TESTING SIZE-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS WITHOUT RATIO-VARIABLES,MULTICOLLINEARITY, LOGARITHMIC TRANSFORMATIONS,OR REGRESSION ANALYSIS*

Using data describing the historical distribution of county seats in the United States, we (1) replicate the traditional ratio-variable test of the size-density law, (2) test a new multivariate, nonratio form of the law, and (3) introduce an alternative method of testing, one which avoids three possible problems in traditional analyses: ratio-variables, multicollinearity, and logarithmic transformation.     

BEYOND THE QUANTITATIVE CUL-DE-SAC: A QUALITATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS*

There is a pressing need in the United States to develop effective programs that address youth unemployment and the transition from school to work. Based on work at 47 sites in 31 states, this paper reports on a policy evaluation strategy that heavily relied on qualitative research. On-site observers at each of these sites focused on key issues of program implementation, linkages to other agencies and organizations serving youth, and on the effectiveness of different program strategies for different target populations. The utility of qualitative analysis for in-depth assessments of these programs is stressed.     

Papal Power and Protection in the Shebet Yehudah

The sixteenth‐century Shebet Yehudah is an account of the persecutions of Jews in various countries and epochs, including their expulsion from Spain in the fifteenth century. It is not a medieval text and was written long after many of the events it describes. Yet although it cannot give us a contemporary medieval standpoint, it provides important insights into how later Jewish writers perceived Jewish–papal relations in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Although the extent to which Jewish communities came into contact either with the papacy as an institution or the actions of individual popes varied immensely, it is through analysis of Hebrew works such as the Shebet Yehudah that we are able to piece together a certain understanding of Jewish ideas about the medieval papacy as an institution and the policies of individual popes. This article argues that Jews knew only too well that papal protection was not unlimited, but always carefully circumscribed in accordance with Christian theology. It is hoped that it will be a scholarly contribution to our growing understanding of Jewish ideas about the papacy's spiritual and temporal power and authority in the Later Middle Ages and how this impacted on Jewish communities throughout medieval Europe.     

Institutions,informality, and influence: explaining nuclear cooperation in the Australia-US alliance

ABSTRACT

Nuclear cooperation has been a consistent feature of the Australia-US alliance. In the 1950s and 1960s, Canberra explored transferring US nuclear weapons to Australian forces operating in Southeast Asia. Since the 1960s, Australian governments have supported hosting joint facilities that contribute to America’s ability to execute global nuclear operations. And Australia has regularly invoked the nuclear umbrella as part of the alliance. We explain the key sources of nuclear cooperation in the alliance by leveraging realist and institutionalist theories of alliance cooperation. While realism explains limits to US nuclear commitments in the 1950s, institutional explanations are more relevant in pinpointing the sources of nuclear cooperation and in explaining why Australia has often achieved its policy preferences as the junior partner.     

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.     

Neutron Activation Analyses of ‘Falke‐Group’ Stoneware*

Fragments of late medieval highly decorated Falke‐group stoneware have been found in excavations all over central and northern Europe. The distribution of the finds points to an origin in Saxony, but the exact centre of production is still unknown. Therefore, a set of samples has been analysed with Neutron Activation and the data compared with Saxon reference groups. The results point to production in a single workshop. The data can be clearly distinguished from all reference groups in our databank. However, the most similar group is that of Zittau, Saxony. Also, one sherd, which is typologically very similar to the Falke group, and which was made in Zittau, suggests that production was based there.     

Variation in Venues of Slavery and Freedom: Interpreting the Late Eighteenth-Century Cultural Landscape of St. John, Danish West Indies Using an Archaeological GIS

An archaeological GIS is used to examine the late eighteenth-century cultural landscape of St. John, US Virgin Islands. Land use patterns are reconstructed using a combination of historic maps, tax records, and survey reconnaissance. The study demonstrates significant, heretofore undocumented, transitions taking place that reflect dynamic cultural and economic change within Danish West Indian plantation society that includes a significant trend towards land ownership by free-colored St. Johnians more than a half a century before emancipation. These venues of freedom are discussed in relation to broader patterns of estate consolidation and economic shifts.