Properties Evaluation of Concrete using Local Used Bricks as Coarse Aggregate

With time concrete / reinforced concrete has become the popular material for construction. Modern industry utilizes this material a lot and has produced various beautiful, eye catching and amazing structures. Due to modern requirements for living and developed construction industries, the old buildings (usually constructed with brick masonry) are demolished and are replaced with new modern buildings. Demolition of buildings results in waste materials which can create waste related problems and environmental issues. By using recycled aggregates weight of concrete can also be reduced, which can also solve problems related to self-weight of concrete. In this paper attempt has been made to use local used bricks from vicinity of Nawabshah, Pakistan, as coarse aggregate. Concrete cubes made with local recycled bricks are cast and tested for overall weight of concrete, moisture content, dynamic modulus of elasticity and compressive strength (nondestructive and destructive methods). The results showed that concrete derived from recycled aggregates attained lower strength than regular concrete. More detailed elaborated work is recommended with different mix ratios and different proportions recycled aggregates for better conclusions.

Hand-feel soil texture observations to evaluate the accuracy of digital soil maps for local prediction of soil particle size distribution:A case study in Central France

Digital maps of soil properties are now widely available.End-users now can access several digital soil mapping(DSM)products of soil properties,produced using different models,calibration/training data,and covariates at various spatial scales from global to local.Therefore,there is an urgent need to provide easy-to-understand tools to communicate map uncertainty and help end-users assess the reliability of DSM products for use at local scales.In this study,we used a large amount of hand-feel soil texture(HFST)data to assess the performance of various published DSM products on the prediction of soil particle size distribution in Central France.We tested four DSM products for soil texture prediction developed at various scales(global,continental,national,and regional)by comparing their predictions with approximately 3200 HFST observations realized on a 1:50000 soil survey conducted after release of these DSM products.We used both visual comparisons and quantitative indicators to match the DSM predictions and HFST observations.The comparison between the low-cost HFST observations and DSM predictions clearly showed the applicability of various DSM products,with the prediction accuracy increasing from global to regional predictions.This simple evaluation can determine which products can be used at the local scale and if more accurate DSM products are required.

Reliable iris localization using integral projection function and 2D-shape properties

Iris recognition technology recognizes a human based on his/her iris pattern. However, the accuracy of the iris recognition technology depends on accurate iris localization. Localizing a pupil region in the presence of other low-intensity regions, such as hairs, eyebrows, and eyelashes, is a challenging task. This study proposes an iris localization technique that includes a localizing pupillary boundary in a sub-image by using an integral projection function and two-dimensional shape properties （e.g., area, geometry, and circularity）. The limbic boundary is localized using gradients and an error distance transform, and the boundary is regularized with active contours. Experimental results obtained from public databases show the superiority of the Drooosed techniaue over contemporary methods.

High-Speed Optical Local Access Network System Using Bi-Directional Polarization Multiplexing

A high-speed and economical optical local access network system is proposed where bi-directional polarization multiplexing is applied to a bi-directional transmission. Experimental results using a prototype system confirm low optical loss and environmental stabilities.