Resilience metrics for transport networks: a review and practical examples for bridges

Climate change, diverse geohazards and structural deterioration pose major challenges in planning, maintenance and emergency response for transport infrastructure operators. Hence, to manage these risks and adapt to changing conditions, well-informed resilience assessment and decision-making tools are required. These tools are commonly associated with resilience metrics, which quantify the capacity of transport networks to withstand and absorb damage, recover after a disruption and adapt to future changes. Several resilience metrics have been proposed in the literature, however, there is lack of practical applications and worked examples. This paper attempts to fill this gap and provide engineers and novice researchers with a review of available metrics on the basis of the main properties of resilience, i.e. robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity. The main steps of resilience assessment for transport infrastructure such as bridges are discussed and the use of fragility and restoration functions to assess the robustness and rapidity of recovery is demonstrated. Practical examples are provided using a bridge exposed to scour effects as a benchmark. Also, an illustrative example of a systems of assets is provided and different aspects of resilience-based decision making are discussed, aiming to provide a comprehensive, yet straightforward, understanding of resilience.

A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Self Instructional Module on Knowledge Regarding Prevention of Osteoporosis Among the Middle Aged Women in Selected Hospital, Bangalore

Bone is living, growing tissue. It is made mostly of collagen, a protein that provides a soft framework, and calcium phosphate, a mineral that adds strength and hardens the framework. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bone both flexible and strong, which in turn helps bone to withstand stress.1 More than 99 percent of the body’s calcium is contained in the bones and teeth. The remaining 1 percent is found in the blood. Throughout one’s lifetime, old bone is removed (resorption) and new bone is added to the skeleton (formation). During childhood and teenage years, new bone is added faster than old bone is removed. As a result, bones become larger, heavier, and denser. Bone formation outpaces resorption until peak bone mass (maximum bone density and strength) is reached around age 30. After that time, bone resorption slowly begins to exceed bone formation. For women, bone loss is fastest in the first few years after menopause, and it continues into the postmenopausal years. Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures of the hip, spine, and wrist. Osteoporosis is more likely to develop if you did not reach optimal peak bone mass during your bone-building years. Women are at a greater risk than men, especially women who are thin or have a small frame, as are those of advanced age. Women who are postmenopausal, including those who have had early or surgically induced menopause, or abnormal or absence of menstrual periods, are at greater risk. Cigarette smoking, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, low amounts of calcium in the diet, heavy alcohol consumption, inactive lifestyle, and use of certain medications, such as corticosteroids and anticonvulsants, are also risk factors for osteoporopsis.2 The underlying mechanism in all cases of osteoporosis is an imbalance between bone resorption and bone formation. In normal bone, matrix remodeling of bone is constant; up to 10% of all bone mass may be undergoing remodeling at any point in time. The process takes place in bone multicellular units (BMUs) as first described by Frost & Thomas in 1963. Osteoclasts are assisted by transcription factor PU.1 to degrade the bone matrix, while osteoblasts rebuild the bone matrix. Low bone mass density can then occur when osteoclasts are degrading the bone matrix faster than the osteoblasts are rebuilding the bone. The three main mechanisms by which osteoporosis develops are an inadequate peak bone mass (the skeleton develops insufficient mass and strength during growth), excessive bone resorption, and inadequate formation of new bone during remodeling. An interplay of these three mechanisms underlies the development of fragile bone tissue. Hormonal factors strongly determine the rate of bone resorption; lack of estrogen (e.g. as a result of menopause) increases bone resorption, as well as decreasing the deposition of new bone that normally takes place in weight-bearing bones.this leads to weakening and softening of bones the bones become soft and it will prone to get fracture or collapse.

Probabilistic Long-Term Resilience of Bridges under Seismic and Deterioration Processes

Accurate long-term risk and resilience assessment of bridges are of paramount importance to aid rational decision-making under seismic hazards. There exist time-varying features within both earthquakes and structural deterioration. It has been found that the occurrence of large earthquakes is dependent on time due to energy accumulation, whereas the widely adopted homogeneous Poisson process assumes the time-independent occurrence of hazards. Besides, bridges can deteriorate over time due to environmental exposure, resulting in increased seismic vulnerability. The time-varying characteristics associated with both earthquakes and deterioration, which cause compound effects to structures, should be incorporated in long-term seismic risk and resilience assessment. In this paper, an approach for assessing the long-term resilience of bridges incorporating time-varying characteristics of earthquakes and deterioration is proposed. The Brownian Passage Time (BPT) model capturing energy accumulation and release is used to model time-varying characteristics of earthquakes. The bridge seismic vulnerability is computed in a time-variant manner considering deterioration. Subsequently, long-term bridge resilience is computed by considering earthquakes and deterioration occurring during the entire service life of bridges. The proposed approach is illustrated on a highway bridge under time-dependent seismic hazard and structural deterioration.

