Urban landscape survey in Italy and the Mediterranean

Field survey has been making a major contribution to our understanding of the rural landscapes of the Mediterranean for nearly forty years. During that time the techniques used to map ancient settlement patterns have grown in sophistication from being a process of simply identifying sites in the landscape, to one which provided nuanced understandings of their layouts, chronologies and contexts. This has led to a revolution in how archaeologists approach urban sites, with survey techniques being used increasingly often to generate a plan of a town site prior to excavation as a way of ensuring that the excavation can be used to address site-specific questions in a way that had not been possible before. Most recently, research has begun to reveal the advantages of integrating a range of different non-destructive techniques on urban sites. In combination with exciting new computer-based means of data visualization, all of this work means that it is now possible to virtually reconstruct a buried town within a relatively short space of time, as opposed to the old and destructive excavation-centered approach that could take generations. Unsurprisingly these advances are starting to make a very important understanding to urbanism in general and the Roman Empire in particular. Urban Landscape Survey in Italy and the Mediterranean builds upon all these new developments and is one of the first publications to focus exclusively upon the contribution of survey techniques to our understanding of ancient towns. It addresses methodology led enquiry into the nature of urban settlements primarily in Italy, but also in Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Portugal and Spain. The twenty-two papers from leading specialists in the field focus on two underlying themes. The first deals with the characterization of urban sites and draws upon a wide range of case studies. These range from key protohistoric centres in central and south Italy, to towns that epitomise the contradictions of cultural change under Rome, such as Paestum, Aquinum and Sagalassos, to Roman centres such as Teano, Suasa and Ammaia. The second theme is inter-urban relationships, looking in particular at wider urbanized landscapes in Italy. The fascinating selection of recent and on-going projects presented here significantly moves the limits of our current knowledge about ancient towns

Transforming corporate governance in Chinese corporations: a journey not a destination

The article offers a systemic, historical, and rigorous study of the transformation of Chinese corporate governance, focusing on its development from a totally administrative model, being one which relies on government and administrative power and imposes on corporations’ controllers administrative duties and objectives, to a hybrid model which has both administrative and economic governance characteristics. The article assesses whether administrative power will hinder corporate governance transformation in China on its journey towards a sound and sustainable model. We opine that the government continues to have a key role to play in corporate governance in China which makes administrative interference and power something that is embedded in corporate governance regimes through public and political policies, law enforcement, and strategic management policies for corporations. The administrative involvement might sacrifice efficiency, and effective market and corporate responses. However, it is observed that it may bring comparative advantages for Chinese corporate governance in terms of supporting long term strategic planning and the setting of multiple goals for State Owned Enterprises (SOEs, hereinafter), with government interference producing immediate action in order to prevent market failure

Accountability in corporate governance in China and the impact of Guanxi as a double-edged sword

Accountability is an essential aspect of corporate governance and it has been argued that the “wenze” system of accountability in China comes very close to the accountability systems developed in Anglo-American corporate governance. This Article examines the role of cultural factors, namely guanxi and its derivatives, in corporate governance in China to determine what effect, if any, these cultural factors have on the operation and development of the “wenze” system in large listed companies. The Article specifically considers whether the cultural elements affect accountability, and if so, how and to what extent. It also explores whether these cultural factors are good, bad, or neutral as far as the development of accountability in fostering good corporate governance is concerned. The Article advocates a realistic, functional, and culturally sensitive corporate governance accountability system in China, under which guanxi and its derivatives will not be regarded as a substitute for accountability, but will work within the “wenze” system of accountability. Meanwhile, the Article’s analysis also demonstrates that guanxi is a double-edge sword, for while it can be an impediment to accountability, it is not totally inimical to ensuring that there is accountability

The implications of a changing climate on agricultural land classification in England and Wales

