Constructing quality: The multinational histories of chocolate

Geographic research on food quality, while considering many of the ways in which quality is socially constructed, has largely focused on the place-based aspects of the raw materials of food production. Here, we use French convention theory to look at a highly processed food in order to show how place associations in the social construction of food quality extend to manufacturing. For chocolate, quality is based on material characteristics whose relative importance in determining quality depends on the country in which different stages of economic innovation took place. Struggles over the definition of quality chocolate, as exemplified by the “European Chocolate War,” show how quality issues are connected to geographies of manufacturing and innovation.     

Fire Danger Monitoring Using ERS-1 SAR Images in the Case of Northern Boreal Forests

Research was carried out to assess the potential of imaging radar systems formonitoring forest fire danger. In Canada, daily forest fire danger ratings are generated by the Canadian ForestFire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS), based on estimates of fire weather indices (FWI) and measured foliar moisturecontent (FMC). To evaluate the potential of imaging radar, an experiment was conducted using test sitesconsisting of jack pine, black spruce and white spruce stands located in the MacKenzie river basin, NorthwestTerritories, Canada. Radar image intensity values from ERS-1 SAR imagery collected over these stands in 1994 werecompared to FWI indices and FMC data. FWI indices were calculated using data from local weather stations.Seasonal trends in radar backscatter (⁰) were shown to correlate with temperature and precipitation. Significant relationships were found between ⁰ and FWI codes and indices, particularly in thecase of the black spruce stands, with slow-drying fuels, like duff moisture code (DMC), drought code (DC), and build-upindex (BUI). Rates of changes in ⁰were related to rates of changes in FMC, particularly in the case ofthe jack pine stands for old FMC and in the case of white spruce stands for composite FMC.     

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS ON THE INFLUENCES OF GENERAL CIRCULATION ANOMALY OVER THE TIBETAN PLATEAU AND SURFACE ALBEDO CHANGE IN NORTHWEST CHINA ON SUMMER PRECIPITATION

An advanced three-level global atmospheric general circulation model has been used to studythe summer precipitation anomaly in Northwest China.based on the synoptic fact and thestatistical analysis of the precipitation,the surface albedo in Northwest China,and the synopticsystems over the Tibetan(Qinghai-Xizang)Plateau.The results show that either the anticycloneintensified over the plateau or the surface alhedo enhanced in Northwest China results in summerprecipitation reduction east of Northwest China.Especially.when both of them appearsimultaneously,summer precipitation was obviously reduced and severe drought occurred in mostareas of Northwest China.Moreover.the simulated difference of precipitation rate of NorthwestChina is similar to the actural precipitation distribution in Northwest China in 1995,which is themost severe drought year in Northwest China in the past fifty years.So the tendency in droughtseverity intensified,drought frequency accelerated,drought persistence period extended,anddrought areas expanded in Northwest China in recent years is maybe a result of the influences ofhuman activities(e.g.vegetation was reduced,and desertification worsened)on droughtcirculation pattens over the Tibetan Plateau.     

西北地区煤炭资源综合评价及开发潜力分析

西北地区煤炭资源十分丰富,但资源开发中存在着许多不利因素。本文在对西北地区煤炭资源从技术经济条件角度进行综合评价的基础上,对令后的资源开发潜力和存在问题进行了分析探讨,提出了一些认识和建议。     

印支期构造运动在赣西北地区的早期表现特征

本文论述了印支期早期构造幕在赣西北地区的表现特征,它不但造成早三叠世地层内部沉积相突变,而且缺失中、上三叠世地层。该早期构造幕的发现,在地学上具有重要意义。     

Upper Cretaceous Magmatic Series and Associated Mineralisation in the Carpathian – Balkan Orogen

