Considerable effects of diversity indices and spatial scales on conclusions relating to ecological diversity

The relationships between ecological diversity and ecosystem functions such as stability and productivity have long been debated and have no final conclusion until now. It is ignored that the debate should be firstly based on the same diversity index, which should be theoretically complete, and on same observation scale. For the issue on the scale of ecotope observation, ecosystems should be distinguished according to intensity of human disturbance. For the issue on the scale of species observation, either number diversity or biomass diversity should be identified. This paper takes grassland ecosystems located within the Bayin Xile grassland of Xilin Gol League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as an example to analyze effects of different diversity indices and spatial scales on the conclusions of ecological diversity and its relationships with ecosystem functions. The analysis results both on the scale of ecotope observation and on the scale of species observation show that different diversity indices might give different conclusions and spatial resolution has a great effect on the relative conclusions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

胶东昆嵛山复式花岗岩体的演化—岩石学和锆石U-Pb年代学研究

Kunyushan composite granite pluton is located in northeast part of the Sulu UHP collisional belt, Jiaodong peninsula, eastern China. It is regarded as the boundary of the Jiaodong block and the Sulu UHP collisional belt. The body is unique in the Dabieshan-Sulu UHP collisional orogen for its feature of multiple intrusions of diverse types granitoid rocks in a long span after UHP the collision between the North China and the Yangtze plates in late Triassic. It can be grouped into four series on the basis of petrology and petrochemistry. They are mid-K calc-alkaline granitoids, strongly peraluminous granites, high-K calc-alkaline granitoids and syenitic granite of shoshonitic series. In this thesis, the later three types of rocks are investigated geochronologically in detail. The grain zircon U-Pb isotope dilution dating technique has been employed in this study. Zircon morphology are presented and discussion on the chemical and physical conditions of the granite formation have been carried out in addtion. Strongly peraluminous granites comprises foliated monzogranite and garnet bearing leucogranite. They occupy more than half of the area of the Kunyushan composite body. Three zircon samples of foliated monzogranites have been analyzed, they yield lower intercept ages mainly in the range of 140-150 Ma. The formation of these rocks was likely to be at 700-600 ℃, implied by zircon morphology. Two zircon samples of the garnet bearing leucogranite yield lower intercept ages from 130 Ma to 140 Ma. Zircon morphology indicate that the liquidus temperature of the magma was about 750 °C. Syenitic granite of shoshonitic series occur in the north central part of the body, and the volume is quite small contrast to other types. One zircon sample was chosen from this rock, and yield lower intercept age of 121+1.8/-2.1 Ma. Zircon morphology indicate that the liquidus temperature of this rock is up to 900 °C, which is much higher than others'. High-K calc-alkaline granitoids can be divided into two types on the basis of rock texture and structure. One is Kf-porphyritic monzogranite. It's outcrop is quite small. Zircon ages of one sample constrain the emplacement of this rock at about 112 Ma. The other is medium-grain to coarse-grain monzogranite. Zircons from it yield lower intercept age of 100.5+2.9/-4.6 Ma. The variation of zircon morphology suggest that these two monzogranites were outcomes of a single magma at different stage. The former emplaced earlier than the latter. The liquidus temperature of the magma was about 800 ℃ Inherited zircon is ubiquitous in the Kunyushan composite body. Most of the samples yield upper intercept ages of late Proterozoic. It was considered that only the Yangtze plate underwent a crustal growth during late Proterozoic among the two plates which involved into the UHP collision. Inherited zircon of about 200 Ma can also be observed in strongly peraluminous and high-K calc-alkaline granitoids. Two samples out of eight yield upper intercept ages of Achaean.

