1,721,020 research outputs found
Fatigue resistance of waste plastic-modified asphalt
No full textRecycling of waste plastic is the only truly sustainable solution for today’s environmental
concerns as it represents the most concrete action to reduce the impacts of such
material (Milios et al., 2018). However, due to the inherent complexity and variability
of its nature, there are still significant challenges related to the management of different
waste plastics. The development of new industrial technologies for the collection,
distribution, and reprocessing of waste plastic are leading to new solutions for its
recycling, including their use in pavements.
The recycling sector today constitutes one of the most dynamic areas in the plastics
industry (Hopewell et al., 2009). Very different recycling processes and methods have
been investigated and an ever-increasing number of experimental applications of recycled
plastic waste have been evaluated. Researchers are exploring alternative methods
and materials to repurpose waste plastics that can be utilized in civil infrastructures,
such as wood–plastic composites, concrete blocks, and mortars. Also, incorporating
plastic waste into asphalt pavements is today a possible and sustainable practice.
Several studies have verified that specific polymers and plastics can effectively improve
the performance and the durability of the road pavements if adequately blended with
bitumen according to certain construction and service conditions.
Generally, the integration of polymers and modifiers of various nature in asphalt
concrete can be either performed according to the so-called “wet” or the “dry” methods.
In the first one, the modifier is added at a high temperature to the bitumen, which is accordingly referred to as polymer-modified Bitumen (PmB). Instead, according to the
second one, the modifiers are added during the mixing phase of the asphalt concrete,
together with aggregates and bitumen; the final product is therefore referred to as
Polymer-modified Asphalt (PmA).
While PmB has become common practice (e.g., styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)
and styrene-butadiene rubber), taking advantage of waste plastics in asphalt pavements
(which are usually added through the dry method, PmA) is an interesting but still
challenging task for researchers and practitioners. On one hand, the adoption of various
types of waste materials should be pursued to reduce the environmental impacts
and save raw materials. On the other hand, researchers must prove that the use of
recycled materials in large amounts allows achieving similar or improved performances
when compared to traditional bituminous mixtures. Overall, the goal is to balance the
environmental benefits given by the adoption of the recycled materials with the impact
on the performance of the bituminous mixtures, making the most of the physical,
and mechanical contributions of the incorporated recycled materials. This chapter
investigates the state-of-the-art of waste plastic in bituminous mixtures for pavements
with a specific focus on the effects on fatigue resistance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Application of plastic-modified asphalt for the reconstruction of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy
No full textGenova San Giorgio is the name of the motorway viaduct that crosses the Polcevera
stream and the Genoese districts of Certosa, Sampierdarena and Cornigliano.
Inaugurated on August 3, 2020, in the presence of the highest officials of the Italian
state, the current bridge replaced the first Polcevera viaduct, also called “Morandi”
bridge, which was inaugurated in 1967 and has become known due to the partial
collapse on August 14, 2018, which led to its total demolition in 2019. The architecture
of the new bridge was designed by the architect Renzo Piano (Studio Renzo Piano
Building Workshop) and donated to the city of Genoa. The project was developed by
Italferr (Group of the Italian State Railways) and built by the PerGenova consortium, a
joint venture between the companies Webuild Spa and Fincantieri Infrastructure Spa.
The Polcevera road viaduct, with its relative junctions, constitutes the initial stretch
of the A10 “Genoa-Ventimiglia’’ motorway (E25), also known as the “Autostrada dei Fiori,” which is managed by Autostrade per l’Italia Spa. This crossing represents
a strategic section for the road connection between northern and central Italy and
southern France (Fig. 16.1), as well as being the main road axis between the centraleastern
area of Genoa, the port of Voltri-Prà, the Cristoforo Colombo airport, and the
industrial areas in the Genoa district. The termination of the motorway connection,
of which the Polcevera viaduct was the main infrastructure, immediately highlighted
the strategic importance of that motorway junction and its closure suddenly caused
disruptions in the circulation at different levels, from the international vehicles traffic
to the local road network.
Due to its importance, the viaduct is constantly monitored by four robots designed
by the Italian Institute of Technology which are equipped with wheels and have the
role of inspecting the lower surface of the bridge
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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