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In order to conform to the development of the times and effectively promote the reform of vocal music education in colleges and universities, this paper proposes an innovative path of diversified vocal music education reform in colleges and universities under the modern advanced educational concepts that are steadily gaining utilisation and popular acceptance in China and the West. In this paper, the passive collective behaviour of biology is introduced in the teacher stage in the basic TLBO algorithm, and then the feedback stage is added after the student stage to increase the effectiveness of students’ learning methods, maintain the diversity of students and make available a system the deployment of which would swiftly bring students with poor grades to the attention of teachers; to this end, the algorithm is made to perform a local fine search, and the optimisation accuracy of the algorithm and its global search ability are improved. Finally, based on the numerical simulation of the standard test set and compared with the existing optimised TLOB algorithm, it is concluded that 92% of the solutions in the ETLBO are dominated or not dominated by the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised TLBO, while only 2% of the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised ETLBO are dominated by the non-dominated solutions of the TLBO. Centralised solutions dominate or do not dominate each other. It is concluded that the optimised TLBO algorithm has the best solution ability and also has practical application significance.

Landslides are very dangerous phenomena dependent upon several parameters and criteria widespread in Northern Morocco. Their management is complex because of the dangers posed to the population and by the habitat, but also due to the difficulty of remedial actions. To address this, a methodology is needed based on the analysis of land movements through a multidisciplinary approach combining geology, hydrogeochemistry, and geotechnics. This perspective was adopted in this study of landslides in the city of Al Hoceima (Northern Morocco), and in particular on the slope located in front of the Al Hoceima port, which shows a morphology of old landslides, and more recent ones subject to factors of instability or landslides that activate after periods of intense rain. The analysis and interpretation of satellite images reveals a complex morphology, shaped by a geology characterized by tectonic activity and often-altered lithology. From a geotechnical point of view, the latter induces low to medium mechanical characteristics. Inclinometric measurements situate the average depths of the sliding planes at between 15 m and 25 m. The chemical facies of the groundwater is sodium sulphate, sometimes tilting toward chloride-sodium, proof of a leaching of the autochthonous formations (Trias-Lias and Jurassic), to which is added the action of the rising water table. All these factors intervene directly in the destabilization of the slope. These results allow us to establish concrete actions for the stabilization of the slope.

Lifelines such as drinking water and sewage systems provide the means and conveyance for daily critical services, and they are essential systems for recovery operations after a damaging earthquake. Therefore, earthquake damage to lifeline components needs to be reliably assessed for a possible future seismic scenario. This study presents an earthquake damage assessment of buried pipeline networks in the Lima Metropolitan Area (LMA). It includes seismic hazard analysis, a review of pipeline network datasets, and the selection of empirical fragility functions. Deterministic seismic hazard analysis was performed for an inter-plate earthquake scenario using ground motion prediction equations and site conditions to compute the distribution of the peak ground velocity (PGV). Recommendations are offered for an adequate selection of fragility functions developed in other regions, and a logic tree of fragility functions is proposed to be used in pipelines of LMA according to the data of pipeline damage after the 2007 Pisco Earthquake. Finally, the pipeline repair ratios and the total number of repairs are estimated for the earthquake scenario, and the results are geographically presented for each pipeline network.

Japanese citizens are still not fully prepared for an occurrence of the Nankai Trough Earthquake. In the Japanese population, it is not an easy task to achieve disaster preparedness, and to address issues such as a lack of initiative and low priority in disaster risk reduction (DRR). In their attempt to address these issues, the authors focused on Japanese elementary school students and their parents by conducting a lighthearted workshop that encouraged them to initiate risk reduction activities against disasters caused by natural hazards, including the Nankai Trough Earthquake. The workshop was a nonschool-based DRR activity, and it had the following characteristics: (1) the contents were comprehensively developed from a collaboration between researchers in science and engineering with a disaster science communicator and media personnel; (2) innovative contents were communicated in a creative manner; (3) incorporation of a “newspaper-making” activity; and (4) an online format that easily enabled those who did not have a close social network in the community to participate in it. The workshop was conducted with 21 families, and they developed original newspapers on DRR. The findings of the completed newspapers, participant observations, and questionnaire survey revealed that the workshop was an effective starting point for citizens to proactively engage in DRR, including the Nankai Trough Earthquake.

