Problems of Transport Development of the West Siberian Plain in Conjunction with the Formation of a new Economic Complex in its Territory

A transportation model of the West Siberian plain is based on a division of the region into subregions, and estimates of expected traffic requirements among these subregions. Arguments for and against the construction of railroads, as opposed to waterways and highways, as the basic means of transport are presented. The Tyumen'-Surgut railroad, now under construction, is viewed as the optimal initial approach to the region's transport development. Future alternative rail lines are outlined.     

我国体育文化空间差异及其区划研究

以地理视角观察体育文化,对我国体育文化与地理环境的关系进行探讨。从不同区域的气候条件、地势和地形条件、水域条件等自然地理环境因素和人体体格、文化背景与民族传统、区域经济发展水平等人文地理环境因素的差异上探讨了体育文化与地理环境的关系。采用层次聚类分析中的Q型聚类方法,构建指标体系,将我国体育文化区划成3个一级区,8个二级区。最后对各体育文化区分别进行评述。     

Petrographic thin sections and exotic rocks provenience among hunter–gatherer societies in the eastern Pampa–Patagonia Transition (lower basin of the Colorado River,Argentina)*

Lithic assemblages recovered from sites located in the eastern Pampa–Patagonia transition include a great diversity of raw materials, some from neighbouring regions, such as the Humid and Dry Pampa subregions and Northpatagonia. Lithic raw material assignments to specific procurement areas were preliminarily proposed based on macroscopic characterizations. The aim of the paper is to present the results obtained from the petrographic thin sections of archaeological artefacts from Middle and Late Holocene sites recorded at the study area. The analyses corroborate most of the macroscopic determinations, and more detailed knowledge of the acquisition areas of these raw materials was obtained.     

Continent-wide or region-specific? A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of variation in Clovis point shape

Researchers have debated the existence of regional variation in Clovis points for over 60 years. Here, we report an attempt to resolve this argument using a large sample of Clovis points from dated assemblages and a suite of shape analysis methods known as geometric morphometrics. The study tested the two main hypotheses that have been put forward in the debate: the continent-wide adaptation hypothesis, which holds that Clovis points do not vary regionally, and the regional environmental adaptation hypothesis, which holds that there is regional variation as a consequence of Clovis groups adjusting their food-getting toolkits to local conditions. We used discriminant function analysis and a multivariate extension of the t test to assess whether differences in shape exist at two scales. The first set of analyses compared points from the most obvious environmental regions in North America, the East and the West. The second set of analyses investigated differences among points from subregions within the East and West. The analyses revealed significant differences between points from the East and the West and among points from some subregions. Follow-up analyses demonstrated that these differences are not the result of the most common confounding factors, raw material quality and resharpening. As such, the analyses support the regional environmental adaptation hypothesis rather than the continent-wide adaptation hypothesis. We conclude from this that Clovis people modified their points to suit the characteristics of local prey and/or the habitats in which they hunted.     

Hemispheric Integration and Subregionalism in the Americas

The project to construct a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is unique in its attempt to integrate and build on existing subregional blocs. The impact of the hemispheric integration process on subregionalism can best be understood not through a simplistic strengthening/weakening dichotomy, but rather as involving a substantial reconfiguration of subregional projects. This article focuses on the manifestations of this relationship in the case of the Mercosur, with comparative glances at other subregions. It pays particular attention on the one hand to strategic 'bloc bargaining' issues, and on the other to the policy challenges generated by the FTAA project, which form the twin pillars of the reconfigured form of subregionalism that is currently emerging.     

The Distribution of Population and Related Indicators in Long-Term Planning of Passenger Traffic

A methodology in described to forecast the “passenger intensity” of population centers and economic regions or subregions, expressed as the ratio of passenger departures to total population. Intra-regional passenger intensity in found to be closely related to income levels and to availability of a transport net. A greater complexity of factors dictates the passenger-forming role of economic regions in inter-regional traffic.     

World City Network Integration in the Eurasian Realm

A team of authors from the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network explores the main empirical features of the global economic integration of Eurasia through an analysis of the (shifting) position of that macroregion's key cities. More specifically, they examine the gateway roles played by key cities in four major subregions—China, the former Eastern Bloc (FEB, i.e., Central and Eastern Europe), former Soviet Union (FSU), and India—in the channeling of transnational flows of capital, goods, knowledge, and people in 2000-2008, focusing on the globalization of firms in the financial and business service sectors. Although cities in the four subregions share a common recent history of transition from closed and state-centered to open and market-based economies, the study reveals the persistence of distinctive geographical idiosyncrasies in their connections across the globe. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F020, F200, O180, P300. 4 figures, 3 tables, 1 appendix, 39 references.     

