Geographies of Policing: Domestic Violence,Mandatory Arrest,and Police Liability

For most of United States history, the police did not intervene in domestic violence. To redress for this history, police departments began implementing mandatory arrest policies in the 1980s. These policies require police to arrest in cases of domestic violence when injuries are present, regardless of victim consent. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research conducted in central Pennsylvania, including participant observation in a domestic violence unit of a police department and interviews with police officers, this paper examines how mandatory arrest policies extend the spatial reach of the state into private space and intimate relationships. Specifically, I argue that the policing of domestic violence positions police officers as neoliberal subjects responsible for mediating abusive relationships on behalf of the state. This paper contributes to geographic research on policing in the private sphere, while also offering a detailed accounting of the mechanics of police practice.     

Prospecting for Economic Returns to Research: Adding Informational Value at the Market Fringe

Abstract.  Private markets constantly assess project investment opportunities across a spectrum of such possibilities. The market's perspective on the boundary of viable projects, however, may be more limited than socially optimal due to informational constraints. In the case of economic development projects in particular, this boundary could be extended by public researchers. This paper constructs a method to estimate the private and social value‐added of such research, providing a new means to understand and assess the public/private sector interface. The framework uses agents' evolving subjective perceptions through Bayesian updating to value research information, along with methods to estimate functional forms and relative optima. Two case studies of regional development research on value‐added agriculture in Colorado highlight the utility of the approach.     

Archaeopedological analyses around a Neolithic hearth and the beginning of Sabaean irrigation in the oasis of Ma'rib (Ramlat as-Sab'atayn,Yemen)

Archaeopedological analyses in the oasis of Ma'rib (Yemen) yield new information of Neolithic land use, Bronze Age soil formation, and Sabaean irrigation. The AMS radiocarbon age of a Neolithic fireplace buried under Sabaean irrigation sediments in the Southern oasis indicates Pre-Sabaean human activities in Wadi Dhana about 5600 years ago. The associated Mid-Holocene palaeosol, developed in fluvial sediments of Wadi Dhana and also in the filling of the hearth, marks the Bronze Age-land surface before it was covered with irrigation sediments. Based on AMS radiocarbon data from charcoal in reservoir sediments of the “Great Dam” and an estimated time span of pedogenesis of the Mid-Holocene palaeosol in this region, we propose the beginning of the irrigation in Ma'rib in the period of 2500–1000 cal yr BC.     

The red-stained flint crescent from Gesher: new insights into PPNA hafting technology

A red-stained flint crescent found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (ca. 9000 BC) site of Gesher, Israel, provides us with a unique opportunity to study the hafting technology of a particular tool type in the Levant. We present here a reconstruction, based on chemical and mineralogical analyses, of the hafting technologies and materials employed in the process. Use will also be made of relevant studies of the archaeological record. Local material was used for the production of an elastic adhesive paste, mud plaster, which was then hardened to hold the crescent securely in the haft. The study contributes insight into the hafting technology that was most probably implemented in the production and maintenance of composite tools during the Early Neolithic period.     

Introduction: Conflict-Event Theory––a Proposed Paradigm

Historical Archaeology -     

Attenuation Relationships for Iran

The purpose of this study is to derive the attenuation relationships for PGA, PGV, and EPA parameters for areas within the seismic zones of Zagros, Alborz and Central Iran with rock and soil substructures. In order to do so, at first the available scientific data including the methods used for deriving attenuation relationships and the parameters involved have been gathered. Afterwards, all the efforts have been focused on gathering a thorough catalogue of earthquakes occurred in Iran. In this regard, a majority of the available catalogs in Iran have been gathered and corrected through different methods and finally a set of 89 earthquake events including 307 earthquake records with reliable data was chosen.

Since in order to derive the attenuation relationships it is essential to extract the parameters from the acceleration records, a great effort was placed on gathering the earthquake acceleration records of Iran. This resulted in building a database of a majority of the earthquake records up to the year of 2004. Afterwards, correction methods applicable to earthquakes records of Iran considering the type of machines used and the ground type were examined which resulted in certain guidelines for correction of earthquake acceleration record data related to Iran.

In the next step the needed parameters were extracted from the earthquake acceleration record data which were consequently divided into two seismic zones of Zagros, and Alborz and Central Iran according to tectonic conditions. After examination of the parameters and choosing the most appropriate among them, the attenuation relationships were derived for such parameters.