Human adaptation and socioeonomic change in northeast China: Results of the Fuxin Regional Survey

Northeastern China is one of the centers of early development of agriculture and sedentary life, as well as of the subsequent development of social complexity and distinct cultural attributes. While the outlines of this trajectory are clear, its important details are still elusive. Like all other regions of northern China, there is little data on the all-important transition from nomad hunter-gatherers to sedentary agriculturalists. The Fuxin Regional Survey was designed as the first step in accumulating new data and addressing the geographic and ecological contexts of these socioeconomic processes. Among the most remarkable results of this survey is the identification of early ceramics, which possibly predate the transition to agriculture. The systematic collection and analysis of stone tools was done in a way never before done in this region. Analysis of our findings, using GIS and other methods, sheds new light on the local trajectory of human adaptation in this area.     

Arms Racing in ‘Space’: Spatial Modelling of Military Spending around the World

This paper builds on previous research into determinants of military spending by examining global and local spatial effects. Other research has examined the effects of regional differences and neighbours' spending levels with standard econometric techniques. This paper uses spatial econometrics to gain a better understanding of the influence of location and distance on levels of defence spending. I find that a spatial lag specification provides much more robust evidence of arms racing and security dilemma dynamics than previous studies. These basic dynamics have been difficult to detect empirically without the context and nuance introduced by spatial modelling. The paper represents a first cut at the topic, but two specific findings emerge. First, globally there is positive spatial correlation (nearby states have similar levels of spending). This conforms to arms racing and security dilemma expectations. And, second, locally there is variation in the patterns of spatial clustering across broad international regions (e.g. Europe, Asia etc.). The second finding supports previous research suggesting important qualitative regional variation in patterns of defence spending and international conflict. The models also confirm the effects of political regime type and interstate war on defence spending, and are robust to the inclusion of a temporally lagged dependent variable.     

Hydrogen isotope systematics of hair: archeological and forensic applications

The hydrogen isotope systematics of hair have been explored and several applications demonstrate the type of information that can be recovered from archeological and forensic hair samples. Experiment with modern hair demonstrate that sources of protein-based hydrogen in keratin are food and water. On the basis of a deuterium-enriched drinking study, it was found that 31% of hydrogen in human hair is derived from ingested water. At least 9% of total hydrogen in human hair is isotopically exchangeable with water or water vapor at 25 °C. Nearly complete exchange occurs in a matter of hours. The δD value of body water is approximately 17±10‰ (n=7) more negative than human hair, although there is much scatter in data for modern hair, which is clearly related to variability of the isotopic composition of ingested food and water. Archeological hair samples were analyzed from (i) a 370 year old Incan mummy sacrificed at 5300 m altitude in Argentina (Geoarchaeology 14 (1999) 27) and (ii) from a Woolly Mammoth from Siberia. High spatial resolution data along the length of hair from the mummy indicate seasonal variations in carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen isotope ratios. No hydrogen isotope anomalies are seen in the youngest hair at the base of the scalp, indicating that the individual probably lived at 1600 m, and spent less than a week at high altitudes before death. The mammoth also preserves a seasonal signal, suggesting hair growth rates of 33 cm/year, faster than human hair, but slower than horse tail hair. The limited isotopic range across seasons for the mammoth is consistent with a north-south migration on the order of 1000 km.     

A Flawed Saint: The Popular Image of William Gladstone in the Australian Colonies

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the popular image of William Gladstone which gradually emerged and evolved in the Australian Colonies throughout the nineteenth century. By using a wide variety of newspaper sources and political speeches, the piece shows how Gladstone was extensively discussed and interpreted on the far side of the ‘British World’. It tracks the ups and downs of the turbulent relationship Gladstone had with the Australian Colonies over his long career, as he influenced Australian history both directly through the policies he implemented and indirectly as an inspiration for local politicians. It concludes that although Gladstone repeatedly aggravated Australian opinion both through his time at the Colonial Office and the ‘soft’ foreign policy he pursued as Prime Minister, his domestic popularity as a successful liberal and democratic figure was enough to make him a hero in colonial eyes. This conclusion shows how ‘British World’ popular sentiment was able to trump nominal local interests. This demonstrates not only the predominance of Britishness in Australian identity during this time period, but also how as a simultaneously separate yet intimately linked part of the Empire, Australians abstracted their own significance and meaning from domestic British politics.     

