Dietary reconstruction in Migration Period Central Germany: a carbon and nitrogen isotope study

This study presents bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the Migration Period cemeteries (fifth/sixth century AD) of Obermöllern and Rathewitz in Central Germany. The human average δ ¹³C ratios of ?19.8?±?0.3 ‰ and δ ¹⁵N ratios of 9.6?±?0.9 ‰ (n?=?43) reflect a mixed diet in a temperate C3-based ecosystem without significant difference between the two sites. The average offset between human and faunal δ ¹³C and δ ¹⁵N values indicates a significant contribution of plant food to the human diet that has different isotope ratios from the forage of the animals. It furthermore suggests the influence of land management on the δ ¹⁵N values. One adult male from Obermöllern stands out due to his elevated nitrogen isotope ratio, body height, grave goods, and burial position. The collagen isotope data of this study are comparable with data from other central European sites and confirm rather stable communities with moderate variation in the environmental conditions of arable land.     

The (Ineffective) Financial Statecraft of China's Bilateral Swap Agreements

Since 2008, the People's Bank of China has signed bilateral swap agreements (BSAs) with 35 foreign central banks. Collectively, these deals amount to nearly US$ 500 billion in Chinese renminbi (RMB) available to Beijing's foreign partners. What has led China to be so aggressive in its efforts to sign so many swap agreements? What are the political economic implications of the swap programme for the US‐centric global economic order? China's BSAs can be understood as a form of financial statecraft: the use of national financial and monetary capabilities to achieve foreign policy ends. China has deployed BSAs for both defensive and offensive reasons. Defensively, Beijing has sought to use BSAs to promote trade settlement in RMB thereby reducing China's vulnerability to the dollar's structural dominance in trade. Yet, as explained in this article, they have been ineffective in this regard. Offensively, Beijing has used BSAs as a short‐term liquidity backstop outside of the Bretton Woods institutions for partner countries in need. Here, there is greater potential for BSAs to impact the status quo economic order by enhancing Chinese economic influence. However, their potential is dependent on Beijing's willingness to act as a unilateral crisis lender and its ability to further internationalize the RMB.     

Through the Backdoor: An Overview of the English East India Company’s Rise and Fall in Safavid Iran, 1616–40

In 1616, the English East India Company expanded its trade into Safavid Iran. The chief merchants in India hoped to acquire a significant share of the Iranian silk trade. After several difficult years in India, the English traders in Surat felt pressure to establish a solid foundation in Iran where they could redirect Iranian silk through Iran’s southern ports and onto Company ships for Europe. Despite Robert Sherley’s promise of wealth and a prosperous market for English cloth, many in the English camp, predominantly Sir Thomas Roe, objected to the silk trade on grounds that it was generally a risky venture. But several leading merchants dismissed Roe’s concerns and pursued the trade without his approval. After early indications that the venture had potential for success, the English silk trade quickly began to falter and finally ceased to exist by 1640. Although its demise was once described as the Company’s failure to produce a substantial quantity of purchasing power—eastern goods, precious metals, and English commodities—this paper explores an alternative explanation that suggests the Company’s failure in Iran was not exclusively the consequence of poor economics.     

Seeing like an investor: urban development planning,financialisation, and investors’ perceptions of London as an investment space

There is a growing orthodoxy that since the global financial crisis European policy-makers and planning systems have become more dependent on inward investment and the availability of global finance to fund welfare services and projects. This process of financialisation, it is claimed, is driven by the needs of developers and investors, who are focused on maximizing returns and limiting their social and economic liabilities. Planning agencies and traditional territory-based arrangements are viewed with increasing suspicion, as standing in the way of investment and acting as a brake on much needed house-building and regeneration. However, in this paper, drawing on detailed research with investors and developers in London, we argue that there needs to be a stronger focus in academic and policy writing on the multiple, variegated, and diverse calculations and framings that private sector actors take when making investment decisions. Too often their perspectives are caricatured and/or over-simplified. We show that and imaginations of planning and regulation are complex and that many firms have realized that market success results from becoming more deeply embedded in the local political, social, and regulatory environments in which they are investing. A greater understanding of these multiple forms of calculation, in turn, opens up opportunities for the maintenance and/or implementation of more effective forms of territorially-based soft and hard regulation. The paper concludes by outlining a broader research agenda for planning and urban studies.     

