Similarities and differences of pumping conventional and self-compacting concrete

In Practice, Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is Considered as a Simple Extension of Conventional Vibrated Concrete (CVC) When Pumping is Concerned. the Same Equipment, Materials, Pumping Procedures and Guidelines Used for CVC Are Applied When Pumping SCC. on the Other Hand, It Has Been Clearly Shown that the Rheological Properties and the Mix Design of SCC Are Different Than CVC. Can the Same Pumping Principles Employed for CVC Be Applied for SCC? This Paper Compares the Some Published Results of Pumping of CVC with Those for SCC. a First Striking Difference between Pumping of CVC and SCC is the Flow Behaviour in the Pipes. the Flow of CVC is a Plug, Surrounded by a Lubricating Layer, While during the Flow of SCC, Part of the Concrete Volume itself is Sheared Inside the Pipe. as a Result, the Importance of Viscosity Increases in Case of SCC. Due to the Low Yield Stress of SCC, the Behaviour in Bends is Different, But Quite Complex to Study. Due to the Lower Content of Aggregate and Better Stability of SCC, as It is Less Prone to Internal Water Migration, Blocking is Estimated to Occur at Lower Frequency in Case of SCC. © RILEM 2010

Structural behaviour of circular concrete filled steel tube column fill with selfcompacting concrete incorporating coal bottom ash as fine aggregate replacement

Lack of compaction may affect the interaction between the steel tube and the concrete, hence influence the behaviour of CFST column. Employing selfcompacting concrete (SCC) in CFST column as an infill concrete remove the necessity for compaction. However, higher volume of fine aggregate required in SCC makes SCC less preferable. The objective of this research was to investigate the behaviour of circular CFST column filled with SCC incorporating coal bottom ash (CBA) as fine aggregate replacement. In this research work, sand was replaced with CBA at 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of replacement levels. Tests for compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, and water absorption were performed on specimens at 7 and 28 days curing age. The testing results show that 15% of CBA was the optimum percentage suitable used in SCC. In studying the behaviour of CFST columns, 18 CFST column specimens were tested to fail under the axial compression loading. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the utilisation of SCC with CBA in the CFST column able to improve the behaviour of CFST column. From compression testing results, the strength of CFST column filled with SCC with CBA increased about 45-50%. The experimental results were also compared with the design standard of Eurocode 4 (EC4). From the comparison, the EC4 conservatively predicts the strength of the column specimens. For instance, EC4 conservatively predicted the column strength in series I by about 21-31%. The finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted on the long column to verify the experimental results and from the FEA result, the predicted value for specimens with 140 mm diameter is 0.005% closer to the experimental results. These discoveries are significant as they showed that the utilization of CBA in SCC as an infill in CFST column able to provide the same strength as CFST with normal SCC. Besides, the use of CBA as partially replacement to the sand will help in more sustainable SCC production by lowering energy and raw material consumption

Explanation, confirmation, and Hempel's paradox

Hempel’s Converse Consequence Condition (CCC), Entailment Condition (EC), and Special Consequence Condition (SCC) have some prima facie plausibility when taken individually. Hempel, though, shows that they have no plausibility when taken together, for together they entail that E confirms H for any propositions E and H. This is “Hempel’s paradox”. It turns out that Hempel’s argument would fail if one or more of CCC, EC, and SCC were modified in terms of explanation. This opens up the possibility that Hempel’s paradox can be solved by modifying one or more of CCC, EC, and SCC in terms of explanation. I explore this possibility by modifying CCC and SCC in terms of explanation and considering whether CCC and SCC so modified are correct. I also relate that possibility to Inference to the Best Explanation

Numerical modelling of the filling of formworks with self-compacting concrete

This paper describes the numerical modelling of the flow of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in column and wall formworks during the filling process. It is subdivided in four main parts. In the first part, the rheological properties of SCC and the theory regarding the pressure exerted by the SCC on the formworks are shortly described. In the second part, the formwork filling tests, that have been carried out at the Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research of the Ghent University, are presented. The general layout of the tests and the measurement set-up are clearly described. In the third part, the numerical modelling of the flow of SCC using a commercially available solver is explained as well as the obtained results from the CFD simulations. Finally in the last part, a comparison is made between the measurements and the simulation results. The formwork pressures are hydrostatic for SCC pumped from the base of the formworks

Laryngeal Preservation Strategies in Locally Advanced Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancers.

