FM 121 Rehabilitation S Curve Realignment, Grayson County, Texas

On February 22 and March 9–10, 2015, SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey with systematic hand and mechanical excavations along Farm-to-Market (FM) 121 in Grayson County, Texas. SWCA conducted these investigations for the Texas Department of Transportation Paris District for the proposed rehabilitation S curve realignment of FM 121. The work was conducted in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA; 16 USC 470) and the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT; 9 NRC 191). Jason Barrett served as Principal Investigator under Texas Antiquities Code Permit No. 7164. The area of potential effects (APE) is defined as the 60- to 100-foot-wide (18- to 30-meterwide) FM 121 right-of-way, extending a distance of 7.4 miles (11.9 kilometers) between the towns of Gunter and Elmont, Texas, and 19.91 acres of new ROW for the S curve realignment section, or a total of 82 acres. The maximum depth of impacts is estimated to be up to 3 feet (90 centimeters [cm]) below the current ground surface for the entire project, although widening along the existing roadway will generally be accomplished through fillsection expansion. Subsurface impact below the current level of disturbance is not anticipated with fill-section expansion. No previous cultural resources investigations had been conducted and no archaeological sites are documented within the APE. One potential historic-age structure is depicted within the APE on the 1936 Grayson County General Highway Map on the south side of FM 121; however, a review of current aerial imagery and field reconnaissance indicates that this structure is no longer extant. SWCA archaeologists inspected the ground surface across the entire APE and excavated a total of six backhoe trenches and 19 shovel tests. Mechanical trenching was limited to the larger drainages (East Fork Trinity River and Squirrel Creek) crossed by the project alignment. Both drainages are situated against an interfluve landform with their floodplains (composing roughly 4.6 acres of the project area total) located to the west (East Fork Trinity River) or to the east (Squirrel Creek) of the respective waterways. Existing utilities precluded placement of additional trenches at Squirrel Creek where the ROW narrowed in the southeast quadrant. In addition, SWCA excavated 19 shovel tests within the APE. Given the level of existing disturbance and limited potential for subsurface impacts in areas of existing ROW characterized by upland terrain, shovel testing focused on areas of new ROW proposed for the addition of S curves to the roadway design. The excavations at the East Fork Trinity River crossing encountered silt loam grading to silt clay loam with increasing amounts of calcium carbonate filaments and nodules and horizons of matrix-supported sub-angular limestone clast materials (pebbles and gravels) beginning at about 3.9 feet (118 centimeters below surface [cmbs]). The excavations at the Squirrel Creek crossing encountered clay loam grading to clay with vertical cracks and slickensides with some level of disturbance noted to a maximum of 2.6 feet (80 cmbs) and dense clay beginning at approximately 3 feet (90 cmbs). No archaeological sites were documented within the APE. One site (41GS246), an early- to late-twentieth century farmstead, was identified adjacent to the APE, but has been severely disturbed by heavy equipment, lacks horizontal or vertical integrity, and can provide no new or beneficial information to local or regional history. Given the results of the survey, SWCA recommends that no further cultural resources investigations are warranted within the existing ROW or the 19.6 acres of newly proposed ROW of FM 121. Although existing utilities restricted the amount of trenching that could be conducted in some areas, available exposures and trenches provided sufficient visibility to adequately assess the East Fork Trinity River and Squirrel Creek crossings

Performance of Portland Limestone Cements: Cements Designed to Be More Sustainable That Include up to 15% Limestone Addition

In 2009, ASTM and AASHTO permitted the use of up to 5% interground limestone in ordinary portland cement (OPC) as a part of ASTM C150/AASHTO M85. When this project was initiated a new proposal was being discussed that would enable up to 15% interground limestone to be considered in ASTM C595/AASHTO M234 cement. This project was initiated to provide rapid feedback to INDOT for use in discussions regarding these specifications (this has become ASTM C595/AASHTO M240). PLC is designed to enable more sustainable construction which may significantly reduce the CO2 that is embodied in the built infrastructure while extending the life of cement quarries. The physical and chemical properties of the cementitious materials used in this study were examined. PLC is typically a finer cement (10 to 30% Blaine fineness) with a reduction in the coarse clinker particles (\u3e20µm) and an increase in fine particles which are primarily limestone. Isothermal calorimetry and chemical shrinkage results imply that these PLC materials have a similar or slight greater reaction and would be able to be used interchangeably with OPC in practice as it relates to the rate of reaction. The PLC mortars exhibited relatively similar activation energies compared to the corresponding OPCs allowing the maturity method to be used by INDOT for both the PLC and OPC systems. The mechanical properties of OPC and PLC were generally similar with the PLC typically having slightly higher early age strengths but similar 28 day strengths. No significant change in drying shrinkage or restrained shrinkage cracking was observed for the PLC when compared with OPC (Barrett et al. 2013). The PLC has similar volumes of permeable voids as the OPC. The chloride diffusion coefficients in the PLC systems may range from 0 to 30% higher than the OPCs. The PLC showed synergistic benefits when paired with fly ash. Based on the available literature and available testing results INDOT could consider PLC, as specified in accordance with ASTM C-595/AASHTO M 240, to be a suitable option for use in INDOT concrete applications

