Use of tire derived aggregate in tunnel cut-and-cover

A case-history is reported in which tire derived aggregate (TDA) was successfully applied to reduce the weight of fill upon a cut-and-cover railway tunnel. Subsequent 3D numerical analyses are used to explore the effect of different assumptions about the constitutive model of the TDA material. Alternative dispositions of TDA around the tunnel section are also examined. Reductions of up to 60% in lining bending moment may be achieved. For the case analyzed the elastic description of the TDA has little influence on tunnel lining loads, although is important for fill settlement estimates.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

DISEÑO ESTRUCTURAL DE EDIFICIO MULTIFAMILIAR “VILLA CAYMA” DE 9 PISOS Y UN SÓTANO EN CONCRETO ARMADO

ASPECTOS GENERALES DESCRIPCIÓN DEL PROYECTO UBICACIÓN Y LOCALIZACIÓN DEL PROYECTO OBJETIVOS DEL PRESENTE PROYECTO INFORMACIÓN BÁSICA TOPOGRAFÍA MECÁNICA DE SUELOS GEOLOGÍA ANÁLISIS ESTRUCTURAL ESTRUCTURACIÓN DEL EDIFICIO REDIMENSIONAMIENTO DE PRINCIPALES ELEMENTOS ESTRUCTURALES MODELAJE ANÁLISIS COMPUTACIONAL POR CARGA MUERTA, VIVA Y SISMO DISEÑO ESTRUCTURAL EN CONCRETO ARMADO EL DISEÑO EN CONCRETO ARMADO DISEÑO DE LOSAS MACIZAS DISEÑO DE VIGAS DISEÑO DE COLUMNAS DISEÑO DE MUROS DE CORTE DISEÑO DE MUROS DE SÓTANO DISEÑO DE CIMENTACIONES DISEÑO DE ESCALERAS DISEÑO DEL TANQUE CISTERNA DISEÑO DEL TANQUE ELEVADO Y CUARTO DE MAQUINAS COSTOS Y PROGRAMACIÓN DE OBRAS COSTO DEL PROYECTO ESTRUCTURAL METRADOS ANÁLISIS DE PRECIOS UNITARIOS PRESUPUESTO FORMULAS POLINOMICAS ÍNDICES UNIFICADOS DEL INEI PROGRAMACIÓN DE OBRAS CALENDARIO DE AVANCE DE OBRA CALENDARIO VALORIZAD

The enzymatic determination of glucose in carbonated beverages: a useful tool for the undergraduate students to learn the basis of enzymatic analysis and the comparison of two analytical methods

The importance of enzymatic analysis in biochemistry, clinical chemistry and food chemistry is undoubted. The course "Applied Biochemistry" in our Faculty is aimed to undergraduate students of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In this subject, the principles and applications of enzymatic analysis are presented to the students, who receive a theoretical introductory lecture in the classroom before they carry out an experiment that should be feasible to be solved in a short laboratory period. The experimental protocol here presented, based on the enzymatic determination of glucose in carbonated beverages, has been implemented at the University of Málaga and it has been optimized according to the students’ results and commentaries along the last years. It aims to illustrate basic issues relating enzymatic analysis, including its potential application to food chemistry. Although there are several enzymatic methods that can be used for the determination of glucose, we selected the one based on the coupled reactions of glucose oxidase (GOD; EC 1.1.3.4.) and peroxidase (POD; EC 1.11.1.7.) because the kinetic constants of glucose oxidase allow the mentioned enzymatic reactions to be used in both, the end point and the kinetic enzymatic analysis methods. In this way, data for two different protocols for the determination of glucose concentration are obtained by the students from a single reaction mixture. Students construct a calibration curve for each method using a glucose standard solution, and use them to determine the glucose concentration in the problem solutions. The inclusion of replicate samples in the determination of the glucose concentration of an “ideal problem” (glucose in purified water) is used to illustrate the principles of statistics in the lab, and comparison with the “real value” allows an estimation of the accuracy of each method. The evaluation of glucose concentration in four carbonated beverages: coloured coke and uncoloured tonic sodas (regular or sugarless in both cases) makes student to recognise the appearance of interferences that should be either avoided or eliminated. Since all samples are analysed by means of end-point and kinetic methods, students can discuss the applicability of each method to these specific analytical problems. They are also encouraged to compare both analytical methods in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy, and time consumed. Chemistry and Biochemistry undergraduate students having performed this experiment in our laboratories have found it formative, interesting and challenging.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A practice project to prevent the cookbook model as modus operandi for biochemistry laboratory learning

