Estimation of Seismic Compression in Dry Soils Using the CPT

A popular method to evaluate earthquake induced settlements in dry sands is the approach proposed by Pradel (1998) which was based on standard penetration test (SPT) results and is only applicable to clean sands. A simple modification of the Pradel (1998) method is proposed based on cone penetration test (CPT) results and is extended to cover a wide range of unsaturated soils. A key parameter in the method by Pradel (1998) is the small strain shear modulus, Go, which can be estimated from the CPT or measured using the seismic CPT. The CPT can provide a continuous evaluation of seismic compression that allows the expeditious analysis of complicated soil profiles and a framework for sensitivity analyses. Soil parameters, such as soil type, fines content, and equivalent SPT blow count interpolated from CPTs, were compared with adjacent borings and related laboratory test results from a ground improvement site. Both vibro-stone columns and compaction grouting were adopted to mitigate the site seismic settlement. The proposed simple modification of the Pradel method provided a valuable tool to evaluate the effectiveness of ground improvement work

A New Kind of Graded Lie Algebra and Parastatistical Supersymmetry

In this paper the usual $Z_2$ graded Lie algebra is generalized to a new form, which may be called $Z_{2,2}$ graded Lie algebra. It is shown that there exists close connections between the $Z_{2,2}$ graded Lie algebra and parastatistics, so the $Z_{2,2}$ can be used to study and analyse various symmetries and supersymmetries of the paraparticle systems

An effective method of calculating the non-Markovianity N\mathcal{N} for single channel open systems

We propose an effective method which can simplify the optimization of the increase of the trace distance over all pairs of initial states in calculating the non-Markovianity $\mathcal{N}$ for single channel open systems. For the amplitude damping channel, we can unify the results of Breuer $et$ $al$. [Phys. Rev. Lett. \bf 103\rm, 210401 (2009)] in the large-detuning case and the results of Xu $et$ $al$. [Phys. Rev. A \bf 81\rm, 044105 (2010)] in the resonant case; furthermore, for the general off-resonant cases we can obtain a very tight lower bound of $\mathcal{N}$. As another application of our method, we also discuss $\mathcal{N}$ for the non-Markovian depolarizing channel.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures,to be published in Phys. Rev.

Strong field gravitational lensing in scalar tensor theories

Strong field gravitational lensing in the Brans-Dicke theory has been studied. The deflection angle for photons passing very close to the photon sphere is estimated for the static spherically symmetric space-time of the theory and the position and magnification of the relativistic images are obtained. Modeling the super massive central object of the galaxy by the Brans-Dicke space-time, numerical values of different strong lensing observable are estimated. It is found that against the expectation there is no significant scalar field effect in the strong field observable lensing parameters. This observation raises question on the potentiality of the strong field lensing to discriminate different gravitational theories.Comment: 20 pages, accepted in Class. Quantum Grav., final versio

Probing neutrino mass hierarchies and ϕ13\phi_{13} with supernova neutrinos

We investigate the feasibility of probing the neutrino mass hierarchy and the mixing angle $\phi_{13}$ with the neutrino burst from a future supernova. An inverse power-law density $\rho \sim r^{n}$ with varying $n$ is adopted in the analysis as the density profile of a typical core-collapse supernova. The survival probabilities of $\nu_{e}$ and $\bar{\nu}_{e}$ are shown to reduce to two-dimensional functions of $n$ and $\phi_{13}$. It is found that in the $n-\sin^{2} \phi_{13}$ parameter space, the 3D plots of the probability functions exhibit highly non-trivial structures that are sensitive to the mass hierarchy, the mixing angle $\phi_{13}$, and the value of $n$. The conditions that lead to observable differences in the 3D plots are established. With the uncertainty of $n$ considered, a qualitative analysis of the Earth matter effect is also included.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Ref [11] added, and some typos correcte

Cylindrical smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of water entry

This paper presents a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) modeling technique based on the cylindrical coordinates for axisymmetrical hydrodynamic applications, thus to avoid a full three-dimensional (3D) numerical scheme as required in the Cartesian coordinates. In this model, the governing equations are solved in an axisymmetric form and the SPH approximations are modified into a two-dimensional cylindrical space. The proposed SPH model is first validated by a dam-break flow induced by the collapse of a cylindrical column of water with different water height to semi-base ratios. Then, the model is used to two benchmark water entry problems, i.e., cylindrical disk and circular sphere entry. In both cases, the model results are favorably compared with the experimental data. The convergence of model is demonstrated by comparing with the different particle resolutions. Besides, the accuracy and efficiency of the present cylindrical SPH are also compared with a fully 3D SPH computation. Extensive discussions are made on the water surface, velocity, and pressure fields to demonstrate the robust modeling results of the cylindrical SPH

A Centimeter-Sized Quaternary Ti-Zr-Be-Ag Bulk Metallic Glass

A novel centimeter-sized Ti-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) was developed by the addition of Ag in the ternary Ti41Zr25Be34 glassy alloy. By replacing Be with Ag, the glass forming ability (GFA), the yield strength, and the supercooled liquid temperature of the quaternary Ti41Zr25Be34−xAgx (x=2, 4, 6, 8 at.%) glassy alloys have been obviously enhanced. Among the developed Ti-Zr-Be-Ag alloy systems, the Ti41Zr25Be28Ag6 alloy possesses the largest critical diameter (Dmax) of 10 mm, while the yield strength is also enhanced to 1961 MPa, which is much larger than that of Ti41Zr25Be34 (1755 MPa) alloy. The experimental results show that Ag is an effective element for improving the GFA and the yield strength of Ti-Zr-Be glassy alloy

Neural-Symbolic Argumentation Mining: An Argument in Favor of Deep Learning and Reasoning

Deep learning is bringing remarkable contributions to the field of argumentation mining, but the existing approaches still need to fill the gap toward performing advanced reasoning tasks. In this position paper, we posit that neural-symbolic and statistical relational learning could play a crucial role in the integration of symbolic and sub-symbolic methods to achieve this goal