Aging Civil Research Articles

Function-Based Condition Indexing for Embankment Dams

The authors of this paper propose a total-systems approach for the development of condition-indexing systems for aging civil engineering facilities, formalizing the required decision-making process. An application for embankment dams is considered. A condition-indexing system is a gauge to measure the physical state of a facility based on several criteria for prioritization of repair, evaluation, maintenance, and rehabilitation (REMR) expenditures among many similar systems. The proposed procedure will generate the essential elements of a condition-indexing system and includes the identification of specific objectives for REMR activities, the consideration of complex interactions between subunits of the facility, and the identification of critical system components. A condition-index vector is developed by examining the subunits of the facility repeatedly for the multiple REMR objectives. This vector can be converted into a scalar by applying weighting functions that define the relative importance of each REMR objective.

Health education programme with female workers at a Mexican university

A questionnaire was used to obtain the age civil status number of living children place of birth data of 95 female workers at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) in Mexico City. An educational program employed videocassettes and posters to stimulate participants to collaborate in health education groups. Six groups with an average of eight participants per group were formed. The concept was based on the theory of E. Pichon Riviere and a gender-based analysis of womens health. A more in-depth survey aimed to establish a relationship between family size place of birth age schooling information and use of birth control methods. 40% of the female workers were aged between 21 and 29 years 29% between 30-39 11% less than 20 and 20% were 40 years or more. 3.1% had never attended school 58% had completed grade school 6.3% had completed secondary school (junior high) and only 1.1% had college level schooling. The level of schooling and age were not significantly related to variables such as: knowledge and use of contraceptive methods family size and origin number of offspring and/or abortions length of breast-feeding period and self-medication. 62.6% of these female workers had one to three children. 89% were familiar with oral contraceptives 59% with the IUD 58% with injectables and 45% with the condom contraceptive foams and surgical contraception. However 37% had never used any contraceptive method 42% were using hormonal injectable contraceptives and 21% were using the pill or an IUD. The workers had more confidence in the information given by people such as sisters female friends and female neighbors (62%) than by pharmacists (20%) doctors or other health personnel (12%). The results indicated that: 1) the relationship of stimulus-response between information and practices did not exist; 2) the design of an educational health strategy should be based on a profound knowledge of the characteristics and needs of the people for whom the program will be implemented.

Sodom, gomorrah and the other lost cities of the plain - a climatic perspective

Certain aspects of the biblical story of the Cities of the Plain have in recent years become widely accepted. Among them is the placing of those cities in the southern basin of the Dead Sea, the assumption that those cities are now covered by Dead Sea water and, in particular, the belief that their destruction was due to catastrophic geological causes, such as an earthquake. The Bible emphasizes the agricultural richness of the Jordan plain prior to the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah and its catastrophic transformation into a wasteland. Thus, stripped of ethical and religious overtones, the scenario is that of a rapid climatic change that converted a densely inhabited and richly watered area into an infertile salt playa. The region northeast and southeast of Jericho, which today is quite barren as a result of the upward movement of salty ground water but which contains some of the World's earliest known agricultural settlements, fits such a picture. Dating the Sodom event to approximately the 23rd-21st centuries B.C. supports the idea that a major climatic change that occurred between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and which resulted in profound transformations in the Middle East such as the collapse of the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt, the invasion of the Fertile Crescent by the Semitic desert nomads, and the collapse of Early Bronze Age civilization in Palestine - is also responsible for the Sodom story. Although the data are far from complete, desiccation during this period is indicated by palynological evidence pointing to the decimation of forests in Northern Israel, paleobotanical evidence from Southern Israel, the deposition of salt layers in the Dead Sea, the abandonment of almost all settlements in the Negev Desert of Southern Israel, the Jordan valley and Southern Jordan, except those which were associated with perennial springs, and further afield the drastic lowering of the level of Lake Moeris in Lower Egypt. This scenario does not exclude the possibility that a major earthquake - which may have occurred during this period - was considered to be the cause of the final physical destruction of the Cities of the Plain, delivering a coup de grace to a collapsing society, and which became through the mists of time and legend, the only agent of destruction.

