Smart Lead Rubber Bearings Equipped with Ferrous Shape Memory Alloy Wires for Seismically Isolating Highway Bridges

Shape memory alloys (SMA) can substantially improve the damping capacity and re-centering capability of elastomeric isolators. The objective of this study is to assess the seismic performance of smart lead rubber bearings (LRBs) equipped with double cross ferrous SMA wires. Hysteretic shear response of SMA wire-based LRB is determined using finite element method. The seismic response of a multispan continuous steel girder bridge isolated by SMA-LRB is evaluated. Hybrid SMA-LRB bearing exhibits a significantly lower shear strain demand (up to 46% reduction) and a higher energy dissipation capacity (up to 31% increase) compared to the LRB.     

Effects of mothers’ deaths on children’s schooling in Matlab subdistrict,Bangladesh

This quantitative analysis examines evidence for the impacts of mothers’ death on the schooling of their left-behind children (ages 6–17 years) in the Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) area of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. The analysis compared the completed levels of primary and junior secondary schooling in 2005 (respectively Class 1 among ages 6–17, Class 5 among ages 12–17 and Class 7 among ages 15–17) of children whose mothers had died during 1982–2005 (from maternal and/or nonmaternal causes, and any cause) with the completed schooling of children of surviving mothers in 2005. The results, after controlling for selected socioeconomic variables, indicate that children whose mothers had died had lower completion of schooling levels, and that those children from poorer households fared worst.     

Experimental Investigation on the Seismic Behavior of Beam-Column Joints Reinforced with Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys

Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys (SE SMAs) are unique alloys that have the ability to undergo large deformations and return to their undeformed shape by removal of stresses. This study aims at assessing the seismic behavior of beam-column joints reinforced with SE SMAs. Two large-scale beam-column joints were tested under reversed cyclic loading. While the first joint was reinforced with regular steel rebars, SE SMA rebars were used in the second one. Both joints were selected from a Reinforced Concrete (RC) building located in the high seismic region of western Canada and designed and detailed according to current Canadian standards. The behavior of the two specimens under reversed cyclic loading, including their drifts, rotations, and ability to dissipate energy, were compared. The results showed that the SMA-reinforced beam-column joint specimen was able to recover most of its post-yield deformation. Thus, it would require a minimum amount of repair even after a strong earthquake.     

A NEW SPATIAL MULTIPLE DISCRETE‐CONTINUOUS MODELING APPROACH TO LAND USE CHANGE ANALYSIS

This paper formulates a multiple discrete‐continuous probit (MDCP) land use model within a spatially explicit economic structural framework for land use change decisions. The spatial MDCP model is capable of predicting both the type and intensity of urban development patterns over large geographic areas, while also explicitly acknowledging geographic proximity‐based spatial dependencies in these patterns. At a methodological level, the paper focuses on specifying and estimating a spatial MDCP model that allows the dependent variable to exist in multiple discrete states with an intensity associated with each discrete state. The formulation also accommodates spatial dependencies, as well as spatial heterogeneity and heteroskedasticity, in the dependent variable, and should be applicable in a wide variety of fields where social and spatial dependencies between decision agents (or observation units) lead to spillover effects in multiple discrete‐continuous choices (or states). A simulation exercise is undertaken to evaluate the ability of the proposed maximum approximate composite marginal likelihood (MACML) approach to recover parameters from a cross‐sectional spatial MDCP model. The results show that the MACML approach does well in recovering parameters. An empirical demonstration of the approach is undertaken using the city of Austin parcel level land use data.     

New patterns in the locational choice of immigrants in Spain

During recent years, Spain has experienced an important revolution in its migration flows. With the 2008–2013 Spanish financial crisis, the model of economic growth that attracted a large number of foreign people disappeared, and the entry of immigrants for reasons other than economic issues gained relevance. Linked with this phenomenon are the new patterns of locational choice across provinces and the variation in the nature of immigrants. In this paper, we examine the differential patterns and drivers of immigration across Spanish regions before and after the financial crisis. Special attention is paid to the question of how the characteristics of individual migrants influence their locational preferences. To answer this question, we use the Dirichlet multinomial regression model. The results obtained show a sharp change in the locational patterns of Spanish immigrants after the economic recession, confirming that traditional economic incentives are less relevant, while non-economic factors linked with a better lifestyle gain importance. They also reveal that, regardless of the economic conditions, network effects are strong. Finally, and what is probably more important for us, our estimates support the hypothesis that the locational preferences rely on the interaction between the immigrants’ characteristics and the underlying locational features.     

The benefit-sharing principle: Implementing sovereignty bargains on water

A global water crisis is emerging that may challenge states' existing and future water availability. With countries already heavily reliant on international rivers, the issue of managing water scarcity in these basins is mounting. An already complex issue due to climatic change and the politics of access, the management of water resources is complicated further by sovereignty. In a context shaped by political boundaries and a concomitant territorial exclusivity, nation-states seek to guarantee their societies' water by exerting control through physical and institutional infrastructure. Yet, the basin's hydrological interdependency implies co-riparian countries remain vulnerable to each other's use of the shared river, suggesting ecological rather than just political limits to sovereignty. The continued vulnerability, as envisaged within the greening of sovereignty, suggests international cooperation is necessary. Explained as sovereignty bargains, in which states trade reduced autonomy for future benefits, international cooperation is, we suggest, bi-directional and can stem from or create international institutions. We examine an instance of international cooperation that exemplifies an alternative approach to international river management. The benefit-sharing principle focuses on allocating the outputs from water use, rather than the water itself; and was used by the Senegal basin riparians to access key services such as electricity despite a context of poverty, climatic change and intra-basin politics. What emerges is a strong narrative of cooperation sustained, over decades, by the states' willingness to engage in sovereignty bargains.     

Ethnic Minorities and the Politics of Identity in Iran

The present review essay is of a novel format: two authors working in the same field introduce each other's works, and then pose a number of questions to each other. The aim is to facilitate dialogue between scholars occupied with similar issues, theories, methods or problems, and to share their discussions with others. Here, Alam Saleh, Lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics, University of Exeter, and Rasmus Christian Elling, Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies, University of Copenhagen, introduce each other's recent books on ethnic minorities, identity and nationalism in post-revolution Iran. These introductions are then followed by questions and answers in relation to the topics covered by the books.     

Reconstructing late Holocene palaeoenvironments in Bangladesh: phytolith analysis of archaeological soils from Somapura Mahavihara site in the Paharpur area,Badalgacchi Upazila,Naogaon District,Bangladesh

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction based on phytolith analysis of late Holocene-aged soils in and around the Somapura Mahavihara archaeological monastery site in the Paharpur area, Badalgacchi Upazila of Naogaon District in northwestern Bangladesh was undertaken. Results indicate five climate zones marked by alternatively cool and temperate events. The phytolith assemblages of Zones 1, 3 and 5 are clearly characterized by a higher proportion of Pooideae phytoliths. The climate indices for these zones are all greater than 50, indicating cooler climatic conditions. In contrast, the phytolith assemblages of Zones 2 and 4 are typified by a higher proportion of Panicoideae phytoliths; their climate indices are 42 and 44, respectively, indicating the presence of a warmer, more temperate climate. In general, the dominance of grasses over broad- leaved trees throughout the sequences suggests that generally cool to temperate and dry conditions with some cyclical variability persisted around Paharpur and the surrounding region throughout the Pala Dynasty from AD 730 to 1080. The question of whether these shifts in vegetation might be linked with El Niño Southern Oscillation events, and whether these might in turn have cultural responses, is raised.