Revealing regional regeneration projects in three small towns in Aotearoa—New Zealand

We discuss case studies of three South Island small towns: Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru and their wider local authority jurisdictions, focusing on how local stakeholders are defining the issues facing these places and identifying, prioritising and investing in regeneration initiatives, sometimes with the support of central government and other external agencies. Our key finding is that small‐town regeneration is complex, demands a long‐term local collaborative approach, and significant investment in skills, information sharing and programme development, some of which needs to be provided by external, central government, agencies.     

Geology and thermochronometry of the east edge of the Median Batholith (Median Tectonic Zone): a new perspective on Permian to Cretaceous crustal growth of New Zealand

Abstract We report new field, petrological and isotopic data and interpretations from one of New Zealand’s major basement geological boundaries, the contact between the east side of the Median Batholith (formerly Median Tectonic Zone) and the allochthonous Mesozoic terranes of the Eastern Province. In the Nelson and Hollyford–Eglinton areas this contact is a Cenozoic fault, the Median Tectonic Line of earlier workers. However, in the Longwood Range, unfaulted pre-Cenozoic geological relations are preserved intact. Our new Ar–Ar, U–Pb and isotopic data show that the Median Batholith in the Longwood Range consists of two suites. (i) Eastern, isotopically primitive (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_i = 0.702 to 0.703; ?_NdT = + 7 to + 8) trondhjemite and gabbroic rocks of Permian age that we believe are part of the intraoceanic Brook Street arc of the Eastern Province. (ii) Western, isotopically more evolved (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_i = 0.703 to 0.704; ?_NdT = + 3 to + 5) quartz diorites, quartz monzodiorites and rare granites of Middle Triassic to Early Jurassic age that we correlate with a pulse of magmatism elsewhere in the Median Batholith. Field observations in the Longwood Range indicate intrusive, not faulted, contacts between these units and constrain accretion of the Brook Street Terrane to Gondwana to have occurred 230–245 Ma. Intra-batholith shear zones (T ~ 600°C and P ~ 0.2–0.3 GPa) were active at approximately 220 Ma. Modelling of K-feldspar Ar incremental heating ages indicate that most of the Longwood Range had cooled below 175°C by the Middle Jurassic and experienced no subsequent reheating. Significant additional post-accretionary Early Cretaceous and Cenozoic thermotectonic activity in Median Batholith in the Hollyford-Eglinton area is indicated by a new 140 ± 2 Ma U-Pb zircon date on a Largs ignimbrite, as well as by Cenozoic K-feldspar Ar–Ar ages in the Middle Triassic Mistake Diorite.     

Doppler imaging of BD+22°4409 (LO Peg) using least-squares deconvolution

We present maximum-entropy reconstructions of the rapidly rotating dwarf single star BD+22°4409 (LO Peg) from observations at the William Herschel Telescope in 1993 August. Since this star is too faint to use the conventional single- or three-line Doppler imaging methods, we make use of the novel method of least-squares deconvolution, which utilizes the large number of photospheric lines in an echelle spectrum to produce a single high signal-to-noise ratio profile.
The star-spot distributions from the image reconstructions show cool features at both high and low latitudes, in contradiction to recent theoretical predictions of the dynamo behaviour in rapidly rotating stars. Cross-correlation of the images from consecutive nights shows a good correlation from the small-scale structures, but no evidence of surface differential rotation. From the cross-correlation of the high-latitude spot we are able to reject the period of 9.22 h of Jeffries et al. in favour of their preferred period of 10.17 h, confirming the result of Robb & Cardinal.     

A comparison of rainfall estimation techniques for sub-Saharan Africa

Interpolated rain-gauge data were compared to Meteosat-based precipitation estimates for sub-Saharan Africa. Validation was carried out using a dataset from a very dense gauge network in South Africa, on a point-to-pixel (PO–PI) as well as on a pixel-to-pixel (PI–PI) basis. Error criteria computed at the gauged pixels indicate that overall the interpolated estimates perform similarly to the satellite-based data: they provide good estimates of lower but underestimate larger precipitation amounts. It is concluded that the satellite estimates are more fitted for the operational modelling of processes such as surface runoff and soil erosion, especially in the developing areas where resources are scarce.     

Is Japan's whaling humane?

Video taken by Greenpeace of whaling by the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean provided a unique opportunity to obtain quantitative data relevant to the welfare aspects of the killing of whales. Catches of 16 individual Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) were analysed and in two of these asphyxiation appeared the most likely cause of death. Fewer than one in five whales were killed instantaneously and the average time to death for the remaining whales was around 10 min. The presence of Greenpeace did not result in a reduced accuracy of harpoon shots when compared with previous studies.     

