Coal ash produced from thermal power plants as a substitute for conventional construction material has increased considerably in recent years. In the past, studies on partial replacement of soil were carried out with a single type of ash. Because of the insufficient evidence, limited research has been initiated on the productive usage of Fly and Bottom Ashes. This paper aims to study the properties of these materials and investigate their efficacy in road construction. Laboratory investigations were conducted to assess chemical and physical properties and mechanical performance to evaluate both ash types in pavement construction. The rutting factor is calculated for various combinations of coal ash materials with the addition of polypropylene fiber as a reinforcement in increments of 0.1% of its total weight with an aspect ratio of 200. The analytical tool ANSYS is used to validate the service life, vertical strain and quality of reinforced ash materials.

This paper investigates the behaviour of axially-loaded tubular columns filled with M20 grade concrete and partially replaced concrete. The parameters varying in the study are slenderness ratio (13.27, 16.58 & 19.9), and normal M20 grade concrete, partially replaced quarry dust and concrete debris. The effects of the various concrete mixes and composite action between the steel tube and the concrete core are studied and a graph visualizing the differences between the load carrying capacity and the axial deflection is plotted. Some of the performance indices like the Ductility Index (DI), Concrete Contribution Ratio (CCR), Confinement Index (θ) and Strength Index (SI) are also evaluated and compared amongst the CFST columns. From the results it has been noted that an increase in the L/D ratio decrease the behaviour of the composite columns irrespective of the in filled materials. The composite action was achieved in the CFST columns filled with partially replaced quarry dust and concrete debris when compared with hollow steel columns. The load carrying capacity of the CFST column increases by 32 % compared with the hollow tubular columns.

Background: In early phase of acute pancreatitis (AP), systemic inflammatory response syndrome may lead to organ failure. The severe form of AP is associated with high mortality that may be prevented by timely diagnosis and treatment of the predicted severe cases. Serum interleukin 6 (IL-6) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) have been proposed as accurate early markers of severe AP. The aim of the study was to assess whether widely available blood count indexes: neutrophil to lymphocyte (NLR), lymphocyte to monocyte (LMR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratios correlate with IL-6 and uPAR and may be utilized to predict organ complications at the early phase of AP.

Methods: The study included 95 adult patients with AP treated at the Surgical Ward Complex of Health Care Centers in Wadowice, Poland. Organ failure was diagnosed according to modified Marshall scoring system, as recommended by 2012 Atlanta classification. Blood samples for laboratory tests were collected on days 1, 2 and 3 following the onset of AP symptoms.

Results: Patients with organ failure presented significantly lower LMR on day 1 and signifi cantly higher NLR on days 2 and 3. Strong positive correlations between NLR and IL-6 and moderate correlations between NLR and uPAR were observed throughout the study. Day 2 and 3 NLR values significantly predicted organ failure at the early phase of AP.

Conclusions: Taking into account the wide availability of NLR, it may be considered as a surrogate of more expensive tests to help the early assessment of organ failure complicating AP.

This study sought to evaluate the effect of speech intensity on performance of the Callsign Acquisition Test (CAT) and Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) presented in noise. Fourteen normally hearing listeners performed both tests in 65 dB A white background noise. Speech intensity varied while background noise remained constant to form speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of -18, -15, -12, -9, and -6 dB. Results showed that CAT recognition scores were significantly higher than MRT scores at the same SNRs; however, the scores from both tests were highly correlated and their relationship for the SNRs tested can be expressed by a simple linear function. The concept of CAT can be easily ported to other languages for testing speech communication under adverse listening conditions.

This paper presents methods of separating the plateau part for various types of two-process profiles, having the traces of two processes. The traditional method based on the plateau-valley threshold, according to the ISO 13565-3 standard, is not always sufficient, since the valley portion can include plateau roughness. Starting and finishing points of each plateau in the measured profiles should be determined. The procedure found in the technical literature depends on setting not only the plateau-valley threshold but also a lower threshold. This approach was a little modified for profiles that contain both random and deterministic topography components. A new procedure of determination of the lower threshold was proposed for stratified profiles containing two deterministic parts. The valleys can be characterized by their widths and the distance between them. In addition, a description of the material probability curve is proposed.

Article presents the results of the effect of humidity on early shrinkage of normal concrete with variable W/C ratio. As known for a long time, shrinkage is dependent of many factors. One of them is the W/C ratio and the quantity of water which is located in the concrete mix. In article there were discussed changes taking place in the concrete mix, the methods of research and the partial results obtained by the authors of the paper. Shrinkage is a phenomenon well known and studied by various research centers. The total amount of shrinkage may depend on various factors such as humidity, temperature, composition of the concrete mix, the W/C ratio, the size of the item. The study was conducted to determine the amount of shrinkage in its early stages. It is very important for concrete floors contractors, precast manufacturers to start at the right time finishing work and prevent the formation of shrinkage cracks.

