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Damage assessment and recovery play key roles in the process of secure and reliable computer systems development. Post‐attack assessment in a distributed database system is rather complicated due to the indirect dependencies among sub‐transactions executed at different sites. Hence, the damage assessment procedure in these systems must be carried out in a collaborative way among all the participating sites in order to accurately detect all affected data items. This paper seeks to propose two approaches for achieving this, namely, centralized and peer‐to‐peer damage assessment models.

Each of the two proposed methods should be applied immediately after an intrusion on a distributed database system was reported. In the category of the centralized model, three sub‐models are further discussed, each of which is best suitable for a certain type of situations in a distributed database system.

Advantages and disadvantages of the models are analyzed on a comparative basis and the most suitable situations to which each model should apply are presented. A set of algorithms is developed to formally describe the damage assessment procedure for each model (sub‐model). Synchronization is essential in any system where multiple processes run concurrently. User‐level synchronization mechanisms have been presented to ensure that the damage assessment operations are conducted in a correct order.

The paper proposes two means for damage assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of the evolution of damage to the residential buildings within the city walls of Norcia during the six-month seismic swarm that hit Central Italy in the period 24th August 2016 to end of January 2019. This is accomplished by comparing the damage recorded by the Italian Civil Protection usability form (AEDES form) during this period after each event.

First, these outputs are compared with a qualitative assessment conducted by means of omnidirectional camera (ODC) imagery collected on site by the authors, to explore the ability of this technology to support post-earthquake damage assessment. The damage level attributed with these two techniques is then further compared with the output of the analytical vulnerability assessment method FaMIVE, which allows to correlate damage to vulnerability. Specifically, the objective is to investigate the efficacy and performance of historic and recent strengthening interventions.

Results show that there is a good correspondence between AeDES and ODC assessments for low to medium damage grades (DG). Discrepancies in higher DGs are discussed in light of the different levels of information that can be recorded by using the two tools. The efficacy of strengthening is also well captured by the FaMIVE method. The procedure estimates a decrease of almost 40, 25 and 20 per cent of the total number of buildings failing out-of-plane, respectively, for the three seismic events considered, when restraining elements are in action.

The analysis conducted in this work make use of deterministic values of Norcia’s masonry fabric characteristics that have been found in literature, thus implying that neither the probabilistic aspects nor the related uncertainties have been properly investigated and addressed. However, this limitation is to be considered within the more general context of the legislation for the preservation of historic buildings which limits substantially any type of semi-destructive tests, hence limiting the reliability of the values available in literature. This in turn affects the decisions informing the design and implementation of strengthening interventions which can be confidently considered reliable and effective.

The paper addresses for the first time a systematic investigation of damage progression in historic masonry structures, part of urban aggregates in heritage cities. The current urban fabric is discussed in view of historic building codes as the basis for determining the present seismic vulnerability of the historic city centre of Norcia. The study provides new data sets for the city of Norcia and develops a statistical correlation between cumulative damage and analytical vulnerability functions for heritage buildings exposed to a swarm of earthquakes. The analytical assessment of the effect of historic strengthening is totally novel.

Considerable amounts of work have been carried out in developing cost models for the repair and maintenance of earthquake damaged buildings in recent years. Most of these developments have been based on methods and approaches using risk analysis, probabilistic earthquake and scenario earthquakes. The main objectives of this paper can be summarised as: to highlight the extent and variability of influencing factors (quantitative and qualitative) affecting the repair and maintenance of post‐earthquake damage to buildings and structures; and to present the first configuration of a proposed quantitative model for the repair and maintenance of damage inflicted on buildings.

To achieve this, an in‐depth review of the available literature in this field was deemed necessary. The presented literature review, demonstrates the need and the gap in knowledge, as well as the complexity of the subject for such development. In developing the proposed model, attention has been paid to the recommendations made and good practice observed within the industry and the corresponding literature. The suggested assessment mechanism of buildings (data collection) has been proposed in conjunction with the ATC – 38 post‐earthquake building assessment forms and the ASCE/FEMA 356 – pre‐standard and commentary for the seismic rehabilitation of building. The ability (mechanism) to estimate the cost of required repair and maintenance based on a thorough condition survey of the inflicted damage on buildings was of paramount importance in this study.

The main finding reported in this paper, apart from the presented cost estimation methodology and the first configuration of a quantitative model, is the necessity to acquire and establish a broad knowledge base of variables and parameters, influencing such development.

This paper certainly paves the way for a more rigorous and comprehensive approach for further development in this field.

The purpose of this research is to determine whether the type of tax services provided by a public accounting firm to its audit client and the consequence severity of an audit failure impact jurors' assessment of audit quality and auditor liability.

The authors administer a court case to 168 jurors manipulating three levels of tax services provided to an audit client (none, tax preparation, and aggressive tax planning services); two levels of consequence severity of the alleged audit failure, observing the impact on jurors' assessment of audit quality, auditor responsibility for audit failure; and damages awarded the plaintiff.

Consistent with recent US regulations, jurors perceive the quality of the audit to be lower when auditors provide aggressive tax planning services, but not for tax preparation services. Damages are greater when auditors provide aggressive tax planning services across both levels of consequence severity.

The results indicate that the type of tax services provided may impact jurors' views of audit quality and damage assessments against auditors. The questionnaire uses previously validated measures, but the results may not be generalizable to jurors in all jurisdictions.

Though empirical evidence is mixed at best about the impact of auditors providing non-audit services on auditor independence in fact, auditor independence in appearance, and thus audit quality, such impacts may affect the way jurors perceive the situation.

The study directly tests the implications for auditor liability of new restrictions on tax services and more accurately measures the impact of consequence severity, using actual jurors.

Presents a conceptual model for assessing flood damage to UK domestic properties. The model originates from a critique of existing knowledge in the field and from discussions held with practitioners responsible for surveying and recommending strategies for repair of such properties. Flood damage assessment is a complex task requiring consideration of many factors. Subsequently, the model takes into account building characteristics along with the characteristics of the flood. Presently, recommendations in the literature for repairing flood damaged properties are very general in nature so “convenient” and circumspect inferences tend to be made by surveyors. In turn, professional guidance in this respect exhibits substantial variance regarding, for example, their specific recommendations for repair work. Because of this variance, it is difficult to confirm whether any repair strategy implemented is optimal, in terms of, for example, cost expended or methods used. The model presented progresses knowledge towards standardising the assessment of flood damaged UK domestic properties.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a risk assessment model to assess the occupational safety and health (OSH) risks presented by different construction approaches, namely traditional and industrialised building system (IBS). The development process applies the concept of argumentation theory, which helps construction designers integrate the management of OSH risk into the design process. In addition, an energy damage model is used as an underpinning framework for developing the model.

Development of the model was achieved through two phases. Phase I involved collection of data on the activities involved in the construction process and their associated OSH risks, derived from five different case studies, field observation and interviews. Knowledge of design aspects that have the potential to impact on OSH was obtained from document analysis. Using the knowledge obtained in phase I, a model was developed in the form of argument trees (Phase II), which represent a reasoning template with regard to options available to designers when they make judgements about aspects of their designs. Inferences from these aspects eventually determined the magnitude of the damaging energies for every activity involved. Finally, the model was validated by panels of experts, and revisions and amendments were made to the model accordingly.

The risk assessment model development revealed that the concept of argumentation theory and energy damage model is suitable to represent design safety risk knowledge and effectively address the designer's role in making decisions in their designs and further illuminate the level of OSH risk their designs pose.

The developed model provides best-practice reasoning support for construction designers, which help them to understand the impact of their designs decisions on worker's safety and health, and thereby assist them to further mitigate the risk to an acceptable level.

This study departs from the existing tool in that the model was developed based upon the combination of argumentation theory and energy damage model. The significance of the model is discussed.

Reconstruction processes after an earthquake require estimating repair costs to decide on whether to repair or rebuild. This requires an accurate post-earthquake cost estimation tool. Currently, there are no post-earthquake loss estimation models to estimate repair costs accurately. There are loss assessment tools available, namely, HAZUS, performance assessment calculation tool (PACT), seismic performance and loss assessment tool (SLAT) and seismic performance prediction tool, which have not been specifically used for post-earthquake repair cost estimation. This paper aims to focus on identifying factors that need to be considered when upgrading these tools for post-earthquake repair cost estimation.

The research was conducted as an exploratory study using a literature review, document analysis of the PACT, SLAT and HAZUS software and 18 semi-structured interviews.

The research identified information sources available for estimation and factors to be considered when developing estimations based on the information sources.

The data was collected from professionals who were involved mostly in housing repair work in New Zealand. Therefore, impact of these repair work factors might vary in other forms of structures such as civil structures include bridges and the country as a result of varying construction details and standards.

The identified factors will be used to improve the loss estimation tools are such as PACT and HAZUS, as well as to develop a post-earthquake repair cost estimation tool.

Currently, the identified factors impacting post-earthquake damage repair cost estimations are not considered in loss estimation tools. Factors identified in this research will help to develop a more accurate cost estimation tool for post-earthquake repair work.

Catastrophe of steel-structured bridges due to progressive localized corrosion may lead to a major loss in terms of life and cost if not monitored continuously or periodically. The purpose of this paper is to present a vibration-based strategy to assess the severity and monitor the deterioration caused by corrosion-induced localized damage in a simply-supported steel beam.

The threshold damage level is defined up to the yield limit of a simply supported steel beam of size ISMB 150 × 8 × 5 under three-point bending test and the progressive damage is induced through a continuous accelerated corrosion test. Change in the fundamental natural frequency due to localized damage in the experimental beam and the modulus of elasticity (E) in the corroded zone of an updated finite element (FE) model is evaluated.

The updated FE model of the damaged beam shows a clear trend with the progressive damage of the beam and, hence, can be used to monitor the severity of damage and remaining capacity assessment of the monitored beam.

Steel-structured bridges are prone to localized corrosion attack, and there are no standardized process or predictive model available by international steel design codes on how to consider corrosion damage in the condition assessment analysis. The vibration-based methods have gained popularity for condition assessment, and are mostly confined to damage assessment of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) beams. In this work, a vibration-based approach is presented for degradation assessment of steel beam due to progressive localized corrosion using modal hammer test.

This study aims at identifying the consequences of adopting statutory rather than market basis in assessing damages due to contamination to land. Most valuations undertaken to assess compensation for damages due to contamination on land are done with valuation methods prescribed by law for the compulsory acquisition of land.

A total of 80 registered valuation firms with experience in both compulsory acquisition and damage assessment participated in a questionnaire survey to ascertain the methods adopted in valuing when determining the compensation payable as damages due to land contamination and the need for a framework for such valuations, in addition to some archival documents relating to the relevant laws and some purposively selected valuation reports, which were reviewed.

The results of the analysis indicate that the use of compulsory acquisition valuation methods results in inadequate damages, which engenders conflicts among the stakeholders. The absence of any framework for damage assessment is responsible for the current practice in the Niger Delta, and it is recommended that international best practices utilising market basis of valuation be adopted.

Most valuation methods available are useful for valuing commercial properties regularly traded in the market and not applicable to the Niger Delta, which is mostly rural with very few market transactions. It is expected that this study will enable oil and gas industry operators, professional valuers advising the land owners or operators in the industry and the government to differentiate compensation paid for compulsory acquisition and compensation required to placate those suffering losses due to contamination.

The findings will assist professional valuers to be more professional in valuing contaminated land devastated by oil spills.

Adopting the findings will engender a greater acceptability of the results of valuations undertaken in the wake of an oil spillage disaster and ensure a peaceful environment for the oil operators and the entire populace.

The findings of this study are expected to assist policymakers in emerging economies and professional valuers acting in these environments to avoid precipitating crises by adopting inappropriate valuation techniques when assessing damages due to contamination. This study is original and has not been published elsewhere.

Flood damage to domestic properties can be considered as a function of two key factors, that is, the flood characteristics and characteristics of the property. A thorough literature review identified that little or no consideration is given to the characteristics of flood when assessing flood‐damaged domestic properties. This paper presents the perceptions of 289 building surveyors regarding flood characteristics as part of a 2‐year research project to benchmark the assessment of flood‐damaged domestic properties in the UK. Surveyors perceived the sewage, fasciae and contaminant content, and depth of the floodwater. Findings also revealed that methods to determine these factors were primarily a function of individual subjective perceptions. Definitive guidance is therefore, needed to minimise variations in subsequent repair and reinstatement works.