Asynchronous,Iterative, and Parallel Procedures for Solving the Weighted-Region Least Cost Path Problem

A family of local, asynchronous, iterative, and parallel procedures (LAIPPs) are described. These procedures are designed to find least cost paths (LCPs) in bounded regions of the plane that have been partitioned into triangular subregions. The unit cost of traversing a given subregion is uniform within the subregion, but varies between subregions. In the case of one-dimensional chains of triangles, the procedures are guaranteed to converge to a global LCP. Although the procedures are guaranteed to terminate, we have so far been unable to prove, in the general case of a two-dimensional triangulation, that the procedures always terminate in admissible paths. Extensive experimental investigations, however, have revealed convergence to admissible paths in all cases examined. While counterexamples are constructed to prove that the procedures may converge to the local rather than global LCPs, convergence to the global LCP was found to occur in nearly all of our experimental investigations. The computational complexity of the procedures, as measured by the number of iterations required for convergence, was found experimentally to be independent of the size of the domain in which the paths lay, and to be slightly greater than linear in the Euclidian length of the paths. The complexity was also found to depend on the cost structure of the domain. Such LAIPPs appear to be promising procedures for both application and further investigation. In particular, the question of convergence is an interesting problem.     

COPLOT Display Technique as an Aid to Climatic Classification

COPLOT, a new graphic display method for multivariate data analysis, is introduced and used to divide a geographical region into climatic subregions. This method, a variant of the BIPLOT technique, is applied here to study similarity among climatic stations, the correlation structure among climatic variables, and the mutual relationships between station observations and climatic variables. At this stage, this technique is used as a supplement to cluster analysis in the attempt to understand the covariance structure of the climatic data set. However, in the future, the final decision on area grouping will be based exclusively on visual inspection of the COPLOT output display.     

陕西文化区划及其机制分析

本文以总结陕西文化区域差异为目的,从形式文化区的角度将陕西全省划分为三个文化区和八个文化亚区。在全面分析了陕西文化区形成的历史、人文过程后,笔者认为自然环境、经济发展水平与土地利用方式、政区、交通条件和移民等是陕西文化区形成的主要机制。     

海南岛文化区域划分

根据民族构成基本一致、具有相同或相似的语言(方言)类型和比较一致或相似的文化景观、文化地域分布基本相联成片、有一个反映区域文化特征的文化中心等五个指标,将海南岛划分为沿海文化区、临高文化区、儋州文化区、五指山黎苗文化区(又分合亩制和其他黎苗文化两个亚区)及三亚羊栏回族文化版块等五个文化区域。     

Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology

Western Mexico is vast and geographically diverse and has received far less attention compared to other areas of Mesoamerica. Research over the past decade allows the definition of four major subregions characterized by cultural factors and distinct historical trajectories. A large proportion of the research in western Mexico is still culture-historical in nature, oriented toward establishing chronologies and relationships between regions. But along with a number of recent efforts toward synthesis and consolidation, current theoretical research contributes to the study of mortuary patterns and social organization, alternative forms of social complexity, agricultural intensification, empire formation, state involvement in the economy, human-land relationships, and the interlocking relationship between migration and sociopolitical reorganization.     

Cranioskeletal Size Variation in San Francisco Bay Prehistory: Relation to Calcium Deficit in the Reconstructed High-seafoods Diet and Demographic Stress

An osteometric–statistical study of residual rickets (RR) skeletal plasticity has been made of a time-ordered sequence of 11 series of adult skeleton sets (n=251) from shellmound sites around San Francisco Bay (the Bay) spanning the three archaeological horizons of Central California Indian prehistory in this region: Early (EH), Middle (MH) and Late (LH). To control for major differences of subsistence ecology and ethnolinguistic affiliation, the Bay sequence was further subdivided into four subregions: East (EB, Costanoan), South (SB, Costanoan, high acorns), West (WB, Costanoan, low acorns) and Northwest (NWB, Coast Miwok). In the eight EB series, a non-linear downward trend in cranioskeletal size was observed between EH and LH2, coinciding with a modest upward trend in the RR-15B score. To ascertain if food calcium deficit (CADEF) can explain the observed secular decline in cranioskeletal size, the evolving aboriginal Bay archaeodiet—relatively high in marine mammals, birds, fish and calcium-rich mollusks—was reconstructed by the diet grid method: in the three subregions with large stands of oaks (EB, SB, NWB), CADEF rose from negligible in the EH to moderate in the LH, as the subsistence base became more dependent on leached acorn meal for energy. Temporal and areal variation in Bay cranioskeletal size relates mostly to CADEF, demographic stress in females (DS), and the ‘male nutritional advantage interaction co-factor’ (MNAIC), in descending order of importance. This study has also confirmed the existence of the San Francisco Bay Indian physical type.     

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Surface Changes by Tessellations

This paper develops a method for analyzing the change of surface, a continuous function defined over the two‐dimensional space. The surface change is represented by a scalar field in a spatiotemporal region. The region is divided into subregions called hills and waves which are based on the local form of the surface. They are both three‐dimensional tessellations of the spatiotemporal region, and provide an overview of the surface change. To summarize the tessellations, four operations are proposed: section, projection, merging, and graph representation. They extract useful information from tessellations to describe the structure of surface change. To test the validity of the method, the change of a retail cluster in Shinjuku and Shibuya area in Tokyo is analyzed. The empirical study yields some interesting findings that help us understand changes in the spatial structure of retailing.     

