A time-domain nonlinear effective-stress non-Masing approach of ground response analysis of Guwahati city, India

The response of subsoil strata subjected to seismic excitations plays an important role in governing the response of the overlying superstructures at any site. Ground response analysis(GRA) helps to assess the influence of soil characteristics on the propagating seismic stress waves from the bedrock level to the ground surface during an earthquake. For the northeastern region of India, located in the highest seismic zone in the country, conducting an extensive GRA study is of prime importance. Conventionally, most of the GRA studies are carried out using the equivalent linear method, which, being a simplistic approach, cannot capture the nonlinear behavior of soil during seismic shaking. This paper presents the outcomes of a one-dimensional effective stress based nonlinear GRA conducted for Guwahati city(located in northeast India) incorporating the non-Masing load/unload/reload characteristics. The various ground response parameters evaluated from this study help in assessing the ground shaking, soil amplification, and site responses expected in this region. 2D contour maps, which are representative of the distribution of some of these parameters throughout Guwahati city, are also developed. The results presented herein can serve as guidelines for the design of foundations and superstructures in this region.

Effects of surface finish and treatment on the fatigue behaviour of vibrating cylinder block using frequency response approach

This paper presents the effects of surface finish and treatment on the high cycle fatigue behaviour of vibrating cylinder block of a new two-stroke free piston engine at complex variable amplitude loading conditions using frequency response approach. Finite element modelling and frequency response analysis was conducted using finite element analysis software Package MSC.PATRAN/MSC.NASTRAN and fatigue life prediction was carded out using MSC.FATIGUE software. Based on the finite element results, different frequency response approach was applied to predict the cylinder block fatigue life. Results for different load histories and material combinations are also discussed. Results indicated great effects for all surface finish and treatment. It is concluded that polished and cast surface finish conditions give the highest and lowest cylinder block lives, respectively; and that Nitrided treatment leads to longest cylinder block life. The results were used to draw contour plots of fatigue life and damage in the worst or most damaging case.

FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AS A MODEL FOR SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE APPROACH IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

L1 and L2 acquisition, in some respects, are similar. Language development in children goes hand in hand with physical and cognitive development. Children learn their first language by imitation, but not always and not only by imitation. There seems to be some "innate capacities" that make children start to speak at the same time they do and in the way they do it. Adults learning a second language usually are controlled more by their motivation. But language input is important for both L1 and L2 acquisition. Though there are differences between CL1 and between CL2 and AL2, the way in which these learners acquire some of the grammatical morphemes is similar. This, together with some other evidence, shows that it is not only children who can acquire language. Adults can also acquire a language. But when adults acquire a language, they should also learn it. Some of the ways in which children acquire their language can be used as a model for L2 acquisition, even for Chinese students whose language is unrelated to English and whose culture is different. Learning the culture of the English-speaking countries will benefit the learning of the language. Like children, listening should also be well in advance of speaking in L2 acquisition. To train listening comprehension skills, Asher’s TPR approach proves more effective. TPR approach is at the moment limited to the beginning stage only. In order for students to gain all the five skills in a second language learning, namely, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and interpreting/translating, other methods should be used at the same time, or at later stages.

FORMULATION OF A SEMI-ANALYTICAL APPROACH BASEDON GURTIN VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE FOR DYNAMICRESPONSE OF GENERAL THIN PLATES

4 semi-analytical approach for the dynamic response of general thin plates whichemployes finite element discretization in space domain and a series of representation intime demain is developed on the basis of Curtin variational principles.The formulationof time series is also investigated so that the dynamic response of plates with arbitraryshape and boundary constraints can be achieved with adequate accuracy.

Promoting Learner Autonomy Through Reader- response Approach in EFL Literature Classes

A number of methods and approaches have been practiced in recent communicative language teaching,the applying of the reader-response approach has seen the effectiveness in the EFL literature classes.Learner autonomy in EFL literature classes is reader’s ability to regard the reading text as his/her own both in the act of reading and after the act of reading.

