Application of electrical resistivity for the control of water content and density in loess

Argentinean loess is a typical collapsible soil which strength and stiffness are mainly governed by water content and unit weight. Electrical resistivity of soils depends fundamentally from water content, porosity, and salt concentration in the pore fluid. The interest of this work is to discuss the applicability of electrical resistivity survey to predict variations in density and water content in loess. Samples of loess were prepared in laboratory at varied densities and water contents. The results show that loess resistivity depends mainly on water content and that soil density has little influence. Mapping water content distribution by means of resistivity measurements is possible if salt concentration in pore fluid is known in advance and assumed uniformly distributed in the whole soil mass. A real scale work is described here for which resistivity mapping was used successfully to evaluate distribution of water content in loess formation.Fil: Rinaldi, V. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina.Ingeniería de la Construcció

On Adiabatic Renormalization of Inflationary Perturbations

We discuss the impact of adiabatic renormalization on the power spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations from inflation. We show that adiabatic regularization is ambiguous as it leads to very different results, for different adiabatic subtraction schemes, both in the range v\equiv k/(aH) \gsim 0.1 and in the infrared regime. All these schemes agree in the far ultraviolet, $v\gg 1$. Therefore, we argue that in the far infrared regime, $v\ll 1$, the adiabatic expansion is no longer valid, and the unrenormalized spectra are the physical, measurable quantities. These findings cast some doubt on the validity of the adiabatic subtraction at horizon exit, $v=1$, to determine the perturbation spectra from inflation which has recently advocated in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, revtex. New version with more results and modified plot

Bandgap Narrowing in Quantum Wires

In this paper we consider two different geometry of quasi one-dimensional semiconductors and calculate their exchange-correlation induced bandgap renormalization (BGR) as a function of the electron-hole plasma density and quantum wire width. Based on different fabrication scheme, we define suitable external confinement potential and then leading-order GW dynamical screening approximation is used in the calculation by treating electron-electron Coulomb interaction and electron-optical phonon interaction. Using a numerical scheme, screened Coulomb potential, probability of different states, profile of charge density and the values of the renormalized gap energy are calculated and the effects of variation of confinement potential width and temperature are studied.Comment: 17 Pages, 4 Figure

Pseudo-static pile load test: expirience on pre-bored and large diameter piles

Pseudostatic load test is usually employed as an alternative to the conventional static load test for piles. Recent developments showed that the well developed Statnamic tests can be substantially simplified by using a hanging weight falling over a cushion system that allows increasing the time length of the generated stress pulse. This work describes the design of the test method and a recently experience related to the application of the pseudostatic load test used to evaluate the bearing capacity of large diameter piles. The performed test showed that using moderate loads from 10 to 20 tons falling from 10 cm to 120 cm and cushions prepared at varied stiffness allowed to reach more than 800 tons of loading and the fully mobilization of the pile ultimate capacity. The main advantages of the proposed pseudostatic tests respect to the conventional Statnamic tests is the possibility to apply load increments by steps, the repeatability of each loading step and the simpler test setup required by the former.Fil: Rinaldi, V. A. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Viguera, R. CIM SRL consultants; Argentina.Ingeniería de la Construcció

Thinking beyond organism energy use: A trait-based bioenergetic mechanistic approach for predictions of life history traits in marine organisms

The functional trait-based bioenergetic approach is emergent in many ecological spectra, from the conservation of natural resources to mitigation and adaptation strategies in a global climate change context. Such an approach relies on being able to exploit mechanistic rules to connect environmental human-induced variability to functional traits (i.e. all those specific traits defining species in terms of their ecological roles) and use these to provide estimates of species life history traits (LH; e.g. body size, fecundity per life span, number of reproductive events). LHs are species-specific and proximate determinants of population characteristics in a certain habitat. They represent the most valuable quantitative information to investigate how broad potential distributional boundaries of a species are, and to feed predictive population models. There is much to be found in the current literature that describes mechanistic functional trait-based bioenergetics models, using them to test ecological hypotheses, but a mathematical framework often renders interpretation and use complicated. Here, we wanted to present a simpler interpretation and description of one of the most important recent mechanistic bioenergetic theories: the dynamic energy budget theory by Kooijman (Dynamic Energy Budget Theory for Metabolic Organisation, 2010, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). Our main aim was to disentangle those aspects that at first reading may seem too mathematically challenging to many marine biologists, ecologists and environmental scientists, and present them for use in mechanistic applications