Research into Materials Aspects of Aircraft Maintenance and Life Extension — Part 1

OVER several decades the Defence Science and Technology Organisation's Aeronautical Research Laboratory (ARL) has undertaken materials research focussed on support for maintenance and life extension of military aircraft. The reason for selecting this research focus — rather than development of new materials — derives from the fact that approximately half of the through‐life cost of a military aircraft is spent on maintenance. The cost‐effectiveness of research which reduces maintenance costs can therefore be substantial. Similarly, research activities which prolong the service life of an aircraft can provide large benefits by delaying purchase of a replacement fleet; acquisition costs are also large, at approximately one‐third of the through‐life cost of an aircraft fleet. A recent Australian evaluation of the cost‐effectiveness of materials‐related research aimed at reducing cost‐of ownership reported a benefit: cost ratio of the order of 25:1. One example is the Mirage IIIO whose initial design safe life of 24000 flying hours was extended to 4,000 flying hours as a result of research and development carried out at ARL; the aircraft was flown for six years more than initially planned, effectively delaying the need to replace the fleet. This type of life extension R&D requires a range of scientific and engineering approaches, focussed on evaluation of potential problems, and the development of technologically feasible life‐extension measures. Many of the maintenance‐reducing and life‐extension developments for military aircraft are readily applicable to aging civil aircraft. This paper highlights some of the materials research — specifically improved corrosion protection, evaluation of defects using non‐destructive inspection and repair of damage — which is now proving to be applicable to aging aircraft.

Editor's Note

Dr. Philip L. Kohl is professor of anthropology at Wellesley College. He is a prehistoric archeologist with extensive field experience in both the Near East (including Iran, Afghanistan, and Oman) and the former Soviet Union (including Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, and Transcaucasia). He has authored Central Asia: Paleolithic Beginnings to the Iron Age (Paris: Synthèse 14, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1984) and edited The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1981). He is also editor and co-translator of works by Soviet scholars: M. A. Dandamaev and V. G. Lukonin, Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); and Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff, ed., Early Antiquity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). Internationally known, Professor Kohl is director of IPARC, International Program for Anthropological Research in the Caucasus. Since 1990, he has led expeditions in southern Georgia and northwestern Armenia, and plans to continue excavations at the Early Bronze and Early Iron Age Horom site in Armenia.

New Bronze Age civilization

New Bronze Age civilization

Philip L. Kohl (ed.): The bronze age civilization of Central Asia. Recent Soviet discoveries. New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 1981. 440 pp., illustrated. $35.00, hardcover.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

The decline of Late Bronze Age civilization as a possible response to climatic change

The decline of Late Bronze Age civilization as a possible response to climatic change

The decline of Late Bronze Age civilization as a possible response to climatic change

The disintegration of Eastern Mediterranean civilization at the end of the late Bronze Age (late thirteenth and twelfth centuries B.C.) has traditionally been attributed to the irruption of new peoples into this area. However, the nearly contemporaneous decline of highly organized and powerful states in Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia warrants consideration of possible environmental causes likely to operate over sizable areas, especially since archaeological research has not succeeded in establishing the presence of newcomers at the onset of the Bronze Age disturbances.

The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries. Edited by Philip L. Kohl. Afterword by C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe. xl, 399 pp. Figures. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. $35.00.

The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries. Edited by Philip L. Kohl. Afterword by C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe. xl, 399 pp. Figures. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. $35.00. - Volume 41 Issue 3

Continuing structural airworthiness of civil transport aircraft

The keynote address given by Mr. Chouffot to this convention summarises the reasons for the growing concern of the airworthiness authorities and industry alike for the structural integrity of ageing civil transport aircraft and the measures taken to ensure their continued safety.This paper explains in greater depth the background for these concerns and the actions taken.I would like first to briefly review the airworthiness philosophy underlying the structural development of presentday aircraft.

Bronze Age Civilization: The Philistines and the Danites

Bronze Age Civilization: The Philistines and the Danites

The Copper Ox-Hide Ingots and the Bronze Age Metals Trade

Trade in metals, notably the precious metals gold and silver, and the base metals copper and tin, represents one of the major aspects of Bronze Age commerce. It has been argued that the first large-scale growth of a metals trade, during the mid-third millennium B.C., stimulated the development of international commerce and made possible the wealth of the EB II period in the Aegean, Anatolia and the Near East. Trade in metals continued to be one of the most important elements of commerce down to the end of the Bronze Age. Thus a proper understanding of the nature and the scope of this trade is essential to the study of Bronze Age civilization and the nature of foreign relations in the third and second millennia B.C.Since these metals were available only in certain areas, trade was essential for the development of metallurgy in those parts of the ancient world without native mineral resources, especially the Aegean and Mesopotamia. As virtually no work has been done on sources or uses of silver in the Bronze Age this paper will concentrate upon trade in gold, copper and tin. Technological developments will be discussed only in so far as they made possible the utilization of certain types of ores and hence influenced the growth of trade.

