Seismic vulnerability assessment of the old city centre of Seixal, Portugal

The seismic vulnerability assessment of old traditional masonry building stocks, in a seismic risk mitigation perspective, is truly essential not only for buildings with recognized historical and patrimonial value, but also, in relation to regular buildings. In this sense, this paper approaches the issue of the seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings through the application of a simplified methodology to building stock of the old city centre of Seixal, Portugal. This methodology is based on a vulnerability index, suitable in the evaluation of damage and in the creation of large scale loss scenarios (economical and human). Over 500 buildings were evaluated in accordance with the referred methodology and the results obtained were then integrated into a Geographical Information System tool. The integration of this kind of vulnerability and loss results into a GIS tool allows that city councils or regional authorities make their decisions based on a global view of the site under analysis, which led to more accurate and faster decisions either in terms of risk mitigation strategies or rehabilitation plans. This tool can also assumes great importance in the construction of safety and rescue plans

Vulnerability assessment of urban building stock: a hierarchic approach

In the last decades the evaluation of the seismic risk are of rising concern, considered essential in the activity and definition of strategy planning and urban management. The evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the existent building stock in the perspective of the seismic risk mitigation should not be placed only in relation to the isolated buildings of relevant historical and cultural importance, but also, in relation to the agglomerate of buildings in urban centres. The chronological construction process frequently results in characteristic heterogeneity of masonry and wall connection quality. In addition, buildings do not constitute independent units given that they share the mid-walls with adjacent buildings and the façade walls are aligned. This way, as post-seismic observations proved, buildings do not have an independent structural behaviour, but they interact amongst themselves, mainly for horizontal actions and so the structural performance should be studied at the level of the aggregate and not only for each isolated building. In most cases, for masonry structures there is no need for sophisticated dynamic analyses for seismic resistance verification or vulnerability assessment. This is even more relevant when an assessment at the level of a city centre is pursued. In this work, the results of evaluation of the vulnerability will be presented in accordance to three proposed methodologies based on a vulnerability index that consequently allows the evaluation of damage and creation of loss scenarios (economical and human) not only at the level of the building and its façade walls but also at the level of the aggregates. It will be discussed and evaluated the application of the referred methodologies and its integration in an SIG platform

Desempenho produtivo da Bananeira Pacovan ken Na chapada do Apodi.

A bananeira é cultivada em todos os estados brasileiros, sendo que a maior parte da produção provém da Região Nordeste do país, onde são produzidos 34% do volume total. O Brasil vem destacando com o quinto lugar no ranking mundial na produção de banana, mas apresentando produtividade média de apenas 19 toneladas/ha/ano (4)

Distribuição das florestas decíduas e semidecíduas no Pantanal Brasileiro.

No Pantanal, podem ser encontradas a Floresta Estacional Decidual caracterizada pela perda de 50% ou mais das folhas no período seco e a Floresta Estacional Semidecidual cuja perda das folhas no período seco varia entre 20% e 50%. O objetivo deste trabalho é mapear a distribuição e a quantificar os tipos de Florestas Estacionais no Pantanal. Foram utilizados três mapeamentos existentes: cobertura vegetal do ano de 2002 na escala de 1:250.000, delimitação do Pantanal (planície) na escala de 1:250.000 e delimitação do Bioma Pantanal na escala de 1:5.000.000. Foram selecionadas do mapa de cobertura vegetal apenas as classes que interessavam ao trabalho: Floresta Estacional Decidual de Terras Baixas (Cb), Floresta Estacional Decidual Submontana (Cs) e Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Submontana (Fs). Como resultado verifica-se a distribuição das florestas tanto na área do Pantanal formada pela planície, quanto na área denominada Bioma Pantanal. Para cada uma das delimitações são apresentados os valores das áreas das formações mapeadas. As florestas ocupam em torno de 0,2% da planície do Pantanal e 1,01% do Bioma Pantanal, sendo necessário, portanto, reforçar ações para conservação e preservação dessas formações.geográfica, conservação ambiental.Geopantanal 2010

Identificação de florestas no bioma Pantanal.

