying out extensive research work at different stages and conducting significant tests on fiber-reinforced concrete.Fibers are added to concrete to increase its structural integrity. The properties of concrete vary with type, geometry, distribution, orientation, and density ,25. FibeVirgin polypropylene fibers decrease workability and increase tensile and flexural strength significantly, thus mitigating cracking due to the fiber’s bridging effect. However, compressive strength can be affected (short fiber may improve it). Durability and dimensional stability are improved. Specifically, shrinkage-related issues are controlled by using propylene fiber ,29. FreeThis research is a step forward in addressing the disposal problem of used sanitary masks, which is a severe environmental issue globally. Additionally, it explores the possibility of reutilizing this waste material by using it in concrete production. Moreover, the fiber used in concrete to enhance its properties is expensive. The production of virgin fibers, i.e., carbon fibers, is considered harmful to the environment due to significant energy consumption and carbon emissions. Recycling waste masks in fiber form provides a cheaper source of fibers as construction materials and may replace the existing virgin fibers. Thus, using these materials in concrete is a partial solution to environmental and ecological problems. Furthermore, their utilization in construction materials may improve the microstructure of mortar and concrete with consequent improvement in their mechanical and durability characteristics.Ordinary Portland Cement conforming to ASTM-C150 was used in the investigation. Sand with a fineness modulus of 2.42 was used as fine aggregate and crushed stone as coarse aggregate. Potable water and polycarboxylic-based superplasticizer at 0.5% were also used. Three-ply waste masks were used in this study because people mostly use them as they are inexpensive. The inner and outer layer of the face mask is spun-bond polypropylene fabric, and the middle layer is primarily melt-blown polypropylene fabric. However, in some cases, spun-bond polypropylene may be used in all three layers to reduce costs. The inner layer (melt-blown polypropylene) is the primary material that protects against viruses and polluted particles. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of melt-blown material initially, and costs increased worldwide. The ear loop of the face mask is made of either polyester or nylon. The material used to produce face masks is water-resistant and thermal resistant due to a plastic base, showing less thermal conductivity. All these properties are desirable in construction materials.The chances of getting COVID-19 are 100 times lesser from surfaces rather than acquiring from an infectious person directly ,33. OtheThe masks were collected and left for seven days. For further protection, they were disinfected by using an alcohol-based disinfectant spray.Researchers are currently exploring the possibility of utilizing waste PPE as an effective construction composite material . Figure Fibers are usually expensive; thus, using fibers extracted by waste will lead to sustainability and a circular economy. As fibers are required in concrete to enhance various properties, the masks were fibered in a machine that extracts fibers from cotton. The mask fibers were incorporated at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0% of concrete volume. Because the fibers were extracted from a cotton fiber extracting machine, they were not of uniform shape and size and resembled a rough, untidy cluster see .The masks were crushed in 1.5–2.0 mm squares using a paper cutting machine. This is the most readily and usable form of waste mask. Crushed masks were used as 0.5% of total concrete volume.Locally available coarse aggregates and river sand were used along with cement in concrete at the constant water-cement ratio of 0.5. The crushed fibers were incorporated at 0.5% of concrete volume, while the fibered masks were used at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0% of concrete volume. The mix proportion is tabulated in Cement, sand crush, and masks were first dry mixed for 1 min, and then superplasticizer and water were added. Mixing was continued for a further 2 min. After a 1 min break, mixing resumed again for two minutes. The slump of all mixes was found to be acceptable and within the range of 80 to 120 mm. Concrete was cast into 6 × 6 × 6 inches cubes and 4 × 8 inches cylinders for each batch. After 24 h of casting, the samples were demolded and placed in water at room temperature in a laboratory until the test day.Compressive strength tests and split cylinder tensile strength tests were conducted on samples after 28 days of curing. Compressive strength tests were performed on each batch’s six cubes (6 in × 6 in × 6 in) by applying a load of 0.25 MPa/s. Split cylinder tensile strength tests conforming to ASTMC496 were conducted on 4 × 8 inch cylinders, four cylinders per batch for six batches .The rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) is a good indicator of permeability (interconnectivity of pores in concrete causing water and ions to ingress and attack). Higher permeability means more durability issues ,38. HighThe durability of concrete reduces in harsh environments . Freeze-Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to understand the microstructure of the concrete. Additionally, EDAX was also conducted to characterize the concrete.A thermogravimetric analyzer  was used to determine thermal properties. Around 7 to 10 mg of each sample was placed in an aluminum pan for measurement. The tests were performed from 25 °C to 600 °C temperature at a 10 °C/min ramp. The aluminum pan with concrete samples was placed in the furnace of the TGA. The samples were heated at the mentioned rate, and mass loss in milligrams was measured with the increase in temperature. The results obtained from the TGA were analyzed using Shimadzu thermal analyzer software.This research program used waste masks (both in fibered and crushed forms) in concrete production. The effect of waste masks on the properties of concrete was investigated.There are no entangling and conglobating of fibers and non-homogeneity issues with a lower amount of fibers ,45. At lQin et al. studied the compressive strength of plain polypropylene fiber and waste polypropylene fabric fiber-incorporated concrete . They foTensile strength is higher for mask fiber-added concrete up to 2% mask incorporation. However, tensile strength increased up to 1% fiber (by 23.3%) and then decreased, as shown in However, the tensile strength for crushed fiber decreased by 13.4% because the mask square piece of 1.5 to 2 mm length did not contribute to the sample’s integrity against tensile strength. Mask pieces acted as a barrier and allowed the sample to split easily during the tensile strength test.The samples were checked for chloride permeability. Lower chloride permeability represents better corrosion resistance. However, after 1%, fiber causes air entrainment and increases permeability. A higher volume of polypropylene fibers causes a higher air content . ImpropeThe trend can explain the compressive strength pattern, which increases up to 1% due to low air entrainment. At 1.5 and 2%, a higher amount of air is entrapped during mechanical mixing, thus reducing compressive strength.The 39.1% decrease in permeability is visible for the crushed mask. The masks are impermeable, and the square-cut pieces do not allow water or ions to pass through them and cause a considerable decrease in the permeability of the concrete sample. Thus, 0.5% 1.5 mm square cut samples are excellent for use when permeability is the main criterion to be decreased.It is evident that samples deteriorated and cracked after passing through freeze-thaw cycles. The cracks developed caused an increase in chloride permeability. The test applied on samples exposed to freeze-thaw cycles corroborated the fact that 1% fiber showed better resistance against freeze-thaw deterioration.When water freezes in concrete, it expands in volume. As concrete cannot withstand tensile stresses caused by the expansion of water, cracks appear. The fiber can improve tensile strength and thus provide better resistance against cracks due to its crack-bridging property. Polypropylene fiber has an inhibiting effect on crack initiation and propagation .Waste mask usage in concrete provides better results than ordinary concrete against freeze-thaw attacks. Nam et al. found that synthetic fibers, especially PVA, are effective against frost resistance due to their air void content . Evenly Using one percent fibered waste mask improved the flexural behavior mechanical properties of concrete (increase in split tensile strength and compressive strength). Additionally, it decreased permeability, as shown by RCPT results. Hence, using a one percent fibered waste mask provided the optimum solution for using waste masks in concrete.FESEM images show the internal structure of concrete at 1% fiber content . It was observed that polypropylene fibers are wrapped mostly by hydration products and are not very visible. The abnormal rectangular growths in the image represent overlapping/wrapping of CSH on the fiber of the waste masks. The cotton-like appearance in Furthermore, it is evident from the EDAX results that CSH layers the surfaces of the fibers. The major content is Ca from cement and Si from silica sand and cement. The results show that all the fiber content in the concrete is well dispersed and completely hydrated by the CSH.The concrete with 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% fibers from waste masks are tested for thermal degradation using TGA. The results show  that the(1)The properties of concrete were affected by adding crushed and fibered masks. The addition of 0.5% crushed mask increased compressive strength by 8.3% but decreased tensile strength by 13.4%.(2)Compressive and tensile strength of concrete increased with up to 1% fiber addition (by 17.9% and 23.3%) and then decreased. Thus, utilization of mask fibers at 1% of concrete volume was an optimum percentage to enhance mechanical properties.(3)One percent waste mask fiber showed low chloride permeability, and crushed mask showed very low permeability than ordinary concrete. Hence, the corrosion resistance of concrete with waste masks, especially in crushed form, is relatively higher. Similarly, the rapid chloride permeability test showed a lower permeability value for mask-incorporated concrete after freeze-thaw cycles than ordinary concrete.(4)Waste mask fiber at 2% showed slightly reduced compressive strength and high permeability and should not be used in concrete. Thus, the durability of concrete is improved when waste masks are added at 0–1.5% fiber content .(5)Crushed waste masks at 0.5% are also suitable for concrete, especially to improve water resistance.The following conclusions were corroborated by the investigation to find the feasibility of using waste facial masks as a construction material:Waste masks are produced, used, and wasted tremendously owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and their dumping is a significant environmental issue. The addition of waste masks in concrete is an environmentally friendly solution. Recycling waste masks contributes to the circular economy. Further, it is a considerable step towards achieving sustainability of the environment with regard to waste-dumping issues, resource conservation, and environmental pollution reduction. Waste masks added to concrete in the form of fiber at 1% by volume of concrete is found to be the optimum percentage to enhance the mechanical and durability properties of concrete.


