Spatial scale and measuring segregation: illustrated by the formation of Chicago’s ghetto

Few studies of residential segregation in cities have directly addressed the issue of spatial scale, apart from noting that the traditional indices of segregation tend to be larger when calculated for small rather than large spatial units. That observation however ignores Duncan et al.’s (Statistical geography: problems in analyzing areal data. Free Press, Glencoe, 1961) explication that any measure of segregation at a fine-grained scale necessarily incorporates, to an unknown extent, segregation at a larger scale within which the finer-grained units are nested. To avoid that problem, a multi-level modelling perspective is introduced that identifies the intensity of segregation at each scale net of its intensity at any larger scale included in the analysis. It is applied to an analysis of the emergence of Chicago’s Black ghetto over the twentieth century’s first three decades, using data at the ward and ED scales. It shows that across Chicago as a whole segregation was equally as intense at the two scales, with statistically significant increases in that intensity at both scales across the three decades. At the finer scale, however, segregation was much more intense across the EDs within those wards that formed the core of the emerging ghetto than it was in the remainder of the city.     

Dance and wellbeing in Vancouver’s ‘A Healthy City for All’

Through the lens of the dancing body, this paper examines practices of health and wellbeing produced in response to City of Vancouver urban governance policies. In particular, it calls attention to the legislative onslaught by city government in the years abutting the 2010 Winter Olympics to cultivate and manage healthy people, communities, and environments. In an effort to sell Vancouver’s ‘liveability’, I argue City of Vancouver endorsed a new legislative alliance that merged a conspicuously Anglo-American wellbeing lexicon, favouring individual responsibility and self-governance, with the performing arts industries. Drawing upon interviews and performance-based research, the paper illustrates how Karen Jamieson’s community dance project Connect, created for the In the Heart of the City festival, embodies Vancouver’s tri-level legislative ambitions to nurture A Healthy City For All. This materialised through the crafting of a dance-health body practice (healthy people), by choreographing a sense of belonging among ‘at risk’ communities (healthy communities), and in the uniting of the arts and health professions in the process of ‘cleaning up’ disenfranchised neighbourhoods (healthy environments). In bringing together scholarship on cultures of wellbeing and creative dance practice, the article contributes to understandings of how the health-seeking subject is embodied and performed. It also offers a productive critique of the exclusionary nature of urban health legislation, and of the contested role artists and arts festivals can play in nurturing urban wellbeing and normalising inequalities.     

Open magnetic fields on the Sun and solar wind parameters at the Earth’s orbit

It is shown that the parameters of the solar-wind magnetic field are determined by regions in coronal holes at distances of 1.1–1.4 solar radii, where the field lines are radial at low heights. Expanding further in a narrow nozzle or funnel, the field lines become radial throughout the unipolar region at 2.5 solar radii. Hence, the traditional approach of comparing the characteristics of the interplanetary field at the Earth’s orbit and at the corresponding helio-projection point on the Sun is not quite correct. It gives good results for the signs and sector structure of the field; however, the magnitude of the field is formed in a more extensive area. Taking this into account, we can correlate the field values on the Sun with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and thus explain the absence of weak fields in the vicinity of the IMF neutral line (the two-peaked nature of the distribution).     

Public participation in China’s green communities: Mobilizing memories and structuring incentives

In recent years, there has been heightened interest in creating more environmentally sustainable forms of urban development in China. Central in these greening initiatives has been increased attention on promoting public participation in community-based environmental activities. Focusing on China’s green community initiatives, we examine the production and effects of participation in a state-led development program. Our analysis considers how incentives for program organizers and participants are structured by broader political and economic imperatives facing Chinese cities. We also consider what influence China’s history of neighborhood-based mobilization campaigns had on the meanings and methods of participation in green communities. To understand how urban development processes and memories of mobilization influence participation at the local level, we present two examples of the community greening process from the city of Guangzhou, comparing policy outcomes between a new and older neighborhood. This article seeks to demonstrate that the participatory processes associated with such an urban environmental initiative cannot be adequately understood without reference to earlier participatory practices and broader policy priorities guiding development in Chinese cities.     

Effect of the Earth’s rotation on subduction processes

Doklady Earth Sciences - The role played by the Earth’s rotation is very important in problems of physics of the atmosphere and ocean. The importance of inertia forces is traditionally...     

