Search results for " bridges"
showing 10 items of 28 documents
Interaction between Longitudinal Shear and Transverse Bending in Prestressed Concrete Box Girders
2017
In box girder bridges, the quantity and distribution of reinforcement to be put in concrete elements of sections can be evaluated only by considering the deformation of the cross section in addition to the longitudinal analysis of the static scheme, establishing the entire state of stress of box sections. This leads to a need to evaluate the interaction between internal forces obtained by the global analysis and the ones obtained by the local analysis of the cross sections. The frame effect implies the elastic deformation of slabs and webs, whereas eccentrically applied loads lead to cross-section distortion with the loss of the box shape. Hence, the reinforcement is strongly influenced by …
Users’ Preferences for Designing Spaces under Urban Bridges as Vital Urban Spaces
2018
Today’s fast-paced urbanization process has caused many problems in urban development. Therefore, urban space is slowly losing its nature and disappearing due to the speed of rapid urban development. Trying to keep up with the modern era’s prevalent epoch of roads and bridges, urban policies in Iran have focused on developing road networks in recent years. Thus numerous elevated structures, urban highways and bridges are used to connect the urban fabric of the country’s cities, enabling the smooth transition of traffic in its cities. Although many view urban highways merely as tools for mobility; it is true that they influence on urban structure and the communities that they interconnect. H…
The Odorant-Binding Proteins of the Spider Mite Tetranychus urticae
2021
Spider mites are one of the major agricultural pests, feeding on a large variety of plants. As a contribution to understanding chemical communication in these arthropods, we have characterized a recently discovered class of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) in Tetranychus urticae. As in other species of Chelicerata, the four OBPs of T. urticae contain six conserved cysteines paired in a pattern (C1–C6, C2–C3, C4–C5) differing from that of insect counterparts (C1–C3, C2–C5, C4–C6). Proteomic analysis uncovered a second family of OBPs, including twelve members that are likely to be unique to T. urticae. A three-dimensional model of TurtOBP1, built on the recent X-ray structure of Varroa destruc…
Hydration and water holding properties of cross-linked lignite humic acids
2014
Abstract Lignite and lignite humic acids, which are used as soil amendments sometimes, are supposed to improve soil properties such as water holding capacity. The structure of those materials is composed of various organic molecules stabilized mostly by weak interactions. Therefore, excess of water causes only partial swelling, but most of the physical structure is destabilized. This accelerates the desiccation and hampers their application as natural hydrogel-like substances. In order to stabilize the structure of lignite humic acids and improve the water holding capacity, we applied formaldehyde cross-linking procedure based on covalent coupling of aromatic humic acids moieties. By combin…
Detection and localisation of disulphide bonds in a synthetic peptide reproducing the sequence 1-30 of Par j 1.0101 by electrospray ionisation mass s…
2001
The structural characterisation of a synthetic peptide reproducing the sequence 1–30 of Par j 1.0101, a major allergenic protein present in the pollen of Parietaria judaica, by combined use of chemical and enzymatic cleavage, reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), is described. Direct ESI-MS of the synthetic peptide after reaction with methyl iodide showed that the product is a mixture of two peptides: one form in which two out of the four cysteine residues present in the sequence are oxidised and a minor amount of another form in which all the cysteines are fully reduced. It was ascertained, using the combined…
Amygdaloid projections to the ventral striatum in mice: direct and indirect chemosensory inputs to the brain reward system
2011
Rodents constitute good models for studying the neural basis of socio-sexual behaviour. Recent findings in mice have revealed the molecular identity of the some pheromonal molecules triggering intersexual attraction. However, the neural pathways mediating this basic socio-sexual behaviour remain elusive. Since previous work indicates that the dopaminergic tegmento-striatal pathway is not involved in pheromone reward, the present report explores alternative pathways linking the vomeronasal system with the tegmento-striatal system (the limbic basal ganglia) by means of tract-tracing experiments studying direct and indirect projections from the chemosensory amygdala to the ventral striato-pall…
Evaluation of web reinforcements in prestressed concrete box girders through shear-transverse bending domains
2020
In concrete box girders, the amount and distribution of reinforcements in the webs have to be estimated considering the local effects due to eccentric external loads and cross-sectional distortion and not only the global effect due to the resultant forces of a longitudinal analysis: shear, torsion and bending. This work presents an analytical model that allows designers to take into account the interaction of all these effects, global and local, for the determination of the reinforcements. The model is based on the theory of stress fields and it has been compared to a 3D finite element analysis, in order to validate the interaction domains. The results show how the proposed analytical mode…
Increasing the Capacity of Existing Bridges by Using Unbonded Prestressing Technology: A Case Study
2014
External posttensioning or unbonded prestressing was found to be a powerful tool for retrofitting and for increasing the life extension of existing structures. Since the 1950s, this technique of reinforcement was applied with success to bridge structures in many countries, and was found to provide an efficient and economic solution for a wide range of bridge types and conditions. Unbonded prestressing is defined as a system in which the post-tensioning tendons or bars are located outside the concrete cross-section and the prestressing forces are transmitted to the girder through the end anchorages, deviators, or saddles. In response to the demand for a faster and more efficient transportati…
Symplectic analysis of thin-walled curved box girders with torsion, distortion and shear lag warping effects
2022
Shear lag effect and torsional and distortional warping can significantly affect the performance of thin-walled curved box girders used in modern bridge engineering. The structural behaviour of these bridges exhibits complexity due to coupled bending and torsion together with warping effects of non-uniform torsion, distortion and shear lag. A practical method of analysis, based on the symplectic approach, with the same perspective as the Higher Order Beam Theories, is presented for overcoming the difficulties of numerical approaches via the Finite Element Method. In this paper, the Hamiltonian Structural Analysis method implements the analysis of the shear lag effect together with non-unifo…
Late Cretaceous-Early Eocene origin of yams (Dioscorea, Dioscoreaceae) in the Laurasian Palaearctic and their subsequent Oligocene-Miocene diversific…
2015
Aim: Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae) is a predominantly pantropical genus (< 600 species) that includes the third most important tropical tuber crop and species of pharmacological value. Fossil records from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres were used to test hypotheses about the origin of the genus Dioscorea, and to examine potential macroevolutionary processes that led to its current distribution. Location: Pantropical distribution. Methods: Divergence times were estimated using the most comprehensive phylogeny of the group published to date based on plastid sequences and fossil calibrations, applying a relaxed-clock model approach. Ancestral areas and range shifts were reconstructed us…