On tidal variability and the existence of planetary wave-like oscillations in the upper thermosphere—II. Non-linear interactions and global scale oscillations

In Part 1 of this paper the variability of diurnal and semidiurnal components of the meridional thermospheric wind was discussed. The observed variability is discussed in the light of the non-linear theory of wave-wave interactions. It is shown that it is possible to explain, at least partially, the variability through the non-linear interactions of tides with long period oscillations having periods between 2 and 15 days. Given that the periods obtained both from the quarterly spectra of the tidal amplitudes and the non-linear interaction analysis coincide with periods reported in the literature for planetary waves in the lower and middle atmosphere, the existence of global scale oscillations are sought in the upper atmosphere. Wave events are observed, coincident with the above-mentioned periods, for a set of five longitudinally distributed locations between 30 and 35 S throughout the yearly samples. The wave events have basically westward phase displacements though eastward travelling phases are observed at times.     

Beyond the grave: variability in Neolithic diets in Southern Germany?

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses were undertaken on human and faunal remains from two Neolithic sites in Southern Germany; the LBK settlement at Herxheim and the middle Neolithic cemetery at Trebur. Stable isotope data were used to reconstruct the diets of individuals buried at these sites and to look at dietary variation between groups classified by their sex, age, grave goods and cultural affiliation. Overall there was surprisingly little variation in the diet between the groups, as described by the stable isotope analysis, despite significant differences in the composition of grave goods. Also surprising, considering the archaeological evidence for extensive grain cultivation in this region during the Neolithic, was that the majority of individuals had δ¹⁵N values consistent with the consumption of significant amounts of animal protein.     

Characterisation of obsidian subsource variability at El Paredón,Mexico

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) geochemical analysis on obsidian from five Formative period (1200 BCE to AC 100) sites from Tlaxcala, Mexico, has revealed that most of the material had similar values to those found in the closest obsidian source, named El Paredón, Puebla. Nevertheless, initial analyses did not resolve whether these materials came from the same caldera or from a specific obsidian deposit. Here we present a methodology that allows the identification of obsidian subsources. The results reveal that Tlaxcalan populations took advantage of a specific obsidian deposit called Tres Cabezas, Puebla, providing valuable new data to identify associated regional exchange networks.     

Protecting the Environment of the Qomolangmo

While Man recently celebratedthe 50th anniversary of dwarfingQomolangmo, the world's high-est peak suffered from environ-mental pollution. Statistics show,from May 1953 to the 1990s, themountaineers left behind morethan 50 tons of garbage. Over the past,decade or more,efforts were doubled and redou-bled to clean the environment.However, an increasing number     

Difficulties of the Re-Emergent Science — the Case of Astrobiology

Abstract

Science dealing with the emergence and evolution of life in the Universe — on Earth and beyond appears under different names in subject literature, these names are usually either a portmanteau of biology and astronomy, or involve particular branches of natural sciences. Scientific and linguistic methodology reveals the danger of gross oversimplification when using names such as: exobiology, cosmobiology, biocosmology, bioastronomy, as- trobiology, etc. The main purpose of this article is to present and analyse the relationships of such notations and synonyms, which are often used interchangeably, and to criticize the attempts of unifying these terms, and to characterize them in a linguistic context. On such basis, it shall be argued that the origin of the existing confusion and misunderstandings might have been either scientific or non-scientific imprecision which may be eliminated for the purpose of a better scientific communication and clarification of terminology as shown in this paper.     

The Eighteenth-Century ‘Restoration’ of the West Portals of Saint-Denis and the Problem of the Lintels

Abstract

The west portals of Saint-Denis are believed to have incorporated lintels which would have been engaged with the doorposts below impost level. The lintels are presumed to have been removed in 1771 when various damaging work was carried out on the doorways. Irregularities in the upper courses of the doorposts appear to confirm this theory and many scholars have speculated upon the form of the lost lintels. It can be demonstrated, however, that the narrow nineteenth-century lintels in situ above impost level follow the original twelfth-century design: substantial lintels were at no time engaged with the doorposts. The disorder of the upper doorposts can nevertheless be attributed to the 1771 campaign. At that time the doorposts were dismantled and reassembled carelessly, without leaving enough room for the reinsertion of the upper courses: those of the central portal were merely trimmed while those of the lateral portals were replaced.     

Towards Hume – the discourse on the liberty of the press in the age of Walpole*

The liberty of the press became one of the main topics of public debate in the 1720s and 1730s in response to Walpole’s restrictive press policy. This debate was carried on mainly in newspapers such as the Craftsman and the London Journal. Country and Court writers did not limit their discussions to legal questions, but conducted a lively debate about what press freedom actually was, and what role the press should have in political life. Among other things, they discussed to what extent it was appropriate for the press to take on an anti-governmental role. This debate is important, not least because it is a foil for one of the ‘classical’ eighteenth-century texts on the problem of press freedom, David Hume’s essay ‘Of the Liberty of the Press’. The debate reveals to what extent, and in what respects, Hume was breaking new ground in this essay.     

Reactions of the Governments of Nigeria and Biafra to the Role of the Catholic Church in the Nigeria–Biafra War

Abstract

The high incidence of conflict in the world today, and the overwhelming influence of religion on man and his society, have resulted in an increasing engagement of religion in conflict management. However, in spite of its high profile in managing conflict, religion can sometimes form a barrier to conflict resolution. The Nigeria–Biafra war was one of those wars in which religion, as an instrument of conflict management, played a double-edged sword. This paper examines the reaction of the parties to this conflict to the role of the Catholic Church in managing the conflict.

