DUG User Guide. Version 2.1

This user guide accompanies the DUG tool which is a public tool for applying the “Degree of urbanisation” (DEGURBA) model at one kilometer grid. DUG stands for Degree of Urbanisation Grid. It has been developed in the frame of the “Global Human Settlement Layer” (GHSL) project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, with the overall objective to support the DEGURBA activities. The tool builds on the GHS SMOD model that implements settlement model classifier at 1 km grid. The tool uses population and built-up grids as input data, and optionally a water mask. It has been developed and tested using GHS P2016 datasets ; however other grids can be used on user responsibility. This user guide is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of using the DUG tool. It includes instructions for the set-up of the software, the use of the tool and the manipulation of the data. It presents briefly the basic principles and background information on the methodology and its implementation. Some guidelines on the parametrization are also provided.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

DIC Measurement of the Kinematics of a Friction Damper for Turbine Applications

International audienceHigh cycle fatigue (HCF) caused by large resonant stresses is a common cause for turbine blades failure. Passive damping systems, such as friction dampers are often used by aero-engine manufacturers to reduce the resonant stresses and mitigate the risk of HCF. The presence of friction dampers makes the dynamics of the system highly nonlinear, due to the complex stick-slip and separation phenomena taking place at the contact interface. Due to this nonlinear behaviour, an accurate understanding of the operating deflection shapes is needed for an accurate stress prediction. In this study, digital image correlation (DIC) in combination with a high speed camera is used to provide insights into the kinematics of the damper in a recently developed test rig. The in-phase and out-of-phase first bending modes of the blades were investigated leading to a full field measurement of the global ODS of the blades, and the local motion of the damper against its platforms. A significant change in the blades operational deflection shape could be observed due to the damper, and the sliding and rolling motion of the damper during a vibration cycle was accurately visualised

MASADA USER GUIDE

This user guide accompanies the MASADA tool which is a public tool for the detection of built-up areas from remote sensing data. MASADA stands for Massive Spatial Automatic Data Analytics. It has been developed in the frame of the “Global Human Settlement Layer” (GHSL) project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, with the overall objective to support the production of settlement layers at regional scale, by processing high and very high resolution satellite imagery. The tool builds on the Symbolic Machine Learning (SML) classifier; a supervised classification method of remotely sensed data which allows extracting built-up information using a coarse resolution settlement map or a land cover information for learning the classifier. The image classification workflow incorporates radiometric, textural and morphological features as inputs for information extraction. Though being originally developed for built-up areas extraction, the SML classifier is a multi-purpose classifier that can be used for general land cover mapping provided there is an appropriate training data set. The tool supports several types of multispectral optical imagery. It includes ready-to-use workflows for specific sensors, but at the same time, it allows the parametrization and customization of the workflow by the user. Currently it includes predefined workflows for SPOT-5, SPOT-6/7, RapidEye and CBERS-4, but it was also tested with various high and very high resolution1 sensors like GeoEye-1, WorldView-2/3, Pléiades and Quickbird.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Evaluation of protein pattern changes in roots and leaves of Zea mays plants in response to nitrate availability by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nitrogen nutrition is one of the major factors that limit growth and production of crop plants. It affects many processes, such as development, architecture, flowering, senescence and photosynthesis. Although the improvement in technologies for protein study and the widening of gene sequences have made possible the study of the plant proteomes, only limited information on proteome changes occurring in response to nitrogen amount are available up to now. In this work, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) has been used to investigate the protein changes induced by NO₃^-concentration in both roots and leaves of maize (<it>Zea mays </it>L.) plants. Moreover, in order to better evaluate the proteomic results, some biochemical and physiological parameters were measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through 2-DE analysis, 20 and 18 spots that significantly changed their amount at least two folds in response to nitrate addition to the growth medium of starved maize plants were found in roots and leaves, respectively. Most of these spots were identified by Liquid Chromatography Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). In roots, many of these changes were referred to enzymes involved in nitrate assimilation and in metabolic pathways implicated in the balance of the energy and redox status of the cell, among which the pentose phosphate pathway. In leaves, most of the characterized proteins were related to regulation of photosynthesis. Moreover, the up-accumulation of lipoxygenase 10 indicated that the leaf response to a high availability of nitrate may also involve a modification in lipid metabolism.</p> <p>Finally, this proteomic approach suggested that the nutritional status of the plant may affect two different post-translational modifications of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) consisting in monoubiquitination and phosphorylation in roots and leaves, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work provides a first characterization of the proteome changes that occur in response to nitrate availability in leaves and roots of maize plants. According to previous studies, the work confirms the relationship between nitrogen and carbon metabolisms and it rises some intriguing questions, concerning the possible role of NO and lipoxygenase 10 in roots and leaves, respectively. Although further studies will be necessary, this proteomic analysis underlines the central role of post-translational events in modulating pivotal enzymes, such as PEPCase.</p

