Effect of fault roughness on aftershock distribution

A large earthquake triggers earthquakes on many nearby faults. Most of the triggered earthquakes (i.e. aftershocks) can be explained by the static stress increase in the region where they occur. Some aftershocks also occur in the regions of static stress decrease or stress shadows. The current physical models of aftershock occurrence are not able to explain aftershocks that are observed in stress shadows. The static stress changes, following an earthquake, are calculated using slip that occurs on the main fault. The source inversions, which calculate these slips, are not able to resolve finer scale details of slip due to their coarser spatial resolution. The finer scale details of slip influence finer static stress changes, which plays an important role in the production of smaller aftershocks. These finer details of stresses may be able to better explain the occurrence of aftershocks in stress shadows. In this study, we perform dynamic earthquake rupture simulations of large earthquakes. This modeling resolves the finer scale details of slip based on elasticity and friction and hence has the ability to predict the spatial distribution of slip and stress changes. We perform numerous two dimensional (2D) earthquake rupture simulations on rough strike slip faults assuming elastic and plastic off-fault material properties. We consider many different realizations of a self-affine rough fault profile. We output the static stress changes in the off-fault medium from our simulations and use these to calculate the Coulomb failure function (CFF) in the region surrounding the fault. We use similar and variable orientations for receiver faults planes to calculate CFF values. The similar receiver fault plane orientations are chosen to be parallel to the overall trace of the main fault, while the variable receiver fault orientations are determined using the angle at which plastic shear strain is maximum. Our results show that the stresses are highly complex in the region close to the fault. This complexity reduces as the distance from the fault increases. We conclude that the stress complexity observed in the near-fault region is due to roughness of the fault profile. The complexity of stresses in the near-fault region causes the CFF to be highly heterogeneous in the near-fault region. We observe many positive CFF zones within negative CFF zones in the near-fault region. We believe that these are the potential locations of aftershocks observed in stress shadows. The areas where they appear would be seen as stress shadows in typical static stress change calculations due to insufficient resolution of the fault slip. Furthermore, we observe that the overall trend of the CFF with distance remains similar either assuming elastic or plastic off-fault material properties. In the near-fault region, we observe many more positive CFF zones when we calculate CFF values using variable receiver fault orientations. Our results suggest that the spatial aftershock distribution surrounding a fault is controlled by both stress heterogeneity as well as the co-seismic damage zone complexity. Comparing our model rupture areas of positive CFF zones with rupture areas of aftershocks and preshocks from relocated earthquake catalogs of Northern and Southern California, we conclude that the stresses in the near-fault region are dominated by the fault roughness effects throughout the seismic cycle. We model the inter-seismic period of a complex rupture by running a quasi-static model (LTM) initialized with stresses from dynamic earthquake rupture model. Our results show that the geometrical bends of the fault profile cause the plastic deformation to be localized in the co-seismic phase, which acts as a seed for the development of new shear features in the inter-seismic phase

Effective Utilization of Supervised Learning Techniques for Process Model Matching

The recent attempts to use supervised learning techniques for process model matching have yielded below par performance. To address this issue, we have transformed the well-known benchmark correspondences to a readily usable format for supervised learning. Furthermore, we have performed several experiments using eight supervised learning techniques to establish that imbalance in the datasets is the key reason for the abysmal performance. Finally, we have used four data balancing techniques to generate balanced training dataset and verify our solution by repeating the experiments for the four datasets, including the three benchmark datasets. The results show that the proposed approach increases the matching performance significantly

Process Matching: Performance Trade-Off Between Summary and Full-Length Descriptions

Business process models are used by modeling experts to concisely depict the workflow of an organization that plays a pivotal role in the development of ERP systems. A growing number of organizations also maintain the textual process descriptions of these process models as the descriptions are understandable across the board. A recent study has revealed that these textual descriptions can also be used for an accurate process model search. However, the use of textual descriptions is a resource-intensive task due to the sheer size of the descriptions. To that end, in this paper, we have proposed an approach that relies on the use of summary textual descriptions, instead of full-length descriptions, to enhance the performance of process matching. To evaluate the proposed approach, we have used four diverse text summarization techniques, including a state-of-the-art deep learning based technique, for generating summary descriptions, and seven text-matching techniques for finding relevant process specifications. Our empirical study has established that the Vector Space Model is the most effective technique for process matching. Furthermore, the use of Lingo generated summaries, at a compression rate of 50 %, can achieve a higher efficiency as well as effectiveness than the full-length textual process descriptions

Uterine artery embolization combined with methotrexate for broad ligament ectopic pregnancy in a 30-year old primigravida

We present the case of 30-year old primigravida female at 11 weeks\u27 gestation who was diagnosed to have ectopic pregnancy on obstetric ultrasound. An MRI pelvis was ordered to assess invasion into the posterior myometrium which confirmed a single right-sided broad ligament-extra uterine pelvic ectopic pregnancy with extrinsic mass effect on the right lower uterine segment without frank myometrial invasion. On an urgent basis, a uterine artery embolization (UAE) was performed by targeting the right femoral artery. Selective catheterization was performed of both uterine arteries and the right side showed a major feeder of the gestational sac. Supplied dose of methotrexate (95mg) was infused in the right uterine artery and both arteries were then embolized by gel foam slurry. Thus, prompt treatment reduced the risk of infertility and saved the patient from obstetrical emergency. Further exploration needs to be done in this field to explore conservative management options to preserve fertility

