Seismic Risk Management Of An Elementary School Building Based On Minimum Expected Life-Cycle Cost

In earthquake disaster prevention, one serious problem confronting the world's earthquake - prone countries is seismic performance of buildings. A building is expected to remain safe and provide its intended function throughout its life span, with only small performance interruptions or damage due to earthquakes.It is necessary to identify buildings that are in risk and carry out their reconstruction or seismic retrofit in order to provide more strength and ductility. However the seismic retrofits come to a premium. Therefore, seismic retrofit of buildings entails an important risk-management decision problem as an optimal balance between the cost for the reinforcement and the future risks that must be achieved.This paper presents a decision methodology in seismic risk management considering only one fundamental risk, the cost imposed on the decision maker. The risk is expressed as the expected life-cycle cost, which is the expected amount of payments during the life of the building. These include the initial costs of the design and its construction, the additional cost for the reinforcement and the expected cost of damages generated due to earthquakes during the life span of the building.As an example, the proposed methodology is applied to an actual school building newly designed in Lushnja. The seismic evaluation of building is realized through the Japanese seismic screening method for seismic safety evaluation of existing reinforced concrete buildings. The actual cost of existing building and the additional cost for strengthening by using shear walls are estimated. In this case study, it is examined the cost effectiveness of shear walls used for strengthening of the school building in reducing the life-cycle cos

Liquefaction Probabilities Of Semani Area, In Albania Corresponding To Different Levels Of Safety

In this paper the liquefaction potential of Quaternary soft non-cohesive soils at Semanisite, Fier prefecture in Albania has been assessed.The liquefaction analyses have been computed considering the hazard levelcorresponding to different levels of safety, such as 10% in 10 years (72-years Return Period),10% in 50 years (475-years RP) and 2% in 50 years (2475-years RP). The accelerations corresponding to the abovementioned hazard levels are calculated using PSHA (probabilistic seismic hazard assessment), and The Cyclic Stress Ratio is calculated for each acceleration.The seismological data used in the analyses considers earthquakes with MS 4.5 and covers atime span from 58 up to 2009.The calculation of cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) of the soils is based on 416 SPT(Standard Penetration Test) values, 12 CPTU tests up to 25 m depth and shear wave velocity(Vs) measurements.The liquefaction probabilities for a given seismic event are combined with the probability of occurrence of the seismic event i

Shoreline Dynamics And Preventive Measures At Southern Part Of Durresi Bay

One of the most important aspects of coastal management and planning programs thatneeds to be investigated is shoreline dynamics. Long-term coastal analysis uses historical datato identify the sectors along the coast where the shoreline position has changed.At the southern part of Durresi Bay, the sandy beach has suffered strong erosions for thelast 20 years. In particular, in different segments situated at Karpen - Qerret lowland, duringthe last year the annual erosion rates reach values up to 30-37 m. The analysis of the coastal dynamics and spatiotemporal changes in the coastal morphology for the period between 1944and 2010 is an important tool to identify the principal factor of these changes and consequently to recommend the appropriate engineering interventions necessary to protectand recover the interested area.The present study takes advantage of geographical information system (GIS) tools tocontribute to the knowledge of the shoreline dynamics of the southern part of Durresi Bay.Shoreline changes were analyzed using the ArcGIS extension "Digital Shoreline AnalysisSystem" (DSAS). The length of the shoreline analyzed is about 3 km.Five shoreline position scorresponding to four time intervalswereanalyzed. These analyses are based on bathymetric studies, sediments and sediment transport analyses, and the mapping of the shoreline positionsfor the periods1944-1980, 1980-2007, 2007-2009and2009-2010.Annual rates of erosion, grain size distribution and the alongs

An Application Of The Aftershock Probability Evaluation Methods For Recent Albania Earthquakes Based On Gutenberg-Richter And Modified Omori Models

In this study, an assessment on the aftershock occurrence probability based on the combination of Gutenberg-Richter and modified Omori formulae is made in order to forecast how many large aftershocks should follow small main shocks and in order to evaluate aftershock probability that a randomly chosen event is greater than or equal to a certain magnitude of aftershock. For this purpose, we made an application of aftershock probability evaluation methods to nine aftershock sequences in which occurred Albania between 2004 and 2009 with magnitude level between 4.5 and 5.0

A retrospective and anatomopathological study of 40 orbital tumors

In casuistry of the neurosurgery clinic in Iasi I recorded 40 observations of orbital tumors over a period of 20 years. The anatomopathological analysis of our observations has shown us a great variety of intraorbital processes occurring especially in small children with optic nerve glioma which lead to malignant tumors with age.&nbsp

Mediating effects of social capital and grocery stores on obesity rates in rural food deserts

Master of ScienceDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsHikaru Hanawa PetersonOver the past few decades, the prevalence of obesity and diet-related diseases has steadily increased and become a major public health concern. Part of the problem has been attributed to the large quantity of unhealthy (energy-dense) foods U.S. consumers include in their diets. Statistics on food environment suggest that some areas and households have easier access to fast food restaurants and convenience stores but limited access to supermarkets. Limited access to nutritious food and relatively easier access to less nutritious food have been shown to lead to poor diets and, ultimately, to obesity and diet-related diseases. These issues may more negatively affect some communities than others, particularly rural communities as they tend to be further away from food outlets compared to urban areas. Counties are classified as food deserts based upon the percentage of residents living below the federal poverty line and the percentage of residents residing more than one mile from a supermarket. This definition excludes many viable food outlet options, including smaller independently-owned groceries. With rural residents being at a greater disadvantage, it becomes important to consider smaller groceries as an alternative for these communities. The level of social capital may be an indicator of an area’s willingness to support its community. The social environment of rural communities can be characterized as having a high degree of interconnectedness within the community, so that “everybody knows everybody else” (Beggs, Haines, & Hurlbert, 1996). This unique social network in rural communities facilitates the buildup of social capital, which incorporates reciprocity and the willingness to do things for members within the network. This study finds a negative relationship between obesity and social capital in nonmetropolitan counties, as well as a negative relationship between obesity rates and rural grocery stores. These conclusions lend insight into ways to decrease the level of obesity in rural areas