Search

Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is sensitive to Zn, which is involved in basic physiological and biochemical processes. To explore the growth and physiology of pecan in response to Zn application, we used 1-year-old annual grafted seedlings (Pawnee) and applied four concentrations of Zn fertilizer (0.05, 0.10, 0.20 and 0.40 g·plant-1 ); a control (CK; no Zn fertilization) was also included. The growth characteristics, anatomical structure of the leaves and photosynthesis were assessed. Compared with the CK, photosynthesis and chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence parameters, leaf area and leaf structure significantly increased at Zn concentrations of 0.05 and 0.10 g·plant-1 . In addition, growth of pecan at the seedling stage increased in response to moderate Zn application. In contrast, treatment with 0.20 and 0.40 g·Zn·plant-1 dramatically decreased these physiological indices and inhibited pecan growth. The results show that moderate soil Zn application promotes pecan growth and development by increasing photosynthesis. However excess Zn concentrations were not conducive to seedling growth. The concentration of 0.1 g·Zn·plant-1 was best when considering long-term soil Zn applications, providing a theoretical foundation for microelement management of pecan.

The shear strength is one of the most critical mechanical properties influencing pavement rutting performance for unbound granular aggregates. Very limited research has examined the shear characteristics of blended recycled waste materials, although the use of recycled and waste materials is becoming increasingly popular in real-life civil and construction projects. In this work, for the first time, the large direct shear test (LDST) apparatus was utilized with the aim of investigating the effects of introducing waste crushed glass (WCG) on the shear response of recycled unbound granular materials, namely crushed rock (CR) and recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), containing fine crumb rubber (R). The outcome of the investigative study indicates that introducing WCG not only increased the internal friction angles, but also the cohesion values of the blends. The inclusion of 3% WCG resulted in the highest shear strength. However, beyond 3%, increasing the amount of WCG decreased shear strength. The results of this study show that RCA and CR mixed with 1% R along with three varied percentage inclusions (1%, 3%, and 5%) of WCG fulfilled the requirements in terms of shear strength for base and subbase of pavements.

The p-nuclei are supposed to be produced in different astrophysical processes, such as rapid-proton capture, photonuclear reaction, and neutrino-induced reaction. To date, their abundance cannot be reasonably explained. In the present work, the cross sections of the 74Ge (ν e , e −) 74As reaction are calculated with the theoretical and experimental B(GT) values, respectively. The abundance ratios between 74Se and 74Ge produced from the neutrino process (ν-process) are estimated based on the simple hypothesis for core-collapse supernova explosions. The results show that the upper limit of the 74Se and 74Ge abundance ratio resulting from the ν-process is about 36% of the value in the solar system.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gained their prevalent recognition in construction because of their exceptional advantages. Despite the increasing use of UAVs in the industry and their remarkable benefits, there are serious potential safety risks associated that have been overlooked. Construction is one of the most hazardous industries in the United States. In addition to the ordinary hazards normally present in dynamic construction workplaces, UAVs can expose workers to a wider range of never-before-seen safety risks that must be recognized and controlled. The industry is not equipped with safety measures to prevent potential accidents, because of scarce research on drone-associated hazards and risks. The aim of this research was to (1) identify the UAV-associated hazards in construction that may expose personnel and property to potential harms, and (2) study the relative impact of each hazard and the associated safety risks. In Phase I, the researchers conducted an extensive literature review and consulted with a construction UAV expert. In Phase II, the researchers obtained data from 54 construction experts validating and evaluating the identified hazards and risks. The results revealed that adopting UAVs can expose construction projects to a variety of hazards that the industry is not familiar with. “Collision with properties,”“collision with humans,” and “distraction” were identified as the top three safety risks. Moreover, the study introduces effective strategies, such as having qualified crew members, proper drone model selection, and drone maintenance, to mitigate the safety risks. Finally, a post-hoc case study was investigated and presented in this article.

