Formalism for Construction Inspection Planning: Requirements and Process Concept

Inspectors currently do not have adequate planning support to prevent inefficient or overlooked inspections and undetected defects. Underlying this problem is the lack of a planning formalism for specifying inspection goals and for developing and selecting inspection plans. This paper discusses the requirements for such a formalism. We describe sources of inspection knowledge and approaches for planning in general and for inspection planning specifically. We then describe a set of requirements for the representation and reasoning needed to support the use of available inspection knowledge to assist inspectors in the processes of creating sets of inspection plan alternatives and reducing that set to a smaller set of inspection plans for a given project.     

Utilization of multiple graphene nanosheets in fuel cells: 2. The effect of oxidation process on the characteristics of graphene nanosheets

Structural properties of graphene nanosheets that will be used as electrode material in fuel cells were investigated at different oxidation times. As the oxidation time was increased, the strong bonding between graphene layers in graphite was reduced and graphene layers started to exfoliate forming clusters with a few number of graphene layers. The variations in interplanar spacings, layer number and percent crystallinity indicated how stepwise chemical procedure influenced the morphology of graphite. It was possible to produce relatively flat graphene clusters with definite number of layers by controlling the oxidation time. Graphene nanosheets were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and thermal gravimetric analyzer.     

Implementation and evaluation of wearable reaction time tests

Conducting cognitive assessment tests throughout normal daily life offers new opportunities to early detect changes in cognitive efficiency. Such tests would allow identification of early symptoms of cognitive impairment, monitor the progress of disease processes related to cognitive efficiency and reduce the risk of cognitive overload. Reaction time tests are known as simple and sensitive tests for detecting variation in cognitive efficiency. A drawback of existing reaction time tests is that they require the full attention of a test person, which prohibits the measurement of cognitive efficiency during daily routine tasks. In this contribution we present the design, implementation and empirical evaluation of two wearable reaction time tests that can be operated throughout everyday life. We designed and implemented wearable watch-like devices, which combine the generation of haptic stimuli and the recognition of hand gestures as the subject’s response. For the evaluation of the wearable interface, we conducted a user study with 20 subjects to investigate to what extent we can measure changes in length and variability of user’s reaction time with the wearable interfaces in comparison to well accepted, traditional desktop-based tests. Based on the achieved statistical results, we conclude that the presented wearable reaction time tests are suitable to measure factors that influence length and variability of reaction times.     

High hydrostatic pressure assisted extraction of pectin from sugar beet pulp

This study aimed to investigate the effect of high hydrostatic pressure assisted extraction (HHPE) (250, 350 and 450 MPa at 40 °C for 5 min with/without acid addition) of pectin from sugar beet pulp and compare its properties with pectin obtained from conventional extraction (CE). Degree of esterification (DE), galacturonic acid (Gal-A) content, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry experiments were performed on the obtained pectin powder. HHPE (12.23 ± 0.13%) doubled extraction yield compared to CE (6.43 ± 0.07%). Also, HHPE and acid addition were found to have a synergetic effect on the extraction. HHPE resulted in degradations in the polymer structure and reduced Gal-A content and DE. Pectin extracted with both methods was classified as low methoxyl pectin (LMP). According to the NMR Relaxometry results, HHPE decreased water holding capacity (WHC). In brief, HHP was shown to increase the pectin extraction yield and no changes in viscosity were observed at the concentrations studied (2 g/L).     

Assessment of Open Pit Dewatering Requirements and Pit Lake Formation for the Kışladağ Gold Mine,Uşak,Turkey

The K??lada? gold mine (U?ak, Turkey) has operated since 2006 and is projected to close by 2030, leaving a large open pit. We quantified dewatering requirements during the operational period, predicted pit lake formation during the post-closure period, and assessed the likely impacts on groundwater resources. Groundwater inflow into the pit during 17 years of mining was calculated using analytical and numerical models. The analytical model yielded lower inflow rates because it does not account for groundwater that will be released from storage. Post-closure, pit lake water balance calculations show that the system will reach equilibrium 585 years after dewatering ceases and that lake levels will stabilize at 816 m above sea level (masl). Further analysis indicated that 830 masl is a critical level, below which the pit will behave as a sink; above that, it will be a flowthrough system that could possibly affect downgradient groundwater quality.     

Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)s: Diversification and biomedical applications: A state of the art review

Biomaterials have played an important role in the treatment of disease and the improvement of health care. Synthetic and naturally occurring biodegradable and biocompatible polymers have been used as biomaterials. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising materials for biomedical applications because they are biodegradable, non-toxic and biocompatible. We will shortly summarize the modification reactions, which include functionalization and grafting reactions, to improve the mechanical, thermal and hydrophilic properties of PHAs. The use of the modified PHAs in numerous biomedical applications, such as sutures, cardiovascular patches, wound dressings, scaffolds in tissue engineering, tissue repair/regeneration devices, drug carriers will be discussed in this review.     

Preparing Civil Engineers for International Collaboration in Construction Management

Economic globalization is increasingly affecting both the construction industry and academia. It is changing the traditional roles of civil engineers and construction managers. Cross-cultural collaboration and communication skills, multinational team management skills, the ability to overcome the social challenges of geographically distributed teams, and familiarity with construction materials, standards, and methods of foreign countries are vital for modern construction professionals. However, the traditional skills and education style of engineers and construction managers do not equip them to successfully deal with such issues. This paper describes the experiences of a university course International Collaborative Construction Management that was developed to educate the next generation of civil engineers to be more internationally savvy. Throughout the three years that the course has been conducted to date, students in Turkey, the United States, Israel, and Brazil were grouped in multinational teams. They collaborated to develop construction schedules, cost estimates, risk assessment plans and response strategies and to prepare bid documents for actual construction projects. Within the context of this course, students were introduced to the different challenges of cross-cultural collaboration and improved their technical/managerial skills through direct involvement in hands-on experiences.     

Sensing and Field Data Capture for Construction and Facility Operations

Collection of accurate, complete, and reliable field data is not only essential for active management of construction projects involving various tasks, such as material tracking, progress monitoring, and quality assurance, but also for facility and infrastructure management during the service lives of facilities and infrastructure systems. Limitations of current manual data collection approaches in terms of speed, completeness, and accuracy render these approaches ineffective for decision support in highly dynamic environments, such as construction and facility operations. Hence, a need exists to leverage the advancements in automated field data capture technologies to support decisions during construction and facility operations. These technologies can be used not only for acquiring data about the various operations being carried out at construction and facility sites but also for gathering information about the context surrounding these operations and monitoring the workflow of activities during these operations. With this, it is possible for project and facility managers to better understand the effect of environmental conditions on construction and facility operations and also to identify inefficient processes in these operations. This paper presents an overview of the various applications of automated field data capture technologies in construction and facility fieldwork. These technologies include image capture technologies, such as laser scanners and video cameras; automated identification technologies, such as barcodes and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags; tracking technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and wireless local area network (LAN); and process monitoring technologies, such as on-board instruments (OBI). The authors observe that although applications exist for capturing construction and facility fieldwork data, these technologies have been underutilized for capturing the context at the fieldwork sites as well as for monitoring the workflow of construction and facility operations.     

Micro-array versus nano-array platforms: a comparative study for ODN detection based on SPR enhanced ellipsometry

The rapid and sensitive detection of DNA has recently attracted worldwide attention for a variety of disease diagnoses and detection of harmful bacteria in food and drink. In this paper, we carried out a comparative study based on surface plasmon resonance enhanced ellipsometry (SPREE) for the detection of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) using micro- and nano-array platforms. The micro-arrayed surfaces were fabricated by a photolithography approach using different types of mask having varying size and shape. Well-ordered arrays of high aspect ratio polymeric nanotubes were also obtained using high molecular weight polystyrene (PS) and anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes having 200 nm pore diameters. The SPREE sensors were then prepared by direct coupling of thiolated probe-ODNs, which contain suitable spacer arms, on gold-coated micro- and nano-arrayed surfaces. We experimentally demonstrated that, for the first time, gold-coated free standing polymeric nano-arrayed platforms can easily be produced and lead to a significant sensor sensitivity gain compared to that of the conventional SPREE surfaces of about four times. We believe that such an enhancement in sensor response could be useful for next generation sensor systems.