A Queer Country? A case study of the politics of gay/lesbian belonging in an Australian country town

The present paper examines the complex politics of gay/lesbian belonging through a case study of Daylesford, Victoria, an Australian country town. It contributes to two research bodies: gay/lesbian rural geographies and the politics of belonging. Daylesford hosts ChillOut, Australia's largest rural gay/lesbian festival, which provides a telling context for investigating gay/lesbian belonging in rural Australia. We use qualitative data from the 2006 ChillOut Festival, including interviews with local residents, newspaper commentaries, and visitors’ surveys, to explore how Daylesford has been constructed, imagined, and experienced as a ‘unique’ site of gay/lesbian belonging in rural Australia. We find that ChillOut crucially contributes to its wider reputation as a gay-friendly country town, but also, we argue, to the contested nature of gay/lesbian belonging. This was most powerfully demonstrated by the local council's refusal to fly the gay-identified rainbow flag on the Town Hall during the 2006 Festival and its subsequent banning of the display of all festival flags from that key public building. Because ChillOut was the catalyst for this protocol, the resolution was viewed as homophobic. Indeed, the homophobic and heterosexist rhetoric that ensued in the Letters to the Editor section of the local newspaper revealed some residents’ underlying antagonism towards ChillOut and the local gay/lesbian community. Moreover, appealing to a shared ‘Australian identity’ and associated normative ‘family values’, these letter writers deployed a multi-scalar politics of belonging, where a sense of gay/lesbian belonging to Daylesford at the local scale was contested by the assertion of a ‘more meaningful’ national scale of allegiance fashioned by heteronormativity.     

Contrasting the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and Andromeda

The chemical evolution history of a galaxy hides clues about how it formed and has been changing through time. We have studied the chemical evolution history of the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) to find which are common features in the chemical evolution of disc galaxies as well as which are galaxy-dependent. We use a semi-analytic multizone chemical evolution model. Such models have succeeded in explaining the mean trends of the observed chemical properties in these two Local Group spiral galaxies with similar mass and morphology. Our results suggest that while the evolution of the MW and M31 shares general similarities, differences in the formation history are required to explain the observations in detail. In particular, we found that the observed higher metallicity in the M31 halo can be explained by either (i) a higher halo star formation efficiency (SFE), or (ii) a larger reservoir of infalling halo gas with a longer halo formation phase. These two different pictures would lead to (i) a higher [O/Fe] at low metallicities, or (ii) younger stellar populations in the M31 halo, respectively. Both pictures result in a more massive stellar halo in M31, which suggests a possible correlation between the halo metallicity and its stellar mass.     

Nature of the carbon and sulfur phases and inorganic gases in the Kenna ureilite

Abundances of carbon and sulfur in the Kenna ureilite are 2.219 ± 0.060 wt. % C and 0.179 ± 0.008 wt. % S. Secondary carbonates resulting from terrestrial weathering account for 0.25 ± 0.02 wt. % C. No hydrocarbons were detected during gas release measurements. Most of the carbon is in graphite, diamond, or lonsdaleite. The sample of Kenna contained 0.95 ± 0.05 wt. % H₂O. Total carbon and sulfur measurements were made on three additional ureilites: Haverö, Dingo Pup Donga, and North Haig. Ureilite carbon abundances are similar to those of C-2 chondrites, whereas sulfur abundances are a factor of 10 less than C-2 chondrites and ordinary chondrites. The elemental abundances, ratios, and phases present in the ureilites rule out a direct genetic relationship between the ureilites and the carbonaceous chondrites.     