A note on India’s water budget and evapotranspiration

Some recent analyses of India’s water budget are based on information attributed to the Ministry of Water Resources. An examination of the budget components indicates that they imply an evapotranspiration estimate that is significantly lower than what one may expect based on information from other sources. If such is the case, India’s water resources situation may be more dire than is otherwise perceived. For, higher evapotranspiration implies correspondingly reduced availability of water for human use. It should be worthwhile to investigate and reconcile the apparent discrepancy between water budget and evapotranspiration, considering the importance of water in the national context.     

New Perspectives on China’s Aluminium Utilization and Development

Please refer to the attachment(s) for more details.     

“Blind passes” and the production of green security through violence on the Guatemalan border

Guatemalan protected areas have been sites for genocidal massacres, drug trafficking landing strips, and remilitarized “states of emergency,” but these activities are rarely considered in relation to conservation practices. This paper employs a political ecology approach to analyze interpellations of transboundary spaces as security threats, arguing that threat narratives produce insecurity in conservation spaces. Instead of assuming the primacy of neoliberalism in producing protected areas as sites of violence in the service of capitalism, the analysis traces the changing meanings of security in relation to Guatemala’s borderlands, from Cold War National Security Doctrine to discourses of citizen security in the twenty-first century Drug War. It is in the unmanned “blind passes” (pasos ciegos) of the Guatemalan–Mexican border, rendered as insecure spaces through the state’s putative absence, that policing paradoxically seeks to ensure “citizen security” through violence.     

Isotopic constraints on the age of the Earth’s core: Mutual consistency of the Hf-W and U-Pb systems

The estimation of the time of Earth??s core formation on the basis of isotopic systems with short-lived and long-lived parent nuclides gives significantly different results. Isotopic data for the ¹⁸²Hf-¹⁸²W system with a ¹⁸²Hf half-life of approximately 9 Myr can be interpreted in such a way that the core was formed 34 Myr after the origin of the solar system assuming complete core-mantle equilibrium. Similar estimates on the basis of the U-Pb isotopic system suggest a significantly longer mean time of core formation of approximately 120 Myr. If the Earth??s core were formed instantaneously, both isotopic systems would have shown identical values corresponding to the true age. The discrepancy between the U-Pb and Hf-W systems can be resolved assuming prolonged differentiation of prototerrestrial material into silicate and metallic phases, which occurred not simultaneously and uniformly in different parts of the mantle. This resulted in the isotopic heterogeneity of the mantle, and its subsequent isotopic homogenization occurred slowly. Under such conditions, the mean isotopic compositions of W and Pb in the mantle do not correspond to the mean time of the separation of silicate and metallic phases. This is related to the fact that the exponential function of radioactive decay is strongly nonlinear at high values of the argument, and its mean value does not correspond to the mean value of the function. There are compelling reasons to believe that the early mantle was heterogeneous with respect to W isotopic composition and was subsequently homogenized by convective mixing. This follows from the fact that the lifetime of isotopic heterogeneities in the mantle is close to 1.8 Gyr for various long-lived isotopic systems. There is also no equilibrium between the mantle and the core with respect to the contents of siderophile elements. Because of this, the mean isotopic ratios of W and Pb cannot be used for the direct computation of the time of metal-silicate differentiation in the Earth. Such estimation requires more sophisticated models accounting for the duration of the differentiation process using several isotope pairs. Given the prolonged core formation, which has probably continued up to now, the question about its age becomes ambiguous, and only the most probable growth rate of the core can be estimated. The combined use of the U-Pb and Hf-W systems constrains the time of formation of 90% of the core mass between 0.12 and 2.7 billion years. These model estimates could have been realistic under the condition of complete disequilibrium between the silicate and metallic phases, which is as improbable as the suggestion of complete equilibrium between them on the whole Earth scale.     

Effect of Atmospheric Pressure on the Deformation of the Earth’s Crust

Doklady Earth Sciences - A method for estimating the contribution of atmospheric pressure variations to the deformation of the upper layer of the Earth’s crust using synchronous data from...     

