bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transient hyperglycaemia in a prediabetic dog treated with prednisone and cyclosporin A
Authors: Murray SC , Gasser A , Hess RS
Published: August 2009

A dog with immune‐mediated haemolytic anaemia developed transient hyperglycaemia and glucosuria requiring insulin therapy in association with prednisone and cyclosporin A therapy. Following short‐term therapy with insulin and cyclosporin A, the dog remained on prednisone therapy but required no further insulin therapy for 12 weeks, at which time the dog became permanently diabetic. We hypothesise that prednisone and cyclosporin A contributed to insulin resistance in a prediabetic dog with suboptimal endogenous insulin concentration and that the degree of insulin resistance decreased when cyclosporin A therapy was discontinued.
Ataxia and paralysis in cats in Australia associated with exposure to an imported gamma‐irradiated commercial dry pet food
Authors: Child G , Foster DJ , Fougere BJ , Milan JM , Rozmanec M
Published: August 2009

Between June 2008 and March 2009, 87 cats in Australia developed symmetrical hindlimb ataxia, paraparesis, tetraparesis, paraplegia or tetraplegia in association with eating an imported, irradiated dry pet food. This communication reports the clinical signs and outcomes of those cats.
Geology, Geochemistry and Chromite Mineralization Potential of the Amnay Ophiolitic Complex, Mindoro, Philippines
Authors: Yumul Jr Graciano P. , Jumawan Ferdinand T. , Dimalanta Carla B.
Published: August 2009

The Amnay Ophiolitic Complex in Mindoro, the Philippines, is considered an emplaced Cenozoic South China Sea oceanic lithosphere as a result of the collision between the Palawan microcontinental block and the Philippine mobile belt. Middle Oligocene sedimentary rocks intercalated with dominantly MORB‐like pillow lavas and volcanic flows suggest the generation of this ophiolite complex in an intermediate spreading ridge within a back‐arc basin setting. The volcanic rock suite geochemistry also manifests a slab component suggesting that it is a supra‐subduction zone ophiolite. Petrography of the gabbros shows a plagioclase‐clinopyroxene crystallization order consistent with a back‐arc basin setting. Spinel and pyroxene geochemistry shows that the lherzolites and aluminous‐spinel harzburgites are products of low degrees of partial melting. The chromitites hosted by the harzburgites could have not been associated with the MORB‐like volcanic suites, gabbros, lherzolites and aluminous‐spinel harzburgites. The chromitites are products of mantle sources that have undergone higher degrees of partial melting that would have involved the presence of water. The study of this ophiolitic complex gives us a glimpse of the characteristics of the South China Sea.
Long‐term changes in the abundance of flying insects
Authors: SHORTALL CHRIS R. , MOORE ALISON , SMITH EMMA , HALL MIKE J. , WOIWOD IAN P. , HARRINGTON RICHARD
Published: August 2009

Abstract.  1. For the first time, long‐term changes in total aerial insect biomass have been estimated for a wide area of Southern Britain.

2. Various indices of biomass were created for standardised samples from four of the Rothamsted Insect Survey 12.2 m tall suction traps for the 30 years from 1973 to 2002.

3. There was a significant decline in total biomass at Hereford but not at three other sites: Rothamsted, Starcross and Wye.

4. For the Hereford samples, many insects were identified at least to order level, some to family or species level. These samples were then used to investigate the taxa involved in the decline in biomass at Hereford.

5. The Hereford samples were dominated by large Diptera, particularly Dilophus febrilis, which showed a significant decline in abundance.

