AN EVALUATOR'S VIEW OF NDEA INSTITUTE PROPOSALS

This paper analyzes the surprisingly great variation in demographic character across the states, utilizing data on fertility, mortality, age, sex, mobility, household character, abortion, race and ethnicity. A fairly simple regional pattern is revealed that is less related to levels of economic development than to long-standing historical cultural differences.     

TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATES AND VEGETATION STRUCTURE IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

Terrestrial vertebrates in the western United States are functionally linked to environmental settings, as revealed by principal components analyses. Species number in five major vertebrate feeding guilds increases as vegetation structure becomes more complex and environmental conditions become more varied, and as evolutionary history has promoted species richness. Two other major vertebrate feeding guilds increase with temperature and evolutionary factors. Results support the view of animals as adapted parts of deterministic environmental systems, although complete explanations of species distributions require consideration of evolutionary history and stochastic processes.     

美国西部滑坡坝的合作研究

沟谷的滑坡成坝已成为美国西部山地中一个值得注意的问题。1985年作者们考察了美国西部六州九个滑坡坝的特点。这是执行1979年中美科学技术合作协议(特别是1980年地学合作补充议定书)的部分内容。中美两国科学家和工程专家考察九个滑坡坝后,取得了一些研究成果,即论述了滑坡坝(尤其是近代滑坡坝)的成因与稳定性,并列举了灾变性溃坝防止措施的若干成功经验。     

INCIDENTS OF TERRORISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1997–2005

ABSTRACT. The geography of terrorism remains underexplored. By focusing on the spatial patterns of terrorist attacks, the settings and land uses in which attacks occur, and the methods used to perpetrate violence, this analysis helps build a theory of terrorism geography. Between 1 January 1997 and 11 September 2005, 178 terrorist incidents occurred in the United States. Analysis of these incidents suggests three insights. At the national scale, terrorism in the United States clustered in large urban areas, with regional differentiation of terrorist motives and targets. At the scale of individual attack sites, terrorist motivations pinpointed offices, clinics, and public spaces; right‐wing violence, military, government, and infrastructural targets; and religious terrorism, commercial and special land uses. At the scale of individual interactions, terrorists crossed paths with victims in various ways. For example, the 2001 anthrax‐attack letters and lone‐wolf terrorism created alternative intersections of perpetrators with victims.     

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES*

ABSTRACT. Levels of alcohol consumption are a major public health issue. This study aims to gain a better understanding of how geographical patterns of religious affiliation in the United States relate to geographical patterns of alcohol consumption. We explored state‐level correlations between alcohol consumption and religious adherence. Although we found no statistically significant correlation between overall religious adherence rates and current or binge drinking rates, states with higher adherence rates were significantly more likely to have high proportions of binge drinking among current drinkers. Yet, regionally, we found a strong inverse correlation in the Southeast and a strong positive correlation in the Midwest and Northeast between adherence rates and current and binge drinking rates. These geographical differences were largely explained after stratifying by major religious denominational groupings. States with high Catholic adherence rates tended to have higher drinking rates, whereas states with high Evangelical Protestant adherence rates tended to have lower drinking rates. These findings suggest that the relationship between religion and alcohol may be denomination‐specific and challenge the lay perception that religious adherence per se is associated with less alcohol consumption and less excessive drinking among those who drink.     

REGIONAL PATTERNS OF FEMALE STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES

Two measures of female status displayed dissimilar spatial distributions. Absolute status, measured by income, education, and occupation, was highest in the West and Northeast and lowest in the South. Female status was high where male status was high. The relative status of women compared to men, however, was high in the West and the rural Middle West and South but low in the Mountain West and industrial Northeast. Nationwide, where men enjoyed high absolute status, the relative status of women compared with men was poor.     

WHY WAS HUMBOLDT FORGOTTEN IN THE UNITED STATES?*

ABSTRACT. In the nineteenth century Alexander von Humboldt was acclaimed as “the second Columbus” and “the scientific discoverer of America.” His prestige and fame were such that on 14 September 1869, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, a grand celebration was held with parades, speeches, concerts, and the unveiling of memorials in cities across the country. Humboldt's popularity in the United States endured for the remainder of the nineteenth century, but he dropped from public consciousness in the twentieth century. To account for the eclipse of Humboldt's fame in the United States three hypotheses are discussed: a shift in the character of scientific endeavor; the quality of Humboldt's written work; and the rise of anti‐German sentiment with a concurrent rush to “de‐Germanize” the United States in the early twentieth century.     

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO AIR MASS CLASSIFICATION IN THE NORTH CENTRAL UNITED STATES

Both subjective and objective schemes for air mass classification offer advantages to climatological studies. An integrated approach is developed and applied to 850 mb level data in the north central United States. Each air mass type was initially delimited by a subjective analysis. Final limits were then determined with an objective technique that separates temperature curves into normal components based on interpretation from the subjective method. Continental air was most frequent in all seasons except summer. The methodology also allows estimation of classification error.     

中国地区工业结构变化与区际增长和分工

1979以来,中国地区工业结构发生了重要的变化。本文分析了这一变动的特征及其对区际增长和分工的作用,得出以下结论:（1）绝大多数省市区工业结构变化高于国家水平,但由于各地人均收入、区位性以及结构性差异,这种变动具有明显地理分异:南大北小,东西部大中部小。（2）各地工业结构变动普遍表现为重加工业地位上升,采掘工业地位下降,且多数省市区原材料工业和轻工业地位下降,高加工度化和重加工业化十分显著。（3）广东、江苏、福建、河北、安徽、湖南、陕西、浙江、甘肃、云南、四川等省区结构调整有利经济增长,其它省市区结构调整相对不利经济增长。（4）资源型地区数量减少,加工型地区较大幅度地增加,基本形成沿海沿江地区和陕西省以加工业为相对专业化部门,其它广大地区以采掘、原材料为相对专业化部门的区际分工格局。     

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES

This paper reviews economic development trends, for the 1965–1975 period, in the 173 daily urban systems identified by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Changes in employment, earnings, and non-earnings sources of personal income are reported. Growth in the South and West was found to be relatively independent of linkages with the northeastern industrial heartland. Exports of services from all of the nation's largest cities have become significant components in their economic bases, helping to offset declines in manufacturing.     

