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Neutron diffraction and the residual stress distribution of magnesium processes by equal channel angular pressing was investigated in term of the grain refinement process. Magnesium is one of the metallic material for a biomedical implant due to the biodegradable properties. The structure and strength of biodegradable metallic material are quite essential to discuss for biomedical implant purposes. The ultrafine-grained structure of magnesium was prepared by equal channel angular pressing until four passes by route Bc at 523 K. The specimen was characterized by electron backscattering diffraction for the structure and neutron diffraction for residual stress. The grain refinement happened during the equal channel angular pressing on magnesium. The texture after four passes of ECAP shows a random orientation compare to coarse grain. The result shows that the strength of the ultrafine grain structure is lower than the coarse grain structure due to the crystal structure of magnesium as hexagonal. The other reason is that the distribution of residual stress on ultrafine grain bulk specimens, which measured by neutron scattering facilities.

Reliable information on wildlife populations and the threats they face is crucial for assessing the performance of conservation strategies. As part of its efforts to improve the effectiveness of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, and aid the recovery of flagship species, the Park's management authority designated a 1,000 km2 forest block an Intensive Protection Zone. To set a baseline from which to evaluate the performance of this zone, we investigated the density of tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae, and spatio-temporal interactions between tigers, their principle prey and threats. The estimated density of tigers was 2.8 per 100 km2, whereas in 2002 camera-trapping failed to record any tigers in the Intensive Protection Zone. We found the study area contained a rich prey base, with muntjac deer Muntiacus muntjak, macaques Macaca nemestrina and wild pigs Sus scrofa occupying 85–98% of the area, and sambar Rusa unicolor 61%. Despite these promising findings we also recorded a relatively high number of people entering the Park illegally, with 77 incidents over 6 months, of which 20% involved armed poachers. The poachers operated mainly at night and were concentrated in two locations. Law enforcement patrol teams were active during the day, and therefore had little overlap with the poachers. Prioritizing these at-risk areas for increased protection by rangers would further secure the Intensive Protection Zone, and expanding ranger activity across the Park would support efforts to remove the Park from UNESCO's List of World Heritage In Danger.

Fruits and vegetables, categorized fresh plant-derived food products, were highly susceptible to physical, chemical, and biological deterioration and contamination throughout their supply chain. While previous research has highlighted risks at various stages of the supply chain, there needs to be more in-depth analysis of how these risks interconnect and which should be prioritized for remediation based on a comprehensive criticality assessment. This study aims to identify critical safety points in the supply chain of fresh fruit and vegetable products using the Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) method. FMECA was proposed as a comprehensive risk assessment tool to systematically analyze potential failure modes and their causes, impacts, and criticality levels in food-handling processes. The study results indicated that critical food safety points for fruits and vegetables occurred during postharvest handling during the cultivation stage at the farmer level. Noncompliance with hygienic sanitation requirement during postharvest handling is a primary risk factor for the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. This noncompliance significantly elevates the risk of foodborne illnesses, undermining consumer trust and public health. Additionally, the improper use of pesticides is identified as the second most severe critical point and is categorized as medium-high risk. Strict supervision, implementation of good sanitation practices, and proper environmental control are essential measures that must be taken to prevent contamination and maintain product quality throughout the supply chain.

Moisture damage in hot mix asphalt pavements is a periodic but persistent problem nowadays, even though laboratory testing is performed to identify different moisture-susceptible mixtures. In this study, a Hamburg Wheel Tracking device (HWTD) was used for rutting tests which were conducted on control and a high percentage of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), i.e., 30%, 50% and 100% of virgin mixtures, under air dry and water-immersed conditions. Similarly, the extracted bitumen from RAP was tested for binder physical properties. Results showed that the asphalt mixtures containing RAP have less rut depth as compared to the control mix both in air dry and immersion conditions and hence showed better anti-rutting properties and moisture stability. Stripping performance of control and RAP containing mixtures was also checked, concluding that the RAP mixture was greatly dependent on the interaction between the binder (virgin plus aged) and aggregates.

