Low velocity impact response of rc beam with artificial polyethylene aggregate as concrete block infill

In structural design, an ideal situation for saving materials would be to reduce the weight of the structure without having to compromise on its strength and serviceability. A new lightweight composite reinforced concrete section was developed with a novel use of a lightweight concrete block as infill utilizing Artificial Polyethylene Aggregate (APEA and MAPEA). The concrete near the neutral axis acts as a stress transfer medium between the compression and tension zones. Partial replacement of the concrete near the neutral axis could create a reduction in weight and savings in the use of materials. In this experimental work, APEA and MAPEA were utilized as replacement for normal aggregates (NA) at percentages of 0%, 3%, 6%, and 9%, 12%, and 100% in the concrete mix. In this study, the concrete block infill uses the 100% MAPEA as a replacement for coarse aggregate. A total of sixteen beams were prepared measuring 170 mm × 250 mm × 1000 mm, in which four specimens were used as control samples (NRC) and twelve specimens were the reinforced concrete beam incorporated with different size of concrete block infill (RCAI) consisting of 100% MAPEA. All beams were tested with 100 kg steel weight dropped vertically from a height of 0.6 m and 1.54 m, which was equivalent to 3.5 m/s and 5.5 m/s respectively. Based on the experimental results, the impact force, displacement and crack patterns were affected by the impact load. For RCAI specimens, the impact force was larger but smaller displacement value was observed, compared to the NRC specimens. Furthermore, the width of the cracks generated in the RCAI specimens near the mid-span was less than that on the NRC specimen. All experiment results were validated against FEM. The transient impact force histories, displacement and crack patterns obtained from FEM matched reasonably well with the experiment results. The error reported a range of 1% to 15%. The results showed that the proposed use of concrete block infill produced desirable results under the impact loads. The main advantages of the concrete block infill that utilized MAPEA from waste plastic bags due to the weight reduction about 6% in the concrete beams

Improvement of speed response in four-phase DC–DC converter switching using two shunt voltage-source

This study proposes a technique that is able to improve the speed response of a four-phase DC–DC converter switching. The basic concept of the proposed technique is the inclusion of two shunt-connected voltage sources in series to the converter system. Using a higher input voltage to drive the load, a higher current per microsecond output system will be obtained and reverts to its nominal input upon obtaining desired references. Thus, the transient response observed when using this proposed technique is found to be much faster when compared to the conventional converter. Moreover, this technique is easily implemented as it requires only an additional voltage source, power switch, and power diode. The integrated model of the two shunt voltage-source in a four-phase DC–DC converter was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and validated against the experimental results of a laboratory prototype, 600 W four-phase DC–DC converter. The novelty of this proposed technique is its ability to provide faster operations for critical loads applications, lower output capacitor and lower operating frequency

Analogy of intelligence with other disciplines

Intelligence analysis has many important epistemological resemblances with science (problem solving, discovery, skillful use of tools, knowledge verification) and is more interested in a posteriori than a priori knowledge, on how or the basis on which a proposition may be known. The puzzle metaphor is used in both information and archeology. Both disciplines involve collecting evidence to build as complete a picture as possible. The process of converting raw information into actionable processed intelligence is almost identical for governmental and business organizations. The medical practice of diagnosing identification, collection, analysis and dissemination is similar to that of intelligence. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26511.1296

Overview of VideoCLEF 2008: Automatic generation of topic-based feeds for dual language audio-visual content

The VideoCLEF track, introduced in 2008, aims to develop and evaluate tasks related to analysis of and access to multilingual multimedia content. In its first year, VideoCLEF piloted the Vid2RSS task, whose main subtask was the classification of dual language video (Dutchlanguage television content featuring English-speaking experts and studio guests). The task offered two additional discretionary subtasks: feed translation and automatic keyframe extraction. Task participants were supplied with Dutch archival metadata, Dutch speech transcripts, English speech transcripts and 10 thematic category labels, which they were required to assign to the test set videos. The videos were grouped by class label into topic-based RSS-feeds, displaying title, description and keyframe for each video. Five groups participated in the 2008 VideoCLEF track. Participants were required to collect their own training data; both Wikipedia and general web content were used. Groups deployed various classifiers (SVM, Naive Bayes and k-NN) or treated the problem as an information retrieval task. Both the Dutch speech transcripts and the archival metadata performed well as sources of indexing features, but no group succeeded in exploiting combinations of feature sources to significantly enhance performance. A small scale fluency/adequacy evaluation of the translation task output revealed the translation to be of sufficient quality to make it valuable to a non-Dutch speaking English speaker. For keyframe extraction, the strategy chosen was to select the keyframe from the shot with the most representative speech transcript content. The automatically selected shots were shown, with a small user study, to be competitive with manually selected shots. Future years of VideoCLEF will aim to expand the corpus and the class label list, as well as to extend the track to additional tasks

Classification of dual language audio-visual content: Introduction to the VideoCLEF 2008 pilot benchmark evaluation task

