Investigation of Premature Distress Around Joints in PCC Pavements: Parts I & II

Some of the Indiana concrete pavements constructed within the last 10-20 years have shown signs of premature deterioration, especially in the areas adjacent to the longitudinal and transverse joints. This deterioration typically manifested itself as cracking and spalling of concrete combined with the loss of material in the direct vicinity of the joint. In addition, in some cases “bulb-shaped” damage zones were also observed under the sealed parts of the joints. The objective of this study was to investigate possible causes of this premature deterioration. To reach this objective, the characteristics of the concrete in and near the deteriorated joints were compared and contrasted to the concrete characteristics in the non-deteriorated sections of pavement. The study was conducted in two different phases (Phase I and Phase II), and the findings are presented as a two-part report. The investigation started with a detailed inventory of selected areas of affected pavements in order to identify and classify the existing types of distresses and select locations for collection of the cores. During the Phase I of the study a total of 36 concrete cores were extracted from 5 different pavements.. During Phase II of the study a total of 18 cores were retrieved from five different pavement sections and subject to examination. The cores were subjected to eighth different tests: air-void system determination, Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, sorptivity test, freeze-thaw & resonance frequency test, resistance to chloride ion penetration (RCP) test and chloride profile (concentration) determination. The test results identified several cases of in-filling of the air voids (especially smaller air bubbles) with secondary deposits. These deposits were most likely the result of the repetitive saturation of air voids with water and substantially reduced the effectiveness of the air voids system with respect to providing an adequate level of freeze-thaw protection. Specifically, it was observed that the existing air void system in the concrete from panels near the deteriorated longitudinal joint had neither spacing factors nor specific surface values within the range recommended for freeze-thaw durability. Contrary to this, nearly all the concrete in lanes without damage had an adequate air void system at the time of sampling. In addition, the affected concrete often displayed an extensive network of microcracks, had higher rates of absorption and reduced ability to resist chloride ions penetration. From the observation of the drains performed using the remote camera it was obvious that not all the drains were functioning properly and some were entirely blocked. However, more precise or direct correlations could not be made between the conditions of the drains and observed pavement performance

From Iconic Design to Lost Luggage: Innovation at Heathrow Terminal 5

This paper aims to contribute to understanding of how organizations respond to risk and uncertainty by combining and balancing routines and innovation. It shows how approaches to risk and uncertainty are shaped by the contractual framework in large multi-party projects. The paper addresses a gap in the literature on how risk and uncertainty is managed to deliver innovation in large-scale ‘megaprojects’. These megaprojects are notorious for high rates of failure that conventionally evoke organizational strategies avoiding risks and uncertainties. Yet strategies for managing risk and uncertainty are essential to the routines and innovation that overcome the challenges of successfully delivering large-scale, complex projects.

Climate Change Impact Assessment for Surface Transportation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska

WA-RD 772.

The Relationship Between External Turbulence and New Product Development Practices

This dissertation considered whether new product development practices employed resolved the uncertainty and equivocality in information processing created by external turbulence. With external turbulence coming from more sources and arriving with greater frequency, this wave of change must be addressed to achieve desired project outcomes. Healthcare was the target industry for this research and respondents were selected from members of HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society. Five hundred sixty-three survey responses were collected about completed new product development projects. The aspects of the projects reported included the external turbulence experienced, flexible new product development practices employed, the effectiveness of information processing and the project’s outcomes. The results using all respondents did not show support for the crucial hypothesis that reduction of uncertainty and equivocality in the information processing environment leads to desired new product development outcomes. While the full respondent set did not support the main hypothesis, the subset of projects that were completed during the ramp-up of the Affordable Care Act showed the hypothesized relationship. With the Affordable Care Act ramp-up, there was a wave of change and a high volume of new information generated by external turbulence. Those organizations that were successful used their information processing capabilities to reduce uncertainty and equivocality and address the changes. Their information processing capability combined with flexible product development practices was directly related to positive new product development outcomes. The extreme example of external turbulence that occurred during the Affordable Care Act ramp-up supported the crucial hypothesis about information processing. The research also found that external turbulence is related to the positive use of flexible new product development practices and that use of those practices is directly related to desired new product development outcomes. In the presence of external turbulence, product development teams use flexible new product development practices to achieve desired project outcomes. The major implication from this study is the need by product development teams to consider external turbulence as a factor in all product plans. It was the strongest relationship reported

Mitigations to Reduce the Law of Unintended Consequences for Autonomy and Other Technological Advances

