Development of a systems model to visualise the complexity of children's independent mobility

Substantial changes to the built environment, urbanisation patterns, and societal norms have contributed to limiting children's opportunities for being independently mobile. Several linear causal pathway models have been developed to understand the influences on children's independent mobility; however feedback loops between and within the various levels of influence cannot be modelled using such an approach. The purpose of this paper is to refine the interrelationships of factors related to children's independent mobility, taking into account earlier models, broader contextual factors, recent children's geographies literature, and feedback loops. Systems model components were informed by attributes known to influence children's independent mobility, related qualitative findings, and the development of a framework that could lend itself to multilevel modelling approaches. This systems model may provide a useful structure for identifying how best to develop and monitor interventions to halt the declining rates of children's independent mobility.     

Policy Interaction in the Provision of Unemployment Insurance and Low-Income Assistance by State Governments

In this paper we investigate empirical relationships between Unemployment Insurance (UI) and welfare policies using a unique database covering 48 states annually from 1973 through 1989. We first document substantial variation across states in UI program outcomes. Having established that UI is so variable, we explore the simultaneous interaction between UI and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Medicaid, and total state and local welfare spending. Our econometric results indicate substitution between the two cash assistance programs, AFDC and UI, by state governments. On the other hand, states that operate relatively generous UI programs also tend to allocate more resources to Medicaid and other in-kind, low-income assistance programs.     

＂HELEN OF ARGOS＂ AND ＂ARGEIOI＂ IN THE ILIAD - OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORMULAIC LANGUAGE -

In his article ＂Argos andArgives in the Iliad＂ （1979） Robert Drews argued for reviving an idea, first brought forward by William D. Geddes in 18782 and later on fully developed in Paul Cauer＇s ＂Grundfragen der Homerkritik＂, according to which the origins of heroic poetry and of the Iliad in particular are to be sought in the less civilized northern regions of the Mycenaean world, especially in the realms of Thessaly. This area was known to the composer of the Catalog of Ships as the ＂Pelasgic Argos＂; this was the home of the people called Hellenes and Achaians, who set out against Troy with 50 ships led by Achilles （Ⅱ.Ⅱ 681-685）.     

Pigments, dyes, and black enamel—the colorants of reverse paintings on glass

Nondestructive analyses of medieval reverse paintings on glass revealed the same dyes and pigments customarily used in panel paintings. However, there is one exception: the black colorant is not a carbon-based pigment, but black enamel. In this respect, the stylistic as well as the technical influence of stained glass artwork can clearly be seen on reverse paintings on glass. However, there is a crucial difference: in reverse paintings, the black enamel is not fired onto the glass but painted (cold painting). Additional analyses confirmed these findings. Based on these results, the art form “reverse painting on glass” has technically to be characterized as a mixture of “stained glass” and “panel painting” that nonetheless develops into a genre of its own.     

Khao Sam Kaeo – an archaeometallurgical crossroads for trans-asiatic technological traditions

Recent archaeological investigations at Khao Sam Kaeo, on the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula, have furnished evidence for a mid/late 1st millennium BCE cultural exchange network stretching from the Indian subcontinent to Taiwan. Typological, compositional and technological study of Khao Sam Kaeo's copper-base artefacts has identified three distinct copper-alloy metallurgical traditions, with reasonable analogies in South Asian, Vietnamese, and Western Han material culture. Furthermore, analyses of technical ceramic and slag suggest that Khao Sam Kaeo metalworkers may have been using a cassiterite cementation process to produce high-tin bronze ingots for export or onsite casting/forging. Not only would this industry constitute the earliest evidence for the exploitation of Peninsula tin resources, but we also offer a speculative argument for the source of Khao Sam Kaeo's copper-base production technology.     

Analysing musical culture in nineteenth-century Europe: towards a musical turn?

The aim of this article is to establish the extent to which the history of music can offer new perspectives on the modern period. We need a change of perspective, moving away from the aesthetic debates on music to an investigation of actual experiences and practices of participants. Audience behaviour provides a link between musical production and society. In order to make opera houses and concert halls visible as social spheres, this article draws on examples from the musical life of Berlin and London in the 1800s. Music should no longer be regarded as a peripheral phenomenon, but instead as a potential historical question. The analysis of musical performances prompts at least one: music matters.     

Rosner,Erhard, Guide Signs of the Empire： Programmatic Place Names in the History of China （in German）

Successive dynasties used to emblazon their respective political agendas on the Chinese landscape by bestowing programmatic names on the towns and cities of their empire. Depending on the ruling elites＇ propagandistic aims, these messages could be allusive or blunt, bellicose or pacific, deprecating towards outsiders or culturally inclusive.     

New experimental data on the distance of sling projectiles

The range of stones cast by slings used in the past is debated. In the Central Andes, slings are asserted to be important weapons of prehispanic war, and have been recovered archaeologically. Rolled river cobbles and stones presumed to be slingstones found at fortified hilltop archaeological sites are presented as evidence that slings were used at these fortifications. Yet sling use has not been adequately tested at hillforts. Experiments conducted in Europe by a novice slinger have attempted to illuminate the range of sling cast stones at ancient hillforts. Data acquired from native slingers is necessary to more accurately assess distances achieved by projectiles launched by slings. We present data from sling experiments carried out in Puno, Perú among Quechua-speaking herders who are experienced slingers. The results demonstrate that a prior model of the maximum theoretical distance of sling cast stones underestimates their range. Results also show significant differences in the use of slings by men and women, and by different age groups. These new data permit a better approximation of warfare that has bearing on our interpretation of fortified sites.     

Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact

Intensive agricultural systems interact strongly and reciprocally with features of the lands they occupy, and with features of the societies that they support. We modeled the distribution of two forms of pre-European contact intensive agriculture – irrigated pondfields and rain-fed dryland systems – across the Hawaiian archipelago using a GIS approach based on climate, hydrology, topography, substrate age, and soil fertility. Model results closely match the archaeological evidence in defined locations. On a broader scale, we calculate that the youngest island, Hawai'i, could have supported 572 km² of intensive agriculture, 97% as rain-fed dryland field systems, while Kaua'i, the oldest island, could have supported 58 km², all as irrigated wetland systems. Irrigated systems have higher, more reliable yields and lower labor requirements than rain-fed dryland systems, so the total potential yield from Kaua'i (49k metric tons) was almost half that of Hawai'i (97k metric tons), although Kaua'i systems required only 0.05 of the agricultural labor (8400 workers, versus 165,000 on Hawai'i) to produce the crops. We conclude that environmental constraints to intensive agriculture across the archipelago created asymmetric production efficiencies, and therefore varying potentials for agricultural surplus. The implications both for the emergence of complex sociopolitical formations and for anthropogenic transformation of Hawaiian ecosystems are substantial.