Our study shows that IgG4-ROD symptom duration is significantly positively correlated with relapse rate and negatively correlated with relapse time. Symptom duration was positively correlated with serum baseline IgG4, IgE, and eosinophil levels and asthma history, which were potential risk factors for disease relapse. We recommended that IgG4-ROD patients with symptom durations greater than 96 months continue to receive maintenance steroid therapy longer than 1 year postsurgery to reduce the relapse rate.IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) affects multiple organs and is characterized by immune-mediated inflammation and fibrosis; IgG-RD affecting orbital tissue is known as IgG4-related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD). This research is aimed at exploring whether symptom duration and common serologic factors, such as IgG, IgE, and eosinophils, are potential risk factors for IgG4-ROD patient relapse after surgery and identifying possible causes of the positive correlation between symptom duration and relapse. This retrospective cohort study included 40 IgG4-ROD patients after surgery. Auxiliary inspection results were obtained before surgery and during follow-up, and relapse risk factors were identified based on previous studies. We used the Spearman rank correlation test to reveal the relationship between symptom duration and relapse time and identified the optimal cutoff value for symptom duration by X-tile. Then, we divided the patients into the long-duration and short-duration groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analyses and log-rank tests were performed to identify the relationship between symptom duration and relapse using X-tile software. Finally, we studied the relationship between previously studied relapse risk factors and symptom duration. The survival curves of the long-duration and short-duration groups were obviously different, and the baseline serum IgG, IgE, and eosinophil levels and asthma concomitant rate were significantly different between the long-duration and short-duration groups. Furthermore, the baseline serum IgG ( IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disorder with fibrosis that can affect multiple organs, and the affected organs can have tumor-like lesions and even failure . The hisMore and more attention paid to the diagnosis and treatment of this infrequent autoimmune disease since the publication of diagnostic criteria for IgG4-RD . In 2015Our study is a retrospective cohort study that included 40 IgG4-ROD patients after surgery. Our study describes the clinical characteristics and differences in serological indicators of each patient, explores and analyses whether symptom duration and serologic factors, such as serum IgE and IgG4, are potential risk factors for IgG4-ROD patient relapse after surgery, and tries to identify possible causes of the positive correlation between the duration of symptoms and relapse. We hope that this study will provide reliable predictors of relapse for IgG4-ROD and new recommendations for the rational treatment of IgG4-ROD.n = 40), and 4 patients were excluded from our cohort due to loss of follow-up. We diagnosed 21 (58.3%), 4 (11.1%), and 11 (30.6%) patients with definite, probable, and possible IgG4-ROD, respectively, according to the 2015 IgG4-ROD diagnostic criteria [This research was permitted by the Ethics Committee of Changzheng Hospital affiliated with Naval Military Medical University. All the patients enrolled in the study signed an informed consent form, and all of our procedures for experimental implementation complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. We included all IgG4-ROD patients who met the inclusion criteria treated in Changzheng Hospital from March 2013 to July 2020 in the cohort , ultrasound scanning (US), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All tissues removed after surgery underwent pathological biopsy.We determined the time of onset during detailed medical history inquiry and diagnosis and treatment records provided by the patient. The time of onset was defined as the time when positive symptoms or signs appeared or when clinically significant auxiliary examination results appeared. After the operation, the patients went to the ophthalmology clinic of Changzheng Hospital for related examinations and follow-up at 1 month and 6 months later. Afterward, we sent questionnaires to the patients to investigate the relapse situation every year. The relapse time is defined as the reappearance of positive symptoms and signs, as well as the reappearance of diagnostic laboratory tests and imaging findings. An increase in serum IgG4 concentration alone cannot be considered a disease relapse. We determined the time from onset to treatment as the duration of symptoms.P < 0.05 [X-tile was used to identify the optimal cutoff value, and the statistical significance index was P < 0.05 . The obtThe predictors screened in this experiment to predict disease relapse include some common clinical features of IgG4-ROD, past medical history, and serological indicators, like gender ratio, the rates of having a history of asthma, baseline serum IgG4, IgE, IgG, and eosinophil counts, which have been suggested by previous studies to be predictors of IgG4-RD relapse , 14, 15.All patient clinical data were gathered and are listed in the tables and supplementary materials of this article. We present distributed normally distributed quantitative variables as the means ± SDs and present nonnormally distributed features as the medians (IQRs). We compared continuous variables using the Mann–Whitney test. The Spearman rank correlation test was used to quantify the correlations. We used the chi-square test to compare categorical variables. Then, we generated all figures with GraphPad Prism version 8.1.1  and performed all statistical analyses with SPSS Statistics version 24.0 .We enrolled 40 patients in our cohort. After excluding 4 patients who were missing the follow-up, 36 patients remained, and their clinical and demographic baseline features are shown in According to the clinical characteristics, eyelid swelling (77.8%) and exophthalmos (52.8%) were the most common clinical symptoms in IgG4-ROD patients, and the lacrimal gland was the most commonly affected organ/anatomical site (88.9%). The proportion of asthma history was 36.1%.r = −0.526, P < 0.05). We performed Kaplan–Meier survival analyses and log-rank tests to identify the potential relationship between the duration of symptoms and relapse. Based on the cutoff value calculated by X-tile  and a short-duration group (n = 26). The survival curves of the IgG4-ROD patients in the long-duration group and short-duration group are shown in P < 0.05), and the relative risk (RR) was 2.6 (95% CI 1.225-5.516), which indicates that symptom duration is strongly correlated with the disease relapse rate.The Spearman rank correlation test was used to reveal the relationship between the duration of symptoms and the relapse time, and the results are presented in A comparison of the baseline clinical characteristics between the patients in the two groups is presented in There are differences in serological indicators between the long-duration group and the short-duration group. Mann–Whitney tests were performed to analyze whether there were significant differences in serological indicators, including serum IgG4, IgG, IgE, eosinophil, and globulin levels, between the long-duration group and short-duration group. The results are presented in According to the results, we found that the levels of serum IgE, IgG, and eosinophils were significantly different between the long-duration group and short-duration group, which means that patients with a long duration of symptoms have higher baseline serum IgE, IgG, and eosinophil levels.r = 0.350, P = 0.037) and eosinophil  levels were positively correlated with the duration of symptoms, and the chi-square test results between the long-duration group and short-duration group were also significantly different. This suggests a longer symptom duration along with higher serum IgE and eosinophil levels, and patients with a longer symptom duration are more likely to suffer from asthma.We used the Spearman rank correlation test to identify the relationships between baseline serum IgE and eosinophil levels and symptom duration, and chi-square tests were conducted to verify the relationship between the duration of symptoms and the history of associated asthma. The results are presented in + plasma cell invasion. The lacrimal gland is the most common anatomical site of IgG4-ROD involvement [IgG4-related ophthalmic disease is a fibroinflammatory disease mostly characterized by IgG4olvement , 17, andolvement ; our resolvement , 20 and olvement .IgG4-ROD is a chronic illness, and the development of this disease involves a process of remission-relapse-remission . How to From our survival analysis results, we realized that there was a potential relationship between symptom duration and disease relapse: as the duration of symptoms increased, the relapse time was earlier, and the relapse rate also increased. Liu et al.  found thTo further explore the reasons for the high relapse rate of IgG-ROD due to the long duration of symptoms, we conducted a study on the relationships between common serological and clinical indicators and the duration of symptoms. The results show that a longer symptom duration causes higher serum IgE and eosinophil baseline levels, and patients with a longer symptom duration were more likely to develop asthma. Interestingly, serum baseline levels of IgE and eosinophils and history of asthma are all risk factors for IgG4-ROD relapse. Wallace et al.  found thOur research was retrospective, selection bias and recall bias probably occurred, and measurement bias may exist in different patients due to the different testing times and personnel of serological indicators. Furthermore, the sample size of the research is small and does not conform to the normal distribution, so many reasonable statistical methods cannot be performed. Whether the duration of symptoms is indeed an independent risk factor for relapse still needs to be further explored by expanding the sample size and using Cox regression analysis and other more convincing statistical methods. Moreover, due to the scarcity of IgG4-ROD patients and the limitations of retrospective studies, the experiment did not adopt 1 : 1 grouping. The patient's disease relapse time may not be completely accurate due to the limitation of the follow-up period. The duration of symptoms completely depended on patient self-report; consequently, the possibility of memory bias existed, although we carefully verified symptom duration. We plan to further explore whether the duration of symptoms is indeed an independent risk factor for relapse by expanding the sample size and using more convincing statistical methods in our future research.In conclusion, our research used the largest known cohort of patients undergoing surgical treatment for IgG4-ROD and for the first time explored the relationship between the duration of symptoms and the relapse of IgG4-ROD. Our study provides novel information about risk factors for IgG4-ROD relapse and found that the duration of symptoms of IgG4-ROD has a significant positive correlation with relapse of the disease. As the duration of symptoms increases, the relapse time becomes earlier, and the relapse rate also increases. The duration of symptoms is positively correlated with serum baseline levels of IgE, eosinophils, and asthma history, which are risk factors for disease relapse, suggesting that the prolonged duration of symptoms may lead to the accumulation of risk factors for the relapse of the abovementioned diseases and lead to relapse. For these reasons, we recommended that IgG4-ROD patients with symptom durations greater than 96 months continue to receive maintenance steroid therapy longer than 1 year after surgery to reduce the relapse rate. Our research provides theoretical support for advocating early treatment of IgG4-ROD and for the reasonable selection of treatment options; additionally, our study provides new directions and ideas for follow-up studies on the prevention of IgG4-ROD relapse and the identification of potential serologic biomarkers for predicting disease relapse.