Non-engineered confined masonry dwellings are characterized by having different masonry units. One of the most common cases in the Lima Metropolitan Area is that this type of dwelling has its first floors with handmade solid units and upper floors are composed of industrial horizontal hollowed (tubular) bricks. Nonlinear static analysis by the incrementally increasing loading pattern is inadequate to estimating earthquake response of structures with height irregularity, such as non-engineered confined masonry dwellings, because the loading pattern changes during the history of reversal loads due to damaging earthquakes. This paper presents the effect of nonlinear static analysis using adaptive loading patterns in confined masonry dwellings when the type of masonry units changes drastically. Nonlinear static analyses are applied using non-adaptive and adaptive displacement-based pushover procedures. A series of nonlinear time history analyses are also conducted to measure the error in the estimation of the seismic response. The adaptive loading pattern is based on displacement approximation by the modal analysis at each step of incremental-increasing loads. The load pattern is updated considering the modal analysis of an equivalent linear model using the equivalent stiffness of the structure at the secant of the maximum previous response. The application of the adaptive loading pattern in nonlinear static analysis significantly approximates the earthquake response of confined masonry dwellings with height irregularity provided by the change of masonry bricks.

Evaluation of site amplification factors (SAFs) of seismic waves has been one of the important issues for evaluating seismic hazards. The authors have proposed a deep neural network (DNN) model in order to cost-effectively and accurately estimate SAF from microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (MHVR). In this study, we assessed the SAFs in southern Lima, Peru by estimating from MHVRs and DNN. First, we validated the applicability of the DNN model to Lima by estimating the SAFs from the MHVRs observed at seismic stations in Lima. From the comparison with the observed SAFs derived from spectral inversion technique, we confirmed that the SAFs in Lima were accurately estimated by the DNN model. The SAFs in the southern Lima including Chorrillos and Villa El Salvador districts were evaluated by applying the DNN model to the observed MHVRs at approximately 250 sites. We found that large amplifications at low frequency around 1 Hz were expected in the southeastern coastal areas formed by eolian sands whereas smaller amplification were estimated in the northwestern areas mainly located on alluvial deposits.

Practicing rescue plans is an important training method to improve the rescue capacity of firefighters, yet the status of such practice has rarely been reported in international journals. Vietnamese firefighters expanded the types of rescue plans to be practiced in 2012, but this activity remains limited and inadequate. This study aims to identify the causes of the current limitations in the practice of rescue plans and proposes solutions to improve the ability of Vietnamese firefighters to practice rescue plans. To identify the characteristics of rescue practice activities in Vietnam, 200 rescue plans and 100 rescue practice videos were analyzed. A survey of 196 officers from 16 provincial fire departments was conducted to identify reasons for these limitations. Officers’ responses from eight provincial fire departments with good performance in 2020 were compared with those of officers from other fire departments. The responses were also compared across the four groups of officials with different work experiences. The method of practicing rescue plans in Vietnam was compared with that proposed by the US Department of Homeland Security. This study suggests that Vietnam should apply less expensive exercises and not depend too much on hypothetical incident scenes. The same recommendation applies to other Southeast Asian countries.

During big earthquakes, one of the challenges for the decision maker is the estimation of the resources for the attention of the disaster which is computed based on the casualties and injured people, which is generated by damaging earthquake. In this investigation, two criteria for the estimation of casualties during damaging earthquake were presented for Mw>6.5 in one target area, namely, Chorrillos district in the Lima metropolitan. First criterion considers the compilation of existing data that reports the casualties on damaged cities with a population density involved, considering the lifestyle, the time of occurrence, the season of the year, that could influence in the number of victims, which is normalized to avoid temporary effects in the estimation. The second criterion considers the output generated prior computed process such earthquake hazard, microzoning and risk analysis of the target area. Here a series of identification of parameters has been computed such as location of the source of earthquake, depth and epicentral distance, distribution of population, social levels, and others, to estimate the risk. For the computing of the number of casualties in the affected area, a relation between the magnitude and risk is developed. Both criteria provided results which with an uncertain measure, but not so far from each other. That gives us confidence in this approach. Also, we evaluate the estimation with the major earthquake’s scenarios for the region especially in Peru, with reasonable results.

