Fragility functions constitute an emerging tool for the probabilistic seismic risk assessment of buildings, infrastructures and lifeline systems. The work presented in this book is a partial product of a European Union funded research project SYNER-G (FP7 Theme 6: Environment) where existing knowledge has been reviewed in order to extract the most appropriate fragility functions for the vulnerability analysis and loss estimation of the majority of structures and civil works exposed to earthquake hazard. Results of other relevant European projects and international initiatives are also incorporated in the book. In several cases new fragility and vulnerability functions have been developed in order to better represent the specific characteristics of European elements at risk. Several European and non-European institutes and Universities collaborated efficiently to capitalize upon existing knowledge. State-of-the-art methods are described, existing fragility curves are reviewed and, where necessary, new ones are proposed for buildings, lifelines, transportation infrastructures as well as for utilities and critical facilities. Taxonomy and typology definitions are synthesized and the treatment of related uncertainties is discussed.

A fragility function manager tool and fragility functions in electronic form are provided on extras.springer.com.

Audience

The book aims to be a standard reference on the fragility functions to be used for the seismic vulnerability and probabilistic risk assessment of the most important elements at risk. It is of particular interest to earthquake engineers, scientists and researchers working in the field of earthquake risk assessment, as well as the insurance industry, civil protection and emergency management agencies.

Realistically representing our three-dimensional world has been the subject of many (philosophical) discussions since ancient times. While the recognition of the globular shape of the Earth goes back to Pythagoras' statements of the sixth century B. C. , the two-dimensional, circular depiction of the Earth's surface has remained prevailing and also dominated the art of painting until the late Middle Ages. Given the immature technological means, objects on the Earth's surface were often represented in academic and technical disciplines by two-dimensional cross-sections oriented along combinations of three mutually perpendicular directions. As soon as computer science evolved, scientists have steadily been improving the three-dimensional representation of the Earth and developed techniques to analyze the many natural processes and phenomena taking part on its surface. Both computer aided design (CAD) and geographical information systems (GIS) have been developed in parallel during the last three decades. While the former concentrates more on the detailed design of geometric models of object shapes, the latter emphasizes the topological relationships between geographical objects and analysis of spatial patterns. Nonetheless, this distinction has become increasingly blurred and both approaches have been integrated into commercial software packages. In recent years, an active line of inquiry has emerged along the junctures of CAD and GIS, viz. 3D geoinformation science. Studies along this line have recently made significant inroads in terms of 3D modeling and data acquisition.

This book is devoted to the scientific legacy of Professor Victor Ambartsumian - one of the distinguished scientists of the last century. He obtained very essential results not only in astrophysics, but also in mathematics and theoretical physics. One can recall his fundamental results concerning the Sturm-Liouville inverse problem, quantum field theory, structure of atomic nuclei etc. Nevertheless, his revolutionary ideas in astrophysics and corresponding results are known more widely and have predetermined the further development of this science. The concept about the activity phenomena and objects' evolution, particularly, determination of the age of our Galaxy, ideas about the stars' formation nowadays in stellar associations, the activity of galactic nuclei appeared to be exceptionally fruitful. These directions are being elaborated at many astronomical centers all over the world.

Optical screening of excessive and potentially harmful solar radiation is an important photoprotective mechanism, though it has received much less attention in comparison with other systems preventing photooxidative damage to photoautotrophic organisms. This photoprotection in the form of screening appears to be especially important for juvenile and senescing plants as well as under environmental stresses-i.e. in situations where the efficiency of enzymatic ROS elimination, DNA repair and other classical' photoprotective systems could be impaired. This book represents an attempt to develop an integral view of optical screening-based photoprotection in microalgae and higher plants. Towards this end, the key groups of pigments involved in the screening of ultraviolet and visible components of solar radiation in microalgae and higher plants, and the patterns of their accumulation and distribution within plant cells and tissues, are described. Special attention is paid to the manifestations of screening pigment accumulation in the optical spectra of plants. It is also demonstrated that understanding these effects and their relationships to screening pigments' makeup and spectroscopy in plants provides valuable insights into the state of plants' long-term photoacclimation, as well as ample opportunities for the non-destructive quantification of screening pigments and the assessment of the efficiency of photoprotection providing by these pigments in situ.

