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Using a continuous-time model of litigation, we show that the increasingly popular practice of third-party litigation financing has ambiguous welfare implications. A defendant and a plaintiff bargain over a settlement payment. The defendant takes costly actions to avoid deadweight losses associated with large transfers to the plaintiff. Litigation financing bolsters the plaintiff, leading to larger deadweight losses. However, by endogenously deterring the defendant from taking costly actions, litigation financing can nonetheless improve the joint surplus of the plaintiff and the defendant. In contrast to popular opinion, litigation financing does not necessarily encourage high-risk frivolous lawsuits.

Objectives Medical malpractice litigation arises when a discrepancy exists between a patient's expectation of acceptable medical care and the care the patient receives. Aortic dissection is a frequently misdiagnosed and often-fatal condition. The purpose of this study was to characterize trends of medical malpractice litigations arising from aortic dissection, investigate the etiology, and analyze predictive factors regarding the verdict. Methods The Westlaw legal database was used to compile relevant litigations from 1994 to 2019 across the United States. Each litigation was screened individually for inclusion, and after inclusion, descriptive factors were compiled, including patient data, litigation data, verdict data, and clinical outcomes data. The Fisher exact test was used to evaluate the significance of association between parameters and verdict type. Results In total, 135 unique litigations met criteria for inclusion, with a defendant verdict in 57% (n = 77), plaintiff verdict in 20% (n = 27), and settlements in 23% (n = 31). Plaintiffs most commonly cited a failure to diagnose as their reason for litigation in 64% (n = 87). Patient mortality was associated with a lower average plaintiff award, $1,892,781 versus $5,944,983, and a lower average settlement, $1,230,923 versus $2,250,000, than their surviving counterparts. California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania had the most cases filed. An alleged failure to test, failure to refer, failure to consult, incidence of a stroke, and incidence of an autopsy diagnosis were significantly associated with defendant verdicts and a failure to diagnose was significantly associated with plaintiff verdicts (P Conclusions Plaintiffs frequently cited a failure to timely diagnose, order diagnostic tests, and interpret diagnostic tests as reasons for litigations. Defendant verdicts were common, suggesting judicially acceptable standards of care are commonly satisfied.

Integrated urban–rural development is important in rural vitalisation. Most publications have focused on the structural system of urban agglomerations but ignored urban–rural systems at the county level. To fill this research gap, a three-level construction method using network analysis is proposed for investigating the structure of the interconnection of rural and urban systems at the county level. Hierarchical systems among towns, between towns and villages as well as among rural settlements are recognised by the interconnection strength measured by multiple methods. The development strategy of each town is decided using cross discrimination based on its nodality and network centrality. The hierarchy between towns and villages is characterised by interconnection analysis between towns and villages and one village would be designated as the hinterland of the destination town with the highest frequency of commuting behaviour. The hierarchy among rural settlements is characterised by their interdependence using gravity model and the central settlements are identified according to the forms of settlement clusters with their respective three spatial patterns (i.e., single-centre, dual-core and linear). The city- and sub-centres of Daye, economic hinterland of each town and central settlements were identified to provide guidelines for the development of rural planning and vitalisation. Our case study demonstrates the potential of the proposed analysis framework for the guidance of the urban-rural system construction. However, further investigation and alternative data sources are needed to fully reflect the interactive intensity between towns and rural settlements.

Using a large sample of securities class action lawsuits, we examine the association of law firm market share with litigation outcomes. We find lawsuits with top market share plaintiff law firms are less likely to be dismissed and take longer to be dismissed and to reach settlement. In contrast, lawsuits with top defendant law firms reach settlement faster. Top market share defendant law firms are neither associated with suit dismissal nor with speed of dismissal. Finally, neither top plaintiff nor top defendant law firms are associated with the cash and/or total settlement amount. These results suggest plaintiff and/or defendant law firm market share is an important factor in securities class action litigation outcomes. The results favor the view that plaintiff and defendant law firms with a higher market share are more reputable and better serve the interests of their respective clients in securities class action litigations.

Objective/Background Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is most often referred to vascular surgeons. However, there is a lack of understanding of the malpractice cases involving TOS. The goal of this study is to better understand the medicolegal landscape related to the care of TOS. Methods The Westlaw Edge AI-powered proprietary system was retrospectively reviewed for malpractice cases involving TOS. A Boolean search strategy was used to identify target cases under the case category of “Jury Verdicts & Settlements” for all state and federal jurisdictions from 1970 to September 2020. The settled case was described but not included in the statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to report our findings, and when appropriate. The P ≤ .05 decision rule was established a priori as the null hypothesis rejection criterion to determine associations between jury verdicts outcomes and state's tort reform status. Results In this study, 39 cases were identified and met the study's inclusion criteria from the entire Westlaw Edge database. Among plaintiffs who disclosed age and/or gender, median age was 35.0 years with a female majority (67.6%). Cases involving TOS were noted to be steadily decreasing since the mid-1990s. The cases were unevenly spread across 18 states, with the highest number of cases (14, 35.9%) from California and the second highest (4, 10.3%) from Pennsylvania. A similar uneven distribution was seen among U.S. census regions, in which the West had the highest cases (39.5%). The study revealed that more cases were brought to trials in tort reform states (26, 68.4%) than in non-tort reform states (12, 31.6%). A total of 24 of 39 (61.5%) plaintiffs had one specific claim, which resulted in their economic and noneconomic damages. Negligent operation and treatment complication represented an overwhelming majority of claims brought by 38 of 39 plaintiffs (97.4%). Misdiagnosis and lack of informed consent were both brought nine times (23.1%) by the group. Intraoperative nerve injury (20 patients, 51.3%) was the most commonly reported complication. Excluding one case with a settlement of $965,000, 30 of 38 (78.9%) cases went to trials and received defense verdicts. Eight cases (20.5%) were found in favor of plaintiffs with a median payout of $725,581. Conclusions This study highlighted higher than average payouts to plaintiffs and risk factors that may result in malpractice lawsuits for surgeons undertaking TOS treatment. Future studies are needed to further clarify the relationships between tort reform and outcomes of malpractice cases involving TOS.