An advanced underplatform damper modelling approach based on a microslip contact model

International audienceHigh-cycle fatigue caused by large resonance stresses remains one of the most common causes of turbine blades failures. Friction dampers are one of the most effective and practical solutions to limit the vibration amplitude, and shift the resonance frequencies of the turbine assemblies far from operating speeds. However, predicting with good accuracy the effects of underplatform dampers on the blades dynamics, still represents a major challenge today, due to the complex nature of the nonlinear forces at the interface, characterised by transitions between stick, slip, and separation conditions. The most common modelling approaches developed recently are based on the explicit FE model for the damper, and on a dense grid of 3D contact elements comprised of Jenkins elements, or on a single 2D microslip element on each surface. In this paper, a combination of the two approaches is proposed. A 3D microslip element, based on a modified Valanis model is proposed and a series of these elements are used to describe the contact interface. The proposed model and its predicting capabilities are then evaluated against a simplified blade-damper model, based on an underplatform damper test rig recently developed by the authors. A comparison with a more simplistic modelling approach based on macroslip contact elements, highlights the improved accuracy of the new model to predict the experimental nonlinear response

Testing the "PRESTo" Early Warning Algorithm in North-Eastern Italy, Austria and Slovenia: update analysis

Since 2002 OGS (Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale) in Udine (Italy), the Agencija Republike Slovenije za Okolje (ARSO) in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) in Vienna (Austria), are collecting, analyzing, archiving and exchanging seismic data in real time. The data exchange has proved to be effective and very useful in case of seismic events at the borders between Italy, Austria and Slovenia, where the poor coverage of individual national seismic networks precluded a precise earthquake location, while the usage of common data from the integrated networks improves significantly the overall capability of real time event detection and rapid characterization in this area. In order to extend the seismic monitoring in North-eastern Italy, Slovenia and Southern Austria, towards earthquake early warning applications, at the end of 2013 OGS, ARSO and ZAMG teamed with the RISSCLab group (http://www.rissclab.unina.it) of the Department of Physics at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. The collaboration focuses on massive testing on OGS, ARSO and ZAMG data of the EW platform PRESTo (Probabilistic and Evolutionary early warning SysTem) developed by RISSC-Lab (http://www.prestoews.org)

GHS-DU-TUC User Guide: Degree of Urbanisation Territorial Units Classifier User Guide Version 1

The Degree of Urbanisation Territorial Units Classifier (GHS-DU-TUC) Tool (– version 1) is an information system developed in the framework of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to produce the classification of territorial units based on the Degree of Urbanisation and extract related statistics. The tool classifies territorial units by Degree of Urbanisation at Level 1 (3 classes) and Level 2 (7 classes) based on population majority by settlement classes derived from the “Degree of Urbanisation” method and ported to the GHSL environment through the GHSL Settlement Model (GHSL SMOD). The GHS-DU-TUC 1 is designed as an operational tool to perform the second step required to apply the Degree of Urbanisation released as standalone tool and as ArcGIS Toolbox. Once the first step produces the settlement classification grid (i.e. with the GHS-DUG Tool), the user runs the GHS-DU-TUC that requires this settlement classification grid, the population grid used to produce the settlement classification grid (i.e. produced with the GHS-POP2G Tool) and a geometry of territorial units to be classified by Degree of Urbanisation. This tool is conceptualised to be deployed after the application of the GHSL tools GHS-POP2G and GHS-DUG but it accepts in input population grids produced by means of any other procedure respecting the described constrains. This document contains the description of the GHS-DU-TUC Tool use, the rationale for the second step to apply the Degree of Urbanisation (the classification of territorial units) and the comprehensive description of the outputs. The tool is a capacity enhancement asset in the framework of the multi-stakeholder effort for the uptake of the Degree of Urbanisation, the people-based harmonised definition of cities and settlements recommended by the 51st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission as the method to delineate cities and rural areas for international statistical comparison. The GHS-DU-TUC, as all GHSL Tools, is issued with an end-user licence agreement, included in the download package.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

