Regional supply of Eco-tourism and collective learning: An institutional perspective

Against the background of increasing knowledge on environmental damages by tourism, environmental-friendly tourism became a remarkable niche in the international market for tourism, in particular high-price segments for advanced tourism. Two aspects primarily impede the supply of environmental-friendly tourism: (1) the spatial dimension of environmental effects, making it necessary to implement a regional strategy on preserving environmental functions and coping with competing demands, (2) the characteristics of environmental-friendly tourism as credence good causing the necessity of signalling or screening strategies to overcome adverse selection. Institutions have been developed on a regional level to come to collective agreements on environmental standards and common labels as tourist regions. But still uncertainty remains on (long-term) cause-effect-relationships between tourism and the regional environment and ways to reconcile demanders’ interest and prerequisites of functioning ecosystems. Thus, learning is needed to reduce uncertainty, which means that institutions not only serve to cope with problems of asymmetric distribution of information and strategic uncertainty between individual actors (reallocating knowledge between individuals) but also to increase the knowledge base of the individuals as a whole. The proposed paper will investigate different institutional strategies to create incentives for learning on a regional level by sharing and processing knowledge between single suppliers and demanders of tourism as well as other demanders for environmental functions. Special focus will be directed to the relevance of learning for developing regions often faced with difficulties to obtain the net value of advanced tourism within the region. The methodology is based on an evolutionary institutional model integrating approaches from learning psychology and brain sciences into economic analysis. Although the paper refers to an abstract line of argumentation, the results are illustrated by several examples from developing regions.

The transregional dimension of territorial knowledge management. An evolutionary perspective on the role of universities

During the last decades, research on regional innovation processes has turned its focus on the relevance of knowledge as a decisive factor to explain regional growth. New Economic Geography as well as new models of regional economics stressed the advan-tages of unique regional structures with locally bounded knowledge and systems to ex-change experiential knowledge via different forms of direct communication. Network effects lead to advantages of metropolitan regions within international competition. From an evolutionary institutional economics' perspective, the development and changes of formal and informal institutional arrangements have to be investigated, enabling regional actors to co-operate on a medium-to-long-term basis and overcoming free-rider incentives and cognitive barriers to identification of tacit knowledge. For uni-versities, two important functions within these knowledge networks occur. Firstly, universities serve as sources for new research experiences. Secondly, universities 'produce' highly skilled human capital, increasing directly the absorptive capacity of the region and making it easier for regional companies to get access to this mobile group. It is the first objective of the proposed paper to explain this role within an approach to deal with knowledge on a regional level called 'Territorial Knowledge Management'. This intraregional perspective, however, reflects only one side of the 'coin' of success-ful regional knowledge networks. Without interregional exchange of experiential knowledge, risks of functional lock-in-processes increase leading to policies of preventing necessary structural changes and incentives for companies and highly skilled persons to leave the regions. But learning by interregional exchange of knowledge can only be realised successfully if interpersonal face-to-face contacts and common communication structures and codes exist. Within regions, implicit institutions like trust and reciprocity help to overcome barriers to build up network structures but depend on a 'closeness' of networks. Therefore, interregional knowledge networks require new (and specific) institutional arrangements. Geographical proximity will be less important for interregional knowledge transfers than institutional and cultural proximity, which has a direct influence on cognitive structures within companies, R&D institutes and universities. What is the special role of universities in this context, and how can universities react to new challenges of interregional openness? These are the leading research questions of the proposed paper. As international competition increases in markets for education and research, universities have to strengthen their specific core competencies and look out for suitable strategies. The paper shall give hints how and why these strategies have to be coordinated with activities within regional knowledge networks. Four university-specific strategies to promote interregional transfer of knowledge are presented and analysed, representing different objectives, target groups and instruments: strategic ap-pointments of foreign professors, further international co-operation in the fields of research, courses and degrees, internationalisation of research and education by building up international franchise systems, and strengthening alumni networks. These strategies are investigated on the basis of a theoretical (evolutionary) model as well as by giving a survey on existing case studies. It is not the objective of the paper to evaluate the impact of these strategies for universities alone, but for regional processes of generating, applying, diffusing, and adapting knowledge, and for the emerging geographical pattern of interregional co-operation in the enlarging Europe. Finally, prerequisites are identified to secure positive impact of university's internationalisation strategies on regional absorptive capacities.

Resolving phase transitions with Discontinuous Galerkin methods

We demonstrate the applicability and advantages of Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) schemes in the context of the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG). We investigate the $O(N)$-model in the large $N$ limit. It is shown that the flow equation for the effective potential can be cast into a conservative form. We discuss results for the Riemann problem, as well as initial conditions leading to a first and second order phase transition. In particular, we unravel the mechanism underlying first order phase transitions, based on the formation of a shock in the derivative of the effective potential.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, corrected typos, updated references, extended explanation

A Turning Point in Gender Bias in Mortality?

