52,597 research outputs found
Earthen construction: structural vulnerabilities and retrofit solutions for seismic actions
Earthen structures present very appealing characteristics regarding a more sustainable practice with the
preservation of our natural resources. However, when subjected to earthquake ground motions, this type of
construction may present a deficient performance, which may cause significant human losses and important
structural damage. The seismic response of earthen structures is typically characterized by fragile failures. There
are several examples of recent earthquakes that affected earthen buildings in a severe way, evidencing the
vulnerability of this type of construction, like the El Salvador earthquake, in 2001, the Bam, Iran earthquake, in
2003, the Pisco, Peru earthquake, in 2007 and the Maule, Chile earthquake, in 2010.
The construction of earth structures on earthquake-prone areas must be carefully studied and should include
seismic reinforcement solutions in order to improve their seismic performance.
In this paper, the performance of earthen structures in recent earthquakes will be examined, analyzing failure
modes inherent to these particular construction materials and associated construction techniques. Also, seismic
reinforcement approaches and techniques will be presented in a comprehensive manner. Examples of tests conducted for the assessment of retrofitting solutions efficiency will be presented, and the results obtained will be discussed
State reconstruction of finite dimensional compound systems via local projective measurements and one-way classical communication
For a finite dimensional discrete bipartite system, we find the relation
between local projections performed by Alice, and Bob post-selected state
dependence on the global state submatrices. With this result the joint state
reconstruction problem for a bipartite system can be solved with strict local
projections and one-way classical communication. The generalization to
multipartite systems is straightforward.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Estimative for the size of the compactification radius of a one extra dimension Universe
In this work, we use the Casimir effect to probe the existence of one extra
dimension. We begin by evaluating the Casimir pressure between two plates in a
manifold, and then use an appropriate statistical analysis in
order to compare the theoretical expression with a recent experimental data and
set bounds for the compactification radius
Conservation law for distributed entanglement of formation and quantum discord
We present a direct relation, based upon a monogamic principle, between
entanglement of formation (EOF) and quantum discord (QD), showing how they are
distributed in an arbitrary tripartite pure system. By extending it to a
paradigmatic situation of a bipartite system coupled to an environment, we
demonstrate that the EOF and the QD obey a conservation relation. By means of
this relation we show that in the deterministic quantum computer with one pure
qubit the protocol has the ability to rearrange the EOF and the QD, which
implies that quantum computation can be understood on a different basis as a
coherent dynamics where quantum correlations are distributed between the qubits
of the computer. Furthermore, for a tripartite mixed state we show that the
balance between distributed EOF and QD results in a stronger version of the
strong subadditivity of entropy.Comment: Published versio
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