Distribution Factors for Curved Continuous Composite Box-Girder Bridges

The use of horizontally curved composite box-girder bridges in modern highway systems has become increasingly popular for economic as well as for aesthetic considerations. Based on a recent literature review on the design of box-girder bridges, it was observed that a simple design method for curved bridges, based on load distribution factors for stresses and shears, is as yet unavailable. This paper presents the results of an extensive parametric study, using a finite element method, in which the structural responses of 240 two-equal-span continuous curved box-girder bridges of various geometries were investigated. The parameters considered in this study included span-to-radius of curvature ratio, span length, number of lanes, number of boxes, web slope, number of bracings, and truck loading type. Based on the data generated from this study, empirical formulas for load distribution factors for maximum longitudinal flexural stresses and maximum deflection due to dead load as well as AASHTO live loading were deduced. An illustrative design example is presented.     

Gamma Radiation-induced Graft Copolymerization of – Phenylmaleimide onto Polypropylene Films

Polypropylene (PP) films were grafted with N-phenylmaleimide using γ-radiation. The effect of both monomer concentration and dose rate on the degree of grafting was measured. Characterization of the grafted PP films included IR spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, electrical conductivity, mechanical properties and thermal stability has been studied. © of SCI.     

N-acryloyl,N′-cyanoacetohydrazide as a thermal stabilizer for rigid poly(vinyl chloride)

N-Acryloyl,N′-cyanoacetohydrazide (ACAH) and its complexes with some metal ions have been investigated as thermal stabilizers for rigid poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Their stabilizing efficiencies have been measured by the continuous potentiometric determination of the evolved hydrogen chloride gas from the degradation process and by the extent of discoloration of the degraded samples compared with some conventional thermal stabilizers. The efficiency of blending ACAH with conventional thermal stabilizers has been investigated. A probable mechanism for the stabilizing action of ACAH is also proposed. © 1998 SCI.     

Production of lubricating base oil from slop wax by different subsequent refining techniques

Different subsequent refining techniques including solvent dewaxing and solvent extraction have been used to produce lubricating base oil from slop wax waste by-product. The solvent dewaxing technique was performed using two different solvent mixtures of methyl ethyl ketone and toluene with and without benzene at different dilution solvent ratios and at different dewaxing temperatures. The solvent extraction technique was carried out using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone solvent at 90 °C and at constant dilution solvent ratio of 3:1 by weight. The resulting data revealed that the highest yield of lubricating base oil having the lowest pour point (−6 °C) and the highest iso- and cyclo-paraffins to n-paraffins ratio (5.11) is obtained by solvent dewaxing process only. While the lowest yield of lubricating base oil having the highest pour point (−1 °C) and the lowest iso- and cyclo-paraffins to n-paraffins ratio (4.08) is obtained using solvent dewaxing followed by solvent extraction process. These lubricating base oil products, especially the one that having the lowest pour point (−6 °C) matches the principal characteristics of AX 973853 type of premium low viscosity textile machinery oils obtained by Mobile Velocite Oil Company.     

The uniqueness and reciprocity theorems for generalized thermo-viscoelasticity with two relaxation times

The equations of generalized thermo-viscoelasticity with two relaxation times are given. Using Laplace transforms, a uniqueness theorem for these equations is proved. Also, a reciprocity theorem is obtained.     

High-Speed and Low-Power IP for Embedded Block Coding with Optimized Truncation (EBCOT) Sub-Block in JPEG2000 System Implementation

In this paper we propose novel high-speed and low-power architecture for the context formation sub-block in tier-1 block of JPEG2000 system. The proposed architecture is inspired from the statistical analysis results on 20 test images, each one 512*512 pixels, gray scale with 8 bit pixels. The proposed architecture incorporates a check unit to detect unnecessary operations in both pass1 and pass2 of the EBCOT block. For code block size of 64*64 bits, the timing and power consumption analysis show that the proposed architecture reduces the power consumption about 20.64% and increases the processing speed to about 33.67% with respect to the speedy reference architecture. The proposed architecture has a processing speed close to the parallel mode architectures with almost the same area for serial mode architectures and more power saving. The proposed architecture gathers the basic advantages of the serial and parallel mode implementations in addition to lower power consumption. Ramy E. Aly received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from University of Alexandria, Egypt, in 1994, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Old Dominion University, VA, in 2001 and M.S. in computer engineering from University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in 2002. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree at the Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS), University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Since 2001, he has been a Research Assistant with the CACS, in the VLSI Research group of M. A. Bayoumi, University of Louisiana. His research interests include low-power VLSI circuit design, low-power SRAM design, JPEG2000 Architecture and CAD-tools. Magdy A. Bayoumi(S'80-M'84-SM'87-F'99) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1973 and 1977, the M.Sc. degree in computer engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in 1981, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada, in 1984. Currently, he is the Director of the Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS), Department Head of the Computer Science Department, the Edmiston Professor of Computer Engineering, and the Lamson Professor of Computer Science at The Center for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he has been a Faculty Member since 1985. He has edited and coedited three books in the area of VLSI Signal Processing. He has one patent pending. His research interests include VLSI design methods and architectures, low-power circuits and systems, digital signal processing architectures, parallel algorithm design, computer arithmetic, image and video signal processing, neural networks, and wide-band network architectures. Dr. Bayoumi received the University of Louisiana at Lafayette 1988 Researcher of the Year Award and the 1993 Distinguished Professor Award. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE CIRCUITS AND DEVICES MAGAZINE, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATION (VLSI) SYSTEMS, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL NETWORKS, and the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS-II: ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING. He was an Associate Editor of the Circuits and Devices Magazine and is currently an Associate Editor of Integration, the VLSI Journal, and the Journal of VLSI Signal Processing Systems. He is a Regional Editor for the VLSI Design Journal and on the Advisory Board of the Journal on Microelectronics Systems Integration. From 1991 to 1994, he served on the Distinguished Visitors Program for the IEEE Computer Society, and he is on the Distinguished Lecture Program of the Circuits and Systems Society. He was the Vice President for technical activities of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. He was the Cochairman of the Workshop on Computer Architecture for Machine Perception in 1993, and is a Member of the Steering Committee of this workshop. He was the General Chairman of the 1994 MWSCAS and is a Member of the Steering Committee of this symposium. He was the General Chairman for the 8th Great Lake Symposium on VLSI in 1998. He has been on the Technical Program Committee for ISCAS for several years and he was the Publication Chair for ISCAS'99. He was also the General Chairman of the 2000 Workshop on Signal Processing Design and Implementation. He was a founding member of the VLSI Systems and Applications Technical Committee and was its Chairman. He is currently the Chairman of the Technical Committee on Circuits and Systems for Communication and the Technical Committee on Signal Processing Design and Implementation. He is a Member of the Neural Network and the Multimedia Technology Technical Committees. Currently, he is the faculty advisor for the IEEE Computer Student Chapter at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.     