DUG User Guide

The Degree of Urbanisation Grid (DUG) Tool (– version 3.0) is an information system developed in the framework of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to produce geospatial grids to map settlement classes and extract related statistics. The settlement classes are derived from the “Degree of Urbanisation” method and ported to the GHSL environment through the GHSL Settlement Mode (GHSL SMOD)l. The DUG 3.0 is designed as a scalable tool allowing the application of the GHSL Settlement Model to the input data available to the user or to data made available in the GHSL Data Package 2019. This document contains the description of the DUG Tool use, the rationale of the differentiation between settlement classes and the comprehensive description of the outputs. The tool is a capacity enhancement asset in the framework of the multi-stakeholder effort to develop a people-based harmonised definition of cities and settlements that helps the assessment of the feasibility of applying a global definition of cities/urban areas in support of global monitoring of SDGs and the New Urban Agenda urban targetsJRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

GHS-DUG User Guide: Degree of Urbanisation Grid User Guide Version 4

The Degree of Urbanisation Grid (GHS-DUG) Tool (– version 4) is an information system developed in the framework of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to produce geospatial grids to map settlement classes and extract related statistics. The settlement classes are derived from the “Degree of Urbanisation” method and ported to the GHSL environment through the GHSL Settlement Mode (GHSL SMOD). The GHS-DUG 4 is designed as a scalable tool allowing the application of the GHSL Settlement Model to the input data available to the user or to data made available in the GHSL Data Package 2019. This document contains the description of the GHS-DUG Tool use, the rationale of the differentiation between settlement classes and the comprehensive description of the outputs. The tool is a capacity enhancement asset in the framework of the multi-stakeholder effort for the uptake of the Degree of Urbanisation, the people-based harmonised definition of cities and settlements recommended by the 51st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission as the method to delineate cities and rural areas for international statistical comparison. The GHS-DUG, as all GHSL Tools, is issued with an end-user licence agreement, included in the download package.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Site Effects in the Eastern Po Plain by Mean of Weak and Strong Earthquakes

We present the activities carried out within the S2 2012-2013 Project, funded in the frame of DPCINGV Agreement, that concerns the mid-long term Seismic Hazard Assessment in Italy on two priority areas, the Po Plain and the Southern Italy. The Po Valley, an area hitherto considered of low seismological interest, has attracted the attention of the seismological community following the events of May 20, 2012. The day after the main shock that stuck eastern Emilia in 2012, the OGS - Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale deployed a temporary seismographic network in the Ferrara area. All the investigated locations were set on soft soils. The large amount of collected data allowed comparison between observed PGA and theoretical predictions, ShakeMaps and attenuation laws, but the lack of a reference site during the 2012 recordings did not allow for estimating the amplification factor. In order to accomplish this task, in February 2013, a new 5 stations recording array acquired data at four of the 2012 network sites and at the Casaglia reference site, north of Ferrara, where a borehole Very Broad-Band station is coupled with a midperiod sensor at the surface. This borehole reference station made possible the estimation of site amplification of the 2013 array sites. The reference methods allowed an easier identification of the resonance frequency, which peaks appear sharper than what displayed by single-station methods (both H/V on ambient noise and earthquakes), and relative soil amplification. A large amount of original seismological data has been recorded in a poorly instrumented area, including significant events of the 2012 Emilia and 2013 Lunigiana sequences. The entire dataset of continuous waveforms has been made available on the OGS web based OASIS Database, from the earliest stages of the project. For the largest events strong-motion parameters were calculated and published on the OASIS database. Event time series and metadata (site monographs) are available similarly to the ITACA Database