Laboratory Evaluation of Geosynthetics to Stabilize/Reinforce the Subgrade/Base in Unpaved Roadways

This research study evaluates the performance of geosynthetic material for subgrade stabilization and base reinforcement of unpaved test sections. For this purpose, extensive large-scale in-box static plate load tests were conducted on several unreinforced and geosynthetic reinforced, unpaved test sections. This research was conducted in Geotechnical Engineering Research Laboratory (GERL) at Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC). The in-box static plate load tests (ASTM D1196-93) were conducted to evaluate the performance and benefits of geosynthetic material for subgrade stabilization/base reinforcement. A total of forty-seven tests were performed in this regard. The quality control of the section was maintained using non-destructive in-situ tests such as nuclear-density gauge, geogauge, dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP), and light falling weight deflectometer (LFWD). These devices were used as effective tools in the assessment of subgrade and base course layers and for the evaluation of stiffness modulus of the different sections. The test results showed that the presence of geosynthetic reinforcement can significantly improve the bearing capacity of the unpaved test section, thus reducing the accumulated permanent deformation in the subgrade layer. The test results showed that the inclusion of reinforcement improved the bearing capacity ratio, and redistributed the applied load to a wider area, thus minimizing stress concentration, as well as achieving a more uniform stress distribution on top of subgrade layer. In addition, single-stage and multi-stage repeated load triaxial tests were also conducted on two layered (base-subgrade), small specimens to assess the effectiveness of placing the geosynthetic material (type and tensile modulus) at the interface of the base-subgrade specimens. These test results also demonstrated that inclusion of reinforcement reduced the permanent vertical deformation of the specimens

Code Metrics For Predicting Risk Levels of Android Applications

Android applications pose security and privacy risks for end-users. Early prediction of risk levels that are associated with Android applications can help Android developers is releasing less risky applications to end-users. Researchers have showed how code metrics can be used as early predictors of failure prone software components. Whether or not code metrics can be used to predict risk levels of Android applications requires systematic exploration. The goal of this paper is to aid Android application developers in assessing the risk associated with developed Android applications by identifying code metrics that can be used as predictors to predict two levels of risk for Android applications. In this exploratory research study the author has investigated if code metrics can be used to predict two levels of risk for Android applications. The author has used a dataset of 4416 Android applications that also included the applications\u27 21 code metrics. By applying logistic regression, the author observes two of the 21 code metrics can predict risk levels significantly. These code metrics are functional complexity and number of directories. Empirical findings from this exploratory study suggest that with the use of proper prediction techniques, code metrics might be used as predictors for Android risk scores successfully

Detecting and Characterizing Propagation of Security Weaknesses in Puppet-based Infrastructure Management

Despite being beneficial for managing computing infrastructure automatically, Puppet manifests are susceptible to security weaknesses, e.g., hard-coded secrets and use of weak cryptography algorithms. Adequate mitigation of security weaknesses in Puppet manifests is thus necessary to secure computing infrastructure that are managed with Puppet manifests. A characterization of how security weaknesses propagate and affect Puppet-based infrastructure management, can inform practitioners on the relevance of the detected security weaknesses, as well as help them take necessary actions for mitigation. To that end, we conduct an empirical study with 17,629 Puppet manifests mined from 336 open source repositories. We construct Taint Tracker for Puppet Manifests (TaintPup), for which we observe 2.4 times more precision compared to that of a state-of-the-art security static analysis tool. TaintPup leverages Puppet-specific information flow analysis using which we characterize propagation of security weaknesses. From our empirical study, we observe security weaknesses to propagate into 4,457 resources, i.e, Puppet-specific code elements used to manage infrastructure. A single instance of a security weakness can propagate into as many as 35 distinct resources. We observe security weaknesses to propagate into 7 categories of resources, which include resources used to manage continuous integration servers and network controllers. According to our survey with 24 practitioners, propagation of security weaknesses into data storage-related resources is rated to have the most severe impact for Puppet-based infrastructure management.Comment: 14 pages, currently under revie

Application of Lignin (Modified/Unmodified ) to Cement and Observing Effects

Biomass of various types have been known to be important sources of energy or raw material for products in industries for centuries. Biomass have been proven to be cost effective as sources of suitable chemicals that can enhance many industrial processes. Lignin is one of many very valuable components extractable from biomass. Using lignin, modified or unmodified, can improve the sustainability of manufacturing processes. In this work, lignin was extracted from two different biomass, i.e. coffee chaff and sugarcane bagasse. Coffee chaff is the dried skins of coffee beans, the waste product from the roasting process. Sugarcane bagasse is the fibrous material remaining once the juice is extracted from the sugarcane. It can be dried and combusted as a solid biofuel. A deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used to extract lignin from these two biomass. DESs are hydrogen-bonded solvents that can extract lignin from biomass. They are safe, simple, cost effective and recyclable. In this study, the DES used was a two to one molar ratio of formic acid with choline chloride (FA:CC). The lignin extracted from the two biomass was added to cement to discover how they impacted the plasticity, porosity and compression strength of cement cylinders. In addition, commercially purchased sugarcane bagasse lignin was carboxymethylated and added to cement to investigate its effect on these properties

Parliamentary Election and Political Violence in Bangladesh

Politics of Bangladesh has been criminalized over the last four decades resulting multi-level political violence. Political violence is particularly high during the parliamentary election period. This study analyses the nature, causes, and immediate fatalities of political violence during parliamentary election in Bangladesh. Secondary research methods have been used to conduct this study. Data were collected using structured checklist technique analyzing the newspaper contents. This study has revealed that incidents of violence in the month of parliamentary election as well as before and after the month of election are higher than other months. People also become more victim of violence in the month of parliamentary election, before and after the month of parliamentary election than other months. This study has found that the main causes of political violence are strike, blockade, internal and external conflict between political parties, political conflicts, political revenge and establishing political supremacy over a certain area. This study also found that police responses to the incidents of political violence is very low. This rationale of the study implies on that the descriptive findings of the study that can be used to understand the issues and formulate policy to prevent political violence as well as to improve political environment in Bangladesh encouraging the democratic culture to fulfill their goals avoiding the means of violence and conflict. Keywords: Politics, Violence, Election, Political conflicts, Democracy DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/89-11 Publication date:September 30th 201