Laboratory learning is a crucial component of chemistry and biochemistry instruction and should be conceived as a way to develop students’ reasoning, technical or practical skills, introducing them into the scientific method principles. Nevertheless, the heavily criticized “expository instruction style”, characterized by a cookbook nature, is still the most widespread style of laboratory instruction in our universities. Alternative learning styles based in the inquiry, discovery and problem-based pedagogical approaches, have been reported to promote students’ problem solving skills, critical thought and self-confidence development. We are currently involved in the Educative Innovation Project PIE17-065, funded by University of Malaga, aimed to improve the teaching practice of Biochemistry laboratory to undergraduate students. Based on an enzymatic analysis of glucose in soft-drinks we have developed a laboratory protocol as a part of a full practice project where students must work before and after the lab session, in order to prevent the cookbook model as modus operandi, therefore preventing the situation where the students get a first glimpse of the experiment protocol whereas they put on their lab coat. The learning activities have been designed to move our students from the passive role that characterizes the step-by-step procedures, to an active and critical attitude that starts before and remains after their laboratory session, also minimizing time, space, and equipment resources. Our results have shown that this experiment has improved the learning of both, future biochemists and chemists, which showed a very positive perception of the whole practical project.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. PIE 17-06

Homocysteine treatment alters redox capacity of both endothelial and tumor cells

Homocysteine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid playing key roles in two interconnected metabolic pathways, namely, the activated methyl cycle and the linear trans-sulfuration pathway that allows the conversion of methionine to cysteine. A dysregulation of intracellular homocysteine metabolism could yield an increased export of this amino acid, leading to hyperhomocysteinemia, which has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. In spite of decades of experimental effort, there is no definitive consensus on what could be the molecular mechanisms whereby hyperhomocysteinemia could contribute to cardiovascular disease. The redox active nature of homocysteine has favored the idea of an induction of oxidative stress as the underlying mechanism of homocysteine toxicity. In contrast, homocysteine can also behave as an anti-oxidant. The present work is aimed to further analyze the capacity of homocysteine to modulate the redox capacity of both endothelial and tumor cells. [Our experimental work is supported by grants BIO2014-56092-R (MINECO and FEDER) and P12-CTS-1507 (Andalusian Government and FEDER) and funds from group BIO-267 (Andalusian Government). The "CIBER de Enfermedades Raras" is an initiative from the ISCIII (Spain)].Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Nonlinear elasto–plastic performance prediction of materials stabilized with bitumen emulsion in rural road pavements

[Abstract:] This article presents numerical modelling of rural road pavement sections recycled in situ with two materials stabilized with bitumen emulsion. The two materials stabilized with bitumen emulsion are base course materials comprising 25% reclaimed asphalt pavement and 75% natural aggregates with and without 1% cement. A 3D-finite difference model was used to determine the response of these pavement sections when subjected to two types of loads with four types of soil subgrades of varying resistances. A nonlinear elasto–plastic Mohr-Coulomb model was used in the two materials stabilized with bitumen emulsion, and a nonlinear model was adopted in the four soil subgrades. Both the resilient and permanent behaviours of these materials were modelled. An analysis was conducted on rutting and fatigue resistances of the base course materials. The base course material containing 1% cement is more resistant and is apt for use in lightly trafficked rural roads. Both base course materials stabilized with bitumen emulsion will first fail from rutting before fatigue

One Shot Learning with class partitioning and cross validation voting (CP-CVV)

Producción CientíficaOne Shot Learning includes all those techniques that make it possible to classify images using a single image per category. One of its possible applications is the identification of food products. For a grocery store, it is interesting to record a single image of each product and be able to recognise it again from other images, such as photos taken by customers. Within deep learning, Siamese neural networks are able to verify whether two images belong to the same category or not. In this paper, a new Siamese network training technique, called CP-CVV, is presented. It uses the combination of different models trained with different classes. The separation of validation classes has been done in such a way that each of the combined models is different in order to avoid overfitting with respect to the validation. Unlike normal training, the test images belong to classes that have not previously been used in training, allowing the model to work on new categories, of which only one image exists. Different backbones have been evaluated in the Siamese composition, but also the integration of multiple models with different backbones. The results show that the model improves on previous works and allows the classification problem to be solved, an additional step towards the use of Siamese networks. To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing work that has proposed integrating Siamese neural networks using a class-based validation set separation technique so as to be better at generalising for unknown classes. Additionally, we have applied Cross-Validation-Voting with ConvNeXt to improve the existing classification results of a well-known Grocery Store Dataset.The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and by the Instituto para la Competitividad Empresarial de Castilla y León - FEDER (Project CCTT3/20/VA/0003

Mechanical properties and behaviour of in situ materials which are stabilised with bitumen emulsion

[Abstract:] This article presents a critical review of the mechanical properties of in situ materials which are stabilised with bitumen emulsion. A description is provided of the types of materials that are stabilised with bitumen emulsion presently available and different hypotheses about their behaviour and different properties are put forth. The two main categories of mechanical properties investigated in the laboratory by means of mechanical test are addressed: (a) properties similar to those of granular materials in accordance with their stress-dependent behaviour and (b) properties resembling hot mix asphalt materials in accordance with their temperature and time-dependent viscoelastic behaviour. The article concludes with several final remarks on the structural behaviour and mechanical properties of these materials