1,720,963 research outputs found
Advanced Monitoring Systems, On Site Control And Non Destructive Evaluation Of Masonry Structures And Materials
No full textContinuous assessment of “structural safety related” aspects of masonry materials and structures is becoming a key issue in modern conservation strategies of existing buildings and civil structures and infrastructures. Cultural, social and economical reasons require that those who are responsible for the conservation should have the capability to predict possible “unfavorable events” in order to minimize their impact on the value (cultural and/or economical) of a given construction and the costs of intervention required to prevent and/or mitigate their effects.
Several solutions are being adopted to this scope, from the simplest observational procedures to the more sophisticated automatic, long distance operated monitoring systems. All them are to be considered in this moment welcome: “continuous assessment” is a real progress in the conservation strategies only if it represents and attitude of the responsible bodies, no matter the technology they are using.
However, technological progress unavoidably pushes “everything” towards sophistication and complexity, and generally offers real possibilities to get better opportunities, whatever the field of application can be.
The paper proposes a remote monitoring system for civil engineering structures based upon WWW technology, that was recently applied on the roof of the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua
Structural investigations and analyses for the conservation of the "Arsenale" of Venice
No full textSystematic interventions are planned and progressively designed on most buildings of Arsenale of Venice, the Venetian republic’s shipyard, a very large complex of docks and sheds of peculiar construction characteristics. These renovation interventions are required in view of new uses for the revitalizing of that area, which is currently almost completely neglected. In the paper, after a general presentation of the main properties and of the most relevant deterioration phenomena of the principal parts of the monumental area, the methodology that is being used for the structural diagnosis, for the implementation of guidelines for the future interventions and for the maintenance of the restored conditions are presented. Some preliminary results, given by experimental tests performed both in situ and in laboratory on materials and structural elements, and by FE simulations, are discussed
Experimental investigation on existing precast PRC elements strengthened with cementitious composites
No full textA number of experimental investigations on fibre reinforced polymer (FRP), with the aim of understanding their behaviour when applied as strengthening of reinforced concrete elements, are available in the literature but very few information is available on strengthening real-scale elements with cementitious composites. In particular design code formulations are scanty or non-existent. In this study the behaviour of four precast pre-stressed TT beams taken from an existing industrial building was investigated. One of them was considered as control unstrengthened TT beam, whereas the others were strengthened with different techniques, namely with FRP laminates (glued with epoxy resin), carbon fibres with cementitious matrix and steel fibres with cementitious matrix. Each material involved in this study was also mechanically characterized to obtain the main physical properties. Adequate specimens were obtained from the existing TT beam to characterize the concrete and the reinforcing steel bars
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Maintenance and seismic retrofit cost assessment of existing bridges
No full textThe work describes an integrated procedure for the assessment of the condition state and seismic vulnerability of existing road bridges. Visual inspections aimed to evaluate a total sufficiency rating (TSR) and develop a simplified seismic assessment have been performed for each structure according to previous procedures proposed by the authors (Pellegrino et al. 2011; Pellegrino et al. 2014). The outcomes have been used as input data for a subsequent statistical analysis for calibrating new unitary maintenance, seismic retrofit and total cost equations. The procedure was applied to a stock of structures in the Vicenza province, North-Eastern Italy and could allow public authorities/private managing companies to estimate economic indicators for the estimation of the amount of resources needed for bridge maintenance and retrofit in seismic zones
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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