ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS AND GENDER IN THE KARAKORAM‐HIMALAYA,NORTHERN PAKISTAN*

ABSTRACT. Many mountain peoples face water and environmental health problems. At particular risk is the health of women and of children who live in remote and marginalized mountain areas. Environmental health concerns are often associated with the waterborne parasitic and endemic diseases responsible for much child morbidity and mortality in the Karakoram‐Himalaya of northern Pakistan. Poor environmental health and water‐quality conditions affect child survival, and challenges to viable local interventions are severe. Transformations in women's productive and reproductive work have health consequences for children, and gender and household dynamics shape and mediate women's responses to environmental health risks. Significantly, these findings draw attention to the need for improved water and health policy, especially policy that recognizes different gender and child‐care roles in mountainous regions of the developing world.     

Relationships between lithology and diagenesis in a limeston—marl facies transition: an electron microprobe study

A 3 km long lateral facies transition from Oligo-Miocene skeletal grainstones into packstones and mudstones displays systematic variation in carbonate skeletal fragment alteration and secondary carbonate mineral composition. Within the skeletal grainstone end-member all aragonitic grains have dissolved, all Mg-calcite skeletal fragments have altered to calcite, and calcite has been precipitated as both void-filling spar and as syntaxial overgrowths on echinoid fragments. Within the transitional grainstone-packstone lithologies some skeletal fragments show preservation of their original mineralogy, while calcite, ferroan calcite spar and dolomite have precipitated in void spaces. Within the packstone-mudstone end-member of the transition, aragonitic grains have been preserved and Mg-calcite skeletal fragments have retained most of their magnesium. Thin, originally porous grainstone layers within the pack-stone-mudstones contain sideroplesite and ferroan calcite spar in void spaces, and iron has been incorporated in skeletal fragments which were originally Mg-calcite. In these grains iron has been incorporated at the expense of magnesium until the grains approach the composition of the surrounding ferroan calcite cement. The lateral variation in diagenetic alteration across this facies transition is a function of differing groundwater movement and composition, controlled ultimately by the composition, porosity and permeability of the host lithologies.     

Ten things higher education needs to know about GIS in primary and secondary education

This paper examines the status of efforts to implement GIS in Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) education in the United States. Factors promoting and impeding the growth and diffusion of GIS are identified and suggestions for action on the part of higher education GIS specialists are made. In the United States more science teachers have adopted GIS geography/social studies teachers for several reasons. These include science teacher preservice preparation and the essentially different natures of the respective disciplines. Preservice education and teachers' perceptions of geography emerge as key factors influencing the diffusion of GIS in K-12 classrooms. The need for on cognition and GIS before effective curricula and instruction can be developed is emphasized. Three strategies directed at higher education GIS specialists may help implement this eduational innovation. They are: (1) modelling GIS instruction in content classes; (2) including GIS in preservice preparation classes; and (3) outreach to professors who tach educational technology to educate than regarding GIS. The addendum by Paul Heinrich which follows this paper compares US and UK experiences in the diffusion of GIS in elementary and secondary schools.     

Interpreting Economics,Rhetoric and Sustainable Development: Some implications for policy determination

Many of the controversies about environmental resource use relate to the perceived conflict between economics and conservation. This conflict might have been resolved with general acceptance of the concept of sustainable development, and with a more transparent and honest use of economics terminology. However, interpretation and application of this concept appear to have led to some further conflicts between perceptions of economics and the environment, partly because commerce and development are sometimes portrayed as having the same meaning. Commercial activity resulting from the use of natural resources is often held to promote social good, while conservation of natural resources, many argue, renders the wealth which may be obtained from such resources unavailable. The latter is deemed to be bad for society. However, although in contemporary parlance economics is usually restricted implicitly to issues concerning commerce, finance and profit, economic theory requires the consideration also of intangible values, such as environmental damage. Environmental and other economists have worked hard to stress the importance of non-financial values in economic theory, and to ensure that they are included in economic analysis. However, these latter aspects of economics are not generally known to the wider public, partly because of the tendentious manner in which interested parties often use economics. When positions are argued on the basis of economics, the arguments are frequently expressed in language designed to persuade members of the community that all commercial activity is in the interests of society, while incurring minimal costs. In these circumstances, economics might be viewed as a form of rhetoric. Anyone assessing the merits of such arguments ought to consider carefully what this rhetoric really means. This is especially important in discussions concerning sustainable development, which is understood by some to mean sustainable, or sustained, commerce.     

Agricultural Restructuring and Response: Inter-relationships Between Farm Adjustment Strategies in Waihemo, 1984–1997

Farm households in New Zealand have responded to the changing political and economic environment since the mid-1980s in a variety of ways. This paper explores the various farm adjustment strategies adopted by farm households in Waihemo (East Otago) and ways in which these influence both the household and enterprise domains of the family farm unit. It examines the complex interrelationships between specific farm adjustments, drawing attention to the ways in which these are redefining the nature of family farming in the area.     

