Ultimate bearing capacity of strip footing resting on clay soil mixed with tire-derived aggregates

This study investigated the use of recycled tire-derived aggregate (TDA) mixed with kaolin as a method of increasing the ultimate bearing capacity ( UBC) of a strip footing. Thirteen 1g physical modeling tests were prepared in a rigid box of 0.6 m × 0.9 m in plan and 0.6 m in height. During sample preparation, 0%, 20%, 40%, or 60% (by weight) of powdery, shredded, small-sized granular (G 1–4 mm) or large-sized granular (G 5–8 mm) TDA was mixed with the kaolin. A strip footing was then placed on the stabilized kaolin and was caused to fail under stress-controlled conditions to determine the UBC. A rigorous 3D finite element analysis was developed in Optum G-3 to determine the UBC values based on the experimental test results. The experimental results showed that, except for the 20% powdery TDA, the TDA showed an increase in the UBC of the strip footing. When kaolin mixed with 20% G (5–8 mm), the UBC showed a threefold increase over that for the unreinforced case. The test with 20% G (1–4 mm) recorded the highest subgrade modulus. It was observed that the UBC calculated using finite element modeling overestimated the experimental UBC by an average of 9%.     

Al2O3/Yttria‐Stabilized Zirconia Hollow‐Fiber Membrane Incorporated with Iron Oxide for Pb(II) Removal

Removal by absorptive ceramic membranes can simultaneously absorb and separate metal ions from water. Alumina/yttria‐stabilized zirconia (Al₂O₃/YSZ) hollow‐fiber membranes, fabricated using phase inversion and sintering process, were deposited with iron oxide by an in‐situ hydrothermal process. The results showed that α‐Fe₂O₃ was produced and incorporated across the membranes. A reduction in flux was recorded with the deposition of α‐Fe₂O_3. However, it improved the adsorption capacity for heavy metal adsorption. The adsorption‐separation test demonstrated that the optimized membrane is able to completely remove Pb(II) ions after two hours.     

SO2 SCRUBBING BY ULTRAFINE CA(OH)2 AEROSOL

The objective of the present study was to generate submicrometer calcium hydroxide aerosols and to investigate the effectiveness of such aerosols in sulfur capture. The effectiveness of SO₂ removal by Ca(OH)₂ aerosol has been investigated in an isothermal reactor. Ca(OH) ₂ aerosol was generated by a novel fluidizer system in which submicrometer-sized powders were entrained in gases. SO₂ was added to this aerosol to a concentration of 2000 ppm. The aerosol-SO₂ mixture was heated to 550°C-750°C in an isothermal tube reactor. The SO₂ removal efficiency, which varied from 20% to 70%, was determined to be a function of the aerosol concentration, reactor temperature and residence time. The fraction of aerosol reacted was not affected strongly by the aerosol concentration. The reaction kinetics were determined from the experimental data using a simple analytical model in which the rate is first order in both SO₂ and calcium hydroxide aerosol concentrations.     

Membrane topology and glycosylation of the human multidrug resistance-associated protein

The membrane topology of the human multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) was examined by flow cytometry phenotyping, immunoblotting, and limited proteolysis in drug-resistant human and baculovirus-infected insect cells, expressing either the glycosylated or the underglycosylated forms of this protein. Inhibition of N-linked glycosylation in human cells by tunicamycin did not inhibit the transport function or the antibody recognition of MRP, although its apparent molecular mass was reduced from 180 kDa to 150 kDa. Extracellular addition of trypsin or chymotrypsin had no effect either on the function or on the molecular mass of MRP, while in isolated membranes limited proteolysis produced three large membrane-bound fragments. These experiments and the alignment of the MRP sequence with the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) suggest that human MRP, similarly to CFTR, contains a tandem repeat of six transmembrane helices, each followed by a nucleotide binding domain, and that the C-terminal membrane-bound region is glycosylated. However, the N-terminal region of MRP contains an additional membrane-bound, glycosylated area with four or five transmembrane helices, which seems to be a characteristic feature of MRP-like ATP-binding cassette transporters.     

