Heritage tourism clusters along the borders of Mexico

This article seeks to find potential heritage tourism clusters in border areas. Literature about tourism destinations is essentially focused on administrative-bound areas, while little attention has been paid to functional regions. The research is based on a methodological exercise to contribute to this debate by analyzing the case of three border regions between Mexico, the USA, Guatemala and Belize, respectively. These borders have never been static but have changed throughout history, to the present day situation. It is argued that these changes have implications for the potential development of heritage tourism. The results identify a number of cross-border clusters and corridors in these areas with different levels of tourism underdevelopment, mainly because of political or legal restrictions. The results of this study contribute to an improved understanding of borderland heritages and cross-border regional clusters in the context of tourism.     

北京市城乡收入差距的预测和成因分析

城乡居民收入差距不断扩大是我国许多省区面临的重要问题,北京市作为全国的政治文化中心,也面临着同样的难题,并且形势不容乐观。本文依据1990-2010年北京市城乡收入数据,运用SPSS回归分析法,对北京市未来几十年的城乡收入状况进行了预测,然后结合相关学者的研究,建立了多元线性回归模型,用1990-2010年相关数据,采用逐步回归法进行回归。并在回归结果基础上,给出了缩小城乡居民收入差距的几点建议。     

习惯法对民族地区产权制度发展的影响及其优化路径研究

习惯法是民族地区重要的非正式制度,对现代产权界定制度、配置制度、运营制度和保护制度具有较强的制约性作用,阻碍了资源优势有效转化为现实生产力。然而,维系习惯法的"情理"、"服从"原则及其既得利益者,也是优化产权制度的重要素材和优势。因此,既要充分认识到习惯法的消极作用和负面影响,也要假借其积极作用和正面效应,通过产权制度移植、产权制度变迁和产权制度重构等路径,实现民族地区产权制度的优化目标。     

Land cover changes and environmental protection: A study based on transition matrices concerning Sardinia (Italy)

Prevention and mitigation of the progressive spread of artificialization are key goals of environmental protection policies leading to the establishment of protected areas. Artificialization processes can be effectively assessed by analyzing land cover and land use changes, which put in evidence different kinds of processes that spur a decrease in natural areas and an increase in artificial ones. In this article, we first analyze land cover change processes by developing transition matrices using the simplified Land and Ecosystem Account taxonomy, and next we compare and contrast processes that take place in areas characterized by different levels of environmental protection, which we identify as follows: natural protected areas, sites of the European Natura 2000 network, and unprotected areas. We take the Italian island of Sardinia as a case study, since a system of national and regional parks and an extensive Natura 2000 network have been established in this region, and analyze and compare land cover change processes over more than twenty years (i.e. between 1990 and 2012). Our results highlight significant implications for the definition and implementation of planning policies aiming at preventing or mitigating artificialization processes within the island. However, the methodological approach here proposed can be applied in other European regional contexts so as to tailor planning policies to the local characteristics of ongoing land cover transition processes.     

Comparison of land use change in payments for environmental services and National Biological Corridor Programs

Costa Rica established the National Biological Corridor Program in 2006. Under the National Biological Corridor Program, the long-running Payment for Environmental Services Program was newly prioritized into biological corridors throughout the country. The National Biological Corridor Program caused a nationwide spatial shift in placement of payments for environmental services throughout Costa Rica. We classified ASTER 15-m resolution imagery in a central Costa Rica corridor connecting the eastern and western protected areas networks to analyze the change in forests during the National Biological Corridor Program with its targeted payments for environmental services effort. We used object-based classification methods, and compared land cover changes over an initial four-year period of corridor policy enactment. We calculated the changes within PES properties and outside of PES regions, and we also calculated forest patch metrics during the same time period. Results indicate a decline in forest cover over the study period, along with an increase in urban and pasture land covers, with higher change and loss of forest centered inside of the biological corridor, near the construction area for the new San Carlos highway, and within eastern pasture areas. We also saw a higher percentage of forest loss inside of the biological corridor area as compared to areas outside of the biological corridor. Forest loss was drastically less within current and historic PES properties, as compared to the overall study region. Across the entire study region, patch metrics show a decrease in the number of patches and a slight decrease in average patch size. These results suggest that current and past designation of PES prevents forest loss within PES properties while the current designation of priority conservation status via the National Biological Corridor Program is not increasing connectivity and forest conservation. This is shown by increased land use change and a decrease in forest associated with biological corridor designation. These results are antithetical to the goals of the National Biological Corridor Program.     

