Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherlands

Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherland

Dutch Landscape Painting: Documenting Globalization and Environmental Imagination

There is an old saying that God made the Earth, but the Dutch made the Netherlands; they did this by engineering relationships of the water and land. The Dutch landscape is an authored landscape documenting human reaction to geological, economic, and cultural changes. As a consequence of Dutch globalization, landscape painting arose as a new form of painting, documenting these changes and reactions to them. In a period of newly created land, reclaimed and constructed by sheer human activity, the explicit construction of new environments apparently elicited an implicit desire to hold on to an older, familiar traditional landscape. The Dutch landscape painters were the first to hint at the possible differentiation of places within places and the nesting of multiple places in the social imaginary. Dutch landscape painting raises questions of just what is documented in ‘realistic’ painting; just what is a border; just how might the land, engineering the land, the economy, and the cultural imaginary co-author a painted document

The Forum of European Geological Surveys Geochemistry Task Group 1994-1996 inventory

The Forum of European Geological Surveys (FOREGS) includes representatives from 33 European countries and is responsible for co-ordinating Geological Survey activities in Europe. The FOREGS Geochemistry Task Group was established in 1994 to develop a strategy for the preparation of European geochemical maps following the recommendations of the International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) Project 259 ‘International Geochemical Mapping’ (now the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) /International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry (IAGC) Working Group on Global Geochemical Baselines). The FOREGS geochemistry programme is aimed at preparing a standardised European geochemical baseline to IGCP-259 standards. The principal aims of this dataset will be for environmental purposes, as a baseline for the assessment of the extent and distribution of contaminated land in the context of variations in the natural geochemical background, but it will also have applications in resource assessment and for the development of policy for the sustainable management of metalliferous mineral and other resources. The first phase of the programme was the compilation of an inventory of geochemical data based on the results of a questionnaire completed by Geological Surveys and related organisations throughout the FOREGS community. The results show that the sample types which have been used most extensively are stream sediment (26% coverage), surface water (19% coverage) and soil (11% coverage). Stream sediments have been collected using a narrow range of mesh sizes (< 150–< 200 μm), but soil samples have been collected according to two different conventions: some surveys used a similar mesh size range to that used for stream sediments while others employed the < 1000 or < 2000 μm fractions traditionally used by soil surveys. Sample densities range from 1 sample per 0.5 km2 to 1 per 3500 km2. Various analytical methods have been used, but most of the available data have been calibrated using international reference materials, and data for the most important of the potentially harmful elements (PHEs) are available for most datasets. Systematic radiometric data are available for only a small proportion of Europe, a situation which compares very unfavourably with that in Australia, North America, the former Soviet Union and many developing countries. Recommendations are made for increasing the compatibility of geochemical methods between national geochemical surveys as a basis for the preparation of a series of European geochemical maps. The next stage of the FOREGS Geochemistry Task Group will be the collection of the Global Reference Network of samples against which to standardise national datasets according to the methods recommended in the final report of the IGCP 259 programme

Sharing Water Internationally, Past, Present and Future—Mexico and the United States

Conflicts over the sharing of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo and Colorado Rivers between the United States and Mexico are usually understood in spatial terms. In this paper we argue for the need to add a temporal horizon. A larger historical context will reveal that water management, including water allocation and river politics, has always been influenced by larger social-political and cultural frameworks. These temporal shifts are sequential, but overlapping so that current policies as cultural constructs operate within the framework of previous treaty obligations though the historical contexts have changed. The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo is still defined as a border separating two countries. There is emerging at the grassroots level an understanding of the watershed as an ecological resource that unitesthe two countries. Bringing together the cultural definitions of the river as political boundary that separates and a basin that unites is already underway

The maternal influence: child-caregiver interactions as a mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of trauma

Child maltreatment (CM) is a substantial public health concern and its occurrence often brings a host of negative outcomes for the individuals involved and the larger community as a whole. Adults who experienced CM in their youth often endure a wide variety of persistent physical and psychological dysfunction (Afifi, et al., 2016; Jaffee, 2017). In addition, growing evidence suggests the negative consequences of exposure to CM may not only persist over the exposed individual’s life span, but also may be transmitted across generations (Schwerdtfeger &amp; Goff, 2007), though the specific mechanisms underlying this intergenerational transmission of trauma are poorly understood. The current study sought to examine potential maternal caregiver-child interactions and characteristics (e.g., emotion regulation and attachment) which may present as pathways for the transmission of trauma utilizing path analysis. Though the model demonstrated unsatisfactory fit, ?²= 188.26 (df = 13, P = .000), RMSEA = 0.29, NFI = 0.46, NNFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.46, the current study found robust correlations between maternal caregiver’s negative emotion regulation capabilities and insecure attachment and those of their children. The current study adds to the extant literature in providing additional support for programming aimed at improving the mother-child relationship, both within the context of CM and within families without such experiences

Short-term stability of psychopathic traits in adolescent offenders

There is considerable debate about the assessment of psychopathic traits in adolescence due in part to questions regarding the stability of traits. We investigated the 6-month stability of psychopathic traits in a sample of 83 male adolescent offenders using an augmented protocol for the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version and the self-report Antisocial Process Screening Device. Findings suggested moderate to high stability of psychopathic traits, as indexed by total scores, and low to moderate stability of psychopathic traits at the factor level. The interpersonal and behavioral traits demonstrated greater stability relative to the affective traits, and stability varied by developmental stage, with lower stability in early adolescence. Implications for understanding the developmental expression of psychopathic traits in adolescence, as well as for clinical-forensic practice, are discussed

Women and Work in Contemporary Japan: Deconstructing the "Crisis" of the Gender Order

ABSTRACT The 1990s saw important developments in the employment practices of Japanese women as necessitated by economic recession. Japanese women are increasingly postponing their traditional roles of wife and mother in lieu of expanding education and employment opportunities, suggesting that we are approaching or witnessing a period of redefinition of the prevailing gender structure. This thesis offers a theoretical exposition of this “crisis” in the gender structure utilising Connell’s concept of “hegemonic masculinity” and Finnemore and Sikkink’s “norm life cycle model”. This thesis will be presented as follows: i) hegemonic masculinity will be applied to the Japanese context to argue for the centrality of masculinity defined through the corporation, and for its significance in an understanding of femininity; ii) discussion of the “feminisation” of part-time work in Japan will test whether a challenge to the gender order from within of this nature represents a profound redefinition of the hegemonic gender structure; and iii) discursive study of Japanese state legislation and policy will reveal government commitment to ensuring continuity in gender norm dynamics. The findings suggest that we are not witnessing a period of “crisis” or profound transformation in the gender structure for greater gender equality. The pervasiveness of gender norm ideology in Japan is such that once established these norms have maintained an internal momentum so that changes in the material sphere are constrained by these ideational structures and not vice versa. The current period is marked by cooptation of gender norm challenges by corporations and government in an effort to neutralise gender norm challenge.N/ADepartment of Government and International Relation