Civil Engineering

This article is an working between the control unit of agriculture application's and processing of data in between the agro-application with the help of latest and trending technology i.e. IOT. As we know agriculture application are get control by some wireless and controlling technics like GSM modem ,WAN,WIFI and again some wired controlling technics ,in which temperature ,humidity, moisture, air flow, motor and some agricultural application get communicate and control. But with change of time we want fast and billions of application controlling and data processing technics so that's why we have a best option here now days. IOT technology can farmer not only to access and process data from agriculture application like used in GREEN HOUSE but also farmer can control it over 'INTERNET', this technology have capability over largest distance ,simple access, fast data processing and billions of applications can get connected over network. IOT can bring farmer to connect ...

The purpose of this article is to present the methodology for assessing seismic risk at the local level, using the Ungheni district of the Republic of Moldova as a case study. The Vrancea earthquake, with a magnitude of Mw=7.9 and a return period of 475 years, was chosen as the design eismic action. First, a specified earthquake scenario was analyzed using a special macroseismic attenuation equation, which allowed estimating the likely tensity distribution in the study area. Then, based on statistical data and field assessments, the vulnerability of buildings and the seismic risk for the Ungheni city and the neighboring villages were estimated.

Projects funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 2009 -2011 was assessed in this study in order to determine stakeholders' perception of the projects' satisfaction. The study utilized primary and secondary data. The secondary data were obtained from existing literature on project success and project stakeholders while the primary data was obtained through interviews with key stakeholders and, from checklist and questionnaires. Results of the study revealed that, delay in progress payment, escalation in price of materials, insufficient supply of materials and low technical skill of the project leader are the topmost factors hindering satisfaction of the projects, as most of them were discovered to be unsuccessful. However, furniture, structural stability and ventilation were the highest ranked to be satisfactory by end users. The study recommends synergy between the various stakeholders involved; from project inception stage to project completion stage.

This study reviews the state-of-the-art application of fiber optics in water distribution networks for leak detection and localization. The use of fiber optics in the oil and gas sector has been well established; however, its potential in water pipelines is not evident owing to limited research. This study, therefore, presents the research developments of fiber optics in water leak detection and localization using the mixed methodology approach by integrating bibliometric and systematic analyses. A scientometric analysis is carried out to analyze the science maps of (1) journal sources, (2) contributing countries, and (3) co-occurrence of influential keywords. The systematic analysis evaluates the use of eight types of fiber optics, such as accelerometer-based fiber optics and hydrophone-based fiber optics, in water leak detection and localization. The review reveals five important directions for future research such as real network-based studies and the development of hybrid techni...

Solar energy technologies offer a clean and renewable energy source, and are essential components of a sustainable energy future. The current paper presents a method for technicaleeconomic optimization of an autonomous photovoltaic system. The principal objective of this study is to find the optimum characteristics of a photovoltaic system, able to accomplish the energy requirements of a given load distribution, for a specific site. Mathematical models are exploited to analyze the working of the photovoltaic system. These models present an estimation of the recovered solar energy anywhere and anytime, an evaluation of the electric energy produced by a photovoltaic generator and a determination of the storage unit characteristics. Then, the optimizing step is done based on lack of energy to generate probability (LEGP), percentage of the surplus of energy produced (PSEP) and the cost of the kilowatt-hour produced (C kWh ). A case study has been presented to determine the optimal system configuration used to satisfy the requirements of a typical residential home located in Sfax, Tunisia.

Solar energy technologies offer a clean and renewable energy source, and are essential components of a sustainable energy future. The current paper presents a method for technicaleeconomic optimization of an autonomous photovoltaic system. The principal objective of this study is to find the optimum characteristics of a photovoltaic system, able to accomplish the energy requirements of a given load distribution, for a specific site. Mathematical models are exploited to analyze the working of the photovoltaic system. These models present an estimation of the recovered solar energy anywhere and anytime, an evaluation of the electric energy produced by a photovoltaic generator and a determination of the storage unit characteristics. Then, the optimizing step is done based on lack of energy to generate probability (LEGP), percentage of the surplus of energy produced (PSEP) and the cost of the kilowatt-hour produced (C kWh ). A case study has been presented to determine the optimal system configuration used to satisfy the requirements of a typical residential home located in Sfax, Tunisia.