Development and Utilization of the World’s and China’s Bulk Mineral Resources and their Supply and Demand Situation in the Next Twenty Years

Bulk mineral resources of iron ores, copper ores, bauxite, lead ores, zinc ores and potassium salt play a pivotal role on the world’s and China’s economic development. This study analyzed and predicted their resources base and potential, development and utilization and their world’s and China’s supply and demand situation in the future 20 years. The supply and demand of these six bulk mineral products are generally balanced, with a slight surplus, which will guarantee the stability of the international mineral commodity market supply. The six mineral resources(especially iron ores and copper ores) are abundant and have a great potential, and their development and utilization scale will gradually increase. Till the end of 2014, the reserveproduction ratio of iron, copper, bauxite, lead, zinc ores and potassium salt was 95 years, 42 years, 100 years, 17 years, 37 years and 170 years, respectively. Except lead ores, the other five types all have reserve-production ratio exceeding 20 years, indicative of a high resources guarantee degree. If the utilization of recycled metals is counted in, the supply of the world’s six mineral products will exceed the demand in the future twenty years. In 2015–2035, the supply of iron ores, refined copper, primary aluminum, refined lead, zinc and potassium salt will exceed their demand by 0.4–0.7 billion tons(Gt), 5.0–6.0 million tons(Mt), 1.1–8.9 Mt, 1.0–2.0 Mt, 1.2–2.0 Mt and 4.8–5.6 Mt, respectively. It is predicted that there is no problem with the supply side of bulk mineral products such as iron ores, but local or structural shortage may occur because of geopolitics, monopoly control, resources nationalism and trade friction. Affected by China’s compressed industrialized development model, the demand of iron ores(crude steel), potassium salt, refined lead, refined copper, bauxite(primary aluminum) and zinc will gradually reach their peak in advance. The demand peak of iron ores(crude steel) will reach around 2015, 2016 for potassium salt, 2020 for refined lead, 2021 for bauxite(primary aluminum), 2022 for refined copper and 2023 for zinc. China’s demand for iron ores(crude steel), bauxite(primary aluminum) and zinc in the future 20 years will decline among the world’s demand, while that for refined copper, refined lead and potassium salt will slightly increase. The demand for bulk mineral products still remains high. In 2015–2035, China’s accumulative demand for iron ores(crude steel) will be 20.313 Gt(13.429 Gt), 0.304 Gt for refined copper, 2.466 Gt(0.616 Gt) of bauxite(primary aluminum), 0.102 Gt of refined lead, 0.138 Gt of zinc and 0.157 Gt of potassium salt, and they account for the world’s YOY(YOY) accumulative demand of 35.17%, 51.09%, 48.47%, 46.62%, 43.95% and 21.84%, respectively. This proportion is 49.40%, 102.52%, 87.44%, 105.65%, 93.62% and 106.49% of that in 2014, respectively. From the supply side of China’s bulk mineral resources, it is forecasted that the accumulative supply of primary(mine) mineral products in 2015–2035 is 4.046 Gt of iron ores, 0.591 Gt of copper,1.129 Gt of bauxite, 63.661 Mt of(mine) lead, 0.109 Gt of(mine) zinc and 0.128 Gt of potassium salt, which accounts for 8.82%, 13.92%, 26.67%, 47.09%, 33.04% and 15.56% of the world’s predicted YOY production, respectively. With the rapid increase in the smelting capacity of iron and steel and alumina, the rate of capacity utilization for crude steel, refined copper, alumina, primary aluminum and refined lead in 2014 was 72.13%, 83.63%, 74.45%, 70.76% and 72.22%, respectively. During 2000–2014, the rate of capacity utilization for China’s crude steel and refined copper showed a generally fluctuating decrease, which leads to an insufficient supply of primary mineral products. It is forecasted that the supply insufficiency of iron ores in 2015–2035 is 17.44 Gt, 0.245 Gt of copper in copper concentrates, 1.337 Gt of bauxite, 38.44 Mt of lead in lead concentrates and 29.19 Mt of zinc in zinc concentrates. China has gradually raised the utilization of recycled metals, which has mitigated the insufficient supply of primary metal products to some extent. It is forecasted that in 2015–2035 the accumulative utilization amount of steel scrap(iron ores) is 3.27 Gt(5.08 Gt), 70.312 Mt of recycled copper, 0.2 Gt of recycled aluminum, 48 Mt of recycled lead and 7.7 Mt of recycled zinc. The analysis on the supply and demand situation of China’s bulk mineral resources in 2015–2035 suggests that the supply-demand contradiction for these six types of mineral products will decrease, indicative of a generally declining external dependency. If the use of recycled metal amount is counted in, the external dependency of China’s iron, copper, bauxite, lead, zinc and potassium salt will be 79%, 65%, 26%, 8%, 16% and 18% in 2014, respectively. It is predicted that this external dependency will decrease to 62%, 64%, 20%,-0.93%, 16% and 14% in 2020, respectively, showing an overall decreasing trend. We propose the following suggestions correspondingly.(1) The demand peak of China’s crude steel and potassium salt will reach during 2015–2023 in succession. Mining transformation should be planned and deployed in advance to deal with the arrival of this demand peak.(2) The supply-demand contradiction of China’s bulk mineral resources will mitigate in the future 20 years, and the external dependency will decrease accordingly. It is suggested to adjust the mineral resources management policies according to different minerals and regions, and regulate the exploration and development activities.(3) China should further establish and improve the forced mechanism of resolving the smelting overcapacity of steel, refined copper, primary aluminum, lead and zinc to really achieve the goal of "reducing excess production capacity".(4) In accordance with the national strategic deployment of "One Belt One Road", China should encourage the excess capacity of steel, copper, alumina and primary aluminum enterprises to transfer to those countries or areas with abundant resources, high energy matching degree and relatively excellent infrastructure. Based on the national conditions, mining condition and geopolitics of the resources countries, we will gradually build steel, copper, aluminum and lead-zinc smelting bases, and potash processing and production bases, which will promote the excess capacity to transfer to the overseas orderly.(5) It is proposed to strengthen the planning and management of renewable resources recycling and to construct industrial base of renewable metal recycling.(6) China should promote the comprehensive development and utilization of paragenetic and associated mineral species to further improve the comprehensive utilization of bulk mineral resources.     

