Rocking Behavior of Irregular Free-Standing Objects Subjected to Earthquake Motion

Free-standing rigid objects and structures are dominantly found to exhibit rocking behavior and can be vulnerable to overturning during an earthquake as demonstrated by numerous past earthquake events. Such objects are typically considered to be displacement sensitive with their rocking response being well presented by the Peak Displacement Demand (PDD) parameter of the supporting floor’s motion. This in turn can be directly related to an object’s width (along the direction of motion) for assessing its vulnerability to overturn. Such findings have been sufficiently justified by refined dynamic analysis supported by experimental evaluations which were based on rigid blocks with uniform geometric format (i.e., regular in their mass distribution). However, vulnerable rocking objects can be asymmetric and accordingly their sensitivity to floor displacement cannot be directly related to their width. The key parameter which defines irregular objects’ response to rocking motion is represented by the degree of eccentricity of their center of mass. In this study, the well-known rocking equation of motion is reconfigured and devised to model the rocking responses for 280 irregular objects undergoing eight earthquake motions which included artificial and recorded earthquakes. Analytical results obtained from solving the adjusted equation of motion were evaluated with sophisticated finite element (FE) models simulating the 280 irregular cases. This experimentally validated FE modeling approach was found to be time- and cost-effective for understating the rocking behavior of asymmetric objects as well as clarifying an interesting relationship between the object’s damping level and the condition of the supporting base (i.e., whether being provided with supports at the points of rotation or not). The rocking response of irregular objects was found to be highly influenced by the level of eccentricity of the object when excited by motions with high displacement amplitudes, while such influence was not found noticeable by wider objects. Based on the developed trends between the maximum top displacement of irregular objects and the PDD, an expression for estimating the rocking amplitudes is proposed which is a function of the object’s eccentricity.     

Beyond The Limits to Growth: Ecology and the Neoliberal Counterrevolution

This paper brings autonomist Marxist analyses of post‐Fordist transition together with the geographical literature on ecosystem services to argue that the rise of the ecosystem service economy was central to what Paolo Virno has called the neoliberal counterrevolution. By analyzing the discourse of environmental crisis in the 1960s and 1970s, I demonstrate that early efforts to account for the value of environmental functions were a response to the instabilities faced by globalized capital in the postwar era. The rise of the ecosystem service economy is central to what autonomist Marxists describe as a post‐Fordist mode of production in which the activities of social (and, I argue, ecological) reproduction become direct sources of value. The paper suggests the need to revise the autonomist analysis to account for both the ecological dimensions of Fordist crisis, and the importance of the ecosystem service economy as a means whereby the counterrevolution was accomplished.     

Gendered orphan kits,authority, power and the role of rumor in the woodlands of Mozambique

Recipient communities often distribute humanitarian aid in unexpected ways that reveal critical power dynamics and relationships. This article examines a case involving ‘orphan kits’ distributed by the staff of an international non-governmental organization in Mozambican woodland communities. The kits contained food and school supplies allocated according to a strict gender distribution mandate, which was of secondary importance compared with local obligations tied to enduring matrilineal social relations. Families divided the kits among kin and allocated a portion of the kits to local leaders as tribute. The seemingly simple act of leaders placing orphans on a list can signify the future arrival of much-needed support while also sparking fears of disciplinary powers governing family structures, labor and culturally and politically oppositional lives. Rumors narrate the effects of particular list-making procedures, allowing families to observe, interpret and express ideas about coercive and productive power relations. Rumors took up kit contents such as sardine tins to catalyze debates about proper leadership and comportment of orphans and their families. The article illustrates how feminist geographers can treat rumor and liminal interventions seriously as constitutive of contested power relations rooted in eco-social spaces.     

The Battle of Ashdown,A.D. 871

An examination of coin evidence from North Wales appears to show that coin ceased to reach the area in the middle of the last decade of the fourth century. The absence of sites from the Notitia Dignitatum in combination with the negative coin evidence is deployed to suggest that forces were withdrawn from the area by Arbogastes during the revolt of Eugenius (A.D. 392–95). The dating of clipped siliquae is reconsidered.     

Early Socialism in Canada: International and Regional Impulses

International and regional impulses have shaped Canadian socialism from the movement’s origins in the nineteenth century to the present. Many of Canada’s early socialists arrived as ready-made socialists from abroad. From the British Isles, continental Europe, and the United States, these idealists and dissidents imported radical political ideals, which they subsequently adapted to meet the emerging conditions of an industrializing, urbanizing Canada. Directed at a broad cross-section of society, the early Canadian socialist rainbow featured many colours: Chartists, Christian socialists, cooperators, and, by the nineteenth century’s end—communists, anarchists, and other adherents of European radical movements. This process of importation, adaptation, and change took different forms in the distinctive regional contexts of Canada’s multi-ethnic federal state. Building on an interdisciplinary literature, the authors illuminate the ways in which international and regional impulses shaped Canada’s socialist tradition, helping to explain persistent tensions and forces within contemporary Canadian politics.     

Bromine in teeth and bone as an indicator of marine diet

Nitrogen isotope ratios in tissues are often used to aid in the reconstruction of the marine component of diets in past populations. Elevated δ¹⁵N values normally found with high trophic level marine resource consumption can, however, also be mimicked by physiological conditions (breastfeeding, pathological states affecting nitrogen balance), climate (aridity), and anthropogenic environments (manuring). This paper presents a pilot study testing whether bromine concentrations can provide a tool for teasing apart possible causes of variation in nitrogen isotope ratios. Blind analyses of bromine in archaeological samples correctly identified individuals derived from coastal vs. inland regions and high vs. low marine consumption time periods. Thus, bromine can provide an important supplement to other isotopic analyses of diet.     

Foodstuff placement in ibis mummies and the role of viscera in embalming

Recent excavation of a mummified ibis, in whose bill were found numerous snails, and the 2010 radiological study of ibis mummies from Yale's Peabody Museum drew attention to the presence of bird foodstuffs intentionally placed inside mummified ibises following evisceration. The foodstuff packing in the Peabody's ibises was likely contained within the birds' own viscera. Radiographs of a hatchling ibis mummy at McGill's Redpath Museum demonstrated similar placement of foodstuffs within the eviscerated body cavity. This pattern of ibis evisceration, with the previously unreported practice of foodstuff packing, suggests the provision of an afterlife food source to the bird. These findings lend support to the idea that the viscera of ibises, and humans alike, were meant to continue their living function in the afterlife. Given that organs of digestion and respiration were specifically preserved and retained within, or in conjunction with, human mummies, the implication is that animals were also treated with similar respect and care, and the crucial role of the viscera was recognised.     

Issues,Coalitions, and Divided Government

Ryan J. Barilleaux, The Post-Modern Presidency. The Office After Ronald Reagan. New York: Praeger. 1988. Pp. x, 175. $35.95.

Richard Rose, The Postmodern President: The White House Meets the World. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers. 1988. Pp. x, 350. $17.95.