This study deals with the behavior of composite blends constituted of rigid and impervious grainsincluded in saturated clay paste of kaolin, considered as permeable and deformable. Permeabilitytests performed during standard oedometr tests (before each load step) highlight the key role ofthe original and actual state of the clay paste, and show the existence of a threshold of sandgrain concentration above which a structuring effect influences its permeability. In the light ofthese experiments some usual homogenization methods (with simplifying assumptions to make theproblem manageable) are considered in order to model the mixture permeability. Qualitative andquantitative comparisons with experimental data point out their respective domain of interest andlimitations of such approaches.

Recycling construction and demolition waste not only reduces project costs; and saves natural resources, but also solves the environmental threat caused by construction waste disposal. In this paper, C25 waste road concrete is used as an experimental material, the uniaxial compression strength and tensile splitting strength of C25 RAC whose coarse aggregate replacement rate is 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% are tested under the condition that the water-to-cement ratio is 0.47, 0.55 and 0.61. The results show: (1) the uniaxial compression strength and tensile splitting strength decrease with the increase of RAC; (2) for concrete with the same water-to-cement ratio, when the coarse aggregate replacement rate changes from 0% to 50%, the uniaxial compression strength and tensile splitting strength of RAC changes slightly. When the coarse aggregate replacement rate changes from 50% to 100%, the uniaxial compression strength and tensile splitting strength of RAC decreases rapidly

The introduction of the article presents the problem of interpreting the level of fire hazard basing on Graham’s ratio, which, in certain ranges of the value of its denominator, may be wrong. The range of credibility for the index is also discussed. The issue of nitrogen inertisation and its influence on the value of the discussed index is also addressed. To determine the influence, two statistical samples were set. They consisted of the results of precise chromatographic analyses of the air samples collected in the longwall areas which were not subjected to inertisation and in the areas where nitrogen was applied as the inert gas. Then, with Student’s t-test, there was conducted a comparative analysis of both groups with regard to the equality of the average concentrations of gases emitted in the coal self-heating process. At the end, there were developed criteria for the application of Graham’s ratio for the air samples of the increased content of nitrogen, which, according to the discussed index, did not indicate the occurrence of an endogenous fire hazard.

In this study we evaluate the distortion of the ratio of non-performing loans (NPL) caused by rapid credit growth to show that the bias in this ratio (caused by the prolonged credit boom) may indeed be significant. Next, we discuss an adjustment to the NPL ratio based on a theoretical model of a loan portfolio. This adjustment is robust for credit booms and busts; therefore, it can be used to compare credit quality ratios across distinct portfolios and banks as well as to simulate future NPL ratio developments. Our estimates of the portfolio of housing loans in Poland show that the new adjusted index of non-performing loans is robust to different model specifications.

This paper attempts to find out whether better quality of investor protection matters for the effect of capital ratio on loan growth of large EU banks in 1996-2011. We focus on several measures of the quality of investor protection with a proven track record in the banking literature, i.e.: anti-self-dealing index, ex-ante-control and ex-post-control of anti-self-dealing indices, and creditor protection rights index. Our results show that better investor protection decreases the procyclical impact of capital on lending. This effect is statistically significant for the ex-post-control index. This is consistent with the view that better shareholders rights reduces bank risk-taking, in particular during economic booms, which results in weakened sensitivity of bank lending to capital ratios in economic downturns. This effect holds for both unconsolidated and consolidated data and is robust to sensitivity checks.

Subsidence process in the rock mass disturbed by mining can be complicated and can be faster or slower depending on the geological structure and physical and mechanical properties of the rock mass, changes in exploitation geometry, and changes in the rate of exploitation. The most frequently, the subsidence process develops over years in a way that is difficult to observe over a short period (days). It has been proven in practice of coal mines in Poland that Knothe’s model describes subsidence process with high accuracy. It is based on treating the rock mass as a stochastic medium and describing subsidence with stochastic equations.

It can be assumed that, the complicated stress field as a result of mining activities induce a series of displacements of different sizes in rock mass. The inelastic deformation in rock mass is accompanied by a microseismicity that can be recorded and processed. We assumed that seismic noise with weak seismic events is a low-energy part of the microseismicity. We proposed an analytical solution to examine the distribution of the energy of the seismic noise during subsidence process development based on Knothe’s model. In general a qualitative method of subsidence process assessment by the registration of the seismic noise was described.