This paper examines the gap between the design and in-situ performance of solar streetlight interventions in two humanitarian settings. Displaced settlements often lack street lighting and electricity. Given that off-grid solar streetlights produce surplus energy, we hypothesized that this energy could be made available for daily usage, to improve system performance and provide further energy access to displaced populations. We recognize, however, that solar streetlight performance and longevity have typically been poor in remote and refugee settings. Eleven solar streetlights were fitted with ground-level sockets and their performance monitored, in two displaced settlements: a refugee camp in Rwanda and an internally displaced population settlement in Nepal. Considerable performance gaps were found across all eleven systems. Inefficient lights and mismatching system components were major issues at both sites, reducing targeted designed performance ratios by 33% and 53% on average in Rwanda and Nepal, respectively. The challenges of deploying these types of systems in temporary settlements are outlined and a number of suggestions are made to guide future developments in the design and implementation of sustainable solar streetlight interventions.

Under complex external disturbances, rural suburbs are confronted with rapidly changing man-land conflict. In this context, the path of resilience development in coordination with the spatiotemporal changes of rural settlements should be taken. This study interpreted the complex system of rural settlements based on complicated social network in the case of Qin and Han New City, and developed a research framework of “spatial simulation–resilience evaluation–spatial planning”. The results include the evolution trends of settlement space from present to future and its spatial resilience in static and dynamic states. In the present study, 14 central villages and 6 types of rural development were finalized, and the study area possessed a long-term spatiotemporal resilience when 85 villages remained, thus forming an ideal spatial pattern of “rural relic zones + characteristic towns”. The findings can offer guidance for the resilience development in suburban villages as well as provide a basis for guiding the regional urban–rural coordination, village–town system planning and rural construction.

Although there is substantial research examining adult perspectives of immigration and integration, there is notably less data on youth attitudes and experiences. When youth are surveyed, a preliminary review of the existing literature reveals that non-immigrant voices are very rarely included. This systematic literature review (a) identifies the major themes and summarizes the findings of existing research; (b) determines gaps in the existing literature and; (c) proposes recommendations for future integration research, policy, and interventions. Ultimately, this paper finds that integration policy and research in Canada tends to focus on the changes required by immigrant youth but rarely discuss the cultural adaptation and inclusion required by settled Canadians. A paradigm shift in research, settlement practice, and policy is necessary to better reflect the bi-directional cultural exchange and the mutual responsibilities of integration.

This study is an application of the ideal free distribution (IFD) model to understand settlement patterns during the Mauretanian and Roman periods in northwest Morocco. We use proxies for potential agricultural productivity and distance from a viable harbor for each of the locations of known settlement sites. There is a clear relationship between the distance from harbors and habitat suitability, with sites that were established earliest all on or close to a point of access to the ocean. This is consistent with a focus on maritime trade and a connection with the Mediterranean Sea. Agricultural potential is also an important factor influencing settlement, although to a lesser extent, with earlier, low-density settlement more focused on trade potential. Consistent with predictions of the IFD, there is an expansion through time to progressively lower ranked habitats, with persistent settlement at the highest ranked habitats, including at Lixus, which is generally considered to be the earliest city in northwest Africa. During the Roman period, there is a focus of interior settlement near Volubilis. Subsidiary sites likely benefit from their proximity to this important political site, despite their relatively low rank within the IFD, perhaps reflecting patterns consistent with an ideal despotic distribution. This study demonstrates how the IFD can be used in a simple context with limited available survey data to assess the important environmental variables influencing settlement decisions. It has broad implications for understanding the formation of urban centers prior to and during the Roman period.

Land use controversies often dog the construction of hydroelectric projects. Many important projects are battling in the tribunals because of Geo-environmental concerns. The paucity of scientific studies objectively investigating the litigations further aggravates the unsolvability of the disputes. The Sawra-Kuddu Hydroelectric project, India, became a subject of litigation when project affected persons filed a suit in the National Green Tribunal questioning the sustainability of the built environment. The litigants petitioned that the additional adit's blasting vibrations can trigger the landslide of slip zone, and Thana village situated above it. The petitioners further claimed that vibrations had cracked the houses. They also asserted degradation in the apple cultivation due to tunnel construction. The tribunal took a stern note of the petition and banned the construction activities. The tribunal further ruled that a scientific investigation must be conducted to ascertain the cause of petitioners' claims. The study results revealed that the vibrations originating from adit excavation are insignificant and cannot destabilize the slip zone. The high fluctuation of annual rainfall and tectonic strain were deemed responsible for the differential settlement of foundations and cracks in the houses. The horticulture study indicated that the physiological processes of apple crops were normal. The study's findings convinced the tribunal, and construction activities were resumed, resulting in the disputed 111 MW project's commissioning. Many run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects in the world are battling similar litigations addressed in the present study. A similar objective methodology is a need for the hour to resolve other hydroelectric projects' sustainability issues. The study findings will pave the path for the swift resolution of land disputes related to similar projects.

The significance of citizen spouses of immigrants is often downplayed in the success of immigrant entrepreneurs in the settlement country. This study employs in-depth interviews with four Thai immigrant entrepreneurs to illustrate the immense roles of Japanese citizen spouses in helping their businesses. We argue that the assumption that immigrant entrepreneurs are “pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps” does not provide a broader view of the process to their success. The findings show examples of how Japanese citizen spouses make an enormous contribution to the venture of their Thai spouse's business by helping them overcome structural barriers as well as legal issues in Japan.