As the coproduct of steelmaking, steelmaking slag, volumetrically expansive-prone without treatment, has been satisfactorily used as an aggregate base course material in highway construction. Although numerous technical reports and papers have revealed that steel slag aggreged using in rigid matrixes, the end product, paving block, non-structural concrete, for example, possesses superb strength and durability properties, the application of steel slag aggregate as a concrete aggregate is currently prohibited in highway construction. Naturally, researchers explore the practicality of use of steel slag, how to connect the laboratory experiment results to the end-product behavior, and further convert the research results into real construction? For all nontraditional or secondary materials utilization, the procedure of laboratory material examination, lab and field trial test are critical. To generalize the utilization, usability criteria establishment is necessary. This paper tries to use step-by-step method and plain language to explain how the volumetrically expansion can be simulated in lab testing apparatus, and based on the model, the mathematical deduction can result in a numerical usability criterion for steel slag use as a coarse aggregate in concrete (a rigid material). Therefore the paper is composed four main parts, laboratory test methods to examine the expansion force resulted from steel slag; converting the measured expansion force in a given volume of mass aggregate to the expansion (body) force of a single particle; modeling of slag and end material disruption; and a usability criterion from numerical deduction for the use of expansive-prone coarse slag in concrete or other rigid matrices. The paper provides the solutions to answer the above questions. Through the mathematical and mechanical modeling, provides the potential criteria that could result in specifications and guidance establishment for broad volumetric expansive-prone slags.

This chapter focuses on the environmental impact of heavy metals in soils of China. Certain toxic heavy metals are taken up by crops, which can thus become a hazard to human and animal health and other heavy metals, can first lead to reduced crop yields. The chapter describes agricultural control measures for the remediation and restoration in heavy-metal contaminated agroecosystems. In China, there are three main causes of soil pollution: gas emission, mine and smelter discharges, and sewage irrigation and sludge application on agricultural land. China has a big nickel production base which is located in Jinchuan, Gansu. The remediation and restoration of soils contaminated by pollutants have recently become a great practical problem. Remedial measures of the soil require, insofar as possible, a full understanding of pollutants, soils, and crop properties. Many agricultural measures have been recommended for the remediation and restoration of the heavy metals contaminated soils in China.

Pavement layers must be sufficiently strong to carry all traffic loads and resist the accumulation of permanent deformations such as rutting and avoid premature failures including top-down cracking during their service lives. In recent years, the utilization of recycled construction and demolition (C&D) materials in civil and transportation infrastructure construction has been considered as a significant solution to replace conventional and natural aggregates, therefore to achieve the goal of building low-carbon footprint constructed facilities. Unfortunately, limited data have yet reported on the permanent deformation behaviour of the recycled materials in pavement, especially the effect of crumb rubber and rubber size with C&D aggregates on the permanent deformation behaviour in base and subbase layers. This paper provides unique laboratory information and testing results in this regard. In this study, two different groups of crumb rubber particles with sizes ranged from 400 to 600 µm (fine) and 15–20 mm (coarse) were separately added to 20 mm recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and 20 mm crushed rock (CR) at 0.5, 1 and 2% by weight of the aggregates to study the effects of crumb rubber and rubber size on permanent deformation behaviour of RCA and CR aggregates. In particular, the permanent deformation behaviour of the RCA/CR with crumb rubber was investigated through the repeated load triaxial tests. It was observed that the CR samples should be avoided for use in base and subbase courses.

Objective The objective of this paper is to identify the risk of complications of real-time ultrasound-guided renal biopsy in adult and pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Materials and methods This retrospective study examined outcomes of 296 renal biopsy procedures in 275 SLE patients. Imaging-confirmed symptomatic hematoma was regarded as a major complication when intervention (blood transfusion, angiographic embolization, or surgery) was required or as a minor complication otherwise. Clinical and laboratory data were compared between groups with or without complications after initial or subsequent renal biopsy. Binary logistic regressions were used to evaluate complication risk of initial renal biopsy. Results Overall complication rate of initial renal biopsy was 8.7% (major: 2.9%, minor: 5.8%). Three patients expired from pulmonary hemorrhage, thrombotic microangiopathy, and pneumonia. Pediatric SLE patients tended to have a higher rate of major complications (12.5%) than adult patients (2.3%). According to multivariable analysis results, elevated serum creatinine (SCr) level (OR 1.45; 95% CI 1.17-1.81 per mg/dl), prolonged prothrombin time (PT) (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.05-4.62 per second), and thrombocytopenia (OR 4.3; 95% CI 1.56-11.9) increased overall complication risk of initial renal biopsy. Age 18 years (OR 8.43; 95% CI 1.21-58.8), thrombocytopenia (OR 16.4; 95% CI 2.44-110.5), and elevated SCr level (OR 1.97; 95% CI 1.36-2.86 per md/dl) increased risk of major complications. Thrombocytopenia, prolonged PT, and elevated SCr level were associated with complications after subsequent renal biopsy (all p = 0.01). Conclusions SLE patients, particularly patients under 18 years old or with elevated SCr level, prolonged PT, or thrombocytopenia, have an increased risk of complications after initial or subsequent renal biopsy.