A general variational formulation for the determination of natural frequencies and mode shapes of free vibration of symmetric laminated plates of trapezoidal and triangular shapes is presented in this work. The kinematics corresponding to the first order shear deformation plate theory (FSDT) is used to take into account the effects of shear deformation and rotatonial inertia in the analysis. The developed approach is based on the Ritz method and the plate geometry is approximated by non-orthogonal right triangular co-ordinates. The transverse deflection and two rotations of the laminate are independently approximated by sets of simple polynomials. The algorithm allows obtaining approximate analytical solutions for laminated plates with different shapes, aspect ratio, number of layers, stacking sequence, angle of fiber orientation and boundary conditions including translational and rotational elastically restrained edges. The algorithm is simple to program and numerically stable.

This paper deals with the free transverse vibration of anisotropic plates with several arbitrarily located internal line hinges and piecewise smooth boundaries, elastically restrained against rotation and translation. The equations of motion and the associated boundary and transition conditions are derived using Hamilton's principle in a rigorous framework. A new analytical manipulation based on a condensed notation is used to compact the corresponding analytical expressions. A combination of the Ritz method and the Lagrange multipliers method with polynomials as coordinate functions is used to obtain tables of the nondimensional frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes, for rectangular plates with different boundary conditions and restraint conditions in the internal line hinges. The cases not previously treated of two-and three line hinges are particularly analyzed.

In Bamako, like in the majority of south of Saharan cities, there is a very fast demographic growth moving from 658 275 inhabitants in 1987 to 1 016 514 in 1998, then 1908104 in 2009 (INSAT, 2010). For a few decades, the town has been suffering from a notorious lack of collective equipments for the collection and cleaning up of domestic waste water. If the issue of access to drinking water is a major problem for the inhabitants of Bamako, the issue of the collection and cleaning-up of waste water remains even more problematical. The problem is more severe in the districts that have long been considered to be precarious then rehabilitated with regard to their location and to the difficult economic conditions of their inhabitants. Initiatives have been taken here and there across the town for a more collective management of waste water with various results. Before the generalisation of these operations in several districts, a test stage has been observed in Bozola with ten or so house...

A magic cricket bat is the bat in which the weight of bat is increased at the point of percussion. Just by increasing the weight at the centre of percussion one can hit the ball very well, and for same effort the ball can drop/ travel more distance.

 Oxidized species from high temperature corrosion during refining were identified.  Phase identification by micro-XRD retained spatial information and phase layout.  Troilite content and continuous magnetite layers are key for proper passivation.  Mössbauer complimented XRD data by identifying additional nanocrystalline phases.

Dnevno smo priča porastu motornih vozil v cestnem prometu, pri čemer se povečuje tudi ogroženost varnosti vseh prometnih udeležencev. To kliče k nenehni skrbi za prometno varnost. Učinkovitost ukrepov prometne varnosti je odvisna predvsem od ravnanja udeležencev, pri čemer imajo ključno vlogo izobraževanje, usposabljanje, redno obnavljanje znanja in izvajanje varnostnih ukrepov države. Dolgoročni cilj vseh držav sveta je povečati varnost v prometu, to pa običajno pomeni, da se je problema najbolj smotrno lotiti v procesih izobraževanja na področju teoretičnega in praktičnega znanja prometnih predpisov. Zato sem se v okviru magistrske naloge odločila razviti učni pripomoček v obliki namizne igre, ki prometne udeležence vseh starosti spodbuja k osveževanju znanja cestnoprometnih predpisov. Empirični del naloge je tako temeljil na razvoju in analizi učinkov učnega pripomočka. Temeljni cilj analize je bil ugotoviti, ali bodo udeleženci z uporabo pripomočka izboljšali znanje cestnopromet...

