Structural Retrofitting of Old Illyria Hote

Illyria hotel （formerly Bozhur） was built during the sixties in the heart of the actual Kosovo＇s capital Prishtina, according to former old Yugoslav standards in a Modernist architectural style. It represents a massive structural system with brick walls up to 54 cm thick and ＂avramenko＂ type reinforced concrete floors. The investor＇s aim was to add another two floors on the top of the existing ones and to build two level underground parking floors, a health spa centre, whilst at the vicinity of the existing building （the northern side） to erect a new 17 story-high brand new hotel and administration building. The retrofitting of the structure as well as construction of the new structure has been done in full accordance with the new structural Eurocodes＇ recommendations. 3D FEM （finite element method） modeling was used for the analysis and design, using ETABS v 9.5 nonlinear and ARSAP 2010 （Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2010）. Response spectrum design according to EC 8,3.2.2.4 has been used for seismic analysis and design with a reference peak ground acceleration on type A ground Of AgR = 0.25 g.     

Fabrication and Characterization of Nanostructured AACVD Thin Films on 316L SS as Surface Protective Layers in Simulated Body Fluid

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The surface of implant materials is one of the most significant factors for controlling the interaction between biomaterials and bone tissues. Hence,...     

Active (air-cooled) vs. passive (phase change material) thermal management of high power lithium-ion packs: Limitation of temperature rise and uniformity of temperature distribution

The effectiveness of passive cooling by phase change materials (PCM) is compared with that of active (forced air) cooling. Numerical simulations were performed at different discharge rates, operating temperatures and ambient temperatures of a compact Li-ion battery pack suitable for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) propulsion. The results were also compared with experimental results. The PCM cooling mode uses a micro-composite graphite–PCM matrix surrounding the array of cells, while the active cooling mode uses air blown through the gaps between the cells in the same array. The results show that at stressful conditions, i.e. at high discharge rates and at high operating or ambient temperatures (for example 40–45 °C), air-cooling is not a proper thermal management system to keep the temperature of the cell in the desirable operating range without expending significant fan power. On the other hand, the passive cooling system is able to meet the operating range requirements under these same stressful conditions without the need for additional fan power.     

Thermoelastic sloping thin-walled shell structures deformed without bending

We have derived a nonlinear integrodifferential equation to find the unbent shape of the middle surface of a sloping shell of constant thickness, subjected to a given temperature and force field.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 314–316, August, 1990.     

Competitive Sperm-Marked Beetles for Monitoring Approaches in Genetic Biocontrol and Studies in Reproductive Biology

Sperm marking provides a key tool for reproductive biology studies, but it also represents a valuable monitoring tool for genetic pest control strategies such as the sterile insect technique. Sperm-marked lines can be generated by introducing transgenes that mediate the expression of fluorescent proteins during spermatogenesis. The homozygous lines established by transgenesis approaches are going through a genetic bottleneck that can lead to reduced fitness. Transgenic SIT approaches have mostly focused on Dipteran and Lepidopteran pests so far. With this study, we provide sperm-marked lines for the Coleopteran pest model organism, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, based on the β2-tubulin promoter/enhancer driving red (DsRed) or green (EGFP) fluorescence. The obtained lines are reasonably competitive and were thus used for our studies on reproductive biology, confirming the phenomenon of ‘last-male sperm precedence’ and that the spermathecae are deployed for long-term sperm storage, enabling the use of sperm from first mating events even after secondary mating events for a long period of time. The homozygosity and competitiveness of the lines will enable future studies to analyze the controlled process of sperm movement into the long-term storage organ as part of a post-mating cryptic female choice mechanism of this extremely promiscuous species.     

The contribution of classical (beta1/2-) and atypical beta-adrenoceptors to the stimulation of human white adipocyte lipolysis and right atrial appendage contraction by novel beta3-adrenoceptor agonists of differing selectivities

The role of beta3- and other putative atypical beta-adrenoceptors in human white adipocytes and right atrial appendage has been investigated using CGP 12177 and novel phenylethanolamine and aryloxypropanolamine beta3-adrenoceptor (beta3AR) agonists with varying intrinsic activities and selectivities for human cloned betaAR subtypes. The ability to demonstrate beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive (beta3 or other atypical betaAR-mediated) responses to CGP 12177 was critically dependent on the albumin batch used to prepare and incubate the adipocytes. Four aryloxypropanolamine selective beta3AR agonists (SB-226552, SB-229432, SB-236923, SB-246982) consistently elicited beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive lipolysis. However, a phenylethanolamine (SB-220646) that was a selective full beta3AR agonist elicited full lipolytic and inotropic responses that were sensitive to beta1/2AR antagonism, despite it having very low efficacies at cloned beta1- and beta2ARs. A component of the response to another phenylethanolamine selective beta3AR agonist (SB-215691) was insensitive to beta1/2AR antagonism in some experiments. Because no [corrected] novel aryloxypropanolamine had a beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive inotropic effect, these results establish more firmly that beta3ARs mediate lipolysis in human white adipocytes, and suggest that putative 'beta4ARs' mediate inotropic responses to CGP 12177. The results also illustrate the difficulty of predicting from studies on cloned betaARs which betaARs will mediate responses to agonists in tissues that have a high number of beta1- and beta2ARs or a low number of beta3ARs.     

Application of 800-kV SF6 dead tank circuit breaker with transmission line surge arrester to control switching transient overvoltages

An 800-kV metal oxide transmission line surge arrester (TLA) has been developed, installed and tested on the AEP 765-kV Marysville-Kammer transmission line. The purpose of this TLA is to pave the way for the development, construction and application of an 800-kV SF/sub 6/ dead tank circuit breaker without closing resistors and free standing current transformers at American Electric Power's (AEP) 800-kV Orange station. Eight hundred kilovolts is the maximum design operating voltage, and 765 kV is the nominal operating voltage. Successful field test results of the TLAs ability to limit switching overvoltages emanating from circuit breaker operation to below the transmission line switching withstand are given. In addition, successful test results of the 800-kV dead tank circuit breaker design dielectric test are given in this paper.     

系统内可编程时钟提高设计灵活性和便携性

先进电子系统的功能与特性的整合在持续快速发展,这导致了目前时钟网络设计中的许多主要障碍。为满足各种芯片和接口在频率、I/O和性能方面对时钟的需求,经常需要既没有灵活性,也不具备便携性的非常精确的执行。最终的结果往往是一个由多个分散的振荡器和缓冲器组成的支离破碎的解决方案,只要系统要求不改变,它就可以工作。这种方法会使物料成本(BOM)、库存管理和设计资源的成本居高不下。进入新的多PLL时代,可编程时钟通过采用I2C和JTAG这样的行业标准接口,加上非易失性存储器就可以达到解决这些挑战的目标。通过通用接口实现系统内…     

Operational profiles in software-reliability engineering

A systematic approach to organizing the process of determining the operational profile for guiding software development is presented. The operational profile is a quantitative characterization of how a system will be used that shows how to increase productivity and reliability and speed development by allocating development resources to function on the basis of use. Using an operational profile to guide testing ensures that if testing is terminated and the software is shipped because of schedule constraints, the most-used operations will have received the most testing and the reliability level will be the maximum that is practically achievable for the given test time. For guiding regression testing, it efficiently allocates test cases in accordance with use, so the faults most likely to be found, of those introduced by changes, are the ones that have the most effect on reliability