Spontaneous Structural Reform in Australian Local Government: the case of the Gilgandra Co-operative Model in New South Wales

Dire financial constraints and the threats of forced structural reform have had the unforeseen effect of forcing municipal councils across Australia to reconsider their operational activities and organisational arrangements. With considerable ingenuity, numerous municipalities have proposed and sometimes adopted new structural formations that embody various forms of co-operative service provision. This remarkable development has unfortunately been largely ignored in the scholarly literature on Australian local government. In a modest effort aimed at remedying this neglect, the present paper seeks to outline the small, rural New South Wales Gilgandra Shire Council's (2004) ‘Co-operative/Local Government Service Company’ model, place it in the broader context of alternative models of local governance suitable for Australian conditions, and evaluate its characteristics.     

洪山预测区煤层赋存的可能性分析

分析了洪山预测区西部洪山岩体地质特征及其向外围扩散的范围和程度，研究了北掌勘查区和焦窑煤矿两邻区煤层受岩浆岩影响的程度，认为洪山岩体对预测区煤系及煤层赋存的影响较小，岩体外围仍有煤系赋存。为下一步找煤指明了方向。     

吾祠煤矿区构造特征及矿井生产布局探讨

通过对漳平市吾祠煤矿区的煤层地质构造特征分析，探讨了复杂构造条件下的矿井生产布局，主要是煤矿区段水平划分、煤炭采区的巷道布置、采煤方法及有关地质硐探等问题，对矿山开发有一定的指导意义。     

An Assessment of Structural Measures for Flood-prone Lowlands with High Population Density along the Keelung River in Taiwan

Midstream of the Keelung River Basin in Northern Taiwan has become highly urbanized and densely populated area. Flood inundation along riversides frequently occurred during typhoons or rainstorms. Three protection measures, including constructions of high-level protection levees, a diversion channel, and a detention reservoir, were proposed for flood mitigation. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the flood mitigation performance of the three proposed structural measures by using combined hydrologic analyses and hydraulic routings. A semi-distributed parallel-type linear reservoirs rainfall-runoff model was used for estimating the surface runoff. Furthermore, a 1-D dynamic channel routing model was coupled with a two-dimensional inundation model to simulate the hydraulic characteristics of river flooding and overland flow. Simulation results of flood stages, runoff peak discharges, and inundation extent under design rainfall scenarios were chosen as the criteria for evaluation. The results showed a diversion channel is superior to the other two measures for flood mitigation of the study area. After the process of environmental impact assessment, a revised diversion channel approach has been approved for construction as the major structural measure.     

上京井田构造特征及其成因分析

利用井田勘探和矿井生产的地质资料，对上京井阳的构造特征进行了总结，认为该井田以褶皱为主，尤以翻卷褶曲为特征，并且其复杂的构造格局是在经受了多次构造运动而形成的，其形成过程可概括为四个阶段：含煤盆地形成阶段；Ⅰ级褶皱和辗掩断层形成阶段；Ⅱ、Ⅲ级褶皱和一系列正断层形成阶段；构造体系的叠加、改造和定型阶段。     

内蒙古大青山地区寒武系与奥陶系之间的一个重要的层序界面

大青山地区寒武纪－奥陶纪地层分布零星，是由中生代逆冲推覆构造就位于此的一系列近东西向延展的构造岩片组成。下寒武统色麻沟组直接覆盖在太古界变质岩之上，缺失中元古界什那干群，寒武系与奥陶系之间呈假整合接触，标志着区内寒武纪与奥陶纪之间发生过一次抬升构造运动，其形成机制与古亚洲洋内的稳定陆快向华北板块拼贴事件有关，是早奥陶世末期华北板块整体抬升的序幕。这个层序界面的认识，对于恢复华北板块北部边缘构造演化历史具有重要意义。     

班公湖—怒江构造带西段三叠纪—侏罗纪构造—沉积演化

班公湖－怒江构造带西段在大地构造位置上处于特提斯构造域东端，横跨班公湖－怒江断裂带。三叠纪－株罗纪期间，其构造－沉积演化经历了大陆初始裂谷（T）、原洋裂谷（J1）、残余弧后盆地（J2－J3）阶段。初始裂谷阶段的拉张是呈南断北超的半地堑式由东向西进行的，逐渐形成地堑式原洋裂谷盆地。中晚侏罗世，南部新特提斯洋壳开始北各俯冲,产生的区域挤压应力使原洋裂谷逐渐封闭，裂谷盆地的小洋壳表现出以南向俯冲为主的双向式腑冲，同时伴生区域热沉降，盆地具残余弧后盆地的性质。该阶段,羌南地区发育碳酸盐岩为主的稳定陆缘沉积，冈度斯－念青唐古拉板片北部则形成广泛南超的近源碎屑沉积。     

Structural damage detection using the optimal weights of the approximating artificial neural networks

This work presents a novel neural network‐based approach to detect structural damage. The proposed approach comprises two steps. The first step, system identification, involves using neural system identification networks (NSINs) to identify the undamaged and damaged states of a structural system. The partial derivatives of the outputs with respect to the inputs of the NSIN, which identifies the system in a certain undamaged or damaged state, have a negligible variation with different system errors. This loosely defined unique property enables these partial derivatives to quantitatively indicate system damage from the model parameters. The second step, structural damage detection, involves using the neural damage detection network (NDDN) to detect the location and extent of the structural damage. The input to the NDDN is taken as the aforementioned partial derivatives of NSIN, and the output of the NDDN identifies the damage level for each member in the structure. Moreover, SDOF and MDOF examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of using the proposed method for damage detection of linear structures. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal design of passive energy dissipation systems based on H∞ and H2 performances

Passive energy dissipation devices (EDDs), such as viscous dampers, viscoelastic dampers, etc., have been used to effectively reduce the dynamic response of civil infrastructures, such as buildings and bridges, subject to earthquakes and strong winds. The design of these passive energy dissipation devices (EDDs) involves the determination of the optimal locations and the corresponding capacities. In this paper, we present two optimal design methodologies for passive EDDs based on active control theories, including H_∞ and H₂ performances, respectively. The optimal design methodologies presented are capable of determining the optimal locations and the corresponding capacities of EDDs. Emphasis is placed on the application of linear matrix inequality (LMI) for the effective design of passive EDDs using the popular MATLAB toolboxes. One important advantage of the proposed approaches is that the computation of the structural response is not needed in the design process. The proposed optimal design methodologies have been applied to: (i) a 10‐storey building and a 24‐storey building both subject to earthquake excitations, and (ii) a 76‐storey wind‐excited benchmark building, to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed design methodologies over the conventional equal capacity design. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a direct collapse–load method of design for concrete frames subjected to severe ground motions

Most current methods of design for concrete structures under earthquake loads rely on highly idealized ‘equivalent’ static representations of the seismic loads and linear‐elastic methods of structural analysis. With the continuing development of non‐linear methods of dynamic analysis for the overload behaviour and collapse of complete concrete structures, a more direct and more accurate design procedure becomes possible which considers conditions at system collapse. This paper describes an evaluation procedure that uses non‐linear dynamic collapse–load analysis together with global safety coefficients. A back‐calibration procedure for evaluating the global safety coefficients is also described. The aim of this paper is to open up discussion of alternative methods of design with improved accuracy which are necessary to move towards a direct collapse–load method of design. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.