In Bamako, like in the majority of south of Saharan cities, there is a very fast demographic growth moving from 658 275 inhabitants in 1987 to 1 016 514 in 1998, then 1908104 in 2009 (INSAT, 2010). For a few decades, the town has been suffering from a notorious lack of collective equipments for the collection and cleaning up of domestic waste water. If the issue of access to drinking water is a major problem for the inhabitants of Bamako, the issue of the collection and cleaning-up of waste water remains even more problematical. The problem is more severe in the districts that have long been considered to be precarious then rehabilitated with regard to their location and to the difficult economic conditions of their inhabitants. Initiatives have been taken here and there across the town for a more collective management of waste water with various results. Before the generalisation of these operations in several districts, a test stage has been observed in Bozola with ten or so house...

Identifying the local nonlinear hysteretic behaviors in structures arises as an important issue in structural health monitoring. This paper develops a new hysteresis identification framework where rather than identifying the hysteretic parameters, the restoring forces are reconstructed so as to identify the hysteretic loops. Under this new framework, there is no need to get a priori knowledge on the hysteretic models, enabling a wider range of applications, and the involved system equation is linear with unknown restoring forces, tending to be more efficient. Then, the Kalman filter is adopted for real-time restoring force reconstruction because the Kalman filter is celebrated for its efficiency, effectiveness and reliability in linear system estimation with noisy measured data. In doing so, the restoring forces are additionally augmented as state variables and such augmentation is shown to act as the role of Tikhonov regularization, by which the proper covariance of the augmentation as the regularization parameter is selected via the L-curve method. Numerical examples are presented and an experimental test is conducted to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed real-time hysteresis identification method.

This paper presents a novel sparse-regularized minimum constitutive relation error (min-CRE) approach for structural damage identification with modal data. In this approach, the inverse identification problem is treated as a nonlinear optimization problem whose objective function is just the constitutive relation error (CRE). To circumvent the ill-posedness of the inverse problem which is caused by use of the possibly insufficient modal data and enhance the robustness of the identification process, a sparse regularization is introduced where a sparse (or ℓ 1 -norm) regularization term is added to the original CRE function. In regard to the minimum solution of the sparse-regularized CRE objective function, a two-step substitution algorithm is established. The attractive feature of the present damage identification approach is that no sensitivity analysis is involved herein and the additional introduction of the sparse regularization term introduces little computational complexity. The approach is applied to damage identification of one or two-dimensional beam structures with experimental or simulated modal data. Results show that the sparse regularization indeed improves the effectiveness and robustness of the min-CRE approach under measurement noises and initial model errors, even in the case of large damages.

In this work we propose upscaling method for nonlinear Forchheimer flow in highly heterogeneous porous media. The generalized Forchheimer law is considered for incompressible and slightly-compressible single-phase flows. We use recently developed analytical results [1] and write the resulting system in terms of a degenerate nonlinear flow equation for the pressure with the nonlinearity that depends on the pressure gradient. The coarse scale parameters for the steady state problem are determined so that the volumetric average of velocity of the flow in the domain on fine scale and on coarse scale are close enough. A flow-based coarsening approach is used, where the equivalent permeability tensor is first evaluated following the streamline of the existing linear cases, and successively modified in order to take into account the nonlinear effects. Compared to previous works [2, 3], our approach relies on recent analytical results of Aulisa et al. and combines it with rigorous mathematical upscaling theory for monotone operators. The developed upscaling algorithm for nonlinear steady state problems is effectively used for variety of heterogeneities in the domain of computation. Direct numerical computations for average velocity and productivity index justify the usage of the coarse scale parameters obtained for

A unified analysis is derived for the treatment of the laminar unsteady boundary layer equations with heat conductive mass transfer to establish conditions under which similarity solutions are possible. The method of new similarity technique is applied to derive the various conditions under which similarity variables for the unsteady thermal boundary layer flows is exist. Controlled similarity equations reduce to some well known flow equations. Numerical solution is discussed in detail.

