scholarly journals Earthquakes that have initiated the development of earthquake engineering

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Reitherman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Earthquake Engineering ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Step Function ◽  
75Th Anniversary ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of

The recent 75th anniversary of the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake reminds us that a particular earthquake can have a great effect on the development of engineering methods to contend with this natural hazard. Factors other than the occurrence of a single earthquake are also present before and after such a historically important event, and there are examples of countries that began on the path toward modern earthquake engineering in the absence of any particular earthquake playing an important causal role. An earthquake that was large in seismological (e.g. magnitude) or engineering (e.g. destructiveness) measures may have had little effect on engineering tools developed to contend with the earthquake problem. The history of earthquake engineering is not merely a set of events rigidly tied to a chronology of major earthquakes. Nonetheless, some significant earthquakes have been step function events on the graph of long-term progress in earthquake engineering. Only earthquakes that bring together several prerequisites have had such historic effects, creating in a country a beachhead for earthquake engineering that persisted in the following decades. In this brief historical review, the following seminal earthquakes are discussed: 1906 Northern California, United States; 1908 Reggio-Messina, Italy; 1923 Kanto, Japan; 1931 Mach and 1935 Quetta, India-Pakistan; 1931 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

The Long-Term Regulation of Safety Standards: The Case of the Electricity Industry in Australia and New Zealand

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-332
Author(s):  
Malcolm Abbott
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Electricity Industry ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Organizational Approach

Throughout much of the history of the electricity industry in Australia and New Zealand the industry has been the subject of safety regulations. Although this regulation has been a constant throughout the life of the industry the organizational approach to regulation has changed over the years. Periodically in Australia and New Zealand history these questions have been raised in a political context, although notably the structure of safety regulators does not get much attention in the standard histories of the industry. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to discuss some of the general issues that have arisen in the reform of regulation in the case of electricity safety over the longer term and how it relates overall to the development of the electricity industry.

scholarly journals Fine-tuning citrate synthase flux potentiates and refines metabolic innovation in the Lenski evolution experiment

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik M Quandt ◽  
Jimmy Gollihar ◽  
Zachary D Blount ◽  
Andrew D Ellington ◽  
George Georgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Citrate Synthase ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Glta Gene ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Evolution Experiment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second Wave

Evolutionary innovations that enable organisms to colonize new ecological niches are rare compared to gradual evolutionary changes in existing traits. We discovered that key mutations in the gltA gene, which encodes citrate synthase (CS), occurred both before and after Escherichia coli gained the ability to grow aerobically on citrate (Cit+ phenotype) during the Lenski long-term evolution experiment. The first gltA mutation, which increases CS activity by disrupting NADH-inhibition of this enzyme, is beneficial for growth on the acetate and contributed to preserving the rudimentary Cit+ trait from extinction when it first evolved. However, after Cit+ was refined by further mutations, this potentiating gltA mutation became deleterious to fitness. A second wave of beneficial gltA mutations then evolved that reduced CS activity to below the ancestral level. Thus, dynamic reorganization of central metabolism made colonizing this new nutrient niche contingent on both co-opting and overcoming a history of prior adaptation.

The Pacific Ocean as Highway to Gold Mountain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sinn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Capital Flows ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Pacific Ocean

This chapter takes a broad look at the Pacific Ocean in relation to Chinese migration. As trade, consumption and capital flows followed migrants, powerful networks were woven and sustained; in time, the networks fanned across the Pacific from British Columbia along the West Coast of the United States to New Zealand and Australia. The overlapping personal, family, financial and commercial interests of Chinese in California and those in Hong Kong, which provide the focus of this study, energized the connections and kept the Pacific busy and dynamic while shaping the development of regions far beyond its shores. The ocean turned into a highway for Chinese seeking Gold Mountain, marking a new era in the history of South China, California, and the Pacific Ocean itself.

Solitary Confinement across Borders

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Sharon Shalev
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prison System ◽  
Solitary Confinement ◽  
Management Units ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Close Supervision ◽  
Recent Developments

This chapter looks at the use of solitary confinement in three jurisdictions where the author has conducted research: England and Wales, New Zealand, and the United States. It asks when and why prisoners are placed in solitary confinement in these jurisdictions, and what are the conditions of their confinement. The chapter's main focus is on the long-term use of solitary confinement as a tool for managing individuals classified and labeled as the most dangerous or troublesome in the prison system, including in New Zealand's Management Units and England and Wales’s Close Supervision Centres. Finally, it examines recent developments and asks what learning there might be for other jurisdictions.

Priming-Induced Shift in Synaptic Plasticity in the Rat Hippocampus

1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 2024-2028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyan Wang ◽  
John J. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Long Term Potentiation ◽  
Crossover Point ◽  
Term Potentiation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Dependent Mechanism

The activity history of a given neuron has been suggested to influence its future responses to synaptic input in one prominent model of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity proposed by Bienenstock, Cooper, and Munro (BCM theory). Because plasticity of synaptic plasticity (i.e., metaplasticity) is similar in concept to aspects of the BCM proposal, we have tested the possibility that a form of metaplasticity induced by a priming stimulation protocol might exhibit BCM-like characteristics. CA1 field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) obtained from rat hippocampal slices were used to monitor synaptic responses before and after conditioning stimuli (3–100 Hz) of the Schaffer collateral inputs. A substantial rightward shift (>5-fold) in the frequency threshold between long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP) was observed <1 h after priming. This change in the LTD/P crossover point occurred at both primed and unprimed synaptic pathways. These results provide new support for the existence of a rapid, heterosynaptic, experience-dependent mechanism that is capable of modifying the synaptic plasticity phenomena that are commonly proposed to be important for developmental and learning/memory processes in the brain.

A Long-Term, Consistent Land Cover History of the Southeastern United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (9) ◽  
pp. 559-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Dannenberg ◽  
Conghe Song ◽  
Christopher R. Hakkenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
History Of

Immigration restriction: rethinking period and place from settler colonies to postcolonial nations

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Bashford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Immigration Restriction ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Nation States ◽  
World Nation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

AbstractImmigration acts have long been analysed as instrumental to the working of the modern nation-state. A particular focus has been the racial exclusions and restrictions that were adopted by aspirationally white, new world nation-states: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. This article looks again at the long modern history of immigration restriction in order to connect the history of these settler-colonial race-based exclusions (much studied) with immigration restriction in postcolonial nation-states (little studied). It argues for the need to expand the scope of immigration restriction histories geographically, temporally and substantively: beyond the settler nation, beyond the Second World War, and beyond ‘race’. The article focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, bringing into a single analytical frame the early immigration laws of New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Canada on the one hand and those of Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Fiji on the other.

Social Security

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry DeWitt ◽  
Edward D. Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Older People ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
History Of ◽  
Government Benefits

This chapter considers the history of Social Security, arguing that the 1950 amendments represented the fundamental adjustment that allowed the program’s long-term survival. It analyzes current issues in Social Security related to gender, race, and the program’s long-term solvency. It concludes that Social Security has legitimized the receipt of government benefits among many Americans and changed the nature of old age in the United States by providing older people with a guaranteed means of support. A large and costly program, Social Security has evolved into the United States’ major antipoverty program. Nonetheless it faces the criticism of those who argue that it favors older people over other age groups and that it represents an inefficient form of government coercion. Whether the program will be sustained in the future or modified in a significant way remains a critical question.

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