Quantifying sensitivity of local site response models to statistical variations in soil properties     

José E. Andrade  Ronaldo I. Borja 《Acta Geotechnica》2006,1(1):3-14

We perform a combined stochastic-deterministic analysis of local site response using two computer codes, an equivalent linear analysis program SHAKE and a fully nonlinear finite element code SPECTRA. Our goal is to compare the relative sensitivity of the two codes to statistical variations in soil properties. For the case studies, we re-analyze two ground motion records in Lotung, Taiwan, and one ground motion record in Gilroy, California, utilizing the recorded ground motions at the site deterministically as input into the two codes while treating the uncertain soil parameters as random variables. We then obtain empirical cumulative distribution functions of the Arias intensity and acceleration spectrum intensity, two measures of cumulative damage, to compare the relative sensitivity of the two codes to variations in model parameters. We show that the two codes exhibit comparable sensitivities to statistical parameter variations, indicating that even in the presence of fluctuations in the soil parameter values it is possible to pursue a fully nonlinear site response analysis with SPECTRA and benefit from its superior accuracy.  相似文献   

HexASCII: A file format for cartographical hexagonal rasters          下载免费PDF全文

Luís Moreira de Sousa  João Paulo Leitão 《Transactions in GIS》2018,22(1):217-232

Hexagonal segmentations of space have long been known for their advantages vis à vis squared partitions in discretizing spatial variables, be it natural phenomena or human‐related features. However, readily available and easy‐to‐use tools to manipulate and interact with hexagonal rasters remain widely unavailable today. This article presents a first step to enable the use of hexagonal rasters in the GIS field. A format to encode cartographical hexagonal meshes as simple ASCII files is specified through a context‐free grammar. Named HexASCII, this file format provides a simple means of storing and sharing such rasters. A set of simple tools based on the HexASCII format is presented, allowing their creation and basic interaction with traditional GIS software.  相似文献   

Social vulnerability assessment to seismic risk using multicriteria analysis: the case study of Vila Franca do Campo (S?o Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal)     

V. Nuno Martins  Delta Sousa e Silva  Pedro Cabral 《Natural Hazards》2012,62(2):385-404

The increase in the frequency and magnitude of disasters triggered by earthquakes in different regions of the Earth is a major challenge to contemporary societies. The awareness that disasters and risk are processes structured on spatial?Ctemporal interactions maintained at the social-ecological system between the natural hazards and the vulnerabilities of socioeconomic, political and physical nature becomes utterly important in the increase of social systems?? resilience. Thus, the assessment of social vulnerability plays a decisive role in understanding the factors that distinguishes individuals, households and communities, in terms of their ability to anticipate, cope with, resist to and recover from the impact of disasters triggered by natural hazards. This article presents a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach model to assess the social vulnerability to seismic risk using multicriteria analysis (MCA) techniques, in a group decision-making process. The methodology applied to the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo (S?o Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal) identified moderate social vulnerability values at the neighbourhood level and higher social vulnerability values for the built environment and demographic characteristics of the social groups. The social vulnerability patterns make a clear distinction between the older/historical urban cores and the new urban areas. In the first case, the presence of ancient buildings constructed with materials of low resistance to earthquakes coupled with a higher population density and the traits of demographic and socioeconomic frailties of the social groups, results in higher vulnerability values. This pattern is common in the historic centre of S. Miguel district, Ribeira das Taínhas, northern areas of água de Alto and western and eastern neighbourhoods of Ponta Gar?a. The new urban areas, mainly found in S. Pedro, central areas of água de Alto, S. Miguel and Ponta Gar?a districts, have lower values of social vulnerability due to changes in the built, demographic and socioeconomic environments. Results recommend the integration of social vulnerability indexes into seismic risk mitigation policies and emergency management planning.  相似文献   

Cr and Zn biosorption by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aspergillus niger</Emphasis>     

Maria do Socorro Vale  Ronaldo Ferreira do Nascimento  Renato Carrhá Leitão  Sandra Tédde Santaella 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2016,75(6):462

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Signals of collective behaviour in atmospheric showers     

C. Pajares  D. Sousa  R. A. Vzquez 《Astroparticle Physics》2000,12(4):435

We discuss collective effects like percolation, quark gluon plasma, or string fusion and their effect on the longitudinal development of high energy showers in Air. It is shown that Iron–Air showers could develop more slowly than expected and produce the observed change in the slope of X_max at the highest energies.  相似文献   

Entropy theory for analysing water resources in northeastern region of Brazil   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Vicente de P. Rodrigues da Silva  Adelgicio F. Belo Filho  Vijay P. Singh  Rafaela S. Rodrigues Almeida  Bernardo B. da Silva  Inajá F. de Sousa 《水文科学杂志》2017,62(7):1029-1038

