Analysis of Some Reliability Measures of a Deteriorating Reinforced Concrete Structure

In this paper, we study the reliability and availability characteristics of two-stage deterioration reinforce concrete structure .Failure and repair times are assumed exponential. The explicit expressions of reliability and availability characteristics such as mean time to system failure (MTSF), steady-state availability and busy period are derived using Kolmogorov forward equations method. Various cases are analyzed graphically to investigate the impact of system parameters on MTSF, availability and busy period   Keywords: Reliability, deterioration, reinforce concret

Biosorption of Cr(VI), Ni(II) and Fe(II) by maize (zea mays) cob

The experimental results for the biosorption of Cr(VI), Ni(II) and Fe(II) onto maize cob were reported. The adsorbents efficiency on the bioremediation of these metals was estimated from the change in the percent adsorbate removal with (i) adsorbent dosage (ii) adsorbate initial concentration, (iii) variation in pH of the adsorbate solution and (vi) increase in surface area of the adsorbate. Untreated Maize Cob (MC) was found to demonstrate high affinity for Fe(II) in both granular and powdered form in such a way that 2g Powdered Maize Cob (PMC) was able to remove about 89% whereas a 100% removal was observed with 8g adsorbent. On the other hand MC showed low affinity for Ni(II) in the sense that even with the powdered form, % removal does not vary significantly between 2 and 8g.Keywords: Zea mays, adsorption, adsorbent, metal ion, % remova

Thermodynamics and adsorption isotherms for the biosorption of Cr(VI), Ni(II) and Cd(II) onto maize cob

The use of maize (Zea mays) cob for the biosorption of Cr(VI), Ni(II) and Cd(II) is reported. Biosorption experiments were carried out using batch process with 8g weight of adsorbent and variable adsorbate concentrations. Variations in the concentration of the different adsorbates during the adsorption process were monitored by the use of Shimadzu AA650 Double Beam Atomic Absorption/Flame spectrophotometer. Thermodynamic quantities such as ΔH and ΔS were determined in which ΔH varied from 1,271.21Jmol-1 to 1,466.59Jmol-1 at 20mg/L adsorbate concentration and 1,276.20 to 1,872.42Jmol-1 at 60mg/L suggesting increasing endothermicity of the adsorption process. The adsorption process was found to be spontaneous, with spontaneity increasing with increase in adsorbate concentration and temperature. Also, the ΔG values suggested high affinity of Cr over the other adsorbates. Equilibrium data were tested using Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms. The values of the numeric constants n and KF from Freundlich plots and the linearity of their plots suggested a chemisorption process closely defined by Freundlich isotherm.Keywords: Adsorbate, Adsorbent, Adsorption isotherms, Maize cob, Thermodynamic

Influence of prey density, species and developmental stages on the predatory behaviour of Amblyseius longispinosus (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

The influence of prey density, species and developmental stages on the predatory behaviour of Amblyseius longispinosus (Evans) was studied. A 24 h exposure revealed that gravid females were more voracious compared to young females. The trends in the number of eggs and larvae consumed by each young and gravid female predator were about the same, showing an increase with density of the red and the yellow strains of T. urticae levelling off at a prey density of 40 per predator. The highest mean number of eggs consumed in 24 h was 16.7 for the young female and 33.3 for the gravid female, and a mean high of 17 larvae in 24 h for the young female and 27.8 for the gravid female. With adult prey, however, the predators reached satiation point at a lower density of five to ten adult prey per female. In general, the response curves were adequately described by the Holling's Type II model. Under continuous exposure for five days, a significant reduction in consumption was observed with the gravid female from the second day onwards, to a level similar to the number of eggs and larvae consumed by a young female predator

Electron and Neutron Electric Dipole Moments in the Focus Point Scenario of SUGRA Model

We estimate the electron and neutron electric dipole moments in the focus point scenario of the minimal SUGRA model corresponding to large sfermion masses and moderate to large $\tan\beta$. There is a viable region of moderate fine-tuning in the parameter space, around $\tan\beta \simeq 5$, where the experimental limits on these electric dipole moments can be satisfied without assuming unnaturally small phase angles. But the fine-tuning constraints become more severe for $\tan\beta > 10$.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures. Very minor changes made in only a few sentences for clarification. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Prospective study of a molecular selection profile for RAS wild type colorectal cancer patients receiving irinotecan-cetuximab