High Circulating Sclerostin Level as Osteoporosis Risk Factor in Male Geriatric Population at Sanglah Hospital Bali

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility. The development of biomolecular world found Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway may plays an important role in bone mass regulation. Osteoporosis in geriatric population remains one of global health problems and typically thought of as a disease impacting women, but recently increasing attention is being paid to osteoporosis in males. Osteoporosis in male accounts for higher morbidity and mortality compare to woman population. The association between sclerostin serum and risk for osteoporosis in male geriatric will be described as follows. METHODS: This study is a case–control study with a total 54 samples of male geriatrics, divided into 27 non- osteoporosis subjects and 27 osteoporosis subjects (age ≥60 years old). Diagnosis of osteoporosis was defined according to the WHO criteria based on bone mineral density. All participants were scanned on a GE lunar prodigy bone densitometer. Sclerostin serum level was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The average age from total 54 samples in case group was 69.81 ± 6.5 years old and control 69.41 ± 5.97 years old. Cutoff value based on receiver operating characteristic curve for sclerostin serum level was 302.5 pg/mL where the sensitivity and specificity for developing osteoporosis in male geriatrics were 59.3% and 81.5%, respectively. Male geriatrics with sclerostin serum ≥302.5 pg/mL is 6.4 times more likely to developed osteoporosis than those with sclerostin serum <302.5 pg/mL (OR = 6.4; p = 0.0020; CI 95% = 1.856–22.068). Multivariate logistic regression analysis after controlling other variables such as bone mass index, age, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sun exposure, and type II diabetes mellitus showed that high sclerostin level was an independent susceptibility factors for osteoporosis in male geriatrics population (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that high circulating sclerostin serum (≥302.5 pg/mL) was risk factor for developing osteoporosis in male geriatrics.

Knowledge Level on Soil Health Management among Soil Health Card Holders of Namakkal District, India

Aims: Soil structural deterioration and degradation is a major concern in the present-day agriculture scenario. Poor soil health directly affects the health of the plant and its productivity; indirectly the health of human beings as well as animals. So, scientific knowledge of soil management on the part of the farmer-producers is necessary. So, the main aim of the study is to identify the knowledge level on soil health management among the soil health card holders. Study Design: Ex-post facto research. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in the Namakkal district of Tamilnadu during the months of July-August 2021. All the selected respondents were the holders of soil health card as it contains physical and chemical characteristics of soil, they have a working knowledge of research problem and were able to provide responses. Methodology: Data were collected by using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire through a face-to-face interview method. The sample size is 120 selected from four blocks of Namakkal district. The statistical analysis applied were frequency distribution, percentage analysis, mean, and standard deviation. Results: The study shows that more than half of the soil health card holders (55.83 percent) had an overall high level of knowledge about soil health management practices. Conclusion: The soil health card scheme was brought to bring improvement of soil health in the long run by farmers all over the country. Thus, the knowledge of soil health management practices including modern technology can be disseminated to a greater extent for the benefit of the farmers including non-holders of soil health cards through formal and informal meetings and training.

Surgical explantation of a failed transcatheter aortic valve

With transcatheter aortic valve replacement being increasingly utilized in a younger and lower risk population, we can expect to see larger numbers of patients presenting with structural deterioration of aortic valves replaced by the transcatheter route that now require explantation and surgical replacement. Surgical aortic valve replacement after transcatheter aortic valve replacement is associated with operative morbidity and mortality rates significantly higher than those seen in the setting of surgical replacement of the native valve, which had a 30-day mortality of 12–20% in recent series. Centers performing transcatheter aortic valve replacement in lower risk patients with longer expected lifespans and a higher probability of late structural deterioration of the transcatheter aortic valve replacement should carefully consider their choice of valve type (balloon-expandable versus self-expanding) and patient anatomy, including annulus and root diameter, at the time of the initial valve intervention. Further, one should not forget the mechanical surgical aortic valve replacement option in younger patients with risk factors for early structural valve deterioration such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and chronic kidney disease. The objectives of this tutorial are to describe the preoperative workup for a patient with late structural valve deterioration after transcatheter aortic valve replacement, detail the explantation approach specific to self-expanding valves, and illustrate the key decisions and techniques needed for subsequent surgical aortic valve replacement.

