Perceptions on construction-related factors that affect concrete quality, costs and production

Structured and unstructured factors affect concrete product. Structured factors are related to concrete production and unstructured factors are related to the construction process. This study focuses on examining the perceived importance of unstructured factors (i.e., construction-related factors) on concrete compressive strength, concrete costs and production rates on the jobsite and understanding the influence of construction experts’ characteristics, such as profession, on their perceptions. A comprehensive literature review was performed to identify unstructured factors. A survey was then designed and deployed to 297 experts from the construction industry and academia to examine the importance of the identified factors through the relative importance index (RII) method and to further identify additional unstructured factors. Likert aggregation and tests for equality of odds were used to compare and analyze responses of two groups of participants, namely architects and engineers. Curing humidity, crew experience and compaction method are the top three factors perceived to affect concrete compressive strength, whereas crew experience, mixing time and compaction method are the factors perceived to affect concrete costs and production rates the most. Crew experience, compaction method and mixing time dominate the global ranking of perceived affecting factors for concrete compressive strength, costs and production rates. Architects were found to be more likely to perceive high or very high impacts of these factors on concrete. The present study increases our understanding of construction-related factors to facilitate project management and preserve concrete characteristics

Research-to-Practice (R2P) Tools for Improving Safety in Nighttime Highway Construction Work Zones

The safety of workers in nighttime roadway work zones has become a major concern for state transportation agencies due to the increase in the number of work zone fatalities. During the last decade, several studies have focused on the improvement of safety in nighttime roadway work zones; but the element that is still missing is a set of tools for translating the research results into practice. This paper discusses: 1) the importance of translating the research results related to the safety of workers and safety planning of nighttime work zones into practice, and 2) examples of tools that can be used for translating the results of such studies into practice. A tool that can propose safety recommendations in nighttime work zones and a web-based safety training tool for workers are presented in this paper. The tools were created as a component of a five-year research study on the assessment of the safety of nighttime roadway construction. The objectives of both tools are explained as well as their functionalities (i.e., what the tools can do for the users); their components (e.g., knowledge base, database, and interfaces); and their structures (i.e., how the components of the tools are organized to meet the objectives). Evaluations by the proposed users of each tool are also presented

GRP-3 and KAPP, encoding interactors of WAK1, negatively affect defense responses induced by oligogalacturonides and local response to wounding

Conserved microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) act as danger signals to activate the plant immune response. These molecules are recognized by surface receptors that are referred to as pattern recognition receptors. Oligogalacturonides (OGs), DAMPs released from the plant cell wall homogalacturonan, have also been proposed to act as local signals in the response to wounding. The Arabidopsis Wall-Associated Kinase 1 (WAK1), a receptor of OGs, has been described to form a complex with a cytoplasmic plasma membrane-localized kinase-associated protein phosphatase (KAPP) and a glycine-rich protein (GRP-3) that we find localized mainly in the cell wall and, in a small part, on the plasma membrane. By using Arabidopsis plants overexpressing WAK1, and both grp-3 and kapp null insertional mutant and overexpressing plants, we demonstrate a positive function of WAK1 and a negative function of GRP-3 and KAPP in the OG-triggered expression of defence genes and the production of an oxidative burst. The three proteins also affect the local response to wounding and the basal resistance against the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea. GRP-3 and KAPP are likely to function in the phasing out of the plant immune response

Las prácticas sociales y el aprendizaje en niños y niñas del 3ero Y 4to grado de primaria de la institución educativa N°21010 Clara Nichos Mansilla-Huaral-Año 2018

Las prácticas sociales en los niños siempre fueron una de las preocupaciones de los maestros en las aulas, de los gobiernos locales, regionales y nacionales a través del Ministerio de Educación, la formación y acompañamiento de los niños inicia desde una edad muy temprana gracias a los aportes científicos la neurología, la psicología, la pedagogía, su influencia de la sociedad en su formación y aprendizaje esta investigación trata de responder las interrogantes sobre las prácticas sociales y el aprendizaje en niños y niñas del 3ero y 4to grado de primaria de la Institución Educativa N°21010 Clara Nichos Mansilla-Huaral-Año 2018. Esta investigación se basó en establecer la relación entre las prácticas sociales y el aprendizaje, conto con una población de 64 estudiantes del 3er y 4 to grado, entre varones y mujeres de acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos , se recomienda a las docentes que nunca cesen en investigar sobre la cultura, la influencia socio cultural en la que el niño nació y creció, la familia, los tiempos de dedicación para con ellos y considerar que el acompañamiento y monitoreo educativo dependerá mucho de cuanto estemos preparados para planificar, programar y utilizar las mejores estrategias e ir actualizándose en la enseñanza y a través de sus enseñanza ir modificando sus conductas por medio de los nuevos aprendizajes adquiridos y duradero, útil para la vida

Spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity and solute transport parameters and their spatial correlations to soil properties

