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Southern Regions (southern + regions)
Selected AbstractsGlobalization and Regional Change in the U.S. Furniture IndustryGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2008MARK H. DRAYSE ABSTRACT Furniture manufacturing has experienced rapid globalization in recent years. This is mainly the result of global production networks established by large manufacturers and retailers seeking to reduce costs in a highly competitive environment. The industry's globalization has been facilitated by technological innovations and the global reduction of trade and investment barriers. In the U.S., furniture-producing regions are experiencing tumultuous change. Growing numbers of firms are outsourcing production to China, which is now responsible for about half of all U.S. furniture imports. Employment levels have plummeted. However, an analysis of spatial patterns of employment, output, and capital investment in U.S. furniture manufacturing shows that regional change is not uniform. Southern regions characterized by larger firms specializing in wooden case goods production have been especially vulnerable to job loss. [source] Biogeographical patterns of Chinese spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) based on a parsimony analysis of endemicityJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 7 2008Kaibaryer Meng Abstract Aim, The distributions of Chinese spiders are used to form biotic regions and to infer biogeographical patterns. Location, China. Methods, China was initially divided into 294 quadrats of 2° latitude by 2° longitude. The distributions of 958 species of spiders were summarized for each quadrat. Subsequently, these quadrats were pooled into 28 areas based on topographical characteristics and to a lesser extent on the distributions of spiders. Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) was used to classify the 28 areas based on the shared distributional patterns of spiders. Results, China was found to have seven major biogeographical regions based on the distributional patterns of spiders: Western Northern region (clade B2: Tibetan Plateau and Inner Mongolia-Xinjiang subregions), Central Northern region (clade B3), Eastern Northern region (clade B4), Central region (clade C2), Eastern Southern region (clade C3), Western Southern region (clade C4), and Central Southern region (clade C5). Main conclusions, The distributional patterns of Chinese spiders correspond broadly to geological provinces. A comparison of the geological provinces and the distributional patterns of spiders reveals that the spiders occur south of the geological provinces. Furthermore, a general biogeographical classification with five natural areas is suggested as follows: Tibetan Plateau, Central Northern, Eastern Northern, Western Northern (excluding Tibetan Plateau), and Southern regions. [source] Geographic variations in outcome of very low birth weight infants in ItalyACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 1 2007Carlo Corchia Abstract Aim: A number of social and health aspects in Italy show remarkable geographic dishomogeneity. We investigated if this phenomenon involves the outcome of very low birth-weight infants (VLBWI). Methods: This is a multi-centre nation-based survey among all Italian NICUs. The number of VLBWI admitted to each NICU in 2001 by birth-weight classes of 250 g, their inborn/outborn status and survival at discharge were registered through ad hoc questionnaires. The data were analysed for the whole country and for three geographic areas (North, Centre and South). Results: A total of 4679 VLBWI in 125 units were surveyed (0.88% of live births in Italy in 2001). The median number of infants admitted was 34 per NICU (interquartile range 16,52), without significant differences among the three geographic areas. The inborn rate was 80.7% (86.5% in the North, 83.7% in the Centre and 74.6% in the South). The mortality rate was 19.6% (15.6% in the North, 19.3% in the Centre and 23.4% in the South). Adjusted relative risk of death between Southern and Northern regions was 1.48 (95% CI 1.30,1.68), and that between outborn and inborn infants was 1.20 (95% CI 1.04,1.37). Conclusions: The differences in mortality among geographic areas suggest a state of socio-sanitary deprivation in the Southern regions, as well as different models of organisation and quality of perinatal care. [source] Population genetics analysis of the origin of the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae), in northern Yunnan Province, ChinaENTOMOLOGICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2007Jianhong LIU Abstract We examined genetic variation in the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), using six populations in two regions of Yunnan Province, China, to determine the distribution and likely mechanism for the dispersal of this fly. A 501-bp portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene was sequenced from a minimum of eight individuals from each population, and 43 haplotypes were observed in the six Bactrocera dorsalis populations. When comparing the genetic diversity of populations in the northern and southern regions, which differ with respect to elevation, climate and plant phenology, we found a significantly greater haplotype diversity in the southern region (permutation test; P < 0.05), suggesting