In this article, we introduce the excavation of an iron smelting site at Chadiping, Pengshui County, southeast Chongqing, China. Archaeological survey and excavation were carried out in 2012 and ...2014, which a total of 21 furnaces were surveyed and recorded in 2012 and five were excavated in 2014. The Chadiping site is dated to the 15th–17th centuries according to the radiocarbon dating analysis and the local pottery assemblage. According to the furnace and site structures and the results of preliminary analysis of collected ores and slags, the iron ore used was possibly hematite and fueled by charcoal, the function of the site was possibly only to produce pig iron ingots, and the iron ingots were likely to be sold or transported to other areas to make different objects. The discovery at the Chadiping site is the first archaeological evidence of iron smelting in Chongqing, and would provide great contribution to the study of iron smelting and production in Chongqing, and the history of local economic and social structure.
This paper presents three-dimensional finite element analyses conducted to optimise the instrumentation plan for monitoring the structural performance of reinforced concrete three-sided culverts ...(TSCs). Numerical models were developed for three TSCs with spans of 7.3, 10.4, and 13.5 m to establish the anticipated range of measurements. The TSCs were instrumented with 30 pressure cells and 56 strain gauges. Comparing the numerical predictions with field measurements of the 10.4-m-span TSC verified the adequacy of simulating the concrete behaviour as linear elastic for estimating the applied earth pressures. However, such simplification would lead to underestimating the induced strains in the culvert body in case cracks develop. In addition, Class-A predictions of soil pressures on the culvert were compared with the field measurements of a 7.3-m-span TSC. The calculated soil pressures agreed well with the field measurements. The measured and calculated earth pressures suggest a vertical arching factor of 1.05 at the final backfill height. The influence of the shallow foundation geometry was investigated employing the validated numerical model. It was found that the footing geometry has no influence on the applied earth pressures. However, the calculated stresses below the footing edge on the backfill side decreased as the footing flexibility increased.
Continuous and emerging advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT)-to-Cloud applications to be induced by data pipelines and Edge ...Intelligence-based architectures. Advanced vehicular networks greatly benefit from these architectures due to the implicit functionalities that are focused on realizing the Internet of Vehicle (IoV) vision. However, IoV is susceptible to attacks, where adversaries can easily exploit existing vulnerabilities. Several attacks may succeed due to inadequate or ineffective authentication techniques. Hence, there is a timely need for hardening the authentication process through cutting-edge access control mechanisms. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based Multi-Factor authentication model that uses an embedded Digital Signature (MFBC_eDS) for vehicular clouds and Cloud-enabled IoV. Our proposed MFBC_eDS model consists of a scheme that integrates the Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML) to the Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities for a connected edge to cloud ecosystem. MFBC_eDS draws an essential comparison with the baseline authentication scheme suggested by Karla and Sood. Based on the foundations of Karla and Sood’s scheme, an embedded Probabilistic Polynomial-Time Algorithm (ePPTA) and an additional Hash function for the Pi generated during Karla and Sood’s authentication were proposed and discussed. The preliminary analysis of the proposition shows that the approach is more suitable to counter major adversarial attacks in an IoV-centered environment based on the Dolev–Yao adversarial model while satisfying aspects of the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad.
Coal is still one of the major energy sources. It is used as a reducing agent in the metallurgical industry, in the cement industry coal is a source of energy and it is still used in power ...generation. Mukah coal is characterized through chemical and mineralogical properties determinations. XRD pattern of the coal shows that it is amorphous in nature and dominated by quartz and kaolinite. Mukah coal has about total carbon 97.98 wt% with SiO sub(2,) Al sub(2) O sub(3) and Fe sub(2) O sub(3) present as the most predominant oxides. The oxides make up approximately 1.58 wt% of the coal samples. The SEM image shows basically depicts coal particles of various irregular shapes and sizes. The mineral matter was not clearly seen on the surface of the coal particle as it was supposedly embedded inside the bulk of carbonaceous matter.
This paper contains a review of beetle species (Coleoptera) described from Baltic amber. The compiled checklist contains 434 species from 149 extinct and 138 extant genera. At this moment, 90 ...families are registered. The best known and therefore most diverse families are: Staphylinidae (77 described spp.), Curculionidae (46 spp.), Carabidae (32 spp.), Scirtidae (21 spp.), Cleridae (17 spp.), Elateridae (16 spp.), Dermestidae (16 spp.) and Cerambycidae (15 spp.). Possibly, about 530 species of beetles can be additionally described from Baltic amber.
Uncertainty is a common and unavoidable problem for the design of a new energy system. As a potential power system for the next generation aircraft, the Adaptive Cycle Engine (ACE) has attracted ...attention in many aero-engine developed countries. However, the introduction of new technology and the requirement of wider adaptability bring more uncertainties to the ACE system performance design process. To better utilize the advantage of the ACE performance, a robust design methodology should be applied. This paper analyzes the source of uncertainties, studies the method of addressing these uncertainties, and presents a design architecture to direct the robust design. The results show that the increase of knowledge and application of other universal design theories are helpful to eliminate the epistemic uncertainties. The uncertainty quantification methods, such as probabilistic method and interval analysis method, can be applied to address the aleatory uncertainties. Under the direction of a wheel-shaped design architecture, the robust design of ACE system performance can be completed through the further study at different design levels and the iteration between them. This design methodology can be applied to the design process of other energy systems with many new technical characteristics.
Objective: In this research for bioactive secondary metabolites from endophytic fungal isolate CPR5, which was later identified and characterized as Aspergillus niger sp.Methods: Eight bioactive ...compounds (1-8) were isolated and purified using a series of chromatographic techniques and identified by applying 13C and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance and mass (ESI-MS spectrometry).Results: All the compounds were tested for antimicrobial activity against a wide range of human and plant pathogenic bacteria as well as fungi. These microorganisms were, Xanthomonas oryzae, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus hyicus, Bacillus sphaericus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Sclerotium rolfsii, Sclerotinia, scleratiourum, and Phoma exigua minimum inhibitory concentration value have also been determine for these microorganism.Conclusion: In this study, a total 10 endophytic fungi were isolated from the Calotropis procera, show a great antibacterial activity against 24 human pathogenic bacteria.
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