In recent decades several destructive earthquakes result in extensive structural and non-structural damage in structures that was produced by lateral displacements. So, it reveals the necessity of accurate estimation of lateral displacement of the structures in design procedure. According to the present seismic design provisions, displacement AMPLIFICATION FACTOR, (Cd), is applied to acquire elastic lateral displacements in order to assess inelastic displacements, due to the ground motions. Besides, in many codes, these FACTORs are empirical in nature and is based on structural performance, which has been observed in the past earthquakes,On the other hand, the effect of height and number of stories is neglected. In this paper, the effect of Cd on seismic performance of steel special moment frames is evaluated. Six types of buildings are designed with different values of Cd (i. e., 4, 5, 5. 5, 6, 7, and 8). For each type of building, 5 heights (i. e., 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-and 25-stories) are considered. The finite element models are developed in Opensees. Incremental DYNAMIC and nonlinear static analyses are performed to quantify structures’,seismic performance utilizing fragility curves and FEMA P695 methodology. The results indicate that the values of Cd provided in the codes for steel special moment frames are not completely effective on seismic performance, especially in short-rise buildings. Also, the probability of collapse of high-rise buildings is less likely with respect to the medium-rise buildings,Therefore, in high-rise buildings, increasing the amount of Cd is not necessarily recommended, because it increases the cross sections of the frame members and makes the design uneconomical.

Response modification and deflection AMPLIFICATION FACTORs are used in the current seismic design codes to account for the inelastic behaviour of structural systems without the need for complicated nonlinear analyses. A deflection AMPLIFICATION FACTOR, cd, is used to compute the expected maximum inelastic displacement from the elastic displacement induced by the design seismic forces. The response modification FACTOR, R, expressed as either a force reduction FACTOR or a behavior FACTOR, is used to reduce the linear elastic design response spectra. It is generally expressed as the product of three FACTORs: overstrength FACTOR, ductility FACTOR, and redundancy FACTOR. This paper tries to evaluate these FACTORs for steel intermediate moment-resisting frames. For this purpose, two dimensional steel building models with different number of stories have been designed and analyzed. After obtaining pushover curves of the models, two different approaches have been adopted to calculate the effective parameters of the response modification and deflection AMPLIFICATION FACTORs from pushover curves; the first approach that is suggested by seismic code provisions, like ATC-19, FEMA-356 and Iranian Standard No. 2800, uses the idealized pushover curve to specify the effective parameters, and the other approach that is recommended by FEMA-P695 gets the parameters directly from pushover curves. The obtained results from these two approaches for the above-mentioned FACTORs have then been compared with each other and with the recommended values of these FACTORs in the Iranian Standard No. 2800. In this evaluation, ductility FACTOR of the response modification FACTOR has been calculated based on the relations proposed by Newmark and Hall, Lai and Biggs, and Nassar and Krawinkler. According to the obtained numerical results, the average response modification FACTOR resulted from the FEMAP695 approach is 5.26, while this FACTOR was obtained 3.98 based on the Iranian Standard No. 2800 approach. Considering the recommended R FACTOR of the Iranian Standard No. 2800 for the ultimate limit state design of steel intermediate moment-resisting systems equaling 5, it is obvious that the results from the FEMA-P695 approach are more compatible with the code recommendation. In addition, the average over strength FACTORs, according to the FEMA-P695 and Iranian Standard No. 2800 approaches, are 2.37 and 1.80, respectively, when the recommended value of this FACTOR in the Iranian Standard No. 2800 is 3. The average deflection AMPLIFICATION FACTOR obtained from both approaches is 3.67 that is slightly less than the recommended value of 4 for this FACTOR in the Iranian Standard No. 2800.

