Water content affects mortar properties and the quality of the resultant masonry, however, it is often subjectively determined by the mason by assessing workability. This lack of explicit methodology and data, can lead to lack of mortar consistency and field performance, adversely affecting full uptake of lime mortars into mainstream technology. The aim of this research is to assist develop con...

Nacre is characterized by its excellent mechanical performance due to the well-recognized "brick and mortar" structure. Many efforts have been applied to make nacre-mimicking materials, but it is still a big challenge to realize their continuous production. Here, we prepared sandwich-like building blocks of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-coated graphene, and achieved high-nanofiller-content kilomete...

The static conversion from brick-and-mortar retailing to the hybrid click-and-mortar business model is studied from the perspective of distribution logistics. Retailers run warehouses and brick-and-mortar stores to meet the demand of their walk-in customers. When they decide to operate on the Web as an e-tailer, also click-and-mortar stores are needed which can serve both walk-in and online cus...

This paper aims to contribute to acoustical comfort in buildings by presenting a study about the polymer waste micronized poly (ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA) to be used in mortars for impact sound insulation in subfloor systems. The evaluation method included physical, mechanical and morphological properties of the mortar developed with three distinct thicknesses designs (3, 5, and 7 cm) with r...

How will consumption patterns change when consumers move from brick-and-mortar to Internet markets? If consumers purchase more niche products online than at brick-andmortar stores, does this have something to do with the channel or is this solely due to selection effects: the types of consumers who decide to use the Internet channel or the types of products that consumers select to purchase onl...

Different ancient mortar samples of Pamplona’s San Cernin church have been analyzed to characterize their binder and aggregate fractions. A complete characterization has been carried out including chemical (rapid approximate analysis, soluble salts and trace elements, using traditional chemical procedures, ionic chromatography and spectrophotometry techniques), mineralogical-petrographic (struc...

The banking services sector has been rapidly transformed worldwide as a result of the impact of competitive forces, technological innovation and deregulation. Media convergence, rapidly evolving mobile and wireless technologies and the rapid diffusion of the Internet have opened up strategic business opportunities in the financial sector. With deregulation removing barriers to entry, an increas...

We investigate the performance of graphene oxide (GO) in improving mechanical properties of cement composites. A polycarboxylate superplasticizer was used to improve the dispersion of GO flakes in the cement. The mechanical strength of graphene-cement nanocomposites containing 0.1-2 wt% GO and 0.5 wt% superplasticizer was measured and compared with that of cement prepared without GO. We found t...

This paper presents an experimental study on use of hot-melt polyamide (HMP) to prepare mortar specimens with improved crack healing and engineering properties. The role of HMP in the crack repairing of cement mortar subjected to several rounds of heat treatment was investigated. Compatibility between HMP and hydraulic cement was investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transfor...