VideoCLEF is a new track for the CLEF 2008 campaign. This track aims to develop and evaluate tasks in analyzing multilingual video content. A pilot of a Vid2RSS task involving assigning thematic class labels to video kicks off the VideoCLEF track in 2008. Task participants deliver classification results in the form of a series of feeds, one for each thematic class. The data for the task are dual language television documentaries. Dutch is the dominant language and English-language content (mostly interviews) is embedded. Participants are provided with speech recognition transcripts of the data in both Dutch and English, and also with metadata generated by archivists. In addition to the classification task, participants can choose to participate in a translation task (translating the feed into a language of their choice) and a keyframe selection task (choosing a semantically appropriate keyframe for depiction of the videos in the feed)

Foundation Funding for the Humanities: An Overview of Current and Historical Trends

Foundation Funding for the Humanities: An Overview of Current and Historical Trends, finds that funding for fields such as art history, history and archeology, languages and linguistics, area studies, and the humanistic social sciences increased two and one-half times (149.8 percent) from $134.1 million in 1992 to$335 million in 2002. At the same time the report notes that, despite the overall increase, some scholarly disciplines actually lost ground over the ten year period. Support for the humanities grew more slowly than overall foundation giving during this period (up 199.8 percent), and the share of giving for the humanities slipped from 2.5 percent in the early 1990s to 2.1 percent in 2002

Traditional museums, virtual museums. Dissemination role of ICTs.

Molti spazi della cultura, che si configurano come musei di sé stessi, presentano al loro interno pochi reperti esposti. È il caso di musei in edifici o aree archeologiche di seconda fascia, dai quali la maggior parte dei reperti è stata spostata in musei di importanza superiore o dove i reperti sono stati rimossi per diverse esigenze organizzative/espositive. In queste situazioni le ICT permettono di sviluppare un efficace sistema di comunicazione e disseminazione, coinvolgendo i visitatori e gli studiosi mediante l’utilizzo di procedure collegate all’Edutainment, all’interactive ed immersive experience, ai serious games e alla gamification. Come caso studio sono presi il Museo delle Mura, come museo in un edificio, e la Villa di Massenzio, come area archeologica, entrambi collocati sulla Via Appia Antica a Roma. Le esigenze della Sovrintendenza sono di valorizzare e divulgare: - la presenza del Museo, collocato in una delle numerose porte romane ancora ben conservate e site nel giro delle Mura Aureliane; - la storia della porta e del breve tratto di mura ad essa connesse; - la storia e l’articolazione delle mura di Roma. Per la Villa di Massenzio l’obiettivo principale è far comprendere la storia e la funzione delle due strutture (il circo ed il Mausoleo di Romolo), oggi visibili e visitabili, garantendo una maggiore comprensione di un’area di circa 4 ettari, in cui i visitatori oggi possono beneficiare solo di alcuni pannelli informativi.Many cultural spaces, which have been transformed into museums contain very few exhibits. In particular, museums in buildings or second-tier archaeological areas, where most of the finds have been moved to museums of major importance or exhibits that have been removed for different organizational/exhibition needs. In these situations, the use of ICT affords the possibility to incorporate effective communication and dissemination systems. As a result, it involves visitors and scholars within the exhibit using procedures related to edutainment, interactive and immersive experiences, serious games and gamification. As a case study are taken the Museum of the Walls, as a museum in building, and the archaeological area of the Maxentius archaeological complex, as an open-air museum, both located on the Ancient Appia road. In the Museum of the Walls Superintendent's requirements are to enhance and disseminate: - the presence of the Museum, located in one of the many well-preserved Roman city gates located in the Aurelian Walls; - the history of the city gate and of the short section of walls connected to it; - the history and articulation of the walls of Rome. In the Maxentius archaeological the main goal is to make understand the history and the function of the two main structures (the circus and a Mausoleum of Romulus), which are visible and open to visitors, ensuring a greater understanding of an area with the size of about 4 hectares, where visitors today can only benefit information from some panels

NLP and the Humanities: The Revival of an Old Liaison

This paper presents an overview of some\ud emerging trends in the application of NLP\ud in the domain of the so-called Digital Humanities\ud and discusses the role and nature\ud of metadata, the annotation layer that is so\ud characteristic of documents that play a role\ud in the scholarly practises of the humanities.\ud It is explained how metadata are the\ud key to the added value of techniques such\ud as text and link mining, and an outline is\ud given of what measures could be taken to\ud increase the chances for a bright future for\ud the old ties between NLP and the humanities.\ud There is no data like metadata

Crossing boundaries with Geodromo: an interactive cross-media experience

In this paper we present Geodromo, a prototype of an educational multimedia system, part of the Portuguese Ciência Viva (Live Science) education program, aimed at young people and designed with innovative characteristics. The project is based on a robotic multimedia simulator platform and an online puzzle game aimed at teaching Geology, Climate, Biology and Archeology associated with a Portuguese National Park. The development of the prototype was challenging as it was intended to uphold the interweaving of multimedia events with online resources, based on research that promotes the design of emotional and cognitive factors in educational communications. One of the main concerns was the analysis and study of some pedagogical issues in order to make the project sustainable. Whatever the scientific relevance of the topics and the inherent techno-cultural appeal of the project, the aim was to bring students closer to an “undercover” reality, as authentic as it gets with digital media, and allow for them to convey emotions naturally. We found these to be major success factors in the establishment of an effective relationship between the technology and the pedagogy required to study those particular science topics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio