GOVERNMENT QUALITY AND THE ECONOMIC RETURNS OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT IN EUROPEAN REGIONS

Transport infrastructure investment is a cornerstone of growth‐promoting strategies. However, the link between infrastructure investment and economic performance remains unclear. This may be a consequence of overlooking the role of government institutions. This paper assesses the connection between regional quality of government and the returns of different types of road infrastructure in the regions of the European Union. The results unveil the influence of regional quality of government on the economic returns of transport infrastructure. In weak institutional contexts, investment in motorways—the preferred option by governments—yields significantly lower returns than the more humble secondary road. Government institutions also affect the returns of transport maintenance investment.     

The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Endorheic currents in ecology: an example of the effects from scientific specialization and interdisciplinary isolation

ABSTRACT

Mainstream ecological thought is explored in three sections: (i) Epistemological traits. Given the typical scientific development and the necessity of preserving our intellectual heritage, the conservatism outlined in (i) is cyclical, so its stages are graphically summarized. (ii) Methodological benchmarks antithetically derived from (i), in order to get faster advancement consistent with the growing environmental challenges which spur ecological development. (iii) The renaissance of an old paradigm. This section exposes the misunderstanding of the physical concept of equilibrium by the mainstream ecological thought; this explains its current state. Consequently, section (iii) also summarizes the evolution of a recent set of proposals (organic biophysics of ecosystems) that rescues the foundational paradigm of ecosystem ecology based on physics, neglected by the mainstream thought before producing its most valuable results. We highlight that the main problems emerge from the weakness of integration between ecology, physics and epistemology, and spurious links between ecology and neoclassical economics.     

Reviews

Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by ROLENA ADORNO and KENNETH J. ANDRIEN. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 295.

Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance: A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy. By ALEXANDRA PARMA COOK and NOBLE DAVID COOK. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Pp. xvi, 206.

Arqueología de Omagua y Dorado. Por ALEIDA ANSELMA RODRÍGUEZ. Rende, Italy: Mediterranean Press, 1990. Pp. 221.

History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, otherwise Called America. By JEAN DE LÉRY, Translated by JANET WHATLEY. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Pp. lxii, 276.

Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. By SABINE MacCORMACK. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Pp. 488.

Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador. By SUZANNE AUSTIN ALCHON. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 147.

Mitos y utopías del descubrimiento. By JUAN GIL. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1989. Vol. 1, Colón y su tiempo. Pp. 302. Vol. 2, El Pacífico. Pp. 414. Vol. 3, El Dorado. Pp. 432.

The Noble Savage: Allegory of Freedom. By STELIO CRO. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990. Pp. xx, 182.

The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State, 1492–1867. By D.A. BRADING. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 761.

The Identity of Hispanoamérica: An Interpretation of Colonial Literature. By JOSÉ PROMIS. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991. Pp. 137.

Mexico's Merchant Elite, 1590–1660: Silver, State and Society. By LOUISA SCHELL HOBERMAN. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Pp. xiv, 352.

Society, Economy and Defence in Seventeenth‐Century Peru: The Administration of the Count of Alba de Liste (1655–61). By PETER T. BRADLEY. Liverpool: University of Liverpool, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1992. Pp. 170.

A sátira e o intelectual criollo na Colônia: Gregório de Matos e Juan del Valle y Caviedes. By LÚCIA HELENA COSTIGAN. Lima/Pittsburgh: Latinoamericana Editores, 1991. Pp. 171.

La segunda Celestina. Una comedia perdida de Sor Juana. By SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ/ AGUSTIN DE SALAZAR Y TORRES. Edition, prologue and notes by GUILLERMO SCHMIDHUBER. México: Editorial Vuelta, 1990. Pp. 225.

Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Edited by STEPHANIE MERRIM. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. Pp. 189.

Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Edited by ELECTA ARENAL and STACEY SCHLAU. Translations by Amanda Powell. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. Pp. 450.

Disappearance of the Dowry: Women, Families, and Social Change in São Paulo, Brazil, 1600–1900. By MURIEL NAZZARI. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. Pp. xiii, 245.

The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America. Vol. 4. Eighteenth‐Century Ecuador. By ALVARO JARA and JOHN JAY TEPASKE. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990. Pp. xxii, 170.     

The construction of hunting sceneries: Interactions between humans,animals and landscape in the Antofalla valley,Catamarca, Argentina

Through the history of human occupation in the south-central Andes, the interactions between south-American camelids and human populations were essential in the social reproduction, being hunting one of the appropriation modes of greater long term. In this sense, the way in which encounters between hunters and their preys were materialized becomes a relevant subject in order to understand these interactions. That is why in this paper I pretend to show the way in which the landscape were constructed where the encounters between hunters and their preys were given. For this, I shall focus in the information obtained from the intensive and systematic survey developed in the Antofalla valley, located in the Antofagasta de la Sierra Department, Catamarca Province, Argentina. This information has allowed me to identify a series of structures build with the aim of propitiate the encounter of herds by means of anticipating the movements of the animals, searching to obtain near and fixed targets in order to materialize the attack.     

The Baseline Stiffness Method for Damage Detection in Buildings Without Baseline Modal Parameters

A new method called the Baseline Stiffness Method (BSM), used to locate and quantify damage in buildings without baseline modal parameters (undamaged state), is presented. In order to determine this reference state, the BSM uses modal parameters from the damaged state of the building and the lateral stiffness matrix of the first story without damage. Afterwards, by means of an iterative process using singular value decomposition, location and severity of damage are obtained by comparing information about the damaged and non damaged states. Numerical and experimental examples are presented and discussed showing the advantages of the application of the proposed BSM.     

Buzz,Archipelago Economies and the Future of Intermediate and Peripheral Areas in a Spiky World

In a world where large urban agglomerations are increasingly regarded by scholars and policy-makers alike as the engines of economic development, the options at the disposal of intermediate and peripheral areas are dwindling. Doing nothing is, according to the dominating theories, likely to result in a steady decline which may jeopardize their very economic viability. Adopting active measures is thus the way forward. In this paper, we argue that the main solution being proposed—interactive learning through the promotion of local agglomeration (buzz option)—may yield limited results, if at all, as it would stifle the circulation of new knowledge and lead to lock-in. By contrast, promoting interaction outside the comfort zone of geographical, cognitive, social and institutional proximity (pipeline option) is more likely to succeed in generating interactive learning and in facilitating the generation, diffusion and absorption of innovation. We illustrate this point by resorting to the case of firm innovation in Norwegian city regions.