Assessment of the muscle injury, inflammatory response and bone metabolism after paravertebral muscle space and minimally invasive percutaneous approach surgeries for thoracolumbar fracture

Objective: To study the muscle injury, inflammatory response and bone metabolism after paravertebral muscle space and minimally invasive percutaneous approach surgeries for thoracolumbar fracture. Methods: A total of 92 patients with thoracolumbar fractures who were treated in Baoji Central Hospital between May 2015 and January 2017 were selected and randomly divided into paravertebral group and minimally invasive percutaneous group who accepted pedicle screw fixation under different approaches. Before operation as well as 1 d and 3 d after operation, serum was collected to determine the contents of creatase, inflammatory reaction molecules and bone metabolism indexes. Results: Serum Myo, CK, LDH, TNF-α, MCP-1, HMGB-1, CRP, IL-1β, OC, OPG, PICP and PINP levels of both groups 1 d and 3 d after operation were significantly higher than those before operation while TRACP5b, RANKL, CTX and NTX levels were significantly lower than those before operation, and serum Myo, CK, LDH, TNF-α, MCP-1, HMGB-1, CRP, IL-1β, TRACP5b, RANKL, CTX and NTX levels of paravertebral group 1 d and 3 d after operation were significantly lower than those of minimally invasive percutaneous group while OC, OPG, PICP and PINP levels were significantly higher than those of minimally invasive percutaneous group. Conclusion:Paravertebral muscle space surgery for thoracolumbar fracture is more effective than minimally invasive percutaneous surgery in reducing muscle injury and inflammatory response, and improving bone metabolism.

Response Characteristics of Load on Vessels in Waves

Considering the requirement of direct design and fatigue test for ships and floating structures by use of FEM technique, a computational procedure of spectral analysis for wave load on the hull surface is developed in this paper. The response of hydrodynamic pressure on the body surface to a designated sea state for ships and floating structures is calculated by use of the revised strip method with the hull bound perturbation flow concept. The spectral function of wave load for the defined point on the body surface can be determined from the Wiener-Khinhine theorem and the characteristic load value can be also obtained from spectral moment analysis. A container ship is taken as a computational example acid the sample of wave load with a certain probability and corresponding encountered frequency is provided.

Transient response of a concrete tunnel in an elastic rock with imperfect contact

The two-dimensional transient response of an imperfect bonded circular lined pipeline lying in an elastic infinite medium is investigated.Imperfect boundary conditions between the surrounding elastic rock and the tunnel are modelled with a two-linear-spring design.The novelty of the manuscript consists in studying at the same time transient regimes and imperfect bonded interfaces for simulating the dynamic response of a tunnel embedded in an elastic infinite rock.Wave propagation fields in tunnel and rock are expressed in terms of infinite Bessel and Hankel series.To solve the transient problem,the Laplace transform and the associated Durbin’s algorithm are performed.To exhibit the dynamic responses,influences of various parameters such as the quality of the interface conditions and the thickness of the lining are presented.The dynamic hoop stresses and the solid displacements of both the tunnel and the rock are also proposed.

Dynamic Response of Truss Adaptive Structures

It is pointed out that the damping matrix deduced by active members in the finite element vibration equation of a truss adaptive structure generally can not be decoupled, which leads to the difficulty in the process of modal analysis by classical superposition method. This paper focuses on the computational method of the dynamic response for truss adaptive structures. Firstly, a new technique of state vector approach is applied to study the dynamic response of truss adaptive structures. It can make the coeffic lent matrix of first derivative of state vector a symmetric positive definite matrix, and particularly a diagonal matrix provided that mass matrix is derived by lumped method, so the coefficient matrix of the first derivative of state vector can be exactly decomposed by CHOLESKY method. In this case, the proposed technique not only improves the calculation accuracy, but also saves the computing time. Based on the procedure mentioned above, the mathematical formulation for the system response of truss adaptive structures is systematically derived in theory. Thirdly, by using FORTRAN language, a program system for computing dynamic response of truss adaptive structures is developed. Fourthly, a typical 18 bar space truss adaptive structure has been chosen as test numerical examples to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, some good suggestions, such as how to choose complex mode shapes practically in determining the dynamic response are also given. The new approach can be extended to calculate the dynamic response of general adaptive structures.

