Recent population trends in the Swiss Alps

Recent demographic trends in the Alpine areas of Switzerland are examined. Areas of population loss and gain are identified, and the importance of tourism for areas experiencing population growth is established. Efforts to support the demographic and economic viability of mountain areas are described.     

Recent trends in Sydney's population

"In the summer 1990 issue of this journal the author published a...paper on Sydney's [Australia] population geography. The profile drawn in that paper was Sydney as of the mid-1980s. The aim of the present article is to provide readers with an up-date on that profile, examining the demographic evolution of the city over the past decade...." Aspects considered include population growth, internal patterns of population change, ethnic composition, health and age distribution.     

Artificial Maturation of Organic Matter from Recent Venezuelan Sediments

Laboratory simulation of the catagenesis of organic matter in sedimentary rocks has been used to provide an understanding of the processes involved in petroleum generation. Several of these studies have focused on the thermal evolution of organic matter (OM) present in Recent sediments. This study examines the geochemical characteristics and experimental thermal evolution of primary organic matter from two organic facies that are thought to be major contributors to Venezuelan hydrocarbon source rocks. A third facies, generally considered unimportant for petroleum formation, is used to contrast the experimental results. Hydrous pyrolysis maturation experiments were performed for three intermediate temperatures. The products of the final 330°C stage are shown in this paper because they best illustrate the changes in the OM during catagenesis. Results from the hydrous pyrolysis experiments show that at 280°C and higher all three samples yield liquid hydrocarbons similar in composition to natural crudes and the transformed organic matter is similar to kerogen that occurs in natural source rocks. Chromatograms from the saturated fraction of extracts at 330°C are similar to natural crudes with respect to n-alkane distribution and abundance of beta; and beta;alpha; hopanes. The only difference seems to be the relative abundance of 22R over 22S isomers, which indicates immature oil. This is in contrast to indications from the R _o and T _max parameters measured on the accompanying kerogen.     

A soil chronosequence in Late Glacial and Neoglacial moraines, Humboldt Glacier, northwestern Venezuelan Andes

Late Glacial and Neoglacial (Little Ice Age) deposits on the Humboldt Massif were analyzed for relative-age dating parameters, including geomorphic and weathering characteristics, geochemical and soil properties. The soil chronosequence, formed in chemically uniform parent materials, provides an important database to study soil evolution in a tropical alpine environment. Extractable and total Fe and Al concentrations, examined to assess their use in relative-age determination, and as paleoenvironmental indicators, provide an important measure of the accumulation and downward profile movement over time of organically-bound Al, ferrihydrite and other crystalline forms (hematite and goethite) of extractable Fe. Ferrihydrite is particularly useful in determining former perched water levels in soils with relation to paleoclimate. The ratios of most Fe extracts are time dependent. The Fe_d/Fe_t ratio, within statistical limits, shows a slow increase from LIA (Little Ice Age) to Late Glacial soils, which closely correlates with other alpine soil studies in the middle latitudes and other tropical alpine locales. Values of Al_d (dithionite) and Al_o (oxalate extractable) generally do not correlate with time; however, Al_p (pyrophosphate extractable) measured against Al_t (total) provides insight on the downward translocation over time of organically-bound Al. Low leaching rates in this chronosequence are further supported by clay mineralogy trends and the geochemical data.     

Recent trends in Siberian urban growth

Future trends in urbanization in the USSR east of the Urals are considered using official Soviet data from 1959 to 1985. "Absolute and relative growth and growth rates are calculated for economic regions, oblast-level administrative entities, and individual cities, as well as for city-size categories. The nature of Siberian growth suggests that in addition to serving as centers of resource exploitation, Siberian cities also function as growth poles for more integrated development. The analysis serves as the preliminary stage for proposed future research on the extent of Siberian urban development and the integration of Siberia into the Soviet economy."     

Recent trends of population development in the French urban system

"The paper analyses the population development of French urban agglomerations of more than 50,000 inhabitants over the last three decades (1962-90). Trends of net migration, natural increase and total population change are examined with respect to different functional and structural city types. The results show changes of long established growth patterns: an overall decrease of urban growth rates in the seventies and the resurgence of the growth of the largest metropolitan areas in the eighties." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

The detrital record of late‐Miocene to Pliocene surface uplift and exhumation of the Venezuelan Andes in the Maracaibo and Barinas foreland basins

