Search results for: Growing cell structures

Authors: Sourabh Jain, Sukhvir Singh Jain, Gaurav V. Jain

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Intelligent Transportation System is an integrated application of communication, control and monitoring and display process technologies for developing a user–friendly transportation system for urban areas in developing countries. In fact, the development of a country and the progress of its transportation system are complementary to each other. Urban traffic has been growing vigorously due to population growth as well as escalation of vehicle ownership causing congestion, delays, pollution, accidents, high-energy consumption and low productivity of resources. The development and management of urban transport in developing countries like India however, is at tryout stage with very few accumulations. Under the umbrella of ITS, urban corridor management strategy have proven to be one of the most successful system in accomplishing these objectives. The present study interprets and figures out the performance of the 27.4 km long Urban Bus route having six intersections, five flyovers and 29 bus stops that covers significant area of the city by causality analysis. Performance interpretations incorporate Passenger Boarding and Alighting, Dwell time, Distance between Bus Stops and Total trip time taken by bus on selected urban route.

Keywords: Congestion, Dwell time, delay, passengers boarding alighting, travel time.

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Authors: Tomasz L. Nawrocki, Danuta Szwajca

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The growing importance of reputation in building enterprise value and achieving long-term competitive advantage creates the need for its measurement and evaluation for the management purposes (effective reputation and its risk management). The paper presents practical application of self-developed corporate reputation assessment model from the viewpoint of stock market investors. The model has a pioneer character and example analysis performed for selected industry is a form of specific test for this tool. In the proposed solution, three aspects - informational, financial and development, as well as social ones - were considered. It was also assumed that the individual sub-criteria will be based on public sources of information, and as the calculation apparatus, capable of obtaining synthetic final assessment, fuzzy logic will be used. The main reason for developing this model was to fulfill the gap in the scope of synthetic measure of corporate reputation that would provide higher degree of objectivity by relying on "hard" (not from surveys) and publicly available data. It should be also noted that results obtained on the basis of proposed corporate reputation assessment method give possibilities of various internal as well as inter-branch comparisons and analysis of corporate reputation impact.

Keywords: Corporate reputation, fuzzy logic, fuzzy model, stock market investors.

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Authors: Fredrik Pettersson

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The paper applies a discourse analytical approach to investigate important concepts influencing the infrastructure planning process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden. Two discourses, one concerning regional development and one concerning sustainability are identified, discussed and contrasted. It is argued that the perceptions of problems and their suggested solutions related to transportation are based on specific ideas, in turn dependent on the importance given to certain concepts, such as regional enlargement, Scania as a transit region, the national environmental quality goals and regional attractiveness. These concepts, their underlying meaning structures and their relevance for the infrastructure planning process are analyzed. The handling of conflicting interests in the planning process, and the possible implications this may have is also discussed. The results indicate that the regional development discourse is dominant and although the solutions to the problems caused by transport are framed in similar ways in the two discourses a harmonization between conflicting goals is proving difficult to achieve.

Keywords: Discourse analysis, Infrastructure planning, Regional development, Sustainability.

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Authors: Soroor Ghaziof, Wei Gao

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Zn alloy and composite coatings are widely used in buildings and structures, automobile and fasteners industries to protect steel component from corrosion. In this paper, Zn-Ni-Al2O3 nanocomposite coatings were electrodeposited on mild steel using a novel sol enhanced electroplating method. In this method, transparent Al2O3 sol was added into the acidic Zn-Ni bath to produced Zn-Ni- Al2O3 nanocomposite coatings. The effect of alumina sol on the electrodeposition process, and coating properties was investigated using cyclic voltammetry, XRD, ESEM and Tafel test. Results from XRD tests showed that the structure of all coatings was single γ- Ni5Zn21 phase. Cyclic voltammetry results showed that the electrodeposition overpotential was lower in the presence of alumina sol in the bath, and caused the reduction potential of Zn-Ni to shift to more positive values. Zn-Ni-Al2O3 nanocomposite coatings produced more uniform and compact deposits, with fine grained microstructure when compared to Zn-Ni coatings. The corrosion resistance of Zn-Ni coatings was improved significantly by incorporation of alumina nanoparticles into the coatings.

