Physics-Based Simulation Model of Post-Earthquake Fire Spread

This article describes a new model that simulates the spread of post-earthquake urban fires. Adapting and integrating compartment fire models, this new model explicitly represents: (1) the evolution of fire within a room or roof; (2) room-to-room spread within a building through doorways, by burning through walls and ceilings, and by leapfrogging between windows; and (3) building-to-building spread by window flame impingement; radiation from window flames, room gas, and roof flames; and branding. The model can be used to explore how much, how fast, where, and by what modes fires will spread, and what factors influence fire spread.     

Analysis of Explorers' Records of Aboriginal Landscape Burning in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

The accounts of explorers and colonists in the Kimberley region of Western Australia were searched to find records of landscape burning by Aborigines. Analyses of these records provide estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of fire across the region in historic times. The seasonality of fire varied across the region. In northern parts of the Kimberley landscape fire was recorded from May to October with peak levels in June and September. In southern parts of the region there are records of burning as early as February and March, through to August but no records of fire were made in late dry season months. Modern fire regimes were compared with historic by superimposing the routes taken by five explorers over a modern fire history map derived from satellite imagery. Tallies of the number of modern fires that intersect the explorer's daily and monthly route were compared with actual observations of fire made by the explorers in historic times. The results indicate an increase in early dry season fires and the overall frequency of fires across the region in modern times. Explorers' accounts were also examined to derive further information regarding Aboriginal landscape burning in different environments and to distinguish landscape burning from other uses of fire such as smoke signals and cooking fires.     

Tertiary megafossil flora of Maslin Bay,South Australia: a preliminary report

The Maslin Bay flora of South Australia is of lower Middle Eocene age and contains diverse, well preserved angiosperm assemblages. It has yielded 2700 specimens belonging to approximately 200 leaf taxa.

Physiognomic analysis (sensu Webb, 1959; Wolfe 1970) indicates greatest similarity to extant Simple Mesophyll Vine Forest and Complex Notophyll Vine Forest found currently in Queensland.

Preliminary taxonomic studies have confirmed the presence of taxa closely resembling Podocarpus (Podocarpaceae), Agathis (Araucariaceae), Fatsia (Araliaceae) and Banksia (Proteaceae). Microfloral analysis of the deposit confirms the presence of the latter three families, but suggests far greater occurrence of Proteaceae than the number of leaf specimens of this family indicates. Nothofagus pollen is the dominant type, although leaves of this genus are absent from collections. Based on sedimentation, physiognomy and systematic studies of leaves and fungi (Lange, 1969) it is concluded that the Maslin Bay region supported tropical to subtropical rain forest during the lower Middle Eocene.     

The application of forensic fire investigation techniques in the archaeological record

This paper seeks to assist in defining a role for a suite of adapted techniques of analysis and interpretation that are drawn primarily from the methods of contemporary forensic fire investigation. In so doing, the paper identifies a general paucity of literature providing detailed discussions of structural fires preserved in the archaeological record. In addition the paper provides a generalised account of the manner in which structural fires (most especially compartment fires, defined later) will tend to burn and which tools can assist in the interpretation of fire dynamics, the identification of points of origin of fire within buildings, and the response of building materials to burning. Ultimately, such an approach can improve understanding of past structures, and also provide an interpretative avenue for understanding human response to fire and the risk of structural fire in the past.     

Fences, Boats and Teas: Engendering Patient Lives at Peel Island Lazaret

Within institutions, a separate social world comes into existence. Gender is a crucial shaper of relations in this new world, defining status, relationships to others and personal identity. Understanding the gendered conditions of, and responses to, institutional care is an important social contribution of historical archaeology to contemporary society. Research on the Peel Island Lazaret in Moreton Bay, Queensland, uses a model for engendering archaeology, with modifications pertinent to historical archaeology. Analysis builds on the work of others who have investigated the ways in which men and women of the confined and confining classes experienced institutions and interacted with each other. This study also extends beyond these approaches in exploring the areas of “interpersonal agency” and relationship building, and the ways in which disadvantage minimization was mediated by the structuring principle of gender.     