Research design in digital luminance analysis

The prevalence of digital image analysis in studies spanning a wide range of fields makes the importance of set-up design decidedly important for repeatability and testing between studies, especially for those interested in the analysis of microscopic properties. This note outlines some important guidelines for setting up an image analysis protocol, and provides a case study based on the digital analysis of dental cement. Our method allowed for us (1) to get data through the conversion of optical luminance into numerical values and (2) to accurately measure image features through numerical analysis.     

Structural Determinism in the Interlocking World City Network

Taylor's interlocking specification of the world city network has offered researchers a theoretically informed way to measure the world city network using readily available firm location data. However, the number and size of firms that are viewed as linking cities to one another impose a form of structural determinism on the world city network. Specifically, when a relatively small number of firms is used to define a network among a relatively large set of cities, or when only larger firms are used, this approach is unable to reveal a wide range of structures features that may actually be present in the world city network it is intended to measure. Through a series of examples, I demonstrate how specific features of firm location data predetermine the structure, number and size of cliques, and density of world city networks derived using the interlocking approach. Concluding comments discuss the implications of this structural determinism by focusing on the case of the commonly used Globalization and World Cities data set 11, offer some suggestions concerning how the interlocking approach can be employed while avoiding structural determinism, and identify some alternative approaches to mapping the world city network. El modelo interconexión cerrada (interlocking) de la red mundial de ciudades (world city network) desarrollado por Taylor (2001) ha proporcionado a los investigadores un marco teórico para medir dicha red con datos fácilmente disponibles acerca de la localización de empresas. Sin embargo, el número y tamaño de las empresas que son consideradas como ‘vinculadoras’ (de ciudades) imponen una forma de determinismo estructural sobre la red. En concreto, cuando un número relativamente pequeño de firmas es utilizado para definir la red entre un conjunto relativamente grande de ciudades, o, cuando sólo se utilizan las empresas más grandes, este enfoque (interlocking) no es capaz de identificar o medir una amplia gama de características estructurales presentes potencialmente en la red de ciudades mundiales. A través de una serie de ejemplos, el autor demuestra cómo varias características específicas de los datos de localización de las empresas predeterminan la estructura, número y tamaño de los cliques y la densidad de las redes de ciudades mundiales resultantes de la aplicación de modelos de interlocking. Luego el autor presenta las implicancias del determinismo estructural mencionado, centrándose en el caso la base de datos de uso común GaWC # 11. Finalmente el articulo ofrece algunas sugerencias sobre cómo el enfoque de interlocking puede ser empleado sin caer en un determinismo estructural, y se identifican algunos enfoques alternativos para el mapeo de la red mundial de ciudades. 泰勒（2001）采用相对容易获得的公司地理位置数据提出的世界城市网络连锁度量方法,为研究者提供了一种理论途径。然而,将公司的数量和规模视为城市之间的联接是一种强加的世界城市网络结构决定论形式。特别是当用数量相对较少的公司或仅用大公司的数量来定义相对较大的城市网络集时,该方法不能揭示目前实际情况中大范围世界城市网络需要度量的结构特征。通过一系列的案例分析,本文显示了公司区位数据的特有特征预先决定了集团的结构、数量和规模,以及由泰勒的连锁方法推导出世界城市网络的密度。最后,通过曾被广泛采用的GaWC（全球化和世界城市）数据集的11个城市公司数据讨论了结构决定方法的应用,并就应用该方法如何避免结构决定论提出一些建议,进而识别一些可选用的方法来绘制世界城市网络图。     

Clintoncare and Obamacare: Lessons for Gridlock Theory

Abstract

The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 marked a significant achievement for congressional health reform. Despite increased partisanship, decreased productivity, and increased polarization of Congress, major health reform legislation was passed. We compare the ACA’s passage to the failure of Clinton-era health reform, emphasizing gridlock theory, which some scholars interpreted to predict that major health reform would not be possible in 2010. We identify several ways in which the different outcomes for the ACA and the Clinton reform effort can be explained by gridlock theory: pivotal actors, the gridlock window, and the status quo. However, factors not included in gridlock theory, such as the role of parties and institutional change, appear to also have contributed to the success of the ACA relative to the failure of Clinton health reform. Lessons learned from health reform suggest an opportunity to expand gridlock theory to account for these additional factors.