The Role of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Rural Development in the Karakorum, Hindu Kush ＆ Himalayan Region： Examples from the Northern Mountainous Belt of Pakistan

Pakistan is predominantly a mountainous country where rural development activities are characterised by inconsistency, politically motivated short-term projects without proper feedback. Since the inception of the country, the top-down approach has been followed, and the same development plans that were formulated for the plain areas have been extended to the mountains without any modification. In doing so, neither the participation of the local communities was cared for, nor the mountain specificities were considered in the planning process. Moreover, the representation of the local inhabitants was improper and contradictory to the facts. This biased approach has been one of the main causes for the failure of development projects carried out by different agencies of the Government. Contrary to the perception of the state authorities, the mountain communities proved to be more open to accept new approaches and demonstrated the capacity and capability of being a dependable development partner. In this paper, a detailed account of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme （AKRSP） has been presented to assess and evaluate the approach followed by this non-governmental organisation （NGO）, and the response of the local inhabitants as collaborators in the development process. The achievements of the AKRSP from project planning, implementation and monitoring can be adopted as a model for rural development not only in the plains, but also in the mountainous areas of the developing countries in the world.     

Luminescence dating of sand–loess sequences and response of Mu Us and Otindag sand fields (north China) to climatic changes

The sand–loess transition zone in north China is sensitive to climate change, and is an ideal place to investigate past environmental changes. However, past climate change at millennial–centennial timescales in this region has not been well reconstructed because of limited numerical dating. Alternations of sandy loam soils with aeolian sand layers in the Mu Us and Otindag sand fields, which lie along the sand–loess transition zone, indicate multiple intervals of dune activity and stability. This change is probably a response to variations of the East Asian monsoon climate during the late Quaternary. The single aliquot regeneration (SAR) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating protocol, which has been successfully applied to aeolian deposits worldwide, is applied to these two sand fields in this study. The OSL ages provide reliable constraints for reconstruction of past climate changes at suborbital timescale. Sections in both sand fields contain aeolian sand beds recording millennial‐scale episodes of dry climate and widespread dune activation, including episodes at about the same time as Heinrich Event 5 and the Younger Dryas in the North Atlantic region. These results demonstrate the potential of aeolian sediments in semi‐arid north China to record millennial‐scale climatic events, and also suggest that dry–wet climate variation at the desert margin in China may be linked to climatic change elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, through atmospheric circulation. This article was published online on 27 November 2008. An error was subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected (16 December 2008). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

胶东温泉的地热属性与可持续开发对策

从胶东所处的板块构造位置和区域控热构造入手,根据地热传导理论,对胶东温泉的地热属性进行分析研究,认为胶东半岛温泉地热属性为毗邻板块边缘高温地热带的板内中低温地热系统,它以偏高的大地热流值为地热背景,以局部控热构造聚敛的大地热流为热源,以地形高差影响和相应的水力压差作用为动力,入渗的大气降水被岩石中的热量加热,并沿断裂出露形成温泉地热水。根据山东半岛温泉地热属性的特点和地热水开发中所面临的问题,提出保持胶东温泉可持续开发的相关对策。     

Dwarf galaxies in Clusters

The equilibrium of a self gravitating cylindrical polytrope with a general magnetic field and rotation has been discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Geometric Derivation of the Delaunay Variables and Geometric Phases

We derive the classical Delaunay variables by finding a suitable symmetry action of the three torus T³ on the phase space of the Kepler problem, computing its associated momentum map and using the geometry associated with this structure. A central feature in this derivation is the identification of the mean anomaly as the angle variable for a symplectic S ¹ action on the union of the non-degenerate elliptic Kepler orbits. This approach is geometrically more natural than traditional ones such as directly solving Hamilton–Jacobi equations, or employing the Lagrange bracket. As an application of the new derivation, we give a singularity free treatment of the averaged J ₂-dynamics (the effect of the bulge of the Earth) in the Cartesian coordinates by making use of the fact that the averaged J ₂-Hamiltonian is a collective Hamiltonian of the T³ momentum map. We also use this geometric structure to identify the drifts in satellite orbits due to the J ₂ effect as geometric phases.     

The Statistical Analysis of Migration of Strong Earthquakes-Taking the North China Region as an Example

The migration of strong earthquakes is an important research topic because the migration phenomena reflect partly the seismic mechanism and involve the prediction of tendency of seismic activity. Research on migration of strong earthquakes has mostly focused on finding the phenomena. Some attempts on getting regularity were comparatively subjective. This paper suggests that there should be indices of migration in earthquake dataset and the indexes should have statistical meaning if there is regularity in the migration of strong earthquakes. In this study, three derivative attributes of migration, i.e., migration orientation, migration distance and migration time interval, were statistically analyzed. Results in the North China region show that the migration of strong earthquakes has statistical meaning. There is a dominant migration orientation (W by S to E by N), a dominant distance (≤100km and on the confines of 300～700km), and a dominant time interval (≤1a and on the confines of 3～4a). The results also show that the migration will differ slightly with different magnitude range or earthquake activity phase.     

电测深ρ＿s差值法的应用效果

用电测深研究地电断面、寻找隐伏多金属矿体时，以往采用ρ＿ｓ（或η＿ｓ）等值线断面图进行地质推断解释，因受浅源信号的干扰，效果差。本文提出了采用ρ＿ｓ（或η＿ｓ）差值法，能排除浅源干扰信号，反映出地电断面的相对变化，突出了深部微弱信息，取得了较好的地质解释效果。