Sociospatial aspects of Australian aboriginal underdevelopment. Empirical evidence from the East kimberley

Prior to the penetration of the European capitalist economy into central and northern Australia, the Aboriginal mode of production was one of hunting and gathering. Spiritual, economic and social relationships betwen people and land produced a spatial distribution of small bands of people living on their traditional lands. To the incoming white settlers the low population density and type of land use appeared uneconomic. This observation was used as ideological justification for the expropriation and development of the land for commercial pastoralism. This paper discusses the articulation of the Aboriginal and European modes of production in the East Kimberley region of northwest Australia. It argues that the introduced capitalist economy virtually destroyed the Aboriginal means of subsistence, incorporating Aborigines into the new mode of production within various subordinate roles. The exploitation of Aborigines, formerly as labour and now predominantely as consumers, is fundamental to the maintenance of the capitalist mode of production in pastoral areas. The spatial effects of the dominant mode of production have been to centralise Aborigines in locations suited to the various phases of development of the European economy, undermining the traditional Aboriginal social-spatial structure. The centralisation of the Aboriginal population also enhances the opportunities for the further development of the mining industry, which is in direct competition with Aboriginal interests in land. Aboriginal resistance to these spatial tendencies is intense in many quarters, but efforts to return to living on traditional lands and to develop alternative ways of living are hampered by the dominant mode of production.     

Experiences with unexploded ordnance discrimination using magnetometry at a live-site in Montana

Advanced discrimination methods and careful optimization of operational procedures are critical for efficient remediation of unexploded ordnance (UXO) contaminated sites. In this paper, we report on our experiences with a 200 acre magnetic survey that was collected and processed under production survey conditions at Chevallier Ranch, Montana. All anomalies with fitted moments above 0.05 Am² were excavated. During the survey the magnetic remanence metric was predicted but not used to guide the discrimination. The retrospective analysis presented here reveals that discrimination using remanence would have significantly reduced the total number of anomalies (with good dipolar fits) that needed to be excavated, from 524 to 290 while still recovering all 69 UXO. The false alarm rate (FAR = number of non-UXOs excavated divided / number of UXO found) was reduced from 6.3 to 2.9. At a cut-off of 75% remanence, 77% of anomalies due to shrapnel and metallic debris and 64% of geological anomalies were rejected.Geological anomalies due to variations in magnetite concentration introduced a significant human-element into the interpretation process. Three different interpreters added a total of 305 additional anomalies that were not fit with a dipole model and which were later found to be non-UXO. Between 40 and 50% of anomalies picked by the two relatively inexperienced interpreters who analyzed the data turned out to be geology, as compared to 14% for an experienced interpreter. Critical analysis of results, operator training and feedback from the UXO technicians validating the anomaly are essential components towards improving the quality and consistency of the anomaly interpretations. This is consistent with the tenants of Total Quality Management (TQM). We compare the actual FAR that resulted during the survey when there was little feedback between UXO technician validation results, to a hypothetical result that could have been achieved had there been a constant feedback system in place at the onset of operations. Feedback would have significantly reduced the number of geological anomalies and decreased the FAR from 10.7 to 4.0.The hypothetical results presented here demonstrate the value of using TQM principles to guide the UXO remediation process. They further show that improvements in the efficiency and costs of UXO remediation require both technological advances and operational optimization of the technology when implemented in a production setting. Furthermore, by treating geophysical modeling and UXO validation as separate entities, both with respect to contracting and operational reporting, there is little incentive for the geophysicist to leave an anomaly off the dig-sheet. Only potential negative consequences will result if that anomaly is later found to be a UXO. An incentive based mechanism that rewards the geophysicist for reductions in follow-on costs would have a strong potential to reduce the number of unnecessary excavations, and hence reduce the total cost of the UXO remediation effort.     

Miscellaneous information 1989 (Addendum)

Miscellaneous information 1989 (Addendum)     

阿拉斯加输油管的设计和施工方式方案变更过程及其背后的原因和哲学思想

阿拉斯加输油管道公司曾经研发和使用了3种主要施工方案和技术:传统地埋式、特殊埋设和地上敷设方式.在传统地埋式施工方案中,管顶埋深变化于0.9~2.7 m.这主要是考虑了地形变化,而不是沿途的岩性和土壤类型.在特殊埋设方案中,在原油管道必须埋设的地段,如大规模动物迁徙常用地段则使用通道冷液循环降(保)温系统和(或)热管(桩)降(保)温,来保护多年冻土.地上敷设方案包括桩基架设和地上洁净砾石管堤(垫护层).后者只在管道进入和离开多年冻土时采用.架设桩基横梁方案中使用有或没有热管保温的垂直支架梁(单元)(VSM).在初步规划和设计阶段,管道的业主公司(即横穿阿拉斯加管道系统,或TAPS)和随后的阿拉斯加管道服务公司(APSC)不容商量的坚决要求100%的埋设方案.但是,随着勘察工作的进展和设计方案的细化,施工设计方案在不断变化.1977年管道施工结束时,只有57%的管道采用了埋设方式.管道运行30 a后的今天(考虑运行期间维护中所产生的问题),很多经验丰富的工程师认为53%的埋设可能更合理.设计和施工方案变更的原因主要有:1)为了获得通过联邦政府所属的土地所需的许可证,政府有特殊的规定和要求;2)管道公司的设计、施工和管理人员进行了现场野外调查、研究,并积极参与了详细设计和研发;3)美国环境政策法案(NEPA)的最新要求(启用了核准制).阿拉斯加管道服务公司是7家主要石油公司的服务机构.由于这个项目的巨大规模和所涉及的高昂费用,致使各大石油公司的工程师非同寻常程度的参与.在文章中,笔者论述了与阿拉斯加管道施工有关的阿拉斯加管道服务公司、美国联邦和阿拉斯加州政府相关组织机构的形成历史,管道设计演变过程及其背后的哲学思想,以及阿拉斯加管道工程项目的经验和教训.     

