Probabilistic Evaluation of the Sustainability of Maintenance Strategies for RC Structures Exposed to Chloride Ingress

International audienceNowadays, multiple constraints imposed by economical, social and environmental considerations undergo maintenance planning optimization into a major challenge to designers, owners and users of infrastructure. This study presents a simplified methodology to evaluate the sustainability of maintenance strategies used in reinforced concrete structures exposed to chlorides. The proposed approach is illustrated throughout the paper with an application to large-scale maintenance of a real structure (Agri-foodstuffs terminal wharf). The repair strategy consists of demolition of the polluted concrete and rebuilding of cover by using three techniques (wet shotcrete, dry shotcrete and formed concrete). The repair times are estimated by taking the randomness of chloride ingress into account. Three criteria are used to evaluate the sustainability of the repair techniques: present value life-cost, waste production and CO2 emissions. Based on this multi-criteria comparison, a simplified decision-making scheme based on a multi-objective index is proposed

Para pensar o horizonte da arte e da educação na contemporaneidade

This article aims to discuss the relationship between the visual arts and basic education, taking into account the emergence of new ways of inhabiting schools, such as those that have arisen from occupations in public schools by students in Brazil since 2015. It is believed that both art and education, understood as expanded and open fields of thought, can mutually learn other ways of facing the urgent needs of our time as regards basic education in Brazil, with special attention to the visual arts in this context. For the proposed discussion, we have taken as theoretical interlocutors philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Rancière, among others, raising questions about the form of art which has been taken to schools and what kind of artistic experience has been developed in them. We understand that schools today require ways to act and to conduct oneself within the visual arts that meet what currently takes place in the common experience shared by their inhabitants.Este artigo pretende problematizar a relação entre as artes visuais e a educação básica, levando em conta a emergência de novos modos de habitar a escola, como os surgidos a partir de ocupações em escolas públicas por estudantes no Brasil desde o ano de 2015. Acredita-se que tanto a arte quanto a educação, compreendidas como campos expandidos e abertos de pensamento, podem aprender mutuamente outros modos de enfrentar as urgências de nosso tempo em relação à educação básica em território brasileiro, com atenção especial às artes visuais nesse contexto. Para a discussão proposta, tomamos como interlocutores teóricos filósofos como Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben e Jaques Rancière, entre outros, interrogando sobre a arte que se tem levado para a escola e sobre a experiência com as artes visuais que lá se tem desenvolvido. Entendemos que a escola de hoje exige modos de agir e de se conduzir as artes visuais que atendam ao que se passa no presente da existência comum e partilhada entre os seus habitantes

Proposições educativas e formativas em arte: do (im)previsível dessas composições aos arranjos e invenções de uma aula

Proposições educativas e formativas em arte: do (im)previsível dessas composições aos arranjos e invenções de uma aul

Methodology and numerical strategy for forecasting the leakage rate evolution of nuclear reactor buildings inner containments

The containment building represents the third and last protection barrier of nuclear reactors buildings (NRB). Yet ageing mechanisms of prestressed concrete could strongly affect the tightness capacity of the inner containment of a double-wall reactor building over time. That is a major issue considering the long-term operation and the potential life extension of NRBs while ensuring safety and regulatory requirements. Considering the size of those structures and the complexity of all interacting phenomena (such as drying, creep, shrinkage and cracking), it is very difficult from a computational perspective to build an industrial and operational tool modeling efficiently all the strong couplings occurring at different scales. In that context, a simple yet physically representative chained weakly-coupled strategy based on a macro-element discretization is implemented and applied to the VeRCoRs mock-up (scale 1:3). The proposed methodology adapts to feedback and data collected with time. It enables operators to take into account variabilities and uncertainties of main parameters in order to quantify their impact on the total leakage rate, to manually introduce defects coming from visual inspections and to preempt and optimize leak mitigation actions in order to avoid outage extensions and associated losses of income

Verificação da Adequação do Conteúdo Textual dos Serviços Web Públicos Brasileiros para Usuários com Baixo Letramento / Alternative Title: Verification of the Textual Content Adequacy of Brazilian Public Web Services for Low Literacy Users

A popularização da internet propiciou o acesso a diferentes sistemas por meio de diferentes dispositivos. No Brasil, há anos tem se investido no acesso aos portais das instituições públicas, visando garantir o acesso por diferentes grupos de usuários, como os analfabetos funcionais. O presente artigo tem como objetivo verificar a adequação do conteúdo informacional dos serviços disponibilizados nos portais de instituições públicas para analfabetos funcionais, de forma a identificar possíveis melhorias no acesso à informação, com apoio de uma ferramenta de análise textual. Para isso, foram analisados textos de 26 serviços web disponíveis num portal público com uma ferramenta que avalia a coesão, coerência e dificuldade dos textos, além da aplicação de uma fórmula de inteligibilidade. Os resultados mostraram que todos os serviços avaliados não estão acessíveis para analfabetos funcionais

0008/2011 - Referencial Teórico sobre Analfabetismo Funcional

Este artigo apresenta um referencial teórico contendo um histórico sobre o analfabetismo funcional e suas principais características. São apresentadas estatísticas da evolução do analfabetismo funcional no Brasil. Ao longo do trabalho são descritas e exemplificadas algumas técnicas e tecnologias assistivas que permitem tornar o conteúdo da web mais acessível para este público, visando aumentar a sua participação e aprendizado na web. Entre as principais técnicas aplicadas, o uso de texto simplificado, imagens e áudio vêm sendo amplamente utilizados, para disponibilizar uma alternativa para o conteúdo textual não inteligível

