Sustainability,corporate growers,regionalisation and Pacific‐Asia links in the Tasmanian and Hawkes Bay apple industries

This paper examines the differing modes of insertion of the Australian and New Zealand apple industries into world apple markets, part of the evolving global fresh fruit complex. It is argued that the mix and behaviours of key actors in the global apple industry are realigning market links and production systems. Industry actors in Australia and New Zealand are confronting issues of quality and sustainability as a result of pressures from consumers, regulatory measures in traditional and emerging markets, and new technologies of production and distribution. Governments are laying the foundations of national, regional and industry sustainability policies. An examination of the detailed structure and adjustments of the apple industry in Hawkes Bay and Tasmania reveals considerable differences in local responses, institutions and degree of restructuring of markets. The preferences and quality control requirements of export markets are increasingly important, to the extent that cultural dimensions appear to be altering the commodification process.     

青藏高原北部大型走滑断裂带近地表地质变形带特征分析

阿尔金断裂带、东昆仑断裂带和海原断裂带是青藏高原北部的大型左旋走滑断裂带,具有相对高的地质和GPS滑动速率,地表破裂型地震频发。在阿尔金断裂带阿克塞老城西和半果巴、东昆仑断裂带西大滩和玛沁、海原断裂带松山等地点的探槽地质剖面揭露了这些走滑断裂带累积地质变形带的基本特征。阿尔金断裂带半果巴探槽和阿克塞老城西探槽、东昆仑断裂带西大滩探槽和玛沁探槽揭露出的地质变形带宽度约12m左右;海原断裂带松山拉分盆地边界单条走滑断层地质变形带宽度不足10m,考虑到地震期间拉分盆地可能会出现较严重的变形,则拉分盆地本身也应作为强变形带处理。由此可见,经历过多个地震地表破裂循环的东昆仑断裂带、海原断裂带和阿尔金断裂带其地质变形带的宽度是有限的,具有变形局部化特征。单条走滑断层的地质变形带宽度一般为10余米,比较保守地估计应<30m,走滑断层斜列阶区的地质变形带宽度取决于阶区本身的宽度     

An original method for characterizing internal waves

This study consisted in the characterization of internal waves in the south of the Strait of Messina (Italy). The observational data consisted in thermistor string profiles from the Coastal Ocean Acoustic Changes at High frequencies (COACH06) sea trial.An empirical orthogonal function analysis is applied to the data. The first two spatial empirical modes represent over 99% of the variability, and their corresponding time-dependent expansion coefficients take higher absolute values during internal wave events. In order to check how the expansion coefficients vary during an internal wave event, their time derivative, called here changing rates, are computed. It shows that each wave of an internal wave train is characterized by a double oscillation of the changing rates. At the front of the wave, both changing rates increase in absolute value with opposite sign, and then decrease to become null at the maximum amplitude of the wave. At the rear of the wave, the changing rates describe another period, again with opposite sign. This double oscillation can be used as a detector of internal waves, but it can also give information on the width of the wave, by measuring the length of the oscillation, as this information may sometimes be hard to read straight out of the data. When plotting the changing rates one versus another, the resulting scatter diagram puts on a butterfly shape that illustrates well this behaviour.     

Hydrocarbons on moon

Earth is unique in the solar system in having a temperate climate, abundant water, and life. Now evidence from silicon isotopes found by a team from the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich suggests that Earth is unusual in the way that the core formed, too.     

Copper isotopes as monitors of redox processes in hydrothermal mineralization

The stable copper isotope composition of 79 samples of primary and secondary copper minerals from hydrothermal veins in the Schwarzwald mining district, South Germany, shows a wide variation in δ⁶⁵Cu ranging from −2.92 to 2.41‰. We investigated primary chalcopyrite, various kinds of fahlores and emplectite, as well as supergene native copper, malachite, azurite, cuprite, tenorite, olivenite, pseudomalachite and chrysocolla. Fresh primary Cu(I) ores have at most localities copper isotope ratios (δ⁶⁵Cu values) of 0 ± 0.5‰ despite the fact that the samples come from mineralogically different types of deposits covering an area of about 100 by 50 km and that they formed during three different mineralization events spanning the last 300 Ma. Relics of the primary ores in oxidized samples (i.e., chalcopyrite relics in an iron oxide matrix with an outer malachite coating) display low isotope ratios down to −2.92‰. Secondary Cu(I) minerals such as cuprite have high δ⁶⁵Cu values between 0.4 and 1.65‰, whereas secondary Cu(II) minerals such as malachite show a range of values between −1.55 and 2.41‰, but typically have values above +0.5‰. Within single samples, supergene oxidation of fresh chalcopyrite with a δ value of 0‰ causes significant fractionation on the scale of a centimetre between malachite (up to 1.49‰) and relict chalcopyrite (down to −2.92‰). The results show that—with only two notable exceptions—high-temperature hydrothermal processes did not lead to significant and correlatable variations in copper isotope ratios within a large mining district mineralized over a long period of time. Conversely, low-temperature redox processes seriously affect the copper isotope compositions of hydrothermal copper ores. While details of the redox processes are not yet understood, we interpret the range in compositions found in both primary Cu(I) and secondary Cu(II) minerals as a result of two competing controls on the isotope fractionation process: within-fluid control, i.e., the fractionation during the redox process among dissolved species, and fluid-solid control, i.e., fractionation during precipitation involving reactions between dissolved Cu species and minerals. Additionally, Rayleigh fractionation in a closed system may be responsible for some of the spread in isotope compositions. Our study indicates that copper isotope variations may be used to decipher details of natural redox processes and therefore may have some bearing on exploration, evaluation and exploitation of copper deposits. On the other hand, copper isotope analyses of single archeological artefacts or geological or biological objects cannot be easily used as reliable fingerprint for the source of copper, because the variation caused by redox processes within a single deposit is usually much larger than the inter-deposit variation.     

The Galactic disc distribution of planetary nebulae with warm dust emission features – I

We investigate the Galactic disc distribution of a sample of planetary nebulae characterized in terms of their mid-infrared spectral features. The total number of Galactic disc PNe with 8–13 μm spectra is brought up to 74 with the inclusion of 24 new objects, the spectra of which we present for the first time. 54 PNe have clearly identified warm dust emission features, and form a sample that we use to construct the distribution of the C/O chemical balance in Galactic disc PNe. The dust emission features complement the information on the progenitor masses brought by the gas-phase N/O ratios: PNe with unidentified infrared emission bands have the highest N/O ratios, while PNe with the silicate signature have either very high N enrichment or close to none. We find a trend for a decreasing proportion of O-rich PNe towards the third and fourth Galactic quadrants. Two independent distance scales confirm that the proportion of O-rich PNe decreases from     per cent inside the solar circle to     per cent outside. PNe with warm dust are also the youngest. PNe with no warm dust are uniformly distributed in C/O and N/O ratios, and do not appear to be confined to     They also have higher 6-cm fluxes, as expected from more evolved PNe. We show that the IRAS fluxes are a good representation of the bolometric flux for compact and IR-bright PNe, which are probably optically thick. Selection of objects with     should probe a good portion of the Galactic disc for these young, dense and compact nebulae, and the dominant selection effects are rooted in the PN catalogues.