Keywords: Zn-Ni-Al2O3 composite coatings, steel, sol-enhanced electroplating, corrosion resistance.

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Authors: Randhir Singh Baghel, Joydip Dhar, Renu Jain

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In this paper, for the understanding of the phytoplankton dynamics in marine ecosystem, a susceptible and an infected class of phytoplankton population is considered in spatiotemporal domain. Here, the susceptible phytoplankton is growing logistically and the growth of infected phytoplankton is due to the instantaneous Holling type-II infection response function. The dynamics are studied in terms of the local and global stabilities for the system and further explore the possibility of Hopf -bifurcation, taking the half saturation period as (i.e., ) the bifurcation parameter in temporal domain. It is also observe that the reaction diffusion system exhibits spatiotemporal chaos and pattern formation in phytoplankton dynamics, which is particularly important role play for the spatially extended phytoplankton system. Also the effect of the diffusion coefficient on the spatial system for both one and two dimensional case is obtained. Furthermore, we explore the higher-order stability analysis of the spatial phytoplankton system for both linear and no-linear system. Finally, few numerical simulations are carried out for pattern formation.

Keywords: Phytoplankton dynamics, Reaction-diffusion system, Local stability, Hopf-bifurcation, Global stability, Chaos, Pattern Formation, Higher-order stability analysis.

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Authors: Mukunda Bastola, Frank Nyame-Asiamah

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Economics explanation for privatisation, drawing on neo-liberal market structures and technical efficiency principles has failed to address social imbalance and, distribute the efficiency benefits accrued from privatisation equitably among service users and different classes of people in society. Stakeholders’ interest, which cover ethical values and changing human needs are ignored due to shareholders’ profit maximising strategy with higher service charges. The consequence of these is that, the existing justifications for privatisation have fallen short of customer quality expectations because the underlying plan-based models fail to account for the nuances of customer expectations. We draw on the theory of deferred action to develop a context-based privatisation model, the deferred-based privatisation model, to explain how privatisation could be strategised for the emergent reality of the wider stakeholders’ interests and everyday quality demands of customers which are unpredictable.

Keywords: Privatisation, service quality, shareholders, deferred action, deferred-based privatisation model.

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Authors: F. Gekas, C. Pankou, I. Mylonas, E. Ninou, E. Sinapidou, A. Lithourgidis, F. Papathanasiou, J. –K. Petrevska, F. Papadopoulou, P. Zouliamis, G. Tsaprounis, I. Tokatlidis, C. Dordas

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The present study aimed to investigate whether chlorophyll meter readings (SPAD) can be used as criterion of singleplant selection in maize breeding. Experimentation was performed at the ultra-low density of 0.74 plants/m2 in order the potential yield per plant to be fully expressed. R-31 honeycomb experiments were conducted in three different areas in Greece (Thessaloniki, Giannitsa and Florina) using 30 inbred lines at well-watered and water-stressed conditions during the 2012 growing season. The chlorophyll meter readings had higher rates at dry conditions, except location of Giannitsa where differences were not significant. Genotypes of highest chlorophyll meter readings were consistent across areas, emphasizing on the character’s stability. A positive correlation between the chlorophyll meter readings and grain yield was strengthening over time and culminated at the physiological maturity stage. There was a clear sign that the chlorophyll meter readings has the potential to be used for the selection of stress-adaptive genotypes and may permit modern maize to be grown at wider range of environments addressing the climate change scenarios.

Keywords: Drought-prone environments, honeycomb breeding, SPAD, Zea mays.