Mineralogy,petrology, chronology,and exposure history of the Chelyabinsk meteorite and parent body

Three masses of the Chelyabinsk meteorite have been studied with a wide range of analytical techniques to understand the mineralogical variation and thermal history of the Chelyabinsk parent body. The samples exhibit little to no postentry oxidation via Mössbauer and Raman spectroscopy indicating their fresh character, but despite the rapid collection and care of handling some low levels of terrestrial contamination did nonetheless result. Detailed studies show three distinct lithologies, indicative of a genomict breccia. A light‐colored lithology is LL5 material that has experienced thermal metamorphism and subsequent shock at levels near S4. The second lithology is a shock‐darkened LL5 material in which the darkening is caused by melt and metal‐troilite veins along grain boundaries. The third lithology is an impact melt breccia that formed at high temperatures (~1600 °C), and it experienced rapid cooling and degassing of S₂ gas. Portions of light and dark lithologies from Chel‐101, and the impact melt breccias (Chel‐102 and Chel‐103) were prepared and analyzed for Rb‐Sr, Sm‐Nd, and Ar‐Ar dating. When combined with results from other studies and chronometers, at least eight impact events (e.g., ~4.53 Ga, ~4.45 Ga, ~3.73 Ga, ~2.81 Ga, ~1.46 Ga, ~852 Ma, ~312 Ma, and ~27 Ma) are clearly identified for Chelyabinsk, indicating a complex history of impacts and heating events. Finally, noble gases yield young cosmic ray exposure ages, near 1 Ma. These young ages, together with the absence of measurable cosmogenic derived Sm and Cr, indicate that Chelyabinsk may have been derived from a recent breakup event on an NEO of LL chondrite composition.     

Limitations of Monitoring Wells for the Detection and Quantification of Petroleum Products in Soils and Aquifers

Theoretical analysis and laboratory column experiments were carried out to investigate the conditions required for petroleum products (oil) to flow into a well installed through a sandy porous medium contaminated with the oil. The results indicated that oil would flow into a well only after a layer of "free oil" is formed in the adjacent porous medium. Because significant quantities of oil could be stored in the porous medium under the influence of capillary suction prior to the formation of the zone of free oil, the presence of oil in a well would indicate an advanced stage of oil contamination of the subsurface. While monitoring wells could be used to delineate the extent of the free-oil plume and the plume of dissolved petroleum constituents, they are not useful for delineating the extent of capillary held oil.
The experimental results also indicated that the ratio of the oil-layer thickness in the well to that in the porous medium is not a constant as is sometimes assumed in practice. Further, estimates of the oil thickness in the medium based on the oil thickness in wells and on capillary properties measured in the laboratory were sensitive to the values of the parameters used in these estimates. The measured thickness of the oil layer in a monitoring well alone may not yield reliable estimates of the amount of oil in the subsurface, and assuming that the oil-thickness ratio is a constant can lead to inadequate site assessments and inappropriate remedial plans.     

A Snapshot of the Sun Near Solar Minimum: The Whole Heliosphere Interval

We present an overview of the data and models collected for the Whole Heliosphere Interval, an international campaign to study the three-dimensional solar?Cheliospheric?Cplanetary connected system near solar minimum. The data and models correspond to solar Carrington Rotation 2068 (20 March??C?16 April 2008) extending from below the solar photosphere, through interplanetary space, and down to Earth??s mesosphere. Nearly 200 people participated in aspects of WHI studies, analyzing and interpreting data from nearly 100 instruments and models in order to elucidate the physics of fundamental heliophysical processes. The solar and inner heliospheric data showed structure consistent with the declining phase of the solar cycle. A closely spaced cluster of low-latitude active regions was responsible for an increased level of magnetic activity, while a highly warped current sheet dominated heliospheric structure. The geospace data revealed an unusually high level of activity, driven primarily by the periodic impingement of high-speed streams. The WHI studies traced the solar activity and structure into the heliosphere and geospace, and provided new insight into the nature of the interconnected heliophysical system near solar minimum.     