Addressing DRIS (Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System) norms with potentially toxic elements for assessing the nutritional status of Eucalyptus amended with sewage sludge

Background: The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) gave valuable indices of the nutritional status of Eucalyptus amended with sewage sludge (SS). Aims: Our objective was to establish a DRIS norms and analytical method for Eucalyptus under SS application, by verifying in particular, the influence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) on the nutritional and plant development. Method: Data on mean annual increment, nutrient, and PTE concentration were obtained in an experiment at 22, 44, 54, and 76 months after planting Eucalyptus amended with SS. Results: Our results indicated that DRIS can give valuable data on the nutritional balance indices, in which it was possible to verify that Ba was the most limiting element due to its excess present both in the low and high yielding subpopulations, ranging from 10 to 40% of the populations with excess of Ba. The nutritional diagnosis in agreement with the DRIS model ranged from 60 to 98% among the populations. When modeling the DRIS functions with inclusion of PTEs, a consistent evaluation of the Eucalyptus nutritional status was observed, which generated more reliable indices that were able to rank the limiting elements for the Eucalyptus productivity. Conclusion: The new approach proved to be an effective tool for interpreting DRIS indices, by presenting reliable data when PTEs are included. Thus, the inclusion of PTEs in DRIS functions can provide valuable information, by determining which element can cause more damage to the plants. The need for specific norms for each region, plant age and sludge management are highlighted

Experimental investigation of the variability of concrete durability properties

One of the main objectives of the APPLET project was to quantify the variability of concrete properties to allow for a probabilistic performance-based approach regarding the service lifetime prediction of concrete structures. The characterization of concrete variability was the subject of an experimental program which included a significant number of tests allowing the characterization of durability indicators or performance tests. Two construction sites were selected from which concrete specimens were periodically taken and tested by the different project partners. The obtained results (mechanical behavior, chloride migration, accelerated carbonation, gas permeability, desorption isotherms, porosity) are discussed and a statistical analysis was performed to characterize these results through appropriate probability density functions

Isatuximab as monotherapy and combined with dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma

This phase 2 study evaluated isatuximab as monotherapy or combined with dexamethasone in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Patients had RRMM refractory to an immunomodulatory drug (IMiD) and a proteasome inhibitor (PI) or had received >= 3 prior lines of therapy incorporating an IMiD and PI. Patients received isatuximab either as monotherapy (20 mg/kg on days 1, 8, 15, and 22 [once weekly] of cycle 1 followed by 20 mg/kg on days 1 and 15 of subsequent cycles; Isa group) or in combination with dexamethasone (40 mg/d [20 mg/d in patients aged >= 75 years] once weekly; Isa-dex group). Treated patients (N=164) had received a median of 4 (range, 2-10) prior treatment lines. Patients received a median of 5 (1-24) and 7 (1-22) treatment cycles; at data cutoff, 13 (11.9%) of 109 and 15 (27.3%) of 55 patients remained on treatment in the Isa and Isa-dex arms, respectively. Overall response rate (primary efficacy end point) was 23.9% in the Isa arm and 43.6% in the Isa-dex arm (odds ratio, 0.405; 95% confidence interval, 0.192-0.859; P=.008). Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 4.9 and 18.9 months for Isa, and 10.2 and 17.3 months for Isa-dex. Infusion reactions (mostly grade 1/2) and hematologic abnormalities were the most common adverse events. There was a similar incidence of grade 3 or higher infections in both groups (22.0% and 21.8%). In conclusion, addition of dexamethasone to isatuximab increased response rates and survival outcomes with no detrimental effect on safety.Peer reviewe

Association of Genetic Markers with CSF Oligoclonal Bands in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Objective:to explore the association between genetic markers and Oligoclonal Bands (OCB) in the Cerebro Spinal Fluid (CSF) of Italian Multiple Sclerosis patients.Methods:We genotyped 1115 Italian patients for HLA-DRB1*15 and HLA-A*02. In a subset of 925 patients we tested association with 52 non-HLA SNPs associated with MS susceptibility and we calculated a weighted Genetic Risk Score. Finally, we performed a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) with OCB status on a subset of 562 patients. The best associated SNPs of the Italian GWAS were replicated in silico in Scandinavian and Belgian populations, and meta-analyzed.Results:HLA-DRB1*15 is associated with OCB+: p = 0.03, Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.6, 95% Confidence Limits (CL) = 1.1-2.4. None of the 52 non-HLA MS susceptibility loci was associated with OCB, except one SNP (rs2546890) near IL12B gene (OR: 1.45; 1.09-1.92). The weighted Genetic Risk Score mean was significantly (p = 0.0008) higher in OCB+ (7.668) than in OCB- (7.412) patients. After meta-analysis on the three datasets (Italian, Scandinavian and Belgian) for the best associated signals resulted from the Italian GWAS, the strongest signal was a SNP (rs9320598) on chromosome 6q (p = 9.4×10-7) outside the HLA region (65 Mb).Discussion:genetic factors predispose to the development of OCB