Impact of a 1755-like tsunami in Huelva, Spain

Coastal areas are highly exposed to natural hazards associated with the sea. In all cases where there is historical evidence for devastating tsunamis, as is the case of the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, there is a need for quantitative hazard tsunami assessment to support spatial planning. Also, local authorities must be able to act towards the population protection in a preemptive way, to inform 'what to do' and 'where to go' and in an alarm, to make people aware of the incoming danger. With this in mind, we investigated the inundation extent, run-up and water depths, of a 1755-like event on the region of Huelva, located on the Spanish southwestern coast, one of the regions that was affected in the past by several high energy events, as proved by historical documents and sedimentological data. Modelling was made with a slightly modified version of the COMCOT (Cornell Multi-grid Coupled Tsunami Model) code. Sensitivity tests were performed for a single source in order to understand the relevance and influence of the source parameters in the inundation extent and the fundamental impact parameters. We show that a 1755-like event will have a dramatic impact in a large area close to Huelva inundating an area between 82 and 92 km(2) and reaching maximum run-up around 5 m. In this sense our results show that small variations on the characteristics of the tsunami source are not too significant for the impact assessment. We show that the maximum flow depth and the maximum run-up increase with the average slip on the source, while the strike of the fault is not a critical factor as Huelva is significantly far away from the potential sources identified up to now. We also show that the maximum flow depth within the inundated area is very dependent on the tidal level, while maximum run-up is less affected, as a consequence of the complex morphology of the area.

Potential inundation of Lisbon downtown by a 1755-like tsunami

In this study, we present 10 m resolution tsunami flooding maps for Lisbon downtown and the Tagus estuary. To compute these maps we use the present bathymetry and topographic maps and a reasonable estimate for the maximum credible tsunami scenario. Tsunami modeling was made with a non-linear shallow water model using four levels of nested grids. The tsunami flood is discussed in terms of flow depth, run-up height and maximum inundation area. The results show that, even today, in spite of the significant morphologic changes in the city river front after the 1755 earthquake, a similar event would cause tsunami flow depths larger than one meter in a large area along the Tagus estuary and Lisbon downtown. Other areas along the estuary with a high population density would also be strongly affected. The impact of the tide on the extent of tsunami inundation is discussed, due to the large amplitude range of the tide in Lisbon, and compared with the historical descriptions of the 1755 event. The results presented here can be used to identify the potential tsunami inundation areas in Lisbon; this identification comprises a key element of the Portuguese tsunami emergency management system.

Portugal making a difference with children and families: the GADIF model

Portugal is a culture grounded in strong traditions and family. Yet, social changes like women returning to the workforce and a decreas ed national birth rate are impacting the traditional family structure and care giving environments of children. Female employment has been increasing steadily in P ortugal over the last three decades (Galego & Pereira, 2006) and the total fert ility rate decreasing from 4.1 to 2.8 (INE, 2006). Furthermore, extended family me mbers, like grandparents, no longer reside close by to their children and grandc hildren as in the past, because of a changing labor market. Many of the younger gen eration are leaving their rural communities to flock to urban areas because o f job opportunities, leaving behind older relatives who would have otherwise par ticipated in the daily care of children. Given these social and economic changes, children are spending more time in out-of-home care with non-familial caregive rs. Yet, government regulations and guidelines in early care and educat ion (ECCE) and early intervention (EI) are only just emerging; it contin ues to be a work in progress.

Elastically restrained Bernoulli-Euler beams applied to rotary machinery modelling

Facing the lateral vibration problem of a machine rotor as a beam on elastic supports in bending, the authors deal with the free vibration of elastically restrained Bernoulli-Euler beams carrying a finite number of concentrated elements along their length. Based on Rayleigh's quotient, an iterative strategy is developed to find the approximated torsional stiffness coefficients, which allows the reconciliation between the theoretical model results and the experimental ones, obtained through impact tests. The mentioned algorithm treats the vibration of continuous beams under a determined set of boundary and continuity conditions, including different torsional stiffness coefficients and the effect of attached concentrated masses and rotational inertias, not only in the energetic terms of the Rayleigh's quotient but also on the mode shapes, considering the shape functions defined in branches. Several loading cases are examined and examples are given to illustrate the validity of the model and accuracy of the obtained natural frequencies.

