Assessing the Completeness of Bicycle Trail and Lane Features in OpenStreetMap for the United States

This article assesses the completeness of bicycle trail and on‐street lane features in OpenStreetMap (OSM). Comparing OSM cycling features with reference data from local planning agencies for selected US Urbanized Areas shows that OSM bicycle trails tend to be more completely mapped than bicycle lanes. Manual evaluation of mapped cycling features in OSM and Google Maps for selected test areas within the Central Business Districts of Portland (OR) and Miami (FL) through comparison with governmental datasets, satellite imagery, and Google Street View, shows that the Bicycle layer in Google Maps can help to identify some missing or erroneously mapped OSM cycling links. However, Google Maps was also found to have some gaps in its data layers, suggesting that consultation of current trail and lane data from local planning authorities, if available, should be considered as an additional data source for bicycle related planning projects.     

Foreign Hypermarket Retailers in China: Spatial Penetration,Local Embeddedness,and Structural Paradox

As the world economy shifts towards services, transnational corporations (TNCs) in the service sector have accelerated their expansion in emerging economies. This paper examines the development and embeddedness of foreign hypermarket retailers in China. It also analyzes the spatial penetration patterns of retail TNCs, the impacts of home and host economies on their local embeddedness, and how they resolve the structural paradox between enforcing standardization and conducting localization. The expansion of retail TNCs has been influenced by the gradual liberalization policies of the Chinese government. Spatially, they expanded in two directions: from the eastern costal region to the central and western hinterland, and along China's urban hierarchy from larger cities to smaller cities. While home economies greatly influenced their initial strategies, foreign hypermarket retailers are constantly adjusting to better embed in the Chinese market and to more effectively resolve the structural paradox.     

中国城市尺度科学知识网络与技术知识网络结构的时空复杂性

知识在产业集聚、区域创新中的地位越来越突出,城市知识储量及其在区域知识网络中的地位对城市的综合竞争力有重要影响。学术论文合作与专利合作是知识溢出的体现形式,是科学和技术发展的重要成果,也是度量区域创新能力的主要指标。以2000-2009年中国生物技术领域合著论文和共同申请专利的信息为原始数据,分别构建中国城市间科学知识网络(scientific knowledge network,SKN)与技术知识网络(technological knowledge network,TKN)。运用复杂网络与地学空间分析方法,从整体网络结构特征、择优链接性、中心城市及其自我网络的空间特征等方面进行分析,探究知识溢出的时空复杂性。研究表明:1 SKN和TKN具有无标度网络特征;SKN节点度数的异质性高于TKN。2两种网络均呈异配性,即城市选择合作对象存在明显择优链接性,知识溢出具有粘着性和空间依赖性。3 SKN中心城市具有明显的等级结构,空间分布总体呈"大分散小集聚"特点;TKN中心城市层级结构不明显,尚未形成明显极化中心。4 SKN中心城市自我网络的合作空间,由最初的沿海省会城市间的合作转向长三角、珠三角、京津冀等区域间和沿海城市与内陆城市间的合作,区域间知识溢出明显;TKN中心城市自我网络仍多分布于沿海城市和少数中西部省会城市,区域间知识溢出不明显。5 SKN中心城市及其自我网络的时空演变存在等级扩散和传染扩散的现象,符合时空梯度推移规律,且空间等级梯度逐渐向扁平化转变;TKN中心城市及其自我网络的时空演变以等级扩散为主,时空梯度推移现象不明显。研究结论为量化知识溢出及知识溢出网络结构的时空演化过程提供新的研究视角,对城市创新政策的制定有一定借鉴意义。     

Do people “personally experience” global warming,and if so how,and does it matter?

