Getting Out of Belize: Britain’s Intractable Military Exit from Central America

With scant material interests at stake, and protection exacting a toll on military resources, Britain wanted out of Belize, its sole dependency in Central America. This desire became more pronounced by the 1970s as successive British governments sought to eliminate residual out-of-Europe political and military commitments. Exiting Belize, however, proved a three-decade challenge for Britain. Exploiting recently declassified British government documents, this article explains why leaving proved so intractable. The article explains how Guatemala’s territorial claim—and its threat to realise this claim by means of force—proved the main obstacle to Britain’s military exit. Repeated attempts in the 1970s towards a negotiated settlement with Guatemala failed. Instead the decade was marked by moments of acute tension. Unable to discount the possibility of a Guatemalan attack, Britain felt compelled to reinforce its military presence in the country at a time when it was trying to exit. Moreover, Britain had to offer continued protection as a necessary condition for Belize to proceed to independence in 1981. This post-independence defence guarantee was intended as a short-term measure, and Britain remained committed to ending its Belize commitment at the earliest opportunity. Yet British protection ended only in 1994. This article unpacks the political and military factors that best account for this protracted withdrawal.     

敦煌壁画色卡数字成像色彩管理应用研究

敦煌壁画高保真数字化采集是其数字保护工作的重要基础。依据前期研究及自主研制的敦煌壁画色卡,对敦煌壁画高保真复制品数字采集工作中图像的色彩管理性能进行了研究,并与标准色卡Macbeth ColorChecker的色彩管理效果进行了主观对比评价。研究结果表明,相同拍摄条件下,自主研制的敦煌壁画色卡的色彩管理主观视觉评价结果优于标准色卡,且对于不同类型照明光源和不同偏色设定条件,自主研制的敦煌壁画色卡可以对偏色图像颜色进行有效校正。     

Sustainability transformations in the balance: exploring Swedish initiatives challenging the corporate food regime

ABSTRACT

This paper explores to what extent organic initiatives that go beyond mainstream organic (so-called Organic 3.0) can challenge the corporate food regime and how they can push the food system towards sustainability transformations. We depart from the assumption that individual initiatives may differ in their potential to influence the corporate food regime and that this potential can be assessed by examining traits linked to reformist, progressive or radical food regime/food movement trends that they may possess. Rather than establishing a dichotomy between niche and food regime or categorizing Organic 3.0 initiatives within one of these trends, we explore the nuances in niche–regime relationships within the food system from a multi-level perspective, using the cases of two Organic 3.0 initiatives in Sweden. The results show that relations between these initiatives and the food regime share key characteristics, but also differ in important respects. While a reformist strategy facilitates niche growth, progressive and radical approaches are more likely to challenge the regime. The choice of approach in both cases involves trade-offs between growth and organic values. We conclude that one of the primary roles of Organic 3.0 initiatives may be to illustrate the viability of alternative models.     

“世界遗产”与“非物质文化遗产”两种遗产类型的特征研究

＂世界遗产＂（World Heritage）和＂非物质文化遗产＂（IntangibleCultural Heritage）是内涵和外延不同的两个专有名词和各有评价标准的两种遗产类型,共同点只在于,它们是由联合国教育、科学及文化组织（UNESCO）宣布、在国际层面上加以保护的文化或自然遗产。作为热门词汇,比较容易被望文生义地理解为是一种统一的世界级的遗产;所以在讨论学术问题时,宜谨慎使用＂世界遗产＂汉译词通称World Heritage和Intangible Cultural Heritage这两种遗产类型。     

Are Members of Business for Social Responsibility More Socially Responsible?

This study examines the association between corporate social performance (CSP) practices and membership in Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) between 1992 and 2006. BSR is a business association that seeks to help its members adopt enhanced CSP practices. While there is an emerging literature examining voluntary initiatives as alternative policy mechanisms to regulations, most research is focused on initiatives that emphasize environmental protection. Further, studies suggest that membership in strictly voluntary initiatives tends to be associated with lower environmental performance because of “free‐riding” behavior by participants. BSR differs along two dimensions when compared with other voluntary initiatives examined in the literature. First, it is a comprehensive voluntary social initiative that helps firms from diverse industries address multiple CSP issues simultaneously. Second, it might limit opportunism by not offering blanket certification to its participants. Our results indicate that BSR members exhibit greater levels of positive social impacts without demonstrating significantly different levels of negative social impacts. This suggests that participation in voluntary initiatives that avoid granting blanket certifications may be associated with the adoption of new corporate social responsibility practices but not linked to the shedding of entrenched routines that produce negative externalities.     

Assessing Measures Designed to Protect the Homeland

Some general parameters are proposed for evaluating homeland security measures that seek to make potential targets notably less vulnerable to terrorist attack, and these are then applied to specific policy considerations. Since the number of targets is essentially unlimited, since the probability that any given target will be attacked is near zero, since the number and competence of terrorists is limited, since target-selection is effectively a near-random process, and since a terrorist is free to redirect attention from a protected target to an unprotected one of more or less equal consequence, protection seems to be sensible only in a limited number of instances.     

先“圈”起来：历史文化名镇名村

由文物保护单位的个体保护,扩大到对其周边环境的保护,以及对历史街区、古镇古村的保护,对一些有历史价值的建筑和体现传统风貌的古镇古村,在未入选公布名镇(村)之前,主张“先圈起来”列入保护规划,防止被拆毁。     

论中国园林建设中的和谐思想

园林建设为工业化进程的人类优化了生存环境,提升了生活质量,为城市化建设作出了突出的贡献。园林建设中的以人为本的思想、可持续发展思想、生态化思想在本质上与科学发展观所追求的理念有着一致性,体现出一种人与自然、人与社会同生共进的和谐思想。     

Preparation of a new calcite layer from calcium glycolate for the conservation of sulfated limestone artifacts

A novel preparation method of calcite layer was explored for the conservation purpose of the surface sulfation limestone artifacts. In this method, the alcoholic solution of calcium glycolate was used as a precursor of calcite layer. After application on the surface of gypsum crust on limestone by spraying, calcium glycolate can combine with the carbon dioxide spontaneously and form a compact calcite layer. The obtained calcite layer can act as a shelter and can prevent the gypsum crust from the dissolution damage of the natural precipitation. The protective properties of the calcite layer were investigated by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), water erosion resistance, water absorption, colour difference, surface strength, and hardness test. The results revealed that the water erosion resistance, surface strength, and hardness of the treated sample were increased remarkably. Meanwhile, the intrinsic physical properties such as porosity, capillary absorption, and appearance were not affected obviously, indicating a good compatibility of the proposed protection method.     

民宿与在地社区的互动与共生——基于扎根理论的多案例研究

民宿逐渐成为旅游吸引物本身,从单一住宿功能向集住宿、审美、度假、在地体验等多功能转化,其与在地社区的社会利益结构发生巨大变化。本研究基于四个典型民宿,对二者的互动及共生关系展开多案例研究。发现二者的四种互动模式：被动的社交式浅层互动、被动的参与式浅层互动、主动分享价值型深层互动、价值共创型深层互动。旅游小企业的投资动机在民宿行业表现为四种：生活方式保守型、生活方式进取型、私人商业型、联合商业型。在互动模式和民宿主投资动机的影响下,形成寄生、偏利共生、非对称性互惠共生、对称性互惠共生等四种由低到高的共生关系。提出二者构建共生关系的建议。