Scholars have extensively studied acculturation from different theoretical perspectives among immigrants across the societies of settlement. However, there is a dearth of knowledge about acculturation from a culture learning approach in Hong Kong. This article reports the acculturative challenges among sixteen (16) Pakistani students from six different secondary schools in Hong Kong. The phenomenographic data analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed four categories of everyday experiences in schools that hinder their acculturation. These are mainly related to inter-ethnic interactions, sensitivity towards diverse learning and sociocultural needs, and the Chinese language teaching curriculum for non-Chinese speaking students. Although the study reports Pakistani students' experiences, the findings may also translate the acculturative challenges among students with an immigrant or ethnic minority background in settlement societies. The article also discusses both the theoretical and practical implications for studying and helping immigrant young people in multicultural contexts.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between chiropractic spinal manipulation and medical malpractice using a legal database. Methods The legal database VerdictSearch was queried using the terms “chiropractor” OR “spinal manipulation” under the classification of “Medical Malpractice” between 1988 and 2018. Cases with chiropractors as defendants were identified. Relevant medicolegal characteristics were obtained, including legal outcome (plaintiff/defense verdict, settlement), payment amount, nature of plaintiff claim, and type and location of alleged injury. Results Forty-eight cases involving chiropractic management in the United States were reported. Of these, 93.8% (n = 45) featured allegations involving spinal manipulation. The defense (practitioner) was victorious in 70.8% (n = 34) of cases, with a plaintiff (patient) victory in 20.8% (n = 10) (mean payment $658,487 ± $697,045) and settlement in 8.3% (n = 4) (mean payment $596,667 ± $402,534). Overaggressive manipulation was the most frequent allegation (33.3%; 16 cases). A majority of cases alleged neurological injury of the spine as the reason for litigation (66.7%, 32 cases) with 87.5% (28/32) requiring surgery. C5-C6 disc herniation was the most frequently alleged injury (32.4%, 11/34, 83.3% requiring surgery) followed by C6-C7 herniation (26.5%, 9/34, 88.9% requiring surgery). Claims also alleged 7 cases of stroke (14.6%) and 2 rib fractures (4.2%) from manipulation therapy. Conclusions Litigation claims following chiropractic care predominately alleged neurological injury with consequent surgical management. Plaintiffs primarily alleged overaggressive treatment, though a majority of trials ended in defensive verdicts. Ongoing analysis of malpractice provides a unique lens through which to view this complicated topic.

The longevity and survival of the ancient heritage sites, especially those in isolated locations, have been gradually threatened over the past decades, due to the globalisation and subsequent socio-cultural changes. As a result (of these changes), the future of these ancient sites remains uncertain. Therefore, this study aims to develop a digitally integrated framework using Virtual Reality, VR, technology to digitally document and create a simulated environment of the endangered heritage sites and present how new urban and construction developments may impact their presence. Hence, this study applied a qualitative longitudinal method to present the steps required to collect the data, develop a narrative-based framework and interactively present it via the VR project. The developed framework was, then, validated through the field data collection, across five years, from a very unique case study; Kandan, Iran as the last cone-shaped community settlement in the world, and its result was effectively displayed and exhibited at QUT IMPACT exhibition in Australia over a one-week period. The outcomes of this research could successfully raise awareness, encourage engagement and action and question the status quo of this heritage settlement through an interactive and engaging exhibition with the public.

The period of the second half of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the beginning of the Late Glacial (LGT) belongs to a remarkably interesting period of human history because humans had to adapt to severe conditions. Moravia, in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, is one of the crucial European regions where we can study human behaviour during the mentioned period. This area was not depopulated due to the presence of local refuges. There are 50 sites that are attributed to the Epigravettian or the Epiaurignacian. Some of these have been dated between 23 and 15 ka cal BP. One approach to studying relations between both technocomplexes is related to the analysis of settlement strategies. Earlier analyses have indicated people changed their behaviour during the end of the LGM and the beginning of the LGT. They preferred protected locations and we are able to identify two mains strategies – sites in low elevations near main rivers or higher elevations on the eastern slopes. New analyses based on statistics confirm two different settlement strategies in Moravia during the time under analysis. The first, which is better defined, is related to sites classified as Epiaurignacian. The second group is represented by Epigravettian assemblages. The settlement strategy for this technocomplex is more variable. Two different settlement strategies during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) in Moravia may indicate two different communities, seasonal changes in behaviour of one community or cultural evolution of one community over time.

Compared to the unparalleled cultural achievements and population boom of the Gravettian hunter-gatherers in Eastern Central Europe, the succeeding Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) occupation is signified by extremely low populations densities, which is reflected in the scant archaeological record. This chrono-cultural contrast can be generally attributed to the severe climatic downturn of the LGM. An attempt to find common cultural patterns that could link individual LGM populations has been only partially successful. An evaluation of the environmental factors using GIS and multivariate spatial analysis has tested twelve geomorphological characteristics and has found a strong pattern where sites were chosen for their seclusion in small valleys and natural amphitheatres probably because they offered partial protection from the elements. The overall difficulty in finding common patterns between the scattered LGM populations is partly due to our gaps in knowledge of the cultural lifeways of this period, but it is also due to a likely greater cultural heterogeneity of the scattered, small and highly mobile LGM populations living in the cold, arid environment of Eastern Central Europe at the time.

Themes of mining, infrastructure and rural development present fertile grounds for contestation and conflict in Central Asia. In mineral-rich Kyrgyzstan, mining brings development, tax revenue and political disorder. The country's relatively robust civil society and ineffective government embolden critique and protest yet also make lasting resolution difficult. This is exacerbated in rural regions that host mines as limited opportunities and information has led to drastic action in pursuit of jobs, environmental protection and community benefit. Foreign investment, such as from China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), predominates in resource extraction. In this paper research at 3 mining sites in Kyrgyzstan is presented. Conflict includes violent protest and rock-throwing that closed a mine, concern over water contamination and environmental damage and arrest of citizens for community control. The cases identify the disconnect between mine ownership and licensing arrangements in the capital and practices and perceptions in rural communities. Framed by the government's need for tax revenue vs interests of local villages, the forces of conflict make negotiated settlement difficult and continued strife predictable. Until government perspectives, legal processes and company engagement shifts, contestation will be the defining tenet of mining infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan.