香港九龙大坑东地下蓄水方案数值研究

香港九龙大坑东地下蓄水方案(Tai Hang Tung Storage Scheme-THTSS)是香港西九龙渠道改善二期计划的一个重要组成部分,其目标是解决香港九龙繁华拥挤、人口稠密的商业中心旺角一带的洪水淹没问题。THTSS即是在经常洪水淹没区域(大坑东和界限街水渠交接处)上游足球场下面建立一个100 000 m3的地下蓄水池。本文建立了一个能处理明渠缓流和急流、封闭管道有压流、侧流堰和渠道汇合处过渡流于一体的一维水力数学模型,用1:22正态物理模型恒定流下的结果进行验证。数值模型计算了在50年一遇暴雨下,非恒定洪水在不同的侧流堰方案下的流动过程。结合物理模型试验结果,选择最佳的地下蓄水方案。计算结果表明,大坑东地下蓄水方案确实能加强旺角地区地洪水控制能力,并能通过50年一遇暴雨的洪水。     

多接收器电感耦合等离子体质谱的新应用

无机地球化学研究的进展通常依赖于新的技术开发。电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP—MS）技术可以进行高精度的同位素比值分析，使以前很难测定的元素的分析成为可能。牛津大学地球科学系已经越来越多地开展多接收器电感耦合等离子体质谱分析，着重于解决从宇宙至环境化学领域的诸多问题。目前主要研究Cr同位素，确定Cr对Jurassic—Triassic边界可能产生的影响事件，以及采用铀系列同位素进行海洋学研究。     

Water balance modeling over variable time scales based on the Budyko framework – Model development and testing

Partitioning of precipitation into evapotranspiration and runoff is controlled by climate and catchment characteristics. The degree of control exerted by these factors varies with the spatial and temporal scales of processes modeled. The Budyko framework or the “limits” concept was used to model water balance at four temporal scales (mean annual, annual, monthly and daily). The method represents a top-down approach to hydrologic modeling and is expected to achieve parsimony of model parameters. Daily precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and streamflow from 265 catchments in Australia were used. On a mean annual basis, the index of dryness defined as the ratio of potential evapotranspiration to precipitation was confirmed to be a dominant factor in determining the water balance with one model parameter. Analysis of the data, however, suggested increased model complexity is necessary on finer time scale such as monthly. In response, the Budyko framework for mean annual water balance was extended to include additional factors and this resulted in a parsimonious lumped conceptual model on shorter-time scale. The model was calibrated and tested against measured streamflow at variable time scales and showed promising results. The strengths of the model are consistent water balance relationships across different time scales, and model parsimony and robustness. As result, the model has the potential to be used to predict streamflow for ungauged catchments.     

鼓丘和巨型冰川线理的冰川摩擦学:剥蚀和沉积的争论之谜得到解决?

冰流是指冰盖中快速流动(高达10 km/a)的区域。冰流通常长达1000 km,宽200 km,嵌入在冰盖中。沿其流动方向形成了低幅度波纹状基岩床。这些波纹状基岩床由一些高度拉伸的沿着流向呈平行状分布的脊和沟槽(巨型冰川线理)组成。这些巨型冰川线理在空间上继承自体积大、拉伸程度低的鼓丘。由于鼓丘核部的地质条件复杂多变且不存在特征性的岩相,同时很难直接观察到现代冰盖下鼓丘的形成,因而鼓丘的起源在世界上仍然是未解之谜。基于新的高分辨率(0.5 m)LiDAR数据绘制的地形图和对更新世古冰流岩床进行野外地质考察表明,鼓丘和巨型冰川线理是底形连续体(后者由前者演化而来)。它们由基岩或部分岩石和早期较老的沉积物组成,基于此部分学者提出了鼓丘的侵蚀起源说。本文重点介绍了类似鼓丘和巨型冰川线理的椭圆-流线型和带有沟槽的表面,这些表面广泛形成于多种非冰川的地质环境中(无论是在地球上还是在火星上),它们是由于受限剪切作用下颗粒状碎屑对基底面的磨损所产生的。变质核杂岩中的大型滑脱断层和俯冲带巨型逆冲断层的表面显示出槽状表面,其形状和规模能够与巨型冰川线理相类比。多尺度的断层面上都表现出了逐渐消除的类似鼓丘...     

RoboNet‐II: Follow‐up observations of microlensing events with a robotic network of telescopes

RoboNet‐II uses a global network of robotic telescopes to perform follow‐up observations of microlensing events in the Galactic Bulge. The current network consists of three 2 m telescopes located in Hawaii and Australia (owned by Las Cumbres Observatory) and the Canary Islands (owned by Liverpool John Moores University). In future years the network will be expanded by deploying clusters of 1 m telescopes in other suitable locations. A principal scientific aim of the RoboNet‐II project is the detection of cool extra‐solar planets by the method of gravitational microlensing. These detections will provide crucial constraints to models of planetary formation and orbital migration. RoboNet‐II acts in coordination with the PLANET microlensing follow‐up network and uses an optimization algorithm (“web‐PLOP”) to select the targets and a distributed scheduling paradigm (eSTAR) to execute the observations. Continuous automated assessment of the observations and anomaly detection is provided by the ARTEMiS system (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)