Areas Of Large Cities Research Articles

The Carcinogenic Hydrocarbon Benzo[<italic>a</italic>]pyrene in the Soil

This report describes the content, distribution, and fate of the carcinogenic hydrocarbon benzo(a)pyrene (BP) in the soil of various USSR regions. Enormous BP content has been found in the soil of an oil refinery. The benzene extracts from this oil caused skin cancer in treated mice. There is more BP in the old areas of large cities than in the new. BP is found everywhere, but the rural sections have less than the urban ones. The background level of BP is 1-3 ..mu..g/kg and not more than 10 ..mu..g/kg. The main source of soil contamination by BP is its sedimentation from air, particularly from aircraft exhausts. Its content decreases with the distance from the ejection source (industrial center, airfield) but may spread to 3-5 km. The redistribution of BP across soil layers is shown and its migration into plants confirmed. Seasonal variations of BP content in soil are established. After introduction into soil with tars, BP may be determined quantitatively. Eventually its quantity decreases and, at the doses applied, attains within a year background values. The main factor of BP destruction is the activity of soil bacteria. 41 references, 10 tables.

Technological Aspects Of Urban Transportation

Automotive transportations systems appear to be best suited for most urban passenger trips because of the inherent flexibility of the private automobile in serving the expanding land uses in suburban areas. All large metropolitan areas will need extensive systems of freeways and arterial streets. Transit will continue to carry the majority of peak-hour trips to and from central areas of large cities. Express-type transit service should supplement local bus service. In lower density metropolitan areas, this may be in the form of express buses operating on freeways. Bus-rapid transit operating on its own right-of-way may be used to provide high-capacity peak-hour movement to central areas. Dual-track rapid transit generally is preferred, rather than proposed monorail designs. In higher density metropolitan areas with existing rail-rapid transit, or commuter rail facilities, existing systems would be improved by modernizing equipment, control systems, and central area facilities, by extending lines and by providing off street parking at outlying stations. Ground effect machines and helicopters do not appear to be suitable for mass movements of persons in metropolitan areas.

Social Influence on Adolescent Behavior

The development of youth culture and the parallel separation of adolescents from adults becomes intelligible when analyzed in terms of rapid social change, affluence, and the role of the automobile in our society. Youth groups, characterized by distinctive activities and codes, tend to seek approbation and assistance in the solution of their problems from peers and the mass media, rather than from adults. The incidence of problems among adolescents differs widely from one area to another. Role problems developing in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and conduct problems, are least serious in rural areas and most serious in the devalued areas of large cities. In these areas, where street groups engage in serious delinquency, many of the male adolescents are out of school and out of work. The author suggests institutional innovation as the answer.

Distribution of Machinery Production in Japan

Generally speaking, machinery production activities in Japan center in large city areas holding great indusitral labor and yielding the major portion of nation's added value. Industries in rural districts in small towns are comparatively small in scale, with the exception of mining and war supplies business. Before 1900. preceding business and other specific condition were contributing factors in deciding the seat of industries, most of which were mining, textle, war supplies, and fishing industries ; but things have, since 1900. been changing and plants under the control of the large enterprises, electric machinery plants and monopolitic undertakings are losing their regional characteristics.Tokyo-Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka-Kobe districts, with their excellent transpotation facilities, lend themselves to collaboration among related plants, and so they are characterized by an army of sub-contrac factories gathering together around large assembling plants. Since these sub-contract or co-operating plants have to deal with production setups other than their respective parent companies, it can be said that parent organizations are interdependent through these small factories.Plants built in rural district, for the purpose of avoiding various disadvantages arising from plant concentration in large cities, are not successful in turning out products of high accuracy because of poor labor quality. Hence they are mostly engaged in production of electric machine parts or simple speciality goods.Industrial accumulation is going on with rapid speed in large city areas keeping pace with the growth of production durable goods. Simultaneously new industrial investments are being made in rural districts, though small in value as compared with those in city areas. But large assembly plants in city area can not produce excellent goods as long as they use parts manufactured by rural factries employing poor quality labor. Accordingly, Japan has to import high precision macine tools or similar products requiring highly trained skill. This deplorable situation will not be remedied in an immediate future.

Urbanization in the Suburban Areas of Large Cities

Urbanization in the Suburban Areas of Large Cities

Family setting and the urban distribution of schizophrenia.

A number of studies have shown that the incidence of schizophrenic illness (as measured by first admissions to mental hospitals) is high in the central areas of large cities and diminishes progressively towards the suburbs (Fans and Dunham, 1939; Dunham, 1947; Hare, 1956). Two main hypotheses have been advanced to account for this distribution. The first, the “breeder” hypothesis, is that social factors in the central areas are causal for schizophrenia and the particular factor most likely to be responsible is that loosely called “social isolation”. The second, the “attraction” hypothesis, is that the social disorganization or anonymity characteristic of the central areas attracts unstable and schizoid persons, either because such persons are unable to maintain themselves in better areas or because they wish to avoid the intimate personal relations of family life.

Delinquency Areas in the Puget Sound Region

Wide variations were found in the rates for juvenile delinquency between specific areas in large cities, small cities, and counties. Concentration of the homes of delinquents near the central business districts and near basic industries was characteristic. High rates of delinquency have persisted over an eighteen-year period in the central areas of Seattle. Low delinquency rates were found, however, among Japanese boys in a centrally located school district fo the same city. Spokane and Bellingham showed high rates in outlying areas, but in both cases these districts were in close proximity to basic industries. In Tacoma and less clearly in Seattle rates tended to vary inversely with the distance from the city center. A positive correlation was found between rates for family dependency and rates for juvenile delinquency. In small neighborhoods a single personality may be an important factor in the prevention of delinquency. As the number involved in a series becomes smaller, the rates are increasingly subject to marked variation, owing to single escapades involving several boys.

Testing the Selective Influence of Areas of Delinquency

The concentration of delinquency in certain areas in large cities has been established, but not yet completely explained. It may be the result of conditions found in such areas or of selective forces, or of both. The study of selection has been neglected. Mr. Clifford Shaw's tests of the selection of nationalities for residence in such areas seem inconclusive. A survey of crime in the city of Danville, Ilinois, offered oppportunity to test indirectly selective processes. It shows that over two-fifths of adult felons resident in Danville and committed during three years to prison or reformatory had a criminal record before coming to the city and that probably over half of them cannot be called "Danville products" or products of its delinquency areas. Racial and economic isolation in delinquency areas, the concentration of crime in rooming-house areas, the transient residence of delinquent as compared with non-delinquent families in delinquency areas, the existence of conflicting group patterns of behavior within the areas, and data from case histories seem partially to confirm this finding. The conclusion, though confined to this one study, is that areas of delinquency not only produce delinquency but act as selective forces attracting delinquents and predelinquents. Therefore criminological surveys should study this factor of selection and enlist the service of psychologists and psychiatrists as well as sociologists.