Experimental Investigation of FRP-Strengthened RC Beam-Column Joints

The results of a comprehensive experimental program, aimed at providing a fundamental understanding of the behavior of shear-critical exterior reinforced concrete (RC) joints strengthened with fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) under simulated seismic load, are presented in this study. The role of various parameters on the effectiveness of FRP is examined through 2/3-scale testing of 18 exterior RC joints. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of certain load versus imposed displacement response characteristics, comprising the strength (maximum lateral load), the stiffness, and the cumulative energy dissipation capacity. The results demonstrate the important role of mechanical anchorages in limiting premature debonding, and they provide important information on the role of various parameters, including: area fraction of FRP; distribution of FRP between the beam and the column; column axial load; internal joint (steel) reinforcement; initial damage; carbon versus glass fibers; sheets versus strips; and effect of transverse beams.     

Two-degree-of-freedom output feedback controllers for discrete-time nonlinear systems

A discrete-time, model-based output feedback control structure for nonlinear processes is developed in the present work. The structure makes use of a closed-loop observer, while at the same time it guarantees that the overall feedback controller possesses integral action. An algebraic transformation is applied on the observer states to insure that the input/output gain of the observer matches the model upon which the static state feedback control law is based. The resulting control algorithm is a two-degree-of-freedom control law, in the sense that the output and the set point are processed in different ways. The control structure is shown not only to have the same properties as the standard model-state feedback structure, but also that it emerges from a model algorithmic control framework. Finally, a simulation example using an exothermic CSTR operating at an open-loop unstable steady state is used to evaluate the closed-loop performance of the proposed method.     

A Matrix–Matrix Multiplication methodology for single/multi-core architectures using SIMD

In this paper, a new methodology for speeding up Matrix–Matrix Multiplication using Single Instruction Multiple Data unit, at one and more cores having a shared cache, is presented. This methodology achieves higher execution speed than ATLAS state of the art library (speedup from 1.08 up to 3.5), by decreasing the number of instructions (load/store and arithmetic) and the data cache accesses and misses in the memory hierarchy. This is achieved by fully exploiting the software characteristics (e.g. data reuse) and hardware parameters (e.g. data caches sizes and associativities) as one problem and not separately, giving high quality solutions and a smaller search space.     

Utilizing bloom filters for detecting flooding attacks against SIP based services

Any application or service utilizing the Internet is exposed to both general Internet attacks and other specific ones. Most of the times the latter are exploiting a vulnerability or misconfiguration in the provided service and/or in the utilized protocol itself. Consequently, the employment of critical services, like Voice over IP (VoIP) services, over the Internet is vulnerable to such attacks and, on top of that, they offer a field for new attacks or variations of existing ones. Among the various threats–attacks that a service provider should consider are the flooding attacks, at the signaling level, which are very similar to those against TCP servers but have emerged at the application level of the Internet architecture. This paper examines flooding attacks against VoIP architectures that employ the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as their signaling protocol. The focus is on the design and implementation of the appropriate detection method. Specifically, a bloom filter based monitor is presented and a new metric, named session distance, is introduced in order to provide an effective protection scheme against flooding attacks. The proposed scheme is evaluated through experimental test bed architecture under different scenarios. The results of the evaluation demonstrate that the required time to detect such an attack is negligible and also that the number of false alarms is close to zero.     

Experimental Investigation of Nonconventional Confinement for Concrete Using FRP

The present study investigates experimentally the behavior of concrete confined with fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) in the form of jackets which are applied according to a number of nonconventional techniques. First, the effectiveness of various jacketing configurations combined with anchors as a measure of increasing the strength and deformability of L-shaped columns is investigated. It is concluded that easy to install and low-cost anchors made of resin impregnated fibers properly placed at the reentrant corner of L-shaped columns enable excellent mobilization of confining stresses supplied by the FRP jackets. Next, a number of alternative confinement methods are investigated on concrete cylinders, aimed at quantifying the effectiveness of (1) unbonded jacketing, (2) spirally applied strips attached only at their ends, and (3) jacketing directly on concrete with mortar plastering. Although the study may be regarded as preliminary, it provides useful experimental support to a number of techniques which have the potential to open new horizons in the field of externally applied FRP for enhancing concrete confinement.     

