Story Level Research Articles

Proportional distribution pattern and modal principle of tuned viscous mass dampers for multi-degree-of-freedom structures

A tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) is an inerter-based damper that has been adopted in several high-rise buildings in earthquake-prone Japan recently to protect the structures from seismic-induced vibrations. However, as a TVMD contains a mass element, it adds degrees of freedom to the controlled structure, making the system’s eigenmodes complex. Inspired by the Rayleigh damping matrix, this study proposes a mass-proportionally distributed TVMD (MPD-TVMD) system, which enhances the efficiency of TVMD utilization compared to the previously proposed stiffness-proportionally distributed TVMD (SPD-TVMD) system. It is theoretically proven in this study that when the arrangements of the TVMDs are proportional to the stiffness or mass distribution of the primary structure, the equations of motion of a TVMD controlled shear building can be decomposed into the eigenmodes of the uncontrolled structure. This modal principle allows structural engineers to estimate the response of the controlled structure by understanding the modal characteristics of the uncontrolled system, which is highly beneficial for preliminary design decisions and the retrofitting of existing structures. Furthermore, given that the damping properties at each story level are typically adjusted by the number of dampers installed, it is often unrealistic in practical design to maintain strict proportionality in damper distribution. Through numerical examples, this study demonstrates that TVMD systems with realistic distribution patterns that are slightly different from a strictly proportional distribution can still perform as effectively as strictly proportional systems, providing a comprehensive design basis for the application of inerter-based damper in practical engineering.

Critical Egress Parameters Governing Assisted Evacuation in Hospital Buildings

This paper presents the critical egress parameters that influence emergency evacuation in a typical hospital building. A parametric study of a 20-story hospital building is conducted using a computer model “Pathfinder” to simulate the evacuation efficiency and assess the influencing parameters. The main egress parameters that influence the evacuation efficiency, including the location of stairways, number of stairways, location of the fire, exit width, and number of low-speed occupants are varied. Two scenarios are simulated: one being the regular (practice) evacuation drill and the other is the actual fire drill. The result shows that the location of stairways significantly affects the total evacuation time with the optimal stairway arrangement consisting of one stairway outside the core of the building. Similarly, the story level at which the fire occurs is another key parameter with fires at lower levels being critical to dictating the evacuation time in a hospital building. The total evacuation time when the fire occurs between the third and sixth floor is found to be 170 min which is 36% and 15% higher than fires at the top story levels (15–18th floor) and the intermediate story levels (9–12th floor), respectively.

Large-scale cushion type bare and partially rubber filled mechanical couplers subjected to uniaxial cyclic loading

Large-scale bare mechanical coupler (BMC), and partially rubber-filled mechanical coupler (PFMC) were developed in this study. BMC and PFMC were created to utilize especially at high-performance hybrid post-tensioned rocking wall (HPRW) systems. BMC can couple adjoining HPRWs in the vertical direction as a yielding-type supplemental damper. PFMC can couple HPRWs to the foundation beam and/or adjacent HPRWs at the story level in the horizontal direction. It can function as a supplemental energy absorber with high bearing capacity and adequate lateral strength. Since BMC and PFMC are joined externally to HPRWs, they can be replaced easily after severe seismic excitation. The quasi-static cyclic shear and axial tests were carried out on BMCs and PFMCs to evaluate their hysteretic behaviour and determine their structural properties. The experimental parameters, besides the loading type, were the plate thickness of BMCs and the density of steel sheet layers at rubber blocks of PFMC. The experimental results demonstrated the desired performance of BMCs and PFMCs under cyclic shear and axial actions. BMCs showed high-energy dissipation capability and displacement capacity. PFMCs represented high bearing capacity with sufficient lateral strength and energy dissipation capability. Although there was no Mullin effect on the PFMCs response subjected to cyclic shear loading, it was observed on the response of PFMCS under cyclic axial effect. Monotonic and unidirectional cyclic tests of tension, planar shear, and compression were conducted on the rubber pieces to simulate the rubber blocks at PFMCs, as well. Finite element models of BMCs and PFMCs were developed to grasp comprehensively the hysteretic behaviour. The validated model was established and the modeling techniques were described in detail.

Očetje in sinovi v maturitetnih romanih Konje krast in Figa

The graduation novels Konje krast (Out Stealing Horses) and Figa (Fig) address less common, almost taboo topics in the father-son relationship, such us overcoming child trauma and silence on the loss of a loved one. The study focuses on the following story junctions: the father’s absence, pain as a place of overcoming and exceeding the past, the intertwining of time, the placement of the family story in the social context, and the significance of nature for the main literary characters. Numerous quality similarities at the story level are, at the end, joined by a discussion of the narrative qualities of both novels, which brings a significant difference: Konje krast contains higher narrative quality whereas Figa is a novel of lower quality. In Figa, partial trivialisation at the narrative level involves the (trivial) procedures of simplification, redundancy, monosemicity and a lack of self-referentiality. The consequences of these procedures are unreduced narrativity, linear reporting, and a lack of symbolism and metaphor or aesthetic concentration.

Toward a Narratology of Western Narrative Theatre Dance

ABSTRACT: Dance is barely present in narrative studies. It is generally accepted as a narrative medium, yet lacks a systematic study that addresses its distinctive qualities. This article focuses on generic theoretical issues of dance as a narrative medium and discusses its place within current narratological debates. The first premise suggested here is that among the diferent manifestations of dance, narrative theatre dance is the fullest expression of narrativity, with a narrative essence that the notions of plot and experientiality help defining and grading. Taking the discussion through routes explored for drama, this essay also argues for a narratological model of the analysis of dance narratives on two levels: the story level and the discourse level understood as performance. Another set of considerations concentrate on the semiotic structure of dance, showing how it can be dissected in a productive way for narratological analyses. The essay ends with a discussion on the relevance of context and cultural conventions for the interpretation of dance. Underpinning these reflections are foundational studies of transmedial narratology, widely-used narratological definitions of narrative, and discussions of the narrative nature of drama as well as key texts from the history, philosophy and analysis of dance. Three examples of dance—John Weaver’s ballet The Loves of Mars and Venus (1717), Kenneth MacMillan’s The Invitation (1960), and Leonid Yakobson’s Vestris (1969)—illustrate this theoretical argumentation.

Literary Criticism Based on the Theory of Information Dissemination-The Spiritual Recasting of Cast Swords in Moonlight Chopping

Abstract By reading and analyzing Moonlight Chopping and Cast Swords meticulously, this study reveals the polysemous textual world constituted by these two works, covering the mockery of dystopian realities, the inheritance of the spirit of vengeance, as well as the profound reverence for the essence of life. Web crawler technology is employed to obtain the textual content of Moonlight Chopping and Cast Swords, and the data is pre-processed. A corpus is constructed using a lexical algorithm. The in-depth extraction of thematic linguistic features of the two works is realized by combining Gibbs sampling and EM algorithm to accurately estimate the parameters of the LDA topic model. It is found that Moonlight Chopping and Cast Swords show significant correlation on the story and ideological level, but apparent differences in story focus, expression form and aesthetic style. Specifically, the average sentence length of Moonlight Chopping is only 1.18 units longer than Cast Swords. At the same time, its STTR value is only about 4.3% higher than Cast Swords, indicating that Moonlight Chopping has successfully achieved subtle thematic differences while maintaining the vengeful narrative style of Cast Swords, demonstrating a profound transformation of traditional culture and historical continuity.

Damage tracking and hysteresis‐based evaluation of seismic‐excited RC shear wall using monitoring data

SummaryReinforced concrete (RC) shear walls play an important role as the seismic resisting system in tall buildings. Yet, assessing the seismic damage of real‐world shear walls remains a challenging task. In this study, a damage index that relies on the vibration data measured by the sensors embedded in the structure is proposed to evaluate the damage condition of shear walls. The damage index is formed by the linear combination of two normalized terms, which, respectively, characterize the peak and the cumulative damages of the shear walls with little knowledge of real‐life structural hysteresis. The damage tracking and evaluation based on the substructure level and the story level are discussed. The damage indices evaluated using the hysteretic loops made by the shear and bending information of the shear wall are further compared. The feasibility of the proposed damage index is examined using a numerically simulated 12‐story coupled shear wall structure. It is then applied to analyze the experiments regarding the damage condition of RC shear walls under earthquakes. Results show that the proposed damage index can track the damage states of RC shear walls under seismic excitations. Analysis suggests that the proposed damage index could trace and distinguish the progression of shear and flexural damages, which potentially supports the post‐earthquake structural safety management.

AGILE ESTIMATIONS: EMPIRICAL STUDY USING WEIGHTED COMPLEXITY FACTORS

Software time and cost estimates are always challenging due to the quickly changing software process. Especially Agile project estimations are complex, and the story points differ from person to person. Due to the person-to-person variations, project managers have difficulty arriving at the project cost for development projects with different sizes or complexity of systems/software. This paper proposes a new estimation model named the WEighted COmplexity Factor Estimation (WECOFE) Model to reduce the complexities of Agile story point estimations. Weighted complexities factors identify Low, Moderate, and High Project Level Factors and Story Level Factors. For each level, multiple factors were defined. Derived Weighted complexity based on Project, Requirement, and Resource Level factors. Each story's point estimation is explained based on weighted complexity defined and assigned factors values. Conducted study on various industry projects, showing that the WECOFE approach is promising by observing the Magnitude of Relative Error (MRE) and Mean Magnitude of Relative Error (MMRE). Also, performed a t-test for one sprint project with 51 stories, and paired sample means are equal for WECOFE with actual story points spent by the team.

Seismic Response and Recentering Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Frames: A Parametric Study

The inelastic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frames under seismic loading is influenced by mechanical and geometrical properties and by the reinforcement arrangement of the beam–column members. In this paper, the seismic response and recentering behavior of RC frames is investigated numerically via cyclic pushover analysis and described by means of three synthetic behavioral indexes, namely a recentering index, a hardening index, and a ductility index. A fiber–hinge formulation is used to describe the inelastic behavior of the RC elements, and the versatile pivot hysteresis model is implemented at the material level to capture the possible pinching effects ascribed to the weak transverse reinforcement and to poor construction details that might be observed in the existing RC structures. This model is first validated against the experimental results from the literature and then applied, within a wide parametric study, to a set of 80 RC frame scenarios featured by various combinations of axial load levels and reinforcing details. As the output of this parametric study, practical design abacuses are constructed to describe the trends of the above-mentioned behavioral indexes, which are usefully related to specific mechanical and loading features of the analyzed RC frames. The reliability of the obtained results and the usefulness of the constructed abacuses in anticipating the overall cyclic behavior of a generic RC building, depending on the actual mechanical parameters of the RC sections at each story level, is finally demonstrated through a nonlinear time history analysis of an eight-story RC frame, representative of the substandard RC frames built in the 1970s in Italy.

Embedded mental states in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and uneven distribution of narratorial attention

AbstractThe study of literary characters has been acknowledged to be a thorny field. Since Alex Woloch's The One vs. the Many (2003), exciting advances are scarce. The present article proposes cognitive narratology based on Theory of Mind, which focuses on multiple levels of embedded mental states that reflect and keep track of other characters' mental states (conveniently summarized as “I know that you know that I know”1), as a new analytical framework to push forward the study of literary characters and at the same time to test the validity of applying such a cognitive theory in literary studies. Through an analysis of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a young adult (YA) fiction popular all over the world, it is argued that the protagonist Percy, who is also the figural narrator of the novel, distributes his mind‐reading activities on other characters unevenly. The distance between minor characters and Percy determines whether the narrator's discourse about them is accompanied by the narrator's interest in reading their minds, which is most clearly illustrated when they are first introduced in the novel. When Percy meets Annabeth for the first time, he subconsciously tries to bring their relationship closer at the discourse level by creating three levels of embedded mental states that include both of them as cognitive agents. Although this strong passion has not yet been fully revealed explicitly at the story level, it is discernable in the formal features of Percy's discourse. As the story develops, Percy's mind‐reading of Annabeth becomes a subconscious habit, whereas his narratorial treatments of two other minor characters have been steadily kept below three levels of embedded mental states. In this light, the complex relationships between these characters can be shown in a more pragmatic way by adopting Theory of Mind analysis, thus enabling us to explore the cognitive pattern of the text and offering a new perspective for the study of characters.

УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ФОНДОВИЙ РИНОК: РЕАЛІЇ СЬОГОДЕННЯ

Important on the modern stage of development the economy of Ukraine of creation of favorable terms and new possibilities of fund market functioning for the sake of providing of national economy transformation, withstand development of international relations and integration of Ukraine in world space. Exactly success of fund market development leads to the necessity of realization of concrete measures in relation to the increase of liquidity, capitalization, transparency and strengthening of control for activity of fund market from the side of the state, forming of purposeful state strategy of fund market, upgrading the grant of services and service of customers, popularity and trust of citizens to the development of fund market and all like that. A research aim is an analysis of fund market development and prognostication of measures for an improvement and activation of its activity in the direction of professional preparation of specialists for work at the fund market. The methodological basis of research became methods of dialectics, methods and principles of scientific cognition, instruments of economic analysis with aim to forming of certain methodologies of analysis and evaluation of activity of fund market, that allow to accept correct administrative decisions in a post-war period of proceeding in the country economy. The basic hypothesis of research is supposition, that take in attention the instruments of fund market development improved and existent in foreign practice, will allow to improve and extend the sphere of activity of fund market, and start of the new educational programs of preparation the specialists for a fund market and it will promote professionalism of participants and culture of investing in a population. Exposition of basic material of research. It is well-proven that is existing a row of problems that restrain development and effective functioning of the Ukrainian fund market, in particular unstable economic situation in a country, insufficient transparency of market and low level internals of services that is given by certain exchange stocks, insufficient legislative adjusting and others like that. Therefore potential of fund market practically is not used. Reasonable necessity to carry out certain measures in relation to the normal functioning of fund market like activation of functioning of story level of the pension system, bank to the sector, increase of financial education of population and general culture of participants in relation to the self-weighted bringing in investments to the market, bringing of international partners, forming of the new legal mechanisms orientated on European and world effective in general lines norms and rules of fund market functioning. Originality and practical meaningfulness of research are confirmed by the offered directions of improvement of fund market activity and ground of the necessary educational programs of preparation the specialists for it. Conclusions and prospects of further researches. The conducted research allowed to establish, that to basic directions of modernization and fund market development it is possible to take the increase of efficiency of adjusting the activity of issuers of fund market, introduction of new tool at the fund market; stimulation of coming of investments is to the fund market; providing of the reliable and effective functioning of fund market infrastructure; realization of effective public policy of improvement of investment climate. Further researches will be sent to original educational program development in relation to expansion of limits of specialty «Finances, banking and insurance» to the level «Finances, banking, insurance and fund market».

Statistical Subspace-Based Damage Detection and Jerk Energy Acceleration for Robust Structural Health Monitoring

This paper introduces a multistep damage identification process that is both straightforward and useful for identifying damage in buildings with regular plan geometries. The algorithm proposed in this study combines the utilization of a multi-damage sensitivity feature and MATLAB programming, providing a comprehensive approach for the structural health monitoring (SHM) of different structures through vibration analysis. The system utilizes accelerometers attached to the structure to capture data, which is then subjected to a classical statistical subspace-based damage detection test. This test focuses on monitoring changes in the data by analyzing modal parameters and statistically comparing them to the structure’s baseline behavior. By detecting deviations from the expected behavior, the algorithm identifies potential damage in the structure. Additionally, the algorithm includes a step to localize damage at the story level, relying on the jerk energy of acceleration. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the algorithm was applied to a steel shear frame model in laboratory tests. The model utilized in this study comprised a total height of 900 mm and incorporated three lumped masses. The investigation encompassed a range of scenarios involving both single and multiple damages, and the algorithm proposed in this research demonstrated the successful detection of the induced damages. The results indicate that the proposed system is an effective solution for monitoring building structure condition and detecting damage.

Transediting classic English novels for children in China: a narratological case study of Gulliver’s Travels

ABSTRACT The practice of transediting classic English novels for children is common in China, but remains under-researched. From a narratological perspective, this article explores this practice through a case study of Gulliver’s Travels. It first identifies the factors, including the view of childhood, common presuppositions of the features of children’s literature, censorship, and the mainstream educational philosophy in China, that may influence this practice. Then, it finds that the Chinese children’s editions of Gulliver’s Travels experience noticeable changes both on the story and discourse level, such as the excision of scenes that reflect satirical criticism and the shift from indirect speech to direct speech. Lastly, it points out that although the observed changes are understandable, some seem inappropriate for the target young Chinese readers due to the ignorance of the differences in children’s literature for readers of different ages. Therefore, this article suggests that literature for young readers aged 11 to 16 should challenge them cognitively and affectively, be somewhat subversive, and present a complete picture of the reality, and that translators of children’s literature should truly put themselves in the position of children and consider the needs of young readers of different ages.

Relatable and attainable moral exemplars as sources for moral elevation and pleasantness

ABSTRACT In the present study, we examined how the perceived attainability and relatability of moral exemplars predicted moral elevation and pleasantness among both adult and college student participants. Data collected from two experiments were analyzed with Bayesian multilevel modeling to explore which factors significantly predicted outcome variables at the story level. The analysis results demonstrated that the main effect of perceived relatability and the interaction effect between attainability and relatability shall be included in the best prediction model, and thus, were deemed to predict the outcome variables significantly. The main effect of relatability as well as its interaction with attainability positively predicted elevation and pleasantness. We discussed educational implications of the findings in terms of how relatability may be the first point of emphasis for moral educators to focus on and attainability can then bolster the effectiveness. These relatable and attainable moral exemplars can be sources for moral elevation and pleasantness, which promote motivation to emulate moral behavior presented by the exemplars.

Nonlinear Time History Analysis for Seismic Effects on Reinforced Concrete Building

A typical Reinforced Concrete (RC) building frame comprising of RC columns and connecting beams that participates in resisting the earthquake forces. Due to earthquake, reversal tension generates at both faces of a beam and column; and hence damage occur in the frame for the disability of tension carrying capacity of concrete. Therefore, the structural performance of RC building for seismic load has been analyzed by nonlinear time history analysis method for this study. A residential building located in Dhaka, Bangladesh subjected to various types of gravity load and seismic load was considered to analyze using ETABS software as per the guideline of BNBC (2020). According to the guideline of ATC 40 (1996), the seismic performances like maximum displacement and story drift for RC building were evaluated both at structural and element levels by applying El Centro (1940) ground motion at the base of the structure. Formation of plastic hinges is used as the basis to evaluate the local performance and story drift is used to evaluate the global performance. At first, the considered building was designed only for gravity load, and then for both gravity and seismic load according to BNBC (2020). Further studies have been performed on that building considering double height column at a story level. It was observed that the maximum displacement and story drift exceeds the allowable limit for all the considered cases if seismic load is applied on the structure.

The use of Stick-IT model in loss assessment at the large scale

Direct economic losses represent a convenient proxy to communicate seismic risk to stakeholders both at the building and at the large-scale level. In the perspective of a performance-based approach, seismic economic losses can be calculated starting from the response of single buildings expressed in terms of engineering demand parameters such as interstory drift ratios and peak floor accelerations. This way the distribution and the extent of earthquake-induced damage can be estimated for various structural and nonstructural components and buildings content. The Stick-IT, which is a MDOF system consisting of a series of masses lumped at the story level connected by nonlinear shear link elements, has been recently proposed and calibrated to predict the response, in terms of engineering demand parameters, for infilled RC building typologies.This paper adopts the Stick-IT model within a probabilistic framework to predict the expected direct losses for a portfolio of buildings damaged and repaired in the aftermath of the L'Aquila 2009 earthquake. The predicted losses are compared with the actual repair costs showing.

Performance Assessment of Different Retrofitting Techniques for Steel-Framed Buildings

The requirement for cost-effective critical infrastructure has made employing nonlinear analysis techniques an appealing choice. Estimating seismic loads on structures necessitates explicit consideration of inelastic structural behavior. Hence, nonlinear approaches such as pushover analyses have become more popular. In this study, the performance of a ten-story steel moment-resisting frame retrofitted with various bracings like diagonal-bracing, chevron bracing, x-bracing and k-bracing is evaluated using linear and nonlinear analysis. The responses, such as base shear, lateral load distribution, displacement, drift, and lateral stiffness, are determined using the ETABS-18 building analysis and design program. The results of the study show that the steel-braced frame systems have substantially greater strength and ductility capabilities than their unbraced or alternate steel-braced moment-resistant steel frame. Further, the unbraced steel frame has a low R-factor as compared to the bracing system due to the increased stiffness at the story level.

A case study on an innovative seismic performance evaluation procedure for irregular RC buildings

Assessing the structural capacity of an irregular structure requires an appropriate and robust representation of the analytical model. Conventional procedures are flawed because they lack the reversal effects of higher modes. Therefore, more robust procedures have been tested to accurately capture the capacity of irregular building-type structures. Some of these may be classified as adaptive pushover techniques in which the lateral load vector is revised instantaneously. These adaptive techniques generally refer to SRSS as a modal combination rule to superpose the maximum values of the modal quantities. However, this results in an overestimated capacity value. Furthermore, the reversal effects of the modes are not included in the evaluation process. Hence, in this research, a force-based adaptive multimode pushover method was tested on a plan-irregular building using a code developed and implemented into ZEUS-NL. First, an eigenvalue analysis was used to obtain the modal quantities of the considered building, and subsequently, the modal story shear forces were obtained using the modal story forces. Furthermore, the lateral load patterns were calculated at each iterative step. Finally, the structure was pushed using this calculated lateral load pattern up to a previously calculated target displacement value using a three-step adaptive pushover analysis. The first step is to run an adaptive single-mode pushover analysis considering the first mode. After comparing the fundamental period with a constant threshold limit, it is then decided whether to run an adaptive multimode pushover analysis considering the first two modes or to run two adaptive multimode pushover analyses considering the contribution of both the second and third modes. Neither SRSS nor CQC was used to obtain the maximum response quantities; instead, the use of the envelope response is suggested. After evaluating the capacity diagram of the considered building, the story drifts were determined. The outcomes of the adaptive pushover analyses were later checked with the nonlinear dynamic results. It can be concluded that the result of the tested procedure is in good correlation with the dynamic results. Furthermore, the top displacement–time traces were plotted to check which ground motion record reveals the maximum values. Using the ground motion record, interstory drift ratio–time graphs were developed for each story level and compared with the code limit. Base shear–time history traces were then obtained and compared with the tested FAP. Lastly, story shear–interstory drift relations were plotted to investigate the absorbed energy level as an indicator of damage. As a result, for irregular RC structures, the tested procedure was found to be more accurate. However, in its current form, the procedure reflects the seismic behavior of irregular midrise buildings.

TEACHING AT THE RIGHT LEVEL (TaRL) THROUGH THE ALL SMART CHILDREN APPROACH (SAC) IMPROVES STUDENT'S LITERATURE ABILITY

The TaRL approach was developed by Pratham. In his video entitled How to Teach Kids to Read in as Little as 50 Days he says: “All over the world a growing belief is that if you open a school the children will (successfully) learn. But children are not studying, for example in India 97% are enrolled in schools but 50% of children cannot read paragraphs for 2nd graders”. The stages in the implementation of SAC consist of 3 stages: assessment, grouping, and learning according to level/ability. After going through these three stages by carrying out literacy learning for 2 weeks, then a reassessment is carried out. The results of the SAC program assessment can improve children's abilities, namely at the beginner level, letters, words, and paragraphs decreased from 55% to 50%, and at the story level increased from 45% to 50%. The students who progressed to level up reached 30%. The data on increasing students' literacy skills were obtained using the Naturalistic Research method. Grade 1 to grade 6 children are assessed individually. The instrument used is a test. The tests used are letter cards, word cards, paragraph texts, and short story texts equipped with questions about the content of the story.

Could building replacements significantly contribute to seismic vulnerability mitigation at urban scale? Case studies of two typical swiss cities

This paper contains an investigation on the potential decrease of seismic vulnerability related to building replacements for the cities of Sion and Martigny in Switzerland. Those two cities were identified for the present research based on the accuracy of the corresponding available information. Seismic assessment at urban scale was recently achieved for both cities and new buildings are systematically indexed according to the construction regulation of the canton of Wallis (Valais). Sion and Martigny belong to the largest cities of the canton of Wallis and this region is characterized by the highest seismicity within Switzerland. The investigation focuses on a 4-year period between 2016 and 2019. Cases for which an existing building is demolished and replaced by a new one were identified and checked. Those cases do not represent general practice. The majority of new buildings are built on free land. Consequently, the building replacement rate is too low to lead to a significant decrease of the seismic vulnerability at urban scale. In addition to the systematic appropriate seismic design of new buildings, retrofitting of existing buildings therefore remains the adequate strategy for seismic vulnerability mitigation. In case of replacement, low-rise buildings are generally replaced by mid-rise buildings. Moreover, unreinforced masonry buildings are usually replaced by reinforced concrete shear-wall buildings. This slightly impacts the building stock distributions but the seismic vulnerability is not significantly changed, since the demolished buildings are not the most vulnerable ones. Nevertheless, few obvious isolated vulnerability decreases occurred with respect to the demolition of soft-story buildings for instance. By contrast, seismic vulnerability may also be increased in the case where a new building is built against an existing one with a different story level and without an adequate seismic separation joint.