For most people, the direct and personally observable signals of climate change should be difficult to detect amid the variability of everyday weather. Yet, previous research has shown that some people believe they have personally experienced global warming. Through four related studies, our paper sheds light on what signals of global warming some people believe they are detecting, why, and whether or not it matters. These studies were conducted using population survey and climatic data from a single county in Michigan. Study 1 found that 27% of the county's adult residents felt that they had personally experienced global warming. Study 2 – based on content analysis of people's open-ended responses – found that the most frequently described personal experiences of global warming were changes in seasons (36%), weather (25%), lake levels (24%), animals and plants (20%), and snowfall (19%). Study 3 – based on NOAA climatic data – found that most, but not all, of these detected signals are borne out in the climatic record. Study 4 – using the survey data – found that personal experience of global warming matters in that it predicts perceptions of local risk of global warming, controlling for demographics, political affiliation, and cultural beliefs about national policy outcomes. We conclude that perceived personal experience of global warming appears to heighten people's perception of the risks, likely through some combination of direct experience, vicarious experience (e.g., news media stories), and social construction.     

Short polarity intervals within the Matuyama: transitional field records from hydraulic piston cored sediments from the North Atlantic

Detailed sampling of two short magnetozones within the Matuyama Chronozone recorded at DSDP Site 609 (49.86°N, 335.77°E) confirms that one, the Cobb Mountain Subchronozone (1.12 Ma), is a very short, full normal polarity interval and that the other, the older interval, is a record of a geomagnetic excursion which occurred at approximately 1.55 Ma. The Cobb Mountain Subchron lasted approximately 25,000 years, one third the duration of the Jaramillo Subchron. The normal polarity interval is bounded by two transition zones which document an antisymmetry in the sequence of directions in the reverse to normal and normal to reverse polarity transitions. We interpret the antisymmetry as reflecting a dependence upon the sense of the reversal, without significant changes in the relative contributions of non-dipole terms. The polarity interval recorded at 1.55 Ma lasted only 8,800 years with what may be regarded as full polarity directions observed across only 3 cm of stratigraphic section. This feature is interpreted as an excursion of the geomagnetic field and appears to be correlative with the Gilsa Subchron. Similarities between the transition bounding these two magnetozones suggest that these features occur as the result of the same process or triggering mechanisms in the earth's outer core.     

Vegetation Dynamics in a Tidal Freshwater Wetland: A Long-Term Study at Differing Scales

Tidal freshwater wetlands are complex, species-rich ecosystems located at the interface between tidal estuaries and nontidal rivers. This study conducted on the Patuxent River estuary in Maryland was designed to assess vegetation dynamics over several decades to determine if there were directional changes in the dominant communities. Aerial photographs (1970, 1989, and 2007) documented broad-scale spatial changes in major plant communities. The coverage of areas dominated by Nuphar lutea and Phragmites australis expanded; mixed vegetation and scrub–shrub habitats were essentially unchanged; and Typha and Zizania aquatica communities fluctuated in coverage. Data collected between 1988 and 2010 from permanent plots and transects were used to examine fine-scale changes. Shifts in the importance of some species through time were observed, but there were no directional changes in community species composition. The lack of directional change as measured at a fine scale is characteristic of tidal freshwater wetlands in which variations in the abundance of individual species, especially annuals, are responsible for most short-term change in species composition. Changes in the composition of plant communities are interpreted as responses to variations in vertical accretion, stability of habitat types, invasive plant species, and herbivores. In the future, vegetation changes are likely to occur as a result of the intrusion of brackish water and increased flooding associated with global climate change and sea level rise. This long-term study establishes a baseline from which potential future changes to tidal freshwater wetlands can be better understood.     

Biogeochemical impacts due to mesoscale eddy activity in the Sargasso Sea as measured at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS)

