Calibration of Load and Resistance Factors for Breakwater Foundation Design. Application on Different Types of Superstructures

Load and resistance factor design is an efficient design approach that provides a system of consistent design solutions. This study aims to determine the load and resistance factors needed for the design of breakwater foundations within a probabilistic framework. In the study, four typical types of Korean breakwaters, namely, rubble mound breakwaters, vertical composite caisson breakwaters, perforated caisson breakwaters, and horizontal composite breakwaters, are investigated. The bearing capacity of breakwater foundations under wave loading conditions is thoroughly examined. Two levels of the target reliability index (RI) of 2.5 and 3.0 are selected to implement the load and resistance factors calibration using Monte Carlo simulations with 100,000 cycles. The normalized resistance factors are found to be lower for the higher target RI as expected. Their ranges are from 0.668 to 0.687 for the target RI of 2.5 and from 0.576 to 0.634 for the target RI of 3.0.

Pengaruh Angin Terhadap Tata Letak dan Jumlah Sekrup Konstruksi Baja Ringan Berdasarkan SNI 7971 2013

Material baja ringan dalam dunia konstruksi mengalami perkembangan pesat. Namun masih banyak terjadi kegagalan konstruksi pada baja ringan sehingga mengalami kerugian. Kegagalan struktur baja ringan banyak terjadi pada bagian sambungannya. Alat sambung pada baja ringan biasanya adalah sekrup (selfdrilling screw). Lokasi penelitian adalah pada Gedung Dinas Penanaman Modal dan Pelayanan Terpadu Satu Pintu (DPMPTSP) Aceh. Permasalahan pada penelitian ini adalah melihat tata letak dan jumlah sekrup pada struktur atap baja ringan yang dilakukan untuk setiap batang sesuai aturan, melihat pengaruh angin terhadap tata letak dan jumlah sekrup pada struktur atap baja ringan. Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh tata letak dan jumlah sekrup pada struktur atap baja ringan. pada struktur atap baja ringan. Standar perencanaan yang digunakan dalam perencaanan struktur baja ringan yaitu menggunakan ketentuan SNI 7971 2013 dan standar perencanaan pembebanan menggunakan SNI 03 1727 1989. Langkah-langkah perhitungan menggunakan metode Load Reristance Factor Design untuk perencanaan struktur baja yang diatur dalam SNI 03 1729 2002. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian diperoleh jumlah dan tata letak sekrup berbeda dengan yang didapatkan di lapangan. Dari perhitungan yang didapatkan nilai rekap beban mati dengan nilai maksimum 123,07 kg, beban hidup dengan beban maksimum 301,6 kg, untuk beban angin tekan dan angin hisap dengan beban maksimum 180 kg. Diperoleh nilai gaya desain maksimum sebesar 1241,33 kg dan untuk nilai tahanan tumpu baut sebesar 256,752 kg. Jumlah sekrup didapatkan dimana nilai gaya desain dibagi dengan nilai tahanan tumpu, pada masing-masing batang 1, 2, 3, 4 dan 5 sekrup. Sedangkan untuk masing-masing batang yang dilapangan menggunakan 3 buah sekrup.

Proximate composition and sensory characteristics of refractance window dried cowpea composite porridges

Undernutrition is a major public health concern in Uganda. Locally available nutrient dense diets can help reduce the problem of undernutrition. Utilisation of cowpea leaf powder in preparing composite porridge blends depends on sensory acceptance of the consumers. A Nutrisurvey software was used to formulate two composite flour blends, namely maize and millet in a ratio 2:8 and cowpea-maize in a ratio of 1:9 to achieve the daily requirement of protein for children. The study developed a process for the production of composite cowpea flour from finger millet flour and maize flour and followed a one factor design in which maize flour (MF) and millet flour (MMF) was substituted with cowpea leaves flour (CPL). The composites were dried using refractance window drying technology. The proximate composition of the composite flours were determined using standard methods while sensory acceptability of porridges was rated on a five-point Likert scale using an untrained panel. Results indicated a significant (p < 0.05) increase in protein (10.9 to 13.4%), dietary fibre (11.01 to 13.0%) and lipids (4.71 to 5.3%) contents for cowpea-millet composite porridge. For cowpea-maize composite flour, a significant (p < 0.05) increase in protein (5.9 to 7.6%), dietary fibre (1.47 to 3.3%) and lipids (2.84 to 3.3%) was also observed. Sensory evaluation indicated that between the two composite porridges, the cowpea-millet porridge blend was significantly (P≤0.05) more appealing in terms of colour (3.61±0.8), aroma (2.96±0.2), taste (3.24±0.6), texture (3.62±0.6) and general acceptability (3.61±0.8) to the panellists than the cowpea-maize porridge blend. The cowpea-millet and cowpea-maize composite flours can contribute more than 100% of the recommended dietary allowance of protein and carbohydrate requirements for children aged 0-8 years. The study findings indicate that the cowpea-based composite flours have the potential to make a significant contribution to the improvement in the nutritional status of infants and children in developing countries.

