Innovative approach in the stabilisation of coastal slopes

Coastal slope instability poses a risk to life and material properties and is of great concern in times of climate change, posing challenges as communities seek to adapt and ensure resilience. This paper presents two case studies of coastal slope stabilisation efforts from Scotland and reflects the growing difficultly faced by coastal communities who value intervention but are limited by uncertain ownership, funding and access to expertise. In both cases, the slopes are owned by private charities with no power of authorisation or means of procuring stabilisation works to protect the adjacent communities. The engineering solutions included an innovative eco-engineering component where vegetation was used to perform an engineering function. Based on the experience with these projects, the authors advocate this sustainable technique supported by the evidence from monitoring and testing. The case studies emphasise the importance of engaging with the community as a means of achieving acceptance of a workable solution as well as participation in its long-term development. Another significant observation was the contribution played by establishment of a learning culture that is supported through inter- and intraproject knowledge transfer deemed necessary to promote the necessary double-loop learning evident in these projects. </jats:p

Guest Worker Programs: A Theoretical Analysis of Welfare of the Host and Source Countries

This paper examines the interaction between migration policies of the host and source countries in the context of a model of guest-worker migration. For the host, the objective is to provide low-cost labor for its employers while avoiding illegal immigration. It optimizes over these objectives by setting the time limit of a guest-worker permit. The source country seeks remittance flows and return migration by offering fiscal benefits to returnees. Within this framework, we solve for the Nash equilibrium values of the migration policy instruments and compare them, to the extent possible, with the ones that emerge in a cooperative setting.Temporary Migration, Remittances, Migration Policy

Surface Bloch waves in metamaterial and metal-dielectric superlattices

We study the properties of electromagnetic Bloch waves in semi-infinite periodic structures created by alternating metamaterial and dielectric layers. We derive and analyze the dispersion relations in the long-wavelength limit for both TE- and TM-polarized surface Bloch modes, for magnetic metamaterials with negative refraction and metal-dielectric plasmonic superlattices. We reveal that in the subwavelength regime the bulk modes are characterized by three different refractive indices ("tri-refringence") while the surface modes can propagate parallel to the Bloch wavevector and along the interface between superlattice and semi-infinite dielectric.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

El incierto futuro de Serbia tras las elecciones presidenciales

Las elecciones presidenciales en Serbia del 3 de febrero de 2008 han tenido una enorme importancia histórica para el futuro de un país en el que el grado de inestabilidad política depende en gran medida de la actuación de la Comunidad Internacional con respecto a la formación y proclamación de la independencia del segundo Estado albanés en los Balcanes y dentro del territorio de la provincia serbia de Kosovo. Estas elecciones también determinaron la dinámica y formas de desenvolvimiento del proceso negociador que mantiene Serbia con la UE. Las elecciones presidenciales se realizaron en un ambiente de grandes tensiones y divisiones políticas, económicas, e incluso culturales, demostrando que la sociedad serbia tiende a fragmentarse progresivamente en dos bloques, el llamado bloque democrático y proeuropeo (pro-occidental) y otro nacionalista, conservador y populista, cuyas características principales son: el euroescepticismo, el dogmatismo populista y un discurso político nacionalista al estilo de los años noventa del siglo pasado. La segunda vuelta de la contienda electoral se disputó entre Boris Tadic, actual presidente de la República y líder del Partido Democrático (DS), quien ganó con el 50,6% de los votos al nacionalista Tomislav Nikolic, vicepresidente del Partido Radical Serbio (SRS),[1] que obtuvo el 47,7% de los votos de los 6,5 millones de votantes. Es importante señalar que el 1,8% de votos fueron inválidos y que la tasa de participación se elevó al 66,8%, un récord desde la elección presidencial del año 2000 que dio paso a la caída del régimen autoritario del ex presidente yugoslavo Slobodan Milosevic. Según los analistas, a pesar de la victoria de las fuerzas políticas proeuropeas, el futuro político inmediato de Serbia seguirá siendo incierto debido a las fuertes fisuras que estas elecciones dejaron dentro de la coalición política gobernante

Objective constraints of figural goodness

The effects of uniformity, compactness and symmetry on pattern goodness estimates were evaluated in three experiments. Ss were asked to choose the pattern which looks the best in respect to other patterns from given set. Patterns within sets differed from each other in uniformity (Experiment 1), compactness (Experiment 2) and symmetry (Experiment 3). Regression analyses indicated that symmetry was a single good predictor of the frequency of good pattern choice. This result is connected with Koffka's concept of perceptual economy: uniformity and compactness have perceptual advantages in the restricted situations (low energy disposal), while symmetry prevails in unrestricted conditions (high energy disposal)

Multi-objective fuzzy optimization of sizing and location of piezoelectric actuators and sensors for vibration control based on the particle swarm optimization technique: Part 2: Numerical analysis

Ovo je drugi deo istraživanja višeciljne fazi optimizacije veličine i položaja piezoelektričnih aktuatora i senzora na tankozidnoj kompozitnoj gredi. Prvi rad je fokusiran na teorijskom modelu optimizacione tehnike za optimalno dimenzionisanje i postavljanje piezoelektičnih aktuatora i senzora na pametnu strukturu za aktivno upravljanje vibracijama. U ovom delu, biće prikazana numerička analiza predstavljene optimizacione tehnike za kompozitnu konzolu sa i bez ograničenja u pogledu stepena upravljivosti za rezidualne modove.This is the second part of a two-paper research of the multi-objective fuzzy optimization of sizing and location of the collocated piezoelectric actuators and sensors on the thin-walled composite beam. The first paper is focussed on the theoretical model of a optimization techique for optimal sizing and location of piezoelectric actuators and sensors on a smart structure for active vibration control. In this part, the numerical analysis of the presented optimization technique will be presented for the cantilever composite beam with and without limitations in degrees of controllability (DCs) for residual modes

Multi-objective fuzzy optimization of sizing and location of piezoelectric actuators and sensors for vibration control based on the particle swarm optimization technique: Part 2: Numerical analysis

Ovo je drugi deo istraživanja višeciljne fazi optimizacije veličine i položaja piezoelektričnih aktuatora i senzora na tankozidnoj kompozitnoj gredi. Prvi rad je fokusiran na teorijskom modelu optimizacione tehnike za optimalno dimenzionisanje i postavljanje piezoelektičnih aktuatora i senzora na pametnu strukturu za aktivno upravljanje vibracijama. U ovom delu, biće prikazana numerička analiza predstavljene optimizacione tehnike za kompozitnu konzolu sa i bez ograničenja u pogledu stepena upravljivosti za rezidualne modove.This is the second part of a two-paper research of the multi-objective fuzzy optimization of sizing and location of the collocated piezoelectric actuators and sensors on the thin-walled composite beam. The first paper is focussed on the theoretical model of a optimization techique for optimal sizing and location of piezoelectric actuators and sensors on a smart structure for active vibration control. In this part, the numerical analysis of the presented optimization technique will be presented for the cantilever composite beam with and without limitations in degrees of controllability (DCs) for residual modes