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In the knowledge economy era, innovation has become a key emphasis for urban competitions. This paper constructs a theoretical research framework that integrates the basic understandings, influencing factors and ensuing results of intercity innovative competition relations. On the basis of data from the general programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China from 2005 to 2019, this paper constructs intercity innovative competition relations in China, analyses their spatial distribution and quantitative characteristics, and quantitatively investigates the impact of urban innovation capacity and multidimensional proximity (e.g., geographical proximity, institutional proximity and cognitive proximity) on intercity innovative competition relations through a negative binomial model. The study obtained the following findings: (1) In terms of the overall intercity innovative competition relations, the intensity of China's intercity innovative competition relations gradually increased from 2005 to 2019, with a spatial clustering towards cities with high administrative ranks (e.g., municipalities directly under the central government, sub-provincial cities and provincial capitals); Beijing is always at the centre of innovative competition relations, but its standing has slightly slipped in recent years. (2) From the perspective of disciplines, cities can become benchmarks in particular fields of innovative competitions by competing according to their disciplinary strengths; intercity innovative competition relations in China vary across various academic disciplines. (3) In terms of influencing factors, urban innovation capacity has significant positive effects on intercity innovative competition relations; geographical proximity, institutional proximity and cognitive proximity all have significant positive effects on innovative competition relations; and interactions occur between multidimensional proximities, including a complementary effect between geographical proximity and institutional proximity, a substitutive effect between cognitive proximity and geographical proximity, and a substitutive effect between cognitive proximity and institutional proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic values have dominated water policy discourse over the last four decades. Very little has been written on social, cultural, and ecological values and their roles in enhancing water security. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of diverse water values with a case study of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. To achieve this, a review of the existing scholarship on water values was conducted to develop a set of water values. Field surveys and interviews were conducted to comprehend the water values held by various stakeholders in Delhi. This paper is an attempt to show that viewing water security through the lens of diverse water values (social, cultural, economic and ecological) provides a better understanding of water policies, and enhanced comprehension could potentially result in better policies to promote water security. In the case of Delhi, we additionally found that the claimed predominance of water values such as efficiency, equity, equality, religiosity, and purity does not mean that these values are also actualized in water practices. Another major finding is that all four sets of values are integrated with one another, and policies underpinned by the identified values would be relatively better than policies solely based on economic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The studies that explore the impacts of national intellectual capital on informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effect of an external factor such as institutional quality that moderates this relationship has largely been neglected in previous studies. Institutions are considered important pillars to accumulate national intellectual capital and reduce shadow economy. As such, this paper aims to investigate how institutional quality moderates the effects of national intellectual capital on informal economy in 17 Asian countries from 2000 to 2018. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses the generalized method of moments techniques, which allow cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data, to examine the moderating role of institutional quality on the relationship between national intellectual capital and informal economy. Various tests are conducted to ensure the robustness of the findings. Findings: Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in national intellectual capital and institutional quality declines the informal economy. Interestingly, better institutional quality aggravates the negative effects of national intellectual capital on reducing the size of informal economy. The author also finds that enhancing international trade and economic growth results in a decrease in the informal economy in Asian countries. Practical implications: Empirical findings offer policymakers an indication of the relationships between national intellectual capital, institutional quality and informal economy, pointing out that national intellectual capital and institutional quality should be strengthened to allow Asian countries to limit the informal economy. Originality/value: This study provides a conceptual model through which the moderating role of institutional quality on the national intellectual capital–informal economy nexus can be recognized. This approach has thus far not been investigated in the existing literature. To the best of the author's knowledge, this study makes an original contribution to the empirical of national intellectual capital and informal economy nexus and produces new insights into the fields of the moderating effects of institutional quality on this nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Yellow River Basin is an important national energy base and ecological protection area, and it is of great significance to promote the coordinated development of high-quality development and eco-environmental carrying capacity in the region. Methods: Taking the 73 prefecture-level cities along the Yellow River as the study unit, this paper measures the changes of high-quality development level and eco-environmental carrying capacity of municipalities from 2005 to 2020, using the coupling coordination degree model and fuzzy logic algorithm. Results and discussion: 1) The capital city and its surrounding cities have a high level of high-quality development, with the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River having higher levels than the upper reaches. From 2005 to 2020, the level of high-quality development showed an upward trend. 2) The eco-environmental carrying capacity of cities in the lower reaches is higher than that in the upper reaches. From 2005 to 2020, the eco-environmental carrying capacity of cities in the lower reaches of the Yellow River increased first and then decreased. 3) The provincial capital cities have a high degree of coupling coordination, with cities in the lower reaches having a higher level than those in the middle and upper reaches. A high degree of coupling coordination reduces spatial differences, but dominated by primary coordination. 