Cretaceous foraminiferal biostratigraphy of Queensland

The distribution of foraminiferids within Aptian-Albian marine deposits of the Laura, Carpentaria, Eromanga, and Surat Basins in Queensland is described. The foraminiferal distribution patterns are largely a reflection of environmental differences which existed within the basins. Among the benthonic foraminiferids, two major faunal associations are recognized: the Ammobaculites association reflecting hyposaline, cool, shallow water conditions; and the Marssonella association indicating normal marine, open continental shelf environments. As the faunal content of these associations is markedly different, separate time-stratigraphic zonations are proposed: the Ammobaculites association is divided into the Textularia cushmani zone (early Aptian), T. cushmani-Bigenerina pitmani zone (late Aptian), B. pitmani zone (late Aptian), B. pitmani-Riyadhella crespinae zone (early Albian), and R. crespinae zone (early-late Albian); the Marssonella association contains the Anomalinoides intermedia zone (early-middle Albian in Queensland), and the A. cenomanica zone (late Albian in Queensland). Planktonic foraminiferids, which occur with both benthonic associations, are used to correlate the benthonic zonal schemes, and are themselves zoned separately: Hedbergella planispira zone (early-middle Albian), H. infracretacea zone (middle-early late Albian), and the H. delrioensis zone (late Albian). International stage correlations are based on certain foraminiferids and associated ammonites.

The distribution of foraminiferids in Queensland during the late Early Cretaceous suggests that 1, climate exerted a uniform influence over the region; 2, cool, hyposaline, shallow water conditions prevailed over much of Queensland; 3, open marine shelf conditions (of normal salinity) existed during the Albian in the Laura and northeastern Carpentaria Basins; and 4, during the Albian, at least, there was a northern seaway to the open ocean.     

Dilemma of local socio-economic perspectives in management of historic ruins in Kilwa Kisiwani World Heritage Site,Tanzania

The study explored the value that local residents place on historic ruins, focusing on their socio-economic value. It also explored the implications of conventional Cultural Heritage Management’s (CHM) indifference to this. Using in-depth data from 22 residents in Kilwa Kisiwani World Heritage Site in Tanzania, the study found that residents not only attach cultural value to the ruins, but also consider them a conservation project and tourist attraction, from which they can earn money and get employment and see infrastructure and social facilities developed. It also found that the destructive activities of illegally digging to construct toilets and water collectors, letting domestic animals wander in the ruins, quarrying old underground walls for coral stones, and lighting fires are partly the result of limited socio-economic benefits, inconsistent business opportunities, complaints about employment and payment, and few feasible alternatives for making a living. By engaging with the socio-economic discourse, this study broadens our understanding of the integration of conservation in the broader social agenda, and contributes to the economist-anthropologic debate on CHM. It informs heritage managers and policy makers on alternative strategies that would maintain the sustainability of the heritage.     

Application of a Physics-Based Simulation Model to Examine Post-Earthquake Fire Spread

For 50 years, post-earthquake fire spread models used the basic empirical, macro approach developed by Hamada in 1951 Hamada, M. 1951. On Fire Spreading Velocity in Disasters, Tokyo: Sagami Shobo. (in Japanese) [Google Scholar]. Recently, however, a few physics-based models have emerged in which different modes of fire spread (e.g., radiation, branding) are modeled separately, more realistically, and in more detail. Using a case study for Los Angeles, this article illustrates how a new physics-based model developed by the authors can be used to estimate how much, how fast, and where fires spread, and also to provide insight into how fires spread and factors that influence fire spread.     

Rainforests,Agriculture and Aboriginal Fire‐Regimes in Wet Tropical Queensland,Australia

This paper challenges the hypothesis that Aboriginal fire‐regimes in the coastal wet tropics of north Queensland have been responsible for significant rainforest decline in the past, and rejects the narrative that recent rainforest expansion is the result of the disappearance of Aboriginal people and their fire practices from the area. Mapping of vegetation in the Mossman district in c. 1890 from surveyors’ plans, and in 1945 and 1991 from aerial photography demonstrates that the expansion of rainforest since 1945 represents a recovery following extensive rainforest destruction associated with sugar cane cultivation in the first 70 years of European occupation. Kuku‐Yalanji Aboriginal people continued to occupy their traditional lands, and participated in the sugar industry, throughout this period. They adapted their fire management practices to the changed economic and social circumstances. Management of fire by the Kuku‐Yalanji people prior to European occupation ensured the presence of extensive rainforest cover, whilst also providing access to fire‐prone forests and their cultural resources.     

