THE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF BURIED SEABED WALLS IN LIQUEFACTION SOIL

The present study aimed to investigate the seismic behavior of enclosed seawater walls, the buried site of which lies in liquefaction soil. An experimental specimen was manufactured and tested on the seismic table, and a numerical study was also modeled in the ABAQUS software based on the experimental outcomes. In both the experimental and numerical studies, a susceptible liquefaction layer around the root of the wall was considered due to the root lean soil leakage and large lateral pressure, and the soil behind the root caused the failure of the buried section. According to the results, the lateral movement significantly decreased due to the backing effect of this layer on the buried section of the wall. Furthermore, an active wedge was formed from the buried side to the back of the containment, and the braces were overwhelming due to the presence of the locks in the wedge and their movement along with the wedge. The displacement of the crown and foot of the wall decreased with the increased base acceleration and higher frequency of the entrance movement

Experimental Study of Displacement Flow of Miscible Fluids with Density Contrast in a Vertical, Concentric Annulus with Relevance to Reverse Cementing Technology

The primary cement job is an essential and complex operation in the oil and gas industry which is performed to support the casing, build a well barrier, and produce an isolated zone. Complete displacement of the drilling mud by cement without any contamination is critical for the productivity life of the well. The primary cementing consists of two methods. First is the conventional method, in which cement is pumped into the casing and turned back through the annulus. The second is the reverse method, in which cement is pumped into the annulus and back through the pipe, especially recommended for fractured zones and circulation loss problems. In recent years, there have been several studies related to the conventional cementing job, which is stable displacement. However, insufficient knowledge about the heavy-over light fluid displacement in reverse cementing prevents further improvement in the primary cementing process. In this work, an experimental setup for reverse and conventional circulation in an annulus has been built and designed. Moreover, the unstable-density-displacement of two miscible fluids has been studied. Both fluids are Newtonian and low viscous. The main focus is studying the effect of flow velocities and density ratio between displaced and displacing fluids on displacement time and front velocity. More than 100 experimental runs have been done to analyze the different parameters. Water is considered as the light fluid, and for heavy fluid, salt (NaCl) is used as a weighting agent to increase and change the density of water. The heavy fluid is placed above the lighter fluid. Two fluids are initially separated by a ball valve. Also, an outlet valve is considered to regulate the flow velocity. The experimental runs are performed at Atwood numbers of 0.003 and 0.02 and flow velocities of 0, 12, 25, and 33 mm/s. Also, stable-density displacement has been studied for the Atwood number of zero ( iso-dense fluids) and 0.02 to compare with unstable-density displacement. The fluid displacement is recorded by a camera, and videos are converted to images by a Python script. The spatiotemporal diagram is used to show the extension and development of the fluid mixing zone. The investigation of fluid displacement at different density ratios shows that there is a strong tendency to backflow and transverse flow for all unstable-density displacements. Also, the front velocity and mixing zone are increased with rising density instability. It is observed that the flow velocity and density difference affect the degree of instabilities. By increasing the imposed velocity, the backflow is suppressed, and the Atwood number's effect is weakened. Compared to unstable-density displacements, there is no backflow and transverse flow in stable-density displacement, and the displacing and displaced fluids are separated by a sharp interface. Although this interface is less clear for iso-dense displacement compared to the Atwood number of 0.02, the flow displacement is still uniform

The Interface between Motivational and Emotional Facets of Organizational Commitment among Instructors at Higher Education

Teachers in higher education domain play a decisive role in advancing economic developments as well as nurturing the well-being of the societies. Thus, the issue of university instructors’ commitment and the factors influencing its development should be a compelling priority for higher education administrations. The present study aims to extend the research on teacher organizational commitment by investigating the contribution of job motivation and emotion regulation to teacher commitment at higher education. To this purpose, 135 English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors from different higher education institutes and universities took part in this study. They were requested to complete a battery of three questionnaires: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST), and Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Findings demonstrated that both emotion regulation and motivation had a positive significant correlation with teacher organizational commitment. Moreover, findings obtained via regression analysis showed that among job motivation components, identified regulation was the best contributor of teacher organizational commitment. Also, among the subscales of emotion regulation, reappraisal strategy was a better predictor of teacher organizational commitment. Findings are discussed in details with respect to the implications for both theory and practice in higher education.

A comparative experimental investigation of high-temperature effect on fibre concrete and high strength concrete using UT and CM methods

In this paper, a 28-day compressive strength test has been performed on samples including normal fibre concrete and high-strength concrete. The ultrasonic test (UT) as a non-destructive and compression machine (CM) as a destructive test were applied, and the results were compared. To investigate the effect of temperature, the samples were subjected to 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1200 degrees Celsius and the exposure time was equal to 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 180 minutes. Based on the results, it was observed that the minimum error observed between the UT and CM tests was 2.9 % and the maximum error between the two methods was 10.9 %, which shows the high accuracy of the ultrasonic testing method in determining the specimen’s strength. The average probable error of the method is determined to be around 6.8 %.Based on the results of the average decrease in compressive strength versus the heat exposure time, it is observed that the trend of changes and decrease in resistance over time for both types of tests is almost the same and has a negligible difference. At the end of 180 minutes of exposure, the resistance ratio for the ultrasonic test is 69.8 %, and 71.1 % for the compression machine. Furthermore, according to the average reduction in compressive strength due to heat exposure time, it has been observed that the results of the UT and UM tests have slight numerical differences, however, the trend of changes and reduction in resistance over time for both types of tests is almost the same. Finally, the accuracy of the UT in determining the compressive strength of specimens at high temperatures is fully confirmed

Self-regulation and Self-identity Changes among Iranian EFL Learners

The present study aims to investigate the probable association between self-regulated strategies and self-identity changes among Iranian EFL learners. To achieve this purpose, 80 EFL students were selected according to convenience sampling from different language institutes in Mashhad. They were requested to complete the \u27 Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaires\u27 (MSLQ) and \u27Self-identity Changes\u27 questionnaires. The findings yielded via correlation supported the theoretical expectation of a linkage between self-regulation and self-identity changes. The result revealed that there is a significant relationship between teachers\u27 self-regulation high scores and self-confidence changes. Subsequent data from step-wise regression indicated that among sub-components of self-regulation, regulation, efficacy, and intrinsic value are the best predictors of learners\u27 self-confidence changes. The conclusions and implications of the research are further discussed with reference to earlier finding

Social and Environmental Accounting in IRAN

ABSTRACT The aim of this research is the study of the relationship between the elements of corporate social and environmental reporting and their annual financial reporting quality in IRAN. Since social and environmental accounting in Iran has not been used in an organized and formal form, we intend to study the effect of this type of reporting factors, i.e. to disclose human resource information, community involvements, and environmental issues on accepted firms' annual reporting quality in stock exchange in Iran. Accordingly, three hypotheses have been designed as the research hypotheses and a questionnaire was used to collect data. 235 audit firms of Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants (IACPA) were chosen as domain of study and the time scope has been in the spring and summer of 2012. One-sample T-test has been used to test hypotheses and provide a model for quality; also we used MannWhitney-Wilcoxon test to confirm its results. Bartlett test and principal component analyze have been used to provide quality model. The results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the disclosure of the above three components and annual reporting quality. The amount of these variables impact based on specified pattern is 0.915 for social involvements, 0.864 for environmental issues and 0.818 for human resource information disclosure

Experimental Study of Displacement Flow of Miscible Fluids with Density Contrast in a Vertical, Concentric Annulus with Relevance to Reverse Cementing Technology

The primary cement job is an essential and complex operation in the oil and gas industry which is performed to support the casing, build a well barrier, and produce an isolated zone. Complete displacement of the drilling mud by cement without any contamination is critical for the productivity life of the well. The primary cementing consists of two methods. First is the conventional method, in which cement is pumped into the casing and turned back through the annulus. The second is the reverse method, in which cement is pumped into the annulus and back through the pipe, especially recommended for fractured zones and circulation loss problems. In recent years, there have been several studies related to the conventional cementing job, which is stable displacement. However, insufficient knowledge about the heavy-over light fluid displacement in reverse cementing prevents further improvement in the primary cementing process. In this work, an experimental setup for reverse and conventional circulation in an annulus has been built and designed. Moreover, the unstable-density-displacement of two miscible fluids has been studied. Both fluids are Newtonian and low viscous. The main focus is studying the effect of flow velocities and density ratio between displaced and displacing fluids on displacement time and front velocity. More than 100 experimental runs have been done to analyze the different parameters. Water is considered as the light fluid, and for heavy fluid, salt (NaCl) is used as a weighting agent to increase and change the density of water. The heavy fluid is placed above the lighter fluid. Two fluids are initially separated by a ball valve. Also, an outlet valve is considered to regulate the flow velocity. The experimental runs are performed at Atwood numbers of 0.003 and 0.02 and flow velocities of 0, 12, 25, and 33 mm/s. Also, stable-density displacement has been studied for the Atwood number of zero ( iso-dense fluids) and 0.02 to compare with unstable-density displacement. The fluid displacement is recorded by a camera, and videos are converted to images by a Python script. The spatiotemporal diagram is used to show the extension and development of the fluid mixing zone. The investigation of fluid displacement at different density ratios shows that there is a strong tendency to backflow and transverse flow for all unstable-density displacements. Also, the front velocity and mixing zone are increased with rising density instability. It is observed that the flow velocity and density difference affect the degree of instabilities. By increasing the imposed velocity, the backflow is suppressed, and the Atwood number's effect is weakened. Compared to unstable-density displacements, there is no backflow and transverse flow in stable-density displacement, and the displacing and displaced fluids are separated by a sharp interface. Although this interface is less clear for iso-dense displacement compared to the Atwood number of 0.02, the flow displacement is still uniform

Probing EFL Teachers’ Job Motivation in the Light of Intra-individual Level Predictors

The present study aims to scrutinize teacher motivation in relation to two individual level predictors, namely, self-efficacy and burnout among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. To this end, 142 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were selected from various English language institutes of Mashhad and Tehran, two cities in Iran. They were requested to complete three questionnaires: the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale, and the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers. The findings obtained via SEM revealed that the proposed model had a good fit with the empirical data. In particular, it was found that job motivation contributed significantly to burnout depletion. It was also revealed that self-efficacy positively predicted job motivation, and burnout negatively influenced self-efficacy. However, self-efficacy surpassed motivation in predicting EFL instructors’ burnout. Results were discussed from both theoretical standpoints as well as previous empirical findings. Finally, implications were presented