4) From 2005 to 2020, the eco-environmental carrying capacity tended to be coordinated with the high-quality development, close to a high level and system optimization. In the end, we conclude with policy recommendations to promote high-quality urban development and harmony between people and nature in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The threefold purpose of this paper is to reflect on the evolution and transformation of the Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) over the past 20 years, to project its future research directions, and, finally, to propose an IC ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach: We adopted a combination of a narrative and a systematic review of 700 JIC papers appearing in the journal in its entirety, from Volume 1 (2000) to Volume 20 (2019). The categorization of topics is based on the frequency of keywords in the titles of the papers. Findings: Scholars have proposed four stages of intellectual capital (IC) research: definition/awareness, measurement/management, implementation/strategy, and ecosystem. Over the past 20 years, a total of 16 special issues were published in the journal. The five topics with the highest paper counts in descending order are country-specific studies, concept papers, reporting and disclosure, measurement and performance. Four issues require the researcher's special attention: theoretical development, IC research methodology, national intellectual capital, and data collection. An IC ecosystem is proposed to invite discussion and refinement. For future research, ecosystem-oriented and interdisciplinary research are suggested. Research design aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals are encouraged. Research limitations/implications: Intellectual capital research has implications for four major types of stakeholders, namely academia, government agencies, practitioners, and top management team of organizations. The major limitation of this research is that this review of twenty years of intellectual capital research is limited exclusively to the papers published in the JIC; IC papers published in relevant journals or conferences were not included. Originality/value: This paper presents a comprehensive review of the articles published in the first 20 volumes of the JIC. The field of intellectual capital has evolved from the social construction of IC knowledge to IC knowledge diffusion and inheritance. Hopefully, a fully developed IC ecosystem will eventually emerge. IC researchers can position themselves in the IC research continuum and devise distinctive pathways to enhance their contributions to the transformation of IC research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning and teaching a language for specific purposes, in our case English language, is quite a new approach at the Public University of Prishtina, which was established only in 1970. Considering this fact, English language teaching in Kosovo has been around ever since. It was initially taught as General English (GE) in the schools of the capital city and later, namely from the 1980s to date throughout the country. Nevertheless, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is one of the most recent courses that have started to attract the attention of the domestic teaching authorities, mainly at the university level, while it continues to be absent in secondary schools. Despite this, the reason for the absence of ESP in secondary education relates to the lack of planning, extracurricular teaching materials or specific textbooks. In this paper, we will review the current state of GE at the University of Prishtina by assessing the English language first-term exam results for two groups of students in the first year in the Departments of History and Political Sciences, with the aim of finding out whether they are ready to attend ESP courses in the second semester. Research has taken place amongst male and female students, aged 18-19, who attended the A1 and B2+GE level as per the CEFR requirements. The students who pass the exam may be qualified to attend the ESP classes in the second semester, whereas students who did not should continue with GE classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As adivided capital city, Nicosia and its Buffer Zone have attracted attention across political, social, cultural, and academic spheres since the 1974 division of Cyprus. The Buffer Zone's physical and symbolic presence reflects the ongoing struggle for reunification and the challenges of tension in a confined space. The crossing points in the Buffer Zone serve as bridges, facilitating movement and interaction between the communities. Thus, contested spaces require comprehensive, context-sensitive approaches that foster inclusive dialogues, and seek innovative spatial arrangements to promote sustainable peace and shared understanding. The paper proposes a placemaking process approach that serves as a transformative tool to tackle the difficulties associated with contested spaces and strive towards their comprehensive revitalisation. 126 different NGOs participated as stakeholders in the Ledra Street Crossing Point and answered the Likert scale survey after the reliability check. The aim of this paper is to identify a successful placemaking process diagram for contested spaces as an analytical framework. The diagram establishes important criteria and their correlations for the placemaking process. It identifies sociability alongside uses and activities as key imperatives for successful placemaking process in contested contexts: social networks, sharing space use, multifunctionality, and public space usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to describe the process of creating CHARG—Corpus de Habla Radiofónica de Guayaquil (the Guayaquil Radiophonic Speech Corpus). It is the first systematized spoken corpus for this rather under-researched variety of Spanish. Guayaquil is the most populated city of Ecuador, while its capital city is Quito. Therefore, Ecuador is a rare case of a Spanish-speaking country with two major urban centers that belong to two separate dialectal zones, offering a very peculiar sociolinguistic context. CHARG is a corpus composed of Guayaquil radio programs. Its structure is organized by non-linguistic criteria (program type) in order to ensure a representative and balanced sample. The paper describes the design of the corpus (defining the study population, sample and stratification) and its construction (recording procedure, speakers and speech style coding, transcription and annotation). As a result, CHARG consists of 24 h of transcriptions and annotations of recordings from 142 speakers. The paper's potential use is twofold: since it presents a step-by-step procedure of corpus construction that can be replicated, the readers might be interested in both the procedure and the corpus itself as a research material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to analyze the dynamics of tourist flows in terms of tourist arrivals and overnight stays by tourist destination in Romania in the years 2020 and 2021 of the Covid-19 pandemic compared to the year 2019. Graphics and fixed and variable basis and structural indices were used to show the difference of the level of these two indicators and their distribution by each destination. The year 2019 was the best for Romania's tourism when over 13.37 million arrivals and over 30.08 million overnight stays were registered. In 2020, the arrivals were by 52.16% lower than in 2019, and the overnight stays smaller by 48.45%, showing that this year was the worst, as a part of units were closed or worked at a reduced capacity, recording a lower revenue and even failed. Romanians saved tourism, being the dominant category who rediscovered the beauty of their own country both in 2020 and in 2021 when the restrictions were cancelled or limited. In 