Undrained Response and Liquefaction Behaviour of Non-Plastic Silty Sands Under Cyclic Loading

The undrained response and liquefaction behaviour of fine sand and silty sands consisting of 30% and 50% non-plastic fines were investigated in the present study. The effect of consolidation stress level, cyclic stress amplitude and amount of non-plastic fines on soil liquefaction have been studied through a systematically planned stress controlled cyclic triaxial tests. To examine the effect of consolidation pressure on liquefaction behaviour, the sand-silt specimens were prepared at 40% relative density and consolidated at pressures of 50, 100 and 200 kPa. To investigate the effect of fines content on liquefaction resistance of sands at constant postconsolidation void ratio, the sand-silt specimens were prepared at different relative densities of 20, 40 and 70%. The cyclic loading with CSR in the range of 0.075 to 0.275 was applied at a frequency of 1Hz in different tests. Test results show the influence of the addition of non-plastic fines to the sand on the reduction of liquefaction resistance. Soil specimens had exhibited higher resistance to liquefaction at low consolidation pressures and lower resistance at high consolidation pressures

Linking stroke mortality with air pollution, income, and greenness in northwest Florida: an ecological geographical study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Relatively few studies have examined the association between air pollution and stroke mortality. Inconsistent and inclusive results from existing studies on air pollution and stroke justify the need to continue to investigate the linkage between stroke and air pollution. No studies have been done to investigate the association between stroke and greenness. The objective of this study was to examine if there is association of stroke with air pollution, income and greenness in northwest Florida.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our study used an ecological geographical approach and dasymetric mapping technique. We adopted a Bayesian hierarchical model with a convolution prior considering five census tract specific covariates. A 95% credible set which defines an interval having a 0.95 posterior probability of containing the parameter for each covariate was calculated from Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations. The 95% credible sets are (-0.286, -0.097) for household income, (0.034, 0.144) for traffic air pollution effect, (0.419, 1.495) for emission density of monitored point source polluters, (0.413, 1.522) for simple point density of point source polluters without emission data, and (-0.289,-0.031) for greenness. Household income and greenness show negative effects (the posterior densities primarily cover negative values). Air pollution covariates have positive effects (the 95% credible sets cover positive values).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>High risk of stroke mortality was found in areas with low income level, high air pollution level, and low level of exposure to green space.</p

A study investigating the relationships between consumers' cultural values, their functional food perception and behaviour

The study is designed to investigate the relationships between consumers’ cultural values and their perceptions of functional foods. The Australian Dietary Guidelines have recommended the amount and kinds of foods that Australians need to eat to reduce the risk of chronic health problems. A reasonable number of foods in the guidelines fall under the functional foods category; for example, whole grain food products, legumes/lentils and non-starchy vegetables. Most Australian consumers are not eating foods as recommended by the dietary guidelines. One of the underlying reasons for such noncompliance could be the multicultural nature of the population in Australia. Consumers from different ethnic backgrounds have cultural values inherited from their tradition, family or parents, which can influence their decisions on how or whether they should choose foods recommended by the guidelines. There are very few studies specifically focusing on the relationship between consumers’ cultural values and their perception of functional food products, and most of the studies are either exploratory in nature or have been carried out under different cultural contexts than Australia, or they did not specifically study cultural values that affect functional food perceptions. There is a need for a rigorous study to confirm whether and how culture affects functional food perception and the cultural values that specifically influence the perception of functional foods. This research will follow a sequential research design, “qual-QUAN”. The study will include participants from Anglo-Australia, Indian and Chinese origin living in Australia. The research is aiming to recruit at least 20 consumers for a qualitative study and 600 participants for a quantitative study. The qualitative data will be collected through in-depth interviews and will be analysed using the Grounded Theory method. The quantitative data will be collected by questionnaire survey and will be analysed using the Exploratory Factor Analysis method

Durability and Microstructure Characteristics of Concrete with Supplementary Cementitious Materials

