The old municipal chambers building: damaged but nor destroyed : will it be there in another 125 years?

The Old Municipal Chambers is a Category I heritage building situated in Worcester Street, Christchurch. It was designed by architect Samuel Hurst Seager in the Queen Anne Arts and Crafts Style and was opened in 1887. The two storey building is constructed in solid brick and incorporates several decorative features, and it is an important part of the cultural heritage fabric of Christchurch. Some securing works were undertaken in 1989 to improve its performance under seismic loads. This paper will outline damage during the earthquake on 4 September 2010, subsequent aftershocks and the 22 February 2011 earthquake which resulted in some localised zones of collapse. The structure of the building has been stabilised externally, to secure or allow retrieval of very significant heritage features. The high cost to repair the building makes the future of the building uncertain despite its very significant heritage value.In response to the building’s seismic vulnerability and possible retrofitting, finite element and simplified equivalent frame models were used for pushover analysis, enabling a complementary seismic evaluation from both approaches. The predictions identify the weak parts of the building and its expected failure modes, which are in agreement with the observed damage. The computations appear conservative, because the computed capacity curves provide insufficient capacity of the building to survive the recorded earthquakes. Given that there was uncertainty on the constitution of the floors, they were assumed as unidirectional by default, bidirectional diaphragm floors were also simulated in the simplified model, reflecting the securing works undertaken in 1990. In this case, a significantly better behaviour is observed. This paper will examine the seismic performance of the building, comparing results of analysis including both in-plane and out-of-plane behaviour, with actual damage. It will then consider conceptual scenarios for the future of the building, including comparison of performance and cost of both conventional and base isolation retrofit

Study of the seismic behavior of the “Old Municipal Chambers” building in Christchurch, New Zealand

This paper presents a study of the seismic behavior of the “Old Municipal Chambers” building in Christchurch, which was damaged by earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. In view of its seismic vulnerability and retrofitting, finite element and equivalent frame models were used for pushover analysis. Predictions allow identifying the weak parts of the building and its expected failure modes, which are in agreement with the observed damage. Computations seem however conservative, because the building capacity curves provide insufficient strength to survive the registered earthquakes. By considering the floors as bidirectional diaphragms in the simplified model, a better behavior is observed.The authors gratefully acknowledge Professor Jason Ingham and his research group at University of Auckland for providing experimental data in Christchurch and their recommendations on materials properties to be expected. The two first authors acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through Ph.D. grants SFRH/BD/41221/2007 and SFRH/BD/45436/2008

Paradoxical expression of IL-28B mRNA in peripheral blood in human T-cell leukemia virus Type-1 mono-infection and co-infection with hepatitis C Virus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1) carriers co-infected with and hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been known to be at higher risk of their related diseases than mono-infected individuals. The recent studies clarified that IL-28B polymorphism rs8099917 is associated with not only the HCV therapeutic response by IFN, but also innate immunity and antiviral activity. The aim of our research was to clarify study whether IL-28B gene polymorphism (rs8099917) is associated with HTLV-1/HCV co-infection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The genotyping and viral-serological analysis for 340 individuals showed that IL-28B genotype distribution of rs8099917 SNP did not differ significantly by respective viral infection status. However, the IL-28B mRNA expression level was 3.8 fold higher in HTLV-1 mono-infection than HTLV-1/HCV co-infection. The high expression level was associated with TT (OR, 6.25), whiles the low expression was associated with co-infection of the two viruses (OR, 9.5). However, there was no association between down-regulation and ATL development (OR, 0.8).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>HTLV-1 mono-infection up-regulates the expression of IL-28B transcripts in genotype-dependent manner, whiles HTLV-1/HCV co-infection down-regulates regardless of ATL development.</p