This study examines the impact of employee relations issues on the reputation of the board of directors and the executive officer (CEO). We utilize a unique, hand-collected dataset of employee disputes, including lawsuits, complaints, health and safety inspections, and wage-hour-benefit violations. We show that, when firms engage in employee mistreatment, both directors and CEOs are punished by deterioration in their reputation, as proxied by a reduced number of outside seats. In addition, we document that case characteristics, such as settlement fees, attorney fees, case duration, and case outcome, can play an important role in the CEO’s diminished reputation and losing extra board seats. Overall, our results provide evidence supporting an association between employee workplace treatment and the individual reputations of directors and CEOs.

Uganda is frequently lauded for its quality of oil governance, particularly through the political support and autonomy offered to a ‘pocket of bureaucratic effectiveness’ (PoE) within its oil assemblage. Since 2013, Uganda's adoption of the ‘Norway model’ has involved breaking up the old PoE and establishing new regulatory and commercial entities. The interaction of these reforms with Uganda's increasingly factionalised political settlement dynamics has reduced the quality of oil governance in certain respects: the process has hollowed-out the policy department and weakened the coherence of oil governance. However, Uganda's earlier investment in PoE building has enabled it to manage the process better than expected, often through informal practices. We show that Uganda adopted the reforms willingly and has moved to build new regulatory and commercial PoEs that fit with its resource nationalist approach to oil governance. This challenges the notion that best-practice reforms inevitably involve the imposition of neoliberal modes of governmentality that go ‘against the grain’ of domestic political settlements. We reaffirm the critical importance of PoEs to oil sector governance in Africa, and tentatively support the claim that they are more likely to be sustained where power is concentrated and where paradigmatic ideas align with resource nationalism.

Rural settlements in China have been experiencing unprecedented transformation since the economic reforms of the late 1970s. This paper examines population movement over the post-reform era and how this affects settlement patterns in an inland nonmetropolitan county-level city region with a well performing economy. It is found that the settlement size distribution in Gongyi is generally transforming from a traditional rural pattern to one that features an urban system, taking place in the form of “in situ urbanisation” and “rural urbanisation”. Without experiencing mass out-migration and in line with the transition of China's political economy, Gongyi has developed its local urban system in parallel with the life and spatial cycles of city-based urbanisation in China. From the perspective of urbanisation cycles, “in situ urbanisation” underpinned by relevant socioeconomic and political conditions is argued to be both theoretically meaningful and practically useful in the context of the evolving settlement systems in China and less urbanised countries.

For the medieval County of Flanders, research by Adriaan Verhulst has indicated the importance of planted row settlements for intensified systematic landscape reclamations. Despite his influential studies and a long research history, little is known about the spatial distribution of this settlement morphology and its relation to the physical landscape in the former county. Moreover, the highly build up character of modern-day Flanders makes it difficult to discern remnants of the medieval settlement systems in the landscapes today. In this study, a multidisciplinary integration of historical and geographical data in GIS allows a first determination of the geographical and temporal distribution of these row settlements at the landscape level. Following the mapping and dating of the pre-industrial row settlements, a spatial analysis allows to study its distribution pattern through time in relation to the main soil textures in the county.

Ensuring newly arrived migrants gain fluency in the language of their host country has challenged governments worldwide. Whilst many governments provide settlement and language programs for migrants, a critical site for language development and cultural integration is the workplace itself. However very few studies have explored how different worksites and job types in the new globalised economy may facilitate migrants' acquisition of the language of a target community with which they need to communicate. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic study and sets of interviews, this research explores how a multilingual call centre based in London facilitates such language acquisition. This site uses English as well as a number of other European languages to market mostly IT products into Europe and beyond and we discuss how the training and provision of scripts contributes to agents being able to develop their language skills. This study revealed a number of facilitators for language acquisition including the spatial layout of the worksite where communication, both socially and professionally, takes place; but perhaps most surprisingly, we learned that the way in which the agents use scripts to scaffold their exchanges on phones plays a significant role in language acquisition.

In general, the LBK is considered a very assertive cultural phenomenon characterized by rapid expansion and subsequent high population density in agriculturally favorable areas. On the one hand, for the first time larger and long-term populated places were created, on the other hand, a strong colonial tendency is obvious. A closer look at the settlement areas on the upper Danube in Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, however, shows an astonishing picture: Both the time of the first rural colonization and the ups and downs in the further settlement are very different from region to region. Colonization advances as well as abandonment of entire areas can be observed several times. The LBK in this region is thus characterized by a very high dynamics of settlement. In addition to all conservative tendencies, risky foundations of settlements, the option of failure and the willingness to considerable personal mobility appear to be integral components of the cultural model.

This paper addresses the eastern province of the Bandkeramik. Aspects of chronology, settlement and cultural contact will be discussed. Once, the LBK lands to the east of the Vistula River formed an integral part of the Bandkeramik cultural complex. Mobility and contact contributed to the comparatively high degree of homogeneity observed across the vast zone of LBK interaction stretching from the Seine to the Dnieper Rivers. Furthermore, at the eastern periphery of the LBK inspirations were drawn from Mesolithic backgrounds, the Bug-Dniester culture, and Neolithic communities of the Lower Danube. On the other hand, towards the end of her cultural cycle the LBK seems to have had little effect on the subsequent formation of future Neolithic cultures. The expansion of the Bandkeramik came to a halt at the western fringes of the steppes. Here, confronted with an increasingly continental climate, the forest peasants of the LBK met their agro-ecological limits.