From Scale to Practice: A New Agenda for the Study of Early Metallurgy on the Eurasian Steppe

This paper evaluates conventional scholarship surrounding early metallurgy in the Eurasian steppe zone, with a particular focus on prehistoric developments in a region including northern Kazakhstan and the Southern Ural Mountains of the Russian Federation. Traditionally, the emergence of metallurgy in this region has been viewed either as peripheral to core developments in Mesopotamia, Europe and the Near East, or as part of a much larger zone of interaction and trade in metals and metal production technologies. Such views have deflected scholarship from pursuing questions concerning metallurgical production, consumption, trade and value, and their connection to local diachronic socio-economic change. This paper examines these key issues through recent research programs in the steppe region, and in so doing offers an important comparative case study for early metallurgy. It is suggested that in order to develop a better understanding of early mining, metallurgy and socio-economic change in the central steppe region, new theoretical and methodological approaches are needed that highlight the unique characteristics of early mining communities and their relationships to micro-regional resources and concomitant local, in addition to long-distance, trade dynamics. These issues are discussed in light of current field research by the authors and their Russian colleagues on the Middle Bronze Age Sintashta development (2,100–1,700 BC) in the Southern Ural Mountains.     

Morphological comparisons of metacarpal I for Australovenator wintonensis and Rapator ornitholestoides: implications for their taxonomic relationships

WHITE, M.A., FALKINGHAM, P.L., COOK, A.G., HOCKNULL, S.A. & ELLIOTT, D.A., 2013. Morphological comparisons of metacarpal I for Australovenator wintonensis and Rapator ornitholestoides: implications for their taxonomic relationships. Alcheringa 37, 1 - 7. ISSN 0311-5518.

Various comparisons of left metacarpal I of the Australovenator wintonensis holotype have been made with Rapator ornitholestoides. These specimens were identified as being morphologically more similar than either was to that of the neovenatorid Megaraptor namunhuaiquii. Owing to the poor preservation of A. wintonensis and R. ornitholestoides, distinct morphological separation between the two appeared minimal. The recent discovery of a near perfectly preserved right metacarpal I of A. wintonensis enables a direct and accurate comparison with R. ornitholestoides. Distinct morphological differences exist between the metacarpals of the two species. A re-evaluation of the age of the A. wintonensis holotype site (AODL 85 ‘Matilda Site’) with zircon dating reveals a maximum age of 95 Ma, 10 Ma younger than the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge, from which R. ornitholestoides was recovered. This age difference detracts from the probability that the specimens belong to the same genus.

Matt A. White? [fossilised@hotmail.com], School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia; Peter L. Falkingham? [pfalkingham@rvc.ac.uk], Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Structure and Motion Laboratory, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK; Alex G. Cook [alex.cook@y7mail.com] and Scott A. Hocknull [scott.hocknull@qm.qld.gov.au], Ancient environments, Queensland Museum, Hendra, Queensland, 4011, Australia; David A. Elliott [david.elliott@aaod.com.au], Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, The Jump Up, Winton, Queensland, 4735, Australia. ?Also affiliated with Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, The Jump Up, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia. ?Also affiliated with Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, USA. Received 22.9.2012; revised 13.1.2013; accepted 17.1.2013.     

A long revolution: Writing the political history of Queensland regimes

Peter Coaldrake, Working the System: Government in Queensland. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989, pp.l85.$12.95 (paper)

Phil Dickie, The Road to Fitzgerald: Revelations of Corruption Spanning Four Decades, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1988. pp.293. $9.95 (paper); second edition, The Road to Fitzgerald ana Beyond, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989, pp.337. $12.95 (paper)

Evan Whitton, The Hillbilly Dictator: Australia's Police State, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Enterprises, Crows Nest, NSW, 1989, pp. 197. $16.99 (paper)

Ross Fitzgerald and Harold Thornton, Labor in Queensland: From the 1880s to 1988. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989, pp.422. $34.95 (paper)

Peter Charlton, State of Mind: Why Queensland is Different, Methuen Haynes, North Ryde, second edition 1987, pp. 263. $12.95 (paper)     

Alone or together in the neighbourhood? School choice and families’ access to local social networks

This study explores how the everyday geographies of city life and families’ access to social networks in the neighbourhood influence families’ school choices. The data consist of thematic interviews with parents of 8–14-year-old children (n?=?170) in three urban areas located in the cities of Paris (France), Milan (Italy) and Espoo (Finland) and are analysed via qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that the families’ access to local social networks influences the reasoning behind school choice to the local school. The children’s relationships with other children and adults in the neighbourhood are considered important, but additionally, the parents’ networks with other parents in the area, mediated by the school, play their role. School choices as practices should therefore be analysed not merely as choices of an institution, as they comprise various aspects concerning the surrounding neighbourhood as a physical and social space.     

