Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo, Russian Plain

Whether or not mammoth hunting was practised during the Late Palaeolithic has been a controversial issue ever since large accumulations of woolly mammoth bones associated with prehistoric artefacts were discovered more than 100 years ago. Detailed taphonomic and palaeobiological analyses of the mammoth bone complexes from the Epigravettian Yudinovo site in the Russian Plain were carried out. The combination of the homogeneous weathering rate of the mammoth bones, the isolated state of most of the skeletal elements, the restricted spatial range of the carnivore gnawing traces, the breakage pattern of the skulls and long bones, the sex ratio, the small body size of the adult mammoths, the age profile (with an important frequency of prime-aged cows), and the large number of individuals, suggest that the bone complexes at Yudinovo were constructed from body parts and bones that were extracted from freshly killed mammoths and that mammoth hunting was practised at this site during the Epigravettian.     

Gas breakthrough experiments on fine-grained sedimentary rocks

The capillary sealing efficiency of fine‐grained sedimentary rocks has been investigated by gas breakthrough experiments on fully water saturated claystones and siltstones (Boom Clay from Belgium, Opalinus Clay from Switzerland and Tertiary mudstone from offshore Norway) of different lithological compositions. Sand contents of the samples were consistently below 12%, major clay minerals were illite and smectite. Porosities determined by mercury injection lay between 10 and 30% while specific surface areas determined by nitrogen adsorption (BET method) ranged from 20 to 48 m² g ^{? 1}. Total organic carbon contents were below 2%. Prior to the gas breakthrough experiments the absolute (single phase) permeability (k_abs) of the samples was determined by steady state flow tests with water or NaCl brine. The k_abs values ranged between 3 and 550 nDarcy (3 × 10^?21 and 5.5 × 10^?19 m²). The maximum effective permeability to the gas‐phase (k_eff) measured after gas breakthrough on initially water‐saturated samples extended from 0.01 nDarcy (1 × 10^?23 m²) up to 1100 nDarcy (1.1 × 10^?18 m²). The residual differential pressures after re‐imbibition of the water phase, referred to as the ‘minimum capillary displacement pressures’ (P_d), ranged from 0.06 to 6.7 MPa. During the re‐imbibition process the effective permeability to the gas phase decreases with decreasing differential pressure. The recorded permeability/pressure data were used to derive the pore size distribution (mostly between 8 and 60 nm) and the transport porosity of the conducting pore system (10^‐5–10^‐2%). Correlations could be established between (i) absolute permeability coefficients and the maximum effective permeability coefficients and (ii) effective or absolute permeability coefficients and capillary sealing efficiency. No correlation was found between the capillary displacement pressures determined from gas breakthrough experiments and those derived theoretically by mercury injection.     

Seismic constraints on the effects of gas hydrate on sediment physical properties and fluid flow: a review

The formation of gas hydrates in marine sediments changes their physical properties and hence influences fluid flow. Here, we review seismic indicators of gas hydrates and relate these indicators to gas hydrate formation and fluid migration. Analyses of seismic data from sediments containing gas and gas hydrates in a variety of locations have shown that the characteristic bottom‐simulating reflector (BSR), which commonly marks the hydrate phase boundary is caused mainly by the presence of gas beneath the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). The amplitude of the BSR is also dependent on the hydrate concentration and on the porosity of the sediment. The presence of gas hydrate alters the elastic properties of sediments, particularly if it cements sediment grains. However, multifrequency studies in various geological provinces show that any loss of reflectivity or blanking observed within the GHSZ is dependent on both the nature of the sediments and concentration of hydrate present. Gas beneath the BSR may cause amplitude anomalies and may result in bright spots and enhanced reflections. The presence of gas beneath the BSR is the primary cause of observed amplitude versus offset (AVO) anomalies, but the amplitude of these anomalies is also dependent on the amount of cementation brought by the gas hydrates within the GHSZ. Fluid migration appears to play an important role in the formation and dissociation of gas hydrates in both active and passive margin settings. Fluid migration in accretionary prisms influences hydrate accumulation and may therefore control the spatial distribution of BSRs. Fluid migration may influence also the type of hydrate formed by bringing thermogenic gas containing higher order hydrocarbons to the GHSZ from below. Fluid advection may cause local dissociation of gas hydrates by bringing heat from below, thus shifting the gas hydrate phase boundary. Fluid flow within the GHSZ is limited by the formation of hydrate in the pore space, which reduces the permeability of the sediment. Features such as pockmarks, acoustic masking and acoustic turbidity are indirect indicators of fluid flow and identification of these features in seismic sections within and beneath the GHSZ may also suggest the formation of gas hydrate.     

Exploring the Conditions for Cooperative Energy Governance: A Comparative Study of Two Asian Pipelines

A central but often unasked question in political and sociological scholarship concerns the conditions that precipitate cooperation on large-scale transnational energy projects, especially among “developing” and “emerging” economies. Using the example of two multi-billion dollar pipeline systems – the Trans-ASEAN Natural Gas Pipeline (TAGP) Network in Southeast Asia and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline in the Caspian Sea – this article explores the factors that result in successfully completed projects, and those that lead to conflict and contention. After drawing from extensive research interviews and field research, the article approaches politics and technology through the lens of science and technology studies. It relies on the interdisciplinary concepts of “relevant social group” and “technological frame” to identify coalitions of actors associated with each pipeline project. The paper then investigates the interests and motivations behind these groups to illuminate the challenges facing the TAGP and those that accelerated the completion of the BTC. The paper concludes by offering some thoughts on the diverse elements needed to incentivise cross-border energy infrastructure, and what these may mean for energy and public policy scholars.     

