In the Mountain''''s Shadow: Japan''''s Silk Reelers Blazed an Asian Path of Economic Development

1 Introduction: A Dissonant Fragment On entering Chichibu, many visitors feel as if they were passing through a time warp into another country or a bygone era as the train leaves behind Tokyo抯crowded suburbs and winds through steep slopes forested with oaks, beeches and cedars. The Oku Chichibu highlands, however, are a mere 70 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, or about 50 minutes by rail, less than the average two-hour of daily commute of 搒alarymen?within metropolitan area. The sense of s…     

The temperature of Europa's subsurface water ocean

A 100 km deep liquid water ocean probably underlies the icy exterior of Jupiter's satellite Europa. The long-term persistence of a liquid ocean beneath an ice shell presents a thermal conundrum: Is the temperature of the ocean equal to the freezing point of water at the bottom of the ice shell, or is it equal to the somewhat warmer temperature at which water attains its maximum density? We argue that most of the ocean is at the temperature of maximum density and that the bulk of the vigorously convecting ocean is separated from the bottom of the ice shell by a thin “stratosphere” of stably stratified water which is at the freezing point, and therefore buoyant. If Europa's subsurface water ocean is warm, it could explain the widespread geologic evidence for apparent melt-through events observed on its surface and may constrain the overall age of its surface.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Main Street: Northeastern Oregon: The Founding and Development of Small Towns . Barbara Ruth Bailey . Food Politics: The Regional Conflict . David N. Balaam and Michael J. Carey , eds. The International Economy and Industrial Development: Trade and Investment in the Third World . R. Ballance , J. Ansari and H. Singer . Neighborhoods in Urban America . Ronald H. Bayor , ed. The English Heartland . By Robert Beckinsale and Monica Beckinsale . Regional Dimensions of Industrial Policy . Michael E. Bell and Paul S. Lande , eds. Tension Areas of the World . D. Gordon Bennett , ed. Latin America: an Introductory Survey . B. W. Blouet and O. M. Blouet , eds. Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem . Frederick W. Boal and J. Neville H. Douglas , eds. Energy and Land Use . Robert W. Burchell and David Listokin , eds. Slopes and Weathering . Michael Clarke and John Small . Alaska's Rural Development . Peter G. Cornwall and Gerald Mc Beath , eds. The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America . Galen Cranz . World Congress on Land Policy, 1980, Proceedings . Matthew Cullen and Sharon Woolery , eds. Oregon Divided: A Regional Geography . Samuel N. Dicken and Emily F. Dicken . Urban Food Marketing and Third World Rural Development . T. Scarlett Epstein . South Africa: Spatial Frameworks for Development . T. J. D. Fair . Institutions and Geographical Patterns . Robin Flowerdew , ed. Industrialization of U.S. Agriculture, An Interpretive Atlas . Howard F. Gregor . Planning Theory: Prospects for the 1980s . Patsy Healy , Glen Mc Dougall and Michael J. Thomas , eds. Neighborhood Mobilization: Redevelopment and Response . Jeffrey R. Henig . The American Urban System: A Geographical Perspective . R. J. Johnston . Climate, History and the Modern World . Hubert H. Lamb . Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man . T. M. L. Wigley , M. J. Ingram and G. Farmer . China: Railways and Agricultural Development, 1875–1935 . Ernest P. Liang . A Desirable Energy Future—A National Perspective . Robert S. Livingston , T. D. Anderson , T. M. Besmann , M. Olszewski , A. M. Perry , and C. D. West . Topothesia: Essays Presented to T. S. Ó Máille . B. S. Mac Aodha , ed. Transportation for the Poor: Research in Rural Mobility . Hal S. Maggied . Land Uses in American Cities . Harold M. Mayer and Charles R. Haves . Industrial Organisation and Location . Philip Mc Dermott and Michael Taylor . Human Adaptability: an Introduction to Ecological Anthropology . Emilio F. Moran . Regional Analysis and the New International Division of Labor . Frank Moulaert and Patricia W. Salinas , eds. The Nuclear War Atlas. Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada : Urbanization and Environmental Quality . Isao Orishimo . The Garden of Eden: The Botanic Garden and the Re-Creation of Paradise . John Prest . Earthfire, The Eruption of Mount St. Helens . Charles Rosenfeld and Robert Cooke . Contest for the South China Sea . Marwyn S. Samuels . The Future of the Wetlands: Assessing Visual-Cultural Values . Richard C. Smardon , ed. Tucson: the Life and Times of An American City. C. L. Sonnichsen . The Geography of Multinationals . Michael Taylor and Nigel Thrift , eds. Impact of Marine Pollution on Society . Virginia Tippie and Dana Kester . Reviving the Industrial City: the Politics of Urban Renewal in Lyon and Birmingham . Jerry A. Webman . Andean Reflections: Letters from Carl O. Sauer While on a South American Trip under a Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1942 . Robert C. West , ed. Cartographic Drawing with Computers . P. Yoeli .     

