Tensile behavior of textile-reinforced mortar: influence of test setup and layer arrangement

Textile-reinforced mortar (TRM) systems are a popular solution for strengthening existing masonry structures these days. The vast application of these materials requires a thorough study of their properties and performance. The tensile behavior of TRMs has a significant role in their mechanical properties and requires a reliable setup to record their performance. Studies in the past focused on different gripping systems and setups for characterizing tensile behavior, but harmonization is still lacking. The present study aims at presenting a suitable setup for tensile testing. To this aim, two different TRM systems were utilized. Four different setups for the clamping of coupons were used: three of them were based on gripping textiles directly, while the other one was based on gripping the mortar. Also, the effect of the textile-to-mortar strength ratio variation was studied for different setups, and using a different number of plies and different mortar thicknesses. Furthermore, digital image correlation was used for all specimens to track cracking patterns and failure modes. Finally, a comprehensive discussion of the results is presented, and the most suitable testing setup is recommended.This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB / 04029/2020. The first author is grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for grant number 2021.05328.BD

Exploring and Evaluating the Effects of Strategic Positioning on Firms Performance with Regard to Physical and Perceptual Positioning

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic positioning in door manufacturing industries operating in Iran and to identify the main factors which may have significant influence on the adoption of a physical and perceptual positioning strategy by a firm.Design/ Methodology/ Approach - The paper considers six firm-specific characteristics which can be associated with the adoption of a physical and perceptual positioning strategy which include: technical characteristics, physical characteristics, objective criteria, paying attention to customer’s needs, perceptual characteristics, and subjective criteria.Findings - The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between technical characteristics and physical positioning, a positive relationship between subjective criteria and perceptual positioning, a significant relationship between physical positioning and strategic positioning, and a significant relationship between perceptual positioning and strategic positioning. However, there is not a positive relationship between physical characteristics and physical positioning, there is not a positive relationship between objective criteria and physical positioning, there is not a positive relationship between customer’s needs and perceptual positioning, and there is not a positive relationship between perceptual characteristics and perceptual positioning.Originality/ Value - The paper adds to the international data on physical and perceptual positioning by providing what may well be a first influencing factor on industries operating in Iran situations for production.Key words: Strategic positioning; Physical positioning; Perceptual positioning; Competition; Differentiatio

Confidence-Enhanced Early Warning Score Based on Fuzzy Logic

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the world’s major causes of loss of life. The vital signs of a patient can indicate this up to 24 hours before such an incident happens. Healthcare professionals use Early Warning Score (EWS) as a common tool in healthcare facilities to indicate the health status of a patient. However, the chance of survival of an outpatient could be increased if a mobile EWS system would monitor them during their daily activities to be able to alert in case of danger. Because of limited healthcare professional supervision of this health condition assessment, a mobile EWS system needs to have an acceptable level of reliability - even if errors occur in the monitoring setup such as noisy signals and detached sensors. In earlier works, a data reliability validation technique has been presented that gives information about the trustfulness of the calculated EWS. In this paper, we propose an EWS system enhanced with the self-aware property confidence, which is based on fuzzy logic. In our experiments, we demonstrate that - under adverse monitoring circumstances (such as noisy signals, detached sensors, and non-nominal monitoring conditions) - our proposed Self-Aware Early Warning Score (SA-EWS) system provides a more reliable EWS than an EWS system without self-aware properties.</p

Analytical and Experimental Studies on Interface between Different Mortars and Brick

Documentos apresentados no âmbito do reconhecimento de graus e diplomas estrangeirosUsage of masonry materials in a country like Iran is still significantly high. As most of the failures during an earthquake in this system is failure caused by low ductility of cement mortars and also the high rate of carbon dioxide produced by cement. Experiences of Kermanshah earthquake in 2017 in Iran has doubled the importance of this issue. Hence, in the present investigation, an attempt to enhance the shear bond characteristics of structures constructed by masonry using green materials has been made. “Taftan” natural Pozzolan and two types of rice husk ash (RHA) was used in mix design of used mortars as a green material. In this investigation, a direct shear test (DST) device is modified and proposed to determine brick-mortar shear bond strength. The proposed method of applying DST has the advantageous of changing normal load and determine pure bond characteristics. For this purpose, two bricks bonded to each other by a mortar and subjected to the shear load. Tests were performed using DST for nine different types of mortars with different normal loads. The effect of increasing shear bond strength over time was also studied. Tests showed that using waste material like RHA in mortar is reasonable as its causes to the increase mortar plasticity and failure strain and also reduce the cost of mortar and its environmental effect

Benign Breast Cyst in a Young Male

Simple benign breast cysts are commonly diagnosed in female breasts and may present as palpable masses. However, they are extremely uncommon in the male breast and are rarely reported in the literature. Here, we report a case of a simple benign cyst of the breast in a relatively healthy 37-year-old man. The patient initially presented with a palpable 2-3 mm tender left breast lump. Further evaluation with mammography and ultrasound revealed a mass most consistent with a simple benign cyst. However, considering the rarity of breast cysts in males, the lesion was biopsied to rule out malignancy. Pathology results from ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy demonstrated fibro-adipose tissue with a benign cyst lined by foamy cells with apocrine features, consistent with a diagnosis of a benign epithelial cyst and concordant with the radiological findings. To our knowledge, this is the youngest case of a benign breast cyst in a male that has been reported in the literature. In this case report, we discuss the typical features and presentation of breast cysts in males, associated imaging findings on mammography and ultrasound, and the necessity for pathological confirmation with biopsy in this population

Pleomorphic Sarcoma in a Patient with Osteopetrosis.

Osteopetrosis comprises a rare, heterogeneous group of heritable conditions that are characterized by a defect in bone resorption by osteoclasts. We report the case of a 53-year-old woman with previously undiagnosed osteopetrosis who presented with a pathologic proximal humeral fracture secondary to pleomorphic sarcoma, which is previously undescribed in the English literature. Management of the primary lesion necessitated ablative surgery, but the malignancy nonetheless was associated with rapidly progressive metastatic disease

Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare : 7th International Conference, MobiHealth 2017, Vienna, Austria, November 14–15, 2017, Proceedings

Early Warning Score (EWS) systems are a common practice in hospitals. Health-care professionals use them to measure and predict amelioration or deterioration of patients’ health status. However, it is desired to monitor EWS of many patients in everyday settings and outside the hospitals as well. For portable EWS devices, which monitor patients outside a hospital, it is important to have an acceptable level of reliability. In an earlier work, we presented a self-aware modified EWS system that adaptively corrects the EWS in the case of faulty or noisy input data. In this paper, we propose an enhancement of such data reliability validation through deploying a hierarchical agent-based system that classifies data reliability but using Fuzzy logic instead of conventional Boolean values. In our experiments, we demonstrate how our reliability enhancement method can offer a more accurate and more robust EWS monitoring system.</p