What Would a Global History of Pets Look Like?

Although the history of pets or companion animals has been a major topic for scholars in recent years, there remain major gaps in our understanding. At present, scholars have approached the topic from different directions, and the difficulty of reconciling work in evolutionary biology, anthrozoology, and social and cultural history is a major challenge. Some academic accounts universalise pet keeping, seeing this as a very ancient phenomenon, the product of hardwired human instincts. Popular histories of pet keeping also tend to stress the longevity of the bond between humans and other animals. Other work portrays the culture of pet keeping as a much more recent, and sees the modern conception of pets as primarily a Western development. A truly global history of pets will need to confront these contemporary problems. We need to know much more about non-Western cultures, regions, and traditions, and the ways in which Western forms of pet keeping supplanted or supplemented other kinds of relationship with animal companions. This process is likely to involve a certain ‘decolonisation’ of animal studies, and to steer us away from assumptions about the homogeneity of the human species

From the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir: Notes on the Unnatural History of Birdsong

Birdsong is exemplary in its quotidian familiarity, and yet enigmatic almost to the point of obscurity, the heroic efforts of the ornithologists notwithstanding (Stap).⁠ Even the term “birdsong” is debatable, if by this we make the claim that nonhuman animals produce music, which is a canonical example of question begging. Naturalists still disagree even on why birds sing (Araya-Salas; Higgins 31-32; Rothenberg, Why Birds Sing; Taylor, Is Birdsong Music?), and they might be placed on a spectrum from the behaviorists and evolutionary biologists, who insist that the sounds birds make are no more than a territorial warning or a sexual invitation, to those who see or hear something else, some excessive exuberance, either approximately or exactly equivalent to our human act of singing for pleasure. Birdsong is, for such aficionados, perhaps even an analogy to art itself (Okanoya; Zeigler; Marler).⁠ They rightly lean on the venerable authority of Darwin here. For him, it is the voices of the passeriformes, the perching or singing birds, that explain nothing less than the evolution of the aesthetic. But they also follow the lead of Kant and his fulsome appreciation of the “free beauties of nature,” “pulchritudo vaga”: “things of nature into which no human has placed any meaning whatsoever” (cf. Figal 54, 55).⁠ This natural beauty might even be moresublime than human art, since “a bird’s song, which we can reduce to no musical rule, seems to have more freedom in it, and thus to offer more for taste, than the human voice singing in accordance with all the rules that the art of music prescribes” (Kant 73-74). Hegel, in his appreciation of the “blithe self-enjoyment” of the birds, sounds the same note, exactly: “voice is not a mere declaration of a need, no mere cry; on the contrary, bird-song is the disinterested utterance whose ultimate determination is the immediate enjoyment of self” (Philosophy of Nature 409).

Structural, stratigraphic and geodynamic controls on the evolution of the Carboniferous succession of northern England and southern Scotland

This thesis helps determine some key structural and geodynamic controls on the evolution of Carboniferous basins in northern England and Scotland. One key control on early Carboniferous (rift) basin evolution in northern England is the role of buoyant and pre-existing granite intrusions in causing localised basement highs. To investigate this relationship, lithosphere-scale numerical modelling and sedimentological approaches are combined. Whereas rift basins are typically considered to be largely normal fault driven systems, lithosphere-scale numerical modelling of the Pennine Basin highlights the role of flexural isostasy in determining basin geometry. Sedimentological-based studies of the Fell Sandstone Formation show that aspects of the basin fill do not conform well with classically depicted models for the region. Highlighted divergences from these models relate to occurrences of granite-cored basement domes or monoclines, whose origins as basement highs are associated with buoyancy and flexural isostatic processes. Local seismic and borehole-based mapping of the late Carboniferous succession in the Canonbie Coalfield and in the Midland Valley of Scotland provides evidence of repeated episodes of positive inversion and unconformities. Three phases of accelerated intra-basin deformation are identified: during the middle-late Namurian, the Duckmantian-Bolsovian, and Asturian-Stephanian. Regional depositional and subsidence trends and more local depositional and structural trends help inform an original structural and geodynamic model for the late Carboniferous basins of the British Isles. It is suggested that northern England and Scotland formed part of an extensive ‘broken’ Variscan foreland system during late Carboniferous times. The regional structural and geodynamic frameworks for the Carboniferous succession of northern England and Scotland presented in this thesis could be used in combination with other tools, such as the regional subsurface temperature modelling methodology presented, to aid deep geothermal exploration and offshore petroleum exploration. More importantly, they may help reinvigorate research into these rocks

Habitat Use and Population Densities of Rain Forest Chameleons in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania [poster]

