Technical Note: Practical Challenges Facing the Selection of Conditional Spectrum-Compatible Accelerograms

There are various possibilities for the selection and scaling of ground motions for advanced seismic assessment of buildings using nonlinear response-history analyses. As part of an on-going project looking at building-specific loss assessment in Italy, this article highlights a number of challenges currently facing the use of conditional spectra for ground motion selection in practice, essentially related to the limited amount of seismic hazard information that is publicly available. To illustrate the points being made, the challenges faced when trying to develop conditional spectra and select spectrum-compatible accelerograms for a rock site in Napoli, Italy, are described and the seismic assessment results obtained for a number of reinforced concrete wall structures are presented. Aside from providing practitioners with an appreciation of the potential difficulty associated with using conditional spectra for record selection, this technical note should also motivate national authorities to provide more background information on national seismic hazard data and detailed guidance for record selection.     

羌塘保护区的成绩和困难

羌塘国家级自然保护区位于西藏西北部,昆仑山、可可西里山以南,冈底斯山以北,总面积29．8万平方千米,其中核心区面积89347平方千米,缓冲区面积143153平方千米,实验区面积65500平方千米,     

Economic Governance and the Evolution of Industrial Districts Under Globalization: The Case of Two Mature European Industrial Districts

For many mature European industrial districts, the present decade has been one of trying (and often failing) to meet the difficult challenges posed by the rising tide of globalization. The future of these districts in the new global economy has become a key issue for regional and local development policy, and, in this respect, it has sparked a renewed interest in economic governance. Economic governance is important in that it underpins a region's long-term economic development path. This article is a contribution to the study of the economic governance of industrial districts and the related policy debate. The article does so by specifically exploring the economic governance issue by considering the experiences and challenges currently facing two mature European industrial districts in the global economy.     

The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter: A Marshallian Industrial District

The paper presents the findings of a study on the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter at its zenith from 1880 to 1920. Drawing on a unique database covering four decades and secondary data, it has been possible to map out the organization of production, the degree of firms' specializations, and extent of production and social networking within the Quarter. Such evidence seems to suggest that the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter was a Marshallian industrial district at the turn of the nineteenth century.     

Innovation and Change in the Marshallian Industrial District

One of the relatively neglected aspects of studies of industrial districts is that of processes of innovation and structured change. In the paper, a preliminary theorization is offered, with evidence from a case in Tuscany. The paper concludes that creative capacities embedded at the local level may be valuable in this respect.     

Italian Industrial Districts: An Industrial Economics Interpretation

The Italian debate on industrial districts suggests that local development can be based on small and medium-sized firms, provided they work in teams and are embedded in a local system of social relations. If the availability of local public goods complements the private supply of local specialized services and goods, Marshallian external economies are engendered. When inner social and economic relations boost the supply of local public goods, and are reproduced by the consistent economic behaviour of local (economic and political) agents, they become local factors of economic development, or, in other words, the district's social capital. These propositions are considered within a three-layered framework comprising structure, conduct and performance. The relations among these levels allow joint consideration of three different processes of economic selection: competitive, strategic, evolutionary. This complexity is necessary if the conditions that foster significant Marshallian external economies are to be represented correctly.     

无可规避的文化苦旅——日本的国际化

国际化是我们所处时代的重要趋势,直接影响与制约着世界历史与人类文明的历程。自二十世纪八十年代提出“文化立国”以来,日本的国际化之旅日益引起国际社会的广泛关注;大和民族的文化演进轨迹与日本的国际定位遂成为国际学术界的一个重要研究课题。本文旨在通过民族文化价值观适应超国家的世界文化体系过程中的作用的剖析,力求从客观的立场上提出对日本文化现实的某些认识,并且努力使这认识接近这一文化的某些本质方面。     

The Industrial District and the 'New' Italian Economic Geography

The industrial district is one of the theoretical concepts by which Italian economic geography has redefined a large part of its scientific and methodological status. The successful of industrial district is linked to the explanation of the Italian model of light industrialization, that is to the role played by small firms in Italian manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to know that industrial district was introduced as a theoretical paradigm to stress the territoriality of the production process and the gain of productiveness and innovativeness for the firm which sources from the embedding of economic activity within the local society where the production takes place. Support for this approach is found in the Marshallian external economies. This article addresses the importance of industrial district from the point of view of this neo-Marshallian reading of the organization of production. This framework of reference provides the basis for the formulation and implementation of local policies which recast traditional economic, social and infrastructural ones as specialist policies aimed at the creation of the institutional and environmental conditions for the competitiveness of places.     

An International Constitutional Court: Future Roles & Challenges

This article comprehensively examines the 1999 recommendation of the Tunisian government to create an International Constitutional Court that is designed to enhance the principles of democracy and human rights and to strengthen the constitutional doctrine which states that the people are the source of authority in a given country. This proposal, which was strongly advocated by former Tunisian President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki during his term in office, aims to underscore the importance of establishing an international judicial entity and analysing its bylaws with respect to its terms and conditions, formation, jurisdiction, and selection of judges. The article traces the trajectory of the movement, from the proposal stage to the latest developments in formally establishing the international judicial entity. Finally, the article identifies various possible difficulties and challenges that are likely to stand in the way of implementing the proposal.     

The Problem of Organizing a Food-Supply Base for the Yeniseysk Industrial District

The author examines the possibilities of developing a local food supply for the growing population of the prospective Yeniseysk industrial district of central Siberia. Local conditions are found to be economical for the production of a suburban-truck type of farming, with emphasis on fresh vegetables, potatoes and whole milk, as well as pork, poultry and eggs. Grain production is found to be uneconomical and the district will have to rely on grain shipped from other areas.     

Road transport in the English Industrial Revolution: An interim reassessment

Recent studies by Albert, Pawson and others have led to a new appreciation of road transport in the Industrial Revolution; traditionally, it is canal development rather than road transport expansion that has been seen as the key sector in contemporary transport improvement. Fresh examination of the traditional emphasis on canals underlines the new findings on the road sector. The role of canals in raw material movement may be undeniable, but the marketing side of the industrializing economy has largely been forgotten. Detailed comparison of the different properties of canal and road transport reveals yet further weaknesses. Among them is the peculiar susceptibility of canals to frost and drought. Using a prediction technique based on Manley's monthly temperature means for Central England, it emerges that in one out of every two years, frost may have impeded canal-working for upwards of 20 days. A number of possible directions for further research are outlined. Of particular importance is the need for studies of transport demand.     

全球化视野下的亚洲现代化

全球化和现代化是当今世界的两大潮流。用全球化的视野审视亚洲现代化,有助于解读亚洲现代化。本文从历史的纵向与横向发展的视角考察亚洲现代化;用“多样性统一”的历史观研究亚洲现代化;用宏观与微观相结合的方法解读亚洲现代化;并阐述了世界现代化与亚洲现代化的关系和亚洲现代化的特点及发展趋势。     

政治全球化视角下的日本政治大国战略

政治全球化进程的加快对国际政治、国际关系产生了深远的影响。对日本而言,是从经济大国走向政治大国的难得契机,再加上国内新国家主义的鼓动驱策,其政治大国目标清晰,政治大国战略选择日益引人注目。