Investigation of Proposed Concrete Filled Steel Tube Connections under Reversed Cyclic Loading

Concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) columns are used in the primary lateral resistance systems. The objective of this research is to analyse the behavior of the steel beam to CFT column connections. A three-dimensional numerical model for simulating the behavior of CFT connections was developed with the aid of the general purpose nonlinear finite element analysis package ABAQUS. In this paper, 90 CFT connection specimens include simple and moment connections that were tested under reversed cyclic loading. Shear capacity of joint, moment-drift response, energy absorption, and displacement ductility were studied in those models. The results have indicated that, the hysteresis curve of CFT columns was plump; no pinch phenomenon can be found; the damage and degradation degree of the strength and stiffness of specimens is lower; and high energy dissipation capacity can be achieved. Improvement in the behavior of CFT connection depends on the beam characteristics and column features.     

Stereodifferentiation of geosmin in wine

Geosmin (trans-1,10-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol), a well-known, highly odorous compound, has recently been identified and quantified in red and sweet white wines, as well as in grape juice before alcoholic fermentation. Geosmin is a chiral compound and the (-) form is much more odoriferous than the (+) form. Enantioselective multidimensional gas chromatography analysis of a purified Cabernet Sauvignon wine extract revealed the presence of only one enantiomer: (-) geosmin. In grape juices obtained from rotten grapes and in wines this compound can be found at concentrations much higher than its olfactory perception threshold, indicating that it contributes to their earthy aroma. (-) Geosmin is also the only enantiomer to have been identified in pure cultures of Streptomyces sp. and Penicillium sp. strains isolated from rotten grapes.     

Organosulfates as Tracers for Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) Formation from 2-Methyl-3-Buten-2-ol (MBO) in the Atmosphere

2-Methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) is an important biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emitted by pine trees and a potential precursor of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in forested regions. In the present study, hydroxyl radical (OH)-initiated oxidation of MBO was examined in smog chambers under varied initial nitric oxide (NO) and aerosol acidity levels. Results indicate measurable SOA from MBO under low-NO conditions. Moreover, increasing aerosol acidity was found to enhance MBO SOA. Chemical characterization of laboratory-generated MBO SOA reveals that an organosulfate species (C(5)H(12)O(6)S, MW 200) formed and was substantially enhanced with elevated aerosol acidity. Ambient fine aerosol (PM(2.5)) samples collected from the BEARPEX campaign during 2007 and 2009, as well as from the BEACHON-RoMBAS campaign during 2011, were also analyzed. The MBO-derived organosulfate characterized from laboratory-generated aerosol was observed in PM(2.5) collected from these campaigns, demonstrating that it is a molecular tracer for MBO-initiated SOA in the atmosphere. Furthermore, mass concentrations of the MBO-derived organosulfate are well correlated with MBO mixing ratio, temperature, and acidity in the field campaigns. Importantly, this compound accounted for an average of 0.25% and as high as 1% of the total organic aerosol mass during BEARPEX 2009. An epoxide intermediate generated under low-NO conditions is tentatively proposed to produce MBO SOA.     

Results on the DECD/NEA C5G7-MOX benchmark obtainedwith the discrete ordinates code dort

The well-known multigroup Discrete Ordinates code DORT has been employed to perform calculations on the DECD/NEA C5G7-MOX benchmark. The participants were required to supply the effective multiplication factor as well as the pin power distribution of the problem specification. We show our submitted results to be well consistent with the reference solution, which was produced by Monte-Carlo calculations. Furthermore, we point out some improvements being made on the computational procedure, which give rise to an additional gain in accuracy.     

A novel electrochemical approach on the effect of alloying elements on self-discharge and discharge delivered current density of Pb-Ca-Ag lead-acid battery plates

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of alloying elements in positive plate composition of a lead-acid battery on its self-discharge and delivered current density in discharge state performances. To elucidate, a positive and negative lead-acid battery plates of two alloys namely Pb-Ca-Ag and Pb-Sb are investigated through electrochemical measurements in battery solution. Higher delivered current density of Pb-Ca-Ag cell in compare with Pb-Sb cell is observed for 25 days of 33 measurement days. The evolution of couple potential for both cases shows that the Pb-Ca-Ag cell potential achieves a value in the potential range of water stability after 25 days while in case of Pb-Sb cell, it remains well beyond the water stability potential domain for 33 days of measurements. Further investigations demonstrate that Pb-Sb cell current density is mainly caused by Pb oxidation reaction on negative plate while both anodic and cathodic polarizations (mixed polarization) are responsible in the case of Pb-Ca-Ag cell.     

On the source of organic acid aerosol layers above clouds

During the July 2005 Marine Stratus/Stratocumulus Experiment (MASE) and the August-September 2006 Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS), the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter probed aerosols and cumulus clouds in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California and in southeastern Texas, respectively. An on-board particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) quantified inorganic and organic acid species with < or = 5-min time resolution. Ubiquitous organic aerosol layers above cloud with enhanced organic acid levels were observed in both locations. The data suggest that aqueous-phase reactions to produce organic acids, mainly oxalic acid, followed by droplet evaporation is a source of elevated organic acid aerosol levels above cloud. Oxalic acid is observed to be produced more efficiently relative to sulfate as the cloud liquid water content increases, corresponding to larger and less acidic droplets. As derived from large eddy simulations of stratocumulus underthe conditions of MASE, both Lagrangian trajectory analysis and diurnal cloudtop evolution provide evidence that a significant fraction of the aerosol mass concentration above cloud can be accounted for by evaporated droplet residual particles. Methanesulfonate data suggest that entrainment of free tropospheric aerosol can also be a source of organic acids above boundary layer clouds.     

