A new evolutionary polynomial regression technique to assess the fundamental periods of irregular buildings

The main seismic design codes propose simplified formulations to evaluate the fundamental period of regular structures based on the total height. Indeed, the fundamental period depends on several parameters directly connected to the mass and stiffness of the structure and on its geometrical characteristics, including also irregularities. This paper proposes a set of mathematical formulations to evaluate the longitudinal and transversal fundamental period of vibration of 3D Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames, which have various vertical and plan irregularities and for different mechanical and geometrical design parameters. Several types of Reinforced Concrete Bare Moment Resisting Frame (RC-BMRF) buildings have been designed according to the different versions of the Italian codes starting from 1916 to nowadays and then used as case studies. Modal analysis is performed on the entire building dataset to assess the fundamental periods in both longitudinal and transversal directions. Then, cluster analysis is carried out to classify the buildings based on similar design characteristics and construction details. Finally, a robust Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) technique is used to find the optimal polynomial forms of the natural period. Numerical results show a better performance of the proposed formulation compared with the existing methodologies available in the literature

Resilience Assessment of City-Scale Transportation Networks Using Monte Carlo Simulation

To improve the resilience of critical infrastructure systems, their intrinsic properties need to be understood and their resilience state needs be identified. In the literature, several methods to evaluate networks’ reliability and resilience can be found. However, the applicability of these methods is usually restricted to small-size net-works. In this paper, the transportation network of a large-scale virtual city is considered as a case study. A random removal of the roads is applied simulating the network’s failure. The network reliability is then calculated using the Destruction Spectrum (D-spectrum) method and a Monte Carlo approach has been developed to generate failure permutations that are necessary for the evaluation of the D-spectrum se. In addition, the Birnbaum Importance Measure (BIM) has been adopted in this study to determine the importance of the net-work’s components. The methodology adopted in this study can be also extended to all network-based systems. The paper also introduces resilience indicators as a soft tool to predict the performance and serviceability of transportation networks

A first order evaluation of the capacity of a healthcare network under emergency

Immediately after an earthquake a healthcare system within a city, comprising several hospitals, endures an extraordinary demand. This paper proposes a new methodology to estimate whether the hospital network has enough capacity to withstand the emergency caused by an earthquake. The ability of healthcare facilities and to provide a broad spectrum of emergency services immediately after a seismic event is assessed through a metamodel that assumes waiting time as main response parameter to assess the hospital network performance. The First Aid network of San Francisco subjected to a 7.2 Mw magnitude earthquake has been used as case study. The total number of injuries and their distributions among the six major San Francisco’s Emergency Departments have been assessed and compared with their capacity that has been determined using a survey conducted by the medical staff of the hospitals. The numerical results have shown that three of the six considered San Francisco’s hospitals cannot provide emergency services to the estimated injured. Two alternatives have been proposed to improve the performance of the network. The first one redistributes existing resources while the second one considers additional resources by designing a new Emergency Department

Managing debris clearance from road transportation networks after earthquakes

This research proposes a framework that allows to define a debris removal strategy from a road transportation network after a seismic event. The case study is a hypothetical large-scale city consisting of many interdependent infrastructure. Once the debris generated by the collapse of buildings have been estimated, blocked roads are identified. Cleanup operations are then prioritized based on road importance and travel time. The goal is to first verify that evacuation routes and important paths connecting strategic facilities such as hospitals, shelters, fire stations, etc., are available. In case some roads within these paths are blocked, alternative routes are considered. If the pre-event travel time does not significantly increase, clearing equipment and resources could be managed accordingly and directed towards other areas. The objective of this work is to help emergency managers to successfully improve disaster response avoiding delays during rescue and recovery operations

Structural investigation of nucleophosmin interaction with the tumor suppressor Fbw7γ

Nucleophosmin (NPM1) is a multifunctional nucleolar protein implicated in ribogenesis, centrosome duplication, cell cycle control, regulation of DNA repair and apoptotic response to stress stimuli. The majority of these functions are played through the interactions with a variety of protein partners. NPM1 is frequently overexpressed in solid tumors of different histological origin. Furthermore NPM1 is the most frequently mutated protein in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Mutations map to the C-terminal domain and lead to the aberrant and stable localization of the protein in the cytoplasm of leukemic blasts. Among NPM1 protein partners, a pivotal role is played by the tumor suppressor Fbw7γ, an E3-ubiquitin ligase that degrades oncoproteins like c-MYC, cyclin E, Notch and c-jun. In AML with NPM1 mutations, Fbw7γ is degraded following its abnormal cytosolic delocalization by mutated NPM1. This mechanism also applies to other tumor suppressors and it has been suggested that it may play a key role in leukemogenesis. Here we analyse the interaction between NPM1 and Fbw7γ, by identifying the protein surfaces implicated in recognition and key aminoacids involved. Based on the results of computational methods, we propose a structural model for the interaction, which is substantiated by experimental findings on several site-directed mutants. We also extend the analysis to two other NPM1 partners (HIV Tat and CENP-W) and conclude that NPM1 uses the same molecular surface as a platform for recognizing different protein partners. We suggest that this region of NPM1 may be targeted for cancer treatment

