Archaeological Observation on the Layout of the Three Courts and Five Gates of the Daming Palace of the Tang Dynasty

The system of Three Courts and Five Gates is an essential content of the designs of the capitals and palaces of ancient China. The Three Courts and Five Gates planning of the Daming Palace is the adoption of this rule and the application to the spatial designing of the palace city. The archaeological fieldwork revealed that within the Daming Palace, the Three Courts pattern with three walls as the borders, and Hanyuan Hall, Xuanzheng Hall, and Zichen Hall as the centers formed the outer court, middle court, and inner court plan, which was the embodiment of the new interpretation of the Tang Dynasty to the traditional Three Courts and Five Gates ritual system. Through the trimming of the archaeological data fetched in the past 60 years about the southern part, which is the official affair zone, of the Daming Palace, this paper discusses the spatial structure of the Three Courts and Five Gates pattern of the Daming Palace, and analyzes the substantial relationship between this pattern and the political demands of the ruling class.     

The Dystopic Theme Park: The Role of Lorelei in Marcelo Cohen's El oído absoluto

The purpose of this article is to analyze the function of theme-park design in Argentinean author Marcelo Cohen's novel El oído absoluto. Cohen's work takes place in a fictitious theme park in a not-so-distant future that serves the double duty of utopia for entertainment and consumption as well as reformatory for social deviants posing a danger to greater society. The article examines the parallels between the theories at the heart of the design of modern-day theme parks, such as Disney World, and the dystopic theme park in Cohen's novel. The shared ideology behind the design of these dystopic spaces demonstrates how the theme-park designers manipulate architectural spaces to facilitate consumption and the homogenization of global culture as a response to social fragmentation and disintegration in a postindustrial world.     

Qualitative Methods for the Study of Policy Diffusion: Challenges and Available Solutions

This article deals with the question whether and how processes of policy diffusion can be examined with qualitative methods. More specifically, how can qualitative methods address the “twin challenge of interdependence,” namely the challenge to identify diffusion, on the one hand, and the challenge to discriminate between mechanisms of diffusion, on the other? I argue, first, that there are three distinct qualitative techniques that can be used, namely cross‐case analysis (often based on systematic case selection), within‐case process tracing, and counterfactual reasoning. I demonstrate how these techniques can be adapted to the study of policy diffusion. Second, a combination of these methods is the best practice, since they are largely complementary in terms of the twin challenge of diffusion. The discussion draws on numerous illustrations from recent qualitative policy diffusion studies. The article closes with some suggestions for further methodological development in the study of policy diffusion, including the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.     

Accommodating ‘design’: introducing the Western concept into Soviet art theory in the 1950s–60s

This article investigates the background of Soviet industrial design in Soviet art theory. Instead of considering design's interconnection with technology and science, or with consumption and everyday life, the author traces its conceptualisation as a new artistic phenomenon. Using archival records of professional discussions, polemical articles in the art press and design projects, the author looks at how industrial design was incorporated into the Soviet order of things. She concludes that accommodation of the Western model was the way to reform the system of socialism from inside, typical for the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s.     

Implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems to Preserve Cultural Heritage — Pilot Motte Montferland

The shallow subsurface in historic cities often contains extensive archaeological remains, also known as cultural deposits. Preservation conditions for naturally degradable archaeological remains are strongly dependent on the presence or absence of groundwater. One of the main goals at such heritage sites is to establish a stable hydrological environment. Green infrastructural solutions such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) can support preservation of cultural deposits. Several cases show that implementation of SUDS can be cost effective at preservation of cultural deposits. These include Motte of Montferland, City mound of Vlaardingen, Weiwerd in Delfzijl, and the Leidse Rijn area. In all cases, the amount of underground infrastructure is minimised to prevent damaging cultural layers. SUDS have been implemented to preserve cultural heritage. The first monitoring results and evaluation of the processes give valuable lessons learned, transnational knowledge exchange is an important element to bring the experiences across boundaries.     

