Lifecycle cost optimization of tuned mass dampers for the seismic improvement of inelastic structures

The seismic performance of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) on structures undergoing inelastic deformations may largely depend on the ground motion intensity. By estimating the impact of each seismic intensity on the overall cost of future seismic damages, lifecycle cost (LCC) proves a rational metric for evaluating the benefits of TMDs on inelastic structures. However, no incorporation of this metric into an optimization framework is reported yet. This paper presents a methodology for the LCC‐optimal design of TMDs on inelastic structures, which minimizes the total seismic LCC of the combined building‐TMD system. Its distinctive features are the assumption of a mass‐proportional TMD cost model, the adoption of an iterative suboptimization procedure, and the initialization of the TMD frequency and damping ratios according to a conventional linear TMD design technique. The methodology is applied to the seismic improvement of the SAC‐LA benchmark buildings, taken as representative of standard steel moment‐resisting frame office buildings in LA, California. Results show that, despite their limited performance at the highest intensity levels, LCC‐optimal TMDs considerably reduce the total LCC, to an extent that depends on both the building vulnerability and the TMD unit cost. They systematically present large mass ratios (around 10%) and frequency and damping ratios close to their respective linearly designed optima. Simulations reveal the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology and the importance of adopting a nonlinear model to correctly evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of TMDs on ordinary structures in highly seismic areas.     

Modelling the effect of changing precipitation inputs on deep soil water utilization

Forests in the Southeastern United States are predicted to experience future changes in seasonal patterns of precipitation inputs as well as more variable precipitation events. These climate change‐induced alterations could increase drought and lower soil water availability. Drought could alter rooting patterns and increase the importance of deep roots that access subsurface water resources. To address plant response to drought in both deep rooting and soil water utilization as well as soil drainage, we utilize a throughfall reduction experiment in a loblolly pine plantation of the Southeastern United States to calibrate and validate a hydrological model. The model was accurately calibrated against field measured soil moisture data under ambient rainfall and validated using 30% throughfall reduction data. Using this model, we then tested these scenarios: (a) evenly reduced precipitation; (b) less precipitation in summer, more in winter; (c) same total amount of precipitation with less frequent but heavier storms; and (d) shallower rooting depth under the above 3 scenarios. When less precipitation was received, drainage decreased proportionally much faster than evapotranspiration implying plants will acquire water first to the detriment of drainage. When precipitation was reduced by more than 30%, plants relied on stored soil water to satisfy evapotranspiration suggesting 30% may be a threshold that if sustained over the long term would deplete plant available soil water. Under the third scenario, evapotranspiration and drainage decreased, whereas surface run‐off increased. Changes in root biomass measured before and 4 years after the throughfall reduction experiment were not detected among treatments. Model simulations, however, indicated gains in evapotranspiration with deeper roots under evenly reduced precipitation and seasonal precipitation redistribution scenarios but not when precipitation frequency was adjusted. Deep soil and deep rooting can provide an important buffer capacity when precipitation alone cannot satisfy the evapotranspirational demand of forests. How this buffering capacity will persist in the face of changing precipitation inputs, however, will depend less on seasonal redistribution than on the magnitude of reductions and changes in rainfall frequency.     

基于多源数据的山东省围填海造地特点及发展趋势研究

文章基于文献资料分析、官方数据汇总、国产高分辨率资源卫星遥感影像信息提取以及发展趋势研判等方法,对改革开放以来山东省全海域范围内围填海造地的历史发展、现状特征、发展趋势及其对生态环境的影响进行了分析和总结,并提出相关的政策建议。研究表明:改革开放以来,山东省围填海造地累计已超过4.58万hm~2。21世纪以来围填海造地进入快速增长时期,尤其是2010年以来,全省围填海造地又掀起了一次新的热潮,其面积和速度都远远超过了历史水平。鉴于围填海造地对环境和生态的巨大影响,文章提出了加强管理、严格环境影响评价、引入生态环境补偿机制以及建立分级填海评估制度和年度监测机制等建议。     

非等间距GM(1,1)模型的总体最小二乘算法及其病态问题

在非等间距GM(1,1)模型中，系数矩阵中有无误差的常数项和有误差的随机项，并且系数矩阵与观测向量误差同源，即系数矩阵与观测向量中有相同的元素存在，这些相同元素应该有相同的改正数，为此本文推导了一种适合非等间距GM(1,1)模型求解的总体最小二乘算法。同时，考虑到非等间距GM(1,1)模型中存在病态问题时影响总体最小二乘计算结果的稳定性，提出对系数矩阵常数列乘以某一常数的方法，以改善病态问题。     

基于SMAP卫星雷达资料的海冰密集度反演技术研究

SMAP是美国于2015年初发射的一颗卫星，搭载了L波段的雷达。它采用圆锥扫描方式，具有固定的入射角、较大的幅宽和千米级的分辨率，在海冰监测方面具有独特的优势。本文利用SMAP卫星雷达资料分别与德国Bremen大学海冰密集度产品和美国国家冰雪数据中心（NSIDC）海冰密集度产品建立3.125 km和25 km匹配数据集，分析了L波段雷达后向散射系数、极化比和归一化极化差与海冰密集度之间相关性，建立基于人工神经网络的海冰密集度反演算法。为了验证SMAP卫星雷达资料反演海冰密集度的精度，本文选择德国Bremen大学和美国冰雪数据中心发布的海冰密集度产品分别与SMAP海冰密集度产品进行对比分析，SMAP海冰密集度与Bremen海冰密集度的偏差为0.07、均方根误差为0.14；与NSIDC海冰密集度的偏差为0.04、均方根误差为0.18，这表明SMAP海冰密集度产品与现有业务化海冰密集度产品具有很好的一致性。     