My inspiration for an undergraduate dissertation (1972) on the origins of the Vinca group and, then, a PhD on the group as a whole (1976) came from a 1971 trip to the Belo Brdo tell. The PhD was transformed by new analyses to become the 1981 BAR publication - a processually-oriented work which, in an unexpected way, remains the only general synthesis of the Vinca group until this very day. In this self-critical and -reflexive paper, based upon the keynote speech I was invited to present to the Tubingen 2019 ‘LBK – Vinca’ Conference, I look backwards to those aspects of the synthesis which remain relevant; examine those parts which have been overtaken by more recent research; and consider why it is that the synthesis has yet to be superceded. It is interesting that landscape studies and especially settlement studies remain some of the most relevant parts of my research. Although new fieldwork has led to incrementally better distribution maps, the basic premises remain true of the changes in settlement structure from Starcevo to Vinca. The remote sensing revolution, the Bayesian analyses of unimaginably large numbers of AMS dates and the contextual recording of finds have made the greatest impacts on Vinca research. Site planning and site size studies have progressed enormously. The analyses of site densities of figurines still poses important research questions but lacks the current contextual detail of figurine deposition. Apart from congenital idleness, I cannot imagine why no other specialist has written a new synthesis of the Vinca group. It is not that no new ‘cultural syntheses' have appeared in the Balkans - syntheses are not yet a threatened species. Admittedly, a rather large amount of new material has appeared in the last 50 years - together with a tendency to paint pictures on smaller canvases. Yet my hope for the next 50 years is that several new general syntheses will be written on the Vinca group.

The scientific discussion about the spread of the Neolithic into Western Central Europe is usually dominated by analyses of ceramics, chert and archaeobotany. In this discourse, the settlement structure is studied at most as a supplementary source of information, although these data offer a much more direct approach to the question of the formation of the Neolithic as a new way of life. Therefore, the two criteria that were decisive for the selection of the location of the settlements in the Bandkeramik (the natural conditions and the local settlement traditions) are analysed here. This comparison of the settlement patterns of the Earliest Bandkeramik and the LBK provided a new perspective on the formation of Flomborn and thus of the LBK in the strict sense of the word.

An important milestone often reached in the life of an activist engagement is entering into a “settlement” agreement between the activist and the target's board. Using a comprehensive hand-collected data set, we analyze the drivers, nature, and consequences of such settlement agreements. Settlements are more likely when the activist has a credible threat to win board seats in a proxy fight and when incumbents’ reputation concerns are stronger. Consistent with incomplete contracting, face-saving benefits, and private information considerations, settlements commonly do not contract directly on operational or leadership changes sought by the activist but rather on board composition changes. Settlements are accompanied by positive stock price reactions, and they are subsequently followed by changes of the type sought by activists, including CEO turnover, higher shareholder payouts, and improved operating performance. We find no evidence to support concerns that settlements enable activists to extract rents at the expense of other investors. Our analysis provides a look into the “black box” of activist engagements and contributes to understanding how activism brings about changes in target companies.

This article addresses the origin, morphology and significance of planned villages associated with the Habsburg colonization of the Romanian Banat, a region in east-central Europe comprising parts of present day Serbia, Romania and Hungary, in the eighteenth century. In an effort to repopulate and bring into agricultural production a territory that had been devastated by warfare, the Habsburg state under Maria Theresa and Joseph II devised and directed a series of large scale, systematic efforts to colonize the region, primarily with German speaking farmers from the upper Rhine valley. One of the most distinctive features of the cultural landscape produced by this colonization was dozens of centrally planned agricultural villages featuring Baroque architectural elements. Most of these villages adhered to a regular, rectilinear form, but other forms, such as street villages and circular hamlets, were employed as well. Together, these town and village morphologies comprise a planned, systematic settlement pattern that is found in few other places in Europe, and as such sets the region apart. Employing fieldwork and archival research, the paper describes the characteristic elements of these villages and uses ideas of the production of space as a framework for understanding the distinctive historical-political discourses encoded in this cultural landscape.

More than half of the world population lives in the cities and around one billion in poor urban areas. These numbers are projected to increase, while Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest rate of informal settlements due his rapid urbanization. The urban informal settlements of Sub-Saharan Africa house everyday health risks. These risks have considerable cumulative impacts on the wellbeing and health of the urban vulnerable group. Despite the public health consequences of urbanization and the increase of informal settlements number in African cities, there is a paucity in data about the risks at small scale and the vulnerability in poor urban areas. Through the database search engine of MEDLINE, WHO Library and Information Networks for Knowledge and website of Urban Africa Risk Knowledge; from information of the existing literature, this paper tried to analyse the everyday health risks, and vulnerabilities in urban informal settlement in Sub-Saharan Africa region. A search combining keywords associated with health risks and informal settlement in Sub-Saharan Africa were used to identify the relevant documents, and this search yielded 86 articles, of which 15 met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis. The risks of communicable diseases due to inadequate sanitation have been the most frequent subjects of study. Informal settlers in Sub-Saharan Africa face everyday health risks arising from lack of clean water, adequate sanitation, and life in overcrowding houses. Consequently, there is a burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, undernourishment and injuries. The most vulnerable group is children under five with a high rate of mortality. Everyday health risks in urban informal settlements must be taken into account for a better understanding of the full spectrum of urban risks. This is essential in the establishment of efficient public health policies and intervention in urban areas.

Research on Ghana’s local content development has generally been dominated by insights that situate policy implementation within political commitments to govern oil in the national interest. Grounding such insights within an extended political settlement analysis, this paper offers some counter-intuitive explanations to these broad arguments by situating Ghana’s local content implementation commitments within the deeper forms of politics and power relations within its political system. The ruling party’s approach to enforcing the local content policy reveals some level of political commitment to protecting Ghana’s interest. Operating within an increasingly competitive political context however, ruling elites implemented local content in line with the tendencies within Ghana’s competitive clientelist political settlement, namely; coalition building, clientelism and ideational elements. The findings underline a core political settlements argument that the primary factors driving local content implementation in Ghana are neither ‘institutions’ nor broad politics’ per se, but rather by the inter-elite power relationships within the ruling coalition, underpinned by interests and ideas.