Eco-physiological response of two marine bivalves to acute exposition to commercial Bt-based pesticide

Microbial products based on the entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are among the most common biopesticides used worldwide to suppress insect pests in forests, horticulture and agricultural crops. Some of the effects of commercial Bt have been recorded for terrestrial and freshwater non-target organisms but little research is available on marine fauna. Nevertheless, due to the contiguity of agro-ecosystems and coastal habitats, marine fauna may be highly influenced by this control method. We studied the effect of a commercial Bt product on the physiological and ecological responses and the energy budget of two of the most frequent marine intertidal bivalves in the Mediterranean, the native Mytilaster minimus and the invasive Brachidontes pharaonis. To test the effects experimentally, we simulated the worst scenarios possible using the average dose applied to fields and a hypothetical accumulation dose. The results showed the feeding rates of both species were affected detrimentally by the different experimental conditions; higher concentrations led to higher respiration rates, however neither species showed any significant difference in excretion rates. The biopesticide had a significant effect on the energy budget, the values decreasing with doses. In addition, it led to high mortality for the worst treatments and, in both species, induced significantly higher cardiac activity than in the controls. These results indicate a measurable effect of Bt commercial products on marine organisms, and great attention should be paid to biopesticides composed by entomopathogenic bacteria and addictive compounds. In addition, the results highlight the urgent need to study not only the effects of anthropogenic pressures on target organisms but also to extend our view to other ecosystems not expected to be influenced. Gaining data at the organismal level should help increase the sustainability of pest control and reduce the consequences of side-effects

Static and dynamic response analysis of stay cables using terrestrial laser scanning and vibration measurements

Nowadays, high accuracy measurements provided by terrestrial laser scanner and vision sensors allow to collect useful and exhaustive information about the conditions of the existing structures, useful to detect defects and geometry anomalies and to better understand their mechanical behavior. These avant-garde technologies were found to be particularly effective for the structural health assessment of the cable-stayed pedestrian bridge described in this paper. Considering a continuous mono-dimensional model of an inclined perfectly flexible cable, the axial tension is locally tangent to the cable profile. Thus, determining the cable static response under self-weight consists of a geometric shape-finding problem. Through terrestrial laser scanning, a 3D point cloud model of the bridge was acquired, including a data-abundant description of the actual static configuration of the stays. Therefore, cable configuration was no longer an unknown of the static problem, which can be inverted to assess the static tension. Furthermore, modal analysis was conducted also through image-based vibrations measurements to identify the fundamental frequencies of the cables. The independent identification of the axial forces from static (geometric) and dynamic (spectral) data provided results in good agreement

Comparative Analysis of Phenolic Composition of Six Commercially Available Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) Extracts: Potential Biological Implications

Several phytochemical-containing herbal extracts are increasingly marketed as health-promoting products. In particular, chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) is well known for its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antitumor properties. Here, we evaluated differences in chemical composition among six commercially available products and their potential impact on biological activity in human immortalized colonocytes. Our investigation encompassed: (i) preparation of dry extracts and yield evaluation; (ii) qualitative and quantitative analysis of phenol content; (iii) modulation of redox state; and (iv) bioavailability of main bioactive compounds. We demonstrated that apparently identical products showed huge heterogeneity, in terms of yield extraction, chemical composition, and antioxidant effects. All samples contained high amounts of flavonoids and cinnamic acid derivatives, but differentially concentrated in the six extracts. Depending on polyphenol content, chamomile samples possessed variable antioxidant potential, in terms of decreased radical generation and increased reduced glutathione levels. The observed effects might be ascribed to flavones (apigenin, luteolin, and their glycones) highly represented in the six extracts. Nonetheless, chamomile extracts exerted cytotoxic effects at high concentrations, suggesting that a herbal medicine is not always safe. In conclusion, due to the complexity and variability of plant matrices, studies evaluating effectiveness of chamomile should always be accompanied by preliminary characterization of phytochemical composition