The purpose of this research is to study the effects of quarry rock dust (QRD) and steel fibers (SF) inclusion on the fresh, mechanical, and microstructural properties of fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (SG)-based geopolymer concrete (GPC) exposed to elevated temperatures. Such types of ternary mixes were prepared by blending waste materials from different industries, including QRD, SG, and FA, with alkaline activator solutions. The multiphysical models show that the inclusion of steel fibers and binders can enhance the mechanical properties of GPC. In this study, a total of 18 different mix proportions were designed with different proportions of QRD (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) and steel fibers (0.75% and 1.5%). The slag was replaced by different proportions of QRD in fly ash, and SG-based GPC mixes to study the effect of QRD incorporation. The mechanical properties of specimens, i.e., compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength, were determined by testing cubes, cylinders, and prisms, respectively, at different ages (7, 28, and 56 days). The specimens were also heated up to 800 °C to evaluate the resistance of specimens to elevated temperature in terms of residual compressive strength and weight loss. The test results showed that the mechanical strength of GPC mixes (without steel fibers) increased by 6-11%, with an increase in QRD content up to 15% at the age of 28 days. In contrast, more than 15% of QRD contents resulted in decreasing the mechanical strength properties. Incorporating steel fibers in a fraction of 0.75% by volume increased the compressive, tensile, and flexural strength of GPC mixes by 15%, 23%, and 34%, respectively. However, further addition of steel fibers at 1.5% by volume lowered the mechanical strength properties. The optimal mixture of QRD incorporated FA-SG-based GPC (QFS-GPC) was observed with 15% QRD and 0.75% steel fibers contents considering the performance in workability and mechanical properties. The results also showed that under elevated temperatures up to 800 °C, the weight loss of QFS-GPC specimens persistently increased with a consistent decrease in the residual compressive strength for increasing QRD content and temperature. Furthermore, the microstructure characterization of QRD blended GPC mixes were also carried out by performing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).
Interleukin 17 F is a member of IL-17 cytokine family with a 50% structural homology to IL-17A and plays a significant role either alone or in combination with IL-17A towards inflammation in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A growing number of drugs targeting IL-17 pathway are being tested against population specific disease markers. The major objective of this research was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of Anakinra (an IL-1 R1 inhibitor) and Ustekinumab (an IL-12 and IL-23 inhibitor) by targeting IL17F. The three dimensional structures of IL17F was taken from PDB while structures of drugs were taken from PubChem database. Docking was performed using MOE and Schrodinger ligand docking software and binding energies, including s-score using London-dG fitness function and glide score using glide internal energy function, between drug and targets were compared. Furthermore, Protein-Drug complex were subjected to 150 ns Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulations using Schrodinger's Desmond Module. Docking and MD simulation results suggest anakinra as a more potent IL17F inhibitor and forming a more structurally stable complex.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.