Investigation of the relationship of seismic intensity measures and the accumulation of damage on concrete gravity dams using incremental dynamic analysis

Nonlinear analysis tools are gaining prominence for the design and evaluation of concrete gravity dams. The performance limits of concrete gravity dams within the framework of performance based design are challenging to determine in comparison to those used for the assessments based on linear elastic analyses. The uncertainty in quantifying the behavior of these systems and the strong dependence of the behavior on the ground motion play an important role. The purpose of the study is to quantify the damage levels on a representative monolith using incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). For this purpose, the constitutive model utilized was calibrated first to the existing experimental results to verify the ability of the utilized cracking model to simulate the crack propagation process. Next, the relation between the damage levels on the monolith and the ground motion characteristics was investigated. The results of the conducted IDA showed that the engineering demand parameters (EDP) such as the crest displacement and acceleration showed weak correlation with the damage states. The spectral velocity and the peak ground acceleration were determined to be better predictors for the damage on the monolith. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Study of time as being according to the Keraakie people of Southwest Papua New Guinea

BACKGROUND: Mucopolysaccharidosis III (MPS III), known as Sanfilippo disease, is a lysosomal storage disorder mainly characterized by progressive neurodegeneration with cognitive decline and relatively attenuated somatic signs and symptoms. Although short stature is invariably present in patients with the other mucopolysaccharidoses, it has not been sufficiently addressed in MPS III. The aim of this study was to investigate growth data of a large Dutch MPS III cohort in order to construct growth charts for MPS III patients. METHODS: Height, weight, head circumference (HC), and body mass index (BMI) data from 118 MPS III patients were used to construct reference curves, using the lambda, mu, sigma (LMS) method. Genotype-group comparisons for height standard deviation scores (SDS) were performed by Kruskal-Wallis analysis for different age groups. RESULTS: Birth weight and length were within normal ranges for gestational age and showed a significantly stunted growth from age 6 years onward. Mean final heights were 169.7 cm (-2.0 SDS) and 165.4 cm (-0.84 SDS) for adult male and female, patients, respectively. Phenotypic severity, as assessed by genotyping, correlated with growth pattern and final height. In addition, mean BMI and HC SDS were significantly higher when compared with Dutch standards for both boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS: Growth in MPS III is stunted mainly in patients with the severe phenotype. We provide disease-specific growth references that can be used for clinical management of MPS III patients and may be of value for future treatment studies