Modeling of Fiber Reinforced Polymer confined concrete cylinders

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) confined concrete columns have been developed for new construction and rebuilding of concrete piers/piles in engineering structures. Design of these FRP confined concrete columns requires an accurate estimate of the performance enhancement due to the confinement mechanism. Therefore, the key is to develop a confinement model, a model that relates the confined concrete strength with the unconfined concrete strength and the confining pressure provided by the FRP. Due to its closed-form expression and ease of application, design-oriented confinement models predominate in designing FRP confined concrete columns. Design oriented models are directly based on the interpretation of experimental results. Each existing design oriented model is based on a certain range of test database and is accurate in predicting the results within its respective considered range. All the models are based on limited database. In the present research, an attempt was made to expand the test database with larger range. A 3-D finite element model of FRP confined concrete column was developed using ANSYS and was validated by published experimental results available in the literature. Based on the FEA results, a test data base was developed taking into account all the possible ranges of the design parameters which affect the confined concrete strength. Analyses of the test database revealed that the confinement effectiveness depends on thickness, hoop tensile strength, modulus of elasticity of the FRP and unconfined concrete strength and behaves nonlinearly with each of them. Therefore, in the present study the main emphasis was to explore a possible approach for a design oriented confinement model which considers this nonlinear relation between the confinement effectiveness and the design parameters

A comparative study of the search and retrieval features of OAI harvesting services

Several OAI service providers (Harvesters) are coming up providing cross-search services by harvesting metadata from OAI compliant repositories. OAI facilitates quick discovery of content and free exchange of information among repositories through Service Providers (Harvesters). In order to achieve interoperability in their operations, Service Providers need to incorporate a generalized set of search and browse features in their search interface. Few parameters are drawn to compare the search and retrieval features of harvesters and arrived at a useful checklist for Service Providers to achieve homogeneity and standardization while designing their search interfac

Institutional Repository at National Aerospace Laboratories

The Information Centre of NAL with its state-of-the-art expertise, infrastructure and services initiated setting up of its own repository during 2003 using, the then most popular open source software Greenstone Digital Library (GSDL). The work progressed rapidly with the adoption of the open source software GNU EPrints for archiving and managing the digital collections. This paper in detail explains the working model of NAL’s Institutional Repository. It discusses the technology employed and methodology adopted in building the same. The collection process of different data types, processing and depositing the same to IR is discussed in detail. It is summarized by providing the current status and the statistics on number of hits receive

Hyperhomocysteinemia in recurrent pregnancy loss and the effect of folic acid and vitamin B12 on homocysteine levels: a prospective analysis

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) affects about 5% of women. High levels of homocysteine, termed hyperhomocysteinemia, have been implicated in a number of pathologic processes in the venous and arterial vascular systems. Hyperhomocysteinemia in pregnant women has been associated with deep venous thrombosis, recurrent miscarriage, abruption placentae, preeclampsia, neural tube defects, and fetal growth restriction. This study aims at determining association between hyperhomocysteinemia and recurrent pregnancy loss and also association of folic acid (vitamin B 9) and vitamin B 12 with hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY), in reducing its levels in the body and thus preventing obstetric complications.Methods: A prospective study of pregnant mothers booked at our hospital over a period of two years with history of unexplained RPL were included in the study and their serum homocysteine levels were assessed. Hyperhomocysteinemia (>12 micromol/l) patients were treated with folic acid and vitamin B12 supplements and homocysteine levels were assessed again, post treatment.Results: Out of the 100 patients who were assessed, 32% of RPL patients had hyperhomocysteinemia. Folic acid and VitB12 supplementation reduced homocysteine levels and this was found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with RPL. Vitamin supplementation to those with hyperhomocysteinemia, decreases homocysteine levels

Perancangan Interior Study Lounge Café Di Surabaya

Study Lounge Café is a facility which is designed to meet the individual needs of high school and university students, such as learning or doing their assignments. This study lounge café is equipped with facilities such as air conditioning, wifi, photocopier, printer, scanner, computer, and other supporting facilities to increase the effectiveness of the work. The concept used is “A Fun Place to Study”, which is applied to “Playground” theme. Both concept and the theme were chosen to create a comfortable learning activities through interesting yet fun ambience. The concept also can be seen from the use of bright colors, playground-equipment-formed furniture, and the addition of quotes that motivates visitors. The design uses design thinking method according to Kembel

Current Trends in Forest and Environmental Policies in Sri Lanka

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Effect of randomness and anisotropy on Turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems

We study the effect of randomness and anisotropy on Turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems. For this purpose, the Gierer-Meinhardt model of pattern formation is considered. The cases we study are: (i)randomness in the underlying lattice structure, (ii)the case in which there is a probablity p that at a lattice site both reaction and diffusion occur, otherwise there is only diffusion and lastly, the effect of (iii) anisotropic and (iv) random diffusion coefficients on the formation of Turing patterns. The general conclusion is that the Turing mechanism of pattern formation is fairly robust in the presence of randomness and anisotropy.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, 14 postscript figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.