In-plane shear behaviour of composite walling with profiled steel sheeting

This thesis introduces a novel form of double skin composite walling with profiled steel sheeting and an infill of concrete. This is a logical extension of research on composite slabs with profiled steel sheeting currently known as popular "Fastrack" construction. The composite walling is thought to be specially applicable as shear or core walls in steel frame buildings. The profiled steel sheeting will act as a temporary shear bracing to stabilise the frame against wind and destablising forces during construction and also act as a form work for infill of concrete. In the service stage, they will act as a reinforcement to carry axial, lateral and in-plane forces. This thesis investigates the behaviour of composite walls under in-plane shear so that they can be used as shear elements in buildings. The investigation includes analytical, numerical and small scale model tests. Design recommendations for the composite walls are the final aim of the research. The investigation is based on the concept that the in-plane shear strength and stiffness of the composite wall will be derived from the individual sheeting, concrete core and from the interaction between the two. Based on above, individual behaviour of the sheeting and concrete core was studied before considering the composite wall as a whole. A shear rig has been designed and fabricated to carry out the model tests of approximately 1/6 th scale using very thin sheeting (profiled in house) and microconcrete. Analytical equations for the shear strength and stiffness of the sheeting, profiled concrete and composite wall are derived. These equations are validated by model tests and finite element analysis. Finite element analysis included modelling of composite walling with full composite action and some parametric studies using interface elements. The stiffness of the composite wall is found to be greater than the individual summation of stiffness of the sheeting and concrete core. The profiled steel sheeting will provide sufficient shear bracing to the frame during construction. The composite wall is capable of taking high in-plane shear loads which is greater than the summation of individual capacity of the sheeting and concrete and confirms its potential to be used as shear elements in buildings. Simple equations for the calculation of shear strength and stiffness of the composite wall are derived which can safely be used for design purposes. Further research directions are also outlined.This thesis introduces a novel form of double skin composite walling with profiled steel sheeting and an infill of concrete. This is a logical extension of research on composite slabs with profiled steel sheeting currently known as popular "Fastrack" construction. The composite walling is thought to be specially applicable as shear or core walls in steel frame buildings. The profiled steel sheeting will act as a temporary shear bracing to stabilise the frame against wind and destablising forces during construction and also act as a form work for infill of concrete. In the service stage, they will act as a reinforcement to carry axial, lateral and in-plane forces. This thesis investigates the behaviour of composite walls under in-plane shear so that they can be used as shear elements in buildings. The investigation includes analytical, numerical and small scale model tests. Design recommendations for the composite walls are the final aim of the research. The investigation is based on the concept that the in-plane shear strength and stiffness of the composite wall will be derived from the individual sheeting, concrete core and from the interaction between the two. Based on above, individual behaviour of the sheeting and concrete core was studied before considering the composite wall as a whole. A shear rig has been designed and fabricated to carry out the model tests of approximately 1/6 th scale using very thin sheeting (profiled in house) and microconcrete. Analytical equations for the shear strength and stiffness of the sheeting, profiled concrete and composite wall are derived. These equations are validated by model tests and finite element analysis. Finite element analysis included modelling of composite walling with full composite action and some parametric studies using interface elements. The stiffness of the composite wall is found to be greater than the individual summation of stiffness of the sheeting and concrete core. The profiled steel sheeting will provide sufficient shear bracing to the frame during construction. The composite wall is capable of taking high in-plane shear loads which is greater than the summation of individual capacity of the sheeting and concrete and confirms its potential to be used as shear elements in buildings. Simple equations for the calculation of shear strength and stiffness of the composite wall are derived which can safely be used for design purposes. Further research directions are also outlined

Thomas Hardy's Antiwar Opinion in his Poems, ‘The Man He Killed’, ‘Channel Firing’ and ‘In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’’

This paper studies Thomas Hardy's 'antiwar poetry' and endeavors to demonstrate and identify his clear-cut opinion on war, which he consistently, adopts. It explicates how his poetry presents horribly a pessimistic view of man's bellicose stupidity, whilst a few of his other antiwar poems consider him to be triumphantly optimistic in asserting the fact that the good things of everyday life would survive when wars are long forgotten. This study describes Thomas Hardy's great diversity of attitudes which are to a large extent noticeable in his writing (Antiwar Poems), his literary career in general and his critical works. His antiwar poems reveal him to be rather a kind and a gentle person, who is very much aware of the pain; human beings suffer, in their struggle for a decent life. He wrote eleven “antiwar poems”. In this study, three antiwar poems are discussed in order to display Hardy's varied attitudes towards war. Keywords: Antiwar Poetry, Thomas Hardy & Hardy’s attitudes towards Wa

Thomas Hardy's Antiwar Opinion in his Poems, ‘The Man He Killed’, ‘Channel Firing’ and ‘In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’’

This paper studies Thomas Hardy's 'antiwar poetry' and endeavors to demonstrate and identify his clear-cut opinion on war, which he consistently, adopts. It explicates how his poetry presents horribly a pessimistic view of man's bellicose stupidity, whilst a few of his other antiwar poems consider him to be triumphantly optimistic in asserting the fact that the good things of everyday life would survive when wars are long forgotten. This study describes Thomas Hardy's great diversity of attitudes which are to a large extent noticeable in his writing (Antiwar Poems), his literary career in general and his critical works. His antiwar poems reveal him to be rather a kind and a gentle person, who is very much aware of the pain; human beings suffer, in their struggle for a decent life. He wrote eleven “antiwar poems”. In this study, three antiwar poems are discussed in order to display Hardy's varied attitudes towards war. Keywords: Antiwar Poetry, Thomas Hardy & Hardy’s attitudes towards Wa

Efficacy of Entomopathogenic Fungi as Biological Control agent against insect pests of Gossypium hirsutum.