that the northern populations, those at Kunming and Qujing, probably originated from somewhere in the southern region. FST and number of pairwise differences revealed a high level of differentiation between the Panxi population and the other populations (permutation test; P < 0.05). Although the difference was marginally insignificant, the Shuitang population seemed to have differentiated from both northern populations. The Mantel test did not detect any isolation due to geographic distance. An amova analysis found that 2.56% of the variance was caused by the Panxi population. Haplotype network analysis showed that none of the six populations had a specific genetic lineage. Together, these analyses suggest that long-distance dispersal has occurred for this species, and the species most probably took advantage of both a mountain pass and prevailing air currents. The Panxi population was significantly isolated from the others, probably because of its distinguishing habitat features, host plants or the recent reduction of the population size. [source] Sensitivity of the regional climate of East/Southeast Asia to convective parameterizations in the RegCM3 modelling system.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 14 2008Part 1: Focus on the Korean peninsula Abstract This study investigates the capability of the regional climate model, RegCM3, to simulate fine-scale regional climate over a narrow peninsula or archipelago. The model is run in one-way double-nested mode with one mother domain and two nested domains. The mother domain encompasses the eastern and southern regions of Asia and adjacent oceans with a grid spacing of 60 km. The first nested domain focuses on the Korean peninsula and the second one covers the Philippine archipelago with a grid spacing of 20 km. The simulation spans a period of 5 years and 1 month, from November 2000 to December 2004. The sensitivity of the two convection schemes, namely, the Grell scheme (Grell) and the MIT-Emanuel scheme (EMU), is studied. Model results obtained with both the Grell and EMU show reasonable performance in capturing the seasonal variation and the spatial characteristics of the East Asian monsoon. However, the Grell simulation appears to have persistent cold and dry biases in the summer season. There is a definite improvement in these model deficiencies by the implementation of EMU. Although the temperature fields in the Grell and EMU simulations are essentially the same in terms of the spatial distribution, the EMU simulation is quantitatively in better agreement with the observed estimates, indicating a substantial reduction in the cold bias. Further, in comparison with the Grell simulation, the EMU simulation shows an improvement in the timing and amplitude of the rain band propagating northward. The spatial distributions of precipitation also have good quality, capturing the localized maxima over Korea. The frequency distributions of daily temperature and precipitation simulated by EMU are closer to observations than those of the Grell simulation. It is found that the convective precipitation derived from different convection parameterizations is a major contributor to the performance of the model in summer. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society [source] The behavior of extreme cold air outbreaks under greenhouse warmingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2006S. Vavrus Abstract Climate model output is used to analyze the behavior of extreme cold-air outbreaks (CAOs) under recent and future climatic conditions. The study uses daily output from seven GCMs run under late-twentieth century and projected twenty-first century radiative conditions (SRES A1B greenhouse gas emission scenario). We define a CAO as an occurrence of two or more consecutive days during which the local mean daily surface air temperature is at least two standard deviations below the local wintertime mean temperature. In agreement with observations, the models generally simulate modern CAOs most frequently over western North America and Europe and least commonly over the Arctic. These favored regions for CAOs are located downstream from preferred locations of atmospheric blocking. Future projections indicate that CAOs,defined with respect to late-twentieth century climatic conditions,will decline in frequency by 50 to 100% in most of the Northern Hemisphere during the twenty-first century. Certain regions, however, show relatively small changes and others actually experience more CAOs in the future, due to atmospheric circulation changes and internal variability that counter the thermodynamic tendency from greenhouse forcing. These areas generally experience greater near-surface wind flow from the north or the continent during the twenty-first century and/or are especially prone to atmospheric blocking events. Simulated reductions in CAOs are smallest in western North America, the North Atlantic, and in southern regions of Europe and Asia. The Eurasian pattern is driven by a strong tendency for the models to produce sea-level pressure (SLP) increases in the vicinity of the Mediterranean Sea (intermodel mean of 3 hPa), causing greater advection of continental air from northern and central Asia, while the muted change over western North America is due to enhanced ridging along the west coast and the increased frequency of blocking events. The North Atlantic response is consistent with a slowdown of the thermohaline circulation, which either damps the warming regionally or results in a cooler mean climate in the vicinity of Greenland. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [source] Historical changes in lake ice-out dates as indicators of climate change in New England, 1850,2000,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 15 2002Glenn A. Hodgkins Abstract Various studies have shown that changes over time in spring ice-out dates can be used as indicators of climate change. Ice-out dates from 29 lakes in New England (USA) with 64 to 163 years of record were assembled and analysed for this study. Ice-out dates have become significantly earlier in New England since the 1800s. Changes in ice-out dates between 1850 and 2000 were 9 days and 16 days in the northern/mountainous and southern regions of New England respectively. The changes in the ice-out data over time were very consistent within each of the two regions of New England, and more consistent than four air-temperature records in each region. The ice-out dates of the two regions had a different response to changes in air temperature. The inferred late winter,early spring air-temperature warming in both regions of New England since 1850, based on linear regression analysis, was about 1.5°C. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Spatial distribution and its seasonality of satellite-derived vegetation index (NDVI) and climate in SiberiaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 11 2001Rikie Suzuki Abstract The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) distribution and its seasonal cycle were investigated in relation to temperature and precipitation over Siberia and its surrounding regions. The analyses used 5-year (1987,1991) monthly means. The monthly mean NDVI was calculated from the third-generation monthly Global Vegetation Index (GVI) product; monthly temperature and precipitation at 611 stations were calculated from Global Daily Summary (GDS) data. The 611 stations were classified by cluster analysis into 10 classes based on the NDVI seasonal cycle (March,October). The geographical distribution characteristics of the NDVI cycle were described using temperature, precipitation and Olson's land-cover type. In northern regions, where tundra vegetation prevails and temperatures and precipitation are low, the amplitude of the NDVI seasonal cycle is small. In southern regions, where temperatures are high and there is little precipitation, the seasonal amplitude of the NDVI is small because of the arid land type. Forested regions were split into six classes, each characterized by large amplitudes in the NDVI seasonal cycle. The phenological characteristics of the forest classes were noted. For example, a forest-class localized near Lake Baikal shows higher NDVI values, even with the presence of snow cover in March, compared with other regions. This high NDVI value suggests that the exposed green canopy of the coniferous forest can be observed even when snow is present. In addition, the NDVI peaks at stations near 60°N, where the maximum monthly temperature is around 18°C. This result suggests that the optimum temperature-precipitation environment coincides to the area in Siberia where the maximum monthly temperature is 18°C. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society [source] The geographical range structure of the holly leaf-miner.JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2002Summary 1The local population density structure of a phytophagous insect, the holly leaf-miner Phytomyza ilicis Curtis, was examined across its natural geographical range in Europe. 2The frequency distribution of the number of sample sites at which the leaf-miner attained different densities per tree was strongly right-skewed, with the species being absent from a large number of sites at which its host occurred, particularly in southern regions. 3There was a decline in the spatial autocorrelation of leaf-miner densities with increasing distance between sample sites, with negative autocorrelation at long lags resulting in part from high densities being attained at the north-eastern range limits and low densities at the southern range limits. 4Partial regression analysis was used to model leaf-miner densities in terms of spatial position within the geographical range and the broad climate experienced at the sample localities. This accounted for between 40 and 65% of the variation in densities, dependent upon how the leaf-miner's geographical range was defined. 5While overall these results are at odds with common and intuitively appealing assertions about the abundance structure of geographical ranges, they can readily be interpreted in terms of a simple modification of a general model of such structures. [source] Glacial refugia of temperate trees in Europe: insights from species distribution modellingJOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Jens-Christian Svenning Summary 1The Pleistocene is an important period for assessing the impact of climate change on biodiversity. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21 000 years ago), large glaciers and permafrost reached far south in Europe. Trees are traditionally thought to have survived only in scattered Mediterranean refugia (southern refugia hypothesis), but a recent proposal suggests that trees may have been much more widely and northerly distributed (northern refugia hypothesis). 