Breed and adaptive response modulate bovine peripheral blood cells＇ transcriptome

Background： Adaptive response includes a variety of physiological modifications to face changes in external or internal conditions and adapt to a new situation. The acute phase proteins（APPs） are reactants synthesized against environmental stimuli like stress, infection, inflammation.Methods： To delineate the differences in molecular constituents of adaptive response to the environment we performed the whole-blood transcriptome analysis in Italian Holstein（IH） and Italian Simmental（IS） breeds. For this, 663 IH and IS cows from six commercial farms were clustered according to the blood level of APPs. Ten extreme individuals（five APP＋ and APP-variants） from each farm were selected for the RNA-seq using the Illumina sequencing technology. Differentially expressed（DE） genes were analyzed using dynamic impact approach（DIA）and DAVID annotation clustering. Milk production data were statistically elaborated to assess the association of APP＋ and APP-gene expression patterns with variations in milk parameters.Results： The overall de novo assembly of cDNA sequence data generated 13,665 genes expressed in bovine blood cells. Comparative genomic analysis revealed 1,152 DE genes in the comparison of all APP＋ vs. all APP-variants; 531 and 217 DE genes specific for IH and IS comparison respectively. In all comparisons overexpressed genes were more represented than underexpressed ones. DAVID analysis revealed 369 DE genes across breeds, 173 and 73 DE genes in IH and IS comparison respectively. Among the most impacted pathways for both breeds were vitamin B6 metabolism, folate biosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism and linoleic acid metabolism.Conclusions： Both DIA and DAVID approaches produced a high number of significantly impacted genes and pathways with a narrow connection to adaptive response in cows with high level of blood APPs. A similar variation in gene expression and impacted pathways between APP＋ and APP-variants was found between two studied breeds. Such similarity was also confirmed by annotation clustering of the DE genes. However, IH breed showed higher and more differentiated impacts compared to IS breed and such particular features in the IH adaptive response could be explained by its higher metabolic activity. Variations of milk production data were significantly associated with APP＋ and APP-gene expression patterns.

Optimization of the Impeller Geometry for an Automotive Torque Converter Using Response Surface Methodology and Desirability Function

Response surface methodology (RSM) based on desirability function approach (DFA) is applied to obtain an optimal design of the impeller geometry for an automotive torque converter. The relative importance of six design parameters including impeller blade number, blade thickness, bias angle, scroll angle, inlet angle and exit angle is investigated using orthogonal design approach. The impeller inlet angle, exit angle and bias angle are found to exert the greatest influence on the overall performance of a torque converter, with two flow area factors being considered, namely 17% and 20%. Then, RSM together with central composite design (CCD) method is used to in-depth evaluate the interaction effect of the three key parameters on converter performance. The results demonstrate that impeller exit angle has the strongest impact on peak efficiency, with larger angles yielding the most favorable results. The stall torque ratio maximization is attainable with the increase of impeller bias angle and inlet angle together with smaller exit angle. In the end, an optimized design for the impeller geometry is obtained with stall torque ratio and peak efficiency increased by 1.62% and 1.1%, respectively. The new optimization method can be used as a reference for performance enhancement in the design process of impeller geometry for an automotive torque converter.

Environmental complaint insights through text mining based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework:Evidence from an Italian environmental agency

Individuals,local communities,environmental associations,private organizations,and public representatives and bodies may all be aggrieved by environmental problems concerning poor air quality,illegal waste disposal,water contamination,and general pollution.Environmental complaints represent the expressions of dissatisfaction with these issues.As the timeconsuming of managing a large number of complaints,text mining may be useful for automatically extracting information on stakeholder priorities and concerns.The paper used text mining and semantic network analysis to crawl relevant keywords about environmental complaints from two online complaint submission systems:online claim submission system of Regional Agency for Prevention,Environment and Energy(Arpae)(“Contact Arpae”);and Arpae's internal platform for environmental pollution(“Environmental incident reporting portal”)in the Emilia-Romagna Region,Italy.We evaluated the total of 2477 records and classified this information based on the claim topic(air pollution,water pollution,noise pollution,waste,odor,soil,weather-climate,sea-coast,and electromagnetic radiation)and geographical distribution.Then,this paper used natural language processing to extract keywords from the dataset,and classified keywords ranking higher in Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency(TF-IDF)based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework.This study provided a systemic approach to understanding the interaction between people and environment in different geographical contexts and builds sustainable and healthy communities.The results showed that most complaints are from the public and associated with air pollution and odor.Factories(particularly foundries and ceramic industries)and farms are identified as the drivers of environmental issues.Citizen believed that environmental issues mainly affect human well-being.Moreover,the keywords of“odor”,“report”,“request”,“presence”,“municipality”,and“hours”were the most influential and meaningful concepts,as demonstrated by their high degree and betweenness centrality values.Keywords connecting odor(classified as impacts)and air pollution(classified as state)were the most important(such as“odor-burnt plastic”and“odor-acrid”).Complainants perceived odor annoyance as a primary environmental concern,possibly related to two main drivers:“odor-factory”and“odorsfarms”.The proposed approach has several theoretical and practical implications:text mining may quickly and efficiently address citizen needs,providing the basis toward automating(even partially)the complaint process;and the DPSIR framework might support the planning and organization of information and the identification of stakeholder concerns and priorities,as well as metrics and indicators for their assessment.Therefore,integration of the DPSIR framework with the text mining of environmental complaints might generate a comprehensive environmental knowledge base as a prerequisite for a wider exploitation of analysis to support decision-making processes and environmental management activities.