Isolates of Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisoplaie, Verticillium  lecanii and Paeciliomyces lilicuns from Punjab, Pakistan, were evaluated for their inhibitory and insecticidal efficacy against White fly, House fly, American bollworm, Army worm, Spotted worm, Gray weevil, Jassids, Aphids, Ant and moth. Four strains of B. bassiana, two strains of P. lilicuns and one strain of M. anisoplaie and V. lecanii were used. B.bassiana (Bb04) exhibited significant mortality percentage against moth, gray weevil, cotton seed bug white fly, American worm, spotted worm, army worm, house fly, ants, jassids and aphids. Among all the strains of entomopathogenic fungi used, B. bassiana strains Bb01 revealed least mortality percentage against the targeted insect pests. V. lecanii Vl01 strain showed the highest mortality rate against cotton seed bug while it showed least efficiency against spotted worm. M. anisopolie Ma01 showed the highest mortality percentage against moth and showed the minimum results against spotted worm. In case of tested strain of P. lilicuns strains Pl01 and Pl02 displayed the highest mortality percentage against gray weevil, cotton seed bug and showed the minimum results against spotted worm and moth. Key words: Entomopathogenic fungi, Pathogenicity, Cotton pests, White fly, American bollworm, Army worm, Gray weevi

Gallbladder carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of twenty-two years experience of a single teaching hospital

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate our experience with gallbladder cancer since the establishment of a tumour registry in our institute. METHODS: Between 1975 and 1998, 23 consecutive patients with gallbladder cancer were identified using the tumour registry database. There were 18 females (78%) and 5 (22%) males. The mean age at diagnosis was 70.6 (range 42–85) years. The diagnosis was achieved either intra-operatively or following the histological analysis of the gallbladder (n = 17), following gallbladder or liver biopsy (n = 4) or at autopsy (n = 2). Presenting symptoms included upper abdominal pain, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, fever, painless jaundice, hepatomegaly, upper abdominal mass, upper abdominal tenderness, and gastrointestinal haemorrhage. RESULTS: Histological examination revealed 20 adenocarcinomas (87%), 2 squamous cell carcinomas (9%) and one spindle cell sarcoma (4%). At presentation, 14 (61%) gallbladder cancers were stage IV, 5 (22%) were stage III and 4 (17%) were stage II. Kaplan Meier analysis revealed a mean survival of 3.2, 7.8 and 8.2 months for stage IV, III, and II disease respectively. Out of 14 patients with stage IV disease, 8 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and survived for 4.6 months whereas six patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy survived for 1.3 months. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The majority of patients with gallbladder cancer presented with advanced stage disease (stage IV) which carries a dismal prognosis. Patients who received chemotherapy with stage IV disease, however, did better than those who did not, but this is probably a reflection of patient selection

An Efficient Image De-Blurring Technique Using Point Spread Function in High Definition Medical Image

Medical image-enhancing technology plays a significant role for processing and revealing discerning information from acquired images in many applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) which are frequently used for diagnosis and treatments in medical imaging. The clarity of these images become of great importance considering the details required to render diagnosis. The effects associated with blurred images in such applications is very challenging. The blurring effect is largely unavoidable due to the errors associated with capturing devices and natural motion in the human body. In this research, a method is proposed utilizing image blending approach to significantly reduce the effects of blur from an image through motion adaptive Point Spread Function (PSF). The proposed Efficient Image De-Blurring methods (EIDB) is realized using PSFs. And then get deblurred quality images from image de-blending image set in the alpha plane

Rare co-occurrence of dural arteriovenous fistula and arteriovenous malformation with bilateral subcortical and basal ganglia calcification

The present study describes the imaging findings in a patient with dural arteriovenous fistula (AVR) and arteriovenous malformation (AVM) with bilateral subcortical and basal ganglia calcification. A 29 year old male patient presented with chief complaint of recent onset of generalized tonic clonic seizures and mild disorientation. The imaging studies on MCT demonstrated diffuse, symmetric calcification in the bilateral basal ganglia and subcortical white matter. MR imaging and angiography revealed AVM in parietooccipital region with supply predominantly from left posterior cerebral and middle cerebral arteries. Multiple dural feeders from meningeal branches of occipital and superficial temporal branches of bilateral external carotid and right internal carotid arteries. Calcification is proposed to be due to chronic reflux into the parenchymal veins or vascular steal phenomenon. This rare co-occurrence of subcortical calcification in a patient with a dural AVF and AVM is being reported

Wavelet Transform based Score Fusion for Face Recognition using SIFT Descriptors

One of the main areas in computer vision is automatic face recognition which deals with detecting human face autonomously. Developments and the progress in the field of face recognition have shown that many face recognition systems and applications the automated methods outperform humans. The conventional Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is used in face recognition where they provide high performances. However, this performance can be improved further by transforming the input into different domains before applying SIFT algorithm. Hence, we apply Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) or Gabor Wavelet Transform (GWT) at the input face images, which provides denser and extra information to be used by the conventional SIFT algorithm. Matching scores of SIFT from each subimage is fused before making final decision. Simulations show that the proposed approaches based on wavelet transforms using SIFT provides very high performance compared to the conventional algorithm