Listing for change? Exploring the politics of relief lists in Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr

Ideal notions of efficient aid are challenged continuously by realities on the ground in the wake of major disasters, such as dire needs, limited resources, and opportunism. This paper demonstrates how ‘relief lists’ can be productive entry points for a systematic inquiry into the pervasive politics of disaster assistance. Through an analysis of qualitative data collected during the five years after Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh on 15 November 2007, it examines how relief lists featured in both physical and phantom forms and then developed beyond their transparency-making aims, becoming elevated sites of struggle for post-disaster resources. Three list processes, selected to indicate the temporal, material, and spatial dynamics of relief encounters, are assessed in depth. Although recipients of cyclone relief appreciated its value, the paper argues that list politics also stimulated structures of vulnerability, including inequality. Gradually, relief, as governed after Sidr, also served to restore the differential vulnerability of the country's coastal poor.     

Control system approaches to ecological systems analysis: Invariants and frequency response

The steady-state assumption is a mainstay for the analysis of ecological systems with more than three or four states. However, it is well accepted in ecology that inputs to large systems come in pulses assumed to have a reasonably constant magnitude and frequency. Steady pulse inputs and the use of electro-chemical–mechanical control systems methodology enables limited short term dynamic responses of ecological systems of a scale often occurring in systems of potential engineering importance to be analyzed. This paper explores and presents a survey of multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) control systems analysis of ecosystem network models to better understand pulse frequency issues and further develop experimentally verifiable approaches to testing the MIMO concept. The analysis process is demonstrated using two network model exemplars. Two aspects of MIMO analyses appear relevant to understanding ecological systems: (1) Eigenvalue invariant analyses and singular value decomposition (SVD) analyses enable assessment of stability and relative strength of states. Eigenvalues reflect time constants and provide a check on experimentally determined system matrices. (2) Analysis of SVD versus frequency for each output indicates maximum pulse frequencies that allow system components to benefit from pulsing. As a group, MIMO analyses complement other analytical methods and provide a theoretical systems focus convenient for analyzing ecosystems from an engineering perspective.     

多排抗滑桩治理工程的有限元设计计算与优化

在现行计算方法中,通常采用不平衡推力法等传统方法设计抗滑桩.尽管国内外岩土工程技术人员通过研究使传统算法取得了较大的进展,但仍有许多不完善的地方,特别对于多排抗滑桩治理工程的设计计算,传统方法更难胜任,而采用有限元强度折减法则能解决这些问题.通过文中工程实例的设计计算可以看出,由于有限元强度折减法可以充分考虑桩—土之间...     

山东地震台网数字与模拟记录资料对比分析

对山东数字化台网荣成、烟台、莱阳、潍坊、苍山和大山台记录的垂直向P波初动半振幅、S波与P波的振幅比、P波、S波的卓越周期及振动持续时间比等参数进行了测算,并将之与同台址相应的模拟记录进行了对比,得出分析结果为:1 数字记录的速度震级较模拟记录的位移震级平均偏小0 11,数字记录的仿真震级与模拟记录的位移震级基本一致。2 数字记录的地震波参数与模拟记录一致性较好,没有明显差异。     

Governing the Borderlands: Decoding the Power of Aid

This article examines aid practice, that is, the public-private contractual networks that link donor governments, UN agencies, military establishments, NGOs, private companies and others, as a relation of global liberal governance. In order to fulfil this function, such networks embody what could be called the 'securitisation' of international assistance. Based upon ideas of human security and ameliorating the effects of poverty and vulnerability reduction, aid is now seen as playing a direct security role. Rather than being concerned with relations between states, the primary aim of this security paradigm is to modulate and change the behaviour of populations within them. In doing so, it is able to exploit the opportunities afforded by privatisation. At the same time, however, aid as security is confronted by its own particular problem of 'governing at a distance'; how can calculations made by leading states be transformed into actions at the global edge when a multitude of private and non-government implementors now intervene? The article concludes by examining the contribution of risk analysis to solving this problem and, especially, the development of new contractual regimes based around technical standardisation, benchmarking and performance auditing. Through such technologies, metropolitan states are learning how to manage the public-private networks of aid practice and, as a result, to govern the borderlands in new ways.