6. Changes in agricultural practice that could have contributed to the observed declines are discussed, as are potential implications for farmland birds, with suggestions for further work to investigate both cause and effect.
DNA barcodes for globally threatened marine turtles: a registry approach to documenting biodiversity
Authors: NARO‐MACIEL EUGENIA , REID BRENDAN , FITZSIMMONS NANCY N. , LE MINH , DESALLE ROB , AMATO GEORGE
Published: August 2009

DNA barcoding is a global initiative that provides a standardized and efficient tool to catalogue and inventory biodiversity, with significant conservation applications. Despite progress across taxonomic realms, globally threatened marine turtles remain underrepresented in this effort. To obtain DNA barcodes of marine turtles, we sequenced a segment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene from all seven species in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins (815 bp; n = 80). To further investigate intraspecific variation, we sequenced green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from nine additional Atlantic/Mediterranean nesting areas (n = 164) and from the Eastern Pacific (n = 5). We established character‐based DNA barcodes for each species using unique combinations of character states at 76 nucleotide positions. We found that no haplotypes were shared among species and the mean of interspecific variation ranged from 1.68% to 13.0%, and the mean of intraspecific variability was relatively low (0–0.90%). The Eastern Pacific green turtle sequence was identical to an Australian haplotype, suggesting that this marker is not appropriate for identifying these phenotypically distinguishable populations. Analysis of COI revealed a north–south gradient in green turtles of Western Atlantic/Mediterranean nesting areas, supporting a hypothesis of recent dispersal from near equatorial glacial refugia. DNA barcoding of marine turtles is a powerful tool for species identification and wildlife forensics, which also provides complementary data for conservation genetic research.
Distribution, morphological description, and molecular characterization of Xiphinema and Longidorous spp. associated with plants (Miscanthus spp. and Panicum virgatum) used for biofuels
Authors: MEKETE TESFAMARIAM , GRAY MICHAEL E. , NIBLACK TERRY L.
Published: August 2009

Longidorid plant pathogens, specifically Longidorus and Xiphinema, are known to reduce the biomass and seed yields of several monocotyledonous host plants and may serve as vectors for certain plant viruses. The occurrence and densities of species in these genera in the Midwestern United States may be of concern in the production of two biofuel plant species –Miscanthus (Miscanthus×giganteus) and Panicum virgatum. Here we present results from a morphological and molecular survey of plant parasitic nematodes in which two species of Xiphinema (X. americanum and X. rivesi) and one species of Longidorus (L. breviannulatus) were detected. A total of 73 soil samples were collected from 19 sites (nine Miscanthus and 10 P. virgatum) in three states during 2008. Xiphinema spp. was found in 36% of the Miscanthus plots and in 26% of the P. virgatum plots with a population density range of 22–857/100 cm3 soil. L. breviannulatus was detected in association with Miscanthus plot in Havana, IL, in large numbers (54/100 cm3 soil). The occurrence of this species was associated with severe damage to the fibrous root system, including stunting and necrosis. Short notes, measurements, illustrations and molecular data are given to the species level.
Greenhouse gas emissions from four bioenergy crops in England and Wales: Integrating spatial estimates of yield and soil carbon balance in life cycle analyses
Authors: HILLIER JONATHAN , WHITTAKER CARLY , DAILEY GORDON , AYLOTT MATTHEW , CASELLA ERIC , RICHTER GOETZ M. , RICHE ANDREW , MURPHY RICHARD , TAYLOR GAIL , SMITH PETE
Published: August 2009

Accurate estimation of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of bioenergy crops requires the integration of a significant component of spatially varying information. In particular, crop yield and soil carbon (C) stocks are variables which are generally soil type and climate dependent. Since gaseous emissions from soil C depend on current C stocks, which in turn are related to previous land management it is important to consider both previous and proposed future land use in any C accounting assessment. We have conducted a spatially explicit study for England and Wales, coupling empirical yield maps with the RothC soil C turnover model to simulate soil C dynamics. We estimate soil C changes under proposed planting of four bioenergy crops, Miscanthus (Miscanthus×giganteus), short rotation coppice (SRC) poplar (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray ×P. trichocarpa, var. Trichobel), winter wheat, and oilseed rape. This is then related to the former land use – arable, pasture, or forest/seminatural, and the outputs are then assessed in the context of a life cycle analysis (LCA) for each crop. By offsetting emissions from management under the previous land use, and considering fossil fuel C displaced, the GHG balance is estimated for each of the 12 land use change transitions associated with replacing arable, grassland, or forest/seminatural land, with each of the four bioenergy crops. Miscanthus and SRC are likely to have a mostly beneficial impact in reducing GHG emissions, while oilseed rape and winter wheat have either a net GHG cost, or only a marginal benefit. Previous land use is important and can make the difference between the bioenergy crop being beneficial or worse than the existing land use in terms of GHG balance.
Reconstructing ancestral ranges in historical biogeography: properties and prospects
Authors: LAMM Kristin S. , REDELINGS Benjamin D.
Published: August 2009

Abstract  Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of quantitative methods for biogeographic inference. In particular, novel parametric approaches represent exciting new opportunities for the study of range evolution. Here, we review a selection of current methods for biogeographic analysis and discuss their respective properties. These methods include generalized parsimony approaches, weighted ancestral area analysis, dispersal–vicariance analysis, the dispersal–extinction–cladogenesis model and other maximum likelihood approaches, and Bayesian stochastic mapping of ancestral ranges, including a novel approach to inferring range evolution in the context of island biogeography. Some of these methods were developed specifically for problems of ancestral range reconstruction, whereas others were designed for more general problems of character state reconstruction and subsequently applied to the study of ancestral ranges. Methods for reconstructing ancestral history on a phylogenetic tree differ not only in the types of ancestral range states that are allowed, but also in the various historical events that may change the ancestral ranges. We explore how the form of allowed ancestral ranges and allowed transitions can both affect the outcome of ancestral range estimation. Finally, we mention some promising avenues for future work in the development of model‐based approaches to biogeographic analysis.
Stability of practice beliefs and preferences for patients among private general dentists: a comparison of 1997 and 2007
Authors: Brennan DS , Spencer AJ
Published: August 2009

Background:  Practice beliefs and dentist preferences for patients have been related to service rates and appropriateness of care. If practice beliefs and preferences for patients are stable then they could restrain long‐term changes in practice styles and service rates. The aim of this paper was to assess the stability of practice beliefs and preferences for patients between 1997 and 2007.

Methods:  Practice beliefs and dentist preferences for patients were recorded on a five‐point Likert scale using mailed questionnaires from a random sample of dentists in 1997 (response rate = 60 per cent) and 2007 (response rate = 77 per cent).

Results:  In both 1997 and 2007, n = 215 dentists provided data. For practice beliefs, 1 out of 8 items were significantly different (p < 0.05; McNemar’s test) between the two observations (12.5 per cent of practice belief items) while 5 out of 37 dentist preferences for patient characteristics items were significantly different (13.5 per cent of items).

Conclusions:  The majority of items were not significantly different over time. This demonstrates a generally high degree of stability over time in the level of agreement with dentist practice beliefs and preferences for patients. Given that it may be difficult for clinicians to change practice beliefs and behaviours that have become established, it is important for policy makers to understand the relationship between provider characteristics and service patterns and for educators to positively shape beliefs and behaviours through undergraduate and continuing education.
Creating Bacterial Strains from Genomes That Have Been Cloned and Engineered in Yeast
Authors: Lartigue Carole , Vashee Sanjay , Algire Mikkel A. , Chuang Ray-Yuan , Benders Gwynedd A. , Ma Li , Noskov Vladimir N. , Denisova Evgeniya A. , Gibson Daniel G. , Assad-Garcia Nacyra , Alperovich Nina , Thomas David W. , Merryman Chuck , Hutchison Clyde A. , Smith Hamilton O. , Venter J. Craig , Glass John I.
Published: August 2009

Character Transplant

When engineering bacteria, it can be advantageous to propagate the genomes in yeast. However, to be truly useful, one must be able to transplant the bacterial chromosome from yeast back into a recipient bacterial cell. But because yeast does not contain restriction-modification systems, such transplantation poses problems not encountered in transplantation from one bacterial cell to another. Bacterial genomes isolated after growth in yeast are likely to be susceptible to the restriction-modification system(s) of the recipient cell, as well as their own.

Lartigue
et al.

(p.
1693
, published online 20 August) describe multiple steps, including in vitro DNA methylation, developed to overcome such barriers. A
Mycoplasma mycoides
large-colony genome was propagated in yeast as a centromeric plasmid, engineered via yeast genetic systems, and, after specific methylation, transplanted into
M. capricolum
to produce a bacterial cell with the genotype and phenotype of the altered
M. mycoides
large-colony genome.
Optimizing Influenza Vaccine Distribution
Authors: Medlock Jan , Galvani Alison P.
Published: August 2009

Rethinking Vaccine Distribution

The distribution of vaccines is a complex issue lying at the intersection of public health, economics, and ethics and it cannot be decided in hindsight as an epidemic unfolds. Thus, mathematical modeling can be valuable for guiding policy, and
Medlock and Galvani
(p.
1705
, published online 20 August) present an analysis of how to distribute influenza vaccine among different age groups in a way that will minimize transmission. Scenarios were developed for different outcomes that tell us what happens, in terms of numbers of infections, mortality, and cost, when various cohorts are targeted for vaccination under different epidemic conditions, and compare 1918- and 1957-like epidemics. The scenarios could apply equally well to antiviral drug distribution. The conclusion is that the current recommendations for vaccine distribution from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may need to be revised to include age-related patterns of transmission to minimize the impact of epidemic influenza.
Eos Mediates Foxp3-Dependent Gene Silencing in CD4
+
Regulatory T Cells
Authors: Pan Fan , Yu Hong , Dang Eric V. , Barbi Joseph , Pan Xiaoyu , Grosso Joseph F. , Jinasena Dinili , Sharma Sudarshana M. , McCadden Erin M. , Getnet Derese , Drake Charles G. , Liu Jun O. , Ostrowski Michael C. , Pardoll Drew M.
Published: August 2009

T
reg
Responses to Eos

CD4
+
regulatory T cells (T
regs
) are critical for keeping our immune system in check: They prevent immune responses from getting out of hand and keep autoimmunity at bay. By activating the expression of some genes and turning off expression of others, the master regulatory transcription factor of T
regs
, Foxp3, endows these cells with the appropriate gene expression program to mediate their suppressive effects.

Pan
et al.

(p.
1142
, published online 20 August) now demonstrate that the transcription factor Eos is selectively required for Foxp3-mediated gene suppression in mice. Genes normally suppressed by Foxp3 in T
regs
remained “on” when Eos expression was suppressed, whereas genes activated by Foxp3 were unaffected. T
reg
function was also affected by Eos suppression. With half their genetic program disrupted, these cells resembled an intermediate between T
regs
and conventional CD4
+
T cells—unable to suppress immune responses properly and partially responsive to T cell–activating stimulation.
Gold Helix Photonic Metamaterial as Broadband Circular Polarizer
Authors: Gansel Justyna K. , Thiel Michael , Rill Michael S. , Decker Manuel , Bade Klaus , Saile Volker , von Freymann Georg , Linden Stefan , Wegener Martin
Published: August 2009

Corkscrew Polarizer

Strong optical activity, measured in terms of a material's ability to polarize light, usually requires a material several hundred wavelengths thick.

Gansel
et al.

(p.
1513
, published online 20 August; see the cover) show that the tunable electromagnetic response of metamaterials may offer a route to reduce the amount of material required for strongly optically active materials. Based on the standard metamaterials design of the splitring resonator, photolithography was used to define an array of three-dimensional gold nanocorkscrews. Just a single wavelength thickness of the corkscrew design was required for a circular polarizer operating over an octave of bandwidth.
Female boxing in Italy: 2002–2007 report
Authors: Massimiliano Bianco , Nicola Sanna , Sante Bucari , Carmela Fabiano , Palmieri V , Paolo Zeppilli
Published: August 2009

Objective

To collect medical data on women's boxing.

Design

Cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

Setting

Medical examinations requested by Italian laws.

Participants

A retrospective study was conducted on all female boxing competitions in Italy from April 2001 to December 2007. Sixty-one amateur female boxers were evaluated longitudinally.

Interventions

(1) Retrospective study: All pre-/postmatch medical reports were analysed. (2) Prospective study: Breast, gynaecologic, brain, eyes, ear, nose and throat examinations were carried out.

Main outcome measurements

(1) Retrospective study: Any injury assessed before/after the match. (2) Prospective study: Health problems which could be related to boxing activity.

Results

(1) Retrospective study: Data from 5600 examinations were collected. Precompetition, a medical problem was recorded in three athletes (one conjunctiva hyperemia, one zygomatic bruise, one eyelid haematoma). Post competition, 51/2800 medical checks showed mild common injuries, such as soft tissue facial lesions, epistaxis and hand-wrist problems. Only one concussion was recorded with hospitalisation (for a thorough evaluation). Another athlete was hospitalised for a nasal fracture. (2) Prospective study: Two fibroadenomas, three ovarian cysts and one intramural uterine myoma were diagnosed. In four boxers, non-specific electroencephalographic abnormalities were detected, however, with a normal brain MRI in three (the fourth is still waiting for the radiologic procedure). Nasal septum deviation was common (42.6%) and a transmissive hypoacusia was observed in two athletes. No major eye injuries were reported.

Conclusions

Female boxing seems to be a safe sport with a very low incidence of events requiring hospitalisation. No specific diseases in female boxers could be observed, in particular regarding the breast and reproductive system.
Associations of muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness with total and central body fat in adolescents: The HELENA Study
Authors: Moliner-Urdiales D , Ruiz J R , Vicente-Rodriguez G , Ortega F B , Rey-Lopez J P , España-Romero V , Casajús J A , Molnar D , Widhalm K , Dallongeville J , González-Gross M , Castillo M J , Sjöström M , Moreno L A
Published: August 2009

Objective

To examine the association of healthrelated physical fitness with total and central body fat in adolescents.

Participants/Methods

The present cross-sectional study comprises 363 Spanish adolescents (186 female participants) aged 12.5–17.5 years. We assessed fitness by the 20-m shuttle run test (cardiorespiratory fitness); the handgrip strength, the standing broad jump and the Abalakov tests (muscular strength); and the 4×10-m shuttle run test (speed–agility). Total body fat was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), BodPod and sum of six skinfolds, and central body fat was measured by DXA at three regions (R1, R2 and R3) and waist circumference.

Results

The Abalakov, the standing broad jump, the 4×10-m shuttle run and the 20-m shuttle run tests were negatively associated with all markers of total and central body fat in men and women after controlling for age, pubertal status and objectively assessed physical activity (p<0.01). Handgrip strength test was positively associated with waist circumference (p<0.01).

Conclusions

Lower body muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness are negatively and consistently associated with total and central body fat in adolescents, whereas levels of upper body muscular strength were superior in adolescents with higher levels of central body fat.
SIMULATION OF GAS FLOW IN MICROTUBES BY LATTICE BOLTZMANN METHOD
Authors: HUANG HAIBO , LU XI-YUN
Published: August 2009

Isothermal gas flow in microtubes with a sudden expansion or contraction is studied numerically by lattice Boltzmann method. An axisymmetric D2Q9 model is used to simulate gas slip flow in micro-circular pipes. With the boundary condition combined specular and bounce-back schemes, the computed results are in excellent agreement with analytical solution for straight microtube. For the gas flow in the expanded or constricted tubes, we carried out simulations of several Knudsen numbers with inlet/outlet pressure ratio 3. It is found the pressure drop in each section can be predicted well by the theory of straight tubes. For smaller Knudsen number, flow separation in the expanded tube is observed. While for large Knudsen number, there is no vortex at corner and the streamlines are attached to boundary. In the constricted tube, the vortex at corner is very weak. These results are consistent with some experimental conclusions.
ON THE GENERATION OF LOCALIZED NONLINEAR MODES IN A LINEAR ARRAY OF ANHARMONIC OSCILLATORS
Authors: MACÍAS-DÍAZ J. E. , MEDINA-RAMÍREZ I. E. , PURI A.
Published: August 2009

In this work, we show that an adequate modulation of the driving amplitude in an anharmonic chain results in an efficient transmission of binary information. The nonlinear processes of supratransmission and infratransmission are shown to be useful in the solution of the problem under investigation. Numerical results are conducted using a finite-difference scheme with consistency properties in the energy domain, and the experiments show that localized nonlinear modes are propagated through the chain in a reliable and controlled manner.
PARTICLE TRANSPORT IN ROUGH CHANNELS
Authors: VASCONCELOS TALITA F. , ARAÚJO A. D. , ALMEIDA MURILO P. , ANDRADE JOSÉ S.
Published: August 2009

The transport of particles in two-dimensional self-affine rough channels is investigated through numerical simulations. We show how the average transit time depends on the particle Stokes number as well as on the restitution coefficient controlling the collisions with the walls. More precisely, our results reveal that the particle motion in such irregular channels displays a complex behavior that is characterized by the existence of four distinct transit time regimes. Finally, we also show that this rich behavior is a direct consequence of the local competition between particle-structure (collisions) and particle-fluid (drag) interactions taking place in the system.
ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF LONG-RANGE CORRELATIONS IN CURVED SPACE
Authors: MEHRABI ALI REZA , SAHIMI MUHAMMAD
Published: August 2009

Numerical simulation and analysis of long-range correlations in curved space are studied. The study is motivated by the problem of constructing accurate models of large-scale porous media which usually contain long-range correlations in their various properties (such as their permeability, porosity, and elastic moduli) within and between their strata that are typically curved layers. The problem is, however, relevant to many other important models and phenomena in which extended correlations in curved space play a prominent role. Examples include the nonlinear σ-model in a curved space, models for describing the long-range structural correlations of amorphous semiconductors that consist of polytopes (tilings of positively-curved three-dimensional space), long-range correlations in the extrapolar total zone, and models in which the Universe is created by bubble nucleations and contain long-range correlations in the fluctuations in the curved spacetime. The study is also relevant to the important industrial problem of designing highly curved objects, such as cars and ships, which use composite materials that contain extended correlations in their property values. We study such correlations along two- and three-dimensional curves, as well as curved surfaces. We show that such correlations are well-defined only on developable surfaces, i.e. those that can be flattened to form planar surfaces without any stretching or distortion, and preserve the distance between two points on such surfaces after the stretching. If a given curved surface is not developable, but can be approximated as piecewise developable, one may still define and analyze extended correlations on it. Representative examples are presented and analyzed.
INDUCED MONOCULTURE IN AXELROD MODEL WITH CLEVER MASS MEDIA
Authors: RODRÍGUEZ AREZKY H. , del CASTILLO-MUSSOT M. , VÁZQUEZ G. J.
Published: August 2009

A new model is proposed, in the context of Axelrod's model for the study of cultural dissemination, to include an external vector field (VF) which describes the effects of mass media on social systems. The VF acts over the whole system and it is characterized by two parameters: a nonnull overlap with each agent in the society and a confidence value of its information. Beyond a threshold value of the confidence, there is induced monocultural globalization of the system lined up with the VF. Below this value, the multicultural states are unstable and certain homogenization of the system is obtained in opposite line up according to that we have called negative publicity effect. Three regimes of behavior for the spread process of the VF information as a function of time are reported.
HEAVY-TAILED DISTRIBUTIONS IN FATAL TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS: ROLE OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Authors: TSENG JIE-JUN , LEE MING-JER , LI SAI-PING
Published: August 2009

Human activities can play a crucial role in the statistical properties of observables in many complex systems such as social, technological, and economic systems. We demonstrate this by looking into the heavy-tailed distributions of observables in fatal plane and car accidents. Their origin is examined and can be understood as stochastic processes that are related to human activities. Simple mathematical models are proposed to illustrate such processes and compared with empirical results obtained from existing databanks.
VULNERABILITY OF EFFECTIVE ATTACK ON EDGES IN SCALE-FREE NETWORKS DUE TO CASCADING FAILURES
Authors: WANG JIAN-WEI , RONG LI-LI
Published: August 2009

