Assessing recycled/secondary materials as pavement bases

The use of recycled or secondary materials in pavement construction is gaining popularity owing to the added advantages over conventional materials, which include the conservation of natural resources, conservation of energy, preservation of the environment and reduction in life-cycle costs. In this research, two types of recycled materials, namely reclaimed asphalt pavement and cement-stabilised quarry fines, were utilised as pavement base materials for a highway extension project in Arlington, Texas, USA. Prior to the construction of test sections, a series of laboratory studies including strength, compressibility, swell/shrink and resilient modulus tests were performed on the selected base materials to verify their suitability as base materials for pavement construction. Pavement test sections were instrumented with horizontal inclinometers and pressure cells to monitor the long-term performance of these new base materials. Pavement surface profiling surveys were also conducted at regular intervals to monitor for any accumulated roughness of the pavement surfaces. Analysis of results obtained from both laboratory and field monitoring studies demonstrates that these secondary materials can be effectively used as pavement bases. The sustainability issues of this project are also discussed in detail

Repeated Load Tests on Geocell Reinforced Sand Subgrades

In this research, results from a series of large scale dynamic model tests on geocell reinforced and unreinforced homogeneous sand beds are presented. The placement density of sand in all the tests was maintained at 70%. The loading was applied through a circular steel plate which replicates the load application from a passenger car. A single axle wheel load of 40 kN was assumed on the pavement surface of which 7 kN was calculated to be applied on the subgrade layer. The influence of the width and height of the geocell reinforcement on the cyclic behavior of the loading system was studied and the performance improvement in terms of traffic benefit ratios and cumulative plastic deformations/rutting was determined. A traffic benefit ratio was observed to be as high as 45 for the case of geocell size h/D=1, b/D=4 at 10% plate settlement. The cumulative permanent deformations were reduced by 8 fold for the same case against the unreinforced case at 5% plate settlement

Swell and Shrinkage Strain Prediction Models for Expansive Clays

A comprehensive laboratory investigation was conducted to study volume change behaviors of five different types of expansive clayey soils sampled from various regions in Texas, USA. The laboratory test results, which were presented in an earlier paper, are analyzed here to evaluate existing correlations that can be used to predict swell and shrink-related displacements in these soils. The test database is also used to develop newer and practical models for predicting volume change-related soil properties. Models developed here used soil plasticity and compaction properties as independent variables. Newer models, that rely on seasonal compaction moisture content variations in the subsoils, were introduced to estimate both volumetric and vertical swell and shrinkage-induced soil deformations expected under civil infrastructure. The developed correlations, along with the existing models, were then used to predict vertical soil swell movements of four case studies where swell-induced soil movements were monitored. This comparison analysis showed that the model dependency on the volume change test procedural information and moisture content variation due to seasonal changes will lead to better prediction of swell movements in subsoils. Future research directions and recommendations are provided on implementation of the developed models in a realistic estimation of swell movements of infrastructure construction projects

Swell and Shrinkage Characterizations of Unsaturated Expansive Clays from Texas

Expansive soils have long been recognized as problematic because they cause failure to civil structures constructed above them. The main problem of these soils can be attributed to poor understanding of the volume changes caused by moisture fluctuations. Current swell and shrinkage characterization models are limited by both the lack of standardized tests and tests that employ volume changes in uniaxial direction. In the present research, a comprehensive laboratory investigation was undertaken to study the volume change related swell–shrinkage behaviors of five different types of expansive clayey soils sampled from various regions in Texas, USA. Extensive experimental programs consisting of basic, chemical and mineralogical soil properties were first determined. Three-dimensional free swell and shrinkage tests were performed on all soils at various compaction moisture content conditions. Soil–water characteristic curves (SWCCs) of all test soils were determined by studying the suction potentials of these soils over a wide range of moisture contents. Volume change measurements of soils showed a good correlation with soil properties, including plasticity and soil compaction properties. SWCC results also showed a clear variation in SWCC profiles of soils with respect to soil plasticity. Overall, a large database of soil properties was developed and is presented here. It includes physical and mineralogical properties, as well as engineering swell, shrinkage and SWCC test results

Fortification Support Access Control Manipulate Procedure Intended for Relational Data

Present days majorly concentrated  on meticulous speculation on data.  Access control systems are every  time touch with  Safe and secrecy  maintenance of data but now a days  hackers acting like reliance. Then they are remove info from the user. Last few decades we are fight for the  accuracy privacy preserving on data  but however we not solved this type  of issue. The Access control mechanism avoids the unauthorized access of sensitive information. It protects the user information from the unauthorized access. The privacy protection mechanism is a much important concern in the case of sharing the sensitive information. The privacy protection mechanism provides better privacy for the sensitive information which is to be shared. The generally used privacy protection mechanism uses the generalization and suppression of the sensitive data. It prevents the privacy disclosure of the sensitive data. The privacy protection mechanism avoids the identity and attributes disclosure. The privacy is achieved by the high accuracy and consistency of the user information, ie., the precision of the user information. In this paper, it proposes a privacy persevered access control mechanism for relational data. The literature survey  might provide techniques for workload –aware anonymization for selection predicates, as the problem of satisfying the accuracy constraints for multiple roles has not been studied before. The purpose of the present project is to propose  heuristics for anonymization algorithms and to show the viability of the proposed approach for empirically  satisfying the imprecision bounds for more permission