The involvement of the Catholic Church in the Nigeria–Biafra war has ever remained one of the highly controversial themes of this war. While the role played by the church appeared to be a welcome development on the part of the Biafran Government, the Federal Military Government of Nigeria (FMG) was against the church and its activities, particularly its relief programme in Biafra during the war. From the available evidence, the church’s relief services, just like those of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were carried out on both sides of the war. The difference was on the level of dependence on it, as well as the degree of its exploitation by the two parties. In addition to its high dependence on the Caritas airlift, the Biafran Government, in its war of propaganda hinged on religion, was out to exploit every available opportunity provided by the church’s relief programme in Biafra. It therefore made its overtures of ‘friendship’ to the church in Biafra and beyond as it assumed the status of a ‘maligned child’ of the mother church. To the FMG that was out to crush a rebellion, such manipulation of religion, using the platform of the church’s programme of relief in Biafra was more than a frustration of its war effort. Its anger was thus directed against the church both locally and internationally such that the latter, among other things, could achieve little or nothing in terms of conflict resolution, although the relief programme of the church in general saved the Biafran population from a war in which starvation was obviously an instrument.     

Analysis of the Story of an Hour——From the Perspective of Feminism

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19,1894,and originally published in Vogue on December 6,1894.By describing series of emotions that Louise Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband,it reveals the heroine——Mallard's pursuit of freedom and enlightenment of feminist thought.The Story of an Hour successfully created a female image of desiring for freedom,longing for a new life even at the expense of life in a patriarchal society.     

The Year of the Establishment and the Naming of the Domed （mdo smad） Pacification Commission of the Yuan Dynasty

Much resarch has been carried out on the threeCombined Pacification Commissions and Chief Mili-tary Commands (宣慰使司都元帅府),and on the Com-mission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (宣政院)sincepublication of the essay,How the Tuan Central Govern-ment Managed Tibetan LocalAffairs written by Han Rulinsome forty years ago.However,owing to the areas in-habited by Tibetans having being large,due to the greatdifferences in social customs,history,and religiousactivities,that existed,and because many Yuan Dy-     

＂The Excellences of the Republic＂ Produced on the Roof of the World

Since its peaceful liberation, Tibet, at the roof of the world, has been keeping abreast with the motherland to constantly renew its progress.     

Notice of the Proceedings at the Monthly Meetings of the Archæological Institute

The English glass industry adopted coal as a fuel at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the consequent reduction in costs enabling sales and production to increase. From a minor forest industry, glass manufacture became an important part of the coalfield economy, with innovative furnace structures forming striking features in the eighteenth-century urban landscape. Recent archaeological investigation has shown that glass-works have left significant survivals on subsequently redeveloped sites, in the form of underground flues and furnace bases, and residues from processes.     

The writings of Ademar of Chabannes,the Peace of 994, and the ‘Terrors of the Year 1000’

The belief that apocalyptic expectations existed at the turn of the first millennium is no longer widely held, even though some recent scholars have suggested they did. This paper seeks to confirm the notion that, at least in the monastic milieu, belief that the Last Judgement was imminent did exist in the decades around the year 1000. To support this argument, this paper will examine the writings of the monk, Ademar of Chabannes. In his work of history and the sermons he wrote near the end of his life, Ademar reveals his own eschatological mentality. His history, it will be argued, contains numerous accounts of prodigies and signs that indicated Ademar and his contemporaries thought that they were living in the Last Days. Ademar's apocalypticism is revealed even more fully in his sermons, which were organised along the lines of salvation history. His account in the sermons of the Peace of God council of 994, which also appears in the history, clearly demonstrates his eschatological sensibility. His record of this council, written over 30 years after the event, it will be argued, is apocalyptic in both form and content. The structure of his account is arranged in the tradition of apocalyptic literature, and the events he records are described in language drawn from the Revelation of John and the book of Isaiah. Ademar also drew on the idea of the refreshment of the saints found in the writings of Jerome and of Bede in his explanation of the events of 994. Ademar's writings, therefore, reveal the existence of apocalyptic expectations at the turn of the first millennium.     

Villa of the Lobsangs

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Sayings of the Sagya

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Eighth annual meeting of the international society for the history of the neurosciences hosting the Ninth meeting of the european club for the history of neurology JULY 7–10, 2003

Damasio (1994) claims that Descartes imagined thinking as an activity separate from the body, and that the effort to understand the mind in general biological terms was retarded as a consequence of Descartes dualism. These claims do not hold; they are Damasios error. Descartes never considered what we today call thinking or cognition without taking the body into account. His new dualism required an embodied understanding of cognition. The article gives an historical overview of the development of Descartes radically new psychology from his account of algebraic reasoning in the early Regulae (1628) to his neurobiology of rationality in the late Passions of the soul (1649). The author argues that Descartes dualism opens the way for mechanistic and mathematical explanations of all kinds of physiological and psychological phenomena, including the kind of phenomena Damasio discusses in Descartes error. The models of understanding Damasio puts forward can be seen as advanced version of models which Descartes introduced in the 1640s. A far better title for his book would have been Descartes vision.