Institutionalised religion: sacred texts and Jewish spatial practice

Institutionalised religion, as a powerful force in the structuring of the daily lives of probably the majority of the world’s population, is a field of social research to which geographers can usefully contribute. This paper examines ancient and contemporary forms of Judaism, exploring the underlying codes and regulations designed to structure every aspect of life. The first part of the paper examines institutionalised uses of space in ancient times, as recorded in the sacred Jewish text of the Talmud. Through the sacred geography of the great Temple in Jerusalem and the legal authority of the religious court to punish offenders, the social system was (in principle at least) highly ordered and regulated. The second part examines the institutionalisation of the religion in contemporary times, which for orthodox Jews involves attempting to practise and maintain these same ancient codes and regulations. Practising ancient ways of life in contemporary (post)modern contexts can be extremely difficult, however, which I discuss with reference to the proposals of the religious authorities in Manchester, England, to construct an eruv; a legalistic device consisting of poles and wires which changes the classification of space, allowing (in particular) the elderly, infirm and parents with young children to travel on the Sabbath. The device faces criticism from secular and religious sources over the rights to ‘claim space’ and the religious legalistic viability of the project.     

Axtell and Allende: A Mössbauer spectroscopic study

Abstract— Mössbauer spectra showed the CV3 oxidized subgroup meteorites Allende and Axtell to be similar in olivine content and in a surprising lack of pronounced magnetic components, but different in Fe³⁺ phases. One atypical Allende sample showed an 8% area under the curve for magnetite, which is still less than a reported value for a CV3 reduced subgroup member. Allende's unusual Fe³⁺ spectral region distinguishes it from most other stony meteorites and is difficult to fit to known mineral parameters.     

Comparison between reconstructions of global anthropogenic land cover change over past two millennia

Three global datasets, the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE), Kaplan and Krumhardt (KK) and Pongratz of reconstructed anthropogenic land cover change (ALCC) were introduced and compared in this paper. The HYDE dataset was reconstructed by Goldewijk and his colleagues at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in Netherland, covering the past 12 000 years. The KK dataset was reconstructed by Kaplan and his colleagues, the Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Research Group at the Institute of Environmental Engineering in Switzerland, covering the past 8000 years. The Pongratz dataset was reconstructed by Pon-gratz and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany, covering AD 800-1992. The results show that the reconstructed datasets are quite different from each other due to the different methods used. The three datasets all allocated the historical ALCC according to human population density. The main reason causing the differences among the three datasets lies on the different relationships between population density and land use used in each reconstructed dataset. The KK dataset is better than the other two datasets for two important reasons. First, it used the nonlinear relationship between population density and land use, while the other two used the linear relationship. Second, Kaplan and his colleagues adopted the technological development and intensification parameters and considered the wood harvesting and the long-term fallow area resulted from shifting cultivation, which were neglected in the reconstructions of the other two datasets. Therefore, the KK dataset is more suitable as one of the anthropogenic forcing fields for climate simulation over the past two millennia that is recently concerned by two projects, the National Basic Research Program and the Strategic and Special Frontier Project of Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

Flow-plant interactions at a leaf scale: effects of leaf shape, serration, roughness and flexural rigidity

The effects of leaf shape, serration, roughness and flexural rigidity on drag force imposed by flowing water and its time variability were experimentally studied in an open-channel flume at seven leaf Reynolds numbers ranging from 5 to 35 × 10³. The study involved artificial leaves of the same surface area but with three shapes (‘elliptic’, ‘rectangular’ and ‘pinnate’), three flexural rigidities, smooth-edge and sawtooth-like serration, and three combinations of surface roughness (two-side rough, one-side rough/one-side smooth, and two-side smooth). Shape was the most important factor determining flow-leaf interactions, with flexural rigidity, serration and surface roughness affecting the magnitude but not the direction of the effect on drag control. The smooth-edge elliptic leaf had a better hydrodynamic shape as it experienced less drag force, with the rectangular leaf showing slightly less efficiency. The pinnate leaf experienced higher drag force than the other leaves due to its complex geometry. It is likely that flow separation from 12 leaflets of the pinnate leaf prevented leaf reconfiguration such as leaflets folding and/or streamlining. Flexural rigidity strongly influenced the leaf reconfiguration and augmented the serration effect since very rigid leaves showed a strong effect of serration. Furthermore, serration changed the turbulence pattern around the leaves by increasing the turbulence intensity. Surface roughness was observed to enhance the drag force acting on the leaf at high Reynolds numbers. The results also suggest that there are two distinctly different flow-leaf interaction regimes: (I) regime of passive interaction at low turbulence levels when the drag statistics are completely controlled by the turbulence statistics, and (II) regime of active interaction at high turbulence levels when the effect of leaf properties on the drag statistics becomes comparable to the turbulence contribution.     