Intertidal zones serve as a critical transition between land and ocean and are periodically inundated by tides. They are extremely important to coastal communities as it provides diverse habitats and buffers against marine hazards. However, the reduced river sediment together with sea level rise and coastal reclamation have caused the widespread loss of intertidal areas. Reliable, high-resolution, and up-to-date intertidal topography maps are key information for coastal vulnerability assessment and restoration. Existing approaches to intertidal topography construction involve significant ground surveys, with limited spatial coverage, accuracy, and efficiency, thus, restricting their potential to generalize globally. To address these issues, we propose a pixel-based approach to construct intertidal topography from dense Sentinel-2 satellite time-series and limited ground truth surveys, named as Tide2Topo. Tide2Topo differs conceptually from the widely used waterline method since it considers tidal inundation frequency as a topographic indicator rather than instantaneous waterlines. Therefore, Tide2Topo does not involve manual selection of images at different tide levels. The relationship between intertidal inundation frequency and elevation is calibrated using linear and polynomial models based on a few transect measurements instead of tidal height, preventing errors introduced by inaccurate tidal data. The proposed Tide2Topo was applied and validated in the UK and China over several complicated estuaries and bays with extensive muddy flats or sandy beaches. The results demonstrated that the topography derived from intertidal inundation frequency compared to LiDAR or UAV photogrammetric observations has a root mean square error ranging from 16 to 38 cm. The large errors were found in the tidal channel areas where the inundation frequency calculation was prone to uncertainty. Dense Sentinel-2 time-series observations ensure finer sampling of the tidal cycle, thereby not only eliminating errors caused by spatial interpolation but also maintaining the accuracy of elevation estimations at pixel level. Tide2Topo is a robust, portable and rapid method well suitable for large-scale intertidal topography construction. Future work could use Sentinel-1 SAR as an alternative data source for Tide2Topo, realizing seasonal or annual monitoring of intertidal geomorphological changes.

The Lima metropolitan area is in a prone earthquake zone, which is exposed to a seismic gap; this can result in Mw 8.9 megathrust earthquake in the central Peru. After the Pisco earthquake in 2007, risk management policies changed in Peru and are improving annually. Thus, more resources are destinated to assessing earthquake hazard, vulnerability, and risk in districts of the Lima metropolitan area mainly; nevertheless, they are limited to cover in detailed the whole extension of probable affected area after this potential megathrust earthquake. Data of buildings in the Lima metropolitan area were analyzed in this paper, to provide useful information in the development of rapid methodologies of identification of buildings. The Japan Peru Center for Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Mitigation (CISMID) gathered these data from 2010 to 2021 in field surveys to conduct vulnerability and risk studies; the survey of building characteristics consisted of obtain mainly the number of stories, predominant material, structural systems, type of occupancy, and state of conservation. Vulnerability and risk studies for districts of the Lima metropolitan area were conducted by considering one representative building in one block. Results showed that the predominant material in the Lima metropolitan area is masonry, used in different structural systems, such as confined masonry and other which are nonengineered structures. Also, two-story buildings are predominant in the target area, followed by one and three-stories buildings. Risk assessment for the Lima metropolitan area and the study area were conducted using the data from the characterization of structural typologies obtained in this study. Approximately, 47.72% and 58.67% of buildings presented a very high-risk level in the Lima metropolitan area and the study area, respectively, under the expected earthquake scenario due to the seismic gap in the central Peru.

We revised the building damage caused by the 2007 Pisco-Peru Earthquake using machine learning models and high-resolution satellite imagery. A framework for rapidly detecting collapsed buildings was proposed in the project “Development of Integrated Expert System for Estimation and Observation of Damage Level of Infrastructure in Lima Metropolitan Area” (JST-JICA SATREPS). The framework is based on a semantic segmentation model trained on freely available satellite and aerial imagery that does not include the target area. Thus, the generalization performance of the proposed framework was analyzed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrated that the proposed framework successfully predicted the distribution of collapsed buildings in Pisco. Moreover, it also reflects the ability to detect newly placed shelters. Our current trained model enables the rapid estimation of damaged buildings, crucial information for emergency response, and temporary refuges, which are also essential for fast rescue actions.