A multidisciplinary approach, combining sediment petrographic, palynological and thermochronological techniques, has been used to study the Miocene‐Pliocene sedimentary record of the evolution of the Venezuelan Andes. Samples from the Maracaibo (pro‐wedge) and Barinas (retro‐wedge) foreland basins, proximal to this doubly vergent mountain belt, indicate that fluvial and alluvial‐fan sediments of similar composition were shed to both sides of the Venezuelan Andes. Granitic and gneissic detritus was derived from the core of the mountain belt, whereas sedimentary cover rocks and uplifted foreland basin sediments were recycled from its flanks. Palynological evidence from the Maracaibo and Barinas basins constrains depositional ages of the studied sections from late Miocene to Pliocene. The pollen assemblages from the Maracaibo Basin are indicative of mountain vegetation, implying surface elevations of up to 3500–4000 m in the Venezuelan Andes at this time. Detrital apatite fission‐track (AFT) data were obtained from both stratigraphic sections. In samples from the Maracaibo basin, the youngest AFT grain‐age population has relatively static minimum ages of 5 ± 2 Ma, whereas for the Barinas basin samples AFT minimum ages are 7 ± 2 Ma. With exception of two samples collected from the Eocene Pagüey Formation and from the very base of the Miocene Parángula Formation, no evidence for resetting and track annealing in apatite due to burial heating in the basins was found. This is supported by rock‐eval analyses on organic matter and thermal modelling results. Therefore, for all other samples the detrital AFT ages reflect source area cooling and impose minimum age constraints on sediment deposition. The main phase of surface uplift, topography and relief generation, and erosional exhumation in the Venezuelan Andes occurred during the late Miocene to Pliocene. The Neogene evolution of the Venezuelan Andes bears certain similarities with the evolution of the Eastern Cordillera in Colombia, although they are not driven by exactly the same underlying geodynamic processes. The progressive development of the two mountain belts is seen in the context of collision of the Panama arc with northwestern South America and the closure of the Panama seaway in Miocene times, as well as contemporaneous movement of the Caribbean plate to the east and clock‐wise rotation of the Maracaibo block.     

地方城市的人口回流与移民战略——基于深圳-驻马店的调查研究

改革开放30 多年来,沿海大都市和内陆地方城市之间的发展差距不断拉大,其中人口流动是重要动因。因此,如何吸引人口回流,留住本地人才,是内陆地方城市未来发展的关键。在此背景下,以驻马店为案例地,通过实地调研和问卷访谈,探讨了在深圳市的驻马店籍人口的回流意愿,以及当前驻马店的人口回流状况,并重点对回流创业者与回流购房者的回流动因、地域选择、就业动向及预期等进行了调查分析。研究表明,以驻马店为代表的地方城市已出现了以U-turn 与I-turn 为主的人口回流现象,且回流人口大都从事或打算从事与之前就业行业相关的创业活动。已发现有两种主动回流类型,即创业回流和购房回流。其中,购房回流也可看作是创业回流的前奏,二者可理解为同一回流过程的两个阶段。如果地方政府能够做出积极的政策引导,回流人口及其带动的返乡经济可望成为地方城市摆脱发展困境的一个新战略。     

Recent demographic and migratory trends among Soviet Jews: implications for policy

The author examines recent demographic trends concerning the Jewish population of the former USSR, with consideration given to both internal and international migration. "Among the factors whose effects on population dynamics are examined, emphasis is placed on the Jewish population's concentration in large urban areas, the effects of emigration on age structure of the remaining population, self-identification as a method in census enumeration, ethnic intermarriage and family characteristics, and the outlook and prospects for emigres in Israel and the United States." The effect of Soviet state policy on Jewish population dynamics is also considered.     

Hukou and non-hukou migrations in China: comparisons and contrasts

The household registration (hukou) system in China was studied using China's 1990 census 1% microdata and interprovincial migration studies. In doing this, the socioeconomic characteristics and geographical patterns of long-distance hukou and non-hukou migratory flows were compared before developing a framework of dual migration circuits. The framework uses a statistical model to evaluate migration rates in relation to both origin and destination variables. It was found that these two types of migrants shared some general demographic characteristics, but displayed substantial socioeconomic differences. The hukou migrants that tended to originate in urban areas had an extremely high share of college-educated people and were employed in higher skilled jobs, while non-hukou migrants were mostly from rural areas with much lower educational attainment. Hukou labor migrants tended to move through government and formal channels, while non-hukou migrants relied on their own, often informal, source of jobs. Furthermore, a difference as to the migration mechanisms between hukou and non-hukou migrants was noted. Non-hukou migration rate were tied positively to the migration stock, a process consistent with a networked migration hypothesis, while hukou migration rates were not. The rural labor migrants moved away from provinces of high population pressure to those with more favorable land/labor ratios, in line with neoclassical predictions. Hukou migration moved in the opposite direction, reflecting a different set of factors at work. The analysis indicates that the hukou system remained a relatively powerful institution in structuring migration in the 1980s.     