Using the Shannon entropy, the space–time variability of rainfall and streamflow was assessed for daily rainfall and streamflow data for a 10-year period from 189 stations in the northeastern region of Brazil. Mean values of marginal entropy were computed for all observation stations and entropy maps were then constructed for delineating annual and seasonal characteristics of rainfall and streamflow. The Mann-Kendall test was used to evaluate the long-term trend in marginal entropy as well as relative entropy for two sample stations. The marginal entropy values of rainfall and streamflow were higher for locations and periods with the highest amounts of rainfall. The entropy values were higher where rainfall was higher. This was because the probability distributions of rainfall and the resulting streamflow were more uniform and less skewed. The Shannon entropy produced spatial patterns which led to a better understanding of rainfall and streamflow characteristics throughout the northeastern region of Brazil. The total relative entropy indicated that rainfall and streamflow carried the same information content at annual and rainy season time scales.  相似文献   

Disentangling exploitation of the intertidal grazer Phorcus sauciatus (Gastropoda: Trochidae) in an oceanic archipelago: Implications for conservation     

Ricardo Sousa  Joana Vasconcelos  Rodrigo Riera  Joo Delgado  Jos A. Gonzlez  Mafalda Freitas  Paulo Henriques 《Marine Ecology》2019,40(2)

Harvesting of intertidal grazers such as topshells is known to affect negatively the exploited populations by altering population structure and decreasing abundance. Phorcus sauciatus has a wide geographic distribution in the North‐eastern Atlantic Ocean and is subject to increasing levels of harvesting pressure due to the expansion of human population on coastal areas. The effect of proximity to human settlements and coastal accessibility on the size structure and abundance of P. sauciatus populations was examined in Madeira archipelago. Mean size, proportion of reproductive individuals, and abundance of this species were generally smaller in areas closer to human settlements and in more accessible coastal areas. Marine protected areas returned the highest mean sizes evidencing their effectiveness in preserving the size structure of this species. The results highlight the necessity to regulate the harvest of P. sauciatus in Madeira archipelago, as well as the implementation of management measures aiming at the sustainable exploitation and conservation of this species, exploited in this region since the early 15th century.  相似文献   

Accretion of the NW Himalayan foreland pre-dates Late Cenozoic climate change     

Ellen A. Lamont  Francis J. Sousa  Andrew J. Meigs  Ramakrishna Jayangondaperumal  Rebecca M. Flowers  Aravind Anilkumar  Danielle Woodring  Edward R. Sobel 《地学学报》2023,35(1):41-48

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Evolution of anisotropy with saturation and its implications for the elastoplastic responses of clay rocks     

Sabrina C.Y. Ip  Ronaldo I. Borja 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2022,46(1):23-46

Many clay rocks have distinct bedding planes. Experimental studies have shown that their mechanical properties evolve with the degree of saturation (DOS), often with higher stiffness and strength after drying. For transversely isotropic rocks, the effects of saturation can differ between the bed-normal (BN) and bed-parallel (BP) directions, which gives rise to saturation-dependent stiffness and strength anisotropy. Accurate prediction of the mechanical behavior of clay rocks under partially saturated conditions requires numerical models that can capture the evolving elastic and plastic anisotropy with DOS. In this study, we present an anisotropy framework for coupled solid deformation-fluid flow in unsaturated elastoplastic media. We incorporate saturation-dependent strength anisotropy into an anisotropic modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model and consider the evolving anisotropy in both the elastic and plastic responses. The model was calibrated using experimental data from triaxial tests to demonstrate its capability in capturing strength anisotropy at various levels of saturation. Through numerical simulations, we demonstrate the role of evolving stiffness and strength anisotropy in the mechanical behavior of clay rocks. Plane strain simulations of triaxial compression tests were also conducted to demonstrate the impacts of material anisotropy and DOS on the mechanical and fluid flow responses.  相似文献   

AsteroFLAG: First results from hare‐and‐hounds Exercise #1     

W.J. Chaplin  T. Appourchaux  T. Arentoft  J. Ballot  J. Christensen‐Dalsgaard  O.L. Creevey  Y. Elsworth  S.T. Fletcher  R.A. García  G. Houdek  S.J. Jimnez‐Reyes  H. Kjeldsen  R. New  C. Rgulo  D. Salabert  T. Sekii  S.G. Sousa  T. Toutain  the rest of the asteroFLAG group 《Astronomische Nachrichten》2008,329(5):549-557

We report on initial results from the first phase of Exercise #1 of the asteroFLAG hare and hounds. The asteroFLAG group is helping to prepare for the asteroseismology component of NASA's Kepler mission, and the first phase of Exercise #1 is concerned with testing extraction of estimates of the large and small frequency spacings of the low‐degree p modes from Kepler‐like artificial data. These seismic frequency spacings will provide key input for complementing the exoplanet search data. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献