Modeling and Seismic Response Analysis of Italian Code-Conforming Reinforced Concrete Buildings

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the seismic response of reinforced concrete buildings designed according to the current Italian building code. Number of stories, site hazard, presence and distribution of masonry infill panels, and type of lateral resisting system are the key investigated parameters. The main issues related to design and modeling are discussed. Two Limit States are considered, namely Global Collapse and Usability-Preventing Damage. The main aim of the study is a comparison between the seismic response of the buildings, investigated through nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. Irregularity in the distribution of infill panels and site hazard emerge as the most influential parameters.     

What do divided cities have in common? An international comparison of income segregation

This paper provides a comparative assessment of income segregation in cities of 12 countries. We use spatial entropy indexes based on small‐scale gridded income data and consistent definition of city boundaries to ensure international comparability of our segregation measures. Results show considerable variation in the levels of income segregation across cities, even within countries, reflecting the diversity within urban systems. Larger, more affluent, productive, and more unequal cities tend to be more segregated. Urban form, demographic, and economic factors explain additional variation in segregation levels through the influence of high‐income households, who tend to be the most segregated. The positive association between productivity and segregation is mitigated in polycentric cities.     

WHAT DRIVES THE URBAN WAGE PREMIUM? EVIDENCE ALONG THE WAGE DISTRIBUTION

This paper aims at disentangling the role played by different explanations on the urban wage premium along the wage distribution. We analyze the wage dynamics of migrants from lower to higher density areas in Italy, using quantile regressions and individual data. The results show that unskilled workers benefit more from a wage premium accruing over time, while skilled workers enjoy a wage premium when they migrate as well as a wage increase over time. Further, we find that for unskilled workers the wage growth over time is mainly due to human capital accumulation in line with the “learning” hypothesis, while for skilled workers the wage growth is mainly explained by the “coordination” hypothesis, i.e., cities enhance the probability of better matches between workers and firms.     

Radiocarbon and U-series dating of the endemic deer Praemegaceros cazioti (Depéret) from “Grotta Juntu”, Sardinia

Radiocarbon and U-series methods (²³⁰Th/U and ²³¹Pa/²³⁵U) for absolute age determination have been applied to some fossil samples from Grotta Juntu, in North Eastern Sardinia (Italy). The remains belong to the endemic deer species Praemegaceros cazioti, which is here represented by an almost complete skeleton. The three dating methods lead to concordant ages of about 7500 years BP, indicating that the skeleton was maintained as closed system after burial. Taking into consideration these results, Praemegaceros cazioti from Grotta Juntu is now the youngest representative of this species in Sardinia.     

关于中华帝国晚期心态史的探索

Some elements of Puritanism in Chinese tradition are obviously different from the well-known intellectual phenomenon in the West; in the Neo-Confucian ambit the key question concerns “order-disorder,” “harmony-disharmony” in society and inside one’s personality, rather than “sin” and “purity” in personal morality. Yet we also find that chastity is involved in the contrast between the two concepts of purity and pollution and the idea of “obscene” (meaning “inauspicious,” “ill-omened,” “profane”) allows us to uncover a darker side to sexual representation. Death seems another source of active or passive pollution: this effect occurs after contaminational contact with human or animal remains. Thus death is the source of “desecration,” or of “contamination,” especially when it is the consequence of violence. This means that in Chinese culture, a sense of impurity seems to be driven by the horror of death and the fear of being overwhelmed by the passion of love; respectively, thanatos and eros. Other topics may also be associated, such as mental insanity referring to what is different, abnormal, strange, and socially subversive. The clean-unclean distinction originally responded to a basic visceral feeling—horror and repulsion/disgust—that is typically associated with hygienic worries and matter that is perceived as repugnant and inedible. But these basic ideas seem to have been symbolically extended to cope with the subconscious and metaphysical spheres: the horror of death and the fear of being overwhelmed by passion, the mysteries which lie behind these emotions, and the attempt to sublimate such fears into an impulse to transcend the red dust of our limited existence.     

Sexual science and self-narrative: epistemology and narrative technologies of the self between Krafft-Ebing and Freud

The aim of this article is to understand an important passage in the history of the sciences of the psyche: starting from the psychiatric problematization - and the consequent emergence - of the concept and the object called "sexuality" in the second half of the 19th century, it attempts to show a series of continuities and discontinuities between this kind of reasoning and the birth of psychoanalysis in the first years of the 20th century. The particular focus is therefore directed on two texts: Krafft-Ebing's "Psychopathia Sexualis" and Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality." The argument runs along three intertwined axes: (1) an historico-epistemological analysis of the concepts and their transformations in the field of the science of sexuality; (2) an analysis of the power relationships between patients and physicians; and (3) an account of the psychiatric technologies of the self that have as an effect the emergence of new forms of "objective" knowledge of the subject. The broader goal is to trace a map of the simultaneous and correlate coming into being and transformations both of new forms of objects and of new forms of subjects through the mediation of scientific concepts and techniques.     

Bearing capacity assessment of a 14th century arch bridge in Lecco (Italy)

The article presents the results of an experimental and numerical investigation on Azzone Visconti bridge, a 14th century arch bridge in Lecco (northern Italy). Starting from the historical data and from an extensive mechanical characterization of both the soil constituting the riverbed and of the masonry constituting the piers, the aim of the study is to investigate the bearing capacity of the bridge. A testing loading scheme defined according to the current Italian Code is adopted to check the structural behavior. A simplified finite element structural model was conceived and calibrated as a control tool to safely perform the experimental tests. Post-test nonlinear finite element analyses have allowed the prediction of the bridge bearing capacity and the definition of the bridge class according to the Italian regulations.