Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at The Imperial Court (2 Vols.)

Dirk Jacob Jansen provides an overview of the life and career of the sixteenth-century cosmopolitan courtier, architect and antiquary Jacopo Strada. Readership: All interested in Austrian and Italian Renaissance archtecture, art and antiques trade, court life, and the transmission of ideas to North and Central Europe

Temperature correction of Falling-Weight-Deflectometer measurements on asphalt pavements

Die mit dem Falling-Weight-Deflectometer (FWD) auf Asphaltstraßen gemessenen Oberflächendeflexionen werden erheblich von der Temperatur der Asphaltschichten beeinflusst. Um vergleichbare Ergebnisse bei der Auswertung der Messergebnisse zu erhalten, muss die Temperatur der Asphaltschichten berücksichtigt werden, indem beispielsweise die gemessenen Deflexionen auf eine Standardoberbautempera¬tur umgerechnet werden. Für diese so genannte Temperaturkorrektur existiert in Deutschland derzeit nur eine Funktion, die aus einem Ansatz für die Temperaturkorrektur von Messungen mit dem Benkelman Balken abgeleitet wurde. International existierende Ansätze können teilweise nicht übertragen werden, da sie an meist sehr viel dünneren Oberbauten, als sie in Deutschland üblich sind, hergeleitet wurden. Die Promotionsarbeit hatte zum Ziel, einen Ansatz für die Temperaturkorrektur von FWD Messungen in Deutschland zu erarbeiten. Hierzu wurden zunächst zwei bestehende Streckenabschnitte mit Temperatursensoren in den Asphaltschichten instrumentiert, die seit April 2007 kontinuierlich die Asphalttemperaturen in verschiedenen Tiefen aufzeichnen. FWD Messungen im Bereich dieser Messstationen und an weiteren 20 Streckenabschnitten bei verschiedenen Temperaturen und verschiedenen Jahreszeiten, meteorologische Daten sowie die Ergebnisse aus Bohrkernuntersuchungen unterstützten den Prozess.For the design of pavements it is important to know the bearing capacity of the pavement. The bearing capacity can be derived from deflection measurements by a Falling-Weight-Deflectometer (FWD). The deflections out to about 500 mm from the load centre on asphalt pavements are strongly influenced by the temperature of asphalt layers. To get comparable results, the measured deflections have to be corrected to a reference temperature. In Germany there exists only a function for the temperature correction which was developed for Benkelman Beam measurements. The transfer of this function to FWD deflections is not possible. Internationally existing algorithms often cannot be transferred, because of differing climatic conditions and construction principles in Germany. The aim of the research project was to develop a function for temperature correction of FWD deflections which is suitable for conditions in Germany. For this, two existing asphalt pavements were instrumented with temperature sensors in the asphalt layer, which continuously log the asphalt temperatures since April 2007. The thickness of the asphalt layer is 28 cm and 20 cm respectively. In each pavement 8 sensors are arranged from surface to bottom. FWD deflection bowls will be measured on the instrumented test sections at different temperatures and seasons. In addition 20 more test sections with different thicknesses and asphalt materials will be measured by FWD at different temperatures and seasons. All pavements are in very good condition because they were built in recent years. Meteorological data and results from drill core evaluations make the analysis complete. A partial goal of the research project is to develop a draft for a manual for measuring the asphalt layer temperatures during FWD measurements

Estimating prevalence and diagnostic test characteristics of bovine cysticercosis in Belgium in the absence of a ‘gold standard’ reference test using a Bayesian approach

A Bayesian model was developed to estimate values for the prevalence and diagnostic test characteristics of bovine cysticercosis (Taenia saginata) by combining results of four imperfect tests. Samples of 612 bovine carcases that were found negative for cysticercosis during routine meat inspection collected at three Belgian slaughterhouses, underwent enhanced meat inspection (additional incisions in the heart), dissection of the predilection sites, B158/B60 Ag-ELISA and ES Ab-ELISA. This Bayesian approach allows for the combination of prior expert opinion with experimental data to estimate the true prevalence of bovine cysticercosis in the absence of a gold standard test. A first model (based on a multinomial distribution and including all possible interactions between the individual tests) required estimation of 31 parameters, while only allowing for 15 parameters to be estimated. Including prior expert information about specificity and sensitivity resulted in an optimal model with a reduction of the number of parameters to be estimated to 8. The estimated bovine cysticercosis prevalence was 33.9% (95% credibility interval: 27.7-44.4%), while apparent prevalence based on meat inspection is only 0.23%. The test performances were estimated as follows (sensitivity (Se) specificity (Sp)): enhanced meat inspection (Se 2.87% - Sp 100%), dissection of predilection sites (Se 69.8% - Sp 100%), Ag-ELISA (Se 26.9% - Sp 99.4%), Ab-ELISA (Se 13.8% - Sp 92.9%)

06061 Abstracts Collection -- Theory of Evolutionary Algorithms

From 05.02.06 to 10.02.06, the Dagstuhl Seminar 06061 ``Theory of Evolutionary Algorithms\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available