Inference in Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression

A recent paper expands the well-known geographically weighted regression (GWR) framework significantly by allowing the bandwidth or smoothing factor in GWR to be derived separately for each covariate in the model—a framework referred to as multiscale GWR (MGWR). However, one limitation of the MGWR framework is that, until now, no inference about the local parameter estimates was possible. Formally, the so-called “hat matrix,” which projects the observed response vector into the predicted response vector, was available in GWR but not in MGWR. This paper addresses this limitation by reframing GWR as a Generalized Additive Model, extending this framework to MGWR and then deriving standard errors for the local parameters in MGWR. In addition, we also demonstrate how the effective number of parameters can be obtained for the overall fit of an MGWR model and for each of the covariates within the model. This statistic is essential for comparing model fit between MGWR, GWR, and traditional global models, as well as for adjusting multiple hypothesis tests. We demonstrate these advances to the MGWR framework with both a simulated data set and a real-world data set and provide a link to new software for MGWR (MGWR1.0) which includes the novel inferential framework for MGWR described here.     

Australia's diplomatic asylum initiative at the United Nations: comparing international law rhetoric with foreign policy practice

In 1974, Australia took the initiative to have an item on diplomatic asylum inscribed on the UN General Assembly's agenda for that year. Its original ambition was to procure an international treaty on the subject. This article traces the history of that initiative from its inception to the acknowledgement seven years later that it had come to nothing. It also investigates the impact that Australia's initiative at the UN had on its foreign policy practice in relation to diplomatic asylum through two administrations: the Whitlam government (5 December 1972–11 November 1975) and the Fraser government (11 November 1975–11 March 1983). It demonstrates that, while the initiative generated a great deal of bureaucratic work, it wrought no real change in Australia's practice on the ground.     

A first prehistoric case of tuberculosis from Britain

A likely case of tuberculosis in an Iron Age human burial from Dorset, England is described. Osteological examination and biomolecular study support the diagnosis. A radiocarbon determination indicates a date range for the burial of BC 400–230. This case represents the earliest reported case of tuberculosis from Britain, and indicates that the disease was present here prior to the Roman invasion. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eugenics,Sterilisation and Modern Marriage in the USA: The Strange Career of Paul Popenoe

This article uses the fifty‐year career of Paul Popenoe as a lens through which to examine the North American eugenics movement. Popenoe, a leading advocate of compulsory sterilisation in the 1930s, became a celebrated marriage counsellor in the 1950s, famous for the Ladies' Home Journal feature ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?’ The ease with which Popenoe metamorphosed from a champion of sterilisation to an expert on marriage was made possible by, and helps to reveal, deep ideological affinities and organisational connections between eugenics and marriage counselling in the United States.     

Soil mark studies near Winchester,Hampshire

The fate of artifacts incorporated into the ploughsoil as a result of plough damage is considered in terms of two soil mark sites near Winchester, Hampshire. Ploughsoil and subsoil analyses indicate that dispersal of soil material, as a result of ploughing, is limited at the present time and under mould board ploughing techniques. The origin of soil marks underlain only by bedrock is also considered and evidence indicates that such soil marks may appear as groundsurface expressions of ditches which have been removed by plough damage where dispersal of ploughsoil is minimal. Such soil marks may be only short lived if plough depth continues to increase.