Linking Pensions to Life Expectancy: Tackling Conceptual Uncertainty through Bayesian Model Averaging

Linking pensions to longevity developments at retirement age has been one of the most common policy responses to pension schemes and aging populations. The introduction of automatic stabilizers is primarily motivated by cost containment objectives, but there are other dimensions of welfare restructuring in the politics of pension reforms, including recalibration, rationalization, and blame avoidance for unpopular policies that involve retrenchments. This paper examines the policy designs and implications of linking entry pensions to life expectancy developments through sustainability factors or life expectancy coefficients in Finland, Portugal, and Spain. To address conceptual and specification uncertainty in policymaking, we propose and apply a Bayesian model averaging approach to stochastic mortality modeling and life expectancy computation. The results show that: (i) sustainability factors will generate substantial pension entitlement reductions in the three countries analyzed; (ii) the magnitude of the pension losses depends on the factor design; (iii) to offset pension cuts and safeguard pension adequacy, individuals will have to prolong their working lives significantly; (iv) factor designs considering cohort longevity markers would have generated higher pension cuts in countries with increasing life expectancy gap.

Additive manufacturing of fused deposition modeling for carbon fiber-PLA (CF-PLA) composites: The effects of tensile and flexural properties of process parameters

In this paper the effect of process parameters on the tensile and flexural properties has been analyzed. We have used commercially available FDM 3D printer and material (Carbon fiber -PLA). When various processing parameters, especially when no linear processing parameters are defined, the complete factor design of experiments (DOE) is hard to research. Furthermore, a large number of samples are needed to completely exploit the exact processing parameters. The key effects of four processing parameters for the FDM process, i.e. layer height, infill density, printing speed and infill pattern, are examined in this document in the DOE of Taguchi. The mechanical characteristics of the fabricated FDM components express the power of the processing parameters. We have used the Taguchi L9 range of 9 runs with three specimens each to present the work, so 54 different processes were used to make a total of 54 specimens. In comparison to the 3D CAD model, the measurements of the manufactured specimens were tested according to standard ASTM D638 and ASTM D790. Variance analysis (ANOVA) is generated using Design Expert tools in order to assess the importance of variables and their tensile and flexural strength interactions. After doing Variance analysis (ANOVA) we got the exact parameters in which the mechanical properties are higher.

Mitigation of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Mat Type Seedlings Raised for Mechanical Rice Transplanter

Cold mitigation mechanism at seedling stage is a primary requirement during Boro season as seedlings are raised during months of November and December. This study was conducted at the Sylhet Agricultural University's Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering lab in Sylhet during the 2018-19 academic year. The focus of this study is to mitigate the biotic and abiotic effect on germination and mat-type seedling growing during the Boro season. A two-factor design with three replications was used in the experiment. As abiotic stress control factors, six treatments were taken under two different thicknesses (0.04 mm and 0.08 mm) of white polythene sheds that covered day time only (12 hours) and day and night time (24 hours). Along with that two fungicides (Atavo and Autostin) and MoP fertilizer were used to control biotic stress on young seedlings raised in a plastic tray. Agronomical characteristics were measured in two intervals (after 15 and 30 days). The combined effect of 0.08 mm thick polythene shed and MoP treatment showed the highest value for seedling height (167.3 mm), a number of leaves (4), leaf length (99.8 mm), stem length (73.5 mm), and seedling density (18/cm2). Fungal infection was found lowest in 0.08 mm polythene covered day and night time. Seedling raised plastic trays are much more effective than the conventional way in terms of germination and quality. So, 0.08 mm thick white polythene was recommended as a covering mechanism and MoP as a treating mechanism for seedlings rising in cold weather of the Sylhet region.

Implicit vs explicit expression on advertising in a cross-cultural study: the mediating role of processing fluency and number of alternatives

PurposeThis study aims to examine the moderating effect of culture on the phrase expression type that affects product attitude. Moreover, to identify the mechanism by which these effects occur, the authors investigated the mediating role of processing fluency, and examined how such a mediating effect of processing fluency varies with number of alternatives.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments were conducted to verify the hypotheses presented in this study. Experiment 1 tested the effects of phrase expression type and culture on product attitude; a two-factor design (phrase expression type: explicit expression vs implicit expression) was applied, and culture was classified according to nationality. Experiment 2 tested the mediating effect of processing fluency on product attitude, using the same approach as Experiment 1. Experiment 3 tested the moderated mediating role of the number of alternatives, a between-group experimental design of 2 (phrase expression: explicit expression vs implicit expression) × 2 (number of alternatives: many vs few) was applied.FindingsExperiment 1's results demonstrate that product attitude is more favorable when implicit expressions are used for Asians, whereas it is more favorable with explicit expressions for Westerners. Experiment 2 verifies that the interaction effect between phrase expression type and culture on product attitude is mediated by processing fluency. Experiment 3's results demonstrate that the number of alternatives moderates the mediating role of processing fluency for Westerners, but has no effect on the processing fluency for Asians.Originality/valueThis study provides novel insights and expands the field of study of phrase expression types by separating the ambiguous boundaries among phrase presentation types. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidelines for establishing effective advertising strategies for companies by suggesting suitable phrase expression types based on culture.

Improved Calculation of Load and Resistance Factors Based on Third-Moment Method

Load and resistance factor design (LRFD) is widely used in building codes for reliability design. In the calculation of load and resistance factors, the third-moment method (3M) has been proposed to overcome the shortcomings (e.g., inevitable iterative computation, requirement of probability density functions (PDFs) of random variables) of other methods. With the existing 3M method, the iterative is simplified to one computation, and the PDFs of random variables are not required. In this paper, the computation of load and resistance factors is further simplified to no iterations. Furthermore, the accuracy of the proposed method is proved to be higher than the existing 3M methods. Additionally, with the proposed method, the limitations regarding applicable range in the existing 3M methods are avoided. With several examples, the comparison of the existing 3M method, the ASCE method, the Mori method, and the proposed method is given. The results show that the proposed method is accurate, simple, safe, and saves material.