Use of Warranties on Highway Projects: A Real Option Perspective

Since the introduction of warranty provisions in federal highway jobs, more and more state departments of transportation (DOTs) have considered the use of such provisions to protect their initial investment. This paper describes the pros and cons of warranty contracting in highway construction based on a survey of warranty practices in the United States. In particular, the need for state DOTs to buy a warranty for a well-built project is questioned. As an alternative, this paper introduces the warranty option, which gives the DOT the right to buy a warranty only if it becomes necessary at the end of construction. This option is exercised if the performance on site warrants it. This paper describes the mechanics of the warranty option and its advantages over the conventional warranty. A bid evaluation model is also developed for the warranty option approach.     

Contractor-Performed Quality Control: Is the Fox Guarding the Henhouse?

At the same time that state departments of transportation are allowing contractor-performed quality control, they are also concerned about using the contractor-reported data for acceptance and payment purposes. The question is, are we putting the fox in charge of guarding the chickens? To address this concern, a large number of asphalt and concrete projects in Kentucky were examined. The statistical analyses showed that for the most part there is no significant difference between the contractor-performed acceptance data and concomitant highway agency-performed verification data. This is obviously a very encouraging finding that is expected to enhance the level of trust between the contractors and highway agencies.     

中国油田堵水技术综述

本文论述了我国油田堵水技术的发展及其在油田开发中的作用,总结和阐述了油井化学堵水技术和注水井吸水剖面调整技术的原理和效益,指明了实践证实的有成效的工艺方法和堵水技术发展方向。     

Changes in the dielectric relaxations of water in epoxy resin as a function of the extent of water ingress in carbon fibre composites

Dielectric relaxation measurements are reported over a frequency range from 10⁻¹ to 10⁹ Hz as a function of exposure time for an epoxy resin-carbon fibre composite, ageing at 60 °C in water. Investigation of the nature of the dipole relaxation of the water molecules, indicates the nature of their interaction with the polymer matrix. Analysis of the dielectric relaxation spectra allow identification of processes that can be attributed to ‘free’ and ‘bonded’ water, water in micro-cracking, located in carbon fibre disbonds and plasticizing the polymer matrix. Identification of the various types of location in which water exists was aided by use of the N_g factor from the Kirkwood-Frölich equation, which describes the constraints on free dipole ration nature imposed by the environment in which it is located. These data indicate the power of the dielectric technique for quantitative analysis of water ingress into epoxy composites.     

MODELING WATER LOSS DURING FRYING OF POTATO STRIPS: EFFECT OF SOLUTE IMPREGNATION

The effect of solute impregnation on water loss and oil uptake during potato strip frying was studied. Blanched potato strips were impregnated at 25°C by soaking in a solution of sucrose-NaCl-water, 20-5-75% by weight. After rinsing and air drying, strips were deep fried in sunflower oil at 160, 170 and 180°C. A control treatment, consisting of potato strips blanched but not soaked and later air dried was also conducted. Solute impregnation provided a decrease of the oil uptake. Two models, based on Fick's law were used to describe water loss during frying. The first one is the classic model with an effective moisture diffusion coefficient assumed a constant value. The second model considers that diffusion coefficient varies during the frying process. For a given frying temperature, constant diffusion coefficient for control potatoes resulted in lower values than the impregnated ones. The variable diffusivity model showed a two-stage behavior: during the first stage of frying, diffusion coefficient increased with frying temperatures, but from a given time on an inverse behavior began. This last fact was found to be related to an increase of the measured peak force needed to penetrate the potato crust.     

Sicherer und wirtschaftlicher Betrieb von Kraftwerken – Ergebnis der Forschung im Bereich Werkstoffe,Auslegung und Instandhaltung

Safe and Economic Operation of Power Plants – Research Results in the Field of Materials, Design and Maintenance Components of power plants which undergo high temperatures are subjected to complex loading situations. The requirements on the used materials result from the special operation conditions of the plants and have to be adjusted to the steadily growing requirements on higher efficiency of the complete power plant as well as to those of safe and economic operation. The expenses for control and downtimes are directly connected with economic efficiency and availability. However, in case of new procedures or components it is not possible to revert to the existing know‐how. Different failure mechanisms than known before can occur. The same goes for the load situation. Therefore the knowledge base has to be extended to in‐advance or even parallely running scientific examinations that life assessment and maintenance strategies can be applied which guarantee the operational reliability and the efficiency of the plant. The main emphasis of these F&E works has to be put on condition monitoring based on actual operational data, the standard materials’ and component’s behaviour (deformation, damage and failure behaviour) in connection with design of components and the related material laws. In the framework of applied AVIF projects, following problems are handled:. – qualification of materials by determinating parameters related to practise. – optimal design of components by making available material laws and numerical tools. – economic manufacturing of components by qualifying processing methods such as welding. – The results can be transferred to concepts for safe and economic operation of power plants, especially for newly introduced materials for which there is no operational experience available.     

Quality control of chip manufacture and chip analysis using epoxy-chips as a model

Biochips are miniaturized, highly ordered analysis systems which offer the unique advantage of highly parallel analysis of thousands of analytes at the same time. Although this technique has been enthusiastically developed and has promised to improve and speed up numerous biological assays, the quality control of chip manufacture, chip analysis and data management has received less attention.

The following article compares three epoxy-containing chip surfaces (ARChip Epoxy, 3D-Link™, and EasySpot) with respect to their autofluorescence, immobilization capacity, background fluorescence and hybridization efficiency. Since data collected from biochip experiments are random snapshots with errors, inherently noisy and incomplete, we tried to evaluate technical factors causing variability and to set up quality control procedures for chip manufacture and chip analysis. Variabilities caused by arraying, glass substrate and polymer coating, fluorescent label and experimental conditions are discussed in details.     

Oil Spill Cleanup from Sea Water by Sorbent Materials

Three sorbents were compared in order to determine their potential for oil spill cleanup. Polypropylene nonwoven web, rice hull, and bagasse with two different particle sizes were evaluated in terms of oil sorption capacities and oil recovery efficiencies. Polypropylene can sorb almost 7 to 9 times its weight from different oils. Bagasse, 18 to 45 mesh size, follows polypropylene as the second sorbent in oil spill cleanup. Bagasse, 14 to 18 mesh size, and rice hull have comparable oil sorption capacities, which are lower than those of the two former sorbents. It was found that oil viscosity plays an important role in oil sorption by sorbents. All adsorbents used in this work could remove the oil from the surface of the water preferentially.