High performance concrete (HPC) bridge decks are prone to premature cracking if movement is restrained. Internal curing (IC) can reduce shrinkage cracking in concrete structures, thus improving their performance and service life. However, there is very limited information available in the literature on the possible extension of service life due to internal curing. This paper addresses this ques...

This paper proposes a new approach for gauging the performance of branch managers of a financial institution by defining a Measure of Internal Performance (MIP). Our proposal is different from others existing in the literature in two main aspects. Firstly, it is consistent with the requirements of internal evaluation because it uses the managers’ real preferences instead of assuming them. Secon...

This paper investigates the determinants of countries’ export performance looking in particular at the role of international product market linkages. We begin with a novel decomposition of the growth in countries’ exports into the contribution from increases in external demand and from improved internal supply-side conditions. Building on the results of this decomposition, we move on to an econ...

The use of multicast traffic as measurement probes is efficient and effective to infer network-internal characteristics. We propose a new statistical approach to infer network internal link loss performance from end-to-end measurements. Incorporating with the procedure of topology inference, we present an inference algorithm that can infer loss rates of individual links in the network when it i...

In the twenty-first century, most high-performance concretes, and many other ordinary concretes, are now based on blended cements that contain silica fume, slag, and/or fly ash additions. Because the chemical shrinkage accompanying the pozzolanic and hydraulic reactions of these mineral admixtures is generally much greater than that accompanying conventional portland cement hydration, these ble...

The concept of homojunction infernal photoemission far-infrared (FIR) detectors has been successfully demonstrated using forward biased Si p-i-n diodes at 4.2 K. The basic structure consists of a heavily doped IR absorber layer and an intrinsic (or lightly doped) layer. An interfacial workfunction between these regions defines the long-wavelength cutoff (X,) of the detector. Three types of dete...

BACKGROUND Traditional teaching concepts in medical education do not take full advantage of current information technology. We aimed to objectively determine the impact of Tablet PC enhanced training on learning experience and MKSAP® (medical knowledge self-assessment program) exam performance. METHODS In this single center, prospective, controlled study final year medical students and medica...

Education has been categorized as an intangible service industry based on the characteristics of its service activities by Christopher [3]. In order to enhance the service quality of education it is critical to attain a high degree of satisfaction of teachers, who are the internal customers, which will help to increase the degree of satisfaction of students, who are the external customers of ed...