Background: Publication is one of the quantitative measures of countries' contribution to research and innovation. This paper attempts to understand the publication related information of the BRICS countries .Methods: Detailed analysis of publications on the basis of collaboration, research area, number of publications, percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent on research, and citation is presented in the paper. An attempt is also made to understand the relations between each of the parameters and the overall performance of the country.Results: Times Higher Education global ranking is considered as a measure to validate the claims of this paper. This study shows that among the BRICS nations, China with the highest percentage of GDP spent on research has also the highest number of researchers and publication output whereas South Africa excels in terms of number of international collaborative publications and publications in high impact journals. This article has highlighted the distribution of publications as per the subject area with India leading in the area of Computer Science. Discussion: Results showed a strong relationship between each of the parameters discussed on the research performance of a country. In 2011 a total of 17.3% of research papers in science and engineering were published by BRICS countries compared to just 7.6% in 1995. This accounted for a 233.4% increase in publication output in 2011 compared to 1995. Globally, Brazil ranked 13th in terms of peer-reviewed papers produced between 2011 and 2016. Expenditure on research and development (R&D) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 1.17% in 2014 whereas citation impact has remained below average during the same period but improved between 2011 (0.73) and 2016 (0.86), an increase of 18%. Russia had set aside a budget of 70 billion roubles (approx. US $3 billion) in 2018 while doubling its scientific paper output between 2006 and 2016. A total of 74,697 papers  were published by the Russian Federation in Scopus-indexed journals with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2006 and 2016, more significantly between 2012 and 2016 with a CAGR of 15.2%, while 54,669 papers were published in Web of Science (WoS) journals with CAGR of 5.9% during 2006-2016 and 12.9% between 2012-2016. Russia and China are predominantly single funding agencies, whereas Brazil and India have diversified funding sources. It was also found that research publications from Russia with foreign funding received more visibility and are published in journals with an average mean impact factor 1.9 times greater than Russian-funded publications in WoS. Russia spends 1% of national income on R&D, whereas public institutions conduct about 75% of research. In recent years, China is second only to the United States (US) in terms of R&D investment. It spent around 2.08% of the national GDP on R&D in 2015. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) are the three major funding agencies in the country. Based on recent data, South Africa spent about 0.8% ofGDP on R&D.The BRICS  countries are emerging as major influencers of geopolitical changes. BRICS was referred to for the first time in 2001 in a report titled Building Better Global Economic BRICS by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill. With the success of BRICS over the years, scientific literature has tried to have an improved understanding of these economies. In the five-year block of 2013-2017, researchers from South Africa increased their average growth rate in WoS publications by 13.12%, almost double that of the world average of 6.36%. South Africa as a country is ranked 18th in the world in social sciences and arts and humanities; 33rd in life sciences; 38th in physical sciences and 40th in technology out of 198 countries studied. However, the total number of papers published by South Africa during 1995-2016 is approximately 31,651 for social sciences and 37,847 for technology. Though by sheer number the technology domain has produced more papers, the ranking for this domain for SA is way below 18 for social sciences with a much lesser number of papers. Similarly, for the arts and humanities field, with 8,842 papers South Africa’s global rank was 18. The journal publication output in 2016 increased by 4.5% compared to 2015, which was still lower than 6.4% during 2014-15. The majority of papers from researchers were in the fields of science, engineering, and technology, which accounted for 58.44% of total publications. R&D expenditure for India tripled in the last decade; from Rs 24,117 crores in 2004-05 to Rs 85,326 crores in 2014-15. However, as a percentage of GDP, the R&D expenditure remained stagnant at 0.7% during the same period. Of total investment in R&D, the public sector has contributed between 0.4-0.5%, whereas 0.2-0.3% came from the private sector. Strikingly for India, the government is also a user of a research fund; apart from playing the role of the largest funder, the major chunk of R&D expenditure is used by the Central government. In addition, to increase nominal R&D expenditure, India’s share of total publication output also increased during 2009-2014 with a growth of 14% during the said period; an increase in the share of total global publications rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2014. India was also ranked 6th in terms of total scientific publication output globally with a growth rate of 13.9% (Scopus) and 7.1% (Science Citation Index - SCI) compared to the world growth rate of 4.4% and 4.1%, respectively. The number of researchers per million population increased from 110 in 2000 to 218 in 2015.The government of South Africa also aims to increase this spending to 1.5% of GDP in the ensuing decade. BRICS countries together accounted for an impressive 233.4% growth in 2011 over 1995 in publishing science and engineering research papers, whereas the growth rate for other countries was 31.3%. Other than Russia, the output of BRICS countries increased for most frequently cited papers at a higher rate than top-cited countries globally. The co-authored papers among the BRICS countries are found to be countries with which they have “geographical” “cultural” and/or “historical” proximity. The intensity of intra-BRICS countries’ collaboration is also low. Further, the strength of each BRICS country is in the different scientific domain in terms of their research output according to the WoS database for the period 2008-2011. Research output from Brazil was primarily in agricultural, plant and animal sciences; for Russia it was physics, chemistry, mathematics and geosciences; India’s research outputs were in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology, agricultural sciences, material sciences, and chemistry; while China’s publications were in the fields of material sciences, chemistry, and physics. South Africa’s research output focused more on the fields of plant and animal sciences, immunology, environment/ecology as well asmultidisciplinary research areas. Quantitatively, China is the largest in terms of publication output, whereas South Africa is the smallest among the fiveBRICS countries. Alternatively, based on Scopus data for the year 2015, China took the lead in the subject areas of mathematics, physics and astronomy, multidisciplinary science, and earth and planetary science. For Brazil, the strongest subject area according to Scopus is dentistry; for Russia, it is physics and astronomy; India is strong in the fields of pharmacology, toxicology, and pharmaceutics; and for South Africa, the strongest subject area is agricultural and biological sciences. Based on Scopus data, the total publication output of BRICS countries in 2015 was 29% with China contributing 18%, India 5%, Russia and Brazil 2.6%, and South Africa 0.72%. From the above discussion, it is clear that existing literature has discussed the need for analysis of research outcomes of a country. From the literature study, it can be seen that BRICS nations are the emerging economies where research publications are gaining over the years. With a motive to understand the research scenarios of BRICS nations this study compares number of researchers and the research outcomes of these nations in terms of research spent, citations, collaborative publications, distribution of publications across different subject areas and percentage of high impact publications.BRICS represents about 42% of the world’s total population. 31.2% of science and engineering doctorates globally are produced by BRICS.QS world ranking,Times Higher Education (THE) world university ranking, Shanghai university ranking, Leiden ranking, etc. THE is one of the widely accepted ranking agencies that ranks the higher education institutions based on four basic parameters, which are teaching, research, international outlook, and industry interaction, out of which research contributes almost 62.5% of the overall scores, thus making it important for the proposed work to analyze the outcomes concerning research. Considering the emerging economies (BRICS), classification is made across the ranking to project the distribution of the number of universities across the entire scale. For this study we have classified the ranking window into five different ranges, which are 1 to 250, 251 to 500, 500 to 800, 801 to 1000, and more than 1000.The ranking of universities has always been a topic of debate, but it is a necessary mechanism to understand the performance of the universities across the globe. There are multiple ranking agencies that rate higher education institutions across the globe such as theThe 2019 ranking also showed a similar trend with some slight modification in the behavior, which is due to an increase in the number of universities. Again, in the bracket of 1-250 only universities from China, Russia, and South Africa are featured with seven, two, and one universities, respectively. The 251-500 bracket has Chinese universities in the lead with seven universities, followed by India with five universities, Russia with three universities, Brazil and South Africa with two universities each. Similarly to 2018, the year 2019 also shows a big number of universities in the 501-800 range with China having 28 universities, followed by India with 16 universities, Russia with nine universities, Brazil with five universities, and South Africa with three universities. The next bracket of 801-1000 also had an increase in number as compared to the previous year, with China having 22 universities, followed