Harry Choates (1922–1951) as Cajun folk hero

Publisher PD

London Earth : presentation and assessment of field observation data

The London Earth field survey followed a systematic sampling approach to collect a representative suite of soil samples from across London from a variety of land uses, in order to ensure a robust, unbiased dataset which will represent the baseline geochemistry of the city’s environment. Soil geochemical baseline data can be used to investigate soil quality and geochemical processes in the urban environment, as well as determining where the levels of certain chemical elements are potentially hazardous to humans as well as the natural environment (Johnson and Ander, 2008). In addition to the collection of samples, important accompanying information including observations about the soil colour and composition, and land use details for each sampling site were recorded. This data is an important aspect of the survey as it allows us to assess the site and supports interpretation of the geochemical results. The combination of the geochemical survey data and related field observations provides a comprehensive data resource which will provide valuable information to land use planning and development applications such as urban regeneration as well as provide opportunity for science in the interest of national good. The aim of this report is to present and assess the observational data in order to: i. show the spatial distribution of certain properties of the data set, such as the land use types that were recorded for each sample; ii. to discuss their relative proportions; and, iii. to explain, where possible, any trends or patterns that can be seen in the data. This will be done primarily by presenting maps and graphs of the data and by some discussion of the information they contain. This is intended to provide a useful resource to support the ongoing interpretation of the geochemical data

On the nonexistence of certain curves of genus two

We prove that if q is a power of an odd prime then there is no genus-2 curve over F_q whose Jacobian has characteristic polynomial of Frobenius equal to x^4 + (2-2q)x^2 + q^2. Our proof uses the Brauer relations in a biquadratic extension of Q to show that every principally polarized abelian surface over F_q with the given characteristic polynomial splits over F_{q^2} as a product of polarized elliptic curves.Comment: LaTeX, 13 page