In the construction and maintenance of asphalt pavement, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is being widely used as a cheaper alternative to the conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA). HMA incorporated with a high RAP content (e.g., 40%), which is the most commonly used, may have prominent adverse effects on life cycle, performance properties, and related costs. Thus, before utilizing RAP, it is essential to investigate whether it is still economical to use under the local climate by taking into consideration the life cycle performance. Therefore, for this paper, a case study was conducted using 20% RAP, assessed in terms of materials related to cost analysis. The results of the analysis showed that, from the total life cycle costing measurement, a total of 14% cost reduction was reported using RAP as compared to conventional materials. Moreover, the two materials (conventional HMA and RAP) are manufactured in different types of manufacturing plants. Thus, in analyzing the cost difference between the two chosen manufacturing plants for virgin materials and RAP, a total of 57% cost reduction was observed for a RAP manufacturing plant. Besides this, no cost difference was observed in the rest of the phases, such as manpower, materials transportation, and construction activities, as the same procedures and types of machinery are used. Furthermore, assessing the carbon dioxide impact and cost, the transportation and machinery emissions were considered, while the plant’s operation emission was omitted due to the unavailability of the data.

In recent years, semi-flexible pavement surfaces have been identified as one of the alternatives to conventional rigid and flexible pavements due to its advantages over both the pavements. In semi-flexible pavement surfaces, the cementitious grouts are spread on the surface of a porous asphalt skeleton and allowed to penetrate through the depth. The cementitious grouts contribute to the durability (in terms of resistance to oil, water and adverse weather conditions) and the performance of semi-flexible pavement surfaces. The physical and performance properties of semi-flexible pavement depend on the voids in the porous asphalt skeleton and suitable compositions of cementitious grouts. This paper presents the design and optimization of compositions of cementitious grouts using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) technique. Similarly, statistical models are developed to predict the flow and compressive strength properties of grouts using RSM. Water-cement ratio (w/c) and Superplasticizer (SP) were chosen as two independent variables, and their effect on flow and compressive strength properties were investigated. Based on RSM analysis, the adjusted R2 was in reasonable agreement with predicted R2 because the difference was less than 0.2, and the models were found to be significant. Finally, the optimized compositions of grouts were validated by performing experimental program.

The hybrid type of pavement called semi-flexible or grouted macadam has gained popularity over the last few decades in various countries, as it provides significant advantages over both rigid and conventional flexible pavements. The semi-flexible pavement surface consists of an open-graded asphalt mixture with high percentage voids into which flowable cementitious slurry is allowed to penetrate due to gravitational effect. Several researchers have conducted laboratory, as well as field, experiments on evaluating the performance of semi-flexible layers using different compositions of cementitious grouts. The composition of grouts (i.e., water/cement ratio, superplasticizer, polymers, admixtures, and other supplementary materials) has a significant effect on the performance of grouts and semi-flexible mixtures. A comprehensive review of cementitious grouts and their effect on the performance of semi-flexible layers are presented and summarized in this review study. The effect of byproducts and other admixtures/additives on the mechanical properties of grouts are also discussed. Finally, recommendations on the composition of cementitious grouts have been suggested.

Vertebral artery dissection is one of the causes of stroke and transient ischemic attack in young adults, with an incidence rate of 1.0–1.1 per 100,000 people. Vertebral artery dissection occurs due to a tear in the vertebral artery wall, which results in blood flow entering the blood vessel wall. The etiology of vertebral artery dissection is very diverse, which can be classified as intrinsic (such as anatomical abnormalities of the blood vessels) or extrinsic (such as trauma), and there are several rarer causes. The most frequent clinical manifestations include stroke, transient ischemic attack, neck pain, headaches, and vertigo. Management in this case comprises treatment according to symptoms in the form of intravenous thrombolysis, administering antithrombotic drugs, and endovascular therapy.

The utilization of waste polyethylene terephthalate (WPET) as aggregate substitutes in pavement has been extensively promoted because of its environmental advantages. However, previous studies have shown that a high percentage of WPET reduces the performance of the pavement. To increase the durability of pavement and mitigate the environmental issues caused by WPET, WPET is treated with gamma-irradiation as a component in asphalt mixtures. The study objectives were to investigate the feasibility of using WPET granules as a sustainable aggregate on asphalt mixture stiffness and rutting and predict the asphalt mixture performance containing irradiated WPET via an RSM-ANN-framework. To achieve the objectives, stiffness and rutting tests were conducted to evaluate the WPET modified mixtures’ performance. The result indicated that samples containing 40% irradiated WPET provided a better performance compared to mixtures containing 20% non-irradiated WPET, increasing the stiffness by 27% and 21% at 25 °C and 40 °C, respectively, and rutting resistance by 11% at 45 °C. Furthermore, both predictive models developed demonstrated excellent reliability. The ANN exhibited superior performance than the RSM. The utilization of WPET as aggregate in asphalt mixtures represents a way to addressing related recycling issues while also improving performance. With gamma-irradiation treatment, the utilization of WPET can be increased with improved asphalt mixture performance.