Recent Coastal Change in Canterbury- the case of Lake Forsyth/Wairewa

Documentary and anecdotal evidence is presented to supplement geomorphological evidence for the conversion of Lake Forsyth (Wairewa) from marine inlet to brackish to freshwater lake within near historic time. Growth of the barrier across the lake outlet is likely to continue in the future.     

Mining Migrants: Transnational Mining and Migration Patterns in the Peruvian Andes*

This article evaluates the linkages between transnational mining corporations and local migration dynamics in Peru. Changes in migration patterns in the Cajamarca region of Peru over the past decade are examined via a case study of the gold mining operations of Newmont Mining Corporation. The study considers household migration behavior in communities surrounding the mine as well as transformations in regional, national, and international migration patterns. Also examined are the temporal nature of these changing patterns across short, medium, and long‐term time periods.     

Mapping spatiotemporal patterns of events using social media: a case study of influenza trends

Tracking spatial and temporal trends of events (e.g. disease outbreaks and natural disasters) is important for situation awareness and timely response. Social media, with increasing popularity, provide an effective way to collect event-related data from massive populations and thus a significant opportunity to dynamically monitor events as they emerge and evolve. While existing research has demonstrated the value of social media as sensors in event detection, estimating potential time spans and influenced areas of an event from social media remains challenging. Challenges include the unstable volumes of available data, the spatial heterogeneity of event activities and social media data, and the data sparsity. This paper describes a systematic approach to detecting potential spatiotemporal patterns of events by resolving these challenges through several interrelated strategies: using kernel density estimation for smoothed social media intensity surfaces; utilizing event-unrelated social media posts to help map relative event prevalence; and normalizing event indicators based on historical fluctuation. This approach generates event indicator maps and significance maps explaining spatiotemporal variations of event prevalence to identify space-time regions with potentially abnormal event activities. The approach has been applied to detect influenza activity patterns in the conterminous US using Twitter data. A set of experiments demonstrated that our approach produces high-resolution influenza activity maps that could be explained by available ground truth data.     

A new analytical solution estimating the flexural rigidity in the Central Andes

We present a new 2-D analytical solution of the fourth-order differential equation, which describes the flexure of a thin elastic plate.
The new analytical solution allows the differential equation for an elastic plate to be solved for any irregular shaped topography with a high spatial resolution. We apply the new method to the Central Andes. The flexural rigidity distribution calculated by this technique correlates well with tectonic units and the location of fault zones, for example, the Central Andean Gravity High correlates with the presence of a rigid, high-density body.     

Palaeomagnetism of Neogene Ocros dyke swarm, the Peruvian Andes: implication for the Bolivian orocline

Summary. Remanent magnetization directions of 32 dykes and lava flows sampled near Ayacucho, the Peruvian Andes revealed 14.2°± 5.5° counterclockwise rotation after the Neogene intrusion of this dyke swarm. Palaeo-magnetic results of these rocks and other palaeomagnetic evidences from the Central Andean Mesozoic rocks suggest relatively recent occurrence of the Andean oroclinal bending around the axis at the Peru-Chile border.     

Quinoa,A Potentially Important Food Crop of the Andes

Abstract

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Eric P. Kelly and Dragos D. Kostick. The Land and People of Poland. Portraits of the Nations Series. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, New York, 1964. 128 pp., map and many illustrations. $2.93.     

Development implications of demographic trends and projections for an arid region:: the case of the Badia Research and Development Project area of Jordan

Development planners in arid areas face many difficulties in preparing appropriate strategies. Their task is made harder by the dearth of reliable demographic information. This paper presents population projections for the arid area of eastern Jordan covered by the Badia Research and Development Project and evaluates the economic and social implications of these projections over the next 20 years. The paper argues that conventional demographic forecasting methods are extremely problematic when applied to a population such as this. Furthermore, the pastoral economy, which has in the past been the main source of livelihood, cannot hope to sustain the region's future population. High fertility rates will continue to place great stress on the educational and health infrastructure. If appropriate planning responses are not achieved, the demographic regime of the Badia project area and the quality of life of the population may continue to diverge from the patterns found in other parts of Jordan.