Implications of importance factor on seismic design from 2000 SAC-FEMA perspective

The seismic design of buildings uses global ductility factor and occupancy importance factor (IF) as two major fixed parameters in defining the safety of the structure. The study of performance variation of the structure with global ductility factor is available but there is hardly any study that provides information regarding the increase in the level of safety achieved by increasing the IF values. Being a building categorical dependent parameter, IF is used by the international seismic design codes for increasing the design loads of the structure. The change in the level of safety achieved through the variation in the value of the IFs for reinforced concrete (RC)–framed buildings will perhaps be an important and useful representation of the stakeholders for the approximate damage cost estimation. This article performs the structural safety assessment against seismic load using a standard structural reliability method with second-order hazard approximation to evaluate the effect of the IF on the level of safety and the cost associated with the building. Results show that an overall reduction of 50%–60% in the damage index of the selected buildings can be achieved by increasing the IF from a value of 1.0–2.0 with a consequent increase in the cost of the building

Development of hybrid rubber damper-restrainer (HRDR) system for structures under sever dynamic excitation

Nowadays, high damping rubber materials are extensively implementing in various types of structure to mitigate harmful effect of imposed vibration and dynamic force to the structure. Although, the rubbers exhibit noticeable damping in the shear action, however, de-bounding, shear rupture and delamination of rubber layers under cyclic loads, undermine the load-bearing capacity of the rubber dampers and increase their maintenance costs. Hence, the action of the rubbers is considerably high under applied compression to generate resistant force to restrain the deformation.For this reason, in this research, a new hybrid rubber damper-restrainer (HRDR) system is proposed. The system comprises a high-damping rubber component designed to dissipate applied vibrations, along with a pair of hyper-elastic rubbers intended to restrain displacement. Therefore, the developed HRDR device is capable of dissipating vibrations while restraining large movements to prevent any damage and debounding of the rubber layers and also, protect the structure from excessive displacements.To examine the performance of the proposed device, the numerical model of a HRDR was developed using the finite element simulation and subsequently, nonlinear dynamic analyses were conducted for the 6 storey prototype steel structure furnished with HRDR device. The findings revealed that the structure equipped with the HRDR device exhibited outstanding response against applied earthquake excitation which is proving high efficiency of HRDR device to diminish vibration effect on structure and prevent any excessive deformations. The HRDR device is applicable to any types of framed structures through installing via chevron brace system in steel structures or short wall in reinforced concrete structures. Furthermore, the developed HRDR device can be implemented in bridge structures, between the deck and pier of bridge to effectively dissipate vibrations and restrain the movement of the bridge span under traffic loads

Quantifying energy transition pathways: an integrated framework approach

This thesis provides quantitative insights into energy transition pathways using a framework approach (i.e., IESA), which links bottom-up and top-down energy and economy models, covers the whole demand, supply, infrastructure and trade of energy, has a low entry-barrier, and features advanced capabilities, such as, wide range of flexibility options and hourly temporal resolution, tailored to answer future policy questions. Moreover, the current study shows the implications of model improvements on required data at specific resolutions and how data availability restrains such improvements. Finally, the thesis demonstrates how the higher modeling capabilities and resolutions inform Dutch energy transition scenarios with respect to environmental policies, direction and timing of investments, and its impact on the economy

The pregnane X receptor drives sexually dimorphic hepatic changes in lipid and xenobiotic metabolism in response to gut microbiota in mice.

The gut microbiota-intestine-liver relationship is emerging as an important factor in multiple hepatic pathologies, but the hepatic sensors and effectors of microbial signals are not well defined. By comparing publicly available liver transcriptomics data from conventional vs. germ-free mice, we identified pregnane X receptor (PXR, NR1I2) transcriptional activity as strongly affected by the absence of gut microbes. Microbiota depletion using antibiotics in Pxr <sup>+/+</sup> vs Pxr <sup>-/-</sup> C57BL/6J littermate mice followed by hepatic transcriptomics revealed that most microbiota-sensitive genes were PXR-dependent in the liver in males, but not in females. Pathway enrichment analysis suggested that microbiota-PXR interaction controlled fatty acid and xenobiotic metabolism. We confirmed that antibiotic treatment reduced liver triglyceride content and hampered xenobiotic metabolism in the liver from Pxr <sup>+/+</sup> but not Pxr <sup>-/-</sup> male mice. These findings identify PXR as a hepatic effector of microbiota-derived signals that regulate the host's sexually dimorphic lipid and xenobiotic metabolisms in the liver. Thus, our results reveal a potential new mechanism for unexpected drug-drug or food-drug interactions. Video abstract