Shear bond strength between asphalt layers for laboratory prepared samples and field cores

This paper describes the laboratory measurement of shear interface properties between asphalt layers using the Leutner test. Results are presented and compared for both laboratory prepared specimens and field cores. The standard Leutner test was modified by the introduction of a 5 mm gap into the shear plane to reduce edge damage caused by misalignment of the specimen and specimens that incorporate a thin surfacing material were extended using a 30 mm thick grooved metal cylinder to eliminate dependence of the shear strength on surfacing thickness. The laboratory produced surfacing/binder course combinations incorporating the 20 mm Dense Bitumen Macadam (20 DBM) binder course showed the highest average shear strengths when nothing was applied at the interface and the lowest average shear strengths when the tack coat was applied at the interface. The average shear strength from field cores was found to increase as the class of the road increases for both surfacing/binder course interfaces and binder course/base interfaces.     

Medical image categorization and retrieval for PACS using the GMM-KL framework.

This paper presents an image representation and matching framework for image categorization in medical image archives. Categorization enables one to determine automatically, based on the image content, the examined body region and imaging modality. It is a basic step in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems, the goal of which is to augment text-based search with visual information analysis. CBIR systems are currently being integrated with picture archiving and communication systems for increasing the overall search capabilities and tools available to radiologists. The proposed methodology is comprised of a continuous and probabilistic image representation scheme using Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM) along with information-theoretic image matching via the Kullback-Leibler (KL) measure. The GMM-KL framework is used for matching and categorizing X-ray images by body regions. A multidimensional feature space is used to represent the image input, including intensity, texture, and spatial information. Unsupervised clustering via the GMM is used to extract coherent regions in feature space that are then used in the matching process. A dominant characteristic of the radiological images is their poor contrast and large intensity variations. This presents a challenge to matching among the images, and is handled via an illumination-invariant representation. The GMM-KL framework is evaluated for image categorization and image retrieval on a dataset of 1500 radiological images. A classification rate of 97.5% was achieved. The classification results compare favorably with reported global and local representation schemes. Precision versus recall curves indicate a strong retrieval result as compared with other state-of-the-art retrieval techniques. Finally, category models are learned and results are presented for comparing images to learned category models.     

Hydrodynamics of spout-fluid beds

Experiments were carried out in a half-column incorporating auxiliary flow, introduced through up to five slots along a 60° conical base, in addition to a central flow of air. The column had a diameter of 0.15 m and inlet diameters of either 19 or 25 mm. Three different types of particle were investigated, all with mean particle sizes in the 2 – 4 mm range. Four different flow regimes — fixed bed, spouting with aeration, spout-fluidization and jet in a fluidized bed — were identified and mapped. The minimum total gas flow required for spouting with aeration and for spout-fluidization was always greater than that corresponding to minimum spouting. Gas percolation through the annulus increased by as much as 50% as the proportion of auxiliary flow was increased for a given total gas flow rate. Solids circulation was increased somewhat by addition of auxiliary flow for deep beds, but a decrease occurred for shallow beds. The overall bed pressure drop under minimum spouting with aeration conditions increased linearly with auxiliary flow. On the other hand, the fountain height decreased as the fraction of auxiliary flow was increased for a fixed total gas flow, and increased with auxiliary flow for a fixed central gas flow. The empirical correlation of McNab predicted the average spout diameter well if the sum of the central and auxiliary flows was used in the correlation.     

Anthelminthic treatment raises plasma iron levels but does not decrease the acute-phase response in Jakarta school children

The study was conducted to investigate the impact of intestinal helminthiasis and treatment on iron status and acute phase response (APR) among urban Indonesian primary school children, aged 8-11 years old. The prevalence of helminthiasis among these children was; Ascaris lumbricoides, 81.6%; Trichuris trichiura, 88.3%; and mixed infection of A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura, 70.0%. Of 120 children enrolled in the investigation, 59 received a single 400 mg dose of albendazole, and 61 received a placebo. Ten days following treatment, the prevalence of ascariasis and trichuriasis in the treatment group diminished to 0% and 27%, respectively, and in the placebo group to 63.9% and 68.9%. Plasma iron, hemoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), white blood cell (WBC), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) concentrations were determined prior to the intervention and 10 days after. Plasma iron concentrations and WBC count rose in the treatment group (p=< or =0.05) when compared to baseline status. Increases in hemoglobin concentrations observed in the treatment group 10 days post-treatment were not statistically significant. CRP, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF were found to be within normal limits for both groups both before and after treatment. ESR increased significantly in both treatment and placebo groups when compared the rates measured before treatment. These findings show that treatment with albendazole is associated not only with a decreased worm burden in school children, but also a rise in plasma iron.     