Shape Connectivity: Multiscale Analysis and Application to Generalized Granulometries

This paper develops a multiscale connectivity theory for shapes based on the axiomatic definition of new generalized connectivity measures, which are obtained using morphology-based nonlinear scale-space operators. The concept of connectivity-tree for hierarchical image representation is introduced and used to define generalized connected morphological operators. This theoretical framework is then applied to establish a class of generalized granulometries, implemented at a particular problem concerning soilsection image analysis and evaluation of morphological properties such as size distributions. Comparative results demonstrate the power and versatility of the proposed methodology with respect to the application of typical connected operators (such as reconstruction openings). This multiscale connectivity analysis framework aims at a more reliable evaluation of shape/size information within complex images, with particular applications to generalized granulometries, connected operators, and segmentation.     

0.5‐V fractional‐order companding filters

Novel configurations of fractional‐order filter topologies, realized through the employment of the concept of companding filtering, are introduced in this paper. As a first step, the design procedure is presented in a systematic algorithmic way, while in the next step, the basic building blocks of sinh‐domain and log‐domain integrators are presented. Because of the employment of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors operated in the subthreshold region, the derived filter structures offer the capability for operation in an ultra‐low‐voltage environment. In addition, because of the offered resistorless realizations, the proposed topologies are reconfigurable, in the sense that the order of the filter could be chosen through appropriate bias current sources. The performance of the derived fractional‐order filters has been evaluated through simulation and comparison results using the Analog Design Environment of the Cadence software and MOS transistor parameters provided by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 180‐nm complementary MOS (CMOS) process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Short-Term Immune Responses of Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) Juveniles against Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida

Photobacteriosis is a septicaemic bacterial disease affecting several marine species around the globe, resulting in significant economic losses. Although many studies have been performed related to the pathogen virulence and resistance factors, information regarding the host defence mechanisms activated once an infection takes place is still scarce. The present study was designed to understand innate immune responses of farmed juvenile gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) after Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp) infection. Therefore, two groups of seabream juveniles were intraperitoneally injected with 100 µL of PBS (placebo) or 100 µL of exponentially growing Phdp (1 × 10⁶ CFU/mL; infected). The blood, plasma, liver, and head kidney of six fish from each treatment were sampled immediately before infection and 3, 6, 9, 24 and 48 h after infection for the broad screening of fish immune and oxidative stress responses. Infected animals presented marked anaemia, neutrophilia and monocytosis, conditions that are correlated with an increased expression of genes related to inflammation and phagocytic activity. Similar studies with different fish species and bacteria can be useful for the definition of health biomarkers that might help fish farmers to prevent the occurrence of such diseases.     

Oxoiron(V) Complexes of Relevance in Oxidation Catalysis of Organic Substrates

The selective oxidation of alkane and olefin moieties are reactions of fundamental importance in both chemical synthesis and biology. Nature efficiently catalyzes the oxidation of hydrocarbons using iron-dependent enzymes, which operate through the mediation of oxoiron(IV) or oxoiron(V) species. In the quest for chemo, regio and stereoselective transformations akin to those taking place in nature, bioinspired iron catalysts have been developed and understanding their mechanism of action has become a particularly relevant area of research. While a prominent advance in the preparation and characterization of oxoiron(IV) species has been accomplished, oxoiron(V) species remain exceedingly rare, presumably because the high reactivity that makes them particularly interesting also makes them difficult to observe. This review summarizes the advances in the field, focusing in synthetic systems for which the oxoiron(V) species relevant in these transformations have been directly detected and spetroscopically characterized.