by India with 12 universities, Brazil with eight universities, Russia with four universities, and South Africa with one university. The last bracket of 1001+ ranking shows Brazil leading the list with 21 universities, followed by Russia with 18, India with eight universities, and China with eight universities, and lastly South Africa with one. From the comparison of the two years, it can be seen that India and China have improved in numbers and also quality with not much change from Brazil, Russia, and South Africa.To further understand the ranking of universities we attempt to analyze the research outcomes of the countries, as research constitutes 62.5% weightage in the computation of scores for ranking the universities. Several parameters contribute to research outcomes; a detailed analysis is presented in the following section considering parameters such as the number of researchers, percentage of GDP spend on research, number of publications, citations, collaboration, and area of research.https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6?view=chart), Research and Development spend by % GDP (Source:https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS), and publication data fromScopus/ SciVal. Data related to researcher population for the years 2013 to 2017 is extracted from the world bank data, for computation the average value over the year is taken. Similarly for computation of research spend by percentage GDP is also extracted from the world bank data for the years 2013 to 2017 by taking the average over the period, all the data were extracted from the source site on 18th December 2019. Publication related data corresponding to country output is extracted from the Scopus website on 18th December 2019. Parameters related to the citation outcome, subject wise breakup and international coauthored publication details are analyzed from the extracted data.SciVal tool from the Elsevier is used to obtained score related to citation impact, international collaboration as obtained on 18th Dec 2019. We also analyzed research output on three important parameters, namely researcher per million populations, total scholarly output, and expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP. The data on these three parameters were obtained from World Bank indicators. We compared these three parameters against the Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and its impact on collaborative publications with international authors. Based on three basic parameters, subject-wise analysis for BRICS countries’ research output was carried out.To further analyze the reasons for the same we have first looked at the comparison of researchers’ population across the countries (Source:The researcher population is one of the important factors which determines the research strength of the institution or country. To understand the outcome in terms of publication in Scopus indexed publications for five years (2013-17) for the researcher population across the BRICS nations, a graph is plotted inOne more important factor which constitutes the growth of research is the percentage of GDP spent on research.To have a picture of the quantity and quality of research, a graph was plotted inFrom the above discussion, it can be seen that the quantity of research output, quality of research, researcher population, and research investment of the country are interrelated. To have a deeper understanding of the rest of the variables, the next section focuses on other parameters like the collaboration and subject area of the research.Data for publications that are indexed in Scopus for the period of 2012-17 are analyzed for the BRICS nations with different research metrics like the number of publications published year on year during the period of evaluation, followed by the impact of collaborative publication. Publication behavior across the different subject areas is studied and discussed in detail in this section.Yearly scholarly output in Scopus-indexed publications of BRICS countries is plotted inCollaboration in the publication would reflect the multicenter activity carried out by researchers. It is expected that research executed with multiple partners would have a relatively higher outreach and would lead to higher readership and citation. To understand this,An attempt is made to understand the distribution of the international collaborative papers published by BRICS among different regions across the globe as shown inOnce we have understood the collaborative publications with the other regions, it is also necessary to understand the significance of collaboration mutually inside the BRICS nations. To understand the same, collaborative publications and their impact in terms of FWCI are plotted inBrazil: Brazil has around 0.98% of publications collaborating with India; these collaborative publications have a FWCI of 4.7. Around 0.76% of publications were co-authored with Chinese researchers, with a FWCI of 5.7. Coauthored publications with South Africa make up around 0.58%; these papers have a FWCI of 7.2. Collaborative publications with Russia make up around 0.42% of the total number of papers published by Brazil, with a FWCI of 7.1. It is observed that Brazil has a large number of collaborative works with India as compared to other BRICS nations and the highest impact is from collaborative work with South Africa.China: China has around 0.85% of its total papers published with coauthors from BRICS nations. Russian collaborative work is at 0.27%, followed by India with 0.26%, Brazil with 0.18%, and South Africa with 0.11%. If FWCI is considered, publications with South Africa have a FWCI of 5.8, which is highest among the collaborations with BRICS nations. This is followed by collaborations with Brazil with a FWCI of 5.2 and Indian collaborative work with a FWCI of 4. Collaborative work with Russia has a FWCI of 3.7.India: India produces around 0.92% of its publications in collaboration with China, which is the highest among all other BRICS nations, and its collaborative papers have a FWCI of 3.98. Around 0.5% of publications are South African collaborations, with a FWCI of 4.6. Of the total number of Indian publications, 0.43% are Brazil collaborations with a FWCI of 6.2, which is the highest value in comparison to collaborative publications with other BRICS nations. India has around 0.42% of its collaborative publications with Russia; these papers have a FWCI of 5.2.Russia: Russia has around 4.13% of publications in collaboration with other BRICS nations. Russia has around 1.92% of its publications with China, and these papers have a FWCI of 3.7. The percentage of collaborations of Russia with India and Brazil is almost the same at around 0.97% and 0.96%, respectively. These papers have yielded a FWCI of 5.2 and 5.8, respectively. Russia has around 0.48% of its publications in collaboration with South Africa; these papers yield a FWCI of 7.2. It is seen that Russia has the highest collaboration with China and the papers with the highest FWCI are from South African collaborations, with a FWCI of 7.2.South Africa: South Africa has around 9.4% of its publications in collaboration with the rest of the BRICS countries, with India's collaboration being the highest at 3.48%, with a FWCI of 4.7. ChinaSouth Africa collaborative publications account for 2.55%, with the papers having a FWCI of 5.8. There are around 1.95% of papers published by South Africa in collaboration with Brazil, with a FWCI of 7.3. Around 1.495% of the publications are with Russian collaborators; these papers have a FWCI of 7.1.It can be understood that from the above graphs inAlong with collaboration, one more important parameter that also affects the quality of the publication is the choice of journal. For the analysis, the publication of BRICS nations in the journals that are in the top 10th percentile by citation score is compared with the quality in terms of FWCI.The choice of journal for publishing a research article is becoming very important as it relates to the outcome of the publication in terms of research visibility and citation. The selection of journals based on subject area is also an important parameter that needs to be considered. As metrics like FWCI are normalized parameters across a given subject area, the outcome of the publication would depend on the subject area. Based on the present-day scenario, journals are categorized into 300+ sub-subject areas by Scopus. For the present analysis, we are considering the broad classification as followed by THE, where all journals are divided into 11 main subject topics, which are ‘arts and humanities’, ‘business and economics’, ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’, ‘computer science’, ‘education’, ‘engineering and technology’, ‘law’, ‘life sciences’, ‘physical sciences’, ‘psychology’ and ‘social sciences’. In this classification, the available 300+ sub-subject area journals are mapped to these 11 areas. It is to be noted that the journals can be overlapping with one or more classified areas as many journals publish work on multi disciplinarily or interdisciplinarity research areas.From the table, it is seen that the split of publications across all the 11 subject areas is not equal and also varies by country. Brazil as a country produces a large share of publications in the subject areas of ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’, ‘life science’ and ‘physical science’, and the least number of publications is seen in the subject area of ‘law’. In the case of China, a large share of publications is in the subject areas of ‘physical science’ and ‘engineering and technology’, and the least number of publications is from the subject areas of ‘law’, ‘education’, ‘psychology’, ‘arts and humanities’. India has a large share of publications in ‘physical sciences’, ‘engineering and technology’, and ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’ subjects and lowest share of publications in the areas of ‘law’, ‘psychology’, ‘education’, and ‘arts and humanities’. Russia has a large share of publications in ‘Physical Sciences’, ‘Engineering and Technology’, with the lowest share of publications in the area of ‘psychology’ and ‘law’. South Africa has a large share of publications from ‘physical sciences’, ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’, ‘life sciences’ and least share of publication in ‘law’ ‘psychology’ and ‘education’.Arts and humanities:Business and economics: China produces a large number of papers in the subject area of ‘business and economics’. South