The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures

We report the final redshift release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), a combined redshift and peculiar velocity survey over the southern sky  (| b | > 10°)  . Its 136 304 spectra have yielded 110 256 new extragalactic redshifts and a new catalogue of 125 071 galaxies making near-complete samples with  ( K , H , J , r _F, b _J) ≤ (12.65, 12.95, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75)  . The median redshift of the survey is 0.053. Survey data, including images, spectra, photometry and redshifts, are available through an online data base. We describe changes to the information in the data base since earlier interim data releases. Future releases will include velocity dispersions, distances and peculiar velocities for the brightest early-type galaxies, comprising about 10 per cent of the sample. Here we provide redshift maps of the southern local Universe with   z ≤ 0.1  , showing nearby large-scale structures in hitherto unseen detail. A number of regions known previously to have a paucity of galaxies are confirmed as significantly underdense regions. The URL of the 6dFGS data base is http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS .     

Monochromatic observations of three nebular objects in the direction of NGC 1714

Using a CCD as detector, we have observed three nebulosities not yet listed in catalogues; they all present a planetary nebula morphology and are situated in the immediate neighbourhood (less than 3 arc min to the East) of NGC 1714. Observations have been made through interference filters centered on the main emission lines of these objects.The observations were made at the E.S.O. in La Silla (Chile).European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Santrago de Chile.     

Formation of a terraced fan deposit in Coprates Catena, Mars

We have studied a terraced fan deposit with unique characteristics located within a trough of Coprates Catena. The fan has an average length of 6.8 km, and is approximately 44 km² in area and 18 km³ in volume. The fan's broad contributing valley is approximately 35 km long and it noticeably increases in depth about 12.8 km before it intersects the trough, where a rounded knickpoint marks the transition between flat-floored upstream and V-shaped downstream cross-sections. A 14-km-long channel with no apparent source enters the contributing valley from the south. A much smaller sinuous channel has incised along a smaller V-shaped valley in the uppermost eastern portion of the fan deposit. We explored several possible origins for the terraced fan, including mass wasting, volcanic flow, alluvial fan, and delta. We propose that water sourced from volcanic melting of ice eroded and transported material along the contributing valley. This material was then deposited as a delta in a lake within the trough. The concentric terraces are most likely the result of shoreline or ice cover erosion during drops in lake level. A light-toned layered deposit to the east of the fan deposit along the floor of the trough may represent a sedimentary unit formed during the terminal stages of the lake. Although other terraced fans have been identified on Mars, the Coprates Catena fan is unique because it has many more terraces and its surface was incised by a channel and associated valley. The identification of several other valleys to the east suggests that volcanic melting of volatiles during the Hesperian Period created favorable conditions for water flow along the plains in this region.     

Mortar Upscaling for Multiphase Flow in Porous Media

In mortar space upscaling methods, a reservoir is decomposed into a series of subdomains (blocks) in which independently constructed numerical grids and possibly different physical models and discretization techniques can be employed in each block. Physically meaningful matching conditions are imposed on block interfaces in a numerically stable and accurate way using mortar finite element spaces. Coarse mortar grids and fine subdomain grids provide two-scale approximations. In the resulting effective solution flow is computed in subdomains on the fine scale while fluxes are matched on the coarse scale. In addition the flexibility to vary adaptively the number of interface degrees of freedom leads to more accurate multiscale approximations. This methodology has been implemented in the Center for Subsurface Modeling's multiphysics multiblock simulator IPARS (Integrated Parallel Accurate reservoir Simulator). Computational experiments demonstrate that this approach is scalable in parallel and it can be applied to non-matching grids across the interface, multinumerics and multiphysics models, and mortar adaptivity. Moreover unlike most upscaling approaches the underlying systems can be treated fully implicitly.     

Annual stability in the use of coves near inlets as settlement areas for winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)

