The informal Australian city

In recent years, a vibrant literature on urban informality has emerged in urban geography. A key claim of this literature is that informality is not only present in cities in the Global South, and that the concept can be usefully applied to understand important dimensions of urbanisation in cities in the Global North. In this paper, we apply insights from that literature to an examination of informality in Australian cities, as a means of deepening our understanding of changes currently underway in urban governance and politics. Drawing on that literature and our own research into informal practices in Australian cities, we examine the forces that help to produce informality, the diverse forms and agents of informality, the forms of authority that they enact, and their relationship to formal economies, regulations and politics. We use examples of informal housing, informal labour, do-it-yourself music venues, graffiti and its regulation, food foraging, and queer community building in Sydney to illustrate our arguments. We conclude by reflecting on the lessons learnt across these diverse cases for our understanding of urban governance and politics in Australia, and offer an agenda for further research on this issue.     

Productivity, trophic levels and size spectra of zooplankton in northern Norwegian shelf regions

Many studies have been conducted in northern Norwegian shelf regions to assess distributions and abundances of zooplankton in the last decade using towed Scanfish-conductivity, temperature and depth sensors (CTD)–optical plankton counter (OPC), and plankton nets. Significant progresses have been made in understanding dominant species, life histories and behavior, and in using size-structured data to identify dominant species in a certain size range. Using these Scanfish–CTD–OPC data, the analysis of zooplankton community size structures, compositions and their relationships with water types is made along the shelf region from Lofoten, North Cape to Varangerfjorden. From the relationships between the water types and zooplankton communities, the transports and exchanges of zooplankton communities between the Norwegian Coastal and Norwegian Atlantic Waters in regions near Malangsgrunnen and Nordvestbanken are examined. The biovolume (biomass) spectra are further analyzed for the productivity, trophic levels and seasonality of communities in these regions, indicating a steeper slope of the biovolume spectrum for a community dominated by herbivorous species in spring and a flatter slope for a community dominated by carnivorous–omnivorous species in winter. The comparison with the zooplankton biovolume spectra obtained in areas west of Antarctic Peninsula is made to examine and understand the differences in the zooplankton biovolume spectra, their trophic dynamics and potential human impacts between different regions.     

Petrology of chlorite-spinel marbles from NW Spitsbergen (Svalbard)

Small dolomite marble lenses and bands occur in the vast Caledonian migmatite and gneiss area of NW Spitsbergen (Svalbard archipelago). The fine-banded marbles contain numerous assemblages of minerals: calcite, dolomite, olivine, clinohumite, diopside, amphibole, chlorite, spiner and phologopite. The coexistence of calcite + dolomite + olivine + chlorite + spinel over the entire area indicates metamorphic temperatures of 600 to 680° at an estimated pressure of 4 kilobars. A temperature of near 600°C for the peak of metamorphism is suggested by mineral assemblages at the southernmost locality, Jäderinfjellet. Calcite-dolomite geothermometry indicated 595°C at the same locality. The spatial distribution of the marble assemblages suggests that metamorphism occurred under nearly isothermal conditions over an area of at least 25 by 30 kilometres.     

Geodetic monitoring of tectonic deformation in the Australian region

A number of geodetic techniques exist for measuring instantaneous crustal motions and deformations. Over distances of a few hundred kilometres, conventional terrestrial methods can achieve accuracies of about 1–2 parts in 10⁶ for horizontal positions, but most existing triangulation networks in Australia are of lower accuracies. Geodetic levelling can provide height‐difference measurements with an accuracy of a few mm for points separated by about 100 km, but actual accuracies are often much lower than this. For points separated by longer distances, from a few 100 km to several 1000 km, space techniques can provide precisions of 5–10 cm. Two experiments carried out in Australia confirm that these precisions can be reached. A laser ranging experiment between sites near Canberra and Perth produced a baseline that is precise to better than 10 cm, and a radio‐interferometry experiment between Canberra, Parkes and Sydney produced baselines with precisions of 10 cm. Further evaluation of both systems is required, but the present results indicate that crustal deformations of the order of 10 cm can be measured with repeat surveys.     

