Will the Russians return from the near abroad?

The author "examines a range of issues surrounding the involuntary migration of Russian populations from the non-Russian republics of the former USSR. Among the questions addressed are possible magnitudes of in-migration into Russia (with special attention paid to conditions in one of the major source regions, Central Asia), attitudes in Russia regarding appropriate policy with respect to treatment of co-nationals in the near abroad and whether their return to Russia would have a positive or negative impact, and conditions in areas of Russia that presently are absorbing the greatest numbers of migrants. The assertion that Russian policy should seek aggressively to prevent the out-migration of Russian populations [from] the near abroad is assessed critically."     

What controls an earthquake's size? Results from a heterogeneous cellular automaton

The controls on an earthquake's size are examined in a heterogeneous cellular automaton that includes stress concentrations which scale with rupture size. Large events only occur when stress is highly correlated with strength over the entire fault. Although the largest events occur when this correlation is the highest, the magnitude of the correlation has no predictive value as events of all magnitudes occur during times of high stress/strength correlation. Rather, the size of any particular event depends on the local stress heterogeneity encountered by the growing rupture. Patterns of energy release with time for individual ruptures reflect this heterogeneity and many show nucleation-type behaviour, although there is no relation between the duration of nucleation phase and the size of the event. These results support the view that earthquake size is determined by complex interactions between previous event history and dynamic stress concentrations and suggest that deterministic earthquake prediction based on monitoring nucleation zones will not be possible.     

Will Contextual Factors and Providing the Maximum Price Information Affect People’s Actual Willingness-to-pay in BDM Auctions? Evidence from Three Asian Countries

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of maximum price information and contextual factors on people’s bidding behaviors in a controlled Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions. 354 respondents from three Asian countries (China, Cambodia and the Philippines) participated in this study. In each country, both households with piped water connection and households without piped water connection were investigated. The sample in each country was then randomly assigned to two groups: one group was provided with a maximum price of a water filter and the other group was not provided with the maximum price information. The results show that the treatment group with maximum price information had a higher actual willingness-to-pay than the control group without maximum price information, but they were not significantly different. Our results also indicate that contextual and socioeconomic factors did play a role in participants’ bid results for the water filter.     

Playing Lotto with Rotto? Tourism,the environment and gambling with the ethos of a Western Australian island

Rottnest Island is a popular holiday destination offshore from Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. Rottnest (or Rotto) attracts approximately 500 000 visitors annually. The island is managed by a statutory government authority, the Rottnest Island Authority (RIA), for the purposes of providing recreation and holiday facilities and services, and protecting its natural and cultural values. While there are advantages in management by one body, there appears to be a conflict in managing both the tourism business and the environment, largely as a result of funding issues. While further tourism development would boost the RIA's self-funded operating budget, increased pressures may compromise the island environment and the Rottnest ethos, which revolves around a relaxed and casual social ambiance. The RIA aims to develop Rottnest as a model for sustainability, but are dilemmas surrounding economic sustainability potentially risking the island's environmental and social sustainability? This paper concludes that in the pursuit of economic returns from tourism, Rottnest Island's environmental and social values face an uncertain future.     

Can One-Run-Fixed-Arrhenius Kerogen Analysis Provide Comparable Organofacies Results to Detailed Palynological Analysis? A Case Study from a Prospective Mississippian Source Rock Reservoir (Bowland Shale,UK)

Natural Resources Research - Organofacies analysis, a fundamental component within source rock appraisal based on the study of kerogen within a source rock, is typically produced from microscopy...     

How to identify transitional geospace in mountainous areas? An approach using a transitional index from the perspective of coupled human and natural systems

The coupling of humans and nature differs in terms of distribution and intensity, thus producing a gradient of synthetic geographical environments. Within this variety of gradients, the transitional zone represents a complex space where dynamic processes and unstable conditions are observed. Based on the concepts of ecotone and transitional zone, we propose a conceptual framework for the transitional geospace of coupled human and natural systems and a quantitative identification method for the z...