Documentation of the INDOT Experience and Construction of the Bridge Decks Containing Internal Curing in 2013

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) constructed four bridge decks utilizing internally cured, high performance concrete (IC HPC) during the summer of 2013. These decks implement research findings from the research presented in the FHWA/IN/JTRP-2010/10 report where internal curing was proposed as one method to reduce the potential for shrinkage cracking, leading to improved durability. The objective of this research was to document the construction of the four IC HPC bridge decks that were constructed in Indiana during 2013 and quantify the properties and performance of these decks. This report contains documentation of the production and construction of IC HPC concrete for the four bridge decks in this study. In addition, samples of the IC HPC used in construction were compared with a reference high performance concrete (HPC) which did not utilize internal curing. These samples were transported to the laboratory where the mechanical properties, resistance to chloride migration, and potential for shrinkage and cracking was assessed. Using experimental results and mixture proportions, the diffusion based service life of the bridge decks was able to be estimated. Collectively, the results indicate that the IC HPC mixtures that were produced as a part of this study exhibit the potential to more than triple the service life of the typical bridge deck in Indiana while reducing the early age autogenous shrinkage by more than 80% compared to non-internally cured concretes

Performance of Concrete Pavement in the Presence of Deicing Salts and Deicing Salt Cocktails

Deicing salts are widely used for anti-icing and de-icing operations in pavements. While historically sodium chloride may have been the deicer most commonly used, a wide range of deicing salts have begun to be used to operate at lower temperatures, to stick to the road better and to improve other aspects of performance such as environmental impact or corrosion resistance. It has been observed that some chloride based deicing salts can react with the calcium hydroxide in the mixture resulting in the formation of calcium oxychloride an expansive phase that can damage concrete pavements, especially at the joints. This report describes the two main objectives of this work. First, the report documents the development a standardized approach to use low temperature differential scanning calorimetry (LT-DSC) to assess the influence of cementitious binder composition on the potential for calcium oxychloride formation. Second, this work will assess the influence of blended salt cocktails on the formation of calcium oxychloride

Removing Obstacles for Pavement Cost Reduction by Examining Early Age Opening Requirements: Material Properties

The risk of cracking in a concrete pavement that is opened to traffic at early ages is related to the maximum tensile stress that develops in the pavement and its relationship to the measured, age dependent, flexural strength of a beam. The stress that develops in the pavement is due to several factors including traffic loading and restrained volume change caused by thermal or hygral variations. The stress that develops is also dependent on the time-dependent mechanical properties, pavement thickness, and subgrade stiffness. There is a strong incentive to open many pavements to traffic as early as possible to allow construction traffic or traffic from the traveling public to use the pavement. However, if the pavement is opened to traffic too early, cracking may occur that may compromise the service life of the pavement. The purpose of this report is two-fold: 1) to examine the current opening strength requirements for concrete pavements (typically a flexural strength from beams, and 2) to propose a criterion based on the time-dependent changes of ratio of the tensile stress to the flexural strength, which accounts for pavement thickness and subgrade stiffness without adding unnecessary risk for premature cracking. An Accelerated Pavement Testing, APT, facility was used to test concrete pavements that are opened to traffic at an early age to provide data that can be compared with an analytical model to determine the effective ratio of the tensile stress to the flexural strength based on the relevant features of the concrete pavement, the subgrade, and the traffic load. It is anticipated that this type of opening criteria can help the decision makers in two ways: 1) it can open pavement sections earlier thereby reducing construction time and 2) it may help to minimize the use of materials with overly accelerated strength gain that are suspected to be more susceptible to develop damage at early ages than materials that gain strength more slowly

