This paper presents a comparative seismic performance assessment of super-elastic-friction base isolator (S-FBI) systems in improving the response of bridges under near-field earthquakes. The S-FBI ...system consists of a steel-Teflon sliding bearing and a superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) device. The other isolation systems considered here are lead rubber bearing (LRB), friction pendulum system (FPS), and resilient-friction base isolator (R-FBI). Each isolation system is designed to provide the same isolation period and characteristic strength. Nonlinear time-history analyses of an isolated bridge are performed to compare the performance of various isolation systems. The results indicate that the S-FBI system shows superior performance in reducing deck displacement response and effectively limits permanent bearing deformation, whereas residual deformations are present for the other isolation systems in some cases. It is also observed that the LRB system has the largest deck drifts while the FPS system and R-FBI system produce the smallest peak deck acceleration and base shear.
The GM debate has been ongoing for over a decade, yet it has been contained in the scientific world and presented in technical terms. Eco Crime and Genetically Modified Food brings the debates about ...GM food into the social and criminological arena.
This book highlights the criminal and harmful actions of state and corporate officials. It concludes that corporate and political corruption, uncertain science, bitter public opposition, growing farmer concern and bankruptcy, irreversible damage to biodervisty, corporate monopolies and exploitation, disregard for social and cultural practices, devastation of small scale and local agricultural economies, imminent threats to organics, weak regulation, and widespread political and biotech mistrust – do not provide the bases for advancing and progressing GM foods into the next decade. Yet, with the backing of the WTO, the US and UK Governments march on – but at what cost to future generations?
Reece Walters is Professor in Criminology, and Head of the Social Policy and Criminology Department at The Open University. He has published widely on the politics and governance of criminological knowledge, including Deviant Knowledge - Criminology, Politics and Policy and Critical Thinking about the Uses of Research (with Tim Hope).
1. Introduction: Planting the Seed 2. The Politicisation of GM: Terrain, Terms and Concepts 3. The Perils, Prospects and Controversies of GM Food 4. Risk, Public Opinion and Consumer Resistance 5. Biotech, Papal and Trade ‘Wars’: Third World Hunger, Exploitation and the Politics of GM Food 6. Regulatory Regimes: Ensuring Safety or Enhancing Profits? 7. Green Criminology: Power, Harm and (In) Justice 8. Reflections and Conclusions
Life experiences in the rearing environment shape the neural and behavioral plasticity of animals. In fish stocking practices, the hatchery environment is relatively stimulus deprived and does not ...optimally prepare fish for release into the wild. While the behavioral differences between wild and hatchery-reared fish have been examined to some extent, few studies have compared neurobiological characteristics between wild and hatchery reared individuals. Here, we compare the expression of immediate early gene cfos and neuroplasticity marker brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) in telencephalic subregions associated with processing of stimuli in wild and hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon at basal and 30 min post (acute) stress conditions. Using in situ hybridization, we found that the expression level of these markers is highly specific per neuronal region and affected by both the origin of the fish, and exposure to acute stress. Expression of dos was increased by stress in all brain regions and cfos was more highly expressed in the Dlv (functional equivalent to the mammalian hippocampus) of hatchery reared compared to wild fish. Expression of bdnf was higher overall in hatchery fish, while acute stress upregulated bdnf in the Dm (functional equivalent to the mammalian amygdala) of wild, but not hatchery individuals. Our findings demonstrate that the hatchery environment affects neuroplasticity and neural activation in brain regions that are important for learning processes and stress reactivity, providing a neuronal foundation for the behavioral differences observed between wild and hatchery-reared fish.
The EITC is intended to encourage work. But EITC-induced increases in labor supply may drive wages down. I simulate the economic incidence of the EITC. In each scenario that I consider, a large ...portion of low-income single mothers' EITC payments is captured by employers through reduced wages. Workers who are EITC ineligible also see wage declines. By contrast, a traditional Negative Income Tax (NIT) discourages work, and so induces large transfers from employers to their workers. With my preferred parameters, $1 in EITC spending increases after-tax incomes by $0.73, while $1 spent on the NIT yields $1.39.
Free trade MacDonald, L. Ian
Free trade,
2000, 20000831
eBook
Free Trade provides a historical framework for ongoing discussion of economic and environmental issues. While there is empirical evidence on trade flows - they increased dramatically in both ...directions - the debate on related issues continues. The impact of free trade on jobs and manufacturing productivity, the effectiveness of dispute settlement, the growth of foreign direct investment, the absence of adjustment programs, and the consequences for social programs are all issues for spirited discussion.
In this paper, I check the ethical pulse of further education (FE) at the moment of its coming of age. Using a philosophical lens, I select and review post-2010 literature, to argue that FE colleges ...persist in a diminished form within a learning economy. In response to the managerial onslaught, the sector has adopted an ethics of survival, a necessary response to austerity and deregulation. Twenty-one years after incorporation, ethical fading has purged ethical desire from educational discourse, while the endless banality of college life has corroded the language with which it might be possible to speak about educational purpose, value, utopia, democracy, equity, and vision.
The Mexican peso crisis struck in late December 1994, coinciding with a new Mexican administration and the end of the first year of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The crisis ...poignantly highlighted the success and the inadequacy of the treaty--success in the expansion of trade and capital flows, and inadequacy in institutional capacity. The Canadian, Mexican, and US governments defined the agreement so narrowly that they failed to devise a mechanism that could monitor, anticipate, plan, or even respond to such a serious problem. The president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, has boldly proposed transforming the free trade area into a common market like Europe's. In this visionary study, Robert A. Pastor seizes Fox's idea and maps out the paths toward making it a reality. He analyzes NAFTA's successes and shortcomings, extracts lessons from the European Union's 40 years of reducing disparities between rich and poor countries, and proposes ways that NAFTA can adapt and incorporate those lessons. The centerpiece of the book is a detailed proposal for new institutions and "North American plans" for infrastructure and transportation, immigration and customs, and projects aimed at lifting the poorer regions.This book is the first to propose a detailed approach to a North American Community--different from the European Common Market but drawing lessons from its experience. It will be of considerable interest to policymakers as well as researchers and students of international political economy, world trade, and foreign affairs.
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