The rise of corporate retailing and the impacts on small-scale retailing: the survival strategies of Kirana stores and informal street vendors in Durgapur,India

In many developing world economies in recent years, the state has been seen to encourage neoliberal economic expansion policies. This has involved both large-scale foreign corporations and sometimes large-scale domestic corporations. Many studies have discussed the new landscapes of economic hardship and the impacts on small businesses. The aim of this paper is to argue that the impacts on small traders are in fact more complex and varied than usually appears in the literature. The research was conducted in the industrial city of Durgapur in the Bardhaman district of West Bengal, India. First it is argued that the impact has been greatest on the ‘kirana’ owners, operating small convenience type stores with legalized trading arrangements and fixed premises. On the other hand, the street vendors (often unlicensed and having no fixed premises) seem not to be affected in terms of customer loss and indeed could be seen to be doing well against the backcloth of neoliberal expansion. In fact we argue that the growth in the number of street vendors provides as much of a threat to future livelihoods for traditional kirana owners as the growth of large corporations itself.     

Migration and gender identity among Chinese skilled male migrants to Australia

This paper reports on a study of the effects of migration on constructions of masculinities among Chinese skilled male migrants to Australia over the past 50 years. Data were collected in in-depth, semi-structured interviews of a sample of 40 Chinese male migrants in Brisbane city. The respondents came from a variety of countries of origin and varied in marital status, sexuality, age and previous migration experiences as well as duration of settlement in Australia. Because of an immigration policy based on a points system for measuring skill potential among migrants, these informants were of middle to upper-middle socio-economic status. Core ideas which emerged from the study included: Chineseness; insularity; the centrality of family, kin and friendship networks; Chinese males in the workplace; the division of labour in the household; employment and the fears of unemployment. These Chinese skilled male migrants displayed qualities of hegemonic masculinity in their households where traditional Chinese division of labour persisted. The markers of masculinity included: centrality of work and education; being a successful provider and protector; the accumulation of wealth and power. Unlike local hegemonic variants of masculinity these males placed little emphasis on sport, sexual prowess and performance and alcohol consumption. There were no ambitions among this sample of males to model local variants of masculinities, however gay males in the sample while experiencing marginalisation, racism and homophobic behaviour at the hands of local hegemonically masculine males, were more like the local dominant males in terms of an emphasis on sexual performance and preferences for well-muscled and fit bodies. Gay males in the Chinese sample found it necessary to restrict their social circles and physical locales. This Australian study has demonstrated the importance of the cultural sensitivity of concepts in doing comparative studies, and of considering sexuality as a dimension of identity in migration research that seems to assume a heteronormativity in its samples.     

Volcanism in Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Crisium: Ar-Ar age studies

The laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating technique has been applied to five Luna 16 basalt fragments and one impact glass, and nine Luna 24 basalt fragments and one breccia. The textures of these basalts are fine-grained ophitic and coarse-grained basalts. The samples contain high levels of solar and lunar atmospheric argon acquired during their residence on the lunar surface. These trapped argon components are predominantly released at low temperature steps and can be distinguished from radiogenic and cosmogenic released at intermediate and high temperature steps. The apparent ages obtained for Luna 16 samples span a narrow range of 3.29 to 3.38 Ga. A young age of 0.988 Ga was obtained for a basaltic impact glass indicating the age of an impact event in the vicinity of Luna 16 landing site. The ages obtained for Luna 24 samples suggest the existence of at least three periods of volcanism occurring over a protracted interval of between 3.45 and 2.52 Ga. The long period of volcanism suggested for the Mare Crisium was likely due to a combination of geophysical and geochemical features in the surrounding and underlying areas of the Crisium Basin. Attempts at dating three Luna 20 samples were inconclusive due to their high trapped argon contents.     

Cadmium in tissues of lobsters captured near a lead smelter

Cadmium distribution among tissues of lobsters (Homarus americanus) from Belledune Harbour near a lead smelter was determined and compared with that of lobsters from uncontaminated areas of Stonehaven, N.B., Canada and from Maine, USA. The hepatopancreas contained more than 90% of the body burden of cadmium. High concentrations of cadmium were also present in green glands and gills. Cadmium concentrations in the hepatopancreas, gills, and green glands were correlated with the concentrations in most of the other tissues.     

3- to 14-μm Spectroscopy of Comet C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley)

We report spectroscopy of Comet C/1991 T1 (McNaught-Hartley) at 3-13 μm on January 31.62 and February 1.7 2001 UT (delta=1.29 AU, r=1.40 AU) using the broadband array spectrograph system on the IRTF. The spectrum showed a silicate emission feature extending about 20% above the continuum. Two emission features at 10.3 and 11.2 μm appeared above the silicate band, the latter seemingly indicative of crystalline olivine. The 10.3-μm feature is only a 1-2 sigma detection but if real could indicate the presence of hydrated silicates. The color temperature at 8-13 μm was 260±10 K, approximately 6% above the blackbody radiative equilibrium temperature of 235 K. The magnitude at [N] was 3.13±0.02. On the second night, the comet had brightened slightly ([N]=2.98±0.02) and the two prominent emission features were absent, although the silicate emission feature maintained its trapezoidal shape with shoulders at 9.5 and 11.2 μm.     

Herbig Ae/Be stars

Herbig Ae/Be stars are the higher mass counterparts of the T Tauri stars. In comparison with the latter, however, relatively little is known about them. After a historical introduction, we briefly review their optical and UV spectroscopic properties. We consider the evidence for and against disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars; the existence of which remains highly controversial. We also examine in-depth their interaction with the surrounding medium as manifested through optical outflows. It is shown that although there are similarities with analogous outflows from lower mass young stars, those from Herbig Ae/Be stars may be more poorly collimated. Jets, however, are found in at least some cases.     

Propagation of cylindrical relativistic shock waves in the presence of a magnetic field

In this paper we obtain similarity solutions for the propagation of cylindrical relativistic shock waves in the presence of a constant azimuthal magnetic field or in its absence for the medium, where the nucleon number density is uniform. The shock surface moves with constant velocity and the total energy of the disturbance is dependent on time. The solutions are applicable only to an isothermal medium or a cold gas.