More than 10 years ago, Amartya Sen estimated than some 100 million women are 'missing' as a result of excess female mortality in parts of the developing world, most notably South Asia, China, West Asia, and parts of North Africa (Sen, 1989; Sen 1990). Coale (1991) and Klasen (1994) used more precise demographic techniques and arrived at figures that varied between 60 million (Coale) and 90 million (Klasen). All three estimates confirmed the enormous toll excess female mortality was exacting on women in these parts of the world. All these estimates 'missing women' were based on demographic information of the 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, there has been considerable speculation about current trends of gender bias in mortality with some observers suggesting a falling intensity while others predicted the opposite (e.g. Klasen, 1994; Das Gupta and Mari Bath, 1997; Dreze and Sen, 1995; Mayer, 1999; Croll, 2000). Figure 1 shows recent projections by the United Nations Population Division of the sex ratio in the world and in the regions where males outnumber females. These estimates suggest that the sex ratio in the female deficit regions, after rising steadily since 1960, is estimated to peak in about 1985 and then are believed to decline quite sharply. Given the high share these regions have in the world's total population, a turning point in the global sex ratio, after a similar rise since 1960, is also estimated for 1995

Formal Knowledge Examination Institutions: Chance Or Threat to European Medium Tech-Nology SMEs? A Cognitive and Institutional Perspective

For most SME in incumbent medium-technology sectors, international business is only possi-ble, if additional support by specified institutions is provided. These additional services in-clude information on foreign markets – regulation, market partners, sales potential – as well as coordination – for trade fairs, common international recruitment and qualification strategies – and capabilities like access to financial markets or international public funding for interna-tionalisation or cutting-edge technological knowledge. For many of these services, private provision is possible, as exclusive use and rivalry in consumption are given. For other ser-vices, however, network characteristics restrict a completely private provision. The proposed paper analyses institutional arrangements particularly designed on regional, national or European level to support linkages between organisations and networks in differ-ent European regions. The investigation is based on information collected within the frame-work of the “IKINET project – International Knowledge and Innovation Network†(EU FP6, N° CIT2-CT-2004-506242). The specific challenge of the institutions investigated within this paper refers to linkages between organisations and networks with different institutional de-signs, e.g. the role of public and/or private supply, the characteristics and subjects of services, organisational structures and modes of coordination. These institutions attempt to bridge the gap between SME and organisations in different regions, but also to ease the access to EU funding for transnational (transregional) cooperation between SME. The paper will analyse their products, organisational structure, funding and codes of interaction. This investigation will be used to identify general and regionally specific prerequisites for effective interregional boundary spanning institutions. Secondly, the connectivity between the institutions will be analysed to reveal necessary standards or institutional arrangements to secure interregional trust in cooperation. These standards can range from rather informal, for example on the basis of business norms in trade fairs, to completely formal arrangements, for example in the case of contractual agreements on intellectual property rights and licenses. The assessment of these institutional arrangements uses an integrative methodological framework based on institu-tional analysis to overcome information asymmetries in cooperative innovative processes, sociological and cognitive psychological models of organisational and cognitive proximity and management models for SME as learning organisations. As a result, insights are expected for the European Union, which institutional arrangements are necessary for technology plat-forms on a regional level to secure interregional knowledge interactions.

MS-077: Gladys Kennedy World War II Letters

This collection of correspondence contains letters from all fronts and from many of Gladys’ “sweethearts.” It appears that she shipped her address out in the parts she made at the Depot and would get responses from some of the soldiers and sailors. Some of the letters are from soldiers and sailors abroad from her hometown of York Springs, Pennsylvania. Collection includes paperwork from a raise received by Kennedy in 1944.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1146/thumbnail.jp

Sugar Maple Borer (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Activity Associated With Periods of Severe Defoliation

A perusal of previous research on sugar maple borer, Glycobius speciosus, in northern New York State strongly associates severe early and late season defoliation with increased borer damage. This re-examination of earlier work suggests foliage protection may be necessary when forest management objectives are concerned with wood volume and quality

A Turning Point in Gender Bias in Mortality?

More than 10 years ago, Amartya Sen estimated than some 100 million women are 'missing' as a result of excess female mortality in parts of the developing world, most notably South Asia, China, West Asia, and parts of North Africa (Sen, 1989; Sen 1990). Coale (1991) and Klasen (1994) used more precise demographic techniques and arrived at figures that varied between 60 million (Coale) and 90 million (Klasen). All three estimates confirmed the enormous toll excess female mortality was exacting on women in these parts of the world. All these estimates 'missing women' were based on demographic information of the 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, there has been considerable speculation about current trends of gender bias in mortality with some observers suggesting a falling intensity while others predicted the opposite (e.g. Klasen, 1994; Das Gupta and Mari Bath, 1997; Dreze and Sen, 1995; Mayer, 1999; Croll, 2000). Figure 1 shows recent projections by the United Nations Population Division of the sex ratio in the world and in the regions where males outnumber females. These estimates suggest that the sex ratio in the female deficit regions, after rising steadily since 1960, is estimated to peak in about 1985 and then are believed to decline quite sharply. Given the high share these regions have in the world's total population, a turning point in the global sex ratio, after a similar rise since 1960, is also estimated for 1995.