Due to the spatial variations of the strong ground motions and Near-Field (N-F) effects, significant and unexpected damages have been observed in long-span bridges during past earthquakes. One of the outstanding characteristics of N-F motions is the forward directivity effect seen as a single, intense, long period pulse at the beginning of velocity records in the fault-normal direction. To better understand the effect of this pulse and the wave passage effect of spatially correlated motions on the seismic response of long-span bridges in comparison with these bridges' response to the far-field earthquakes, a comprehensive case study has been done in three parts on the finite element model of a long-span bridge: 1) Uniform excitations of the model bridge with forward directivity pulses and the original records; 2) Asynchronous excitations with different shear wave velocities for impulsive part of the inputs; and 3) Comparison of the wave passage effect of two sets of near-field and far-field strong ground motions (SGMs) on the seismic response of the model bridge. The results show that the wave passage effect of forward directivity N-F pulses can have significant influence on the bridge nonlinear response, and it becomes more evident in the soft soils causing severe seismic demands. Even in the case of rock sites, ignoring this effect can result in under-designed piers. Besides, comparison of the near-field and far-field SGM excitations effect on the bridge response indicates that although in uniform excitations both sets cause approximately the same displacement response values, in the case of asynchronous inputs, the N-F records can produce larger ductility demands.

This study systematically investigates the effect of Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) treatment on the high strain rate properties of UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Poly Ethylene) composites. Spherical nanosilica particles of size 100 nm were used for the synthesis of STF. The high strain rate impact studies were accomplished on in-house designed and fabricated Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) experimental set-up. Ò was used as the ballistic composite. Both STF-treated as well as neat Gold Shield Ò specimens were subjected to high strain rate impact testing. From the experimental results and Fractography studies it was revealed that STF treatment enhanced the ballistic resistance of Gold Shield Ò composite material. In the SHPB experiments, the improved ballistic performance of STFtreated Gold Shield Ò specimens was manifested in terms of higher peak stress, specimen strain rates and impact toughness.

Characterization of Kevlar-Polypropylene based composite material system under high strain rate loading has been investigated using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) test for varying specimen aspect ratios. Flat laminates of 16, 24 and 30 layered Kevlar composite were compression molded and laser machining to get cylindrical specimens of desired aspect ratios. Based on SHPB experiments, stress-strain plots were obtained and analysed to reveal compressive material behaviour as function of growing strain rate. The peak stress, strain and toughness exhibited considerable increase with growing strain rate of loading. With increasing strain rates peak specimen stress increased by 90%, for lowest thickness composite. The aspect ratio studies suggests application of thin laminates for better performance of composite laminates.

In order to face the grand challenge of characterizing soft and light armour material system shaving polymers and shear thickening fluids under impacts at high strain rates lead to design and development of this particular SHPB set up. The developed set up is designed for a maximum firing pressure of 300 bar of nitrogen gas and it comprises automated gas filling and firing, striker bar velocity recording and data acquisition system. Pressure bars are made of titanium alloy due to its high yield strength and reasonably lower density which could protect plastic deformation, wave dispersion and reduces impedance mismatch with the intended soft specimens, unlike maraging steel bars. The maximum stresses on the critical parts of the setup are crosschecked with simulation results and compared with corresponding yield strengths. Velocitypressure calibration of the developed setup shows higher velocities can be achieved at any particular pressure, when it is compared with the existing publi...

A snow accumulation and melt module implemented in the GEOTOP model is presented and tested. GEOTOP, a distributed model of the hydrological cycle, based on digital elevation models (DEMs), calculates the discharge at the basin outlet and estimates the local and distributed values of several hydro‐meteorological quantities. It solves the energy and the mass balance jointly and deals accurately with the effects of topography on the interactions among radiation physics, energy balance and the hydrological cycle. Soil properties are considered to depend on soil temperature and moisture, and the heat and water transfer in the soil is modelled using a multilayer approach. The snow module solves for the soil–snow energy and mass exchanges, and, together with a runoff production module, is embedded in a more general energy balance model that provides all the boundary conditions required. The snowpack is schematized as a single snow layer where a limited number of physical processes are des...

