A Checking Method for Multiple Seismic Performance Objectives of Bridge Piers Designed According to Code Provisions

Seismic bridge design codes require that bridge piers designed according to prescribed design rules should attain specified multiple seismic performance objectives. However, design codes do not explicitly require checking the attainment of specified performance objectives for designed bridge piers. In this article, seismic performance levels have been correlated with engineering damage parameters. A checking method for multiple seismic performance objectives of bridge piers has been outlined and validated with experimental results. The application of the method has been demonstrated by checking the performance of a bridge pier designed according to a code provision for a wide range earthquake ground motions.     

EVIDENCE OF POLITICAL YARDSTICK COMPETITION IN FRANCE USING A TWO‐REGIME SPATIAL DURBIN MODEL WITH FIXED EFFECTS*

ABSTRACT This research proposes a two‐regime spatial Durbin model with spatial and time‐period fixed effects to test for political yardstick competition and exclude any other explanation that might produce spatial interaction effects among the dependent variable, the independent variables, or the error term. The study also derives the maximum likelihood estimator and variance–covariance matrix of the parameters of this model. Data pertaining to welfare spending by 93 departments in France during 1992–2000 provide significant empirical evidence in support of political yardstick competition. Departments governed by a small political majority mimic neighboring expenditures on welfare to a greater extent than do departments governed by a large political majority.     

A comparative study of wall paintings at the Cypriot monastery of Christ Antiphonitis: one artist or two?

The central church of the monastery of Christ Antiphonitis near Kalogrea, within the district of Kyrenia in Cyprus, is decorated with wall paintings that date from the last decades of fifteenth century. Two large and elaborate scenes, the Last Judgement and the Root of Jesse, had been preserved in the church until the Turkish invasion (1974) after which they were cut into tetragonal pieces, separated, and sent by looters to Germany for selling at illicit markets. The German Police returned thirty-two of the pieces to the Archbishop Makarios Foundation in Nicosia.     

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND SOCIAL DISTANCING IN PRISONS

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, how can the early release of prisoners, requested by the World Health Organization, members of civil society and non-governmental organizations, be considered a ‘humane’ decision? In this article, the author examines the Portuguese context, discussing the ways that the urgency and fear of contagion highlighted, once more, the inability of prisons to cope with the needs of both those they confine and those they intend to protect.