• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.91-118
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• 2017

Purpose The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of social capitals on organizational knowledge sharing characteristics and individual innovation activities in community of practice (CoP) of manufacturing company. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, we divide social capitals as three dimensions, i.e. structural, relational, and cognitive dimension. Structural dimension also consists of closure and Brokerage. Relational social capital is defined as trust about colleagues, superior authorities, and organization. Then, cognitive social capital is defined as a shared understanding among individuals, such as a shared language and codes within CoP. Knowledge Sharing is defined as quantity and quality of shared knowledge. We also defines the cause and effect relationships among social capitals, organizational knowledge sharing characteristics, and individual innovation activities in CoP of manufacturing company as follows. The social capitals will have positive effects on quality of shared knowledge. Then the quality of shared knowledge will have positive effects on the individual innovation activities. This paper tested the validity of these hypothesized casual effects and the sub-hypothesized causal relationships. For the purpose, we used the Partial Least Squares (PLS) for analyzing the causal relationships. Findings Our empirical results show that social capitals of CoP mostly have effects on organizational knowledge sharing characteristics (quantity and quality of shared knowledge) and knowledge sharing activities also have effects on individual innovative activities in the workplace. In this study, these result have a significant implication that a private company will be able to gain organizational innovative performance much better by strengthening CoP supporting activities.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.181-194
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• 2012

Chile is characterized by the largest seismicity in the world which produces strong earthquakes every $83{\pm}9years$ in the Central part of Chile, where it is located Santiago, the capital of Chile. The short interval between large earthquakes magnitude 8.5 has conditioned the Chilean seismic design practice to achieve almost operational performance level, despite the fact that the Chilean Code declares a scope of life safe performance level. Several Indexes have been widely used throughout the years in Chile to evaluate the structural characteristics of concrete buildings, with the intent to find a correlation between general structural conception and successful seismic performance. The Indexes presented are related only to global response of buildings under earthquake loads and not to the behavior or design of individual elements. A correlation between displacement demand and seismic structural damage is presented, using the index $H_o/T$ and the concrete compressive strain ${\varepsilon}_c$. Also the Chilean seismic design codes pre and post 2010 Maule earthquake are reviewed and the practice in seismic design vs Performance Based Design is presented. Performance Based Design procedures are not included in the Chilean seismic design code for buildings, nevertheless the earthquake experience has shown that the response of the Chilean buildings has been close to operational. This can be attributed to the fact that the drift of most engineered buildings designed in accordance with the Chilean practice falls below 0.5%. It is also known by experience that for frequent and even occasional earthquakes, buildings responded elastically and thus with "fully operational" performance. Taking the above into account, it can be said that, although the "basic objective" of the Chilean code is similar to the SEAOC VISION2000 criteria, the actual performance for normal buildings is closer to the "Essential/Hazardous objective".

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.233-247
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• 2006

Most codes of practice state that for large in-plane structures it is necessary to account for the spatial variability of earthquake ground motion. There are essentially three effects that contribute for this variation: (i) wave passage effect, due to finite propagation velocity; (ii) incoherence effect, due to differences in superposition of waves; and (iii) the local site amplification due to spatial variation in geological conditions. This paper discusses the procedures to be undertaken in the time domain analysis of a cable-stayed bridge under spatial variability of earthquake ground motion. The artificial synthesis of correlated displacements series that simulate the earthquake load is discussed first. Next, it is described the 3D model of the International Guadiana Bridge used for running tests with seismic analysis. A comparison of the effects produced by seismic waves with different apparent propagation velocities and different geological conditions is undertaken. The results in this study show that the differences between the analysis with and without spatial variability of earthquake ground motion can be important for some displacements and internal forces, especially those influenced by symmetric modes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.771-786
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• 2009

In the past few decades, effects of natural hazards, such as earthquakes and wind, on existing structures have attracted the attention of researchers and designers. More recently, however, the phenomenon of progressive collapse is becoming more recognized in the field of structural engineering. In practice, the phenomenon can result from a number of abnormal loading events, such as bomb explosions, car bombs, accidental fires, accidental blast loadings, natural hazards, faulty design and construction practices, and premeditated terrorist acts. Progressive collapse can result not only in disproportionate structural failure, but also disproportionate loss of life and injuries. This paper provides an up-to-date comprehensive review of this phenomenon and its momentousness in structural engineering communities. The literature reveals that although the phenomenon of progressive collapse of buildings is receiving considerable attention in the professional engineering community, more research work is still needed in this field to develop a new methodology for efficient and inexpensive design to better protect buildings against progressive collapse.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.137-149
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• 2013

The first part of this two-part paper discussed some basic considerations on bond strength and its effect on strain localization and plastic deformation capacity of cracked structural concrete, and analytically evaluated the impacts of the hardening behavior of reinforcing steel and concrete quality on the basis of the Tension Chord Model. This second part assesses the impacts of the most frequently encountered construction details of existing concrete structures which may not satisfy current design code requirements: bar ribbing, bar spacing, and concrete cover thickness. It further evaluates the impacts of the additional structure-specific features bar diameter and crack spacing. It concludes with some considerations on the application of the findings in practice and an outlook on future research needs.

