Information Technology Impacts on Urban Spatial Structure in the Chicago Region

This paper examines the impact of information technology on urban spatial structure in the Chicago region. Urban scientists are challenged to understand in what ways information technology has influenced the distribution of urban economic activities: concentration or dispersion. Using data collected in the Chicago region, orientation of establishments toward the center is tested to separate the impact of locational features of centers from the impact of information technology. The result reveals that information technology has attraction as well as spillover effect on urban spatial structure and thus concentration rather than dispersion is dominant at a local scale in the Chicago region. It was found, however, that center‐orientedness varies depending on the sector.     

The Late Cambrian trilobite Hamashania from Korea

The Late Cambrian trilobite genus Hamashania Kobayashi, 1942a has hitherto been poorly understood and is herein revised based on well-preserved specimens from Korea. Platysaukia Kobayashi, 1960 and Goumenzia Guo & Duan, 1978 are treated as junior synonyms of Hamashania. Hamashania comprises only two species, H. pulchera Kobayashi, 1942a and Pterocephalus busiris Walcott, 1905, and is restricted to North Chinaand Korea. The new genus Pacootasaukia is proposed to accommodate the Australian species Platysaukia jokliki Shergold, 1991 as type species, and Platysaukia tomichi Shergold, 1991, which are so distinct that they cannot be included within Hamashania. The generic concept of Mareda Kobayashi, 1942b, which was often confused with Hamashania, is confined to the type material.     

Ordovician trilobite faunas and depositional history of the Taebaeksan Basin,Korea: implications for palaeogeography

The Taebaeksan Basin occupies the central-eastern part of the Korean peninsula and was a low-relief shallow marine carbonate shelf on which the Cambro-Ordovician Choson Supergroup was deposited. In the Taebaeksan Basin trilobites are among the most dominant fossil groups in the Lower Ordovician, but they become less important in Middle Ordovician faunal assemblages. The Early Ordovician trilobite faunas of the Taebaeksan Basin are characterised by the common occurrence of pandemic genera such as Jujuyaspis, Leiostegium, Asaphellus, Protopliomerops, Hystricurus, Apatokephalus, Shumardia, Asaphopsoides, and Kayseraspis. Biogeographically significant trilobite taxa include Yosimuraspis, Dikelokephalina, Koraipsis, and Chosenia. These Ordovician trilobite faunas, which thrived in shallow marine environments, show a remarkable similarity with faunas from North China, implying that the Taebaeksan Basin was connected through contiguous shallow waters to North China. These Sino-Korean faunas exhibit a close biogeographic connection with Australian faunas, with which they share some endemic genera, whereas they are more distantly related to the faunas of South China, South America, and North America. Based on these palaeobiogeographical features, it is suggested that in the early Palaeozoic much of the present Korean peninsula including the Taebaeksan Basin belonged to the Sino-Korean block, while part of the peninsula was derived from the Yangtze block.     

Knowledge Transmission in Industrial Clusters: Evidence from EuroClusTex

Covering the knowledge economy scenario, this article attempts to illustrate the analysis of the employment of knowledge transmission channels in the EuroClusTex, cross-border textile and clothing cluster between northern Portugal and Galicia. Therefore, an exploratory research was conducted. Primary data were obtained through participation in events, from interviews with key informants (entrepreneurs, leaders of cluster support institutions and government representatives). The secondary data were provided by the cluster support institutions, international organizations and the literature review. The results showed that EuroClusTex contributes to the competitiveness of regions, boosting trade relations between Galicia and northern Portugal. The most effective knowledge transmission channels in EuroClusTex were identified as: imitation, relationship with suppliers, public policy and human resources training. Experiences similar to EuroClusTex can be considered and served as examples for the development of clustering policies in other countries.     

Borders Moderating Distance: A Social Network Analysis of Spatial Effects on Policy Interaction

The present paper examines the importance of integrating geographical effects into the analysis of social networks. Specifically, we study the impacts of spatial distance and territorial borders on information exchange within two European cross-border regions where there is evidence of extensive cross-border political interaction in the domain of public transportation. We use exponential random graph models to review how these spatial factors influence policy interaction. We show how the effect of distance on the exchange of information between organizations is less obvious than it seems at first sight, when we control for endogenous networks effects with which it tends to be confounded. We also explore moderating effects among the spatial factors studied and in particular how the effect of distance affects information exchange by territoriality. While the probability of interaction decreases with distance in the context of domestic ties, distance does not exert the same friction when it comes to cross-border ties. These findings suggest that borders are not necessarily a barrier to interaction and that peripheral actors located in border regions may bridge distance in order to access strategic information they do not have access to within their territorial jurisdiction and is likely concentrated in foreign decision centers.