Biosecurity risks associated with in-water and shore-based marine vessel hull cleaning operations

The removal of biofouling from vessels during hull cleaning can pose a biosecurity threat if viable, non-indigenous organisms are released into the aquatic environment. However, the effect of cleaning on biofouling organism viability in different types of cleaning operations has been poorly studied. We compared the effects of hull cleaning on biofouling organisms removed from 36 marine vessels during in-water (without capture of cleaning waste) and shore-based (with capture, and treatment of cleaning waste) cleaning. In-water cleaning resulted in higher proportions of viable biofouling organisms surviving cleaning (62.3 ± 7.1% of all organisms examined) compared to dry dock (37.8 ± 8.6%) and haul-out (20.1 ± 5.3%) operations. For shore-based facilities with effluent treatment systems, concentrations of organisms and/or their propagules in cleaning effluent was reduced by ≥ 98.5% compared to initial hydro-blast effluent concentrations. These results can be used in guidance for hull cleaning operations to minimize associated biosecurity risk.     

Timeline analysis and wavelet multiscale analysis of the AKARI All-Sky Survey at 90 μm

We present a careful analysis of the point-source detection limit of the AKARI All-Sky Survey in the WIDE-S 90-μm band near the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP). Timeline analysis is used to detect IRAS ( Infrared Astronomy Satellite ) sources and then a conversion factor is derived to transform the peak timeline signal to the interpolated 90-μm flux of a source. Combined with a robust noise measurement, the point-source flux detection limit at signal-to-noise ratio  (S/N) > 5  for a single detector row is  1.1 ± 0.1 Jy  which corresponds to a point-source detection limit of the survey of ∼0.4 Jy.
Wavelet transform offers a multiscale representation of the Time Series Data ( tsd ). We calculate the continuous wavelet transform of the tsd and then search for significant wavelet coefficients considered as potential source detections. To discriminate real sources from spurious or moving objects, only sources with confirmation are selected. In our multiscale analysis, IRAS sources selected above 4σ can be identified as the only real sources at the Point Source Scales. We also investigate the correlation between the non- IRAS sources detected in timeline analysis and cirrus emission using wavelet transform and contour plots of wavelet power spectrum. It is shown that the non- IRAS sources are most likely to be caused by excessive noise over a large range of spatial scales rather than real extended structures such as cirrus clouds.     

Depth and character of rock weathering across a basaltic‐hosted climosequence on Hawai‘i

Using field observations and geochemical and digital terrain analyses, we describe the structure and thickness of the regolith across a climosequence on the island of Hawai‘i to gain insight into the relative roles of precipitation and the near‐surface hydrologic structure in determining weathering patterns. In the wet portion of the climosequence, where the long‐term water balance is positive, the regolith thickness reaches an observed maximum of ~40 m and appears limited by the geomorphic base‐level of the landscape. However, even within this thick regolith, distinct units of varying weathering intensity occur; the vertical ordering of which largely reflects differences in the initial permeability structure of the basalt flows rather than a systematic decrease in weathering intensity downwards from the ground surface. In the dry portion of the climosequence, where the long‐term water balance is negative, the regolith thickness is confined to ~1 m, is highly dependent on the inferred permeability structure of the basalt flows, and is independent of geomorphic base‐level. Weathering intensity also varies according to permeability structure and decreases in this thin regolith with distance beneath the ground surface. The abrupt change in regolith depth and character that coincides with the transition from net‐positive to net‐negative long‐term water balance implies that small changes in precipitation rates around a neutral water balance result in large changes in the distribution and depth of weathering. Together our observations indicate that the distribution and depth of weathering in basalts (and probably other lithologies) might be best understood by considering how precipitation interacts with the complicated near‐surface permeability structure over regolith‐forming timescales to weather rock in the vadose zone. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling basin-scale distribution of fish occurrence probability for assessment of flow and habitat conditions in rivers

Abstract

Flow regimes play an important role in sustaining biodiversity in river ecosystems. However, the effects of flow regimes on riverine fish have not been clearly described. Therefore, we propose a new methodology to quantitatively link habitat conditions (such as flow indices and physical habitat conditions) to the occurrence probability (OP) of fish species. We developed a basin-scale fish distribution model by integrating the concept of habitat suitability assessment with a distributed hydrological model in order to estimate the OP of fish, with particular attention to flow regime. A generalized linear model was used to evaluate the relationship between the probabilities of fish occurrence and major environmental factors in river sections. A geomorphology-based hydrological model was adopted to simulate river discharge, which was used to calculate 10 flow indices. The occurrence probabilities of 50 fish species in the Sagami River in Japan were modelled. For the prediction accuracy, field survey results that included at least five observations of both the presence and the absence of each species were required to obtain relatively reliable prediction (accuracy > 60%). Using the developed model, important habitat conditions for each species were identified, which showed the importance of low-flow events for more than 10 species, including Hypomesus nipponensis and Rhinogobius fluviatilis. The model also confirmed the positive effects of natural flow and the negative effect of river-crossing structures, such as dams and weirs, on the OP of most species. The suggested approach enables us to evaluate and project the ecological consequences of water resource management policy. The results demonstrate the applicability of the fish distribution model to provide quantitative information on the flow required to maintain fish communities.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Sui, P., Iwasaki, A., Saavedra, V.O.C., and Yoshimura, C., 2013. Modelling basin-scale distribution of fish occurrence probability for assessment of flow and habitat conditions in rivers. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 618–628.