Late Quaternary mammalian zoogeography of eastern Washington

The late Quaternary mammalian zoogeographic history of eastern Washington as revealed by archaeological and paleontological research conforms to a set of past environmental conditions inferred from botanical data. During the relatively cool and moist late Pleistocene and early Holocene, Cervus cf. elaphus, Ovis canadensis, Vulpes vulpes, Martes americana, Alopex lagopus, and perhaps Rangifer sp., taxa with ecological preferences for mesic steppe habitats, were present in the now xeric Columbia Basin. As the climate became progressively warmer and drier during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, Antilocapra americana, Onychomys leucogaster, Spermophilus townsendii, and Neotoma cinerea, taxa with ecological preferences for xeric steppe habitats, appear in the Columbia Basin. Bison sp. and Taxidea taxus may have been present in eastern Washington for the last 20,000 yr. Middle and late Holocene records for Oreamnos americanus, Spermophilus columbianus, S. townsendii, Lagurus curtatus, and Urocyon cinereoargenteus in central eastern Washington suggest fluctuations in the ranges of these taxa that conform to a middle Holocene period of less effective precipitation and a ca. 3500-yr-old period of more effective precipitation before essentially modern environmental conditions prevailed.     

Towards socio-spatial inclusion? Disabled people, neoliberalism and the contemporary labour market

In many Western countries, disability assistance programmes have been restructured to encourage paid work. This paper examines the opportunities and barriers facing disabled people entering the labour market. Using data from semi-structured interviews, the study explores employers' conceptualization and treatment of disabled workers. While meaningful accommodation does occur, less promising outcomes are also common. For example, some disabled people face exclusion from service work on grounds that have little to do with the capacity to perform the essential functions of specific jobs. Others face exploitation in downgraded service occupations. Moreover, funding cuts and market discipline in public and non-profit organizations limit their capacity to accommodate disabled workers. While employment can offer material security and social status, successful employment for many disabled people cannot occur without an effective challenge to the contextual constraints of non-accommodating workplaces and labour processes.     

Importance of borehole deviation surveys for monitoring of hydraulic fracturing treatments

During seismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing treatment, it is very common to ignore the deviations of the monitoring or treatment wells from their assumed positions. For example, a well is assumed to be perfectly vertical, but in fact, it deviates from verticality. This can lead to significant errors in the observed azimuth and other parameters of the monitored fracture‐system geometry derived from microseismic event locations. For common hydraulic fracturing geometries, a 2° deviation uncertainty on the positions of the monitoring or treatment well survey can cause a more than 20° uncertainty of the inverted fracture azimuths. Furthermore, if the positions of both the injection point and the receiver array are not known accurately and the velocity model is adjusted to locate perforations on the assumed positions, several‐millisecond discrepancies between measured and modeled SH‐P traveltime differences may appear along the receiver array. These traveltime discrepancies may then be misinterpreted as an effect of anisotropy, and the use of such anisotropic model may lead to the mislocation of the detected fracture system. The uncertainty of the relative positions between the monitoring and treatment wells can have a cumulative, nonlinear effect on inverted fracture parameters. We show that incorporation of borehole deviation surveys allows reasonably accurate positioning of the microseismic events. In this study, we concentrate on the effects of horizontal uncertainties of receiver and perforation positions. Understanding them is sufficient for treatment of vertical wells, and also necessary for horizontal wells.     

The two Suvasvesi impact structures,Finland: Argon isotopic evidence for a “false” impact crater doublet

The two neighboring Suvasvesi North and South impact structures in central‐east Finland have been discussed as a possible impact crater doublet produced by the impact of a binary asteroid. This study presents ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronologic data for impact melt rocks recovered from the drilling into the center of the Suvasvesi North impact structure and melt rock from glacially transported boulders linked to Suvasvesi South. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar step‐heating analysis yielded two essentially flat age spectra indicating a Late Cretaceous age of ~85 Ma for the Suvasvesi North melt rock, whereas the Suvasvesi South melt sample gave a Neoproterozoic minimum (alteration) age of ~710 Ma. Although the statistical likelihood for two independent meteorite strikes in close proximity to each other is rather low, the remarkable difference in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of >600 Myr for the two Suvasvesi impact melt samples is interpreted as evidence for two temporally separate, but geographically closely spaced, impacts into the Fennoscandian Shield. The Suvasvesi North and South impact structures are, thus, interpreted as a “false” crater doublet, similar to the larger East and West Clearwater Lake impact structures in Québec, Canada, recently shown to be unrelated. Our findings have implications for the reliable recognition of impact crater doublets and the apparent rate of binary asteroid impacts on Earth and other planetary bodies in the inner solar system.     

