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This paper aims to develop an effective framework which combines Bayesian optimized convolutional neural networks (BOCNN) with Monte Carlo simulation for slope reliability analysis.

The Bayesian optimization technique is firstly used to find the optimal structure of CNN based on the empirical CNN model established in a trial and error manner. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a two-layered soil slope and a cohesive slope with spatially variable soils at different scales of fluctuation.

The size of training data suite, T, has a significant influence on the performance of trained CNN. In general, a trained CNN with larger T tends to have higher coefficient of determination (R²) and smaller root mean square error (RMSE). The artificial neural networks (ANN) and response surface method (RSM) can provide comparable results to CNN models for the slope reliability where only two random variables are involved whereas a significant discrepancy between the slope failure probability (P_f) by RSM and that predicted by CNN has been observed for slope with spatially variable soils. The RSM cannot fully capture the complicated relationship between the factor of safety (FS) and spatially variable soils in an effective and efficient manner. The trained CNN at a smaller the scale of fluctuation (λ) exhibits a fairly good performance in predicting the P_f for spatially variable soils at higher λ with a maximum percentage error not more than 10%. The BOCNN has a larger R² and a smaller RMSE than empirical CNN and it can provide results fairly equivalent to a direct Monte Carlo Simulation and therefore serves a promising tool for slope reliability analysis within spatially variable soils.

A geotechnical engineer could use the proposed method to perform slope reliability analysis.

Slope reliability can be efficiently and accurately analyzed by the proposed framework.

The paper aims to construct a method to simulate the relationship between the parameters of soil properties and the area of sliding mass of the true slip surface of a landslide.

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) algorithm is used to calibrate a response surface function which is adopted to quantify the area of sliding mass of the true slip surface for each failure sample in Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed method is illustrated through a homogeneous and a heterogeneous cohesive soil slope.

The comparison of the results between the proposed method and the traditional method using the slip surface with minimum factor of safety (FS_min) to quantify the failure consequence has shown that the landslide risk tends to be attributed to a variety of risk sources, and that the use of a slip surface with FS_min to quantify the consequence of a landslide underestimates the landslide risk value. The difference of the risk value between the proposed method and the traditional method increases dramatically as the uncertainty of soil properties becomes significant.

A geotechnical engineer could use the proposed method to perform slope failure analysis.

The failure consequence of a landslide can be rationally predicted using the proposed method.

For gravity dams built on foundations with directional joint sets, the seepage in the foundation possesses anisotropic characteristics and may have adverse effects on the foundation stability. A methodology for system reliability analysis of gravity dam foundations considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces is proposed in this paper.

Anisotropic seepages in dam foundations are simulated using finite element method (FEM) with the equivalent continuum model (ECM), and their effect on dam foundation stability is involved by uplift pressures acting on the potential sliding surfaces. The system failure probability of the dam foundation is efficiently estimated using Monte Carlo method (MCM) combined with response surface method (RSM).

The case study shows that it is necessary to consider the possibly adverse effect of anisotropic seepage on foundation stability of gravity dams and the deterministic analysis of the foundation stability may be misleading. The system reliability analysis of the dam foundation is justified, as the uncertainties in shear strength parameters of the foundation rocks and joint sets as well as aperture, connectivity and spacing of the joint sets are quantified and the system effect of the multiple potential sliding surfaces on the foundation reliability is reasonably considered.

(1) A methodology is proposed for efficient system reliability analysis of foundation stability of gravity dams considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces (2) The influence of anisotropic seepage on the stability of gravity dam foundation  is revealed (3) The influence of estimation errors of RSMs on the system reliability assessment of dam foundation is investigated.

This paper aims to estimate the bearing capacity of a surface strip and circular footings lying on layered sand using numerical limit analysis.

Lower and upper bound limit analysis, as well as finite elements and second-order conic programming (SOCP), are used in this analysis. The yield criterion of Mohr-Coulomb is used to model soil behavior. Using this technique, stringent lower and upper bounds on ultimate bearing capacity can be achieved by assuming an associated flow law.

The obtained results indicate that the exact collapse load is typically being bracketed to within 6% about a mean of both the bounds. The obtained results are compared with the existing literature wherever applicable.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has used lower and upper bound limit analysis, as well as finite elements and SOCP, to estimate the bearing capacity of a surface strip and circular footings lying on layered sand.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper aims to develop an efficient algorithm combining straightforward response surface functions with Monte Carlo simulation to conduct seismic reliability analysis in a systematical way.

The representative slip surfaces are identified and based on to calibrate multiple response surface functions with acceptable accuracy. The calibrated response surfaces are used to determine the yield acceleration in Newmark sliding displacement analysis. Then, the displacement-based limit state function is adopted to conduct seismic reliability analysis.

The calibrated response surface functions have fairly good accuracy in predicting the yield acceleration in Newmark sliding displacement analysis. The seismic reliability is influenced by such factors as PGA, spatial variability and threshold value. The proposed methodology serves as an effective tool for geotechnical practitioners.

The multiple sources of a seismic slope response can be effectively determined using the multiple response surface functions, which are easily implemented within geotechnical engineering.

It is often observed in practice that the essential behavior of mathematical models involving many variables can be captured by a much smaller model involving only a few variables. Further, the simpler model very often displays oscillatory behavior of some sort, especially when critical problem parameters are varied in certain ranges. This paper attempts to supply arguments from the theory of dynamical systems for why oscillatory behavior is so frequently observed and to show how such behavior emerges as a natural consequence of focusing attention upon so‐called “essential” variables in the process of model simplification. The relationship of model simplification and oscillatory behavior is shown to be inextricably intertwined with the problems of bifurcation and catastrophe in that the oscillations emerge when critical system parameters, i.e. those retained in the simple model, pass through critical regions. The importance of the simplification, oscillation and bifurcation pattern is demonstrated here by consideration of several examples from the environmental, economic and urban areas.

In recent times there have been attempts by well known economists towards integrating the questions of ethics and values in the body framework of economic theory. Yet their pursuits have remained subservient to one or the other of received economic doctrines. This has proven to be a drawback in the development of an independent inquiry into the possibility of treating the problem of ethical integration as an endogenous phenomen of the system. The idea of ethical endogeneity here means, that society is not merely a reflection of the social policies undertaken by the collective of members of a democratic and decentralized polity. It must also reflect multiple rounds of social transformation realized by the impact of the reverse relation of the ecological environment on the polity itself. Contrary to this concept, the view on ethics and values in the social system presented by the contemporary school of economists and philosophers has the essence of exogeneity. That means ethics and values are made to impact upon the economy but from outside the system. In the system itself they become irrelevant. Vickrey has the following words on the treatment of values by economists in the area of normative economics: “But it is only recently that economists have begun to probe into the systems of values that underlie their discussions, and indeed in many cases the judgements are implicit, rather than explicitly stated.”