This paper describes a coupled, distributed, hydrological‐geotechnical model, GEOtop‐FS, which simulates the probability of occurrence of shallow landslides and debris flows. We use a hydrological distributed model, GEOtop, which, models latent and sensible heat fluxes and surface runoff, and computes soil moisture in 3‐D by solving Richards'equation numerically, together with an infinite‐slope geotechnical model, GEOtop‐FS. The combined model allows both the hydraulic and geotechnical properties of soil to be considered and realistically modelled. In particular, the model has been conceived to make direct use of field surveys, geotechnical characteristics and soil moisture measurements. In the model the depth of available sediments is also used to characterize the hydraulic properties of the area examined.To account for the uncertainty related to the natural variability in the factors influencing the stability of natural slopes, the safety factor is computed with a probabilisti...

AbstractÐBased on phenomenological equations and atomistic diusion theory, general equations have been derived for vacancy diusion in solids. The normally used diusion equations are found to be special forms of the general equations under the assumption of low vacancy concentration or homogenous vacancy distribution. The general equations should be used to describe diusion in solids that have high vacancy gradients, such as in barrier passive ®lms. However, in the presence of a high electric ®eld, vacancy gradient eects are considerably muted and the classical Nernst±Planck equations appear to be adequate for describing the transport of vacancies through the barrier layer.

A simpli®ed method is proposed for modeling the chemistry and potential distribution in a stress corrosion crack in sensitized stainless steel in boiling water reactor (BWR) coolant environments. The model is based on an assumption that only those species that are present in the largest concentrations in the crevice determine the potential distribution down the crack. The advantage of this method is that it permits simpli®cation of the mathematics and allows predictions to be made of the potential and concentration distributions without knowing various parameters, such as the equilibrium constants for homogeneous chemical reactions in the cavity and diusion coecients of species that are present at relatively low concentrations near the crack tip. In some important cases, analytical expressions can be obtained for the pH, potential near the crack tip, and crack propagation rate. The conditions for which the potential on the crack ¯anks and that in the vicinity of the crack tip coincide with the free corrosion potential in the local environment, and hence, for which there exists a balance between rates of the local anodic and cathodic partial processes, are determined. The impact of the potential drop in the external environment on the potential and concentration distributions down the crack and on the crack propagation rate is also investigated. Excellent agreement is obtained between calculated and measured crack growth rates.

Railway infrastructure maintenance is essential in implementing the transportation system. Most of these railway bridges have suffered gradual deterioration over time. Predictive structural health monitoring (SHM) is required by installing instrumentation sensors on railway bridges to determine the condition of the railway bridge infrastructure at the site. This research aims to analyze and assess the existing condition of steel railway bridges to understand the load-deformation characteristics, bearing capacity, and dynamic response of the structure. This paper describes a valuable method for assessing the condition of steel railway bridges during operation. This paper presents a direct analysis of the steel railway bridge structure, with a span of 40.00 meters, a width of 4.40 meters, and a height of 6.60 meters. The steel structure railway bridge is modeled in 3D in detail, and numerical analysis is carried out using finite element analysis based on input parameters obtained from manual field measurements and instrumentation sensors. The expected result of the development of this SHM System is to know the performance of the steel railway bridge structure in real-time via the dashboard display. The results showed that the carrying capacity of the railway bridge was in a relatively safe condition. This case study may help practice engineers and researchers in future research. It can be a valuable reference for future research in developing and applying such a system to a typical case.

In Referring to the government programs on the increasing speed of the Jakarta-Surabaya express train in 2017, problems arise in the field, namely the potential increase in freight transportation via the railway line where an increase in loading is required on the railway especially for the existing bridge. This Research was implemented by increasing of the loading of the standard PM 60/2012 bridge to be compared with the EN1991: 2/2003 standard. This research analyzed the increase in structural strength of the 30m span steel bridge of the BH 182 constructed in Operational Region 2 Bandung as a results of loading adjustment from PM 60/2012 to EN 1991:2/2003.This paper explained an effect caused by increasing load on railway bridges with similar span and materials on normal plane, shear plane, moment and deflection. Structural analysis and calculation was performed by means of SAP2000 software. Results of analysis showed that standard equalization of EN 1991:2/2003 caused increasing ...