This study examines the impact of corporate earnings announcements on trading activity and speed of price adjustment, analyzing algorithmic and non-algorithmic trades during the immediate period pre- and post-corporate earnings announcements. We confirm that algorithms react faster and more correctly to announcements than non-algorithmic traders. During the initial surge in trading activity in the first 90 s after the announcement, algorithms time their trades better than non-algorithmic traders, hence algorithms tend to be profitable, while non-algorithmic traders make losing trades over the same time period. During the pre-announcement period, non-algorithmic volume imbalance leads algorithmic volume imbalance, however, in the post announcement period, the direction of the lead–lag association is exactly reversed. Our results suggest that as algorithms are the fastest traders, their trading accelerates the information incorporation process.

The Volume-Synchronized Probability of Informed Trading (VPIN) metric is proposed by Easley et al. (2011, 2012) (Journal of Portfolio Management, 37:118–128; Review of Financial Studies, 25:1457–1493) as a real-time measure of order flow toxicity in an electronic trading market. This study examines the performance of VPIN around inventory announcements and price jumps in crude oil and natural gas futures markets with a sample period from January 2009 to May 2015. We obtain several interesting results: (i) VPIN increases significantly around inventory announcements with price jumps as well as at jumps not associated with any scheduled announcements. (ii) VPIN does not peak prior to the events but shortly after. (iii) A minor variation of VPIN based on exponential smoothing significantly improves the early warning signal property of VPIN, and this estimate of toxicity returns faster to the pre-event level. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark

The transitional nuclei $^{134}$Ba and $^{133}$Ba are investigated after multinucleon transfer employing the high-resolution Advanced GAmma Tracking Array coupled to the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Italy, and after fusion-evaporation reaction at the FN tandem accelerator of the University of Cologne, Germany. The Jπ=19/2+ state at 1942 keV in $^{133}$Ba is identified as an isomer with a half-life of 66.6(20)ns corresponding to a B(E1) value of 7.7(4)×10−6e2fm2 for the Jπ=19/2+ to Jπ=19/2− transition. The level scheme of $^{134}$Ba above the Jπ=10+ isomer is extended to approximately 6 MeV. A pronounced backbending is observed at ℏω=0.38 MeV along the positive-parity yrast band. The results are compared to the high-spin systematics of the Z=56 isotopes. Large-scale shell-model calculations employing the GCN50:82, SN100PN, SNV, PQM130, Realistic SM, and EPQQM interactions reproduce the experimental findings and elucidate the structure of the high-spin states. The shell-model calculations employing the GCN50:82 and PQM130 interactions reproduce alignment properties and provide detailed insight into the microscopic origin of this phenomenon in transitional $^{134}$Ba.

