1,720,966 research outputs found

    Non-destructive tests on carpentry steels

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    Background: Industrial archaeology represents a modern branch of urbanism and architecture that studies, applying an interdisciplinary method, all the evidence inherent the process of industrialization from its origins to the actuality. Aim: Looking at the cities of our epoch, more and more are the testimonies of these historical artefacts, which in fact represent our cultural identity and are often intended to be recovered and converted into modern destinations of use. Methods: If the identification of constructive schemes is based on direct essays and surveys, the definition of material properties requires material testing and investigation. For metal structures, the standards involve destructive investigations only, with a sampling of specimens, which often conflict with the protection requirements of the artefact. This leads to the need to refine and make reliable non-destructive investigations using the Leeb method, by means of portable micro-durometers, for in-situ characterization of carpentry steels, so to suggest new regulatory guidelines for existing structures surveys. Results: In the paper, the classification of carpentry steels based on non-destructive hardness test was illustrated and discussed. Firstly, for the evaluation of the resistance class of a structural steel, it was recorded that the execution of tests required a careful cleaning of the surface of samples. Subsequently, analyzing the data obtained from the experimentation, it was clear that the best methodology of data conversion from micro-hardness (Leeb method) tests for the determination of the steel class was given by tables and formulations of the ASTM standard. In the case of a few values to be converted, the most effective method was the manual use of the tables, with an average error of 0.10%. Conclusion: In conclusion, it should be remarked that differently from the reinforced concrete structures, where the non-destructive tests are allowed by the current Italian technical code on, for metallic structures only, destructive tests are permitted, so that the use of non-destructive ones should be encouraged, especially when interventions on cultural heritage constructions are of concern

    Laboratory tests on hydraulic lime mortar reinforced with jute fibres

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    Background: Considering the high seismic vulnerability of masonry buildings located in the Italian territory, the implementation of seismic retrofit programs is strongly needed.. With consideration for sustainable interventions, it is evident that the retrofit techniques to protect the historical heritage should be carried out with innovative green compound materials, such as mortars reinforced with natural fibres. Objective: In the current paper, laboratory tests on lime mortars strengthened with raw jute fibres have been performed. Methods: The workability of the fibre-reinforced mixture has been assessed through shaking table tests, and the mechanical resistances of standard specimens have been evaluated by bending and compression tests. Results: Considering the hygroscopic nature of jute, it has been identified that the optimal water/lime ratio and the maximum water percentage are absorbed by jute fibres. From the results, how the spreading of the mixture, which is indicative of the mortar consistency, changes with the water/lime ratio, has been evaluated. From bending tests, the effective behaviour of fibres, which provide a stitching effect of the failure crack in the investigated fibre-reinforced lime mortars, has been observed. Conclusion: Finally, the results of compression tests have shown that the examined fibre-reinforced mortars can be effectively used as building products according to the actual Italian technical code NTC 2018

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    BIM-Based Design for Road Infrastructure: A Critical Focus on Modeling Guardrails and Retaining Walls

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    Although building information modeling (BIM) has been widely adopted in the building industry for several decades, the use of BIM in the context of transportation infrastructure has been slow in terms of both adoption and application. Industry and academia are increasingly making efforts to adopt BIM for other non-building civil infrastructure but, so far, there has not been a comprehensive review of these efforts specifically regarding transportation. This paper explores BIM implementation in an infrastructure design project. An Autodesk ® BIM-based tool, Civil 3D, is proposed as a potential BIM tool platform. This paper also focuses on modeling specific road elements not editable from the standard library, such as guardrails and retaining walls, as well as proposing different solutions using Revit and Subassembly Composer and analyzing the interoperability among BIM-based tools

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Experimental shear tests on tuff blocks triplets with hemp fibres reinforced lime mortar

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    This paper deals with experimental shear tests carried out on triplet samples made of tuff masonry blocks joined by lime mortars without and with hemp fibres. The experimental campaign has been performed at the laboratory of the Architecture Faculty of the University of Naples "Federico II". Three samples manufactured with hemp fibres, having a percentage of 1% with respect to the mortar weight, have been tested and their behaviour has been compared to that of the triplet made of the simple lime mortars linking tuff blocks. The comparison has been done in terms of both force-displacement and shear stress-deformation angle curves. In addition, the failure modes of fibre-reinforced mortar specimens have been individuated. The performance increase deriving from the use of hemp fibres in lime mortar has been evaluated through the increment of shear stress (force), drift angle (displacement) and shear modulus. The achieved results have proved the effectiveness of hemp fibres in manufacturing reinforced lime mortars able to join together top sustainable features with high mechanical characteristi

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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