Benevolent hegemon,neighborhood bully,or regional security provider? Russia’s efforts to promote regional integration after the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis

Russia has tried to use economic incentives and shared historical and cultural legacies to entice post-Soviet states to join its regional integration efforts. The Ukraine crisis exposed the weaknesses of this strategy, forcing Russia to fall back on coercive means to keep Kiev from moving closer to the West. Having realized the limits of its economic and soft power, will Russia now try to coerce post-Soviet states back into its sphere of influence? Fears of such an outcome overestimate Russia’s ability to use coercion and underestimate post-Soviet states capacity to resist. Rather than emerging as a regional bully, Russia is trying to push Eurasian integration forward by becoming a regional security provider. The article relates these efforts to the larger literature on regional integration and security hierarchies – bridging the two bodies of theory by arguing that regional leaders can use the provision of security to promote economic integration. Despite initial signs of success, we believe that the new strategy will ultimately fail. Eurasian integration will continue to stagnate as long as Russia’s economic and soft power remain weak because Russia will be unable to address the economic and social problems that are at the root of the region’s security problems.     

Simulation of Shake Table Tests on Out-of-Plane Masonry Buildings. Part (III): Two-Step FEM Approach

ABSTRACT

This article presents numerical simulations of two full-scale masonry structures which were tested on the shaking table within the scope of the workshop “Methods and challenges on the out-of-plane assessment of existing masonry buildings”. The numerical models have been developed on the basis of the blind-prediction models which have been improved after the publication of the test results. The solution procedure is divided into two steps with separate numerical simulations for each one. In the first step the collapse mechanism of the structure is determined by means of pushover analysis using a continuum, plasticity-based model. In the second step the dynamic response of the structure is simulated using a multibody model approach and frictional contacts. Results of the tests show reasonable, yet far from perfect predictive capabilities of the used numerical methods.     

A new large fossil species of Tiliqua (Squamata; Scincidae) from the Pliocene of the Wellington Caves (New South Wales,Australia)

?erňanský, A. & Hutchinson, M.N., 2012. A new large fossil species of Tiliqua (Squamata; Scincidae) from the Pliocene of the Wellington Caves (New South Wales, Australia). Alcheringa, 1–6. ISSN 0311-5518.

We describe an isolated frontal bone referable to a new species, Tiliqua laticephala (Scincidae), from the Pliocene Big Sink doline of the Wellington Caves, central eastern New South Wales, Australia. The bone is very robust, is unusually broad and thick, especially around the bases of the subolfactory processes and represents a large and heavily built lizard. The fossil has multiple fragmentary osteoderms in the frontal region, showing asymmetry in shape and thickness that do not correspond to the more regularly arranged anterior head shields of other scincoids. The specimen shares two unusual character states with extant Tiliqua, especially the large armoured species, T. rugosa. Other large skinks related to T. rugosa (other Tiliqua spp., Corucia zebrata, Egernia cunninghamii, Bellatorias major, Liopholis kintorei) are less similar in terms of frontal shape, thickness, sculpture, osteoderm ornamentation, and positioning of adjacent bones.     

Archaeology of the Ljubljanica River (Slovenia): early underwater investigations and some current issues

Abundant archaeological evidence and specific geomorphologic features make the upper course of the Ljubljanica River running through Ljubljana Moor (Slovenia) one of the most interesting rivers in Europe. Roman bronze vessels and iron weapons found by chance in the Ljubljanica at Vrhnika, the ancient Nauportus, led the director of the Provincial Museum in Ljubljana, Karel Dežman, to devise a large scale plan for an underwater survey of the riverbed. This, one of the first modern research projects of underwater archaeology was executed in 1884 with the help of divers from the Austro-Hungarian naval base in Pula. Investigations by the Group for Underwater Archaeology and the activities of amateur divers from 1979 onwards revealed distinctly structured distributions of underwater finds on several sites in the upper course of the river indicating possible sacred places with votive offerings and funeral sites, as well as other non-ritual concentrations.     

A Manchu itinerary

Abstract

Eighty‐nine business letters from European map sellers to the London firm of Thomas Jefferys and William Faden are preserved in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. Dating from the decade 1773–1783, the letters reveal through the invoices, accounts payable, bills of lading, and orders many detailed aspects of the map trade in the eighteenth century at the time of the War of American Independence. Special attention is drawn to the exchange of maps between England and France during this period of war.     

Microtremor HVSR Study of Site Effects in the Ilirska Bistrica Town Area (S. Slovenia)

The region of Ilirska Bistrica is one of the most seismically active areas of Slovenia, where 15 damaging earthquakes with maximum intensity equal or greater than V EMS-98 have occurred in the last 100 years. These earthquakes have shown that strong site effects are characteristic of the parts of the town that are built on soft Pliocene clay and sand overlain by Quaternary alluvium. Since there is a lack of boreholes and geophysical and earthquake data, the microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method was applied to a 250 m dense grid of free-field measurements over an extended area and to a 200 m dense grid in the town area in order to assess the fundamental frequency of the sediments. Measurements were additionally performed in ten characteristic houses to assess the main building frequencies. The effects of wind and artificial noise on the reliability of the results were analyzed. The map of the fundamental frequencies of sediments shows a distribution in a range of 1–20 Hz. The lower frequency range (below 10 Hz) corresponds to the extent of Pliocene clays and sand overlain by alluvium, which form a small basin, and the higher frequencies to flysch rocks, but variations within short distances are considerable. The measurements inside the buildings of various heights (2–6 stories) showed main longitudinal and transverse frequencies in the range 3.8–8.8 Hz. Since this range overlaps with the fundamental frequency range for Pliocene and Quaternary sediments (2–10 Hz), the danger of soil-structure resonance is considerable, especially in the northern part of the town. Soil-structure resonance is less probable in the central and southern part of the town, where higher free-field frequencies prevail. These observations are in agreement with the distribution of damage caused by the 1995 earthquake (M_L?=?4.7, I_max?=?VI EMS-98), for which a detailed damage survey data is available.