Policy Boosterism,Policy Mobilities,and the Extrospective City

Abstract

This study develops the notion of “policy boosterism,” a subset of traditional branding and marketing activities that involves the active promotion of locally developed and/or locally successful policies, programs, or practices across wider geographical fields as well as to broader communities of interested peers. It is argued that policy boosterism is (1) an important element of how urban policy actors engage with global communities of professional peers and with local residents, and (2) a useful concept with which to interrogate and understand how policies and policy knowledge are mobilized among cities. A conceptualization of policy boosterism and its role in global-urban policymaking is developed by combining insights from the burgeoning “policy mobilities” literature with those of the longstanding literature on entrepreneurial city marketing. It is supported by illustrative examples of policy boosterism in Vancouver: the city's Greenest City and Green Capital initiatives, the use of the term “Vancouverism” among the city's urban design community, and demonstrations of new urban technologies during the 2010 Winter Olympics that were used to market a particular vision of the city's governance to people from elsewhere, but also—crucially—to local audiences. The article concludes by highlighting four foci that might frame future work at the intersections of policy boosterism and policy mobilities.     

Distribution and morphology of mud volcanoes and other fluid flow-related lake-bed structures in Lake Baikal, Russia

New high-resolution multibeam bathymetry data recorded in 2009 in the deepest lake in the World, Lake Baikal, Siberia, enabled a better understanding of the morphology of ten known lake-bed structures—the Bolshoy, Malenki, Malyutka and Stari mud volcanoes in the South Baikal Basin, the K1–4 structures in the Selenga delta, and the Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg structures in the Central Baikal Basin—and also the discovery of 29 new lake-bed structures. These new structures are the S1, Tolstiy, mTSG and S2 in the South Baikal Basin, the P1–P4, P6–P19 and K5–K8 in the Selenga delta accommodation zone, and the C1, C3 and C4 edifices in the Central Baikal Basin. In all, 39 positive relief structures were identified and their large-scale distribution mapped. Based on their typical shape, the observation of high-reflectivity areas on side-scan sonar data records, and evidence of feeder channels on subsurface data, these structures can be classified as mud volcanoes. This has already been confirmed in other publications for the Bolshoy, Malenki and K2 structures, by the recovery of mud breccias in sediment cores. Most structures occur on or near faults and have orientations parallel with the major faults and main stress orientations in the basins, suggesting a strong structural control on the formation of the mud volcanoes. Their slopes are generally steeper than 5°, consistent with interpretation as mud cones formed by high-viscosity, stiff mud plugs. Only few structures appear to be characterised by a crater, in which case this apparent crater seems to be formed by the coalescence of several single cones, leaving a depression in the centre. Some structures have a moat, which has probably an erosional origin. Furthermore, three depressions have been found, named P5, P20 and C2, which are suggested to be pockmarks.     

Vulnerability to epidemic malaria in the highlands of Lake Victoria basin: the role of climate change/variability, hydrology and socio-economic factors

Endemic malaria in most of the hot and humid African climates is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In the last twenty or so years the incidence of malaria has been aggravated by the resurgence of highland malaria epidemics which hitherto had been rare. A close association between malaria epidemics and climate variability has been reported but not universally accepted. Similarly, the relationship between climate variability, intensity of disease mortality and morbidity coupled with socio-economic factors has been mooted. Analyses of past climate (temperature and precipitation), hydrological and health data (1961–2001), and socio-economics status of communities from the East African highlands confirm the link between climate variability and the incidence and severity of malaria epidemics. The communities in the highlands that have had less exposure to malaria are more vulnerable than their counterparts in the lowlands due to lack of clinical immunity. However, the vulnerability of human health to climate variability is influenced by the coping and adaptive capacities of an individual or community. Surveys conducted among three communities in the East African highlands reveal that the interplay of poverty and other socio-economic variables have intensified the vulnerability of these communities to the impacts of malaria.     

Stable isotopes in deep-sea living (stained) foraminifera from the Mozambique Channel (eastern Africa): multispecies signatures and paleoenvironmental application

Oxygen and carbon isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) have been investigated in carbonate tests of deep-sea foraminifera living in the Mozambique Channel (eastern Africa) to understand how environmental constraints (e.g., organic matter, oxygenation) control the intra- and interspecific variability of isotopic signatures. 197 living individuals, including eight different species, from various microhabitats within the sediment were sorted from sediment samples gathered at two stations on the Malagasy upper slope. Results show that the δ¹⁸O values of foraminiferal taxa were not controlled by microhabitat pattern. They presented tremendous and intriguing intraspecific variability that is not explained by the classical ontogenetic effect. The δ¹³C values of infaunal foraminiferal taxa do not show a 1:1 relationship with the bottom water δ¹³C DIC and do not present a constant offset from it; instead, they appear to be mainly controlled by a microhabitat effect. The lower δ¹³C values of shallow, intermediate, and deep infaunal taxa at the deeper station compared to those seen at the shallower station reflect the enhanced exportation of sedimentary organic matter at the sediment–water interface, and its related mineralization within the upper sediments. The ?δ¹³C between shallow/very shallow infaunal species (i.e., Hoeglundina elegans, Uvigerina hispida) and intermediate/deep infaunal species (i.e., Melonis barleeanus, Globobulimina barbata) permits insight into (1) the exportation of organic matter to the seafloor and (2) the various degradation pathways for organic detritus in the benthic environments off NW Madagascar.     