This study examines the order aggressiveness and trading patience of foreign institutional traders, futures proprietary firm traders, individual day and non-day traders in the Taiwan index futures market. We consider order choice given a completely transparent limit order book. Our empirical results show that individual (foreign institutional) traders use a more aggressive (patient) order submission strategy than the other trader types. We find significant differences among trader types in the timing of order aggressiveness and trading patience over the intraday time period. Both top and rest-of-the-order-book activities affect traders’ order submission decisions. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark

© 2018, The Author(s). The effects of different contents and particle sizes of waste glass powder on alkali–silica reaction (ASR) expansion of cementitious composite bar were investigated in this study. Waste glass powder with particle size less than 300 μm exhibits an excellent mitigation effect on ASR expansion. With larger content and smaller particle size, the mitigation effect of waste glass powder on ASR expansion gradually increases. The mitigation effect of waste glass powder with particle size ranging from 38 to 53 μm and 20% by weight of cement seems relatively better than that of fly ash. When the waste glass powder content reaches 30%, the mitigation effect is still effective and almost the same as that of fly ash. However, the waste glass powder with particle size larger than 300 μm presents negative mitigation effect on ASR expansion when the replacement rate is larger than 30%. On the other hand, the waste glass powder and calcium hydroxide (CH) further react, and produce more calcium–silicate–hydrate gels, which apparently reduce the amount of CH. Moreover, the increasing content of waste glass powder results in a lower pH value in the pore solution of cementitious composite.

To discuss the diagnostic value of transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound on endometrial lesions.The study included 126 cases diagnosed with endometrial lesions by transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound that were examined by hysteroscopy, biopsy, and curettage pathology, and compared with pathology.The transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound diagnosis corresponded to 92.6% (117 of 126 cases) of the pathology diagnosis.Transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound has important diagnostic value in the case of endometrial lesions, has a high rate of detection and diagnostic on endometrial lesions, and is the best method for diagnosis of endometrial lesions.

Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the most frequently encountered malignant epithelial tumors. Semaphorin-7A is a membrane-associated/secreted protein that plays an essential role in the migration and progression of human malignancies. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms of Semaphorin-7A in the growth and migration of OTSCC.The expressions of Semaphorin-7A in cells were tested by RT-PCR, Western blot, and Immunofluorescence, separately. The activities of OTSCC cells (HSC-3 and Tca8113) were analyzed by MTT, following treatment with Semaphorin-7A or PBS. The migration, invasion, and apoptosis of cells were also determined. The protein expressions of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway were analyzed by Western blot, after treated with Semaphorin-7A in vitro and in vivo. Finally, the mouse model of OTSCC was treated with antibody target for Semaphorin-7A (AntiSema-7A), Semaphorin-7A or PBS, then the tumor size was determined, and histopathological examination and western blot was applied for further confirmation.In OTSCC cells, Semaphorin-7A was highly expressed, and Semaphorin-7A promoted growth in multiple metastatic OTSCC cell lines. Further study indicated that Semaphorin-7A resulted in up-regulation of Snail, N-cadherin and Vimentin expression, and downregulating of E-cadherin. In addition, The Ets2-repressor factor (ERF) expression was down-regulated, and transforming growth factor (TGF-β)-induced EMT was promoted in OTSCC cells. Then, the proteins of collagen types I (CT-I) and fibronectin (FIB) were also up-regulated after Semaphorin-7A treatment. Furthermore, our results indicated that inhibition of Semaphorin-7A by antibody target for Semaphorin-7A (AntiSema-7A) suppressed OTSCC growth and increased survival in a mouse model of OTSCC. Histopathological examination confirmed the inhibitory effects in vivo.Semaphorin-7A promoted growth and migration of OTSCC by regulating TGF-β-induced EMT signaling pathway in OTSCC cells, which provided a new interconnection between the Semaphorin-7A and TGF-β-induced EMT signaling pathway.

This paper discusses arguments for and against a securities transaction tax (STT) and evaluates the pros and cons based on a review of empirical evidence concerning the impact of STTs on equity and futures markets (i.e., trading volume, bid-ask spreads, and price volatility) and market efficiency in various countries. I find that an STT would likely reduce trading volume and increase trading cost, but may not reduce price volatility. The size of potential STT revenue depends on the STT's impact on market activity. A sizable STT on futures and equity markets would not only fail to generate the expected tax revenue, it would also likely hurt the international competitiveness of US equity and futures markets.