2In this study, the southern vs. northern refugia hypotheses were investigated by estimating the potential LGM distributions of 7 boreal and 15 nemoral widespread European tree species using species distribution modelling. The models were calibrated using data for modern species distributions and climate and projected onto two LGM climate simulations for Europe. Five modelling variants were implemented. 3Models with moderate to good predictive ability for current species range limits and species richness patterns were developed. 4Broadly consistent results were obtained irrespective of the climate simulation and modelling variant used. Our results indicate that LGM climatic conditions suitable for boreal species existed across Central and Eastern Europe and into the Russian Plain. In contrast, suitable climatic conditions for nemoral tree species were largely restricted to the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. Large proportions of these northern and southern regions would have been suitable for a number of boreal or boreal plus nemoral tree species, respectively. 5These findings are consistent with recent palaeoecological and phylogeographic data regarding LGM distributions of trees and other boreal and nemoral taxa. 6Synthesis. It is clear that the view of the LGM landscape in Europe as largely treeless, especially north of the Alps, needs to be revised. Trees were probably much more widespread during the LGM than hitherto thought, although patchily distributed at low densities due to low atmospheric CO2 concentrations and high wind-speeds. The findings presented here help explain the occurrence of mammal assemblages with mixtures of forest, tundra and steppe species at many localities in southern Central and Eastern Europe during the LGM, as well as the phylogeographic evidence for the extra-Mediterranean persistence of many boreal species. [source] Infectious haemolytic anaemia causes jaundice outbreaks in seawater-cultured coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum), in ChileJOURNAL OF FISH DISEASES, Issue 12 2006P A Smith Abstract In the last 9 years, epizootics of an icterus condition has affected coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum), reared in seawater cages in southern regions of Chile. At necropsy, fish from field cases exhibited signs of jaundice accompanied by pale light-brown livers and dark spleens. Histopathological and haematological results indicated that these fish presented haemolytic anaemia. After microbiological examination no bacterial or viral agents could be identified as aetiological agents of this disease. In an infectivity trial, coho salmon, Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), were inoculated intraperitoneally with a filtrate of an organ homogenate (0.45 ,m) from a diseased coho salmon and held for 60 days in tanks supplied with fresh water. The disease was only reproduced in coho salmon in which mortalities, beginning at day 23 post-inoculation (p.i.), reached a cumulative value of 24% at day 27 p.i. This condition was transmitted to non-inoculated cohabiting coho salmon suggesting that it is a waterborne disease. Thus, this icteric condition is caused by an infectious form of haemolytic anaemia, probably of viral aetiology, and coho salmon are more susceptible than either Atlantic salmon or rainbow trout. [source] Comparative Sequence Analysis of Coat Protein Gene of Iranian Citrus tristeza virus IsolatesJOURNAL OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY, Issue 7-8 2005A. Barzegar Abstract Twenty-two isolates of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) collected from two different geographical regions of Iran were characterized based on coat protein (CP) gene sequences. Thirteen virus isolates were collected from northern parts of Iran with high distribution of CTV infection and nine isolates were obtained from southern regions where the presence and aphid transmission of CTV was previously reported. All isolates were recovered from field trees showing varied CTV symptoms such as decline in most citrus varieties on sour orange rootstock, inverse pitting on some sour orange rootstocks below bud union, mild-to-moderate stem pitting on the trunk of some sweet orange. Isolates F, G, MB1, MB7, MB2, MB8, MB9, MB11 and MB17 were recovered from healthy looking Miyagawa Satsuma on trifoliate rootstock originally infected with CTV imported from Japan in late-1960s. The presence of virus in citrus samples was confirmed using polyclonal as well as monoclonal antibody. The CTV CP gene of all isolates was amplified by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT,PCR) using CP gene-specific primers yielding 672 bp amplicon. The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profile, nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were analysed and compared with each other and also with some other exotic CP gene sequences of CTV isolates available in GenBank. Analysis of our data revealed that Iranian isolates have high similarity to California SY568 severe stem pitting and Japanese NUagA seedling yellows strains (up to 97%). The dendrogram generated from the deduced amino acid sequence could separate MB1, MB2, MB8, MB9, MB11 and MB17 isolates from