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The current method of steel bar soil nail construction is both labor intensive as well as expensive and many engineers are considering the use of new soil nail materials. In the present pilot test, an innovative soil nail is constructed by light weight high strength glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) pipe with the Tube a' Manchette grouting technique. It is found that this new soil nail system can be handled easily on sites with difficult access. Extensive laboratory as well as field tests were carried out on the GFRP pipe nails and the grouted soil mass and numerical modeling of a field test was performed. The installation of the GFRP pipe, laboratory, and field test results that were carried out in Hong Kong and Korea are discussed in this paper. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0899-1561(2009)21:3(93) CE Database subject headings: Soil nailing; Fiber reinforced polymers; Hong Kong; Korea; Material properties.

A soil reinforcement system using the combination of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) pipe and pressure grouting has been developed by a Korean company. The system is being adopted as slope stabilization measures in Hong Kong. Individual GFRP pipes were designed and installed as soil nails with the exception that two-stage pressure grouting was applied instead of gravity grouting. A full-scale field evaluation on constructability and in situ performance of the system was performed in Hong Kong. The performance of the constructed nails was evaluated by pullout tests. The construction procedure, site adaptations of the Korean product made in Hong Kong, field test procedure, and performance of the constructed soil nails are reported in this paper. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(2007)21:1(26) CE Database subject headings: Glass fiber; Fiber reinforced polymers; Soil nailing; Soil stabilization; Pull-out resistance; Hong Kong; Field investigations.

Analyzing the effect of UV LED modules on disinfecting ballast water using UV-vis spectroscopy. Ballast water is seawater that fills a ship to maintain its balance. Annually, about 10 billion [...]

We cloned complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding the arginine vasotocin receptor (AVT-R) from the kidney of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). Olive flounder AVT-R cDNA consists of 1155 bp, and encodes a protein of 384 amino acids. To investigate the stress responses and osmoregulatory abilities of olive flounder in changing salinities (35, 17.5, 8.75, 4, and 0 psu), we examined the expression of AVT-R, prolactin (PRL), and PRL receptor (PRL-R) messenger RNA (mRNA) in osmoregulatory organs using quantitative real time PCR (QPCR). AVT-R and PRL-R were expressed in the gill, kidney, and intestine, whereas PRL mRNA was expressed only in the pituitary gland. In addition, we measured the levels of plasma glucose, cortisol, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). The mRNA expression and plasma parameters increased in hypoosmotic environments. Furthermore, osmolality decreased significantly according to salinity concentration decreased. These results suggest that AVT-R, PRL, and PRL-R mRNA play important roles in the hormonal regulation of osmoregulatory organs, thereby improving the osmoregulatory ability of olive flounder in hypoosmotic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]