The agricultural land classification (ALC) of England and Wales is a formal method of assessing the quality of agricultural land and guiding future land use. It assesses several soil, site and climate criteria and classifies land according to whichever is the most limiting. A common approach is required for calculating the necessary agroclimatic parameters over time in order to determine the effects of changes in the climate on land grading. In the present paper, climatic parameters required by the ALC classification have been re-calculated from a range of primary climate data, available from the Meteorological Office's UKCP09 historical dataset, provided as 5 km rasters for every month from 1914 to 2000. Thirty-year averages of the various agroclimatic properties were created for 1921–50, 1931–60, 1941–70, 1951–80, 1961–90 and 1971–2000. Soil records from the National Soil Inventory on a 5 km grid across England and Wales were used to determine the required soil and site parameters for determining ALC grade. Over the 80-year period it was shown that the overall climate was coolest during 1951–80. However, the area of land estimated in retrospect as ‘best and most versatile (BMV) land’ (Grades 1, 2 and 3a) probably peaked in the 1951–80 period as the cooler climate resulted in fewer droughty soils, more than offsetting the land which was downgraded by the climate being too cold. Overall there has been little change in the proportions of ALC grades among the six periods once all 10 factors (climate, gradient, flooding, texture, depth, stoniness, chemical, soil wetness, droughtiness and erosion) are taken into account. This is because it is rare for changes in climate variables all to point in the same direction in terms of ALC. Thus, a reduction in rainfall could result in higher grades in wetter areas but lead to lower classification in drier areas

Variation in compulsory psychiatric inpatient admission in England:a cross-sectional, multilevel analysis

Background: Rates of compulsory admission have increased in England in recent decades, and this trend is accelerating. Studying variation in rates between people and places can help identify modifiable causes. Objectives: To quantify and model variances in the rate of compulsory admission in England at different spatial levels and to assess the extent to which this was explained by characteristics of people and places. Design: Cross-sectional analysis using multilevel statistical modelling. Setting: England, including 98% of Census lower layer super output areas (LSOAs), 95% of primary care trusts (PCTs), 93% of general practices and all 69 NHS providers of specialist mental health services. Participants: 1,287,730 patients. Main outcome measure: The study outcome was compulsory admission, defined as time spent in an inpatient mental illness bed subject to the Mental Health Act (2007) in 2010/11. We excluded patients detained under sections applying to emergency assessment only (including those in places of safety), guardianship or supervision of community treatment. The control group comprised all other users of specialist mental health services during the same period. Data sources: The Mental Health Minimum Data Set (MHMDS). Data on explanatory variables, characterising each of the spatial levels in the data set, were obtained from a wide range of sources, and were linked using MHMDS identifiers. Results: A total of 3.5% of patients had at least one compulsory admission in 2010/11. Of (unexplained) variance in the null model, 84.5% occurred between individuals. Statistically significant variance occurred between LSOAs [6.7%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 6.2% to 7.2%] and provider trusts (6.9%, 95% CI 4.3% to 9.5%). Variances at these higher levels remained statistically significant even after adjusting for a large number of explanatory variables, which together explained only 10.2% of variance in the study outcome. The number of provider trusts whose observed rate of compulsory admission differed from the model average to a statistically significant extent fell from 45 in the null model to 20 in the fully adjusted model. We found statistically significant associations between compulsory admission and age, gender, ethnicity, local area deprivation and ethnic density. There was a small but statistically significant association between (higher) bed occupancy and compulsory admission, but this was subsequently confounded by other covariates. Adjusting for PCT investment in mental health services did not improve model fit in the fully adjusted models. Conclusions: This was the largest study of compulsory admissions in England. While 85% of the variance in this outcome occurred between individuals, statistically significant variance (around 7% each) occurred between places (LSOAs) and provider trusts. This higher-level variance in compulsory admission remained largely unchanged even after adjusting for a large number of explanatory variables. We were constrained by data available to us, and therefore our results must be interpreted with caution. We were also unable to consider many hypotheses suggested by the service users, carers and professionals who we consulted. There is an imperative to develop and evaluate interventions to reduce compulsory admission rates. This requires further research to extend our understanding of the reasons why these rates remain so high. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme

Processing of pine (Pinus sylvestris) and birch (Betula pubescens) leaf material in a small river system in the northern Cairngorms, Scotland

