Search results for "technical"
showing 10 items of 955 documents
High-frequency trading and networked markets
2021
Financial markets have undergone a deep reorganization during the last 20 y. A mixture of technological innovation and regulatory constraints has promoted the diffusion of market fragmentation and high-frequency trading. The new stock market has changed the traditional ecology of market participants and market professionals, and financial markets have evolved into complex sociotechnical institutions characterized by a great heterogeneity in the time scales of market members’ interactions that cover more than eight orders of magnitude. We analyze three different datasets for two highly studied market venues recorded in 2004 to 2006, 2010 to 2011, and 2018. Using methods of complex network th…
Contaminant Intrusion through Leaks in Water Distribution System: Experimental Analysis
2015
Abstract This paper presents the results of experimental tests on the intrusion of contaminant through pipe cracks in water distribution network resulting from low/negative pressures. The tests were carried out on a looped distribution network at the University of Enna and were performed first producing a pressure transient that causes negative pressures then reproducing intermittent supply. A soluble contaminant was added to the water volume in the network through a pipe crack. Sampling of water volume was carried out in two nodes of the network and the contaminant concentrations were measured. It was showed that: the contaminant was drawn in and transported, in the first set of tests; the…
Dynamic behaviour of cracked granite and marble columns retrofitted with steel collars
2014
Marble and heavy stone columns are widely diffused in ancient churches and historical buildings in all the Mediterranean area. Their good mechanical properties allowed carrying great load values, while their bright colours and aesthetical characteristics have been used by a lot of ancient architects to achieve structural solutions with great visual impact. Despite their good compressive strength, marble columns could be damaged from environmental effects (e.g. longterm effects or thermal loads), which could crack the structural members. In this way, the slenderness of the column increases drastically and the presence of an imposed ground shaking could be critical, since the column will be m…
A stereotactic device for rabbits based on mandibular and cranial landmarks
2008
✓ The authors have developed a stereotactic device for use in rabbits that uses the plane at the base of the mandible combined with cranial sutures as an anatomical reference. The device was developed for a study designed to evaluate catheters for infection prophylaxis, and this required the implantation of silicone catheters along a reproducible trajectory through the lateral ventricle. Cadaver and atlas studies demonstrated consistent spatial relationships between intracranial structures and the surface plane on which the animals were resting during the surgery. This plane is formed by the 2 mandibular angles and the mandibular tip. The authors developed a stainless steel stereotactic dev…
How Does the Public Spending Affect Technical Efficiency? Some Evidence from 15 European Countries
2019
The relationship between government size and economic growth has been widely debated. Departing from this issue, we provide an empirical analysis of the impact of government size on technical efficiency. The aim of this paper is to estimate by using a True Random Effect model the impact of public sector’s size and of public expenditure components on 15 European countries’ technical efficiency from 1996 to 2011. Using the total public expenditure as a proxy for the government size we estimate simultaneously national optimal production function and technical efficiency model by controlling for income distribution and institutional quality. Our main findings show that the effect of public sect…
Stochastic response of combined primary-secondary structures under seismic input
1992
A technique for non-stationary stochastic analysis of linear combined primary and secondary subsystems subjected to a zero-mean Gaussian base excitation is presented. The proposed technique, based on the use of the Taylor's expansion in evaluating the operators which appear in the step-by-step procedure, does not require the evaluation of the complex eigenproperties of the combined system. Operating in this way, even though the numerical procedure is a conditionally stable one, appears to be more efficient than existing methods to evaluate the dynamic response of such composite systems. It is also shown that the proposed procedure is available whether the seismic input is idealized as a fil…
Combined dynamic response of primary and multiply connected cascaded secondary subsystems
1991
A method is proposed for the deterministic and stochastic non-stationary analysis of linear composite systems with cascaded secondary subsystems subjected to a seismic input. This method makes it possible to evaluate, by means of a unitary formulation, the deterministic and non-stationary stochastic response of both classically and non-classically damped subsystems and of secondary subsystems multiply supported on the primary one, as well as the ground. The proposed procedure is very efficient from a computational point of view, because of the Kronecker algebra systematically employed. Indeed, by using this algebra, it is possible to obtain in a very compact and elegant form the eigenproper…
Fatigue Design of Roller Bearing for Large FPSO Turrets
2012
The present report presents the fatigue design and a fatigue life prediction method for large roller bearings applied in the turret turn table for large Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units. The contact point between wheel and rail in these bearings is subjected to a multi-axial stress situation and both surface wear and fatigue cracking may occur. Stress analyses with contact elements are carried out and a methodology based on the Dang Van fatigue criterion is adopted. The criterion is based on an equivalent stress defined as a combination of the fluctuation of the shear stress from its mean value and the associated hydrostatic stress at a critical plane at any time. The…
Influence of stress-level due to self-weight on the hydraulic conductivity of permeable concrete for geotechnical applications
2022
Permeable concrete is effectively used in many fields of civil and environmental engineering, including some geotechnical applications such as drainage piles, deep drainage trenches, and as a permeable backfill material for retaining walls. The principal requirements that a pervious concrete must have for geotechnical applications are those that simultaneously guarantee enough hydraulic conductivity and good filter properties against internal erosion of the soil in which the drains are realised. These requirements can be effectively achieved through special mix-designs in which a non-negligible amount of sand is added to the aggregates, unlike the permeable concretes used for example in the…
Shear strength of a compacted scaly clay in variable saturation conditions
2015
Scaly clays are stiff and highly fissured clays often used as construction materials. This paper presents the results of triaxial compression tests carried out on saturated and unsaturated samples of a compacted scaly clay. Complementary investigation on the microstructural features and their evolution with the amount of water stored into the material are also presented in order to shed light on the evolution of the micro- and macroporosity with suction. The water retention behaviour of the compacted scaly clay is also addressed. The results from the controlled suction triaxial tests are used to discuss the applicability of a single-shear strength criterion to compacted double-structured cl…