Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Largest Cities (largest + city)
Selected AbstractsLogistic Population Growth in the World's Largest CitiesGEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2006Gordon F. Mulligan This article demonstrates that recent population growth in the world's largest cities has conformed to the general parameters of the logistic process. Using data recently provided by the United Nations, logistic population growth for 485 million-person cities is analyzed at 5-year intervals during 1950,2010, with the UN projections for 2015 adopted as upper limits. A series of ordinary least-squares regression models of increasing complexity are estimated on the pooled data. In one class of models, the logarithms of population proportions are specified to be linear in time, which is the standard approach, but in a second class of models those proportions are specified as being quadratic. The most complex models control logistic growth estimates for (i) city-specific effects (e.g., initial population), (ii) nation-specific effects (e.g., economic development, age distribution of population), and (iii) global coordinates (for unobserved effects). Moreover, the results are segregated according to each city's membership in four different growth clubs, which was an important finding of previous research. [source] Why Do the Young and Educated in LDCs Concentrate in Large Cities?ECONOMICA, Issue 285 2005Evidence from Migration Data Do the young and educated in LDCs have a greater preference to locate in big cities? If so, this may help to explain how cities spatially concentrate the educated and young, and why the rising share of these workers in many LDCs may contribute to city growth. This paper explores migration flows into and out of Egypt's three largest cities. We study whether the higher shares of such workers in cities arise because these workers perceive relatively greater benefits from living in cities, given relative urban/rural wage rates, or because the relative demand for these workers rises with city size. [source] Logistic Population Growth in the World's Largest CitiesGEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2006Gordon F. Mulligan This article demonstrates that recent population growth in the world's largest cities has conformed to the general parameters of the logistic process. Using data recently provided by the United Nations, logistic population growth for 485 million-person cities is analyzed at 5-year intervals during 1950,2010, with the UN projections for 2015 adopted as upper limits. A series of ordinary least-squares regression models of increasing complexity are estimated on the pooled data. In one class of models, the logarithms of population proportions are specified to be linear in time, which is the standard approach, but in a second class of models those proportions are specified as being quadratic. The most complex models control logistic growth estimates for (i) city-specific effects (e.g., initial population), (ii) nation-specific effects (e.g., economic development, age distribution of population), and (iii) global coordinates (for unobserved effects). Moreover, the results are segregated according to each city's membership in four different growth clubs, which was an important finding of previous research. [source] Becoming American/Becoming New Yorkers: Immigrant Incorporation in a Majority Minority City,INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 4 2002Philip Kasinitz Many observers have noted that immigrants to the United States are highly concentrated in the largest metropolitan areas of a relatively few states. Though immigrants diffused into many places that had previously seen relatively few immigrants during the 1990s, as of the 2000 census, 77 percent of the nation's 31.1 million foreign born residents still lived in six states , California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois. According to the 2000 census, the two largest metropolitan areas, Los Angeles and New York, accounted for one third of all immigrants (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/demoprofiles.html). While immigrants moved into many new areas during the 1990s, making the challenge of incorporating their children a national issue, their concentration in our largest cities remained pronounced. [source] Cancer morbidity among Danish male urban bus drivers: A historical cohort studyAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 7 2010Anne Petersen MPH Abstract Objective To investigate whether urban bus drivers are at increased risk for cancer. Methods Urban bus drivers in a cohort established in 1978 in the three largest cities of Denmark were followed-up in the Danish Cancer Registry until the end of 2003, and relative risks for cancers were estimated. Results Of 2,037 men included 70% reported in 1978 that they smoked. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for cancer in comparison with that of other male residents of the three cities was 1.09 [1.0,1.2]. The excess was due mainly to increased risks for cancers of the bladder (SIR, 1.6; 1.2,2.0) and lung (1.2; 1.0,1.4). In an analysis with internal comparisons and adjustment for smoking, we found no significant associations between duration of employment and increased risks for cancers at these two sites. Conclusions In this long-term follow-up study we found little evidence of a causal association between employment as an urban bus driver in Denmark and subsequent cancer. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:757,761, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The Impact of Police Officer Diversity on Police-Caused HomicidesPOLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 2 2003Brad W. Smith Macrolevel studies of police killings generally focus on testing the conflict and community violence hypotheses. This research generally supports both the conflict proposition that minority threat is related to police violence and the community violence proposition that locations with higher levels of violence have a greater number of police-caused homicides. However, some of the most common proposals to reduce police-citizen violence, namely changing police personnel, are largely overlooked in existing research. The majority of studies that have examined police homicides do not acknowledge the possibility that the personnel composition of police agencies may affect levels of police violence. The current article extends previous lines of research on police-caused homicides by including measures of the personnel composition of police agencies as predictors of police-caused homicides. More specifically, this study examined the influence of minority and female representation within large municipal police agencies on police-caused homicides. The findings show that more diversified departments do not have significantly lower levels of police-caused homicides. The results do, however, support both the conflict and community violence propositions. Furthermore, the pattern of findings suggests the existence of a generalized threat in the nation's largest cities. [source] The Spanish Influenza of 1918 in St. Louis, MissouriPUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 5 2006Irene Kalnins ABSTRACT In view of current concern about a possible pandemic of virulent avian influenza, it is timely to revisit the public health response to the "Spanish" influenza of 1918. St. Louis, Missouri, was the most successful of nine largest cities in limiting the death toll from influenza and pneumonia through the use of public health measures during the first 8 weeks of the epidemic. A second wave of cases increased the final death rate, but it remained below that of other major cities. Public health officials attributed the lower death rate to the early and rigorous ban on public gatherings. [source] The changing geography of the Canadian manufacturing sector in metropolitan and rural regions, 1976,1997THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 2 2003W. MARK BROWN This paper documents the changing geography of the Canadian manufacturing sector over a 22-year period (1976,1997). It does so by looking at the shifts in employment and differences in production worker wages across different levels of the rural/urban hierarchy,central cities, adjacent suburbs, medium and small cities and rural areas. The analysis demonstrates that the most dramatic shifts in manufacturing employment were from the central cities of large metropolitan regions to their suburbs. Paralleling trends in the United States, rural regions of Canada have increased their share of manufacturing employment. Rising rural employment shares were due to declining employment shares of small cities and, to a lesser degree, large urban regions. Increasing rural employment was particularly prominent in Quebec, where employment shifted away from the Montreal region. The changing fortunes of rural and urban areas were not the result of across-the-board shifts in manufacturing employment, but were the net outcome of differing locational patterns across industries. In contrast to the situation in the United States, wages in Canada do not consistently decline, moving down the rural/urban hierarchy from the largest cities to the most rural parts of the country. Only after controlling for the types of manufacturing industries found in rural and urban regions is it apparent that wages decline with the size of place. Cette dissertation documente la géographie changeante du secteur secondaire canadien sur une période de vingt-deux années (1976,1997). Pour cela, elle considère les migrations des emplois et les différences salariales entre les ouvriers à différents niveaux de la hiérarchie rurale/urbaine,centres urbains, leurs banlieues, villes petites et moyennes, et zones rurales. L'analyse démontre que dans le secteur secondaire, les migrations les plus prononcées des emplois ont été depuis les villes des grandes régions métropolitaines vers leurs banlieues. Reflétant les tendances observées aux États-Unis, les régions rurales du Canada ont augmenté leur part d'emplois de production. La part croissante des emplois ruraux était due au déclin de l'emploi dans les petites villes, et à un degré moindre, dans les grandes zones urbaines. L'augmentation de l'emploi rural a été particulièrement évidente au Québec, suite à un déplacement des emplois hors de la région de Montréal. Les fortunes changeantes des zones rurales et urbaines n'ont pas été le résultat de migrations uniformes de l'emploi dans le secteur secondaire. Elles sont plutôt dues aux différences de configurations géographiques entre les divers secteurs industriels. Par contraste avec les États-Unis, les salaires canadiens ne baissent pas progressivement selon la hiérarchie rurale/urbaine, des plus grandes villes aux régions les plus rurales du pays. C'est seulement après vérification des types d'industries implantées dans les régions rurales et urbaines que l'on peut mettre en évidence une baisse des salaires en fonction de la taille de l'agglomération. [source] Australian House Prices: A Comparison of Hedonic and Repeat-Sales Measures,THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 269 2009JAMES HANSEN House prices are difficult to measure due to changes in the composition of properties sold through time and changes in the quality of housing. I explore whether these issues affect simple measures of house prices, and whether regression-based measures provide an accurate alternative to measuring pure house price changes in Australia. Using unit record data for Australia's three largest cities, regression-based approaches provide a more accurate