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Authors: K. Shakeri, M. Mohebbi

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In order to consider the effects of the higher modes in the pushover analysis, during the recent years several multi-modal pushover procedures have been presented. In these methods the response of the considered modes are combined by the square-rootof- sum-of-squares (SRSS) rule while application of the elastic modal combination rules in the inelastic phases is no longer valid. In this research the feasibility of defining an efficient alternative combination method is investigated. Two steel moment-frame buildings denoted SAC-9 and SAC-20 under ten earthquake records are considered. The nonlinear responses of the structures are estimated by the directed algebraic combination of the weighted responses of the separate modes. The weight of the each mode is defined so that the resulted response of the combination has a minimum error to the nonlinear time history analysis. The genetic algorithm (GA) is used to minimize the error and optimize the weight factors. The obtained optimal factors for each mode in different cases are compared together to find unique appropriate weight factors for each mode in all cases.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Modal Pushover, Optimalweight.

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Authors: Wei-Soon Ng, Min-Lee Lee, Siew-Ling Hii

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Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a relatively green and sustainable soil improvement technique. It utilizes biochemical process that exists naturally in soil to improve engineering properties of soils. The calcite precipitation process is uplifted by the mean of injecting higher concentration of urease positive bacteria and reagents into the soil. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the factors affecting the MICP in soil. Several factors were identified including nutrients, bacteria type, geometric compatibility of bacteria, bacteria cell concentration, fixation and distribution of bacteria in soil, temperature, reagents concentration, pH, and injection method. These factors were found to be essential for promoting successful MICP soil treatment. Furthermore, a preliminary laboratory test was carried out to investigate the potential application of the technique in improving the shear strength and impermeability of a residual soil specimen. The results showed that both shear strength and impermeability of residual soil improved significantly upon MICP treatment. The improvement increased with increasing soil density.

Keywords: Bacteria, biocementation, bioclogging, calcite precipitation, soil improvement.

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Authors: M. Aruna

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Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fibre-reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced Composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. Sisal fibre has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18 and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fibre reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibres were manufactured using a cast hand lay up technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively. 

Keywords: Sisal fibre, fibre-reinforced concrete, mechanical behaviour.

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Authors: Bao Thach Nguyen, Abbas Mohajerani

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The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) has been acknowledged as an important parameter to characterize the bearing capacity of earth structures, such as earth dams, road embankments, airport runways, bridge abutments and pavements. Technically, the CBR test can be carried out in the laboratory or in the field. The CBR test is time-consuming and is infrequently performed due to the equipment needed and the fact that the field moisture content keeps changing over time. Over the years, many correlations have been developed for the prediction of CBR by various researchers, including the dynamic cone penetrometer, undrained shear strength and Clegg impact hammer. This paper reports and discusses some of the results from a study on the prediction of CBR. In the current study, the CBR test was performed in the laboratory on some finegrained subgrade soils collected from various locations in Victoria. Based on the test results, a satisfactory empirical correlation was found between the CBR and the physical properties of the experimental soils.

Keywords: California bearing ratio, fine-grained soils, pavement, soil physical properties.

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Authors: Rana Th. A. Al-Rubaye, Burcin Atilgan, Richard J. Holmes, Arthur A. Garforth

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Structured catalysts formed from the growth of zeolites on substrates is an area of increasing interest due to the increased efficiency of the catalytic process, and the ability to provide superior heat transfer and thermal conductivity for both exothermic and endothermic processes. However, the generation of structured catalysts represents a significant challenge when balancing the relationship variables between materials properties and catalytic performance, with the Na2O, H2O and Al2O3 gel composition paying a significant role in this dynamic, thereby affecting the both the type and range of application. The structured catalyst films generated as part of this investigation have been characterised using a range of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), with the transition from oxide-on-alloy wires to hydrothermally synthesised uniformly zeolite coated surfaces being demonstrated using both SEM and XRD. The robustness of the coatings has been ascertained by subjecting these to thermal cycling (ambient to 550oC), with the results indicating that the synthesis time and gel compositions have a crucial effect on the quality of zeolite growth on the FeCrAlloy wires. Finally, the activity of the structured catalyst was verified by a series of comparison experiments with standard zeolite Y catalysts in powdered pelleted forms.

