Case study for a KPI-based quality control system of roadway bridges

It has increasingly become challenging for civil engineers to change their strategy from developing new facilities to maintaining the existing aging infrastructures. Aiming to sustain their service performance throughout the operational stage. Especially for the roadway bridges, which are simple typical structures but very critical to the growth of the socioeconomic system. This research aims to suggest a quality control framework for managing highway bridges utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs). In this regard, case studies are being undertaken for several bridges, most located in European countries. The performance indicators (PIs) and goals (PGs) are formed during this. Then, following the assessment of the vulnerable zone, the derivation KPIs from those PIs are introduced and developed while considering various maintenance situations and time functions. The presentation includes a curated case study focusing on a steel truss bridge. This case study demonstrates the potential for developing a long-term strategy for managing highway bridges on a lifecycle level.The authors would like to acknowledge COST TU1406 Research Project: Quality specifications for roadway bridges, standardization at a European level (tu1406.eu), and now, to EuroStruct – European Association for the Quality Control of Bridges and Structures (eurostruct.org). Also, they would like to acknowledge the international R&D projects SAFEWAY - GIS-based infrastructure management system for optimized response to extreme events on terrestrial transport networks (safeway-project.eu), SIRMA – Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Management in the Atlantic Area (sirma-project.eu), and the national R&D projects InfraCrit (management system for critical infrastructures), GIIP (management system for port infrastructures), and GOA.BI – GOA Bridge Management System – Bridge Intelligence

Luby Transform Coding Aided Iterative Detection for Downlink SDMA Systems

A Luby Transform (LT) coded downlink Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) system using iterative detection is proposed, which invokes a low-complexity near-Maximum-Likelihood (ML) Sphere Decoder (SD). The Ethernet-based Internet section of the transmission chain inflicts random packet erasures, which is modelled by the Binary Erasure Channel (BEC), which the wireless downlink imposes both fading and noise. A novel log-Likelihood Ratio based packet reliability metric is used for identifying the channel-decoded packets, which are likely to be error-infested. Packets having residual errors must not be passed on to the KT decoder for the sake of avoiding LT-decoding –induced error propagation. The proposed scheme is capable of maintaining an infinitesimally low packet error ratio in the downlink of the wireless Internet for Eb/n0 values in excess of about 3dB

Defect generation at the Si–SiO₂ interface following corona charging

A combination of capacitance-voltage and lifetime decay measurements is used to show that corona biasing of silicon oxidized samples results in the generation of additional interface defects and an increase in surface recombination. The onset of interface degradation occurs at relatively low electric fields, estimated to be less than ∼+∕−1.2MV∕cm. The majority of the defects generated by corona biasing can be removed by a short annealing at 400°C. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that atomic hydrogen is chiefly responsible for the observed degradation. Corona biasing, even at low electric fields, cannot be relied on as a noninvasive characterization tool.Support from the Australian Research Council for this work is acknowledged

A smooth introduction to the wavefront set

The wavefront set provides a precise description of the singularities of a distribution. Because of its ability to control the product of distributions, the wavefront set was a key element of recent progress in renormalized quantum field theory in curved spacetime, quantum gravity, the discussion of time machines or quantum energy inequalitites. However, the wavefront set is a somewhat subtle concept whose standard definition is not easy to grasp. This paper is a step by step introduction to the wavefront set, with examples and motivation. Many different definitions and new interpretations of the wavefront set are presented. Some of them involve a Radon transform.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

Modifed Playfair for Text File Encryption and Meticulous Decryption with Arbitrary Fillers by Septenary Quadrate Pattern

Cryptography secures data and serves to ensure the confidentiality of records. Playfair is a cryptographic symmetrical algorithm that encrypts statistics based on key costs. This secret is shared with an authorized person to retrieve data. In the conventional pattern, there is an area complexity and deficiency in letters, numbers, and special characters. This hassle has been overcome in previous studies by editing pattern dimensions. The fillers used throughout the enciphering were not eliminated during the retrieval process, which resulted in the indiscrimination of the retrieved statistics. The proposed method uses a separate quadrate pattern that strengthens the Playfair cipher and guarantees that the fillers are eliminated to ensure the authentic retrieval of records. The fillers indiscriminate and strengthen the set of rules in opposition to brute force and avalanche impact. The proposed algorithm was evaluated with a minimal change in the key, and was found to have an avalanche effect between 65% and 93.7%. The encrypted document is further encoded using the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) to provide compressed second-level secured text with a compression ratio of 0.75 for a file size of 100 KB. The pattern was designed to subsidize the integrated characters found on the keyboard