estimate of pure price changes than a median, and are comparable, with around half of the variation in prices growth explained. These results confirm that regression-based measures are useful for measuring house price changes in Australia. [source] Place-based social exclusion: redlining in the NetherlandsAREA, Issue 1 2005Manuel B Aalbers ,Redlining' is a form of place-based exclusion. It is widely documented in the US, but not in Europe. This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of redlining practices in the two largest cities of the Netherlands: Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It shows that redlining was common practice in Rotterdam in 1999. In 2001, no signs of redlining were found in Rotterdam. However, ,yellowlining' (lower loan-to-value ratios) was still common in some parts of Rotterdam. In Amsterdam, no neighbourhoods were faced with redlining in either 1999 or 2001. However, in 1999 some neighbourhoods were yellowlined. This paper aims to get a better understanding of the nature and the institutional context of redlining in the Netherlands by explaining how the differences in redlining practices between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and between 1999 and 2001, can be explained. The National Mortgage Guarantee as well as socio-historical, and housing and mortgage market differences and changes, are instrumental in explaining these differences in redlining practices. [source] Aerosol growth and activation in polluted air masses over a tropical metropolis in the Indian sub-continentATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE LETTERS, Issue 2 2009S. Varun Raj Abstract Air pollution can affect cloud formation in more than one way. When the pollutant gases are condensable (e.g. oxides of sulphur), then the process of aerosol activation is eased to a certain extent aiding cloud formation. However, polluted days are often characterised by low updraught speeds which inhibit aerosol growth. In this study, we have critically examined the aerosol activation process in a polluted coastal environment where both effects are present. We have concentrated on the Chennai region (one of the largest cities in the world) of the Indian sub-continent because its pace of industrialisation is increasing rapidly, adding to increasing SO2 pollution over the years. Air masses over Chennai contain a mixture of aerosol particles including NaCl, because of its proximity to the Bay of Bengal, along with ammonium sulphate. We have used observational data along with a detailed microphysical chemical parcel model to study cloud activation effects. We find that over Chennai, often the presence of the condensable pollutant vapour (SO2) more than compensates for the low updraught speeds by lowering the level of maximum super saturation significantly. This latter effect favours the activation of ammonium sulphate as well as NaCl aerosol particles. We have undertaken a systematic analysis to quantify the relative strengths of these two competing effects and find that even with low updraught speeds, oxides of sulphur can perturb the activation domain comprising a mixture of aerosol particles to such an extent that aerosol particles in polluted environments often grow efficiently. This effect is non-intuitive in the sense that one associates smaller cloud droplet sizes with polluted air masses. This is the first microphysical modelling study for the Indian sub-continent where National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) observations have been applied to cloud microphysical processes. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Risk indicators for hearing loss in infants treated in different Neonatal Intensive Care UnitsACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 3 2010P Van Dommelen Abstract Aim:, To assess which infants' characteristics and specialized procedures are risk indicators for unilateral or bilateral hearing loss (HL) and to evaluate whether these risk indicators are associated with variation in prevalence of HL between Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Methods:, For 2002,2005, data from the NICU hearing screening database in the Netherlands were matched with the national neonatology database in which all NICU infants with their patient characteristics and specialized procedures are registered. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess risk indicators for HL and to explain differences in prevalence rates between NICUs. Results:, A total of 10 830 infants were available for analyses. The prevalence of HL was 1.8% and ranged from 0.7 to 3.7% between NICUs. Infants' characteristics that significantly increased the risk of HL were the presence of craniofacial anomalies, chomosomal/syndromal anomalies, central nervous system conditions, circulatory system conditions and intra-uterine infections. The specialized procedures involving ,12 days of intensive care and high frequency oxygenation ventilation were independent risk indicators for HL. Approximately 20% of the variance can be explained by the studied risk indicators. Differences in prevalence rates between NICUs were slightly reduced after adjustment for these risk indicators. NICUs with the highest prevalence rates of HL were situated in the largest cities in the Netherlands with a mixed population because of immigration. Therefore, ethnicity may be a risk indicator. Conclusions:, Several independent risk indicators for HL were found, but they could not explain all differences in prevalence rates of HL between NICUs. [source] Language Encodes Geographical InformationCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009Max M. Louwerse Abstract Population counts and longitude and latitude coordinates were estimated for the 50 largest cities in the United States by computational linguistic techniques and