Magnitude of industrialization in Jordan

In spite of Jordan's insignificant natural resources and geopolitical problems, industrial development is being emphasized in Jordan since 1972. Industries are now the second largest sector of economy. Industries contributed 10% of the GDP in 1972, 19.5% in 1989 and 17.4% in 1993. This is remarkable as the national investment in industries is declining. The investments for industrial development was 30% of the total national investment in five year development plans (1976–1980), 23% in the next plan (1981–1985), and 13% in the following plan (1986–1990).The number of; industries has increased from 2500 in 1959 to 4684 in 1974, to 8533 in 1984, and 18600 in 1992. The employment or labor force also increased from 10,000 in 1959 to 70,000 in 1988, and to 110,000 in 1992. It represents about 16.4% of the total labor force in Jordan, the index number of industrial production also increased from (100) in 1979 which was the same base year, to (151) in 1983 to (205) in 1987 and to (215) in 1993. The study was based on three hypotheses: (i) the magnitude varies from one industry to another at the national (Jordan) and local (governorate levels), (ii) temporal change in the magnitude of industries has taken place during the period 1979–1992, (iii) the temporal change in the magnitude of industries was positive in some industries and negative in others.     

Inter-annual variability in phytoplankton summer blooms in the freshwater tidal reaches of the Schelde estuary (Belgium)

The inter-annual variability in phytoplankton summer blooms in the upper reaches of the Schelde estuary was investigated between 1996 and 2005 by monthly sampling at 10 stations. The large inter-annual variations of the chlorophyll a concentration in the freshwater tidal reaches were independent from variations in chlorophyll a in the tributary river Schelde. Summer mean chlorophyll a concentrations were significantly negatively correlated with flushing rate (Spearman correlation: r = −0.67, p = 0.05, n = 9) but not with temperature, irradiance and suspended particulate matter or dissolved silica (DSi) concentrations. During dry summers, low flushing rates permitted the development of dense phytoplankton populations in the upper part of the estuary, while during wet summers high flushing rates prevented the development of dense phytoplankton blooms. Flushing rate was also found to be important for the phytoplankton community composition. At low flushing rates, the community was dominated by diatoms that developed within the upper estuary. At high flushing rates, chlorophytes imported from the tributary river Schelde became more important in the phytoplankton community. The position of the chlorophyll a maximum shifted from the head of the estuary when flushing rates were low, to more downstream when flushing rates were high. Although DSi concentrations tended to be lower during years of high phytoplankton (mainly diatom) biomass, the relation with flushing rate was not significant.     

Behaviour of the winter North Atlantic eddy-driven jet stream in the CMIP3 integrations

A systematic analysis of the winter North Atlantic eddy-driven jet stream latitude and wind speed from 52 model integrations, taken from the coupled model intercomparison project phase 3, is carried out and compared to results obtained from the ERA-40 reanalyses. We consider here a control simulation, twentieth century simulation, and two time periods (2046–2065 and 2081–2100) from a twenty-first century, high-emission A2 forced simulation. The jet wind speed seasonality is found to be similar between the twentieth century simulations and the ERA-40 reanalyses and also between the control and forced simulations although nearly half of the models overestimate the amplitude of the seasonal cycle. A systematic equatorward bias of the models jet latitude seasonality, by up to 7°, is observed, and models additionally overestimate the seasonal cycle of jet latitude about the mean, with the majority of the models showing equatorward and poleward biases during the cold and warm seasons respectively. A main finding of this work is that no GCM under any forcing scenario considered here is able to simulate the trimodal behaviour of the observed jet latitude distribution. The models suffer from serious problems in the structure of jet variability, rather than just quantitiative errors in the statistical moments.     

Detecting climate change signals in Saudi Arabia using mean annual surface air temperatures

Climate change signals in Saudi Arabia are investigated using the surface air temperature (SAT) data of 19 meteorological stations, well distributed across the country. Analyses are performed using cumulative sum, cumulative annual mean, and the Mann–Kendall rank statistical test for the period of 1978–2010. A notable change in SAT for the majority of stations is found around 1997. The results show a negative temperature trend (cooling) for all stations during the first period (1978–1997), followed by a positive trend (warming) in the second period (1998–2010) with reference to the entire period of analysis. The Mann–Kendall test confirms that there is no abrupt cooling at any station during the analysis period, reflecting the warming trend across the country. The warming trend is found to be 0.06 °C/year, while the cooling trend is 0.03 °C/year, which are statistically significant.     

Energy-dependent transport problem with generalized boundary conditions

The slowing-down Boltzmann equation for generalized boundary conditions is considered and transformed to one-speed equation in Laplace space. Exact relations between energy reflection and transmission coefficients for a problem with diffuse reflecting boundary conditions and the albedos for the problem with isotropic boundary conditions are obtained. The Galerkin method is used to calculate the energy reflection coefficient for a finite slab for different thicknesses at different mass ratiosA, target to projectile mass, at different synthetic-scattering kernels. The results for partial heat fluxes for isotropic and anisotropic-scattering dispersive medium are given. The results obtained for isotropic boundary conditions are compared well with the exact results.     

A second order Jupiter-Saturn planetary theory

We present a second order secular Jupiter-Saturn planetary theory through Poincaré canonical variables, von Zeipel's method and Jacobi-Radau referential. We neglect in our expansions terms of power higher than the fourth with respect to eccentricities and sines of inclinations. We assume that the disturbing function is composed of secular and critical terms only. We shall deriveF _2si and writeF _2s in terms of Poincaré canonical variables in Part II of this problem.     

Radiation transfer in inhomogeneous dispersive media

Equations for the angular density of radiation, reflected and transmitted intensities associated with radiation scattered by inhomogeneous dispersive media are obtained. The Padé approximant technique is used to calculate these intensities in inhomogeneous and homogeneous media. The results for the [0/1] Padé approximant lead to numerical results that compared with the exact results.     

Third order uranus-neptune planetary theory

We calculate in this paper the secular and critical terms arising from the principal part of the classical planetary Hamiltonian. This is the first step to establish a third order canonical planetary theory of Uranus-Neptune through the Hori-Lie technique. We truncate our expansions at the second degree of eccentricity-inclination. Our planetary theory is expressed in terms of the canonical variables of H. Poincaré.     

Événements panafricains dans l'Adrar Souttouf (Sahara marocain)

The Adrar Souttouf belt (Western Sahara) lies in the northern part of the Mauritanide belt and was considered as a part of the Hercynian Mauritanian-Appalachian belt. Recently the presence of a Panafrican protolith (595 Ma) was evidenced by the age of inherited zircons from an eclogitic unit and led to consider complex Panafrican events included in the Hercynian belt, as in the central and southern Mauritanide belt. Our new field survey completed by ten KAr dating (whole rocks and separate minerals) confirmed that multiphased Panafrican formations outcrop within the center of the Adrar Souttouf massif. Diverse events ranged from ca. 1000 to 500 Ma, some of them being indicative of an oceanic type environment and metamorphism. The 1000 Ma metamorphic event is recorded for the first time in the West African craton. A large Hercynian remobilisation is also evidenced. To cite this article: M. Villeneuve et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).