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The Air Quality Surveillance System of the central zone of Cesar is constituted by 14 particulate matter monitoring stations (PM10 and PM2.5), distributed among the populations located in the area of incidence of coal mining projects. Its operation has allowed the environmental authorities to monitor atmospheric pollution and exert control over mining projects and other emission sources that affect these populations, achieving important results. In its strengthening process, in 2012 a technical committee was formed with the participation of various actors involved in environmental issues, which today is configured as a space for dialogue and concentration, which plans and coordinates the implementation of air decontamination actions, achieving effective and sustainable solutions over time, seeking to improve environmental quality in the municipalities of the mining area of Cesar

Microwave remote sensing relies on the utilisation of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is becoming a precious commodity due to increasing demand by commercial telecommunication and other radio services. The access to this resource is regulated by the International Telecommunication Union, which periodically holds a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) where representatives from different countries meet to define international rules for its use.The next WRC will take place in November 2019, and the Frequency Allocations in Remote Sensing (FARS) Technical Committee of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) has prepared a report discussing the Agenda Items of the conference that are most relevant to remote sensing. This contribution will explain the issues at stake for remote sensing at WRC-19, illustrate the document conclusions and provide suggestions on what remote sensing scientists and engineers can do to become more involved in tackling these issues.

Outdoor insulators have been widely recognized as backbone components installed in the power system in order to maintain a reliable power supply. The ability of outdoor insulating materials to withstand different weathering conditions in different outdoor environment high voltages has been an important task defined for both suppliers and users of outdoor insulators in the power industry. The use of standard material screening methods is an essential step conducted in order to qualify outdoor insulating materials for their targeted high voltage applications. Various standard guides have been developed, but the need remains to update or create new guides addressing new challenges in the power system. The main aim of this technical committee is to develop IEEE guides on evaluation methods of high voltage insulation materials in the outdoors. The following objectives can be highlighted in achieving this aim: • Providing a scheduled forum such as workshops, special sessions and meetings, addressing new challenges in the industry. • Conducting technical activities such as round robin testing and state-of-the-art literature surveys on recent advances. • Publishing review articles, position papers and special issues in the journals of DEIS.

The Technical Committee on Well-being Information Technology is a research group that has been steadily holding meetings on assistive technology in Japan for twenty years. This study looked at the way experiments presented to the committee were conducted between 2013 and 2015 in order to collect basic data that would contribute to alleviating the difficulty of conducting experiments having persons with disabilities as participants. A total of 330 presentations were given during the study period. The median number of participants in experiments having persons with disabilities as participants in was four, and the mode was one. The median number of participants in experiments having able-bodied persons as participants in was six, and the mode was six.

Public information guidance system plays an increasingly important role in the normal operation of railway passenger stations. National Graphical Symbol Standardization Technical Committee has investigated the public information guidance systems of 57 representative railway passenger stations. Nearly 290 main problems are summarized from standardization of guiding elements’ design, systemic degree of factor setting, coordination of guidance system planning and architectural design, which provides reference for further optimizing and improving the public information guidance system of railway passenger stations.

According to the history of coding (or encryption) data and information were carried out during the time of Julius Caesar, who used simple cryptographic techniques to protect his messages from the eyes of the enemy. In this paper a study will be conducted on the issuance of ISSN (International Standard of Serial Number) 10 sample journals The Scientific Information and Documentation Center (PDII) LIPI has the duty and authority to monitor all periodical publications published in Indonesia. As part of these responsibilities, PDII publishes an International Standard of Serial Number (ISSN), which is a unique identifier of each periodic publication that applies globally. The ISSN is granted by the ISDS (International Serial Data System) which is based in Paris, France. The ISSN was adopted as the implementation of ISO-3297 in 1975 by Subcommittee no. 9 of the Technical Committee no. 46 of ISO (TC 46 / SC 9). ISDS delegates the provision of ISSN both regionally and nationally. The Asian region is centered on the Thai National Library, Bangkok, Thailand. PDII LIPI is the only ISSN National Center for Indonesia. To do the validity test the E-ISSN code uses the Modulo algorithm.

