Putting principles of linguistic rights into practice: Geographical perspectives on a contemporary European problem

The political salience of demands from minority and regional groups for greater language rights increases across Europe. To draw more geographical attention to a particular aspect of these developments, this article identifies the main generic problems of converting demands for ‘linguistic rights’ into applied language policies. It does this by first outlining how the historic process of nation-state building in Europe reduced linguistic diversity, but has not eliminated language demands emanating from regional minorities. It then analyses how the concept of ‘linguistic rights’, as a part of human rights in general, has been developing within the United Nations and bodies including the Council of Europe and the European Union. Having outlined the political-legal frameworks within which minority language rights are pursued, the article then discusses the major difficulties of putting them into practice in particular places and spaces. They can be summarised as: the weakness of relevant international agreements; the dominance of state sovereignty in determining language policies; the limited public support for minority language rights; the difficulties of defining minority languages and delimiting the geographical spaces they occupy; the challenges posed by the growing geographical mobility of populations; and the problem of balancing collective and individual rights. Two fundamental issues linking these different problems are identified. First, there are problems of definition: what constitutes a ‘minority’ or ‘regional’ language and within what geographical space(s) is such a language spoken? This spatial dimension underlies a second fundamental problem, namely that of resolving conflicts between individual personality rights and collective territorial rights in increasing hybrid geolinguistic situations created by the growing geographical mobility of populations. Sociolinguists study these issues, but usually treat these essential spatial dimensions in a superficial fashion. Thus, there is an opportunity for geographers to develop more sophisticated geolinguistic analyses as a contribution to this interdisciplinary field.     

运用模糊集合理论设计居室环境温度控制器

通过建筑物内温度变化的高度非线性和易受干扰的特点，以及人们对室内温度要求的非精确性，应用模糊集合理论设计控制器实现对加热系统的控制．为了提高控制速度、降低运算成本，达到实时控制的目的，本文采用了生成模糊规则库的方法，并利用国际能源机构的ＬａＣｈａｕｍｉｅｒｅ建筑物模式进行模拟验证．     

Use of fuzzy synthetic evaluation for assessment of groundwater quality for drinking usage: a case study of Southern Haryana,India

A method based on concept of fuzzy set theory has been used for decision-making for the assessment of physico-chemical quality of groundwater for drinking purposes. Conventional methods for water quality assessment do not consider the uncertainties involved either in measurement of water quality parameters or in the limits provided by the regulatory bodies. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation model gives the certainty levels for the quality class of the water based on the prescribed limit of various regulatory bodies and opinion of the experts from the field of drinking water quality. In this paper, application of fuzzy rule based optimization model is illustrated with twenty groundwater samples from Sohna town of Gurgaon district of Southern Haryana, India. These samples were analysed for 15 different physico-chemical parameters, out of them nine important parameters were used for the quality assessment using fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach. From this study, it has been concluded that all the water samples are in acceptable category whose certainty level ranges from 44 to 100%. Water from these sources can be used for the drinking purposes if alternate water source is not available without any health concern on the basis of physico-chemical characteristics.     

The Location of Creativity and U.S. Companies in Germany

This article analyzes how far U.S. companies locate subsidiaries in need of highly skilled staff in state locations in Germany that have a high ranking of creativity. Such locations should provide an especially attractive location for certain “creative” staff, which should be of special interest to U.S. companies in need of highly skilled staff. Analyzing U.S. companies that were established since the year 2000 and with more than fifty staff, we find support for our propositions that nonmanufacturing and organizationally higher rank subsidiaries with a need for urban infrastructure and connectedness are located in creative states in Germany.     

论装饰画创作与教学互动

进行装饰画创作可以帮助学生积累大量相关专业知识,强化学生的综合专业能力。在教学中,针对学生的专业基础,要科学的选择教材,精心设计教学环节,采取各种不同的教学方法和手段。努力创建一种平等、民主、互相尊重、彼此信任的新型师生关系,建立开放式的教学环境,鼓励学生个性的发挥,积极参与教学。     

Creative industries agglomeration,regional innovation and productivity growth in China

This paper falls into the broad area of economic geography and economics of creativity,and it presents an alternative approach to explain why total factor productivity(TFP)growth is different across China′s regions.It establishes an empirical model to estimate the spatial agglomeration effects of creative industries on regional TFP growth,using China′s provincial panel data during the period of 2003 to 2010.We found that the creative industries agglomeration(CIA)has significant and positive impact on regional TFP growth.The result also implies that the CIA can facilitate regional TFP growth through promoting regional innovation instead of improving regional efficiency.Therefore,we argue that policy makers should take some measures to retain and establish more creative zones.