Development of seismic force requirements for buildings in Taiwan

This paper describes static and dynamic procedures to calculate seismic demand specified by the current seismic design code for buildings in Taiwan, which was issued in 2005. For design levels with a return period of 475 years, the design spectral response acceleration can be developed for general sites, near-fault sites and Taipei Basin. In addition, in order to prevent building collapse during extremely large earthquakes and yielding of structural components and elements during frequent small earthquakes, the required seismic demands at the maximum considered earthquake level （MCE, 2%/50 years） and operational level are also included in the new seismic design code.For dynamic analysis procedures, both the response spectrum method and time history method are specified in the new seismic design code. Finally, procedures to generate spectrum compatible ground motions for time history analysis are illustrated in this paper.

Study on the Quantity and Age Structure of Rural Surplus Labor Force in China

Based on the data from the Second National Agriculture Census in 2006, this paper analyzed the absolute quantity and age structure of China rural surplus labor force by the classical approach. It showed that the migration of rural labor force was still far away from ＂Lewis turning point＂, and ＂mingong huang＂ （ shortage of peasant workforce） appearing in coastal areas could be explained with the location separation between the labor-intensive industries and rural labor force. It was a feasible and an effective way to push forward the transfer of labor-intensive industries from the east coast to central and Western China to absorb the abundant supply of rural labor force.

Chilling rather than photoperiod controls budburst for gymnosperm species in subtropical China

The mechanisms regulating spring phenology have been extensively studied in angiosperm species.However,given that gymnosperms and angiosperms diverged 300 million years ago,phenology may be triggered by different cues in gymnosperm species.The regulatory mechanisms of phenology in subtropical regions remain largely unknown.In combination,it remains untested whether subtropical gymnosperm species have chilling requirements and are photosensitive.We conducted a climate chamber experiment with three chilling and three photoperiod treatments to investigate budburst during an 8-week forcing period.We tested whether budburst of eight gymnosperms species(Cryptomeria japonica,Cunninghamia lanceolata,Cupressus funebris,Ginkgo biloba,Metasequoia glyptostroboides,Pinus massoniana,Pseudolarix amabilis and Podocarpus macrophyllus)was photoperiod sensitive or has strong chilling requirements and whether photoperiod or chilling was more important for advancing budburst.Chilling advanced budburst and increased the percentage of budburst for gymnosperm species.Gymnosperm species required moderate chilling days to advance budburst.Interestingly,the forcing requirement for gymnosperm species was higher than that for angiosperms in the same forest,suggesting that gymnosperms may need more cumulative forcing to initiate budburst than do angiosperms.Compared with temperate gymnosperm species in Germany(194-600℃days),the subtropical species studied here had a much higher forcing requirement(814-1150℃days).The effects of photoperiod were minor,suggesting that chilling outweighs photoperiod in advancing budburst of gymnosperm species in this subtropical region.These results reveal that increased winter temperatures with continued global warming may impact not only angiosperms but also gymnosperms,leading to their delayed spring budburst.