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar, quantificar e mapear a distribuição das áreas com cobertura de Floresta Estacional Decidual e Semidecidual no bioma Pantanal. Para tanto, foram utilizados os seguintes trabalhos: a) o mapeamento da cobertura vegetal do Pantanal para o ano de 2002 Silva et al. (2007a); b) delimitação do Bioma Pantanal efetuada por IBGE (2004); c) banco de dados geográficos do Probio-Pantanal, elaborado por Silva et al. (2007b) e; d) mosaico contínuo da vegetação do Pantanal efetuado por Ferrari et al. (2009)

Fatigue behaviour of AA6082-T6 MIG welded butt joints improved by friction stir processing

Friction Stir Processing (FSP) was based on the principles of Friction Stir Welding (FSW), a solid-state joining process originally developed for aluminium alloys. It is an emerging metalworking technique which can provide localized modification and control of microstructures in near-surface layers of processed metallic components. In this research, FSP appears as an alternative to traditional methods for fatigue strength improvement of weld joints, such as re-melting, hammering and blasting. This technique was applied on Metal Inert Gas (MIG) butt welds with and without reinforcement, performed on AA6082-T6 alloy plates. The potential benefits of post-processing MIG welds by FSP were studied using microstructure analysis, hardness measurement, tensile strength, residual stress measurement, and fatigue testing. Fatigue tests were carried out under constant amplitude loading with the stress ratio R set to 0. Friction stir processing of MIG welds does not change the hardness and mechanical strength of the weld substantially, but the fatigue strength was increased, due to the geometry modification in the weld toe, reduction of weld defects and grain refinement of the microstructure

Crescimento da Bananeira Pacovan ken na Chapada do Apodi.

Com a busca dos produtores por variedades mais produtivas e resistentes a doenças, a Embrapa lançou no mercado em 2006, dentre outras, a bananeira cv. Pacovan Ken, apresentando resistência a Sigatoka Negra. A cultivar Pacovan Ken (PV42-68) é um híbrido tetraploide (AAAB), pertencente ao subgrupo prata, obtida por meio de cruzamento entre a cv Pacovan (AAB) com o híbrido M-53 (AA)

Forensic Genetics as a Tool for Peace and Justice: An Overview on DNA Quantification

In Forensic Genetics, DNA analysis is performed to obtain a Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profile from an evidence sample, which is then compared with the victim and suspect(s) reference sample STR profile, to determine their contribution to that evidence sample. However, forensic biological samples can be present in low quantities and be exposed to different environmental insults leading to DNA degradation and contamination by inhibitor compounds. Thus, it is desirable for a forensic scientist to have useful information about the forensic sample quantity and quality prior to STR amplification. New methods in Forensic DNA analysis for detecting, preserving, and quantifying DNA, as well as its recovery from different biological materials are continually being developed. Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) assays for DNA quantification, like the recent Quantifiler® Duo DNA quantification kit (Applied Biosystems) proved to be very useful in forensic samples. Since many samples, mainly those resulting from sexual assault cases are often composed by unbalanced male/female DNA mixtures, the knew RT-PCR quantification assay, developed to quantify relative male/ female DNA ratio contributes not only to total DNA determination but also to ascertain the presence and quantity of enough male DNA in the sample. These results are important to guide the optimal STR analysis selection, such as autosomal STR, Y-STR, or mini-STR, increasing downstream analysis success rates. In this work we present real forensic casework where the DNA amount and quality were important to guide the selection of the appropriate STR amplification kit in order to increase the success of profiling in the first attempt, reducing the number of samples that need to be reprocessed and thereby decreasing the turn around time in a forensic laboratory.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What are the Best Hierarchical Descriptors for Complex Networks?

This work reviews several hierarchical measurements of the topology of complex networks and then applies feature selection concepts and methods in order to quantify the relative importance of each measurement with respect to the discrimination between four representative theoretical network models, namely Erd\"{o}s-R\'enyi, Barab\'asi-Albert, Watts-Strogatz as well as a geographical type of network. The obtained results confirmed that the four models can be well-separated by using a combination of measurements. In addition, the relative contribution of each considered feature for the overall discrimination of the models was quantified in terms of the respective weights in the canonical projection into two dimensions, with the traditional clustering coefficient, hierarchical clustering coefficient and neighborhood clustering coefficient resulting particularly effective. Interestingly, the average shortest path length and hierarchical node degrees contributed little for the separation of the four network models.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure