Evaluation of Timber Pile Supported Marine Piers

River piers were constructed during the later part of 19th and early part of 20th centuries to handle increased marine freight traffic in the coastal regions of the United States. The sub-structure of these piers, commonly referred to as “finger-piers”, was usually constructed with a timber deck relieving- platform supported by timber piles. These platforms were used to support either earth-fill and/or concrete arch supports, which in turn provided structural support for the main floor. Most of the piers also had superstructures, usually truss-supported roof with columns, and a railroad siding. Many existing piers on the Delaware River in Philadelphia and the Hudson River in New York harbor are examples of this kind of piers. These piers are now being increasingly refurbished as site for new uses including condominiums, storage warehouses, cruise terminals and other waterfront developments. These new uses require evaluation of the available structural and soil load capacity of existing foundations. Additionally, a number of historical monuments are supported on timber piles. Current load capacity of these piles also is of interest to the engineers. For the study presented herein, the laboratory testing program consisted of strength tests on specimens sawed from full size pile segments submerged in river water for about 100 years. Tests consisted of compression parallel to grain, compression perpendicular to grain and radial specimen. For comparison, tests were also conducted on new pile specimens. Additionally, deck and pile core samples were also tested. The specimens were prepared and tested in accordance with the provisions of ASTM D 143-52 for small clear timber specimens. Significant strength and modulus of elasticity losses were observed. This paper summarizes the methodology of a comprehensive investigation of evaluating current condition of existing Piers, structural strength and soil capacity of pier piles, typical results and experience of the author in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area

Performance of diffeent breed types of ewes

The production of milk-fat spring lambs is the predominant system of commercial sheep production in Tennessee. These lambs are produced primarily by mating native, western crossbred, or fine-wool grade ewes to purebred rams of the mutton breeds, including Hampshire, Southdown and Suffolk. Most producers of spring lambs prefer to sell their ewe Iambs and to buy replacement ewes from western sources rather than produce home-raised replacements. One of the major problems confronting spring lamb producers in this area is a source of productive ewes. The breeding of replacement ewes has considerable economic significance to the producer for greater and more efficient production of lamb and wool. The breeding of the sire and dam is important factor in the production of a high percentage iamb crop and lambs with superior growth and meat qualities. Previous research has shown that crossbreeding is one means of increasing fertility and prolificacy in ewes and livability and growth rate in lambs, thus resulting in greater and more efficient lamb production. Three and four-breed crosses have been generally superior in performance to purebreds, grades and two-breed crosses in terms of overall productivity. The purposes of this study were; (1) to evaluate the adaptability and productivity of different kinds of high-grade and crossbred ewes from various sources for spring lamb production; and (2) to study the performance of lambs from different crossbreeding systems

The association of sleep problem, dietary habits and physical activity with weight status of adolescents in Nepal.

Overweight/obesity among adolescents is an emerging public health issue worldwide. However, the evidence on the determinants of body weight status and lifestyle behaviors among Nepalese adolescents is limited. This study aims to explore the sleep characteristics, dietary habits, and physical activity and its association with body mass index (BMI) among Nepalese adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted between July and November 2019 among 627 randomly selected adolescents from eight schools located in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal. A self-administrated structure questionnaire was used to collect the data. Anthropometric measurements (adolescent's BMI), sleep characteristics, dietary habits, and physical activity were assessed using validated tools. Multinomial logistic regression analyses assessed the association between covariates and BMI categories. The statistical significance was considered at p-value < 0.05 and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The overall prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity among adolescents was 9.1% (95% CI: 7.1-11.6) and 23.7% (95% CI: 20.6-27.7) respectively. In multinomial logistic regression, adolescents who reported sleep problem compared to those with no such problem (Relative risk ratio (RRR) = 13.37, 95% CI: 7.14-25.05), adolescents who had obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms (RRR = 3.21, 95% CI:1.31-7.86), who consumed soft drink ≥1 time/day in past 1 months (RRR = 5.44, 95% CI: 2.93-10.10), consumed high-fat dietary ≥2 times/day (RRR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.18-3.99), and had a habit of junk food consumptions (RRR = 5.71, 95% CI:2.55-12.82), adolescents who had 5-6 h/day sedentary behavior (RRR = 3.21, 95% CI: 1.14-9.09), adolescents from Terai/Madhesi castes (RRR = 2.81, 95% CI: 1.19-6.64) and adolescents whose father was employed (RRR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.04-3.98) were at increased risk of being overweight/obesity. In contrast, adolescents aged 14-16 years had 71% lower (RRR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.16-0.52), and adolescents who consumed less than five food groups had 45% lower (RRR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31-0.97) risk of being overweight/obesity compared to 12-14 years age groups and consumed more than five food groups respectively. The findings of this study warrant immediate interventions to improve the lifestyle to reduce overweight/obesity among Nepalese adolescents. Creating a conducive environment, both at school and home is essential to encourage adolescents for the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors

