Investigating Fatigue Performance on the Foamed Asphalt Specimens Generated Using Different Foam Properties

An evaluation of fatigue resistance for foamed asphalt mixture is very demanding since the binder is not continuously distributed on the aggregate surface and this mixtures contains water, the content of which dramatically affects the mechanical properties. This paper discusses the results of laboratory fatigue testingon the foamed asphalt mixtures in which the specimens are generated using three different foamed bitumen properties. Foamed bitumen as the binder was produced at three different foaming water content (FWC) at a temperature of 180oC using a 70/100 pen. The aggregates were mechanically mixed with foamed bitumen using a Hobart mixer. The resulting mixtures were then compacted using a gyratory compactor to generatespecimen with diameter of 100 mm. The specimens were fatigue tested at various stress levels at a temperature of 20oC following a curing period of 3 days at 40oC. Overall, fatigue performance of foamed asphalt can be identified based upon both stress and strain for mixtures produced at FWC 1%, 5%, and 10%

Évolution de la monnaie et du crédit en France en 2009.

Phénomène inédit depuis l’avènement de l’euro, les engagements monétaires du secteur bancaire se sont contractés en 2009 tandis que les encours de crédits au secteur privé restaient pratiquement étales jusqu’en fin d’année.Monnaie, crédits à l’habitat, crédits aux entreprises.

A white dwarf-neutron star relativistic binary model for soft gamma-ray repeaters

A scenario for SGRs is introduced in which gravitational radiation reaction effects drive the dynamics of an ultrashort orbital period X-ray binary embracing a high-mass donor white dwarf (WD) to a rapidly rotating low magnetised massive neutron star (NS) surrounded by a thick, dense and massive accretion torus. Driven by GR reaction, sparsely, the binary separation reduces, the WD overflows its Roche lobe and the mass transfer drives unstable the accretion disk around the NS. As the binary circular orbital period is a multiple integer number ($m$) of the period of the WD fundamental mode (Pons et al. 2002), the WD is since long pulsating at its fundamental mode; and most of its harmonics, due to the tidal interaction with its NS orbital companion. Hence, when the powerful irradiation glows onto the WD; from the fireball ejected as part of the disk matter slumps onto the NS, it is partially absorbed. This huge energy excites other WD radial ($p$-mode) pulsations (Podsiadlowski 1991,1995). After each mass-transfer episode the binary separation (and orbital period) is augmented significantly (Deloye & Bildsten 2003; Al\'ecyan & Morsink 2004) due to the binary's angular momentum redistribution. Thus a new adiabatic inspiral phase driven by GR reaction starts which brings the binary close again, and the process repeats. This model allows to explain most of SGRs observational features: their recurrent activity, energetics of giant superoutbursts and quiescent stages, and particularly the intriguing subpulses discovered by BeppoSAX (Feroci et al. 1999), which are suggested here to be {\it overtones} of the WD radial fundamental mode (see the accompanying paper: Mosquera Cuesta 2004b).Comment: This paper was submitted as a "Letter to the Editor" of MNRAS in July 17/2004. Since that time no answer or referee report was provided to the Author [MNRAS publication policy limits reviewal process no longer than one month (+/- half more) for the reviewal of this kind of submission). I hope this contribution is not receiving a similar "peer-reviewing" as given to the A. Dar and A. De Rujula's "Cannonball model for gamma-ray bursts", or to the R.K. Williams' "Penrose process for energy extraction from rotating black holes". The author welcomes criticisms and suggestions on this pape

Endófitos fúngicos relacionados con la maduración natural y compuestos aromáticos en frutos de especies de la orquídea del género Vanilla