Field reconnaissance and overview of the impact of Hurricane Matthew on Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula

The old potable water network in Byblos city is provided mainly from Ibrahim River nearby. Located in a seismic region, the aging network needs to tolerate seismic threats; thus, damage to the potable water network needs to be assessed. Therefore, first, enhancing infrastructure resilience is briefly discussed, noting briefly the need to bridge specifically between heritage risk management and engineering. Second, Byblos potable water network, seismicity, and geology are detailed. Third, the potable water network damage assessment methodology is presented. It encompasses hazard assessment, network inventory, damage functions, and model development. Data and maps are prepared using the Geographic Information System and then modeled in Ergo platform to obtain the damage to buried pipelines in the event of likely earthquake scenarios. Ergo is updated to consider recommended ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for the Middle East region, to consider amplification of the peak ground velocity in hazard maps due to different soil types, and to consider adequate fragility functions. Moreover, different Byblos geotechnical maps, landslide hazard, and liquefaction are investigated and embedded. Damage results to pipelines are dependent on the hazard maps obtained using different GMPEs and geotechnical maps. Asbestos cement pipelines will be most damaged, followed by polyethylene and then by ductile iron. Finally, recommendations are offered to consider an improved sustainable rehabilitation solution. The study provides a better understanding of Byblos potable water network and allows the establishment of a sustainable and resilience-to-earthquake preparedness strategy and recovery plan.     

Tea forest in the making: Tea production and the ambiguity of modernity on China’s southwest frontier

The simultaneous but incompatible desires for both “tradition” and “advancement” have produced the “ambiguity of modernity” in the areas of minority nationalities (shaoshu minzu diqu) on China’s southwest frontier. This paper, in accordance, directly addresses the ambiguity of modernity through the investigation of the tea landscape in Yunnan. This essay builds on Aihwa Ong and Stephen Collier’s “global assemblage” framework to analyze the relationship between the “global form” of modernity and the situated assemblages of “ambiguity of modernity” in southwest China. Data are based on ethnographic research in the village of Mangjing, located in Jingmai Mountain, a renowned tea mountain in Yunnan. Most of the villagers in Mangjing are one of the minority nationalities of China, Bulang. I discuss the state-led project in transforming the modern tea plantation for “restoring” a landscape deemed as “ancient tea forest” (guchalin) in Mangjing. In addition, I address Bulang villagers’ and government officials’ multiple responses to the transformation of tea landscapes. I argue that the transformation of tea landscapes has been the practice to turn the “global form” of modernity into the shifting “assemblages” amongst tradition, modernity, science, and nature. The ambiguity of modernity has emerged from the shifting assemblages, providing both the state and Bulang villagers more leeway to symbolically and physically (re)produce meanings for the tea landscapes to meet the contingent market demand for tea. The transformation of tea landscapes, however, has become another process to perpetuate Bulang villagers’ social status of being “low quality” as China’s minority nationalities.     

