The first direct evidence of pre-columbian sources of palygorskite for Maya Blue

Maya Blue, a nano-structured clay–organic complex of palygorskite and indigo, was used predominantly before the Spanish Conquest. It has fascinated chemists, material scientists, archaeologists and art historians for decades because it is resistant to the effect of acids, alkalis, and other reagents, and its rich color has persisted for centuries in the harsh tropical climate of southern Mesoamerica. One of its components, palygorskite, is part of modern Maya indigenous knowledge, and ethnohistoric and archaeological data suggest that its modern sources were probably utilized in Prehispanic times. Yet no direct evidence verifies that palygorskite was actually mined from these sources to make Maya Blue. Here we characterize these sources compositionally, and compare our analyses to those of Maya Blue from Chichén Itzá and Palenque. We demonstrate that the palygorskite in most of these samples came from modern mines, providing the first direct evidence for the use of these sources for making Maya Blue. These findings reveal that modern Maya indigenous knowledge about palygorskite, its mining, and its source locations, is at least seven centuries old.     

THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF HIGHER MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE USSR, 1917-1985

During the Soviet period the network of medical schools expanded from one essentially limited to the European part of the country to a widely dispersed system covering the entire territory except for the far north. Analysis of the locational factors of Soviet medical school establishment shows that, like other higher education institutions, these medical schools were located primarily by city population size. Many peripheral regions received schools, despite having only lower-order population centers, and those places where schools were established fared much better in retaining physicians than those where they were not.     

Climatic influences in some ancient Mediterranean religions

L'Indo‐Chine française : Étude politique, économique et administrative sur la Cochinchine, le Cambodge, l'Annam et le Tonkin. Par J.‐L. de Lanessak, etc. Avec 5 cartes. Paris : Félix Alcan, 1889. Pp. 760.

The Civilisation of Sweden in Heathen Times. By Oscar Montelius, Ph.D., Professor at the National Historical Museum, Stockholm. Translated from the second Swedish edition, revised and enlarged by the Author, by Eev. F. H. Woods, B.D., Vicar of Chalfont St. Peter. With Maps and 205 Illustrations. London: Macmillan and Co., 1888. Pp. xvi. and 214. Price 14s.

Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. Vol. xiii., 1886–87. Inverness : Northern Chronicle Office, 1888. Pp. xiv. + 372.

The Tour of Dr. Richard Pococke, Lord Bishop of Ossory, through Sutherland and Caithness in 1760, with Introduction and Notes by Daniel William Kemp. Printed at the Darien Press. Published by The Sutherland Association. Edinburgh, 1888.

Sketches from a Tour through Holland and Germany. By J. P. Mahaffy and J. E. Rogers. London : Macmillan and Co., 1889. Pp. xv. and 271. Price 10s. 6d.

The Land of Rubens: A Companion for Visitors to Belgium. By Conrad Burken Huet. Translated from the Dutch, and edited by Albert D. Vandam. London : Sampson Low and Co., 1888. Pp. 232. Price 3s. 6d.

Switzerland: its Mountains, Valleys, Lakes, and Rivers. With 250 Illustrations. New and revised edition. London : J. S. Virtue and Co., 1889. Pp. 388. Price 15s.

A Winter in Albania. By H. A. Brown ; Illustrations by 0. H. Brown. Pp. viii. and 395. London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh. 1888. Price 10s. 6d.

Naples in 1888. By E. N. Rolfe and H. Ingleby. London : Trübner and Co. Price 7s. 6d, Pp. 262.

The First Ascent of the Kasaï, being some Records of Service under the Lone Star, By Chaeles Someeville Lateobe Bateman, sometime Captain and Adjutant of Gendarmerie in the Congo Free State. With 57 Illustrations and 2 Maps. London: George Philip and Son, 1889. Pp. 185. Price 21s.

