Enhanced mortar approach to characterize the effect of reclaimed asphalt pavement on virgin binder true grade

The asphalt community seeks a solvent-free method to determine the properties of RAP binder and those of its blends with virgin binders. A promising approach is to test mortars composed of fine fractions of RAP and a virgin binder, and to calculate grade change rate (GCR) to predict blended binder true grade at any binder replacement rate (BRR). However, the existing mortar approach underestimates the effect of RAP on binder grade, particularly at high temperatures. This study identified the use of a shift factor in the existing method as the source of underestimations. An alternative data analysis method was developed, which eliminates the shift factor by using the relationship between binder and mortar properties. Dynamic shear rheometer tests were conducted on a total of 12 mortar combinations, including 4 virgin binders and 3 RAP sources at a BRR of 15%, and then, RAP GCR values were determined by following both the existing and the alternative methods. Satisfactory comparisons were only observed between grades predicted with the alternative method and measured values of manual RAP binder blends: the average difference was lower than 1 °C for BRR of 15 and 30%, and < 4 °C for BRR of 100%. This not only validated the alternative method but also substantiated that RAP GCR is constant, i.e., the grade of RAP blends linearly increased with BRR. Further evaluation of the enhanced mortar approach is recommended at intermediate and low temperatures as well as with blends including recycled asphalt shingles.     

Natural frequencies of functionally graded plates by a meshless method

We use the global collocation method, the first and the third-order shear deformation plate theories, the Mori–Tanaka technique to homogenize material properties, and approximate the trial solution with multiquadric radial basis functions to analyze free vibrations of functionally graded plates. Frequencies computed by the present method are found to agree well with those from the analytical solution of Vel and Batra, and the numerical solution of Qian et al. based on the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin formulation.     

Medical knowledge management for specific hospital departments

Medical knowledge representation and management is concerned with how to organise the often vague clinical experience of medical staff required for computable models. However, few knowledge management and acquisition tools have entered routine use, since such tools are not perceived by physicians as part of the clinical information process. An attempt to partially solve this problem, we identify two key aspects of knowledge representation and management tasks. The first is to adopt a medical knowledge standardisation to provide a consistent terminology control and to simplify the integration between knowledge management tools and the health information system. The second is to establish an effective knowledge acquisition process in specific medical fields by adapting knowledge acquisition tools. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to define computational models and to design mechanisms for the effective acquisition and management of medical knowledge in real-life hospital departments. To this end, we analyse the representation of medical knowledge (based on deep-causal models) and the development of knowledge management tools (based on ontologies), integrated within the information processing activities of the clinical user. Finally, we illustrate its applicability in the Intensive Care Unit and Pediatry scenarios.     

Extraction,Composition and Functional Properties of Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) Press Cake Protein

This study compared two methods for extracting the protein in pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) press cake and determined the composition and functional properties of the protein products. Proteins in pennycress press cake were extracted by using the conventional alkali‐solubilization–acid‐precipitation (AP) method or saline‐based (SE) procedure (0.1 M NaCl at 50 °C). The extraction method has a major influence on the purity and functional properties of press cake protein products. AP had a lower protein yield (23 %) but much higher purity (90 % crude protein) compared with SE (45 % yield, 67 % crude protein). AP protein isolate had high foam capacity (120 ml), high foam stability (96 % foam volume retention) and high emulsion stability (24–35 min), and it was resistant to heat denaturation (3 % loss of solubility at pH 2 and pH 10). On the other hand, SE protein concentrate showed remarkably high solubility (>76 %) between pH 2 and 10 and exceptional emulsifying activity (226–412 m²/g protein), but was more susceptible to heat denaturation at pH 7 and pH 10 (65–78 % loss of solubility). These results strongly demonstrate that higher purity pennycress press cake protein can be produced by either saline extraction or acid precipitation and have functional properties that are desirable for non‐food uses.     

Properties of Oleogels Formed With High‐Stearic Soybean Oils and Sunflower Wax

In an effort to develop alternatives for harmful trans fats produced by partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils, oleogels of high‐stearic soybean (A6 and MM106) oils were prepared with sunflower wax (SW) as the oleogelator. Oleogels of high‐stearic oils did not have greater firmness when compared to regular soybean oil (SBO) at room temperature. However, the firmness of high‐stearic oil oleogels at 4 °C sharply increased due to the high content of stearic acid. High‐stearic acid SBO had more polar compounds than the regular SBO. Polar compounds in oil inversely affected the firmness of oleogels. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that wax crystals facilitated nucleation of solid fats of high‐stearic oils during cooling. Polar compounds did not affect the melting and crystallization behavior of wax. Solid fat content (SFC) showed that polar compounds in oil and wax interfered with crystallization of solid fats. Linear viscoelastic properties of 7% SW oleogels of three oils reflected well the SFC values while they did not correlate well with the firmness of oleogels. Phase‐contrast microscopy showed that the wax crystal morphology was slightly influenced by solid fats in the high‐steric SBO, A6.     

A climbing parallel robot: a robot to climb along tubular and metallic structures

This article presents the promising applications that can be obtained from parallel robots for climbing. It explores the most important aspects of the mechanical design and control of climbing parallel robots (CPRs) based on the Stewart-Gough's (S-G) platform for tasks in tubular or metallic structures.     

iMLP: Applying Multi-Layer Perceptrons to Interval-Valued Data

Interval-valued data offer a valuable way of representing the available information in complex problems where uncertainty, inaccuracy or variability must be taken into account. In addition, the combination of Interval Analysis with soft-computing methods, such as neural networks, have shown their potential to satisfy the requirements of the decision support systems when tackling complex situations. This paper proposes and analyzes a new model of Multilayer Perceptron based on interval arithmetic that facilitates handling input and output interval data, but where weights and biases are single-valued and not interval-valued. Two applications are considered. The first one shows an interval-valued function approximation model and the second one evaluates the prediction intervals of crisp models fed with interval-valued input data. The approximation capabilities of the proposed model are illustrated by means of its application to the forecasting of daily electricity price intervals. Finally, further research issues are discussed. Research funded by Universidad Pontificia Comillas.