Typhoons on the southeastern coast of China and Formosa

Working draftCover title"September 1955.""165"--handwritten on coverIncludes bibliographical references (p. 56-58

Bitcoin and the Rise of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

Bitcoin represents the first real-world implementation of a “decentralized autonomous organization” (DAO) and offers a new paradigm for organization design. Imagine working for a global business organization whose routine tasks are powered by a software protocol instead of being governed by managers and employees. Task assignments and rewards are randomized by the algorithm. Information is not channelled through a hierarchy but recorded transparently and securely on an immutable public ledger called “blockchain”. Further, the organization decides on design and strategy changes through a democratic voting process involving a previously unseen class of stakeholders called “miners”. Agreements need to be reached at the organizational level for any proposed protocol changes to be approved and activated. How do DAOs solve the universal problem of organizing with such novel solutions? What are the implications? We use Bitcoin as an example to shed light on how a DAO works in the cryptocurrency industry, where it provides a peer-to-peer, decentralized and disintermediated payment system that can compete against traditional financial institutions. We also invite commentaries from renowned organization scholars to share their views on this intriguing phenomenon

An Oxygen Isotopic Study of Soil Water and Pedogenic Clays in Hawaii

Soils result from complex interactions amongst the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. In this project oxygen isotopes were used to trace the movement of water in soils and to determine the conditions of mineral formation during pedogenesis. Incoming rainwater and soil-water δ¹⁸O values were monitored for two seasonal cycles in a series of soils along an arid-to-humid transect in Hawaii. The δ¹⁸O values of halloysite separated from the soil profiles was related to depth profiles of soil­ water δ¹⁸O values. This is the first oxygen isotopic investigation of soil water and pedogenic clays from the same soil profiles. A direct CO₂ equilibration method was developed to measure the δ¹⁸O value of soil water. This method also has the advantage of requiring only one step compared with two steps for existing methods. Reproducibility of measurements using this method is as good as existing methods. Tests designed to investigate factors controlling equilibration determined that biological respiration, water content, and soil type were important. Samples should be irradiated to eliminate CO₂-respiring organisms. These results imply that water in soils can be partitioned into compartments such as bulk liquid water and adsorbed water and that these compartments may have unique isotopic compositions. Application of this method to the soils in Hawaii showed that seasonal wetting and drying cycles affected the δ¹⁸O value of soil water. During the dry season, the soil-water δ¹⁸O values decrease with depth in the soil profile due to evaporation of water from the surface. During the rainy season, they increase with depth as water infiltrates through the surface from storms. The δ¹⁸O values of rainwater and soil-water generally increased as annual rainfall increased. Rainwater δ¹⁸O values were 5%o more negative soil-water δ¹⁸O values at low rainfall sites and about 2‰ to 3‰ more negative at high rainfall sites. These trends are consistent with the current understanding of parameters that influence these δ¹⁸O values. The chemical treatments used to separate halloysite from bulk soil material did not alter the δ¹⁸O values. Halloysite δ¹⁸O values at low rainfall sites ranged between +20.4‰ to +23.6‰ and the two values at a high rainfall site ranged from +18.0‰ to +18.7‰. The data suggest halloysite formation in isotopic equilibrium with its environment and imply that it forms in a restricted range of conditions. A straightforward comparison of these data to soil-water δ¹⁸O values suggests that halloysite formed between 50°C and 60°C, obviously an unrealistic circumstance. It is possible that independently calibrated mineral-water fractionation factors for low-temperature systems are incorrect or that climatic conditions in Hawaii are poorly constrained.</p

A Decision Support System for Planning And Design Tender Selection in Public Buildings

This paper presents an integrated system in which a knowledge-based decision support system (DSS) for selecting planning and design (P&D) tenders in public building construction. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to determine the weightings for evaluation criteria among decision makers and Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) is dealt with the subjectivity and vagueness in the tender selection process. A case study consisting of nine alternatives, solicited from a public works agency in Taiwan, illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach and developed system

Landslide Potential Evaluation Using Fragility Curve Model

The geological environment of Taiwan mainly contains steep topography and geologically fragile ground surface. Therefore, the vulnerable environmental conditions are prone to landslides during torrential rainfalls and typhoons. The rainfall-induced shallow landslide has become more common in Taiwan due to the extreme weathers in recent years. To evaluate the potential of landslide and its impacts, an evaluation method using the historical rainfall data (the hazard factor) and the temporal characteristics of landslide fragility curve (LFC, the vulnerability factor) was developed and described in this chapter. The LFC model was based on the geomorphological and vegetation factors using landslides at the Chen-Yu-Lan watershed in Taiwan, during events of Typhoon Sinlaku (September 2009) and Typhoon Morakot (August 2009). The critical hazard potential (Hc) and critical fragility potential (Fc) were introduced to express the probability of exceeding a damage state of landslides under certain conditions of rainfall intensity and accumulated rainfall. Case studies at Shenmu village in Taiwan were applied to illustrate the proposed method of landslide potential assessment and the landslide warning in practice. Finally, the proposed risk assessment for landslides can be implemented in the disaster response system and be extended to take debris flows into consideration altogether