Exploring Ester Prodrugs: A Comprehensive Review of Approaches, Applications, and Methods

The review provides an overview of the approaches, applications, and methods for ester prodrugs. Ester prodrugs are pharmacologically inactive compounds in their original form but become active drugs on biotransformation within the body, which offers advantages concerning the solubility, stability, and targeted delivery of the active drug. Several approaches of ester prodrugs have been reviewed in this review, including simple ester prodrugs, amino acid ester prodrugs, sugar ester prodrugs, lipid ester prodrugs, and polymeric ester prodrugs. This review incorporates in vitro and in vivo methods as well as the characterization of physical and chemical properties for ester prodrugs, cell culture systems, enzymatic assays, and animal models—all of these having a very important bearing on the evaluation of stability, bioavailability, and efficacy for ester prodrugs. While the benefits of using ester prodrugs are significant, there are also disadvantages like instability, poor or variable enzymatic hydrolysis, and toxicity from released promoieties or by-products. This review discusses solutions to the various limitations that include enhancing stability with ionizable promoieties and using physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling. The review also highlights the application of ester prodrugs in neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, and the ongoing efforts to address the critical limitations in treatment efficacy. Future prodrug strategies are poised to advance significantly by harnessing diverse transport mechanisms across the blood-brain barrier and integrating nanotechnology.

Parameter identification and global sensitivity analysis of Xin'anjiang model using meta-modeling approach

Parameter identification, model calibration, and uncertainty quantification are important steps in the model-building process, and are necessary for obtaining credible results and valuable information. Sensitivity analysis of hydrological model is a key step in model uncertainty quantification, which can identify the dominant parameters, reduce the model calibration uncertainty, and enhance the model optimization efficiency. There are, however, some shortcomings in classical approaches, including the long duration of time and high computation cost required to quantitatively assess the sensitivity of a multiple-parameter hydrological model. For this reason, a two-step statistical evaluation framework using global techniques is presented. It is based on （1） a screening method （Morris） for qualitative ranking of parameters, and （2） a variance-based method integrated with a meta-model for quantitative sensitivity analysis, i.e., the Sobol method integrated with the response surface model （RSMSobol）. First, the Morris screening method was used to qualitatively identify the parameters＇ sensitivity, and then ten parameters were selected to quantify the sensitivity indices. Subsequently, the RSMSobol method was used to quantify the sensitivity, i.e., the first-order and total sensitivity indices based on the response surface model （RSM） were calculated. The RSMSobol method can not only quantify the sensitivity, but also reduce the computational cost, with good accuracy compared to the classical approaches. This approach will be effective and reliable in the global sensitivity analysis of a complex large-scale distributed hydrological model.

A direct probabilistic approach to solve state equations for nonlinear systems under random excitation

In this paper, a direct probabilistic approach（DPA） is presented to formulate and solve moment equations for nonlinear systems excited by environmental loads that can be either a stationary or nonstationary random process.The proposed method has the advantage of obtaining the response＇s moments directly from the initial conditions and statistical characteristics of the corresponding external excitations. First, the response＇s moment equations are directly derived based on a DPA, which is completely independent of the It？/filtering approach since no specific assumptions regarding the correlation structure of excitation are made.By solving them under Gaussian closure, the response＇s moments can be obtained. Subsequently, a multiscale algorithm for the numerical solution of moment equations is exploited to improve computational efficiency and avoid much wall-clock time. Finally, a comparison of the results with Monte Carlo（MC） simulation gives good agreement.Furthermore, the advantage of the multiscale algorithm in terms of efficiency is also demonstrated by an engineering example.