Smart home security: challenges,issues and solutions at different IoT layers

The Journal of Supercomputing - The Internet of Things is a rapidly evolving technology in which interconnected computing devices and sensors share data over the network to decipher different...     

Graft Copolymerization of Acrylamide onto Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) Fiber

Grafting of acrylamide (AAm) onto oil palm empty fruits bunch fiber using hydrogen peroxide as initiator and methyl acrylate as comonomer was investigated. The amount of comonomer needed to make grafting of acrylamide possible was determined. The percentage of poly(acrylamide) and the comonomer in the final graft copolymer was estimated by elemental analysis. Results obtained indicated that methyl acrylate facilitated the incorporation of acrylamide monomer onto OPEFB. The reactivity ratios for both monomers were determined by using Fineman–Ross plot. The effects of reaction temperature and period as well as amount of the initiator, solvent, monomer and comonomer on the percentage of grafting at fixed amount of comonomer (11 mmol) were studied. Maximum percentage of grafting was achieved when the amount of initiator and solvent 3.98×10⁻³ mol and 50 mL respectively. The optimum reaction temperature was 50 ^○C and the reaction period was 90 min. Highest percentage of grafting was 232% when 25.6 mmol of acrylamide was used under these optimum conditions. The presence of functional group in the grafted polymer is characterized by infrared spectroscopy and the surface morphology is observed by scanning electron microscopy. Thermoanalytic investigation on OPEFB and OPEFB-g-PAAM were carried out to evaluate the thermal stability and respective activation energy of the materials.     

Robust face recognition against expressions and partial occlusions

Facial features under variant-expressions and partial occlusions could have degrading effect on overall face recognition performance. As a solution, we suggest that the contribution of these features on final classification should be determined. In order to represent facial features contribution according to their variations, we propose a feature selection process that describes facial features as local independent component analysis(ICA) features. These local features are acquired using locally lateral subspace(LLS) strategy.Then, through linear discriminant analysis(LDA) we investigate the intraclass and interclass representation of each local ICA feature and express each feature s contribution via a weighting process. Using these weights, we define the contribution of each feature at local classifier level. In order to recognize faces under single sample constraint, we implement LLS strategy on locally linear embedding(LLE) along with the proposed feature selection. Additionally, we highlight the efficiency of the implementation of LLS strategy. The overall accuracy achieved by our approach on datasets with different facial expressions and partial occlusions such as AR, JAFFE,FERET and CK+ is 90.70%. We present together in this paper survey results on face recognition performance and physiological feature selection performed by human subjects.     

On the Efficiency of Runs Rules Schemes for Process Monitoring

There are two main types of variations, namely, common and special causes leading to in‐control and out‐of‐control states, respectively. Control charts are popular tools used to differentiate between these two states of a process. Implementation of runs rules schemes with control charts is an attractive approach for process monitoring. This study is designed to describe the methodology of runs rules schemes and discuss their implementation for different types of control charts. We have considered memory‐less charts, namely, , S, and R charts for our study purposes. It is examined that the efficiency gain depends on the number of decision points utilized to implement a given rule. Moreover, superiority of runs rules schemes may vary for different types of location and dispersion charts. An application example using a dataset is also included in the study for practical considerations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiencing flow with instant messaging and its facilitating role on creative behaviors

The goal of this study is to explore how experiencing flow with IM, an Internet-based communication technology, can facilitate an individual’s perception on creativity. We argue that certain capabilities in IM, telepresence and perceived control, provide users a means to experience flow. We further investigate whether flow and its outcomes, positive affect and exploratory behavior have any influence on the perception of creativity of the users. Using an online survey with 207 observations we found that user’s perceived control over the technology and its ability to transport the user to a virtual environment were shown to facilitate the experience of flow. We found that flow in itself does not influence perceived expected creativity in its users but does indirectly influence perceived expected creativity through exploratory behavior and positive affect. From these initial findings we believe that our study provides implications for both users and designers on IT. Furthermore, managers can apply the findings during implementation and use of interactive information technologies for communications in the workplace.