Numerical study of cold-formed steel beams subject to lateral torsional buckling

The use of cold-formed steel members as structural columns and beams in residential, industrial and commercial buildings has increased significantly in recent times. This study is focused on the use of cold-formed steel sections as flexural members subject to lateral-torsional buckling. For this purpose a finite element model of a simply supported lipped channel beam under uniform bending was developed, validated using available numerical and experimental results, and used in a detailed parametric study. The moment capacity results were then compared with the predictions from the current ambient temperature design rules in the cold-formed steel structures codes of Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe. European design rules were found to be conservative while Australian and American design rules were unsafe. This paper presents the results of the numerical study, the comparison with the current design rules and the new proposed design rules

A parametric study on buckling of R/C columns exposed to fire

Buckling of concrete columns is a major issue in fire design, since heating of the columns will result in loss of stiffness and strength in the outer concrete layers. In the Dutch concrete code NEN 6720 (NEN, 1995), a quasi-linear theory of elasticity (KLE) method is provided for columns at ambient temperature. However, no literature is available showing whether this method could be adopted for elevated temperatures. Hence, an efficient calculation tool is needed to validate the applicability of this method in case of fire. As a first step, a cross-sectional calculation tool is introduced to calculate interaction curves of columns at ambient temperature. Further, the interaction diagrams obtained with this numerical method as well as the stiffness method provided in (Eurocode, 2004) and the KLE method are compared. Then, an assumed formula in the KLE-method for the nominal stiffness calculation is discussed considering interaction curves of columns in case of an ISO 834 fire. Finally, parameters like the fire duration and the slenderness ratio are investigated

Lost in Translation: A Standardized, Interdepartmental Approach to Improve the Safety of Inpatient Transitions of Care

AIM: During the 2016-2017 academic year physician perception of favorability regarding inpatient interunit handoffs will meet the national HSOPS benchmark without negatively impacting patient bed flow. All ACGME training programs at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital will expose their new trainees to standardized handoff training during orientation in June 2017 as well as adapt a framework for monitoring trainee compliance and proficiency.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/patientsafetyposters/1028/thumbnail.jp

Preliminary human safety assessment (PHSA) for the improvement of the behavioral aspects of safety climate in the construction industry

Occupational safety in the construction industry still represents a relevant problem at a global level. In fact, the complexity of working activities in this sector requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond normative compliance to guarantee safer working conditions. In particular, empirical research on the factors influencing the unsafe behavior of workers needs to be augmented. Thus, the relationship between human factors and safety management issues following a bottom-up approach was investigated. In particular, an easy-to-use procedure that can be used to better address workers' safety needs augmenting the company's safety climate and supporting safety management issues was developed. Such an approach, based on the assessment of human reliability factors, was verified in a real case study concerning the users of concrete mixer trucks. The results showed that the majority of human failures were action and retrieval errors, underlining the importance of theoretical and practical training programs as a means to improve safety behavior. In such a context, information and communication activities also resulted beneficially to augment the company's safety climate. The proposed approach, despite its qualitative nature, allows a clearer understanding of workers' perceptions of hazards and their risk-taking behavior, providing practical cues to monitor and improve the behavioral aspects of safety climate. Hence, these first results can contribute to augmenting safety knowledge in the construction industry, providing a basis for further investigations on the causalities related to human performances, which are considered a key element in the prevention of accidents

Análisis de la capacidad de soporte sísmica de fundaciones superficiales

Indexación: Web of Science; Scielo.In the context of engineering practice, the problem of the seismic bearing capacity of shallow foundations has been solved indirectly, either due an increase of the static allowable soil pressures related to the probability of occurrence of the design earthquake or by adopting an equivalent pseudo-static approach. However, during last decades, a series of analytical methods that directly address the problem from the seismic point of view has been developed. This paper presents a parametric comparative analysis of different methods for estimating seismic bearing capacity of shallow strip foundations. Analytical methods, developed in the framework of both limit equilibrium and limit analysis theories, and also simplified design procedures typically used in practice were considered. The results obtained show an important decrease of the bearing foundation capacity with increasing of the maximum earthquake acceleration, which highlights the need to obtain a measure of the reliability associated with both calculation methods and safety factors commonly used for seismic design.En el contexto de la práctica ingenieril, el problema de la capacidad de soporte sísmica de fundaciones superficiales generalmente ha sido resuelto, de modo indirecto, ya sea considerando un incremento en las tensiones admisibles estáticas del suelo, asociado a la probabilidad de ocurrencia de un cierto evento sísmico de diseño, o bien adoptando un enfoque de tipo pseudoestático equivalente. Sin embargo, durante las últimas décadas se han desarrollado una serie de métodos analíticos que abordan directamente el problema desde el punto de vista sísmico. Este artículo presenta un análisis comparativo de tipo paramétrico entre diferentes métodos para estimar la capacidad de soporte sísmica de fundaciones superficiales corridas. Se consideraron métodos analíticos, desarrollados en el contexto de las teorías de equilibrio límite y análisis límite, y también procedimientos de diseño simplificados típicamente utilizados en la práctica. Los resultados obtenidos muestran un importante deterioro de la capacidad de soporte de la fundación en la medida que la aceleración máxima del sismo aumenta, lo cual pone de manifiesto la necesidad de establecer una medida de la confiabilidad asociada a los métodos de cálculo y factores de seguridad comúnmente usados para diseño sísmico.http://ref.scielo.org/kp4j8

What Is Safe Sex ? Understanding the Need for Sex Education Reform

Currently, the United States has no standardized requirement for sex education. This has precipitated a large gap in knowledge about safe sex and a lack of consensus in current social and educational policy. Debates about abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education have reached a standstill. In an effort to advance the discussion, this paper reveals that the neuroscience behind adolescent sexual risk taking provides underutilized evidence for comprehensive sex education programs. Research shows that adolescents have biological differences in their brain structure that result in a decision-making process different from that of adults, one that can preference rash decisions and potentially unsafe behavior. Therefore, current approaches to social and education policy for teens should change, to reflect this research and in-school curricula should evolve to more effectively reduce rates of unsafe sexual behaviors. Funding for such programs would more than pay for themselves with the resulting decrease in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases