Hawaiian and Azorean volcanic aggregates: a preliminary study of the potential alkali-silica reaction

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - The alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a chemical deterioration of concrete that involves reactive forms of silica. Volcanic glass is one of the...     

Evaluating the effects of cross neighborhood facilities on residential satisfaction by developing importance-satisfaction rate method (case study: Jahanshahr neighborhood of Karaj,Iran)

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment - Urban facilities within a neighborhood are among the most important factors affecting residential satisfaction. According to the definitions of...     

Modular formal verification of specifications of concurrent systems

In this paper, we propose a bottom‐up approach for the verification of systems with modular structure: we prove that when the modules are composed in specific ways, the complete software system verifies a composition of the properties each component does. We focus on the process of upgrading systems with new functionalities, where the validity of old requirements needs to be ensured, but also an understanding of the new properties the upgraded system would enjoy is useful. In this work, we assume each component to be specified by a CCS process, and the properties to be expressed by selective mu‐calculus formulae. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microstructure and mechanical properties of co-continuous metal/ceramic composites obtained from Reactive Metal Penetration of commercial aluminium alloys into cordierite

Co-continuous metal/ceramic composites were obtained by the Reactive Metal Penetration (RMP) method. With the aim of components cost reduction, commercial cordierite preforms and standard aluminium infiltrating alloys (1050, 2011 and 7075) were used in the process. Kinetics of the infiltration reaction, microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites were found to be influenced by both quantity and type of alloying elements. In particular, while Young’s modulus remains quite constant, a marked increase in microhardness is observed with 2011 and 7075 alloys, even if to the detriment of flexural strength.     

Response Surface Models to Detect and Localize Distributed Cracks in a Complex Continuum

Linear response surface (RS) models are used to represent the relationship between samples of response time histories measured by sensors placed across a structure. Different structural states of a general time-variant system are considered for short intervals capturing a linearized model of each state. Within this framework, the error associated with each RS model is sensitive to a modification of the structural state. A method that relates the changes of the statistical characterization of the error to the occurrence of a structural modification is developed for damage detection. The localization of damage is then pursued by identifying the largest discrepancies resulting from the comparison between the statistics of the sum of the squares of the error obtained at each sensor location. The generality of the method is shown by applying it to the experimental data of a realistic structure, which is representative of a continuous body affected by distributed cracking.     

Hedgehog Signalling Modulates Immune Response and Protects against Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is essential for the embryonic development and homeostatic maintenance of many adult tissues and organs. It has also been associated with some functions of the innate and adaptive immune system. However, its involvement in the immune response has not been well determined. Here we study the role of Hh signalling in the modulation of the immune response by using the Ptch-1-LacZ^+/− mouse model (hereinafter referred to as ptch^+/−), in which the hemizygous inactivation of Patched-1, the Hh receptor gene, causes the constitutive activation of Hh response genes. The in vitro TCR stimulation of spleen and lymph node (LN) T cells showed increased levels of Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) in ptch^+/−cells compared to control cells from wild-type (wt) littermates, suggesting that the Th2 phenotype is favoured by Hh pathway activation. In addition, CD4⁺ cells secreted less IL-17, and the establishment of the Th1 phenotype was impaired in ptch^+/− mice. Consistently, in response to an inflammatory challenge by the induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), ptch^+/− mice showed milder clinical scores and more minor spinal cord damage than wt mice. These results demonstrate a role for the Hh/ptch pathway in immune response modulation and highlight the usefulness of the ptch^+/− mouse model for the study of T-cell-mediated diseases and for the search for new therapeutic strategies in inflammatory diseases.     

Biosorption of protons and heavy metals onto olive pomace: modelling of competition effects

Heavy metal biosorption onto solid wastes from olive oil production plants, olive pomace, has been investigated. Acid-base properties of the active sites of olive pomace were determined by potentiometric titrations and represented by a continuous model accounting for two main kinds of active sites. Competition among protons and heavy metals in solution was considered by performing biosorption tests at different equilibrium pH with single (Cu and Cd) and binary metal systems (Cu-Cd). Both Langmuir extensions and non-ideal competitive adsorption models (NICA models) can be used to represent experimental data of Cu and Cd biosorption in single metal systems at different equilibrium pH. Nevertheless only NICA models, accounting for site heterogeneity and non-ideal adsorption of the different species simultaneously present in solution, can adequately simulate the competition among Cu and Cd in binary metal systems by using the parameters fitted to single system data.     

Operating systems,compilers, assemblers and application programs: audit trails of user satisfaction

The influence of manufacturer's software on overall computer user satisfaction, as determined by multiple regression, is analysed. Operating systems, number of systems and number of users are found to be the most significant variables affecting overall user satisfaction. The average life of a computer system (in months) and the microcomputer (as the type of installation) have the least significant effect in the user satisfaction equation.An interactive expert system for manufacturer's software is designed, developed and demonstrated. The application of such an expert system is explained along with the use of artificial intelligence techniques. The implications for improvements in manufacturer's software by updates to an artificial-intelligence-based expert system database are discussed and analysed.