Thermochemical sulphate reduction in the Upper Devonian Cairn Formation of the Fairholme carbonate complex (South-West Alberta, Canadian Rockies): evidence from fluid inclusions and isotopic data

The Fairholme carbonate complex is part of the extensively dolomitized Upper Devonian carbonate reefs in west-central Alberta. The studied formations contain moulds (up to 10 cm in diameter), which are filled partially with (saddle) dolomite, quartz and calcite cements. These cements precipitated from a mixture of brines that acquired high salinity by dissolution of halite and brines derived from evaporated sea water. The fluids were warm (homogenization temperature of primary fluid inclusions of 76 to 200 °C) and saline (20 to 25 wt% NaCl equivalent) and testify to thermochemical sulphate reduction processes. The latter is deduced from S in solid inclusions, CO₂ and H₂S in volatile-rich aqueous inclusions and depleted δ¹³C values down to −26‰ Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite. High ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values (0·7094 to 0·7110) of the cements also indicate interaction of the fluids with siliciclastic sequences. The thermochemical sulphate reduction-related cements probably formed during early Laramide burial. Another (younger) calcite phase, characterized by depleted δ¹⁸O values (−23·9‰ to −13·9‰ Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite), low Na (27 to 37 p.p.m.) and Sr (39 to 150 p.p.m.) concentrations and non-saline (∼0 wt% NaCl equivalent) fluid inclusions, is attributed to post-Laramide meteoric water.     

Sediment waves in a modern high-energy glacilacustrine environment

A 4·7 km² field of sediment waves occurs in front of the Slims River delta in Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon Territory. Slims River heads in the Kaskawulsh Glacier, part of the St Elias Ice Field and discharges up to 400 m³ s^?1 of water with suspended sediment concentrations of up to 7 g l^?1. The 19 km long sandur of Slims River was created in the past 400 years since Kaskawulsh Glacier advanced and dammed the lake and the sandur has advanced into Kluane Lake at an average rate of 48 m a^?1. However, this rate is decreasing as flow is diverted from Slims River because of the retreat of the Kaskawulsh Glacier. The sandur and a road constructed on the delta remove coarse‐grained sediment, so the river delivers dominantly mud to the lake. Inflow during summer generates quasi‐continuous turbidity currents with velocities up to 0·6 m s^?1. The front of the delta consists of a plane surface sloping lakeward at 0·0188 (1·08°). A field of sediment waves averaging 130 m in length and 2·3 m in amplitude has developed on this surface. Slopes on the waves vary from ?0·067 (?3·83°, i.e. sloping in the opposite direction to the regional slope) to 0·135 (7·69°). The internal structure of the sediment waves, as documented by seismic profiling, shows that sedimentation on the stoss portion of the wave averages 2·7 times that on the lee portion. Rates of sediment accumulation in the wave field are about 0·3 m a^?1, so these lacustrine waves have formed in a much shorter period of time (less than 200 years) and are advancing upslope towards the delta much more quickly (1 to 2 m a^?1) than typical marine sediment waves. These waves formed on the flat surface of the lake floor, apparently in the absence of pre‐existing forms, and they are altered and destroyed as the wave field advances and the characteristics of the turbidity currents change.     

RECURSIVE PARAMETER ESTIMATION

The use of recursive filtering techniques for parameter estimation in a variety of areas is reviewed.Inparticular,the Kalman filter algorithm is described,along with several variations,including square-root,UDUT and information filters.The solution to parameter estimation problems is discussed for both linearand non-linear models.Applications described include calibration,curve resolution in spectroscopy,chromatography,electrochemistry,kinetic analysis and process monitoring.     

Geomorphic evidence for Holocene glacial advances and sea level fluctuations on eastern Vestfirðir, northwest Iceland

New geomorphic and chronological data of Holocene advances of the Drangajökull Ice Cap, located on eastern Vestfirðir, northwest Iceland, are presented. At least two glacial advances and two transgressions during the Holocene are interpreted from moraines and raised beach deposits, respectively. Geomorphic evidence is concentrated in the three valleys adjacent to the modern outlet glaciers of the Drangajökull Ice Cap: Kaldalónsjökull, Leirufjarðarjökull, and Reykjarfjarðarjökull. The valley surrounding Kaldalónsjökull contains a vegetated Holocene moraine with a minimum radiocarbon age of ∼2600 cal. yr BP, which provides geomorphic evidence for Neoglacial activity on eastern Vestfirðir. The second extensive Holocene glacial advance on eastern Vestfirðir occurred during the Little Ice Age, and moraines associated with this advance are present in all three outlet glacier valleys. The Neoglacial advance is the most extensive ice advance on eastern Vestfirðir. Raised beaches parallel to the coastlines of Ísafjarðardjúp and Jökulfirðir, at an elevation of approximately 5 m a.s.l., suggest a minor transgression at ∼3000 cal. yr BP based on radiocarbon ages of shells. A minor transgression of 0.3–0.5 m a.s.l. is associated with the timing of the Little Ice Age advance. Correlation of geomorphic events with sediment proxy records facilitates distinguishing local perturbations from regional North Atlantic climate signals. This study supports regional interpretations of climatic instability during the Holocene.