The papers in this special issue were presented at the 2019 IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium (IEEE PacificVis 2019), which was held in Bangkok, Thailand from April 23 to 26, 2019 hosted by Chulalongkorn University. The IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium, sponsored by the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee (VGTC), aims to foster greater exchange between visualization researchers and practitioners especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

By opening the issues of “divided” heritage of Cyprus, this study intends to discuss different continuities as well as internationally established consensuses on cultural heritage and its identity. Heritage is discussed as representing and evolving contemporary culture, problematizing human existence and guiding the future of the societies and cultures towards valuable identities. Perceived heritage of the island as a specific resource is questioned theoretically and by following the activities of the “Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage in Cyprus”, in their efforts to bring together some practices aimed for heritage positioning in the focus of contemporary culture. Specific discourse is open towards the evident need of monuments on one side, and the social integration of heritage in cultural and development activities on the other. Unique emergencies are recognized as challenging the existence of both.

This recommendation describes how to characterize the reclaimed asphalt through the fragmentation test. The guidelines given hereafter are based on the results of a round robin test organized by the RILEM Technical Committee 237-SIB ‘‘Testing and characterization of sustainable innovative bituminous materials and systems’’ and provide information on the testing procedure, data analysis and indications for the preparation of a test report.

The steel-concrete interface (SCI) is known to influence corrosion of steel in concrete. However, due to the numerous factors affecting the SCI – including steel properties, concrete properties, execution, and exposure conditions – it remains unclear which factors have the most dominant impact on the susceptibility of reinforced concrete to corrosion. In this literature review, prepared by members of RILEM technical committee 262-SCI, an attempt is made to elucidate the effect of numerous SCI characteristics on chloride-induced corrosion initiation of steel in concrete. We use a method to quantify and normalize the effect of individual SCI characteristics based on different literature results, which allows comparing them in a comprehensive context. It is found that the different SCI characteristics have received highly unbalanced research attention. Parameters such as w/b ratio and cement type have been studied most extensively. Interestingly, however, literature consistently indicates that those parameters have merely a moderate effect on the corrosion susceptibility of steel in concrete. Considerably more pronounced effects were identified for i) steel properties, including metallurgy, presence of mill scale or rust layers, and surface roughness, and ii) the moisture state. Unfortunately, however, these aspects have received comparatively little research attention. Due to their apparently strong influence, future corrosion studies as well as developments towards predicting corrosion initiation in concrete would benefit from considering those aspects. Particularly the working mechanisms related to the moisture conditions in microscopic and macroscopic voids at the SCI is complex and presents major opportunities for further research in corrosion of steel in concrete., Materials and Structures, 52 (4), ISSN:1359-5997, ISSN:1871-6873

This contribution aims at making an overview of the most recent activities/contributions in education in the control field by members of the Technical Committee Nonlinear Systems, in order to share the best practices and ideas in the community, as well as to investigate into the level of awareness, interest and involvement of the TC members in several aspects concerning education.

The semi-spade rudder and KP458 propeller of the KVLCC2 (KRISO very large crude carrier) model tanker are adopted by ITTC maneuvering technical committee in the comparative study of ship maneuverability. The incompressible viscous flow around semi-spade rudder and KP458 propeller is investigated using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, the computational grids are generated using ICEM software, and finite volume method is employed to discretize the governing equations. Combined with turbulence model, the hydrodynamic performance of semi-spade rudder is analyzed at different rudder angles, and the result provides a reference for the estimation of the hydrodynamic characteristics of semi-spade rudder. The multi-reference framework method is employed to carry out the numerical simulation of the flow field around the propeller. The thrust and torque of propeller under different turbulence models are calculated in the simulation. The thrust coefficient curve, torque coefficient curve, and efficiency curve are present. The pressure distributions of the pressure side and suction side of propeller blades are studied at different advance coefficient. Based on the study of the hydrodynamic performance of the semi-spade rudder and propeller, the propeller–rudder interaction is simulated and analyzed at different advance coefficient.