Africa has a large share of its publications in ‘business and economics’. China also produces 28.4% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals and has the highest FWCI of 1.13. Brazil has around 12% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals with a FWCI of 0.64. South Africa produces around 10.2% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals with a FWCI of 0.82. The FWCI of Russian publications is 0.83 with around 6.2% in the top 10th percentile journals. Around 7% of publications from India are in the top 10th percentile journals with a FWCI of 0.75, as evident inClinical, pre-clinical, and health: China produces the highest number of papers in the subject area of ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’ which is around 470,000, but Brazilian publications have a higher percentage share in this subject area as compared to other countries as shown inComputer science: It can be observed fromEducation: Publications from South Africa have a FWCI of 0.88, which is the highest of all the BRICS nations, and 9.4% of publications of South Africa are in the top 10th percentile journals. China has around 13.4% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals, with a FWCI of 0.72. India, with 5.45% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals, has a FWCI of 0.56. Russia, with 2.5% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals, has a FWCI of 0.54, and Brazil also has around 2.55% of its publications in journals of the top 10th percentile as indicated inEngineering and technology: FromLaw: Law as a subject has a very small share of publications in all the BRICS nations as compared to the other subject areas, with South Africa having the highest share of 1.34% and China having the lowest share at 0.09%, although in terms of absolute number, the number of publications from China is higher in comparison to other BRICS nations. The quality of publications in terms of FWCI is also higher in papers produced by China (1.3), and it is also seen that around 50% of papers published are in journals that are in the top 10th percentile. The percentage of publications from India in the top 10th percentile journals is about 16.6% and the FWCI of papers published from India is 0.66. Papers published from Brazil have a FWCI of 0.55 and 19% of its publications are in the top 10th percentile journals. South Africa has around 16.6% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals and the FWCI of South African publications is 0.52 for ‘law’. Russia has the lowest percentage of papers published in the top 10th percentile journals, which is 4.5%, and the FWCI of Russian papers in law has the lowest FWCI of 0.43 as compared to other BRICS nations as shown inLife science: FromPhysical science: In the area of physical science, as shown inPsychology: Publications from China have around 26.7% of papers in the top 10th percentile journals and the FWCI of papers published is 1.17. In this subject area, 16.8% of South African papers were published in the top 10th percentile journals, and the FWCI of the papers published was 1.08. Publications from India have a FWCI of 0.76, with 9.8% of papers published in the top 10th percentile journals. Brazil published around 10.7% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals, and publications from Brazil had a FWCI of 0.53, which is the lowest compared to other BRICS nations. Russia produced around 10.5% of its publications in the top 10th percentile journals and the FWCI of the papers published by Russia was 0.7, as shown inSocial sciences: FromThe publication numbers of China is the highest compared to other BRICS nations in all the 11 subject areas. The FWCI of publications from South Africa is highest in the subject areas of ‘arts and humanities’, ‘clinical, pre-clinical and health’, ‘education’, ‘engineering and technology’, ‘life sciences’, ‘physical sciences’ and ‘social sciences’. For the subject areas ‘business and economics’, ‘computer science’, ‘law’ and ‘psychology’, publications from China have the highest FWCI. From the above discussion, it is clear that the quality of publication depends on multiple parameters like collaboration, publication in quality journals, and subject area of publication.Research and innovation are the parameters that often decide the growth of an institute or organization or country. Publication output is one of the measures by which a country’s research can be quantified. An attempt was made in this paper to study the behavior of publications of the developing countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). To validate the analysis of the work reported, the number and position of universities ranked in THE were treated as a unit of measure. It is evident from the publication that China which has the higher number of publications, research spend, researcher population, has a greater number of universities ranked. On the other hand, SouthAfrica with lesser publication outcome, research spend, etc. has lower number of universities ranked. But it can also be seen that the percentage of universities ranked higher due to higher quality parameters like higher FWCI, international collaboration, etc. Though the number of universities being ranked is higher due to higher researcher volume and publication the quality parameters reflect on the percentage of universities ranked higher. To understand the behavior of publication output, only Scopus-indexed sources were considered as THE considers only Scopus-indexed publications. The first parameter to be evaluated was the population of researchers and it was found that China has the largest population also produces the highest number of publications; the relationship between researcher population and quantity of publications was evident. The second parameter to be analyzed was the percentage of GDP spent on research and though it was expected that it would be proportional to the quality and number of publications, in reality, it was not so, leading to further analysis to find the other parameters contributing to the outcome. One such measure was collaborative publications, and from this analysis it was evident that South Africa with the most collaborative research had a higher impact than the rest of the BRICS nations. The pattern of collaboration was also studied to understand the geography of collaboration. Results show that South Africa, Russia, and Brazil have more collaboration with Europe, China with North America, and India showed broader collaboration.The focus area of each of the countries is unique to its culture, geography, and relevance to society. An attempt was made to understand the impact of focus area in terms of the 11 basic subjects on the quantity and quality of research. The nations showed an inclination to a few research areas; for example, Brazil had a large focus toward clinical, preclinical, and life sciences. China and India had a large focus on engineering and physical sciences. Russia showed large publication numbers (more than 50% of its publications) in the areas of physical sciences, followed by engineering with 34%. South Africa showed equal priorities to clinical, life science, and physical science. It was also found that the fewest publications were from law. The paper tried to report the behavioral analysis of research in the BRICS nations.All data underlying the results are available as part of the article and no additional source data are required. I found this article interesting and insightful and particularly well written. The authors have done a noteworthy study to gauge the scientific input and its impact on development in BRICS countries. As such, for this manuscript, the authors have used multiple sources of data namely World Bank, Scopus, and also from Elsevier which is praiseworthy and is quite elaborate. This kind of bibliometric study is needed to bring the focus on core areas of development that will help in 21st-century nation-building. It also helps to show gaps, and improve research thrust and intensify research pursuits in those areas which lack focus which need some special stimulus to kick start research. These will help governments and policymakers to take note of the direction in which future research should be shaped.  In my opinion, if the authors would have correlated this data with some more relevant info on commercialization efforts (patents), the number of millionaires, HNWI, thrown in with data on AI, 5G/6G internet connectivity for good measure it would have been a comprehensive study although quite complicated which would need more time and detailed statistical analysis to pool the results and come to a meaningful conclusion. Anyway, I congratulate the authors for choosing this study impacting the BRICS.Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?YesIf applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?YesAre all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?YesIs the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?YesAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?YesAre sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?YesReviewer Expertise:My research is motivated by the need to better understand the pathophysiology of brain dysfunction. Specifically, my interests include evaluating the sex differences in brain structure, chemistry, and function. The long-term goal of my research is to develop clinically applicable strategies that are efficient for enhancing brain function after injury, disease, or aging.I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard. The article highlights comparison of BRICKS countries in terms of quality publications in various fields of Research. A very interesting study done in a meticulous and unbiased way based on THE data, which is globally accepted. More citations from 2020 could have been added. The figures summarize the findings very well. The comparison is based on development expenditure, publication quality, international collaborations etc. I recommend indexing of this article.Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?YesIf applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?YesAre all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?YesIs the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?YesAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?YesAre sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?YesReviewer Expertise:Pharmaceutics , Health outcomes, Pharmaceutical Management, Publication EthicsI confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.