Residential Load Management Under Stochastic Weather Condition in Developing Countries

Abstract—This article focuses on offline residential load management in a developing country. This load management is based on scheduling linear load models under the stochastic weather conditions. The weather condition is modeled using the probability theory and Monte Carlo simulation. The seasonality effect, the type of day, and the stochastic hourly variation of weather conditions are considered as factors governing load management.     

Effect of succinylation on the functional and physicochemical properties of alpha-globulin,the major protein fraction from Sesamum indicum L

alpha-Globulin the major protein fraction from Sesamum indicum was succinylated to different levels and the effect of the chemical modification was evaluated both on the functional and physicochemical properties. The results suggest that the pH of minimum solubility shifted to the more acidic side (pH approximately 4.5-5.5) for the succinylated alpha-globulin whereas for control alpha-globulin the pH of minimum solubility was 6.5. Succinylation also increased emulsion activity and emulsion stability of the protein. The emulsion stability increased from a control value of 53 +/- 3 s to a value of 122 +/- 5 s. Bulk density, water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, foam capacity and foam stability were evaluated in phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 0.5 M sodium chloride and all these properties showed increased values as a result of succinylation. Ultracentrifugation studies showed that the % composition of 7S component increases with concomitant decrease in that of 11S fraction with the increase in percentage of succinylation. Further increase in succinylation resulted in only 2S component which is a dissociated form of 11S and/or 7S protein fractions. The fluorescence emission studies showed a decrease in the fluorescence emission intensity of alpha-globulin as a result of succinylation. The thermal stability of the protein molecule decreased due to progressive succinylation as indicated by decrease in the apparent thermal denaturation temperature from a control value of 84 to 62 degrees C at a succinylation level of 40%. These results suggest that succinylation improves the functional characteristics of alpha-globulin. Such changes in the functional properties have been attributed partly to the dissociation of the protein molecule at higher levels of succinylation and the increase in the net negative charge on the protein.     

Effects of electron beam irradiation on the structure–property behavior of blends based on low density polyethylene and styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene-block copolymers

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) blends with different additives were exposed to various doses of electron beam irradiation. The additives used were styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene-block copolymers (SEBS), styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene-block copolymer grafted with maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA) and mineral compounds. The structure–property behavior of electron beam irradiated blends was characterized in terms of mechanical, thermal, and electrical resistivity properties. The results indicated that the unirradiated LDPE blends with the different compositions showed improved mechanical properties, thermal and volume resistivity properties than pure LDPE. However, the improvement in properties of unirradiated blends by using SEBS-g-MA was higher than using SEBS copolymer. Further improvement in the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of the LDPE blends was achieved after electron beam irradiation. The limited oxygen index (LOI) data revealed that the LDPE/SEBS-g-MA/ATH blend was changed from combustible to self-extinguishing material after electron beam irradiation to a dose of 100 kGy. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Comparison of the catalysed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide over superconducting and insulating barium cuprates—kinetics of decomposition over Y2BaCuO5

Catalytic activities of two non-conducting cuprates (Ba₂Cu₃O₅, Y₂BaCuO₅) and a superconducting cuprate YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ, prepared by two different methods, were compared using H₂O₂ solution. The two non-conducting barium cuprates were found to be about two orders of magnitude more active than the superconducting perovskite-like YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ. The near coincidence of the kinetic curves for the catalysed decomposition of H₂O₂ over YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ, prepared either from the perovskite-like Ba₂Cu₃O₅ and Y₂O₃ or from its components, proves that Ba₂Cu₃O₅ is essential in the formation of YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ. First-order kinetics were observed for the catalysed decomposition of H₂O₂ solution over the non-perovskite Y₂BaCuO₅ at the initial stages of the reaction, similar to that of the superconducting perovskite catalyst. A tentative scheme of the possible catalytic reactions for the decomposition of H₂O₂ solution over the insulator Y₂BaCuO₅ is given.