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate whether a panel of biomarkers, prospectively analysed might be able to predict patients' clinical outcome more accurately than RAS status alone. Methods: K-RAS (exons 2, 3, 4) wild type colorectal cancer patients, candidates to second/third-line cetuximab with chemotherapy were prospectively allocated into 2 groups on the basis of their profile: favourable (BRAF and PIK3CA exon 20 wild type, EGFR GCN ≥ 2.6, HER-3 Rajkumar score ≤ 8, IGF-1 immunostaining < 2) or unfavourable (any of the previous markers altered or mutated). After the introduction of N-RAS status (exons 2, 3, 4) only RAS wild type patients were considered eligible. Results: Forty-six patients were enrolled. Seventeen patients (37%) were allocated to the favourable and 29 patients (63%) to the unfavourable profile. RR in the favourable and unfavourable group was 11/17 (65%) and 2/29 (7%) (p = 0.007) respectively. The favourable group also showed an improved PFS (8months vs. 3months, p < 0.0001) and OS (15months vs. 6months, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Our results suggest that prospective selection of optimal candidates for cetuximab treatment is feasible and may be able to improve clinical outcom

Integrating ICT in Traffic Police Department in Uganda: Design and Development of Traffic Case Management System (TCRIS)

The study was about the development of Traffic Case Records Information System (TCRIS) that would ease storage and retrieval of traffic cases in the Traffic Department of the Uganda Police. The method used to manage traffic cases is manual; information collected daily is written on paper and stored in files for reference, thus making the captured cases susceptible to loss, easy access by unauthorized people and destruction. The researcher set out to study the current system, analyze the needs and then improve on the system by designing and developing a Traffic Case Records Information System. Data collection techniques such as interviews and observation were applied to get the necessary information from the Traffic officers in the Traffic Department at the Central Police Station, Kampala. The system developed captures the defaulters’ bio data, traffic offence committed and the charge for the traffic offence. The TCRMS makes the use of the camera that captures the photo of the defaulter and the biometric gadget that captures the defaulter’s thumb print for police reference. All these are centrally stored in the database but are sharable with migrations department, Bank of Uganda (BoU) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) which government departments work closely with police in regard to such offences. Different programming languages were used during the development of the system including Visual Basic for the front end and SQL Server2005 for the back end. The system is thus user friendly in the way it inserts, retrieves and updates user information. Keyword: Traffic, Records management, court, customer car

Probing scalar-pseudoscalar mixing in the CP violating MSSM at high-energy e+e−e^+e^- colliders

We study the production processes $e^+e^-\to H^0_iZ$, $H^0_iH^0_j$ and $H^0_i\nu_e\overline \nu_e$ in the context of the CP violating MSSM. In a given channel we show that the cross-section for all i (=1,2,3) can be above 0.1 fb provided M_{H_{2,3}}\la 300 GeV. This should be detectable at a Next Linear Collider and would provide evidence for scalar-pseudoscalar mixing.Comment: 17 pages, RevTex, 4 ps figures, figure 4 changed, minor modifications to text, version to appear in PR

Neutralino Pair Production and 3-Body Decays at e+e−e^+e^- Linear Colliders as Probes of CP Violation in the Neutralino System

In the CP-invariant supersymmetric theories, the steep S-wave (slow P-wave) rise of the cross section for any non-diagonal neutralino pair production in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation, $e^+e^- \to \tilde{\chi}^0_i \tilde{\chi}^0_j$ ($i \neq j$), near threshold is accompanied by the slow P-wave (steep S-wave) decrease of the fermion invariant mass distribution of the 3-body neutralino decay, $\tilde{\chi}^0_i \to \tilde{\chi}^0_j f\bar{f}$ ($f=l$ or $q$), near the end point. These selection rules, unique to the neutralino system due to its Majorana nature, guarantee that the observation of simultaneous sharp S-wave excitations of the production cross section near threshold and the lepton and quark invariant mass distribution near the end point is a qualitative, unambiguous evidence for CP violation in the neutralino system.Comment: 11 pages, 1 eps figure, a reference adde