Conclusions: Chamaeleo dilepis and Ri. brevicaudatus are absent from forest at this elevation (852-1103m), while K. matschiei, K. vosseleri, K. tenuis, and R. spinosus are relatively scarce in the forest. Trioceros deremensis and R. temporalis are common, but density varies greatly. The endemic and scarce K. matschiei and K. vosseleri may be of concern given their scarcity in forest habitat. Density estimates in other habitat types are needed to determine status. For accurate density estimates, it is important to consider seasonal variation in density and animals too high to be observed in surveys

Late Holocene uplift of Rhodes, Greece: evidence for a large tsunamigenic earthquake and the implications for the tectonics of the eastern Hellenic Trench System

Several large earthquakes in the Hellenic subduction zone have been documented in historical records from around the eastern Mediterranean, but the relative seismic quiescence of the region over the period of instrumental observation means that the exact locations of these earthquakes and their tectonic significance are not known. We present AMS radiocarbon dates from uplifted late Holocene palaeoshorelines from the island of Rhodes, showing that uplift is most consistent with a single large (MW ≥ 7:7) reverse-faulting earthquake between about 2000 BC and 200 BC. Analysis of the uplift treating the earthquake as a dislocation in an elastic half space shows a predominantly a reverse-faulting event with a slip vector oblique to the direction of convergence between Rhodes and Nubia. We suggest that the fault responsible for the uplift dips at an angle of 30-60° above the more gently-dipping oblique subduction interface. The highly oblique convergence across the eastern Hellenic plate boundary zone appears to be partitioned into reverse slip on faults that strike parallel to the boundary and strike-parallel or oblique slip on the subduction interface. Hydrodynamical simulation of tsunami propagation from a range of tectonically plausible sources suggests that earthquakes on the fault uplifting Rhodes represent a significant tsunami hazard for Rhodes and SW Turkey, and also possibly for Cyprus and the Nile Delta.AH is supported by a Shell Studentship. This study forms part of the NERC- and ESRC-funded project "Earthquakes Without Frontiers".This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggv30

Spatial Contours of Potential Biomass Crop Production: An Examination of Variations by U.S. Region

The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the United States, resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones using spatial analysis methods. The Midwest and the South are, by far, the largest regions of potential production. Once potential biomass crop yield is made proportional to estimated land and production costs, the South’s optimal crop zones fall along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Seaboard, whereas in the Midwest, they are largely in non-metropolitan localities. The implications of these spatial contours for energy policy for alternative biomass crop production are discussed

Late Holocene uplift of Rhodes, Greece: evidence for a large tsunamigenic earthquake and the implications for the tectonics of the eastern Hellenic Trench System

Several large earthquakes in the Hellenic subduction zone have been documented in historical records from around the eastern Mediterranean, but the relative seismic quiescence of the region over the period of instrumental observation means that the exact locations of these earthquakes and their tectonic significance are not known. We present AMS radiocarbon dates from uplifted late Holocene palæoshorelines from the island of Rhodes, showing that uplift is most consistent with a single large (MW ≥ 7.7) reverse-faulting earthquake between about 2000 BC and 200 BC. Analysis of the uplift treating the earthquake as a dislocation in an elastic half-space shows a predominantly reverse-faulting event with a slip vector oblique to the direction of convergence between Rhodes and Nubia. We suggest that the fault responsible for the uplift dips at an angle of 30–60° above the more gently dipping oblique subduction interface. The highly oblique convergence across the eastern Hellenic plate boundary zone appears to be partitioned into reverse slip on faults that strike parallel to the boundary and strike-parallel or oblique slip on the subduction interface. Hydrodynamical simulation of tsunami propagation from a range of tectonically plausible sources suggests that earthquakes on the fault uplifting Rhodes represent a significant tsunami hazard for Rhodes and SW Turkey, and also possibly for Cyprus and the Nile Delta

The influence of heating and cooling rates on TBC failure in high heat flux tests

High heat flux testing is a commonly used procedure to investigate TBC failure modes. Samples of TBC on superalloy are thermally cycled, with the TBC being heated and the superalloy subjected to forced cooling in order to induce a temperature gradient. Typically conditions are deliberately chosen to be more aggressive than in the engine in order to induce TBC delamination or complete spallation within a few days. We have developed a test bench with a CO2 laser as the heat source which, unlike the more commonly used burner rigs, allows exquisite control of the heating and cooling rates. An optical system detects the hot spots which are caused by TBC delamination. We experimentally validate a two-phase model for TBC failure. In Phase I a vertical crack is driven from the TBC surface down towards the bond coat, which requires a sufficiently high cooling rate. This acts as a starting defect for Phase II, in which a horizontal crack propagates and causes delamination / spallation, which requires a sufficiently high heating rate. In general, we find that heating and cooling rates are a more useful tool to probe TBC robustness than surface temperature or number of thermal cycles