2,875 research outputs found
Estimation of losses for adobe buildings in Pakistan
Adobe buildings are vulnerable to seismic forces. Large scale destructions and casualties have been caused due
to the collapse of adobe buildings during the past earthquakes. A significant number of adobe structures exist in
different parts of Pakistan, similar to other parts of the world. Since Pakistan lies in a seismic active region, it is
necessary to assess the level of vulnerability of these buildings in order to estimate associated losses during a
seismic event. This paper presents the results of a study which was conducted to quantify damages to adobe
buildings based on their fragility curves. The adobe buildings were found to be highly vulnerable to low intensity
earthquakes. The vulnerability of these buildings has been compared with the European adobe buildings. It was
noted that Pakistani adobe buildings were slightly less resistant to earthquakes as compared to similar buildings
in Europe. Retrofitting solutions were suggested in order to increase the seismic capacity of adobe buildings in
Pakistan
The love-dart story: a struggle for paternity in land snails
Straalen, N.M. van [Promotor]Schilthuizen, M. [Promotor]Koene, J.M. [Copromotor
Assessment of seismic performance of adobe structures in Pakistan and Portugal
Adobe buildings exist in different parts of the world. The construction of these buildings can be carried out
economically, using locally available materials and skills that do not require use of modern machinery.
Therefore, adobe buildings provide an economic housing option. The construction of adobe structures is carried
out based on traditional construction practices which vary from region to region. This paper presents the results
of a study which was conducted to study the construction practices of adobe buildings in Pakistan and Portugal
in the context of their seismic vulnerability. The adobe buildings in both these countries were found to be
subjected to seismic hazard levels which, although is low in some regions, may cause significant damages. Lack of essential elements or details for the adequate seismic performance was found in the adobe buildings in both regions
Hot Zero and Full Power Validation of PHISICS RELAP-5 Coupling
PHISICS is a reactor analysis toolkit developed over
the last 3 years at the Idaho National Laboratory. It has
been coupled with the reactor safety analysis code
RELAP5-3D. PHISICS is aimed at providing an optimal
trade off between needed computational resources (in the
range of 10~100 computer processors) and accuracy. In
fact, this range has been identified as the next 5 to 10
years average computational capability available to
nuclear reactor design and optimization nuclear reactor
cores.
Detailed information about the individual modules of
PHISICS can be found in [1]. An overview of the
modules used in this study is given in the next subsection.
Lately, the Idaho National Laboratory gained access plant
data for the first cycle of a PWR, including Hot Zero
Power (HZP) and Hot Full Power (HFP).
This data provides the opportunity to validate the
transport solver, the interpolation capability for mixed
macro and micro cross section and the criticality search
option of the PHISICS pack
On the knapsack closure of 0-1 integer linear programs
Many inequalities for Mixed-Integer Linear Programs (MILPs) or pure Integer Linear Programs (ILPs) are derived from the Gomory corner relaxation, where all the nonbinding constraints at an optimal LP vertex are relaxed. Computational results show that the corner relaxation gives a good approximation of the integer hull for problems with general-integer variables, but the approximation is less satisfactory for problems with 0-1 variables only. A possible explanation is that, for 0-1 ILPs, even the non-binding variable bound constraints xj≥0 or xj≤1 play an important role, hence their relaxation produces weaker bounds.In this note we address a relaxation for 0-1 ILPs that explicitly takes all variable bound constraints into account. More specifically, we introduce the concept of knapsack closure as a tightening of the classical Chvátal-Gomory (CG) closure. The knapsack closure is obtained as follows: for all inequalities wTx≥w0 valid for the LP relaxation, add to the original system all the valid inequalities for the knapsack polytope conv{xε{0,1}n:wTx≥w0}. A MILP model for the corresponding separation problem is also introduced. © 2010 Elsevier B.V
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Detectable Metabolomic Fingerprint of Response to Antineoplastic Treatment
Targeted therapeutic approaches are increasingly being implemented in the clinic, but early detection of response frequently presents a challenge as many new therapies lead to inhibition of tumor growth rather than tumor shrinkage. Development of novel non-invasive methods to monitor response to treatment is therefore needed. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging are non-invasive imaging methods that can be employed to monitor metabolism, and previous studies indicate that these methods can be useful for monitoring the metabolic consequences of treatment that are associated with early drug target modulation. However, single-metabolite biomarkers are often not specific to a particular therapy. Here we used an unbiased 1H MRS-based metabolomics approach to investigate the overall metabolic consequences of treatment with the phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002 and the heat shock protein 90 inhibitor 17AAG in prostate and breast cancer cell lines. LY294002 treatment resulted in decreased intracellular lactate, alanine fumarate, phosphocholine and glutathione. Following 17AAG treatment, decreased intracellular lactate, alanine, fumarate and glutamine were also observed but phosphocholine accumulated in every case. Furthermore, citrate, which is typically observed in normal prostate tissue but not in tumors, increased following 17AAG treatment in prostate cells. This approach is likely to provide further information about the complex interactions between signaling and metabolic pathways. It also highlights the potential of MRS-based metabolomics to identify metabolic signatures that can specifically inform on molecular drug action
The occurrence of drug-induced side effects in women and men with arterial hypertension and comorbidities
A variable neurodegenerative phenotype with polymerase gamma mutation
mtDNA replication and repair, causes mitochondrial diseases including autosomal dominant
progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO),1 childhood hepato-encephalopathy (Alpers–
Huttenlocher syndrome), adult-onset spinocerebellar ataxia, and sensory nerve degeneration with
dysarthria and ophthalmoparesis (SANDO)
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