基于GF-1号的舟山近岸悬浮泥沙浓度反演研究

文章利用舟山近岸实测光谱数据和国产卫星GF-1号宽视场成像仪(WFV)遥感数据,反演该海域悬浮泥沙浓度。结果表明:(1)线性模型和二次模型相比,二次模型的精确度略高于线性模型,但对于悬沙低浓度区,反演误差过大,故线性模型更适用于舟山近岸水体悬浮泥沙浓度反演;(2)GF-1号B2和B3是悬沙浓度变化的敏感波段,B3/B2波段组合的线性模型反演效果较好;(3)GF-1号遥感数据能够较理想地实现定量反演近岸水体的悬浮物。     

Sensitive and rapid detection of two toxic microalgae Alexandrium by loop-mediated isothermal amplification

A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was designed and evaluated for rapid detection of the toxic microalgae Alexandrium catenella and A. minutum, which can produce paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). Two sets of four specific primers targeting these two species were derived from the sequence of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of ribosomal DNA. The method worked well in less than an hour under isothermal conditions of 65℃. LAMP specificity was validated in closely related algae as a comparison, suggesting the strict specificity of the LAMP primers. Two visual inspection approaches were feasible to interpret the positive or negative results. The detection limits of A. catenella and A. minutum samples using the LAMP assay were found to be 5.6 and 4.5 pg DNA, respectively. The sensitivity of this LAMP assay was 10 or 100-fold higher than Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method in detecting the two microalgae. These characteristics of species specificity, sensitivity, and rapidity suggest that this method has the potentiality in the monitoring of red tide caused by A. catenella and A. minutum.     

灰色稳健总体最小二乘估计及高铁路基变形预测

最小二乘估计和部分变量误差模型的总体最小二乘估计不具备抵御粗差的能力。鉴于粗差可能同时出现在灰色白化微分方程的观测值和系数矩阵中，本文提出基于IGGⅢ抗差方案的部分变量总体最小二乘稳健估计。结合仿真数据和高铁路基观测数据，系统地比较稳健最小二乘、部分变量总体最小二乘、本文算法参数估计结果和算法稳定性。结果表明，本文算法预测精度高，可以应用到高铁路基沉降预测中。     

Analytical and empirical models for predicting the drift capacity of modern unreinforced masonry walls

Displacement‐based seismic assessment of buildings containing unreinforced masonry (URM) walls requires as input, among others, estimates of the in‐plane drift capacity at the considered limit states. Current codes assess the drift capacity of URM walls by means of empirical models with most codes relating the drift capacity to the failure mode and wall slenderness. Comparisons with experimental results show that such relationships result in large scatter and usually do not provide satisfactory predictions. The objective of this paper is to determine trends in drift capacities of modern URM walls from 61 experimental tests and to investigate whether analytical models could lead to more reliable estimates of the displacement capacity than the currently used empirical models. A recently developed analytical model for the prediction of the ultimate drift capacity for both shear and flexure controlled URM walls is introduced and simplified into an equation that is suitable for code implementation. The approach follows the idea of plastic hinge models for reinforced concrete or steel structures. It explicitly considers the influence of crushing due to flexural or shear failure in URM walls and takes into account the effect of kinematic and static boundary conditions on the drift capacity. Finally, the performance of the analytical model is benchmarked against the test data and other empirical formulations. It shows that it yields significantly better estimates than empirical models in current codes. The paper concludes with an investigation of the sensitivity of the ultimate drift capacity to the wall geometry, static, and kinematic boundary conditions.     

The role of fog,orography, and seasonality on precipitation in a semiarid,tropical island

Isotopes of water (²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) are commonly used to trace hydrological processes such as moisture recycling, evaporation loss, and moisture source region and often vary temporally in a given region. This study provides a first‐ever characterization of temporally variable precipitation mechanisms of San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos. We collected fog, rain, and throughfall samples over three field seasons to understand the mechanisms driving seasonal‐ and event‐based variability in the isotopic composition of precipitation in Galápagos. We establish that fog is a common phenomenon in San Cristóbal, especially during the dry season, and we found that fog, compared with cocollected rainfall, is consistently enriched. We further suggest that the relative contribution of fog formed via different mechanisms (orographic, advective, radiation) varied seasonally. We found that the source region is the most dominant control of the isotopic composition of rainfall in the Galápagos at both the seasonal and event scales, but subcloud evaporative processes (the nontraditional manifestation of the amount effect) became a dominant control on the isotopic composition of rainfall during the dry season. Overall, our findings suggest that understanding seasonally variable water‐generating mechanisms is required for effective water resource management in San Cristóbal Island and other semiarid island ecosystems under current and future regimes of climate change.