Three resilient megastructures by Pier Luigi Nervi

Resilience, as the ability of a structure to withstand threats and continue to function, it is normally related to durability and performance to accepted standards over time. The resilience of a structure can be threatened by poor design, changes in the public's perception of style, the potential for a change-in-use and structural attack; catastrophic events such as fire, explosion or impact are usually considered the main threats for Resilience. In the contemporary built environment Resilience is considered increasingly important; it has, in fact, become one of the major design issues, especially for large, iconic or public and prominent structures: this has not always been the case. Following the Second World War, building designers faced the necessity to conceive projects within severe financial constraints, hence the proliferation of a low quality and limited life-span structures; buildings which were designed to be replaceable, cheap and perhaps anonymous. This was thought to be an effec-tive answer to quickly accommodate the large number of people moving towards the urban environment partly destroyed by the WWII. These very buildings now constitute the backbone of our urban scenery and although some still function adequately, many are perfect examples of structures which exhibit a lack of re-silience. Fortunately, there were a few designers who refused this post-war tendency and attempted to design lasting structures of quality: most of them were engineers. This is not a coincidence, engineers had less to do with the issue of providing residential accommodations and more with the erection of large structures which necessitated a higher quality control on materials and technologies: Pier Luigi Nervi was one of them. This work considers three large structures designed and built fifty years ago,in 1961, by the Italian engineer. The structures are the Bus Station at the George Washington Bridge in New York (USA); The Burgo Paper Mill in Mantua (Italy); and the Palace of Labour in Turin (Italy). All of these buildings are hybrid structures (concrete and steel), an unusual choice for Nervi that perhaps reects the design climate at the time; These buildings reacted quite differently to the events that have occurred over the past half century. One of the key factors to achieve resilience it is considered to be the quality of the buildings, which includes their ability to perform maintenance. The lack of which for whatever reason, this paper aims to demonstrate, will inevitably result in a weak performance in terms of resilience on the long run

Human migration: the big data perspective

How can big data help to understand the migration phenomenon? In this paper, we try to answer this question through an analysis of various phases of migration, comparing traditional and novel data sources and models at each phase. We concentrate on three phases of migration, at each phase describing the state of the art and recent developments and ideas. The first phase includes the journey, and we study migration flows and stocks, providing examples where big data can have an impact. The second phase discusses the stay, i.e. migrant integration in the destination country. We explore various data sets and models that can be used to quantify and understand migrant integration, with the final aim of providing the basis for the construction of a novel multi-level integration index. The last phase is related to the effects of migration on the source countries and the return of migrants

Was it Uruguay or Coffee? The causes of the beef jerky industry’s decline in southern Brazil (1850 – 1889)

What caused the decline of the beef jerky’s production in Brazil? The main sustenance for slaves, beef jerky was the most important industry in southern Brazil. Nevertheless, by 1850, producers were already worried that they could not compete with Uruguayan industry. Traditional interpretations impute the decline to labor markets differences in productivity, since Brazil used slaves while Uruguay had abolished slavery in 1842. Recent research also raises the possibility of a Brazilian “Dutch Disease”, resulting from the coffee exports boom. We test both hypothesis and argue that Brazilian production’s decline was associated with structural changes in demand for low quality meat. Trade protection policies created disincentives for Brazilian producers to increase productivity and diversify its cattle industry

The role of nearshore ecosystems as fish and shellfish nurseries

Michael W. Beck, Kenneth L. Heck, Jr., Kenneth W. Able, Daniel L. Childers, David B. Eggleston, Bronwyn M. Gillanders, Benjamin S. Halpern, Cynthia G. Hays, Kaho Hoshino, Thomas J. Minello, Robert J. Orth, Peter F. Sheridan, and Michael P. Weinstei

Defining and Implementing Best Available Science for Fisheries and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management American Fisheries SocietyDefining and Implementing Best Available Science for Fisheries and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

In the United States, many of the laws governing environmental conservation and management stipulate that the best available science be used as the basis for policy and decision making. The Endangered Species Act, for example, requires that decisions on listing a species as threatened or endangered be made on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available. Similarly, National Standard 2 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act states that conservation and management measures shall be based on the best scientific information available. Further, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has emphasized the role of best available science in implementing the Clean Water Act (USEPA 1997). Determining what constitutes the best available science, however, is not straightforward, and scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders often have disparate ideas on how the concept should be defined and interpreted. The American Fisheries Society and the Estuarine Research Federation established a committee to consider what determines the best available science and how it might be used to formulate natural resource policies and procedures. This synopsis examines how scientists and nonscientists perceive science, what factors affect the quality and use of science, and how changing technology and societal preferences influence the availability and application of science. Because the issues surrounding the definition of best available science surface when managers and policymakers interpret and use science, we also discuss the interface between science and policy and explore ways in which scientists, policymakers, and managers can more effectively apply science to environmental policy