CENTER POINTS, EQUILIBRIUM POSITIONS, AND THE OBNOXIOUS LOCATION PROBLEM

ABSTRACT. Real variable analysis has een used to great benefit in a variety of classical problems in location theory. In this paper we explore basic complex variable techniques in one formulation of the obnoxious location problem. A general definition of center points is first given and used to formulate several alternate versions of the obnoxious location problem. A logarithmic transformation is then used to demonstrate some equivalences between these families of distinct location problems (defined via center points). A prototype logarithmic potential function which results from this formulation is then investigated, and it is demonstrated that the extremal solutions with this objective reside on the boundary of its domain of definition. An application using zero- and one-dimensional centers is discussed, and a generalization to the spatial obnoxious problem is also briefly examined. We define a zero-dimensional center as a critical point of the logarithmic potential function, and it is shown that these centers are equivalent to the solutions of the Complex Moment Problem.     

A Micro Model of Problem Definition and Policy Choice: Issue Image,Issue Association,and Policy Support of Power Plants

Past research on problem definition and public policy primarily focuses on the macro-system level. In this study, we propose a micro model of problem definition and policy choice at the individual level. We argue that while individual citizens' problem definitions and policy preferences are rooted in and filtered through their predisposition characteristics (such as socioeconomic status, political orientation, and informational base), their policy choices also strongly depend on how they define public issues, particularly how they perceive the image of an issue at hand and how they associate the issue with other public issues. Our empirical analyses, based on data from a national public survey on energy and power plant issues, support the key propositions derived from our theoretical model. Key contributions to and implications for policy studies are discussed in conclusion.     

The Politics of Air Bag Safety: A Competition Among Problem Definitions

In light of 121 deaths attributed to air bag deployments, mainly to children and adults of small stature, recent policy debate has focused on modifying current Federal automotive air bag regulations. A problem definition perspective is employed to understand the nature of this debate. Utilizing a content analysis of the official record of one U.S. House and two U. S. Senate hearings, it is argued that four problem definitions characterize the debate over air bag safety: behavioral, regulatory, technological, and corporate greed. Furthermore, it is argued that a problem definition perspective offers a better explanation of recent changes to Federal air bag regulations than do pluralist, elitist, and principal-agent models.     

A Shape Definition for Geographic Applications Based on Edge,Elongation, and Perforation

An expanded definition for measuring shape in a geographic context is presented. Shape analysis is important in many geographic contexts such as studying the effects of urban development, measuring geographic characteristics of drainage basins, and examining the patterns of geologic formations. This research implements and tests an approach to expand the current mathematical definition of shape and to measure shape for geographic applications, called the trivariate shape definition. The expanded definition involves identifying three characteristics to define shape: edge, elongation, and perforation. Indices to measure these characteristics were identified and applied to two different data sets. Analysis of results from these data sets suggests that the trivariate index clustered groups of objects based on shape similarity. The trivariate approach provides more flexibility to measure shape by relying on a more specific definition of shape.     

Tracing Issue Definition and Policy Change: An Analysis of Disability Issue Images and Policy Response

We examine the role of issue definition in disability policy change. Based on qualitative and quantitative evidence from media coverage and congressional hearings, we conclude that policy change was influenced by the redefinition of disability issues from medical and economic definitions to a new sociopolitical perspective. Specifically, we find evidence that media attention and tone influenced the number of congressional hearings and the tone of these hearings. The change in the congressional definition subsequently contributed to the passage of key legislation based on the sociopolitical/civil rights definition of disability. Importantly, our research supports previous studies that suggest problem definition helps to explain significant policy change.     

In search of a Byzantine narrative canon: the Vita Basilii as an uncanonical work

Abstract

The problem of the literary genre of Vita Basilii and, by extension, of the lack of Byzantine examples of purely secular biography is one of the most well known literary controversies of Byzantine studies. With respect to this problem a revision of the usual parameters involved in the definition of literary genres will be suggested, one which will cover not only formal aspects but also contextual and functional ones. This study will propose that the features related to these parameters could be classified as more or less prototypical, thus laying the foundation for an approach to canonical narrative patterns and enabling further progress in our understanding of this unique work.     

旅游目的地竞争力的内涵辨析及概念模型构建——语言、逻辑和认识论的视角

进入新千年以来,旅游目的地竞争力已成为旅游研究中广泛讨论的热点课题。但对于“旅游目的地竞争力”这一概念,人们的认识和界定实际上并未实现统一。本文在回顾已有各种定义的基础上,分别从语言、逻辑和认识论的视角对与之相关的诸多问题进行辨析,旨在探讨“旅游目的地竞争力”的内涵及其所反映的客观世界的运动与作用,并尝试运用系统论思想构建旅游目的地竞争力之形成的概念模型。     

国际移民体系中的中国大陆移民--也谈新移民问题

改革开放以来,中国大陆出现的新移民问题引起了广泛关注,但已有的研究并不能使人们清晰地认识和了解这一问题.本文试图将这一问题置于国际移民的背景下加以探讨,就新移民的概念界定、出现这一现象的主要背景、新移民的人数和类型等问题进行分析.从而说明,中国大陆的新移民现象,是20世纪移民时代国际移民大潮中的一个极小的部分,对此应有客观公正的认识.     