Considering the environmental impact of cement manufacturing industries, this paper concerns the potential of using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), like fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag, as being essential to replacing the existing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The objective of this paper is to study the microstructural characteristics of concrete with SCMs and improve the durability of the product to increase the lifespan of concrete structures. Replacement SCMs in OPC are 0, 40, 50, and 60 by percentage of cement weight, and we have taken a water-binder ratio of 0.40 for M40 grade and 0.28 for M60 grade concrete. The physical properties and chemical composition of OPC, Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS), and fly ash were identified, and three different experiments were conducted to determine the resistance to penetration of chloride ions and corrosion processes. The rapid chloride permeability test, accelerated corrosion, and sorptivity tests were employed to measure concrete's resistance to the effects of aggressive environments and examine the durability properties. The most performed grade samples were analyzed as individual microspheres with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDXS), and X-ray diffraction. Significant improvements in various concrete properties were achieved through the partial replacement of fly ash and GGBS with cement. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-04-05 Full Text: PD

A control theorem for pp-adic automorphic forms and Teitelbaum's L\mathcal{L}-invariant

In this article, we describe an efficient method for computing Teitelbaum's $p$-adic $\mathcal{L}$-invariant. These invariants are realized as the eigenvalues of the $\mathcal{L}$-operator acting on a space of harmonic cocycles on the Bruhat-Tits tree $\mathcal{T}$, which is computable by the methods of Franc and Masdeu described in \cite{fm}. The main difficulty in computing the $\mathcal{L}$-operator is the efficient computation of the $p$-adic Coleman integrals in its definition. To solve this problem, we use overconvergent methods, first developed by Darmon, Greenberg, Pollack and Stevens. In order to make these methods applicable to our setting, we prove a control theorem for $p$-adic automorphic forms of arbitrary even weight. Moreover, we give computational evidence for relations between slopes of $\mathcal{L}$-invariants of different levels and weights for $p=2$.Comment: 26 page

Nitric oxide pollutant formation in high hydrogen content (HHC) syngas flames

Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) of high hydrogen content (HHC) syngas nonpremixed jet flames with a Reynolds number of Re = 6000 have been carried out to study the nitric oxide (NO) pollutant formation. The detailed chemistry employed is the GRI 3.0 updated with the influence of the NCN radical chemistry using flamelet generated manifolds (FGM). Preferential diffusion effects have been considered via FGM tabulation and the reaction progress variable transport equation. The DNS based quantitative results indicate a strong correlation between the flame temperature and NO concentration for the pure hydrogen flame, in which NO formation is mainly characterised by the Zeldovich mechanism. The results also indicate a rapid decrease of maximum NO values in H2/CO syngas mixtures due to lower temperatures associated with the CO-dilution into H2. Results on NO formation routes in H2/CO syngas flames show that while the Zeldovich mechanism dominates the NO formation at low strain rates, the high NO formation rate at high strain rates is entirely caused by the NNH mechanism. We also found that the Fenimore mechanism has a least contribution on NO formation in H2/CO syngas flames due to absence of CH radicals in the oxidation of CO. It is found that, due to preferential diffusion, NO concentration exhibits higher values near the flame base depending on the hydrogen content in H2/CO syngas fuel mixture

7th College of Physicians Lecture -The Changing Face of Medicine, Medicine - Past, Present and Future

Introduction When we think about medicine, just like we do about other things in life in the past and the present, we usually refl ect on the good old days. On hindsight, the past always seems brighter than the present. Sometimes, it is worth looking back to see how things have changed. There may be many elements in the past that are worth bringing back to the present and carrying into the future. In this paper, I will fi rst discuss some of the changes that we have seen in our lifetime. I will then outline new opportunities and challenges we face with the practice of medicine in the 21st century

Effect of Cell Phone Usage on Semen Analysis in Men Attending Infertility Clinics: An Observational Study

Compares the sperm parameters -- such as mean sperm count, motility, viability, and normal morphology -- of men divided into four groups according to the amount of time they spend on cell phones on a daily basis