Mass-degenerate Higgs bosons at 125 GeV in the two-Higgs-doublet model

The analysis of the Higgs boson data by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations appears to exhibit an excess of h -> gamma gamma events above the Standard Model (SM) expectations, whereas no significant excess is observed in h -> ZZ* -> four lepton events, albeit with large statistical uncertainty due to the small data sample. These results (assuming they persist with further data) could be explained by a pair of nearly mass-degenerate scalars, one of which is an SM-like Higgs boson and the other is a scalar with suppressed couplings to W+W- and ZZ. In the two-Higgs-doublet model, the observed gamma gamma and ZZ* -> four lepton data can be reproduced by an approximately degenerate CP-even (h) and CP-odd (A) Higgs boson for values of sin (beta - alpha) near unity and 0: 70 less than or similar to tan beta less than or similar to 1. An enhanced gamma gamma signal can also arise in cases where m(h) similar or equal to m(H), m(H) similar or equal to m(A), or m(h) similar or equal to m(H) similar or equal to m(A). Since the ZZ* -> 4 leptons signal derives primarily from an SM-like Higgs boson whereas the gamma gamma signal receives contributions from two (or more) nearly mass-degenerate states, one would expect a slightly different invariant mass peak in the ZZ* -> four lepton and gamma gamma channels. The phenomenological consequences of such models can be tested with additional Higgs data that will be collected at the LHC in the near future. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.87.055009.

Modelling a Rotating Shaft as an Elastically Restrained Bernoulli-Euler Beam

Industrial rotating machines may be exposed to severe dynamic excitations due to resonant working regimes. Dealing with the bending vibration, problem of a machine rotor, the shaft - and attached discs - can be simply modelled using the Bernoulli-Euler beam theory, as a continuous beam subjected to a specific set of boundary conditions. In this study, the authors recall Rayleigh's method to propose an iterative strategy, which allows for the determination of natural frequencies and mode shapes of continuous beams taking into account the effect of attached concentrated masses and rotational inertias, including different stiffness coefficients at the right and the left end sides. The algorithm starts with the exact solutions from Bernoulli-Euler's beam theory, which are then updated through Rayleigh's quotient parameters. Several loading cases are examined in comparison with the experimental data and examples are presented to illustrate the validity of the model and the accuracy of the obtained values.

A Model to Evaluate Vertical Handovers on JRRM

In a heterogeneous cellular networks environment, users behaviour and network deployment configuration parameters have an impact on the overall Quality of Service. This paper proposes a new and simple model that, on the one hand, explores the users behaviour impact on the network by having mobility, multi-service usage and traffic generation profiles as inputs, and on the other, enables the network setup configuration evaluation impact on the Joint Radio Resource Management (JRRM), assessing some basic JRRM performance indicators, like Vertical Handover (VHO) probabilities, average bit rates, and number of active users, among others. VHO plays an important role in fulfilling seamless users sessions transfer when mobile terminals cross different Radio Access Technologies (RATs) boundaries. Results show that high bit rate RATs suffer and generate more influence from/on other RATs, by producing additional signalling traffic to a JRRM entity. Results also show that the VHOs probability can range from 5 up to 65%, depending on RATs cluster radius and users mobility profile.