[EN] Spatial variation of the correlation among variables related to water flow and solute transport are important in the characterization of the spatial variability when performing uncertainty analysis and making uncertainty qualified solute transport predictions. However, the spatial variation of the correlation between solute transport parameters and soil properties are rarely studied. In this study, the spatial correlation among laboratory-measured transport parameters dispersivity and coefficient of distribution of a reactive and a nonreactive solute and soil properties were studied at the scale of a few meters using a dense sampling design. In an area of 84 m(2) and a depth of 2 m, 55 undisturbed soil samples were taken to determine the soil properties. Column experiments were performed, and the transport parameters were obtained by fitting the experimental data to the analytical solution of the advection-dispersion equation using the computer program CFITM. Stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) was performed in order to identify the statistically significant variables. The spatial correlation of the variables and between variables were determined using the Stanford Geostatistical Modeling Software. Soil properties presented a moderate coefficient of variation, while hydraulic conductivity and transport parameters were widely dispersed. The difference between its minimum and maximum value was quite large for most of the studied variables evidencing their high variability. Both dispersivity and retardation factor were higher than the expected and this result can be related to the preferential pathways and to the non-connected micropores. None of the physical soil property was strongly correlated to the transport parameters. Coefficient of distribution was strongly correlated to the cation exchange capacity and significantly correlated to mesoporosity and microporosity. Hydraulic conductivity presented significant positive correlation to the effective porosity and macroporosity. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis indicated that further studies should be performed aiming to include other variables relevant for lateritic soils such as pH, electrical conductivity, the content of Al and Fe, CaCO3 and soil structure and microstructure. The study of the spatial correlation among transport parameters and soil properties showed that the codispersion among the variables is not constant in space and can be important in dictate the behavior of the combined variables. Our results also showed that some variables that were identified as explanatory in the MLR were not significant in the spatial analysis of the correlation, showing the importance of this kind of analyses for a better decision about the most relevant variables and their relations. The present study was a first attempt to evaluate the spatial variation in the correlation coefficient of transport parameters of a reactive and a nonreactive solute, indicating the more relevant variables and the ones that should be included in future studies.The authors thank the financial support by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (Project 401441/2014-8). The doctoral fellowship awarded to the first author by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES) is gratefully acknowledged. The first author also thanks to the international mobility grant awarded by CNPq, through the Science Without Borders program (grant number: 200597/2015-9), and the international mobility grant awarded by Santander Mobility in cooperation with the University of Sao Paulo.Almeida De-Godoy, V.; Zuquette, LV.; Gómez-Hernández, JJ. (2019). Spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity and solute transport parameters and their spatial correlations to soil properties. Geoderma. 339:59-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.12.015S596933

DANGEROUS HABIT OR USEFUL ROUTINE? DEVELOPING THEORY-BASED MEASURES FOR THE INTENDED AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF STATE-TRACKING HABITS

According to the theory of IT-mediated state-tracking, the intended and unintended consequences of constantly checking digital devices can be judged by the resulting problem of attention and by whether the checking led to information that served the individual’s enduring goal. While this perspective offers numerous benefits over the common practice of labeling excessive information technology use as addiction, as of yet, the concepts of problem of attention (PoA) and service to enduring goal (SEG) lack empirical measures. Thus, this paper develops measurement scales for the constructs PoA and SEG following an established construct development methodology. We evaluate the measures’ validity and reliability and demonstrate that PoA and SEG differ from existing similar concepts. With the help of our newly developed constructs the quality of constant checking habits can be assessed which enables future studies to scrutinize the theorized preventive role of self-control in the context of smartphone habits

Геолого-промышленные типы месторождений германия, методика поисков и разведки

Recent genetic studies found the A allele of the variant rs1006737 in the alpha 1C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CACNA1C) gene to be overrepresented in patients suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or major depression. While the functions underlying the pathophysiology of these psychiatric disorders are yet unknown, impaired performance in verbal fluency tasks is an often replicated finding. We investigated the influence of the rs1006737 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on verbal fluency and its neural correlates.Brain activation was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a semantic verbal fluency task in 63 healthy male individuals. They additionally performed more demanding verbal fluency tasks outside the scanner. All subjects were genotyped for CACNA1C rs1006737.For the behavioral measures outside the scanner, rs1006737genotype had an effect on semantic but not on lexical verbal fluency with decreased performance in risk-allele carriers. In the fMRI experiment, while there were no differences in behavioural performance, increased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus as well as the left precuneus was found in risk-allele carriers in the semantic verbal fluency task.The rs1006737 variant does influence language production on a semantic level in conjunction with the underlying neural systems. These findings are in line with results of studies in bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depression and may explain some of the cognitive and brain activation variation found in these disorders

ADIPOR1 is essential for vision and its RPE expression is lost in the Mfrp

The knockout (KO) of the adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) gene causes retinal degeneration. Here we report that ADIPOR1 protein is primarily found in the eye and brain with little expression in other tissues. Further analysis of AdipoR1 KO mice revealed that these animals exhibit early visual system abnormalities and are depleted of RHODOPSIN prior to pronounced photoreceptor death. A KO of AdipoR1 post-development either in photoreceptors or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) resulted in decreased expression of retinal proteins, establishing a role for ADIPOR1 in supporting vision in adulthood. Subsequent analysis of the Mfr