Modelling the eco-cultural niche of giant chestnut trees: new insights into land use history in southern Switzerland through distribution analysis of a living heritage

During the Middle Ages and the early modern period the cultivation of the chestnut tree became dominant in various mountain regions in Western Europe. Large numbers of giant chestnut trees have been reported throughout the continent that may be considered the living heritage of this period. In this paper we used a systematic inventory of giant chestnut trees in southern Switzerland for reconstructing the eco-cultural niche related to the long-term cultivation and conservation of such remarkable trees. To this purpose we implemented a retrospective logistic modelling approach with the presence of giant chestnuts as response variable compared with 65 environmental and cultural predictors. We performed different logistic regression analyses using untransformed and transformed variables. Out of the 42 models produced, we finally selected two models, on the basis of their parsimony and accuracy. Many of the selected predictors, such as distance from the lake, abundance of small livestock or number of secondary settlements, reveal that former local and regional socio-economic conditions and environmental constraints have considerable explanatory power. The approach allows us to detect several aspects of the targeted eco-cultural niche that may have acted in the distant past to support the development of the traditional fruit chestnut culture, as well as more recently, to preserve the giant chestnut tree population during the disruption phase of this culture. Most results are in line with the historical documentation, while others go beyond the dictates of written history and reveal interesting traits of the past economic and cultural systems.     

金刚眼力鞫盗心思——风格是鉴定书画的主要依据

个人风格是风格中的最基本元素。书画家的个人风格寓于时代风格之中,个人风格是时代风格的组成部分,个人风格与时代风格是个性与共性的关系。时代风格中还包含着地区风格。书画家的艺术风格既有其一致性,也有其多样性。个人风格的多样性与一致性是辩证统一的。风格对书画鉴定具有重要意义。     

A new petauroid possum (Marsupialia,Pseudocheiridae) from the Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna,northern Queensland

Pseudochirops winteri n. sp. is described from the Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna on the basis of a left dentary fragment with M₂. It is considered to be most similar to P. archeri although its phylogenetic position must remain tentative until further material is found. The presence of this presumably rainforest-dwelling possum, the first from this fauna, may indicate a limited closed forest component. Given the paucity of additional rainforest taxa recovered from this site despite extensive screen washing, however, such a component must have been restricted to gullies or riparian fringes.     

论唐宋西南史志及其西部地理认识价值

唐代以前,内地对广袤的西南地区地理了解甚少,且在地域观念上充满陌生、神秘甚至恐怖感。唐宋时期,随着中央王朝对西南地区经略的加强与西部地理之学的兴盛,文人学者对西南地理风物的考察记述明显增多,出现了《蛮书》、《桂海虞衡志》、《岭外代答》、《入蜀记》,《吴船录》、《成都志》、《益部方物略记》等一大批地志名著。这批地志文献不仅在唐宋地理学史上有重要价值,更重要的是多角度对西南地区的物候生态、奇木珍果,金属矿藏、温泉盐井、奇禽异兽、瘿病瘴疫及其农田水利、民族风情等记载,为后世丰富对西南地区地情特色认识,了解与开发西南自然资源与人文地理资源提供了珍贵的历史文献。唐宋西南地志之学的兴盛,不仅标示着唐宋时期西南地区方志学进入了一个新的发展阶段,更重要的是表明内地对西部地区自然地理的认知较之前代有了长足的发展。     

The Partisan Impacts of Non-Partisan Redistricting: Northern Ireland 1993–95

Space is manipulated for political purposes in a great variety of ways, and its restructuring is frequently a focus of conflict. The nature of such conflict is explored here.¹ Legislation requires that all parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom are periodically reviewed by independent Boundary Commissions. The Fourth Periodic Review in Northern Ireland began in 1993 and coincided with a period of intense political activity, associated with what was commonly termed 'the peace process'. Political parties, anxious to ensure that the resulting boundaries favoured their partisan interests (and, in the case of Sinn Fein, keen to establish their democratic bona fides ), invested considerable effort in their attempts to influence the outcome. The Commissions' recommendations became the subject of claim and counter-claim regarding bias towards one or other of the province's two main communities – Nationalist and Unionist – and as a result of that conflict, they were revised with priority given to a different criterion. This paper evaluates those claims with a close inspection of the redistricting process, illustrating how an ostensibly non-partisan process is partisan in both its conduct and its outcome.     

Experimental Investigation of Exterior Unreinforced Beam-Column Joints with Plain and Deformed Bars

Experimental tests on four full-scale exterior unreinforced reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints, representative of the existing non-conforming RC frame buildings, are carried out. The specimens have different longitudinal reinforcements (plain or deformed) and they are designed in order to be representative of two typical design practices (for gravity loads only or according to an obsolete seismic code). Different failure modes are observed, namely joint failure with or without beam yielding. The local response of the joint panel is analyzed. The different joint deformation mechanisms and their contribution to the deformability and to the energy dissipation capacity of the sub-assemblages are evaluated.     

Perceived socio‐economic and environmental costs and benefits of ICZM in Scotland

ICZM in Scotland has followed a voluntary approach to date through local coastal fora. The socio‐economic costs and benefits of these fora are assessed based on a two‐track approach. Much of the information is based on analysis of questionnaire returns from the individual fora, while the ecosystem services approach was adopted to model economic impacts of the fora activities at two scenario levels: low and high level ICZM. Key features of the fora are presented, as is their perceived impact on the economy. The value of Scotland's coastal zone is presented in the form of the annual value of ecosystem services.     

Community-based Heritage Management: a case study and agenda for research

Heritage sites regarded as important are safely managed by the state, voluntary or private sectors but the majority of sites, despite statutory protection, remain unrecognised and without a role in their host communities. New schemes such as the Local Heritage Initiative in the UK aim to encourage communities to recognise their heritage assets and in managing them effectively to contribute to their preservation. With reference to the case of Nether Poppleton near York (UK), the present study explores the factors and conditions for effective community management displayed in one locality by groups who are successfully conserving and managing a diverse set of local heritage sites. Interviews and joint tasks enabled an analysis of the complex range of factors and conditions that can lead to a successful community-based initiative. Future research will determine the extent to which these factors, if applied to other sites, might produce the same results. The importance of this agenda is underscored by the increasing reliance on community-based heritage management in the UK and elsewhere.