A Mobile Concrete Laboratory to Support Quality Concrete, Technology Transfer, and Training

This report is a summary of work performed by the Mobile Infrastructure Materials Testing Laboratory (MIMTL) as a part of the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) through SPR-3858. The development of the MIMTL began in February of 2014 and became fully operational by June of 2014. The MIMTL was deployed in the field for a total of 46 days. This report describes the activities of the MIMTL as of December 2015. The MIMTL was involved in the field testing of concrete bridges, concrete pavements, and asphalt pavements. This report describes the development of the mobile testing laboratory and provides some examples of how the MIMTL was used. The main highlights of the MIMTL’s implementation are as follows: The MIMTL’s high mobility and extensive inventory of research equipment allowed graduate students and researchers to conduct field studies on a wide range of infrastructure materials to accomplish the research objectives of their specific projects. More extensive details of the background, objectives, methods, findings, results and implementation from those projects can be found in the respective reports for those projects; The MIMTL supported a culture of safety that allowed students to work safely on jobsites in the State of Indiana ranging from roadside interstates, rural country roads, to ready-mix batching plants, often around heavy equipment, traffic, and in close quarters. During the operation of the MTIML described in this report, there were zero workplace accidents, and zero near misses reported; The MIMTL assisted in technology transfer between the infrastructure materials experts at Purdue University and contractors and suppliers in the State of Indiana. A wide range of new technologies evaluating infrastructure materials were utilized on a variety of projects. On each of these projects, MIMTL researchers educated industry personnel (contractors and suppliers), agency personnel (INDOT and local agencies), and consultants within the state. The MIMTL attended demonstrations with INDOT district and central office personnel to further highlight capabilities as well as the emerging technologies; The MIMTL was established a joint investment with partners in industry, local agencies, and INDOT. Operated by the Joint Transportation Research Program and the Local Technical Assistance Program as pay-per-use model, means this sustainable venture will offer services to researchers, industry, or agency entities that can cover the pay-per-use costs

A Pilot Study Comparing HPV-Positive and HPV-Negative Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas by Whole Exome Sequencing.

Background. Next-generation sequencing of cancers has identified important therapeutic targets and biomarkers. The goal of this pilot study was to compare the genetic changes in a human papillomavirus- (HPV-)positive and an HPV-negative head and neck tumor. Methods. DNA was extracted from the blood and primary tumor of a patient with an HPV-positive tonsillar cancer and those of a patient with an HPV-negative oral tongue tumor. Exome enrichment was performed using the Agilent SureSelect All Exon Kit, followed by sequencing on the ABI SOLiD platform. Results. Exome sequencing revealed slightly more mutations in the HPV-negative tumor (73) in contrast to the HPV-positive tumor (58). Multiple mutations were noted in zinc finger genes (ZNF3, 10, 229, 470, 543, 616, 664, 638, 716, and 799) and mucin genes (MUC4, 6, 12, and 16). Mutations were noted in MUC12 in both tumors. Conclusions. HPV-positive HNSCC is distinct from HPV-negative disease in terms of evidence of viral infection, p16 status, and frequency of mutations. Next-generation sequencing has the potential to identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers in HNSCC

Evolved orthogonal ribosome purification for in vitro characterization

We developed orthogonal ribosome−mRNA pairs in which the orthogonal ribosome (O-ribosome) specifically translates the orthogonal mRNA and the orthogonal mRNA is not a substrate for cellular ribosomes. O-ribosomes have been used to create new cellular circuits to control gene expression in new ways, they have been used to provide new information about the ribosome, and they form a crucial part of foundational technologies for genetic code expansion and encoded and evolvable polymer synthesis in cells. The production of O-ribosomes in the cell makes it challenging to study the properties of O-ribosomes in vitro, because no method exists to purify functional O-ribosomes from cellular ribosomes and other cellular components. Here we present a method for the affinity purification of O-ribosomes, via tagging of the orthogonal 16S ribosomal RNA. We demonstrate that the purified O-ribosomes are pure by primer extension assays, and structurally homogenous by gel electrophoresis and sucrose gradients. We demonstrate the utility of this purification method by providing a preliminary in vitro characterization of Ribo-X, an O-ribosome previously evolved for enhanced unnatural amino acid incorporation in response to amber codons. Our data suggest that the basis of Ribo-X’s in vivo activity is a decreased affinity for RF1