Towards a complex model of cooperative learning

Este artigo é uma introdução à teoria do paradigma desconstrutivo de aprendizagem cooperativa. Centenas de estudos provam com evidências o facto de que as estruturas e os processos de aprendizagem cooperativa aumentam o desempenho académico, reforçam as competências de aprendizagem ao longo da vida e desenvolvem competências sociais, pessoais de cada aluno de uma forma mais eficaz e usta, comparativamente às estruturas tradicionais de aprendizagem nas escolas. Enfrentando os desafios dos nossos sistemas educativos, seria interessante elaborar o quadro teórico do discurso da aprendizagem cooperativa, dos últimos 40 anos, a partir de um aspeto prático dentro do contexto teórico e metodológico. Nas últimas décadas, o discurso cooperativo elaborou os elementos práticos e teóricos de estruturas e processos de aprendizagem cooperativa. Gostaríamos de fazer um resumo desses elementos com o objetivo de compreender que tipo de mudanças estruturais podem fazer diferenças reais na prática de ensino e aprendizagem. Os princípios básicos de estruturas cooperativas, os papéis de cooperação e as atitudes cooperativas são os principais elementos que podemos brevemente descrever aqui, de modo a criar um quadro para a compreensão teórica e prática de como podemos sugerir os elementos de aprendizagem cooperativa na nossa prática em sala de aula. Na minha perspetiva, esta complexa teoria da aprendizagem cooperativa pode ser entendida como um paradigma desconstrutivo que fornece algumas respostas pragmáticas para as questões da nossa prática educativa quotidiana, a partir do nível da sala de aula para o nível de sistema educativo, com foco na destruição de estruturas hierárquicas e antidemocráticas de aprendizagem e, criando, ao mesmo tempo, as estruturas cooperativas.

H → Zr in the complex two Higgs doublet model

The latest LHC data confirmed the existence of a Higgs-like particle and made interesting measurements on its decays into gamma gamma, ZZ*, WW*, tau(+)tau(-), and b (b) over bar. It is expected that a decay into Z gamma might be measured at the next LHC round, for which there already exists an upper bound. The Higgs-like particle could be a mixture of scalar with a relatively large component of pseudoscalar. We compute the decay of such a mixed state into Z gamma, and we study its properties in the context of the complex two Higgs doublet model, analysing the effect of the current measurements on the four versions of this model. We show that a measurement of the h -> Z gamma rate at a level consistent with the SM can be used to place interesting constraints on the pseudoscalar component. We also comment on the issue of a wrong sign Yukawa coupling for the bottom in Type II models.

Building a person home behavior model based on data from smart house sensors 2015

Dissertação para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo de Energia

Single side damage simulations and detection in beam-like structures

Beam-like structures are the most common components in real engineering, while single side damage is often encountered. In this study, a numerical analysis of single side damage in a free-free beam is analysed with three different finite element models; namely solid, shell and beam models for demonstrating their performance in simulating real structures. Similar to experiment, damage is introduced into one side of the beam, and natural frequencies are extracted from the simulations and compared with experimental and analytical results. Mode shapes are also analysed with modal assurance criterion. The results from simulations reveal a good performance of the three models in extracting natural frequencies, and solid model performs better than shell while shell model performs better than beam model under intact state. For damaged states, the natural frequencies captured from solid model show more sensitivity to damage severity than shell model and shell model performs similar to the beam model in distinguishing damage. The main contribution of this paper is to perform a comparison between three finite element models and experimental data as well as analytical solutions. The finite element results show a relatively well performance.

Preserving the validity of the two-Higgs-doublet model up to the Planck scale

We examine the constraints on the two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) due to the stability of the scalar potential and absence of Landau poles at energy scales below the Planck scale. We employ the most general 2HDM that incorporates an approximately Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson with a flavor aligned Yukawa sector to eliminate potential tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents. Using basis independent techniques, we exhibit robust regimes of the 2HDM parameter space with a 125 GeV SM-like Higgs boson that is stable and perturbative up to the Planck scale. Implications for the heavy scalar spectrum are exhibited.

Scotogenic model for co-bimaximal mixing

We present a scotogenic model, i.e. a one-loop neutrino mass model with dark right-handed neutrino gauge singlets and one inert dark scalar gauge doublet eta, which has symmetries that lead to co-bimaximal mixing, i.e. to an atmospheric mixing angle theta(23) = 45 degrees and to a CP-violating phase delta = +/-pi/2, while the mixing angle theta(13) remains arbitrary. The symmetries consist of softly broken lepton numbers L-alpha (alpha = e, mu, tau), a non-standard CP symmetry, and three L-2 symmetries. We indicate two possibilities for extending the model to the quark sector. Since the model has, besides eta, three scalar gauge doublets, we perform a thorough discussion of its scalar sector. We demonstrate that it can accommodate a Standard Model-like scalar with mass 125 GeV, with all the other charged and neutral scalars having much higher masses.