The braking effect of hoists is influenced by the efficiencies of the installed components. It is foreseeable that the occurring losses lead to greater decelerations than lossless consideration. This article considers the efficiency and its description. He goes from an easily comprehensible description for a simple mechanical system for the description of a hoist with its temporally and locally variable energy inputs and energy outputs. The article presents a general equation for the system acceleration of hoists. This general equation potentially takes into account three brakes: motor brake, service brake and safety brake and two efficiencies: Gearing efficiency and rope drive efficiency. Finally, the braking distances and the required braking torques for braking with the safety brake of the reference hoist are shown. The contents are inspired by the VDI Technical Committee 304 Cranes.

This paper presents a benchmark for object recognition inspired by RoboCup@Home competition and thus focusing on home robots. The benchmark includes a large-scale training set of 196K images labelled with classes derived from RoboCup@Home rulebooks, two medium-scale test sets (one taken with a Pepper robot) with different objects and different backgrounds with respect to the training set, a robot behavior for image acquisition, and several analysis of the results that are useful both for RoboCup@Home Technical Committee to define competition tests and for RoboCup@Home teams to implement effective object recognition components.

International audience; The 2018 Dietary Glutamate Workshop was organized and sponsored by the International Glutamate Technical Committee to provide a platform for a broad expert discussion on all relevant aspects of glutamate metabolism and safety in human nutrition. The participants reached a consensus with previous safety evaluations conducted by the global expert bodies, but contradicted the 2017 re-evaluation of dietary glutamates by the European Food Safety Authority, which proposed a group acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 30 mg/kg body weight per day. The participants of the Workshop con-cluded that the present knowledge on metabolism, kinetics, developmental and general toxicity of dietary glutamates did not warrant a change in the previous ADI of "not specified."

This recommendation proposes an experimental protocol to characterize Recycled Asphalt (RA) materials. The guidelines presented in this document are based on the results of a Round Robin Test (RRT) organized by the RILEM Technical Committee 237-SIB “Testing and characterization of sustainable innovative bituminous materials and systems” and provide information on the testing procedure, data analysis and indications for the preparation of a test report.

These recommendations are based on the results of a round robin test organised by the RILEM technical committee TC 237-SIB "Testing and characterization of sustainable innovative bituminous materials and systems". The Task Group 1 (TG1) focused on binder testing. The aim of the TG1 was to further understand the fundamental mechanism of water interaction in asphalt mixture, and to review the various test methods available to evaluate the affinity of bituminous binders to aggregate surfaces. A total of 13 laboratories participated, running different test methods. Three bituminous binders and four aggregate types were selected for testing. These recommendations focus on the main aspects related to testing procedure, measurement and presentation of results. While some qualitative trends are observed, there is still a wide scattering in results both within the same test method and between test methods. This is not only related to a visual interpretation of the degree of bitumen coverage, but also theoretical and numerical analyses of test results. The overall recommendation is to consider the results within qualitative classes.

The purpose of this paper is to partially disseminate the present status of ongoing work in IEC Technical Committee 77, Subcommittee 77A, Working Group 2, “Voltage Fluctuations.” This work is presently focused on the development of a new product-family standard intended to limit the voltage fluctuations produced by energy producing equipment and it is intended to replace parts of the existing (to be withdrawn) IEC Technical Report 61000-3-15. The new proposed standard, IEC Standard 61000-3-17, will be applicable to energy producing equipment connected to the public low-voltage network and producing a current of 75 A or less and it is intended that the new standard follows the same general framework as other product family standards for energy consuming equipment such as IEC Standard 61000-3-11.