Fish Stories: Science, Advocacy, and Policy Change in New England Fishery Management

Once the poster child for government-sponsored overfishing, New England by 2005 had become a fishery conservation success story. This article develops and deploys a problem-definition framework to explain the dramatic shift from a permissive to a protective fishery management regime in New England. I argue that neither new and improved scientific information nor pressure from powerful commercial interests caused government officials to modify their approach to fishery management. Instead, environmentalists used lawsuits to threaten fishery managers' autonomy and thereby forced them to replace fishers' risk-tolerant definition of the problem with environmentalists' more precautionary one as the basis for management. Environmentalists had legal leverage because they were able to demonstrate convincingly a substantial discrepancy between what the agency's governing statute required and what managers actually did. Two factors were critical to environmentalists' success: a compelling and credible scientific story about the relationship between fishing and the health of fish stocks, and an explicit conservation requirement in the language governing fishery management.     

Comparing expeditious procedures for the seismic vulnerability assessment on the European territorial context: reliability,feasibility, cost,and time consumption

ABSTRACT

The definition of strategies for the preservation and protection of cultural heritage is a topical issue, especially in view of the increasing relevance of the theme of seismic risk mitigation and reduction.

The prediction of the impact an earthquake could have on existing buildings requires the knowledge of their dynamic behaviour. The procedure to be adopted for this purpose is quite complex and onerous in terms of costs, time, and implementation, especially when the study concerns territorial areas rather than single buildings. The definition of methodologies aimed at respecting the principles of economic sustainability and preserving human life and architectural heritage is of paramount importance to assess seismic vulnerability using available resources. Rapid methods for the seismic vulnerability assessment, aimed at defining buildings vulnerability and intervention priority lists, must be implemented to guarantee the preservation of historical centers.

This article describes the application to some case studies of different methods aimed at creating fragility curves for the vulnerability assessment on the European territorial context. The comparison between a deterministic approach and a new probabilistic one is performed for all case studies, to define the most suitable methodology in terms of reliability and savings in cost and time.     

The Yali movement in retrospect: rewriting history,redefining ‘cargo cult’

This paper is concerned with a definition of the term ‘cargo cult’ as formulated by Papua New Guineans from their personal experience of the colonial encounter. An examination of the negative connotations inherent in their interpretative reconstruction of the concept ‘cargo cult’ reveals that these resulted from a dialogue with western cultural constructions of ‘cargo cults’ which effectively discredited these movements. Interpreted in this way, the indigenous definition can also become the starting point for a reconsideration of the anthropological concept of ‘cargo cult’.     

Household possessions and wealth in agrarian states: Implications for archaeology

This paper deals with the problem of measuring household wealth from domestic artifactual remains. After an archaeologically useful definition and classification of wealth is presented, quantitative anthropological, sociological, and historical analyses demonstrating a strong association between household possessions and wealth are reviewed. Then, ethnographic and historical data on different functional categories of household goods are examined in order to assess their relative ability to predict wealth. Once the nature of the relationship between household possessions and wealth in the systemic context is specified, methodological problems influencing the detection of this relationship in the archaeological context are treated. It is concluded that household possessions are quite good wealth indicators in the systemic context, and that proper attention to a number of methodological issues allows archaeologists to take advantage of this relationship to measure household wealth in past societies.     

Middle-power definitions: confusion reigns supreme

Renewed interest in middle powers since the late 2000s has seen a surge in research. Yet an agreed definition is more elusive than ever. This compromises the ability to pursue meaningful research programs, communicate practical policy advice, and instruct future generations. Why is an agreed definition so elusive and how can this challenge be overcome? The author contends that the definition of the term ‘middle power’ has evolved to be less about discovering either ‘the meaning of a word’ or ‘the nature of a thing’ in the pursuit of knowledge, and more about persuasion, influence, coercion and, ultimately, the exercise of power. An alternative approach to definition offers the best hope to address this challenge. With this objective, the author first looks into the nature and criteria for definition in the social sciences. Second, he looks at the structure of contemporary attempts to redefine the term. Third, he analyses definitional ruptures to shed light on the rhetorical import of contests. Finally, the author turns to rhetorical theory to offer an alternative approach to the definition of the term ‘middle power’.     

