Accounting for Soil Aging When Assessing Liquefaction Potential

It has been recognized that liquefaction resistance of sand increases with age due to processes such as cementation at particle contacts and increasing frictional resistance resulting from particle rearrangement and interlocking. As such, the currently available empirical correlations derived from liquefaction of young Holocene sand deposits, and used to determine liquefaction resistance of sand deposits from in situ soil indices [standard penetration test (SPT), cone penetration test (CPT), shear wave velocity test (Vs)], are not applicable for old sand deposits. To overcome this limitation, a methodology was developed to account for the effect of aging on the liquefaction resistance of old sand deposits. The methodology is based upon the currently existing empirical boundary curves for Holocene age soils and utilizes correction factors presented in the literature that comprise the effect of aging on the in situ soil indices as well as on the field cyclic strength (CRR). This paper describes how to combine currently recorded SPT, CPT, and Vs values with corresponding CRR values derived for aged soil deposits to generate new empirical boundary curves for aged soils. The method is illustrated using existing geotechnical data from four sites in the South Carolina Coastal Plain (SCCP) where sand boils associated with prehistoric earthquakes have been found. These sites involve sand deposits that are 200,000?to?450,000?years in age. This work shows that accounting for aging of soils in the SCCP yields less conservative results regarding the current liquefaction potential than when age is not considered. The modified boundary curves indicate that old sand deposits are more resistant to liquefaction than indicated by the existing empirical curves and can be used to evaluate the liquefaction potential at a specific site directly from the current in situ properties of the soil.     

The Future Is Here： m-Learning in Higher Education

The way we learn has changed dramatically in the new millennium. The introduction of e-learning in higher education in the late 1990s has opened Pandora＇s Box, and brought radical changes in the way where undergraduate and postgraduate programs are designed and delivered. The rapid developments and popularity ofhandheld devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs using wireless networks and mobile Intemet have marked new developments in higher education, introducing the so-called mobile leaming （m-learning）. This means that university students can have access to their studies related content, anytime, anywhere in a personalized manner; this is what renders m-learning so popular and fashionable among university students globally. Nevertheless, instructors are now challenged as they have to adopt new pedagogies in learning and teaching. This paper discusses the concept of m-learning, as well as the current developments and challenges related to the major stakeholders （educators and students） in higher education.     

Opportunistically assisted parking service discovery: Now it helps,now it does not

In this paper, we explore the way the discovery of service can be facilitated or not by utilizing service location information that is opportunistically disseminated primarily by the service consumers themselves. We apply our study to the real-world case of parking service in busy city areas. As the vehicles drive around the area, they opportunistically collect and share with each other information on the location and status of each parking spot they encounter. This opportunistically assisted scenario is compared against one that implements a “blind” non-assisted search and a centralized approach, where the allocation of parking spots is managed by a central server with global knowledge about the parking space availability.Results obtained for both uniformly distributed travel destinations and a single hotspot destination reveal that the relative performance of the three solutions can vary significantly and not always inline with intuition. Under the hotspot scenario, the opportunistic system is consistently outperformed by the centralized system, which yields the minimum times and distances at the expense of more distant parking spot assignments; whereas, for uniformly distributed destinations, the relative performance of all three schemes changes with the vehicle volume, with the centralized approach gradually becoming the worst solution and the opportunistic one emerging as the best scheme. We discuss how each approach modulates the information dissemination process in space and time and resolves the competition for the parking resources. We also outline models providing analytical insights to the behaviour of the centralized approach.     

Angiogenesis and Anti-Angiogenic Treatment in Prostate Cancer: Mechanisms of Action and Molecular Targets

Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Many therapeutic advances over the last two decades have led to an improvement in the survival of patients with metastatic PC, yet the majority of these patients still succumb to their disease. Antiagiogenic therapies have shown substantial benefits for many types of cancer but only a marginal benefit for PC. Ongoing clinical trials investigate antiangiogenic monotherapies or combination therapies. Despite the important role of angiogenesis in PC, clinical trials in refractory castration-resistant PC (CRPC) have demonstrated increased toxicity with no clinical benefit. A better understanding of the mechanism of angiogenesis may help to understand the failure of trials, possibly leading to the development of new targeted anti-angiogenic therapies in PC. These could include the identification of specific subsets of patients who might benefit from these therapeutic strategies. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the pathways involved in the angiogenesis, the chemotherapeutic agents with antiangiogenic activity, the available studies on anti-angiogenic agents and the potential mechanisms of resistance.     

Crossover of work engagement among Japanese couples: Perspective taking by both partners.

This study among 426 Japanese couples working in different occupational sectors tested the hypothesis that perspective taking moderates the crossover of work engagement. More specifically, we predicted that husbands' work engagement would cross over to their wives, particularly when wives scored high on perspective taking (the spontaneous tendency to adopt the psychological perspective of other people). A similar effect was predicted from wives to husbands. In addition, we hypothesized that the crossover effect would be most pronounced when both partners were high in perspective taking (i.e., a 3-way interaction effect). The results of moderated structural equation modeling analyses confirmed the moderating role of perspective taking, but only for women; women who took the perspective of their partner scored higher on engagement with increasing partner engagement. Moreover, the results showed that engagement crossover was strongest when both men and women were high (vs. low) in perspective taking. This 3-way interaction effect was found from husbands to wives, and vice versa. These findings expand the crossover literature by shedding light on the crossover process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of supplementation of brine with calcium on the Feta cheese ripening

Feta blocks ripened in plain or calcium‐supplemented brine were analysed with respect to biochemical characteristics, proteolysis and inorganic fractions; moreover, the inorganic and N content of the respective brines was estimated. The acidification of Feta in supplemented brine was faster, the moisture content was lower, secondary proteolysis was more extended, and the organoleptic scores were higher compared to control Feta ripened in plain brine. The TCASN fraction of cheeses contributed more than that of WSN to the N enrichment of brine. It was concluded that calcium supplementation of the brine retarded the diffusion of cheese N and Ca into the brine.     

Work characteristics and sickness absence in burnout and nonburnout groups: A study of Swedish health care workers.

The aim of this study was to search for constellations of work characteristics that discriminate people who experience burnout from those who do not, and also from those who score high in exhaustion but not in disengagement, and vice versa. The study is based on data from 3,719 employees in a County Council in Sweden. Discriminant analysis revealed that four burnout categories (nonburnout, disengaged, exhausted, and burnout) related in different ways to self-reported work characteristics. The proportions of respondents with overtime, sickness absence, and sickness presence were higher in the burnout and the exhausted groups compared with the nonburnout group. The most common professions in the burnout group were, unexpectedly, dental nurses, secretaries, and service staff. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model.

This study examined the role of three personal resources (self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem, and optimism) in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The authors hypothesized that personal resources (1) moderate the relationship between job demands and exhaustion, (2) mediate the relationship between job resources and work engagement, and (3) relate to how employees perceive their work environment and well-being. Hypotheses were tested among 714 Dutch employees. Results showed that personal resources did not offset the relationship between job demands and exhaustion. Instead, personal resources mediated the relationship between job resources and engagement/exhaustion and influenced the perception of job resources. The implications of these findings for the JD-R model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)