• ALGAE
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.349-375
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• 2006

The application of modern ecological, ultrastructural and molecular methods, aided by the cultivation of numerous cyanobacterial morphotypes, has substantially changed our knowledge of these organisms. It has led to major advances in cyanobacterial taxonomy and criteria for their phylogenetic classification. Molecular data provide basic criteria for cyanobacterial taxonomy; however, a correct phylogenetic system cannot be constructed without combining genetic data with knowledge from the previous 150 years research of cyanobacterial diversity. Thus, studies of morphological variation in nature, and modern morphological, ultrastructural, ecophysiological and biochemical characters need to be combined in a “polyphasic” approach. Taxonomic concepts for generic and infrageneric ranks are re-evaluated in light of combined phenotypic and molecular criteria. Despite their usefulness in experimental studies, the limitations of using strains from culture collections for systematic and nomenclatural purposes is highlighted. The need for a continual revision of strain identification and proper nomenclatural practice associated with either the bacteriological or botanical codes is emphasized. Recent advances in taxonomy are highlighted in the context of prospects for understanding cyanobacterial diversity from natural habitats, and the evolutionary and adaptational processes that cyanobacteria undergo.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.527-538
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• 2012

In seismic analyses of structures, additional eccentricity is introduced to take account for oscillations of random and unknown origins. In many codes of practice, the torsion about the vertical axis is considered through empirical accidental eccentricity formulation. Due to the random nature of structural systems, it is very difficult to evaluate the accidental eccentricity in a deterministic way and to specify its effect on the overall seismic response of structures. The aim of this study is to develop a procedure for the evaluation of the accidental eccentricity induced by uncertainties in stiffness and mass of structural members, using the neural network techniques coupled with Monte Carlo simulations. This method gives very interesting results for single story structures. For real structures, this method can be used as a tool to determine the accidental eccentricity in the seismic vulnerability studies of buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.297-312
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• 2001

The accurate finite element (FE) simulation of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs, having different boundary conditions and subjected to uniformly distributed loading, has led to the use of the developed FE models for generating results of ultimate loads from predictions of 'computer-model' RC slabs having different material and geometric properties. Equations derived from these results constitute the primary database of an intelligent computer-aided-design (CAD) system developed for accurate and fast information retrieval on arbitrary slabs. The system is capable of generating a secondary database through systems of interpolation and can be used for design assistance purposes.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.297-304
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• 1999

the devastating earthquake which occurred in Turkey on August 187, 1999, reminds again us the necessity of the preparedness for the earthquake hazard. the level of earthquake engineering in Koran is still low due to the short period of the research and development in this field. Therefore the most efficient way of promoting our technology in this field is considered to collect the information on the state of the art and practice developed in the advanced countries in earthquake engineering and to analyze the advantages and disadvantages and then reflect these to the new seismic codes. for this purpose this study reviews the concept and main characteristics of Eurocode 8 and the findings of many researches that have been performed for the improvement of EC8. Finally the seismic performance evaluation of the building structures designed according to EC8. and the relevant recommendations are summarized.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.217-233
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• 2019

This paper describes the numerical modelling of an interior slab-column connection to investigate the punching shear resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs under fire conditions. Parameters of the study were the fire direction, flexural reinforcement ratio, load levels, shear reinforcement and compressive strength of concrete. Moreover, the efficiency of the insulating material, gypsum, in reducing the heat transferred to the slab was assessed. Validation studies were conducted comparing the simulation results to experiments from the literature and common codes of practice. Temperature dependencies of both concrete and reinforcing steel bars were considered in thermo-mechanical analyses. Results showed that there is a slight difference in temperature endurance of various models with respect to concrete with different compressive strengths. It was also concluded that compared to a slab without gypsum, 10-mm and 20-mm thick gypsum reduce the maximum heat transferred to the slab by 45.8% and 70%, respectively. Finally, it was observed that increasing the flexural reinforcement ratio changes the failure mode from flexural punching to brittle punching in most cases.