Identity,social interaction,and networks in the region of Wisconsin’s Holyland

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on how a sense of identity, social interaction, and networks contribute to the construction and maintenance of regions. Using Wisconsin’s Holyland as a case study, we conducted fieldwork, collected primary data from residents through a survey, and utilized social network analysis (SNA) to determine how it is defined as a vernacular and functional region. While there appeared to be consensus regarding the key defining characteristics of Wisconsin’s Holyland on the surface, our data analysis revealed contrasting perceptions and definitions of the region. In addition, a SNA of self-reported social interactions by residents highlighted a complex cultural geography through the appearance of subregions and expanded borders of the region overall.     

City branding in polycentric urban regions: identification,profiling and transformation in the Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr

In polycentric urban regions several distinct cities, none of which is dominant, cooperate and compete with each other to attract inhabitants and firms. In such settings city branding strategies do not solely affect one city, but the entire region. We examined how city branding in the face of ecological modernization, that is, delivering higher added economic value, while lowering environmental impacts, is playing out in the Dutch Randstad and the German Rhine-Ruhr. Our findings show that regional identity formation occurs at the sub-polycentric urban region level, coinciding more with (historical) economic profiles than with planning imaginaries. The Dutch cities profile themselves more along the lines of ecological modernization than their German counterparts. Differences between subregions within each polycentric urban region are also noticeable, where more industrialized regions, such as the Ruhr or southern Randstad focus on ‘green’, ‘liveable’ and ‘knowledge-oriented’, while cities with stronger knowledge-intensive sectors portray themselves as ‘smart’ or ‘sustainable’. Cities generally substantiate their profiles through projects, but a significant gap persists between reality and aspirations for improved environmental conditions. This is especially true for the Dutch cities, where many claims, but little visible action can be observed.     

Inter-Country Trade Patterns in Europe and the Asia-Pacific: Regional Structure and Extra-Regional Trends

This paper examines the regional structure and extraregional trends of Europe and the Asia-Pacific. The formation of the European Community and the latter's potential enlargement to Eastern Europe contrasts with the Asia-Pacific which has resisted economic and political integration and pursued economic linkages with countries outside of the region. The difference in regionalization tendencies have resulted in more geographically defined subregions in Europe, and greater territorial fragmentation in the Asia-Pacific. Even though European countries exhibit tighter interlinkages with one another, the evidence indicates that their extra-regional links compare favorably with the Asia-Pacific for much of the period from 1965 to 1994.     

China's regional policies: how much hegemony?1

China is commonly assumed to be seeking hegemony in its region. Yet China's region involves it in relationships with major states with their own hegemonic or leadership interests—the US, Russia, Japan and India. This article examines each of China's regional relationships in terms of the prime interests of China's foreign policy framework. It concludes that it is important to distinguish between hegemonic capabilities and intentions: that while China will want to extend its influence as a regional power, its capability to do that will continue to grow in each of its subregions, its ability to exercise that power and influence will be limited. In the past its efforts have been largely to seek secure borders and economic opportunities and that for some years those objectives, together with energy security, are likely to remain the priority.     

The Mormon Historical Demography Project

Abstract

This article describes the background and reconstruction of the Belgian 1961 census sample file. Recently, a complete codebook for the sample file has been drawn up, and the representativeness of the sample has been evaluated as accurate, except for the loss of cases that occurred for three Belgian subregions. With the addition of the 1961 census sample, cross-sectional microdata from the five successive population censuses since that year, covering a broad range of topics, are now available to the research community. The reconstruction of the 1961 census sample was part of the activities of the HISSTAT project, which is currently being run by a consortium of research institutions in Belgium to bring together cross-sectional aggregated data since 1800, aggregated longitudinal data since 1880, and cross-sectional microdata since 1961, all covering the entire country.     

The archaic prehistory of the North American Southwest

Evidence today suggests that by at least 8000 to 8500 B.P., Archaic hunter-gatherer economies were established throughout the North American Southwest. The Early Archaic seems to be a period of considerable variability across the subregions; this may be a product of currently slim knowledge of the period, or it may indicate that the region witnessed considerable flux. With the Middle Archaic period from 5500 to 3500 B.P. there seems to be greater similarity in material culture across the region and a definite increase in the number of known sites. Finally, the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period from 3500 to 2000 or 1500 B.P. sees the establishment of a mixed farming-foraging economy in much of the Southwest with apparently major changes in subsistence-settlement systems. Preagricultural Archaic land use patterns are known in broad outline but not in detail; high mobility by small social groups in an annual round would have permitted exploitation of diverse biotic communities. In most parts of the region, significant socioeconomic change accompanies the incorporation of agriculture into the late preceramic period, as witnessed by the appearance of longer-term residential sites with pitstructures and storage features.