Were Greek temples oriented towards aurorae?

Ioannis Liritzis and Helen Vassiliou assess the evidence that the Ancient Greeks saw the aurora borealis, and that it was a rare and special event, strongly enough associated with particular gods to build temples of unusual orientation.     

Microbial ecology of the stratified water column of the Black Sea as revealed by a comprehensive biomarker study

The stratified water column of the Black Sea is partitioned into oxic, suboxic, and euxinic zones, each characterized by different biogeochemical processes and by distinct microbial communities. In 2003, we collected particulate matter by large volume in situ filtration at the highest resolution to date for lipid biomarker analysis and bacterioplankton for enumeration of major prokaryotic groups. Abundances of several prokaryotic groups were estimated using CARD-FISH probes specific for Bacteria, Archaea (Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota), epsilonproteobacteria (mainly sulfide oxidizers) and sulfate reducing bacteria. We also measured a wide range of bacterial and archaeal lipid biomarkers. Depth distributions of diagnostic biomarkers are matched with zonation of microbial processes, including aerobic bacterial oxidation of methane, oxidation of ammonium by bacteria and archaea, metal reduction, and sulfide oxidation at the chemocline, and bacterial sulfate reduction and anaerobic oxidation of methane by archaea in the anoxic zone. Cell densities for archaea and sulfate reducing bacteria are estimated based on water column biomarker concentrations and compared with CARD-FISH results.     

Modeling long-period noise in kinematic GPS applications

We develop and test an algorithm for modeling and removing elevation error in kinematic GPS trajectories in the context of a kinematic GPS survey of the salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. Noise in the kinematic trajectory ranges over 15 cm and is highly autocorrelated, resulting in significant contamination of the topographic signal. We solve for a noise model using crossover differences at trajectory intersections as constraints in a least-squares inversion. Validation of the model using multiple realizations of synthetic/simulated noise shows an average decrease in root-mean-square-error (RMSE) by a factor of four. Applying the model to data from the salar de Uyuni survey, we find that crossover differences drop by a factor of eight (from an RMSE of 5.6 to 0.7 cm), and previously obscured topographic features are revealed in a plan view of the corrected trajectory. We believe that this algorithm can be successfully adapted to other survey methods that employ kinematic GPS for positioning.     

Detection of iodine monoxide radicals in the marine boundary layer using laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy

A Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) instrument has been developed to detect iodine monoxide (IO) radicals in the atmosphere. An all solid-state Nd:YAG pumped Ti:Sapphire laser operating at approximately 445 nm was used to excite the (2,0) band of the IO A²Π_3/2 ← X²Π_3/2 electronic transition, with off-resonance fluorescence in the (2,5) band detected at 521 nm. The sensitivity of the instrument was determined by calibration. IO (between 10 and 150 pptV) was generated following the 184.9 nm photolysis of N₂O/CF₃I/N₂ mixtures with O₃ actinometry used to determine the photolysis flux. The detection limit was determined to be 0.3 pptV for a 300 s integration period, with an uncertainty of 23% (1σ). The instrument was deployed in August/September 2006 during the RHaMBLe (Reactive Halogens in the Marine Boundary Layer) campaign in Roscoff, France. Located on a small jetty, a few metres from the water’s edge at high tide, the instrument measured significant levels of IO on 11 days, with a maximum of 27.6 ± 3.2 pptV observed on one day (averaged over 10 s) representing the highest IO mixing ratio recorded in the marine boundary layer to date. IO displayed a clear diurnal profile with a maximum at low tide during the daytime. These results represent the first point measurements of IO in the atmosphere by LIF.     

The recent history of erosion and sedimentation on the Southern Tablelands of southeastern Australia: sediment flux dominated by channel incision

As in other regions colonised from Europe within the last few centuries, Australia's vegetation and soils have been dramatically changed by clearing, cropping and grazing. In southeastern Australia, particularly on the Southern Tablelands, the impacts of European settlement are clearly manifested by channel incision. By using stratigraphic and documentary evidence, in conjunction with aerial photographs, sediment budgets for the post-settlement period have been constructed to define the fluxes and stores of sediment for each of the major geomorphic components of the 136 km² catchment of Jerrabomberra Creek near Canberra. Using these budgets, and some plausible assumptions, it has been possible to approximate the history of both the sediment delivery ratio and sediment yield for this catchment. While the quantities estimated in this analysis are approximations, the trends through time are credible. Sediment yield increased rapidly to a peak after European settlement, and has returned to a level between the peak and the pre-European value. The delivery ratio has followed a similar trend. The most general conclusion to emerge is that in this landscape both the total sediment flux and the sediment yield of the catchment have been dominated by channel erosion. This result is contrary to the findings in many parts of the world where sheet and rill erosion dominates the fluxes. The soil conservation implication of these results is clear: to control off-site effects of erosion, the focus must be on the channels.