Software transactional memory (STM) is a promising programming model that adapts many concepts borrowed from the databases world to control concurrent accesses to main memory (RAM) locations. This paper aims at discussing how to support apparently irreversible operations within a memory transaction.

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We prove higher-order asymptotic formulas for determinants and traces of finite block Toeplitz matrices generated by matrix functions belonging to generalized Hölder spaces with characteristic functions from the Bari-Stechkin class. We follow the approach of Böttcher and Silbermann and generalize their results for symbols in standard Hölder spaces.

A ligação pilar-fundação tem um papel fundamental no comportamento das estruturas pré-fabricadas, em particular, na presença de acções horizontais, como a acção dos sismos e do vento, que introduzem esforços elevados na base dos pilares. Um dos sistemas de ligação pilar-fundação usados em estruturas pré-fabricadas consiste em deixar na extremidade inferior dos pilares armaduras salientes que são introduzidas em negativos executados nas fundações. Estes negativos são posteriormente injectados com grout para garantir a ligação. No presente trabalho foram estudadas diferentes soluções de negativos para ligação das armaduras do pilar à fundação, tendo sido realizados ensaios monotónicos para analisar o seu comportamento. Nesta comunicação apresentam-se e discutem-se os resultados obtidos da análise experimental efectuada.

A ligação pilar-fundação tem um papel fundamental no comportamento das estruturas pré-fabricadas,
em particular, na presença de acções horizontais, como a acção dos sismos e do vento. Um dos sistemas de ligação pilar-fundação usados em estruturas pré-fabricadas consiste em deixar na extremidade inferior dos pilares armaduras salientes que são introduzidas em negativos executados nas fundações, sejam elas sapatas ou maciços de encabeçamento de estacas. Estes negativos são posteriormente injectados com “grout” para garantir a ligação. Foram estudados diferentes soluções de negativos para ligação das armaduras do pilar na fundação. Foram realizados ensaios monotónicos e cíclicos, para analisar não só o comportamento às acções estáticas mas também para a acção sísmica. No presente trabalho apresentam-se os resultados obtidos com a análise experimental efectuada. O estudo realizado permite apresentar recomendações para projecto e quais os tipos de ligações com melhor desempenho.

The progressive collapse of structures generally results in the loss of human lives. Experience shows that flat slab structures are very sensitive to progressive collapse, which may cause serious accidents if special detailing is not provided. The post-punching behaviour of a column-supported slab is decisive in the progressive collapse development. This work presents the experimental research carried out to study the post-punching behaviour of prestressed concrete flat slabs. Six reduced-scale prestressed concrete flat slab models were tested. The tests were carried out in two different phases. In the first phase the models were loaded up to failure by punching. Afterwards, the models were loaded again to study the post-punching behaviour changes caused by the presence of unbonded, prestressed tendons and the influences of their distance to the column.

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Database systems are a key component behind many of today’s computer systems. As a consequence, it is crucial that database systems provide correct and continuous service despite unpredictable circumstances, such as software bugs or attacks. This paper presents the design of Byzantium, a Byzantine fault-tolerant database replication middleware that provides snapshot isolation (SI) semantics. SI is very popular because it allows increased concurrency when compared to serializability, while providing similar behavior for typical workloads. Thus, Byzantium improves on existing proposals by allowing increased concurrency and not relying on any centralized component. Our middleware can be used with off-the-shelf database systems and it is built on top of an existing BFT library.

There is a sustained interest both from theoretical and from practical points of view to understand the isothermal charging and the isothermal discharging currents in dielectrics. The measured currents are analyzed either in terms of polarization mechanisms or in terms of charge injection/extraction at the metal-dielectric interface and the conduction current through the dielectric material. As long as we do not know the nature of the origin of the current, it is not clear what information we can get by analyzing the experimental data. We propose to measure the open-circuit isothermal charging and discharging currents just to overpass the difficulties related to the analysis of the conduction mechanisms in dielectric materials. We demonstrate that besides a polarization current, there is a current related with charge injection or extraction at the metal-dielectric contact and a reverse current related to the charge trapped into the superficial trap states of the dielectric and that can jump at the interface in a reverse way. An analytical expression for the current is proposed. By fitting the experimental data to this analytical equation, two important parameters can be determined: (i) the highest value of the relaxation time for the polarization mechanisms still involved into the transient current and (ii) the height of the potential barrier W-0 at the metal-dielectric interface at the initial time when the step voltage is applied. The value obtained for Al-polyethylene terephthalate interface is (0.43 +/- 0.02) eV. For a charging voltage of 220 V there are 6x10(14) trapped electrons/m(2). (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