论鲁庄公七年夏四月辛卯夜,恒星不见,夜中星陨如雨

对《春秋》记载的“鲁庄公七年(前687年)四月辛卯夜,恒星不见,夜中星陨如雨．”一段中的夜恒星何以当见而不见这个千古未解的迷团进行探讨,在1994年笔者研究的1533年狮子座流星雨出现时呈现的天空亮度的基础上,结合古今中外的有关资料, 发现这天恒星不见的原因,实际是夜中出现的流星雨产生的天空明亮掩盖恒星．文中附带证明恒星不见和星陨如雨实际是出现在同一时段,即都在夜中．同时还估算了这次流星雨的流星数密度和流星总数、掩盖恒星亮度的流星质量以及被掩盖恒星的天空面积．     

Late Cretaceous‐Cenozoic Multi‐Stage Denudation at the Western Ordos Block: Constraints by the Apatite Fission Track Dating on the Langshan

The apatite fission track dating of samples from the Dabashan(i.e., the Langshan in the northeastern Alxa Block) by the laser ablation method and their thermal history modeling of AFT ages are conducted in this study. The obtained results and lines of geological evidence in the study region indicate that the Langshan has experienced complicated tectonic-thermal events during the the Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic. Firstly, it experienced a tectonic-thermal event in the Late Cretaceous(~90–70 Ma). The event had little relation with the oblique subduction of the Izanagi Plate along the eastern Eurasian Plate, but was related to the Neo-Tethys subduction and compression between the Lhasa Block and Qiangtang Block. Secondly, it underwent the dextral slip faulting in the Eocene(~50–45 Ma). The strike slip fault may develop in the same tectonic setting as sinistral slip faults in southern Mongolia and thrusts in West Qinling to the southwest Ordos Block in the same period, which is the remote far-field response to the India-Eurasia collision. Thirdly, the tectonic thermal event existed in the late Cenozoic(since ~10 Ma), thermal modeling shows that several samples began their denudation from upper region of partial annealing zone(PAZ), and the denudation may have a great relationship with the growth of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to the northeast. In addition, the AFT ages of Langshan indicate that the main body of the Langshan may be an upper part of fossil PAZ of the Late Cretaceous(~70 Ma). The fossil PAZ were destroyed and deformed by tectonic events repeatedly in the Cenozoic along with the denudation.     

The Geology of England – critical examples of Earth History – an overview

Over the past one billion years, England has experienced a remarkable geological journey. At times it has formed part of ancient volcanic island arcs, mountain ranges and arid deserts; lain beneath deep oceans, shallow tropical seas, extensive coal swamps and vast ice sheets; been inhabited by the earliest complex life forms, dinosaurs, and finally, witnessed the evolution of humans to a level where they now utilise and change the natural environment to meet their societal and economic needs. Evidence of this journey is recorded in the landscape and the rocks and sediments beneath our feet, and this article provides an overview of these events and the themed contributions to this Special Issue of Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, which focuses on ‘The Geology of England – critical examples of Earth History’. Rather than being a stratigraphic account of English geology, this paper and the Special Issue attempts to place the Geology of England within the broader context of key ‘shifts’ and ‘tipping points’ that have occurred during Earth History.     