Keywords: FeCrAlloy, Structured catalyst, and Zeolite Y.

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Authors: Yao-Tien Wang, Hsiang-Fu Yu, Dung Chen Chiou

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In wireless and mobile communications, this progress provides opportunities for introducing new standards and improving existing services. Supporting multimedia traffic with wireless networks quality of service (QoS). In this paper, a grey-fuzzy controller for radio resource management (GF-RRM) is presented to maximize the number of the served calls and QoS provision in wireless networks. In a wireless network, the call arrival rate, the call duration and the communication overhead between the base stations and the control center are vague and uncertain. In this paper, we develop a method to predict the cell load and to solve the RRM problem based on the GF-RRM, and support the present facility has been built on the application-level of the wireless networks. The GF-RRM exhibits the better adaptability, fault-tolerant capability and performance than other algorithms. Through simulations, we evaluate the blocking rate, update overhead, and channel acquisition delay time of the proposed method. The results demonstrate our algorithm has the lower blocking rate, less updated overhead, and shorter channel acquisition delay.

Keywords: radio resource management, grey prediction, fuzzylogic control, wireless networks, quality of service.

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Authors: Wael I. Alnahhal

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It is a major challenge to build a bridge superstructure that has long-term durability and low maintenance requirements. A solution to this challenge may be to use new materials or to implement new structural systems. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have continued to play an important role in solving some of persistent problems in infrastructure applications because of its high specific strength, light weight, and durability. In this study, the concept of the hybrid FRP-concrete structural systems is applied to a bridge superstructure. The hybrid FRP-concrete bridge superstructure is intended to have durable, structurally sound, and cost effective hybrid system that will take full advantage of the inherent properties of both FRP materials and concrete. In this study, two hybrid FRP-concrete bridge systems were investigated. The first system consists of trapezoidal cell units forming a bridge superstructure. The second one is formed by arch cells. The two systems rely on using cellular components to form the core of the bridge superstructure, and an outer shell to warp around those cells to form the integral unit of the bridge. Both systems were investigated analytically by using finite element (FE) analysis. From the rigorous FE studies, it was concluded that first system is more efficient than the second.

Keywords: Bridge superstructure, hybrid system, fiber reinforced polymer, finite element analysis.

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Authors: Espinoza S. Clara, Gamarra Q. Flor, Marianela F. Ramos Quispe S. Miguel, Flores R. Omar

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Tropaeolum majus L. is a native plant to South and Central America, used since ancient times by our ancestors to combat different diseases. Glucotropaeolonin is one of its main components, which when hydrolyzed, forms benzyl isothiocyanate (BIT) that promotes cellular apoptosis (programmed cell death in cancer cells). Therefore, the present research aims to evaluate the effect of the pressure and temperature of BIT extraction by supercritical CO₂ from Tropaeolum majus L. The extraction was carried out in a supercritical fluid extractor equipment Speed SFE BASIC Brand: Poly science, the leaves of Tropaeolum majus L. were ground for one hour and lyophilized until obtaining a humidity of 6%. The extraction with supercritical CO₂ was carried out with pressures of 200 bar and 300 bar, temperatures of 50°C, 60°C and 70°C, obtained by the conjugation of these six treatments. BIT was identified by thin layer chromatography using 98% BIT as the standard, and as the mobile phase hexane: dichloromethane (4:2). Subsequently, BIT quantification was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The highest yield of oleoresin by supercritical CO₂ extraction was obtained pressure 300 bar and temperature at 60°C; and the higher content of BIT at pressure 200 bar and 70°C for 30 minutes to obtain 113.615 ± 0.03 mg BIT/100 g dry matter was obtained.

Keywords: Tropaeolum majus L., supercritical fluids, benzyl isothiocyanate.

