Economic effects of regulating the seismic strengthening of older buildings

The marked increase in the awareness of earthquake risk following the Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand offered a unique opportunity to investigate the economic effect of disaster-mitigation regulations on the commercial building stock. A difference-in-differences (DD) framework was used to determine whether earthquake risk has been capitalized into the property prices of buildings constructed prior to 1976, as a response to the national policy requiring assessment and strengthening (or demolition) of the existing earthquake-prone building stock. A negative externality is found in the policy announcement on affected (pre-1970s) office and retail buildings which caused office buildings to suffer a 12.5% stigma discount. However, retail properties were less impacted suffering a 2.3% stigma loss. The value of the commercial building stock has been affected by the policy. These findings provide policy-makers with timely evidence as to the economic effects of New Zealand’s earthquake-prone buildings policy. Facing losses in property value and financial responsibility for retrofitting their assets, building owners will be looking for a workable set of regulatory and non-regulatory incentives to encourage disaster risk management and protect the built environment.     

Error Estimation for Indirect Measurements: Interval Computation Problem Is (Slightly) Harder Than a Similar Probabilistic Computational Problem

One of main applications of interval computations is estimating errors of indirect measurements. A quantity y is measured indirectly if we measure some quantities xi related to y and then estimate y from the results of these measurements as by using a known relation f. Interval computations are used "to find the range of f(x1,...,xn) when xi are known to belong to intervals ," where i are guaranteed accuracies of direct measurements. It is known that the corresponding problem is intractable (NP-hard) even for polynomial functions f.In some real-life situations, we know the probabilities of different value of xi; usually, the errors xi - are independent Gaussian random variables with 0 average and known standard deviations i. For such situations, we can formulate a similar probabilistic problem: "given i, compute the standard deviation of f(x1,...,xn) ." It is reasonably easy to show that this problem is feasible for polynomial functions f. So, for polynomial f, this probabilistic computation problem is easier than the interval computation problem.It is not too much easier: Indeed, polynomials can be described as functions obtained from xi by applying addition, subtraction, and multiplication. A natural expansion is to add division, thus getting rational functions. We prove that for rational functions, the probabilistic computational problem (described above) is NP-hard.     

Automatic generation of quadrilateral finite element meshes

This paper describes an efficient, accurate and simple implementation of an algorithm for generation of quadrilateral finite element meshes. An original algorithm by Talbert and Parkinson [J.A. Talbert, A. Parkinson, Development of an automatic two-dimensional finite element mesh generator using quadrilateral elements and Bezier curve boundary definition, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Eng., 29 (1990) 1551–1567], has been substantially redeveloped and modified and presented in greater detail. We cover several important issues omitted in publication mentioned and we will provide interested readers with fully documented source code of the program.     

Interactions of CO and NO with the perovskite-type oxide larho3

Some aspects of the interactions of CO and NO with LaRhO₃ have been studied. The reduction of this oxide with CO occurs where the contracting sphere model is of perovskite structure stable up to a concentration of anion vacancies of ca. 2e^? per molecule. By reduction of LaRhO₃ at 817 K, rhodium was obtained, highly dispersed on a matrix of La₂O_3. After a reduction-oxidation cycle at 871 K the particle size of the perovskite decreased drastically. The activation energy of the reduction (67 kJ mol^?1) was significantly lower than that of other LaMO₃ oxides of group-VIII metals. Coverages of CO(θ_CO) and NO(θ_NO) at room temperature were lower than 3%, θ_NO being substantially higher than θ_CO. The reversibly adsorbed fractions of CO and NO underwent a remarkable decrease after preadsorbing NO and CO, respectively. This competitive adsorption is assumed to be associated with the adsorption of CO and NO on metallic sites. NO preadsorption inhibited the total adsorption of CO more severely than the reverse, indicating that NO is bound more strongly than CO to the LaRhO₃ surface.     

Postgraduate occupations of psychology major students.

During the last ten or fifteen years we have seen an increase in enrollment in undergraduate psychology courses that is far out of proportion to the general increase in overall university attendance. Psychology departments are overwhelmed with undergraduate students, and the numbers continue to increase each year. Since we are allocating so much of our time, energy, and resources to undergraduate teaching, it is important to determine what these students are being educated for. This note reports the results of an inquiry into the postgraduate occupations of the members of the first three graduating classes of the psychology major programme at McGill University. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spectral degree of coherence of a random three-dimensional electromagnetic field

The complex spectral degree of coherence of a general random, statistically stationary electromagnetic field is introduced in a manner similar to the way it is defined for a beamlike field, namely, by means of Young's interference experiment. Both its modulus and its phase are measurable. We illustrate the definition by applying it to blackbody radiation emerging from a cavity. The results are of particular interest for near-field optics.     

Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in tandem mode applied for the identification of wine markers in residues from ancient Egyptian vessels

Presented in this paper is a new method for the identification of tartaric acid as a wine marker in archaeological residues from Egyptian vessels using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in tandem mode (LC/MS/MS). Owing to the special characteristics of these samples, such as the dryness and the small quantity available for analysis, it was necessary to have a very sensitive and highly specific analytical method to detect tartaric acid at trace levels in the residues. Furthermore, an alkaline fusion was carried out to identify syringic acid derived from malvidin as a red wine marker, in a deposit residue from a wine jar found at the tomb of king Tutankhamun. Malvidin-3-glucoside, the main anthocyanin that gives young wines their red color, polymerizes with aging into more stable pigments. However, the presence of malvidin in ancient residues can be proved by alkaline fusion of the residue to release syringic acid from the pigment, which has been identified, here for the first time, by using the LC/MS/MS method revealing the red grape origin of an ancient Egyptian wine residue.     

Microbiological and biochemical changes in minimally processed fresh-cut Conference pears

Fresh-cut Conference pears were packaged under different modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) conditions and stored in refrigeration. The effects of packaging atmospheres on the microbial viability as well as on the changes in acidity, sugars and ascorbic acid (AA) were studied throughout storage. The use of plastic bags of a permeability of 15 cm ³ O ₂ m ^-2bar ^-1 24 h ^-1 and initial atmospheres of 0 kPa O ₂ extended the microbiological shelf life of pear cubes for at least 3 weeks of storage. Under these conditions, AA levels were kept almost unvaried throughout storage due to the restrictions in the O ₂ availability inside the bags' headspaces. However, these conditions also triggered physiological and biochemical changes that caused greater changes in the product acidity. The sugar profile was also affected by storage, but MAP did not show any significant influence on the reported changes.