GENERATION OF SYNTHETIC EARTHQUAKE ACCELEROGRAMS USING SEISMOLOGICAL MODELLING: A REVIEW

A stochastically based seismological model is described in this paper and used to generate synthetic accelerograms that are considered representative of intraplate earthquake events recorded on rock. The model, whilst well publicised in the seismological literature, is discussed and reviewed in this paper from an engineering perspective. The key factors influencing the frequency properties of the Fourier spectrum of the earthquake ground motion are presented and the differences observed between regions such as between eastern and western USA axe discussed. A procedure to generate representative artificial accelerograms from the Fourier spectrum is described. Average response spectra derived from these synthetic accelerograms are then compared with a selection of response spectra derived from recorded accelerograms to test and substantiate the model. The application of the seismological modelling approach to regions outside North America and the implications of the Displacement Based prinicples on the future development of seismological modelling have been addressed and discussed in the paper.     

The costs and consequences of drone warfare

One of the distinctive elements of President Barack Obama's approach to counterterrorism has been his embrace of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, to target terrorist operatives abroad. The Obama administration has used drones in active theatres of war, such as Afghanistan, but it has also dramatically increased the number of drone attacks launched by the CIA in other countries, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The conventional wisdom on drone warfare holds that these weapons are highly effective in killing terrorist operatives and disabling terrorist organizations, while killing fewer civilians than other means of attack. This article argues that much of the existing debate on drones operates with an attenuated notion of effectiveness that discounts the political and strategic dynamics—such as the corrosion of the perceptions of competence and legitimacy of governments where drone strikes take place, growing anti‐Americanism and fresh recruitment of militant networks—that reveal the costs of drone warfare. Focusing particularly on drone use in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the article suggests that the Obama administration's counterterrorism policy operates at cross‐purposes because it provides a steady flow of arms and financial resources to build up governments whose legitimacy it systematically undermines by conducting unilateral strikes on their territory. It concludes that the US embrace of drone technology is a losing proposition over the long term as it will usher in a new arms race and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent, destabilized and polarized between those who have drones and those who are victims of them.     

Africa Bewitched

Anderson, Robert. Magic, Science, and Health: The Aims and Achievements of Medical Anthropology. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, 1996. x + 454 pp. including index. $34.74 paper.

Hahn, Robert A. Sickness and Healing: An Anthropological Perspective. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995. viii + 327 pp. including references and index. $30.00 cloth.

Kleinman, Arthur. Writing at the Margin: Discourse between Anthropology and Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. xiii + 314 pp. including appendix, notes, references, and index. $40.00 cloth, $16.95 paper.     

REPLY TO J.T. SMITH'S SUGGESTED RE-INTERPRETATION OF BARNSLEY PARK VILLA

Summary. A different interpretation of the social significance of the excavation evidence from Barnsley Park has been advanced by Mr J. T. Smith, and the excavators now compare this with the conclusions at which they themselves arrived. They ask to what extent archaeological evidence is capable of settling a hypothesis about social structure, and proceed to re-examine the evidence for the house and for the paved and stone-walled area immediately surrounding it to see which alternative is less strained. Doubt is expressed about seeing many of the very minor nearby structures as other than animal pens. The house is re-examined for original occupation by more than one household, in response to Mr Smith's main point. Multiple occupation is perceived in its later history, but not at the commencement. The excavators conclude that their interpretation is clearer as a result of this very useful reconsideration, but essentially unchanged. Barnsley Park does not provide support for Mr Smith's suggestion of kin-groups in Romano-British villas.     

Neoliberalism and the Institutions for Regional Development in Australia

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.     

The Architects of the "Large Policy" Plus Two

Warren Zimmermann , First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power . New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 2002 . xii + 562 pp. Illus., notes, index.     

Re-investing in the Built Environment: A Spatial Network Approach

Before launching ambitious and expensive development programmes to induce new regional technology corridors and clusters, it is critical to appreciate existing spatial economic patterns in a region. Initial economic conditions drive location decisions of firms and a labour force such that any changes must intercede onto an existing landscape built for current economic conditions. This work adopts a simple regional economic model to integrate and review traditional and modern urban location theories in order to illustrate the power of initial conditions to determine a final result. A simple spatial dynamic simulation model captures many of the pertinent effects of real estate pricing patterns to frame both opportunities and constraints to re-shape an urban landscape. Attention to 'ground up' spatially correlated location patterns revealed in price data that suggests close attention to strategic zoning can have profound impacts on the success or failure of economic development. Relatively modest policy interventions that carefully utilize existing preferences for urban amenities and concurrent real property investments involve fewer policy risks with potentially more powerful stimulative economic consequences than promised in more ambitious programmes.