Toxics in alcohol have been strongly negative affected to human life in large area, especially the alcohol with the huge poison inside like methanol, aldehyde, furfural, acidity$\dots$ It killed a thousand people, in developing countries particular and in the world general. The disadvantages of the currently state are the using treatment systems with low treatment efficiency, costly and unstable due to using microbiological, biochemistries, combining physical chemistry method. In this study, the treatment alcohol from laboratory using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at low temperature and at atmospheric pressure was designed and developed to solve the above disadvantages. An 800ml/h treatment system was completed and assembled. In order to prove the stability of the processing system, before and after treating, alcohol samples were collected and measured with methanol, aldehyde, furfural, acidity by the Quality Assurance and Testing Center. The treating duration and applied voltage were studied. The results show that with high discharge density, the toxics in alcohol rapidly increased due to oxidation reaction. However, at high applied voltage and long treating duration the treatment efficiency increased. The results also showed that treatment efficiency reached to 60-80% and match The Vietnamese Standard 7043: 2013 prepared by the TCVN/TC/F9 TCVN National Standardization Technical Committee, the Directorate for Standards and Quality, Ministry of Science and Technology

The name Elliott Berger has appeared on the covers of the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Noise Manual since 1986. As principle editor for the 4th and 5th editions and co-editor of the 6th edition (2020), Elliott's contributions extend beyond the written words, but to the personal connections that attracted premier authors to contribute chapters. The 4th edition was one of AIHA's best selling texts with over 13 000 copies in print, and the 800 page 5th edition (2000) was selected by the AIHA Publications Committee as “Outstanding 2000 Technical Committee Publications,” and as “Top-Selling Technical Committee Publication for the years 2000 and 2001. The chapters have reached readers from multiple disciplines beyond the AIHA industrial hygiene membership, including occupational health and safety, medicine, nursing, audiology, engineering and public health. The chapters are used in college courses and research labs globally to train future professionals in hearing conservation. This accomplishment is noteworthy in terms of the dedication, expertise, precision and perseverance that Elliott exhibited over the past 34 + years. We're honored to give tribute to the “Noise MANual.” Conflict of Interest Statement: The presenters are co-editors of the 6th Edition of the Noise Manual.

[EN] In recent years, risk analysis techniques have proved to be a useful tool to inform dam safety management. This paper summarizes the outcomes of three themes related to dam risk analysis discussed in the Benchmark Workshops organized by the International Commission on Large Dams Technical Committee on "Computational Aspects of Analysis and Design of Dams." In the 2011 Benchmark Workshop, estimation of the probability of failure of a gravity dam for the sliding failure mode was discussed. Next, in 2013, the discussion focused on the computational challenges of the estimation of consequences in dam risk analysis. Finally, in 2015, the probability of sliding and overtopping in an embankment was analyzed. These Benchmark Workshops have allowed a complete review of numerical aspects for dam risk analysis, showing that risk analysis methods are a very useful tool to analyze the risk of dam systems, incltuding downstream consequence assessments and the uncertainty of sructural models. (C) 2016 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company., This paper was published with the support of the research project INICIA (Methodology for Assessing Investments on Water Cycle Infrastructures informed on Risk and Energy Efficiency Indicators, BIA2013-48157-C2-1-R, 2014-2016) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Programa Estatal de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad).

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Instrumentation and Future Technologies Technical Committee (IFT-TC) seeks to foster international cooperation to advance the state of the art in geoscience and remote sensing instrumentation and technologies that improve knowledge for the betterment of society and the global environment. The mission of the IFT-TC is to facilitate, engage, and coordinate GRSS members and communities at large to assess the current state of the art in remote sensing instruments and technology, identify new instrument concepts and relevant technology trends, and recognize enabling technologies for future instruments.

