• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2017

This paper summarizes the structural concept and design of the "Nakanoshima Festival Tower West" in Osaka, Japan, which is 200m high and has a super-high damping system. Its superstructure is mainly composed of a central core and outer tube frames. It has a bottom truss structure at the boundary between the low-rise and mid-rise sections of the building, where the column arrangement is changed. Besides, the high-rise section of the building has a neck truss structure. These truss structures smoothly transfer the axial forces of the columns and reduce the flexural deformations induced by horizontal loads. Oil dampers with extremely high damping capacity are installed in the rigid walls named the "Big Wall Frames" of the low-rise section. Moreover, many braces and damping devices are well arranged in the center core of each story. The damping effects of these devices ensure that all structural members are remain within the elastic range and that story drifts are within 1/150 in large earthquakes. This super-high damping structure in the low-rise section is named the "Damping Layer". The whole structural system is named the "Super Damping Structure". The whole structural systems enhance the building's safety, comfort and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) under large earthquakes.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2016

Objective: Patients' and parents' expectations are important in orthodontic treatment decision making. The literature generally demonstrates the perceived benefits of orthodontic treatment, but patients' and their parents' concerns about orthodontic treatment have not been investigated comprehensively. The aim of this study was to identify patients' and parents' concerns about orthodontic treatment and compare them according to sex, age, and treatment demand level. Methods: One hundred and eighty-nine children and their parents were interviewed about concerns related to orthodontic treatment. Patients and parents were asked about orthodontic treatment decisions. Answers were recorded as "yes," "no," or "don't know." Chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare concerns between age groups, sexes, and treatment demand levels. Kappa statistics were used to assess agreement between patients and their parents. Results: Concerns about orthodontic treatment were gathered under 10 items as follows: "feeling pain," "the appearance of braces," "being teased," "avoiding smiling," "speech problems," "dietary changes," "problems with transportation," "economic problems," "long treatment duration," and "missing school." There was no statistically significant difference in concerns between the sexes or age groups. Some concern items and treatment demand were inversely related in patients. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate patients' and parents' concerns about orthodontic treatment. Differences between the concerns of patients with different treatment demands imply that children might reject orthodontic treatment because of their concerns. Appropriate consultation of patients addressing their concerns may help reduce anxiety and improve the acceptance of treatment.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2015

The main purpose of this work is to compare different criteria for the seismic strengthening of RC framed buildings in order to find the optimal combinations of these retrofitting techniques. To this end, a numerical investigation is carried out with reference to the town hall of Spilinga (Italy), an RC framed structure with an L-shaped plan built at the beginning of the 1960s. Five structures are considered, derived from the first by incorporating: carbon fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)-wrapping of all columns; base-isolation, with high-damping-laminated-rubber bearings (HDLRBs); added damping, with hysteretic damped braces (HYDBs); FRP-wrapping of the first storey columns combined with base-isolation or added damping. A three-dimensional fibre model of the primary and retrofitted structures is considered; bilinear and trilinear laws idealize, respectively, the behaviour of the HYDB, providing that the buckling be prevented, and the FRP-wrapping, without resistance in compression, while the response of the HDLRB is simulated by using a viscoelastic linear model. The effectiveness of the retrofitting solutions is tested with nonlinear dynamic analyses based on biaxial accelerograms, whose response spectra match those in the Italian seismic code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.521-536
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• 2017

Reinforced concrete core-wall structures with buckling-restrained brace outriggers are interesting systems which have the ability to absorb and dissipate energy during strong earthquakes. Outriggers can change the energy demand in a tall building. In this paper, the energy demand was studied by using the nonlinear time history analysis for the mentioned systems. First, the structures were designed according to the prescriptive codes. In the dynamic analysis, three approaches for the core-wall were investigated: single plastic hinge (SPH), three plastic hinge (TPH) and extended plastic hinge (EPH). For SPH approach, only one plastic hinge is allowed at the core-wall base. For TPH approach, three plastic hinges are allowed, one at the base and two others at the upper levels. For EPH approach, the plasticity can extend anywhere in the wall. The kinetic, elastic strain, inelastic and damping energy demand subjected to forward directivity near-fault and ordinary far-fault earthquakes were studied. In SPH approach for all near-fault and far-fault events, on average, more than 65 percent of inelastic energy is absorbed by buckling-restrained braces in outrigger. While in TPH and EPH approaches, outrigger contribution to inelastic energy demand is reduced. The contribution of outrigger to inelastic energy absorption for the TPH and EPH approaches does not differ significantly. The values are approximately 25 and 30 percent, respectively.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.1191-1214
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• 2015

The Theory of Plastic Mechanism Control (TPMC) has been recently extended to the case of Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBFs) with inverted Y-scheme, i.e., EBFs with vertical links. In this paper a further validation of the design procedure, based on TPMC, is provided by means of Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) pointing out the fulfilment of the design goal, i.e., the development of a pattern of yielding consistent with the collapse mechanism of global type where all the links are yielded and all the beams are yielded at their ends while all the columns and the diagonal braces remain in elastic range with the only exception of the base sections of first storey columns. In particular, a study case is designed according to both TPMC and Eurocode 8 provisions and the corresponding seismic performances are investigated by both push-over and IDA analyses. The results show the different performances obtained in terms of pattern of yielding, maximum interstorey drift, link plastic rotation demand and sharing of the seismic base shear between the moment-resisting part and the bracing part of the structural system. The seismic performance improvement obtained by means of TPMC, compared to Eurocode 8 provisions, is pointed out.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1517-1539
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• 2015

