HYPOTHESIS The clinical syndromes caused by bile collections in the abdomen span a wide spectrum and their natural history and risks are not fully appreciated. DESIGN Analysis of 179 patients with bile fistulas after cholecystectomy, of which 154 patients had undrained bile collections. OBJECTIVE To characterize the manifestations and natural history of abdominal bile collections. SETTING...

the dynamic probe is an effective tool used in site investigation. it is more economic than the use of direct drilling, particularly in explorations with moderate depth. this paper presents an experimental study to investigate the capability of using dynamic probing to evaluate the shear strength and compaction percent of fine soil. a series of dynamic probe tests were carried out at 6 differen...

The mechanical properties of dewatered, anaerobically digested sewage sludge were determined from soil laboratory tests. The sludge material is largely composed of organic clay sized-particles, a sizable fraction of which is in an active state of biological digestion which can continue over many years under field conditions. Moderately digested sludge material was found to have a typical specif...

Biochar may improve soil hydrology by altering soil porosity, density, hydraulic conductivity, and water-holding capacity. These properties are associated with the grain size distributions of both soil and biochar, and therefore may change as biochar weathers. Here we report how freeze-thaw (F-T) cycling impacts the grain size of pine, mesquite, miscanthus, and sewage waste biochars under two d...

Triaxial experiments show that samples of fault gouge deform distinctly differently than those from the adjacent fault damage zone (e.g., Chester and Logan, 1986). Rock samples in the damage zone follow a characteristic elastic-brittle behavior, whereas fault gouge readily compacts and deforms in a more ductile manner. In order to explain the apparent weakness of large plate bounding faults suc...

Rate effects are examined in the steady pore pressure distribution induced as a result of penetration of standard and ball penetrometers. The incompressible flow field, which develops around the penetrometer is used to define the approximate soil velocity field local to the penetrometer tip. This prescribes the Lagrangian framework for the migration of the fluid saturated porous medium, definin...

the deformation and stiffness characteristics of a cemented gravely sand was investigated using triaxial equipment. the triaxial tests were conducted in both dry and saturated undrained conditions. artificially cemented samples are prepared using gypsum plaster as the cementing agent. the plaster was mixed with the base soil at the weight percentages of 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6. the applied confining ...

A collaborative research programme between University of Bolton and Bradford University is investigating the effect of surplus carpet fibres on the strength as well as other important geotechnical properties of cohesive soils. Initial work concentrates on the manner in which the fibres affect the quick undrained properties of the reinforced soil. Four different surplus carpet fibre types are be...