Role of Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism in Psychosocial Deprivation among Females Patients

Background: Patients with rare diseases such as congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) are often challenged to be isolated, lack proper medical care and face negative social consequences. Furthermore, pubertal development is the period of rapid and nearly simultaneous transformation of biological, physical, social, and psychological domains of an individual. Hence, the process of personal transformation is also affected in children with pubertal delay. Due to delay in the growth process, the individual looks different from her or his peers and may have negative consequences on the psychological and social interactions. Objective: The disparities in the growth and development may cause an increase in psychosocial problems and negative peer relationship. Hence, this study was designed to observe psychosocial consequences of delayed puberty in female with CHH. Design: Cross sectional study. Place & duration of study: The data were collected from CHH patients visiting public sector hospitals over a period of 18 months. Patients & Methods: The demographic information, complete medical history, psychological and psychosocial symptoms of the 52 female CHH patients were recorded on the questionnaire. Results: The present study demonstrated that most of the patients were frustrated due to poor body image, low self-esteem, feeling themselves behind the peers, and were with complaints of depression and anxiety. The other psychological symptoms include anger, irritability, loneliness, eating and sleeping disturbances. Conclusion: It was concluded that the delayed sexual maturation has resulted in frustration, low self-esteem and increased anxiety and depression in cohort of local females with CHH

EFFECT OF WASTE POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE BOTTLE FIBERS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RECYCLED CONCRETE

The use of beverage containers, most of which are made of polyethylene terephthalate bottles, results in several problems with regard to sustainability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and contrast the impact on the mechanical characteristics of concrete caused by the incorporation of polyethylene terephthalate bottle fibres in varying amounts. These fibres were generated by cutting bottles into precise dimensions (width of 5 mm and length of 25 mm), and they were used in various concentrations such as 0,25 %; 0,5 % and 1,0 % by volume of concrete with different amounts of recycled aggregate. To verify the reliability of the outcomes of the experiment, a statistical analysis was performed. According to the results, the concrete that contained 0 % recycled coarse aggregate and varying amounts of plastic fibres had a greater degree of workability compared with concrete that had either 50 % or 100 % recycled coarse aggregate. The comprehensive test findings demonstrated that the addition of polyethylene terephthalate fibres decreased compressive and split tensile strength. The study concluded that certain parameters, such as plastic fibres, curing days, and recycled aggregate, interacted together in a synergistic manner to impact the compressive and splitting tensile strengths of the concrete, with proposed equations for their prediction

EFFECT OF WASTE POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE BOTTLE FIBERS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RECYCLED CONCRETE

The use of beverage containers, most of which are made of polyethylene terephthalate bottles, results in several problems with regard to sustainability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and contrast the impact on the mechanical characteristics of concrete caused by the incorporation of polyethylene terephthalate bottle fibres in varying amounts. These fibres were generated by cutting bottles into precise dimensions (width of 5 mm and length of 25 mm), and they were used in various concentrations such as 0,25 %; 0,5 % and 1,0 % by volume of concrete with different amounts of recycled aggregate. To verify the reliability of the outcomes of the experiment, a statistical analysis was performed. According to the results, the concrete that contained 0 % recycled coarse aggregate and varying amounts of plastic fibres had a greater degree of workability compared with concrete that had either 50 % or 100 % recycled coarse aggregate. The comprehensive test findings demonstrated that the addition of polyethylene terephthalate fibres decreased compressive and split tensile strength. The study concluded that certain parameters, such as plastic fibres, curing days, and recycled aggregate, interacted together in a synergistic manner to impact the compressive and splitting tensile strengths of the concrete, with proposed equations for their prediction

On the Efficiency of Foreign Exchange Markets in times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

We employ multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) to provide the first look at the efficiency of forex markets during the initial period of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted the financial markets globally. We use high frequency (5-min interval) data of six major currencies traded in the forex market for the period from 01 October 2019 to 31 March 2020. Prior to the application of MF-DFA, we examine the inner dynamics of multifractality using seasonal-trend decompositions using loess (STL) method. Overall, the results confirm the presence of multifractality in forex markets, which demonstrates, in particular: (i) a decline in the efficiency of forex markets during the period of COVID-19 outbreak, and (ii) the heterogeneity in the effects on the strength of multifractality of exchange rate returns under investigation. The largest effect is observed in the case of AUD as it shows the highest (lowest) efficiency before (during) COVID-19 assessed in terms of low (high) multifractality. During COVID-19 period, CAD and CHF exhibit the highest efficiency. Our findings may help policymakers in shaping a comprehensive response to improve the forex market efficiency during such a black swan event