others. However, no major dissociation between the isolates from northern and southern region could be obtained. [source] Crime and Labour Market Opportunities in Italy (1993,2002)LABOUR, Issue 4 2006Paolo Buonanno Using regional data over the period 1993,2002, we study the impact of wages and unemployment on different types of crime. To mitigate omitted variables bias, we control extensively for demographic and socio-economic variables. Empirical results suggest that unemployment has a large and positive effect on crime rates in southern regions. Our results are robust to model specification, endogeneity, changes in the classification of crimes, and finally, to alternative definitions of unemployment. [source] Across the southern Andes on fin: glacial refugia, drainage reversals and a secondary contact zone revealed by the phylogeographical signal of Galaxias platei in PatagoniaMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 23 2008TYLER S. ZEMLAK Abstract We employed DNA sequence variation at two mitochondrial (control region, COI) regions from 212 individuals of Galaxias platei (Pisces, Galaxiidae) collected throughout Patagonia (25 lakes/rivers) to examine how Andean orogeny and the climatic cycles throughout the Quaternary affected the genetic diversity and phylogeography of this species. Phylogenetic analyses revealed four deep genealogical lineages which likely represent the initial division of G. platei into eastern and western lineages by Andean uplift, followed by further subdivision of each lineage into separate glacial refugia by repeated Pleistocene glacial cycles. West of the Andes, refugia were likely restricted to the northern region of Patagonia with small relicts in the south, whereas eastern refugia appear to have been much larger and widespread, consisting of separate northern and southern regions that collectively spanned most of Argentinean Patagonia. The retreat of glacial ice following the last glacial maximum allowed re-colonization of central Chile from nonlocal refugia from the north and east, representing a region of secondary contact between all four glacial lineages. Northwestern glacial relicts likely followed pro-glacial lakes into central Chilean Patagonia, whereas catastrophic changes in drainage direction (Atlantic , Pacific) for several eastern palaeolakes were the likely avenues for invasions from the east. These mechanisms, combined with evidence for recent, rapid and widespread population growth could explain the extensive contemporary distribution of G. platei throughout Patagonia. [source] An Overview of the Ultraviolet Index and the Skin Cancer Cases in Brazil,PHOTOCHEMISTRY & PHOTOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003M. P. Corrêa ABSTRACT This study relates regional and seasonal UV index (UVI) variations, number of skin cancer cases and population skin-color distribution in Brazil. UVI calculations were performed using the UV Global Atmospheric Model (UVGAME), whose characteristics and validations are provided in this article. Health and racial data sets are based on the health and census data collected by Brazilian governmental agencies in the past. The discussion covers cultural customs and details of health and educational campaigns in Brazil. Despite lower UV levels in the South and Southeast regions, the results show a larger number of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) cases in these regions, where the white population is predominant. In general, in the southern regions about 50 new NMSC cases per 100000 inhabitants have been diagnosed each year. These rates decrease almost 40% in the Central,North regions and more than 80% in Northeast region, where miscegenation is common. In addition, the UVI evaluation is extended to other South American sites with singular characteristics, e.g. populous cities located in high altitudes or those affected by the Antarctic ozone hole in the extreme south of the continent. [source] Phenetic analysis of the Mexican midland pinyon pines, Pinus cembroides and Pinus johannisBOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 2 2000A. ROMERO This account presents an analysis of allopatric, sympatric and juxtaposed populations of the pinyon pines, Pinus cembroides Zucc. and P. johannis M.-F. Robert, based on phenetic analysis of morphological data, and draws on a comparison and differentiation of P. culminicola Andresen & Beaman. A qualitative and quantitative database for populations has been assembled and used for a cluster and ordination analysis using NTSYS. It was found that individual populations of the taxa were distinguishable. The emergence of morphological intermediate populations between P. cembroides and P. johannis was confirmed. The pattern of variation inP. johannis was found to be discrete, showing three geographical groups. The phenetic similarity betweenP. johannis from Zacatecas and P. johannis from San Luis Potosi and Queretaro was lower than that of P. johannis from Zacatecas and P. culminicola from Nuevo Leon. The following traits distinguish P. cembroides and the other two species: colour and fertility of seeds; cone shape; colour and width of needles; physiognomy; seed dimensions. This last trait can be used to distinguish three subgroups of pines with white endosperm in the northern, central and southern regions of the Mexican highlands. [source] | ||||||||||||||||