Placing man in the New West: Masculinities of The Last Picture Show

The Last Picture Show does not fall within the genre of the Western, yet the cinematic narrative mourns the loss of the iconic Westerner — a man — and the passing of his home places that constitute the Old West. This paper is concerned with the ways in which this man and his places are transformed along with the embryonic but inexorable emergence of the New West — and its attendant demand for recognition of hitherto unheard voices (e.g., women, Latinos) — that accompanied significant social, cultural and political shifts that were beginning to emerge within the country as a whole in the represented early 1950s. His represented sites of contestation are found within the frame of the small west Texas town of Anarene, created by Larry McMurtry's novel of the same name as the film, both of which reflect contexts of the era in which they were constructed — the mid 1960s to early 1970s. We suggest that the film shows a great sensitivity to the ways in which particular masculinities are constituted in specific places, to the tensions that arise from the changing nature and definitions of masculinity as they are linked to these places, and with his sense of nostalgia and loss that accompanies his inevitable decline. But there is no clear and empowered place for women in these new places, only a recontextualized form of a patriarchal order which is not relational and which still maintains essentialist assumptions of gender. The Old West has taken new shape, much to the chagrin of man, but it is hardly a New West, with its emerging and representative voices. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

(Trans)national Bodies, (Trans)national Languages and the Transformation of Local Urban Space

This paper discusses some of the ways that international students, particularly those from East Asia, are involved in the transformation of urban space in Auckland City. Using existing economic reports, local media accounts and the author's initial observations, the paper identifies how the embodied and linguistic practices of international students are involved in the changing landscapes of Auckland's inner city. This cursory reading serves to identify a research agenda and to reflect upon some key theoretical textxs. The insights of Arjun Appadurai, Michael Peter Smith and Ulrich Beck are used to suggest that the changes in Auckland, whilst certainly local, are also influenced fry factors that emerge from beyond the borders of international students' origin communities, cities and nations.     

Potential toxicity of resuspended particulate matter and sediments: Environmental samples from the Bay of Banyuls-sur-Mer and Thermaikos Gulf

This contribution attempts to determine whether, and to what degree, environmental samples of resuspended particulate matter and sediments exert a toxicological impact. Further, an attempt is made also to screen the toxic level of potentially hazardous sites, based upon established sediment toxicity criteria. Therefore, a rapid, cost-effective and highly sensitive biotest (bioluminescence assay, based upon marine bacteria) has been applied on: biological fluid extracts; bottom sediments; and sediment trap samples. Samples were taken either from the Bay of Banyuls-sur-Mer (northwestern Mediterranean, France) or Thermaikos Gulf (northeastern Mediterranean, Greece). Biological fluid extracts and sediment trap samples corresponded to periods of resuspension events, or preceding and following such events.The results have revealed that the sampling strategy and biotest implemented in this study might be a useful tool for screening the toxicity of resuspended matter and sediments. Resuspension events appear to be able to exert an influence on the chemical forms of the micro-pollutants; thus on their bioavailability and toxicity. Nevertheless, based upon chemical analysis combined with the bioassay, the toxic level of the sediment samples could be determined, with the level at potentially hazardous sites being characterised.     

Détermination expérimentale des paramètres équivalents d'un milieu poreux hétérogène en écoulements uniforme ou radial

Tracer tests are carried out in a heterogeneous porous medium that has a 3D correlated random distribution of the permeabilities. The fitting of numerical models provides the values of equivalent permeability and macrodispersivity characterizing a 2D homogeneous horizontal medium. Different flow configurations are studied: uniform, radial and pump and treat (doublet). The fitted parameter sets are independent of the flow type, except for the doublet. They are greater than the values predicted by stochastic theories, due to the small number of correlation lengths explored by the tracer and the limited extension of the experimental set-up. To cite this article: C. Danquigny, P. Ackerer, C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Analysis of pressuremeter geometry effects in clay using critical state models