Accretionary prisms in convergent margins are natural laboratories for exploring initial orogenic processes and mountain building episodes. They are also an important component of continental growth both vertically and laterally. Accretionary prisms are seismically highly active and their internal deformation via megathrusting and out-of-sequence faulting are a big concern for earthquake and tsunami damage in many coastal cities around the Pacific Rim. The geometries and structures of modern accretionary prisms have been well imaged seismically and through deep drilling projects of the Ocean Drilling Program (and recently IODP) during the last 15 years. Better understanding of the spatial distribution and temporal progression of accretionary prism deformation, structural and hydrologic evolution of the decollement zone (tectonic interface between the subducting slab and the upper plate), chemical gradients and fluid flow paths within accretionary prisms, contrasting stratigraphic and deformational framework along-strike in accretionary prisms, and the distribution and ecosystems of biological communities in accretionary prism settings is most important in interpreting the evolution of ancient complex sedimentary terrains and orogenic belts in terms of subduction-related processes. This book is a collection of interdisciplinary papers documenting the geological, geophysical, geochemical, and paleontological features of modern accretionay prisms and trenches in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, based on many submersible dive cruises, ODP drilling projects, and geophysical surveys during the last 10 years. It also includes several papers presenting the results of systematic integrated studies of recent to ancient on-land accretionary prisms in comparison to modern analogues. The individual chapters are data and image rich, providing a major resource of information and knowledge from these critical components of convergent margins for researchers, faculty members, and graduate and undergraduate students. As such, the book will be a major and unique contribution in the broad fields of global tectonics, geodynamics, marine geology and geophysics, and structural geology and sedimentology.

This book serves as an introduction to the continuum mechanics and mathematical modeling of complex fluids in living systems. The form and function of living systems are intimately tied to the nature of surrounding fluid environments, which commonly exhibit nonlinear and history dependent responses to forces and displacements. With ever-increasing capabilities in the visualization and manipulation of biological systems, research on the fundamental phenomena, models, measurements, and analysis of complex fluids has taken a number of exciting directions. In this book, many of the world's foremost experts explore key topics such as: Macro- and micro-rheological techniques for measuring the material properties of complex biofluids and the subtleties of data interpretation Experimental observations and rheology of complex biological materials, including mucus, cell membranes, the cytoskeleton, and blood The motility of microorganisms in complex fluids and the dynamics of active suspensions Challenges and solutions in the numerical simulation of biologically relevant complex fluid flows This volume will be accessible to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in engineering, mathematics, biology, and the physical sciences, but will appeal to anyone interested in the intricate and beautiful nature of complex fluids in the context of living systems.

This volume is the updated and extended translation of the Russian original. It presents the results of observations of solar activity and its effects in the Earth space environment carried out from July 2001 to December 2005 on board the CORONAS-F space mission. The general characteristics of the CORONAS-F scientific payload are provided with a description of the principal experiments. The main results focus on the global oscillations of the Sun (p-modes), solar corona, solar flares, solar cosmic rays, Earth s radiation belts, and upper atmosphere. The book will be welcomed by students, post-graduates, and scientists working in the field of solar and solar-terrestrial physics.

This English edition is supplemented by sections presenting new results of the SPIRIT and TESIS experiments under the CORONAS solar program, as well as from the SONG experiment onboard the CORONAS-F satellite.

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Geophysics operations in archaeology have become well known through exposure on television. However, the technique is presented as the action of specialists and something of a mystery, where people walk about with strange contraptions, and results appear from a computer. This is not the case, however. Some scientific knowledge is needed in order to understand how the machines work and what they detect but otherwise it is only necessary to know how to handle the instruments, how to survey a field and how to interpret the computer results. This book provides all the relevant information. It explains geophysics operations in archaeology, describes the science that gives the soil properties to measure and the means by which the instruments make their measurements.

Dr John Oswin is in charge of the geophysics operation of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society and his work has recently been the subject of a television programme. He has taught many students how to use geophysical equipment.

Fulleranes are a special class of carbon molecules derived from fullerenes whose double bonds are partially or at least theoretically fully saturated by hydrogen. The hydrogenation changes the chemical properties of fullerenes which can become susceptible to substitution reactions as opposed to addition reactions to the double bonds (present in common fullerenes). One of the most intriguing aspects of fulleranes is the fact that they have been thought to exist in the interstellar medium or even in certain circumstellar media.

"Fulleranes: The Hydrogenated Fullerenes" presents the state of the art research, synthesis and properties of these molecules.This book also includes astrophysicists' and astrochemists' expectations regarding the presence of these molecules in space.

The book covers multi-disciplinary topics in observational, computational and applied geophysics in aspects of solid earth system. The authors provide an up-to-date overview for methods and techniques in seismology, with a focus on fault structure, strong ground motion and earthquake forecast based on full-3D earth structure models. Abundant of case studies make it a practical reference for researchers in seismology and applied geophysics.

This book discusses the state of the art of the basic theoretical and observational topics related to black hole astrophysics. It covers all the main topics in this wide field, from the theory of accretion disks and formation mechanisms of jet and outflows, to their observed electromagnetic spectrum, and attempts to measure the spin of these objects. Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity and are currently a very hot topic in both physics and astrophysics. In the last five years there have been significant advances in our understanding of these systems, and in the next five years it should become possible to use them to test fundamental physics, in particular to predict the general relativity in the strong field regime. The book is both a reference work for researchers and a textbook for graduate students.