This paper focusses on the bird remains from West Stow, a renowned Early Anglo-Saxon site in southeast Britain. The evidence provided by the frequency of species, ageing, sexing, and biometrical analyses has been integrated to investigate changes and continuities in the exploitation of domestic and wild birds at the settlement. Domestic birds dominate the assemblage. The management of chicken probably became more structured and efficient after the first phase of settlement. Intra-site and regional comparisons of biometrical data suggest the improvement in chicken size, achieved under the Romans, was maintained by Early Anglo-Saxon communities.

Asaviec 2 is one of the most studied settlements of the Kryvina peat bog in Northeastern Belarus. Its anaerobic environment allowed for excellent preservation of organic materials in the cultural layer dating to the end of 4th – first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Numerous artifacts connected with fishing are among the most intriguing material finds. The present publication examines materials from the 2008–2017 field seasons at Asaviec 2, the ichthyological collection of which consists of nearly 75 thousand identifiable fish bones and bone fragments. The material culture includes 68 artifacts associated with fishing, that were made of bone, teeth, bark, wood, stone, and clay. Among them are harpoon points, a barbed point, a variety of fishing hooks, barbs from composite tools, and sharpened bait-fishing tackle (zerlica/zherlitza) manufactured from bone and teeth. Large quantities of production waste, blanks, and unfinished fishing hooks were found at the settlement as well. Сlay and stone sinkers, bark floats, as well as remnants of a passive wooden fishing trap were discovered as well. Fishing equipment discovered at Asaviec 2 has multiple analogues found across culturally similar and geographically near peat bog settlements of Southeastern Latvia and Northwestern Russia. The material culture speaks to both individual and collective fishing practices, and belongs to the Northernbelarusian archaeological culture mainly, dating back to the middle of the 3rd – first half of the 2nd millennium BC. The abundance of fishing artifacts in the cultural layer, the versatility of tool types, as well as high the concentrations of fish bone and scales across the settlement highlight the crucial role of fishing in the dietary strategies of local inhabitants.

This work reports the results of an interdisciplinary study seeking to address the issue of bone tempering in the Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture from the territory that is today Poland. In this paper we contribute to this debate by closely examining the geochemical characteristics (using INAA, ICP-MS, SEM-EDS, γ-ray spectrometry and OM) of six ceramic vessels collected from the archaeological site in Kaldus, northern Poland. Particular emphasis is placed on the need to clarify whether the bones in the pottery from Kaldus were deliberately added or incidentally incorporated in a clay paste. Through exploring the chemical, mineralogical and petrographic composition of ceramics, we also investigate whether different pastes were used contemporarily by potters from Kaldus for different types of wares during the mid-4th millennium BC. The results has allowed us to hypothesise a local provenance of the bone-tempered vase from Kaldus. Furthermore, the TRB potters’ choices to add crushed and burned bones to a clay paste seemed to lack a technological basis. Rather, it appears that a temper made of bones had strong symbolic associations and was most likely ritualised in the working memory of the TRB potters from Kaldus, or even the entire TRB East Group milieu.

Objectives We aimed to document the availability and explore the accessibility of emergency contraceptive pills for Congolese refugees living in both camp and urban settings in Uganda. Methods In 2017, we conducted a multi-methods assessment in both the Nakivale Refugee Settlement and Uganda’s capital of Kampala. Our study included a review of the published literature and institutional reports and statistics, 11 key informant interviews, 4 focus group discussions (FGDs) with married (N = 16) and unmarried (N = 20) Congolese women, and 21 in-person in-depth interviews with refugee women. We analyzed these data for content and themes using deductive and inductive techniques and triangulated our findings. Results Our findings show that the availability of emergency contraception in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement is inconsistent and theft of product by health center personnel is a significant problem. Congolese women living in Kampala reported that the cost of emergency contraceptive pills is prohibitive. Most of our refugee participants living in both settings lacked accurate knowledge about post-coital contraception and several reported using a range of other drugs to prevent pregnancy after sex. Conclusion Emergency contraception has long been incorporated into the standards of care for sexual and reproductive health in humanitarian settings. However, results from our study indicate that Congolese women face a range of challenges accessing emergency contraception in Uganda. Strengthening supply chain management, examining and addressing the dynamics underlying product theft, and increasing awareness of effective post-coital methods are priorities for expanding reliable access. Implications Inconsistent availability and lack of accessibility of emergency contraception has significant implications for refugee and displaced populations. Supporting efforts to ensure that humanitarian stakeholders in Uganda are adhering to global standards of care is critical.

Recent geographical scholarship on skilled migration has developed a strand of research on the role of mobility in the constitution and production of the highly skilled migrant. In particular, scholars have forwarded the notion of geographical mobility as a form of capital to explain career development, employability and occupational mobility among skilled migrants and international students. While recognising capital-oriented approaches, this paper shifts the focus to how mobility is appropriated into practice in producing highly skilled and professional migrants across phases of movement and settlement. Through the lens of ‘mobile practices,’ the paper suggests that skilled migrants craft themselves into mobile professionals, through embodied practices that appropriate education, credentials and cosmopolitan attitudes and lifestyles, and the enactment of international geographical mobility across phases of re-location, settlement and re-migration. Drawing from interviews with 33 Filipino highly skilled migrants in Singapore, the paper shows how their aspirations drive their use of mobile practices to fulfil three aims. First, they engage in mobile practices to fashion themselves as skilled migrants qualified for the international labor market. Second, they disengage from mobile practices during their emplacement in the host country to produce themselves as skilled professionals that can adapt and settle in the local environment. Third, mobile practices are re-activated in mapping new routes for re-migration or return, shaped by aspirations of further mobility, family considerations and the life course. Overall, mobile practices as conceptual lens foregrounds how highly skilled migrants produce themselves as mobile professionals across shifts of mobility and immobility.

