COMPACTION OF SUBSIDENCE SOILS BY SOAKING AND RAMMING OF SOIL PADS

Ensuring the reliability and durability of buildings and structures built on subsident soils is one of the important tasks. Subsidence of the soil can lead to a violation of the strength of buildings and structures and the impossibility of their further operation. It is necessary to improve the existing methods of preparing the foundation. This article discusses the experience of using the method of soaking the thickness of subsident soils in combination with the device of a rammed soil cushion. Works on compaction of subsident soils by soaking and tamping are carried out sequentially on three maps. Soaking is carried out through trenches with a depth of 2...3 m, a width of 2.0 m. All the soil from the trenches is stored inside the maps to create a load, as a result of which an additional pressure on the soil is created, equal to 10...30 kPa. At the next stage, local pits are rammed under the buildings according to a given grid, which are filled with local soil with layer-by-layer compaction. Compacted areas around the pits overlap, and as a result, a rammed soil cushion is created, which makes up a single compacted array. Thus, the elimination of subsidence properties of the soil is achieved.

Opening Up Containment

Our paper contributes to Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship on the practices and technologies of containment. We build on existing work in STS that has analyzed containment as a performative sociotechnical system that generates and sustains new realities, new systems, and new relationships. Our contribution draws from the problem of containment in salmon aquaculture. The stakes for containing salmon are very high. Farmed salmon escapes are environmentally damaging to ecosystems and wild salmon populations, and they put additional pressure on an industry that has a very poor environmental record. We consider in detail Newfoundland and Labrador’s “Code of Containment” that works to keep farmed salmon in cages and prevent them from escaping into the wild. Through our analysis of the Code, we argue that containment is not only about holding inside. It is also about holding together, an obsolete meaning of the term “to contain.” We add to STS scholarship by arguing that containment and its associated Code in Newfoundland holds together a large scale, industrial aquaculture sector that tolerates persistent farmed salmon escapes into the wild from ocean-based cages. We conclude by examining the broader implications of our analysis for STS scholarship on the practices and technologies of containment.

Disorders, Vulnerabilities and Resilience in the Supply Chain in Pandemic Times

The economic and social environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought additional pressure on supply chains because they now have more pressure to develop and adapt to a context of economic constraint. Delays in the supply chain can bring consequences such as the lack of food products by retailers, transporters and manufacturers. Thus, this study aims to examine the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic in small- and medium-sized food companies in the central region of Portugal, identifying potential problems and pointing out the respective solutions. For this purpose, the study uses a qualitative methodology through semi-structured interviews. It was found that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) do not have a codified supply chain and that generally, these companies have a minimal budget, which requires a constant search for new suppliers that represent a reduction in costs. Moreover, most of the companies surveyed faced unexpected challenges, such as a lack of alternative suppliers. The present paper is original because it studies the supply chain in SMEs in the food sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it allows the ascertainment of practical suggestions for these companies to improve, as well as contributing to the clarification of the literature on the supply chain in times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Is the Pelješac Bridge Construction Going to Affect Tourism Sustainability of the Peninsula?

The whole area of Dubrovnik-Neretva county, situated in the southeastern part of Croatia, is at the moment, in terms of road accessability, still not satisfactorily connected with the rest of Croatia. The lack of its accessability is mostly caused by the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina's border line cuts in two the Dubrovnik-Neretva county's (land) territory. As a result, on the way from southwest to southeast, or from Split to Dubrovnik, one needs to cross the state border with Bosnia and Herzegowina twice. The construction of the Peljesac Bridge (together with a set of interconnecting roads) should improve the present situation significantly, mainly due to the expected redirection of most of the traffic to the new route accross the Pelješac peninsula. It is fair to assume that this will additionally 'open' the entire Pelješac peninsula to the increased tourism related traffic, especially to the demand of one day visitors and/or weekend guests originating from the nearby regions. Since this will, most lilkely, create additional pressure on the environment, the aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which, if any, the construction of the Pelješac bridge might affect future market perception, and, thus, the long term tourism sustainability of the Pelješac peninsula.

First record of predation of a hatchling turtle by the Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis).

ABSTRACT Snake-Turtle interactions have been rarely documented. We recorded a hatchling Chelodina oblonga within the stomach contents of a Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis). This is the first recorded observation of an interaction between snakes and hatchling freshwater turtles in Western Australia. Field based palpation failed to detect the hatchling, suggesting that without dissection, turtle hatchling predation by snakes more generally could be higher than commonly reported. Snake predation of hatchlings could be placing additional pressure on threatened populations of freshwater turtles in Australia, warranting further investigation.

A combined model approach for debris-flow impact forces

<p>For the design of mitigation measures knowledge of debris-flow impact forces, usually estimated based on hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, or combined approaches, is essential. As these approaches are based on Newtonian fluids, they must be adjusted by empirical correction factors to account for the solid-fluid nature of debris flows. The values for the correction factors shown in the literature vary over a wide range and several studies showed a clear dependence with the Froude regime of debris flows.</p><p>To better understand the correction factors and to be able to calculate them using parameters that describe the flow behaviour a total of 32 experiments were conducted in the course of the project “Debris flow impact forces on bridge super structures (DEFSUP)”, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Two different material compositions, different water contents as well as a total impact and a bypassing of the measuring block were tested.</p><p>The experimental setup designed within the project consists of a 4 m long semi-circular channel with a diameter of 300 mm and an inclination of 20°. The material is released from a rectangular reservoir in a dam-break scenario and accelerated with zero roughness on a length of 1.2 m and transferred to the semi-circle profile. The subsequently introduced roughness with a grain diameter of 1-2 mm generates a stationary phenomenological debris flow until it hits the measuring setup. With a starting volume of 50 kg, flow heights between 8 and 12 cm and velocities from 0.8 to 2.2 m/s were achieved according to the material composition and different water content. With these different mixtures a Froude-range from 0.6 to 3.6 was covered. In addition, normal stresses and pore water pressures were measured at the exact same point.</p><p>A detailed analysis of the measured impact forces together with the above mentioned measured parameters showed that the hydrodynamic correction factor is a constant mainly corresponding to the liquification ratio of the debris-flow mixture. Hence, the hydrodynamic correction factor can be regarded as a drag coefficient and seems to depend mainly on the internal friction of the flowing medium. At low Froude numbers measured impact forces exceed even a full momentum transfer if the mean bulk density is used for the calculation. This indicates that the impact forces can no longer be described by the hydrodynamic approach alone. For this reason, an additional pressure term based on a hydrostatic approach is considered in the combined concept. This additional pressure term depends on the dynamics of flow (Froude number) and can be modelled via a dynamic earth pressure coefficient.</p><p>The findings from these experiments contribute to a better prediction of debris-flows impact forces in terms of their material composition and flow behaviour.</p>

EMS operation in a female restricted university, Saudi prospective

This paper was written to explain the process and steps and to describe the experience with building a women-only operated collegiate emergency medical service (EMS) system in the largest women-only university in the world. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the EMS system described in this report is the first collegiate EMS system in the Gulf region. The concept of the collegiate EMS system at the university, the factors that mandated the creation of this system, the process steps, the challenges faced, and, finally, the reported outcome have been evaluated. The women-only campus conferred unique challenges and additional pressure during the planning and implementation stages of this project; our system had helped in decreasing response time to medical emergency, provided back up support during mass gathering events in the university, and helped in decreasing the load on other national EMS services.