Approximating the Inertia of the Adjacency Matrix of a Connected Planar Graph That Is the Dual of a Geographic Surface Partitioning

This article addresses the calculation of the inertia of an adjacency matrix (i.e., the number of positive, zero, and negative eigenvalues) associated with a connected, undirected planar graph. A formula is derived that is an upper bound for the number of negative eigenvalues of this matrix, based upon standard matrix trace results, coupled with the use of nonextreme eigenvalue averages, and requiring calculations of the pair of extreme eigenvalues and the number of zero eigenvalues. The number of positive eigenvalues can be calculated easily from this specific result. Assessment of this formula is in terms of selected regular two‐dimensional tessellations and in terms of a set of empirical surface partitioning, commonly employed in spatial analyses. Proposed correction factors allow a modification of this formula to estimate more precisely the associated inertia of an adjacency matrix. Este artículo aborda el cálculo de la inercia de una matriz de adyacencia, (es decir, el número de valores propios (eigenvalues) positivos, cero y negativos) asociados a un grafo conexo plano no orientado (connected undirected planar graph). Se deriva una fórmula que es el límite superior del número de valores propios negativos de esta matriz basándose en los resultados estándar de la traza de la matriz (matrix trace) junto con el uso de los promedios de valores propios no extremos y que requiere cálculos del par de valores propios extremos y del número de valores propios cero. El número de valores propios positivos se puede calcular fácilmente a partir de este resultado. Se evalúa esta fórmula en términos de mosaicos regulares bidimensionales y en términos de un conjunto de superficies de partición (surface partitioning) empíricas comúnmente empleados en análisis espaciales. Los factores de corrección propuestos permiten modificar esta fórmula para estimar con mayor precisión la inercia de una matriz de adyacencia. 本文讨论了联通非有向平面图邻接矩阵的惯性逼近（即正的,零以及负的特征值的个数）问题。基于标准矩阵迹的结果,综合利用非极值特征值的平均值,通过计算极值特征值对和零特征值个数,构建了邻接矩阵中负特征值上界计算公式。正特征值的个数可以简单地从上述结果中直接计算。采用空间分析中常用的规则二维格网化选取,以及一系列的经验曲面剖分对该公式的评估。所提出的修正指数允许对该公式进行修正,从而更精确地估计邻接矩阵惯性。     

Exploring patterns of movement suspension in pedestrian mobility

One of the main tasks in analyzing pedestrian movement is to detect places where pedestrians stop, as those places usually are associated with specific human activities, and they can allow us to understand pedestrian movement behavior. Very few approaches have been proposed to detect the locations of stops in positioning data sets, and they often are based on selecting the location of candidate stops as well as potential spatial and temporal thresholds according to different application requirements. However, these approaches are not suitable for analyzing the slow movement of pedestrians where the inaccuracy of a nondifferential global positioning system commonly used for movement tracking is so significant that it can hinder the selection of adequate thresholds. In this article, we propose an exploratory statistical approach to detect patterns of movement suspension using a local indicator of spatial association (LISA) in a vector space representation. Two different positioning data sets are used to evaluate our approach in terms of exploring movement suspension patterns that can be related to different landscapes: players of an urban outdoor mobile game and visitors of a natural park. The results of both experiments show that patterns of movement suspension were located at places such as checkpoints in the game and different attractions and facilities in the park. Based on these results, we conclude that using LISA is a reliable approach for exploring movement suspension patterns that represent the places where the movement of pedestrians is temporally suspended by physical restrictions (e.g., checkpoints of a mobile game and the route choosing points of a park).     

Success(ion): Second-Generation Iranian Americans

More than a generation has passed since the substantial immigration of Iranians to the United States in the late 1970s, resulting in a sizable second-generation population (defined by convention as persons born in the United States and those who immigrated under the age of thirteen). This article presents a first look at the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the second generation at the national level, and compares them with those of the first generation (Iran- or foreign-born population). It uses the 2005–07 merged data set compiled by the United States Census in the American Community Survey (ACS). The results indicate a preliminary continuation of economic and educational success from the first- to the second-generation Iranians. Moreover, this achievement has become more balanced across gender lines in the second generation. Specifically, in terms of educational attainment and labor force participation, females have quickly closed the gap with their male counterparts. Because the second generation is still young, it is premature to assess the extent of intergenerational mobility among Iranians. But given this generation's initial achievements, one can only expect an upward trajectory.     

Organic Public Geographies: “Making the Connection”

Abstract: A new field of “public geographies” is taking shape ( Fuller 2008 ) in geography's mainstream journals. While much is “traditional”, with intellectuals disseminating academic research via non‐ academic outlets ( Castree 2006 ; Mitchell 2008 ; Oslender 2007 ), less visible is the “organic” work and its “more involved intellectualizing, pursued through working with area‐based or single‐interest groups, in which the process itself may be the outcome” ( Ward 2006 :499; see Fuller and Askins 2010 ). A number of well‐known projects exist where research has been “done not merely for the people we write about but with them” ( Gregory 2005 :188; see also Cahill 2004 ; Johnston and Pratt 2010 ). However, collaborative writing of academic publications which gives research participants authorial credit is unusual ( mrs kinpainsby 2008 ; although see Sangtin Writers and Nagar 2006 ). This paper is about an organic public geographies project called “Making the connection”. It is written by a diverse collection of (non‐)academic participants who contributed to the project before it had started, as it was undertaken, and/or after it had finished. This is a “messy”, process‐oriented text ( Cook et al. 2007 ) working through the threads (partially) connecting the activities of its main collaborators, including a referee who helped get the paper to publication.