Performance of Deep Soil Nailed Walls

Exactly 40 years ago, one sunny September day, I found myself at the secretarial office of Geotechnical Engineering at UC Berkeley. I was very excited because it was going to be the first meeting with my advisor, Professor James K. Mitchell. Although I had previously received a very warm welcome letter from Professor Mitchell, I was convinced the meeting would be a very different experience for a foreign student from Turkey. Upon entering his office, and receiving a warm welcome, my assignment as a Research Assistant at the Richmond Field Station was explained to me and my schedule of classes for the Fall Quarter was identified. Professor Mitchell was apparently not impressed with my fluent English! He advised me to add a course entitled English for Foreign Students to my schedule. After a successful academic year and the completion of a series of tests to investigate the effect of salt water intrusion on the hydraulic conductivity of aquitard clays in southern California, Professor Mitchell asked me if I would be interested in participating in the NASA Lunar Soil Mechanics research program. I answered yes and that was the beginning of my involvement in the development of static penetration testing and analysis for the lunar environment, the topic of my doctoral dissertation under Professor Mitchell\u27s guidance and great motivation. It is a great privilege for me to present this paper on a very special day honoring my dear Professor. Obviously, it was not easy to decide on the topic. The inspiration for the paper evolved in my mind in the following manner. First, this Conference focuses on case histories in Geotechnical Engineering and, therefore, the paper should be within the theme of the Conference. Second, Jim has been interested throughout his professional life in soil improvement and soil reinforcement. Consequently, the choice of soil nailing would be of interest to him. Third, Jim is also interested in the soil behavior and performance of soil-structures. Therefore, the topic should incorporate performance monitoring. As a result, I have decided to present a summary of my experience during the last decade related to the behavior of deep soil nailed walls in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout my academic and professional life in Geotechnical Engineering, I always found Professor Mitchell very willing to share his views and to give advice to solve a myriad of problems with which I was confronted. I could always count on Professor Mitchell. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jim for his friendship throughout my adult life and his untiring dedication to the advancement of my professional career

The economics of using sediment-entrapment reduction measures in lake and reservoir design

One of the most important impacts of building and maintaining a reservoir is the loss of storage capacity caused by sediment deposition behind the dam. Sediment deposition in the reservoir reduces the water storage volume and decreases or even negates the utility of the dam, and deteriorates the water quality. The loss of utility of a reservoir as a result of sedimentation or siltation can be considered an economic, environmental, and even a design failure. The objective of this study was to investigate, through an extensive literature search, the suitability and efficiency of several reservoir sedimentation reduction measures practiced in small- and medium-sized lakes. Some of the methods successfully used for reducing sediment entrapment in reservoirs were watershed management, building check dams, bypassing sediment-laden flows, using density currents, flood flushing, drawdown flushing, flushing and emptying, siphoning, and dredging. The mitigation and operation methods so identified were evaluated with respect to their rate of success, cost, environmental impacts, and ease of implementation or retrofitting. The economies expected in using the identified alternative mitigative measures versus more conventional reservoir design were investigated in terms of reduced initial cost of reservoir and/or dredging costs.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological SurveyOpe

Developing digital proficiencies of English learners in adult education

All around the globe, the development of digital skills is considered a priority because individuals are increasingly asked to interact with digital information. Digital literacy is required to communicate effectively and accomplish social and work-related tasks. Although there is a significant body of literature on the development of digital proficiencies in educational settings from elementary school to university, there is limited research with adults who are continuing their education later in life, usually outside of formal educational systems. The purpose of this paper is to report results from a study conducted with English learners in an adult education program in the U.S. The study evaluated the digital component of a new curriculum named CILIA-T (Content-Integrated Language Instruction for Adults with Technology Support), CILIA-T is a 16-module curriculum supporting adult learners to build their English skills, US History and Civics knowledge and digital proficiencies. In this study, researchers partnered with teachers to introduce part of the digital literacy content of the curriculum. There was a test given before and after the teaching. To determine the effectiveness of the digital literacy curriculum, the scores on the pre and post-tests and the duration to complete the pre and post-tests were analyzed. There were also learner and teacher surveys to evaluate the usability and utility of the curriculum. Main findings indicated that explicit instruction in digital literacy skills led to significant improvement across all participants. Teachers and learners found the digital literacy curriculum to be helpful and relevant

Precipitation Augmentation for Crops Experiment: Phase II, Exploratory Research, Year 1

NOTE: Appendix referenced on page 7-2 of the main report was not included in the original scan of the report, nor in the print copy in the University Library. The appendix was acquired from Nancy Westcott in 2019, and it is incomplete, lacking "Appendix B - Examples of Products Generated by the Forecasting/Nowcasting System"published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpe

Acquiring reading and vocabulary in Dutch and English: the effect of concurrent instruction

