• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.317-335
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• 2016

Concentrically braced steel frames (CBFs) can be optimised during the seismic design process by using lateral loading distributions derived from the concept of uniform damage distribution. However, it is not known how such structures are affected by uncertainties. This study aims to quantify and manage the effects of structural and ground-motion uncertainty on the seismic performance of optimum and conventionally designed CBFs. Extensive nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed on 5, 10 and 15-storey frames to investigate the effects of storey shear-strength and damping ratio uncertainties by using the Monte Carlo simulation method. For typical uncertainties in conventional steel frames, optimum design frames always exhibit considerably less inter-storey drift and cumulative damage compared to frames designed based on IBC-2012. However, it is noted that optimum structures are in general more sensitive to the random variation of storey shear-strength. It is shown that up to 50% variation in damping ratio does not affect the seismic performance of the optimum design frames compared to their code-based counterparts. Finally, the results indicate that the ground-motion uncertainty can be efficiently managed by optimizing CBFs based on the average of a set of synthetic earthquakes representing a design spectrum. Compared to code-based design structures, CBFs designed with the proposed average patterns exhibit up to 54% less maximum inter-storey drift and 73% less cumulative damage under design earthquakes. It is concluded that the optimisation procedure presented is reliable and should improve the seismic performance of CBFs.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.3.1-3.10
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• 2014

Amino acid substitution matrices are essential tools for protein sequence analysis, homology sequence search in protein databases and multiple sequence alignment. The PAM matrix was the first widely used amino acid substitution matrix. The BLOSUM series then succeeded the PAM matrix. Most substitution matrixes were developed by using the statistical frequency of substitution between each amino acid at blocks representing groups of protein families or related proteins. However, substitution of amino acids is based on the similarity of physiochemical properties of each amino acid. In this study, a new approach was used to obtain major physiochemical properties in multiple sequence alignment. Frequency of amino acid substitution in multiple sequence alignment database and selected attributes of amino acids in physiochemical properties database were merged. This merged data showed the major physiochemical properties through principle components analysis. Using factor analysis, these four principle components were interpreted as flexibility of electronic movement, polarity, negative charge and structural flexibility. Applying these four components, BAPS was constructed and validated for accuracy. When comparing receiver operated characteristic ($ROC_{50}$) values, BAPS scored slightly lower than BLOSUM and PAM. However, when evaluating for accuracy by comparing results from multiple sequence alignment with the structural alignment results of two test data sets with known three-dimensional structure in the homologous structure alignment database, the result of the test for BAPS was comparatively equivalent or better than results for prior matrices including PAM, Gonnet, Identity and Genetic code matrix.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제41권5호
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• pp.339-344
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• 2008

Objectives : The objective of this paper is to discuss the importance of obtaining informed consent for conducting epidemiological studies and public health activities, based on the Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent. Methods : The Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent was reviewed and discussed in connection with the ethical considerations of public health activities and epidemiological research. Results : It was at the Nuremberg Trial for the German war criminals of the Second World War that the principle of 'consent' was first stated as a consequence of the medical abuses carried out during the War. As a result of the Trial, the Nuremberg Code came out in 1947. Since then, various international declarations or ethical principles on 'informed consent' have been developed and published. These ethical principles on 'informed consent' have mostly to do with the clinical research that involves human subjects, and not with epidemiological studies and public health activities. However, UNESCO recently issued a comprehensive Report on Informed Consent based on the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights adopted in 2005, and this included detailed guidelines on informed consent in epidemiological studies and public health activities. Conclusions : Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights emphasizes the principle of autonomy to protect the human rights of the human subjects involved in any public health activities and epidemiological research. As a practical guideline, obtaining informed consent is strongly recommended.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.469-485
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• 2019

A numerical investigation regarding local (${\mu}_L$) and story (${\mu}_S$) ductility demand evaluation of steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames (PMRF) and interior gravity frames (IGF), is conducted in this study. The interior connections are modeled, firstly as perfectly pinned (PP), and then as semi-rigid (SR). Three models used in the SAC steel project, representing steel buildings of low-, mid-, and high-rise, are considered. The story ductility reduction factor ($R_{{\mu}S}$) as well as the ratio ($Q_{GL}$) of $R_{{\mu}S}$ to ${\mu}_L$ are calculated. ${\mu}_L$ and ${\mu}_S$, and consequently structural damage, at the PMRF are significant reduced when the usually neglected effect of SR connections is considered; average reductions larger than 40% are observed implying that the behavior of the models with SR connections is superior and that the ductility detailing of the PMRF doesn't need to be so stringent when SR connections are considered. $R_{{\mu}S}$ is approximately constant through height for low-rise buildings, but for the others it tends to increase with the story number contradicting the same proportion reduction assumed in the Equivalent Static Lateral Method (ESLM). It is implicitly assumed in IBC Code that the overall ductility reduction factor for ductile moment resisting frames is about 4; the results of this study show that this value is non-conservative for low-rise buildings but conservative for mid- and high-rise buildings implying that the ESLM fails evaluating the inelastic interstory demands. If local ductility capacity is stated as the basis for design, a value of 0.4 for $Q_{GL}$ seems to be reasonable for low- and medium-rise buildings.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.67-77
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• 2007

IBC와KBC 기준의 지반계수는 지반증폭 만이 고려되고 구조물-지반 상호작용 영향이 고려되지 않은 지반계수로 합리적인 구조물의 지진거동을 예측하는데 어떤 한계가 있다. 이 연구에서는 선형과 비선형 지반 위에 세워진 구조물의 탄성지진응답해석을 의사 3-D 해석으로 수행하여 구조물-지반 상호작용 영향이 고려된 지반계수의 상 하 한계값을 평가하였다. 지반의 특성은 지반 A, B, C의 경우에는 선형으로 가정하였고, 지반 D와 E의 경우에는 비선형으로 가정하여 Ramberg-Osgood 모델을 사용하여 전단파속도를 기준으로 전단탄성계수와 감쇠비 계산식을 규정하였다. 지진해석은 중 약진 지진기록 12개를 선정하여 최대 지진가속도를 0.1g와 0.2g로 조정하고, 구조물-지반 체계에 대한 의사 3-D 해석 시에는 30m 지반 하부 암반에서의 지진기록으로 변환하여 사용하였다. 구조물의 탄성 지진응답해석을 통해서 얻은 결과로부터 구조물-지반 상호작용 영향을 고려한 새로운 표준응답스펙트럼과 단주기 영역 및 주기 1초에서의 지반계수 $F_{a}$와 $F_{v}$의 상 하 한계값을 제시하였으며, KBC 기준을 위한 새로운 지반계수도 제안하였다.