BACKGROUND: Due to the low specificity of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) assay and a high false positive rate, a large number of prostate cancer (PCA) biopsies are performed unnecessarily. Consequently, there is a need for new biomarkers that can identify PCA at any stage of progression while limiting the number of false positives. The use of autoantibody signature–developed biomarkers has proven to be an effective method to solve this problem. RESULTS: Using T7 phage–peptide detection, we identified a panel of eight biomarkers for PCA on a training set. The estimated receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve had an area under the ROC curve of 0.69 when applied to the validation set. Spearman correlations were high, within 0.7 to 0.9, indicating that the biomarkers have a degree of inter-relatedness. The identified biomarkers play a role in processes such as androgen response regulation and cellular structural integrity and are proteins that are thought to play a role in prostate tumorigenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Autoantibodies against PCA can be developed as biomarkers for detecting PCA. The scores from the algorithm developed here can be used to indicate a relative high or low risk of PCA, particularly for patients with intermediate (4.0 to 10 ng/ml) PSA levels. Since most commercially available assays test for PSA or have a PSA component, this novel approach has the potential to improve diagnosis of PCA using a biologic measure independent of PSA.

We examine the effects of margin changes on futures trading activity, the composition of traders, and market liquidity using an account-level data set from the Taiwan Futures Exchange. We find that margin increases reduce trading activity for all trader types, which indicates that higher margins increase trading costs. Institutional trading is more sensitive to changes in margin requirements than individual traders. This, in turn, leads to increases in market price volatility and decreases in market liquidity. These results imply that margin requirements are not an effective policy tool for limiting the trading activity of noise speculators to reduce market volatility. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:894–915, 2015

This paper applies nonparametric methods to identify jumps in daily futures prices and intraday jumps surrounding inventory announcements of crude oil, heating oil and natural gas contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The sample period of our intraday data covers January 1990 to January 2008. We have obtained several interesting empirical results. (1) Large volatility days are often associated with large jump components, and large jump components are often associated with the Energy Information Administration's inventory announcement dates. (2) The volatility jump component is less persistent than the continuous sample path component. (3) Volatility and trading volume are higher on days with a jump at the inventory announcement than on days without a jump at the announcement. Furthermore, the intraday volatility returns to normal faster following inventory announcements with jumps than after announcements without jumps.

Background Intraoperative portal venous flow measurement provides surgeons with instant guidance for portal flow modulation during living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). In this study, we compared the agreement of portal flow measurement obtained by 2 devices: transit time ultrasound (TTU) and conventional Doppler ultrasound (CDU). Methods Fifty-four recipients of LDLT underwent intraoperative measurement of portal flow after completion of vascular anastomosis of the implanted partial liver graft. Both TTU and CDU were used concurrently. Agreement of TTU and CDU was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient using a model of 2-way random effects, absolute agreement, and single measurement. A Bland-Altman plot was applied to assess the variability between the 2 devices. Results The mean, median, and range of portal venous flow was 1456, 1418, and 117 to 2776 mL/min according to TTU; and 1564, 1566, and 119 to 3216 mL/min according to CDU. The intraclass correlation coefficient of portal venous flow between TTU and CDU was 0.68 (95% confidence interval, 0.51–0.80). The Bland-Altman plots revealed an average variation of 4.8% between TTU and CDU but with a rather wide 95% confidence interval of variation ranging from −57.7% to 67.4%. Conclusions Intraoperative TTU and CDU showed moderate agreement in portal flow measurement. However, a relatively wide range of variation exists between TTU and CDU, indicating that data obtained from the 2 devices may not be interchangeable.

We aimed to discuss the mechanism of occurrence and progression of epilepsy through analyzing the expression changes of UCA1 and NF-Kb in temporal hippocampus and UCA1 in peripheral blood in rats with epilepsy induced by lithium chloride-pilocarpine.The lithium chloride-pilocarpine-induced epilepsy rat model was established; 1, 7, 14, 30, and 60 d after status epilepticus were selected as the time points of research. The expression levels of UCA1 and NF-kB in the hippocampus of rats and UCA1 in peripheral blood were detected and analyzed using quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The differences and correlations between expression levels of UCA1 and NF-kB at each time point of research in experimental group and control group were analyzed statistically.Results showed that mRNA expression levels of UCA1 and NF-kB in brain tissues in experimental group were higher than those in control group at each time point. The change trend of expression levels of UCA1 and NF-kB with time was consistent. The expression level of UCA1 in peripheral blood in experimental group at each time point was higher than that in control group, and mRNA expression level of UCA1 in peripheral blood in experimental group was positively correlated with that in brain tissue.The expressions of UCA1 and NF-Kb are in the dynamic change in the formation of epilepsy, suggesting that UCA1 may participate in the pathogenesis of epilepsy, so as to provide a potentially feasible new direction for guiding the clinical diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