Using a brief questionnaire to assess the overall perception of basketball spectators

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first aim is to obtain a valid and reliable instrument for the holistic analysis of sporting events, and the second is to test a causal model in which future intentions depend on spectators’ perceptions of quality, satisfaction, and value of these events. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 493 spectators of a professional basketball team in the Spanish ACB league responded to a survey to measure the overall performance of the sporting event service. Exploratory factor analysis and further confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation models provides the methodology for testing the reliability and validity of the instrument. Findings – The scales have adequate reliability and validity indices. The path model explains 35.8 percent of the variance in future intentions, 54.0 percent in perceived value, and 49.5 percent in spectators’ satisfaction. Quality proves a better predictor of perceived value than satisfaction. Both perceived value and satisfaction have a similar weight in predicting spectators’ future intentions. The data indicate that quality has an effect on spectators’ future intentions, by altering their perceptions of value and satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – The research findings are somewhat limited, due to the sample consisting entirely of spectators of a single team in the Spanish ACB league. Practical implications – Managers can use these findings to develop loyalty strategies by creating service value and increasing spectators’ satisfaction through quality improvements. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on service quality by providing an overall measure to assess service in professional sporting events in a Latin-American context.

C.A.W. Manning and the Study of International Relations

Suganami, H., C.A.W.Manning and the Study of International Relations, Review of International Studies (2001), 27 : 091-107 RAE2008

Home field effect and team performance: Evidence from English Premiership football

Thomas, Dennis, Carmichael, Fiona, 'Home field effect and team performance: Evidence from English Premiership football', Journal of Sports Economics (2005) 6(3) pp.264-281 RAE2008

Podstawy ekonomiczne powstawania średniowiecznych ośrodków miejskich na Pomorzu w świetle badań archeologicznych

Wydział Historyczny: Instytut Prahistorii

Rola Unii Europejskiej w budowie nowego ładu międzynarodowego - stan obecny i perspekytywy

W nauce o stosunkach międzynarodowych porządek, czy też ład międzynarodowy, to zbiór podmiotów państwowych i niepaństwowych złączonych wzajemnymi relacjami o różnorodnym charakterze i działających według wspólnie wypracowanych lub narzuconych z zewnątrz reguł. Po zakończeniu zimnej wojny i utracie na znaczeniu ładu jałtańskiego rozgorzała dyskusja nad kształtem jaki ma przybrać ład postzimnowojenny. Z poczynionych rozważań wynika, że polityczny i gospodarczy ład międzynarodowy w najbliższych dekadach będzie wielobiegunowy. Szczególne znaczenie odgrywać w nim będą USA, Chiny , a także Unia Europejska, Japonia, Indie i Brazylia. Obecnie UE odgrywa jedną z najważniejszych ról w budowie ładu międzynarodowego. Widać to zwłaszcza pod względem gospodarczym jako że Unia UE jest obecnie największym światowym eksporterem i drugim (po USA) importerem. Wydaje się jednak, że tradycyjne opisywanie Unii Europejskiej jako przykładu obszaru sukcesu gospodarczego może w najbliższym czasie ulec zmianie. Europa w długiej perspektywie ulegnie marginalizacji jeśli nie wróci do projektów ściślejszej integracji, nie wykorzysta lepiej swojego potencjału intelektualnego i gospodarczego oraz nie przyspieszy rozwoju poprzez stawianie na nowe technologie. Dla podtrzymania swojej pozycji powinna ona aktywniej współpracować z USA, utrzymywać poprawne stosunki z krajami azjatyckimi a także zaangażować się we współpracę z organizacjami między- i pozarządowymi, które w najbliższych latach będą zyskiwać na znaczeniu