Air Gap Prediction for Floating Bodies Using a 3D Numerical Wave Tank Approach

Computations for air gap response of a semisubmersible platform based on a 3D numerical wave tank approach are presented.The developed method is in time domain and can consider nonlinearities associated with incident wave and hydrostatic forces exactly in determining the body response, but the interaction hydrodynamics of radiation and diffraction are based on simplified linearization assumptions. The incident wave can be defined by any suitable wave theory and here defined by a fully nonlinear numerical wave model. After verifying the present computations results in its degenerated linearized version against the usual linear 3D Green function–based frequency-domain results for air gap predictions, systematic comparative studies are undertaken between linear and the approximate nonlinear solutions. It is found that nonlinear computations can yield considerably conservative predictions as compared to fully linear calculations, amounting to a difference of up to 30%–40% in the minimum air gap in steep ambient incident waves at high and moderate frequencies.

Uniqueness and Reproducibility of Semantic Intelligence: New Approach to the Notion of Self-Organization

A novel notion of self-organization whose major property is that it brings about the execution of semantic intelligence as spontaneous physico-chemical processes in an unspecified ever-changing non-uniform environment is introduced. Its greatest advantage is that the covariance of causality encapsulated in any piece of semantic intelligence is provided with a great diversity of its individuality viewed as the properties of the current response and its reproducibility viewed as causality encapsulated in any of the homeostatic patterns. Alongside, the consistency of the functional metrics, which is always Euclidean, with any metrics of the space-time renders the proposed notion of self-organization ubiquitously available.

A Case Study of Employees＇ Engagement Practice in Corporate Responsibility Program

Organizational corporate social responsibility is a good practice by organizations. Organizations engagement in corporate social responsibility programs may benefit the organization and stakeholders. The focus of this paper is to explore the extent of employees＇ engagement in the organization＇s corporate responsibility programs by utilizing Unerman＇s （2007） stakeholders engagement framework. The main research question is how employees engage themselves in corporate social responsibility programs. This study employs a case study research design approach. The findings have shown that there is empowerment between employees and the management in the corporate social responsibility programs. Their involvement appears from their feedbacks and views in the surveys as well as discussion with regards to corporate responsibility programs. All in all, employees＇ engagement is seen as an important practice in the organization, particularly in planning, implementing, monitoring, and reporting the corporate responsibility program.

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Hong Kong Green Minibus Industry

Green Mini Bus is one of the popular public transport modes. Research provided comprehensive literature to the Corporate Social Responsibility （hereafter called ＂CSR＂） issue in Green Mini Bus industry. After comparing different CSR models, the stakeholder view approach is selected for the research in order to evaluate the performance of the operator. The CSR performance of the operator could not satisfy the stakeholders. The effort made by the operator itself could not solve all problems. The government plays a determinant role of CSR performance in Green Mini Bus industry. Recommendations would be made for problem solving and future development for the company. Academic and managerial implications are provided in the study.

Challenges and response to pandemics as seen in a One Health perspective

The global pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 not only exposed the fragility of global preparedness and response to public health emergence,but also illustrated the fragmentation and gaps of research and development ecosystem.This emphasizes the need for planned actions against the potentiality of new pandemics and requires research to better understand how viruses bridge the animal/human divide making human-to-human transmission of new diseases possible.Major challenges to response to new epidemics under the current health framework reside in the so called 4-CC approach that focuses on Concept,Communication,Coherence,and Continuity.There is a need to also add a One Health perspective with emphasis on governance,surveillance,capacity building and multi-disciplinary research to achieve a holistic and better integrated system.Using a regulatory framework to equip professionals might facilitate the function of a multi-sector approach that recognizes the value of their mandates and a One Health approach in their work.Collaborative,multisectoral actions under the global regulations and guidance would make evidence-based One Health approaches sustainable and accessible to everyone.