Knowledge Production in European Regions: The Impact of Regional Strategies and Regionalization on Innovation

In the last 15 years, the regional scale was used to implement innovation strategies in European Union. Departing from the discussion of the relevance of innovation policy at the regional level, the article benefits from the knowledge production function framework to estimate patterns considering 175 European regions. It is intended to understand whether regional innovation strategies developed and applied between 1994 and 2001 were successful at an aggregated level in contributing for knowledge creation measured in terms of patents and high technology patents. The results underline the relevance of private R&D expenditure and medium and high technology employment to increase patent numbers. The models suggest also that administrative regionalization may be important to regional innovation and that the creation and implementation of a regional strategy have a positive contribution for high tech innovation.     

Relationship Between Green Areas and Urban Conservation in Historical Areas and Its Reflections: Case of Diyarbakir City,Turkey

City planning is essential for providing physical environment for better community life and for providing green areas, while conserving historical heritage is an important achievement in city planning, particularly for historical cities such as Diyarbakir city. The focus of this paper is to outline how increasing the ratio of green area in the city centre of Diyarbakir, Turkey, with a land-use betterment model exemplified sustainable urbanism. We observed an applied urban design project that included both opening up free space to the public and increasing the amount of available green area. The project addressed an area adjacent to the Diyarbakir city walls, which are important not only for their history but also as reflections of the urbanization process of Diyarbak?r from prehistoric time to the twenty-first century. We have noticed that changes in the design area provided understanding of the city planning by public and supplied more green areas for children and women. Thus, the city became more desirable and more sustainable.     

Negotiating hydro-scales,forging states: Comparison of the upper Tigris/Euphrates and Jordan River basins

In this comparative study of two water basins in the Middle East, we examine the hydro-political construction of scale as central to state and nation building, and their territorial consolidation. We argue that scalar negotiations and constructions of freshwater became central to the very consolidation of both Turkey and Israel. The examples we offer also illustrate the usefulness of a performative approach to scale, benefiting from but moving beyond a politics of scale approach. The comparative focus on hydro-scalar politics and performativities in relation to state and nation building offered a) lends to an enriched understanding of water politics in these two contested river basins, b) enables fuller understanding of how water becomes central to the processes by which nations, states, and territories are consolidated in this region, and c) contributes to recent debates in political geography by demonstrating the value of scalar and performative approaches. Underscoring these linkages, the analysis differs from many works on water in the Middle East, contributes to studies of state and nation building as contested processes, and avoids the assumption of state or national scales as ontological pre-givens.     

DATING OF THE HOMINID (HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS) REMAINS ACCUMULATION FROM EL SIDRÓN CAVE (PILOÑA,ASTURIAS, NORTH SPAIN): AN EXAMPLE OF A MULTI‐METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE DATING OF UPPER PLEISTOCENE SITES

The age of Neanderthal remains and associated sediments from El Sidrón cave has been obtained through different dating methods (¹⁴CAMS, U/TH, OSL, ESR and AAR) and samples (charcoal debris, bone, tooth dentine, stalagmitic flowstone, carbonate‐rich sediments, sedimentary quartz grains, tooth enamel and land snail shells). Detrital Th contamination rendered Th/U dating analyses of flowstone unreliable. Recent ¹⁴C contamination produced spurious age‐values from charcoal samples as well as from inadequately pretreated tooth samples. Most consistent ¹⁴C dates are grouped into two series: one between 35 and 40 ka and the other between 48 and 49 ka. Most ESR and AAR samples yielded concordant ages, ranging between 39 and 45 ka; OSL dating results permitted adequate bracketing of the sedimentary layer that contained the human remains. Our results emphasize the value of multi‐dating approaches for the establishment of reliable chronologies of human remains.     

A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE ANCIENT QUARRIES OF SIDI GHEDAMSY ISLAND (MONASTIR,TUNISIA)

Amongst a large number of ancient quarries scattered along the North African coast, those at Sidi Ghedamsy (Monastir, Tunisia) have supplied building stones of Pliocene age. Two lithofacies have been distinguished in the quarry faces: (i) fine sandy limestone, which has been used in the construction of Roman and Arabic monuments; and (ii) porous and coarse limy sandstone, which is of bad quality for construction. Laboratory analysis results confirm that the exploitation of stone in antiquity was well focused on the levels containing the first type. This is confirmed by geotechnical tests, which show that the fine sandy limestone is harder and less porous than the coarse limy sandstone. Extraction of these stones began in the Roman period. The Romans exploited the quarries using steel tools that permitted the extraction of blocks from several levels. In the eighth century, Arabic quarry workers continued the stone extraction using the same technique, but they produced blocks of small and medium size. Statistical measurements have been done on the quarry faces and on the walls of the Ribat in order to understand the degree of conformity between the dimensions of the extracted blocks and those used for building, and ultimately to attempt to date the quarries and the construction of the Ribat.     

A STUDY OF GLASS TESSERAE FROM MOSAICS IN THE MONASTERIES OF DAPHNI AND HOSIOS LOUKAS (GREECE)

In this work 51 glass mosaic tesserae from decorations of the two Greek monasteries of Daphni and Hosios Loukas were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X‐ray powder diffraction. On the basis of the chemical analyses, after discrimination between the tesserae of the original decorations and those from other periods, it was possible to outline the distinctive traits of Byzantine mosaic tesserae. In both the monasteries, the original mosaics were decorated with tesserae produced with plant ash based glass, either of the typical composition or a mixture with natron type glass. The samples from the Hosios Loukas decorations show a more homogeneous composition compared with those from Daphni. The major differences among the original samples are due to the presence of opacifiers and colourants.     

NEW EVIDENCE FOR APULIAN RED‐FIGURE PRODUCTION CENTRES

A total of 52 South Italian red‐figure vases were subjected to neutron activation analysis. The primary aim of the study was to determine whether all Apulian red‐figure pottery datable to the period c. 430–340 bc was produced at the Greek colony of Taras, as has been widely assumed. Three chemically distinct compositional groups were isolated and compared to archaeological reference material from Taranto. The results of this comparison suggest that some Early Apulian red‐figure pottery may have been produced outside of Taras from the fifth century bc onwards.