STRUCTURAL STEEL STRESS - STRAIN BEHAVIOR BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Stress-Strain Behavior of Structural Steel

Structural steel is an important construction material. It possesses attributes such as strength, stiffness, toughness, and ductility that are very desirable in modern constructions.

Strength is the ability of a material to resist stresses. It is measured in terms of the material’s yield strength, Fy , and ultimate or tensile strength, Fu. For steel, the ranges of Fy and Fu ordinarily used in constructions are 36 to 50 ksi (248 to 345 MPa) and 58 to 70 ksi (400 to 483 MPa), respectively, although higher strength steels are becoming more common.

Stiffness is the ability of a material to resist deformation. It is measured as the slope of the material’s stress-strain curve.

With reference to figure below in which uniaxial engineering stress-strain curves obtained from coupon tests for various grades of steels are shown, it is seen that the modulus of elasticity, E, does not vary appreciably for the different steel grades.

Therefore, a value of 29,000 ksi (200 GPa) is often used for design. Toughness is the ability of a material to absorb energy before failure. It is measured as the area under the material’s stress-strain curve.

As shown in the figure, most (especially the lower grade) steels possess high toughness which is suitable for both static and seismic applications. Ductility is the ability of a material to undergo large inelastic, or plastic, deformation before failure.

It is measured in terms of percent elongation or percent reduction in area of the specimen tested in uniaxial tension. For steel, percent elongation ranges from around 10 to 40 for a 2-in. (5-cm) gage length specimen.

Ductility generally decreases with increasing steel strength. Ductility is a very important attribute of steel. The ability of structural steel to deform considerably before failure by fracture allows an indeterminate structure to undergo stress redistribution. Ductility also enhances the energy absorption characteristic of the structure, which is extremely important in seismic design.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE? BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

These are the ways to Improve Credit Score. Define first what is Credit Score?

What Is Credit Scoring?
Through credit scoring, lenders try to minimize individual human judgment in the mortgage lending decision. Credit scoring data with auto loans, department store accounts, and credit cards proves that computer statistical programs can distinguish among platinum, gold, copper, lead, and plastic borrowers far better than back-office loan clerks or front office loan reps.

To create these credit scoring programs, math whizzes study the credit profiles, borrowing habits, and payback records of hundreds of thousands of people. Then they search for statistically significant correlations that tend to rate borrowers along a continuum from “walks on water” (say, 800 or higher) to “let’s pray they drown” (say, 500 or lower).

Supposedly, credit scores may range from 350 to 900, but more than 75 percent of Americans fall within the range of 600 to 800.

Credit scorers place your credit data into their computer programs and out pops a number. But they won’t tell you precisely how they calculated that figure. However, after you’ve paid your fee at myfico.com, the website info will give you some pointers on how to improve your Beacon ®-FICO® score.

To learn how much your score actually does improve (if any) over the next 12 months, you will need to pay another fee. For that cost, you get four more periodic Beacon®-FICO® reports.
Unfortunately, the information provided by FICO still doesn’t go far enough. It’s more like,“try this (really, pay us) to see what happens. ”You really can’t tell ahead of time the specific score boost that suggested changes might bring about. Nevertheless, piecing together clues from myfico.com and several helpful loan reps, here are some good tips on how to raise your credit scores:
1. Number of open credit accounts. You can have too few or too many. The optimum number probably ranges between four and six. One highly paid, credit perfect (no lates) executive I know scored 640. After closing the 6 newest of her 12 credit card accounts, her score went to 780. (But it took six months before her score climbed up to that level.)

2. Balances. Open accounts with balances reduce your score more than open accounts per se.
3. Balances/limits. Numerous accounts with balances sitting close to the limit will bring down your score.

4. Credit inquiries. Whenever someone checks your credit file, it counts against your score. However, multiple checks within, say, two weeks may not hurt as much as if it appears that you’re merely shopping different lenders for one loan. Your personal inquiries don’t affect your score.
5. Payment record. Obviously, late payments hurt your score. But, supposedly FICO doesn’t distinguish between late mortgage payments and late payments on your Visa or student loan. (Mortgage lenders, though, most certainly do care. Always pay your mortgage or rent first.)
6. Recency counts. Late payments two years ago don’t hurt as much as two months ago.
7. Black marks. Multiple lates on multiple accounts, collections, unpaid judgments, and tax liens devastate your score.

8. Kiss of death. Go straight to credit scoring purgatory if you’re within two years of a past bankruptcy discharge or a foreclosure sale. Chapter 13 bankruptcy plans and credit counseling debt management plans also count heavily and negatively.
Myfico.com also shows that some categories weigh more than others:
◆ Age of credit (15 percent)
◆ Mix of credit (10 percent)
◆ Amount of balances (30 percent)
◆ Payment history (35 percent)
◆ Recent credit inquiries (10 percent)
The above clues shed some light on the credit scoring process, but far too little. Perhaps most importantly, they do show why “perfect credit”in the sense of “no lates” does not necessarily generate the highest FICO score.

To improve your score, you must not only pay your bills on time but also manage your credit according to the likes and dislikes of the FICO (or other) credit-scoring programs.