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Authors: Mohamed Omar

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Steel bracing members are widely used in steel  structures to reduce lateral displacement and dissipate energy during  earthquake motions. Concentric steel bracing provide an excellent  approach for strengthening and stiffening steel buildings. Using these  braces the designer can hardly adjust the stiffness together with  ductility as needed because of buckling of braces in compression. In  this study the use of SMA bracing and steel bracing (Mega) utilized  in steel frames are investigated. The effectiveness of these two  systems in rehabilitating a mid-rise eight-storey steel frames were  examined using time-history nonlinear analysis utilizing seismostruct  software. Results show that both systems improve the strength and  stiffness of the original structure but due to excellent behavior of  SMA in nonlinear phase and under compressive forces this system  shows much better performance than the rehabilitation system of  Mega bracing.

 

Keywords: Finite element analysis, seismic response, shapes memory alloy, steel frame, mega bracing.

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Authors: Adilson Elias Xavier, Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho, Paulo Canedo de Magalhães

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This paper addresses the issue of automatic parameter estimation in conceptual rainfall-runoff (CRR) models. Due to threshold structures commonly occurring in CRR models, the associated mathematical optimization problems have the significant characteristic of being strongly non-differentiable. In order to face this enormous task, the resolution method proposed adopts a smoothing strategy using a special C∞ differentiable class function. The final estimation solution is obtained by solving a sequence of differentiable subproblems which gradually approach the original conceptual problem. The use of this technique, called Hyperbolic Smoothing Method (HSM), makes possible the application of the most powerful minimization algorithms, and also allows for the main difficulties presented by the original CRR problem to be overcome. A set of computational experiments is presented for the purpose of illustrating both the reliability and the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Rainfall-runoff models, optimization procedure, automatic parameter calibration, hyperbolic smoothing method.

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Authors: M. Shirinbayan, J. Fitoussi, N. Abbasnezhad, A. Lucas, A. Tcharkhtchi

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Sheet Molding Compounds (SMCs) with special microstructures are very attractive to use in automobile structures especially when they are accidentally subjected to collision type accidents because of their high energy absorption capacity. These are materials designated as standard SMC, Advanced Sheet Molding Compounds (A-SMC), Low-Density SMC (LD-SMC) and etc. In this study, testing methods have been performed to compare the mechanical responses and damage phenomena of SMC, LD-SMC, and A-SMC under quasi-static and high strain rate tensile tests. The paper also aims at investigating the effect of an initial pre-damage induced by fatigue on the tensile dynamic behavior of A-SMC. In the case of SMCs and A-SMCs, whatever the fibers orientation and applied strain rate are, the first observed phenomenon of damage corresponds to decohesion of the fiber-matrix interface which is followed by coalescence and multiplication of these micro-cracks and their propagations. For LD-SMCs, damage mechanisms depend on the presence of Hollow Glass Microspheres (HGM) and fibers orientation.

Keywords: SMC, LD-SMC, A-SMC, HGM, damage.

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Authors: Vishal Awasthi, Tanya Soni, Vigya Awasthi, Swati Singh, Shivali Verma

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There is a growing demand for a network that grants a high level of data security and confidentiality. For this reason, the semantic web was introduced, which allows data to be shared and reused across applications while safeguarding users privacy and user’s will grab back control of their data. The earlier Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 versions were built on client-server architecture, in  which there was the risk of data theft and unconsented sale of user data. A decentralized version, Known as Web 3.0, that is mostly built on blockchain technology was interjected to resolve these issues. The recent research focuses on blockchain technology, deals with privacy, security, transparency, and innovation of decentralized applications (DApps), e.g. a Twitter Clone, Whatsapp clone. In this paper the Twitter Alike built on the Ethereum blockchain will replace traditional techniques with improved latency, throughput, and data ownership. The central principle of this DApp is smart contract implemented using Solidity which is an object- oriented and highlevel language. Consequently, this will provide a better Quality Services, high data security, and integrity for both present and future internet technologies.

Keywords: Blockchain, DApps, Ethereum, Semantic Web, Smart Contract, Solidity.

