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

Excited bands in odd-mass rare-earth nuclei

Normal parity bands are studied in 157Gd, 163Dy and 169Tm using the pseudo SU(3) shell model. Energies and B(E2) transition strengths of states belonging to six low-lying rotational bands with the same parity in each nuclei are presented. The pseudo SU(3) basis includes states with pseudo-spin 0 and 1, and 1/2 and 3/2, for even and odd number of nucleons, respectively. States with pseudo-spin 1 and 3/2 must be included for a proper description of some excited bands.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Universal dS vacua in STU-models

Stable de Sitter solutions in minimal F-term supergravity are known to lie close to Minkowski critical points. We consider a class of STU-models arising from type IIB compactifications with generalised fluxes. There, we apply an analytical method for solving the equations of motion for the moduli fields based on the idea of treating derivatives of the superpotential of different orders up to third as independent objects. In particular, supersymmetric and no-scale Minkowski solutions are singled out by physical reasons. Focusing on the study of dS vacua close to supersymmetric Minkowski points, we are able to elaborate a complete analytical treatment of the mass matrix based on the sGoldstino bound. This leads to a class of interesting universal dS vacua. We finally explore a similar possibility around no-scale Minkowski points and discuss some examples.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures and 7 table

Inter-band B(E2) transition strengths in odd-mass heavy deformed nuclei

Inter-band B(E2) transition strengths between different normal parity bands in 163Dy and 165Er are described using the pseudo-SU(3) model. The Hamiltonian includes Nilsson single-particle energies, quadrupole-quadrupole and pairing interactions with fixed, parametrized strengths, and three extra rotor terms used to fine tune the energy spectra. In addition to inter-band transitions, the energy spectra and the ground state intra-band B(E2) strengths are reported. The results show the pseudo-SU(3) shell model to be a powerful microscopic theory for a description of the normal parity sector in heavy deformed odd-A nuclei.Comment: 4 figures, 2 table

A Discussion on Massive Gravitons and Propagating Torsion in Arbitrary Dimensions

In this paper, we reassess a particular $R^{2}$-type gravity action in D dimensions, recently studied by Nakasone and Oda, taking now torsion effects into account. Considering that the vielbein and the spin connection carry independent propagating degrees of freedom, we conclude that ghosts and tachyons are absent only if torsion is non-propagating, and we also conclude that there is no room for massive gravitons. To include these excitations, we understand how to enlarge Nakasone-Oda's model by means of explicit torsion terms in the action and we discuss the unitarity of the enlarged model for arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 11 page