THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AIZJOMI LANDSCAPE†

This article considers the history of a particular Latvian cultural landscape, located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Known as an aizjomi landscape, it consists of small, humanly made tilths on the seashore. These features are both physical elements and repositories of historical and cultural meaning. In one sense, through hard labor humans created the aizjomi landscape, adjusting the morphological and dynamic elements of the landscape and continually maintaining them. These human efforts made agriculture possible in the dunes, and in so doing they fashioned a means for producing a livelihood and, indeed, for sustaining life. The aizjomi landscape became a materialization of the people's day‐to‐day life in the middle and late nineteenth century and can thus be considered a “taskscape,” pulsating simultaneously with the rhythm of nature and historical events. I have analyzed empirical evidence from archival documents, reviewed ecological and historical studies, and conducted field research on specific farming practices that shaped the landscape that, in turn, shaped agricultural activities. Through a retrospective analysis I trace the development and decline of the aizjomi landscape.     

URBAN‐SYSTEM EVOLUTION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON

ABSTRACT. Like the North American frontier, Ecuador's Amazonian margin has advanced in periodic waves. But the impetus has been extremely varied, interlacing periods of socioeconomic crisis with times of prosperity. Recent events in eastern Ecuador confirm that urbanization is a fundamental component of frontier development in South America. The urbanization process is not a sign, however, of regional economic strength. Capital gains at the periphery are transferred to the nation's core region. Even the larger boom towns display little functional specialization; they are, instead, precariously dependent on employment in the public‐service sector. Nonetheless, urban centers in the Ecuadorian Amazon continue to grow and to drain surrounding rural areas of younger and more educated individuals.     

SELF‐DETERMINATION AND THE DIFFICULTY OF CREATING NATION‐STATES: THE TRANSYLVANIA CASE*

ABSTRACT. In the lead‐up to the World War I Paris Peace Conference the United States convened The Inquiry‐a group of leading scholars‐to propose equitable terms, including new borders, for the final peace settlements. In many areas throughout Europe, among them Transylvania, coming to a settlement that fully accounted for Woodrow Wilson's principle of self‐determination proved difficult. Hungary's populace comprised many nationalities, some very hostile toward Romania, the state that eventually acquired the entire region. In this article I analyze how the American plan differed from that finally adopted at the conference and how closely The Inquiry's plan for Transylvania followed the principles laid out by President Wilson in his famous “Fourteen Points,” which provided the basis for American participation in World War I. The ethnic mix within Transylvania made it an especially difficult region in which to apply Wilsonian principles.     

COSMOPOLITANISM: THE MEDITERRANEAN ARCHIVES†

The existing postcolonial literature privileges the British and French imperial/colonial history that mirrors the ongoing debate on the relationship among cosmopolitanism, universalism, and imperialism. These debates take for granted the Kantian and Hegelian hierarchy of European civilizations, hence marginalizing the southern shores of Europe and the broader Mediterranean space. Drawing on Mignolo's notion of “border thinking” and on Isin's account of the city as a “difference machine,” I address the issue of how imperialism, colonialism, and cosmopolitanism come together and relate to each other in the context of the Mediterranean (allegedly) cosmopolitan cities. In particular, cosmopolitanism is read as the outcome of the reciprocal adjustment of interior and exterior borders in the making of modernity/coloniality in the Mediterranean. Focusing on the Ottoman millet system, my main claim in this article is that cosmopolitanism worked as a peculiar dispositif within the urban difference machine, enabling the city to sustain the tension between different accounts of citizenship.     

美加两国北极主题博士论文的调研与分析

利用国外博、硕士论文数据库PQDT,对美国和加拿大地区研究北极主题的博士学位论文进行收集,并将收集到的学位论文按照各年文献量、授予学位机构、学科和关键词等方面进行文献计量分析。通过分析得到结论：美加北极主题的博士学位论文稳步增长;美加环北极机构是北极研究的主要机构;地质学、大气学、生态学、海洋学是美加北极研究的优势学科;海洋、岛屿、气候成为美加北极研究的焦点。     

ASSESSING THE PALAEOCLIMATE POTENTIAL OF CAVE GLACIERS: THE EXAMPLE OF THE SČRIŞOARA ICE CAVE (ROMANIA)

ABSTRACT. The ice block in Scarisoara Cave, NW Romania, is preserved due to unusual climate and permafrost conditions within the cave. The air temperature in the cave is governed by the winter cold, the cooling effect of the ice block, and only to a minor extent influenced by summer temperatures. At present, the ice block is slowly thinning, but the present-day climate is sufficiently cold to preserve the permafrost conditions caused by the cold air trapped in the cave. In February 2003 a 22.5 m long ice core was recovered from the ice block. Approximately 200 ice layers have been identified by visual examination. Ice crystallographic analyses indicate a steady growth of ice crystals with depth and there is no sign of deformation. Carbon-14 dates on wood-related samples collected from a natural vertical exposure of the ice block indicate that the ice spans more than 1000 years. Observations on the exposure indicate that a basal melting phase may have occurred in the past.     

“HANDS ACROSS THE SEA”: THE MASONIC NETWORK,BRITISH IMPERIALISM,AND THE NORTH ATLANTIC WORLD

ABSTRACT. From Montreal to Madras, from Barbados to Burma, the lodges of Freemasons dotted the landscape of the British Empire from the eighteenth century to the twentieth. Together with the British grand lodges under whose authority they met, these lodges constituted a vast network that extended across the oceans and linked Freemasons in Britain's colonies to the metropole and to each other. In this article I use the fraternity to demonstrate how the age of empire can serve as a laboratory for studying transoceanic networks, institutions, and identities. Looking first at the broad imperial context, I demonstrate how the global Masonic network developed and describe its functions during the long nineteenth century. I then focus on the British North Atlantic as a case study of the brotherhood's role in connecting people on various sides of a particular ocean basin by offering practical services and encouraging an “imperialist” identity that helped consolidate the British Empire.     

长江淮河海河流域降水与南水北调的关系

本文以农田需水量作为供水余缺的标准,分析长江、淮河、海河流域降水的年内年际变化与季节需水的关系,论证了南水北调的必要性和引江济海的合理性。     

THE DEPENDENCE OF THE ANNUAL TOTAL ON THE NUMBER OF RAIN‐SPELLS AND THEIR YIELD IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Rain‐spells are a key parameter for examining the variation in rainfall amounts, especially in arid and semi‐arid areas. A rain‐spell is defined as a period of consecutive days with rainfall above a certain determined Daily Rainfall Threshold (DRT). Two different seasons or two stations may have the same average TOTAL, but different synoptic conditions are the cause for the differences in their Number of Rain‐Spells (NRS) their Rain‐Spells Yield (RSY) or both. The present study examines whether a season is drier/wetter according to its length, or whether it depends on the NRS in 41 Mediterranean stations. It analyses the relationships between dry/wet seasons and various elements of the rain‐spells. These objectives are analysed both at a basin level of the entire Mediterranean, and at a station level. The main conclusions at the basin level are that precipitation amounts are not related to the length of the seasons, and therefore, a Short or a Long season can be either Dry or Wet. The significant positive correlation between the TOTAL and the annual NRS that was found indicates that a Dry season tends to have Few rain‐spells and a Wet season tends to have Many rain‐spells. At the station level of most stations, a Dry or Wet season is caused mainly by changes in the RSY and less so by changes in the NRS. This tendency is more evident in the southern Mediterranean. Furthermore, Wet seasons are characterized by an increase in the number of Long rain‐spells (longer than three days) and mainly in the RSY of these spells. These conclusions may serve to characterize the rainfall regime under any scenario due to a climatic change.