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Authors: Othman S. Alsheraida, Sherif El-Gamal

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Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a composite material with exceptional properties that are capable to replace conventional steel reinforcement in reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures. However, the main obstacle for their wide use in pre-stressed concrete application is the anchorage system. Due to the weakness of FRP in the transverse direction, the pre-stressing capacity of FRP bars are limited. This paper investigates the modification of the conventional wedge anchorage system to be used for stressing of FRP bars in pre-stressed applications. Epoxy adhesive material with glass FRP (GFRP) bars and conventional steel wedge were used in this paper. The GFRP bars are encased with epoxy at the anchor zone and the wedge system was used in pull-out test. The results showed a loading capacity of 47.6 kN which is 69% of the bar ultimate capacity. Additionally, nylon wedge was made with the same dimensions of the steel wedge and tested for GFRP bars without epoxy layer. The nylon wedge showed a loading capacity of 19.7 kN which is only 28.5% of the ultimate bar capacity.

Keywords: Anchorage, concrete, epoxy, FRP, pre-stressed.

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Authors: Behzad Mohammadzadeh, Huyk Chun Noh

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Plate is one of the popular structural elements used in a wide range of industries and structures. They may be subjected to blast loads during explosion events, missile attacks or aircraft attacks. This study is to investigate dynamic responses of the rectangular plate subjected to explosive loads. The effects of material properties and plate thickness on responses of the plate are to be investigated. The compressive pressure is applied to the surface of the plate. Different amounts of thickness in the range from 1mm to 30mm are considered for the plate to evaluate the changes in responses of the plate with respect to plate thickness. Two different properties are considered for the steel. First, the analysis is performed by considering only the elastic-plastic properties for the steel plate. Later on damping is considered to investigate its effects on the responses of the plate. To do analysis, numerical method using a finite element based package ABAQUS is applied. Finally, dynamic responses and graphs showing the relation between maximum displacement of the plate and aim parameters are provided.

Keywords: Impulsive loaded plates, dynamic analysis, abaqus, material nonlinearity.

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Authors: Evans Belly, Imdad Rizvi, M. M. Kadam

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Satellite imagery is one of the emerging technologies which are extensively utilized in various applications such as detection/extraction of man-made structures, monitoring of sensitive areas, creating graphic maps etc. The main approach here is the automated detection of buildings from very high resolution (VHR) optical satellite images. Initially, the shadow, the building and the non-building regions (roads, vegetation etc.) are investigated wherein building extraction is mainly focused. Once all the landscape is collected a trimming process is done so as to eliminate the landscapes that may occur due to non-building objects. Finally the label method is used to extract the building regions. The label method may be altered for efficient building extraction. The images used for the analysis are the ones which are extracted from the sensors having resolution less than 1 meter (VHR). This method provides an efficient way to produce good results. The additional overhead of mid processing is eliminated without compromising the quality of the output to ease the processing steps required and time consumed.

Keywords: Building detection, shadow detection, landscape generation, label, partitioning, very high resolution satellite imagery.

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Authors: Yanqin Chen, Chao Jiang, Chongdu Cho

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This research presents the three-dimensional mechanical characteristics of a commercial gas diffusion layer by experiment and simulation results. Although the mechanical performance of gas diffusion layers has attracted much attention, its reliability and accuracy are still a major challenge. With the help of simulation analysis methods, it is beneficial to the gas diffusion layer’s extensive commercial development and the overall stress analysis of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells during its pre-production design period. Therefore, in this paper, a three-dimensional constitutive model of a commercial gas diffusion layer, including its material stiffness matrix parameters, is developed and coded, in the user-defined material model of a commercial finite element method software for simulation. Then, the model is validated by comparing experimental results as well as simulation outcomes. As a result, both the experimental data and simulation results show a good agreement with each other, with high accuracy.

Keywords: Gas diffusion layer, proton electrolyte membrane fuel cell, stiffness matrix, three-dimensional mechanical characteristics, user-defined material model.