Religia w polityce Filipa II Macedońskiego

Wydział Historyczny

Farmers, agriculture and politics in the Irish Free State area, 1919-1936

Given the economic and social importance of agriculture in the early years of the Irish Free State, it is surprising that the development of organisations representing farmers has not received the attention it deserves from historians. While the issues of government agricultural policy and the land question have been extensively studied in the historiography, the autonomous response by farmers to agricultural policies and the detailed study of the farmers’ organisations has simply been ignored in spite of the existence of a range of relevant primary sources. Farmers’ organisations have only received cursory treatment in these studies; they have been presented as passive spectators, responding in a Pavlovian manner to outside events. The existing historiography has only studied farmers’ organisations during periods when they impinged on national politics, epecially during the War of Independence and the Economic War. Therefore chronological gaps exist which has led to much misinterpretation of farmers’ activities. This thesis will redress this imbalance by studying the formation and continuous development of farmers’ organisations within the twenty-six county area and the reaction of farmers to changing government agricultural policies, over the period 1919 to 1936. The period under review entailed many attempts by farmers to form representative organisations and encompassed differing policy regimes. The thesis will open in 1919, when the first national organisation representing farmers, the Irish Farmers’ Union, was formed. In 1922, the union established the Farmers’ Party. By the mid- 1920’s, a number of protectionist agricultural associations had been formed. While the Farmers’ Party was eventually absorbed by Cumann na nGaedheal, local associations of independent farmers occupied the resultant vacuum and contested the 1932 election. These organisations formed the nucleus of a new national organisation; the National Farmers’ and Ratepayers’ League. The agricultural crisis caused by both the Great Depression and the Economic War facilitated the expansion of the league. The league formed a political party, the Centre Party, to contest the 1933 election. While the Centre Party was absorbed by the newly-formed Fine Gael, activists from the former farmer organisations led the campaign against the payment of annuities and rates. Many of them continued this campaign after 1934, when the Fine Gael leadership opposed the violent resistance to the collection of annuities. New farmer organisations were formed to co-ordinate this campaign which continued until 1936, the closing point of the thesis.

Canon Ulick Bourke: cultural nationalism, popular politics and the Knock apparition

Accounts of the Knock Apparition, academic and devotional, always start by relating that the Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and St John the Evangelist appeared to fifteen people on a rainy Thursday evening at the south gable of Knock chapel, Co. Mayo, on 21 August 1879. They usually mention that the Land War was in progress. Despite the fact Knock supposedly receives one and a half million visitors a year, until three decades ago no scholar had examined accounts of the apparition. Recent work has sought to define the Knock Apparition in light of the Land War, the ‘devotional revolution’, which took place in Irish Catholicism in the quarter century prior to the apparition, and the influence of the parish priest, Archdeacon Bartholomew Cavanagh. This thesis acknowledges these factors, but contends that the single greatest force in shaping accounts of the apparition was Canon Ulick Joseph Bourke, one of the three priests on the commission of investigation into Knock. Furthermore, this thesis proves that Bourke’s role as a central figure in influencing the later Gaelic revival has been overlooked by scholars of cultural nationalism. By examining Bourke’s cultural nationalism and views on antiquity and language, as well as his politics and reaction to the Land War, this thesis argues that Bourke sought to create an orthodox version of the apparition which could be reconciled to his views on Irish Catholic identity, while serving as a bulwark against threats to the temporal power of the clergy. In addition to influencing accounts of the apparition through his role in interviewing the witnesses and recording their testimony, Bourke further shaped the narrative of the apparition by controlling its dissemination, to the extent that all accounts of Knock are based on a text largely created by him.

An Investigation into the Link between UK Credit Union Characterisitics, Location and their Success

The unique characteristics of credit unions reduces the information asymmetry that is prevalent in credit making decisions, enabling them to provide loans where other financial institutions cannot. This makes them a potential tool in the fight against financial exclusion. Yet, the UK credit union movement is not regarded as being successful, even though there is evidence of much financial exclusion. This study is cross sectional in form, and evaluates characteristics that may contribute to the success of the UK credit union movement at national and regional level, in 2000. The findings are used to consider the impact of recent regulatory changes on the movement. The key findings are that there is a significant relationship between the success of a credit union, its size and the deprivation of the ward from which it sources its members. More specifically, larger credit unions and those located in more affluent wards, are more successful. Affiliation to the Irish League of Credit Unions and having a common bond of occupation, are also found to be contributing factors to credit union success. These results are taken as providing support for the recent changes implemented by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is likely to result in the emergence of larger credit unions (through mergers), run by appropriately qualified persons, serving a more mixed-income membership base. It is, however, noted that the history of the UK movement is one of missed opportunities and only time will tell whether credit unions have the wherewithal to accept current opportunities.