The United Nations states that Earths population is expected to reach just under 10 billion people (9.7) by the year 2050. To meet the demands of 10 billion people, governments, multinational corporations and global leaders are relying on autonomy and technological advances to augment and/or accommodate human efforts to meet the required needs of daily living. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) gene-edited plants and cloning will be utilized to expand human food supply. Biomimetic implants are expected to improve life expectancy with 3D printed body parts. Human functioning will be extended with wearables and cybernetic implants continuing humanitys path toward transhumanism. Families will be strengthened with 3 parent households. Disease will surely be eradicated using the CRISPR-CAS9 genetic engineering revolution to design out undesirable human traits and to design in new capabilities. With autonomous cars, trucks and buses on our roads and on-demand autonomous aircraft delivering pizzas, medical prescriptions and groceries in the air and multi-planet vehicles traversing space, utopia will finally arrive! Or will it? All of these powerful, man-made, technological systems will experience unintended consequences with certainty. Instead of over-reacting with hysteria and fear, we should be seeking answers to the following questions - What skills are required to architect socially-healthy technological systems for 2050? What mindsets should we embody to ameliorate hubris syndrome and to build our future technological systems with deliberation, soberness and social responsibility

The Role of Subproject Task-Specific Attributes in Managing Enterprise-Wide Projects

Realizing that different types of projects require different styles of management is becoming part of the mainstream theory and practice in project management. This paper addresses the question of whether the same notion is also applicable to the subproject level, and how. We suggest that a project’s building blocks exhibit unique characteristics with respect to two major dimensions: Challenge (or difficulty) and vitality (or importance). Specifically, we add to the critical path and critical chain project management concepts a critical component—a unit at the sub-project level that is exceptionally risky to a project’s success. We lay out the conceptual framework in which critical component is embedded and demonstrate the theoretical and managerial aspects of contingency at the subproject level by analyzing three case studies

Assessing Project Suitability for Off-site Production

Implementation of off-site production on construction projects isoften hindered by a number of specific process and procurementconstraints. These constraints are largely influenced by decisionswithin the control of construction clients, suggesting that theyhave a significant influence over the adoption of off-site productioninto construction projects. However, an appreciation of the effectof these constraints has been lacking. Addressing this need, anoff-site production implementation assessment instrument thatresides within a larger toolkit (IMMPREST) was developed usingquestionnaire survey data and a series of industrial workshops.IMMPREST is an interactive electronic toolkit developed byLoughborough University (UK), in conjunction with eleven industrialpartners, which facilitates the evaluation of benefit arising fromuse of off-site production within construction. It identifies thefactors that need to be considered for an evaluation, the datarequired to assess the effect of these factors, and where therequired data resides within the supply chain. Development ofthe implementation assessment instrument is discussed, whilstalso making reference to the role that clients can play in creatingthe process and procurement conditions that promote rather thanconstrain the adoption of off-site production

Determining the optimal features in freezing of gait detection through a single waist accelerometer in home environments

Freezing of gait (FoG) is one of the most disturbing and incapacitating symptoms in Parkinson's disease. It is defined as a sudden block in effective stepping, provoking anxiety, stress and falls. FoG is usually evaluated by means of different questionnaires; however, this method has shown to be not reliable, since it is subjective due to its dependence on patients’ and caregivers’ judgment. Several authors have analyzed the usage of MEMS inertial systems to detect FoG with the aim of objectively evaluating it. So far, specific methods based on accelerometer's frequency response has been employed in many works; nonetheless, since they have been developed and tested in laboratory conditions, their performance is commonly poor when being used at patients’ home. Therefore, this work proposes a new set of features that aims to detect FoG in real environments by using accelerometers. This set of features is compared with three previously reported approaches to detect FoG. The different feature sets are trained by means of several machine learning classifiers; furthermore, different window sizes are also evaluated. In addition, a greedy subset selection process is performed to reduce the computational load of the method and to enable a real-time implementation. Results show that the proposed method detects FoG at patients’ home with 91.7% and 87.4% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, enhancing the results of former methods between a 5% and 11% and providing a more balanced rate of true positives and true negatives.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Mariner IV Mission to Mars. Part I

This technical report is a series of individual papers documenting the Mariner-Mars project from its beginning in 1962 following the successful Mariner-Venus mission. Part I is pre-encounter data. It includes papers on the design, development, and testing of Mariner IV, as well as papers detailing methods of maintaining communication with and obtaining data from the spacecraft during flight, and expected results during encounter with Mars. Part 11, post-encounter data, to be published later, will consist of documentation of the events taking place during Mariner IV's encounter with Mars and thereafter. The Mariner-Mars mission, the culmination of an era of spacecraft development, has contributed much new technology to be used in future projects