by human participants. The mathematical technique Latent Semantic Analysis applied to newspaper texts produced similarity ratings between the 50 cities that allowed for a multidimensional scaling (MDS) of these cities. MDS coordinates correlated with the actual longitude and latitude of these cities, showing that cities that are located together share similar semantic contexts. This finding was replicated using a first-order co-occurrence algorithm. The computational estimates of geographical location as well as population were akin to human estimates. These findings show that language encodes geographical information that language users in turn may use in their understanding of language and the world. [source] Knowledge of Jordanian mothers with regards to emergency management of dental traumaDENTAL TRAUMATOLOGY, Issue 6 2006Suhad H. Al-Jundi Abstract,,, Studies in Jordan indicated that delay in seeking emergency management of dental trauma leads to unfavorable outcome of even mild forms of trauma. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess, by means of a structured questionnaire, the level of general knowledge of mothers in Jordan with regards to the immediate emergency management of dental trauma, and its relation to socioeconomic variables. The questionnaire surveyed mothers' demographic data, basic knowledge of immediate management of tooth fracture, avulsion, and loss of consciousness. It also investigated the participants self assessed knowledge, attitude to public education, and knowledge of availability and priority of emergency services for trauma in Jordan. The sample consisted of 2215 mothers who attended mother and child care centers in the capital Amman, and in Irbid (the second largest city in Jordan) over a period of 3 months (July to September, 2003). Overall the participants' basic knowledge with regards to the emergency management of the trauma cases presented in the questionnaire was deficient regardless of age, level of education, socioeconomic class, or number of previous encounters with dental trauma. Generally, the attitude to public education on the topic was positive and chi-square test indicated that the level of education of mothers positively affected their knowledge of ,during working hour' emergency services and the importance of immediate management of dental trauma. Educational programs that can be added to the mother and child care advice protocols may help improve the knowledge and awareness of mothers and therefore improve the outcomes of dental trauma. [source] Mumbai's Mysterious Middle ClassINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006JAN NIJMAN Mumbai forms the décor to an interesting set of relationships among economic liberalization, globalization, class restructuring and an unprecedented housing construction boom. The much talked about new Indian middle class is primarily an urban phenomenon and seems nowhere more salient than in India's commercial capital and largest city. This article seeks to undo some of the mysteries that surround the new middle class: how it can be empirically defined, whether and how it is growing, how class restructuring in Mumbai conforms (or not) to Western arguments about social polarization, and how any such class restructuring can best be explained. The empirical analysis employs existing data from various sources on income and consumption in Mumbai (and India at large) and reports on selected findings from a recent survey by the author on housing, class and upward mobility among households in newly constructed homes in Greater Mumbai. Data on the distribution of household incomes show that the upper-middle income classes have grown relative to the total, that the lower-middle income classes have shrunk, and that the ranks of the poor have expanded slightly. Survey data among new home buyers in Mumbai suggest little upward mobility. Discourse about the ,new middle class' tends to focus on consumption rather than income and additional findings indicate that much of the growth in consumption is credit-based. [source] Restoration of a Restinga Sandy Coastal Plain in Brazil: Survival and Growth of Planted Woody SpeciesRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2006Luiz R. Zamith Abstract In this article we report the results of an experiment introducing 17 native shrub and tree species into a Brazilian restinga (i.e., coastal sandy plain vegetation). Restingas have been affected by human impact for about 8,000 years, and human occupation for housing, tourism, and land speculation has recently increased in such a way that there is a need for conservation of remnant patches and restoration of degraded areas throughout the coast to protect biodiversity. Our study site is a remnant located in Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in the country, and has been subjected in the past to deforestation, man-made fire, and sand extraction. Although trees and shrubs predominantly compose natural restinga vegetation, local vegetation after impact was replaced by an exotic grass cover, which meant a drastic reduction in species richness. Thus, in this experiment we removed the grass cover, introduced shrub and tree species, and monitored survival and growth of 20 plants per species for 2 years. Despite the adversities imposed by the nutrient-poor sandy soil, 70% of the species showed high survival percentage and considerable growth. This report on restoration initiatives in the restingas points out the viability of shrub and tree plantation following exotic grass removal as a strategy to restore Brazilian coastal vegetation. [source] Interactions between visitors and Formosan macaques (Macaca cyclopis) at Shou-Shan Nature Park, TaiwanAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Minna J. Hsu Abstract Ecotourism involving feeding wildlife has raised public