Eccentrically braced frames (EBFs) often use conventional steel with medium yield strength. This system requires structural members with large cross-sections for well seismic behavior, which leads to increased material costs. In eccentrically braced frames with high strength steel combination (HSS-EBFs), links use Q345 steel (specified nominal yield strength 345 MPa), braces use Q345 steel or high strength steel while other structural members use high strength steel (e.g., steel Q460 with the nominal yield strength of 460 MPa or steel Q690 with the nominal yield strength of 690 MPa). For this approach can result in reduced steel consumption and increased economic efficiency. Several finite element models of both HSS-EBFs and EBFs are established in this paper. Nonlinear hysteretic analyses and nonlinear time history analyses are conducted to compare seismic performance and economy of HSS-EBFs versus EBFs. Results indicate that the seismic performance of HSS-EBFs is slightly poorer than that of EBFs under the same design conditions, and HSS-EBFs satisfy seismic design codes and reduce material costs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.519-538
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• 2013

The design optimization of a cold-formed steel portal frame building is considered in this paper. The proposed genetic algorithm (GA) optimizer considers both topology (i.e., frame spacing and pitch) and cross-sectional sizes of the main structural members as the decision variables. Previous GAs in the literature were characterized by poor convergence, including slow progress, that usually results in excessive computation times and/or frequent failure to achieve an optimal or near-optimal solution. This is the main issue addressed in this paper. In an effort to improve the performance of the conventional GA, a niching strategy is presented that is shown to be an effective means of enhancing the dissimilarity of the solutions in each generation of the GA. Thus, population diversity is maintained and premature convergence is reduced significantly. Through benchmark examples, it is shown that the efficient GA proposed generates optimal solutions more consistently. A parametric study was carried out, and the results included. They show significant variation in the optimal topology in terms of pitch and frame spacing for a range of typical column heights. They also show that the optimized design achieved large savings based on the cost of the main structural elements; the inclusion of knee braces at the eaves yield further savings in cost, that are significant.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.515-527
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• 2017

Recently, Friction dampers become popular due to the desirable performance in the energy dissipation of lateral loads. A lot of research which has been conducted on these dampers results in developing friction dampers with low sensitivity to the number of cycles and temperature increases. Friction dampers impose high residual drifts to the buildings because of low post-yield stiffness of the damper which results from increasing lateral displacement and period of buildings. This issue can be more critical under strong aftershocks which results in increasing of structural damages. In this paper, in addition to the assessment of aftershock on steel buildings equipped with friction dampers, methods for controlling residual drifts and decreasing the costs of retrofitting are investigated. Utilizing rigid connections as a lateral dual system and activating lateral stiffness of gravity columns by adding elastic braces are as an example of effective methods investigated in this research. The results of nonlinear time history analyses on the low to medium rise steel frames equipped with friction dampers illustrate a rise in residual drifts as the result of aftershocks. In addition, the results show that different slip loads of friction damper can affect the residual drifts. Furthermore, elastic stories in comparison to rigid connections can reduce residual drifts of buildings in an effective fashion, when most slip loads of friction dampers are considered.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.715-732
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• 2020

High-strength steel composite Y-eccentrically braced frame (Y-HSS-EBF) is a novel structural system. In this study, the spatial substructure hybrid simulation test (SHST) method is used to further study the seismic performance of Y-HSS-EBF. Firstly, based on the cyclic loading tests of two single-story single-span Y-HSS-EBF planar specimens, a finite element model in OpenSees was verified to provide a reference for the numerical substructure analysis model for the later SHST. Then, the SHST was carried out on the OpenFresco test platform. A three-story spatial Y-HSS-EBF model was taken as the prototype, the top story was taken as the experimental substructure, and the remaining two stories were taken as the numerical substructure to be simulated in OpenSees. According to the test results, the validity of the SHST was verified, and the main seismic performance indexes of the SHST model were analyzed. The results show that, the SHST based on the OpenFresco platform has good stability and accuracy, and the results of the SHST agree well with the global numerical model of the structure. Under strong seismic action, the plastic deformation of Y-HSS-EBF mainly occurs in the shear link, and the beam, beam-columns and braces can basically remain in the elastic state, which is conducive to post-earthquake repair.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.263-269
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• 2012

Objective: To evaluate the antimicrobial effect of different frequencies of brushing with fluoride toothpaste on the levels of salivary mutans streptococci and lactobacilli in children undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment. Methods: The study included 22 patients scheduled for fixed orthodontic therapy distributed between 2 groups with different hygiene regimes. All the subjects received identical braces, bands, and brackets bonded with the same material. Stimulated saliva samples were obtained before placement of the appliance and at 6, 12, and 18 weeks during the therapy. Saliva samples were cultured on selective microbial agar for the detection of microorganisms. Results: Salivary mutans streptococci were significantly suppressed throughout the experimental period in the group that brushed 4 times a day as compared to the group that brushed twice a day. Salivary lactobacilli were not significantly affected by the frequency of brushing with 0.32% sodium fluoride (NaF) toothpaste. Conclusions: The use of 0.32% NaF-containing toothpaste more than 3 times a day has effective antimicrobial activity on mutans streptococci but not lactobacilli in the saliva of children with fixed orthodontic appliances.