Church-based social capital, networks and geographical scale: Katrina evacuation, relocation, and recovery in a New Orleans Vietnamese American community

This research examines the role of social capital and networks to explain the evacuation, relocation, and recovery experiences of a Vietnamese American community in New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As the single largest community institution, the parish church’s complex bonding and bridging social capital and networks proved particularly critical in part because of its historically based ontological security. The process of evacuation, but especially relocation and recovery, was dependent on deploying co-ethnic social capital and networks at a variety of geographical scales. Beyond the local or community scale, extra-local, regional, and national scales of social capital and networks reproduced a spatially redefined Vietnamese American community. Part of the recovery process included constructing discursive place-based collective-action frames to successfully contest a nearby landfill that in turn engendered social capital and networks crossing ethnic boundaries to include the extra-local African American community. Engaging social capital and networks beyond the local geographical scale cultivated a Vietnamese American community with an emergent post-Katrina cultural and political identity.     

Experimental study on loss factor for corrugated plates by bandwidth method

The material loss factor for technically orthotropic plates was measured by half-power bandwidth method. Rectangular and trapezoidal corrugated plates of steel were considered. A simple isotropic steel plate was also considered for comparison of the results. The concept of single degree of freedom system was adopted. The tests were undertaken at very low frequency range (0–100) Hz. The plate models were suspended freely with two wires to minimize or prevent excessive extraneous energy dissipation. Out of plane point force, random in nature was applied to the top middle of the plates and the responses were measured from the middle point of the plates by FFT analyzer using miniature small mass accelerometer as sensor. The aim of these tests is to investigate the effects of bending rigidity and mode orders over material loss factor. The values of estimated modal damping loss factors are compared and tabulated for the plates models considered. Natural frequencies of some of the initial modes of the plates are also presented.It is observed that the higher the value of bending rigidity of the plates, the larger the values of loss factor of it. There was a significant increase in value of loss factor in corrugated plates to that of the isotropic plate.     

A comparison of mud- and sand-dominated meanders in a downstream coarsening reach of the mixed bedrock-alluvial Klip River, eastern Free State, South Africa

Along a 28 km reach of the Klip River, eastern Free State, South Africa, mud- and sand-dominated meanders have developed in close proximity within a floodplain wetland up to 1.5 km wide, providing an unusual opportunity to compare their characteristics under similar hydrological conditions. Throughout the reach, the channel bed is grounded on sandstone/shale bedrock although the banks are alluvial, and most river activity occurs during summer high flows. The reach can be divided into three geomorphological zones: Zone 1 (0–11 km), a muddy proximal part with a single meandering channel (w/d < 10) and near-permanent standing water in oxbows and backswamps; Zone 2 (11–17.5 km), a transitional mud-to-sand part with one main channel (w/d  20–30), a number of sinuous palaeochannels and oxbows, and only limited standing water; and Zone 3 (17.5–28 km), a sandy distal part with a single meandering channel (w/d  15–30), scroll bars and oxbows, and little standing water. Each zone also has a distinctive sedimentology: Zone 1 is characterised by an  3–4 m thick succession of basal sand and minor granules overlain by dominantly muddy sediment deposited primarily by oblique accretion in meander bends; Zone 2 is characterised by < 4 m of interbedded sand and mud deposited primarily by lateral point-bar accretion, although a history of avulsions also attests to the importance of abandoned-channel accretion; and Zone 3 is characterised by < 3 m of dominantly sand deposited primarily by lateral point-bar accretion. This unusual downstream sediment coarsening trend, and the associated changes in channel and floodplain character, are independent of sediment inputs from tributaries, and result from a downstream increase in bankfull unit stream power from < 3.5 W m^− 2 (Zone 1) to  4–10 W m^− 2 (Zone 3). Mud is deposited primarily in low-energy Zone 1 but is conveyed in suspension more effectively through higher energy Zones 2 and 3, only forming drapes over sandy lateral accretion deposits during waning flood stages. The downstream increase in unit stream power is controlled in part by a slight downstream increase in floodplain gradient that may be related to a subtle variation in the erosional resistance of the bedrock underlying the channel bed. These findings add to previous work on meandering rivers by demonstrating that mud-dominated meanders can occur in long-term erosional settings where the channel bed is grounded on bedrock, and that downstream fining trends may be reversed locally.     

Spatial and temporal variability of pore‐water pressures in residual soil slopes in a tropical climate

It is critical to understand and quantify the temporal and spatial variability in hillslope hydrological data in order to advance hillslope hydrological studies, evaluate distributed parameter hydrological models, analyse variability in hydrological response of slopes and design efficient field data sampling networks. The spatial and temporal variability of field‐measured pore‐water pressures in three residual soil slopes in Singapore was investigated using geostatistical methods. Parameters of the semivariograms, namely the range, sill and nugget effect, revealed interesting insights into the spatial structure of the temporal situation of pore‐water pressures in the slopes. While informative, mean estimates have been shown to be inadequate for modelling purposes, indicator semivariograms together with mean prediction by kriging provide a better form of model input. Results also indicate that significant temporal and spatial variability in pore‐water pressures exists in the slope profile and thereby induces variability in hydrological response of the slope. Spatial and temporal variability in pore‐water pressure decreases with increasing soil depth. The variability decreases during wet conditions as the slope approaches near saturation and the variability increases with high matric suction development following rainfall periods. Variability in pore‐water pressures is greatest at shallow depths and near the slope crest and is strongly influenced by the combined action of microclimate, vegetation and soil properties. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural chemistry of synthetic cordierite: Evidence for solid solutions and disordered compositional domains in Bi-flux-grown Mg-cordierites