Preferential trade agreements between asymmetric countries: Free trade areas (with rules of origin) vs. customs unions

This paper examines differences in welfare implications between a free trade area (FTA) and a customs union (CU) for member countries differing in their market sizes. In a stylized three-country model of trade under oligopoly, we take into account the conditions that FTA members set external tariffs to induce their exporting firms to comply with rules of origin (ROO) within the trade bloc. This approach rules out trade deflection and regime switches in forming an effective FTA. The key findings are as follows: (i) Unless the difference in market size is too large and ROO are too restrictive, an FTA can be welfare-improving to countries with market size differential. (ii) The formation of a preferential trade agreement (either an FTA or a CU) is more likely to emerge between countries of similar market size. However, forming a CU allows for a greater degree of market size asymmetry than forming an FTA. (iii) Compared to the pre-PTA equilibrium, the greater reductions in external tariffs under an FTA than under a CU remain valid even for the case with market size asymmetry and preferential ROO. As such, a non-member country is relatively better off under an FTA. (iv) World welfare is higher under an FTA than under a CU when the market size asymmetry is moderate and ROO are less restrictive.     

试析外宣翻译的特点

外宣翻译作为对外宣传中一种重要的手段,是每一位外宣工作者都应该熟练地掌握的,但是在实际运用过程中却总会出现很多问题,其原因是因为译者对外宣翻译的特点和要求没有清楚的认识。与普通的翻译不同,外宣翻译因为它必须要达到正面对外宣传我们国家的目的,在翻译的过程中就必须要注意国情不同、文化不同、语言不同等特点,针对这些特点译者在翻译过程中要采取相应的策略,以达到外宣翻译的要求。     

从波普尔到索罗斯——论心理学对西方当代经济学的意义

心理学和经济学为现当代重要的学科门类,两者在很大程度上存在关联,相互交叉。近年来,心理学的新发现对经济学的发展有了实质性的推动。本文就波普尔和索罗斯的哲学理论及其对当代西方经济学的贡献作进一步的完善和梳理,深入探讨心理学对西方当代经济学的影响及意义,在探寻心理学与经济学两者关系的同时,展望经济学发展的新方向。     

关中西部农村环境质量现状及发展

本文通过对各个农村试点村庄3年来调查资料的汇总,参阅了其他相关资料,并对连续三年试点村庄各类环境监测数据进行综合统计和分析,以争取对关中西部的农村地区整体生态现状有一个较科学的判定。针对这些现状提出一些合理和可行性建议,以达到改善农村环境质量的目的。     

Toward an ecological civilization: Mass comprehensive ecotourism indications among domestic visitors to a Chinese wetland protected area

Large-scale park-visitor symbiosis remains an aspiration despite the need for new models to address the challenges of managing contemporary protected area systems. A survey of 1050 visitors to the Red Beach National Scenic Corridor in Northeast China, however, indicates a latent potential, with 36.0% qualifying as “enthused ecotourists” and 32.4% as “ecotourists” based on claimed adherence to basic ecotourism characteristics. Another 17.2% are “hands-on greens” also amenable to participation in on-site park enhancement activities but neutral about nature learning. “Ambivalents” account for the remaining 14.4% of the sample. High overall proclivity to participate, report misbehavior, and behave in a more environmentally responsible manner as a result of their Red Beach visit constitutes a basis for mass comprehensive ecotourism that can achieve park-visitor symbiosis and contribute significantly to the creation of an ecological civilization, as long as attendant strategies incorporate distinctive Chinese tendencies in ecotourism and outdoor recreation.