attention and is a controversial issue, especially concerning nonhuman primates. Between July 2002 and April 2005, the behavior of monkeys and tourists was collected through scan samplings, focal samplings and behavior samplings at the Shou-Shan Nature Park located in Taiwan's second largest city,Kaohsiung. In addition, the number of tourists and monkeys was counted in different hours and places within the park. Four hundred visitors were interviewed using a questionnaire to gather data on sex, age, purpose and frequency of visit to the park. The number of tourists was significantly higher during weekends than in weekdays in all locations. Humans dominated in the initiation of interspecies interactions,the overall ratio of human-initiated and monkey-initiated interactions was 2.44:1. Human,monkey conflicts accounted for only 16.4% of the total interactions (n=2,166), and adult human males and adult male macaques participated in higher rates than other age/sex groups in these conflicts. Visitors showed more affiliative behavior (15.9%) than agonistic behavior (8%) toward the macaques. In response to visitors' threat or attack, the Formosan macaques mostly showed submissive behavior with bared teeth, squealed or ran away to avoid confrontation (69.1%),only few responded with counteraggression (18.7%). This study for the first time provided evidence that food provisioning increased both the frequency and duration of aggression among Formosan macaques (P<0.001). During food provisioning, the average frequency and the duration of agonistic events of macaques were more than 4 times higher compared with those without food provisioning. The average frequency of food provision by tourists was 0.73,times/hr,more than twice the incident that monkeys grabbed the food from tourists (0.34,times/hr). If people refrain from feeding monkeys and destroying the city park's natural vegetation, monkeys can be used to educate public about nature conservation in an urban setting. Am. J. Primatol. 71:214,222, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Associations of Rural Residence With Timing of HIV Diagnosis and Stage of Disease at Diagnosis, South Carolina 2001-2005THE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2010Kristina E. Weis PhD Abstract Context: Rural areas in the southern United States face many challenges, including limited access to health care services and stigma, which may lead to later HIV diagnosis among rural residents. Purpose: To investigate the associations of rural residence with timing of HIV diagnosis and stage of disease at diagnosis. Methods: Timing of HIV diagnosis was categorized as a diagnosis of acquired immune deficiency syndrome within 1 year of a first positive HIV test or HIV-only. Stage of disease was based on initial CD4+ T-cell count taken within 1 year of diagnosis. County of residence at HIV diagnosis was classified as urban if the population of the largest city was at least 25,000; it was classified as rural otherwise. Logistic regression was used to analyze timing of HIV diagnosis, and analysis of covariance was used to analyze stage of disease. Findings: From 2001 to 2005, 4,137 individuals were diagnosed with HIV infection. Of these, 1,129 (27%) were rural and 3,008 (73%) were urban residents. Among rural residents, 533 (47%) were diagnosed late, compared with 1,258 (42%) urban residents. Rural residents were significantly more likely to be diagnosed late (OR 1.19 [95% CI, 1.02-1.38]). Rural residence was associated with lower initial CD4+ T-cell count in crude analysis (P= .01) but not after adjustment (P > .05). Conclusions: Rural residence is a risk factor for late HIV diagnosis. This may lead to reduced treatment response to antiretroviral medications, increased morbidity and mortality, and greater HIV transmission risks among rural residents. New testing strategies are needed that address challenges to HIV testing and diagnosis specific to rural areas. [source] Factors Associated with Helmet Use among Motorcycle Users in Karachi, PakistanACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 4 2008Imran Khan MBBS Abstract Objectives:, Wearing a helmet is the single most effective measure for preventing head injuries in motorcycle users. The authors undertook this study to estimate compliance and determine reasons for noncompliance with helmet use among motorcyclists in their community. Methods:, This was a cross-sectional survey of motorcyclists in three large randomly selected public-access parking spaces across Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. Questions covered personal demographics, frequency of helmet use, reasons for use or nonuse, and knowledge of local helmet laws. Analysis was based on frequencies and group comparisons using chi-square test or independent sample t-test. Results:, Of the 300 (100% male) subjects, 169 (56%) reported using helmets regularly. Users listed injury prevention (78%) as the major reason for compliance, while nonusers listed physical discomfort (44%) and limited vision (25%) as the leading reasons for noncompliance. In univariate analysis, helmet users were significantly better educated than nonusers and were more likely to believe that helmets are protective (p = 0.002) and that passengers should also wear helmets (p < 0.001). The significance of these variables persisted in multivariate analysis. Several other variables (such as mean age, marital status, and knowledge of helmet laws) did not differ between users and nonusers. Conclusions:, Helmets are underused by motorcyclists in the authors' community. This study underscores the need for improved helmet design, public understanding, intense public education, and rigorous law enforcement in raising compliance with helmet use and minimizing the risk of preventable trauma. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||