Description and crystal structure of albrechtschraufite, MgCa4F2[UO2(CO3)3]2⋅17-18H2O

Albrechtschraufite, MgCa₄F₂[UO₂(CO₃)₃]₂?17-18H₂O, triclinic, space group Pī, a?=?13.569(2), b?=?13.419(2), c?=?11.622(2) Å, α?=?115.82(1), β?=?107.61(1), γ?=?92.84(1)° (structural unit cell, not reduced), V?=?1774.6(5) ų, Z?=?2, D _c?=?2.69 g/cm³ (for 17.5 H₂O), is a mineral that was found in small amounts with schröckingerite, NaCa₃F[UO₂(CO₃)₃](SO₄)?10H₂O, on a museum specimen of uranium ore from Joachimsthal (Jáchymov), Czech Republic. The mineral forms small grain-like subhedral crystals (≤ 0.2 mm) that resemble in appearance liebigite, Ca₂[UO₂(CO₃)₃]??~?11H₂O. Colour pale yellow-green, luster vitreous, transparent, pale bluish green fluorescence under ultraviolet light. Optical data: Biaxial negative, nX?=?1.511(2), nY?=?1.550(2), nZ?=?1.566(2), 2?V?=?65(1)° (λ?=?589 nm), r < v weak. After qualitative tests had shown the presence of Ca, U, Mg, CO₂ and H₂O, the chemical formula was determined by a crystal structure analysis based on X-ray four-circle diffractometer data. The structure was later on refined with data from a CCD diffractometer to R1?=?0.0206 and wR2?=?0.0429 for 9,236 independent observed reflections. The crystal structure contains two independent [UO₂(CO₃)₃]^4? anions of which one is bonded to two Mg and six Ca while the second is bonded to only one Mg and three Ca. Magnesium forms a MgF₂(O_carbonate)₃(H₂O) octahedron that is linked via the F atoms with three Ca atoms so as to provide each F atom with a flat pyramidal coordination by one Mg and two Ca. Calcium is 7- and 8-coordinate forming CaFO₆, CaF₂O₂(H₂O)₄, CaFO₃(H₂O)₄ and CaO₂(H₂O)₆ coordination polyhedra. The crystal structure is built up from MgCa₃F₂[UO₂(CO₃)₃]?8H₂O layers parallel to (001) which are linked by Ca[UO₂(CO₃)₃]?5H₂O moieties into a framework of the composition MgCa₄F₂[UO₂(CO₃)₃]?13H₂O. Five additional water molecules are located in voids of the framework and show large displacement parameters. One of the water positions is partly vacant, leading to a total water content of 17-18H₂O per formula unit. The MgCa₃F₂[UO₂(CO₃)₃]?8H₂O layers are pseudosymmetric according to plane group symmetry cmm. The remaining constituents do not sustain this pseudosymmetry and make the entire structure truly triclinic. A characteristic paddle-wheel motif Ca[UO₂(CO₃)₃]₄Ca relates the structure of albrechtschraufite partly to that of andersonite and two synthetic alkali calcium uranyl tricarbonates.     

Economic Efficiency of Residential Water Conservation Programs in a Pennsylvania Public Water Utility

This study examines the economic efficiency of implementing a residential water conservation program in a small Pennsylvania public water utility. Local demographic data and results from similar programs elsewhere were used to estimate potential water conservation for three programs: rebates for low-flow toilets, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, and in-home water audits. Future water supply and wastewater treatment demand were estimated. The net present value of constructing, operating, and maintaining new capacity infrastructure (water supply, water storage tanks, and wastewater treatment plant capacity), as well as the costs of the conservation programs, was calculated for a range of scenarios that included future demand growth, construction costs, interest rates, and levels of participation in the conservation programs. Results indicate that investing in residential water conservation would be cost-effective for a small number of scenarios that generally combine higher growth rates, higher interest rates, higher construction costs, and relatively modest public participation in conservation. The results are affected by the timing of necessary supply-side investments relative to the most significant water conservation gains, the relatively inexpensive local water supply costs, and the relatively high local wastewater treatment costs. Water conservation might be cost-effective for a wider range of conditions in communities facing scarce and expensive water supply options.     