International audienceProcessing rates, and macroinvertebrate colonisation, of pine needles and birch leaves were studied at eight sites on the river Nethy, a small river system in the Cairngorm region of north-eastern Scotland. Throughout this river system, processing rates were slow for pine (k values 0.0015-0.0034 day-1) and medium to fast for birch (k values 0.0085-0.0331 day-1). Plecopteran shredders dominated both pine and birch leaf packs during the early part of the experiment while chironomids were more important in the latter stages. It is suggested that the slow processing rate of pine needles could adversely affect the productivity of streams, particularly where needles provide the major allochthonous energy source and retentive features are limited. Forest managers should consider this when creating new pinewoods in treeless areas as it will take many years for the trees to reach a size at which they can effectively contribute retentive features, in the form of woody debris, to streams. Keywords: leaf processing, pine needles, shredders, Pinus sylvestris, Betula pubescens, Scotland

Evaluating Gismondi's Representation of Portus, the Port of Imperial Rome

[EN] This paper introduces the Portus Project, an inter-disciplinary collaborative fieldwork project focussed on the ancient port of Rome. It demonstrates the use that is being made of a plaster model of the port produced by Italo Gismondi in 1937, initially as a means for focussing re-evaluations of the various illustrative and other data available relating to the port’s topography, and then as a source for background and comparative digital geometric data within the project’s work to remodel the entire site. The Portus Project employs three-dimensional computer graphics throughout the data gathering, analysis, modelling and representation phases and the paper considers the role that Gismondi’s model is playing in the development and evaluation of such a process.The Portus Project is directed by Simon Keay, and funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Ostia Antica, the University of Southampton, the British School at Rome and the University of Cambridge. It involves many partners including the British School at Rome, the Universities of Southampton, Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Bath, Aixen-Provence and Seville, the Institut Català d’Arqueología Clàssica, Parsifal Cooperativa Di Archeologia (Rome) and L-P Archaeology. The project is grateful to the Duke Sforza Cesarini for continued access to his land. Access to Gismondi’s model was provided by the Sorprintendenza per I Beni Archaeologici di Ostia Antica.Earl, GP.; Keay, SJ.; Beale, GC. (2010). Evaluating Gismondi's Representation of Portus, the Port of Imperial Rome. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(1):21-25. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.4752OJS212511FORTE M., PESCARIN S., PIETRONI E. (2005) "The Appia Antica Project", in Forte, M., Williams, P.R. (eds) The Reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes through Digital Technologies, Atti del II Convegno Italia-USA. British Archaeological Reports. International Series 1379, 2005: pp. 79-95FRISCHER, B. Rome Reborn http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ [Consult: 1-04-2009].FRISCHER, B. (2008) "The Rome Reborn Project. How Technology is helping us to study history,", in OpEd, November 10, 2008. University of Virginia.GAIANI, M., BALZANI, M. AND UCCELLI, F. (2000) "Reshaping the Coliseum in Rome: An Integrated Data Capture and Modeling Method at Heritage Sites", in Gross, M. and Hopgood, F.R.A. (eds.) Proceedings of Eurographics 2000: European Association. for Computer Graphics, Interlaken, Switzerland, 2000 pp. 369-78 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8659.00429GUIDI, G., B. FRISCHER, ET AL. (2005) "Virtualizing Ancient Rome: 3D Acquisition and Modeling of a Large Plaster-of-Paris Model of Imperial Rome,", in Beraldin, J.-A., El-Hakim, S.F., Gruen, A., Walton, J.S. (eds) Videometrics VIII 18-20 January 2005, San Jose, California, USA, SPIE, vol. 5665, pp. 119-133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.587355GUILLEMAIN, J. (2002) "Pierre-Joseph Garrez (1802-1852), porto di Traiano a Ostia, 1834", in Italia antiqua. Envois degli architetti franesi (1811-1950) - Italia e area mediterranea pp. 393-8. Paris, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts.HAPPA, J., WILLIAMS, M., TURLEY, G., EARL, G., DUBLA, P., BEALE, G., GIBBONS, G., DEBATTISTA, K. AND CHALMERS, A. (2009) "Virtual Relighting of a Roman Statue Head from Herculaneum, A Case Study", in Hardy, A., Marais, P., Spencer, SN., Gain, JE., Straßer, W. (eds): Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa, Afrigraph 2009, Pretoria, South Africa, February 4-6, 2009. ACM 2009 pp 5-12HASELBERGER, L & HUMPHREY, J H. (2006) Imaging Ancient Rome: Documentation - Visualization - Imagination. Proceedings of the Third Williams Symposium on Classical Architecture. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 61. JRA, Portsmouth R.I.KEAY, S., (2006). "Portus", in Current World Archaeology 20: 11-20KEAY, S., EARL, G., HAY, S., KAY, S., OGDEN, J., & STRUTT, K. (2008) "The Potential of Archaeological Geophysics. The Work of the British School at Rome in Italy", in Geofisica per l'archeologia: Possibilita e Limiti. Roma 10 Dicembre 2008. pp. 25-44. Rome, CISTEC.KEAY, S., MILLETT, M., PAROLI, L., STRUTT, K. (2005). Portus: An Archaeological Survey of the Imperial Port of Rome. Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 15. London.LUGLI, G. & FILIBECK, G. (1935) Il Porto di RomaiImperiale e l'agro portuense. Bergamo, Officine dell'Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche.MALAFARINA, G. (2005) La Galleria delle carte geografiche. The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican. Modena, Franco Cosimi Panini.MALZBENDER, T., GELB, D., WOLTERS, H . (2001) Polynomial Texture Mapping www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Tom_Malzbender/papers/PTM.pdf [Consult: 1-04-2009]POLLARD, J. & GILLINGS, M. (1998) "Romancing the Stones: towards a virtual and elemental Avebury", in Archaeological Dialogues 5:2, pp. 143-164 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1380203800001276REDDÉ, M. & GOLVIN, J-C. (2008) I Romani e il Mediterraneo. Rome, Istituto e Zecca dello Stato. Libreria dello Stato.RICKMAN, G. (1971) Roman Granaries and Store Buildings. Cambridge.TESTAGUZZA, O. (1970) Portus: illustrazione dei Porti di Claudio e Traiano e della cittá di Porto a Fiumicino. Rome, Julia Editrice.VERDUCHI, P. (2007) "Porto", in Filippi, F. (ed.) Ricostruire l'Antico prima del virtuale. Italo Gismondi. Un architetto per l'archeologia (1887- 1974). pp. 245-52. Rome, Edizioni Quasar.VERDUCHI, P. (1999) "Il porto di Traiano, dépliant, Roma". Model available from: http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/HarbourFullTextOutput.cfm?HarbourNR=Ostia-Traiano [Consult: 1-04- 2009]