The importance of interactions for mass loss from satellite galaxies in cold dark matter haloes

We investigate the importance of interactions between dark matter substructures for the mass loss they suffer whilst orbiting within a sample of high-resolution galaxy cluster mass cold dark matter (CDM) haloes formed in cosmological N -body simulations. We have defined a quantitative measure that gauges the degree to which interactions are responsible for mass loss from substructures. This measure indicates that interactions are more prominent in younger systems when compared to older more relaxed systems. We show that this is due to the increased number of encounters a satellite experiences and a higher mass fraction in satellites. This is in spite of the uniformity in the distributions of relative distances and velocities of encounters between substructures within the different host systems in our sample.
Using a simple model to relate the net force felt by a single satellite to the mass loss it suffers, we show that interactions with other satellites account for ∼30 per cent of the total mass loss experienced over its lifetime. The relation between the age of the host and the importance of interactions increases the scatter about this mean value from ∼25 per cent for the oldest to ∼45 per cent for the youngest system we have studied. We conclude that satellite interactions play a vital role in the evolution of substructure in dark matter haloes and that a significant fraction of the tidally stripped material can be attributed to these interactions.     

Hilda asteroids among Jupiter family comets

Hilda asteroids and comets are similar from the compositional point of view. The D-taxonomic class prevailing among Hildas has all the characteristics found in cometary spectra. Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) coming from the trans-neptunian region are under the gravitational control of Jupiter, making them a dynamically unstable population with a mean dynamical lifetime of 10⁴ to ¹⁰⁵ years. In contrast, Hilda asteroids residing in the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter are a very stable population. But once they escape from the resonance, they are dynamically controlled by Jupiter, and in this sense their behavior resembles that of JFC. We performed a numerical simulation to analyze the dynamical evolution that Hildas follow after escaping from the resonance, and their contribution to the JFC population. We found that 8% of the particles leaving the resonance end up impacting Jupiter. 98.7% of the escaped Hildas live at least 1000 years as a JFC, with a mean lifetime of 1.4×¹⁰⁶ years. In particular, escaped Hildas stay mainly in the region of perihelion distances greater than 2.5 AU. On the other hand, the number of escaped Hildas reaching the inner Solar System (q<2.5 AU) is negligible. So, there are almost no Hilda asteroids among the NEO population. We also analyzed the possibility that the Shoemaker-Levy 9 were an escaped Hilda asteroid. In this case, it would be possible to give stronger constraints to its pre-capture orbital elements.     

The Global Context of Solar Activity During the Whole Heliosphere Interval Campaign

The Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) was an international observing and modeling effort to characterize the 3-D interconnected ??heliophysical?? system during this solar minimum, centered on Carrington Rotation 2068, March 20??C?April 16, 2008. During the latter half of the WHI period, the Sun presented a sunspot-free, deep solar minimum type face. But during the first half of CR 2068 three solar active regions flanked by two opposite-polarity, low-latitude coronal holes were present. These departures from the quiet Sun led to both eruptive activity and solar wind structure. Most of the eruptive activity, i.e., flares, filament eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), occurred during this first, active half of the interval. We determined the source locations of the CMEs and the type of associated region, such as active region, or quiet sun or active region prominence. To analyze the evolution of the events in the context of the global solar magnetic field and its evolution during the three rotations centered on CR 2068, we plotted the CME source locations onto synoptic maps of the photospheric magnetic field, of the magnetic and chromospheric structure, of the white light corona, and of helioseismological subsurface flows. Most of the CME sources were associated with the three dominant active regions on CR 2068, particularly AR 10989. Most of the other sources on all three CRs appear to have been associated with either isolated filaments or filaments in the north polar crown filament channel. Although calculations of the flux balance and helicity of the surface magnetic features did not clearly identify a dominance of one region over the others, helioseismological subsurface flows beneath these active regions did reveal a pronounced difference among them. These preliminary results suggest that the ??twistedness?? (i.e., vorticity and helicity) of subsurface flows and its temporal variation might be related to the CME productivity of active regions, similar to the relationship between flares and subsurface flows.