Bronze Age Civilization. The Philistines and the Danites

Bronze Age Civilization. The Philistines and the Danites

Peasantries and Elites without Urbanism: the Civilization of Ethiopia

Agricultural or nonindustrial civilization is customarily defined by social scientists in terms of urbanism and a dual social organization. Such a definition is not recent and, like many other concepts in Western thought, can be traced back to the Greeks, to Strabo for example, if one wishes to do so. Another way of considering the definition is in terms of two complementary societal components, neither existing without the other. One component is an elite in an urban setting with an elaborate high culture or Great Tradition based on literacy, and the second is a large rural peasantry with a Little Tradition or illiterate folk manifestation of the Great Tradition. However, civilization with its elite and peasants is also found when cities are absent, as in Mayan Mesoamerica; nonexistent or not vital, as in early Dynastic Egypt; or atrophied into uninhabitable ruins, as in Ethiopia. Indeed, cities were neither numerous nor large throughout the time of Bronze Age civilizations. Cities and civilizations are thus not always related. As shown above, the latter may exist without the former, and in preliterate western Africa urbanism existed without civilization.

: Easter Island: A Stone Age Civilization of the Pacific . Alfred Metraux, Michael Bullock.

American AnthropologistVolume 60, Issue 2 p. 405-405 Free Access Easter Island: A Stone Age Civilization of the Pacific. Alfred Métraux Katharine Luomala, Katharine Luomala University of HawaiiSearch for more papers by this author Katharine Luomala, Katharine Luomala University of HawaiiSearch for more papers by this author First published: April 1958 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1958.60.2.02a00370AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume60, Issue2April 1958Pages 405-405 RelatedInformation

Easter Island. A Stone Age Civilization of the Pacific

Easter Island. A Stone Age Civilization of the Pacific

Chinese Cities: Origins and Functions

U URBAN development in China appears to be almost as old as China itself. This may appear anomalous in view of the fact that modern China is overwhelmingly rural and agrarian in character with at least three quarters of its population engaged in agriculture and dwelling in rural hamlets and villages. The beginnings of town building and urban life in China appear to coincide with the Bronze Age and are associated with the second, or Shang, Dynasty. Sometime during the second millennium B.C. there developed among the bronze-using groups in North China the habit of living in clustered settlements composed of rectangular timbered houses forming quandrangular towns defended by ramparts of tamped earth. The Bronze Age civilization did not immediately replace the earlier Neolithic culture in North China, for there was a long period during which the former was restricted to a small warlike, aristocratic, ruling class occupying a number of small, scattered, autonomous city states which existed like islands in a sea of Neolithic barbarism.1 These town dwellers were the rulers, fighters, landlords and priests all in one. Shang society thus consisted of two very contrasting groups, one urban and the other rural.

Iron Age Metal Horses' Bits of the British Isles

Ever since the complexity of the Early Iron Age civilization in the British Isles was first realized, the accepted classification of its cultures has been based primarily upon pottery-types. In its present form, as stated by Mr Hawkes in 1931, that classification is, with modifications, likely to remain a basis of research for many years to come. Not only is pottery the most universally durable of the domestic articles then in common use, but it is, from the conditions of its manufacture, particularly sensitive to narrow regional and cultural differences. Nevertheless the very success of the pottery-criterion demands that we should bear in mind its obvious limitations. Not only were several culturally important areas apparently almost devoid of any but the crudest pottery, but the essentially domestic character of the potter's craft, which makes it so faithful a mirror of the constituents of everyday life, at the same time precludes it from reflecting, save in a very general fashion, the wider cultural and political contacts which must have played so large a part in the history of the period.

Chronological Problems in the Prehistory of North Africa

IMPORTANT questions relating to the antiquity of ‘fossil’ man in North Africa and to the dating and cultural affinities of the later stone age civilization of North Africa and the Sahara are debated by M. R. Vaufrey, of the Institut de Paleontologie humaine, Paris, in two recently published papers.