A Bluff-Shelter Site in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

In the wildly rugged hills near Canyon Springs, in southeastern Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, a unique sandstone formation has produced evidence of once sheltering a prehistoric people. Technically, the sandstone is of the Wilcox series, and is faulted to a position above the McLish limestone beneath which it normally lies. The fault line runs from the north southward a distance of 25 yards, then runs at right angles to the east for 40 yards. The sandstone ranges from 6 feet in height on the northern extremity to 35 feet along the southeastern portion. Multiple fractures, generally parallel to the fault lines, have been recemented with dissolved siliceous material to make a highly resistant formation. Erosion takes place by exfoliation, giving to the rock mass, at a distance, a granitic appearance. Because of slanting fracture lines, the foot-wall of the fault, overthrust as it is, has broken off in places to form huge over-hangs that afford plentiful protection from the weather. It was in such an area evidence of a prehistoric habitation was found

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article reports on the excavation of a bluff shelter within east central Oklahoma. This shelter was a cave dwelling for those who lived within Oklahoma centuries ago

The Electrochemistry of Simple Inorganic Molecules in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

The electrochemistry of simple inorganic compounds in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) is reviewed and some new work in this area is presented. This paper focuses on the comparison between electrochemical behaviour in RTILs and in conventional aprotic solvents. Some compounds (iodides, O2, NO2, SO2, NH3) display similar reactions and mechanisms in RTILs as in aprotic solvents (as is observed for organic compounds). However other species (nitrates, PCl3, POCl3) show remarkably different behaviour to traditional solvents. This makes RTILs very promising media for the study of inorganic compounds, and highlights the need for more investigations in this exciting area

New Methods to Assess Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation of Agricultural Production Systems: The experience of AgMIP’s Regional Integrated Assessments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

The climate change research community has recognized that new pathway and scenario concepts are needed to implement impact and vulnerability assessment that is logically consistent across global, regional and local scales. The most common challenge is that global models do not provide context-specific answers, while scientists and decision makers require data and information about climate change, vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation and impacts at the local scale. The Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) provides the link between global climate change projections and sector-specific and regional pathways and scenarios (Antle et al., 2015; Rosenzweig et al., 2013). AgMIP, through a trans-disciplinary process involving both scientists and stakeholders, is developing Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) for agricultural systems at both global and regional scales. In addition to climate modeling, RAPs include bio-physical and socio-economic drivers, associated capabilities, challenges and opportunities. RAPs can then be translated as components of the AgMIP Regional Integrated Assessments (RIA) of climate vulnerability and impacts

Methods for environment: productivity trade-off analysis in agricultural systems

Trade-off analysis has become an increasingly important approach for evaluating system level outcomes of agricultural production and for prioritising and targeting management interventions in multi-functional agricultural landscapes. We review the strengths and weakness of different techniques available for performing trade-off analysis. These techniques, including mathematical programming and participatory approaches, have developed substantially in recent years aided by mathematical advancement, increased computing power, and emerging insights into systems behaviour. The strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are identified and discussed, and we make suggestions for a tiered approach for situations with different data availability. This chapter is a modified and extended version of Klapwijk et al. (2014)

Using AgMIP Regional Integrated Assessment Methods to Evaluate Vulnerability, Resilience and Adaptive Capacity for Climate Smart Agricultural Systems

The predicted effects of climate change call for a multi-dimensional method to assess the performance of various agricultural systems across economic, environmental and social dimensions. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) recognizes that the three goals of climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience must be integrated into the framework of a sustainable agricultural system. However, current methods to determine a systems’ ability to achieve CSA goals are lacking. This paper presents a new simulation-based method based on the Regional Integrated Assessment (RIA) methods developed by the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) for climate impact assessment. This method combines available data, field- and stakeholder-based surveys, biophysical and economic models, and future climate and socio-economic scenarios. It features an integrated farm and household approach and accounts for heterogeneity across biophysical and socioeconomic variables as well as temporal variability of climate indicators. This method allows for assessment of the technologies and practices of an agricultural system to achieve the three goals of CSA. The case study of a mixed crop livestock system in western Zimbabwe is highlighted as a typical smallholder agricultural systems in Africa

Renegotiation and Relative Performance Evaluation: Why an Informative Signal may be Useless

Although Holmström's informativeness criterion provides a theoretical foundation for the controllability principle and inter firm relative performance evaluation, empirical and field studies provide only weak evidence on such practices. This paper refines the traditional informativeness criterion by abandoning the conventional full-commitment assumption. With the possibility of renegotiation, a signal's usefulness in incentive contracting depends on its information quality, not simply on whether the signal is informative. This paper derives conditions for determining when a signal is useless and when it is useful. In particular, these conditions will be met when the signal's information quality is either sufficiently poor or sufficiently rich