Nonlinear dynamic tests of a reinforced concrete frame building at different damage levels

This paper discusses the dynamic tests of a two-story infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame building using an eccentric-mass shaker. The building, located in El Centro, CA, was substantially damaged prior to the tests due to the seismic activity in the area. During the testing sequence, five infill walls were removed to introduce additional damage states and to investigate the changes in the dynamic properties and the nonlinear response of the building to the induced excitations. The accelerations and displacements of the structure under the forced and ambient vibrations were recorded through an array of sensors, while lidar scans were obtained to document the damage. The test data provide insight into the nonlinear response of an actual building and the change of its resonant frequencies and operational shapes due to varying damage levels and changes of the excitation amplitude, frequency, and orientation.     

New climatic zones in Iran: a comparative study of different empirical methods and clustering technique

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Recently in agricultural and industrial sectors, researchers have started to classify the climate of a region using empirical methods and clustering. This...     

Gold Deposits in the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone: Orogenic Gold Deposits or Intrusion‐Related Gold Systems?

Most of the known large gold deposits in Iran are located along the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone, western Iran, which hosts a wide range of gold deposit types. Gold deposits in the belt, hosted in upper Paleozoic to upper Mesozoic volcano‐sedimentary sequences of lower greenschist to lower amphibolite metamorphic grade, appear to represent mainly orogenic and intrusion‐related gold deposit types. The largest resource occurs at Muteh, with smaller deposits/occurrences at Zartorosht, Qolqoleh, Kervian, Qabaqloujeh, Kharapeh, and Astaneh. Although a major part of the gold deposits in the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone are related to metamorphic devolatilization, some deposits including Muteh and Astaneh are related to short‐lived disruptions in an extensional tectonic regime and are associated with magma generation and emplacement. The age of gold ore formation in the orogenic gold deposits is Late Cretaceous to Tertiary, reflecting peak‐metamorphism during regional Cretaceous–Paleocene convergence and compression. The Oligocene to Pliocene age of most intrusion‐related gold systems is consistent with the young structural setting of the gold ore bodies; these deposits are sequestered along normal faults, correlated with Middle to Late Tertiary extensional tectonic events. This relationship is comparable to the magmatic‐metallogenetic evolution of the Urumieh‐Dokhtar magmatic arc, where the number of different types of gold‐copper deposits and the magnitude of the larger ones followed development of a magmatic arc. The appropriate explanation may be related to two different stages of gold mineralization consisting of a first compressional phase during the Late Cretaceous to Early‐Middle Tertiary, which is related to orogenic gold mineralization in the Qolqoleh, Kervian, Qabaqloujeh, Kharapeh, and Zartorosht deposits, and the extensional phase during the Eocene to Pliocene that is recognized by young intrusion‐related gold mineralization in the Muteh and Astaneh deposits.     

Analysis of Unit Supporting Time and Support Installation Time for Open TBMs

Estimation of advance rate and utilization of tunnel boring machines (TBM) are some of the important steps in planning a TBM tunneling project. Estimation of the utilization factor depends on realistic analysis of downtime components. Among the different parameters influencing TBM downtime, tunnel support is the most influential factor, which can take up to 50% of the total excavation time in some cases. Although, there are some rock mass classification systems specifically developed to link ground conditions with the type and amount of support installed in TBM tunneling, the related downtime for support installation has not been studied in detail. Unit supporting time (UST) is the time required for the installation of ground support per unit length of tunnel. Support installation time (SIT) is the time required for installation of a single ground support element. In this paper, approximate ranges of UST and SIT are discussed and analyzed on the basis of recorded ground SIT from a number of TBM tunneling projects. The primary goal of this paper is to link UST with rock mass classifications that have been specifically developed to assess ground support requirements for different tunnel sections using open-type TBM. An accurate estimate of UST and SIT allows for realistic determination of the related downtime and TBM utilization rate.     

Prediction of Flyrock in Mine Blasting: A New Computational Intelligence Approach

Natural Resources Research - Blasting is the predominant rock fragmentation technique in civil constructions, underground and surface mines. Flyrock is the unwanted throw of rock fragments during...     

