CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW HIGHWAY EMBANKMENT ON THE SOFT CLAY SOIL TREATMENT BY STONE COLUMNS IN MALAYSIA

To continue of the second phase of the East Coast Expressway between Kuantan and Kula Terengganu in Malaysia system innovative solution are required. In this new phase there are embankment region has been subjected to extensive soft clay soil. These comprise typically of clayey silts of very high water content and undrained shear strengths in the range of 8 to 11 kPa to depths of up to 8m. To support an embankment height of up to 12 m, were filled and thereafter Vibro Replacement treatment was carried out to treat the very soft soil. Extensive instrumentation using rod settlement gauges, inclinometers and piezometers were installed to monitor the performance of the Vibro Replacement treatment. This paper reports on aspects of design, installation and the measured results from the instrumentation scheme

B cells from SLE patients display accelerated apoptosis and reduced anti-apoptotic response to sIgM and CD40 ligation

published_or_final_versio

Qualitative study of loneliness in a senior housing community: the importance of wisdom and other coping strategies.

ObjectiveOlder adults are at a high risk for loneliness, which impacts their health, well-being, and longevity. While related to social isolation, loneliness is a distinct, internally experienced, distressing feeling. The present qualitative study sought to identify characteristics of loneliness in older adults living independently within a senior housing community, which is typically designed to reduce social isolation.MethodSemi-structured qualitative interviews regarding the experience of loneliness, risk factors, and ways to combat it were conducted with 30 older adults, ages 65-92 years. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded using a grounded theory analytic approach based on coding, consensus, co-occurrence, and comparison.ResultsThree main themes with multiple subthemes are described: (A) Risk and Protective factors for loneliness: age-associated losses, lack of social skills or abilities, and protective personality traits; (B) Experience of loneliness: Sadness and lack of meaning as well as Lack of motivation; and (C) Coping strategies to prevent or overcome loneliness: acceptance of aging, compassion, seeking companionship, and environment enables socialization.DiscussionDespite living within a communal setting designed to reduce social isolation, many older adults described feeling lonely in stark negative terms, attributing it to aging-associated losses or lack of social skills and abilities. However, interviewees also reported positive personal qualities and actions to prevent or cope with loneliness, several of which mirrored specific components of wisdom. The results support the reported inverse relationship between loneliness and wisdom and suggest a potential role for wisdom-enhancing interventions to reduce and prevent loneliness in older populations

Post Windstorm Evaluation of Critical Aspects Causing Damage to Rural Houses in the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia

Rural houses are susceptible to roof blown off and severe damage during a windstorm event due to the lack of engineering considerations. The aim of this paper is to conduct a post windstorm evaluation on the damaged rural houses located in the northern region of Peninsula Malaysia. Several activities were involved during the post windstorm survey including site visualization, site measurement and interview. Critical aspects including types of damages, types of houses, gap height, overhang length, roof geometry, roof pitch, roof cladding and terrain category were analysed using a simple bar chart. It is anticipated that the presence of kitchen house influences the overall stability of the rural houses due to the formation of gap height

Inventory Investment and Production in Europe: Is There a Pattern?

The paper investigates the nexus between inventory investment and the change in aggregate production for 29 European countries over the period 2000-2009. A special interest is taken in the Great Recession of 2008/09. For most countries, a fairly uniform pattern emerges. Inventory investment is positively correlated with changes in production and follows the latter with a time-lag of two to three quarters. Therefore, there is no evidence that inventory investment either drives or smoothes the business cycle. Very few countries - Austria, Greece, Spain, and Switzerland - diverge from the typical pattern. This might hint to problems with respect to data quality

Coherence Resonance and Noise-Induced Synchronization in Globally Coupled Hodgkin-Huxley Neurons

The coherence resonance (CR) of globally coupled Hodgkin-Huxley neurons is studied. When the neurons are set in the subthreshold regime near the firing threshold, the additive noise induces limit cycles. The coherence of the system is optimized by the noise. A bell-shaped curve is found for the peak height of power spectra of the spike train, being significantly different from a monotonic behavior for the single neuron. The coupling of the network can enhance CR in two different ways. In particular, when the coupling is strong enough, the synchronization of the system is induced and optimized by the noise. This synchronization leads to a high and wide plateau in the local measure of coherence curve. The local-noise-induced limit cycle can evolve to a refined spatiotemporal order through the dynamical optimization among the autonomous oscillation of an individual neuron, the coupling of the network, and the local noise.Comment: five pages, five figure

Dielectric spectroscopy on mixture of rice husk, rice husk ash and rice bran from 4 Hz to 1 MHz

In this study, mixtures of rice husk/rice husk ashes (RHA) with RB on different ratios were prepared. Dielectric permittivity (ε'), loss factor (ε") and AC conductivity (σ') were measured in the frequency range of 4 Hz to 1 MHz in ambient temperature. Results for mixture of RHA and RB indicate that a dipolar relaxation occurring between 103 - 105 Hz and the peak is depressed and shifted to lower frequency as the RB content increases in the mixture. Moreover, AC conductivity decreases as the RB content increase. This may attributed to production of natural oil content from RB. In contrast, a dielectric characteristic for RH is generally not affected by the RB contents. This study explore dielectric characteristic of mixture between RH/RHA and RB in low frequency range because lack of literature is reported on low frequency response. Additionally, the potential application of RH/RHA and RB could be explored in effort to diminish waste disposal and enhance environmental protection