A comparison of monthly biogeochemical measurements made from 1993 to 1995, combined with hydrography and satellite altimetry, was used to assess the impacts of nine eddy events on primary productivity and particle flux in the Sargasso Sea. Measurements of primary production, thorium-234 flux, nitrate+nitrite, and photosynthetic pigments made at the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site were used. During the 3 years of this study, four out of six high thorium-234 flux events occurred during the passage of an eddy. Primary production nearly as high as the spring bloom maximum was observed in two mode-water eddies (May 1993 and July 1995). The 1994 spring bloom at BATS was suppressed by the passage of an anticyclone. Distinct phytoplankton community shifts were observed in mode-water eddies, which had an increased percentage of diatoms and dinoflagellates, and in cyclones, which had an increased percentage of Synechococcus. These variations in species composition within mode-water eddies and cyclones may be associated with the ages of the sampled eddies, and/or differences in physical, chemical, and biological factors in these two distinct eddy types. In general, eddies that were 1–2 months old elicited a large biological response; eddies that were 3 months old may show a biological response and were accompanied by high thorium flux; eddies that were 4 months old or older did not show a biological response or high thorium flux. A conceptual model depicting temporal changes during eddy upwelling, maturation, and decay can explain the observations in all seven upwelling eddies present in the time-series investigated herein.     

Orthodoxy and creativity in theories of mountain building before 1922

In the 1870s, theories of mountain building emerged from little more than speculation to inference based on a growing body of observation and documentation. This coincided with abandonment of models stressing uplift, and their replacement, in the new orthodoxy, by models in which earth contraction led to lateral compression in its outer shell. Nevertheless, perceived weaknesses in this model gave impetus to new theories, some emphasizing primary vertical movement, and others continental displacement or subcrustal flow. The rebel theories added to the understanding of earth processes in important ways, by drawing attention to the weaknesses in the prevailing orthodoxy. But, in 1922, the complete answer remained out of reach.

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Zusammenfassung Die siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts brachten den Anfang von wissenschaftlich fundierten Theorien der Gebirgsbildung. Diese Zeit sah auch den Übergang von Erhebungstheorien zur neuen Lehrmeinung, nach welcher Erdkontraktion zu lateralen Drucken in der Außenhülle der Erde führte. Erkannte Schwächen dieses Modells führten jedoch zu neuen Gegentheorien, von denen einige primäre Vertikalbewegungen in den Vordergrund stellten, während andere Kontinentalverschiebung oder Unterströmungen als den Motor der Gebirgsbildung sahen. Diese Gegentheorien haben den Fortschritt der Erdwissenschaften gefördert, indem sie auf Schwächen der herrschenden Lehrmeinung aufmerksam machten. Aber selbst zu Argands Zeit war ein völlig befriedigendes Modell noch gar nicht erreichbar.

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Résumé C'est dans les années 1870–1880 que commençaient à s'établir les premières théories vraiment scientifiques de l'orogenèse. C'était la décade qui marqua l'abandon des théories à base de soulèvement et le début du règne de la nouvelle orthodoxie d'après laquelle la contraction de la terre mène à la compression latérale d'une pellicule extérieure. Néansmoins, certaines faiblesses du nouveau modèle servaient d'élan à des théories rebelles dont quelques-unes soulignaient l'importance des soulèvements primaires, tandisque d'autres cherchaient le moteur de l'orogenèse dans la dérive des continents ou dans des courants dans une masse quasi-fluide subcrustale. Ces théories rebelles ont avancé la science en soulignant les faiblesses de l'orthodoxie. En fin de compte, une solution complètement satisfaisante ne paraissait pas encore pouvoir être atteinte à l'époque d'Argand.

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Drawdown Distribution in the Vicinity of Nonvertical Wells

Recent developments in subsurface intake systems for ocean desalination plants are considering use of angled wells (slant wells) completed in permeable materials beneath the ocean floor. Conventional drawdown equations for vertical or horizontal wells are inadequate to properly describe the drawdown distribution in the vicinity of slant wells. Using the principle of superposition combined with standard well hydraulics, universal drawdown equations (UDE) are presented which calculate the drawdown distribution in the vicinity of production wells with inclination angles ranging from 0° (horizontal wells) to 90° (vertical wells). The method is computationally simple and other than the normal assumptions for standard well equations, it only requires that the calculated drawdown represent the drawdown which would be measured in a fully penetrating observation well. Solutions using the UDE are developed for confined, unconfined and semi‐confined (leaky) aquifers and compared with analytical equations for vertical and horizontal wells, and with a numerical model for slant wells. The UDE is also applied to pumping test data from the Dana Point slant well project in Southern California.