State Expenditures and Policy Outcomes in Environmental Program Management

Comparative state environmental research seeks to explain the factors contributing to intergovernmental environmental management. In pursuing the answer to this query, researchers have relied on either fiscal (expenditures) or nonfiscal (ranking) measures of state environmental effort. Respecting the debate surrounding state policy outputs and fiscal versus nonfiscal measures, we evaluate comprehensive state environmental management comparing spending and ranking measures in our analysis. Though pronounced differences do exist between the two models, we find pollution and state size to be the primary factors affecting a state's environmental effort no matter which measure is used.     

HMQS Mosquito: the rediscovery and identification of Queensland's first warship

In 2009, the remnants of Her Majesty's Queensland Ship Mosquito, a 2nd‐class torpedo‐boat built in 1883, were relocated. Purchased by the colonial government of Australia in response to heightened tensions between Great Britain and Imperial Russia, Mosquito was assigned to Queensland's capital, Brisbane, where it had a largely uneventful career. Following removal from active duty it was stripped and abandoned on the foreshore of a tributary of the Brisbane River. This paper discusses Mosquito's historical background, and chronicles the rediscovery of the vessel, and the archaeological investigation and identification of its remains. © 2010 The Author     

Developing Spatial Weight Matrices for Incorporation into Multiple Linear Regression Models: An Example Using Grizzly Bear Body Size and Environmental Predictor Variables

In this study, we develop spatial autoregressive (SAR) models relating grizzly bear body length to environmental predictor variables in the Alberta Rocky Mountains. We examine the ability of several different spatial neighborhoods to model spatial dependence and compare the estimated parameters and residuals from a standard linear regression model (LRM) with those from three types of SAR models: error, lag, and Durbin. Further, we examine variable selection in the presence of negative dependence by repeating the modeling process using a SAR model. Two findings are that significant negative spatial dependence was present in the residuals of the LRM and that the choice of spatial neighborhood greatly affects the ability to detect spatial dependence. The incorporation of appropriate spatial weights into SAR models improves the fit and increases the significance of the parameter estimates vis‐à‐vis the linear model. The results of this study indicate that negative dependence may not have as severe negative effects on variable selection and parameter estimation as positive dependence. An examination of spatial dependence in regression modeling appears to be an important means of exploring the appropriateness of a sampling framework, predictor variables, and model form. En este estudio desarrollamos modelos espaciales autorregresivos (SAR) que vinculan la longitud del cuerpo de osos grizzli con variables predictivas ambientales en las montañas rocosas de Alberta, Canadá. Examinamos la capacidad de varias vecindades espaciales para modelar la dependencia espacial y la comparación de los parámetros estimados, así como los residuos de un modelo de regresión lineal estándar (LRM) versus tres tipos de modelos SAR: error, retraso (lag) y Durbin. Además, se examina la selección de variables en la presencia de dependencia negativa mediante la repetición del proceso de modelado con un modelo de SAR. El estudio concluye que: 1) existe dependencia espacial negativa significativa en los residuos de la LRM y; 2) la selección de la vecindad espacial afecta en gran medida la capacidad de detectar la dependencia espacial. La incorporación de ponderaciones espaciales correspondientes a los modelos SAR mejora el ajuste y aumenta la importancia de los parámetros estimados versus el modelo lineal. Los resultados de este estudio indican que la dependencia negativa puede no tener los graves efectos negativos en la selección de variables y la estimación de parámetros si se comparan dichos efectos con = la dependencia positiva. Los autores recomiendan un examen de la dependencia espacial en modelos de regresión como medio importante para explorar la conveniencia de un marco de muestreo, de variables de predicción, y de la forma del modelo. 本文构建了阿尔伯达省落基山脉地区的灰熊体态大小与环境预测变量之间的空间自回归模型（SAR）,检验了几种以不同空间邻域矩阵拟合变量的空间相关性,并比较了标准回归模型(LRM)与几种不同类型的SAR模型（空间残差模型、空间滞后模型和空间杜宾模型）的估计参数和残差大小。进而利用一种SAR模型重复模拟过程,进一步测试变量选择对负相关性存在的影响。研究表明,显著的空间负相关存在于LRM的残差中,且空间邻域权重的选择很大程度上影响模型空间相关性的探测能力。将适当的空间权重引入SAR模型中可提高拟合精度,增加相对于线性模型参数估计的显著性。研究结果表明,负相关性在变量选择和参数估计上严重负影响的程度不如正相关性强。回归模型中空间相关性检验似乎是采样结构、预测变量和模型形式适用性分析的一个重要途径。     

How incipient colonies create territory: the textual surveys of New Spain, 1520s–1620s

The study of colonial surveying and cartography has become key to understanding the history of European colonialism because of the recognition that land surveys and maps not only represent territory but form part of the process through which territory comes into being. While many studies have therefore focused on the history of instrumental surveying and cartography in New Spain, roughly equivalent to present-day Mexico, between the seventeenth and twentieth century, the textual surveys of the sixteenth century that helped to bring the initial colonial territory into being have gone largely unstudied. Content analysis of textual land surveys included in sixteenth-century viceregal land grants for sheep and cattle ranches demonstrates variation in references to distance, direction, and borders that begins to reveal a process of negotiation among local actors and centralized state power that was contingent on environmental, economic, and demographic differences between highland and lowland landscapes.     

The Phinney Site: The Remains of an American Armed Vessel Scuttled During the Penobscot Expedition of 1779

During the autumn of 1999 and 2000, members of the US Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology Branch conducted an archaeological investigation of a wooden-hulled shipwreck in the Penobscot River, Penobscot County, Maine. The shipwreck site, known locally as the 'Phinney Site', represents a middle-to-late 18th century vessel. Attributes of the vessel's construction and artefact assemblage indicate that it was American-built, owned, and operated. Data recovered during the excavations have established an association between the shipwreck and the 1779 American fleet of nine armed ships scuttled in the river near the present-day city of Bangor during the final days of the Penobscot Expedition.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society