USE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE CONCRETE IN OKLAHOMA BRIDGE DECKS

An investigation was performed to develop four different high performance concrete (HPC) mixtures for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s (ODOT’s) 2004 Innovative Bridge Research and Construction (IBRC) project funded by the Federal Highway Administration. These HPC mixtures are designed to achieve a greater durability than normal concretes with an emphasis on the shrinkage developed. These mixtures were developed by studying the affects of air entrainment, cementitious materials content, water to cementitious materials (w/cm) ratio, supplemental cementitious materials, fiber reinforcement, and a shrinkage-reducing admixture. Additionally, a large focus of this investigation was developed in the aggregate blend used in the concretes. This study was performed by conducting a separate study of the validity of the Shilstone method of blending aggregates. The research consisted of two parts: a laboratory and a field investigation. The laboratory investigation consisted of an initial system of batching matrices and a succeeding empirical study to develop the four mixtures required. The field investigation consisted of test slabs for the HPC mixtures and actual bridge construction where the University of Oklahoma investigators served as consultants and additional tests were taken to further characterize the mixtures. Based on the results found in these investigations, conclusions and recommendations were made on the local materials and practices used in the HPC mixture.Final Report, May 2005-July 2006N

How Much Can a Campus Save on Utility Bills by Turning a 5-Workday Week Into a 4­Workday Week

The recent budget cuts campaign mandated by the governor's office had all state agencies in Texas looking for ways to reduce revenue spending. One of the cost savings opportunities perceived by many university officials is to convert a typical 5-workday week into a 4- workday week (e.g., Monday to Thursday) with 10 working hours each day during the universities summer session. The potential savings come from the fact that the universities can be partially shut down during the prolonged weekends (Friday to Sunday). It is believed that the savings from partially shutting down an extra workday is much more significant than the marginal energy increase caused by the extended working hours during workdays. This paper analyzes the potential energy cost savings of this approach for three real cases. The savings can be largely estimated by comparing whole-campus electricity consumptions between typical weekdays and weekends (or holidays). Energy overheads caused by the extended working hours (two more hours per working day) were also estimated. A limited shutdown scenario (similar to a typical weekend schedule) and a more aggressive shutdown scenario (similar to a typical holiday schedule) during the weekend periods are presented. The potential savings opportunities were from 0.32% to 1.53% of the annual electricity bills for different universities

Report of Energy Efficiency Study and Metering/Utilities Profile for Electricity Deregulation at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) Prairie View, Texas

The physical plant director and staff at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) do a good job of maintaining PVAMU facilities and keeping expenses down. During our visit, however, we were able to identify several opportunities for improving energy efficiency

Reward-Sensitive Basal Ganglia Stabilize the Maintenance of Goal-Relevant Neural Patterns in Adolescents

Maturation of basal ganglia (BG) and frontoparietal circuitry parallels developmental gains in working memory (WM). Neurobiological models posit that adult WM performance is enhanced by communication between reward-sensitive BG and frontoparietal regions, via increased stability in the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns. It is not known whether this reward-driven pattern stability mechanism may have a role in WM development. In 34 young adolescents (12.16–14.72 years old) undergoing fMRI, reward-sensitive BG regions were localized using an incentive processing task. WM-sensitive regions were localized using a delayed-response WM task. Functional connectivity analyses were used to examine the stability of goal-relevant functional connectivity patterns during WM delay periods between and within reward-sensitive BG and WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions. Analyses revealed that more stable goal-relevant connectivity patterns between reward-sensitive BG and WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions were associated with both greater adolescent age and WM ability. Computational lesion models also revealed that functional connections to WM-sensitive frontoparietal regions from reward-sensitive BG uniquely increased the stability of goal-relevant functional connectivity patterns within frontoparietal regions. Findings suggested (1) the extent to which goal-relevant communication patterns within reward-frontoparietal circuitry are maintained increases with adolescent development and WM ability and (2) communication from reward-sensitive BG to frontoparietal regions enhances the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns in adolescents’ WM. The maturation of reward-driven stability of goal-relevant neural patterns may provide a putative mechanism for understanding the developmental enhancement of WM

Optimization Measures for Sporting and Special Event Facilities: Design and Operation

Reducing unnecessary building energy costs is becoming more of a priority. Rising fuel prices and a global emphasis on energy efficiency are key contributing factors. This push towards energy efficiency certainly applies to today's athletic and special event facilities. High customer expectations and corresponding large operating expenses have helped to make energy conservation measures more of a priority in the facilities design. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in sporting and special event facility present a unique challenge to Continuous Commissioning (CC) engineers. In such facilities, high occupancy and equipment loads occur at the design load condition, but only a small fraction of the designed capacity is necessary for routine operations. On the other hand, during games and other events, system performance is critical. Therefore, significant savings potential exists, but care must be taken to avoid compromising the peak load operations. Maintenance uncertainties, equipment wear, and lack of operator knowledge all combine to affect the building operating costs. Continuous Commissioning, a process developed by the Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory, addresses issues such as these and proves very worthwhile. An overview of multi-purpose arenas and their usage will be given, and potential optimization measures and Continuous Commissioning of these facilities will be presented, along with some illustrative examples

Integrated Commissioning for a Large Medical Facility

The energy costs of heating, ventilating and air conditioning usually represents a large portion of the utility bills for a medical facility. One large, modem medical center located in the hot and humid region of southern Texas includes clinic areas, inpatient areas, critical areas, diagnostic areas, and pharmacy and a research center. An integrated commissioning of the HVAC system was performed for this building. The commissioning activities improved the building comfort conditions and reduced the utility costs by $225,000 for seven months during the commissioning periods and four months following the major commissioning completion. Some unique optimized control strategies were developed and implemented in the control system. This paper describes the commissioning activities and the results

Increasing abdominal pressure with and without PEEP: effects on intra-peritoneal, intra-organ and intra-vascular pressures

Intra-organ and intra-vascular pressures can be used to estimate intra-abdominal pressure. The aim of this prospective, interventional study was to assess the effect of PEEP on the accuracy of pressure estimation at different measurement sites in a model of increased abdominal pressure

Judicial decision-making within political parties: A political approach

How do German intra-party tribunals manage internal conflicts? More specifically, why do they accept some cases for trial but reject others? Required by law to strictly adhere to implement rule of law standards, German intra-party tribunals are designed to insulate conflict regulation from politics. Meanwhile, research on judicial politics highlights the role of political and strategic considerations in accepting cases for trial. Building on the latter, we develop a theory that emphasizes tribunals’ political concerns such as winning elections. We test our hypotheses with a mixed-effects logit model on a novel data set covering 1088 tribunal decisions in six German parties from 1967 until 2015. Our findings indicate that political factors exert a strong effect on tribunal case acceptance. Tribunals are more likely to accept cases when suffering electoral loss and after losing government office. Moreover, tribunals dismiss cases more easily when their parties display relatively high levels of policy agreement

Increasing abdominal pressure with and without PEEP: effects on intra-peritoneal, intra-organ and intra-vascular pressures

Intra-organ and intra-vascular pressures can be used to estimate intra-abdominal pressure. The aim of this prospective, interventional study was to assess the effect of PEEP on the accuracy of pressure estimation at different measurement sites in a model of increased abdominal pressure