This PhD thesis details the development of a new 1D ionospheric model to describe the upper atmospheres of extrasolar giant plants. The upper atmospheres of Hot Jupiters are subject to extreme radiation conditions that can result in rapid atmospheric escape. The composition and structure of these planets' upper atmospheres are affected by high-energy emissions from the host star. The nature of these emissions depends on the stellar type and age, making them important factors in understanding the behaviour of exoplanetary atmospheres.

Targeting advanced students of astronomy and physics, as well as astronomers and physicists contemplating research on supernovae or related fields, David Branch and J. Craig Wheeler offer a modern account of the nature, causes and consequences of supernovae, as well as of issues that remain to be resolved. Owing especially to (1) the appearance of supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, (2) the spectacularly successful use of supernovae as distance indicators for cosmology, (3) the association of some supernovae with the enigmatic cosmic gamma-ray bursts, and (4) the discovery of a class of superluminous supernovae, the pace of supernova research has been increasing sharply. This monograph serves as a broad survey of modern supernova research and a guide to the current literature. The book's emphasis is on the explosive phases of supernovae. Part 1 is devoted to a survey of the kinds of observations that inform us about supernovae, some basic interpretations of such data, and an overview of the evolution of stars that brings them to an explosive endpoint. Part 2 goes into more detail on core-collapse and superluminous events: which kinds of stars produce them, and how do they do it? Part 3 is concerned with the stellar progenitors and explosion mechanisms of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae. Part 4 is about consequences of supernovae and some applications to astrophysics and cosmology. References are provided in sufficient number to help the reader enter the literature.

"Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics" merges two long-running serials--"Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics" and "Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy." This series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.
This monograph summarizes the authors' knowledge and experience acquired over many years in their work on computational charged particle optics. Its main message is that even in this era of powerful computers with a multitude of general-purpose and problem-oriented programs, asymptotic analysis based on perturbation theory remains one of the most effective tools to penetrate deeply into the essence of the problem in question.

Have you ever wondered what could happen when we discover another communicating species outside the Earth? This book addresses this question in all its complexity. In addition to the physical barriers for communication, such as the enormous distances where a message can take centuries to reach its recipient, the book also examines the biological problems of communicating between species, the problems of identifying a non-Terrestrial intelligence, and the ethical, religious, legal and other problems of conducting discussions across light years. Most of the book is concerned with issues that could impinge on your life: how do we share experiences with ETI? Can we make shared laws? Could we trade? Would they have religion? The book addresses these and related issues, identifying potential barriers to communication and suggesting ways we can overcome them. The book explores this topic through reference to human experience, through analogy and thought experiment, while relying on what is known to-date about ourselves, our world, and the cosmos we live in.

Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics merges two long-running serials--Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. This series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.

Updated with contributions from leading international scholars and industry experts
Discusses hot topic areas and presents current and future research trends
Provides an invaluable reference and guide for physicists, engineers and mathematicians

This book is a very simple introduction for those who would like to learn about the particle accelerators or 'atom-smashers' used in hospitals, industry and large research institutes where physicists probe deep into the nature of matter itself. The reader with a basic knowledge of mathematics and physics will discover a wide spectrum of technologies.

This monograph describes metabolic and transport reactions of muscle cells using the laws of chemical thermodynamics. In particular, the thermodynamics of irreversible processes are used to formulate coupled reactions and their outcome on steady state cycling. The effects of ATP cycling on energy metabolism and heat production is described. The results of mathematical simulations of metabolism are used to underline theoretical approaches.

Accretion flows, winds and jets of compact astrophysical objects and stars are generally described within the framework of hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) flows. Analytical analysis of the problem provides profound physical insights, which are essential for interpreting and understanding the results of numerical simulations. Providing such a physical understanding of MHD Flows in Compact Astrophysical Objects is the main goal of this book, which is an updated translation of a successful Russian graduate textbook. The book provides the first detailed introduction into the method of the Grad-Shafranov equation, describing analytically the very broad class of hydrodynamical and MHD flows. It starts with the classical examples of hydrodynamical accretion onto relativistic and nonrelativistic objects. The force-free limit of the Grad-Shafranov equation allows us to analyze in detail the physics of the magnetospheres of radio pulsars and black holes, including the Blandford-Znajek process of energy extraction from a rotating black hole immersed in an external magnetic field. Finally, on the basis of the full MHD version of the Grad-Shafranov equation the author discusses the problems of jet collimation and particle acceleration in Active Galactic Nuclei, radio pulsars, and Young Stellar Objects. The comparison of the analytical results with numerical simulations demonstrates their good agreement. Assuming that the reader is familiar with the basic physical and mathematical concepts of General Relativity, the author uses the 3+1 split approach which allows the formulation of all results in terms of physically clear language of three dimensional vectors. The book contains detailed derivations of equations, numerous exercises, and an extensive bibliography. It therefore serves as both an introductory text for graduate students and a valuable reference work for researchers in the field.