An earlier study reported the noise effects of a selection of typical New Zealand road surfaces, covering a broad range of types from low-textured bituminous mix surfaces through to large-textured surfaces such as one-and two-coat chipseals. The previous study also ...

Spatial Approach in Landscape Planning for Jamburea Tourism Village in Garut Regency. Jamburea, located in the Banyuresmi District of Garut, is a potential tourist haven with its unique blend of natural beauty and rich cultural traditions. The kampong is characterized by the wetland landscape shaped by the seasonal Situ Rancakukuk lake. The locals transform the lake edges into rice fields during the dry season and fish ponds during the rainy season. Furthermore, the kampong region is a repository of intangible cultural assets, such as culinary speciality, Pencak silat, traditional children's games, 'Asgar' barber shops, and bamboo handicrafts. Employing ArcGIS tools, this study used a spatial approach to analyze physical-biophysical, non-physical, and tourism aspects for optimal zoning. This paper has two objectives: firstly, to plan the landscape of the Jamburea tourism village using a spatial approach in the analytical process. The second objective is to examine the application of spatial methods in landscape planning. Results suggest 72.09% of the kampong is suitable for tourism development, 13.68% is moderately suitable, and 14.23% requires conservation. Proposed zones include natural and cultural tourism, tourism support, welcome areas and buffer zones. This study underscores the efficacy of the spatial approach in devising comprehensive plans for Jamburea's tourism potential.

This paper explores the challenges faced by global voting technology developers and voting equipment manufacturers. Traditional voting systems, including Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and paper-based voting, present significant security, transparency, and accessibility issues. The author presents an Indigenous Voting System (IVS) which provides a secure voting mechanism to address these challenges. The concept of IVS is based on Individual Candidate Record isolation (ICRI). The concept of ICRI in the voting records has been implicitly implemented and used in different forms without mentioning this terminology in the literature. This is the first paper to use the terminology of ICRI in voting. In this paper, the author discusses types, impact and recommendation of ICRI and presents a theoretical discussion, based on historical and current voting systems to bring out the various implicit aspects of ICRI. Further, this paper identifies the subtypes of Individual Candidate Record Isolation (ICRI) and categorizes them into No ICRI (NICRI), True ICRI (TICRI), and Virtual ICRI (VICRI), providing comparative analysis. It is seen that IVS proposed by the author is a TICRI-based voting system. This paper compares IVS with existing systems, focusing on its impact on the voting industry and its TICRI (True Individual Candidate Record Isolation) features. At last the challenges towards ICRI for voting equipment industry are discussed, with recommendations.

ABSTRACT: The current Lake Okeechobee regulation schedule is two feet higher than previous schedules that were in operation during the early 1970's. Its implementation was in response to prolonged periods of drought that occurred during the 1960's and early 1970's and the large increases in consumptive uses that were projected, and are presently occurring in south Florida. The additional storage provided by the schedule undoubtedly helped prevent more severe water shortages during the record setting 1980–1982 drought. However, two environmental concerns associated with the present schedule surfaced in recent years with the return to more normal rainfall conditions. First, the present schedule allows frequent high water conditions to exist in the lake that appear to be stressful to the unique littoral zone habitat of the lake. Second, the allowable buildup of storage prior to the dry season, combined with the large required decrease in storage prior to the hurricane (wet)...

The surface of 4100 A-pore-size silica membranes was modified with a covalently bonded polyvinylpyrrolidone brush layer by a novel graft polymerization process. Hydraulic permeability measurements performed with six different solvents and both unmodified and modified membranes suggest that the permeability of the modified membrane is determined by the configuration of the terminally anchored polymer chains. In the modified ceramic-supported polymeric (CSP) membrane, the swelling of the polymer brush layer increases as the solvent power increases, resulting in a decrease in the pore radius and subsequently, the permeability.

WMA is produced at a temperature range of 120°C to 140°C compared to HMA that is produced at temperature between 140°C to 180°C and compacted at temperature to 120°C to 160°C [1]. Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technology allows the producers of hot-mix asphalt pavement material to lower the temperatures at which the materials are mixed and placed on the road. WMA promises several benefits compared to conventional HMA such as reducing energy consumption, lowering the greenhouse gas emissions, reducing of asphalt fumes during paving construction and creating a healthier work environment [1].