This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of glass-FRP-reinforced geopolymer concrete columns integrating hybrid fibres (GFGC columns) and steel bar-reinforced geopolymer concrete columns incorporating hybrid fibres (SFGC columns) under eccentric and concentric loadings. Steel fibre (SF) and polypropylene fibres (PF) are two types of fibres that are mixed into hybrid fibre-reinforced geopolymer concrete (HFRGC). Eighteen circular concrete columns with a cross-section of 300 mm × 1200 mm were cast and examined under axial loading up to failure. Nine columns were cast with glass-FRP rebars, whereas the other nine were cast with steel rebars. Using ABAQUS, a nonlinear finite element model was established for the GFGC and SFGC columns. The HFRGC material was modelled using a simplified concrete damage plasticity model, whereas the glass-FRP material was simulated as a linear elastic material. It was observed that GFGC columns had up to 20% lower axial strength (AST) and up to 24% higher ductility indices than SFGC columns. The failure modes of both GFGC and SFGC columns were analogous. Both GFGC and SFGC columns revealed the same effect of eccentricity in the form of a decline in AST. A novel statistical model was suggested for predicting the AST of GFGC columns. The outcomes of the experiments, finite element simulations, and theoretical results show that the models can accurately determine the AST of GFGC columns. The processing of Portland cement releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct. The latest studies have used green concrete, called “geopolymer concrete”, to minimize the environmental impact of concrete structures ,2. Even Researchers in structural engineering have recently become interested in the excellent performance of FRP rebars in reinforced concrete construction. In comparison to steel-reinforced columns, glass-FRP-reinforced concrete columns show higher lateral deflection . Glass-FHadi et al.  investigDue to reducing the time and costs of research, the most important methods for a technical aspect to characterize the interaction process, the diversity of the failure mechanism of FRPs, and the unique response between FRPs and concrete are finite element models (FEMs) . ExcessiThe SFGC columns were compared to GFGC columns in terms of structural efficiency. Different reinforcing lateral tie spacing, hybrid fibres, loading eccentricity, and loading circumstances were all examined. FEM was given using a modified concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model. A novel theoretical model for the assessment of the AST of GFGC columns was also proposed. When highly corrosive and light glass-FRP composite materials are utilized in concrete columns, the findings of this study may be valuable to the concrete industry.3 respectively. The granular analysis of coarse aggregates and sand used in this research is illustrated in ®-3425 was used. Using a trial testing approach, the mix design of geopolymer  and Na2SiO3. The workability test performed according to ASTM C143 [given in  with a nSTM C143  reportedSTM C143 . Six con® fibres accounting for 80% of the volumetric quantity. The engineering properties of steel and glass-FRP rebars are summarized in The longitudinal reinforcement and transverse stirrups for SFGC specimens were made from #3 (9.5 mm) and #4 (12.7 mm) steel rebars, respectively. These diameters are preferably selected in low-seismicity zones ,41. The Eighteen (18) circular HFRGC columns were cast in this study. Nine of those were used for glass-FRP rebars and the other nine were for used steel rebars. Stirrups were used for lateral reinforcement for all 18 samples. The goal of the specimen testing was to see how the axial efficiency of columns was affected by hybrid fibres, reinforcing type, tie spacing, and loading eccentricity. The SFGC columns were cast as control specimens. All the columns had a cross-section of 300 mm × 1200 mm. These columns can fit into a testing machine but are sizable enough to be referred to as full-size samples. The columns were analysed employing compression testing equipment with a load capacity of 5000 kN. All of the specimens were loaded at a rate of 0.003 mm/s. A plaster capping with a wall thickness of 10 mm and a width of 100 mm was provided at the top and bottom to prevent end crushing and non-uniform load distribution on the cross-section during sample testing. A consistent compressive force was delivered to the top surface of the concentrically loaded sample. In an eccentrically loaded sample, as shown in This section explains how to forecast the structural performance of GFGC and SFGC columns under axial loads using detailed finite element modelling of the complicated damaging efficiency of HFRGC and glass-FRP rebars. ABAQUS 6.14 was used to perform finite element simulations of samples. The columns’ ultimate failure mechanism, ultimate strength, initial stiffness, crack propagation efficiency, and post-failure stiffness efficiency are all taken into account in the proposed FEM. The FEM was standardized using the findings of a control specimen’s experiment (GFGC75-0). Three-dimensional solid stress sections were used to model the HFRGC. Three-dimensional deformable truss members were utilized to simulate the glass-FRP and steel reinforcing rebars. The complex efficiency of HFRGC was examined by using an improved concrete damaged plasticity model. The compression samples were restrained at the bottom end. The ‘embedded region’ constraint, which connects the compatible degrees of freedom (DOF) of the wire elements to the needed DOF of the 3D stress elements of concrete, was used to model the contact between the HFRGC and reinforcing material [To anticipate the structural efficiency of concrete elements, a precise definition of HFRGC in FEM is necessary. The elastic efficiency of HFRGC was described in this study using a Poisson’s ratio of 0.2  and an e4734fc′ ; where fi et al. . The usei et al.  model fock has yet to be established for HFRGC. Therefore, the correlation for these constants can be represented by Equations (2) and (3), respectively [The viscosity parameter (tion (1) .(1)σbohectively .(2) kc=In these expressions, cK) for plain concrete is typically in the range of 0.64 to 0.80 [As a result, the constants’ relationships can be represented. The shape factor  Because the fibres are more resistant to crack opening and spreading, the tension meridian will be enhanced more than the compression meridian, i.e., The  and λpf .(7) ψhfAccording to the elastoplasticity hypothesis, which depicts the nonlinearity and irreversible deformation of concrete, the overall strain of concrete  dcconcrete , εc, norof 0.033 . Therefoion (11) .(11)mchectively . Thus, fThe ultimate compressive stress (elations .(14)σcoA strain-hardening branch of the stress-strain curve characterizes the post-cracking efficiency of concrete. Strain-hardening represents the pre-ultimate efficiency of the stress-strain curve through plastic flow, while strain-softening represents the post-ultimate efficiency . Figure and Chen .(17)dt=concrete , and εt,n=0.0033 . As the ion (18) .(18)mthIn this relationship, ectively . Thus, fThe ultimate tensile stress (elations .(21)σtoBy considering the above relationship, the yield stress and the inelastic strain of HFRGC can be calculated for introduction into the FEA models.The glass-FRP and steel rebars were simulated as 3D truss elements. μ), multiple element types, and element mesh sizes to generate finite element assumptions that were close to the experiments. A similar relationship with the load-deflection efficiency of the reference sample was seen when all the DOF at the lower end of the samples was controlled while the upper end was able to translate and rotate on any axis. [The experimental results were used to check the given FEM of the referenced specimen (GFGC75-0). The proposed FEM was scaled for different end conditions, HFRGC’s viscosity parameter  showed variations of 2.6% and 6.8% for maximum AST and corresponding axial deflection from the tests. The elastic behavior, fracture patterns, and post-ultimate collapse efficiency of the reference sample were precisely described by the proposed FEM. Differences in the experimental and FEA testing environments, such as geometric imperfections, boundary conditions, material strength, sample manufacturing flaws, the differences in the features of glass-FRP rebars and steel rebars, as well as testing equipment accuracy, can be held responsible for minor discrepancies in the proposed FEM. The inconsistencies could potentially be attributed to FEA assumptions, such as assuming an ideal connection between HFRGC and rebars. The proposed FEM showed a strong connection with the tests and can be applied to analyse other SFGC and GFGC columns.The AST and deflection of eccentric columns were accurately identified using the recommended FEM. It captures the concentric SFGC column’s AST with a percentage inaccuracy of 4.5% and the eccentric GFGC column AST with a percentage inaccuracy of 4%. The tensile efficiency of HFRGC was exactly predicted in this research based on the accuracy of FEM predictions for eccentrically loaded SFGC and GFGC columns. Thus, the model of the tensile efficiency of HFRGC is needed for precise estimates of the eccentric columns. The difference between the experimental outcomes and FEM predictions for all HFRGC columns was 3.6% for ultimate AST and 6.9% for respective axial deflection. As a result of the safe under predictions for the AST of SFGC and GFGC columns, the suggested numerical model can be adopted and endorsed.The load-deflection efficiency of all SFGC columns, as assessed by experimental studies and finite element simulations, is shown in The experimental failure and FEM crack patterns are shown in Columns’ strength and ductility are enhanced by using glass-FRP stirrups to confine concrete . The conion (24) .(24)fl=on below :(25)ffv=In this equation, r et al. .