Stereodifferenzierung von γ(δ)-Lactonen und (E)-α-Ionon verschiedener Früchte und ihrer Verarbeitungsprodukte

Zusammenfassung Zur Bestimmung der Enantiomerenverteilung der- und-Lactone von C₆-C₁₂ verschiedener Früchte und ihrer Verarbeitungsprodukte wurde die enantioselektive multidimensionale Gaschromatographie (Säulenkombination OV 1701/Octakis(3-O-butyryl-2,6 di-O-pentyl)--Cyclodextrin) angewendet. In Himbeeren und Himbeerprodukten erfolgte zusätzlich die Stereodifferenzierung von (E)--Ionon. Die in den Früchten gefundenen Verbindungen weisen charakteristische, fruchtspezifische Enantiomerenverhältnisse auf, die durch Verarbeitungsprozesse nicht beeinflußt werden.

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()-Lactones and (E)-()-ionone from various fruits and their processed products

By means of enantioselective multidimensional gas chromatography (column combination OV 1701/octakis (3-O-butyryl-2,6-di-O-pentyl)--cyclodextrin the simultaneous Stereodifferentiation of the- and-lactones C₆-C₁₂ was applied to determine the enantiomeric ratios in different fruits and their processed products. In addition (E)--ionone was stereodifferentiated in raspberries and products from raspberries. The analysed chiral compounds have characteristic and fruit-specific enantiomeric ratios, which are irrespective of the food processing applied.

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Herrn Professor Dr. C. H. Brieskorn, Würzburg, zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet     

Simulating Circuit-Level Simplifications on CNF

Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and its extensions have become a core technology in many application domains, such as planning and formal verification, and continue finding various new application domains today. The SAT-based approach divides into three steps: encoding, preprocessing, and search. It is often argued that by encoding arbitrary Boolean formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF), structural properties of the original problem are not reflected in the CNF. This should result in the fact that CNF-level preprocessing and SAT solver techniques have an inherent disadvantage compared to related techniques applicable on the level of more structural SAT instance representations such as Boolean circuits. Motivated by this, various simplification techniques and intricate CNF encodings for circuit-level SAT instance representations have been proposed. On the other hand, based on the highly efficient CNF-level clause learning SAT solvers, there is also strong support for the claim that CNF is sufficient as an input format for SAT solvers. In this work we study the effect of CNF-level simplification techniques, focusing on SatElite-style variable elimination (VE) and what we call blocked clause elimination (BCE). We show that BCE is surprisingly effective both in theory and in practice on CNF formulas resulting from a standard CNF encoding for circuits: without explicit knowledge of the underlying circuit structure, it achieves the same level of simplification as a combination of circuit-level simplifications and previously suggested polarity-based CNF encodings. We also show that VE can achieve many of the same effects as BCE, but not all. On the other hand, it turns out that VE and BCE are indeed partially orthogonal techniques. We also study the practical effects of combining BCE and VE for reducing the size of formulas and on the running times of state-of-the-art SAT solvers. Furthermore, we address the problem of how to construct original witnesses to satisfiable CNF formulas when applying a combination of BCE and VE.     

The Story of the GeoToolKit—An Object-Oriented Geodatabase Kernel System

The quickly increasing number of spatio-temporal applications in fields like environmental monitoring, geology and mobile communication is a new challenge to the development of geodatabases. However, the query functionality of today's geo-information systems is still limited to the thematic attributes of spatial objects and to spatial 2-D objects. This article reports on GeoToolKit, an object-oriented geo-database kernel system developed at Bonn University to support 3-D/4-D geological applications. GeoToolKit is not a GIS-in-a-box package, but rather a library of C ++ classes that allows the incorporation of spatio-temporal functionality within an application. Being a component toolkit, it encourages the development and deployment of re-usable and open software. The history, concepts and implementation of GeoToolKit are discussed in detail. Performance tests underline the practicability of the concepts. Extensions to and experiences with GeoToolKit applications like GeoStore, GeoWeb and WellStore are presented. Finally, we give an outlook on our future research introducing GeoToolKit as a 3-D/4-D database component within a network of distributed and mobile geo-information services.     

Subroutine Inlining and Bytecode Abstraction to Simplify Static and Dynamic Analysis

In Java bytecode, intra-method subroutines are employed to represent code in “finally” blocks. The use of such polymorphic subroutines within a method makes bytecode analysis very difficult. Fortunately, such subroutines can be eliminated through recompilation or inlining. Inlining is the obvious choice since it does not require changing compilers or access to the source code. It also allows transformation of legacy bytecode. However, the combination of nested, non-contiguous subroutines with overlapping exception handlers poses a difficult challenge. This paper presents an algorithm that successfully solves all these problems without producing superfluous instructions. Furthermore, inlining can be combined with bytecode simplification, using abstract bytecode. We show how this abstration is extended to the full set of instructions and how it simplifies static and dynamic analysis.