PEER Testbed Study on a Laboratory Building: Exercising Seismic Performance Assessment

From 2002 to 2004 (years five and six of a ten-year funding cycle), the PEER Center organized the majority of its research around six testbeds. Two buildings and two bridges, a campus, and a transportation network were selected as case studies to “exercise” the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering methodology. All projects involved interdisciplinary teams of researchers, each producing data to be used by other colleagues in their research. The testbeds demonstrated that it is possible to create the data necessary to populate the PEER performancebased framing equation, linking the hazard analysis, the structural analysis, the development of damage measures, loss analysis, and decision variables. This report describes one of the building testbeds—the UC Science Building. The project was chosen to focus attention on the consequences of losses of laboratory contents, particularly downtime. The UC Science testbed evaluated the earthquake hazard and the structural performance of a well-designed recently built reinforced concrete laboratory building using the OpenSees platform. Researchers conducted shake table tests on samples of critical laboratory contents in order to develop fragility curves used to analyze the probability of losses based on equipment failure. The UC Science testbed undertook an extreme case in performance assessment—linking performance of contents to operational failure. The research shows the interdependence of building structure, systems, and contents in performance assessment, and highlights where further research is needed. The Executive Summary provides a short description of the overall testbed research program, while the main body of the report includes summary chapters from individual researchers. More extensive research reports are cited in the reference section of each chapter

Transportation Systems Analysis and Assessment

The transportation system is the backbone of any social and economic system, and is also a very complex system in which users, transport means, technologies, services, and infrastructures have to cooperate with each other to achieve common and unique goals.The aim of this book is to present a general overview on some of the main challenges that transportation planners and decision makers are faced with. The book addresses different topics that range from user's behavior to travel demand simulation, from supply chain to the railway infrastructure capacity, from traffic safety issues to Life Cycle Assessment, and to strategies to make the transportation system more sustainable

The Effects of an Auditor\u27s Communication Mode and Professional Tone on Client Responses to Audit Inquiries

In this study, we investigate whether receiving an auditor inquiry via e-mail differentially affects client responses as compared to more traditional modes of inquiry, and whether those responses are affected by the auditor\u27s professional tone. In an experiment, experienced business professionals respond to an auditor\u27s information request regarding a potential accounting adjustment. We varied the communication mode of the request (e-mail, audio, or visual) and the professional tone of the communication (more versus less professional) and then measured the extent to which participants revealed information that either supported or did not support the client\u27s accounting position. We find that if an auditor asks for information via e-mail, client responses are more biased towards information that supports the client\u27s position as compared to audio or visual inquiries. In addition, we find that clients respond in a more biased manner when the inquiry is worded in a less professional tone as compared to a more professional tone. Further underscoring the implications of these findings for audit outcomes, our results suggest that if an auditor\u27s request leads clients to provide a response that is biased towards client-supporting information, clients may be less likely to agree with an auditor\u27s proposed income-decreasing adjustment

Dynamics and control of large-scale fluidized bed plants for renewable heat and power generation

As the share of variable renewable electricity increases, thermal power plants will have to adapt their operational protocols in order to remain economically competitive while also providing grid-balancing services required to deal with the inherent fluctuations of variable renewable electricity. This work presents a dynamic model of fluidized bed combustion plants for combined heat and power production. The novelty of the work lays in that (i) it provides an analysis of the transient performance of biomass-based fluidized bed combustion plants for combined heat and power production, (ii) the dynamic model includes a description of both the gas and water- steam sides and (iii) the model is validated against operational data acquired from a commercial-scale plant. The validated model is here applied to analyze the inherent dynamics of the investigated plant and to evaluate the performance of the plant when operated under different control and operational strategies, using a relative gain analysis and a variable ramping rate test.The results of the simulations reveal that the inherent dynamics of the process have stabilization times in the range of 5–25 min for all the step changes investigated, with variables connected to district heating production being the slowest. In contrast, variables connected to the live steam are the fastest, with stabilization times of magnitude similar to those of the in-furnace variables (i.e., around 10 min). Thus, it is concluded that the proper description of the dynamics in fluidized bed combustion plants for combined heat and power production requires modeling of both the gas and water sides (which is rare in previous literature). Regarding the assessment of control strategies, the boiler-following and hybrid control (combined fixed live steam and sliding pressure) strategies are found to be able to provide load changes as fast as 5%-unit/s, albeit while causing operational issues such as large pressure overshoots. The relative gain analysis outcomes show that these control structures do not have a steady-state gain on the power produced, and therefore it is the dynamic effect of the steam throttling that triggers the rapid power response. This study also includes the assessment of a turbine bypass strategy, the results of which show that it enables fast load-changing capabilities at constant combustion load, as well as decoupling power and heat production at the expense of thermodynamic losses