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Authors: Holger Keitel

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The prediction of long-term deformations of concrete and reinforced concrete structures has been a field of extensive research and several different creep models have been developed so far. Most of the models were developed for constant concrete stresses, thus, in case of varying stresses a specific superposition principle or time-integration, respectively, is necessary. Nowadays, when modeling concrete creep the engineering focus is rather on the application of sophisticated time-integration methods than choosing the more appropriate creep model. For this reason, this paper presents a method to quantify the uncertainties of creep prediction originating from the selection of creep models or from the time-integration methods. By adapting variance based global sensitivity analysis, a methodology is developed to quantify the influence of creep model selection or choice of time-integration method. Applying the developed method, general recommendations how to model creep behavior for varying stresses are given.

Keywords: Concrete creep models, time-integration methods, sensitivity analysis, prediction uncertainty.

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Authors: Kahil Amar, Meziani Faroudja, Khelil Nacim

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The principal objective of this study is the evaluation of the seismic performance of reinforced concrete frame structures, taking into account of the behavior laws, reflecting the real behavior of materials, using CASTEM2000 software. A finite element model used is based in modified Takeda model with Timoshenko elements for columns and beams. This model is validated on a Vecchio experimental reinforced concrete (RC) frame model. Then, a study focused on the behavior of a RC frame with three-level and three-story in order to visualize the positioning the plastic hinge (plastic rotation), determined from the curvature distribution along the elements. The results obtained show that the beams of the 1^st and 2^nd level developed a very large plastic rotations, or these rotations exceed the values corresponding to CP (Collapse prevention with cp q_CP = 0.02 rad), against those developed at the 3^rd level, are between IO and LS (Immediate occupancy and life Safety with q_IO = 0.005 rad and rad q_LS = 0.01 respectively), so the beams of first and second levels submit a very significant damage.

Keywords: Seismic performance, performance level, pushover analysis, plastic rotation, plastic hinge.

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Authors: Achut Manandhar, Kenneth D. Morton, Peter A. Torrione, Leslie M. Collins

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The current trends in affect recognition research are to consider continuous observations from spontaneous natural interactions in people using multiple feature modalities, and to represent affect in terms of continuous dimensions, incorporate spatio-temporal correlation among affect dimensions, and provide fast affect predictions. These research efforts have been propelled by a growing effort to develop affect recognition system that can be implemented to enable seamless real-time human-computer interaction in a wide variety of applications. Motivated by these desired attributes of an affect recognition system, in this work a multi-dimensional affect prediction approach is proposed by integrating multivariate Relevance Vector Machine (MVRVM) with a recently developed Output-associative Relevance Vector Machine (OARVM) approach. The resulting approach can provide fast continuous affect predictions by jointly modeling the multiple affect dimensions and their correlations. Experiments on the RECOLA database show that the proposed approach performs competitively with the OARVM while providing faster predictions during testing.

Keywords: Dimensional affect prediction, Output-associative RVM, Multivariate regression.

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Authors: K. Mahmoud, T. Shalahmetova, B. Umbayev, Sh. Deraz

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Biochemical investigations were carried out to assess the effect of different exposure regimes of Kazakhstan crude oil (KCO) on hepatic antioxidant defense system in albino rats. Contaminants were delivered under two different dosing regimes, with all treatments receiving the same total contaminant load by the end of the exposure period. Rats in regime A injected with KCO once at a dose of 6 ml/kg bw while in regime B injected multiply at a dose of 1.5 ml/kg bw on day 1, 3, 5 and 8. Antioxidant biomarkers were measured in hepatic tissue after 1, 3, 5 and 8 days. Significant induction was observed in serum aminotransferases (ALT, AST) (p<0.01) and hepatic Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) (p<0.05) in the two exposure regimes, with the majority of significant induction occurring in regime A. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) increased 1-d after injection (p<0.01) but the increase was reduced time dependently thereafter while after 8-d induced again (p<0.01). Malondialdehyde (MDA) significantly induced after 3 and 5-d (p<0.05) in regime A while in regime B was not changed significantly (p>0.05) at short time after exposure. However, there was significant increase after 8-d (p<0.01). Histological examination indicates that crude oil induced pathologic changes from inflammatory cells infiltration to hemorrhage and necrosis of hepatocytes. Acute exposure to crude oil adversely affect hepatic cell so human must avoid such exposure.

