Open-graded friction course (OGFC) is a porous mix primarily used to improve pavement safety. OGFC is characterized by air voids ranging from 15 to 20 percent which allows surface water to drain through its structure and then laterally from the pavement structure. The ability of OGFC to drain water quickly results in less water ponding on the pavement surface, thereby reducing hydroplaning, reducing vehicle spray, and providing improved skid resistance. Research objectives were to evaluate the use of OGFC mixes containing 100 percent gravel and 50 percent gravel/50 percent limestone and to determine specifications to be employed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT). Specimens were prepared at design asphalt binder content and evaluated for permeability, durability, stability, and moisture resistance. Research findings show mixes containing 100 percent gravel and 50 percent gravel/50 percent limestone perform comparably in laboratory testing.

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Topological data analysis emerged as a field in the 2000s and has proven very useful for examining the shape of data sets. Using persistent homology as their main methodology researchers has succesfully applied the theory presented in this paper to study as varied subjects as robot motion, brain connectivity, network theory, finger print analysis and computer vision.  The mathematical theory behind persistent homology has traditionally required training far beyond what an average engineer would have. Therefore much theory is usually left out of presentations meant for an audience outside of a mathematics department. This paper contains a novel approach to the presentation of this theory, maintaining mathematical rigour while only using linear algebra as its building blocks.

<p>Functionally graded materials offer a way of obtaining materials with superior properties. Decarburization has been used in other steels to create graded materials. These materials offer high strength and improved ductility when compared homogeneous materials of the same type. In this thesis, graded martensitic stainless steel was explored as a way to provide a very high strength material with medium ductility by partially decarburizing the materials. Different processing treatments were tried and the resulting materials characterized and mechanically tested to compare homogeneous and graded martensitic stainless steels. Mechanical testing demonstrated that decarburization has a positive effect on the tensile, rolling and Charpy impact properties. A model was also developed that attempted to capture the deformation behaviour of graded materials. Present data was not available to verify the models validity but the model was used to predict trends of a how different gradients affect fracture stresses and strains. These trends were used in an attempt to find optimum carbon distributions and maximize strength or ductility, as examples.</p> / Master of Materials Science and Engineering (MMatSE)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, and whether learners' ages impact learning from extensive reading differently. The second purpose is to investigate whether the length of time that second language learners engaged in extensive reading influenced outcome measures, and if an effect is found, identify effective periods of time for learners to engage in extensive reading. Meta-analysis was used to investigate the trends shown by past empirical research, chart future research directions, and provide a means to create alternative hypotheses for future research. Two types of empirical studies were conducted: group contrasts of studies that included control groups and pre-post contrasts of studies that only include experimental groups. This meta-analysis included 34 studies that provided 43 unique effect sizes (22 effect sizes for group contrasts and 21 effect sizes for pre-post contrasts) and a total sample size of 3,942 participants. Students who received extensive reading instruction outperformed those who did not. The effect size was small for group contrasts (d = .46) and medium for pre-post contrasts (d = .71). Moderator variables for each contrast were examined to assess the impact of learners' ages and the length of instruction; however, all groups substantially overlapped with each other in terms of their confidence intervals, indicating no statistically significant difference among the groups. There was a small effect size for university students for the group contrast (d = .48), a medium effect for high school students (d = .61), a large effect for university students (d = 1.12), and a large effect for adults (d = 1.48) for pre-post contrasts. In terms of the length of instruction, both one semester of instruction (d = .36) and one year of instruction (d = .52) produced a small effect for group contrasts, while one year of instruction produced a medium effect (d = .74) for pre-post contrasts. In sum, the available extensive reading research to date suggests that extensive reading improves students' reading proficiency and should therefore be a part of foreign language reading curricula. &#8195; / CITE/Language Arts

Yes / In recent times, the subject of effective cooling have become an interesting research topic for electronic and mechanical engineers due to the increased miniaturization trend in modern electronic systems. However, fins are useful for cooling various low and high power electronic systems. For improved thermal management of electronic systems, porous fins of functionally graded materials (FGM) have been identified as a viable candidate to enhance cooling. The present study presents an analysis of a convective–radiative porous fin of FGM. For theoretical investigations, the thermal property of the functionally graded material is assumed to follow linear and power-law functions. In this study, we investigated the effects of inhomogeneity index of FGM, convective and radiative variables on the thermal performance of the porous heatsink. The results of the present study show that an increase in the inhomogeneity index of FGM, convective and radiative parameter improves fin efficiency. Moreover, the rate of heat transfer in longitudinal FGM fin increases as b increases. The temperature prediction using the Adomian decomposition method is in excellent agreement with other analytical and method.

The purpose of this study is to make an investigation of reading trends for the past one hundred years to ascertain and evaluate the extent and changes that have occurred.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-05T13:56:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 NANCY LIMA COSTA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2012..pdf: 696380 bytes, checksum: b115561e2d297770211db99b1ed44747 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T13:56:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NANCY LIMA COSTA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2012..pdf: 696380 bytes, checksum: b115561e2d297770211db99b1ed44747 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08 / Capes / Neste trabalho de dissertação estudamos as identidades polinomiais ordinárias para a Álgebra de Grassmann com unidade, denotada por E, e sem unidade, denotada por E 0, para corpos de característica diferente de 2. Além disso, também estudamos as identidades Z2-graduadas da álgebra E no caso em que o corpo tem característica positiva. Por fim, descrevemos o T-espaço dos polinômios centrais de E tanto para corpos de característica zero, quanto para corpos de característica positiva e descrevemos também os polinômios centrais de E 0 para corpos de característica positiva. / In this dissertation we study the ordinary polynomial identities for the Grassmann Algebra with unity, denoted by E, and without unity, denoted by E 0, for fields of characteristic di erent from 2. We also study the Z2-graded identities of the algebra E over elds of positive characteristic. Finaly, we describe the T-space of the central polynomials of E for fields of characteristic zero and also for fields of positive characteristic, moreover we describe the T-space of the central polynomials of E 0 for fields of positive characteristic.