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In this work we present a low noise high speed readout electronics for large area Silicon Photomultipiers (SiPMs) to be used in a cryogenic environment. The board is able to manage the signals coming from a 25 cm 2 SiPM tile, showing ¡10% SPE resolution and wide dynamic. The sub-nanosecond timing properties make them suitable to work with the typical mixtures of Liquid Scintillators currently being used in particle and astroparticle physics experiments. The boards have been tested with several types of SiPMs from room temperature down to -70 C showing excellent single photo-electron resolution in all the enviroments. The board’s PCBs have been developed with ultra low background material in order to be used in rare event searches.

This work started as a joint academia and company research project with the aim of finding new applications for domestically sourced volcanic products and related waste (pumice, lapillus, zeolitic tuff and volcanic debris from Tessennano and Arlena quarry) by creating a database of secondary volcanic raw materials and their intrinsic characteristics to help industry replace virgin materials and enhance circularity. In this context, accurate chemical, mineralogical, morphological, granulometric and thermal characterizations were performed. Based on the results presented, it can be concluded that due to their lightness, these materials can be used in the design and preparation of lightweight aggregates for agronomic purposes or in the construction field. Furthermore, due to their aluminosilicate nature and amorphous fraction, pumice and lapillus can play the role of precursor or activator for geopolymer preparation. With its porous nature, zeolitic tuff can be exploited for flue gas treatment. Due to the presence of feldspathic phase (sanidine), these materials can be used in tile production as a fluxing component, and with their pozzolanic activity and calcium content, they have application in the binder field as supplementary cementitious material or as aggregates.

A unique historical architecture was created at Shuri Castle ( Shuri-jo ) in the Ryukyu Islands by its “Kawara” roof tiles. After the 13th and 14th centuries, Kawara tiles were introduced to the Ryukyu Islands from several regions, including China, Korea, and mainland Japan, and evolved shapes and patterns that are unique to this island region. However, the transition of some internal features, such as the chemical components and microstructure, had not been analyzed. This study used a multi-faceted approach for such internal data and non-destructive quantitative methods to propose a new perspective on the evolution of historical Ryukyuan Kawara. We analyzed two styles of Ryukyuan Kawara from the 13th to 15th centuries and found that the material processing and firing conditions of the two styles were very similar, even though it had been suggested that they had different origins. A quantitative analysis of tiles from the 16th to 19th centuries revealed a transition in color tone to red, leading to the modern traditional Ryukyuan tiles; traces of changes in firing conditions were also found along with this transition. Finally, the study revealed that the evolution of Ryukyuan Kawara consisted of changed factors, e.g. surface color, and unchanged factors, e.g. paste density. Previous archaeological studies mainly focused on changing external characteristics, such as form and pattern; however, our analysis showed that the internal features changed, while the elemental composition and paste density remained constant from the appearance of the roof tiles until the 19th century. We propose that this is related to different responses of individual factors to external stressors, such as the social context, which may be common to other archaeological artifacts as well. Our study provides a new perspective on the evolution of Ryukyuan Kawara and presents a different discussion of and methods for the chronological study of material culture.

Use of conventional material such as cement, sand and gravel for the production of concrete has increased their demand and so created shortage of material and escalated the cost. In this study the locally available waste materials like Saw dust and Brick Ballast are used to partially replace the river sand and gravels respectively to produce light weight and low cost concrete with optimum strength. The different combinations of concrete with 4%, 8% and 12% Saw Dust (SD) and 8%, 16% and 24% Brick Ballast (BB) are being used and compared with normal concrete of M30 grade, where partial replacement of river sand and coarse aggregates are done by saw dust and brick ballast respectively. Concrete is tested for density, workability and compressive strength and a comparative analysis is done in terms of their physical properties and cost savings. It has been observed from the study that on increase in percentage of sawdust and brick ballast in concrete lead to a corresponding reduction in workability and compressive strength. The optimum mix founded is with 4% of sawdust and 24% of Brick ballast having compressive strength of 32.13 N/sq. mm with the weight reduction of 10.54% and the cost reduction of 5.46%. This optimum mix concrete can be used for lean concrete works like PCC in foundation, Flooring, Tile making. This research will not only enrich the domain but will also be very helpful in sustainable development of the nation.

The ability of two mass spectrometric methods, surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (SALDI-TOF-MS) and direct analysis in real time (DART-MS), to detect the presence of seven common explosives (six nitro-organic- and one peroxide-type) in spiked latent fingermarks has been examined. It was found that each explosive could be detected with nanogram sensitivity for marks resulting from direct finger contact with a glass probe by DART-MS or onto stainless steel target plates using SALDI-TOF-MS for marks pre-dusted with one type of commercial black magnetic powder. These explosives also could be detected in latent marks lifted from six common surfaces (paper, plastic bag, metal drinks can, wood laminate, adhesive tape and white ceramic tile) whereas no explosive could be detected in equivalent pre-dusted marks on the surface of a commercial lifting tape by the DART-MS method due to high background interference from the tape material. The presence of TNT and Tetryl could be detected in pre-dusted latent fingermarks on a commercial lifting tape for up to 29 days sealed and stored under ambient conditions.

