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This paper aims to examine the conditions under which small and medium enterprises (SMEs) invest in security services when they migrate their e-commerce applications to the cloud environment. Using a risk management perspective, the paper assesses the impact of security service pricing, security incident prevalence and virulence to estimate SME security spending at the market level and draw out implications for SMEs and security service providers.

Security risks are inherently characterized by uncertainty. This study uses a Monte Carlo approach to understand the role of uncertainty in the decision to adopt security services. A model relating key security constructs is assembled based on key constructs from the domain. By manipulating security service costs and security incident types, the model estimates the market-level adoption of services, security incidents and damages incurred, along with measures of their relative dispersion.

Three key findings emerge from this study. First, adoption of services and protection is higher when tiered security services are provided, indicating that SMEs prefer to choose their security services rather than accept uniformly priced products. Second, SMEs are considered price-sensitive, resulting in a maximum level of spending in the market. Third, results indicate that security incidents and damages can be much higher than the mean in some cases, and this should serve as a cautionary note to SMEs.

Security spending has been modeled at the firm level. Adopting a market-level perspective represents a novel contribution. Additionally, the Monte Carlo approach provides managers with tangible measures of uncertainty, affording additional information and insight when making security service adoption decisions.

Clause 12 in the Conditions of Contract for Plant & Design Build and in the Conditions of Contract for EPC/Turnkey Projects (Silver Book) deals with Tests after Completion. The Tests after Completion are the tests carried out by the Employer after the Taking Over of the Works or a Section in accordance with Clause 10 [Employer’s Taking Over]. The envisaged purpose of the Tests after Completion is testing the performance of the Works or a Part thereof. ‘Performance’ is used broadly to cover any relevant performance criterion (output, input, stability etc.).

In the present study, the application of a recent damage plasticity model is presented for nonlinear dynamic analysis of the Koyna gravity dam. This is a single surface isotropic damage plasticity concrete model, which is based on the decomposition of stresses and was proposed in a previous study. The theoretical aspects of the model are initially reviewed, and a few preliminary verification examples are illustrated. Thereafter, the HHT-α (i.e. Hilber–Hughes–Taylor) algorithm is presented for nonlinear dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dams.

Based on the prepared tools, nonlinear behavior of the Koyna Dam is studied by applying the invoked damage plasticity model. For this purpose, three cases are considered for the present study. Case A, which is based on the linear model, is mainly used for comparative purposes. The other two cases (B and C) correspond to the nonlinear (i.e. damage plasticity) model. The basic data for these two cases are similar. However, the employed damping algorithms are different and correspond to constant and variable damping algorithms, respectively. This means that the damping matrix is either kept constant or updated for all iterations of different time increments through the course of analysis.

The time histories of horizontal displacement at the dam crest were initially compared for the three cases: the linear Case A, and two nonlinear Cases B and C. It was observed that nonlinear cases’ responses begin to deviate from the corresponding linear case after the time of about 4.3 s. However, the amount of change for Case C (i.e. variable damping) was much greater than for Case B (i.e. constant damping). This was manifested initially in the peaks of response. It was also noticed that the period of response changed slightly for Case B in comparison with the linear Case A, while this change was significant for Case C. The obtained tensile and compressive damages were subsequently compared for the two nonlinear cases. For constant damping Case B, it was noticed that tensile damage occurred in the D/S face kink and on the U/S face slightly at a lower elevation. Moreover, it had a scattered nature. However, in variable damping Case C, it was noticed that tensile damage was much more localized and acted similar to a discrete crack. Of course, both cases also show tensile damages at the dam’s heel. In regard to compressive damages, it is observed that low values are occurring for both nonlinear cases as expected.

The application of a recent single surface isotropic damage plasticity concrete model is presented for nonlinear dynamic analysis of the Koyna gravity dam. The nonlinear response of the dam is investigated for two different damping algorithms. Moreover, the influence of variable characteristic length is also investigated in the latter part of this study.

Clause 8 is about time; the time period for the performance of the Works (the beginning and the end), management of the Programme, the Contractor’s right to Extension of Time and the Employer’s right to suspend progress of the Works. Once the Works have been completed, Clause 9 [Tests on Completion] deals with the testing at completion and Clause 10 [Employer’s Taking Over] deals with the mechanics for the Employer’s Taking Over of the Works. Clause 11 [Defects after Taking Over] deals with defects after the Employer’s Taking Over. See also Figure 8.

The purpose of this study is to determine propeller damage based on acoustic recordings taken from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) propellers operated at different thrust conditions on a test bench. Propeller damage is especially critical for fixed-wing UAVs to sustain a safe flight. The acoustic characteristics of the propeller vary with different propeller damages.

For the research, feature extraction methods and machine learning techniques were used during damage detection from propeller acoustic data. First of all, sound recordings were obtained by operating five different damaged propellers and undamaged propellers under three different thrusts. Afterwards, the harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) feature extraction technique was applied to these audio recordings. Finally, model training and validation were performed by applying the Gaussian Naive Bayes machine learning technique to create a diagnostic approach.

A high recall value of 96.19% was obtained in the performance results of the model trained according to damaged and undamaged propeller acoustic data. The precision value was 73.92% as moderate. The overall accuracy value of the model, which can be considered as general performance, was obtained as 81.24%. The F1 score has been found as 83.76% which provides a balanced measure of the model’s precision and recall values.