Different types of voltage instability

In reported incidents, different types of voltage instability have occurred and each has presented in a quite distinct manner. To better acquaint power engineers with the different types, two incidents are described as each commenced with a type of system voltage instability and culminated with radial voltage instability. In neither of these two incidents were operators fully aware of the situation. The analysis of the incidents provided in this paper can give important operational insights. In particular it shows the value of timely load shedding and the need to allow a 20% margin from the radial voltage stability limit     

A Z-transform model of transformers for the study ofelectromagnetic transients in power systems

A Z-transform model, which combines transformer frequency-dependent short-circuit impedances with gain functions, has been developed. It sets up a relationship between transient voltages and currents on both sides of a transformer winding pair. The model can be used to calculate impulse responses of the transformers with open-circuit secondary winding as well as those connected to other networks. It could be incorporated into EMT (electromagnetic transient) programs for calculating the EMTs in power systems in which the distributed characteristics of transformer windings are to be considered     

Zero-knowledge proofs of identity

In this paper we extend the notion of interactive proofs of assertions to interactive proofs of knowledge. This leads to the definition of unrestricted input zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge in which the prover demonstrates possession of knowledge without revealing any computational information whatsoever (not even the one bit revealed in zero-knowledge proofs of assertions). We show the relevance of these notions to identification schemes, in which parties prove their identity by demonstrating their knowledge rather than by proving the validity of assertions. We describe a novel scheme which is provably secure if factoring is difficult and whose practical implementations are about two orders of magnitude faster than RSA-based identification schemes. The advantages of thinking in terms of proofs of knowledge rather than proofs of assertions are demonstrated in two efficient variants of the scheme: unrestricted input zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge are used in the construction of a scheme which needs no directory; a version of the scheme based on parallel interactive proofs (which are not known to be zero knowledge) is proved secure by observing that the identification protocols are proofs of knowledge.     

Cumulant based probabilistic power system simulation using Laguerrepolynomials

The authors describe a novel cumulant method of probabilistic power system simulation using the Laguerre polynomial expansion. In this method, Laguerre polynomials are used for obtaining the equivalent load duration probability density function from cumulants representing the load and generator outage probability density functions. A recursive algorithm is used for calculating moments and cumulants which enables practically any number of cumulants to be used in the simulation. The results of testing the method on the IEEE Reliability Test System are presented. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the method are compared with those of the conventional cumulant method based on the Hermite polynomial expansion     

A validation study of the Keyboard Personal Computer Style instrument (K-PeCS) for use with children

This study examines a potential instrument for measurement of typing postures of children. This paper describes inter-rater, test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the Keyboard Personal Computer Style instrument (K-PeCS), an observational measurement of postures and movements during keyboarding, for use with children. Two trained raters independently rated videos of 24 children (aged 7-10 years). Six children returned one week later for identifying test-retest reliability. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing ratings obtained using the K-PECS to scores from a 3D motion analysis system. Inter-rater reliability was moderate to high for 12 out of 16 items (Kappa: 0.46 to 1.00; correlation coefficients: 0.77-0.95) and test-retest reliability varied across items (Kappa: 0.25 to 0.67; correlation coefficients: r = 0.20 to r = 0.95). Concurrent validity compared favourably across arm pathlength, wrist extension and ulnar deviation. In light of the limitations of other tools the K-PeCS offers a fairly affordable, reliable and valid instrument to address the gap for measurement of typing styles of children, despite the shortcomings of some items. However further research is required to refine the instrument for use in evaluating typing among children.     

On the impact of serializing contention management on STM performance

Transactional memory (TM) is an emerging concurrent programming abstraction. Numerous software-based transactional memory (STM) implementations have been developed in recent years. STM implementations must guarantee transaction atomicity and isolation. In order to ensure progress, an STM implementation must resolve transaction collisions by consulting a contention manager (CM).