Chasing a 'loose and baggy monster': almshouses and the geography of charity

This paper goes some way towards redressing the lack of geographical literature on charity through exploring the geography of the British domestic charitable sector. The size and geography of the third sector is outlined, followed by an analysis of how almshouses can be understood as inherently geographical and deeply embedded in local social networks of inclusion as well as exclusion.     

Responses of interrill runoff and erosion rates to vegetation change in southern Arizona

Vegetation change, fi-om grassland to shrubland, has occurred over much of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts during the past century. The effect of this vegetation change on interrill runoff and erosion was examined by conducting rainfall-simulation experiments on large runoff plots on contemporary grassland and shrubland hillslopes. These experiments show that, compared to the grassland, the interrill portions of shrubland hillslopes (1) have higher runoff rates, (2) experience equilibrium runoff conditions much more frequently, (3) exhibit higher overland flow velocities, and (4) are subject to greater rates of erosion. The environmental change that has led to the vegetation change has been relatively minor, but its geomorphic impact has been substantial.     

A modern vision: Eric Lindsay at Armagh

Eric Mervyn Lindsay masterminded the development of Armagh Observatory in the middle of the 20th century, building it into the centre for research and education that it is today. John McFarland recounts Lindsay's story, of how one man's drive and ambition forged international collaborations that presaged today's world of shared research facilities     

Isotopic order, biogeochemical processes, and earth history: Goldschmidt lecture, Davos, Switzerland, August 2002

The impetus to interpret carbon isotopic signals comes from an understanding of isotopic fractionations imposed by living organisms. That understanding rests in turn on studies of enzymatic isotope effects, on fruitful concepts of isotopic order, and on studies of the distribution of ¹³C both between and within biosynthetic products. In sum, these studies have shown that the isotopic compositions of biological products are governed by reaction kinetics and by pathways of carbon flow.Isotopic compositions of individual compounds can indicate specific processes or environments. Examples include biomarkers which record the isotopic compositions of primary products in aquatic communities, which indicate that certain bacteria have used methane as a carbon source, and which show that some portions of marine photic zones have been anaerobic. In such studies, the combination of structural and isotopic lines of evidence reveals relationships between compounds and leads to process-related thinking. These are large steps. Reconstruction of the sources and histories of molecular fossils redeems much of the early promise of organic geochemistry by resolving and clarifying paleoenviron-mental signals. In turn, contemplation of this new information is driving geochemists to study microbial ecology and evolution, oceanography, and sedimentology.     

Hillsong: A Megachurch in the Sydney Suburbs

Religious belief and practice, especially Pentecostalism, are increasingly suburban phenomena in an otherwise more secular society. The megachurch of Hillsong in Sydney's north-western suburbs has recently grown rapidly, offering a distinct architecture, institutional structure and informal service format Protestantism generally, distinguished by its stadium show, prosperity preaching, overt materialist orientation and egalitarian populism. Diverse church social groups have partly replaced the civic social institutions never vibrant in suburbia, creating social capital and a new, more fluid sense of place. Hillsong exemplifies the globalisation of religion, while simultaneously stressing local ties, with contemporary media technology in a traditional theological and modern social context.     

A large landslide on the urban fringe of metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona

A granitic rock avalanche, one of the largest Quaternary landslides in Arizona outside the Grand Canyon with a volume of approximately 5.25 M m³ and a width a little under 0.5 km, ran 1 km from the eastern McDowell Mountains. With lateral levees and pressure ridges, the rock avalanche deposit displays many features found on classic sturzstroms. Failure occurred along a major joint plane paralleling the slope with a dip of 44°, when a major base level lowering event in the Salt River system would have undermined the base of the failed slope, and probably during a period of more moisture than normally available in the present-day arid climate. Failure at the subsurface weathering front highlights the importance of the dramatic permeability change between grussified regolith and relatively fresh bedrock. Rock varnish microlaminations (VMLs) dating, in concert with other geomorphic evidence, suggests that the rock avalanche deposit is slightly older than 500 ka. The rock vanish results also have important implications for sampling strategies designed to use cosmogenic nuclide to date Quaternary landslide deposits. Discovery of a large landslide in close proximity to the extending urban fringe of metropolitan Phoenix argues for a more careful analysis of landslide hazards in the region, especially where rapid development excavates bedrock at the base of steep mountain slopes and where the subsurface weathering front is near the surface.     

On the evaluation of an integral connected with the thermonuclear reaction rate in closed form

The standard expression of the reaction rate for low-energy, nonresonant nuclear reactions in nondegenerate plasma contains a parameter-dependent integral which in all previous calculations with physical or astrophysical background is considered as not capable of being evaluated in a closed form. So one usually resorts to approximation methods concerning large values of the parameter. At first we point out that CONSUL (1964) has given a series representation of the integral which was identified with a MEIJER 's G-function by MATHAI (1971). Next, in view of a physically more exact determination of the reaction rate formula, especially in connection with calculations concerning stellar energy generation, we consider a more general integral containing the mentioned one as special case and give an approximation-free representation by means of MEIJER 's G-function. The G-function so obtained may be conceived as complex-valued continuation of CONSUL 's series representation of a certain class of integrals contained in the considered one. From the series we extract a small parameter approximation of the special integral.