This study include provides solid method to diagnose UAV propeller damage using acoustic data obtain from the microphone and allows identification of differently damaged propellers. Using that, the risk of in-flight failures can be reduced and maintenance costs can be lowered with addressing the occurred problems with UAV propeller before they worsen.

This study introduces a novel method to diagnose damaged UAV propellers using the HNR feature extraction technique and Gaussian Naive Bayes classification method. The study is a pioneer in the use of HNR and the Gaussian Naive Bayes and demonstrates its effectiveness in augmenting UAV safety by means of propeller damages. Furthermore, this approach contributes to UAV operational reliability by bridging the acoustic signal processing and machine learning.

The aim of this study is to question the relationship between architectural ethical codes and faults in earthquakes. Earthquakes have devastating effects on all societies in history and today. And the relationship and importance of the architect and building, one of the most important roles of these destructive effects, is once again revealed in every earthquake. Although there are some restrictions or warnings for architects and the architectural profession to reduce this destructive effect in many regulations and ethical codes, it is possible to see the defects caused by architectural design and the destruction caused by these defects in every new earthquake.

In this study, the most destructive earthquakes in Turkey in the past 20 years (Bingöl, Van, Elazig and Izmir) and the 1999 Marmara earthquake, which was the most destructive earthquake in Turkey’s recent history, and the damages occurred in these earthquakes and their causes were examined. Although the scope of the study is “destructive earthquakes that have occurred in the past 20 years in Turkey”, the Marmara Earthquake, which occurred in 1999, when the destructive effect of the earthquake was seen the most and architectural design errors were intense, was also included in the scope of the study. And to have a more comprehensive understanding of how these defects are examined in terms of ethical codes and to make a more comprehensive comparison, ethical codes from different countries in the world have been researched and a review has been made on topics such as public welfare, human rights and raising the standard of the profession.

This study concludes by reviewing the key factors learned from the examined ethical codes of different countries. Finding ethical codes of different countries was challenging to gain approval. In addition, the study ends with recommendations in terms of questioning the regulations and education curriculum relations on a country basis.

This study, which targets architect candidates who carry out the profession of architecture and continue their architectural education, evaluates the architectural design flaws seen in earthquakes through ethical codes and forms a basis for further studies.

The purpose of this paper is the dynamic analysis and seismic damage assessment of steel sheet pile quay wall with inelastic behavior underground motions using several accelerograms.

Finite element analysis is conducted using the Plaxis 2D software to generate the numerical model of quay wall. The extension of berth 25 at the port of Bejaia, located in northeastern Algeria, represents a case study. Incremental dynamic analyses are carried out to examine variation of the main response parameters under seismic excitations with increasing Peak ground acceleration (PGA) levels. Two global damage indices based on the safety factor and bending moment are introduced to assess the relationship between PGA and the damage levels.

The results obtained indicate that the sheet pile quay wall can safely withstand seismic loads up to PGAs of 0.35 g and that above 0.45 g, care should be taken with the risk of reaching the ultimate moment capacity of the steel sheet pile. However, for PGAs greater than 0.5 g, it was clearly demonstrated that the excessive deformations with material are likely to occur in the soil layers and in the structural elements.

The main contribution of the present work is a new double seismic damage index for a steel sheet pile supported quay wharf. The numerical modeling is first validated in the static case. Then, the results obtained by performing several incremental dynamic analyses are exploited to evaluate the degradation of the soil safety factor and the seismic capacity of the pile sheet wall. Computed values of the proposed damage indices of the considered quay wharf are a practical helping tool for decision-making regarding the seismic safety of the structure.

This study aims to investigate the satisfaction of farmers with the compensation policy for wildlife-caused damages and its influencing factors, analyze the current situation of satisfaction with the compensation policy among farmers, identify factors significantly affecting satisfaction, and explore ways to optimize the compensation policy and improve the satisfaction of farmers based on the effects of various influencing factors.

The Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, China, is selected as the research area for the study. Through field interviews, 370 valid questionnaires were collected to obtain relevant data on farmers' satisfaction with the compensation policy for wildlife-caused damages. The Oprobit model is utilized to explore the factors influencing farmer satisfaction and to analyze their underlying reasons.

The study reveals that farmers in the communities surrounding the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve generally experience low satisfaction with the compensation policy, particularly concerning satisfaction with compensation amounts, which tends to be dissatisfied on average. Satisfaction with the compensation policy is significantly influenced by individual characteristics and household labor structure, while the degree of human-wildlife conflict, wildlife conservation attitudes and household income structure have insignificant impact. Among individual characteristics, gender, education level, health status, and ethnicity are highly significant. In household labor structure, the number of agricultural laborers, non-agricultural laborers, and household agricultural labor time are highly significant.

Building on the overall satisfaction of farmers with the compensation policy, this study further decomposes policy satisfaction into satisfaction with compensation amounts, coverage, and procedures. It provides more targeted recommendations for enhancing satisfaction with the compensation policy, which can help effectively mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and achieve harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

Clause 1 [General Provisions] contains the provisions that in many contracts are bundled together under the ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘other provisions’ heading and includes a list of definitions, some interpretation principles, rules on communication between the Parties, documents forming the Contract, assignment, confidentiality etc. But Clause 1 also contains other provisions, like the Employer's right to use documentation and other deliverables provided by the Contractor (in other contracts usually referred to as a license to use), and a substantive Sub-Clause on limitation of liability.