Professional Development Opportunities for Academic Subject Librarians

This chapter appears in Revolutionizing the Development of Library and Information Professionals: Planning for the Future, edited/authored by Samantha Schmehl Hines. Copyright 2014, IGI Global, www.igi-global.com. Posted by permission of the publisher

Cross-border cooperation for bilateral trade, travel and tourism: A challenge for India and Pakistan

Medhekar, A ORCiD: 0000-0002-6791-4056Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) is described as collaboration with neighbouring countries sharing land or sea borders to cooperate to reduce poverty, inequality among people and improve living standards for sustainable development of the regions. European Union key objective has been CBC model where bordering countries in balanced partnership, have equal say in program decision making process for sustainable development to meet common goals. The three factors essential for CBC clearly defined goals, promotion of political transparency and promotion of connectivity and communication are correlated with the four levels of CBC implementation and public-private-partnerships. The aim of this chapter is to examine the challenge and significance of cross border cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan, in order to disarm against each other, and have peace, for achieving 17-sustainable development goals, in bordering conflict regions between the two countries for socio-economic progress and prosperity of the millions of people living in South Asia

Surface transformations of platinum grains from Fifield, New South Wales, Australia

A growing literature is demonstrating that platinum (Pt) is transformed under surface conditions; yet (bio)geochemical processes at the nugget-soil-solution interface are incompletely understood. The reactivity of Pt exposed to Earth-surface weathering conditions, highlighted by this study, may improve our ability to track its movement in natural systems, e.g., focusing on nanoparticles as a strategy for searching for new, undiscovered sources of this precious metal. To study dissolution/re-precipitation processes of Pt and associated elements, grains of Pt-Fe alloy were collected from a soil placer deposit at the Fifield Pt-field, Australia. Optical- and electron-microscopy revealed morphologies indicative of physical transport as well as chemical weathering. Dissolution “pits,” cavities, striations, colloidal nano-particles, and aggregates of secondary Pt platelets as well as acicular, iron (Fe) hydroxide coatings were observed. FIB-SEM-(EBSD) combined with S-m-XRF of a sectioned grain showed a fine layer of up to 5 mm thick composed of refined, aggregates of 0.2 to 2 mm sized crystalline secondary Pt overlying more coarsely crystalline Pt-Fe-alloy of primary magmatic origin. These results confirm that Pt is affected by geochemical transformations in supergene environments; structural and chemical signatures of grains surfaces, rims, and cores are linked to the grains’ primary and secondary (trans)formational histories; and Pt mobility can occur under Earth surface conditions. Intuitively, this nanophase-Pt can disperse much further from primary sources of ore than previously thought. This considerable mineral reactivity demonstrates that the formation and/or release of Pt nanoparticles needs to be measured and incorporated into exploration geochemistry programs