Precision and Accuracy of the Ignition Method for Determining Asphalt Content: Florida Round-Robin Study

Author(s):  
Bouzid Choubane ◽  
James A. Musselman ◽  
Gale C. Page

To implement the ignition method for both quality control and acceptance purposes in Florida, the State Materials Office of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) carried out a round-robin study to determine the precision and accuracy of this procedure for local conditions. Twelve materials laboratories, including both public and private sectors throughout Florida, participated in the investigation. Each of the 12 participant laboratories received a total of 36 hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixture samples for asphalt content determination and gradation analysis. Samples were prepared in accordance with FDOT specifications with six different types of aggregate and one type of asphalt cement. Six laboratories used one ignition tester brand and the remainder used a tester from a different manufacturer. The testers, similar in nature, both include an internally mounted load cell and an automated system for data collection and processing. The interlaboratory test data were collected and analyzed at the FDOT State Materials Office. The round-robin test program is described and the accuracy and precision of the ignition method on materials commonly used in HMA construction in the state of Florida are discussed.

Author(s):  
E. R. Brown ◽  
Stuart Mager

The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) has developed a test method to determine the asphalt content of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures by ignition. In the ignition method, an HMA sample is subjected to heat of 538°C (1,000°F) in a furnace to ignite and burn the asphalt cement (AC) from the aggregate. The difference in weight of the sample before and after is used to determine the asphalt content of the mixture. The aggregate recovered after ignition testing may then be used for gradation analysis. A round-robin study was completed by NCAT to determine the accuracy and precision of the ignition method. The round-robin test program is discussed, as well as the accuracy and precision values determined for the measured AC content and gradation using the ignition method. The results of the round-robin study indicate that the ignition method can measure the AC content of HMA mixtures with greater precision than solvent-extraction methods, without significantly affecting the gradation of the aggregate. This test method has shown excellent potential for replacing existing test methods for measuring asphalt content.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro B.H.S. ◽  
Nona Siska Noviyanti

In this book, Francis Fukuyama delivers his arguments concering the issue about the lack of "organizational tradition" in several "failed" or "weak" states, which in turns becomes the greatest threat to the contemporary world order. Fukuyama argues that the United States, and the West in general, after rightly intervening in such states either militarily or economically (most often through institutions like IMF or World Bank), have failed to transfer institutional and public- and private- sector capability to them. Although their objective is to "create self-sustaining state institutions that can survive the withdrawal of outside intervention," the developed world has met its failure, setting people of the developing countries up for "large disappointments." For much of the last half-century, the trend has been to weaken the state. Now, the evidence suggests that a new approach is required, one that goes beyond simply shrinking or enlarging the state, and begins to deal with enabling the state to be more effective based on local conditions. Fukuyama suggests that the answer lies in providing states with internal organizational structure and, above all, a culture that enables strong leaders and government institutions to enforce capitalist and free-market values. While some basic outcomes are to be expected, the way each nation gets there will be different.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Yolanda García Rodríguez

In Spain doctoral studies underwent a major legal reform in 1998. The new legislation has brought together the criteria, norms, rules, and study certificates in universities throughout the country, both public and private. A brief description is presented here of the planning and structuring of doctoral programs, which have two clearly differentiated periods: teaching and research. At the end of the 2-year teaching program, the individual and personal phase of preparing one's doctoral thesis commences. However, despite efforts by the state to regulate these studies and to achieve greater efficiency, critical judgment is in order as to whether the envisioned aims are being achieved, namely, that students successfully complete their doctoral studies. After this analysis, we make proposals for the future aimed mainly at the individual period during which the thesis is written, a critical phase in obtaining the doctor's degree. Not enough attention has been given to this in the existing legislation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-212
Author(s):  
Michael Llopart

Abstract At the end of the First World War, the French government seized the opportunity to acquire the chemical processes of the German firm BASF, including the Haber-Bosch process. This patent made it possible to synthesize nitrogen from the air and thus produce nitrogen fertilizers in large quantities. French industrialists, however, refused to acquire these patents, and to make up for this lack of private sector involvement, the French Parliament decided in 1924 to create a national plant (ONIA), which became the first state-owned plant to be exposed to market competition. The intention was for the ONIA to supply the army with nitric acid in times of war, and, in peacetime, to sell fertilizers at the lowest possible prices in order to curb the monopoly of the private industry cartel. The purpose of this article is therefore to study the establishment and organisation of the French market for nitrogen fertilisers during the inter-war period by raising a number of questions about the ambiguous and complex relations between the state and private industry in this strategic sector. Why was the state policy initiated with the ONIA not successful at first? From 1927-1928, once the ONIA was operational, why and how did the public and private players jointly organise the marketing of fertilisers even though their interests were partially divergent? From the economic crisis of the 1930s onwards, how did the regulation of this mixed market evolve and how were public/private tensions overcome? In the French case, why did French producers leave the international cartel very early on in favour of state protectionism? And finally, to what extent can it be said that this “managed economy” framework succeeded in satisfying all the players in the French nitrogen industry?


Author(s):  
Sanjeev Singh ◽  
Esmita Charani ◽  
Sarada Devi ◽  
Anuj Sharma ◽  
Fabia Edathadathil ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The global concern over antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is gathering pace. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at the epicentre of this growing public health threat and governmental and healthcare organizations are at different stages of implementing action plans to tackle AMR. The South Indian state of Kerala was one of the first in India to implement strategies and prioritize activities to address this public health threat. Strategies Through a committed and collaborative effort from all healthcare related disciplines and its professional societies from both public and private sector, the Kerala Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been able to deliver a state-wide strategy to tackle AMR A multilevel strategic leadership model and a multilevel implementation approach that included developing state-wide antibiotic clinical guidelines, a revision of post-graduate and undergraduate medical curriculum, and a training program covering all general practitioners within the state the PPP proved to be a successful model for ensuring state-wide implementation of an AMR action plan. Collaborative work of multi-professional groups ensured co-design and development of disease based clinical treatment guidelines and state-wide infection prevention policy. Knowledge exchange though international and national platforms in the form of workshops for sharing of best practices is critical to success. Capacity building at both public and private institutions included addressing practical and local solutions to the barriers e.g. good antibiotic prescription practices from primary to tertiary care facility and infection prevention at all levels. Conclusion Through 7 years of stakeholder engagement, lobbying with government, and driving change through co-development and implementation, the PPP successfully delivered an antimicrobial stewardship plan across the state. The roadmap for the implementation of the Kerala PPP strategic AMR plan can provide learning for other states and countries aiming to implement action plans for AMR.


1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Peal

The consolidation of territorial states in Central Europe undermined the local customs and institutions that had shaped village life since the Middle Ages. By the end of the eighteenth century unitary law codes overrode rural customs. By distinguishing between public and private law, these codes stripped the organized village community of legal substance. Police and judicial functions once performed within the community were assumed by bureaucrats, and the state meddled with the use of local resources by liberalizing marriage and residence laws. Deprived of political autonomy, the village did remain the core economic and social unit in rural life, controlling access to communal forests and enforcing the rules of three-field agriculture. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century this limited autonomy was undermined as well. Freedom of contract, security of individual property, free transmission of property between generations, and commercialization of landed property struck at the ability of villages to control their material world in customary ways.


1986 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 439-441
Author(s):  
V. N. Korotkevich ◽  
Yu. A. Orlov ◽  
V. L. Mironov

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