Displacement-based seismic design of hysteretic damped braces for retrofitting in-elevation irregular r.c. framed structures

A displacement-based design procedure is proposed for proportioning hysteretic damped braces (HYDBs) in order to attain, for a specific level of seismic intensity, a designated performance level of a reinforced concrete (r.c.) in-elevation irregular framed building which has to be retrofitted. To check the effectiveness and reliability of the design procedure, a numerical investigation is carried out with reference to a six-storey r.c. framed building, which, originally designed according to an old Italian seismic code (1996) for a medium-risk zone, has to be retrofitted by inserting of HYDBs to attain performance levels imposed by the current Italian code (NTC08) in a high-risk zone. To simulate a vertical irregularity, a change of use of the first two floors, from residential to office, is also supposed; moreover, masonry infill walls, regularly distributed along the perimeter, are substituted with glass windows on these floors. Nonlinear dynamic analyses of unbraced (UF), infilled (IF) and damped braced infilled (DBIF) frames are carried out considering sets of artificially generated and real ground motions, whose response spectra match those adopted by NTC08 for different performance levels. To this end, r.c. frame members are idealized by a two-component model, assuming a bilinear moment–curvature law whose ultimate bending moment depends on the axial load, while the response of an HYDB is idealized by a bilinear law, to prevent buckling. Finally, masonry infills are represented as equivalent diagonal struts, reacting only in compression, with an elastic–brittle linear law.     

Seismic assessment and retrofit of two heritage-listed R/C elevated water storage tanks

A seismic assessment and advanced retrofit study on two heritage-listed reinforced concrete (R/C) elevated water storage tanks is presented in this paper. The two structures were built between the late 1920s and the early 1930s as water suppliers for a coal power plant in Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence, and are still in service. The first, taller tank has a R/C frame supporting structure and is currently used as water supplier for trains and platform services. The second, shorter tank, with a shaft-shell supporting structure, is used as water tower for the Station. The dynamic behaviour of the fluid is simulated by means of a classical convective and impulsive mass model, for which a discrete three-dimensional schematization is originally implemented in the finite element analysis. The time–history assessment enquiry highlights numerical collapse of the frame structure in the taller tank, and unsafe tensile stress states in a large portion of the shaft structure of the shorter one, under seismic action scaled at the maximum considered earthquake level. Based on these results, two retrofit hypotheses are proposed, and namely a dissipative bracing system incorporating pressurized fluid viscous spring-dampers, for the taller tank, and a base isolation system including double curved surface sliders, for the shorter one. The mechanical parameters, design criteria and technical implementation details of the two rehabilitation strategies are illustrated. The verification time–history analyses in protected conditions show that a substantial enhancement of the seismic response capacities of both structures is attained as compared to their original configurations, with little architectural intrusion, quick installation works and competitive costs.     

Study on the Determination of Trace Ni（Ⅱ） by the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Method

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of trace Ni (II) in natural water.The method is based on the catalytic effect of Ni (II) on the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KIO4 in acid medium.The concentration of nickel (II) can be determined spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease of absorbance of RAWL at λ= 626 nm using the fix-time method.The influencing factors are investigated by the orthogonal experimental design.The obtained optimum analytical conditions are:pH=2.00,c RAWL=5.00×10-5 mol L-1,cKIO 4= 2.00×10-5 mol L-1,the reaction time t=10 min and the temperature T=25℃..Under the optimum conditions,the developed method allows the measurement of Ni (II) in a range of 0-40.0 ng mL-1.The standard deviation of eleven independent measurements of blank reaction is S=3.08×10-3 and the limit of detection is 2.20 ng mL-1.The relative standard deviations (RSDs) in six replicate determinations of 5 ng mL-1 and 8 ng mL-1 Ni (II) are 2.87% and 1.11%,respectively.Moreover,the experiments show few cations and anions can interfere with the measurement of Ni (II).The recovery efficiencies of this method are in a range of 97.0%-102.5% in freshwater samples.But there is a decreasing effect,which is about 0.2 times the added Ni (II) in seawater medium.After reasonable calibration this processing method is used for the determination of Ni (II) in seawater samples successfully.The results show this developed method has high accuracy and precision,high sensitivity,large range of linearity and high speed.The method can,therefore,be employed at room temperature.     

渭干河流域生态水文时间序列特征及影响因素

以渭干河流域水系中的库车河兰干站、渭干河黑孜水库站、渭干河千佛洞（合成）水库站为例,对R/S和Mann-Kendall法用于水文时间序列存在的不足进行了讨论,提出了将这两种方法相结合来分析水文时间序列的变化趋势。结果表明：库车河兰干站、渭干河黑孜水库站、渭干河千佛洞（合成）水库站赫斯特指数0 < H < 0.5、统计量UF_k>0,未来径流量呈显著下降趋势,渭-库绿洲的自然和人为因素对该地区的生态水文产生一定影响。     

Cyclic tests of four two‐story narrow steel plate shear walls—Part 1: Analytical studies and specimen design

