Postcrisis recovery in the regions of Europe: Does institutional quality matter?

This paper investigates how institutional quality and its components (quality, impartiality, and control of corruption) are associated with the economic recovery in the aftermath of the global recession (2010–2016). The evidence suggests that the postcrisis dynamism of a region depends on whether its economy is accompanied by a good governance at the local level. The results also show the heterogeneity in the effects of institutional characteristics and other traditional determinants of growth for the high-income club (core) and the low-income club (periphery), respectively. This evidence can provide indications to define ad hoc policies apt to mitigate the recent surge in inequality among EU regions.     

The Reporting of International News in Canada: Continuity and Change, 1988–2006

This article examines Canadian daily newspaper editors' views regarding the status of international news reporting in Canada. It is based on a series of surveys administered in 1988, 1995, 2000, and 2006 that measured editors' assessments of issues such as the quantity and quality of international news in their papers, the importance they attach to international news coverage, the areas of the world they consider important to cover, and the sources they use for international news. The article uses the data from the surveys to determine whether 11 September 2001 affected editors' perceptions of international news reporting. This question has been widely studied in the United States, but less so in Canada. The central conclusion here is that 9/11 has had only a limited impact on editors' perceptions. The data across all four surveys demonstrate a remarkable degree of consistency in editors' assessments of international news reporting in Canada.     

Ground Motion Parameters for the 2011 Great Japan Tohoku Earthquake

The 2011 great Japan Tohoku earthquake is not only the most devastating but also, one of the best recorded earthquakes in the history of seismology. A thorough study of strong motion characteristics of this earthquake is conducted using 20 well established ground motion parameters (GMPs). The behaviour of these parameters with fault distance and average shear wave velocity is examined and attenuation relationships are developed using the 1172 surface level strong motion records. In addition, all GMPs are categorized on a statistical basis using principal component analysis, which is further used to rate the damage potential of ground motion records.     

Human bioarchaeology: Group identity and individual life histories – Introduction

The approach of individual life histories has been facilitated by a rapid growth in the area of bio- and archaeological sciences, and in human osteology. Concurrent improvements to radiocarbon dating and focus on high resolution paleoenvironmental reconstructions have moved the new research to the annual or decadal scale of analysis. Together, this new approach allows us: (1) to reconstruct long segments of individual life histories from birth to death; (2) to assess variation in prehistoric human behaviour; and (3) to place this behaviour in the context of dynamic interactions with the natural environment. The emphasis on individuals rather than groups or cultures feeds naturally into the modern scientific-evolutionary archaeology, a school of thought which focuses on mechanisms generating human cultural diversity. While it is the populations that evolve, it is the variation generated at the individual level that is necessary to set this process in motion. To an evolutionary archaeologist and anthropologist it is the behavioural variability that is of primary research interest. Hence the paramount importance of documenting and understanding what people do on a daily basis and how they differ from each other in their needs, preferences, choices, decisions, and strategies developed and employed to satisfy them.     

Refuting the technological cornerstone of the Ice-Age Atlantic crossing hypothesis

The “North Atlantic Ice-Edge Corridor” hypothesis proposes that sometime during the Last Glacial Maximum, roughly 26,500–19,000 years ago, human populations from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula made their way across the North Atlantic and colonized North America. A key element of that hypothesis is the apparent similarity between stone-tool-production techniques of Solutrean peoples of Western Europe and Clovis and purportedly pre-Clovis peoples of eastern North America, most especially the supposed intentional use of “controlled overshot flaking,” a technique for thinning a bifacial stone tool during manufacture. Overshot flakes, struck from prepared edges of the tool, travel across the face and remove part of the opposite margin. Experimental and archaeological data demonstrate, however, that the most parsimonious explanation for the production of overshot flakes is that they are accidental products created incidentally and inconsistently as knappers attempt to thin bifaces. Thus, instead of representing historical divergence, overshot flakes in Clovis and Solutrean assemblages mark convergence in the use of the same simple solution for thinning bifaces that produced analogous detritus.     

城市旅游在中国：研究回顾与发展展望

本文对中国城市旅游的研究动态进行了回顾与反思后认为,中国城市旅游研究虽然成果数量多并呈现稳定递增态势,但同时存在着动态研究不足、系统性缺失、研究深度不够以及方法落后等问题。本文从发展目的、形态、生产模式和空间结构四方面对城市旅游进行了重新认识,并探讨了对城市旅游与城市发展以及与城市其他产业的融合和嵌入发展等问题。     

1995-2010年中国省际人口迁移态势与空间格局演变——基于社会网络分析的视角

采用第五次人口普查、2005年人口抽样调查和第六次人口普查数据,基于社会网络分析的视角,研究了省级尺度下中国人口迁移态势与空间格局演变特征。结果显示:(1)1995-2010年间,中国人口迁移规模迅速增大,省际间人口迁移规模差异明显;上海、浙江人口迁入率显著上升,河南、安徽人口迁出率显著上升。(2)北京、上海、安徽、四川等13省是我国人口迁移网络的核心节点,人口迁移网络表现出中心性、收敛性和地区非均衡性特点。(3)京津地区、长三角地区、广东是我国主要人口辐合流场,安徽、四川、河南、湖南等中部省份是我国主要人口辐散流场。研究表明,不同地区的人口迁移有显著的空间异质性,各地应根据自身人口迁移趋势及在全国人口迁移网络中角色,科学制定区域人口政策与经济社会发展规划。     

Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record

Archaeologists are adept at analyzing variation in artifacts. The discipline has well established and tested methods to track change through time and to evaluate the function of artifacts that depend upon measures of variation in the archaeological record. Although a critical concept, the means by which variation in material culture is generated is not well understood. This paper explores one source of variation, copying errors, and systematically examines how cultural transmission processes act to amplify, reduce, or maintain such variation. Using simple models, we generate expected distributions for the amount of variation that occurs through time under varying circumstances. This variation is caused by small errors that are transmitted from one person to another in the propagation and replication of cultural traits. These baseline values provide useful null models for explaining variation in prehistoric assemblages of artifacts. We use measurements of projectile points from Owens Valley and Woodland ceramics from Illinois to demonstrate the value of this approach.     

Variation in North American dart points and arrow points when one or both are present

The appearance of the bow and arrow in North America as a weapon-delivery system is predicted to have prompted an increase in variation among antecedent projectile points that tipped darts propelled by atlatls. Attributes of dart points are expected to display greater variation with the appearance of the bow as prehistoric artisans experimentally sought points that worked effectively as arrow points. Attributes of arrow points are predicted to also initially display much variation. Subsequent to the initial burst of variation, less-effective variants of attributes were winnowed out, causing a reduction in variation of attributes of both dart points and arrow points. Both coefficients of variation for individual attributes and summed coefficients of variation for multiple attributes of three sequences of projectile points from evolutionarily independent areas in North America confirm these predictions.     

旅游对我国区域经济增长及其敛散性的影响——基于1997年～2010年省际面板数据的实证分析

本文以Barro和Sala-i-Martin的收敛假说为理论基础,利用面板模型探讨了1997年～2010年间旅游业发展对我国总体国民经济及东、中、西部地区区域经济增长及其敛散性的影响。结论显示:1997年～2010年间,全国及东、中、西部地区经济增长均呈发散趋势;旅游发展对全国及东、中、西部地区区域内经济增长及其差距的缩小产生了积极影响。