Permeable homes: A historical political ecology of insects and pesticides in US public housing

This paper traces changes in the political ecology of insects and chemicals in US public housing since Congress founded public housing in 1937. Drawing upon the literature of critical geographies of home, urban political ecology, and medical history, it argues that the constitution of “public” and “private” space within public housing was deeply entangled with pest control practices there. Prior to 1945, reformers treated the housing as a commons, in part compelled by the mobility of bedbugs and the pesticide used to combat them, both of which were seen as serious health threats. Managers were also motivated by social welfare ideologies, while residents eagerly assisted with communal control policies in order to achieve freedom from the health insults of bedbugs. Following 1945, however, new synthetic pesticides like DDT seemed to stay safely within one apartment unit, encouraging housing managers to abandon community-oriented pest control practices. Meanwhile, curtailed budgets, particularly after the Housing Act of 1949, left the infrastructure of public housing to decay, rendering units more physically permeable even as managers neglected the communities there. The new pesticides nearly eradicated bedbugs, but tenacious populations of German cockroaches blossomed thanks to the permeable buildings and synthetic pesticides. Residents grew increasingly resistant to pesticide use as they observed that cockroach populations went unabated. The paper serves as a case for applying political ecology frameworks to domestic spaces, and also argues that housing quality and domestic pesticide use are not merely private responsibilities but should be regarded as environmental justice issues.     

建立集成的地震分析预报数据融合系统——地震分析预报技术体系的探讨

介绍了数据融合技术和方法，并对地震分析预报技术分析作了分析，提出应吸收和借鉴数据融合技术和方法，利用先进的计算机技术，建立集成的地震分析预报数据融合系统，本文给出了在国家公用数据支持下的系统结构模型及其功能和技术支撑。认为宋的系统是地震分析预报技术系统发展趋势。     

The value of teaching about geomorphology in non-traditional settings

Academics usually teach about geomorphology in the classroom, where the audience is enthusiastic, but generally small. Less traditional settings offer opportunities to reach a wider audience, one that is equally enthusiastic, given its love of geomorphic features in the National Parks, but one which has little knowledge of the science behind what they are seeing. I have “taught” geomorphology in four non-traditional settings: at a summer camp, a state wildlife refuge, on community field trips, and at meetings for clubs and government boards. This paper discusses my experiences and offers suggestions to others who may wish to follow this less-traveled educational path.As Head of Nature Programs at Camp Pemigewassett in New Hampshire, I have worked, over the last 33 years, with thousands of campers ranging from 8 to 15 years old. Our setting, in a glaciated valley on a small lake, exhibits a wide range of geomorphic features and offers many opportunities for direct learning through field investigations. I have found that even 8-year olds can do real science, if we avoid the jargon. Once “taught” they carry their knowledge about landforms and processes with them and eagerly share it with their friends and family on outings and trips, thus reaching an even wider public.Parks, wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and other similar areas generally have nature trails, often with educational information about the environment. Generally, interpretive signs are prepared by biologists and the content ignores the site's physical features, as well as the connections between ecological communities and the underlying geology and geomorphology. My students and I have addressed this situation at two places in Connecticut, one a state wildlife management area, also used for training teachers to teach Environmental Education, and the other, a town recreation area. We catalogued the geomorphic features, looked at relationships of the community level ecology to those features, and prepared interpretive signs that added this perspective to the trails. The public response has been extremely favorable.Geomorphology can also be taught by leading field trips for community organizations. I have done this twice, once for the Manchester (NH) Historical Society and once for a small watershed association. The attendance and interest surprised me. We finally had to limit the Manchester trip to one full busload (45) and the watershed trip, which was part of a “trails day,” drew over 90 people.Finally, I have found that organizations such as Sierra Club chapters and town conservation boards are frequently looking for speakers for their periodic meetings. Why not a geomorphologist? After all, much of what conservationists do is related to what geomorphologists do. I have given several of these presentations and the receptions have always been enthusiastic.While the work involved in preparing to teach in one of these non-traditional settings is frequently substantial, the rewards are equally large. It is a way to reach masses of people who know little about the science of geomorphology and to demonstrate its importance to them. Taking our message directly to the public in these settings is an effective way to put geomorphology in the public eye.     

海洋资源特性及其管理方式

海洋资源属于公共资源 ,具有多宜性、共享性 ,开发利用的兼容性和外部性 ,因此 ,海洋资源的开发管理必须采取公共管理的方式 ;海洋公共管理正符合新公共管理的理念 ,除了采取必要的行政手段外 ,必须采取市场化和社会化管理方式 ,可以实现资产化、有偿使用和市场机制 ,分权管理 ,并动员公众参与管理 ,培育海洋文化和意识形态     

The rationalization of neoliberalism in Ontario's public education system, 1995-2000

The globalization of neo-liberal policy solutions to education problems has gained increasing dominance in recent years. In Ontario, Canada the success of this ideological discourse, particularly during the past decade, has been hard to combat due to the ideal message that it conveys to the general electorate, that is one based on efficiency, accountability and equity of resources across different school boards in the province. Despite protests from many activist groups (i.e. unions, educators, parent-groups) the implementation of such policies has been largely successful. By tracking education policies, statements and events, newspaper articles and other policy reports from 1995 to 2000, this paper seeks to understand the nature of its success during the early years of restructuring. I argue that part of the success lies in understanding the techniques and strategies of implementation or the process of rationalization. I argue that policies formulated at one spatial level operate quite differently at another and the spatial disjunctures that arise as a result of this process lead to the continued success of neo-liberal ideologies and inequalities in education.     