Nutrient Limitation on Phytoplankton Growth in the Upper Barataria Basin,Louisiana: Microcosm Bioassays

The Davis Pond Diversion (DPD) was constructed to divert Mississippi River (MR) water into the Barataria Basin to reduce the salinity in support of wetland restoration on the Louisiana coast. To assess the phytoplankton nutrient limitation in adjacent water systems and potential impacts of DPD, 12 seasonal nutrient-phytoplankton bioassay experiments were conducted from October 2003 to July 2004 using the natural phytoplankton assemblages from freshwater and brackish-water lakes, Cataouatche and Salvador, LA (USA), which receive Mississippi River water from the DPD, and from a nearby freshwater lake, Lac des Allemands, that does not. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and silicate (Si) were added with different combinations at Redfield ratios in 10-l microcosms. Nitrogen was found to be the sole or primary limiting nutrient in all 12 experiments. N and P colimitations were found in seven of 12 experiments, but N was always the stronger limiting factor. P limitation was never observed to be the sole limiting nutrient. The results showed that a low concentration of P and a relatively high concentration of N do not necessarily indicate only P limitation in these lakes. Lake Cataouatche and Lake Salvador were dominated by centric diatoms, and Anabaena spp. were detected at high levels, particularly in summer. Lac des Allemands was generally dominated by N-fixing Anabaena spp. and other cyanobacteria, and their biomass responded significantly to N addition but not to P addition, indicating that nitrogen fixation in Lac des Allemands may be inhibited by other factors such as iron. Our bioassay results demonstrate that whether a water body is N- or P-limited is the consequence of the nutrient status and not the salinity regime. The results suggest that the addition of nutrient-rich waters via diversions of Mississippi River water into these lakes might increase the frequency of algal blooms, including noxious and toxic freshwater cyanobacteria.     

Simulation and analysis of the dynamics of binary near-Earth Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4

Near-Earth Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 was the subject of the recently published first extensive radar imaging, shape and mutual orbit modeling, and physical and dynamical characterization of a binary asteroid. In this paper we present in detail our numerical simulation of KW4 behind that work. Our propagations of the system with some variation in estimated parameters cover the set of KW4's possible current dynamical states consistent with the body models and other information obtained directly from the observations. We also apply our implementation of this simulation capability to address some of the dynamical mechanisms by which KW4 may be moved into the more energetically excited of those possible current states, particularly solar gravity interaction. Through comparison of the results with certain features of the observation data, we conclude that the actual KW4 system is not in the most energetically relaxed configuration but must be moderately excited. The system occupies a generalized Cassini state 2 which is different from that considered in most previously published treatments of Cassini states in that it involves co-precession of the primary's spin frame and the mutual orbit rather than co-precession of a satellite's spin frame and that satellite's orbit about the primary. We present a simple analytical theory describing the system's dynamics, which should be applicable to any other binary systems, of which KW4 is representative, in which a massive, roughly oblate primary is spinning rapidly relative to the rate of its mutual orbit with an on-average synchronous, elongated secondary. We examine separately both the effect of the larger binary component's oblateness, and the effect of the smaller component's roughly triaxial ellipsoid shape. The simple analytical formulae obtained agree with full-detail numerical simulation results, and can be used for remote estimation of binary mass properties from observed system motion.     

Earth Motion Caused by Local Atmospheric Pressure Changes

Summary Observations have been made of the local atmospheric pressure field and the long-period seismic noise fields both on the surface of the Earth and in a mine at a depth of 183 metres. The observations show that during windy intervals and in the period range 20–100 s there is a strong correlation between local atmospheric pressure changes and the noise recorded by a vertical seismograph located on the surface. In contrast, over the same range of periods there is no correlation between the seismic noise recorded in the mine and local atmospheric pressure changes except during the passage of acoustic waves. It is shown that the noise in this pass band is not due to the buoyant response of the seismograph, but is caused by the motion of the Earth responding to atmospheric pressure changes.     

TIERRA BLANCA: AN UNUSUAL ACHONDRITE FROM WEST TEXAS

Tierra Blanca is an achondrite (sensu stricto) composed chiefly of orthopyroxene, olivine, plagioclase and clinopyroxene. The mineralogy, major element chemistry and texture are similar to Winona and also Mt. Morris, Acapulco and Antarctic meteorite ALHA 77081 to some degree. The designation of this group as “Winonaites,” as suggested by Prinz et al. (1980), seems justified and useful.     

The Eagle,Nebraska Enstatite Chondrite (EL6)

Abstract— The Eagle enstatite chondrite (presently 9.2 kg) was an observed fall in October 1946. It was not recovered until the spring of 1947 and was allowed to remain out-of-doors until 1984. The meteorite appears relatively unweathered, although the absence of oldhamite and the depletion of calcium indicates it has suffered chemical weathering during its 37 years of exposure. Its bulk composition classifies it as an EL6. Its lack of chondrules or remnants of chondrules place it among the most recrystallized of enstatite chondrites. It contains unusual rounded black inclusions, up to 1 cm, composed of the same minerals as the host, but of significantly finer grain size. We conclude Eagle is a post-metamorphic breccia, the breccia inclusions having been rounded by abrasion during regolith processing.