Seismic wide-angle study of accreted Proterozoic crust in southeastern Wyoming

A seismic wide-angle xperiment was conducted in southeastern Wyoming, USA to investigate the seismic character of a postulated Proterozoic magmatic arc south of the suture (Cheyenne Belt) to the Archean Wyoming Province. Recordings from vibrator and dynamite sources with offsets between 34 and 126 km reveal no evidence for Moho reflections. The large-offset recordings contain multicyclic bands of reflective phases from the middle to lower crust. The data were transformed into the intercept ime-ray parameter (~--p) domain to estimate local depth bounds. A subsequent 1D inversion using high-amplitude ~'-p arrivals shows that the reflective part of the crust ranges from the depths of 25 to 40 km. This part of the crust exhibits velocities increasing from about 6.5 to 7.5 km/s. Reflectivity modeling shows that the lower crust might consist of a zone of alternating low- and high-velocity layers with average velocity increasing. The average lower crustal velocity of about 6.9 km/s suggests a predomi-nantly mafic composition with interlayered intermediate to felsic components generating impedance contrasts that cause observable amplitudes from reflections at large offsets but not at clearly pre-critical and near-vertical distances. Our model is consistent with observations of interlayered sequences of gabbroic to ultramafic rocks with more felsic anorthositic and charnockitic rocks in the exposed lower crust of magmatic arc complexes. The lack of wide-angle Moho reflections might be explained by a gradational compositional boundary, or a transitional phase change from granulite to eclogite facies. 1

Summary Report on National Debates on the Reconciliation of Family and Employment, from the EU Framework V project Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace (Transitions).

This report provides an overview of national debates on work and family, based on national researchers analysis of discourses within the media, government, employers and trade union, in the eight participating countries, during the period of the Transitions research project (2003-5).We were interested in what is on the political and social agenda in each country, what is driving change in policies and practices, and what are the public and media reactions to these debates – for example about fertility concerns, disability, parental leaves, funding for childcare, and changing gender role expectations. This report is part of the Context Mapping workpackage (WP3).The Context Mapping report (Transitions Research Report #1) aimed to provide a broad outline of the principle economic, social and demographic characteristics of the eight participating countries

Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and family life

This article explores young European women and men’s expectations of support - from the state and employers - for reconciling paid employment and family life. It is based on a qualitative study employing focus groups with young women and men in Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Ireland and the UK. Drawing on the concept of sense of entitlement, derived from social justice theory, it was expected that the type of welfare state and ‘gender contract’ that young adults have experienced will influence their sense of entitlement to support for work and family life. Findings indicate that participants perceived their entitlement to state and employer support differently across national context. However this is moderated by gender, parental and occupational status, and particularly by awareness of provisions in other countries in the case of state support, while perceived entitlement to employer support varies according to the specific policy considered, gender and perception of benefits to employers. Some implications for public policy makers and employers are discussed

Final Report of the EU Framework V project Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace (Transitions).

This project extends understanding of the changing contexts in which young parents negotiate the transition to parenthood, based on policy analysis and an international literature review in eight European states and empirical work in seven countries. The overall objective was to examine qualitatively how young European women and men negotiate motherhood and fatherhood and workfamily boundaries and how this impacts on their well-being, in the context of different national welfare state regimes, substantial organisational change, and family and employer support. Eleven organisational case studies were conducted in private (mostly finance) and public (social services) sector workplaces, followed by home based biographical interviews with selected parents and some of their partners. New parents in this study managed work and care in particularly intense, competitive and pressured contexts amid rapid workplace changes and especially the increasingly demanding workloads reported in all the case study organisations. This is compounded by an intensification of parenting as well as of work, as parents in all countries are expected to put growing amounts of effort and time into parenting activities. Nevertheless, the study also highlighted the positive aspects of paid work for many new mothers and fathers who reported their enjoyment of challenging work and contact with colleagues. National and organisational policies to support employed parents are undermined both by current workplace practices associated with work intensification and, in many contexts, concerns for future job opportunities in rapidly changing job climates. Although the right to ask for flexible working, and longer parental leave entitlements, especially for fathers, are increasingly enshrined in legislation in many countries, parents are often in practice prevented from working flexibly by heavy workloads, or by concerns about their perceived commitment to the job. More important than policies alone, is support from line managers, particularly in the countries with fewer supportive national regulations. However, colleague support also emerged as significant in contemporary workplaces. National policies and provisions interact with the formal and informal workplace policies, practices and cultures and economic conditions to support and constrain gender expectations and transformations. However, policies for combining paid work and family care are undermined by the persistent assumption made by managers at all levels, by colleagues, and by many of the parents themselves, that these are primarily policies for women. Experiences and well-being of parents of young children depend on multiple levels of context. Good, affordable childcare is regarded as essential, but not in itself sufficient for parental wellbeing in a context of long working hours and/or unstable employment conditions. Control over work-family boundaries, is also important although parents described a range of preferences and strategies for boundary management. Wellbeing is also highly related to expectations. Growing expectations of support for parenting, and for gender equity, are associated with transitional tensions if they are not mirrored by institutional changes. Recommendations from the study include the need for a multi-layered partnership approach to supporting parents in contemporary, changing contexts. This will involve confronting uncomfortable issues about the contradictions between work intensification in the global economic context and the needs of parents and children