2021, the number of arrivals accounted for over 9.37 million and the number of overnight stays for over 20.83 million. The hierarchy of the tourist destinations in Romania based on the level of these two indicators is: Bucharest, the capital and the main cities, other localities and tourism itineraries, seaside resorts, mountain resorts, spa resorts and the Danube Delta and Tulcea City. The recovery of was not yet at the level of 2019, despite that in 2021, tourism managers have made special efforts to improve and diversify their offers and better satisfy their guests. This dynamics gives a hope that in coming years tourism will return to the level of 2019 or even to exceed it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-COVID-19 era of green economic recovery, this paper analyses the elderly care environment of cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region and investigates the future development direction of the elderly care industry based on comparative advantages and resource endowment. Firstly, an evaluation index system of the elderly care environment is constructed, then the entropy weight method is used to calculate the weight, and finally the comprehensive evaluation index of the elderly care environment in each city is obtained by weighted calculation. The development directions of the elderly care industry for each city in the YRD region are proposed based on the results. The study shows that the suitable development direction of the elderly care industry differs among cities. Cities suitable for residential elderly care are mainly distributed in the central and western regions, cities fit for the leisure and tourism of elderly care are mainly located in the southeast, and cities suitable for the treatment and rehabilitation of elderly care are mainly provincial capitals and cities with better economic development levels. Additionally, Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province is eligible for the development of a comprehensive elderly care industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zagreb, the capital and the largest city of Croatia, addressed the frequent flooding from the Sava River to the south by 'jumping over' it to build a new part of the city, named New Zagreb, which is protected from floods with embankments. For several decades, urbanists and architects have proposed various solutions for the Sava River, and from time to time, political elites have implemented some proposals or elements of these. Nonetheless, Zagreb has never integrated the river into its urban fabric. At the same time, along the river, there are illegal rubbish dumps in the only protected natural area, and the institutions and local authorities ignore their existence and take no legal actions against the offenders. This paper presents a case study of the 'Zagreb on the Sava' project that used the most important determinants of sustainability as the criteria for the project review, with emphasis on sustainable urban planning and the sociocultural dimensions of sustainability through the prism of experts, ie planners and civil actors (UNDSD 2000). The results show, among other things, that the demands of civic actors (citizens and non-governmental organisations [NGOs]) and the everyday needs and practices of the local residents run counter to political decisions of the mayor and the rest of the local government. Both experts and citizens are powerless. This paper concludes that the unused and unacknowledged potential of the Sava River is important for the realisation of a sustainable city on a human scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smart city concept has taken center stage as a paradigm shift in urban governance, promising innovation, sustainability, and strategic upgrades, and drawing the attention of researchers globally. However, existing frameworks for assessing smart cities remain incomplete and simplistic. This paper aims to address the following question: what is the process and current situation of 30 capitals in China after the implementation of smart city construction, especially from the new perspective of social, physical, and informational space development? To this end, we focus on 30 national and provincial capitals in China, proposing a novel, tri-dimensional SPI model—Social, Physical, and Information space—for smart city spatial development assessment. Employing a robust methodological approach, including entropy weighting, coupled coordination degree models, and the Dagum Gini coefficient, we conduct a spatial development and coordination analysis of these cities from 2011 to 2021. In addition, we utilize BP neural networks to evaluate the contribution of each indicator to the spatial coupled coordination. Our findings indicate a steady increase in the spatial coupled coordination development level of smart capitals in China, alongside a narrowing disparity in development speeds across regions, resulting in a staggered spatial distribution pattern. Specifically, the Information space subsystem represents the most influential driver of coupled coordination. The significance of this research lies in its unique tri-dimensional spatial perspective, offering valuable insights into the spatial development and coordination discrepancies in the smart city concept. These insights offer evidence-based support for regional planning and optimization strategies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution and urban innovation are two important issues that have accompanied China's economic growth in the past decade. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of central heating in northern China in winter, this paper uses regression discontinuity design (RDD) to isolate the causal relationship between air pollution and urban innovation in China by matching urban data with multiple micro databases. Further, the possible influencing mechanism is discussed from the perspective of human capital. The results show that—air pollution significantly inhibits urban innovation—specifically, a 1% increase in air pollution significantly reduces urban innovation by 1.463%; compared with non-invention patents, air pollution has a more obvious inhibitory effect on invention patents with higher innovation capacity requirements and technology content. In terms of the impact mechanism, air pollution may undermine urban innovation by impairing healthy human capital and increasing the emigration of high-level human capital from cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has long been a key issue of scholarly interest. The Porter hypothesis posits that environmental regulations can effectively promote innovation. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has changed. Through a theoretical analysis, this paper finds that the development of the Internet can not only directly promote innovation but also inhibit innovation through environmental regulations. This paper uses Chinese city-level data from 2014 to 2016 to empirically test the relationship among the Internet, environmental regulation, and innovation. The study finds that (1) the increase in the Internet level and in the intensity of environmental regulations promotes innovation, and the results remain stable after the replacement of the Internet level metrics, (2) the increase in the Internet level inhibits the positive effect of environmental regulations on innovation, but its inhibitory effect is lower than the promotion effect of the Internet on innovation, and (3) the Internet and environmental regulations have a significant promotion effect on the application and acquisition of three types of patents, including invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, with the application and acquisition of utility model patents having the greatest promotion effect, and (4) the analysis of heterogeneity shows that environmental regulation has a greater effect on innovation in eastern and provincial capital cities, and the Internet has a greater effect on innovation in western and nonprovincial capital cities. Finally, this article puts forward policy recommendations based on three aspects: strengthening Internet construction, implementing environmental regulations and policies based on local conditions, and increasing support for R&D and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business tourism scholarship in the Global South is an undeveloped theme in international research. The phenomenon of business tourism in sub-Saharan Africa is urban-centred. This paper unpacks a critical dimension of business tourism in the African city, namely the activities of informal business tourists. Specifically, the focus is on Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, as a destination for international informal business travellers. Using qualitative interviews with cross-border traders, new insight is provided on the reasons why Harare is a preferred destination for cross-border traders. It is demonstrated that Harare is assuming a growing role in the network of cities in Southern Africa (and beyond) which are connected through the mobilities and activities of informal cross-border traders. Two distinct sub-groups are differentiated within Harare's economy of international informal business tourism These are cross-border traders from other countries in sub-Saharan Africa who travel to Harare and Zimbabwean cross-border traders who visit Harare either to buy goods for resale in other countries in the region of Southern Africa or to sell in Harare goods that are purchased in neighbouring countries, mainly from South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the structure of R&D fixed capital spending, measured as the ratio of the private sector to public sector R&D capital expenditure, and national total factor productivity. It employs South African data for the period 1965 to 2019. This study employs the non-linear distributed lag modelling framework to cater for non-linearities in the relationship. The findings, first, suggest that the ratio of private sector to public sector R&D capital spending has a positive effect on total factor productivity. Second, the structure of R&D capital spending has large asymmetric effects on national total factor productivity, with negative changes dominating positive changes. Negative changes in the structure of R&D capital spending negatively influence total factor productivity, but positive changes have positive effects. Both in the short run and the long run, cumulative multipliers indicate that negative changes in the structure of R&D capital spending dominate positive changes by a very large margin. The findings imply that the private sector must become more dominant than the public sector in R&D capital spending in the national system of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit infrastructure is a critical determinant of the layout and sustainability performance of residential landscapes and neighborhoods. Though the spatial aspects of transit design and their associated impact on health, congestion, air pollution, accident rates, and emissions of greenhouse gases are well understood, the experiential-qualitative aspects of mobility have often been ignored in the travel and transport literature. This paper presents the place-understandings of pedestrians and cyclists concerning neighborhood safety in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan. Community perspectives were captured through drawing and storytelling workshops as a method of public engagement through creative experience. While reporting on the veracity of this collaborative, creative, and place-based methodology, the paper presents workshop outcomes that describe problematic non-auto neighborhood transit experiences that, if unchecked, could constitute a significant challenge to the sustainable post-Soviet transformation of Dushanbe's residential neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bengaluru/Bangalore, the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka, has played a vital role in the advancement of communication and technology across the globe. Following the progressivist logic of neoliberal urbanism, the city evolved from the quiet, placid 'Pensioners' Paradise' into the bustling 'Silicon Valley of India' at an accelerated pace. Bangalore's sudden growth into a global cyberpolis has motivated its recent entry into the realm of crime fiction in English. The current paper draws on this connection and proposes to offer a spatial critique of the crime novels in Anita Nair's Inspector Gowda series, Cut like Wound (2012) and Chain of Custody (2016), set in Bangalore. To map the transitions in the spatial structures and social relations of this rapidly changing city, it uses interdisciplinary approaches of geocriticism and the postmodern social theories of space. Also, by analysing the representations of residential segregation in Nair's novels, the paper intends to foreground how social inequalities, gentrification, and ghettoization have contributed to the raging scenario of crime and violence in Bangalore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that existing quantitative studies mistakenly assume that all nuclear states can impose nuclear destruction on opponents by simply distinguishing nuclear states from non-nuclear states. This practice, however, does not capture variation in 1) nuclear states' possession of delivery capabilities, 2) the range of deployed nuclear delivery systems, and 3) the geographic distance between nuclear states and their dyadic counterparts. Instead of this monadic nuclear statehood approach, I propose the dyadic nuclear reach approach, which uses a new dyad-specific measure of states' strategic nuclear delivery capabilities. It codes whether a nuclear state can launch a nuclear strike against a given opponent by using the information about the estimated range of each nuclear state's strategic nuclear delivery platforms, nuclear operation bases, and states' capital cities. An empirical application shows that using an appropriate measure of nuclear capabilities does significantly alter existing empirical knowledge of nuclear weapons and international conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the considerations presented in the paper was to examine the changes that occurred in both population and GDP size and in selected economic sectors as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the highlighted EU regions. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population of selected EU regions, GDP in those regions, and the impact of the pandemic on the unemployment rate, the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the number of nights spent in overnight accommodations, the number of passengers traveling by air, the number of people who ordered goods or services online in the past year, and employment in high-tech sectors. The impact was examined by analyzing development trend models for selected variables and verifying the hypothesis of constancy of model parameters with the Chow test. Predictions of selected variables were also counted if there had been no pandemic and compared to actual values from the COVID-19 pandemic period. Findings: Not all regions were equally affected by the effects of the pandemic. This was undoubtedly influenced by the authorities' struggle with the effects of the pandemic, but also by the entrepreneurial spirit of the residents of the regions studied. Also in different spheres of economic life, the effects of the pandemic varied from negative to positive. Research limitations/implications: Further research should also include the other EU regions and more economic sectors, allowing us to group regions according to similarities in coping with the pandemic and calculate spatial correlations. A problem we may encounter is the lack of sufficient data, which may result in the exclusion of some regions and economic sectors from the study. Social implications: Through the research, we can highlight regions that are coping better with the effects of a pandemic, and this can inspire regions that are coping less well. In the future, regions can look up to the actions carried out by authorities in other regions to offset the effects of pandemics (or other disasters with global effects) and transfer them to their own region. Originality/value: The article compares regions within the boundaries of which are national capitals. It was shown which region did best in combating the effects of the pandemic and which did less well. The article also shows what the impact of the pandemic was on the various branches of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport (SDR/LEXJ) is a success story among Europe's small regional airports. This success is due, among other factors, to: 1) the commitment to the promotion of connectivity and tourism by the successive regional governments of Cantabria, one of the 17 regions making up Spain; 2) the management of the infrastructure carried out by Aena, with intense modernisation and expansion of the airport; and 3) the commitment of the airlines to Cantabria through the development of a large network of air routes, especially Ryanair, but also Air Nostrum, Vueling, Iberia, Volotea, Wizz Air and Binter. In the last 20 years, the airport's traffic volume has quadrupled from 250.000 passengers to one million. The number of destinations has increased from just a few frequencies to Madrid and Barcelona to 30 destinations covering the whole of Spain and providing connectivity to the main European capitals and major cities. This paper will analyse some of the factors, including supply and demand, that have given rise to this success. It will also discuss the economic impact of the airport on the region and some of the main opportunities and challenges it will face throughout the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Countries worldwide aim to improve their comparative advantages by efficiently using scarce resources for economic growth and development. While many studies have been conducted to measure intellectual capital at the firm's level, measuring it at the national level has been under-examined. In addition, while the important role of national intellectual capital in economic growth has been theoretically recognized in literature, this important link has largely been ignored in empirical analyses. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses the newly developed index of national intellectual capital from Vo and Tran's (2022) study to examine its effects on national economic growth in the long run. The dynamic common correlated effects technique and the pooled mean group estimation are used on the sample of 23 economies in the Asia–Pacific region from 2000 to 2020. Findings: Findings from this study confirm the positive and significant contribution of the national intellectual capital to economic growth in the region. The authors also find that, as a feedback effect, economic growth will also enhance and improve the accumulation of national intellectual capital. Practical implications: The findings of this paper provide valuable evidence and implications for policymakers in managing and improving national intellectual capital in the Asia–Pacific region. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the impact of national intellectual capital on economic growth in the long run in the Asia–Pacific economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the Autosegmental Metrical (AM) model of intonation phonology and the Spanish Tones and Break Indices (Sp_ToBI) annotation conventions to compare the intonational contours of declarative sentences in two varieties of Puerto Rican Spanish: (1) San Juan Spanish, spoken in the capital city of San Juan, and (2) Loíza Spanish, an Afro-Hispanic vernacular spoken in Loíza. The geographical proximity between these two municipalities entails constant contact within a shared linguistic space. However, speakers from San Juan perceive Loíza as a municipality that has its own peculiar way of speaking. The acoustic and phonological analysis was carried out with PRAAT to verify whether pitch accents coincide in the spontaneous speech of the two analyzed varieties. The data we examined contain an overall predominance of the bitonal pitch accents L*+H and L+

After years of governance, China's PM2.5 pollution has improved significantly, but some problems remain. PM2.5 is the carrier of many heavy metals, and it has a stronger capacity to carry heavy metals, causing more significant harm to public health. At present, most of the studies on PM2.5-bound heavy metals in China are based on individual cities, and there are few studies from China's provincial capital cities. Given the above reasons, this paper described the pollution characteristics of PM2.5-bound heavy metal (Hg, Pb, Cd, As, Cr(VI), Ni) in 29 provincial capital cities in China (except Hohhot and Lhasa). Furthermore, the human health risk assessment recommended by US EPA was used to evaluate the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of the male adults, the female adults, and the children. The results indicated that (1) the children were facing a higher risk value of PM2.5-bound heavy metals than the adults; (2) Cr, As, and Pb were the top three elements that contributed to the average non-carcinogenic risk, while Cr(VI), As, and Cd were the three elements with the highest carcinogenic risk; and (3) the concentrations of PM2.5-bound heavy metals in the provincial capital cities of northern China were worse than those in the South. In response to the above conclusions, this paper put forward: (1) the government should strengthen the management of metallurgical industry and coal-burning industrial enterprises; (2) establish a real-time monitoring system for toxic and harmful heavy metal pollutants carried in the atmosphere as soon as possible; (3) concern on the regional synergies to form pollution control metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of increasing urbanization rate and intensifying global warming, conflicts between humans and the natural environment continue to arise, and regionalized forms of spatial organization have become an important research direction. This paper constructs a green innovation city network. It empirically tests the evolution process of the green innovation city network and its carbon emission effect by combining the social network approach and the spatial Durbin model. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the strong ties among green innovation city networks are mainly distributed in and around the provincial capital cities and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin; the density of green innovation city networks has been strengthened, and the degree centrality and closeness centrality have been improved. (2) The carbon emissions of cities in the Yellow River Basin are generally increasing. Still, the rate of increase is slowing down. The carbon emissions from liquefied petroleum gas show a decreasing trend yearly, and the energy structure tends to improve. (3) The impact of the green innovation city network on carbon emissions mainly comes from its externality's direct and indirect effects; the increase of degree centrality will reduce the total carbon emissions in the region and the network-associated regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about studying social cohesion in functional urban areas (FUA). These territorial units become an important stakeholder and recipient of urban policy. Therefore, it is important to study problems of their development, including social cohesion. In the paper it is understood in spatial terms, i.e. it occurs when the differentiation of specific territorial units in terms of selected social indicators is reduced. In the research was studied the sigma convergence related to functional urban areas of vovodeship's capital cities in five least-developed regions of Poland (so-called the Eastern Poland). The aim of this article is to investigate whether social cohesion is increased in the FUA of the Eastern Poland. The obtained results showed that only in three FUA in the analyzed period was sigma convergence but it was very slow process. In two FUA, no sigma convergence was identified. At the same time, it was observed that in all the analyzed areas there was an improvement in the social situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the recent Productivity Commission report into mental health, the previous Federal Government announced its intention to produce a new national agreement that lays the platform for Australia's sixth national mental health plan. It has been recommended mental health move to a more regional model of governance and planning, away from a centralised, top‐down approach, partly in response to broader reforms affecting health care, and partly in direct response to consistent inquiry evidence that the mental health system remains in crisis. The past 30 years of mental health planning have been centralised. Successive national plans set a broad framework, with real decisions about mental health funding and service allocation made in the health departments of our capital cities. Will the next plan sponsor or inhibit regionality in mental health planning? This paper assesses Australia's historical approach to health planning particularly as it affected mental health and the costs arising. In learning these lessons, we propose the necessary ingredients to facilitate a regional, innovative, and effective approach to decentralised planning, for better mental health outcomes. We cannot afford to replicate the failed planning approaches of the past. Summary at a glance Mental health has been challenged to replace historical, centralised approaches for decentralised regional planning approaches to foster choice, innovation, and effective service provision. The past 30 years of central planning have demonstrated its limitations. Federal and State governments should create an enabling environment to free‐up local implementation and operationalise a social determinants approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A very few studies have been conducted to measure a degree of national intellectual capital for selected groups of countries. This paper is conducted to construct a new index of national intellectual capital (INIC) which is simple, quantifiable, relevant and comparable for countries around the globe. Design/methodology/approach: The styudy's new INIC uses various indicators which are proxies for fundamental aspects of intellectual capital, including (1) human capital, (2) structural capital and (3) relational capital. These indicators are publicly available for many countries. The principal component analysis is utilized to derive the INIC. Various tests have also been conducted to ensure that the new index is appropriate and fit for purpose. Findings: Findings from this paper confirm that the new INIC has a strong correlation of 0.80 with an index developed by Lin et al. (2014) (the LECB index), an advanced INIC to date. The LECB index has been infrequently updated and covered selected countries due to data and information unavailability. In addition, the study's tests indicate that a high correlation of 0.75 is observed between the study's index and GDP per capita. The new INIC represents an advancement in relation to its simplicity, quantification, relevance and international comparison across nations. Practical implications: The estimates of national intellectual capital using the approach in this study will open a new strand of theoretical and empirical studies in relation to national intellectual capital and other economic and social issues of interests. This novel and innovative approach will provide policymakers with a valuable framework to formulate and implement relevant policies to enhance and improve national intellectual capital. Originality/value: To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first study of its type, which is conducted to measure national intellectual capital based on publicly available data. Required data cover an extended period of years and a majority of countries. As such, an INIC will enhance transparency and feasibility for international comparison across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present seismic microzonation maps of New Delhi, India, using the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) method with input seismic activity parameters estimated in Part‐I of this two‐part paper. Our calculations required three different attenuation equations for amplitude scaling of strong ground motion from three principal contributing sources: the National Capital Region (NCR), Northwestern Himalaya (NWH), and the Hindu Kush subduction (HKS). We show that uniform hazard spectral (UHS) amplitudes are dominated only by the local seismicity in the NCR at high frequencies beyond about 2 Hz. For intermediate and long periods, UHS amplitudes are dominated by contributions from the NWH and HKS earthquakes. Our results show that specifying strong motion amplitudes for use in engineering design by means of peak ground acceleration can lead to serious errors for buildings higher than four to five stories and hence should not be used. Our results also show that the shape of design spectra must depend on the nature of contributing earthquake sources, their relative activity, potential to create large magnitudes, and geographical placement relative to the site of interest, and thus a standard design‐spectrum shape cannot satisfy all these requirements. We use local geological site condition parameters directly in all calculations and present hazard maps for three different soil site conditions ("rock," stiff soil sites, and deep soil sites). Thus, the user can extract the UHS amplitudes of pseudo relative velocity spectra at any site in the National Capital Territory by experimentally determining the local soil site conditions and then applying the corresponding maps shown in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the positive and negative impacts of relocating the new national capital (IKN) to East Kalimantan on ecotourism resilience, in the context of scientific literature and international news. This research integrated the systematic literature review (SLR) and qualitative textual analysis (QTA) methods to validate each other's results. The QTA results could support