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Software transactional memory is a promising programming model that adapts many concepts borrowed from the databases world to control concurrent accesses to main memory (RAM). This paper discusses how to support revertible operations, such as memory allocation and release, within software libraries that will be used in software memory transactional contexts. The proposal is based in the extension of the transaction life cycle state diagram with new states associated to the execution of user-defined handlers. The proposed approach is evaluated in terms of functionality and performance by way of a use case study and performance tests. Results demonstrate that the proposal and its current implementation are flexible, generic and efficient

Software transactional memory (STM) is a promising programming model that adapts many concepts borrowed from the databases world to control concurrent accesses to main memory (RAM) locations. This paper aims at discussing how to support apparently irreversible operations within a memory transaction.

The possibility of using fly ash and shale as alternative raw materials for the production of structural ceramics was investigated. Fly ash is a by-product from coal-burning power plants, and shale is a sedimentary rock that if ground finely enough can exhibit a clay-like plasticity. Ceramic samples containing 10-50 wt% fly ash were formed from mechanical mixing of both kinds of powders that were packed and sintered in the temperature range 950-1200°C It was verified that powders with larger fly ash content exhibited lower packing density resulting in compacts with a lower sintered density. Although an increase in fly ash content was associated to a larger presence of porosity in the sintered samples, as confirmed by microstructural analysis, all studied compositions when sintered at the highest temperatures exhibited satisfactory values for water absorption (< 10%), for flexural strength (20-64 MPa) and for hardness (20-30 GPa) indicating that they have potential to be applied in the production of structural ceramics.

Lately the electrical and dielectric properties of cork and some cork-based materials (commercial and non-commercial) have been studied in order to understand their ability to store electrical charge. The main problem found so far is related to the water content in cork, only of a few % weight. but large enough to influence greatly the conductivity of cork and, consequently, the charge storage capability. To overcome this problem cork has been combined with hydrophobic materials. In this work a commercial wax (paraffin wax) was used to produce a cork/paraffin composite by hot pressing. After milled and mixed natural cork. TetraPak (R) containers waste and paraffin were pressed to make plaques of a new composite. Different concentrations of cork. TetraPak (R) and paraffin, different granules sire, different temperature and pressure were used to produce the samples. The electrical properties of the new composite were measured by the isothermal charging and discharging current method and the results compared to previously ones obtained for natural cork and other derivative products. The new composite has shown to have lower conductivity than the commercial agglomerate. which makes it a better material for charge storage.

Lately the electrical and dielectric properties of cork and some cork-based materials (commercial and non-commercial) have been studied in order to understand their ability to store electrical charge. The main problem found so far is related to the water content in cork, only of a few % weight. but large enough to influence greatly the conductivity of cork and, consequently, the charge storage capability. To overcome this problem cork has been combined with hydrophobic materials. In this work a commercial wax (paraffin wax) was used to produce a cork/paraffin composite by hot pressing. After milled and mixed natural cork. TetraPak (R) containers waste and paraffin were pressed to make plaques of a new composite. Different concentrations of cork. TetraPak (R) and paraffin, different granules sire, different temperature and pressure were used to produce the samples. The electrical properties of the new composite were measured by the isothermal charging and discharging current method and the results compared to previously ones obtained for natural cork and other derivative products. The new composite has shown to have lower conductivity than the commercial agglomerate. which makes it a better material for charge storage.

Lately the electrical and dielectric properties of cork and some cork-based materials (commercial and non-commercial) have been studied in order to understand their ability to store electrical charge. The main problem found so far is related to the water content in cork, only of a few % weight. but large enough to influence greatly the conductivity of cork and, consequently, the charge storage capability. To overcome this problem cork has been combined with hydrophobic materials. In this work a commercial wax (paraffin wax) was used to produce a cork/paraffin composite by hot pressing. After milled and mixed natural cork. TetraPak (R) containers waste and paraffin were pressed to make plaques of a new composite. Different concentrations of cork. TetraPak (R) and paraffin, different granules sire, different temperature and pressure were used to produce the samples. The electrical properties of the new composite were measured by the isothermal charging and discharging current method and the results compared to previously ones obtained for natural cork and other derivative products. The new composite has shown to have lower conductivity than the commercial agglomerate. which makes it a better material for charge storage.

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