The paper presents and evaluates the simple simulation of the landing gear used in small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The main goal was to set up software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environments that can be used in testing flight control and flight estimation algorithms from take-off to landing. Small UAVs without gear braking were considered in the study, the stopping of aircraft was due solely to frictional forces. The model developed can be used in simulations to describe aircraft motion from standstill on the ground through take-off to landing and stoppage. The parameters were tuned experimentally for each small UAV type. Finally, SIL simulation results are presented and evaluated in the paper.

Sandy sediments coming from two beaches being under the various anthropopressure were analyzed. The first beach was situated in Ustka, while the other one on the terrain of The Słowin ´ski National Park. The general content of organic matter (OM), proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, chlorophyll a, and organic carbon were determined. The content of a biopolymeric organic carbon, values of a food index, and a coefficient of aging of the OM were estimated. Research was conducted with intervals for three months. It was established that human activity impacts on the concentration of analytes in the ecosystem of a seaside beaches. Their higher concentration was observed on the beach under more intensive anthropopressure. The results of the analysis of variance proved that the content of chemical parameters depends on the economic and tourist activity, the season of the year, and the impact of sea water. The stations situated at the central part of the beach are characterized by larger concentration of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates rather than those that those who are not under the direct impact of the sea. The concentration of carbohydrates were characterized by the highest percentage contribution, while proteins by the lowest. Uncharacterized fraction of the organic carbon was higher in Ustka, while the food index in Czołpino. This suggests anthropogenic origin of the OM on the beach in Ustka and natural origin in Czołpino. At the sediments, there were comparable coefficients of the ageing of the OM.

A indústria cerâmica é responsável por grande parte do PIB brasileiro dada a alta demanda, mas gera o problema ambiental de se descartar inadequadamente um de seus subprodutos de rejeitos, denominado chamote. Buscando reduzir essa problemática, o presente estudo analisa o reaproveitamento dos resíduos como precursor para fabricação de compósitos geopoliméricos. Foram realizados testes de caracterização das matérias-primas e produzidos corpos de provas que foram avaliados quanto à resistência à compressão. Como resultado, conclui-se que o chamote possui granulometria e composição química adequadas para uso em geopolímeros, sendo viável no âmbito técnico e ambiental.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have made remarkable progress, attaining super-human performance across various domains. This presents us with an opportunity to further human knowledge and improve human expert performance by leveraging the hidden knowledge encoded within these highly performant AI systems. Yet, this knowledge is often hard to extract, and may be hard to understand or learn from. Here, we show that this is possible by proposing a new method that allows us to extract new chess concepts in AlphaZero, an AI system that mastered the game of chess via self-play without human supervision. Our analysis indicates that AlphaZero may encode knowledge that extends beyond the existing human knowledge, but knowledge that is ultimately not beyond human grasp, and can be successfully learned from. In a human study, we show that these concepts are learnable by top human experts, as four top chess grandmasters show improvements in solving the presented concept prototype positions. This marks an important first milestone in advancing the frontier of human knowledge by leveraging AI; a development that could bear profound implications and help us shape how we interact with AI systems across many AI applications.

A laboratory-based experimental study with well defi ned but artifi cial boundary conditions, which utilises constituent construction materials that replicate the material properties of masonry found in historic URM buildings, is currently addressing this need. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of near-surface mounted (NSM) carbon fi bre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips as a seismic retrofi t solution for out-of-plane lateral loading of the walls in URM buildings. In addition, fi ve retrofi tted URM walls located in four different buildings were tested in-situ by applying outof-plane loading, to complement the laboratory-based study. Testing confi rmed that the NSM CFRP retrofi t technique is an excellent minimally-invasive and cost effective option for seismic strengthening of URM buildings. Provisional details of the design methodology for the NSM CFRP retrofi t technique, and laboratory and in-situ test results are reported. Two recent projects that implemented the NSM CFRP technique are also briefl y presented.

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