(27)fleThe parameters d et al.  and Razad et al.  recommenA series of simulations for measuring the compressive strength of FRP-RC columns has been recommended in previous research ,68,69,70In this relation, The current recommended model accurately reflected the AST of HFRGC-columns, according to the comparative analysis. The average differences of the estimates of the equations given by Mohamed et al. , Afifi eThe GFGC columns had a lower AST than the SFGC columns, with an average difference of only 20%. This shows that the inclusion of hybrid fibres in geopolymer concrete can perform efficiently in glass-FRP-reinforced circular columns to obtain sustainable and environmentally friendly structural elements.All of the GFGC and SFGC columns had the same failure mechanisms and proceeded through the same process. The collapse was mostly seen in the upper part of both eccentric and concentric columns. The GFGC columns were damaged due to a fracture in the longitudinal rebars, whereas the SFGC columns were damaged due to buckling of the main bars.GFGC samples are more ductile than SFGC samples. GFGC samples had an average ductility value 24% higher than SFGC columns. The columns with a shorter stirrup distance exhibited greater ductility values due to well-confined long rebars and good entrapment of the concrete core to retain more energy.The lessening in stirrup spacing improved the AST of both GFGC and SFGC columns. When the stirrup distance was reduced from 150 mm to 75 mm, the average percentage increase for both eccentric and concentric GFGC and SFGC columns was 15% and 6%, respectively. Reducing the stirrup distance from 250 mm to 150 mm resulted in a 5% increase in AST for SFGC columns, but a 5.5% drop in AST for GFGC columns.The AST of both GFGC and SFGC columns was significantly reduced as a result of loading eccentricity. The AST of GFGC columns with 75 mm stirrup spacing was lowered by 42% and 120%, respectively, due to the application of loads at the eccentricity of 35 mm and 70 mm.The proposed FEM predicted the efficiency of HFRGC with high accuracy by considering the hybrid fibre-dependent CDP model. The average errors represented by the proposed FEM for the AST and corresponding axial strain of studied specimens were 3.6% and 6.9%, respectively.The proposed new theoretical equation for the AST of GFGC columns functioned well for the experimental measurements of examined samples by taking into account the axial participation of glass-FRP main rebars and the lateral confinement of glass-FRP stirrups. The recent research found that the average deviations of the predictions of the currently proposed theoretical model from experimental data and finite element analysis of AST of samples were 8.1% and 7.5%, respectively.In the present study, the experiments, FEA, and computational methods were used to investigate the structural efficiency of SFGC and GFGC columns. Following are some important observations from this research:


In this paper, an ultrahigh-strength marine concrete containing coral aggregates is developed. Concrete fabricated from marine sources is considered an effective and economical alternative for marine engineering and the construction of remote islands. To protect sea coral ecosystems, the coral aggregates used for construction are only efflorescent coral debris. To achieve the expected mechanical performance from the studied concrete, an optimal mixture design is conducted to determine the optimal proportions of components, in order to optimize the compressive strength. The mechanical properties and the autogenous shrinkage, as well as the heat flow of early hydration reactions, are measured. The hydration products fill up the pores of coral aggregates, endowing our concrete with flowability and self-compacting ability. The phases in the marine concrete are identified via X-ray diffraction analysis. The 28-day compressive and flexural strength of the developed marine concrete achieve 116.76 MPa and 18.24 MPa, respectively. On account of the lower cement content and the internal curing provided by coral aggregates, the volume change resulting from autogenous shrinkage is only 63.11% of that of ordinary reactive powder concrete. The protection of marine reefs plays a great role in the development of island economies, as well as marine resources. The active demand of infrastructural construction on the islands accelerates the development of construction materials in the context of forming a conservation-minded economy and an environmentally sound ecosystem. Due to the limitation of the utilization of conventional construction materials in terms of time and transportation expenses, as well as the complex geological conditions of islands, challenges arise as to the production of alternative cementitious materials. The infrastructure on islands is situated in an aggressive marine context. They might be subjected to tidal waves or freeze/thaw actions, presenting more stern requirements on the load-carrying capacity of materials, as well as the durability and long-term stability of structures.Concrete fabricated from marine sources  is considered an effective and economical alternative. Coral-based concrete has been extensively used in building roads, airports, and other structures during and after the Second World War , especiaPrevious studies have shown that the original designed marine concrete has a relatively low compressive strength—approximately 30 MPa  12,13,1,19,20,21The motivation of this study is to design a marine concrete with ultrahigh compressive strength to facilitate the development of marine and reef engineering. The main objective is to fabricate a coral-based concrete with a compressive strength of over 100 MPa under the marine environmental curing conditions. The densification of the studied concrete mainly counts on its self-compacting ability, rather than vibration in the mixing process. Meanwhile, the autogenous shrinkage is expected to be reduced by the autogenous curing provided by coral aggregates. The main ingredients used in the preparation of such concrete are conventional concrete gel materials, coral rock, coral sand, and seawater. The concrete mix proportions are defined by using the optimal mixture design method based on packing density theories  and the This paper is structured as follows: In In this study, the main raw materials used in the design of the ultrahigh-strength marine concrete (USMC) were ordinary Portland cement (OPC), silica fume (SF), cementitious capillary crystalline waterproof material (CCCW), superplasticizer (SP), coral sand, coral powder, and artificial seawater. The utilization of mineral admixtures such as silica fume as mineral additives was expected to enhance the engineering properties and the densification of the studied concrete, improving its mechanical performances ,34.The selection of materials was based on the Chinese National Standards associated with each material. The chemical constituents of the selected cement and silica fume agglomerations are listed in For the sake of protection of the sea coral ecosystems, only efflorescent coral debris was extracted. The coral aggregates were used as fine granules for the preparation of the ultrahigh-strength concrete. The abundant pore structures as well as porous microstructures within the selected coral aggregates are shown in The artificial seawater was composed of sea crystal and fresh water. A total of 50 kg of fresh water and 1.95 kg of sea crystal were mixed to achieve the average salinity of 35‰ of the world oceans.(1)All dry-mixing powders  were stirred for 3 min;(2)Water mixture was then added to the mixed dry materials, and the mixture was stirred for 5 min.To prepare the samples for experiments, a mixing procedure for the raw materials and the water mixture  was performed in accordance with Chinese National Standard GB/T 31387-2015 “reactive powder concrete” , as follThe sequence of preparation is shown in All concrete samples were molded into cuboids with a geometry of 40 mm × 40 mm × 160 mm . The speThe strength tests of specimens were performed using a computer-controlled electro-hydraulic testing machine . For theIn the property measurement, 3 samples were selected for testing each time. When the three data differed by no more than 15%, the average value was taken; if two of the three data differed by more than 15%, the data were invalidated and retested.(1)The inner surfaces of the steel mold (100 mm × 100 mm × 550 mm) were smeared with grease. The Teflon sheets were placed to eliminate the friction between the inner surfaces of the steel mold and the concrete specimen;(2)Two steel target seats were mounted on the proper positions of the bottom surface of the steel mold. In this study, the distance of the two target seats was 455 mm. Standard targets were magnetically attached to the steel target seats;(3)The mixture was poured into the steel mold and encapsulated the steel target seats, guaranteeing that the target seats would deform simultaneously with the specimen. The thermocouples were embedded into the center of the specimen to isolate the autogenous shrinkage from the measured total deformation by monitoring the temperature changes within it;(4)The top surface of the specimen was sealed with two layers of polyethylene sheets to avoid the influence of exterior drying. The sensor support was fastened to the top of the steel mold. By regulating the fitting screw, the ECDS was mounted on a proper position;(5)In our measurements, the interval of data acquisition was 1 min;The linear autogenous shrinkage of the designed concrete was measured using an eddy-current displacement sensor (ECDS) based on the electromagnetic induction effect . Figure During the entire testing period, the temperature was maintained at 20 ± 1 °C. The measured autogenous shrinkage was set to zero at the initial setting time determined by the corresponding pure concrete sample. The results of deformation were obtained by measuring three specimens in parallel to achieve a better estimation. Results were compared with reactive powder concrete and original mix proportion concrete .The autogenous shrinkage of samples increases with the concentrated and high hydration heat . The hydIn order to compare the content and distribution of pores in the cement samples , the micX-ray powder diffraction was used for characterization of the coral sand and identification of the minerals in the specimens . Data weThe single-factor experimental designs were performed to quantify the independent effects of the materials of the binder on the mechanical performance of the studied concrete. The single-factor designs prescreen and determine the range of each of the material contents, which can be beneficial to the enhancement of the mechanical strength of our concrete.Via a series of preliminary experiments, the primary material constituents and mixing proportion were determined  for the The mixing proportions prepared for single-factor experiments are given in It can be observed from The high