Does the walkability of neighbourhoods affect children's independent mobility,independent of parental,socio-cultural and individual factors?

The association between neighbourhood walkability and children's independent mobility using an ecological approach is relatively unexplored. In 2007, 1480 10- to 12-year-old children (and 1314 parents) attending low and high walkable schools across Perth, Western Australia, completed surveys. Objective built environment, social-cultural and individual-level factors were explored. High neighbourhood walkability predicted girls' independent mobility. However, girls and boys were more likely to be independently mobile if they and their parents were confident that they could travel independently. Providing safe, walkable neighbourhoods – particularly for girls – combined with strategies to improve children's skills to safely navigate their neighbourhood may increase independent mobility.     

The application of LiDAR-based DEMs on WWII conflict sites in the Netherlands

Airborne Laser Scanning or Light Detecting And Ranging (LiDAR) is quite a new technique for most archaeologists. Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), derived from the LiDAR-data, can be very useful to map archaeological sites in order to get a better overview of what is left and how these remains should be protected and researched further. LiDAR-based DEMs can be extremely useful to conflict archaeologists, especially in the Netherlands where excavation of the remains of World War II (WWII) is often problematic. Using DEMs it is possible to make both an indication of the archaeological and the heritage value of a conflict site. The use of DEMs will improve the prospection, mapping and monitoring of archaeological sites.     

Adam Ferguson on the Perils of Popular Factions and Demagogues in a Roman Mirror

For the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson (1723–1816) and many of his time, the history of the Roman Republic furnished the best case study for discussions of internal threats to a mixed system of government. These included factionalism, popular discontent, and the rise of demagogues seeking to concentrate power in their own hands. Ferguson has sometimes been interpreted as a ‘Machiavellian’ who celebrated the legacy of Rome and in particular the value of civic discord. By contrast, this article argues that he is better understood as a disciple of Montesquieu, who viewed Rome as an anachronistic and dangerous ideal in the eighteenth century, the era of the civilized and commercial monarchy. The greatest fear of Ferguson was military despotism, which he believed was the likely outcome of democratic chaos produced by the levelling instincts of the ‘common’ people and demagogues prepared to harness their discontent. In such a scenario, a legitimate order in a mixed government would be turned into a faction putting the constitutional balance at risk, undermining intermediary powers, and ending liberty for all.