ON THE OPTIMAL LOCATION OF SENSORS IN MULTI-STOREYED BUILDINGS

A new approach has been developed for finding optimal location of sensors in 3D multi-storeyed buildings. This approach is based on the compact probabilistic representation of acceleration response in terms of its covariance matrix. For a specified number of sensors, the optimal location has been taken to be the one for which the computed covariance matrix is closest to the exact covariance matrix of the random field constituted by the acceleration response process. It has been found that the determined sensor locations match favourably with those predicted by earlier studies for the special case of shear buildings. Further, the optimality of the determined sensor locations has also been verified by identifying the system parameters from the time series data and comparing them with those of the Finite Element Model.     

Technology,strategy and counterterrorism

For as long as there has been technology (the application of science and innovation) and for as long as there has been strategy (the use of forces and resources to achieve political goals) there has been a relationship of sorts between these two preoccupations. This article inquires into the nature of the technological–strategic relationship which governments, such as that in the UK, draw upon as they confront international terrorism. To what extent has the historical technostrategic dynamic remained relevant and useful, and where has new thinking been required? The article suggests that a new and more complex understanding of the technology–strategy relationship is emerging in the context of counterterrorism. The challenge facing government is to maintain a technological edge against its terrorist adversary, without exaggerating the adversary's capability, and while ensuring that its counterterrorism strategy pursues a coherent and persuasive political goal.     

The politics of conflict: a constructivist critique of consociational and civil society theories*

ABSTRACT. This article presents a (critical realist) constructivist critique of both consociational and civil society/transformationist approaches and their crude understandings of politics and the prospects for political change. Consociationalism's primordialist or essentialist foundation leads it towards a world‐weary, pessimistic, conservative realism about how far ‘divided societies’ may be transformed. Advocates of the civil society approach, in contrast, take an instrumentalist view of identity and are optimistic that a radical transformation can be achieved by mobilising the people against ‘hard‐line’ political representatives. The constructivist approach can provide a framework in which a more complex and nuanced understanding of identities is possible. This better equips us for understanding the prospects of bringing about desirable political change. The first part of this article is a critique of Nagle and Clancy's consociationalism. The second part provides a brief outline of a constructivist critique of both the consociational and civil society understandings of politics and their contribution to understanding the politics of managing conflict.     

Field Measurements of Wave Characteristics on a Near‐Horizontal Shore Platform,Mahia Peninsula,North Island,New Zealand

Waves are an important process responsible for the initiation and subsequent development of intertidal shore platforms. However, few field studies to date have described wave processes on shore platforms. A field experiment was conducted using an across‐shore array of wave gauges, including a directional sensor, on a near‐horizontal platform at Mahia Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand. Results show that the platform is very efficient in filtering wave energy at gravity wave frequencies (>0.05 Hz), with 40–80% reduction in wave height measured across the 140 m wide platform. By contrast, infragravity waves are present on the platform and increase in magnitude towards the cliff toe. Directional wave analysis indicates that wave reflection is mainly restricted to infragravity wave frequencies, demonstrating the differences in gravity and infragravity wave behaviour on the platform studied. Results indicate that, under fair weather conditions, the role of waves as an agent of cliff toe erosion is likely to be limited at present, although they are probably important for removing sediments accumulated at the cliff toe. The observed increase in infragravity wave energy towards the cliff toe implies that these long‐period waves may be important geomorphic agents on shore platforms.     

PERFORMING HISTORY: HOW HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP IS SHAPED BY EPISTEMIC VIRTUES

Philosophers of history in the past few decades have been predominantly interested in issues of explanation and narrative discourse. Consequently, they have focused consistently and almost exclusively on the historian's (published) output, thereby ignoring that historical scholarship is a practice of reading, thinking, discussing, and writing, in which successful performance requires active cultivation of certain skills, attitudes, and virtues. This paper, then, suggests a new agenda for philosophy of history. Inspired by a “performative turn” in the history and philosophy of science, it focuses on the historian's “doings” and proposes to analyze these performances in terms of epistemic virtue. It argues that historical scholarship is embedded in “practices” or “epistemic cultures,” in which knowledge is created and warranted by means of such virtues as honesty, carefulness, accuracy, and balance. These epistemic virtues, however, are not etched in stone: historians may highlight some of them, exchange one for another, or reinterpret their meaning. On the one hand, this suggests a rich area of research for historians of historiography. To what extent can consensus, conflict, continuity, and change in historical scholarship be explained in terms of epistemic virtue? On the other hand, the proposal outlined in this article raises a couple of philosophical questions. For example, on what grounds can historians choose among epistemic virtues? And what concept of the self comes with the notion of virtue? In addressing these questions, philosophy of history may expand its current scope so as to encompass not only “writings” but also “doings,” that is, the virtuous performances historians recognize as professional conduct.     

Anthropology and Ethnohistory of the Maya

Anthropological, linguistic, historical, and archeological research on the Maya proceeds today amidst public contestation, for political and economic reasons, of the identity of Maya people and the nature of Maya culture. Neo-liberal multiculturalism, struggles over dwindling land and forest resources, the intensification of international tourism, and the growth of pan-Maya movements repeatedly raise the question of who and what is authentically Maya. Our scholarship, while motivated by quite different concerns and interests, unavoidably touches on similar issues in its exploration of the forms and meanings of Maya expression, belief, and ritual from ancient times to the present.     

International peacekeeping: the challenges of state-building and regionalization

This review article examines four recent books that explore how international peacekeepers have coped with the challenges of state-building and regionalization. Two volumes analyse the pitfalls and prospects of international attempts to turn war-shattered states into stable market democracies, while two volumes explore the problems and opportunities thrown up by attempts to forge effective working relationships between the United Nations and regional arrangements in Europe, Africa and beyond. The review concludes that although state-building is most legitimate when conducted under the auspices of the UN, the organization's almost permanent condition of overstretch and the US-led 'war on terrorism' have undermined its practical ability to lead such operations. It also suggests that the current approach to regionalization is unlikely to provide panacea for state-building or more general peacekeeping problems.