Landscape ‘Contagion’ in Raster and Vector Environments

Abstract

Raster land cover data has been used to construct adjacency matrices by scanning the pixel edges and calculating proportions according to the land cover types joined. Like joins (e.g., forest to forest) are most common because pixel size is typically much smaller than the average patch size. The dominance of like joins (the matrix diagonal) of the adjacency matrix has led to one interpretation of the matrix as landscape contagion (the tendency of land cover to cluster into a few, large patches). Construction of the adjacency matrix in a vector environment results in a different measurement. In a vector environment, land cover patches are not sub–divided into pixels. Therefore, the main diagonal of the adjacency matrix is zero. Construction of an adjacency matrix in a vector environment estimates the evenness of distribution of edge types, not contagion. The same edge type evenness metric is estimated in a raster environment by ignoring the matrix diagonal and re-scaling the off-diagonal elements so that they sum to one (1).     

Dynamics and energetics of the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar flare of January 20, 2005, based on data from hard electromagnetic radiation detectors onboard the CORONAS-F satellite

Based on data from the SONG and SPR-N multichannel hard electromagnetic radiation detectors onboard the CORONAS-F space observatory and the X-ray monitors onboard GOES satellites, we have distinguished the thermal and nonthermal components in the X-ray spectrum of an extreme solar flare on January 20, 2005. In the impulsive flare phase determined from the time of the most efficient electron and proton acceleration, we have obtained parameters of the spectra for both components and their variations in the time interval 06:43–06:54 UT. The spectral index in the energy range 0.2–2 MeV for a single-power-law spectrum of accelerated electrons is shown to have been close to 3.4 for most of the time interval under consideration. We have determined the time dependence of the lower energy cutoff in the energy spectrum of nonthermal photons E _γ0(t) at which the spectral flux densities of the thermal and nonthermal components become equal. The power deposited by accelerated electrons into the flare volume has been estimated using the thick-target model under two assumptions about the boundary energy E ₀ of the electron spectrum: (i) E ₀ is determined by E _γ0(t) and (ii) E ₀ is determined by the characteristic heated plasma energy (≈5kT (t)). The reality of the first assumption is proven by the fact that plasma cooling sets in at a time when the radiative losses begin to prevail over the power deposited by electrons only in this case. Comparison of the total energy deposited by electrons with a boundary energy E _γ0(t) with the thermal energy of the emitting plasma in the time interval under consideration has shown that the total energy deposited by accelerated electrons at the beginning of the impulsive flare phase before 06:47 UT exceeds the thermal plasma energy by a factor of 1.5–2; subsequently, these energies become approximately equal and are ～(4–5) × 10³⁰ erg under the assumption that the filling factor is 0.5–0.6.     

On the ground level enhancement beginning

Based on our analysis of the data fromthe global network of neutronmonitors for several events, we have found the times of the first increases in count rate at individual stations that precede the main solar cosmic-ray enhancement. The onset time of proton acceleration at the Sun has been determined from the appearance of a broad gamma-ray line with its maximum near 70 MeV that is generated during the decay of neutral pions, which, in turn, are produced when protons with energies above 300 MeV interact with the solar atmosphere. The time of the first recording of energetic protons at the Earth is delayed relative to the time at which these protons appeared at the Sun by 60–300 s, i.e., by a value comparable to the difference between the direct photon and particle propagation times. At least two conclusions follow from the existence of such “precursors”. First, the protons begin to escape from the solar atmosphere into interplanetary space immediately after their acceleration. Second, some of the protons traverse a path shorter than the nominal length of interplanetary magnetic field lines.