Identification of Wheat Varieties with a Parallel-Plate Capacitance Sensor Using Fisher’s Linear Discriminant Analysis

Fisher’s linear discriminant (FLD) models for wheat variety classification were developed and validated. The inputs to the FLD models were the capacitance (C), impedance (Z), and phase angle (θ), measured at two frequencies. Classification of wheat varieties was obtained as output of the FLD models. Z and θ of a parallel-plate capacitance system, holding the wheat samples, were measured using an impedance meter, and the C value was computed. The best model developed classified the wheat varieties, with accuracy of 95.4%, over the six wheat varieties tested. This method is simple, rapid, and nondestructive and would be useful for the breeders and the peanut industry

Plant prebiotics and human health: Biotechnology to breed prebiotic-rich nutritious food crops

Microbiota in the gut play essential roles in human health. Prebiotics are non-digestible complex carbohydrates that are fermented in the colon, yielding energy and short chain fatty acids, and selectively promote the growth of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillae in the gastro-intestinal tract. Fructans and inulin are the best-characterized plant prebiotics. Many vegetable, root and tuber crops as well as some fruit crops are the best-known sources of prebiotic carbohydrates, while the prebiotic-rich grain crops include barley, chickpea, lentil, lupin, and wheat. Some prebiotic-rich crop germplasm have been reported in barley, chickpea, lentil, wheat, yacon, and Jerusalem artichoke. A few major quantitative trait loci and gene-based markers associated with high fructan are known in wheat. More targeted search in genebanks using reduced subsets (representing diversity in germplasm) is needed to identify accessions with prebiotic carbohydrates. Transgenic maize, potato and sugarcane with high fructan, with no adverse effects on plant development, have been bred, which suggests that it is feasible to introduce fructan biosynthesis pathways in crops to produce health-imparting prebiotics. Developing prebiotic-rich and super nutritious crops will alleviate the widespread malnutrition and promote human health. A paradigm shift in breeding program is needed to achieve this goal and to ensure that newly-bred crop cultivars are nutritious, safe and health promoting

Genome-wide transcriptome and physiological analyses provide new insights into peanut drought response mechanisms

Drought is one of the main constraints in peanut production in West Texas and eastern New Mexico regions due to the depletion of groundwater. A multi-seasonal phenotypic analysis of 10 peanut genotypes revealed C76-16 (C-76) and Valencia-C (Val-C) as the best and poor performers under deficit irrigation (DI) in West Texas, respectively. In order to decipher transcriptome changes under DI, RNAseq was performed in C-76 and Val-C. Approximately 369 million raw reads were generated from 12 different libraries of two genotypes subjected to fully irrigated (FI) and DI conditions, of which ~329 million (90.2%) filtered reads were mapped to the diploid ancestors of peanut. The transcriptome analysis detected 4,508 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 1554 genes encoding transcription factors (TFs) and a total of 514 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among the identified DEGs. The comparative analysis between the two genotypes revealed higher and integral tolerance in C-76 through activation of key genes involved in ABA and sucrose metabolic pathways. Interestingly, one SNP from the gene coding F-box protein (Araip.3WN1Q) and another SNP from gene coding for the lipid transfer protein (Aradu.03ENG) showed polymorphism in selected contrasting genotypes. These SNPs after further validation may be useful for performing early generation selection for selecting drought responsive genotypes

Comparative evaluation of protein content in groundnut samples by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy and Skalar colorimetric methods

A lot of research has been done in developing groundnut cultivars with high-quality oil. As a result, methods for routinely determining oil content and quality have been developed and utilized1. However, groundnut is also a source of protein, and obviously, there is a need to develop a rapid, accurate and economic method that can be routinely used for screening a large number of groundnut cultivars for protein content. At the ICRISAT analytical service laboratory, protein (total N) in various crops is routinely determined by colorimetric method using Skalar auto analyser. However, near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) also provides an opportunity to determine protein content in groundnut samples; and the method seems attractive as it is low cost, simple and rapid. The NIRS based method provides an automated measurement and has the potential to become a valuable tool for providing analytical support for agricultural research2,3. The objectives of this study were to estimate and compare the relative efficacy of the NIRS method, with that of a conventional colorimetric method, following digestion of ground samples, using Skalar autoanalyser for determining protein in groundnut samples..