In this work we report the role of thickness on electrochromic behavior of nickel oxide (NiO) films deposited by e-beam evaporation at room temperature on ITO-coated glass. The structure and morphology of films with thicknesses between 100 and 500 nm were analyzed and then correlated with electrochemical response and transmittance modulation when immersed in 0.5 M LiClO4–PC electrolyte. The NiO exhibits an anodic coloration, reaching for the thickest film a transmittance modulation of 66% between colored and bleached state, at 630 nm, with a color efficiency of 55 cm2 C−1. Very fast switch between states was obtained, where coloration and bleaching times are 3.6 s cm−2 and 1.4 s cm−2, respectively.

In 1994 fib Commission 6: Prefabrication edited a successful Planning and Design Handbook that ran to approximately 45,000 copies and was published in Spanish and German.Nearly 20 years later Bulletin 74 brings that first publication up to date. It offers a synthesis of the latest structural design knowledge about precast building structures against the background of 21st century technological innovations in materials, production and construction. With it, we hope to help architects and engineers achieve a full understanding of precast concrete building structures, the possibilities they offer and their specific design philosophy. It was principally written for non-seismic structures.

The handbook contains eleven chapters, each dealing with a specific aspect of precast building structures.
The first chapter of the handbook highlights best practice opportunities that will enable architects, design engineers and contractors to work together towards finding efficient solutions, which is something unique to precast concrete buildings.
The second chapter offers basic design recommendations that take into account the possibilities, restrictions and advantages of precast concrete, along with its detailing, manufacture, transport, erection and serviceability stages.
Chapter three describes the precast solutions for the most common types of buildings such as offices, sports stadiums, residential buildings, hotels, industrial warehouses and car parks. Different application possibilities are explored to teach us which types of precast units are commonly used in all those situations.
Chapter four covers the basic design principles and systems related to stability. Precast concrete structures should be designed according to a specific stability concept, unlike cast in-situ structures.
Chapter five discusses structural connections.
Chapters six to nine address the four most commonly used systems or subsystems of precast concrete in buildings, namely, portal and skeletal structures, wall-frame structures, floor and roof structures and architectural concrete facades.
In chapter ten the design and detailing of a number of specific construction details in precast elements are discussed, for example, supports, corbels, openings and cutouts in the units, special features related to the detailing of the reinforcement, and so forth.
Chapter eleven gives guidelines for the fire design of precast concrete structures. The handbook concludes with a list of references to good literature on precast concrete construction.

O desenvolvimento da engenharia de estruturas tem tido grandes avanços nas últimas décadas, baseados em novos meios de cálculo e na investigação em novos materiais e tecnologias a eles associadas. Por sua vez, as atividades de reparação e reforço têm vindo a incrementar devido ao envelhecimento e à degradação das estruturas de betão, o que consequentemente tem dado origem ao aparecimento de novos materiais e tecnologias de reparação e reforço de estruturas. A utilização destes novos materiais na construção tem vindo a substituir outros materiais e técnicas existentes, requerendo, no entanto, mais estudos sobre o seu real comportamento quer em termos de caracteristicas mecânicas quer em termos de durabilidade.

The skull-bone quadrate in nonavian theropods is very diverse morphologically alongside the disparity of the group as a whole. However this disparity has been underestimated for taxonomic purposes. In order to evaluate the phylogenetic potential and investigate the evolutionary transformations of the quadrate, we conducted a Catalano-Goloboff phylogenetic morphometric analysis as well as a cladistic analysis using 98 discrete quadrate related characters. The cladistic analysis provides a fully resolved tree mirroring to some degree the classification of nonavian theropods. The quadrate morphology by its own provides a wealth of data with strong phylogenetic signal and allows inference of major trends in the evolution of this bone. Important synapomorphies include: for Abelisauroidea, a lateral ramus extending to the ectocondyle; for Tetanurae, the absence of the lateral process; for Spinosauridae, a medial curvature of the ventral part of the pterygoid ramus occurring just above the mandibular articulation; for Avetheropoda, an anterior margin of the pterygoid flange formed by a roughly parabolic margin; and for Tyrannosauroidea, a semi-oval pterygoid flange shape in medial view. The Catalano-Goloboff phylogenetic morphometric analysis reveals two main morphotypes of the mandibular articulation of the quadrate linked to function. The first morphotype, characterized by an anteroposteriorly broad mandibular articulation with two ovoid/subcircular condyles roughly subequal in size, is found in Ceratosauria, Tyrannosauroidea and Oviraptorosauria. This morphotype allows a very weak displacement of the mandible laterally. The second morphotype is characterized by an elongate and anteroposteriorly narrow mandibular articulation and a long and parabolic/sigmoid ectocondyle. Present in Megalosauroidea, Carcharodontosauridae and Dromaeosauridae, this morphotype permits the lower jaw rami to be displaced laterally when the mouth opened.

