Search results for "void"
showing 10 items of 435 documents
Analyzing the Impact of Culture on Average Time Spent on Social Networking Sites
2014
The study examines the influence of national culture on national averages of time spent (ATS) visiting the largest social networking sites (SNSs): Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The analysis uses cultural dimensions adopted from both the works of Hofstede and Schwartz, while controlling for country e-readiness and median population age. The findings suggest that culture's influence may be moderated by the media richness and type of network focus of each SNS. Overall, in rich-media SNSs, egalitarianism positively impacts ATS. Individualism and masculinity only impact ATS on friendship-oriented SNSs. Additionally, uncertainty avoidance and intellectual autonomy only impact ATS on profession…
Collision Avoidance in Wake-Up Radio Enabled WSNs: Protocol and Performance Evaluation
2018
In wake-up radio (WuR) enabled wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the envisaged application scenarios are primarily targeted at low traffic load conditions. When applying WuR to medium or heavy traffic load scenarios, however, collisions among wake-up calls (WuCs) may happen, resulting in a lower packet delivery ratio (PDR). In this paper, we propose a media access control protocol for WuR- enabled WSN that is capable of avoiding WuC collisions by activating a contention-based collision avoidance mechanism for WuC transmissions. The performance of the proposed protocol is evaluated by a Markov chain based mathematical model and is compared with a WuR protocol that performs only clear channel as…
Fundamental characterisation of reclaimed asphalts: The importance of testing homogeneous specimens
2013
This study highlights the importance of defining appropriate specimen manufacturing procedures when assessing the fundamental properties of reclaimed asphalt (RA) mixes for further modelling purposes. Two gyratory compactor procedures were used: the first leading to specimens with a non-uniform air voids distribution and the second tailored to obtain homogeneous specimens. The study was performed by using three stone mastic asphalts incorporating up to 30% of RA but designed to have identical properties. A detailed characterisation of the loose mixes and binders, an X-ray computer tomography micro-structural study of the manufactured specimens and a further mechanical characterisation showe…
An Innovative Treatment Based on Sodium Citrate for Improving the Mechanical Performances of Flax Fiber Reinforced Composites
2021
The goal of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a cost-effective and eco-friendly treatment based on the use of sodium citrate (Na3C6H5O7) on the mechanical properties of flax fiber reinforced composites. To this scope, flax fibers were soaked in mildly alkaline solutions of the sodium salt at different weight concentration (i.e., 5%, 10% and 20%) for 120 h at 25 °C. The modifications on fibers surface induced by the proposed treatment were evaluated through Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR), whereas scanning electron microscope (SEM) and helium pycnometer were used to obtain useful information about composites morphology. The effect of the concentration of the treating …
Efficacy of three methods for inserting calcium hydroxide-based paste in root canals
2017
BACKGROUND: To compare the quality of calcium hydroxide paste fillings performed by three different techniques. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sixty extracted maxillary central incisors, with previous root canal treatment, were decoronated and the gutta-percha was completely removed from the root canals. Subsequently, the canals were filled with a calcium hydroxide-based paste composed of calcium hydroxide, bismuth carbonate, and glycerin. The study samples were divided into the following three groups on the basis of three insertion techniques (n = 20, each): conventional technique using a hand instrument (MAN), rotary Lentulo spiral (LEN) technique, and a combined technique combining conventional h…
Water retention behaviour of compacted and reconstituted scaly clays
2020
The paper presents the results of an experimental research devoted to investigate the response to suction variations of a scaly clay in compacted and reconstituted conditions. Different experimental techniques (axis translation, vapour equilibrium, dew point psychrometer suction measurements) were combined in order to explore the water retention properties in a wide suction range (0 ÷ 110 MPa). Experimental results allowed to define the water retention domains for a constant reference void ratio, highlighting the significant role of the microstructure on the response of the investigated clays. In particular, the collected results showed that in the low-medium suction range, the peculiar mic…
Static and dynamic mechanical properties of Arundo Donax fillers-epoxy composites
2014
Abstract Aim of this work is to investigate the feasibility of using a natural and inexpensive filler obtained by grinding the culms of Arundo Donax as reinforcement of epoxy resins. The effect of the content and size of Arundo Donax fillers on static and dynamic mechanical properties was evaluated showing that the composites exhibit higher tensile moduli, comparable flexural moduli and lower strength properties in comparison to the neat resin. Moreover, changes in the storage and the loss moduli only above the glass transition temperature (i.e. in the rubbery region) were found while neither significant shifts of tan δ peaks to higher temperatures nor reductions in the peak height of the c…
Fatigue crack growth of new FML composites for light ship buildings under predominant mode II loading condition
2019
The use of light but strong materials is largely studied in various area of the shipbuilding, this because the need of reducing the weight, and especially the weight of all the structures above the main deck assume primary importance for the stability. Traditionally in fast boats like fast ferries, hydrofoils, patrol boats, the typical materials are Aluminum alloy or composites, both those materials have advantages and disadvantages, but the new development of technologies made possible to combine them, in order to have a new material, combining the advantages of both, in terms of fatigue resistance, firefighting characteristics. In this paper, predominant mode II fatigue delamination tests…
Effect of mixing time on reclaimed asphalt mixtures: An investigation by means of imaging techniques
2015
This paper presents an application of imaging techniques to investigate the distribution of reclaimed asphalt and air voids within gyratory compacted specimen. Stone Mastic Asphalt specimens containing reclaimed asphalt, were produced at five different laboratories participating in the collaborative project Re-Road: University of Nottingham, Belgium Road Research Centre, Danish Road Directorate, TU Braunschweig and Laboratoire Centrale de Ponts et Chaussees (now IFSTTAR). This study applies the X-ray Computed Tomography and Optical Microscopy techniques to view the internal structure of the specimen with particular focus on the air voids and reclaimed asphalt distributions within the specim…
Experiments on a Prey Predators System
2003
The paper describes a prey-predators system devoted to perform experiments on concurrent complex environment. The problem has be treated as an optimization problem. The prey goal is to escape from the predators reaching its lair, while predators want to capture the prey. At the end of the 19th century, Pareto found an optimal solutions for decision problems regarding more than one criterion at the same time. In most cases this ‘Pareto-set’ cannot be determined analytically or the computation time could be exponential. In such cases, evolutionary Algorithms (EA) are powerful optimization tools capable of finding optimal solutions of multi-modal problems. Here, both prey and predators learn i…