Search for the 3.4-μm C-H Spectral Bands on Low-Albedo Asteroids

A report of the detection of the C-H hydrocarbon band complex at 3.4 μm in an asteroid spectrum, by D. P. Cruikshank and R. H. Brown (1987, Science238, 183-184) is not confirmed by recent data of higher quality. Spectra of the same asteroid and six other low-albedo asteroids do not show this feature, which if present would indicate the presence of hydrocarbons and might link these asteroids with certain classes of carbonaceous meteorites.     

Online Survey of Heterogeneous Users and Their Usage of the Interactive Mapping Platform WorldMap

This article reports on the results of an online survey with 290 heterogeneous users of the interactive mapping platform WorldMap and provides insights into problems faced by such users. Heterogeneous users are users with a variety of GIS skills, educational background, gender, and age categories. We investigate how they interact with online maps and analyse their experience. WorldMap represents as a case study of an online mapping platform which aims to serve researchers and users across disciplines in viewing and creating online interactive maps. We concentrate on operations that are perceived as difficult and very difficult by the majority of users as well as operations that are rarely used. Our aim is to contribute to the discussions on how to improve the design of online GIS-based mapping platforms. We conclude the paper with reflections on the results of our study and ideas for further research.     

A living Mars?

The possibility of a living Mars is deeply ingrained in popular culture. The observations of the astronomer Percival Lowell, and his interpretation that these canals were built to channel melt-water from the polar regions down to the dying cities and farms huddled around the equator, are well known. Even into the 1960s, textbooks were being published that explained the temporal variation in surface brightness as due to the seasonal spread of vegetation. Martians are the science-fiction writer's alien invader of choice, from the heat-ray-wielding tripods of H.G. Wells to the bulbous-headed aggressors of Tim Burton's 1996 film Mars Attacks. With the armada of robotic probes currently orbiting and roving across the red planet, Mars has never been so forefront in the public eye. Much of this interest is focussed on the possibility that our planetary neighbour has supported an independent genesis of life, and that in certain regions it may remain habitable even to this day. A selection of some of the most recent results and discoveries concerning the astrobiological potential of Mars are discussed.     

Order parameter coupling in leucite: a calorimetric study

The thermal anomalies associated with the Ia3d → I4₁/acd → I4₁/a transition sequence of phase transitions in leucite have been studied by differential scanning calorimetry and interpreted with Landau theory. Both transitions are close to the tricritical point. The coupling between the two transitions is biquadratic, and reduces the stability of the I4₁/a phase.     

Boosted bodies: Genetic techniques, domestic livestock bodies and complex representations of life

This paper focuses on the burgeoning application of genetic techniques in livestock agriculture, examining how these are changing livestock breeding knowledge-practices and the representation of animal life. Conventional livestock breeding relies on visual appraisal of animals and maintaining performance records, whereas genetic and genomic techniques offer the potential to assess particular aspects of animals’ genotypes. Advertising and promotional material produced by organisations involved in developing genetic techniques, and reportage and discussion of such techniques in the agricultural media, are used to examine the ways in which the production and value of living bodies in the future is being mapped out in emerging knowledge-practice networks which centre around particular visions and representations of what livestock bodies are and should do or be. The paper argues that bodies should be understood in part in terms of the wider spatial relationships in which they are entangled. A process of’circulating reference’ [Latour, B., 1999. Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA] is identified in which rounds of simplification occur in relation to the representation of the genetic qualities of livestock animals. However, these attempts to simplify produce new complexities when livestock breeders attempt to make use of genetic knowledge-practices. Identifying different modes of complexity, the paper discusses their spatiality in terms of differences between genetic abstractions from animal bodies and breeders ‘multi-layered ‘lay’ knowledges of their livestock animals.     

Temporal variability of climate in south‐eastern Australia: a reassessment of flood‐ and drought‐dominated regimes

Inter‐decadal periods of high and low flood activity have been considered to be the dominant factor driving river metamorphosis in catchments along the New South Wales coast. Recent work has questioned the data analysis techniques used in delineating the so‐called flood‐and drought‐dominated regimes (FDRs/DDRs). Concerns have also been raised about the validity of invoking a climatic control for river metamorphosis documented during the post‐European period, when extensive anthropogenic alteration of catchment and riparian vegetation has also occurred. This paper reviews the evolution of the FDR/DDR concept. We examine the evidence for FDRs/DDRs, and highlight problems with the original hydrological data sets, as well as with the techniques employed in the time‐series analysis. We discuss conceptual problems encountered in applying flood‐frequency analysis, and the failure of the proponents of the FDR/DDR theory to consider large‐scale climatic circulation patterns and the geographical boundaries of their influence. We conclude that the validity of the FDR/DDR notion has been seriously over‐stated, and that managing rivers on the basis that FDRs/DDRs have occurred in the past, and will continue to occur in the future, is likely to be ineffective.     

Heading Households and Heading Businesses: Rural Kenyan Women in the Informal Sector

The dynamics of intra-household economics among sedentary farmers in rural Kenya suggest that women, whether or not they have a male household head, are responsible for providing basic resources to insure the daily survival of household members. Many rural Kenyan women operate small businesses in rural market centers in order to meet these obligations, and many of these women are also heads of their households. This paper examines women's resource bases for establishing and maintaining small-scale businesses. Compared to women who are associated with male-headed households, women who head households have fewer resources for establishing businesses which in turn generate lower earnings. At the same time, these women are almost completely dependent on their businesses for meeting the household's needs.