A geography of men’s fear

Men are at significantly greater risk than women to violent crime victimization in the US, especially in the public sphere. Despite this, their fears and vulnerabilities have received considerably less attention in recent social discourse than have women. Men’s risk in, and fear of, public space is overshadowed by their apparent fearlessness in public space. This paper begins to address this apparent paradox using the conceptual lenses of masculinity and control. I explore fear and fearlessness among men as objects and subjects of masculinity. Stated fearlessness among men is counterbalanced by a chronic fear of violent crime victimization. Conditioned fearlessness combines with actual risk and chronic fear to shape men’s experiences in the public sphere. I study the dynamics of men’s fear using data gathered from a group of young men and women in Philadelphia. Gendered differences in fear and how environments are perceived and judged as to their relative safety are demonstrated and explored. Compared to women’s fears and perceived geographical vulnerabilities, the men of this study demonstrate a persistent and chronic wariness of their environmental context that precedes any judgment of perceived safety. Violence and fear among both men and women in this study is further explained as a function of racism and economic marginalization.     

基于GPRS和GPS的公交车辆定位系统设计

根据目前GPS和GPRS发展的现状。提出了GPS数据通过GPRS通信平台传输的新方法。结合数据库和GIS技术。阐述了公交系统中的应用和实现方案，具有数据管理、精确定位、实时监控和直观显示等功能。并且分析了该系统的特点。     

Land use scenario development and stakeholder involvement as tools for watershed management within the Havel River Basin

The implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) will address land use issues in river catchments in order to reduce diffuse pollution and work towards the aim of achieving good ecological status, or good ecological potential in surface water bodies. The WFD also requires the active involvement of all interested parties in developing the best approach to achieve its objectives. The paper demonstrates how scenario analysis can be applied to investigate the impacts of land use changes and how stakeholder interviews can be used to evaluate the results of the scenarios.The study was carried out in the Havel Basin in the northeast of Germany. ‘Landscape-ecological spatial units’ were derived from similar characteristics of soil and groundwater conditions, ground relief and inundation to enable spatial allocation of potential land use and link different scales when describing possible changes in land use. As a first step, in three sub-catchments of the Havel River (distinguished by different physical characteristics) detailed surveys were carried out to investigate the various interests of the stakeholders. The interviews were used to identify the key problems of each area with respect to water quality and quantity and facilitated stakeholder engagement with the catchment planning issues in the Havel River Basin. The information from the stakeholder interviews was used to determine the initial conditions for the land use scenarios which were developed to demonstrate possible changes to land use for achieving better water quality. The land use scenarios also were required as an input into the hydrological modelling of their effects on water quality and to calculate their socio-economic effects. In a second survey, the results of the scenarios and the hydrological modelling were presented to the stakeholders. The consultation process identified the priorities of the stakeholders which could then be taken into account when developing management options.     

‘Public intellectuals’, geography, its representations and its publics

Recent years have seen academic geographers engaged in a series of debates over the current state of the discipline, its ‘relevance’ to others in the social sciences, to policy-makers, and to those studying geography at school age. This short critical review builds upon an issue raised in this journal [Thrift, N., 2002. The future of geography. Geoforum 33, 291–298], namely the role of geographers as public intellectuals. After reviewing the different ways in which the notion of public intellectuals has been understood, the paper turns to geography’s representations and to its publics. The paper concludes by arguing for an appreciation of the full range of ways in which geographers call forth publics through a range of representational strategies. It suggests that regardless of how geographers perform publicly and intellectually, two things are perhaps worth remembering: it is in the interest of geographers to name what they do as geography and to name themselves as geographers.     

Risky bodies: Public health, social marketing and the governance of obesity

The inclusion of obesity within public health rests on a proven and accepted biomedical link between body weight and health status. Drawing on the 2005 controversy over annual death rates attributable to obesity in the US, this paper contends that uncertainty as to the causal mechanisms linking body weight and health are undermining the development of effective obesity prevention policies. Consequently, this also weakens the justification of the inclusion of such policies within public health. This work draws on recent interest in ‘critical geographies of public health’ and the continued attention to the recursive relations between people and places in the context of health which may offer a useful theoretical viewpoint from which unpack such aetiological uncertainty. Without an agreed or universal risk from obesity, the paper argues that public health obesity prevention through social marketing should be geographical in outlook. The three examples of 5 a day, Jamie’s School Dinners and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster are discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of communicating risk in a manner that allows intention to be effectively translated into risk-minimising behaviour within the dictates of locale.