CHARACTER AND STRENGTHENING YOUR CREDIT POWER BASIC INFORMATION

ALL ABOUT CREDIT SCORES
How To Strengthen Your Credit Power - Character Counts

Credit Score

The famous banker, J. P. Morgan, declared,“I wouldn’t loan money to a man I did not trust on all the bonds of Christendom.” Don’t you feel the same way? Well, so does your lender (seller).

You’ve got to convince the lender (seller) that you’ll honor your obligations and commitments. Your credit score provides one indicator. But, when desirable or necessary, bolster the impression this score creates with other types of written information:

1. Employer. If your lender requires a completed VOE form (verification of employment), ask your supervisor to enclose a letter that commends your dependability, integrity, and responsibility at work.

2. Credit blemishes. Explain how misplaced bills, your vacation, a move of residence, or other non-character-indicting reasons account for these lapses that you deeply regret. Even better, discuss the new bill-paying systems that you have now put in place to prevent future lapses.
3. Credit wreck. Explain a serious problem as a once-in-a lifetime, beyond-your-control event that you coped with as honorably as possible. If your lapses really were due to irresponsibility, emphasize that “you’ve learned your lesson the hard way” and now live well within your means. Put together objective evidence to support your “new you” claims.
4. Personal references. In the old days of mortgage lending, younger borrowers were awarded loans merely on the basis of family character and reputation.2 “Why I’ve known Luke Jr.’s family for 30 years,” the loan rep says. “They’re great people. Loan approved.” Now, in our big-city, automated world, personal references to lenders seldom count for much. Still, if you’ve established good rapport with people who could prove influential, it wouldn’t hurt to enlist their help.
When desirable, accent the fact that you’re a good credit risk by showing alternative documentation. Otherwise, the lender will infer your dependability only from the shading provided by your formal record of credit and consistency.

When adverse facts color too dark a picture, try to add some brighter highlights to the mix. Think. What evidence can you come up with to bolster your credit profile?
What loans or merchant accounts have you repaid on time that don’t show up in your credit file? Will your current and past landlords vouch for you? Have you consistently paid your utilities and phone bills promptly? Often, lenders will accept any or all of this alternative evidence to bolster your reliability and good character.

REAL ESTATE MARKET VALUES APPRECIATION BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Appreciation in Market Values

Over periods of 5 to 10 years, nearly all types of properties gain in value because population, jobs, incomes, and wealth (buying power) grow faster than the amount of new construction. Over the long term, more people with more money consistently push real estate prices up.

“Okay,” you retort,“but that was then and this is now. Surely prices can’t continue to increase as they have in the past?” I answer,“They can and they will.” To see the future, just weigh together these dominant trends:
1. Population growth. During the next 20 years, the population of the United States will increase by 40 million people.

2. Incomes. During the next 20 years, employees, entrepreneurs, professionals, and business owners will see their incomes rise by over 50 percent.

3. Vacation homes. During the next 20 years, at least 10 million more Americans (and foreign nationals) will choose to buy vacation homes within the United States.
4. Echo boomers. During the next 20 years, more than 60 million echo boomers (children and grandchildren of the baby boomers) will enter the housing market to buy homes.
5. Restrictions on development. During the next 20 years, zoning, environmental laws, building regulations, and land shortages will continue to restrict development in those areas where most people want to live.

6. Construction costs. During the next 20 years, the costs to construct houses (and other types of buildings) will follow their past trend line upward.
7. Immigrants and minorities. Currently only 40 percent of our fastest growing immigrant and minority groups (Hispanics, blacks, Asians) own their own homes. In contrast, more than 75 percent of whites live in homes they own.

With government programs and lender outreach efforts in full swing, during the next 20 years people in these minority and immigrant groups will continue to buy homes in record numbers. Federal, state, and local governments in cooperation with private lenders will be working hard to close the home ownership gap.
8. Investors. During the next 20 years, more than 60 million baby boomers will need a retirement income. They will increasingly turn to investment real estate to meet this need. Demand for property as an investment will continue to explode—as it has during the past 5 years.
You don’t need advanced knowledge of economics and demographics to recognize the fact that every major social trend is pushing real estate prices upward.

WHAT IS LLC (LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY)?

Tutorials on basics of Limited Liability Company (LLC)

So what does LLC mean?

The first of the limited liability entities to be introduced into the United States, and currently the most prevalent, is the limited liability company. The limited liability company (LLC) is a type of non corporate entity that offers many of the benefits of both partnerships and corporations.

Limited Liability Company Defined

The limited liability company (LLC) is a non-corporate entity that offers limited personal liability to its owners. It is somewhat of a cross between a partnership and a corporation. The LLC is owned by members who either manage the company directly or delegate management responsibility to managers or officers. 

Like a corporation, the owners of a limited liability company are usually not liable for company debts and obligations. Like a partnership, the LLC’s income and losses are allocated to the owners who then pay tax on the limited liability income and profits allocated to them.

