REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: MORE THAN EVER,THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA

Community-produced spaces such as community gardens are attracting widespread scholarly interest for the potential of not only food production, but also for social, environmental, and educational benefits. Yet community gardens have also been scrutinized as sites of governmentality that produce neoliberal subjects. In this article, six case studies are analyzed as representative of three ways to organize and manage gardens—grassroots, externally-organized, and active nonprofit management. I use performativity theory to examine how definitions and enactments of community can be used to include, exclude, or bridge difference. The analysis highlights some of the specific moments in garden organizing and management that influence participation or resistance to community-oriented urban food production.     

CHANNEL MIGRATION AND REGENERATION OF BALD CYPRESS IN WESTERN TENNESSEE

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) regeneration was examined in the bottomland forest of the lower Hatchie River in western Tennessee. Bald cypress is found mostly in abandoned meanders. Its absence along the active channel indicates that colonization begins after the meander cuts off, creating an oxbow lake. Analysis of the size, the age, and the spatial structure of the stands indicates that the individuals first establish along the margins of the lake, and then colonize the interior as the lake fills in and new surfaces are exposed. Bald cypress will dominate abandoned meanders for several centuries. However, it will not regenerate in stands with a well-developed forest canopy. Bald cypress is eventually replaced by shade tolerant species and, therefore, only rarely occurs on older surfaces. Channel migration and the subsequent creation of oxbows will maintain bald cypress as a major component of bottomland forests. However, many of the major streams in the lower Mississippi River alluvial valley have been channelized. Maintenance of a straightened channel will exclude the creation of oxbows. Therefore, a primary regeneration opportunity for bald cypress disappears in many areas. [Key words: channel migration, exact probabilities, floodplain forest, oxbow lakes, Taxodium distichum, Tennessee.]     

黄河源区气候向暖湿转变的观测事实及其水文响应

基于黄河河源区干流各水文站和有关气象站、雨量站的气温、降水与径流观测资料, 分析了该区域的气候变化特征与趋势及其水文响应. 结果表明: 在全球变暖的大背景下, 自20世纪80年代后期开始西北地区西部新疆、甘肃河西走廊西部等地降水量显著增加、气候明显由"暖干"转向"暖湿"后, 到21世纪初的年代中期后黄河源区降水量亦出现明显的增长, 气候明显转向暖湿. 最新的观测数据显示, 2005年以来河源区平均年降水量已连续多年超过多年均值进入一个多雨期, 河源区各断面来水量也于2008年后连续多年超过多年均值, 进入一个连续丰水段, 并于2012年达到了自1989年以后20余年来的最大值. 这种变化的前景如何, 目前尚不能确定, 尚需对未来河源区气候在时间与空间上变化的速度和程度进一步观察和分析. 根据对与该区域气候关系密切的东亚季风活动的研究成果以及对河源区气候与径流变化的观测事实及趋势推测, 未来黄河源区气候向暖湿的转化在时间尺度上年代际的可能性较大.     

Black gold to green gold: regional energy policy and the rehabilitation of coal in response to climate change

Energy production has come under increasing scrutiny as concerns about energy security and climate change have risen. In the UK changes in government structure and privatisation of the electricity industry have led to the emergence of multi-level governance. This means that decisions on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity-generating sector should no longer be solely a national policy decision. Previous studies have sought to explore how renewable energy may develop under multi-level governance, but this paper pays attention to a traditional fossil fuel source, coal, which is still an important means of electricity generation. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel and advocates argue that carbon capture and storage techniques could make coal 'clean', paving the way for a long-term, secure and low emission way to produce energy. This study focuses on the Yorkshire and Humber Region, which has had a long association with coal mining and looks at the implications of this as the region seeks to develop a climate change action plan and an energy strategy within the new regional governance structures. The paper argues that the regional networks developed to address climate change are influenced by existing social power structures and alliances. The region as a territorial structure becomes a useful device in promoting national priorities.     

The cloud imaging and particle size experiment on the Aeronomy of Ice in the mesosphere mission: Instrument concept,design, calibration,and on-orbit performance

The Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment (CIPS) is one of three instruments aboard the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere spacecraft. CIPS provides panoramic ultraviolet images of the atmosphere over a wide range of scattering angles in order to determine the presence of polar mesospheric clouds, measure their spatial morphology, and constrain the parameters of cloud particle size distribution. The AIM science objectives motivate the CIPS measurement approach and drive the instrument requirements and design, leading to a configuration of four wide-angle cameras arrayed in a ‘+’ arrangement that covers a 120° (along orbit track)×80° (across orbit track) field of view. CIPS began routine operations on May 24, 4 weeks after AIM was launched. It measures scattered radiances from PMCs near 83 km altitude to derive cloud morphology and particle size information by recording multiple exposures of individual clouds to derive PMC scattering phase functions and detect nadir horizontal spatial scales to approximately 3 km. This paper describes the instrument design, its prelaunch characterization and calibration, and flight operations. Flight observations and calibration activities confirm performance inferred during ground test, verifying that CIPS exceeds its measurement requirements and goals. These results are illustrated with example flight images that demonstrate the instrument measurement performance.     

