Investigating the Effect of Various Fillers on Cohesive Failure Mechanism in Asphalt Mixtures

In the current research attempts have been made to investigate the effect of various fillers on the resistance to mastic failure using mechanical and thermodynamic methods. Two types of granite and limestone aggregates with acidic and basic characteristics were used, respectively. Besides, four types of filler including calcium carbonate, hydrated lime, Portland cement and stone powder and two types asphalt binder PEN 60-70 and PEN 85-100 were used. Calcium carbonate and hydrated lime had the most effect and Portland cement and stone powder had the least effect on strength reduction. In addition, the results obtained by modified Lottman test showed that the use of hydrated lime and calcium carbonate increased resistance to moisture damage. The results of correlation coefficients show the necessity of using the effect of filler on cohesion free energy calculation in the surface free energy to investigate cohesion failure in different asphalt mixtures

Geohazards analysis of Pisa tunnel in a fractured incompetent rocks in Zagros Mountains, Iran.

The Pisa 2 tunnel with 740 m in length and 20° N trend is located along the Kazerun fault zone in Simply Folded Belt of Zagros, Iran. This tunnel has been excavated in the fractured incompetent marl layers with high expansive pressure of up to 2 kg/cm2. In this study, the geological hazards along the tunnel have been recognized and categorized. This study revealed that, in the long-term usage of the tunnel, the lining did not endure against the loading and the secondary leakages. It is mainly attributed due to the non-efficiencies of drainage and isolation systems in the tunnel site. Therefore, it caused asphalt damage, drainage damage, and wall distortion. FLAC3D software has been used in this research. We conducted various analyses for pre-excavation stress states, syn-excavation, and post-excavation strain states. The results showed no indication of instability and critical deformations during the excavation time. It also revealed that due to the non-efficiencies of drainage and isolation systems against secondary leakages and consequently marl expansion, the volumetric and shear strains (i.e., expansions and displacements) have exceeded from the critical states of strain along the tunnel. For various remedy purpose, this paper attempted several measures that can be taken in order to modify the drainage and isolation systems along the tunnel area. The reconstruction of drainage systems with suitable reinforced concrete and adequate slope has been proposed. The width of channel and isolation of backside of lining and implementation of multi-order outlets (i.e., backside of lining) for draining of groundwater into where the main drainage systems are located in the tunnel gallery were suggested

Quantity and quality of solid wastes produced in dental offices of babol city

Introduction: Dental wastes due to having bacterial disease-causing agents and toxic chemicals are categorized in hazardous wastes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantity and composition of dental waste produced by general and specialized dental offices in babol city. Materials &Methods: From all dental offices (170 and 40 dental offices were related to general and specialized respectively) in babol city, 20 general and 5 specialized offices were randomly selected. Waste samples were collected three times a week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday), 50 sub-groups were separated and weighted by a digital scale with accuracy of 0.01 gram. The data were presented by excel and word software in figures and tables. Results: The total wastes of general and specialized offices were 11829 and 2831.5 kg/year, respectively. The percentages of domestic-type, infectious, pharmaceutical and toxic wastes in general dental offices were 52.5%, 42.5%, 4.7% and 0.3%; and in specialized offices were 42.5%, 50%, 7% and 0.5%, respectively. Most components in a variety of dental waste included plastic, paper, plaster molds, glass and metal. Conclusion: Due to the large contents of plastic, paper, plaster molds, glass and metals in domestic- type and infectious wastes produced in the general and specialized dental offices, it is necessary to manage the wastes and their separation and recycling in source place

Optimizing Traffic Operation in Designing Specific Upgrades

Transport forms one of the primary needs in all categories of the population in modern society; it is of paramount concern for traffic engineers, transport planners, and policy makers to understand and evaluate the quality of service being provided by the transport facilities designed by them. This paper presents an investigation in profile geometric design and traffic flow operation on two-lane two-way highways and provides analyses that will help in a better understanding of traffic operation on these facilities to select the optimum profile configuration. The effects of influencing parameters consisting of grade, length of grade, traffic composition, and traffic volume are evaluated and finally a systematic procedure to evaluate flow rate under the base condition is presented. Finally, based on these achievements an algorithm is introduced to select optimum Finished Ground of profile view. Results show that the percentage of heavy vehicles has a contributing effect on traffic operation so that the optimum profile configuration is incredibly affected by this factor. Source data have been obtained from Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) as a pioneer document in respect of quantifying the concept of capacity for a transport facility.</jats:p

Analysis of avalanche effect on advance encryption standard by using dynamic S-Box depends on rounds keys

Substitution table or S-Box is the major core of AES algorithm and it is used to provide confusion capability for AES. The aim of this paper is to design dynamic S-Box which depends on rounds keys for encryption in AES-128. The parameters of the dynamic S-Box have features equivalent to those in the normal algorithm AES. Static S-Box allows attackers to study S-Box and discover weak issues while by using dynamic S-Box approach, it makes difficult and more complex for attacker to do any offline study of an attack of one particular set of S- boxes. Both algorithms are implemented with MATLAB and also, input and output for data collection is hexadecimal format. the proposed AES is compared with normal AES in term of security analysis by avalanche effect test, and it is compared simulation times between two algorithms

Zepto-molar electrochemical detection of Brucella genome based on gold nanoribbons covered by gold nanoblooms

AbstractGold nanoribbons covered by gold nanoblooms were sonoelectrodeposited on a polycrystalline gold surface at −1800 mV (vs. AgCl) with the assistance of ultrasound and co-occurrence of the hydrogen evolution reaction. The nanostructure, as a transducer, was utilized to immobilize a Brucella-specific probe and fabrication of a genosensor and the process of immobilization and hybridization was detected by electrochemical methods, using methylene blue as a redox marker. The proposed method for detection of the complementary sequence, sequences with base-mismatched (one-, two- and three-base mismatches) and the sequence of non-complementary sequence was assayed. The fabricated genosensor was evaluated for the assay of the bacteria in the cultured and human samples without polymerase chain reactions (PCR). The genosensor could detect the complementary sequence with a calibration sensitivity of 0.40 μA dm3 mol−1, a linear concentration range of 10 zmol dm−3 to 10 pmol dm−3 and a detection limit of 1.71 zmol dm−3.</jats:p