Centrifuge modelling-based verification of response spectra design methods for some vulnerable structures

Residential RC framed structures suffered heavily during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat, India. These types of structures also saw severe damage in other earthquakes such as the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey and 921 Ji-Ji earthquake in Taiwan. In this paper the seismic response of residential structures was investigated using physical modelling. Idealised soft storey and top heavy, two degrees of freedom (2DOF) portal frame structures were developed and tested on saturated and dry sand models at 25 g using the Schofield Centre 10-m Beam Centrifuge. It was possible to recreate observed field behaviour using these models. As observed in many of the recent earthquakes, soft storey structures were found to be particularly vulnerable to seismic loads. Elastic response spectra methods are often used in the design of simple portal frame structures. The seismic risk of these structures can be significantly increased due to modifications such as removal of a column or addition of heavy water tanks on the roof. The experimental data from the dynamic centrifuge tests on such soft storey or top-heavy models was used to evaluate the predictions obtained from the response spectra. Response spectra were able to predict seismic response during small to moderate intensity earthquakes, but became inaccurate during strong earthquakes and when soil structure interaction effects became important. Re-evaluation of seismic risk of such modified structures is required and time domain analyses suggested by building codes such as IBC, UBC or NEHRP may be more appropriate. © Springer 2006.

A revision of the white-toothed shrews (Crocidura) of Southern China

Many systematic relationships among Chinese white-toothed shrews of genus Crocidura are presently unresolved. In this paper, a taxonomic revision of Crocidura from Southern China is presented. We studied 338 specimens from Burma, China, Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Middle and Central Asia, and Russia (Appendix I), 285 of which had complete skulls that were analyzed with principal component and discriminant analyses. Results indicated that 6 species of Crocidura can be recognized in South China. C. fuliginosa occurs in Southwestern and Eastern China, C. attenuata is broadly distributed throughout Southern China, and C. horsfieldii is restricted to the southern part of China. C vorax and C. rapax, usually placed as synonyms of the European C russula, are recognized as 2 valid species whose ranges overlap in Southwestern China. C. shantungensis of Eastern Asia extends to the northern part of Southern China and is distinct from C. suaveolens and C. gmelini of Middle and Central Asia, respectively.

冠状病毒

冠状病毒(coronavirus)是一种常见的单链、非片段化、线性、正链RNA包膜病毒，能感染脊椎动物而引起，特别 是呼吸系统疾病。此病毒可分三大类，感染不同动物，其遗传物质RNA表现出一种特殊的、有趣的、目前并不为人们 完全所知的策略完成其自身繁殖。最近，科学家发现“非典型肺炎”的病原体为一种新型的冠状病毒，表现出其特别 的基因组结构，有别于已知的典型冠状病毒，相关研究正在进行中。

Validation of Vision Tracking at Egnatia Odos Motorway

Tracking applications provide real time on-site information that can be used to detect travel path conflicts, calculate crew productivity and eliminate unnecessary processes at the site. This paper presents the validation of a novel vision based tracking methodology at the Egnatia Odos Motorway in Thessaloniki, Greece. Egnatia Odos is a motorway that connects Turkey with Italy through Greece. Its multiple open construction sites serves as an ideal multi-site test bed for validating construction site tracking methods. The vision based tracking methodology uses video cameras and computer algorithms to calculate the 3D position of project related entities (e.g. personnel, materials and equipment) in construction sites. The approach provides an unobtrusive, inexpensive way of effectively identifying and tracking the 3D location of entities. The process followed in this study starts by acquiring video data from multiple synchronous cameras at several large scale project sites of Egnatia Odos, such as tunnels, interchanges and bridges under construction. Subsequent steps include the evaluation of the collected data and finally, performing the 3D tracking operations on selected entities (heavy equipment and personnel). The accuracy and precision of the method's results is evaluated by comparing it with the actual 3D position of the object, thus assessing the 3D tracking method's effectiveness.

Determinations of residual furazolidone and its metabolite, 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ), in fish feeds by HPLC-UV and LC-MS/MS, respectively

The antibacterial drug furazolidone belonging to the group of nitrofuran antibacterial agents has been widely used as an antibacterial and antiprotozoal feed additive for poultry, cattle, and farmed fish in China. During application a large proportion of the administered drug may reach the environment directly or via feces. Although the use of furazolidone is prohibited in numerous countries, there are indications of its illegal use. It is known that furazolidone can be rapidly metabolized to 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ) in the body of the target organism. In this study, a total of 21 fish feed samples, including 17 commercial fish feeds from local markets in China (representing 15 different formulations) and 4 fish feeds obtained from Germany and Turkey, respectively, are analyzed to determine whether the drug is still illegally used or commercially available feeds are contaminated by this drug. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) methods have been implemented to determine furazolidone and its metabolite AOZ in fish feeds containing animal protein, respectively. An efficient and convenient cleanup method for the determination of furazolidone in fish feeds is developed, and a simple cleanup method for the determination of AOZ is used. Method recoveries for samples used were determined as 87.7-98.3% for furazolidone at two spike levels of 2.0 and 5.0 ng g(-1) and as 95.6-102.8% for AOZ at spike levels of 0.4 and 0.8 ng g(-1). Limits of detections were 0.4 ng g(-1) for furazolidone and 0.05 ng g(-1) for AOZ. The established methods are therefore suitable for the determination of furazolidone and its metabolite AOZ in fish feeds at trace contamination levels. Using the established methods, all fish feed samples have been proved to be furazolidone negative; however, AOZ is tested in 16 of 17 fish feeds obtained from local markets in the Hubei province of China, with a positive rate as high as 94.1%.