In October 2013, the International Life Sciences Institute - Health and Environmental Sciences Institute Immunotoxicology Technical Committee (ILSI-HESI ITC) held a one-day workshop entitled, “Workshop on Cytokine Release: State-of-the-Science, Current Challenges and Future Directions”. The workshop brought together scientists from pharmaceutical, academic, health authority, and contract research organizations to discuss novel approaches and current challenges for the use of in vitro cytokine release assays (CRAs) for the identification of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) potential of novel monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics. Topics presented encompassed a regulatory perspective on cytokine release and assessment, case studies regarding the translatability of preclinical cytokine data to the clinic, and the latest state of the science of CRAs, including comparisons between mAb therapeutics within one platform and across several assay platforms, a novel physiological assay platform, and assay optimization approaches such as determination of FcR expression profiles and use of statistical tests. The data and approaches presented confirmed that multiple CRA platforms are in use for identification of CRS potential and that the choice of a particular CRA platform is highly dependent on the availability of resources for individual laboratories (e.g. positive and negative controls, number of human blood donors), the assay through-put required, and the mechanism-of-action of the therapeutic candidate to be tested. Workshop participants agreed that more data on the predictive performance of CRA platforms is needed, and current efforts to compare in vitro assay results with clinical cytokine assessments were discussed. In summary, many laboratories continue to focus research efforts on the improvement of the translatability of current CRA platforms as well explore novel approaches which may lead to more accurate, and potentially patient-specific, CRS prediction in the future.

Several laboratory performance tests for alkali–aggregate reaction (AAR) have been used worldwide for about 20 years. However, a review performed one of the present authors in 2006 concluded that none of the test methods meets all the criteria for an ideal performance test. In the last decade, research has been performed in several countries with the aim to improve current AAR performance test methods and develop alternative tests. The Rilem (The International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures) Technical Committee (TC) 258-AAA (2014–2019) is also focusing on this topic. The main purpose of this technical committee is to develop and promote a reliable performance-based testing concept for the prevention of deleterious AAR. Strong emphasis will be placed on the implementation of the Rilem methods and recommendations as national and international standards. It is crucial to link the results from the accelerated laboratory testing to field behaviour, primarily against field exposure sites. Some results from such exposure sites are included in this paper.

WOS: 000380414900029 PubMed: 27235949 …

Calibration is the process of quantitatively defining a system's responses to known, controlled signal inputs, and validation is the process of assessing, by independent means, the quality of the data products derived from those system outputs [1]. Similar to other Earthobservation (EO) sensors, the calibration and validation of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy sensors is a fundamental underpinning activity. Calibration and validation determine the quality and integrity of the data provided by spaceborne imaging spectroscopy sensors and have enormous downstream impacts on the accuracy and reliability of products generated from these sensors.

Die Eurocodes werden bis zum Jahr 2020 im Europaischen Komitee fur Normung (CEN), Technisches Komitee TC 250, uberarbeitet. In Vorbereitung auf die Eurocode-Novellierung haben engagierte Ingenieure im Rahmen der Initiative PraxisRegeln Bau (PRB) die fur die praktische Anwendung haufig genutzten Teile des Eurocode 3 untersucht. Mit dem Ziel, die Praxistauglichkeit des Eurocode 3 fur die Heisbemessung zu verbessern, wurden die bestehende Norm EN 1993 Teil 1-2 insbesondere in Bezug auf die Anwenderfreundlichkeit analysiert und Vorschlage fur die europaische Novellierung erarbeitet. Die Analysen zeigen, dass durch Umstrukturierungen und durch die Einfuhrung von Tabellen die Verstandlichkeit und Anwenderfreundlichkeit der Regeln fur die Heisbemessung bedeutend erhoht werden konnen. On the application of Eurocode 3 Part 1-2 for structural fire design and suggestions for amendment. The Eurocodes will be revised in the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), Technical Committee (TC) 250, up to 2020. In preparation on the Eurocode amendment engaged engineers have examined the most frequently used parts of Eurocode 3 within the Initiative PraxisRegeln Bau (Practice-oriented Rules in Building Construction – PRB). With the aim to improve the user-friendliness and ease of use of EN 1993-1-2 for structural fire design the existing norm was analysed and proposals were compiled for the European amendment. The analyses show that restructuring and new tables can enhance comprehensibility and ease of use of the rules for structural fire design of steel structures considerably.