In large public infrastructure projects, political risks due to the power imbalance between central and delivery agencies are often overlooked or underestimated. The primary motive of the delivery agency in distorting information for political gains should be deemed a risk that creates uncertainty for large projects planning the outcome. In this study, seven large infrastructure projects in the state of Victoria, Australia are examined through a workshop involving key stakeholders who had played active roles in these projects. The findings revealed that power asymmetry between central and delivery agencies exist and would lead to optimism bias, which in turn creates uncertainty and risk of overpromising in the business case. Power asymmetry exist in large infrastructure projects because the central agencies usually only have the responsibility but not the skill set needed to measure the robustness of the business case. These types of political risks are difficult to quantify and even detect. This paper recommends a few managerial strategies that have referential values and/or can be used to mitigate and circumvent this risk.

We investigate the investment strategies of individual day traders in the Taiwan Index Futures market, along with their impact on market liquidity and volatility. Our results indicate a tendency among most individual day traders to behave as irrational contrarian traders. We also present consistent evidence to show that most individual day traders provide market liquidity by reducing the bid-ask spread, temporary price volatility, and the temporal price impacts. Our results, which are consistent with the experimental results of Bloomfield, O'Hara, and Saar (2009) [Review of Financial Studies, 22:2275–2302], provide no support for the general criticism that day trading destabilizes the market while also exacerbating market volatility. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:399–425, 2015

Open-graded friction course (OGFC) is often believed to have no contribution to the structural capacity of flexible pavement. In this study, five types of OGFC mixtures were prepared and tested for rutting potentials, and three of them were tested for dynamic moduli, which were further used to analyse pavement's response and performance based on the procedures in the mechanistic–empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG). It was found that the tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt concrete layers and the compressive strain at the top of sub-grade layer are sensitive to the availability of OGFC, regardless of mixture type. The fatigue and permanent deformation damages of a flexible pavement can be effectively reduced after adding the OGFC layer, due to the alteration of loading frequency, thermal gradient and modulus ratio. Trial designs using MEPDG software in two different climates verify the above observations.

We apply nonparametric statistical procedures to extract jumps around scheduled macroeconomic news in U.S. Treasury bond, U.S. Treasury note and Eurodollar futures prices from 2001 to 2004. Volatility and trading activity during announcement days with jumps versus no jumps are also analyzed with computerized trade reconstruction (CTR) and time and sales high frequency data. Several interesting results are obtained. First, while jumps often occur during announcement periods, many jumps cannot be associated with macroeconomic news releases. Second, volatility and trading volume are higher during announcement days with jumps than announcement days without jumps. Furthermore, volatility returns to the pre-announcement level faster following scheduled news releases with jumps than after announcements without jumps. Third, we find that price and trading volume are adjusting simultaneously in the first one-minute interval following the announcement. Thus our results do not confirm that there exists a twostage adjustment process for prices and trading volume in interest rate futures following scheduled public news releases.

This article examines the location-allocation of emergency service facilities as a research subject. The research presents the setup of the single allocation set covering location-allocation models for emergency service facilities under strong time constraints, in view of the shortage of hub & spoke network bypass. The article also presents an extension to the single allocation set covering location-allocation model (SASCP) and the SASCP model with bypass constraints (γ-SASCP) for emergency service facilities under large-scale emergency requirements. For the two models, an improved genetic algorithm was designed and the two models were respectively solved, with the effectiveness of the algorithm verified by a specific example. The impacts of change of parameters such as time discount rate, maximum time constraints, and bypass ratio on the model's results are compared and analyzed, based on solved results by the specific example.