The conventional interpretation methods of pressuremeter testing effectively approximate pressuremeter membranes as infinitely long. As a result, the effects of the two‐dimensional geometry of pressuremeters are ignored, leading to an overestimation of soil shear strength by pressuremeter testing, as demonstrated in several previous studies. This paper presents results of a numerical study of two‐dimensional geometry effects on self‐boring pressuremeter tests in undrained clay. The results are obtained using critical state soil models with an effective stress formulation. This is in contrast to most (if not all) existing studies on pressuremeter geometry effects, which were based on perfectly plastic soil models (e.g. Yu (Cavity expansion theory and its application to the analysis of pressuremeters. DPhil Thesis, The University of Oxford, 1990), Yeung and Carter (Proc. 3rd Int. Symp. on Pressuremeters, 1990), and Houlsby and Carter (Géotechnique, 1993; 43 (4):567–576)). The present study suggests that the overestimation of soil strength due to the neglect of finite pressuremeter length is significantly affected by the soil model used in the calculations. It is found that for clays with a high overconsolidation ratio (OCR) the strength overestimation predicted using critical state soil models could be considerably smaller than that predicted using perfectly plastic soil models. The main conclusion of this numerical study is that care must be exercised before directly applying any numerically determined pressuremeter geometry correction factors in practice. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thallium diagenesis in lacustrine sediments

Dated sediment cores and porewaters from two Canadian Shield lakes, located 40 km from Québec City (L. Tantaré) and 25 km downwind from an important smelter in northwestern Québec (L. Vose), were analyzed for thallium and other geochemical variables. Atmospheric deposition is the only source of anthropogenic Tl to these lakes. The porewater Tl concentration profiles in L. Tantaré display a peak below the sediment-water interface that suggests post-depositional Tl remobilization and transport to the overlying water and deeper sediments; such a dissolved Tl peak occurs just above the sediment-water interface in L. Vose. Modeling the porewater Tl profiles with a diagenetic reaction-transport equation reveals a zone of dissolved Tl production lying above a zone of Tl consumption in L. Tantaré sediments. In contrast, in L. Vose, Tl diffuses across the sediment-water interface from the anoxic hypolimnion and is fixed to the surficial sediments. The localization of the consumption zones, the shape of the dissolved Tl, sulfide and iron profiles, as well as calculations of saturation states are all consistent with the removal of Tl from porewater by co-precipitation with and/or adsorption to Fe sulfides. The concentrations of Tl removed from or added to sediments after their deposition (i.e., diagenetic Tl) amount to up to 36% of measured sediment Tl concentrations. Comparison of the reconstructed historical Tl records with those of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and of Pb originating from coal burning or from smelting activities indicate that coal combustion is the major source of atmospheric Tl to L. Tantaré and that an additional important Tl source to L. Vose is the nearby smelter.     

Population structure of two deep sea tubeworms,Lamellibrachia luymesi and Seepiophila jonesi,from the hydrocarbon seeps of the Gulf of Mexico

Vestimentiferan tubeworms are a group of large sessile marine polychaete annelids (family Siboglinidae) found in the regions of hydrothermal venting or seepage of the reduced chemical hydrogen sulfide. Hydrocarbon seeps on the Louisiana Slope of the Gulf of Mexico support large communities of the co-occurring vestimentiferan species Lamellibrachia luymesi and Seepiophila jonesi. These sessile species have the opportunity to disperse between the patchy sites of active seepage on the seafloor during a planktonic larval stage. However, it is unclear whether dispersal occurs at a local or global scale. Four (L. luymesi) and seven (S. jonesi) microsatellite loci were used to test for population substructure among ten hydrocarbon seep sites on the Louisiana Slope. Both species showed high levels of allelic diversity, averaging 18.5 (L. luymesi) and 22 (S. jonesi) alleles/locus, respectively, and high observed heterozygosity at all microsatellite loci (0.71–0.9 in L. luymesi, 0.27–0.84 in S. jonesi). The two species showed a significant deficiency in heterozygotes compared to that predicted under the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. L. luymesi showed a small but significant amount of population structure, with a positive correlation between genetic and geographic distance among the sample sites spanning 540 km. S. jonesi, in contrast, showed no evidence for isolation by distance, but did show a significant genetic difference between aggregations of different ages. These results suggest that these two species differ in how larvae are able to colonize new seep sites through space (L. luymesi) and though time (S. jonesi).