The commutator theory, developed by Fresee and McKenzie in the framework of a congruence-modular variety $\mathcal{V}$, allows us to define the prime congruences of any algebra $A\in \mathcal{V}$ and the prime spectrum $Spec(A)$ of $A$. The first systematic study of this spectrum can be found in a paper by Agliano, published in Universal Algebra (1993).The reticulation of an algebra $A\in \mathcal{V}$ is a bounded distributive algebra $L(A)$, whose prime spectrum (endowed with the Stone topology) is homeomorphic to $Spec(A)$ (endowed with the topology defined by Agliano). In a recent paper, C. Mure\c{s}an and the author defined the reticulation for the algebras $A$ in a semidegenerate congruence-modular variety $\mathcal{V}$, satisfying the hypothesis $(H)$: the set $K(A)$ of compact congruences of $A$ is closed under commutators. This theory does not cover the Belluce reticulation for non-commutative rings. In this paper we shall introduce the quasi-commutative algebras in a semidegenerate congruence-modular variety $\mathcal{V}$ as a generalization of the Belluce quasi-commutative rings. We define and study a notion of reticulation for the quasi-commutative algebras such that the Belluce reticulation for the quasi-commutative rings can be obtained as a particular case. We prove a characterization theorem for the quasi-commutative algebras and some transfer properties by means of the reticulation.

Background: Lung cancer has wide variety of clinical presentations and different imaging features relating its subtypes. This study is focused on the role of CT scan in differentiating primary lung cancer subtypes including adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma.Materials and Methods: This retrospective study is conducted on 55 pathologically diagnosed primary lung cancer patients. Several CT features including lung mass and pleural effusion and parenchymal nodule characteristics, mediastinal and hilar involvement, pericardial effusion and thickening, chest wall invasion, reticulation, superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome and encasement of main bronchus were checked.Results: We enrolled 55 primary lung cancer patients including 29 adenocarcinomas, 19 squamous cell carcinomas and 7 small cell carcinomas, 36 males and 19 females with mean age of 60.3 years. Most common CT features of primary lung cancer were lung mass (94.5%) particularly located in hilum (51.9%) and irregular bordered (55.8%). Other prevalent findings included parenchymal nodules (60%), pleural effusion (41.8%), mediastinal adenopathy (47.3%), hilar adenopathy (42.9%), mediastinal invasion (43.6%) and reticulation (56.4%). Hilar adenopathy (47.4%), reticulation (48.3%) and parenchymal nodule (62.1%) in adenocarcinoma; hilar mass (57.9%) and parenchymal nodule (68.4%) in squamouos cell carcinoma; hilar and mediastinal involvement in small cell carcinoma were the most frequent findings.Conclusion: Comparing three subtypes, we found squamous cell and adenocarcinoma more similar regarding CT images parenchymal nodules, mass calcification and cavitation were more frequently seen in them compared to small cell lung cancer whereas hilar involvement, mediastinal involvement, irregular bordered mass and encasement of main bronchus were more prevalent in small cell carcinoma.

The aim of this paper is to define an abstract quantale framework for extending some properties of the zip rings (studied by Faith, Zelmanowitz, etc.) and the weak zip rings (defined by Ouyang). By taking as prototype the quantale of ideals of a zip ring (resp. a weak zip ring) we introduce the notion of zipped quantale (resp. weakly zipped quantale). The zipped quantales also generalize the zipped frames, defined by Dube and Blose in a recent paper. We define the zip (bounded distributive) lattices and we prove that a coherent quantale A is weakly zipped iff the reticulation L(A) of A is a zip lattice. From this result we obtain the following corollary: the coherent quantale A is weakly zipped iff the frame R(A) of the radical elements of A is zipped. Such theorems allow us to extend to quantale framework a lot of results obtained by Dube and Blose for the zipped frames and for the weak zip rings.

This work is aimed to evaluate the role of nanoclay in the protective performance of an eco-friendly silane sol-gel layer applied on mild steel substrate in 0.1M sodium chloride solution. At the first step, the effect of pH of the silane solution, consisting of a mixture of g-glycidoxypropiltrimethoxysilane and methyltriethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane, on the coating performance was evaluated through electrochemical noise measurements. The values of characteristic charge as a parameter extracted from shot noise theory revealed that the sol pH determining the rate of hydrolysis can play an important role in the corrosion protection behavior of silane coatings. Then, the influence of clay nanoparticles on the corrosion protective performance of the hybrid silane film was studied through taking advantage of electrochemical techniques, including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization curves, as well as surface analysis methods. The obtained electrochemical data including the values of charge transfer resistance, coating resistance, low frequency impedance and corrosion current density showed that the silane sol gel film in the presence of clay nanoparticles can present an improved corrosion protection. The behavior was connected to an enhancement in the coating barrier properties. Moreover, FESEM and water contact angle confirmed the higher reticulation in case of the coating incorporating nanoclay.