In performance based design, the hazard levels and relevant acceptable damages are clearly specified. Structural and non-structural performances are controlled by limiting stiffness, strength and members ductility characteristics. Using displacement AMPLIFICATION FACTORs (Cd) and force reduction FACTORs (R) related to hazard levels, this paper present a method for determination of the stiffness and strength demands needed for BFs (Braced Frames) design. It means that two force reduction FACTORs and two displacement AMPLIFICATION FACTORs are introduced for moderate and major earthquake levels (Immediate Occupancy and Life Safety performances) for determination of stiffness and strength demands. These FACTORs depend on ductility FACTOR, force reduction FACTOR due to ductility and overstrength FACTOR. The procedure for determination of R and Cd FACTORs and value of these FACTORs for Io and LS performance level will be presented in this paper. The results indicate that force reduction FACTORs and displacement AMPLIFICATION FACTORs may be easily used in performance based design methodology.

One of the most common irregularities in structures is the irregularity in height and lateral stiffness. Due to the commonness of the use of irregular structures and also the different seismic responses of this type of structures, in comparison with regular structures, investigating the seismic response of irregular structures has always been the subject of several research studies. The structures designed for the reduced base shear, under the design earthquake, have inelastic response. To calculate the real (inelastic) displacements of structures under the design earthquake, the displacements obtained from the reduced base shear, are amplified by the deflection AMPLIFICATION FACTOR (Cd). Seismic codes have dedicated a Cd for each structural system. But different studies have shown that the dedicated Cd by the codes cannot accurately estimate the real displacements. The main purpose of this research is to propose the Cd values for more accurately estimating the maximum inter-story drift ratio (MIDR) and maximum roof drift ratio (MRDR) in steel special moment resisting frames (SMRFs) with the soft story. The number of stories and the location of the soft story are the variables considered in this research. The results show that the use of Cd = 5.5, recommended by the 2800 standard and ASCE 7-16 for steel SMRFs, underestimates the real MIDR and also MRDR, under the design earthquake. It is shown that by increasing the number of stories, the mean Cd obtained from the analyses increases. The reason for this issue is the P-Δ effects that increase by increasing the number of stories. In addition, it is shown that a specified trend cannot be found between the location of the soft story and the mean Cd values in the stories of the structures. Thus, for more accurately estimating MIDR in the considered structures, under the design earthquake, Cd = 8.5 is proposed. Furthermore, for more accurately estimating MRDR, Cd roof = 8.0 is proposed.

Introduction: Salmonella Bacterium is not only a causative FACTOR of typhoid fever, enterocolitis, and salmonellosis, but it is also a zoonotic infection. This bacterium is a major health problem throughout the world, and is especially prevalent in developing countries. Therefore, rapid diagnosis of salmonella can prevent its outbreak. Different techniques are used for the diagnosis of  Salmonella bacteria, such as; culture, biochemical, serological, ELISA, Widal, immunofluorescence and molecular methods like PCR and Real time PCR,all of which are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Thus, our study was designed to evaluate the LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal DNA AMPLIFICATION method) for detection of salmonella bacteria.Materials & Methods: In this study, we examined 7 different strains of salmonella.  The DNA was extracted by standard methods and amplified with specific primers by PCR and set of primers for LAMP in single temperature in very simple thermal block made in Iran. The amplified products were detected by gel electrophoresis and LAMP products were visualized by their turbidity with naked eye.Findings: Conventional PCR method for detection of Salmonella needs standard thermocylcer and takes 3 hours, but using  LAMP method, we were able to amplify and detect salmonella in simple thermoblock, taking much less time. After optimization of the process, it was, soon, possible to detect and identify Salmonella typhi bacteria within 90 minutes. This method is also 10 times more sensitive than that of the PCR.Discussion & Conclusion: According to the results, comparing LAMP method for detection and identification of Salmonella with conventional PCR, we have been able to determine the simplicity, speed and the superior sensitivity of the LAMP method. This Method is more simple, faster and cheaper. Non-dependence of cycle's temperature and thermo-cycling and replacement with one thermo block which is very simple, inexpensive and made inside the country, can be considered another advantage of the LAMP method.