Sustainability in the built environment is becoming a strong force in the construction industry to achieve social and environmental benefits and to lower negative environment impacts. The research objectives of this study were to identify the main drivers and barriers of sustainable design and construction in the US construction industry and to prioritise the identified drivers and barriers with respect to implementation of sustainability in the construction industry. To achieve the research objectives, this study identified the main drivers and barriers of sustainable design and construction factors with a two-step process, including an in-depth literature review and an experts' review. The identified drivers and barriers were then prioritised using a survey research method using a survey instrument developed by the authors. The sample used in the survey was comprised of members in the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) North Carolina (NC) Triangle Chapter. USGBC NC Triangle Chapter members wer...

"Steel slag is the molten byproduct from steelmaking operations that is subsequently air-cooled for use. It has been used in cement manufacture and as unbound granular materials in construction. While numerous studies have revealed that concrete containing steel slag aggregate possesses good mechanical properties, and slag, as a byproduct, is cheaper than virgin aggregates, its practical use in Portland cement concrete is currently a forbidden area in the construction practices. What is the practicality, where is the crux of converting research results into to real production, and how to build the bridge between the laboratory experiment and the end products? Based on the philosophy of slag utilization, i.e., laboratory testing, field demonstration, and criteria establishment, the questions to be answered includes (1) two distinct laboratory test methods to determine the expansion force generated by slag particles; (2) conversion of the expansion force of mass slag aggregate to the expansion force of single slag particle; (3) mechanical disruption model of slag failure; and (4) usability criteria for the use of steel slag in a rigid or restrained matrices. The paper introduced the answers for the first two questions; and provides the mechanical model and criterion deduction to answer the other two questions that lead to criteria and specification establishment. Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784479827.025 This paper was presented at the 2016 Construction Research Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 2016."

This study examines the dynamic liquidity provision process by institutional and individual traders in the Taiwan index futures market, which is a pure limit order market. The empirical analysis obtains several interesting empirical results. We find that trader type affects liquidity provision in a number of interesting ways. First, although institutional traders use more limit orders than market orders, foreign institution (individual) traders use a relatively higher percentage of market (limit) orders in the early trading session and then switch to more limit (market) orders for the remainder of the day until close to the end of the trading day. Second, net limit order submissions by both institutional and individual traders are positively related to one-period lagged transitory volatility and negatively related to informational volatility. Third, net limit order submissions by institutional traders are positively related to one-period lagged spread. Finally, both the state of limit order book and order size significantly influence all types of traders’ strategy on submission of limit order versus market order during the intraday trading session. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 34:145–172, 2014

Using index and financial exchange-traded funds (ETFs), this study explores the relation between funding liquidity and equity liquidity during the subprime crisis period. Our empirical results show that a higher degree of funding illiquidity leads to an increase in bid–ask spread and a reduction in both market depth and net buying imbalance. Such findings indicate that an increase in funding liquidity can improve equity liquidity, with a stronger effect for the financial ETFs than for the index ETFs. Our study provides a better overall understanding of the effect of the liquidity–supplier funding constraint during the subprime crisis period.

The authors investigated the effectiveness and costs of preventive treatment techniques for flexible pavements. Based on survey results from 29 state departments of transportation (DOTs), it was found that the expected pavement life extension caused by these treatments follows the order of thin hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay, microsurfacing tied with chip sealing, slurry sealing, and crack filling/sealing. The reported costs follow the order of thin overlay, microsurfacing, and chip sealing tied with slurry sealing, whereas costs of crack sealing/filling cannot be directly compared. The authors also analyzed data from 81 Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program specific pavement studies (SPS) experiments, which were specifically designed and constructed to study the effectiveness of pavement treatments. Based on paired t-tests, it was found that all the treatments reduced international roughness index (IRI) with statistical significance. The authors then pooled the data from all the control se...