A horned member of the labyrinthodont super-family Brachyopoidea from the Early Triassic of Queensland

A horned, short-skulled labyrinthodont amphibian from the Arcadia Formation of the Rewan Group near Bluff, Queensland, is placed in the family Chigutisauridae of the superfamily Brachyopoidea. This is the first occurrence of this family outside Argentina. The material, consisting of two skulls and three mandibles is described as Keratobrachyops australis gen. et sp. nov., and used as a basis for an examination of the relationship between the families Brachyopidae and Chigutisauridae.     

Pleistocene frogs from the Darling Downs,southeastern Queensland,and their palaeoenvironmental significance

Systematic collecting from fluvial late Pleistocene deposits from the Darling Downs, southeast Queensland, Australia, has led to the recovery of the first fossil frogs from the region, ail from the Myobatrachidae, a family of ground dwelling and burrowing frogs. The most common species recovered, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis, is extant on the Darling Downs. The fossil taxa include species whose extant populations inhabit arid zones(Limnodynastes sp. cf. L. spenceri), montane forests (Kyarranus spp.), and open woodlands (Neobatrachus sudelli), and indicate the existence of a mosaic of habitats during the Pleistocene. The absence of the Hylidae (tree frogs), a family common throughout the Darling Downs today, may be explained by a taphonomic bias that favours non-arboreal forms. Alternatively, hylids may have been rare or absent on the Darling Downs during the Pleistocene.     

Reappraisal of Austrosaurus mckillopi Longman, 1933 from the Allaru Mudstone of Queensland,Australia’s first named Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur

Poropat, S.F., Nair, J.P., Syme, C.E., Mannion, P.D., Upchurch, P., Hocknull, S.A., Cook, A.G., Tischler, T.R. &; Holland, T. XX.XXXX. 2017. Reappraisal of Austrosaurus mckillopi Longman, 1933 Longman, H.A., 1933. A new dinosaur from the Queensland Cretaceous. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 10, 131–144. [Google Scholar] from the Allaru Mudstone of Queensland, Australia’s first named Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur. Alcheringa 41, 543–580. ISSN 0311-5518

Austrosaurus mckillopi was the first Cretaceous sauropod reported from Australia, and the first Cretaceous dinosaur reported from Queensland (northeast Australia). This sauropod taxon was established on the basis of several fragmentary presacral vertebrae (QM F2316) derived from the uppermost Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) Allaru Mudstone, at a locality situated 77 km west-northwest of Richmond, Queensland. Prior to its rediscovery in 2014, the type site was considered lost after failed attempts to relocate it in the 1970s. Excavations at the site in 2014 and 2015 led to the recovery of several partial dorsal ribs and fragments of presacral vertebrae, all of which clearly pertained to a single sauropod dinosaur. The discovery of new material of the type individual of Austrosaurus mckillopi, in tandem with a reassessment of the material collected in the 1930s, has facilitated the rearticulation of the specimen. The resultant vertebral series comprises six presacral vertebrae—the posteriormost cervical and five anteriormost dorsals—in association with five left dorsal ribs and one right one. The fragmentary nature of the type specimen has historically hindered assessments of the phylogenetic affinities of Austrosaurus, as has the fact that these evaluations were often based on a subset of the type material. The reappraisal of the type series of Austrosaurus presented herein, on the basis of both external morphology and internal morphology visualized through CT data, validates it as a diagnostic titanosauriform taxon, tentatively placed in Somphospondyli, and characterized by the possession of an accessory lateral pneumatic foramen on dorsal vertebra I (a feature that appears to be autapomorphic) and by the presence of a robust ventral mid-line ridge on the centra of dorsal vertebrae I and II. The interpretation of the anteriormost preserved vertebra in Austrosaurus as a posterior cervical has also prompted the re-evaluation of an isolated, partial, posterior cervical vertebra (QM F6142, the ‘Hughenden sauropod’) from the upper Albian Toolebuc Formation (which underlies the Allaru Mudstone). Although this vertebra preserves an apparent unique character of its own (a spinopostzygapophyseal lamina fossa), it is not able to be referred unequivocally to Austrosaurus and is retained as Titanosauriformes indet. Austrosaurus mckillopi is one of the oldest known sauropods from the Australian Cretaceous based on skeletal remains and potentially provides phylogenetic and/or palaeobiogeographic context for later taxa such as Wintonotitan wattsi, Diamantinasaurus matildae and Savannasaurus elliottorum.

