What can supraspecies richness tell us?

Biogeographers, ecologists, palaeontologists, and conservation managers often deal with checklists in which not all individuals have been identified to a species level, or the accuracy of species identification is questionable. Is it possible and credible to investigate species richness based on such checklists? Studies on macrofauna in the Far Eastern seas, eastern Arctic seas, and adjacent waters of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans suggest that in different habitats and for diverse taxa, species, and higher taxa richness strongly correlate with each other and increase with an expansion in the study area and sample size according to the species–area law. Such an increase is higher in the bottom zone than in the pelagic. Species and higher taxa richness also show a decrease from lower to higher latitudes, which is in line with the Humboldt–Wallace’s law. According to Willis’ law and self-similarity in the organisation of taxonomic levels, species richness can be assessed based on the genus, family, and order richness. In other words, supraspecies richness itself can tell us the same as species richness and therefore certain global patterns revealed at the species level may also be revealed at the supraspecies level. Such a concordance in general trends among richness parameters at different taxonomic levels in practice implies that species richness can be studied based on lists that lack species identifications or lists with doubtful species identification. We suggest bolder use of supraspecies richness in science and practice, discussing the disadvantages and advantages of this approach.     

The role of contextual factors in the electoral resurgence of extreme right-wing forces in Spain: The case of Andalusia

Up until the end of 2018, extreme right-wing parties and their anti-immigration discourse, now a common occurrence in other European countries, had not appeared on the Spanish political scene. However, in December of that year, the Spanish extreme right-wing party VOX reversed this trend and made significant electoral gains in the Andalusian regional elections. This phenomenon has led us to analyse, in this study, the role played by contextual factors (i.e., out-group size, territorial concentration of the immigrant population, demographic change in settlement locations, aggregated educational level and unemployment rate among the receiving society) in the rise in the number of VOX voters. To achieve this, VOX's results from all the polling stations in Andalusia contained in its 5946 census tracts were analysed. At the same time, each census tract was associated with its demographic, economic and educational data, and their relationship was analysed using a multilevel analysis with Mplus. The results show that the presence of economic immigrants is indeed associated with a higher percentage of VOX voters in Andalusia. However, despite this general trend, those census tracts with a high territorial concentration of Maghrebi immigrants are associated with a lower percentage of support for this extreme right-wing party. The opposite is found for Romanian immigrants. Moreover, areas with larger percentages of people with a high level of education influenced greater support for VOX. Thus our findings suggest the traditional explanations for the increased support for extreme right-wing parties in northern Europe do not provide clear patterns that can be extrapolated to Andalusia.     

Urban size and KIBS vertical disintegration: the case of Milan

The literature shows that market size favours firms’ vertical disintegration because it reduces transaction and knowledge coordination costs. The existing evidence is based primarily on cross-sectional data and on the manufacturing sector, with little or no attention is given to longitudinal data and services. This paper estimates the effect of urban size on the purchase of service inputs by knowledge-intensive business service firms located in the metropolitan region of Milan. Relying on a rich panel dataset, and adopting different econometric techniques to overcome endogeneity, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of increased urban population on the degree of KIBS vertical disintegration only when urban size is measured at the province level. We also find that this effect holds particularly in the case of traditional professional- rather than technology-related activities.     

新中国土地改革后新富农产生的规模与分布研究

从土地改革结束到农业集体化高潮前夕,新富农的出现从全国范围来看是稀少而缓慢的。在各省之间,农民的富裕程度与新富农比重大小关系不明显,但在同一地区内来看,两者呈现正相关关系。同时,在农业合作化程度较高亦即是较早对新富农采取限制政策的地区,新富农的比重并不一定低于甚至高于其他地区。这说明多种因素对新富农的产生、发展发生作用,单因素的分析不能解释清楚新富农这个复杂的社会经济问题。     

Does size of local labour markets affect wage inequality? a rank-size rule of income distribution

The questions addressed in this paper are: (i) does wage inequalityincrease with local population size, and if so, (ii) what arepossible factors behind this increase? In a cross-section analysisof Swedish local labour markets using unique full populationdata, the article shows that urban scale, i.e. size of localpopulation, has significant positive effects on wage inequality.Testing for potential explanations, labour market diversification,human capital, migration, age structure and employment are shownto be significantly associated with inequality. Given theseeffects, the article raises the question of how to understandand incorporate scale effects into models of long-term changein wage inequality.     

