It is well known that the performance of hot mix asphalt (HMA) in service life is closely related to a proper aggregate gradation. A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the effects of nominal maximum aggregate size (NMAS) on the performance of stone matrix asphalt (SMA). The volumetric characteristics and performance properties obtained from wheel tracking tests, permeability test, be...

When a composite of nonlinear particles suspended in a host medium is subjected to a sinusoidal electric field, the electrical response in the composite will generally consist of alternating current (ac) fields at frequencies of higher-order harmonics. The situation becomes more interesting when the suspended particles are graded, with a spatial variation in the dielectric properties. The local...

Human embryonic stem cell research can bring about major biomedical breakthroughs and thus contribute enormously to human welfare, yet it raises serious moral problems because it involves using human embryos for experiment. The "moral status of the human embryo" remains the core of such debates. Three different positions regarding the moral status of the human embryo can be categorised: the "al...

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of different gradations of noise reduction (NR) algorithm in hearing aids, through acoustical and perceptual measures. Methods: The output of the hearing aid with NR at three gradations (minimum, medium and maximum) and without NR, at 0 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR) across three types of noise (cafeteria, speech babble, and traffic n...

Mammographically-detected breast arterial calcifications (BAC) are considered to be an incidental finding without clinical importance since they are not associated with increased risk of breast cancer. The goal of this article is to review existing evidence that the presence of BAC on mammography correlates with several (but not all) traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and wit...

Interpretation of ground penetrating radar data from the 3.7 Ma old Roter Kamm impact crater, together with results of petrographic and sedimentologic analysis of sediment samples, indicates that --40 m or more of slope sensitive degradation f the rim was accompanied by reduction of wall slopes well below the angle of repose and nearly complete rosion of ejecta ,urn •uuu,u the crater. •,my u.c ...

The effective linear and third-order nonlinear susceptibility of graded metallic films with weak nonlinearity have been investigated. Due to the simple geometry, we were able to derive exactly the local field inside the graded structures having a Drude dielectric gradation profile. We calculated the effective linear dielectric constant and third-order nonlinear susceptibility. We investigated t...

Artificial muscle activation by electrical stimulation of motor nerves is characterized by poor force gradation and a relative fast onset of muscle fatigue. Force gradation would improve and the onset of fatigue would be delayed by primarily activating the small-diameter motoneurons. In this study the effects of selective small fiber activation stimulation was investigated in an acute rabbit mo...