Sleep,Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World

Combining psychological and anthropological work indicates that sleep, dreaming, and the imagination are involved in regulating mood and updating individual and collective knowledge. Psychologists often implicitly assume that all dreamers share their naturalistic model of dreaming while ethnographers often emphasize the spiritual explanations of dreaming inherent in the worldviews of their hosts. Applying cognitive and evolutionary theories of religion to the ethnography of dreaming and the imagination suggests that these capacities have adaptive value for learning, emotional adjustment, and the flow, revivification, and recalibration of knowledge traditions. A general anthropological approach to sleep, dreaming, and the imagination can surmount oversights that result from disciplinary and subfield foci and emphases.     

SEISMIC FRAGILITY OF LRC FRAMES WITH AND WITHOUT MASONRY INFILL WALLS

This paper summarises the first phase of the fragility analyses of generic (representative) buildings in the area of Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The study was conducted at Cornell University as a part of the project Loss Assessment of Memphis Buildings (LAMB) for the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER). In this study, the fragility analyses focus on low-rise Lightly Reinforced Concrete (LRC) frame buildings with and without infill walls. The obtained fragility curves are compared with those of ATC-13 for different facility classes. Based on the obtained fragility curves, it is concluded that adding masonry infill wails to low-rise LRC frame buildings significantly reduces the likelihood of seismic damage.     

Fringe explosions: risk and vulnerability in Canada's new in‐between urban landscape

This article argues that a new landscape of urbanization takes shape in Canadian cities. In‐between the old downtowns and the new suburbs of urban Canada, a hitherto underexposed and under‐researched mix of residential, commercial, industrial, educational, agricultural and ecologically protected areas and land uses has become the home and workplace, and increasingly also the playspace of most people in Canada. The article examines this new landscape through the lens of the specific risks and vulnerabilities experienced by its inhabitants and users. Using a propane gas explosion in Toronto in the summer of 2008 as an example, we demonstrate that the ‘in‐between city’ is a space of great complexity, which has grown haphazardly and in a contradictory fashion, where, in contrast to the archetype of inner city and suburb, no clear spatial imaginary has been guiding urban development. This leads to always uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous proximities between various and competing uses and social practices. This is nowhere as clear as it is in the splintered urban infrastructures that service this landscape or use the in‐between city's space to service other adjacent or distant purposes.     

SPATIAL VARIATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS FORMS IN BOTTOM SEDIMENTS OF TWO CANADIAN SHIELD LAKES

Nutrient dynamics in lake systems are influenced by the loading of sediment-associated phosphorus (P) from both internal and external sources. Despite efforts to control lake productivity through reductions in external P loading, water quality problems persist in some lakes due to high internal loading of P from bottom sediment. The present study examines the spatial distribution of chemically defined P forms (NH₄Cl-RP, BD-RP, NaOH-RP, HCI-RP, and NaOH_(S5)-RP) in bottom sediments of two noncalcareous Canadian Shield Lakes. Sediment P data are related to some of the physical and chemical variables that control internal P loading in lakes. The BD-RP and NaOH-RP forms are related to water depth and nonresidual iron and aluminum content of sediment. Approximately 80% of the total extractable P in the Muldrew Lakes sediment was bioavailable P (NH₄Co-RP + BD - RP + NaOH - RP), which is about twice that reported in the literature for calcareous lakes. In order to model P cycling in the Muldrew Lakes, further research is required to determine the internal supply of P from the lakes' sediments and potential anthropogenic inputs ofP from private sewage disposal systems. La dynamique des nutriments dans un lac est influenceé par I'apport en phosphore (P) provenant de sources internes et externes. Malgré les efforts déployés pour contrôler le taux de P par réduction de I'apport externe, la qualityé de I'eau demeure un problème dans certains lacs à cause de la contribution interne provenant de la sédimentation de fond. Cette étude examine la distribution spatiale de formes chimiquement définies de P (NH₄CI-RP, BD-RP, NaOH-RP, HCI-RP, and NaOH₍₈₅₎-RP) présentes dans les sédiments de fonds de deux lacs non-calcaires du Bouclier Canadien. Les contenus en P des sediments sont reliés à certaines variables physiques et chimiques qui contrôlent I'apport interne des lacs. Le Bd-RP et le NaOH-RP sont reliés à la profondeur de I'eau ainsi qu'aux contenus non-résiduels de fer et d'aluminium du sédiment. Environ 80% du P pouvant être extrait du sédiment des lacs Muldrew éait du P (NH₄Cl-RP + BD-RP + NaOH-RP) biodisponible. Ceci représente le double de ce qui est rapporté dans la littéature pour des lacs calcaires. Afin de construire un modèle du cycle du P dans les lacs Muldrew, il est important de déterminer I'apport interne de P provenant de la sédimentation et les sources anthropiques potentielles provenant des systèmes d'égouts privés.     

Earth Sciences Comparative Matrix: A Comparative Method for Geoheritage Assessment

Geological heritage is insufficiently recognised in Australia; it should be considered in its own right, not as an addendum to other heritage values. The lack of a suitable robust and repeatable methodology has seriously constrained the assessment of geological sites suitable for the National Heritage List (NHL). A desktop assessment of Australian desert landscapes required intrinsic natural values of a diverse group of sites, spread over a vast area, to be assessed against NHL criteria. The Earth Sciences Comparative Matrix (ESCoM) was developed for this study. In the ESCoM, sites are grouped in process themes. Each is assessed against NHL criteria then compared with other similar places, according to degree of unusualness, integrity, and authenticity. A site scoring well across multiple themes has increased heritage significance. The overall values of a site are quantified, leading to a qualitative judgement on whether it achieves the threshold of outstanding heritage value. Examples of assessment using this method are given. In this methodology, significance determination is based on rigorous comparisons of specific values. It is semi‐quantitative, repeatable, and robust. It differs from other geoheritage assessment methods in its combination of process‐based groupings (facilitating the separation of site type from heritage criteria), matrix structure (minimising complexities of scale or diversity), and use of numerical rankings as an aid in decision‐making. While the study for which ESCoM was developed was focused on landforms, it can be used for other types of geoheritage (e.g. fossils, tectonic processes), with modification of matrix theme headings.     

Editorial Introduction 35(3)

Sherzer, Joel. Kuna Ways of Speaking: An Ethnographic Perspective. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983. xii + 260 pp. including bibliography and guide to pronunciation. $22.50 cloth.     

The graptolite Glossograptus Emmons and its proximal structure

Ni Yunan & Cooper, R. A., 1994:03:28. The graptolite Glossograptus Emmons and its proximal structure. Alcheringa 18, 161–167. ISSN 0311-5518.

New specimens of Glossograptus acanthus from the Ningkuo Shale of China, preserved in relief, help to resolve the much debated problem of the structure of Glossograptus. A model for the proximal structure of the genus is proposed, based on the new material and on Finney's (1978) Athens Shale specimens. The model confirms that Glossograptus has homologous structure and development with Pseudisograptus, and isograptid development type is primitive for the group containing both genera. A cladogram is presented in which the suborder Glossograptina Jaanusson (with families Glossograptidae and Cryptograptidae) together with family Corynoididae Bulman are subsumed within a redefined family Glossograptidae.