1. Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo Univ., Cairo, Egypt; formerly Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil Engineering, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4L7.
2. Martini Mascarin & George Chair in Masonry Design and Director, Applied Dynamics Laboratory, Dept. of Civil Engineering, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4L7 (corresponding author).