A PROCEDURE FOR ESTIMATING INPUT ENERGY SPECTRA FOR SEISMIC DESIGN

In this paper, the damage potential of an earthquake ground motion is evaluated in terms of the total power of the acceleration of the ground motion. By assuming an appropriate spectral shape for the input energy spectrum, and using the well-known Parseval theorem for evaluating the total power of a random signal, the peak amplification factor for the equivalent input energy velocity spectrum can be determined. It is shown that the peak amplification factor for the input energy spectrum depends on the peak-ground-acceleration to peak-ground-velocity ratio and duration of the strong motion phase of the ground motion. Values for the equivalent input energy velocity amplification factor vary from about 2 to 10 for most of the recorded ground motions used in this study. Although a considerable scatter of data is observed in this study, the peak amplification factor predicted by the Fourier amplitude spectrum of the ground acceleration provides a fairly good estimate of the mean value of the peak input energy compared to that determined from inelastic dynamic time history analyses, particularly for systems with high damping and low lateral strength. The peak amplification factor derived in this paper provides a more consistent approach for estimation of seismic demand when compared to an earlier empirical expression used for the formulation of duration-dependent inelastic seismic design spectra, even though only a slight difference in the required lateral strength results from the use of the new formula.     

SEISMIC BEHAVIOUR OF PERIMETER AND SPATIAL STEEL FRAMES

The present study deals with the seismic performance of partial perimeter and spatial moment resisting frames (MRFs) for low-to-medium rise buildings. It seeks to establish perimeter configuration systems and hence the lack of redundancy can detrimentally affect the seismic response of framed buildings. The paper tackles this key issue by com-paring the performance of a set of perimeter and spatial MRFs, which were “consistently designed”. The starting point is the set of low-(three-storey) and medium-rise (nine-storey) perimeter frames designed within the SAC Steel Project for the Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston seismic zones. Extensive design analyses (static and multi-modal) of the perimeter frame buildings and consistent design of spatial frame systems, as an alternative to the perimeter configuration, were conducted within this analytical study. The objectives of the consistent design are two-fold, i.e. obtaining fundamental periods similar to those of the perimeter frames, i.e. same lateral stiffness under design horizon-tal loads, and supplying similar yield strength. The seismic behaviour of perimeter and spatial configuration structures was evaluated by means of push-over non-linear static analyses and inelastic dynamic analyses (non linear time histories). Comparisons be-tween analysis results were developed in a well defined framework since a clear scheme to define and evaluate relevant limit states is suggested. The failure modes, either local or global, were computed and correlated to design choices, particularly those concerning the strength requirements (column overstrength factors) and stiffness (elastic stability indexes). The inelastic response exhibited by the sample MRFs under severe ground motions was assessed in a detailed fashion. Conclusions are drawn in terms of local and global performance, namely global and inter-storey drifts, beam and column plas-tic rotations, hysteretic energy. The finding is that the seismic response of perimeter and spatial MRFs is fairly similar. Therefore, an equivalent behaviour between the two configurations can be obtained if the design is “consistent”.     

Logistic增长模型在游客流量预测中的应用——以贵州省绥阳县为例

旅游开发要以市场为导向,以资源为基础,以产品为核心,以效益为目标。游客流量的准确预测对旅游资源的开发具有很重要的指导作用。现在游客流量预测已经有了一个比较成熟的方法系统,但这些方法大多针对于开发得比较成熟且具有一定的游客数据积累的景区。本文以贵州绥阳县双河溶洞国家地质公园为例,尝试将种群增长的Logistic曲线与景区的环境容量相结合的方法,来预测其未来一定时段的游客流量,得到了较为满意的结果,对国内其它类似旅游景区开发具有借鉴意义。     

旅游资源适度开发及其度量指标

旅游资源是旅游业生存发展的基础。其数量多少、性能好坏决定旅游业的规模和质量;其损耗速率有无超越自然或人为更新速率则关系到旅游业的发展是否具有可持续性,所以旅游资源必须适度开发。本文在简述旅游产品开发过程的基础上,论述旅游资源适度开发的含义及其必要性;由此提出,为了衡量旅游资源的开发强度,须以与旅游资源最大承载力对应的旅游产品允许的最适宜游客容量作为测度标准;再以此为参照,找出各种客观与主观制约因素,诸如自然资源损耗率等自然因素及游客心理等主观因素,据此规定附属资源的开发量,并以相应的旅游管理措施作为保障。旅游资源适度开发度量指标为旅游规划和旅游管理提供度量依据。     

现代旅游信息管理系统(TIMS)的构建

旅游信息管理系统的开发与应用是推动当前旅游业发展的一重要因素。本文根据目前我国众多已投入使用的旅游信息管理系统的现状,就该类系统的功能改进、数据库重新设计及系统建设和运行机制等问题,提出了自己的一些新看法。在具备传统的基本功能基础上,现代旅游信息管理系统要加强为企业经营决策、区域旅游开发决策服务的功能;旅游信息数据库的设计也要以这一功能的实现为目标做出相应调整;在系统的建设过程中要坚持政府统筹管理、景区自主开发的原则。