DEMOGRAPHIC POLARIZATION OF HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN SIX MAJOR UNITED STATES METROPOLITAN AREAS

This paper describes and analyses the geography and structure of the neighborhood residential preferences and residential satisfaction of the inhabitants of the medium-sized, post-Soviet city of Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan (population ca. 300,000). It is based on a questionnaire survey (N = 1516 + 320) conducted by the author in cooperation with the statistical authority of the Eastern Kazakhstan oblast'. At the aggregate level, the evidence that is presented suggests distinct preference patterns, and that the main focus of preference is on the city center. The geography of residential satisfaction is different. Differences in satisfaction have been found between residents of housing built by former high-priority enterprises and those occupying most of the remainder of the housing stock. These differences underscore the pervasive and continuing importance of the legacy of Soviet economic and territorial planning, and the still rather limited changes that the marketization of the economy has been able to produce.     

TRENDS IN LATIN AMERICANIST GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

The question of what lies ahead is of particular concern for Latin Americanists. The last decade has witnessed a serious erosion of both the popularity of their specialty, and an equally troublesome reduction in employment opportunities. This paper uses Association of American Geographers (AAG) data bases to document the age-gender structure of contemporary Latin Americanist geographers, and projects likely compositional changes through the end of the century.     

中国外商直接投资的地域结构研究

改革开放以来,我国引进外资工作取得了较大进展。然而,外资地域分布的不平衡,成为导致区域经济发展水平差距拉大的一个重要原因。如何改善外资地域分布结构,成为各界关注的焦点之一。文中采用定量和定性相结合的方法,研究了中国外资地球分布的现状及特点,分析了外资地域分布的动态变化趋势,并在此基础上提出若干改善外资地域分布结构的举措。     

THE OPERATION OF REGIONAL LABOR MARKETS FOR HIGHLY TRAINED MANUFACTURING WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

This paper analyzes the spatial structure of the labor market for highly trained labor employed in manufacturing industry in 1980. The locus of activity for this labor force is California-Metropolitan California in particular. Cities in the traditional manufacturing belt, such as Chicago and Detroit, also have a significant number of highly trained workers. The analysis confirms that this occupational group is concentrated at the metropolitan level, and that the degree of concentration is increasing. We examine the main dynamics of this labor market by isolating a primary circuit of labor flows. This primary circuit is made up of the metropolitan areas that have unusually large numbers of highly trained manufacturing labor. The study analyzes the intermetropolitan migration behavior of these workers using two sets of Poisson regression spatial interaction models and reveals that eastern metropolitan areas function as important nodes of dispersal. In contrast, this labor force is becoming increasingly concentrated in western metropolitan areas.     

SYNOPTIC CONTROL OF REGIONAL TEMPERATURE TRENDS IN THE COTERMINOUS UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1949 AND 1981

Regional patterns of January and mean annual temperature change between 1949 and 1981 are compared with regional changes in January precipitation totals and related to upper-level atmospheric circulation. During cold periods, cooling is concentrated in the eastern United States and is associated with a southward shift in the zone of maximum precipitation in the eastern United States (reflecting the mean position of the polar front jet), and with a strengthening of meridional flow aloft. During this same period, enhanced meridionality yields an increase in temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, associated with amplification of the mean long wave ridge over the Rocky Mountains. Warm periods in the eastern United States, conversely, correlate with a stronger zonal flow aloft (resulting in cooler, wetter conditions in the Pacific Northwest). Accordingly, temporal variation in regional temperature trends may be more readily interpreted as responses to synoptic controls which yield departures of opposite sign in locales influenced by ridges vs. troughs, rather than as a reflection of uniform, progressive hemispheric or global temperature change.     

RURAL REGIONAL GOVERNANCE IN THE UNITED STATES: THE CASE OF THE RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM*

Rural governance has drawn considerable attention from both local government officials and scholars in the United States since the early 1990s. It is touted as a way to mitigate the limitations of the traditional government unit‐based approaches to problem solving and decision making and to foster partnerships across both jurisdictional boundaries and sectors (public, private, and nonprofit). Established in 1962, the Resource Conservation and Development (rc&d ) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a unique model of rural regional governance. Acting as a coalition of governments, private businesses, individuals, and interest groups, the rc&d program provides the flexibility needed to deal with issues at the appropriate spatial scale. It incorporates aspects of both grassroots and governmental organizations and can bring together local interests and expertise with governmental policy and support in service provision, problem solving, and economic development. The approach does not necessarily entail loss of power on the part of the state, but it does provide a mechanism for local people to exercise their agency, to tackle their problems, and to decide which elements of their lives they want to sustain.     

AVOIDING THE DEMISE OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES

This is the second of two articles about challenges that confront geography departments in a changing academic environment. College enrollment trends and tightening budgets are placing geography programs in jeopardy because the discipline is not considered by society to be indispensable. Departmental survival in a period of retrenchment may depend upon successfully demonstrating utility and quality, identifying unfilled niches in individual institutions, developing new interdisciplinary organizational arrangements, or finding ways to strengthen geography's position in governmental definitions of useful academic training.