Ceramic composition at Chalcolithic Shiqmim, northern Negev desert, Israel: investigating technology and provenance using thin section petrography, instrumental geochemistry and calcareous nannofossils

Technological innovations in ceramic production and other crafts are hallmarks of the Chalcolithic period (4500–3600 BCE) in the southern Levant, but details of manufacturing traditions have not been fully investigated using the range of analytical methods currently available. This paper presents results of a compositional study of 51 sherds of ceramic churns and other pottery types from the Chalcolithic site of Shiqmim in the northern Negev desert. By applying complementary thin section petrography, instrumental geochemistry and calcareous nannofossil analyses, connections between the raw materials, clay paste recipes and vessel forms of the selected ceramic samples are explored and documented. The study indicates that steps in ceramic manufacturing can be related to both technological choices and local geology. Detailed reporting of the resulting data facilitates future comparative ceramic compositional research that is needed as a basis for testable regional syntheses and to better resolve networks of trade/exchange and social group movement

The economics of health

This report presents results from the Economics of Health project funded by the East Midlands Development Agency. The work was undertaken between November 2007 and February 2008. The main aim of the project was to examine the relationship between mental and physical health and employability, labour market participation and economic performance, with specific attention given to the direction of causal relationships

Triple cascade behaviour in QG and drift turbulence and generation of zonal jets

We study quasigeostrophic (QG) and plasma drift turbulence within the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima (CHM) model. We focus on the zonostrophy, an extra invariant in the CHM model, and on its role in the formation of zonal jets. We use a generalized Fjørtoft argument for the energy, enstrophy, and zonostrophy and show that they cascade anisotropically into nonintersecting sectors in k space with the energy cascading towards large zonal scales. Using direct numerical simulations of the CHM equation, we show that zonostrophy is well conserved, and the three invariants cascade as predicted by the Fjørtoft argument

Strategic Outsourcing: Evidence from the British Companies

Outsourcing has become an increasingly popular option for many organisations. But they vary in terms of activities being outsourced, reasons for and benefits from outsourcing, and how the decision was made. This article presents an empirical research on fourteen companies. It found out, a) in most cases it was the ‘peripheral’ support activity being outsourced with cost reduction as the primary driver; b) outsourcing decision was being made early in the process without active involvement of the in-house provider; and c) there were problems in supplier selection and management. The research identified pre-outsourcing decision process and post-outsourcing management as the two key areas that gave cause for concern, and offered recommendations for improvement

The joint US/UK 1990 epoch world magnetic model

A detailed summary of the data used, analyses performed, modeling techniques employed, and results obtained in the course of the 1990 Epoch World Magnetic Modeling effort are given. Also, use and limitations of the GEOMAG algorithm are presented. Charts and tables related to the 1990 World Magnetic Model (WMM-90) for the Earth's main field and secular variation in Mercator and polar stereographic projections are presented along with useful tables of several magnetic field components and their secular variation on a 5-degree worldwide grid

How Not to Lie with Judicial Votes: Misconceptions, Measurement, and Models

In Part I, we describe the formal spatial theory often invoked to justify the statistical approach. While spatial theory has the nice feature of synthesizing theory and empirics, legal scholars may remain skeptical of its strong assumptions. Fortunately, measurement models can be illuminating even if the spatial theory is questionable. To illustrate this, Part II provides a nontechnical overview of the intuition behind measurement models that take merits votes as an input and return a summary score of Justice-specific behavior as an output. Such scores provide clear and intuitive descriptive summaries of differences in judicial voting. Confusion abounds, however, and in Part III we clarify prevailing misconceptions of such scores. We discuss how these scores relate to ideology, explain how such models grapple with the complexity and dimensionality of judicial decisionmaking, illustrate the problems of intertemporal extrapolation and cardinal interpretation of the scores, and highlight other common abuses of such measures. In Part IV, we demonstrate how modern measurement methods are useful precisely because they empower meaningful examination, data collection, and incorporation of doctrine and jurisprudence. We argue that existing uses are simply a special case of a much more general measurement approach that works synergistically with the qualitative study of case law. We demonstrate in Part V how such measurement approaches-when augmented with jurisprudentially meaningful data-----can advance our understanding of courts, with case studies of the constitutional revolution of 1937, the dimensionality of the Supreme Court, the historical origins of the standing doctrine, statutory interpretation, and backlash against Supreme Court opinions. We conclude with thoughts on the chief virtues of model-based measurement and the study of law

The Role of Theory and Evidence in Media Regulation and Law: A Response to Baker and a Defense of Empirical Legal Studies

We thank Professor Baker for a stimulating response to an Article in which we offered empirical evidence of editorial viewpoint diversity in the face of media consolidation. We appreciate his praise of the Article as apply[ing] innovative statistical techniques and as far superior methodologically to most empirical studies he has seen. At the same time, Baker denies the policy relevance to our Article because empirical evidence is entirely irrelevant to the field of media regulation under his preferred normative theory. Baker argues sweepingly that the legal academy\u27s increased willingness to consider the perspectives of quantitative empiricists and positive theorists is malignant, and that law is best confined to normative theory and value-based inquiries - to the exclusion of positive investigation. Because of the provocative nature of the specific critiques of our Article and the general across-the-board indictment of positive scholarship and empirical legal studies, we respond