Assessment of cement’s dust impact on the soil using principal component analysis and GIS

To evaluate the impact of the cement’s dust emitted by the eastern Moroccan cement factory (Oujda Holcim) and deposited on the soil of the Ain Lahjar commune, 58 samples of soil were collected around the factory on a radius of 3 km approximately. The physicochemical analyses of the upper 3 cm of the soil surface samples correspond to the pH, electrical conductivity, the chlorides and the oxides of Ca, Al, Fe, K, Mn, S and Si which were analyzed by the fluorescence of X-rays. The preliminary results demonstrate that this dust are especially basic and contain a high free lime (43% CaO). The principal component analysis (applied on the 58 samples of soil) allows deducting that the free lime and the sulfur oxide are the tracer elements of this form of pollution. Furthermore, the spatial projection of the factor scores of the principal component analysis using the geographical information system permits to determine the spatial distribution of more polluted areas of soils as well as to estimate their surface (63.3% of the survey zone).     

Steel Scrap’s Discovery and Utilization: Based on China

Please?refer?to?the?attachment(s)?for?more?details.     

Influence of the Growth of Earth’s Solid Core on the Effective Geodynamo

Doklady Earth Sciences - A model of the Earth’s cooling, which describes the formation of a solid core, is considered. Its formation enhances the convection due to additional energy sources...     

Study on temporal and spatial evolution of China’s oil supply and consumption

To begin with, energy flow chart is used to analyze the status of China’s oil supply and consumption. Moreover, the temporal and spatial evolution of the oil production and oil products consumption in China is studied based on the gravity model. Finally, the decoupling index combined with the log mean Divisia index method is used to explore the contribution of the factors which influence terminal oil product consumption in China over the period 1991–2010. This paper draws the following results: (1) China’s net oil import dependency soared from 7.5 % in 1993 to 58.63 % in 2010. (2) The center of gravity for crude oil production and oil products consumption is an overall movement toward the southwest. (3) The economic activity effect is the critical factor in the growth of oil products consumption in China. However, industrial energy intensity effect plays the dominant role in decreasing oil products consumption. (4) The value of the decoupling index represented a re-coupling effect in 1996–1997 and 2003–2004. The other time interval showed weak decoupling effect.     

Tungsten Isotopic Constraints on the Nature of Earth’s Accreting Materials

Tungsten isotope is a powerful tracer for the Earth’s accreting materials because of the distinct W isotope compositions of the non-carbonaceous meteorites and carbonaceous meteorites. To better understand the evolution of the early Earth, here we calculated the expected μ183W of the bulk silicate Earth for different assumed compositions of the proto-Earth’s mantle, the Moon-forming giant impactor, and the late veneer using a Monte Carlo approach. The result shows that the proto-Earth likely has a non-carbonaceous composition, while the carbonaceous chondrite-like materials were delivered to the Earth at the late stages of accretion. The predicted difference in μ183W values between the bulk silicate Earth and the non-carbonaceous meteorites of the scenarios assuming a pure carbonaceous composition for the giant impactor is slightly bigger than that of the scenarios assuming either a pure non-carbonaceous or a mixed carbonaceous-non-carbonaceous composition for the giant impactor (~5 ppm versus ~2 ppm). The ancient mantle reservoir that partially lacks the late veneer with carbonaceous composition should have a negative μ183W value (from ?3 to 0). Uncertainties introduced by the cosmogenic effects and mass-independent fractionation should be concerned during the high precision measurement of μ183W for meteorites and ancient terrestrial samples in further work.