or challenge the SLR results to answer research questions. The results showed that the relocation of IKN was a great opportunity for ecotourism resilience, positive transmigration, government and community collective action, and stronger stakeholder collaboration. In contrast, IKN relocation could also be a real threat to ecotourism resilience due to natural disasters, government capitalism, negative transmigration, deforestation, environmental degradation, and marginalization of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Zagreb, the national capital and economic hub of Croatia, is situated in a seismically active region and hosts a significant array of historical buildings, from the medieval to Austro-Hungarian periods. These buildings possess varying but generally high degrees of vulnerability to seismic loading. This was highlighted in the Zagreb earthquake of 22 March 2020, emphasizing the need for seismic retrofitting in order to preserve this architectural heritage. In this paper, the seismic capacity of one such unreinforced masonry building is considered through a number of analysis methods, including response spectrum, pushover, and out-of-plane wall failure analyses. Given the advantages and disadvantages of the individual methods, their applicability and value in a seismic analysis is considered. Ambient vibration measurements before and after the Zagreb 2020 earthquake, used for model calibration, are also presented. Conclusions are drawn from each individual analysis and later compared. In conclusion, no single analysis method considers all relevant failure modes, and a combination of nonlinear static or dynamic analysis and out-of-plane analysis is recommended. Due to the large volume of the material, it is published in two parts, with ground motion record selection, dynamic analysis, and a comparison of the results published in part two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper describes how the data shows the readiness of Kalimantan candidates for capital city before the establishment of East Kalimantan as a new capital. This type of research is descriptive qualitative using interview and documentation methods. The findings of the research from the three regions studied are the municipalities of Palangka Raya, Katingan Regency and Gunung Mas Regency that the three regions have made some preparations in responding to the discourse of moving the capital as did the city of Palangka Raya in the form of building road expansion, expansion and renovation of city parks and expansion Airport area. While the Katingan district, is preparing candidates for airports, ports and areas of forest conservation, production forests, agriculture and offices. The same thing is also done by Gunung Mas who has poured in the regional spatial plan for 2014 - 2034, it can be said that the availability of land for the construction of office infrastructure and other development areas has shown adequate readiness and can meet the expectations of the community in service development, so that the availability of the land meets the expectations and discourse of moving the capital of the Republic of Indonesia to Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that some EU member states have been smart, or even dishonest. Splitting off capital cities from existing NUTS2 regions has given them an advantage in the Cohesion Policy funds allocation scheme but worsened the position of others. To explain the reasons and implications, we review the issue of delimiting the NUTS2 regions and the related allocation of financial resources. We evaluate how modifications of NUTS2 regions, carried out by Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania, impacted the allocation of financial resources for the 2021–2027 programming period. The analysis shows the shift of billions of euros towards these countries. We also argue that this experience is and could also be an inspiration for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many capital cities are expanding bicycle lanes or investing in public bike-sharing systems to make cycling mobility a viable transport solution within urban areas. While bicycles are fit for short-distance trips (<15 minutes), their attractiveness declines for longer trips (Ton et al., 2020; Handy et al., 2014; Jäppinen et al., 2013). So, it is opportune to estimate to what extent the accessibility can be increased when intermodal solutions are available. In this paper, a quantitative analysis of different mobility scenarios is conducted. The aim is to evaluate how time travel and accessibility to amenities by bike, can be improved if public transportation such, as the train, is considered. The analysis uses open data and detailed GIS-based network analysis to examine the spatial relationship between transport opportunities, travel time and amenities access in Lisbon, Portugal. Three mobility scenarios are considered: in the first scenario, short-distance trips by bike from home are evaluated (15-minute travel). Then, to evaluate the contribution in time travel of potential modal shift (bike and train) vs individual car, second and third scenarios are presented considering longer distance travels within the city of Lisbon, during peak hours. Results suggest that for longer trips, the combined use of bicycle and train infrastructure can be a faster or more convenient alternative to individual car use. Also, multimodal cycling can expand riders' area of influence and thus increase the accessibility to opportunities. So, people living near train stations can beneficiate from a "potential" proximity to a diversity of amenities that are geographically more distant. In Lisbon, 34% of the population live within the 10-minute bicycle catchment areas around the 8 train stations from Cintura Line and can thus benefit from this combination of transport modes. City planners can use this methodology to prioritize spaces where investing in accessibility can have the largest impact in terms of improving connections between homes and destinations. This methodology, developed and tested in Lisbon, can be applied in other cities to support planning interventions regarding sustainable transport alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development of the sports industry has garnered extensive attention worldwide. In this study, after a rigorous explanation of the connotation of the sports industry development resilience coefficient (SIDRC), the Topsis model and exploratory spatial data analysis were comprehensively employed to evaluate and visualize the SIDRC of 285 cities in China. Additionally, a spatial econometric model was constructed to explore the influencing factors of SIDRC. The major conclusions drawn from this study are as follow: (1) While the SIDRC has improved significantly over the study period, it still remains overall at a low level of resilience with a widening gap between cities. (2) A strong spatial imbalance exists in the distribution of SIDRC, with coastal regions demonstrating greater resilience compared to the central and western regions, and provincial capital cities faring better than other cities. (3) Policy support index, economic development level, structural diversity of the sports industry, and social participation play crucial roles in promoting SIDRC. Finally, social participation has a positive impact on SIDRC in neighboring cities by facilitating resource sharing, market expansion, and extending the industrial chain. The paper concludes by offering recommendations such as increasing the construction of sports markets and public participation, which can