Competing magnetic fluctuations in Sr3Ru2O7 probed by Ti doping

We report the effect of nonmagnetic Ti4+ impurities on the electronic and magnetic properties of Sr3Ru2O7. Small amounts of Ti suppress the characteristic peak in magnetic susceptibility near 16 K and result in a sharp upturn in specific heat. The metamagnetic quantum phase transition and related anomalous features are quickly smeared out by small amounts of Ti. These results provide strong evidence for the existence of competing magnetic fluctuations in the ground state of Sr3Ru2O7. Ti doping suppresses the low temperature antiferromagnetic interactions that arise from Fermi surface nesting, leaving the system in a state dominated by ferromagnetic fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Development of a quality control framework for the highway bridge using KPIs

The development of essential transportation infrastructures such as roads and bridges is critical to the growth of the socioeconomic system. To sustain their service performance throughout the operational stage, it is challenging for the engineers to change their strategy from developing new facilities to maintaining the ageing infrastructure already in place. As a result, this article aims to suggest a quality control framework for managing highway bridges utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs). Case studies are being undertaken for several bridges, most located in European countries. The performance indicators (PIs) and goals (PGs) are formed during this. Then, following the assessment of the vulnerable zone, the derivation KPIs from those PIs are introduced and developed while considering various maintenance situations and time functions. The presentation includes a curated case study focusing on a steel truss bridge. This case study demonstrates the good potential for developing a long-term strategy for managing highway bridges on a lifecycle level.The authors would like to acknowledge COST TU1406 Research Project: Quality specifications for roadway bridges, standardization at a European level (tu1406.eu), and now, to EuroStruct – European Association for the Quality Control of Bridges and Structures (eurostruct.org). Also, they would like to acknowledge the international R&D projects SAFEWAY - GIS-based infrastructure management system for optimized response to extreme events on terrestrial transport networks (safeway-project.eu), SIRMA – Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Management in the Atlantic Area (sirma-project.eu), and the national R&D projects InfraCrit (management system for critical infrastructures), GIIP (management system for port infrastructures), and GOA.BI – GOA Bridge Management System – Bridge Intelligence

Quantum magnetism and counterflow supersolidity of up-down bosonic dipoles

We study a gas of dipolar Bosons confined in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Dipoles are considered to point freely in both up and down directions perpendicular to the lattice plane. This results in a nearest neighbor repulsive (attractive) interaction for aligned (anti-aligned) dipoles. We find regions of parameters where the ground state of the system exhibits insulating phases with ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic ordering, as well as with rational values of the average magnetization. Evidence for the existence of a novel counterflow supersolid quantum phase is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Osteocyte dysfunction promotes osteoarthritis through MMP13-dependent suppression of subchondral bone homeostasis.

Osteoarthritis (OA), long considered a primary disorder of articular cartilage, is commonly associated with subchondral bone sclerosis. However, the cellular mechanisms responsible for changes to subchondral bone in OA, and the extent to which these changes are drivers of or a secondary reaction to cartilage degeneration, remain unclear. In knee joints from human patients with end-stage OA, we found evidence of profound defects in osteocyte function. Suppression of osteocyte perilacunar/canalicular remodeling (PLR) was most severe in the medial compartment of OA subchondral bone, with lower protease expression, diminished canalicular networks, and disorganized and hypermineralized extracellular matrix. As a step toward evaluating the causality of PLR suppression in OA, we ablated the PLR enzyme MMP13 in osteocytes while leaving chondrocytic MMP13 intact, using Cre recombinase driven by the 9.6-kb DMP1 promoter. Not only did osteocytic MMP13 deficiency suppress PLR in cortical and subchondral bone, but it also compromised cartilage. Even in the absence of injury, osteocytic MMP13 deficiency was sufficient to reduce cartilage proteoglycan content, change chondrocyte production of collagen II, aggrecan, and MMP13, and increase the incidence of cartilage lesions, consistent with early OA. Thus, in humans and mice, defects in PLR coincide with cartilage defects. Osteocyte-derived MMP13 emerges as a critical regulator of cartilage homeostasis, likely via its effects on PLR. Together, these findings implicate osteocytes in bone-cartilage crosstalk in the joint and suggest a causal role for suppressed perilacunar/canalicular remodeling in osteoarthritis