The Least of all Lands : Seven Chapters on the Topography of Palestine. By William Miller, C.I.E., LL.D., Principal of the Madras Christian College, and Fellow of the University of Madras. London : Blackie and Son, 1888. Pp. 247.

The Statesman's Year‐Booh for 1889. Edited by J. Scott Keltie, Librarian to the Royal Geographical Society. Twenty‐sixth Annual Publication. London : Macmillan and Co., 1889. Price 10s. 6d.

Commercial Geography: based on the latest Researches and Statistical Returns. A complete Manual of the Countries of the World, their chief Centres of Trade and Means of Communication, their Natural Productions, Mineral Resources, Exports, Manufactures, etc. By Dr. Cael Zehden, Professor in the Handels‐Akademie of Vienna. Translated by Findlay Muiehead, M.A. London : Blackie and Son, 1889. Pp. 592.

The Colony of New Zealand: Its History, Vicissitudes, and Progress. By William Gisboene. London : E. A. Petherick and Co., 1888. Pp. 360. Price 7s. 6d.

The Northern Counties Red Book : Inverness, Northern Chronicle Office.

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A Guide to Trinidad: A Hand‐booh for the use of Tourists and Visitors. By J. H. Collens, Port of Spain. Second edition. London: Elliot Stock, 1888. Pp. 287. Price 6s.

Making a Start in Canada : Letters from Two Young Emigrants. With an Introduction by Professor Alfred J. Church, M.A. Pp. xx. and 224. London : Seeley and Co., 1889. Price 2s. 6d.     

Understanding Local Policymaking: Policy Elites' Perceptions of Local Agenda Setting and Alternative Policy Selection

Despite the increasing interest in policy agenda research in recent years, very few studies have focused their attention on the relevant processes at the local level. Drawing on agenda-setting research, particularly Kingdon's multiple-streams framework, this study examines the key forces and factors, as well as their relative importance, in local agenda setting, problem identification, and alternative policy selection. Data are collected from 271 in-depth interviews with local policy stakeholders in three U.S. Gulf Coast areas. Interview materials are coded using a protocol focused on capturing stakeholders' perceptions of the key elements and forces in local policy dynamics. Our interview data indicate that (i) governmental actors and various interest groups have relatively more influence in shaping local agendas than the general public, experts, and election-related actors, while the mass media are found to have little agenda-setting power in local policy processes; (ii) budgetary consideration and various forms of feedback to local government are more important than objective problem indicators and focusing events in setting local policy priorities; (iii) policy alternatives that are deemed compatible with existing policies and regulations are more likely to be selected than those relying on other criteria such as technical feasibility, value acceptability, and future constraints; and (iv) consensus and coalition building is perceived as the most important political factor in local policy processes. Limitations of our study and recommendations for future research are discussed in the concluding section.     

Thermal effects on cathodoluminescence in forsterite

Cathodoluminescence (CL) spectral analysis has been conducted for luminescent forsterite (olivine) of terrestrial and meteoritic origins. Two emission bands at 3.15 and 2.99 eV in blue region can be assigned to structural defect centres and two emission bands at 1.91 and 1.74 eV in red region to impurity centres of Mn²⁺ and Cr³⁺, respectively. These emissions reduce their intensities at higher temperature, suggesting a temperature quenching phenomenon. The activation energy in the quenching process was estimated by a least-square fitting of the Arrhenius plots using integrated intensity of each component as follows; blue emissions at 3.15 eV: 0.08–0.10 eV and at 2.99 eV: 0.09–0.11 eV, red emissions at 1.91 eV: ～0.01 eV and at 1.74 eV: ～0.02 eV. The quenching process can be construed by the non-radiative transition by assuming the Mott-Seitz model. The values of activation energies for blue emissions caused by structural defects correspond to the vibration energy of Si-O stretching mode in the lattice, and the values for red emissions caused by Mn and Cr impurity centres to Mg-O vibration energy. It implies that the temperature quenching energy might be transferred as a phonon to the specific lattice vibration.