The Quality Control of Engineering Properties for Stabilizing Silty Nile Delta Clay Soil,Egypt

Clay soil with low-bearing capacities can present great problems underlying pavement and light structures due to uncertainty associated with their performance. This paper describes a sonic based testing methodology for quality control of a surface stabilized soil. From an engineering aspect, an increase in water content has a number of disadvantageous consequences: cohesion decreases, the soil swells, the alternating dry-out/shrinkage and wetting/swelling effects destroy the rock or a soil structure. Cement is mixed into the soil to increase both the strength and the usability of local soils in constructions purposes. This is to overcome the problems by strengthening the soil underlying the structure or diminishing the leads transmitted from the foundation to the soil. The compressive strength of the stabilized soil is highly dependent on the type of soil, moisture content, cement content, and compaction work, and can therefore vary significantly in the field. The authors performed the quality control by measuring the sonic and tensile strength velocity in the stabilized soil that has been correlated to compressive strength in native materials. The improvement of the soil materials by the addition of cement could make the material suitable as filling materials, foundation and/or a road base construction. The quality control for the stabilized soils was investigated using sonic measurements and strength gain. The test methods were performed to evaluate the degree of improvement achieved through the measurement of compression and shear-wave velocities of the soil under study. Scanning electron microscopy and electron dispersive X-ray analyses were performed on raw and laboratory treated for qualitative understanding the strength minerals formed during stabilization. The sonic test showed a considerable improvement with curing time and percentages of stabilizer. Mineralogical studies indicated the formation of silica and alumina hydrates along with interwoven structure of cement treated clay particles suggesting adequate mixing of the soil and binder owing to the strength of the soil materials.     

Prediction of visibility in the Arctic based on dynamic Bayesian network analysis

With the accelerated warming of the world, the safety and use of Arctic passages is receiving more attention.Predicting visibility in the Arctic has been a hot topic in recent years because of navigation risks and opening of ice-free northern passages. Numerical weather prediction and statistical prediction are two methods for predicting visibility. As microphysical parameterization schemes for visibility are so sophisticated, visibility prediction using numerical weather prediction models inclu...     

Large-Scale Synoptic Systems and Fog During the C-FOG Field Experiment

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - The goal of this work is to summarize synoptic meteorological conditions during the Coastal Fog (C-FOG) field project that took place onshore and offshore of the Avalon...     

Simulations of Coastal Fog in the Canadian Atlantic with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - We evaluate the efficacy of microphysics and planetary-boundary-layer (PBL) parametrizations of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for simulation of the...     

Environmental and depositional characteristics of diatomite deposit, Alayunt Neogene Basin (Kutahya), West Anatolia, Turkey

This paper describes the geological-depositional and environmental characteristics of diatomite. The diatomite deposit is situated in the southern part of the Alayunt (Kutahya) Basin. Samples of 18 diatomites and 12 host rocks were collected from four sedimentary profiles in the spring season. Basement rocks are Paleozoic-aged metamorphic rocks (schist, phyllite, quartzite, etc.) and Mesozoic-aged ophiolitic and complex rocks. Host rocks are rhyodacitic–rhyolitic tuffite, volcanic glass. Diatomite is composed of Upper Miocene–Upper Pliocene-aged diatom species. Diatomite shows layer morphology and lies on volcanic glass layer. XRD characteristic peaks of diatomite show that it comprises dominantly of Opal-A silica, whereas volcanic glass has Opal-CT constituent. SEM and NPM photomicrographs indicate that diatomites are dominantly composed of benthic freshwater diatom species, such as Pinnularia microstauron, Pinnularia lundii, Pinnularia subrostrata, Pinnularia brevicostata, Pinnularia tenuis, Pinnularia sp., Navicula eligensis, Fragilaria construens, Mastogloia braunii Grunow, Melosira varians Agardh, Surirella capronii Brébisson, Cymbella lanceoloata, Amphora venata, Gomphonema germainii, Gomphonema angustatum and Rhapalodia gibba. These species are general indicators of shallow paleolake environment and cool climate conditions. Due to the fluvial currents and climatic conditions; lake water levels, temperature and nutrient content fluctuated through the time. Chemical data obtained from 18 diatomite samples show that while silica is the bodybuilding material for diatomite (over 89 % SiO₂), Al, Mg and Fe contents of diatomite samples might be derived from clastic materials. The concentration of Al, Mg and Fe decreases toward the lake center. Diatom genera, sedimentary profile sections and mineralogic data suggest that diatomite deposited in lacustrine-type freshwater shallow lake is associated with Upper Miocene-aged extension tectonics. Physical and filtration tests along with environmental characteristics of diatomite suggest that calcined diatomite can be used for waste treatment processes in the filter aid industry.     