cement content gives rise to the high temperature increase of hydration, as well as autogenous shrinkage of the concrete . To enhaSilica fume is an ultrafine globular active material; its average particle size is 0.1–0.5 μm, which is 100 times smaller than that of the cement. Such fine silica fume can fill the gaps between the cement particles, which can greatly promote the particle packing density effect . A total2+ and SiO32− in the cementitious capillary crystalline waterproof material (CCCW) can react with the unhydrated or partially hydrated cementitious materials and produce tobermorite [42− and AlO2−) and compounds (such as CaO) in the concrete, which produces dendritic crystallines (such as hydrated sodium silicate) [The Caermorite . The penilicate)  that areilicate) . IncreasThe single-factor experiments determine the optimal range of each of the constituent contents of the binder for the enhancement of the mechanical strength of the studied concrete. For this section, the mix designs were performed to find the optimal mix proportion for the development of the ultrahigh-strength concrete. Due to the more diverse and significant effects on the compressive strength, the ordinary Portland cement, silica fume, and CCCW are considered as the main design parameters in the mixing system in the present study. The mass fractions of these three constituents are described in Equation (4). For CCCW, the optimal range of mass fraction was set to 0.1–0.2, while for silica fume it was 0.15–0.25. It should be noted that excessive cement constitution leads to intensive release of the hydration heat, which can result in a severely autogenous shrinkage and generate fine cracks within the concrete . The masTo determine the optimal mix proportions, w built a hybrid regression model and obtained the response surface with the help of the Design-Expert software . The IV-The regression equation (Equation (5)) is determined by using a select cubic model for the mix designs. The results predicted by the regression equation fit the experimental data very well , indicat2 and AdjR2 is 0.0036, which further indicates the reliability of the cubic model [The discrepancy between Ric model . To quanic model ; resultsic model . In our The response surface illustrates the effects of the three independent parameters on the compressive strength see . It can Based on the results calculated by the Design-Expert software, an optimal mix proportion associated with the targeted high compressive strength was attained. To verify the optimized mix proportion , the thr3, while this was decreased by 12.47% (751 kg/m3) in the optimal mix proportion. The high compressive strengths of these concretes are attributed to their high binder content, high ultrafine powder content, and low W/B. Due to the low W/B and high content of silica components, the hydration heat of the concrete is relatively high; thus, the internal relative humidity decreases quickly [The cement dosage in the original mix proportion was 858 kg/m quickly . Such in quickly .The hydration heat reduces with a decrease in the cement content, which leads to a reduction in the autogenous shrinkage. Additionally, by means of the internal curing within the coral sand, the autogenous shrinkage reduces further. The fine pore structures of the coral sand play a decisive role in the inhibition of the autogenous shrinkage .The hydration heat flows of samples are depicted in 2, C-S-H, Aft, and AFm generated by the hydration reaction of the cement, the additive silica fume can also react with Ca(OH)2 and produce C-S-H gel [2O  concrete with coral aggregates, and of reducing the autogenous shrinkage through the internal curing provided by coral aggregates.


In 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created to ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. This roadmap set out to accelerate work to overcome the global impact of NTDs. Almost a decade has passed since NTDs were re-launched as a global priority. Investment in research and development, as well as the production of scientific literature on NTDs, is expected to have increased significantly. (2) Methods: A bibliometric analysis of the scientific production of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was carried out in relation to 19 endemic NTDs. These data were compared with the scientific production in malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. The database available from Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) was used. In addition, the average annual growth percentage was calculated for each disease. (3) Results: In the last decade, the NTDs with the highest number of publications in the world were dengue and leishmaniasis. The United States was the most prolific country in the world in 15 out of 19 NTDs analyzed. In the LAC region, Brazil was the largest contributor for 16 of the 19 NTDs analyzed. Arboviral diseases showed the highest average annual growth. The number of publications for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS was considerably higher than for NTDs. The contribution of most LAC countries, especially those considered to be LMICs, is inadequate and does not reflect the relevance of NTDs for the public health of the population. (4) Conclusions: This is the first bibliometric analysis to assess the trend of scientific documents on endemic NTDs in LAC. Our results could be used by decision makers both to strengthen investment policies in research and development in NTDs. Infectious diseases have been one of the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality since the origins of our species, and some of them have shaped our evolution and continue to affect our lives ,2. CurreA group of diseases affecting impoverished urban and rural populations was initially named as “Neglected Tropical Diseases” (NTDs) by a group of scientists and activists. One of the NTDs common factor is that they almost exclusively affect populations living in extreme poverty in very remote geographic areas, or socially marginalized ,6. WHO ito end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and NTDs and to combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases” by 2030 .,42.32,42The route to achieve the SDGs by 2030 has been well outlined by the WHO. Some countries in the region have assumed their historical responsibility toward their citizens; however, other countries, particularly communities and national governments, need additional investment and an intensified effort to achieve health goals in relation to NTDs .In the current study, a bibliometric approach was implemented to generate qualified information related to 19 NTDs endemic in Latin America and the Caribbean and the so-called “big-three” infectious diseases  . ScientiThe search was carried out in October 2020, encompassing the years of 2010 to 2020. The advanced search mode was selected using the title (TI) and abstract (AB) search fields. The search queries used were: [TI = (MeSH)] OR [AB = (MeSH)]. For most of the 22 diseases, two or more Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) Terms were searched as shown in https://www.vosviewer.com (accessed on 15 January 2021)).Additionally, to determine the most frequent terms in the last 500 publications included under the topic [TS = neglected tropical diseases] a bibliometric map was elaborated using the VOSviewer software v. 1.6.15  number of documents worldwide, (ii) number of documents for each American country, (iii) countries with the highest number of publications, (iv) LAC country with the highest number of publications, (v) institutions with the highest number of contributions, (vi) the most common language of the publications , (vii) the most frequent source , (viii) yearly publications, and (ix) author with most publications per NTD and his or her and affiliation. The following types of document were further analyzed according to their percentage of the total: original articles, reviews, meeting abstracts, editorial material, and letters. As in any other bibliometric analysis, the results of the WoS search include publications whose authors may belong to several institutions and to more than one country. Consequently, in many cases the results are a reflection of the collaboration of LAC scientists with countries in other regions, or of scientists from two or more LAC countries.Yearly publications for each disease were recorded to calculate the average annual percentage growth (AAPG) from 2010 to 2019. Documents published in 2020 were excluded from this analysis in order to only compare the years that had a complete collection of records. For each year from 2010 to 2019, “Z” was calculated as the number of publications in one year subtracted from the number of publications in the previous year:Then the annual percentage growth (APG) was calculated by the difference of this subtraction divided by the total publications of the last year multiplied by 100:Then, the average annual percentage growth (AAPG) was calculated by the average of the nine data:To calculate the average number of publications (ANP) per year for each disease, the number of publications from 2010 to 2019 was added and divided by 10.The number and percentage of publications produced in LAC and in the continent as a whole were also calculated for each disease  and comp® Excel for Mac , and plotted in Graphic for Mac .Data were tabulated and processed in MicrosoftThis study is the first bibliometric analysis assessing the trend of published documents regarding the most common NTDs and the “big-three” infectious diseases in LAC region, and it can assist researchers as well as national and international policy makers in guiding, planning, and funding decisions in order to achieve the SDGs for global health.We restricted our bibliometric analysis to Web of Science (WoS) database, and we did not compare our findings with other homologous databases such as Scopus, PubMed, ScIELO, Cochrane Library, or Embase, which could help provide a better overview of the published literature in the field of NTDs. Another limitation of the study is that it did not include several NTDs relevant to LAC such as snakebite envenoming, strongyloidiasis, leptospirosis, yellow fever, trichinosis, among others. We also recognize that in any bibliometric study, the selection of the databases and especially the selection of the MeSH terms are a source of bias in the results obtained. Consequently, the results presented are only a reflection of reality.