Coves near an ocean inlet in Little Egg Harbor in southern New Jersey may be important settlement areas for winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), based on the high abundance of small postlarval individuals. During 1994–1996 we sampled in two coves and adjacent areas of this same estuary to determine if this pattern was annually consistent. Collections in spring and early summer indicated that small, recently-settled winter flounder (10–45 mm TL) were abundant in the coves from May to mid-June in every year with maximum mean densities ranging from 1.5–2.5 ind m⁻² and that these same size individuals were never collected at these densities in other habitats in the same estuary. Densities in the coves declined soon after settlement, usually by late June to early July in each year. In order to determine factors that may influence these high settlement rates we examined aspects of habitat quality by determining habitat-specific growth rates in cages for recently-settled individuals (17.5–38.3 mm TL) both inside and outside the coves during 1995. These rates (3.7–9.1 wt d⁻¹) overlapped those of other estuarine habitats (3.1–10.5 wt d⁻¹) suggesting that habitat quality, based on growth, does not differentiate the coves from other potential settlement habitats. Mark/recapture experiments for recently settled individuals (range 13–70 mm TL) in 1994 and 1996 had low recapture rates (1% in both years) suggesting that dispersal from the cove occurred soon after settlement. This pattern confirms that these coves are used as settlement areas but they are probably not used as nurseries because winter flounder, at least in this system, do not settle and stay and, as a result, use other habitats as primary nursery areas.     

Viral-like particles (VLPS) in the alga,Aureococcus anophagefferens (pelagophyceae), during 1999–2000 brown tide blooms in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey

We assessed the presence and quantified the intracellular virus-like particles (VLPs) in natural populations ofAureococcus anophagefferens during the 1999–2000 brown tide blooms that occurred in New Jersey coastal waters. From displayed a wide range of ultrastructural changes from apparently healthy cells to those showing late stages of production of VLPs. VLP-infected cells usually had an electron dense plasma membrane and lacked the typical exocellular polysaccharide layer (EPS). The VLPs were similar in size (c. 140 nm) and morphology to those initially reported in natural populations ofA. anophagefferens and to brown tide viruses (BtVs) which were previously isolated and inoculated into laboratory cultures ofA. anophagefferens. VLP-infectedA. anophagefferens were found consistently throughout the brown tide blooms in both years in Little Egg Harbor. Percentages of VLP-infected cells were 8.1% at the beginning of a bloom, which decreased to less than 2% at the height of the blooms during both years, and increased at the end of the 2000 bloom to 2.5%. While these percentages appear low, the estimated VLP infection rate ofA. anophagefferens cells, which ranged from 0.83%–50% of the standing population, is comparable to other studies.     

Periodic anoxic shelf in the Early-Middle Ordovician transition: ichnosedimentologic evidence from west-central Utah, USA

Ichnosedimentologic evidence of periodic anoxic shelf in the Early-Middle Ordovician transition includes lower ichnodiversity, shallower bioturbation and burrowing depth (<4 cm), rare domichnia, tinyChondrites occupying shallower or shallowest tiering, widely distributed nodules of limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite, occurrence of trace fossils being closely associated with the storm event layers, and stratigraphic successions with orbital cyclostratigraphic architecture. It is suggested that lower atmospheric oxygen level during the Early Paleozoic, the Ordovician radiation, dramatic transgression and warmer temperatures would result in the periodic anoxia in the Early-Middle Ordovician transition. This episode began at the later Early Ordovician and lasted about 3.4 Ma on the basis of orbital cyclostratigraphy.     

Sisterhood and Seine‐Nets: Engendering Development and Conservation in Ghana's Marine Fishery

As processors and marketers of fish, women fishtraders in the Fanti town of Cape Coast, Ghana have become powerful financers and owners of canoes, nets, and other fishing equipment. Since the 1960s, when motors were first introduced to Ghana's artisanal canoe fleet, two interrelated processes have occurred in Cape Coast. First, Ghana's fisheries have become increasingly exploited and—in the case of some species—overfished. Second, the social relations of production in the artisanal sector have shifted from being socially embedded to being more market‐based and impersonal. I argue that two recent Women in Development (WID) projects in particular have contributed to the breakdown of fishtraders’ traditional economic networks and livelihood strategies: (a) loan schemes that target women's associations, and (b) the 1985 Intestate Succession Law, which reconfigured inheritance rights. These WID projects, based on western notions of gender and the household, have created disharmony and mistrust among Cape Coast's fishtraders rather than promoting their “development.” The breakdown of fishtraders’ labor and marketing organizations has resulted in increasingly desperate strategies to get fish, increased degradation of Ghana's marine environment, and uncertainty for the future of the coastal economy.     

Coupling Locally Conservative Methods for Single Phase Flow

This work presents the coupling of two locally conservative methods for elliptic problems: namely, the discontinuous Galerkin method and the mixed finite element method. The couplings can be defined with or without interface Lagrange multipliers. The formulations are shown to be equivalent. Optimal error estimates are given; penalty terms may or may not be included. In addition, the analysis for non-conforming grids is also discussed.