Foundation design considerations for a pile supported critical facility

A large reinforced concrete structure supported on piles extending to bedrock is evaluated using a seismic soil–structure interaction analysis. The physical structure, the supporting pile system, analysis model and analytical methodology used are described. Important considerations in the design of the foundation pile system using the seismic analysis loadings and deformations are discussed.     

Planar Gardner solitons and double layers in dusty electronegative plasmas with kappa distributed electrons

A theoretical investigation has been made on the Dust ion-acoustic (DIA) Gardner solitons (GSs) and double layers (DLs) in electronegative plasma consisting of inertial positive and negative ions, super-thermal (kappa distributed) electrons, and negatively charged static dust. The standard reductive perturbation method is employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV), modified K-dV (mK-dV), and standard Gardner equations, which admits solitary waves (SWs) and DLs solutions. It have been found that GSs and DLs exist for α around its critical value α _c , where α _c is the value of α corresponding to the vanishing of the nonlinear coefficient of the K-dV equation. The parametric regimes for the existence of both the positive as well as negative SWs and negative DLs are obtained. The basic features of DIA SWs and DLs are analyzed and it has been found that the polarity, speed, height, thickness of such DIA SWs and DLs structures, are significantly modified due to the presence of two types of ions and spectral index (κ) of super-thermal electrons. It has also been found that the characteristics of DIA GSs and DLs, are different from that of the K-dV solitons and mK-dV solitons. The relevance of our results to different interstellar space plasma situations are discussed.     

Hot plasma waves in Veselago medium around Reissner-Nordström black hole

We investigate the general relativistic magnetohydronadynamic (GRMHD) equations for hot plasmas in a Veselago medium around the Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole. Using the 3+1 formalisms of spacetime, we write the GRMHD equations and perturb them linearly. These are then Fourier analyzed for the magnetized and nonmagnetized plasmas in rotating and nonrotating backgrounds. We derive dispersion relations and analyze the wave properties by the graphs of wave vector, refractive index and change in refractive. The results confirm the presence of Veselago medium for rotating magnetized/nonmagnetized and nonrotating nonmagnetized plasmas.     

Coupling of remote sensing data and environmental-related parameters for dengue transmission risk assessment in Subang Jaya,Malaysia

In Malaysia, the endemic level of dengue fever (DF) has already changed morbidity indicators, and the magnitude of these incidences in the last few years has surpassed the incidences of all other diseases of compulsory notification. The reasons for the dramatic emergence of DF are complex and not well understood. There are many factors that contribute to the epidemiological conditions that favour viral transmission by the main mosquito vector. This study, therefore, is filling this gap by analysing the impact of dengue incidence at a local (Subang Jaya) scale using environmental factors. Meteorological data and land-use pattern were consolidated using geographic information system (GIS) and its components as an analytical tool. We have shown that weather variables (relative humidity, temperature and precipitation) have significant correlation with DF incidence with seasonal variation. Besides land-use pattern, DF incidence shows the higher distribution in the residential area, followed by commercial and industrial area. This is due to the higher population density in residential area as well as favourable places for the breeding of dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitos created by humans in the residential area, especially one-storey houses. The analysis on the trends of DF incidence towards various housing types indicate that most of the victims’ houses fall into interconnection houses and mixed houses types compared to the independent houses area. The outcome driven from this analysis suggested that each character of the environmental factors has their own risk towards dengue incidence. In line with that, it is possible to develop a dynamic model of DF transmission using the knowledge produced by this comprehensive time series data and the results provided by the different analyses.     

Examining the utility of random forest and AISA Eagle hyperspectral image data to predict Pinus patula age in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

High-data dimensionality is a common problem in hyperspectral data processing. Consequently, remote sensing techniques that reduce the number of bands are considered essential tools for most hyperspectral applications. The aim of this study was to examine the utility of the random forest ensemble to select the optimal subset of hyperspectral bands to predict the age of Pinus patula stands. Airborne AISA Eagle hyperspectral image data were collected over the study area. The random forest ensemble was used to test whether the forward or backward variable selection methods could identify the optimal subset of bands. Results indicate that both the selection methods produced high-predictive accuracies (root mean square error = 3.097 years). However, the backward variable selection method utilized 206 bands for the final model, while the forward variable selection utilized only a small subset of non-redundant bands (n = 9) while preserving the highest model accuracy (R ² = 0.6).