Phylogeny of SARS-CoV based on high-dimensional information geometry

We proposed a novel methodology, which firstly, extracting features from species' complete genome data, using k-tuple, followed by studying the evolutionary relationship between SARS-CoV and other coronavirus species using the method, called "High-dimensional information geometry". We also used the mothod, namely "caculating of Minimum Spanning Tree", to construct the Phyligenetic tree of the coronavirus. From construction of the unrooted phylogenetic tree, we found out that the evolution distance between SARS-CoV and other coronavirus species is comparatively far. The tree accurately rebuilt the three groups of other coronavirus. We also validated the assertion from other literatures that SARS-CoV is similar to the coronavirus species in Group I.

Integrated lectin affinity microfluidic chip for glycoform separation

Lectin affinity chromatography was miniaturized into a microfluidic format, which results in improvement of performance, as compared to the conventional method. A lectin affinity monolith column was prepared in the microchannel of a microfluidic chip. The porous monolith was fabricated by UV-initiated polymerization of ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) in the presence of porogeneities, followed by immobilization of pisum sativum agglutinin (PSA) on the monolith matrix. Using electroosmosis as the driven force, lectin affinity chromatographies of three kinds of glycoprotein, turkey ovalbumin (TO), chicken ovalbumin (CO), and ovomucoid (OM), were carried out on the microfluidic system. All the glycoproteins were successfully separated into several fractions with different affinities toward the immobilized PSA. The integrated system reduces the time required for the lectin affinity chromatography reaction to similar to3%, thus, the overall analysis time from 4 h to 400 s. Only 300 pg of glycoprotein is required for the whole separation process. Moreover, troublesome operations for lectin affinity chromatography are simplified.

Konwencja dotycząca statusu uchodźców a praktyka turecka. Problem przybyszów zza wschodniej granicy

Celem publikacji jest podjęcie próby przeanalizowania polityki, jaką Turcja prowadzi wobec obcokrajowców poszukujących schronienia na jej terytorium. O ważkości zagadnienia zadecydowała w ostatnich latach przede wszystkim tocząca się w Syrii wojna domowa, w wyniku której na terytorium Turcji znalazło się ponad 700 tysięcy Syryjczyków. Szczególne w tym kontekście kontrowersje budzi fakt stosowania przez Turcję podwójnych standardów w przedmiocie nadawania imigrantom konwencyjnego statusu uchodźcy. Państwo to, jako jedno z czterech na świecie, w momencie przystępowania do Konwencji dotyczącej statusu uchodźców i Protokołu nowojorskiego zastrzegło sobie prawo do stosowania w tej materii tzw. kryterium geograficznego. W efekcie, o ile status uchodźcy nadany być może osobom przybywającym zza zachodnich granic Turcji, o tyle uciekinierzy z państw takich, jak Syria, Iran, czy Irak z formalnego punktu widzenia są „poszukującymi schronienia” (tur. sığınmacı). To zaś oznacza brak ich konwencyjnej ochrony. Celem artykułu jest jednak nie tylko przeanalizowanie prawnego i rzeczywistego położenia, w jakim znajdują się ofiary syryjskiej wojny domowej, przybywające na terytorium Turcji, a także próba przewidzenia scenariusza rozwoju tejże sytuacji. Celem uczynienia analizy możliwie najbardziej rzetelną, odwołano się zarówno do anglo, jak i tureckojęzycznych materiałów źródłowych.

Neuropeptide Co-Release with Gaba May Explain Functional Non-Monotonic Uncertainty Responses in Dopamine Neurons

Co-release of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and the neuropeptide substance-P (SP) from single axons is a conspicuous feature of the basal ganglia, yet its computational role, if any, has not been resolved. In a new learning model, co-release of GABA and SP from axons of striatal projection neurons emerges as a highly efficient way to compute the uncertainty responses that are exhibited by dopamine (DA) neurons when animals adapt to probabilistic contingencies between rewards and the stimuli that predict their delivery. Such uncertainty-related dopamine release appears to be an adaptive phenotype, because it promotes behavioral switching at opportune times. Understanding the computational linkages between SP and DA in the basal ganglia is important, because Huntington's disease is characterized by massive SP depletion, whereas Parkinson's disease is characterized by massive DA depletion.