Earthquake Damage Scenarios of the Building Stock of Potenza (Southern Italy) Including Site Effects

Damage scenarios relevant to the building stock of the town of Potenza, Southern Italy, are presented. A procedure for the preparation of scenarios has been purposely set up. In the first step, the inventory of the building stock has been made. Location and characteristics of buildings have been obtained from a survey carried out after the 1990 Potenza earthquake and further updated in 1999. In the second step, the absolute vulnerability of the buildings has been evaluated. A hybrid technique has been used, where typological analyses and expert judgement are combined together. Beyond the classes of vulnerability A, B and C of the MSK scale, the class D of EMS98 scale, for the less vulnerable buildings, has been considered. The third step has been the selection of the reference earthquakes by including also local amplification effects. Two events with 50 and 475 years return periods have been chosen as representative, respectively, of a damaging and of a destructive seismic event expected in Potenza. The sites that may exhibit important amplification effects have been identified using the first level method of the TC4 Manual. Damage scenarios of dwelling buildings have been prepared in the fourth step and reported in a GIS. They are relevant to the selected reference earthquakes, taking into account or not site effects. The generally low vulnerability of buildings results in a limited number of damaged buildings for the lower intensity earthquake, and of collapsed buildings, for the higher intensity earthquake. The influence of site effects on the damage distribution is significant. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Estimating Daily Egg Production of European Anchovy in the Adriatic Sea: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract. We discuss the critical problem of estimating daily egg production in the Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM), a widely used technique for the stock assessment of multiple spawning pelagic fishes. Data collected in 1999 for the stock of European anchovy ( Engraulis encrasicolus ) in the Southern Adriatic Sea are used to study the effects of different calibration techniques. We analyze the performances of the mortality model from which daily egg production is estimated. All these calibrations are based on the Bootstrap method. Nonlinear fitting (vs. linear regression on log-transformed data) is shown to guarantee more reliable parameter estimation. We show that specifying the function assigning age to staged eggs is crucial.     

The inverse problem and ground water management

The response of groundwater basins to natural and anthropogenic inputs depends on many interrelated factors such as the values of groundwater flow and mass transport parameters. This work presents a theoretical analysis of the impact of parameter uncertainty on groundwater management decisions. It is shown that under classical, Bayesian, and deterministic assumptions about the parameter structure, the resulting management decisions could be very different. This underscores the importance of adopting the proper parameter structure and the need for using consistent methods to solve the inverse problem.     

Statistical properties of dissipation bursts within turbulence: Solar flares and geomagnetic activity

We investigate some statistical properties of the solar soft X-ray flux and of the Auroral Electrojet (AE) index. For both these signals, the probability density functions (PDFs) of normalized differences are shown to display wide, non-Gaussian tails. The shape of the PDFs is nearly unchanged as the timelag, used to calculate differences, varies. Moreover, the two time series are characterized by a power-law distribution for waiting times between successive bursts and by a clear departure from an hypothesis of locally Poisson statistics. A similar behavior is found in a shell model of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence.     

Signatures of recent star formation in ring S0 galaxies

We present a study of the stellar populations of ring and/or arm-like structures in a sample of S0 galaxies using GALEX far- and near-ultraviolet imaging and SDSS optical data. Such structures are prominent in the UV and reveal recent star formation. We quantitatively characterize these rejuvenation events, estimating the average age and stellar mass of the ring structures, as well as of the entire galaxy. The mass fraction of the UV-bright rings is a few percent of the total galaxy mass, although the UV ring luminosity reaches 70% of the galaxy luminosity. The integrated colors of these S0s locates them in the red sequence (NGC 2962) and in the so-called green valley. We suggest that the star formation episodes may be induced by different triggering mechanisms, such as the inner secular evolution driven by bars, and interaction episodes.     

Design method and behavior factor for steel frames with buckling restrained braces

Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) are very effective in dissipating energy through stable tension–compression hysteretic cycles and have been successfully experimented in the seismic protection of buildings. Their behavior has been studied extensively in the last decades and today the level of performance guaranteed by these devices and the technological constrains that have to be fulfilled to optimize their behavior are well known. Furthermore, several companies in the world have developed their own BRBs and are now producing them. In spite of this, many seismic codes (for instance, the EuroCode 8) do not stipulate provisions for the design and construction of earthquake‐resistant structures equipped with BRBs. This discourages the structural engineering community from using these devices and seriously limits their use in structural applications. In this paper a procedure for the seismic design of steel frames equipped with BRBs is proposed. Furthermore, the paper presents a numerical investigation aimed at validating this design procedure and proposing the value of the behavior factor q that should be used for this structural type. To this end, a set of frames with BRBs is first designed by means of several values of q. Then, the obtained frames are subjected to a set of accelerograms compatible with the elastic response spectrum considered in design. The seismic response of the frames is determined by nonlinear dynamic analysis and represented in terms of the ductility demand of BRBs and the internal force demand of nondissipative members (beams and columns). Finally, the largest value of q that leads to acceptable seismic performance of the analyzed frames is assumed as adequate. The value of q is given in the paper as a continuous function of the assumed ductility capacity of the BRBs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mine subsidence damage from room and pillar mining in Illinois

Summary Data is presented on case histories of subsidence damage occurring over abandoned room and pillar mines in Illinois. The major modes of behaviour and damage in houses from sag-subsidence are described and summarized. The houses rested on crawl-space and basement foundations built from concrete and masonry. The prevalent mode of failure of bearing walls was inward bending. Failure is analysed and conventional design procedures are used to evaluate foundation failure.     

A Simple Model for the Solar Cycle

A simple nonlinear model which describes the 11-year solar cycle can be derived from the usual – dynamo theory in the form of a Van der Pol equation. Solar activity displays also small-scale inter-cycle persistent stochastic oscillations with a Hurst exponent of the order of H0.76±0.01. The results obtained from the Van der Pol oscillator superimposed on a fractional Brownian motion which describes the stochastic fluctuations are presented.     

Relationships between joint apparent separation, Schmidt hammer rebound value, and distance to faults, in rocky outcrops, Calabria, Southern Italy

In order to investigate how the apparent separation of jointing varies according to the distance from faults, and how the mechanical properties of rock masses depend on this distance and jointing density, a number of regression analysis were performed on the variables s (apparent joint separation), d (distance from major fault), and sh (rebound value of Schmidt hammer).The variables were measured at 380 stations distributed over a wide study area located in the Aspromonte range in Calabria, Southern Italy.The most significant results of simple regression analysis are expressed by the formulas:

s=c+Fd⁰⁵