In situ chemical modification of C–S–H induced by CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser irradiation

Fire-induced compositional changes lead to strength loss and even failure in cement and concrete. Calcium silicate hydrate (C–S–H) gel, the main product of cement hydration, dehydrates at 25–200 °C, while temperatures of 850–900 °C alter its structure. A Raman spectroscopic study of the amorphous and crystalline phases forming after CO₂ laser radiation of cement mortar showed that C–S–H dehydration yielded tricalcium silicate at higher, and dicalcium silicate at lower, temperatures. Post-radiation variations were identified in the position of the band generated by Si–O bond stretching vibrations.     

A case study on consistency management of business and IT process models in banking

Organizations that adopt process modeling often maintain several co-existing models of the same business process. These models target different abstraction levels and stakeholder perspectives. Maintaining consistency among these models has become a major challenge for such organizations. Although several academic works have discussed this challenge, little empirical investigation exists on how people perform process model consistency management in practice. This paper aims to address this lack by presenting an in-depth empirical study of a business-driven engineering process deployed at a large company in the banking sector. We analyzed more than 70 business process models developed by the company, including their change history, with over 1,000 change requests. We also interviewed 9 business and IT practitioners and surveyed 23 such practitioners to understand concrete difficulties in consistency management, the rationales for the specification-to-implementation refinements found in the models, strategies that the practitioners use to detect and fix inconsistencies, and how tools could help with these tasks. Our contribution is a set of eight empirical findings, some of which confirm or contradict previous works on process model consistency management found in the literature. The findings provide empirical evidence of (1) how business process models are created and maintained, including a set of recurrent patterns used to refine business-level process specifications into IT-level models; (2) what types of inconsistencies occur; how they are introduced; and what problems they cause; and (3) what stakeholders expect from tools to support consistency management.     

Score-based methods for learning Markov boundaries by searching in constrained spaces

Within probabilistic classification problems, learning the Markov boundary of the class variable consists in the optimal approach for feature subset selection. In this paper we propose two algorithms that learn the Markov boundary of a selected variable. These algorithms are based on the score+search paradigm for learning Bayesian networks. Both algorithms use standard scoring functions but they perform the search in constrained spaces of class-focused directed acyclic graphs, going through the space by means of operators adapted for the problem. The algorithms have been validated experimentally by using a wide spectrum of databases, and their results show a performance competitive with the state-of-the-art.     

An optical performance monitoring method for Carrier Ethernet networks using OAM continuity check messages

A key feature of Carrier Ethernet networks is its operation and management framework. The link state, in this context, is simply determined by the detection (or absence for a given period) of continuity check message (CCM) at the receiver end of a management end point. However, cross-layer information can be inexpensively gained by looking into the loss patterns of these CCM frames, especially when Carrier Ethernet is operating directly over wavelengths (Layer-1) from transparent optical links or networks. This paper experimentally demonstrates a case for optical signal-to-noise and optical signal-to-interference estimation from monitoring standard CCM frame loss frame rate. Moreover, the loss pattern signatures of such physical-layer impairments may give in-depth link state information for fault and performance management as it may give valuable clues about the dominant impairing phenomena.     

Reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy after the use of benazepril

gamma-Interferon (IFN-gamma) was detected by ELISA assay in ascitic fluid from a number of ovarian cancer patients. To study its clinical significance, the effect of IFN-gamma on the metastatic potential of a mouse mammary adenocarcinoma, MA-891, was explored. Pretreatment of the tumor cells in vitro for 48hr with recombinant INF-gamma significantly increased the number of lung tumor nodules after i. v. or s. c. inoculation into (TA2 x 615) F1 mice. In contrast, when recombinant IFN-alpha pretreated MA-891 cells were likewise injected into mice significant decrease in metastatic potential was seen. The study in vitro indicated that pretreatment of the tumor cells with IFN-gamma but not with IFN alpha resulted in a decrease in susceptibility to NK cell cytotoxicity. In as much as both IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma can induce MHC class I expression on target cells. The increase in metastatic potential of IFN-gamma-treated tumor cells can be explained only partially on the basis of their reduced NK cells susceptibility.     

Lactose crystallisation in concentrated whey: the influence of vat type

This work aimed to describe the rate of lactose crystallisation in concentrated whey carried out using two different crystallisers, utilising central or lateral stirring. The lactose crystallisation rate differed between treatments, showing high values with use of the central stirrer. Under the experimental conditions, after 4 h of crystallisation, in neither of the vats was 70% lactose crystallisation achieved. With the standardised conditions applied in this study, with soluble solids, time, and stirring and rate cooling being constant, it was possible to verify the influence of the vat type on the rate of lactose crystallisation.     

A Proposed Approach for Provenance Data Gathering

Mobile Networks and Applications - Data provenance focuses on the source of the data and on the identification of data sources and their transformations undergone over time. This paper proposes a...     

Influence of fracture roughness and micro-fracturing on the mechanical response of rock joints: a discrete element approach

The closure and shear behaviors of 3D self-affine rock joints are simulated by the Discrete Element Method using PFC3D. First, a methodology to produce rough self-affine rock joints using DEM is presented then eight self-affine rough joints, having low and high values of roughness exponent, self-affine correlation length, and height variance, are considered. After the calibration of the elastic and fracture behaviors of an elementary volume formed from spherical discrete elements bonded by elastic beams, the numerical rock joints are submitted to closure tests at 14 and 21 MPa followed by a shear test at constant velocity and under constant normal load. Each DEM joint is tested using three different mechanical models: rigid, ideally elastic and elastic-fracturing. The use of these three models allows highlighting the distinct influences of the morphology, the joint stiffness and the micro-fracturing on the closure and shear behaviors of the joints.