Urban development in Africa is a very diverse and ambivalent phenomenon with aspects that do not fall neatly into global standards. Informal settlements therefore challenge governance by standards. We argue that quantifying and interrogating differences offers a better basis for governance. By drawing on a comparative analysis of three different informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper explores what differences reveal about the governance of informal settlements. The paper uses an urban societal metabolism approach, focussed on gender, energy and health, based on questionnaires and focus group discussions in Enkanini (Stellenbosch, South Africa), Mathare (Nairobi, Kenya), and Kasubi-Kawaala (Kampala, Uganda). The contribution of the paper is both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, we provide new evidence about the metabolism of urban informality at multiple levels of analysis: the individual, the household and the settlement. Findings show the gender asymmetries in urban poverty and the intricate links between energy choices, health and economic status. Theoretically, we argue that different levels of analysis produce different understandings of urban informality, and that analyzing informal settlements only by population aggregates means missing information. We conclude by arguing that understanding differences leads to the formulation of modest and localised goals, which are better able to take into account the complexity of urban informality.

This paper emphasizes the landscape as a key factor in the long-term standing of one of Norway's largest prehistoric burial grounds: the Iron Age cemetery of Hereid, located in the village of Eidfjord in the Hardanger region. A recent field investigation generated important new data on the Hereid site, which has contributed to the high-resolution analysis of the cemetery presented here. The paper explores the wider ‘meshwork’ of people, animals, farm settlement, outfield resources and tracks within a new materialist perspective to argue that the Hardanger landscape served as a co-agent when constructing a regional mortuary order. Theories of relational agency are used to investigate whether Hereid's geography and topography can explain its scale and continuity. It is argued that Eidfjord constituted a focal point for wayfaring to and from the Hardangervidda mountain plateau, and the significance of the site is closely tied to its favourable location with regard to these communication routes and outfield resources. Beyond this case, the funerary settings in other large and medium sized cemeteries in Hardanger mirror Hereid remarkably. They all draw our attention to landscapes that facilitated movement and demonstrate the societal importance of burials and cemeteries in a long time perspective.

The main purposes of the paper is a study of the situation that emerged in the peripheral regions as a result of the state policy of the Soviet period, using the example of the demographic trends in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug as one of the most distal Russian territories with respect to the center of Russia. The paper describes the migration flows in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug as a whole, while the fifth section traces the processes of weakening and full closing of each separate settlement. Although the sharp decline in population in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug was often mentioned in various materials, few specific research has been conducted with the main aim of studying this problem. As is well known, most of the USSR population lived in the European part of the country. At the same time, managing new territories was conducted in a planned manner toward Siberian regions, despite being situated far from large European markets. Presumably, these were attempts to obtain an effective return through the policy with ignoring economic principles. The resulting negative “return” of such state policy of regional management is shown by the present study.

Medicolegal liability is an issue of concern for all physicians, including pathologists. Identification of the key clinical issues that tend to lead to medical malpractice litigation, as well as the settlement values for such claims, can be useful for prospective risk management. This review analyzes medical malpractice claims filed in state and federal courts as published in legal databases. Additionally, this review also analyzes the reported settlement values for such claims.

Objective To demonstrate the substantial litigious risks associated with vasectomy, a common urologic procedure. We examined the risk factors and types of negligence involved in vasectomy cases that go to trial and their associated outcomes. Methods Using the Westlaw legal database, we searched all jury verdicts and settlements for the term “vasectomy” from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 2017. Each case was evaluated for defendant specialty, alleged malpractice breach, resulting complications, outcome including verdict and monetary payment, and whether or not a pregnancy was involved. Results The Westlaw database query returned 67 unique cases which were settled (13.3%) or went to trial in court (86.7%). Of these, the majority (64.2%) were decided in favor of the defending physician. The most commonly alleged breach of duty was negligence in postoperative care (38.8%). This was followed by negligent surgical performance (37.3%) and negligence in performing informed consent (29.9%). The cases filed for negligence in postoperative care, surgical performance, and informed consent were all generally decided in favor of the defendant (61.5%, 56%, and 90%, respectively). Of the 57 cases that specified, 82.5% of the physicians listed in the litigation were urologists. The average settlement won by each plaintiff was $401,913, although most cases were settled for the medical and litigation costs themselves. Conclusion Medical malpractice cases related to the perioperative aspects of vasectomy involve many areas of negligence. This data may guide vasectomists in where to focus time and communication to best serve patients and minimize litigation.

Narratives of societal collapse typically point to environmental degradation as an outcome of population increase or political breakdown. Here we present a case study from Gordion, central Anatolia, spanning the Chalcolithic to Ottoman period (c. 7000 yrs). We use a cultural version of Niche Construction Theory to interpret the timing and nature of landscape change. Recent work in the Gordion region by us and others demonstrates that major environmental change is only weakly connected to standard measures of agricultural intensification. Using detailed stream histories, coupled with survey-based settlement data, we show that the largest environmental changes predate significant settlement in small watersheds, while the largest regional-scale changes postdate high intensity settlement. By integrating multiple lines of land use evidence, we identify and date both environmental perturbations and possible counteractive niche construction strategies associated with political centralization. Here we suggest that counteractive strategies were critical in shaping the nonlinear patterns of environmental degradation.

