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Found 6327 publications

A State-of-the-Art Review and Numerical Study of Reinforced Expansive Soil with Granular Anchor Piles and Helical Piles

Rashad Alsirawan Ammar N. Alnmr R. P. Ray

Publication Name: Sustainability Switzerland

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 15

Issue: 3

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Expansive soils exist in many countries worldwide, and their characteristics make them exceedingly difficult to engineer. Due to its significant swelling and shrinkage characteristics, expansive soil defies many of the stabilization solutions available to engineers. Differential heave or settlement occurs when expansive soil swells or shrinks, causing severe damage to foundations, buildings, roadways, and retaining structures. In such soils, it is necessary to construct a foundation that avoids the adverse effects of settlement. As a result, building the structure’s foundations on expansive soil necessitates special consideration. Helical piles provide resistance to uplift in light structures. However, they may not fully stabilize foundations in expansive soils. A granular anchor pile is another anchor technique that may provide the necessary resistance to uplift in expansive soils using simpler methods. This review and numerical study investigate the fundamental foundation treatments for expansive soils and the behavior of granular anchors and helical piles. Results indicate that granular anchor piles performed better than helical piles for uplift and settlement performance. For heave performance, the granular anchor and helical piles perform nearly identically. Both achieve heave reductions greater than 90% when L/H > 1.5 and D = 0.6 m.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/su15032802

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Modern Forecasting Models in Predicting Commodity Futures Prices in Volatile Economic Times

Tibor Bareith László Vancsura Tatay Tibor

Publication Name: Risks

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 11

Issue: 2

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The paper seeks to answer the question of how price forecasting can contribute to which techniques gives the most accurate results in the futures commodity market. A total of two families of models (decision trees, artificial intelligence) were used to produce estimates for 2018 and 2022 for 21- and 125-day periods. The main findings of the study are that in a calm economic environment, the estimation accuracy is higher (1.5% vs. 4%), and that the AI-based estimation methods provide the most accurate estimates for both time horizons. These models provide the most accurate forecasts over short and medium time periods. Incorporating these forecasts into the ERM can significantly help to hedge purchase prices. Artificial intelligence-based models are becoming increasingly widely available, and can achieve significantly better accuracy than other approximations.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/risks11020027

Communication between Autonomous Vehicles and Pedestrians: An Experimental Study Using Virtual Reality

Emese Makó Csaba Koren Attila Borsos Symbat Zhanguzhinova Ágoston Pál Sándor

Publication Name: Sensors

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 23

Issue: 3

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

One of the major challenges of autonomous vehicles (AV) is their interaction with pedestrians. Unofficial interactions such as gestures, eye contact, waving, and flashing lights are very common behavioral patterns for drivers to express their intent to give priority. In our research we composed a virtual reality experiment for a pedestrian crossing in an urban environment in order to test pedestrians’ reactions on an LED light display mounted on a virtual AV. Our main research interest was to investigate whether communication patterns influence the decision making of pedestrians when crossing the road. In a VR environment, four scenarios were created with a vehicle approaching a pedestrian crossing with different speeds and displaying a special red/green sign to pedestrians. Here, 51 persons participating in the experiment had to decide when crossing is safe. Results show that the majority of people indicated they would cross in the time windows when it was actually safe to cross. Male subjects made their decision to cross slightly faster but no significant differences were found in the decision making by gender. It was found that age is not an influencing factor, either. Overall, a quick learning process was experienced proving that explicit communication patterns are self-explaining.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/s23031049

The utility of the ‘Arable Weeds and Management in Europe’ database: Challenges and opportunities of combining weed survey data at a European scale

Alicia Cirujeda Michael Glemnitz Jana Bürger Guillaume Fried Jevgenija Ņečajeva Lena Ulber Silvia Fogliatto Michaela Kolářová Eva Hernández Plaza Matthias Schumacher Bärbel Gerowitt Gyula Pinke Sandrine Petit Christoph Redwitz Helen Metcalfe Denise Fu Dostatny José Luis González-Andújar Francesco Vidotto Jordi Izquierdo

Publication Name: Weed Research

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 63

Issue: 1

Page Range: 1-11

Description:

Over the last 30 years, many studies have surveyed weed vegetation on arable land. The ‘Arable Weeds and Management in Europe’ (AWME) database is a collection of 36 of these surveys and the associated management data. Here, we review the challenges associated with combining disparate datasets and explore some of the opportunities for future research that present themselves thanks to the AWME database. We present three case studies repeating previously published national scale analyses with data from a larger spatial extent. The case studies, originally done in France, Germany and the UK, explore various aspects of weed ecology (community composition, management and environmental effects and within-field distributions) and use a range of statistical techniques (canonical correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis and generalised linear mixed models) to demonstrate the utility and versatility of the AWME database. We demonstrate that (i) the standardisation of abundance data to a common measure, before the analysis of the combined dataset, has little impact on the outcome of the analyses, (ii) the increased extent of environmental or management gradients allows for greater confidence in conclusions and (iii) the main conclusions of analyses done at different spatial scales remain consistent. These case studies demonstrate the utility of a Europe-wide weed survey database, for clarifying or extending results obtained from studies at smaller scales. This Europe-wide data collection offers many more opportunities for analysis that could not be addressed in smaller datasets; including questions about the effects of climate change, macro-ecological and biogeographical issues related to weed diversity as well as the dominance or rarity of specific weeds in Europe.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1111/wre.12562

Examination of Concrete Canvas under Quasi-Realistic Loading by Computed Tomography