1971—2006年珠穆朗玛峰地区蒸发皿蒸发量的变化及其影响因素

升温率略高于平均最高气温的升温率.珠峰地区日照时数和平均风速的显著下降,以及相对湿度的明显增加可能是蒸发皿蒸发量下降的主要原因.     

Recent Aeolian Origin of Surficial Gypsum Crusts in Southern Tunisia: Geomorphological,Archaeological and Remote Sensing Evidence

Recent quarring of the surficial gypsum crusts adjacent to Djebel Sidi Bou Hellas has revealed sections typically showing a discontinuous surface gravel cover underlain by more than 7 m of microcrystalline gypsum. The location, elongate shape, form in cross-section and chemistry of this deposit suggests an aeolian origin, whereby aeolian sands have been trapped against a glacis d'erosion terrace, and subsequently consolidated by meteoric waters. One gypsum quarry revealed a midden and the remains of a Roman dwelling now buried within the crust. A radiocarbon date of organic matter in the midden and a Roman coin found within it suggest an age of AD324–345 for the deposit. This is the first firm date for a surficial gypsum crust in southern Tunisia and the age is surprisingly young. Previous studies have speculated on phases of crust development between the Villefranchian and early Holocene but none since. Remote sensing and field evidence show that gypsiferous sands are currently deflated from the dry parts of the mudflats of Chott Fedjaj. They are subsequently transported in a southwesterly trajectory and trapped against glacis on the southern margins of Chott Fedjaj, forming contemporary analogues of the Roman deposit. Sands that are not trapped form dune fields and sandflats where gypsum crusts appear to be forming today. If the source area of gypsum sands has remained constant since Roman times, then the predominant wind direction has moved 45° to the southwest since then. The other possible source of aeolian gypsum for the Roman deposit, the vast mudflats of Chott Djerid, involves an even greater change in predominant wind direction. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling of the 10-μm natural laser emission from the mesospheres of Mars and Venus

Nonthermal emission which occurs in the cores of the 9.4- and 10.4-μm CO₂ bands on Mars has been recently identified as a natural atmospheric laser. The emission is believed to be excited by absorption of near-ir solar flux, followed by collisional transfer to the 00°1 state of CO₂. A numerical model based on this mechanism is developed which includes the solar pumping contributed by ～2 × 10⁴ near-ir CO₂ lines. The non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) radiative transfer problem is solved to obtain the 00°1 vibrational state population. This model successfully reproduces the existing center-to-limb observations, although higher spatial resolution observations are needed for a definitive test. The model also predicts total fluxes which are close to the observed values. The strength of the emission is predicted to be closely related to the instantaneous near-ir solar heating rate. Calculation of the CO₂ level populations in this model supports the identification of this emission as a natural atmospheric laser. Both Mars and Venus are predicted to exhibit level inversions; at large zenith distances several percent of the emergent intensity will be due to stimulated emission. While the stimulated emission present in these lines is not large enough to be of importance to mesospheric radiative equilibrium, it has other interesting consequences. The construction of large-volume radiation-pumped lasers, which utilize CO₂ planetary mesospheres as a gain medium, is theoretically possible.     

Partitioning of Rare Earth Elements Between Hibonite and Melt and Implications for Nebular Condensation of the Rare Earth Elements

Abstract— The partitioning of the rare earth elements (REE) between hibonite and silicate melt has been investigated at 1470 °C in the system calcium tschermak's molecule-diopside. Oxygen fugacity was varied between air and the iron-wustite buffer using conventional gas mixing, and to “infinitely reducing” using Sr²⁺ as a surrogate for Eu²⁺. The partition coefficient (D) pattern is light REE enriched with D(La) = 7.15 and D(Yb) = 0.1. D(Eu) varied from about 2 in air to about 0.55 in an “infinitely reducing” atmosphere. Experiments were reversed for Eu and, by implication, a close approach to equilibrium was achieved for other elements. Absolute activity coefficients for REE in hibonite were estimated, yielding γ_La = 330, γ_Eu3+ = 1200, and γ_Yb = 24 000. These results suggest that unless the principal phase(s) into which a trace element is dissolving and the activity—composition relationships for that trace element in that phase(s) are known, condensation temperatures based on assumed ideal solution behavior will generally be in error.     

Homochirality as the signature of life: the SETH Cigar

A characteristic hallmark of life is its homochirality: all biomolecules are usually of one hand, e.g. on Earth life uses only L-amino acids for protein synthesis and not their D mirror images. It is therefore suggested that a search for extra-terrestrial life can be approached as a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Homochirality (SETH). A novel miniaturized space polarimeter, called the SETH Cigar, is described which could he used to detect optical rotation as the homochiral signature of life on other planets. Moving parts are avoided by replacing the normal rotating polarizer by multiple fixed polarizers at different angles as in the eye of the bee. It is believed that homochirality will be found in the subsurface layers on Mars as a relic of extinct life.