In the process of establishing the identity of a historic settlement, Interpretative Mapping might be unique and powerful tool to analyze tangible and intangible indicators of inheritance. Despite being a very useful and inexpensive tool, it has not yet been extensively used in the context of cultural heritage. In this kind of mapping, landscape, architecture and the layers of change that have been deposited on them throughout ages are considered as tangible indicators, while toponymy, story, memory and ancient local sayings are considered as intangible indicators. Information produced from both tangible and intangible indicators in a scientific and mathematical manner, supported by history, artefacts and vestiges, principles of urbanism, inscriptions and manuscripts, can reveal many unknown aspects of historic sites. Interpretative mapping can be accomplished either by a derivation from cartographic reference or an independent form of sense or impression (in case of intangibles). The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how interpretative mapping can combine chronological information of history, landscape, monuments and cultures of a historic site, exhibit transformation of indicators, provide evidence for hypothesis, authenticate claims of historians and manifest facts that can aid actions of Cultural Heritage agencies. For the demonstration, examples from different parts of the world and exercises on the ancient townships of Khalifatabad and Barobazar in Bangladesh, are explored.

This paper analyses the intraday liquidity management game played in large-value payment systems accounting for a variable and a fixed cost of liquidity. While the liquidity cost is a decisive factor for settlement behaviour, the availability of intraday liquidity until end-of-day matters too, as it mutes late settlement incentives originating from settlement risk. Whether liquidity is provided via overdraft or intraday credit hardly matters. A late settlement fee can both disincentivise settlement coordination or implement early settlement. Its calibration is usually non-trivial with the major exception of a fixed cost and end-of-day availability of intraday liquidity.

This article considers the “territoriality” of civic institutions. Is the “frontier thesis” – according to which areas of new settlement exhibit higher levels of individualism, political activism, and civic organisation – a description only of the western United States, or is it a manifestation of a more generalisable phenomenon found in other global frontier regions? In order to do this, we examine data on the nature of civic institutions in frontier zones in four countries: Brazil, Russia, Canada and the USA. Taking a wide range of survey items, we find that voluntary activity, social trust, tolerance of outgroups, and civic protest are not unique to the American historical experience, but generalised legacies of frontier life. We suggest that the experience of settlement is conducive to the formation of norms of community solidarity and cooperation, and this observation should encourage a new wave of comparative frontier studies.

Through its focus on state-diaspora relations, existing research has given limited consideration to the role of non-state entrepreneurial actors in understanding diaspora politicisation. This paper addresses this research gap by examining the contextually embedded relationship between diaspora politicisation and entrepreneurial activity within diaspora settlement and homeland spaces. Findings are presented of original qualitative research with Kurdish diaspora entrepreneurs based in Europe operating in the media and publishing industries. Results demonstrate how the intersection between diaspora identity, opportunity frameworks and available resources generates forms of politicised diaspora entrepreneurship, and how these venture activities contribute to the transnational (re)production of diaspora identity and the mobilisation of locally rooted diaspora populations. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to enhancing current understanding of diaspora entrepreneurship and the significance of non-state actors within the diaspora politicisation process, and their relevance to policy thinking across homeland and settlement contexts.

Within juvenile detention/corrections facilities, youth with disabilities often have complex needs that require services from multiple agencies. Effective collaboration between agencies can help ensure appropriate, individualized services for these youth. Achieving effective interagency collaboration can be challenging and barriers often exist between agencies. Multiagency reforms for serving youth with developmental disabilities (DD) were required in juvenile detention facilities by a Settlement Agreement in I.T. v. Los Angeles County. This study reports on interview data from 31 representatives of four agencies – Probation, Mental Health, the School, and Health Services – located within the detention facilities who participated in the multiagency reforms. Almost 68% of interviewed staff described their collaboration positively enabling them to arrive at a more comprehensive view of the youth. However, they shared concerns regarding sharing information between agencies, the definition of DD used to identify the youth, and the lack of feedback once the youth were released. Recommendations for effective multiagency collaboration include strong leadership across agencies, ongoing training and coaching for stakeholders, and feedback on collaborative efforts used for a youth's discharge planning.

We conduct an experimental analysis of discovery in both the signaling and screening games, where in both games an uninformed defendant may engage in costly discovery. Under the theory, the defendant should invoke the costly discovery procedure in the screening game, but not in the signaling game. In the later part of the screening game, discovery is invoked in 73% of all negotiations, which is strongly in the direction implied by theory. However, rather than lowering the defendant's expected cost, discovery is approximately a breakeven proposition. The reasons are that the defendant cannot, as implied by theory, extract the entire surplus from settlement with his offer and because there are excess disputes not predicted by the theory. In the signaling game we find, contra the theory, that discovery is invoked about 61% percent of the time, and this behavior persists into the later rounds of the experiment. While invoking discovery is predicted to reduce his payoff, the effect on the defendant's cost is not statistically different from zero. The offers the defendant receives after invoking discovery contain surplus not predicted under the theory. Thus, in both games, fairness appears to be important in explaining deviations from the theoretical predictions.

The thesis of first effective settlement, stated by Wilbur Zelinsky in 1973 and by several of his contemporaries under other labels, has been an important one in academic research examining the role of early occupance in shaping the later characteristics of places and communities. Essentially the same idea was a commonplace in American discussions during the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries regarding such topics as missionary work on the western frontier, the uses and value of local history, and the status of slavery in the national territories. It represents a case of an idea that arose and flourished independently in two different periods in lay and academic settings. In both settings, it reflected the outlook of its authors in depicting social change as largely exogenous rather than endogenous.

In the 1960s, Mitchell applied situational analysis to the question of miners’ residential stability on the Zambian Copperbelt. African mining has evolved since then and spread continentally. During the 1990s, artisanal mineral sites proliferated in northwest Tanzania, absorbing an increasingly significant segment of the national population in urbanizing settlements amidst deagrarianization. Thereafter foreign investment and the operational establishment of a number of large-scale mine sites attracted further in-migration. This article interrogates the residential stability of three types of mining settlements: artisanal rush sites, mature artisanal site and large-scale mining sites. Mining settlement residents’ migration histories, occupational pursuits, housing, investments, concepts of home and anticipated places of retirement, are probed to explore the question of just how grounded migrants are in mining settlements, the extent they identify as urbanites and how their residential and occupational patterns contrast with preceding mid-twentieth century miners’ migration in Southern Africa.