The biotic interaction between plants and endophytic fungi strengthens the adaptive capacity of the hosts against environmental disturbances, and confers nutrition and protection benefits to the associated microorganisms. Studies associated with endophytic fungi report their presence in the greatest diversity of existing plants. In hosts such as Cannabis, the interaction with endophytic fungi favors the production of secondary metabolites and phytohormones that participate in obtaining organoleptic properties such as flavors and aromas. However, the research carried out in the Vanilla genus is scarce, making it difficult to understand the functions that these microorganisms can perform for the benefit of the host. In relation to Vanilla, the fruits of species within the aromatic clade are distinguished by the presence of aromatic compounds, which increase their content during ripening. Some studies have shown that in the fruits of this orchid there are endophytic fungi possibly associated with the ripening process that is accelerated by curing, but few of these studies have evaluated the activity of these fungi related to the natural ripening of the fruit. In this review, scientific literature related to the knowledge of fungal endophyte communities and their possible contribution to the ripening and production of aromatic compounds in vanilla fruits is compiled. Research opportunities are identified to develop future studies on the role of fungal microorganisms in obtaining metabolites and aromatic precursors from the fruits of Vanilla species, both in wild conditions and in commercial crops.La interacción biótica entre plantas y hongos endófitos fortalece la capacidad adaptativa de los hospederos frente a perturbaciones del ambiente, y confiere a los microorganismos asociados beneficios de nutrición y protección. Estudios asociados a hongos endófitos reportan su presencia en la mayor diversidad de plantas existentes. En diferentes plantas hospederas,  la interacción con hongos endófitos favorece la producción de metabolitos secundarios y fitohormonas que participan en la obtención de propiedades organolépticas como los sabores y los aromas. Sin embargo, las investigaciones desarrolladas en el género Vanilla son escasas, dificultando el entendimiento de las funciones que pueden desempeñar estos microorganismos en beneficio del hospedero. Con relación a Vanilla, los frutos de especies dentro del clado aromático se distinguen por la presencia de compuestos aromáticos, que aumentan su contenido durante la maduración. Algunos estudios, han demostrado que en los frutos de esta orquídea existen hongos endófitos posiblemente asociados al proceso de maduración que se acelera mediante el curado, pero pocos de estos estudios, han evaluado la actividad de dichos hongos relacionados con la maduración del fruto de forma natural. En esta revisión se recopila literatura científica relacionada con el conocimiento de las comunidades de endófitos fúngicos y su posible aporte en la maduración y producción de compuestos aromáticos en los frutos de vainilla. Se identifican oportunidades de investigación para desarrollar futuros estudios sobre el papel de los microorganismos fungosos para la obtención de metabolitos y precursores aromáticos de los frutos en especies de Vanilla, tanto en condiciones silvestres como en cultivos comerciales

Évolutions récentes du crédit aux ménages en France.

Les turbulences observées sur les marchés financiers n’ont guère affecté jusqu’à présent la distribution de crédits à l’habitat en France, alors que la demande des ménages a continué de se modérer de manière graduelle.crédits à l’habitat, ménages, endettement, conditions du crédit, taux débiteurs.

Methods for measuring gas emissions from naturally ventilated livestock buildings: Developments over the last decade and perspectives for improvement

[EN] The objectives of this paper are: 1) to give an overview of the development of methods for measuring emission rates from naturally ventilated livestock buildings over the last decade, 2) to identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses, 3) to summarise and conclude the current state-of-art of available measurement concepts and their perspectives for improvement. The methods reviewed include determination of concentration and air exchange rate separately, tracer gas ratio, passive flux samplers, flux chambers, and combined downwind measurement and dispersion modelling. It is concluded that passive flux samplers, flux chambers and combined measurement and dispersion modelling are useful, but for limited fields of application only and require further development and validation against reference methods. The most robust method to investigate emission rates available at this stage is the tracer gas ratio method, but improvements are required. They include more detailed estimates of CO2 release rates (when using CO2 as a tracer) and research into optimising dosing performance of tracer gas release systems. The reliability of tracer gas ratio methods applied in buildings with large ventilation openings needs to be improved by a more profound understanding of tracer-pollutant ratios and their spatial variability, and the development of improved sampling methods for concentration ratios. There is a need for a field reference method against which other methods can be evaluated. None of the diicussed measurement methods can be marked as a solid reference for all conditions; tracer gas ratio methods are the most likely candidate but need further improvement. (C) 2012 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The contribution to this paper of N. Ogink and J. Mosquera was financially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.Ogink, NWM.; Mosquera, J.; Calvet Sanz, S.; Zhang, G. (2013). Methods for measuring gas emissions from naturally ventilated livestock buildings: Developments over the last decade and perspectives for improvement. Biosystems Engineering. 116(3):297-308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2012.10.005S297308116

