Genotypic and environmental variation in barley limit dextrinase activity and its relation to malt quality

Variation in the limit dextrinase activity of barley malt, and the relationships between limit dextrinase activity and malt quality parameters were investigated using eight cultivars grown at seven diverse locations in China for two successive years. Limit dextrinase activity varied with genotype and location, with the levels ranging from 0.245 U/g to 0.980 U/g. The results showed that the variation in limit dextrinase activity was more attributable to the environment (location and year) than to the genotype. The response of limit dextrinase activity to the environment differed markedly among cultivars, and was reflected by large difference in coefficient of variation of cultivars across diverse locations. Regression analysis showed that limit dextrinase activity was negatively correlated with malt viscosity (r=?0.52, P<0.01), positively correlated with Kolbach index (r=0.38, P<0.01) and malt extract (r=0.30, P<0.05), but had no significant correlation with malt protein content and diastatic power.

Limit analysis method for active earth pressure on laggings between stabilizing piles

Stabilizing pile is a kind of earth shoring structure frequently used in slope engineering. When the piles have cantilever segments above the ground,laggings are usually installed to avoid collapse of soil between piles. Evaluating the earth pressure acting on laggings is of great importance in design process.Since laggings are usually less stiff than piles,the lateral pressure on lagging is much closer to active earth pressure. In order to estimate the lateral earth pressure on lagging more accurately,first,a model test of cantilever stabilizing pile and lagging systems was carried out. Then,basing the experimental results a three-dimensional sliding wedge model was established. Last,the calculation process of the total active force on lagging is presented based on the kinematic approach of limit analysis. A comparison is made between the total active force on lagging calculated by the formula presented in this study and the force on a same-size rigid retaining wall obtained from Rankine's theory. It is found that the proposed method fits well with the experimental results.Parametric studies show that the total active force on lagging increases with the growth of the lagging height and the lagging clear span; while decreases asthe soil internal friction angle and soil cohesion increase.

Exploring the impact of a coordinated variable speed limit control on congestion distribution in freeway

Over the past few decades, urban freeway congestion has been highly recognized as a serious and worsening traffic problem in the world. To relieve freeway congestion, several active traffic and demand management （ATDM） methods have been developed. Among them, variable speed limit （VSL） aims at regulating freeway mainline flow upstream to meet existing capacity and to harmonize vehicle speed. However, congestion may still be inevitable even with VSL implemented due to extremely high demand in actual practice. This study modified an existing VSL strategy by adding a new local constraint to suggest an achievable speed limit during the control period. As a queue is a product of the congestion phenomenon in freeway, the incentives of a queue build-up in the applied coordinated VSL control situation were analyzed. Considering a congestion occurrence （a queue build-up） characterized by a sudden and sharp speed drop, speed contours were utilized to demonstrate the congestion distribution over a whole freeway network in various sce- narios. Finally, congestion distributions found in both VSL control and non-VS control situations for various scenarios were investigated to explore the impact of the applied coordinated VSL control on the congestion distribution. An authentic stretch of V^hitemud Drive （I~~ID）, an urban freeway corridor in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was employed to implement this modified coordinated VSL control strategy; and a calibrated micro-simu- lation VISSIM model （model functions） was applied as the substitute of the real-world traffic system to test the above mentioned performance. The exploration task in this study can lay the groundwork for future research on how to improve the presented VSL control strategy for achieving the congestion mitigation effect on freeway.