A simple analytical method is developed to estimate frequencies of longitudinal modes in closed hard-walled ducts with discontinuities in a cross-sectional area. The approach adopted is based on a general expression for the acoustic impedance for a plane wave motion in a duct and conditions of impedance continuity at duct discontinuities. Formulae for mode frequencies in a form of transcendental equations were found for one, two and three discontinuities in a duct cross-section. An accuracy of the method was checked by a comparison of analytic predictions with calculation data obtained by use of numerical implementation based on the forced oscillator method with a finite difference algorithm.

The subject of this study was Rhizopertha dominica F. population. The primary question referred to was the process of the lesser grain borer population spread depending on nutritional preferences of this species. The aim of performed laboratory experiments was to examine the adults’ ability to choose preferred kinds of food i conditions of free migration among them and to analyze the dynamics of population size. Sex ratio and the migration rate were also analyzed. Four types of food were used during the experiments: wheat, oat flakes, pearl barley and semolina. The experiments were conducted at 28°C and 60 ± 5% of relative humidity. Results of the study revealed that oat flakes were the most favourable nutriment for adult R. dominica whereas wheat grain was the most favourable for the population size since larvae were protected by grains and thus their increased number could survive. No population development in semolina was observed. It was the result of too small granulation of this food.

In this paper, a novel double-layer multiband circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna is proposed. The design employs the concept of slotted patch fed with proximity coupled feed having defected ground plane (DGS). The proposed antenna achieves multiple operating frequency bands including FB1 (11.15 GHz), FB2 (4.17 GHz), FB3 (4.87 GHz) and FB4 (1.98 GHz). The proposed antenna has obtained bandwidth of 12.98%, 4.7%, 4.69% and 5.39% at FB1, FB2, FB3 and FB4 bands, respectively. The proposed antenna also exhibits circular polarization in the frequency band FB4. The 3dB ARBW of the antenna is 9.23% at 11.2 GHz. Finally, a metallic cavity is used with the antenna to achieve a unidirectional radiation pattern. The designed antenna radiation characteristics are verified with the experimental results.

Girdling was applied to 5-year-old potted beech individuals of early, intermediate and late phenological forms to block assimilate export from leaves. Phloem severance caused accumulation of soluble carbohydrates and starch in leaves and increased the C/N ratio. While the hexose content increased continuously until the end of the experiment, the sucrose and starch contents peaked earlier, depending on the plant's phenological features. Different rates of chlorophyll degradation and H2O2 and TBARS (thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances) production in different phenological forms implied that phloem girdling was the source of oxidative stress and, depending on the phenological form, accelerated leaf senescence to different degrees. The variable rate of the increase in soluble carbohydrate and starch content, characteristic of the different phenological forms, had different modifying effects on the antioxidant activity in leaves. Compared with the early phenological form, the late form was characterized by a smaller increase in H2O2 and TBARS content and delayed and slowed chlorophyll and carotenoid degradation. In conjunction with the larger increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide clismutase) induced by carbohydrate accumulation and slower carotenoid degradation, these changes led to the late form having greater resistance to oxidative stress and slower senescence.

The condition number of the Generalized Inertia Matrix (GIM) of a serial chain can be used to measure its ill-conditioning. However, computation of the condition number is computationally very expensive. Therefore, this paper investigates alternative means to estimate the condition number, in particular, for a very long serial-chain. For this, the diagonal elements of the GIM are examined. It is found that the ratio of the largest and smallest diagonal elements of the GIM, when scaled using an initial estimate of the condition number, closely resembles the condition number. This significantly simplifies the process of detecting ill-conditioning of the GIM, which may help to decide on stability of the system at hand.

This article intends to justify the gap in the research of similarity coefficient driven approaches

and cell formation problems (CFP) based on ratio data in cellular manufacturing systems

(CMS). The actual implication of ratio data was vaguely addressed in past literature, which

has been corrected recently. This research considered that newly projected CFP based on

ration data. This study further revealed the lack of interest of researchers in investigation for

an appropriate and improved similarity coefficient primarily for CFP based on ratio data.

For that matter a novel similarity coefficient named as Generalized Utilization-based Similarity

Coefficient (GUSC) is introduced, which scientifically handles ratio data. Thereafter

a two-stage cell formation technique is adopted. First, the proposed GUSC based method

is employed to obtained efficient machine cells. Second, a novel part allocating heuristic is

proposed to obtain effective part families. This proposed approach is successfully verified on

the test problems and compared with algorithms based on another similarity coefficient and

a recent metaheuristic. The proposed method is shown to obtain 66.67% improved solutions.