Materials science is the prime example of an interdisciplinary science. It - compasses the ?elds of physics, chemistry, material science, electrical en- neering, chemical engineering and other disciplines. Success has been o- standing. World-class accomplishments in materials have been recognized by NobelprizesinPhysicsandChemistryandgivenrisetoentirelynewtechno- gies. Materials science advances have underpinned the technology revolution that has driven societal changes for the last ?fty years. Obviouslytheendisnotinsight!Futuretechnology-basedproblemsd- inatethecurrentscene.Highonthelistarecontrolandconservationofenergy and environment, water purity and availability, and propagating the inf- mation revolution. All fall in the technology domain. In every case proposed solutions begin with new forms of materials, materials processing or new arti?cial material structures. Scientists seek new forms of photovoltaics with greater e?ciency and lower cost. Water purity may be solved through surface control, which promises new desalination processes at lower energy and lower cost. Revolutionary concepts to extend the information revolution reside in controlling the "spin" of electrons or enabling quantum states as in quantum computing. Ion-beam experts make substantial contributions to all of these burgeoning sciences.

This book describes the fabrication of a frequency-based electronic tongue using a modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE), opening a new field of applying organic precursors to achieve nanostructure growth. It also presents a new approach to optimizing nanostructures by means of statistical analysis. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method was utilized to grow vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with various aspect ratios. To increase the graphitic ratio of synthesized CNTs, sequential experimental strategies based on response surface methodology were employed to investigate the crystallinity of CNTs. In the next step, glucose oxidase (GOx) was immobilized on the optimized multiwall carbon nanotubes/gelatin (MWCNTs/Gl) composite using the entrapment technique to achieve enzyme-catalyzed oxidation of glucose at anodic potentials, which was drop-casted onto the GCE. The modified GCE's performance indicates that a GOx/MWCNTs/Gl/GC electrode can be utilized as a glucose biosensor with a high direct electron transfer rate between GOx and MWCNTs/Gl. It was possible to use the fabricated biosensor as an electronic tongue thanks to a frequency-based circuit attached to the electrochemical cell. The results indicate that the modified GCE (with GOx/MWCNTs/Gl) holds promising potential for application in voltammetric electronic tongues.

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915, made a remarkable prediction: gravitational radiation. Just like light (electromagnetic radiation), gravity could travel through space as a wave and affect any objects it encounters by alternately compressing and expanding them. However, there was a problem. The force of gravity is around a trillion, trillion, trillion times weaker than electromagnetism so the calculated compressions and expansions were incredibly small, even for gravity waves resulting from a catastrophic astrophysical event such as a supernova explosion in our own galaxy. Discouraged by this result, physicists and astronomers didn't even try to detect these tiny, tiny effects for over 50 years. Then, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, two events occurred which started the hunt for gravity waves in earnest. The first was a report of direct detection of gravity waves thousands of times stronger than even the most optimistic calculation. Though ultimately proved wrong, this result started scientists thinking about what instrumentation might be necessary to detect these waves. The second was an actual, though indirect, detection of gravitational radiation due to the effects it had on the period of rotation of two 'neutron stars' orbiting each other. In this case, the observations were in exact accord with predictions from Einstein's theory, which confirmed that a direct search might ultimately be successful. Nevertheless, it took another 40 years of development of successively more sensitive detectors before the first real direct effects were observed in 2015, 100 years after gravitational waves were first predicted. This is the story of that hunt, and the insight it is producing into an array of topics in modern science, from the creation of the chemical elements to insights into the properties of gravity itself.

In 1988, in an article on the analysis of the measurements of the variations in the radial velocities of a number of stars, Campbell, Walker, and Yang reported an - teresting phenomenon;the radial velocity variations of Cephei seemed to suggest the existence of a Jupiter-like planet around this star. This was a very exciting and, at the same time, very surprising discovery. It was exciting because if true, it would have marked the detection of the ?rst planet outside of our solar system. It was surprising because the planet-hosting star is the primary of a binary system with a separation less than 19 AU, a distance comparable to the planetary distances in our solar system. The moderatelyclose orbit of the stellar companionof Cephei raised questions about the reality of its planet. The skepticism over the interpretation of the results (which was primarily based on the idea that binary star systems with small sepa- tions would not be favorable places for planet formation) became so strong that in a subsequent paper in 1992, Walker and his colleagues suggested that the planet in the Cephei binary might not be real, and the variations in the radial velocity of this star might have been due to its chromospheric activities.