Establishing Professional Intercultural Relations: Chinese Perceptions of Behavioural Success in a Sino-American Exchange Visit

This article examines the ways in which professionals from different countries handle first encounters when they wish to initiate and establish business/professional relations. The majority of research on business relations in intercultural contexts has so far focused on misunderstandings, face threats, and conflict. There has been comparatively little research into the initiation and establishment of relations from a positive perspective. This article addresses this lacuna by analysing how Chinese delegates built positive relations with American counterparts on a visit to the USA. Drawing on insights from the analysis, it proposes a conceptual framework for future research in this area

Soil-building resonance effect in the urban area of Villa d’Agri (Southern Italy)

This study aims to evaluate the possible occurrence during seismic shaking of interaction effects between the shallow subsoil and the overlying buildings of the Villa d’Agri town (Southern Italy). From the geological and building heritage points of view, the investigated area represents a typical town along the Apennines chain and therefore the obtained results could be easily exported to similar urban areas. A total of 239 single-station seismic ambient noise measurements were thus performed, 154 on the urban soils and 85 within buildings. Both subsets of measurements were planned to cover the main outcropping lithologies and building typologies. By means of the Horizontal-to-Vertical Noise Spectral Ratio technique, isofrequency and isoamplitude maps have been reconstructed for the whole area. The results evaluated on the 65 tested buildings allowed to infer the empirical relationship between the first vibrational period, T(s), and their height, H(m). Using this relationship and available information on the height of each building, the first vibrational frequency was estimated for 659 buildings belonging to the urban area of Villa d’Agri. Finally, in order to assess the possible occurrence of the double resonance phenomenon, we compared the main frequency of each building with that interpolated for the underlying foundation soil. The results show that the probability of being affected by the double resonance effect is very high only for a couple of buildings, high for about 16% of the buildings, moderate for the 23% and practically null for most buildings (60%)

Soil-building resonance effect in the urban area of Villa d’Agri town (southern Italy).

This study aims to evaluate the possible increase of seismic effects due to the interaction between near surface eology and buildings in the urban area of the Villa d’Agri town (Basilicata, south Italy). 190 single-station seismic ambient noise measurements were performed, 105 on urban soils and 85 on the overlaying buildings. These measurements, analysed based on the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio technique, together with the detailed geological map allowed to reconstruct isofrequency and isoamplitude maps for the whole urban area as well as the relationship between the first vibrational period T(s) and the corresponding height (H) of the measured buildings. Finally, the frequencies of all buildings (659) estimated on the basis of their height have been compared to the frequency of the underlying soil thus enabling us to assess where the soil-building double resonance effect could more likely occur in case of future shaking