Abstract: The Alpine Orogen contains in South East Europe, from the Carpathians to the Balkans–Srednogorie, an Upper Cretaceous, ore bearing igneous belt: a narrow elongated body which runs discontinously from the Apuseni Mountains in the North, to the western part of the South Carpathians (Banat) in Romania, and further South to the Carpathians of East Serbia and still further East to Srednogorie (Bulgaria). This results in a belt of 750 km/30–70 km, bending from N-S in Romania and Serbia, to E-W in Bulgaria. Using the well established century-old terminology of this region, we describe it in this paper as the Banatitic Magmatic and Metallogenetic Belt (BMMB). Plate tectonics models of the Alpine evolution of South East Europe involve Mesozoic rifting, spreading and thinning of the continental crust or formation of oceanic crust in the Tethian trench system, followed by Cretaceous-Tertiary convergence of Africa with Europe and opening of Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea troughs. The result of successive stages in the collision process is not only the continental growth of Europe from N to S by the docking of several microplates formerly separated from it by Mesozoic palaeo–oceans, but also the rise of mountain belts by overthickening of the crust, followed by orogenic collapse, lateral extrusion, exhumation of metamorphic core complexes and post-collisional magmatism connected to strike-slip or normal faulting. The BMMB of the Carpathian-Balkan fold belt is rich in ore deposits related to plutons and/or volcano-plutonic complexes. Serbian authors have proposed an Upper Cretaceous Paleorift in Eastern Serbia for the Timok zone and some Bulgarian geologists have furnished geologic, petrological and metallogenetic support for this extensional model along the entire BMMB. The existence and importance of previous westwards directed subductions of Transilvanides (=South Apuseni = Mure? Zone) and Severin-Krajina palaeo–oceans, popular in Roman ian literature, seems to have little relevance to BMMB generation, but the well documented northwards directed subduction of the Vardar-Axios palaeo–ocean during Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous is a good pre-condition for the generation, during the Upper Cretaceous, of banatitic magmas in extensional regime, by mantle delamination due to slab break–off. Four magmatic trends are found: a tholeiitic trend, a calc-alkaline trend, a calc-alkaline high–K to shoshonitic trend and, restricted to East Srednogorie, a peralkaline trend. For acid intrusives, the typology is clearly I-type and magnetite–series, pointing to sources in the deep crust or the mantle; however, some high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios recorded in banatites prove important contamination from the upper crust. The calc-alkaline hydrated magmas, most common for banatitic plutons, can be considered as recording three stages of evolution: more primitive – the monzodioritic, dioritic to granodioritic trend (S Apuseni, S Ba–nat, Timok, C and W Srednogorie); more evolved – the granodioritic-granitic trend (N Apuseni, N Banat, Ridanj–Krepoljin); the alkaline trend (E and W Srednogorie, western part of N Banat). Correlating the composition of the host plutons with the types of mineralisation, several environments can be found in the BMMB, function of timing of fluid separation (porphyry versus non-porphyry environments), depth of emplacement, size of intrusion and geology of intruded rock pile, biotite versus hornblende crystallisation, involving the evolution of K/Na ratio in fluids, i. e. development of potassic and phyllic alteration zones: a) non-porphyry environment with granodioritic to granitic magmas, plutonic level, skarn mineralisation prevails; b) porphyry environment with monzodioritic or dioritic to granodioritic magmas, subvolcanic–hypabyssal–plutonic level; porphyry Cu with skarn halo at hypabyssal-subvolcanic level; c) porphyry environment with monzodioritic or dioritic to granodioritic magmas, volcano-plutonic complexes with porphyry copper plus massive sulfide mineralisation at subvolcanic-volcanic level; d) non-porphyry environment with magmas of alkaline tendency, volcanic level, vein (“mesothermal” and “epithermal”) mineralisation.     

Rural settlements in transition – agricultural and countryside crisis in the Central-Eastern Europe

The paper presents a synthesis of French and Bulgarian researches on the transition in villages in Central Eastern Europe. The main points focus on three questions, the rural unemployment and the crisis of small towns, the demographical deterioration, the new relations between villages and towns. A generalization of the rural central places' visual change and metaphors is proposed, completed by a typology of rural settlements. The question of the rural administrative divisions is discussed, with its implication for the future. As a whole the paper gives a contribution to the problematic of the likely development in the rural evolution pattern throughout Europe. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

THE IODINE FACTOR IN HEALTH AND EVOLUTION*

ABSTRACT. Iodine is essential for modern humans and may have been essential for Neandertals as well. Today about 30 percent of the world's population is at risk of iodine deficiency disorders (idd ), 750 million people suffer from goiter, 43 million have idd -related brain damage and mental retardation, and 5.7 million are afflicted by cretinism, the most severe form of idd . Distinctive Neandertal skeletal traits are identical to those of modern humans who suffer from cretinism. Cro-Magnon Venus figurines also exhibit distinctive traits associated with cretinism among modern humans. This new evidence, coupled with recent mitochondrial dna findings, suggests that a single genetic alteration, which improved the ability of the thyroid gland to extract and utilize iodine, may account for differences between Neandertals and modern humans. Late Pleistocene human evolution, consequently, may be explained by several alternative interpretations involving iodine pathology and/or biological adaptation. Speciation may have resulted from the geographical isolation of inland populations.     

西北干旱地区的水分评价问题

指出了用水文统计法确定的“水资源总量”难以将西北干旱地区与我国东部地区水资源作出合理的比较分析.只有考虑了土壤水这一重要水资源分量才能予以改进,因为两地的土壤水在水文统计中有不同的含义.在干旱地区,土壤水主要来自灌溉水,即“水资源总量”的一部分;而在华北等地,它主要来自降水,未能统计在“水资源总量”中.     

西北地区戈壁砂砾石场地的脉动特征

阐述了我国西北部戈壁砂砾石层的划分及其时代确定等问题，以近几年西北地区地震小区划和重大工程建设项目中的实际观测资料为依据，对西北戈壁滩砂砾石场地的脉动特征进行了分析和总结，在此基础上探讨了场地脉动频谱特性与场地有关参数的关系，同时还就地脉动测试在工程中的推广应用等问题提出了几点看法。