Stephen F. Poropat* [sporopat@swin.edu.au; stephenfporopat@gmail.com] Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Jay P. Nair [j.nair@uq.edu.au; jayraptor@gmail.com] School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Caitlin E. Syme [caitlin.syme@uqconnect.edu.au] School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Philip D. Mannion [philipdmannion@gmail.com] Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Paul Upchurch [p.upchurch@ucl.ac.uk] Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK; Scott A. Hocknull [scott.hocknull@qm.qld.gov.au] Geosciences, Queensland Museum, 122 Gerler Rd, Hendra, Queensland 4011, Australia; Alex G. Cook [alex.cook@y7mail.com] School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Travis R. Tischler [travisr.tischler@outlook.com] Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Lot 1 Dinosaur Drive, PO Box 408, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia; Timothy Holland [drtimothyholland@gmail.com] Kronosaurus Korner, 91 Goldring St, Richmond, Queensland 4822, Australia. *Also affiliated with: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Lot 1 Dinosaur Drive, PO Box 408, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia.     

Build N Burn: Using Fire as a Tool to Evoke,Educate and Entertain

The visceral nature of fire was exploited in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Britain by the burning down of timber buildings and monuments, as well as the cremation of the dead. These big fires would have created memories, perhaps even ‘flashbulb memories’, and this powerful mnemonic aspect of fire was likely of significance to the social and religious lives of individuals, families and communities. This article introduces the Build N Burn concept, where fires are recreated and deployed alongside public talks, performances, experimental archaeology activities and demonstrations by craft specialists to create memorable and informative public events. Three public engagements to date, two on the island of Arran and one in Caithness, both Scotland, are described here. In each case, we constructed replica timber structures inspired by local prehistoric sites, and then burned these down in a free-to-attend public event at dusk, evoking the culmination of a prehistoric festival. Build N Burn has, at its core, the principle of delivering memorable experiences for the public inspired by prehistory, underpinned by research and experiment, using events which draw on cross-sectoral collaboration and working with local communities. This article offers a critical reflection on work to date, and discusses future potential for such activities, utilizing the mnemonic power and transformational potential of fire for public engagement and experimental archaeology.     

The specifics and spatial structure of circular migration in Russia

Abstract

This article aims at distinguishing recurrent population movements within the territory of the Russian Federation between urban localities of different sizes and rural areas in connection to the processes of urbanization, suburbanization, and de-urbanization. Incomplete urbanization and the strong polarization of socio-economic space in Russia have resulted in two powerful contradictory population flows: centrifugal seasonal sub- and de-urbanization and centripetal labor migration from rural and small towns to large urban centers. The article discusses three forms of recurrent population mobility in Russia: (1) daily commuting of urban and rural inhabitants within metropolitan areas; (2) commuting to large cities and their suburbs for long-term employment intervals (weekly, monthly, etc.), (3) second-home commuting to countryside dachas. Unfinished urbanization in Russia not only attracts rural and small towns’ population to major cities but also keeps it within the latter. It slows down the real de-urbanization and induces specific dachas (second-home) suburbanization/de-urbanization, with these processes being closely interrelated. An opportunity to earn money in cities together with the impossibility of moving to major centers due to expensive housing encourages households to remain in small towns and rural areas. Meanwhile, inhabited rural localities (even ones distant from cities) attract seasonal population (dachniks).     

Turbulent flows,fires, and explosions

Abstract

This paper describes how our understanding of turbulence has grown out of engineering practice and how, in turn, it has modified that practice. This is illustrated by discussions of a number of important combustion phenomena embracing steam and gasoline engines, gas turbines, furnaces, jet fires, fire breathing, and atmospheric explosions.