Calcutta Botanic Garden and the colonial re-ordering of the Indian environment

This article examines three hand-painted colour maps that accompanied the annual report of the Calcutta Botanic Garden for 1846 to illustrate how the Garden’s layout, uses and functions had changed over the previous 30 years. The evolution of the Calcutta Botanic Garden in the first half of the nineteenth-century reflects a wider shift in attitudes regarding the relationship between science, empire and the natural world. On a more human level the maps result from, and illustrate, the development of a vicious personal feud between the two eminent colonial botanists charged with superintending the garden in the 1840s

Land-use experiments in the Loch Laidon Catchment. Eighth report on Stream Water Quality to the Rannoch Trust

This report presents the results from the Stream Water Quality component of the Loch Laidon catchment land-use experiment which began in 1992. The experiment was set up to examine the effects of cattle grazing on the aquatic and terrestrial habitats and biota of a moorland area of upland Scotland

Land-use experiments in the Loch Laidon Catchment: 2007 data report on Stream Water Quality to the Rannoch Trust

In 1992 the Rannoch Trust established the Loch Laidon catchment land-use experiment, which is investigating the effects of summer cattle grazing on the terrestrial and aquatic upland environment. Situated in Perthshire, Scotland, the study area falls within a number of designations, including the Rannoch Moor Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest, the Rannoch Lochs Special Protection Area and the Tayside Local Biodiversity Action Plan