This study aims to determine the growth and production of rice in various planting systems and types of liquid organic fertilizer. The research was conducted in Rijang Panua Village, Kulo District, Sidenreng Rappang Regency from May to August 2016. The research was conducted based on a split plot design with main plot set was planting system consisted of three levels, namely: the tile planting system (20 cm × 20 cm), the legowo planting system 4:1 (40 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm), and 2:1 legowo planting system (40 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm). Subplot was type of liquid organic fertilizer made from three types of raw material, namely Gliricidia tree leaves, banana weevils, and Gliricidia leaves + banana weevil. The results show that there was a significant interaction effect between the two treatments on parameters of plant height, number of grains per panicle, production per plot and production per hectare. The combination of 2:1 legowo planting system and the liquid organic fertilizer made from Gliricidia leaves + banana weevil gave the highest yields on production per hectare (5.55 ton.ha −1 ). Highest number of productive tillers and an earlier flowering age were observed in the 2:1 legowo planting system (32.26 tillers and 60 days after sowing).

The aim of the study was to produce a design research method that aims to produce learning trajectories on comparative material based on the Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Approach. Design research through three stages, namely preliminary design, teaching experiment, and retrospective analysis was chosen to achieve the research objectives by designing hypothetical learning trajectory. This alleged learning trajectory was tested on 32 students in grade VII of SMP 30 Palembang. The instruments used in this study were recording devices, written test sheets; field notes sheets and questionnaire sheets. The results showed that a series of activities provided were able to stimulate informal knowledge and explore students' prerequisite knowledge as a bridge in understanding the comparison of values and turning values. The activity of drawing parts of objects to be intact stimulates students to the knowledge of comparative concepts and to the context of tangram problems students are able to model and represent problems. Furthermore, strategies used by students gradually developed into more formal mathematics where the area model was used as a model of the comparative situation of the tangram and a model for more formal reasoning such as a comparison strategy, in dividing the tangram image, as well as the multiplication of comparisons of values and turns value in solving the problem of completion of a job in the installation of tile / marble floor of the house.

Comprehensive pyrolysis models that are integral to computational fire codes have improved significantly over the past decade as the demand for improved predictive capabilities has increased. High fidelity pyrolysis models may improve the design of engineered materials for better fire response, the design of the built environment, and may be used in forensic investigations of fire events. A major limitation to widespread use of comprehensive pyrolysis models is the large number of parameters required to fully define a material and the lack of effective methodologies for measurement of these parameters, especially for complex materials. The work presented here details a methodology used to characterize the pyrolysis of a low-pile carpet tile, an engineered composite material that is common in commercial and institutional occupancies. The studied material includes three distinct layers of varying composition and physical structure. The methodology utilized a comprehensive pyrolysis model (ThermaKin) to conduct inverse analyses on data collected through several experimental techniques. Each layer of the composite was individually parameterized to identify its contribution to the overall response of the composite. The set of properties measured to define the carpet composite were validated against mass loss rate curves collected at conditions outside the range of calibration conditions to demonstrate the predictive capabilities of the model. The mean error between the predicted curve and the mean experimental mass loss rate curve was calculated as approximately 20% on average for heat fluxes ranging from 30 to 70 kW·m−2, which is within the mean experimental uncertainty.

Fillers have been widely used in the rubber industry for many applications such as tile floor, vehicle tire, etc. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is one of the important inorganic powders and it is widely used as filler in order to reduce the cost in rubber industry. The objective of this study is to investigate physical and mechanical properties of the rubber composites with CaCO3 powder. We studied the CaCO3 additive in natural rubber (NR) with 25, 50, 75 and 100 parts per hundred rubber (phr). The effect of CaCO3 on the properties of rubber composite, such as Mooney viscosity, bound rubber, Mullins effect and Payne effect, was investigated. The result of Mullins effect of rubber composite filled with CaCO3 is in good agreement with the result of bound rubber: higher bound rubber leads to higher stress to pull the rubber composites. The Payne effect shows that the value of different storage moduli (ΔG') of rubber compound filled with 25 phr CaCO3 is the lowest due to weaker filler network. While, the NR supplemented with 100 phr CaCO3 represents more significant ΔG' with the strain increasing. This type of material could be applied for tailoring the properties of rubber products.

The impact that construction has on sustainability as a relevant consumer of materials is well known, especially with regard to cement, which contributes to high CO2 emissions. It is well known that in tile adhesives, cement add positive technical contributes, supporting tensile adhesion, especially after water immersion and freeze–thaw cycles. On the other hand, it is also known that that it is possible to replace Portland cement with alternative sources, such as blast furnace slag, fly and bottom ashes, or other pozzolanic materials. Even so, other materials can be also used to contribute to additional performance. This work intends to prove that using recycled materials or by-products is not just a potential way to replace existing materials, improving environmental sustainability, but also contributes additional value to mortars, such as cement-based tile adhesives. Different recycled waste materials are introduced to a cement-based tile adhesive and the evaluation of properties according to EN 12004 is conducted. The results show how the introduction of recycled rubber can contribute to improve the workability of a tile adhesive, acting as a lightweight aggregate. Moreover, it can contribute to reducing the dynamic elasticity modulus; thus, it has a potential contribution to reduce global tensions in tiling systems, and the adhesion results are maintained by the introduction of slag, another recycled material. The weight reduction reduces mortar consumption, one of the main targets to support indicated strategy and justify a more sustainable performance. The results indicate that the introduction of rubber and slag provide good technical and mechanical performance for the mortars, as well as excellent workability.