Bardeen-Petterson effect and the disk structure of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068

VLBA high spatial resolution observations of the disk structure of the active galactic nucleus NGC 1068 has recently revealed that the kinematics and geometry of this AGN is well characterized by an outer disk of H2O maser emission having a compact milliarcsecond (parsec) scale structure, which is encircling a thin rotating inner disk surrounding a ~10^7 M_\sun compact mass, likely a black hole. A curious feature in this source is the occurrence of a misalignment between the inner and outer parts of the disk, with the galaxy's radio jet being orthogonal to the inner disk. We interpret this peculiar configuration as due to the Bardeen-Petterson effect, a general relativistic effect that warps an initially inclined (to the black hole equator) viscous disk, and drives the angular momentum vector of its inner part into alignment with the rotating black hole spin. We estimate the time-scale for both angular momenta to get aligned as a function the spin parameter of the Kerr black hole. We also reproduce the shape of the parsec and kiloparsec scale jets, assuming a model in which the jet is precessing with a period and aperture angle that decrease exponentially with time, as expected from the Bardeen-Petterson effect.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Symbol-asynchronous transmission in multibeam satellite user down-link : rate regions for novel superposition coding schemes

We consider the forward link of a multibeam satellite system with high spectral reuse and the novel low-complexity transmission and detection strategies from [1]. More specifically, we study the impact of a time offset between the antenna beams that cooperate to simultaneously serve a given user. Assuming Gaussian signaling, we provide closed-form expressions for the achievable rate region. It is demonstrated that, in the absence of timing information at the gateway, this region is not affected by a time offset. Our numerical results further show that, in case timing is known at the gateway, an offset of half a symbol period at both user terminals is optimal in terms of spectral efficiency.Grant numbers : Satellite Network of Experts IV. © 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

Non-coherent rate-splitting for multibeam satellite forward link : practical coding and decoding algorithms

Non-Coherent Rate-Splitting (NCRS) was recently proposed as a practical multiuser coding and decoding scheme to increase the spectral efficiency of multibeam satellite communication systems. In this paper, we further study the practical realization of NCRS. We propose a modified coding scheme (NCRS*) that is robust to a nonzero time offset among beams. In NCRS*, as opposed to NCRS, the beams send independently channel encoded and modulated waveforms. We assess the performance of NCRS* in terms of the achievable rate region. It is shown that NCRS* performs worse than NCRS, but better than or comparable to other competing schemes, which, as opposed to NCRS*, require flexible bandwidth allocation or perfect synchronization at the transmitter. We also propose a new N-MAP algorithm for the practical implementation of NCRS* receivers. Similar to the existing UMAP algorithm, N-MAP takes into account the modulation used by, and the time offset between, the signals received from the different beams. In most cases, however, N-MAP has a significantly lower complexity than U-MAP

Novel SNP markers in InvGE and SssI genes are associated with natural variation of sugar contents and frying color in Solanum tuberosum Group Phureja

This study contributes to the understanding of the genetic architecture of tuber sugar contents and frying color at harvest in Group Phureja. The objective was to identify novel genetic variants related with potato frying quality in loci with key functions in carbohydrate metabolism, with the purpose of discovering genetic variability useful in breeding programs. Results suggest that some genes involved in the natural variation of tuber sugar content and frying color are conserved in both Phureja and tetraploid germplasm