This study consists of two parts. In this two‐part research, four two‐story narrow steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) were cyclically tested at the Taiwan National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in 2007. This paper, Part 1, proposes a capacity design method for the first‐story boundary column of the SPSW to ensure that the plastic hinges form at the column bottom ends when the SPSW develops the plastic mechanism. The design method was developed based on the superposition method considering the frame sway action and the panel force effects of the SPSW. Restrained steel plate shear wall (R‐SPSW) studied herein adopts pairs of the horizontal restrainers sandwiching over both sides of the infill panels and connected to the boundary columns. Analytical studies on four SPSW example designs using nonlinear finite element (FE) models and the simplified strip models confirm that the restrainers could also effectively reduce the column force demands and allow the infill panel to stretch more uniformly. In addition, the FE analytical studies verify the effectiveness of the proposed column capacity design method and the seismic design recommendations for the restrainer. This paper introduces the designs of the four narrow SPSW specimens, presenting the selections of the boundary beams and columns, the designs of the beam‐to‐column connections and the construction details of the restrainers. The experimental results, key observations and the design implications are reported in the companion paper. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

J2EE平台下数据库的开发与优化

在J2EE平台下，后端数据库频繁交互，如果后端数据库耦合性差、总是迟迟不能响应，应用的可维护性、性能必将大受影响，所以数据库的开发尤其重要。从数据库映射、访问、优化等几个方面系统地阐述了数据库的设计规范。     

Modelling Thermohaline Properties in an Estuarine Upwelling Ecosystem (R?&#x0301;a de Vigo: NW Spain) Using Box-Jenkins Transfer Function Models

Since 1987, twice weekly, hydrological variables have been monitored at a fixed station in the R?&#x0301;a de Vigo (NW Spain), aiming to examine the time scales of variability and the relationships to meteorological conditions. The present paper analyses: (1) the advantage of Box-Jenkins transfer function (TF) models (single output–multiple input), a type of linear stochastic model, to describe the dynamic behaviour of the system; and (2) the coupling between the R?&#x0301;a and meteorological events at the time scale of autonomy of this coastal inlet affected by the Iberian coastal upwelling, approximately a fortnightly period. In order to achieve these objectives, thermohaline properties have been used to characterize the estuarine ecosystem (output variables), while wind regime, runoff in the drainage basin and incoming solar radiation have been considered as the main forcing variables (input variables). The use of the amplitude time series, derived from principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the deseasonalized meteorological variables, is also explored as a different set of input variables.When compared with standard regression models, all TF models built to describe thermohaline behaviour had reduced residual variance. Similar TF models, as well as percentage of explained variance, were also obtained when meteorological variables or the amplitude time series were used as input variables. The fitted TF models provided an insight into the ‘ inertial ’ behaviour of the system and the time scales of coupling of the system with the forcing variables. The plausible physical mechanisms which link the response of the system with the observed meteorological variability are also discussed. As could be expected, bottom thermohaline properties show a stronger inertial behaviour than the surface ones, which is particularly marked for bottom temperature. Besides, the shelf domain, by means of upwelling-downwelling events, strongly influences surface and bottom temperature, as well as bottom salinity; by contrast, surface salinity is mainly influenced by the effect of wind along the main axis of the R?&#x0301;a and runoff. In relation to the time scales of coupling between the system and the forcing variables, thermohaline properties show a dependance with the meteorological conditions in, at least, the immediately preceding fortnight period. It was concluded that: (1) TF models that incorporate meteorological information described the dynamic behaviour of the system adequately; and (2) this type of model can be useful as a first approximation to develop more sophisticated (deterministic) models, since, with the purpose of modelling any state variable of the system, both the coupling between different domains and the time scales of the interactions must be taken into account.     

Detecting clusters of disease with R

One of the main concerns of Public Health surveillance is the detection of clusters of disease, i. e., the presence of high incidence rates around a particular location, which usually means a higher risk of suffering from the disease under study (Aylin et al. 1999). Many methods have been proposed for cluster detection, ranging from visual inspection of disease maps to full Bayesian models analysed using MCMC. In this paper we describe the use and implementation, as a package for the R programming language, of several methods which have been widely used in the literature, such as OpenshawRDER="0">s GAM, StoneRDER="0">s test and others. Although some of the statistics involved in these methods have an asymptotical distribution, bootstrap will be used to estimate their actual sampling distributions.We would like to thank co-editor Dr. Manfred M. Fischer and four anonymous referees for their suggestions and comments to improve this paper. The help of Dr. Roger Bivand has also been of great value. Furthermore, this work has been partly funded by Consellería de Sanitat and EUROHEIS Project (code SI2.329122, 2001CVG2-604). The authors wish to express their regard and gratitude to Prof. Juan Ferrándiz-Ferragud who died during the revision of this paper. Juan was the main researcher of the Spanish EUROHEIS group, and was really a master for all the people involved in the project.     

Molecular gas around symbiotic miras: masers in R aquarii and H1-36

The concept of studying symbiotic Miras via their molecular emission holds the promise of an improved understanding of the circumbinary environment in symbiotics, but following the largely ineffective maser surveys conducted during the 1970s and 80s there has been a widespread misconception that this avenue of study is a dead end. Here, we present spectral line and continuum maps of R Aqr and H1-36, two objects in which OH and H₂O masers were detected during a recent survey of symbiotic Miras.