Theory and practice in urban pottery seriation

The paper discusses the principles and a procedure for analysing urban archaeological sequences using pottery seriation. Interpretations of particular shapes of seriation curve are offered and the problem of residuality is confronted. The method is suggested as having direct relevance for the definition of stratigraphic events and historical activities on urban sites.     

Arendt’s Promise to Civil Society: Bridging the Social and the Political

In Arendt’s political theory the concept of civil society is often read as an extension of her concept of the social and is therefore dismissed as irrelevant to her political vision. This view leaves Arendtian theory in an exclusivist position with regard to contemporary political contexts and experiences. My aim in this essay is to address this problem by discussing the relationship of Arendtian theory and the concept of civil society in the context of contemporary political experience. This calls for not only a particular reading of the social in Arendt but, more importantly, for a joint reading of Arendt’s concept of the council state and civil society. Here, civil society is defined as the associations institutionalized by the voluntary engagement of active citizens, which definition, I argue, is compatible with Arendt’s concept of politics as action, plurality, and participation.     

Tackling Social Exclusion

Abstract

The opening words of the 1999 report of the government's Social Exclusion Unit, Bringing Britain Together announced that it met its remit to report to the Prime Minister on how to: ‘develop integrated and sustainable approaches to the problems of the worst housing estates, including crime, drugs, unemployment, community breakdown, and bad schools etc.’ In other words the Social Exclusion Unit was instructed to take a problem-solving approach to the issue. This approach meant that the development of an inclusive society would be understood implicitly in terms of dealing with those areas that are perceived as problems. This seems to suggest that social exclusion ‘just happens’ to people who ‘suffer from’ a collection of problems. The agent or agents of this exclusion are rendered invisible by the very linguistic structure of the definition. This paper argues that it is vital to envisage the agents and victims of exclusion and to describe it in terms of the relationship of face to face. A critique drawing upon the insights of Emmanuel Levinas would refuse to allow us to reduce the otherness of the socially excluded to a project defined in the terms of those who exercise power in social relations. Nor would it allow a definition of social exclusion in terms of it being either ‘their’ problem or the consequence of some impersonal force. A theological critique might lead us to argue that the whole project of problem solving when applied to persons is in and of itself highly suspect. Thus the paper concludes by considering what shape might develop from the bringing of insights from philosophical and theological discourses to this perception of social exclusion. It seeks to argue for a radical passivity before the face of the Other (that is in this case those who live in urban housing estates) arguing that those who engage with social exclusion, the ‘name’ that has been given to this face, are first summoned by the Other to a relationship of total responsibility which rejects the reductionist project of the controlling ‘I’.     

论城市竞争力及评价方法和程序

本文对国内外"竞争力"辨析的基础上,探讨了城市竞争力的概念。其结论是:城市竞争力是指一定竞争环境中,一个城市在发展过程中所具有的吸引、争夺、拥有、控制和转化资源,以创造价值或财富,提高居民生活水平和城市可持续发展的能力。在城市竞争力概念和城市竞争力影响因素的"环境学派"、"资源学派"和"能力学派"基础上,本文分析了城市竞争力的一般评价方法:区域经济学方法、基准法和SWOT方法。最后总结了城市竞争力评价的一般程序。     

Networks,context, and the use of spatially weighted survey metrics

Social context is a vitally important concept to political geographers, but one that suffers from measurement problems and ambiguities of definition, particularly at the most localized levels of measurement. In this paper, we argue that unique insights about context can be gained by combining the tools of survey research with the geographic tools of spatial analysis. By spatially interpolating indicators of neighborhood-level political discussion from egocentric network batteries, we capture meaningful variation in micro-level political environments. Focusing on three activist-driven measures of the political environment, we demonstrate that these measures pass key validity tests and improve model fit compared to unit-invariant measures of social context. We conclude by discussing the practical considerations and challenges associated with this measurement strategy and discuss other, more general dimensions of social context that might be captured utilizing this methodology.     

近二十年来我国学术界关于世界近代史分期问题的研究

世界近代史分期问题是世界史研究领域的一个极其重大的理论课题.八十年代以来,我国学术界围绕世界近代史的基本定义、特点、研究对象、分期的标准与依据、上下限和内部分期等问题进行了深入的研究,提出了许多新的观点.     

Disease, Social Identity, and Risk: Rethinking the Geography of AIDS

The emergence of new diseases and the re-emergence of 'old' diseases necessitates a relook at what shapes vulnerability to ill health. A framework is proposed that combines a realist approach to mapping vulnerability with feminist and post-structural approaches that focus more attention upon the role of social identities and cultural framings of disease. Too often investigations of disease focus either upon structural determinants of risk such as political policy and the economy, or on discursive definitions of disease that impact its experience. A combination of these approaches would result in a more effective framework for evaluating vulnerability, and subsequently for generating effective disease prevention strategies. The social, economic, political, and cultural context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi is given as an illustration of this framework.