Geotechnical Solutions for Construction of the “Business Center” in Moscow

An example of a complex geotechnical solution is cited for the construction of buildings housing the Business Center in Moscow, which includes the analysis, design, and construction of a trench enclosure for the building complex, including an architectural monument with an underground level, and a newly constructed building with from two to three underground levels, as well as the church of Saint Peter and Paul on Yauze, which abuts the buildings under construction.     

Running hot and cold in the urban home-ownership market: The experience of Japan’s major cities

Urban home-ownership in Japan was destabilised when the bubble economy collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s. This paper looks beyond the social and economic changes in Japanese housing in the post-bubble recession to focus on the ups and downs in current home-ownership markets in Japans major cities. Since the mid-1990s, social fragmentation has created a novel environment for urban home-ownership. The combination of a prolonged recession and a policy to promote housing construction and urban redevelopment has split urban space into hot spots, where the housing market is increasingly active, and cold spots, where the market is persistently inactive.     

Social housing in Latin America: Opportunities for affordability in a region of housing need

In advanced capitalistcountries, the term social housing normallyrefers to social rented housing, and itsprovision can be examined within the context ofthe type of housing welfare regime that hasevolved within the country under consideration.However, in large parts of Latin America –because of minimal affordability and limitedinvestment – social housing is very much amarginalised tenure and – apart from a smallsocial-rented sector – comprises illegalshelter in shantytowns, assisted self-buildhousing, and low-cost owner-occupation. Itwould therefore be unproductive to examinesocial housing in Latin America within thecontext of any of the welfare regimes thatprevail in the developed world.Within the region, large-scale migration intothe major urban areas created a substantial andgrowing housing deficit among the poor in thelatter half of the twentieth century. At first,there was an attempt to satisfy housing needsby the provision of social rented housing, butit was soon recognised that such accommodationwas unaffordable to the majority of the poor,while municipal governments were constrained bybudgetary considerations from increasing oreven maintaining its supply. At the same time,it was realised that informal housing could beupgraded more cost-effectively, and that forits future development the legalisation oftenure was essential; while self-build formalhousing could be constructed through theprocess of community funding. By the 1990s,even the middle-income segment wasdisadvantaged in the housing market asunemployment and interest rates rose and realwages fell, and therefore – through theintroduction of means-tested demand-sidesubsidies – the term social housing wasextended to the conventional owner-occupiedsector.Clearly, welfare regimes in Latin America areat a rudimentary stage in their development,although there is a tendency for governments toembrace neo-liberal housing policies. But at atime of fiscal constraint, it is a cause forconcern that macroeconomic priorities mightmake it more difficult for a large proportionof the population of the region to satisfy itshousing needs.     

Commodification, normalisation and intervention: Cultural, social and symbolic capital in housing consumption and governance

This paper relates the governance of anti-social behaviour in theUK to a wider policy conceptualisation of social housing as a flawed andproblematic form of housing consumption. Drawing on the theoretical workof Bourdieu and Foucault, the paper identifies how the habitus ofhousing consumption is shaped by acts of governance including classification,legitimisation, normalisation and targeted intervention. The paper argues thatdominant governance discourses relate problems arising within socialhousing to assumed distinctions in the cultural, social and symbolic capitalascribed to commodified and branded housing tenures, thereby marginalisingthe importance of differential access to economic capital in the conceptualisationof UK housing policy.     

Strength of Clayey Soils Subject to Large Shear Strains

Results are presented for determination of the peak _p, residual _r, and standard _f,st strengths of clayey soils containing up to 35% of particle inclusions ranging in size from 1 to 10 mm. It is established that on transition from _p to _r, the parameter C of Coulomb's law becomes essentially equal to zero, while the angle remains constant. A method is examined for repeated torsional testing of soil samples under conditions where shear strain s and torsional moments M _tor are controlled to establish their strength.     

Collapsed spring observations in arson investigations: A critical metallurgical evaluation

Observation of collapsed coiled (steel) furniture springs has been utilized for several decades or more by arson investigators as an indicator of whether an accelerant or smoldering source (such as a cigarette) caused a fire. This paper cites the contradictory literature, synopsizes metallurgical phenomena operative when coiled steel springs are subjected to fires, and presents empirical data from U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory testing. It is concluded that observation of the collapsed state of coiled furniture/bedding springs is not a reliable indicator of whether a fire was initiated by a smoldering cigarette or accelerated by the presence of a hydrocarbon.     

Activity analysis in wildland management

Conclusion The complexity of the production process and the importance of nonmarket or intangible inputs and outputs pose special problems in the allocation of wildlands resources. By restricting the production possibilities to a finite number of management alternatives, the land manager can use activity analysis to develop operational plans. The systematic use of constraints within the frame-work of activity analysis can bring a measure of analysis to the allocation of nonmarket resources. Ultimately, the manager must rely upon his intuition in selecting a particular plan-whether he selects one of the efficient bundles of outputs maximizing net revenues, or he assigns values to outputs and maximizes the social value of his activities. In either case, by formalizing the planning process, the manager can assess policy alternatives systematically and can widen his grasp of the potential of his resources.     

Economic impact of potential new industries in a four-state area

This note applies an input-output multiplier technique developed by Burford and Katz to analyzing the impact of potential high technology industries in a rural, four-state, thirteen county Midwestern region. By using the 1972 national input-output table coefficients and the Burford-Katz multiplier estimation formula, the estimated output impacts for fifty-one individual industries were calculated. The results indicate that within the four-state region, conventional industries would produce greater economic impacts than designated high-tech ones. This analysis could be performed rather easily for any other region in the U.S.     

Regional labor force participation and the discouraged worker hypothesis: Some empirical evidence

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the economic determination of the regional labor supply. In explaining the regional level of labor force participation two models are compared: the unemployment model based on the discouraged worker hypothesis and the neoclassical model of labor force participation. It is shown that a migration model complements the neoclassical model and provides an alternative interpretation of the discouraged worker hypothesis, this reinterpretation provides an explanation for the failure of the unemployment model at the regional level when it is quite successful at the national level.