Rapid methods of landslide hazard mapping : Fiji case study

A landslide hazard probability map can help planners (1) prepare for, and/or mitigate against, the effects of landsliding on communities and infrastructure, and (2) avoid or minimise the risks associated with new developments. The aims of the project were to establish, by means of studies in a few test areas, a generic method by which remote sensing and data analysis using a geographic information system (GIS) could provide a provisional landslide hazard zonation map. The provision of basic hazard information is an underpinning theme of the UN’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). It is an essential requirement for disaster preparedness and mitigation planning. This report forms part of BGS project 92/7 (R5554) ‘Rapid assessment of landslip hazards’ Carried out under the ODA/BGS Technology Development and Research Programme as part of the British Government’s provision of aid to developing countries. It provides a detailed technical account of work undertaken in a test area in Viti Levu in collaboration with Fiji Mineral Resources Department. The study represents a demonstration of a methodology that is applicable to many developing countries. The underlying principle is that relationships between past landsliding events, interpreted from remote sensing, and factors such as the geology, relief, soils etc provide the basis for modelling where future landslides are most likely to occur. This is achieved using a GIS by ‘weighting’ each class of each variable (e.g. each lithology ‘class’ of the variable ‘geology’) according to the proportion of landslides occurring within it compared to the regional average. Combinations of variables, produced by summing the weights in individual classes, provide ‘models’ of landslide probability. The approach is empirical but has the advantage of potentially being able to provide regional scale hazard maps over large areas quickly and cheaply; this is unlikely to be achieved using conventional ground-based geotechnical methods. In Fiji, landslides are usually triggered by intense rain storms commonly associated with tropical cyclones. However, the regional distribution of landslides has not been mapped nor is it known how far geology and landscape influence the location and severity of landsliding events. The report discusses the remote sensing and GIS methodology, and describes the results of the pilot study over an area of 713 km2 in south east Viti Levu. The landslide model uses geology, elevation, slope angle, slope aspect, soil type, and forest cover as inputs. The resulting provisional landslide hazard zonation map, divided into high, medium and low zones of landslide hazard probability, suggests that whilst rainfall is the immediate cause, others controls do exert a significant influence. It is recommended that consideration be given in Fiji to implementing the techniques as part of a national strategic plan for landslide hazard zonation mapping

Red Queen Pricing Effects in E-Retail Markets

A standard “solution” offered to the deleterious effects of all-out price competition is for firms to engage in differentiation strategies. This solution, however, depends critically on the inability of rivals to imitate a successful differentiation strategy. With imitation, we show how “Red Queen” pricing effects can arise: All firms have an incentive to vertically differentiate and increase markups, yet imitation by rivals drives prices down toward pre-differentiation levels. Thus, the price premia arising from differentiation strategies in eretailing critically depend on the number of other firms that imitate the strategies. Based on data from Shopper.com, we find that an online firm that unilaterally differentiates itself from its rivals by participating in CNet’s Certified Merchant program enjoys a 5 to 17 percent price premium. However, when other firms also follow this strategy, the price premium vanishes.Pricing, Product Differentiation, Red Queen Effect, Internet, Reputation

Environmental monitoring: landslide assessment and risk management (Test site: Vernazza, Cinque Terre Natural Park)

Natural disasters, whether of meteorological origin such as cyclones, floods, tornadoes and droughts or having geological nature such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslide, are well known for their devastating impacts on human life, economy and environment. Over recent decades, the people and the societies are becoming more vulnerable; although the frequency of natural events may be constant, human activities contribute to their increased intensity. Indeed, every year millions of people are affected by natural disasters globally and, only in the last decade, more than 80% of all disaster-related deaths were caused by natural hazards. The PhD work is part of the activities for the support and development of methodologies useful to improve the management of environmental emergencies. In particular, it focused on the analysis of environmental monitoring and disaster risk management, a systematic approach to identify, to assess and to reduce the potential risks produced by a disaster. This method (Disaster Risk Management) aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities and deals with natural and man-made events. In the PhD thesis, in particular, the slope movements have been evaluated. Slope failures are generally not so costly as earthquakes or major floods, but they are more widespread, and over the years may cause more property loss than any other geological hazard. In many developing regions slope failures constitute a continuing and serious impact on the social and economic structure. Specifically, the Italian territory has always been subject to instability phenomena, because of the geological and morphological characteristic and because of "extreme" weather events that are repeated more frequently than in the past, in relation to climate change. Currently these disasters lead to the largest number of victims and damages to settlements, infrastructure and historical and cultural environmental, after the earthquakes. The urban development, especially in recent decades, resulted in an increase of the assets at risk and unstable areas, often due to constant human intervention badly designed that led to instability also places previously considered "safe". Prevention is therefore essential to minimize the damages caused by landslides The objectives of the conducted research were to investigate the different techniques and to check their potentiality, in order to evaluate the most appropriate instrument for landslide hazard assessment in terms of better compromise between time to perform the analysis and expected results. The attempt is to evaluate which are the best methodologies to use according to the scenario, taking into consideration both reachable accuracies and time constraints. Careful considerations will be performed on strengths, weaknesses and limitations inherent to each methodology. The characteristics associated with geographic, or geospatial, information technologies facilitate the integration of scientific, social and economic data, opening up interesting possibilities for monitoring, assessment and change detection activities, thus enabling better informed interventions in human and natural systems. This is an important factor for the success of emergency operations and for developing valuable natural disaster preparedness, mitigation and prevention systems. The test site was the municipality of Vernazza, which in October 2011 was subject to a extreme rainfall which led to the occurrence of a series of landslides along the Vernazzola stream, which have emphasized the flood event that affected the water cours

An assessment of the construct validity of environmental strategy measures

The natural resource-based view of the company is emerging as a dominant paradigm for understanding the intersection of strategic management and the natural environment. Companies that proactively incorporate a natural environment perspective into their enterprise strategies are said to have sustainable competitive advantages. However, defining and measuring environmental strategy has been challenging, with different approaches yielding inconsistent results. Many studies ignore the empirical difficulties of marrying the theoretical connection between the company's resource base and environmental strategy, and its impact on environmental company performance. In this paper, we apply an inductive approach to derive a measure of environmental strategy theoretically congruent with the natural resource-based-view of the firm. We assess its reliability and, using a multi-trait multi-method matrix, confirm the convergent and discriminant validities of this measure against other measures often used by researchers. We also establish predictive validity of our environmental strategy measure for environmental performance. We discuss the implications of the measure for future research and practice.environmental performance; environmental strategies; inductive study; measures;