Szabolcs Fischer Imre Fekete Szabolcs Szalai Mykola Sysyn Dmytro Kurhan Majid Movahedi Rad Dániel Harrach B. Eller Gusztáv Baranyai

Publication Name: Infrastructures

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 8

Issue: 2

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The current paper concerns the investigation of CC (Concrete Canvas), a unique building material from the GCCM (geosynthetic cementitious composite mat) product group. The material is suitable for trench lining, trench paving, or even military construction activities, while the authors’ purpose is to investigate the application of the material to road and railway substructure improvement. This research was carried out to verify the material’s suitability for transport infrastructure and its beneficial effects. The authors’ previous study reported that the primary measurements were puncture, compression, and the parameters evaluated in four-point bending (laboratory) tests. However, based on the results, finite element modeling was not feasible because the testing of the composite material in a single layer did not provide an accurate indication. For this reason, the material characteristics required for modeling were investigated. A unique, novel testing procedure and assembly were performed, wherein the material was loaded under quasi-realistic conditions with a crushed stone ballast sample and other continuous particle size distribution samples in a closed polyethylene tube. In addition, the deformation of the material following deformed bonding was measured by computed tomography scanning, and the results were evaluated.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/infrastructures8020023

Optimization of Surface Cleaning and Painting Methods for DIC Measurements on Automotive and Railway Aluminum Materials

Szabolcs Fischer Szabolcs Szalai Mykola Sysyn Attila Németh Dmytro Kurhan Viktória Fehér

Publication Name: Infrastructures

Publication Date: 2023-02-01

Volume: 8

Issue: 2

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The preparatory operations of DIC (Digital Image Correlation) tests were investigated in this study, with special emphasis on specimen cleaning and painting operations. As it is well known, DIC tests are non-contact and applied in materials research, the analysis of complex structures, and, nowadays, the construction industry. The use of DIC technologies has seen a dynamic increase in all scientific fields. In our study, aluminum body panels for automotive and railway applications were tested using this technique. There are many articles on proper patterning in the literature but fewer on preparation and priming. These are critical for a successful DIC measurement. This paper looks at different surface cleaners and primers with different grading procedures and will also determine the time window within which the paint should be applied. Finally, the GOM ARAMIS system was applied to measure and characterize the painted surface and visible deformation defects resulting from inadequate painting.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/infrastructures8020027

Body compositions characteristic in male manual workers: age as a central factor

Csaba András Dézsi Zsolt Szakály Bognár József Pápai Zsófia Liszkai Zsuzsanna

Publication Name: Orvosi Hetilap

Publication Date: 2023-01-22

Volume: 164

Issue: 3

Page Range: 96-103

Description:

Introduction: Morbidity and mortality statistics show a shift in the morbidity structure in Hungary. Those diseases have become increasingly common that are related to lifestyle. Detecting health risk factors across different age, gender and other groups is therefore a priority. Objective: The purpose of the study is to present anthropometric variables related to the health status of male physical workers by age groups and to identify critical age stages. Method: Male manual workers (n = 179) were recruited on a voluntary basis. Body composition was assessed using the Inbody 720 instrument. Measured and calculated characteristics included body mass index, relative muscle and fat mass, waist-to-hip ratio and visceral fat. The age dependence of the variables is presented by linear regression analysis, and the relationship between variables was characterized by correlation coefficients. Results: A significant number of anthropometric variables are not within the healthy range. All of the variables show age dependence, but no critical age or age range could be identified. The relationship between the anthropometric methods is significant. Discussion: A large number of male manual workers, regardless of age, can be identified as having a body composition that poses a clear health risk. Conclusion: Complex workplace health promotion programs should be launched to reduce the risk. These should include active and health-conscious lifestyles for all age groups.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1556/650.2023.32662

Obsessive passion, opportunity recognition, and entrepreneurial performance: The dual moderating effect of the fear of failure

Laszlo Vasa Joanna Rosak-Szyrocka Xiling Hao Xin Zhao Yuqi Tu

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psychology

Publication Date: 2023-01-04

Volume: 13

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

A strong inclination toward an important or preferred activity is a critical factor that drives individual to engage in corresponding activities. This study focuses on how entrepreneurs, influenced by obsessive passion, are motivated to put great effort into taking advantage of business opportunities and accomplishing entrepreneurial goals. By using SPSS and AMOS tools to analyze the multi-source questionnaire of 208 entrepreneurs, the research results show that obsessive passion can promote entrepreneurial performance and opportunity recognition plays a mediating role. In addition, endogenous and exogenous fear of failure play different moderating roles in the effect of obsessive passion on opportunity recognition. The research conclusion deepens the theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial passion, opportunity recognition, and fear of failure at a more subtle level.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1037250

Surface Preparation of 3D Printed Battery Housing Materials for DIC Measurements

Szabolcs Fischer Szabolcs Szalai Brigitta Fruzsina Szívós

Publication Name: International Conference on Electrical Computer Communications and Mechatronics Engineering Iceccme 2023

Publication Date: 2023-01-01

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

In this study, several 3D-printable PLA (polylactic acid) materials that can also be used to produce battery housings are evaluated. Proper testing is essential to developing better prototypes and final products, and DIC deformation tests are frequently utilized. To be able to evaluate the deformations of various parts and components, the surface of the product under test is randomly speckled. In DIC measurements, however, the deformation is transmitted to the measuring system via the paint, so preparation and paint quality play a crucial role. This research is focused on this underrepresented area in the literature. This article evaluates the DIC applicability of the most commonly used surface cleaning materials and paints.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1109/ICECCME57830.2023.10252180