Isolation and characterization of bioactive fungi from shark <Emphasis Type="Italic">Carcharodon carcharias</Emphasis>’ gill with biopharmaceutical prospects

Until recently, little was known about the fungi found in shark gills and their biomedicinal potential. In this article, we described the isolation, bioactivity, diversity, and secondary metabolites of bioactive fungi from the gill of a shark (Carcharodon carcharias). A total of 115 isolates were obtained and grown in 12 culture media. Fifty-eight of these isolates demonstrated significant activity in four antimicrobial, pesticidal, and cytotoxic bioassay models. Four randomly selected bioactive isolates inhibited human cancer cell proliferation during re-screening. These active isolates were segregated into 6 genera using the internal transcribed spacer-large subunit (ITS-LSU) rDNA-sequence BLAST comparison. Four genera, Penicillium, Aspergillus, Mucor, and Chaetomium were the dominant taxa. A phylogenic tree illustrated their intergenera and intragenera genetic diversity. HPLC-DAD-HRMS analysis and subsequent database searching revealed that nine representative strains produced diverse bioactive compound profiles. These results detail the broad range of bioactive fungi found in a shark’s gills, revealing their biopharmaceutical potential. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study characterizing shark gill fungi and their bioactivity.     

Using GIS and K = 3 Central Place Lattices for Efficient Solutions to the Location Set‐Covering Problem in a Bounded Plane

One of the simplest location models in terms of its constraint structure in location‐allocation modeling is the location set‐covering problem (LSCP). Although there have been a variety of geographic applications of the set‐covering problem (SCP), the use of the SCP as a facility location model is one of the most common. In the early applications of the LSCP, both potential facility sites as well as demand were represented by points discretely located in geographic space. The advent of geographic information systems (GIS), however, has made possible a greater range of object representations that can reduce representation error. The purpose of this article is to outline a methodology using GIS and K = 3 central place lattices to solve the LSCP when demand is continuously distributed over a bounded area and potential facility sites have not been defined a priori. Although, demand is assumed to exist over an area, it is shown how area coverage can be accomplished by the coverage of a point pattern. Potential facility site distributions based on spacings that are powers of one‐third the coverage distance are also shown to provide more efficient coverage than arbitrarily chosen spacings. Using GIS to make interactive adjustments to an incomplete coverage also provides an efficient alternative to smaller spacings between potential facility sites for reducing the number of facilities necessary for complete coverage.     

Interpreting a Pareto set of operating options for water grids: a framework and case study

Multi-objective optimisation is being increasingly applied in water supply management to identify optimal operating options. However, a key challenge in the implementation of multi-objective optimisation is interpreting the large and multidimensional Pareto-optimal set. This paper shows how cluster, visual and post-optimisation analysis can aid the decision maker in addressing this challenge. This is demonstrated for a case study based on South East Queensland Water Grid, Australia, as part of a broader operational planning framework. Firstly, cluster analysis identifies a smaller set of representative options to aid in visual analysis. Secondly, visual analysis techniques are used to identify the trade-offs between objectives, the relationships between decision variables and objective performance, and to shortlist promising operating options. Finally, post-optimisation analysis techniques identify efficient operating options from the Pareto set, based on decision-maker preferences. Together these techniques can be used to identify a shortlist of operating options, for further consideration using multicriteria analysis.     

Bioluminescence potential modeling with an ensemble approach

Ocean Dynamics - The approach for modeling bioluminescence (BL) potential is proposed. The approach consists of (1) estimation of the adjoint (by backward in time integration of the adjoint model),...     

The informal Australian city

In recent years, a vibrant literature on urban informality has emerged in urban geography. A key claim of this literature is that informality is not only present in cities in the Global South, and that the concept can be usefully applied to understand important dimensions of urbanisation in cities in the Global North. In this paper, we apply insights from that literature to an examination of informality in Australian cities, as a means of deepening our understanding of changes currently underway in urban governance and politics. Drawing on that literature and our own research into informal practices in Australian cities, we examine the forces that help to produce informality, the diverse forms and agents of informality, the forms of authority that they enact, and their relationship to formal economies, regulations and politics. We use examples of informal housing, informal labour, do-it-yourself music venues, graffiti and its regulation, food foraging, and queer community building in Sydney to illustrate our arguments. We conclude by reflecting on the lessons learnt across these diverse cases for our understanding of urban governance and politics in Australia, and offer an agenda for further research on this issue.     

Now I See: Photovisualization to Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation

To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects as well as tradeoffs associated with climate adaptation practices. To have the greatest impact, photovisualizations should be used when producers are considering implementing high-cost or high-risk projects, when practices are likely to dramatically change the visual landscape, or when a practice is unfamiliar to a producer.