Modeling the Seismic Response of Modern URM Buildings Retrofitted by Adding RC Walls

Modern unreinforced masonry buildings with reinforced concrete slabs are often retrofitted by inserting reinforced concrete walls. The main advantages of this technique are the increase in strength and displacement capacity with respect to masonry structures. This article presents two modeling approaches for evaluating such structures: a shell-element model and a macro-element one. The objective is to formulate practical recommendations for setting up a macro-element model using as input the geometry of the structure and results from standard material tests. Structural configurations of masonry buildings, in which the insertion of reinforced concrete walls is an efficient retrofit technique, are also investigated.     

A Case of Osteosarcoma in a Late Medieval–Early Modern Skull from Kyjov (Czech Republic)

After the reconstruction of the original parish church of the Moravian town of Kyjov in the latter part of the seventeenth century, human skeletal remains from the disturbed graves of the surrounding cemetery were gathered in a vault which was partially excavated in 1994. Among disarticulated bones of at least 106 individuals, a fragmented skull of a young male was found, with a massive outgrowth of bone on the right parietal, originally continuing fluently on the non-preserved frontal scale, on edges lifting the outer lamina. The inner lamina was covered less intensively by the bony growth. Radiography and CT scans showed a non-homogeneous structure, the inside being irregular and the outside granulated or radially striated. A metastatic lytic focus was detected in the same bone. Histology and SEM examination showed an uneven mineralization of the bone tissue, consisting of rough, thickened and irregularly spaced trabeculae, with cellular remains or mineralized matrix on the surface. The differential diagnosis took meningioma into consideration but the most probable diagnosis was osteogenic sarcoma, which is still infrequent in the palaeopathological record from the Old World and its localization in the cranial vault is very rare. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

江苏溧水神仙洞动物化石的铀系年代

神仙洞是江苏境内最早发现人类化石的地点。报道该地点动物化石的铀系测年结果,4个样品230Th/234U年龄范围为7～109ka,测定了其中2个样品的227Th/230Th年龄,结果与230Th/234U法的一致,支持年代数据的可信度。暂将神仙洞含化石堆积的年代定为7～109ka,跨度至少100ka,应比原认为的整体距今～10ka合理得多。但洞穴地点骨化石铀系年代总体偏年轻,上述年代范围很可能被低估,含化石堆积底界因此更可能属中更新世晚期。人颞骨化石被认为出土于第I钙板层之上,应为晚更新世末期或全新世早期。用Gamma能谱铀系或AMS14C测年,应可进一步确定人化石的年代。     

清末民初“传统”的出现:概念史视角的考察

古代汉语中已有"传"和"统"两字连用的情况,但所指的都是皇位的传递。日语里"传统"的词义在19世纪90年代开始发生变化,到大正时期新义"传统"真正流行,汉语受此影响,作为新词的"传统"从1920年后才开始频繁出现在报端著述,到20世纪30年代之后才进入辞典,并成为"tradition"的译词。"传统"在新文化运动之后开始流行,有其历史缘由,它为经过"新旧之争"冲击的文化保守主义表述提供了一个更适合的词汇选择。但同时,围绕"传统"和"现代"迅速形成了二元对立的观念和话语体系,这使得"传统"不断被重新定义,增加了它的复杂性。     

基于空间相互作用模型的近代中国经济区域划分研究

通商口岸制度,是中国近代史上最重要的经济现象。近代中国经济地理学的格局和区域经济差异等内容,可以利用当代经济地理学、GIS技术、经济学等研究方法结合历史数据进行考察。近代中国一百多个通商口岸的发展,逐步形成了沿海、沿江、边疆对外开放的地理格局,为现代化提供了条件,促进了近代资本主义生产方式的空间扩张,也重构了中国的经济区域。为探究近代中国通商口岸影响下的经济区域变化,首先对通商口岸体系子口税贸易在地理空间分布进行探讨,初步界定一些较大通商口岸的影响区域,进而通过数量化和GIS方法,特别是使用空间交互模型得出结论。通商口岸体系是区域经济现代化的代表和系统性的研究对象,直接影响到当代中国的经济地理格局,可对当前中国经济地理区划提供有历史与现实意义的参考。     

