Tracking tuberculosis in the past: the use of genealogical evidence

A series of mutations of tuberculosis, present in the 1990s among elderly persons in the Province of Quebec (Canada), is interpreted as the outcome of a suite of three episodes of high mobility. The most recent is the rapid urbanization of the 1950s. In the 1840s exceptional mobility was a feature of frontier settlement and exploitation of timber. Unusual mobility in the 1750s and 1760s was associated with wartime conditions of the British conquest of Quebec and re-settlement of Acadian refugees. The scenario was developed from cartographic analysis (using geographic information systems), genealogies of the human hosts, and molecular genetics of the bacterium.     

Book Notes

Michael Ghertman and Margaret Allen, An Introduction to the Multinationals, London, Mac‐millan, for the Institute for Research and Information on Multinationals, Geneva, 1984, pp.143. $11.95 (paper).

June M. Hearn and W.A. Howard, Australian Industrial Relations: Case Studies, South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1984, pp.vi, 136. $12.95 (paper)

Felix Guattari, Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1984, pp.308. $10.95 (paper).

W.E. Connolly, The Terms of Political Discourse, second edition, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983, pp. 257. $16.50 (paper)

W.E. Connolly (ed.), Legitimacy and the State, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984, pp. 281. $15.95 (paper)

B. Guy Peters, The Politics of Bureaucracy, 2nd edition, London, Longman, 1984, pp. 294. $29.95 (paper)     

POISSON GRAVITY MODELS OF SPATIAL FLOWS*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to bring together a number of results on spatial flow models, and to reformulate them within a unified probability framework based on Poisson frequencies. To do so, a class of discrete stochastic processes, designated as independent flow processes, is developed which not only yields a complete characterization of Poisson flow frequencies, but also allows a wide range of gravity-type flow models to be formulated within this distributional framework. In particular, a hierarchical classification of 12 model types is developed, and each model type is shown to be characterizable directly in terms of behavioral axioms on independent flow processes.     

ADDITIVE-RATIO MEASURES OF INTERACTMTY IN INPUT-OUTPUT SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT. A general axiomatic framework is developed for analyzing alternative measures of interactivity between the sectors of a given activity system (such as the industrial sectors of an economy). Within this overall framework, we analyze an ordinal class of additive-ratio measures which has been applied to a wide variety of systems, including both economic and ecological systems of activities. Our main result is to show that such measures can be characterized by four interactivity axioms. In addition, a wide variety of alternative measures are compared to additive-ratio measures in terms of this axiom system.     

Regional Weil-Being in Australia Revisited

There have been many studies of regional well-being in Australia, but few match the range of variables and spatial detail employed in this paper. Twenty two socio-economic variables were drawn from the 1986 census and used to classify all 148 Commonwealth electorates. Two procedures were adopted, both based on a principal components analysis, and compared to test the robustness of the classifications generated The first approach summed factor scores to provide a status index, and the second employed Ward's clustering algorithm. The resultant groupings are seen to both complement and reinforce each other and indicate the complex and often subtle variations in well-being across the country.     

Roadside Memorials: Interpreting New Deathscapes in Newcastle,New South Wales

Over recent years, roadside memorials to commemorate people killed in motor vehicle accidents have become increasingly noticeable in parts of the Australian landscape. In Newcastle, New South Wales, roadside memorials are placed for young people. The age/gender group most at risk of road death, and those most memorialised, are young men. This is linked to spatially specific constructions of masculinity which circulate within youth milieux of Newcastle. Like other memorials and monuments these ‘deathscapes’ have multiple meanings, differing between those who build, maintain and interpret them. They function as conservative memorials of youth machismo; of heroic aggression, disregard for safety and egocentrism. Roadside memorials need to be re-read as symbolic of societal flaws; of a wasteful road toll, and a testament to dominant and problematic strains of masculinity.