Seismic Design Requirements for Regions of Moderate Seismicity

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy J. P. Nordenson ◽  
Glenn R. Bell

The need for earthquake-resistant construction in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity has been recognized through the adoption of code requirements in the United States and other countries only in the past quarter century. This is largely a result of improved assessment of seismic hazard and examples of recent moderate earthquakes in regions of both moderate and high seismicity, including the San Fernando (1971), Mexico City (1985), Loma Prieta (1989), and Northridge (1994) earthquakes. In addition, improved understanding and estimates of older earthquakes in the eastern United States such as Cape Ann (1755), La Malbaie, Quebec (1925), and Ossippe, New Hampshire (1940), as well as monitoring of micro-activity in source areas such as La Malbaie, have increased awareness of the earthquake potential in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity. Both the hazard and the risk in moderate seismic zones (MSZs) differ in scale and kind from those of the zones of high seismicity. Earthquake hazards mitigation measures for new and existing construction need to be adapted from those prevailing in regions of high seismicity in recognition of these differences. Site effects are likely to dominate the damage patterns from earthquakes, with some sites suffering no damage not far from others, on soft soil, suffering near collapse. A number of new seismic codes have been developed in the past quarter century in response to these differences, including the New York City (1995) and the Massachusetts State (1975) seismic codes. Over the same period, the national model building codes that apply to most areas of low-to-moderate seismicity in the United States, the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) Code and the Southern Standard Building Code (SSBC), have incorporated up-to-date seismic provisions. The seismic provisions of these codes have been largely inspired by the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) recommendations. Through adoption of these national codes, many state and local authorities in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity now have reasonably comprehensive seismic design provisions. This paper will review the background and history leading up to the MSZ codes, discuss their content, and propose directions for future development.

1989 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Roeder ◽  
James E. Carpenter ◽  
Hidetake Taniguchi

Recent changes to the United States seismic design provisions permit the use of weak column-strong beam steel moment resisting frames. This design concept has not been used in the past, because it results in plastic hinges in the columns during moderate or extreme earthquakes. This paper shows the results of inelastic dynamic response calculations on a weak column frame and a comparable strong column system. The results show that the ductility demand is much greater for the weak column strong beam framing system with some acceleration records. The required ductility is then compared for the different structural systems and both are compared to the results of experiments. The comparison suggests that the weak column system may not be able to develop the required ductility. The results of this paper should help define the viability and limits in applicability of the weak column system.


1961 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Timberlake

Central banking institutions during the past quarter-century have been almost free of the constraints that inhibited their actions during the nineteenth century. The special conditions under which earlier central banking institutions were formed and operated frequently have been lost to view; and while contemporary observers have come to regard the first two Banks of the United States sympathetically, the functional evolution of these institutions within the framework of specie standards has been largely neglected. The period between the end of the Second Bank and the organization of the Federal Reserve System is subsequently treated as the Dark Ages of monetary policy, better forgotten than deplored.


Author(s):  
Sarah C. Schaefer

Gustave Doré and the Modern Biblical Imagination explores the role of biblical imagery in modernity through the lens of Gustave Doré (1832–83), whose work is among the most reproduced and adapted scriptural imagery in the history of Judeo-Christianity. First published in France in late 1865, Doré’s Bible illustrations received widespread critical acclaim among both religious and lay audiences, and the next several decades saw unprecedented dissemination of the images on an international scale. In 1868, the Doré Gallery opened in London, featuring monumental religious paintings that drew 2.5 million visitors over the course of a quarter century; when the gallery’s holdings traveled to the United States in 1892, exhibitions at venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago drew record crowds. The United States saw the most creative appropriations of Doré’s images among a plethora of media, from prayer cards and magic lantern slides to massive stained-glass windows and the spectacular epic films of Cecil B. DeMille. This book repositions biblical imagery at the center of modernity, an era that has often been defined through a process of secularization. The veracity and authority of the Bible came under unprecedented scrutiny and were at the center of a range of historical, theological, and cultural debates. Gustave Doré is at the nexus of these narratives, as his work established the most pervasive visual language for biblical imagery in the past two and a half centuries and constitutes the means by which the Bible has persistently been translated visually for modern audiences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEPIJN VAN HOUWELINGEN

AbstractThis paper starts out with a theoretical argument, based on panel data, that public mood in general and societal pessimism in particular should be measured from an explicitly temporal perspective. Next, based on a survey among more than 200 Japanese students and a wide array of existing (longitudinal) data sources in three different languages and covering several decades it is shown that public mood in three quite different countries – first and foremost Japan, but also the United States and The Netherlands – is quite apprehensive. In all these three countries societal pessimism can be observed during the past quarter century. Finally, utilizing a MDSD approach a few possible tentative explanations for this observed pessimism are sought.