This article treats unsettled issues in the use of numerical models of electrical dosimetry as applied to international limits on human exposure to low-frequency (typically 100 kHz) electromagnetic fields and contact current. The perspective in this publication is that of Subcommittee 6 of IEEE-ICES (International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety) Technical Committee 95. The paper discusses 25 issues needing attention, fitting into three general categories: induction models; electrostimulation models; and human exposure limits. Of these, 9 were voted as 'high priority' by members of Subcommittee 6. The list is presented as a research agenda for refinements in numerical modeling with applications to human exposure limits. It is likely that such issues are also important in medical and electrical product safety design applications.

The article proves the need of using the international standards and the best world practices for development of the industry of e-learning and modernization of Russian education. The attention is focused on the need of further development of legislative base and creation of a complex of the national standards harmonized with fundamental international standards and considering specifics of Russian education.

ISO/TC206 'Fine ceramics' is one of a technical committee (TC) in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), established in 1992. The first plenary meeting for this TC was held in 1994, and the latest meeting was held in August 2015, in Jeju, Republic of Korea. The scope of this TC covers very wide field concerning the ceramic materials for industrial applications, in forms of powders, monoliths, coatings and composites, and in functions of mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, optical and their combinations. This TC consists of 18 participating member (P-member) countries and 13 observing member (O-member) countries. We already have 81 published standards from this TC. About 30 new work items are under discussion, about 15 items are waiting for starting the discussion, and about 10 items are in the process for revision of the published standards. In this TC, we have 12 working groups. More than twenty years have passed since starting this TC, generally speaking, the categories of the discussed items tends to shift, from some testing methods for fundamental properties (strength, density, thermal properties etc.), to some properties for specified applications, such as ceramic bearing materials, photocatalytic materials and electrical applications.

Processing (eg, cooking, grinding, drying) has changed the composition of food throughout the course of human history; however, awareness of process-formed compounds, and the potential need to mitigate exposure to those compounds, is a relatively recent phenomenon. In May 2015, the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI North America) Technical Committee on Food and Chemical Safety held a workshop on the risk-based process for mitigation of process-formed compounds. This workshop aimed to gain alignment from academia, government, and industry on a risk-based process for proactively assessing the need for and benefit of mitigation of process-formed compounds, including criteria to objectively assess the impact of mitigation as well as research needed to support this process. Workshop participants provided real-time feedback on a draft framework in the form of a decision tree developed by the ILSI North America Technical Committee on Food and Chemical Safety to a panel of experts, and they discussed the importance of communicating the value of such a process to the larger scientific community and, ultimately, the public. The outcome of the workshop was a decision tree that can be used by the scientific community and could form the basis of a global approach to assessing the risks associated with mitigation of process-formed compounds.

Hydrogen Infrastructures are currently being built up to support the initial commercialization of the fuel cell vehicle by multiple automakers. Three primary markets are presently coordinating a large buildup of hydrogen stations: Japan; USA; and Europe to support this. Hydrogen Fueling Station General Safety and Performance Considerations are important to establish before a wide scale infrastructure is established. This document introduces the ISO Technical Specification 19880-1 and summarizes main elements of the proposed standard. International Standards Organisation (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 197, Working Group (WG) 24, has been tasked with the preparation of the ISO standard 19880-1, to define the minimum requirements considered applicable worldwide for the hydrogen and electrical safety of hydrogen stations. This report includes safety considerations for hydrogen station equipment and components, control systems and operation.