Keywords: Kazakhstan crude oil, Antioxidant biomarkers, Histological examination, Dose regime, Rats

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Authors: Farid Jamali Sheini, Dilip S. Joag, Mahendra A. More

Abstract:

A simple approach is demonstrated for growing large scale, nearly vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays by thermal oxidation method. To reveal effect of temperature on growth and physical properties of the ZnO nanowires, gold coated zinc substrates were annealed at 300 °C and 400 °C for 4 hours duration in air. Xray diffraction patterns of annealed samples indicated a set of well defined diffraction peaks, indexed to the wurtzite hexagonal phase of ZnO. The scanning electron microscopy studies show formation of ZnO nanowires having length of several microns and average of diameter less than 500 nm. It is found that the areal density of wires is relatively higher, when the annealing is carried out at higher temperature i.e. at 400°C. From the field emission studies, the values of the turn-on and threshold field, required to draw emission current density of 10 μA/cm2 and 100 μA/cm2 are observed to be 1.2 V/μm and 1.7 V/μm for the samples annealed at 300 °C and 2.9 V/μm and 3.7 V/μm for that annealed at 400 °C, respectively. The field emission current stability, investigated over duration of more than 2 hours at the preset value of 1 μA, is found to be fairly good in both cases. The simplicity of the synthesis route coupled with the promising field emission properties offer unprecedented advantage for the use of ZnO field emitters for high current density applications.

Keywords: ZnO, Nanowires, Thermal oxidation, FieldEmission.

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Authors: N. N. Mosola, K. F. Moeketsi, R. Sehobai, N. Pule

Abstract:

The Internet brings increasing use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services and facilities. Consequently, new computing paradigms emerge to provide services over the Internet. Although there are several benefits stemming from these services, they pose several risks inherited from the Internet. For example, cybercrime, identity theft, malware etc. To thwart these risks, this paper proposes a holistic approach. This approach involves multidisciplinary interactions. The paper proposes a top-down and bottom-up approach to deal with cyber security concerns in developing countries. These concerns range from regulatory and legislative areas, cyber awareness, research and development, technical dimensions etc. The main focus areas are highlighted and a cybersecurity model solution is proposed. The paper concludes by combining all relevant solutions into a proposed cybersecurity model to assist developing countries in enhancing a cyber-safe environment to instill and promote a culture of cybersecurity.

Keywords: Cybercrime, cybersecurity, computer emergency response team, computer security incident response team.

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Authors: M. M. Lâzâroaie

Abstract:

The high world interest given to the researches concerning the study of moderately halophilic solvent-tolerant bacteria isolated from marine polluted environments is due to their high biotechnological potential, and also to the perspective of their application in different remediation technologies. Using enrichment procedures, I isolated two moderately halophilic Gram-negative bacterial strains from seawater sample, which are tolerant to organic solvents. Cell tolerance, adhesion and cells viability of Aeromonas salmonicida IBBCt2 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa IBBCt3 in the presence of organic solvents depends not only on its physicochemical properties and its concentration, but also on the specific response of the cells, and the cellular response is not the same for these bacterial strains. n-hexane, n-heptane, propylbenzene, with log POW between 3.69 and 4.39, were less toxic for Aeromonas salmonicida IBBCt2 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa IBBCt3, compared with toluene, styrene, xylene isomers and ethylbenzene, with log POW between 2.64 and 3.17. The results indicated that Aeromonas salmonicida IBBCt2 is more susceptible to organic solvents than Pseudomonas aeruginosa IBBCt3. The mechanisms underlying solvent tolerance (e.g., the existance of the efflux pumps) in Aeromonas salmonicida IBBCt2 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa IBBCt3 it was also studied.

Keywords: bacteria, mechanisms, organic solvent, resistance.

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