To investigate the effect of concurrent instruction in Dutch and English on reading acquisition in both languages, 23 pupils were selected from a school with bilingual education, and 23 from a school with education in Dutch only. The pupils had a Dutch majority language background and were comparable with regard to social-economic status (SES). Reading and vocabulary were measured twice within an interval of 1 year in Grade 2 and 3. The bilingual group performed better on most English and some of the Dutch tests. Controlling for general variables and related skills, instruction in English contributed significantly to the prediction of L2 vocabulary and orthographic awareness at the second measurement. As expected, word reading fluency was easier to acquire in Dutch with its relatively transparent orthography in comparison to English with its deep orthography, but the skills intercorrelated highly. With regard to cross-linguistic transfer, orthographic knowledge and reading comprehension in Dutch were positively influenced by bilingual instruction, but there was no indication of generalization to orthographic awareness or knowledge of a language in which no instruction had been given (German). The results of the present study support the assumption that concurrent instruction in Dutch and English has positive effects on the acquisition of L2 English and L1 Dutch

The 1988-1989 Drought in Illinois: causes, dimensions, and impacts

The 1988-1989 drought was one of the most disastrous droughts in the history of the state. Hydrologic, meteorological, and climatological aspects of the 1988-1989 drought in Illinois are addressed. The drought is evaluated in terms of precipitation, streamflow, lakes and reservoirs, and ground-water resources of the state. The meteorological conditions that produced the drought also are addressed. Impacts and problems resulting from the drought are discussed along with various actions taken to ameliorate the problems. Although the primary goal of the study was to quantify the drought, primarily in a physical sense, an important secondary goal was to assess the impacts and the actions employed in order to derive information needed in future planning and handling of Illinois droughts. The report thus ends with a set of recommendations for coping with future droughts.Ope

The measurement of bilingual abilities: central challenges

In this handbook chapter I analyse the concept of bilingual abilities. Bilinguals vary widely in what they can do with their languages or in the ways in which they use their languages on a daily basis. This means that there is a great deal of variability in what the term covers. While many researchers subscribe to the holistic view of bilingualism, in the academic literature bilinguals are still often described in negative terms as having a "deficit" in one or another subsystem of their languages. The key aim of this chapter is to identify what makes individuals with bilingual abilities unique speaker-hearers in their own right, avoiding the fractional view of bilingualism, and how these abilities can be measured

First-language Longitudinal Predictors of Second-language Literacy In Young L2 Learners

Can young students' early reading abilities in their first language (L1) predict later literacy development in a second language (L2)? The cross-language relationships between Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among 87 Hong Kong students were explored in a longitudinal study. Chinese word-reading fluency, Chinese rapid digit naming, and Chinese rhyme awareness at age 7 (grade 1), with age and IQ taken into account, were significant concurrent and longitudinal predictors of English word reading, and text-level reading and writing skills across ages 7-10. These three Chinese measures together accounted for 16-28% of unique variance in the English literacy tasks across the three-year period. Students who showed word-reading difficulties in Chinese in grade 1 also performed more poorly than average Chinese readers in English reading and related cognitive tasks later on, especially on phonological tasks. The results provided evidence for the cross-language transfer of cognitive-linguistic abilities between two distinctly different orthographies. L1 markers underlying reading difficulties in both L1 and L2 can serve as early indicators of possible reading problems that may arise later in L2. These findings have clinical, educational, and theoretical implications.postprin

Within- and cross-language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading development in Chinese-English bilingual children

A growing body of cross-linguistic research has suggested that morphological awareness plays a key role in both L1 and L2 word reading among bilingual readers. However, little is known about the interaction and development of L1 and L2 morphological awareness in relation to word reading. We addressed this issue by evaluating the unique contributions of L1 Chinese and L2 English morphological awareness to word reading in both Chinese and English across Grades 2 (N = 150), 5 (N = 158), and 8 (N = 159) Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual children. Children completed five tasks of Chinese morphological awareness which tapped for compounding awareness, homophone awareness, homographic awareness, semantic radical awareness, and affix awareness, and six English morphological judgment and analogy tasks that assessed morphological awareness at three levels: inflection, derivation, and compounding. English phonological awareness, Chinese and English vocabulary, and nonverbal ability were measured as controls. Word reading was assessed in both languages. Within-language analyses revealed that Chinese morphological awareness accounted for 27, 22, and 12% of unique variances in Chinese word reading above the control measures in Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively. In contrast, English morphological awareness explained small but significant unique variances in English word reading, i.e., 4, 8, and 2%, across Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively. Critically, there were cross-language influences: Chinese morphological awareness explained 4% of unique variance in English word reading in Grade 2 after controlling for IQ, English vocabulary, English phonological awareness, and English morphological awareness; English morphological awareness explained significant variances in Chinese word reading, i.e., 4, 3, and 4% in Grades 2, 5, and 8 respectively, after the relevant controls. These findings suggest a bi-directional cross-language transfer of morphological awareness to word reading in L1 Chinese and L2 English. However, the direction of its transfer may be constrained by some language-specific morphological features