Isolation, distribution and evaluation of cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of cultivable actinobacteria from the Oman Sea sediments

Screening bioactive natural products from bacteria is a determinative step in the drug discovery programs. The present study aim to isolate actinobacteria from the Oman Sea sediments for determining the effects of different culture media and treatments on the yield of the isolation process, and measure the DPPH radical scavenging and Artemia cytotoxic activity of culture extracts of the actinobacterial isolates. A total of 290 actinobacterial isolates were collected from 14 sediment samples. Heat treatment(40.68%) and M_4 medium(29.31%) exhibited the maximum isolation rates of actinobacteria. Streptomyces isolates were dominantly distributed in all of the investigated stations according to 16 S rRNA gene sequencing. The distribution pattern of Streptomyces followed a depth-dependent frequency trend, whereas the members of rare genera including Micromonospora, Nocardia Actinoplanes, Nocardiopsis, Saccharopolyspora and Crossiella were distributed in deeper stations. Approximately,25% of the examined isolates could scavenge 90% of 10~(–4) mol/L DPPH solutions at 1 250 μg/mL final concentration of their ethyl acetate culture extracts. Furthermore, the most potent extracts could scavenge DPPH radicals with IC50 ranges from 356.8 to 566.4 μg/mL. Brine shrimp cytotoxicity tests showed that 38.88% of the examined culture extracts exhibited LC_(50) lower than 1 000 μg/mL against the Artemia cells. Moreover, the most potent culture extracts exhibited LC_(50) range from 335.4 to 534.4 μg/mL. Phylogenetic analysis by 16 S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the OS 005, OS 263 and OS 157 closely related to Streptomyces djakartensis, Streptomyces olivaceus and Nocardiopsis dassonvillei respectively. These results suggested the widespread distribution of the antioxidant and cytotoxic producing actinobacteria in the Oman Sea sediments, which could be considered as promising candidates for the discovery of microbial bioactive compounds.     

Palynology and petroleum potential of the Kazhdumi Formation (Cretaceous: Albian–Cenomanian) in the South Pars field,northern Persian Gulf

The Kazhdumi Formation of the Bangestan Group is a well-known source rock that has produced abundant oil in most petroleum fields in the Zagros Basin, which stretches from northwest to southwest Iran over hundreds of kilometres. The formation reaches a thickness of 230 m at the type section in northwest Zagros but thins out to 40–50 m in wells studied from the South Pars giant petroleum field, where it comprises mainly grey shales with occasional intercalations of marls and sandstones. South Pars, best known as the Iranian part of the world's largest non-associated gas field, contains small quantities of oil above and below the Kazhdumi Formation.     

Determination of the Geopotential Scale Factor from TOPEX/POSEIDON Satellite Altimetry

The geopotential scale factor R _o = GM/W _o (the GM geocentric gravitational constant adopted) and/or geoidal potential Wo have been determined on the basis of the first year's (Oct 92 – Dec 93) ERS-1/TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data and of the POCM 4B sea surface topography model: R _o °=(6 363 672.58°±0.05) m, W _o °=(62 636 855.8°±0.05)m ² s ^–2 . The 2°–°3 cm uncertainty in the altimeter calibration limits the actual accuracy of the solution. Monitoring dW _o /dt has been projected.     

Acid-treated zeolite (clinoptilolite) and its potential to zinc removal from water sample

Zinc compounds are important group of pollutants which enter water flows from industrial factories sewage. In this research, use of both natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) and its sulfuric acid-modified form as a cheap adsorbent for removing zinc from its solutions has been investigated. The effect of acid concentration, contact duration, pH of solution, initial concentration of zinc, amount of adsorbent and its size was investigated. On average, the maximum adsorption amount is calculated to be 91.1 % with contact duration of 300 min. By increasing contact duration, more adsorption is achieved. Results show that if the more zeolite is used, the more adsorption is achieved. According to results, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were investigated and the adsorption of zinc by modified zeolite was described by both models very well.