Research Notes : India : A narrow leaf type soybean variety -PK-308

PK-308\u27 has been developed at this station from a cross of T-31 x Hardee following the pedigree method of breeding. It has been released by the Central Varietal Release Committee, Government of India, in 1984, for general cultivation in the northern plains of India. This is the first narrow-leaf type cultivar released in this country

Research Notes: Breeding soybean varieties for the northern India

Soybean has been under cultivation in low hills of Kumaon and Garhwal regions of the Himalayas and the foot hills for ages. However, the old varieties were generally late , had viny growth habit, freely shattering pods and gave low yields. The crop got tremendous boost with the start of soybean breeding program in 1968 at this university

Research Notes : Extent of selfing during crossing in soybean

Soybean is a strictly self-pollinated crop and crossing between two va-rieties is rather difficult due to small size of flowers and low pod setting (Ram et al., 1981). The crossed pods usually have reduced size and, hence, have fewer seeds/pod. The seeds obtained from the crossed pods may include some seeds that might be due to selfing while crossing

Research Notes : Screening for photoperiod insensitivity under natural conditions in soybean

Early varieties of soybean have been found to be less sensitive to photo-periods than late varieties (Johnson et al., 1960). Therefore, it was postulated that some of the early strains of soybean may have no photoperiod requirement and accordingly screening for insensitivity to photoperiod was car-ried out in 498 early lines of soybean. These germplasm lines were evaluated for days to flowering and several morphological traits under two different seasons, viz., rainy season, 1978, and spring/summer season, 1979

Research Notes : India : Breeding for resistance to yellow mosaic virus through interspecific hybridiza tion in soybean

Yellow mosaic is one of the major diseases of soybean in the northern part of India and in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is more serious in the Tarai region of Uttar Pradesh and has caused a setback to its cultivation. The virus is transmitted through white fly (Bemisia tabaci Genn)

General Report - Session 8

This General Report presents a summary of the eleven (11) papers accepted for the session 8 focused on Case History of Forensic-Geotechnical Engineering and Case Histories on Health Monitoring and Retrofit of Infrastructure. The session includes discussion of Reliability of Codes; Risk Analysis Pertaining to Public Structures, Non-Destructive Evaluation and Load Testing of Drilled Shafts, Auger Cast Piles and Driven Piles, and Damage Evaluation; Advance Information, Systems in the Geotechnical Risk Predication and Assessment. The papers originate from eight countries and cover an array of important topics in the area of forensic and geotechnical engineering. These include case histories; geotechnical-forensic engineering investigation of structures; probabilistic three dimensional modeling; behavior of laterally loaded piles; failure of helical anchors; working pile load tests; refurbished used of timber piles; and vibration effects on historic buildings. A list of the papers is assimilated in Table 1 by topic. The summary illustrated below will give the reader(s) a general overview of the focus of those papers and is intended to direct the reader to their area of interest. The activities of Session 8 also include case histories on health monitoring and retrofit of infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, and other transportation and geotechnical structures, and their effects on existing facilities and buildings, and remediation. The Session 8 organizers greatly appreciate the efforts of the authors and commend the quality of the accepted papers

SSR marker aided introgression for opaque2 allele for development of quality protein maize inbreds

Maize protein quality is deficit in essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan. These constraints of o2 (opaque2) are corrected in genetically improved, hard endosperm QPM (Quality Protein Maize). An integrated strategy of phenotypic selection for endosperm modifiers and molecular marker-assisted foreground and background selection has been used in present study. The QPM donors were, CML 161, DMRQPM 58, CML 176 and CML 141 whereas, normal maize inbreds were CM 212, V338, V361, V336, V341, V351, CM 141 and V335. The inbreds were subjected to parental polymorphism survey between non-QPM and QPM using CIMMYT based three SSR markers, viz. phi057, umc1066 and phi112. Two markers, viz. phi057 and umc1066 exhibited co-dominant reactions, while phi112 was dominant in nature. Finally, two combinations V335 × CML 141 and V351 × CML 141 were considered for conversion program. Foreground selection was exercised using o2 specific marker umc1066 in BC1 and BC2 generations, while background as well as foreground selection was exercised in BC2F3 generation to recover the genome of recurrent parent up to extent of 80 to 100% with the help of SSR markers distributed across the whole maize genome. The tryptophan concentration in endosperm protein was significantly enhanced and the converted maize lines had almost twice the amount of lysine and tryptophan than normal maize inbreds