Transcriptome-Guided Insights Into Plastic Degradation by the Marine Bacterium

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a common single-use plastic that accumulated in the environment because of its non-degradable characteristics. In recent years, microbes from different environments were found to degrade plastics and suggested their capability to degrade plastics under varying environmental conditions. However, complete degradation of plastics is still a void for large-scale implications using microbes because of the lack of knowledge about genes and pathways intricate in the biodegradation process. In the present study, the growth and adherence of marine Bacillus species AIIW2 on PET surface instigating structural deterioration were confirmed through weight loss and hydrophobicity reduction, as well as analyzing the change in bond indexes. The genome-wide comparative transcriptomic analysis of strain AIIW2 was completed to reveal the genes during PET utilization. The expression level of mRNA in the strain AIIW2 was indexed based on the log-fold change between the presence and absence of PET in the culture medium. The genes represent carbon metabolism, and the cell transport system was up-regulated in cells growing with PET, whereas sporulation genes expressed highly in the absence of PET. This indicates that the strain AIIW2 hydrolyzes PET and assimilated via cellular carbon metabolism. A protein–protein interaction network was built to obtain the interaction between genes during PET utilization. The genes traced to degrade PET were confirmed by detecting the hydrolytic product of PET, and genes were cloned to improve PET utilization by microbial system as an eco-friendly solution.

Heritage Management: Analytical Study of Tourism Impacts on the Archaeological Site of Umm Qais—Jordan

The archaeological site of Umm Qais is a popular tourist destination for both local and foreign tourists who come to appreciate the site’s archaeological history, scenic landscape, and panoramic perspective. The site was the focus of tourism planning, which included the construction of amenities and infrastructure, the creation of tourist circuits, and archaeological management. This development was linked to a rise in visitor numbers as well as the provision of a high level of service, such as parking, tickets, kiosks, restaurants, and cafés, to welcome visitors. The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of on-site tourist services and infrastructures, as well as those of visitors, and their geographical and temporal scope on the site. The study used a qualitative approach based on case study fieldwork as a research method to achieve this goal. Personal observation, interviews with site-related stakeholders, and a checklist were used to collect data during the fieldwork. Both tourism infrastructure and visitors were proven to have a detrimental influence on tourist attractions. The site’s aesthetic pollution and structural deterioration were caused by tourism services and infrastructure. Graffiti, vandalism, and trash left by visitors exerted strong negative impacts. Furthermore, spatial and temporal negative impacts were determined by the patterns of seasonal movement of visitors and the location of infrastructure. Thus, most of the impacts were concentrated in a small portion of the site, among the western theater, the panoramic view, and the traditional Ottoman village. This research sheds light on these challenges and makes recommendations in the areas of heritage management, tourism, and visitor impact management that may be of interest to on-the-ground decision makers as well as academics.

Artificial Intelligence Based Structural Assessment for Regional Short- and Medium-Span Concrete Beam Bridges with Inspection Information

The functional and structural characteristics of civil engineering works, in particular bridges, influence the performance of transport infrastructure. Remote sensing technology and other advanced technologies could help bridge managers review structural conditions and deteriorations through bridge inspection. This paper proposes an artificial intelligence-based methodology to solve the condition assessment of regional bridges and optimize their maintenance schemes. It includes data integration, condition assessment, and maintenance optimization. Data from bridge inspection reports is the main source of this data-driven approach, which could provide a substantial amount og condition-related information to reveal the time-variant bridge condition deterioration and effect of maintenance behaviors. The regional bridge condition deterioration model is established by neural networks, and the impact of the maintenance scheme on the future condition of bridges is quantified. Given the need to manage limited resources and ensure safety and functionality, adequate maintenance schemes for regional bridges are optimized with genetic algorithms. The proposed data-driven methodology is applied to real regional highway bridges. The regional inspection information is obtained with the help of emerging technologies. The established structural deterioration models achieve up to 85% prediction accuracy. The obtained optimal maintenance schemes could be chosen according to actual structural conditions, maintenance requirements, and total budget. Data-driven decision support can substantially aid in smart and efficient maintenance planning of road bridges.