Application LANDSAT imagery to geologic mapping in the ice-free valleys of Antarctica

The author has identified the following significant results. Studies in the Ice-Free Valleys are resulted in the compilation of a sizeable library of maps and publications. Rock reflectance measurements were taken during the Antarctic summer of 1973. Spectral reflectance of rocks (mostly mafic lava flows) in the McMurdo and Ice-Free Valleys areas were measured using a filter wheel photometer equipped to measure reflectances in the four Landsat bands. A series of samples were collected at regular intervals across a large differentiated, mafic sill near Lake Vida. Chemical analyses of the sample suggest that the tonal variations in this sill are controlled by changes in the iron content of the rock. False color images were prepared for a number of areas by the diazo method and with an optical multispectral biviewer. These images were useful in defining boundaries of sea ice, snow cover, and in the study of ablating glaciers, but were not very useful for rock discrimination

Academic Effects of Writer\u27s Workshop

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the effects of a process writing curriculum, Writer’s Workshop, on the writing achievement of fifth grade students as measured by the Georgia Fifth Grade Writing Assessment. The study used three years of data and a total of 321 subjects in determining improved writing scores. The investigation equated and compared the performance levels using a Chi-square contingency table, finding that the group prior to implementation surpassed the performance of the cohorts in the following two years. An independent samples t-test evaluated scale scores from the latter two years, resulting in no significant difference between the two groupings. Data also includes interviews from the principal and academic coach. The discussion cites several reasons for the findings and suggests continued use of the curriculum with alterations

Some examples of deep structure of the Archean from geophysics

The development of Archean crust remains as one of the significant problems in earth science, and a major unknown concerning Archean terrains is the nature of the deep crust. The character of crust beneath granulite terrains is especially fascinating because granulites are generally interpreted to represent a deep crustal section. Magnetic data from this area can be best modeled with a magnetized wedge of older Archean rocks (granulitic gneisses) underlying the younger Archean greenstone terrain. The dip of the boundary based on magnetic modeling is the same as the dip of the postulated thrust-fault reflection. Thus several lines of evidence indicate that the younger Archean greenstone belt terrain is thrust above the ancient Minnesota Valley gneiss terrain, presumably as the greenstone belt was accreted to the gneiss terrain, so that the dipping reflection represents a suture zone. Seismic data from underneath the granulite-facies Minnesota gneiss terrain shows abundant reflections between 3 and 6 s, or about 9 to 20 km. These are arcuate or dipping multicyclic events indicative of layering

Focus group methodology in a life course approach – individual accounts within a peer cohort group

This paper explores the use of focus group methodology as part of a life course approach building on Julia Brannen’s pioneering work in these two areas. Much life course research uses individual interviews, including biographical interview techniques. It is less usual to find focus groups used within the life course perspective. This paper draws on a PhD study of young British and Asian adults’ experiences of the transition from university to full-time employment, using focus groups as part of a multi-method approach, within a life course perspective. The study drew explicitly on Julia Brannen’s approach to life course transitions. Three focus group excerpts are presented and discussed to illustrate how focus group data can further the understanding of the ways in which a group of peers discuss the transition to work and especially future work–life balance. We show how focus group discussions about individual choice for future work and ‘life’ or ‘lifestyle’ can highlight shared assumptions of this birth cohort group as well as areas of disagreement and contention, rooted in both individual experiences and societal and socio-cultural expectations. We relate this to Julia Brannen’s conceptualisation of the three different modalities which young people draw on to talk about the future