The spatio-temporal development of Copenhagen’s bicycle infrastructure 1912–2013

Cycling plays an important role in low-carbon transitions. Around the globe, cities are constructing bicycle infrastructure. The city of Copenhagen has a bicycle-friendly infrastructure celebrated for its fine-meshed network. This study documents the spatio-temporal development of Copenhagen’s bicycle infrastructure and explores how the development corresponds to other processes of urban transformation. The study builds on historical maps of bicycle infrastructure that are digitised into geographical information, which allows for a comprehensive analysis of the formation of the network. In search for identifying drivers, the study analyses the city’s spatial growth pattern, migration pattern, development of road network and changes in the transport culture. Analyses reveal that the bicycle infrastructure expanded at a relatively constant pace during distinct periods of urban transformation, including periods when the city suffered from spatial, economic and demographic decline, and dominance of car traffic. By discussing reasons and demands for constructing bicycle infrastructure, the study identifies four distinct periods in which bicycle infrastructure was constructed to enhance comfort and safety (first cycling city); the flow for cars (car city); urban liveability for soft transport (liveable city); and, finally, to improve the flow for cyclists as part a strategic re-design of urban space (liveable cycling city).     

Panoptic geographies: an examination of all U.S. geographic dissertations

The study of geography as a discipline has often employed a top‐down approach that examines the output of the field's most prominent members. In this paper, we provide a bottom‐up approach by analyzing geography dissertations. We start by assembling a database that includes the title, author, date, and university for every geographic doctoral dissertation written in the United States over the last 120 years. The database allows us to track the rise and fall of regions of interest and specific topics. It gives a broad overview of the different schools in geography and their influence within separate historical periods. And it permits a more empirically based delineation of geographical “eras” based on the commonality of words in dissertation titles. This work is at the convergence of the quantitative and qualitative; we quantify and visualize textual data to provide a more robust history of geography. The result is a new, more comprehensive way to look at the changing discipline of geography.     

What are the transitions of woodlands at the landscape level? Change trajectories of forest,non-forest and reclamation woody vegetation elements in a mining landscape in North-western Czech Republic

This study answers the following research questions: 1) What are the change trajectories of woody vegetation elements at the landscape level? 2) What are the differences in change trajectories amongst the various categories of forest, non-forest and reclamation woody vegetation? 3) How do the change trajectories differ in mining and non-mining landscapes? The study area, measuring 209.6 km², is located in the north-western part of the Czech Republic and may be broken down into 76.8 km² of mining landscape and 132.8 km² of non-mining landscape. Brown coal mining began in this region during the second half of the 18th century and led to the radical transformation of the landscape, including woodlands, during the second half of the 20th century. The source data for this study was obtained from the original stable cadastre maps (1842) and the landscape field mapping performed in 2010. The various woody vegetation elements (forest, non-forest, and reclamation woody plants) and land use/cover (LULC) categories were identified. The GIS symmetrical difference tool was subsequently used to perform an overlay analysis for the individual woody vegetation elements in order to study the change trajectories and to obtain information about the woodlands that have remained unchanged (continuous), the ones that have disappeared (extinct), and the ones that have newly appeared in the landscape (recent). In the case of the non-mining landscape, the total proportion of woodlands has increased (from 17 to 32%), but there has been a decline in the overall volume of forest woody plants found in these areas (from 93 to 74%). As far as the mining landscape is concerned, there has also been an increase in the area covered by woodlands (from 10 to 20%), however, the proportion of forest woody plants has decreased to a much greater extent (from 90 to 31%). From the perspective of extinct woody vegetation, 23.3% of all types of woodlands in the mining landscape may be classified as such, as compared to 10.8% in the non-mining landscape. The primary causes of this decline are mining activities and newly built-up areas. More continuous woody vegetation may be found in the non-mining landscape (42.1%) as compared to the mining landscape (15.4%). Recent woody vegetation, which has primarily replaced grasslands and partially arable land, prevails in both the mining (61.3%) as well as the non-mining (47.1%) landscapes. Different categories of woodlands (forest, non-forest, and reclamation woody vegetation elements) exhibit various change dynamics due to their different structure and the functions they serve. At the most basic level, there has been an overall increase in the occurrence of woodlands in the studied areas. However, once GIS spatial analysis is applied it is possible to see more complex processes in the development of woodland areas as characterised by gains and losses, and it is possible to identify mining and agricultural extensification as the two most significant factors behind the historical changes. Mining leads to a direct decrease in the area of woodlands; conversely, the spontaneous succession of vegetation resulting from agricultural extensification and forest reclamation facilitates woodland recovery. Forest reclamation and reforestation are essential on order to ensure the time continuity of woodlands in both types of landscape, i.e. mining and non-mining. The study presented in this paper proves that it is relevant to analyse the changes occurring in different woodland categories separately. The same methodology may be applied when studying the change dynamics of other important landscape elements, such as wood pastures and wetlands.