\u3cem\u3eBaptiste v. de Volunbrun 5 H. & J. 86 (Md 1820)\u3c/em\u3e: the Events Surrounding an Early Nineteenth-Century Freedom Petition Before the Maryland Court of Appeals

BAPTISTE V. DE VOLUNBRUN 5 H. & J. 86 (Md. 1820): In Jean Baptiste’s 1820 freedom petition we have not only a slavery case typical of the region and period, but also a compelling and informative narrative from the beginning of the end of North America’s nearly two hundred and fifty year era of slavery. This epic has its roots in the some of the earliest African arrivals to the new world and was significantly influenced by the major trends in philosophy that immediately preceded its commencement, as well as a concurrent and burgeoning American abolitionist movement. It features questionable heroes and underhanded villains, mob riots and narrow escapes, suffering and injustice, journeys through the Caribbean, New England, Maryland and New Orleans, and ultimately, redemption

Light Curve Patterns and Seismology of a White Dwarf with Complex Pulsation

The ZZ Ceti star KUV 02464+3239 was observed over a whole season at the mountain station of Konkoly Observatory. A rigorous frequency analysis revealed 6 certain periods between 619 and 1250 seconds, with no shorter period modes present. We use the observed periods, published effective temperature and surface gravity, along with the model grid code of Bischoff-Kim, Montgomery and Winget (2008) to perform a seismological analysis. We find acceptable model fits with masses between 0.60 and 0.70 M_Sun. The hydrogen layer mass of the acceptable models are almost always between 10^-4 and 10^-6 M_*. In addition to our seismological results, we also show our analysis of individual light curve segments. Considering the non-sinusoidal shape of the light curve and the Fourier spectra of segments showing large amplitude variations, the importance of non-linear effects in the pulsation is clearly seen.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, in "Stellar Pulsation: Challenges for Theory and Observation", Eds. J. Guzik and P. A. Bradley, AIP

Isidore de Séville. Genése et originalité de la culture hispanique aux temps des Wisigoths. [Reseña]

Reseña de: Jacques FONTAINE, Isidore de Séville. Genése et originalité de la culture hispanique aux temps des Wisigoths, Brepols, Tumhout 2000, 486 pp

XAS Study of the High Pressure Behaviour of Quartzlike Compounds

EXAFS spectroscopy experiments have been carried out on quartz-like GaAsO4 and AlAsO4 at high pressure and room temperature. It has been shown that these materials exhibit two structural phase transitions; the first transition to a high pressure crystalline form occurs at 9 GPa and is reversible upon decompression, whereas the second transition occurs at higher pressures and is irreversible. In GaAsO4, EXAFS measurements agree with the predicted transition from four- to six-fold coordination of oxygen atoms around the cations, but the two local coordination transformations are not dissociated; in fact, both As and Ga atoms exhibit a coordination change at the onset of the first phase transition, the rate of transformation being significantly higher for Ga atoms. In both cases, the average bond length increases very rapidly with pressure thus yielding the first compression stage after the transition. In the second stage, the average bond lengths increase slowly, ultimately reaching six-fold coordination above 28 GPa and 24 GPa for As and Ga respectively. The behaviour of the As K-edge EXAFS is the same for both compounds, and enables us to link the behaviour of Ga and Al atoms. The local transformations are well described and a direct link with phosphate berlinites seems timely.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX2e, J. de Physique (in press

Pulsation in carbon-atmosphere white dwarfs: A new chapter in white dwarf asteroseismology

We present some of the results of a survey aimed at exploring the asteroseismological potential of the newly-discovered carbon-atmosphere white dwarfs. We show that, in certains regions of parameter space, carbon-atmosphere white dwarfs may drive low-order gravity modes. We demonstrate that our theoretical results are consistent with the recent exciting discovery of luminosity variations in SDSS J1426+5752 and some null results obtained by a team of scientists at McDonald Observatory. We also present follow-up photometric observations carried out by ourselves at the Mount Bigelow 1.6-m telescope using the new Mont4K camera. The results of follow-up spectroscopic observations at the MMT are also briefly reported, including the surprising discovery that SDSS J1426+5752 is not only a pulsating star but that it is also a magnetic white dwarf with a surface field near 1.2 MG. The discovery of $g$-mode pulsations in SDSS J1426+5752 is quite significant in itself as it opens a fourth asteroseismological "window", after the GW Vir, V777 Her, and ZZ Ceti families, through which one may study white dwarfs.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Journal of Physics Conference Proceedings for the 16th European White Dwarf Worksho

How Not to Argue That Reasonable Provocation is Not an Excuse

Reid Fontaine draws two conclusions regarding the partial defense to murder of reasonable provocation-one regarding its substantive content, the other regarding its formal classification…. I agree with both of Fontaine\u27s two conclusions, and, indeed, I have previously written to that effect. Unfortunately, while I agree with Fontaine\u27s conclusions, I do not think he adequately supports them

Fine-scale mapping of High Nature Value farmlands: novel approaches to improve the management of rural biodiversity and ecosystem services

High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf) are defined as rural lands characterized by high levels of biodiversity and extensive farming practices. These farmlands are also known to provide important ecosystems services, such as food production, pollination, water purification and landscape recreation. Recently, this concept has been introduced in Rural Development Programmes related to biodiversity preservation in traditional agricultural landscapes. However, there are no specific rules concerning the practical use of the concept, particularly on the identification of potential HNVf areas at a local scale. However, this application becomes important for farmland biodiversity protection in the context of multi-scale agricultural development. We present a novel approach for HNVf mapping, which provides an improved local discrimination of farmlands according to their contribution for the conservation of rural biodiversity and ecosystem services. Our approach is based on a multi-criteria valuation of habitat types based on the national land cover map and agrarian censuses. It is onsidered applicable in other EU countries since comparable datasets are usually available. This methodology is also expected to provide the backbone of a standard, cost-effective methodology for HNVf monitoring, with an emphasis on the impacts of land use change on species, habitats and landscape function