The structure, crystal chemistry, and microstructure of disordered and ordered Mg-cordierites synthesized in a bismuth oxide flux system have been studied by a combination of x-ray and neutron powder diffraction and quantitative x-ray microanalysis using analytical electron microscopy. Microchemical data obtained on Bi-flux cordierites using energy-dispersive x-ray analysis is interpreted through comparison with data collected on stoichiometric Mg₂Al₄Si₅O₁₈ glass and α- and β-cordierite samples synthesized by subsolidus crystallization of the glass. Bi-flux cordierites crystallize in both the hexagonal and orthorhombic polymorphs and contain 5 to 10 at% occupancy of bismuth on the C1 and C2 channel sites. The microstructure of Bi-flux α-cordierite is characterized by the existence of local domains of disordered cordierite solid solutions with variable composition and significant vacancy concentrations on the octahedral site. The β-cordierites have a more homogeneous microstructure but are still Al-deficient, Si-rich solid solutions.     

Rates of cave and landform development in the Yorkshire Dales from speleothem age data

Uranium-series ages have been obtained for 87 speleothems collected from nine major cave systems in the Craven district of northern England. Large systems such as Ease Gill Caverns, the West Kingsdale caves, and Gaping Gill-Ingleborough Cave, which contain relict high-level tunnels, are found to be older than 350,000 years (the limit of the ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U dating method). There is little evidence to indicate a significant enlargement of these passages since this time. Estimates of the age of Victoria Cave from ²³⁴U/²³⁸U isotopic ratios suggest that the cave has been fully relict for more than 500,000 years. Ages of in situ speleothems immediately adjacent to local base level cave streams show that mean maximum downcutting rates in limestone channels are about 2 to 5 cm 1000 yr. These rates are significantly lower than those obtained from direct measurements on limestone bedrock in stream channels but are comparable to areal denudation rates based on solute budgets. Using the present elevation of caves with respect to adjacent valley floor levels, mean maximum valley entrenchment rates are found to range between 5 cm/ky and < 20cm/ky, which corresponds to 6 m to < 24 m of lowering per glacial/interglacial cycle. These rates suggest that upper beds of the limestone were incised to form the Yorkshire Dales between 1 and 2 million years ago. The results indicate that the erosional effects of individual glaciations are not as severe as previously proposed in the literature.     

Finite element analyses of soil plug response

Open-ended pipe piles are often used in offshore foundations. The response of the soil plug inside a pipe pile is poorly understood, and only limited work has been performed to quantify the response under the different loading conditions relevant to offshore platforms. This paper describes numerical analyses that have been carried out in order to assess the end-bearing capacity of the soil plug under loading conditions which range from undrained to fully drained. The soil plug has been modelled as either elastic, elastic–perfectly-plastic or elastoplastic. The soil–pile interface, an important aspect of the problem, has been examined critically. Comparison with experimental data from model test at laboratory scale indicates that the load–deformation behaviour of the soil plug is modelled well using an elastoplastic model for the soil plug, and an elastic–perfectly-plastic joint element to model the soil–pile interface. The finite element analyses show that, under typical loading conditions, adequate end bearing may be mobilized by the soil plug, largely by high effective stresses in the bottom 3–5 diameters of the soil plug.     

The destructive effects of binary encounters on red giants in the Galactic Centre

We consider the destructive effects of encounters between binaries and red giant stars in the Galactic Centre. Such encounters may explain the observed depletion of luminous red giants within the central 0.2 pc of the galaxy. We consider encounters involving 2- and 8-M⊙ red giants, and thus span the range of stellar masses contributing to the most luminous red giants observed in the Galactic Centre. To explore the phase space of encounters thoroughly, we simulate 18 × 10³ encounters using a modified four-body code in which the red giant core and components of the binary are treated as point masses, and where the envelope configuration is assumed to remain static throughout the encounter. We then rerun a small number of encounters with a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code to confirm the reliability of conclusions drawn from the four-body runs. We see two possible pathways to red giant destruction. A large fraction of encounters lead to the formation of common-envelope systems, where two compact objects (drawn from the red giant core and the components of the original binary) form a binary within a common gaseous envelope, whilst the third body is ejected. The destruction of the red giant will then follow when the envelope is ejected as the binary hardens. In a smaller number of encounters, the intruding binary passes through the star and ejects the red giant core from the envelope. The red giant envelope will then disperse on short time-scales. We compute the time-scales for both of these processes to occur in the Galactic Centre for a variety of binary populations.     

Mass segregation in young stellar clusters

We investigate the evolutionary effect of dynamical mass segregation in young stellar clusters. Dynamical mass segregation acts on a time-scale of order the relaxation time of a cluster. Although some degree of mass segregation occurs earlier, the position of massive stars in rich young clusters generally reflects the cluster's initial conditions. In particular, the positions of the massive stars in the Trapezium cluster in Orion cannot be due to dynamical mass segregation, but indicate that they formed in, or near, the centre of the cluster. Implications of this for cluster formation and for the formation of high-mass stars are discussed.