The British who are not British and the immigration policies that are not: the case of Hong Kong

"While 'closed-door' immigration policies are adopted by most countries, 'exceptionalist' legislation is often made to permit entry of special immigrant groups. An example is the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990, which was passed in the run-up to the change in sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. Britain's increasingly restrictive immigration policies prior to 1990 [have] resulted in the majority of Hong Kong citizens having British nationality (as British Dependent Territories citizens) but without the right of abode in the U.K. The 1990 Act conferred full British citizenship status on 50,000 heads of households in Hong Kong." The authors conclude that "in a world of marked global inequalities, immigration pressure will become even more extreme and is likely to produce an increasing number of cases of exceptionalist immigration legislation in countries with both ?open' and 'closed'-door policies.'     

The political economy of urbanization in Melanesia

The authors attempt to provide a comprehensive review of urbanization in three Melanesian countries (Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu) and in Fiji. The focus of the paper is on the development and perpetuation of various forms of inequality exemplified by Melanesian urbanization and its colonial origins.     

Results of TV imaging of Phobos (Experiment VSK-Fregat)

From February to March 1989 the Phobos 2 spacecraft took 37 TV images of Phobos at a distance of 190-1100 km. These images complement Mariner-9 and Viking data by providing higher-resolution coverage of a large region West of the crater Stickney (40-160 degrees W) and by providing disk-resolved measurements of surface brightness at a greater range of wavelengths and additional phase angles. These images have supported updated mapping and characterization of large craters and grooves, and have provided additional observations of craters' and grooves' bright rims. Variations in surface visible/near-infrared color ratio of almost a factor of 2 have been recognized; these variations appear to be associated with the ejecta of specific large impact craters. Updated determinations of satellite mass and volume allow calculation of a more accurate value of bulk density, 1.90 +/- 0.1 g cm-3. This is significantly lower than the density of meteoritic analogs to Phobos' surface, suggesting a porous interior perhaps containing interstitial ice.     

Distribution and mode of occurrences of radionuclides in phosphogypsum from the Aqaba and Eshidiya fertilizer plants, Jordan

Phosphogypsum is a waste by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry that has relatively high concentrations of some U decay-series radionuclides such as ^226Ra and ^210Pb. The distribution and environmental mobility of radionuclides in phosphogypsum are an important concern because this gypsum by-product is used for wallboard, in agriculture and as a soil amendment. This study determined the distribution of ^226Ra, ^210Pb, within phosphogypsum stacks of varying age and among three size fractions （coarse： 〈0.212 mm; medium： 0.212-0.053 mm; fine： 〈0.053 mm）, in phosphogypsum derived from Aqaba and Eshidiya fertilizer plants. The results indicated that ^226Ra and ^210Pb were generally uniformly distributed in phosphogypsum stacks and showed no significant difference in the concentration of these elements with the age of stack. In the Aqaba phosphogypsum ^226Ra was slightly 10% enriched in the coarse fraction, while ^210Pb was 10% enriched in the free size fraction. In the Eshidiya phosphogypsum ^226Ra and ^210Pb contents were both relatively enriched （10%） in the fine size fraction.     

Changes to cadmium associations in canal sediments on drying and oxidation

The mainly 19th Century canal system in the UK, largely managed by British Waterways, has been increasingly brought back into operation over the last few decades, and is now widely used for both leisure, and, increasingly, transport. Both initial and routine dredging of the canal sediment is carried out and these sediments are generally disposed of to land. Because many of the canals were connected with primary industries, their sediments can locally be significantly contaminated with heavy metals, and the behaviour of these metals under differing redox conditions, when introduced into a new environment （i.e., on land） is of importance for environmental risk-assessment purposes. Canal sediments are often rich in sulfidic mineral phases, and we have attempted to quantify the influence of these sulfidic phases on the release and retention of metals in dredged canal sediments, using a combination of traditional chemical techniques （e.g. sequential extraction） and X-ray absorption spectroscopy （XAS）. Sediment samples have been collected from urban fresh-water canals, one in the British Midlands and one in Northern France. It appears from XAS that Cd is largely associated with oxygen in air-dried sediment, and with sulphur in vacuum-dried sediment.     

萨拉乌苏河流域萨拉乌苏组沙丘砂沉积特征

萨拉乌苏河流域米浪沟湾剖面萨拉乌苏组含7层古流动沙丘砂、4层古固定-半固定沙丘砂.对这些沙丘砂的沉积构造观察以及粒度、扫描电镜和常量化学元素分析结果表明：（1）这些沙丘砂具有与现代沙丘砂相似的风成沉积构造特征;（2）粒度及其参数——Mz、σ、Sk和Kg,以及主要化学组分SiO2、Al2O3和TOFE也与现代沙丘砂相近;（3）Mz-σ、SiO2-Al2O3＋TOFE散点图和概率累积曲线显示这些沙丘砂与萨拉乌苏组中的河湖相、古土壤差别明显,而与现代沙丘砂一致;（4）石英砂颗粒具有良好的磨圆以及碟形坑、新月形坑、麻坑、上翻解理薄片、硅质沉淀和硅质裂纹等表面结构特征,反映其曾受持久的风力搬运作用.沉积构造、粒度、石英砂颗粒表面结构和化学元素等多个方面具备了与现代沙丘砂类似的风成特征,证明这些沙丘砂的成因是风成的.     

美国地质调查局激光雷达应用新进展

随着激光雷达(Light detection and ranging,Lidar)技术的成熟,美国地质调查局(U.S.Geo-logical Survey,USGS)在这个方向开展了许多应用研究。科学家们正在发展表达、使用高分辨率Lidar数据的新型技术;同时,为方便公众获取相应信息,数据及提取信息的发布手段也在研究之中。以下通过几个实例做一简要介绍。1典型研究1.1数据分发建立国家地图集(National Map)的一个目标是向公众发布基础数字地理信息。该地图集的高程部分是通过USGS地球观测系统(EROS)数据中心的国家高程数据集(National ElevationDataset,NED)维护的。NED提供3种…     

和田地区近40年气温变化特征分析

利用和田地区4个代表站1961～2000年的气温资料，对和田地区近40a来的气温变化作了分析。得出近40年来和田地区年平均气温呈上升趋势，春季气温和于田县的年平均气温却呈下降趋势。特别是上世纪90年代增温十分明显，1999年是近40a来和田地区最暖的一年。     

初夏一次特大暴雨的诊断分析

对新疆1996年5月28－30日一次特大暴雨过程的诊断分析，给出了暴雨产生的原因。