Spanish Sociology and Anti-Semitism Between passed prejudice and key to civilization

There is a significant lack of sociological research in Spain about anti-Semitism. At the same time there are alarming anti-Semitic tendencies and anti-Jewish stereotypes which are above the European average. This article aims to explain this lack of sociological research about anti-Semitism in Spain. Therefore two types of explications are offered: on the one hand side some structural problems will be shown which sociology in general had since its beginnings and which complicate the understanding of anti-Semitism. Furthermore explications regarding the specific social and historic situation in Spain and of Spanish sociology in particular will be exposed. It will be shown that for its rationalistic character and with the exception of very few authors – who are considered marginalized for practical research – sociology in general has had enormous problems in understanding anti-Semitism. The specific historic situation, Francoism, the dispute about the historic memory and the delayed institutionalisation of sociology could also explain the lack of sociological interest in the topic especially in Spain. The article shows that the study of anti-Semitism is not only relevant for struggling against this burden of society in many of its variants. Furthermore, thinking about anti-Semitism can help sociology to recognise its own epistemological problems. It can serve to criticise and improve instruments of sociological research by showing the limitations of the sociological approach and to uncover the importance of interdisciplinary research for understanding specific social phenomena. In that sense, anti-Semitism, far from being a marginal subject, can be considered a key topic in the process of civilisation and it can help us to decipher the contemporary Spanish society.

Pierre Bourdieu as a Sociologist of the Economy and Critic of 'Globalisation'

This article examines Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of the economy and his more recent politically engaged interventions on 'globalisation'. Many scholars regard these as not being in the same academic league as his classic studies on taste, academia, and state elites, etc., and, instead, dismiss them as a private matter or even, as the spleen of Pierre Bourdieu, the individual. This paper questions this disjunction of the 'academic' and 'politically engaged' sides of Pierre Bourdieu's work. First, it argues that his most recent interventions against a neo-liberal globalisation were the logical result of a particular definition of intellectual practice that had been outlined before in his sociology of the intellectual field. It then demonstrates that Bourdieu's economic sociology and critique of contemporary capitalism not only does not contradict his earlier research, but that it provides valuable and original insights into the current transformation of the political economy of the advanced capitalist countries. The paper concludes with a suggestion of how to strengthen the theoretical foundation of Bourdieu's analysis of contemporary capitalism by relating it to and making it compatible with alternative approaches in the tradition of critical political economy.

Placing political economy: organising opposition to free trade before the abolition of the Corn Laws

The unfurling of global capitalism – and its attendant effects – has long been fertile intellectual terrain for geographers. But whilst studies of the processes and mechanisms of globalisation undoubtedly assume a talismanic importance in the discipline, geographers, with few exceptions, have left examinations of early economic liberalism to historians. One such critically important episode in the evolution of the liberal economic project was the repeal of the so-called 'Corn Laws' in 1846. Whilst the precise impact of the Manchester-based Anti-Corn Law League (ACLL) continues to be a matter of conjecture, Eric Sheppard has asserted that their particular take on political economy managed to assume a 'truth-like status' and worldwide universality. But the ACLL's campaign represents only one, albeit decisive, stage in the long intellectual and practical struggle between 'protectionists' and the disciples of free trade. Studies of the non-'Manchester' components have tended to focus squarely upon national politics. This paper examines a pivotal attempt in 1838 by Lord Melbourne's Government to experiment with the effective elimination of import duties on fresh fruit. Unlike most agricultural commodities, table fruit was produced in a tightly defined area, thus allowing the Government's experiment to play out, in theory, without national political fallout. Whilst the Government's clandestine actions left little time for a concerted opposition to develop, Kentish fruit growers soon organised. A formidable lobby was forged that drew wide local support yet also evolved beyond the original 'epistemic community'. Whilst the coalition failed in their efforts to reintroduce protective duties, their actions allow us to see how protectionist ideologies and policies were vivified through practices at many different spatial scales and to better understand the complex spatiality of protectionist takes on political economy. Their campaign also changed – at least in the short term – the course of British mercantile policy.

Anthropology, Socialist Prediction and William Morris’s Commonweal

In the late nineteenth century, a number of writers turned to anthropology to predict a socialist future. They included prominent revolutionary socialists: Friedrich Engels, William Morris and members of the Socialist League. Contextualising the appropriation of the anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan by such readers, this article also pays particular attention to socialist popularisations of anthropology, particularly those by Morris and his fellow writers in his penny weekly, the Commonweal. Focusing on Morris’s articles on ancient society helps to illuminate his own understanding of history, art and socialism. It also sheds new light on his predictive fiction News from Nowhere, which was originally read alongside Commonweal non-fiction. Both, I will argue, encouraged readers to see the future in the struggles of the ancient past.