The app we describe in this article was presented as part of the student design competitions at the 2015 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium. The objective of our particular competition, sponsored by the MTT-25 Technical Committee on RF Nanotechnology, was to develop an app) for handheld devices or personal computers that could not only support instruction in the principles and uses of electromagnetic theory as related to RF nanotechnologies but also apply to solving design problems.

This study focuses on overall city-wide Urban Road Freight Transport Management (URFTM) including plans and individual measures which are implemented in cities or metropolitan areas. The study attempted to understand the overall picture of URFTM using case studies collected by World Road Association, Technical Committee 2.3 (Freight Transport). The study has identified existence of plans of freight transport management, cooperation for development of plans and measures among municipality governments, related public bodies and private sectors, provision of legal system and structures of measures that have been introduced.

A collaborative study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility of a method using laser topography to determine the volume and dimensional data for a variety of baked products covering a range of product sizes. Eleven samples of polyurethane replicas of baked products were sent to nine collaborating laboratories in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The volume of the samples ranged from 126 to 1,732 mL. The relative standard deviations for repeatability (RSDr) for volume ranged from 0.14 to 0.70%, and the relative standard deviations for reproducibility (RSDR) ranged from 0.84 to 2.87%. The method has been approved as AACCI Method 10-16.01.

This article presents the design details of a wideband, bifilar transmission-line balun submitted for the student design competition for wideband baluns held during the 2015 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2015) in Phoenix, Arizona, and sponsored by the MTT-17 Technical Committee on HF-VHF-UHF Technology.

In a two-year study, participatory variety selection (PVS) was employed to evaluate the performance of 19 okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) c. v. Moench genotypes in a semi-arid agro-ecology in northern Ghana. The PVS sessions were organized at 65, 80 and 95 days after planting for 272 farmers to select the most preferred genotypes base on plant growth, maturity period and yield components. Results of this study indicate high significant differences among the genotypes (P< 0.0001) for most essential agronomic yield traits evaluated. Five most recurring preference traits were high fruit yield, early maturing, multiple harvest frequency, drying quality and long tender-life. Glabrous leaf, stem and fruit were important to farmers because most of the production operations are still being manually done. Genotypes with high potential included: NOKH 1004 (9.55 ton\ha), FV-Unn-manna (5.85 ton\ha), NOHK 1003 (5.17 ton\ha), NOKH 1002 (2.83 ton\ha), FV-Kpazeya (2.83 ton\ha), TZ-SMN-86 (2.30 ton\ha), AAK (2.11 ton\ha), NB-55-Srivan (1.98 ton\ha), Sasilon (1.70 ton\ha), FV-Unn (2.20 ton\ha) and Ex-Makutopora (1.27 ton\ha). Genotypes Sasilon, NOKH-1004, NB-55-Srivan and NOKH-1003 recorded the highest ranking among farmers during the PVS. High yielding and early maturing genotypes which are amendable to drying may show wide adoption rate due to the premium on dehydrated okra. These genotypes can be suggested as candidates for inspection by the National Variety Release and Technical Committee for release to farmers to increase access to improved okra varieties. Key words: Okra genotypes, Sudan savanna, drying quality, participatory variety selection, preference traits.

The ICOLD Annual Meeting and Congress were held in Stavanger, in the southwest of Norway. Delegates from the BDS attended the various technical committee meetings, the general assembly, technical presentations, tours and social events. A summary description of some of these are included within this report.

Ministry in 2005, and the National Prize of Natural Science of China in 2008. Currently, he is Associate Editor IMA Journal of Math Control and Inform., and a Technical Committee member of IFAC TC2.3.