Pavement preservation is practiced by many highway administration agencies throughout the world. Pavement preservation also attracts much attention from agencies that have few or no such programs. How to choose the most effective treatment at a given location, however, remains a question. On the basis of data from the Specific Pavement Study 3 of the Long-Term Pavement Performance program, the study reported in this paper examined the impact of climate conditions on the effectiveness of asphalt pavement preservation techniques. Six climate zones were defined on the bases of number of wet days, freeze–thaw cycles, and number of days below 0°C. Within each climate zone, performance differences on graphical representations and paired t-tests were assessed for four types of treatment sections and control sections in terms of the international roughness index (IRI). The magnitudes of the IRI changes caused by these treatments were in general quite noticeable, but the effectiveness varied greatly with climate condition and treatment type. Statistically significant treatments at each climate zone were reported in the study. All four types of treatments significantly reduced IRI growth under two climate conditions: (a) warm and dry and (b) wet and cold. In addition, chip sealing and thin overlay treatments seemed more likely to succeed in different climates.

Air-cooled (AC) nickel slag is evaluated for highway construction applications as an aggregate in hot-mix asphalt (HMA). The AC nickel slag is a liquid coproduct of nickel production that is solidified under ambient conditions. The laboratory evaluation program, which was carried out to determine the characteristics of the AC nickel slag, included physical and mechanical properties testing, petrographic examinations, and HMA mixture designs. Accelerated laboratory testing was completed on the mixtures by using an asphalt pavement analyzer to assess their performance characteristics. Additional testing included autoclave disruption tests for free lime and free magnesia, chemical and mineralogical analyses, polished stone value, and aggregate abrasion value. This study indicated that suitably processed nickel slag was environmentally, mineralogically, and physically stable. From the accelerated laboratory testing that was completed, it was concluded that the AC nickel slag was suitable for use as coarse and fine aggregates in HMA. The use of nickel slag in a highway construction is also presented.

This paper employs a unique data set to investigate the total price, liquidity and information effects of large institutional trades versus individual trades on three futures contracts traded on the Taiwan Futures Exchange. Several interesting results are obtained. We find that, for the entire sample period, most buyer-initiated large trades have larger permanent price effects than seller-initiated large trades and vice versa for liquidity effects. However, we find that the permanent price effects of large sells are larger than the effects of large purchases in bearish markets and the reverse pattern is found for bullish markets. These results are consistent with the current economic condition hypothesis which is used to explain the asymmetry between total price impacts, information and liquidity effects of large buys and sells. Our new empirical results demonstrate that the asymmetric patterns between price impacts of large buys and sells hold for individual traders as well as for institutional traders.

Current construction management programmes in higher education institutions provide students with sound technical and management knowledge. However, in the twenty‐first century, construction professionals need to be familiar with the cultural, environmental, and political factors that could affect international projects and know how to work effectively in the global arena. How to face the unique challenges due to rapidly increasing globalisation is the question that concerns construction educators around the world. However, current construction management curricula do not usually provide students with even basic training on international project management. To remedy this defect, globalisation components have been incorporated into construction management education at East Carolina University through lecture exchange, study abroad, student exchange, scholar exchange, and research exchange activities. This paper presents the international activities performed, the outcomes, and student growth in international construction management.

Expansion force and autoclave disruption tests have been developed for measuring the expansion force generated by coarse steel slag aggregate. Equations are deduced to convert the measured expansion force to expansion force of unit volume slag and an individual slag particle. The tension stresses of steel slag particles, 0.64–1.28 MPa, are used to quantitatively evaluate the stability of steel slag and related to the tensile stress of cement mortar matrix. Based on the results and modeling, the inherent relationship between the expansion force of steel slag and the allowable stress of a rigid matrix is revealed. Usability criterion for the use of steel slag under confined conditions can be further developed.

This study examines the effects of large trades executed by outside customer on the prices of futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. We find that, on average, large buyer-initiated trades have a larger permanent price impact (information effect) than large seller-initiated trades, whereas the opposite is found for the temporary price impact (liquidity effects) of large trades. These results are consistent with previous findings for block and institutional trades in equity markets. However, we also find that the information effects of large sells are larger than large buys in bearish markets, whereas the results are the reverse in bullish markets. The liquidity price effects of buys are larger than the liquidity price effects of sells in bearish markets whereas the reverse results hold in bullish markets. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the current economic condition is a key determinant of asymmetric price effects between large buys and large sells. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:1147–1181, 2008