Simplified Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Methods: A Comparative Analysis with Reference to Regional School Building Stock in Italy

The paper compares several simplified methods proposed in the literature for assessing the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings. Type and number of input and output data, limitations of use for different structural typologies, and complexity of use are examined for each methodology to identify the most suitable for assessing the vulnerability of a given class of buildings, based on the available data, the computational effort, and the type of vulnerability judgment. The selected methods were applied to a sample of school buildings located in the province of Naples (Italy). Data were available due to a digital platform and were used to verify the possibility of providing reliable large scale vulnerability judgments based on a reduced set of information, without carrying out additional surveys. The most simplified methods were applied to a sample of about a thousand of buildings, while more detailed methods, needing more information, were applied to a smaller sample. The comparison between the results obtained from different methods allows highlighting advantages and weaknesses of each, so as to identify the convenience in their use according to the specific available information and the objectives of the analysis, finally to evaluate which is more or less safe

La atenuación en conversaciones coloquiales argentinas y españolas: un estudio contrastivo

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar el resultado de un análisis contrastivo realizado entre las manifestaciones de atenuación en conversaciones coloquiales argentinas y españolas. La atenuación, como fenómeno pragmático que reduce la fuerza ilocutiva de los actos comunicativos, en el que intervienen la imagen y las responsabilidades de los hablantes respecto a sus mensajes (Caffi 1999, 2007; Thaler; Albelda 2016), ha sido ampliamente estudiada para el español, a partir de la década de los 90, desde la perspectiva de los estudios de cortesía (Haverkate; Briz 1995, 2007), la pragmática (Schneider) o la sociolingüística (Samper Hernández; Cestero). Sin embargo, son escasos los trabajos que abordan la comparación entre sus variedades diatópicas (Briz 2007; Albelda 2008). Este trabajo analiza cuantitativa y cualitativamente los recursos atenuantes utilizados en conversaciones coloquiales entre hablantes de 20 a 34 años, de nivel sociocultural medio y alto, de las ciudades de Tucumán (Argentina) y Valencia (España), a partir de una ficha metodológica de análisis (Albelda/ otros), con el propósito de determinar cuáles son las principales semejanzas y diferencias entre ambos países.This paper reports the results of a contrastive analysis of the instances of attenuation occurring in a set of Argentine and Spanish colloquial conversations. Attenuation –understood as a pragmatic phenomenon reducing the illocutionary force of communicative acts, which involves face and the speakers’ responsibilities for their messages (Caffi 1999, 2007; Thaler; Albelda 2016)– has been studied to a significant extent in the Spanish language, beginning in the 1990s, from the perspective of politeness studies (Haverkate; Briz 1995, 2007), pragmatics (Schneider) and sociolinguistics (Samper Hernández; Cestero). However, studies concentrating on the comparison between its diatopic varieties are scarce (Briz 2007; Albelda 2008). This study quantitatively and qualitatively analyses the attenuation resources utilized in colloquial conversations between speakers aged 20-34 at the higher and middle social strata in the cities of Tucumán (Argentina) and Valencia (Spain). The analysis was based on a methodological data sheet (Albelda/ others) with the aim of finding the main similarities and differences between both diatopic varieties

La atenuación en conversaciones coloquiales argentinas y españolas: un estudio contrastivo

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar el resultado de un análisis contrastivo realizado entre las manifestaciones de atenuación en conversaciones coloquiales argentinas y españolas. La atenuación, como fenómeno pragmático que reduce la fuerza ilocutiva de los actos comunicativos, en el que intervienen la imagen y las responsabilidades de los hablantes respecto a sus mensajes (Caffi 1999, 2007; Thaler; Albelda 2016), ha sido ampliamente estudiada para el español, a partir de la década de los 90, desde la perspectiva de los estudios de cortesía (Haverkate; Briz 1995, 2007), la pragmática (Schneider) o la sociolingüística (Samper Hernández; Cestero). Sin embargo, son escasos los trabajos que abordan la comparación entre sus variedades diatópicas (Briz 2007; Albelda 2008). Este trabajo analiza cuantitativa y cualitativamente los recursos atenuantes utilizados en conversaciones coloquiales entre hablantes de 20 a 34 años, de nivel sociocultural medio y alto, de las ciudades de Tucumán (Argentina) y Valencia (España), a partir de una ficha metodológica de análisis (Albelda/ otros), con el propósito de determinar cuáles son las principales semejanzas y diferencias entre ambos países.This paper reports the results of a contrastive analysis of the instances of attenuation occurring in a set of Argentine and Spanish colloquial conversations. Attenuation –understood as a pragmatic phenomenon reducing the illocutionary force of communicative acts, which involves face and the speakers’ responsibilities for their messages (Caffi 1999, 2007; Thaler; Albelda 2016)– has been studied to a significant extent in the Spanish language, beginning in the 1990s, from the perspective of politeness studies (Haverkate; Briz 1995, 2007), pragmatics (Schneider) and sociolinguistics (Samper Hernández; Cestero). However, studies concentrating on the comparison between its diatopic varieties are scarce (Briz 2007; Albelda 2008). This study quantitatively and qualitatively analyses the attenuation resources utilized in colloquial conversations between speakers aged 20-34 at the higher and middle social strata in the cities of Tucumán (Argentina) and Valencia (Spain). The analysis was based on a methodological data sheet (Albelda/ others) with the aim of finding the main similarities and differences between both diatopic varieties

Seismic soil-structure interaction: two case studies in Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Italy

The paper deals with the results of a multidisciplinary study aimed at assessing the seismic vulnerability of two historical buildings in a picturesque medieval village in Southern Italy, taking into account the interaction among structure, soil and underground cavities. The subsoil model accounted for nonlinear visco-elastic hysteretic behavior, as calibrated on the basis of past and recent geotechnical and geophysical investigations. A strain-softening constitutive model was adopted to simulate the nonlinear behavior of masonry, according to a macro-mechanical approach. Some of mechanical parameters were calibrated against experimental data resulting from uniaxial compression tests performed on single-leaf masonry prisms. 2D nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed with the FLAC code on soil-cavity-structure models by applying a reference input motion compatible with the design acceleration spectrum specified by the Italian code of practice. The building performance and its ability to restore the pre-event conditions were respectively assessed in terms of maximum and residual lateral drifts of the main walls and foundations