optimize the layout of the sports industry and enhance industrial development resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of ethnic diversity on the fostering of productive capacities and structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The fact that ethnically diverse countries in SSA are lagging behind other developing countries in productive capacities and structural transformation is a confirmation of the endogeneity of ethnic polarisation in the development process. The paper shows that SSA performs poorly on the Productive Capacities Index (PCI) and other socio-economic indicators both in cross-country and inter-regional comparisons. It argues that accumulation of "national capital", as opposed to "ethnic capital formation", bonds societies, bridges ethnic divisions and fosters productive capacities and structural economic transformation. It provides conclusions and policy recommendations to maximise the developmental impact of ethnic diversity through national identity-based politics. Viewed from this perspective, the problem in SSA is not ethnic diversity per se but how political regimes, governance and elite institutions of the region manage ethnic diversity. The paper concludes that political elite and state institutions have primary responsibilities in managing ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity. Therefore, it suggests that there is an urgent need to seriously consider the ethnic dimension of development as an integral part of policy formulation and implementation in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colven traces how urban land transformations fueled by financial speculation shape flood risk and water insecurity on mainland Jakarta. The way we tend to conceive of speculation, not surprisingly, is very much tied to the operations of finance: the futures it anticipates, and the chances taken on those futures for the sake of capital accumulation. In directing our attention to Jakarta's water crisis, [6] adds to the conceptual vocabulary of speculative urbanism through exploring environmental speculation by the state and developers. Yet as this collection of papers demonstrates, all focused primarily either on Jakarta, Indonesia, or Bengaluru, India, reducing speculative urbanism to the nexus of finance and real estate would be a limited and limiting move. [Extracted from the article]

This paper identifies the management of municipal housing stock as an area of public management in an urban municipality, taking into account the legal, institutional and market conditions in Poland. In order to achieve this aim, the author examined relevant literature and pertinent legislation and employed an analysis of source (organizational) documentation on the management of municipal housing stock in provincial capital cities. The paper begins by discussing the essence, distinctive characteristics and concepts of public management as a sub-discipline of management sciences. Subsequently, it outlines the specificity of public management in a municipality as a local government unit. Against this background, the author goes on to identify the management of municipal housing stock from the standpoint of public management in an urban municipality by formulating its definition in a broad and narrow sense, followed by a synthetic characterization of this management in a functional and institutional approach, considering its basic organizational models. The research demonstrated that the management of municipal housing stock is subject to progressive marketization and tends to be shaped by such public management mechanisms as hierarchy, market and network. These mechanisms cause this management to operate in practice in a hybrid system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to explain and understand contemporary spatial changes within housing estates in Prague with special attention to the role of public and private institutions. We argue that housing estates are undergoing considerable functional heterogenization and becoming integral parts of the city as a consequence of mix of commercial development, specific public policies and activities of local actors. We focus on two crucial aspects of the contemporary development of housing estates within the capital city of Prague: (i) the new functional differentiation of housing estates as a consequence of private activities and commercialization; (ii) the role of master planning and public policies on the level of both the city and self-governed city districts. Activities of commercial and public institutions are perceived as structuration processes enabled and restricted by the constraints of contemporary post-transformational city. Methodologically the paper is based on analyses of the content of planning documents and policies (Metropolitan Plan, Strategic plan of Prague and selected documents of the city districts) and statistical information sources that relate to three levels of spatial detail. A case study of the largest housing estate and a symbol of socialist housing in Czechia—Jižní Město—illustrates the impact of state and municipal policies and commercialization on the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran is one of the countries with the highest number of the cases of capital relocation throughout its history. During the past four centuries, at least, six different cities have played the role of the capital for the country. This paper examines the most recent push for the capital relocation in Iran. By examining the public debate over the topic in the major periodicals of the country, the paper analyzes the underlying discourse that gives political impetus for the capital relocation. It shows that while the majority of the academics opposes such a move, politicians eagerly pursue such a massive project. More importantly the analysis suggests that in the twenty-first century, an old-established discourse on the role of the capital still plays a significant role in forming the public debate and political decisions on the capital relocation in Iran. Based on this discourse, the political system observes the capital relocation as a vital way for encouraging decentralization and decreasing the population of Tehran. The paper suggests that the underlying discourse for the capital relocation in Iran is in bold contrast to the common themes of capital relocation in other countries, particularly newly formed nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PEFC is one of the most common certification schemes in forestry worldwide. The aim of this paper was to highlight the profile of the PEFC Chain of Custody certified companies from Romania. Data available in December 2018 on the official website of PEFC were taken into consideration. Until present, 43 PEFC CoC certified companies were recorded in Romania, more than half holding an individual certificate. The certified companies are located in fifteen counties plus Bucharest, one quarter of them being based in the capital city. 60% of the valid CoC certificates in Romania were issued only by two certification bodies. As regards the product category, the number of the companies involved in paper-related activities is almost equal with the companies acting in wood industry. Even though Romania is a country well known for its forest resources and its wood industry, PEFC certification is not very well represented. But, by taking into account that PEFC national certification system was endorsed in midsummer 2018, it might happen very soon that PEFC (both FM and CoC) will gain more interest in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]