Calcific aortic valve disease and hypertension

This review addresses the role of hypertension in precipitating Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) and the therapeutic potential of anti-hypertensive interventions to ameliorate CAVD. CAVD was originally considered to be a degenerative disease representing the "wear and tear" of the aortic valves. More recently both conceptually and experimentally, CAVD has come to be considered the result of an active disease process, Whilst, there are some common factors in the pathology and risk factors for atherosclerosis and CAVD there are also some distinct differences. Hypertension is an established risk factor for coronary artery disease and has been recognised as a risk factor for CAVD. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors have been found to have beneficial effects in CAVD and as in atherosclerosis such effects may be due to the blood pressure lowering action but also to direct pleiotropic effects on the biochemical and cellular mechanisms of disease progression in the respective tissues. The very high prevalence of hypertension in the community coupled with an aging population, a risk factor associated with both hypertension and CAVD, infers that hypertension will be one of the predominant factors that increase the impact of CAVD on human health in the coming decades

Smart cities to improve resilience of communities

This paper presents a new approach to predict the potential damage and physical impacts of an earthquake on the built environment. A new methodology to the urbanized systems and large-scale simulations within a seismic scenario is explored, by evaluating multipurpose codes for numerical simulation. A 3-D building shape of a standard virtual city is developed for evaluat-ing the seismic effects at increasing intensities. Four different building sectors that provide essential functions to a community, including housing, education, business, and public ser-vices are considered. Once the buildings are integrated into the city, parallel simulations are applied to compute the system functionality following a disruptive scenario. Tri-linear elasto-plastic backbone curve representative of global shear behavior of each building is estimated considering the dominant modal shapes and building irregularities. Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) are applied to take into account the epistemic uncertainties associated with geometry and mechanical properties within the range of observations. For each set of buildings’ data, the nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed through SAP2000 Application Programming In-terface (API) in order to assess the dynamic response of the buildings in an organized and au-tomatic fashion. Accordingly, the city is mapped into different zones representative to the possibility of having different levels of damage (complete, extensive, moderate, and slight). This methodology supports decision-makers to explore how their community will respond to a disruptive event, to develop different strategies for monitoring and control the emergency in urbanized areas, and to plan better resilience-building and evacuation strategies

A numerical solution for addressing the overturning phenomena of heritage assets

Historical heritage represent a crucial aspect for societies and therefore it should be preserved from natural disasters such as earthquake. Base isolation systems are widely used to mitigate the horizontal effects of strong ground motions on important buildings and bridges, but there are also interesting applications on statues. However, such systems are characterized by properties that are quite different from the ones that belong to traditional civil structures. For this reason, national and international regulations are not exhaustive and actual dynamics of the system should be studied through numerical and experimental methods. Starting from analytical formulations, the paper investigates the sliding and rocking motion in details, being the typical one of statues under seismic loads. The presented numerical model describes the problem and is an alternative to the analytical formulation to perform several analyses automatically. In addition, it allows running parametric analyses to assess the influence of various parameters, such as eccentricity, stiffness, mass, geometric ratios, etc. Future work is geared to validate the numerical model trough performing experimental tests on shaking table

A new tool to assess the resilience of an urban environment under an earthquake scenario

This paper presents a new methodology to predict the potential damage and physical impacts of an earthquake on the built environment. A new methodology to the urbanized systems and large-scale simulations within a seismic scenario are explored, by evaluating multipurpose codes for numerical simulation. A 3-D building shape of a standard virtual city is developed for evaluating the seismic effects at increasing intensities. Once the buildings are integrated into the city, parallel simulations are applied to compute the global behavior of buildings after a disruptive scenario. Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS) are applied to take into account the epistemic uncertainties associated with geometry and mechanical properties within the range of observations. For each set of buildings’ data, the nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed through SAP2000 Application Programming Interface (API) in order to assess the dynamic response of the buildings in an organized and automatic fashion. Accordingly, the city is mapped into different zones representative to the possibility of having different levels of damage (complete, extensive, moderate, and slight). This tool supports decision-makers to explore how their community will respond to a disruptive event, to develop different strategies for monitoring and control the emergency in urbanized areas