Are rocks still water‐wet in the presence of dense CO2 or H2S?

The various modes of acid gas storage in aquifers, namely structural, residual, and local capillary trapping, are effective only if the rock remains water‐wet. This paper reports an evaluation, by means of the captive‐bubble method, of the water‐wet character in presence of dense acid gases (CO₂, H₂S) of typical rock‐forming minerals such as mica, quartz, calcite, and of a carbonate‐rich rock sampled from the caprock of a CO₂ storage reservoir in the South‐West of France. The method, which is improved from that previously implemented with similar systems by Chiquet et al. (Geofluids 2007; 7 : 112), allows the advancing and receding contact angles, as well as the adhesion behavior of the acid gas on the mineral substrate, to be evaluated over a large range of temperatures (up to 140°C), pressures (up to 150 bar), and brine salinities (up to NaCl saturation) representative of various geological storage conditions. The water‐receding (or gas‐advancing) angle that controls structural and local capillary trapping is observed to be not significantly altered in the presence of dense CO₂ or H₂S. In contrast, some alteration of the water‐advancing (or gas‐receding) angle involved in residual trapping is observed, along with acid gas adhesion, particularly on mica. A spectacular wettability reversal is even observed with mica and liquid H₂S. These results complement other recent observations on similar systems and present analogies with the wetting behavior of crude oil/brine/mineral systems, which has been thoroughly studied over the past decades. An insight is given into the interfacial forces that govern wettability in acid gas‐bearing aquifers, and the consequences for acid gas geological storage are discussed along with open questions for future work.     

防疫还是排华？——1911年俄国远东地区大规模驱逐华侨事件研究

论文介绍了1911年俄国远东地区当局以＂防疫需要＂为名大规模驱逐华侨和限制中国人入境等排华事件的主要过程,分析了这一事件背后更深层的原因。认为当时华侨在俄远东地区的广泛存在,引发了俄国国内一部分政治势力在政治、国防方面的担忧和恐慌,便以＂防疫＂为名,以＂排华＂为实制造了这一标志着自19世纪60年代以来俄国境内排华活动达到高潮的事件。在此次事件中,中国政府努力对难民进行了安置,并进行外交交涉,但成效不彰。     

Russia's Kosovo: A Critical Geopolitics of the August 2008 War over South Ossetia

A noted political geographer presents an analysis of the August 2008 South Ossetian war. He analyzes the conflict from a critical geopolitical perspective sensitive to the importance of localized context and agency in world affairs and to the limitations of state-centric logics in capturing the connectivities, flows, and attachments that transcend state borders and characterize specific locations. The paper traces the historical antecedents to the August 2008 conflict and identifies major factors that led to it, including legacies of past violence, the Georgian president's aggressive style of leadership, and renewed Russian "great power" aspirations under Putin. The Kosovo case created normative precedents available for opportunistic localization. The author then focuses on the events of August 2008 and the competing storylines promoted by the Georgian and Russian governments. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, I31, O18, P30. 7 figures, 2 tables, 137 references.     

The Russian Stabilization Fund and Its Successor: Implications for Inflation

A senior Japanese specialist on Russia's economy and its oil- and gas-producing sectors analyzes the functions and performance of the Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation and the new system replacing it in 2008. The Fund, created to diminish the effects of possible future decreases in oil prices on federal budget revenues and to absorb excess liquidity in the economy, was expected to exert a major curb on inflation. The author investigates the extent to which the latter, inflation-fighting role of the Fund has been fulfilled, given increases in the country's money supply and in state-regulated prices within the natural monopolies. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E50, E62, H20, H60. 4 figures, 5 tables, 25 references.     

The Booming Russo-Japanese Economic Relations

A noted Japanese economist analyzes the history, present status, and future prospects for Russo-Japanese economic relations. The author demonstrates that the boom in trade between the two countries in the 2000s is unprecedented, ending the stagnation in bilateral trade that began in the early 1980s, when the era of large-scale Siberian resource development projects came to an end. He argues that underlying the current boom is an eastward shift in the Russian economy, characterized by its energy and investment policies as well as foreign economic relations. The paper considers in detail two important factors supporting this boom: (1) Japan’s exports of automobiles to Russia; and (2) Russia’s exports of oil and gas to Japan. He concludes with a guardedly optimistic prognosis suggesting growth in the bilateral economic relations on the grounds of the continuing eastward shift of the Russian economy and a marked correspondence between the demand and supply of the two countries. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F140, O520, P280, Q430. 7 figures, 4 tables, 50 references.     

Early Upper Paleolithic industries of Eastern Europe

Early Upper Paleolithic sites are known in various parts of Eastern Europe, but the two main concentrations of them are the Prut-Dniester basin and the middle Don. The flint industries are divided into archaeological cultures (cultural traditions), of which some show clear archaic features (Kostenki-Streletsian, Gorodtsovian, Brynzenian, etc.), while others have no Mousteroid characteristics (Spitsynian, Telmanian, etc.). Both types of culture coexisted throughout the Early Upper Paleolithic. In some cases, it is possible to trace genetic links between archaeological cultures and to follow the transition between the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic. The radiocarbon age of the oldest Upper Paleolithic sites in the Russian Plain is about 40,000 B.P., but some sites may be older. The Early Upper Paleolithic ended about 24,000–23,000 B.P. In the Crimea, the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition appears to have taken place at about 20,000–18,000 B.P.