Limited Liability Company Characteristics

The limited liability company is an unincorporated entity based on the concept of freedom of contract. It is a legal entity distinct from its owners. The owners of a limited liability company are generally referred to as its members.

The characteristics of any limited liability company will depend on its members’ objectives and the statutes of the state in which it is formed. However, most limited liability companies have common characteristics, including limited liability, flexible management, continuity of life, restricted transferability of interest, unrestricted ownership, certain formalities for formation, and partnership taxation status.

LIMITED LIABILITY 

Like a corporation, the owners of a limited liability company typically have no personal liability for the debts and obligations of the company.

MANAGEMENT 

Management of the limited liability company is very flexible. All members of the limited liability company are granted the right to manage its business unless otherwise provided for in the limited liability company’s articles of organization. 

State statutes typically permit the owners of a limited liability company to allocate management authority among its members in any manner they choose. They may decide to be managed by one individual, by committee, or by the majority of the owners. 

Most limited liability companies appoint a board of managers, similar to a corporation’s board of directors. A written agreement among the members, referred to as an operating agreement, sets forth the details concerning the management of the limited liability company.

Major decisions of a limited liability company are usually made by the members holding a majority of the limited liability company interest, unless otherwise provided for in the operating agreement or by statute.

CONTINUITY OF LIFE 

The statutes of most states provide that a limited liability company may be designed for continuity. Unless the articles of organization provide that the limited liability company will be a term company that will dissolve on a certain future date or event, the limited liability company will be an entity at will, meaning that it exists indefinitely, until the members dissolve it. 

The statutes of some states, however, require that the articles of organization filed with the state must specify a period of duration for the limited liability company.

The death or dissociation of one or more of the members of a limited liability company does not necessarily cause the dissolution of the limited liability company. The statutes of some states provide that the members of a limited liability company must give six months’ notice of their intent to dissociate from the company.

TRANSFERABILITY OF INTEREST 

State statutes place restrictions on the transfer of the ownership interest of the members of limited liability companies. Many of these restrictions may be modified by the company’s operating agreement.

Members of a limited liability company are not considered to be co-owners of the company’s property. That property is owned by the limited liability company itself. A member may usually transfer or assign his or her right to receive distributions to another person. 

This transfer does not necessarily make the new owner of the right to receive distributions a member of the limited liability company. The transferee of a member’s financial rights to a limited liability company does not have the same rights to participate in the management and operation of the limited liability company that members do. 

A person may become a member of a limited liability company only if he or she is substituted, or admitted, to the limited liability company as provided by the company’s articles of organization.

OWNERSHIP 

There are very few restrictions on the number or type of owners who may own limited liability companies. Most state statutes provide that a limited liability company may be formed by one or more persons. That definition of persons usually includes corporations, partnerships, trusts, and other entities.

FORMALITIES OF ORGANIZATION 

The limited liability company is formed in much the same way that the limited partnership or business corporation is formed. Articles of organization are filed with the secretary of state or other appropriate state authority.

In addition, a limited liability company may be subject to annual reporting requirements imposed by the state in which it was organized.

TAXATION 

One of the most important benefits to forming a limited liability company is the partnership taxation status, which is preferable to corporation taxation for most members.

In 1997, the Internal Revenue Service adopted Check the Box regulations,1 which make it simple for a limited liability company to be taxed as a partnership. When the members of a limited liability company file an income tax return for the LLC it is classified, by default, as a partnership. 

If the members prefer, they can simply check the box on an election form and elect to be taxed as a corporation. Single-member limited liability companies are disregarded as entities separate from their owners for federal income taxation purposes unless the sole member elects to be taxed as a corporation.

Most states follow the federal scheme for limited liability company income taxation. However, some states, especially those that do not have a personal state income tax, may either treat limited liability companies as corporations for income taxation purposes, or they may assess special taxes on limited liability companies.

WHAT IS THE MOST HIGH TECH SHIP EVER BUILT? - Random Question

What’s the most high-tech ship ever built?

It must surely be the US Navy stealth destroyer the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), launched in October 2013. For stealth, the ship has an angular shape and is built from materials that can absorb radar.

The vessel is enormous, at 185m long, but despite this it shows up more like a fishing boat on radar.

All the ship’s main engineering and weapons systems can be controlled from workstations virtually anywhere onboard. Like many of the ship’s systems, weapon storage and loading is fully automated.

This means the USS Zumalt needs a crew of only 148, half that of a similarsized destroyer.

The ship is advanced, but its weapons will be even more so. With sea trials starting this year, it could be fitted with a futuristic rail gun.

These accelerate projectiles to 2,500 metres per second via an electromagnetic rail. There are also plans to use new laser-based weapons that can burn drones out of the sky.

DOES URINE EASE THE PAIN OF JELLYFISH STINGS? - Random Questions

Does urine ease the pain of jellyfish stings?

If one of these critters gets you don’t look to Friends for medical advice. Regardless of what you saw on that one episode of Friends, urine is completely ineffective for jellyfish stings.

At best it will do nothing, at worst it could trigger any remaining stinging cells. Rinse the area liberally with seawater, then scrape any attached tentacle fragments off with a credit card.