1985 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge I. Domínguez

Should the United States go to war with Cuba? If not, what should be the policy of the US government toward Cuba? What should be Cuban policies toward the United States and the Soviet Union? Should Cuba increase or decrease its worldwide commitments and should it emphasize formal or informal foreign policy instruments? These have been the central questions affecting US-Cuban relations during the past quarter century. This essay endeavors to address some of the aspects they raise for US-Cuban relations for the remainder of the decade.


Author(s):  
Charles A. Kircher

The United States contains regions of greatly varying seismicity ranging from a relatively narrow strip of very high seismicity along coastal California in the West to broad areas of low or moderate seismicity typical of the Central and Eastern United States. The United States currently has three major regional model building codes. While all three codes have traditionally used the concept of seismic zones to identify and distinguish between regions of different seismicity, they have not had a consistent basis for their seismic criteria. Beginning in the year 2000, the three model building codes will merge and become the new International Building Code (IBC) applicable to the whole United States. New seismic design criteria have been developed for the 2000 IBC that now define ground shaking for building design by spectral acceleration contours. This paper describes the background and basis for the new seismic design criteria of the 2000 IBC, and how these criteria address the large variation in seismic hazard across the United States.


Author(s):  
I.I. Kurilla

Conflicts about the Past are no less characteristic of the United States than of European countries, although there they are more often referred to as a variant of culture wars. They are especially pronounced during periods of internal political crises, since the role of foreign policy in American discourse is almost negligible. Thus, memory of the World War II in the United States was used to unite the nation and did not, unlike in many European countries, become a basis for conflict with its neighbors. The article demonstrates how the two harshest conflicts over the Past in the last quarter century were connected with the crises, first of the Republican Party (the case of the Enola Gay exhibition in 1995), and then the Democratic Party (the case of the removal of Confederate monuments in 2017). The attack on the symbols of the Past after they ascribed to them negative meanings allows activists to mobilize supporters and overcome the ideological vacuum characteristic of a critical period. In other cases, both regarding the foreign policy “apologies for the USA” or the protests of the Italo-Americans after the authorities’ rejection to commemorate Christopher Columbus, conflicts did not acquire national character.


1957 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Kort

This study represents an attempt to apply quantitative methods to the prediction of human events that generally have been regarded as highly uncertain, namely, decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States. The study is designed to demonstrate that, in at least one area of judicial review, it is possible to take some decided cases, to identify factual elements that influenced the decisions, to derive numerical values for these elements by using a formula, and then to predict correctly the decisions of the remaining cases in the area specified. The analysis will be made independently of what the Court said by way of reasoning in these cases; it will rely only on the factual elements which have been emphasized by the justices in their opinions and on their votes to affirm or set aside convictions. Changes in Court personnel made no decisive difference in the pattern of judicial action in this area; so the analysis will not need to take into account the fact that twenty-five different justices have occupied the nine seats on the Court during the period covered, i.e., the past quarter century.


1995 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
BA White ◽  
DJ Caplan ◽  
JA Weintraub

Author(s):  
Ella Inglebret ◽  
Amy Skinder-Meredith ◽  
Shana Bailey ◽  
Carla Jones ◽  
Ashley France

The authors in this article first identify the extent to which research articles published in three American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journals included participants, age birth to 18 years, from international backgrounds (i.e., residence outside of the United States), and go on to describe associated publication patterns over the past 12 years. These patterns then provide a context for examining variation in the conceptualization of ethnicity on an international scale. Further, the authors examine terminology and categories used by 11 countries where research participants resided. Each country uses a unique classification system. Thus, it can be expected that descriptions of the ethnic characteristics of international participants involved in research published in ASHA journal articles will widely vary.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document