For long, the treatment of locoregionally advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal squamous cell cancers (SCC) consisted of either total laryngectomy (TL) or definitive radiotherapy (RT). The development of induction cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (PF) and the correlation between chemosensitivity and radiosensitivity in previously untreated patients opened a new era of treatment aiming at laryngeal preservation (LP). The fundamental concept was to employ induction PF in order to select patients for subsequent treatment with either TL or RT according to tumor response to PF. The first two trials (VALGSG for laryngeal SCC and EORTC 24891 for hypopharyngeal SCC) concluded that such an approach could preserve nearly 60% of larynx without deleterious impact on survival. The EORTC 24954 trial compared 4 cycles of induction PF followed by RT in good responders vs. alternating PF-RT in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal SCC. There was no significant difference in 5-year overall survival with a functional larynx between the two arms (31 vs. 35%). The GORTEC 2000-01 trial compared induction PF to induction PF plus docetaxel (TPF) both followed by RT in good responders in larynx and hypopharynx SCC. The 5-year LP was significantly higher in the TPF arm (60 vs. 39%) but without a difference in survival. The RTOG 91-11 trial compared induction PF followed by RT in good responders vs. concurrent chemoradiotherapy (chemo-RT) vs. RT alone in laryngeal SCC. There was no significant difference in 5-year laryngectomy-free survival between the patients treated with induction chemotherapy (44%) vs. those treated with chemo-RT (47%), both being superior to RT alone (34%). At 5 years, LP was superior with chemo-RT: 84 vs. 71% with induction PF. Two phase II trials explored the role of cetuximab (E) in LP in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal SCC. The TREMPLIN trial compared RT+E or chemo-RT (RT + P) after TPF. The DeLOS-II trial compared TPE followed by RT+E vs. TP followed by RT. However, these trials failed to indicate an advantage for the incorporation of E in the treatment paradigm. To date, two approaches for LP have been validated: induction TPF followed by RT for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal SCC and concurrent chemo-RT for laryngeal SCC. An ongoing trial (SALTORL) is comparing these two approaches, induction TPF and chemo-RT, in laryngeal/ hypopharyngeal SCC

Introduction to the Computation Offloading from Mobile Devices to the Edge of Mobile Network

This paper introduces the concept of Small Cell Cloud (SCC) composed of multiple Cloud-enabled Small Cells (CeSCs), which provide radio connection for mobile User Equipment (UE) such as smart-phones or wearables such as smart glasses. Moreover, CeSCs host computations offloaded from UEs in a way similar to centralized cloud, yet different in its proximity to users. Proposed client-server architecture of SCC con-veys mechanisms for moving offloaded computations from the UEs to CeSCs. Real-life implementation of the SCC architecture relies on custom-developed Of-floading Framework which is responsible for low-level communication between the UE and the SCC. The Of-floading Framework is accompanied by an Augmented Reality (AR) app, which employs intensive computa-tions for discovery of places of interest. Such app is latency-sensitive, a criterion which makes computation offloading beneficial due to its ability to decrease la-tency. The combination of the O˜oading Framework and the AR app makes up an SCC testbed used for fur-ther performance evaluation. Numerous measurements are carried out to examine the impact of various pa-rameters. Based on Proof-of-concept implementation and thorough measurements, it has been revealed that computation offloading can decrease overall latency as much as to 47 % and energy consumption on the UE side to 56

Social Cost of Carbon: What Do the Numbers Really Mean?

Social cost of carbon (SCC) is estimated by integrated assessment models (IAM) and is widely used by government agencies to value climate policy impacts. While there is an ongoing debate about obtained numerical estimates and related uncertainties, little attention has been paid so far to the SCC calculation method itself. This work attempts to fill the gap by providing theoretical background and economic interpretation of the SCC calculation approach implemented in the open-source IAM DICE (Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy). Our analysis indicates that the present calculation method provides an approximation that might work pretty well in some cases, while in the other cases the estimated value substantially (by the factor of four) deviates from the "true" value. This deviation stems from the inability of the present calculation method to catch the linkages between two key IAM's components -- complex interconnected systems -- climate and economy, both influenced by emission abatement policies. Within the modeling framework of DICE, the presently estimated SCC valuates policy-uncontrolled emissions against economically unjustified consumption, which makes it irrelevant for application in climate-economic policies and, therefore, calls for a replacement by a more appropriate indicator. An apparent SCC alternative, which can be employed for policy formulation is the direct output of the DICE model -- the socially optimal marginal abatement cost (SMAC), which corresponds to technological possibilities at optimal level of carbon emissions abatement. In policy making, because of the previously employed implicit approximation, great attention needs to be paid to the use of SCC estimates obtained earlier

The association between herd- and cow-level factors and somatic cell count of Irish dairy cows

peer-reviewedSomatic cell count (SCC) is an indicator of both udder health and milk quality and is measured at an animal level through national milk recording schemes. The objective of this study was to assess the animal and herd factors contributing to elevated SCC (i.e. poorer milk quality). Test day records (n = 2,658,928) from 519,456 cow lactations obtained between 2007 and 2011 were included in the analyses. Herd factors tested included the geographical region of the herd and production system operated (spring calving or mixed calving system). Animal factors tested included breed, parity and age nested within parity. Four definitions of normalised SCC (i.e. SCS) were considered: 1) average test-day SCS within a 24 hour period (TD_SCS), 2) maximum SCS (peak_SCS), 3) minimum SCS (min_SCS), and 4) average SCS (avg_SCS) recorded across cow lactation; in addition, the proportion of test day records with an SCC count >200,000 (prop_200) or >250,000 (prop_250) within cow lactation were included. Following adjustment for fixed effects, average TD_SCS was 179,308 cells per mL while avg_SCS, and average min_SCS and peak_SCS were 119,481, 50,992 and 298,813 cells per mL, respectively. All animal and herd factors had a significant effect on SCC. Older animals, animals which were younger at calving than contemporaries and Holstein animals had higher SCC than younger alternative breed animals who calved at the median age. In addition, mixed calving production systems and herds in Connaught had higher SCC than spring calving herds in the other regions of Ireland.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding for this work from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food under the Joint FIRM / RSF Initiative (Project Number: 10/RD/AAQUALITYMILK/ TMFRC713)