关于发展现代农业的思考

发展现代农业是社会主义新农村建设的首要任务。从目前来看,发展现代农业必须因地制宜,选择好的发展模式,有效解决体制机制问题,充分发挥政府作用。     

近现代文物信息载体联袂简说

近现代实用物被确认为文物之后,要经过一系列复杂的工作程序,才能正式入藏和利用.实际就是制备填报、记录、反映、影射、体现文物信息的六类载体.六类信息载体各自有不同的内容模式、规则要求、独具特色等,以及利用诀窍,联袂简说,求得指正.有的尚待深化改革和挖掘开发,希冀同仁关注.     

The Primacy of Science in Modernity,of Technology in Postmodernity,and of Ideology in the History of Technology

The abrupt reversal of culturally ascribed primacy in the science–technology relationship—namely, from the primacy of science relative to technology prior to circa 1980, to the primacy of technology relative to science since about that date—is proposed as a demarcator of postmodernity from modernity: modernity is when ‘science’ could, and often did, denote technology too; postmodernity is when science is subsumed under technology. In support of that demarcation criterion, I evidence the breadth and strength of modernity’s presupposition of the primacy of science to and for technology by showing its preposterous hold upon social theorists—Marx, Veblen, Dewey—whose principles logically required the reverse, viz. the primacy of practice; upon 19th and 20th century engineers and industrialists, social actors whose practical interests likewise required the reverse; and upon the principal theorizers in the 1970s of the role of science in late 20th century technology and society. The reversal in primacy between science and technology ca 1980 came too unexpectedly, too quickly, and, above all, too unreflectively to have resulted from the weight of evidence or the force of logic. Rather, it was a concomitant of the onset of postmodernity. Oddly, historians of technology have remained almost wholly unacknowledging of postmodernity’s epochal elevation of the cultural standing of the subject of their studies, and, specifically, have ignored technology’s elevation relative to science. This I attribute to the ideological character of that discipline, and, specifically, to its strategy of ignoration of science.     

Processing ochre in the Middle Stone Age: Testing the inference of prehistoric behaviours from actualistically derived experimental data

The increase in the presence of ‘ochre’ in African Middle Stone Age contexts has been employed, together with changes in human biology and behaviour, to support the hypothesis that ‘modern’ cognitive abilities arose in Africa. The consistent exploitation of ochre is interpreted as evidence for colour symbolism, a proxy for the origin of language and a defining aspect of ‘modern’ human behaviour. That humans attached considerable symbolic value to red ochres in particular is illustrated by ethnographic examples. Research has shown that wear patterns indicative of abrasive processing methods prevail, but many archaeological specimens also exhibit wear traces not derived from grinding or scraping alone. Building on former research, I present here the results of an experimental study devised to infer the methods employed to extract powder from ochre during the African Middle Stone Age. The prospect of ascertaining at least some of the likely uses to which ochre may have been put, is also explored. I conclude that functional data derived from actualistic experiments can be used to enhance our understanding of some aspects of prehistoric behaviour.     

At the Transition from Late Medieval to Early Modern: the Archaeology of Three Wrecks from Turkey

During surveys in the Rhodian Straits in 2005–06, the staff of the RPM Nautical Foundation discovered three deepwater wrecks which reflect elements of the transition from late medieval to early modern seafaring. The assemblages, and their plotting on site‐plans generated from photographic evidence, point to the finding of a small oared warship equipped with wrought‐iron carriage‐ and swivel‐guns, a small coasting vessel armed with wrought‐iron swivel‐guns, and a larger merchantman equipped with cast‐iron carriage‐guns. While the features of the smaller vessels do not identify their country of origin, those of the larger merchantman have good parallels with known English wrecks. © 2009 The Authors