The fractal geometry of ancient Maya settlement

Ancient Maya settlement patterns exhibit fractal geometry both within communities and across regions. Fractals are self-similar sets of fractional dimension. In this paper, we show how Maya settlement patterns are logically and statistically self-similar. We demonstrate how to measure the fractal dimensions (or Hausdorff–Besicovitch dimensions) of several data sets. We describe nonlinear dynamical processes, such as chaotic and self-organized critical systems, that generate fractal patterns. As an illustration, we show that the fractal dimensions calculated for some Maya settlement patterns are similar to those produced by warfare, supporting recent claims that warfare is a significant factor in Maya settlement patterning.     

Doing Independent Overseas Fieldwork 1: Practicalities and pitfalls

This article explores issues of scalability and sustainability in distance learning. The authors kept detailed records of time they spent teaching a course in geographic information science via the World Wide Web over a six-month period, during which class sizes averaged 49 students. The authors also surveyed students' satisfaction with the distance learning course through ratings and open-ended questions. Findings are compared with similar data collected a year earlier, when class sizes associated with the same distance learning course averaged 18 students. In response to the increase in average class size by a factor of 2.7, the authors' course-related workloads increased by a factor of about 2.5 (from 47.5 hours to 116.7 hours total). Analyses of student feedback suggest that student satisfaction with the course was high overall and suffered no significant decline as a result of increased instructional efficiency.     

Small and common: the oldest tropical Chrysomelidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) from the lower Eocene Cambay amber of India

Nadein, K.S. & Perkovsky, E.E. 2 July 2019. Small and common: the oldest tropical Chrysomelidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) from the lower Eocene Cambay amber of India. Alcheringa XXX, X–X. ISSN 0311-5518.

Three new genera and species of flea beetles (Chrysomelidae: Alticini) are described from the lowermost Eocene Cambay amber: Cambaltica paleoindica Nadein, gen. et sp. nov., Protorthaltica setosella Nadein, gen. et sp. nov., and Davidaltica cambayensis Nadein, gen. et sp. nov. These taxa share a zoogeographic affinity with extant Oriental and Afrotropical flea beetle faunas, with similarities to Afrotropical elements interpreted to be a result of Neogene migrations from Laurasia to Africa. The flea beetles within the Cambay amber are characterized by their small body size (1.2–1.9?mm), and the absence or rarity of larger flea beetles in the Cambay amber forest is assumed to be evidence for a progressive increase in the average body size of tropical flea beetles beginning in the early Eocene.

Konstantin S. Nadein [k.nadein@gmail.com], University of Kiel, Zoological Institute, Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Am Botanischen Garten 1–9, Kiel, Germany; Evgeny E. Perkovsky [perkovsk@gmail.com], Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Bogdana Khmelnitskogo Str. 15, Kiev, Ukraine, Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str. 123, Moscow, 117997, Russia.     

Dairy Farming and Milk Marketing Relationships in the CIS

A team of Western and CIS agricultural economists presents the results of a cross-national survey of 916 dairy farms located in Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The focus on milk marketing and supply chain relationships reflects their importance as determinants of farmers' welfare. Survey findings cover herd sizes, milk yields, investment activities, prices, sales to processors, and relationships with and support from buyers. An analysis of farmer satisfaction based on use of an ordered probit model, highlights the significance of trust and support measures. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, P32, Q13. 8 tables, 37 references.     

Bank Liquidity Creation in Russia

Two EU-based senior economists analyze the contribution of bank liquidity creation to the Russian economy, as well as changes in creation of liquidity occurring during the global financial crisis. Applying the methodology of Berger and Bouwman's (2009) study of U.S. banking to a rich panel dataset for Russian banks for the period 1999-2009, the authors compute three alternative measures of bank liquidity creation. They find evidence of increased creation of liquidity in real terms over the period and also determine that state-controlled (versus private) banks and Russia's largest banks (versus intermediate-size and small banks) contributed most to liquidity creation (lower in Russia than in the U.S.). Their findings suggest that consolidation of the Russian banking sector may prove more instrumental in increasing liquidity creation than privatization per se.