Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in Greece – Part 3: Deaggregation

The present third part of the study, concerning the evaluation of earthquake hazard in Greece in terms of various ground motion parameters, deals with the deaggregation of the obtained results The seismic hazard maps presented for peak ground acceleration and spectral acceleration at 0.2 s and 1.0 s, with 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years, were deaggregated in order to quantify the dominant scenario. There are three basic components of each dominant scenario: earthquake magnitude (<i>M</i>), source-to-site distance (<i>R</i>) and epsilon (ε). We present deaggregation maps of mean and mode values of M-R-ε triplet showing the contribution to hazard over a dense grid

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in Greece – Part 2: Acceleration response spectra and elastic input energy spectra

This second part of the study, deals with the evaluation of the earthquake hazard in Greece in terms of the response spectral acceleration and the elastic input energy equivalent velocity. Four sets of predictive equations were selected, two for each type of spectra. Probabilistic hazard maps were created by determining the seismic hazard at grid points covering the region of interest. The maps are presented for the dominant periods of 0.2 s and 1.0 s for each spectrum. Uniform hazard response spectra (UHRS) for six cities located in the regions of highest estimated hazard are also presented. The comparison with elastic design spectra proposed by the latest national building code, has shown that the UHRS values exceed the design values at almost all periods

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in Greece – Part 1: Engineering ground motion parameters

Seismic hazard assessment represents a basic tool for rational planning and designing in seismic prone areas. In the present study, a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in terms of peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, Arias intensity and cumulative absolute velocity computed with a 0.05 g acceleration threshold, has been carried out for Greece. The output of the hazard computation produced probabilistic hazard maps for all the above parameters estimated for a fixed return period of 475 years. From these maps the estimated values are reported for 52 Greek municipalities. Additionally, we have obtained a set of probabilistic maps of engineering significance: a probabilistic macroseismic intensity map, depicting the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale obtained from the estimated peak ground velocity and a probabilistic seismic-landslide map based on a simplified conversion of the estimated Arias intensity and peak ground acceleration into Newmark's displacement

Возрождение Тимишоары: проект застройки района Ишо. Нестоличный город Тимишоара выбран культурной столицей Европы – 2021

Timisoara is a major city situated in western Romania. In 2021, it will be European Capital of Culture. The city evolved around a fortified citadel surrounded by satellite settlements. After the demolition of the fortification (the XIXth century) a consistent urban tissue developed between the core and satellites. During the years, our office produced projects situated in these intermediate areas, developing an ”urban landscape” perspective, managing to attribute to the interventions a connecting role between the existing landmarks and poles; an important role was given to the ”modelling” of the volumes in order  to open vistas and visual cones, as well as to the choice of forms and textures in order to ”stitch” the existing fabric and to offer a new reading of the city. We have selected one project in order to illustrate the methodology: the ”ISHO” Real Estate development.Тимишоара – крупный город, расположенный в западной Румынии. В 2021 году он станет культурной столицей Европы. Центром развития города изначально была крепость, окруженная поселениями-спутниками. После сноса крепости в XIX веке между центром и спутниками начала образовываться плотная городская застройка. Фирма Andreescu & Гайворонски в течение нескольких лет занимается проектами для данной территории, разрабатывая будущий «городской ландшафт» и поддерживая связь между существующими историческими объектами и архитектурными доминантами. При этом важная роль отводится «моделированию» архитектурных объемов, помогающих открыть виды, а также выбору форм и материалов, чтобы «прошить» существующую городскую ткань и предложить новое прочтение города. Для иллюстрации данной методологии авторами статьи был выбран проект застройки района Ишо

Accuracy of rapid radiographic film calibration for intensity‐modulated radiation therapy verification

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135342/1/acm20086.pd

Endothelial cell-derived interleukin-6 regulates tumor growth

Abstract Background Endothelial cells play a complex role in the pathobiology of cancer. This role is not limited to the making of blood vessels to allow for influx of oxygen and nutrients required for the high metabolic demands of tumor cells. Indeed, it has been recently shown that tumor-associated endothelial cells secrete molecules that enhance tumor cell survival and cancer stem cell self-renewal. The hypothesis underlying this work is that specific disruption of endothelial cell-initiated signaling inhibits tumor growth. Methods Conditioned medium from primary human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMEC) stably transduced with silencing RNA for IL-6 (or controls) was used to evaluate the role of endothelial-derived IL-6 on the activation of key signaling pathways in tumor cells. In addition, these endothelial cells were co-transplanted with tumor cells into immunodefficient mice to determine the impact of endothelial cell-derived IL-6 on tumor growth and angiogenesis. Results We observed that tumor cells adjacent to blood vessels show strong phosphorylation of STAT3, a key mediator of tumor progression. In search for a possible mechanism for the activation of the STAT3 signaling pathway, we observed that silencing interleukin (IL)-6 in tumor-associated endothelial cells inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation in tumor cells. Notably, tumors vascularized with IL-6-silenced endothelial cells showed lower intratumoral microvessel density, lower tumor cell proliferation, and slower growth than tumors vascularized with control endothelial cells. Conclusions Collectively, these results demonstrate that IL-6 secreted by endothelial cells enhance tumor growth, and suggest that cancer patients might benefit from targeted approaches that block signaling events initiated by endothelial cells.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109499/1/12885_2013_Article_4365.pd

MODERN METHODS FOR FREEZING USED IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Foods have a limited duration of preservation, due to factors that worsen quality,leading ultimately to their total depreciation. In order to preserve perishable foods and prolong the allowable period for storage and sales, one of the best methods that use artificial cold is freezing. The paper aims to present the most used methods of freezing food, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of these methods

A Border-friendly, Non-overlay Mechanism for Inter-domain QoS Support in the Internet

Many services provided over the Internet, like voice over IP and video on demand, increase the demand for assurances concerning the quality of the underlying network. A score of techniques for assurance of quality of service (QoS) have been devised for use within administrative domains. However, when paths cross the border of autonomous systems, assurance of end-to-end QoS remains an unsolved issue. Thereby the key challenge is the establishment of connection-oriented communication flows. We introduce a technique to establish ISO/OSI Layer 3 multi-domain communication paths. The proposed solution does not stress border-routers and is independent of domain-internal policies, while relying on the common forwarding mechanisms

The miracle of St. Alfege’s Hospital and the history of the treatment of myasthenia gravis

Having a recent history, the neurological condition called myasthenia gravis has raised dilemmas and questions among doctors since it was first discovered in the 16th century and it has not ceased to be a challenge. Nowadays, neuroscience researchers from around the world have been striving to perfect a modern treatment of this condition. Our paper is an incursion into the past, more precisely into the history of the treatment of this disease, from its origin to date, when immunological therapy has progressed

RESEARCH ON THE WORKING PROCESS OPTIMIZATION OF A COMBINED INSTALLATION FOR GRAINS CLEANING

This paper presents experimental research of qualitative indexes of impurities separation out of grains seeds for one installation which used combined principles of separation (according to specific mass and aerodynamic properties of seeds). The installation used on the experimental research was composed of a gravity separator and an aspiration installation. Based on data obtained by measurements and regulated qualitative indicators the cleaning process indexes have been determined