A mechanical spring-block model is used for realizing an objective space partition of settlements from a geographic territory in region-like structures. The method is based on the relaxation-dynamics of the spring-block system and reveals in a hierarchical manner region-like entities at different spatial scales. It takes into account in an elegant manner both the spatiality of the elements and ...

the urban squatter settlements is an urban phenomenon which is formed and developed by uncontrolled and irregular urbanization growth in the world and in iran as well and also by migration from the villages towards the cities. urban squatter settlements, as an unbalancing factor in the urban physical equilibrium, is a sign of irregular growth in the cities and the regions and many of the urbani...

for a long time, the concept of sustainability and unsustainability, the ways to assess them, and the factors involved in the process of various areas of scienc, especially the environmental ones. sustainability in rural areas as human settlements depends heavily on a series of factors including environmental and socio-economic factors. this paper aims at introducing fuzzy set theory and the ex...

Intellectual property rights are widely recognized as critical assets in many industries, especially “high-tech” industries. Companies like IBM, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard regard their patents and copyrights, along with their other intangible assets such as know-how, as central elements giving them competitive advantage. Likewise, many software companies, from Microsoft to software startups see...

Settlement size predicts extreme variation in the rates and magnitudes of many social and ecological processes in human societies. Yet, the factors that drive human settlement-size variation remain poorly understood. Size variation among economically integrated settlements tends to be heavy tailed such that the smallest settlements are extremely common and the largest settlements extremely larg...

Reported are the results of studies over the period 1989-94 on host-flea complexes in small mammals and their flea ectoparasites in and around a number of human settlements in Viet Nam in which human cases of plague had been found. Collections were also made in savanna and tropical forest areas within a 10-km radius of the settlements. The greatest numbers of small mammals, for the most part Ra...

Ethnoarchaeology is a field of study that aims to provide the information needed to draw reliable behavioral inferences from archaeological data. In this study, data from four settlement types (permanent villages, forest hamlets, seasonal hamlets, and foraging camps) of a forager–farmer population in southwestern Madagascar are examined from an archaeological perspective. Doing so shows that ho...

The paper analyses potentials, challenges and problems of the rural tourism from the point of view of its impact on sustainable rural development. It explores alternative sources of income for rural people by means of tourism and investigates effects of the rural tourism on agricultural production in local rural communities. The aim is to identify the existing and potential tourist attractions ...

Antitrust law provides that successful private plaintiffs are entitled to treble damages. Despite this, in antitrust class action litigation, courts have subtly dismantled the treble damage regime by manipulating the standard for reviewing proposed settlements. Federal law requires judicial approval of class action settlements in order to ensure that the class members’ interests are adequately ...