Regulations allowing health claims linking consumption of food products rich in β-glucan with reduced risk of coronary heart disease have increased the interest of food companies and consumers in such products as healthy food options. Oat and barley cereal products, in particular, have garnered attention due to their high β-glucan contents. Processing oat and barley into food products may affect the physicochemical characteristics of β-glucan and subsequently its physiological effects, however. A new proposed AACCI Approved Method (32-24.01) using RVA to measure β-glucan viscosity in cereal products has been developed and validated. The objective of this method is to determine the viscosity of β-glucan that is soluble under simulated digestion conditions without requirements for pretreatments of cereal products. This viscosity measurement is obtained by mixing an aqueous suspension of ground sample with digestive enzymes in a disposable canister in the RVA. The method can be used by laboratories as a scre...

Piled rafts have been widely adopted as an effective foundation for designing high-rise buildings because of their efficiency in controlling the total and differential settlements and improving bearing capacity. In many cases the piled rafts settlements are likely to be large, which leads to an increase of the pile length and/or number of piles required to reduce the settlements. However, this increase does not satisfy the design requirements or an economical design. The majority of piled raft foundations has been designed with a uniform pile length and configuration. This paper describes the process of optimizing the design of a piled raft foundation for a high rise building in the Mazandaran province in Iran by considering an economical design methodology in which piles are placed more densely beneath the maximum load positions when the piled raft is subjected to non-uniform loads. By using the ELPLA software in the analysis process, the validity of the software is examined through the results of a report prepared on behalf of Technical Committee TC18 on piled foundations. The study shows that the pile arrangement method can help to considerably reduce the total and differential settlements with similar total pile length as well as the induced bending moments and shear forces of the raft. This study can help practicing engineers to choose pile and raft parameters with the pile arrangement method to produce an economical design.

Despite a constitution that condemns discrimination, as well as positive efforts by all stakeholders, Madagascar is still far from meeting the desired objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, or any other relevant international instruments and conventions. The establishment of an Organising Technical Committee on security sector reform for Madagascar is a positive development, which will hopefully facilitate an understanding of the multiple facets of gender and security in Madagascar as well as advancing the implementation of the instruments calling for greater female participation in the security sector.

Nepal was hit by the M7.8 Gorkha earthquake on April 25, 2015, which was the largest earthquake in Nepal’s history since 1934. The recent report presented by the Government of Nepal indicates that the recorded death toll has reached about 8800. Following the earthquake, the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS), Asian Technical Committee of ISSMGE on Geotechnical Natural Hazards (ATC3), Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) and Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering (JAEE) decided to jointly dispatch a survey team to Nepal to conduct a reconnaissance survey of the major damage caused by the earthquake. This report summarizes the results of the survey of the geotechnical and structural damage in the Kathmandu valley, which were observed by the survey sub-team between May 1 and 8, 2015. Geotechnical and geological characteristics of a deep soil profile up to 600 m and a shallow profile up to 30 m are also described with the help of the database system established by Bhandary et al. (2012) . In order to study the correlation between building damage ratios and the predominant period of ground vibration, a partial exhaustive type survey was conducted along NS line where microtremor measurements had been previously conducted in 2008. The predominant period of ground vibration was short at the ridge of the valley and long at its center, ranging from 1.2 to 4.5 s. A total of 532 buildings were assessed and more than 90% were classified as “No damage” or “Negligible to slight Damage” (Grade 0 and Grade 1), whereas only 5% of buildings were assessed as “Substantial to heavy damage” to “Destruction” (Grade 3 to Grade 5). Five locations were identified where the soil had liquefied. Liquefaction-induced damage to structures at these locations was not found, except at Nepal Engineering College where minor settlement of the college building was observed. During the 1934 earthquake, foundation liquefaction was observed in Tundhikhel area, but in the 2015 earthquake no evidence of liquefaction was detected in this area. The Kathmandu–Bhaktapur Road of Araniko Highway was heavily damaged in the Lokanthali area. The subsidence of soft soils and their lateral spreading in this area may have exacerbated the damage to this road.

Reports on the activities and research conducted by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Whole-Body Control (WBC-TC) that was established in 2014.