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Gravity loads can affect a reinforced concrete structure’s response to seismic actions, however, traditional procedures for testing the beam behaviour do not take this effect into consideration. An experimental campaign was carried out in order to assess the influence of the gravity load on RC beam connection to the column subjected to cyclic loading. The experiments included the imposition of a conventional quasi-static test protocol based on the imposition of a reverse cyclic displacement history and of an alternative cyclic test procedure starting from the gravity load effects. The test results are presented, compared and analysed in this paper. The imposition of a cyclic test procedure that included the gravity loads effects on the RC beam ends reproduces the demands on the beams’ critical zones more realistically than the traditional procedure. The consideration of the vertical load effects in the test procedure led to an accumulation of negative (hogging) deformation. This phenomenon is sustained with the behaviour of a portal frame system under cyclic loads subject to a significant level of the vertical load, leading to the formation of unidirectional plastic hinges. In addition, the hysteretic behaviour of the RC beam ends tested was simulated numerically using the nonlinear structural analysis software – OpenSees. The beam–column model simulates the global element behaviour very well, as there is a reasonable approximation to the hysteretic loops obtained experimentally.

Goal-oriented Requirements Engineering approaches have become popular in the Requirements Engineering community as they provide expressive model elements for requirements elicitation and analysis. However, as a common challenge, they are still struggling when it comes to managing the accidental complexity of their models. In this paper, we provide a set of metrics, which are formally specified and have tool support, to measure and analyze the complexity of goal models, in particular i* models. The aim is to identify refactoring opportunities to improve the modularity of those models, and consequently reduce their complexity. We evaluate these metrics by applying them to a set of well-known case studies from industry and academia. Our results allow the identification of refactoring opportunities in the evaluated models.

Sandstone building stones are important in the building elements of Portuguese monuments, particularly in the western and southern regions. Alveolization due to salt crystallization was the most important degradation pattern found in the old sandstone façades of St. Leonardo’s Church, a Portuguese monument built in Atouguia da Baleia village in the Middle Age. Its sandstone façades have a widespread distribution of deep and large alveolization patterns mainly on portals and vaults that appeared as a result of the past and present vicinity of seashore. In this paper a summary of conservation interventions carried out in the past century in St. Leonardo’s Church is presented, as well as a summary of the studies carried out in the last decade. Then the degradation patterns on the sandstone walls of St. Leonard’s Church are shown and finally the evolution of the alveolization occurred on the sandstone walls over the last sixty to seventy years is analysed. Visual inspection of sandstone walls is compared with a survey performed by laser scanning, which seems to be a powerful technology to carry out 3D geometric modelling of the building elements of stone monuments and also the 3D mapping of stone degradation patterns.

Sandstones are very important in the building elements of world’s historical and cultural heritage. The façades of St. Leonard’s church in Atouguia da Baleia village in western region of Portugal are an outstanding example of the effect of alveolization on going for several centuries. In Middle ages there was an harbour and a sodium chloride rich environment near this church was responsible for this significant stone degradation pattern.
A new approach of consolidating products application on stone walls façades based on Karsten pipe using total head to allow full absorption of stone was followed.
Experimental research, based on physical and mechanical tests, was carried out on selected representative samples of a variety of sandstones on monuments treated with ethyl silicates in order to assess the effectiveness and harmfulness of these treatments.
The comparison of results between traditional immersion applications and Karsten pipe’s based procedure on stone monument indicate the potential viability of this new approach when difficult conditions of consolidating products’ absorption occurs on stone monuments.