Assume the initial load of an edge ij in a network to be Lij =[(ki ∑a ∈ Γi ka)(kj ∑b ∈ Γj kb)]α with ki and kj being the degrees of the nodes connected by the edge, where α is a tunable parameter which controls the strength of the edge initial load, and Γi and Γj are the sets of neighboring nodes of i and j, respectively. We investigate the cascading phenomenon of uncorrelated scale-free networks subject to two different attacking strategies on edges, i.e. attacking on the edges with the highest loads or the lowest loads (LL). By the critical threshold of edge capacity quantifying the network robustness, we numerically discuss the effects of two attacks for the network vulnerability. Interestingly, it is found that the attack on the edge with the LL is highly effective in disrupting the structure of the attacked network when α < 0.5. In the case of α = 0.5, the effects of two attacks for the network robustness against cascading failures are almost identical. We furthermore provide the theoretical prediction support for the numerical simulations. These results may be very helpful for real-life networks to protect the key edges selected effectively to avoid cascading-failure-induced disasters.
Scientific institutions and the beginnings of geology in Russia
Authors: Khain Victor E. , Malakhova Irena G.
Published: August 2009

There were three major scientific centres in Russia at the turn of the nineteenth century: the Imperial St Petersburg Academy of Sciences; the Mining Department with its attached Mining School; and the Moscow University. Geology was only then emerging in Russia, where it was mainly focused on mineral prospecting and imported European concepts. However, Alexander I initiated major reforms of science and education, founding new universities in which geological education in Russia found a foothold. The first scientific societies – the Moscow Society of Naturalists and the Mineralogical Society – also played an active role in the consolidation of Russian geology.
A story of things yet-to-be: the status of geology in the United States in 1807
Authors: Newell Julie R.
Published: August 2009

In the 1780s observations of geological phenomena by American authors appeared in American publications. Europeans had also begun to explore the American geological landscape, notably the immigrant William Maclure. But an American geological community had not yet formed by 1807. Much of this apparent ‘delay’ in the development of the geological sciences in the United States resulted from the cultural and political realities of the new nation. In a new and democratic–egalitarian society, it took time to negotiate the nature of the appropriate public support for the practice of science. Individuals with the resources to provide private patronage for scientific undertakings were exceedingly few. The educational institutions that would ultimately be a major factor in the transmission and extension of geological knowledge were only then beginning to multiply and grow. In 1807 Benjamin Silliman completed his first year of science instruction at Yale, but offered only chemistry and mineralogy. Geology would wait several more years. Other institutions and individuals critical to the future of geology in the United States were ‘born’ in 1807 – including the United States Coast Survey, and Louis Agassiz and David Dale Owen. Roughly another decade would pass before a ‘geological community’ would emerge in the United States.
Military men: Napoleonic warfare and early members of the Geological Society
Authors: Rose Edward P. F.
Published: August 2009

At the time the Geological Society was founded in 1807, Europe had entered the latter half of some 23 years of near-continuous warfare, in which the overall scale and intensity were wholly new. Wars from 1792 to 1815 affected the careers of many well-known geologists in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Influential early members of the Society included a significant number of men with periods of military service or education, or militarily-funded employment: four of its 11 primary founders, Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon, James Franck, George Bellas Greenough and Richard Phillips, as well as six of its first 23 Presidents – Greenough, Henry Grey Bennet, John MacCulloch, Roderick Impey Murchison, Henry Thomas De la Beche and Joseph Ellison Portlock. Several councillors, such as Thomas Frederick Colby and John William Pringle, and three of its first five executives – William Lonsdale, David Thomas Ansted and T. Rupert Jones – also had military affiliations. Largely as a consequence of Napoleonic warfare, from 1814 to 1845 national geological mapping in Britain was supported by military funding, and between 1819 and the end of the century geology was a subject taught at various times in all military training establishments within Britain.
Geology at the crossroads: aspects of the geological career of Dr John MacCulloch
Authors: Bowden Alan J.
Published: August 2009

Dr John MacCulloch MD was a pioneer of geological cartography. Prior to his surveys there had been few attempts to map and survey Scotland. Of these few, only the student efforts of Louis-Albert Necker de Saussure and the published map of Aimé Boué have attempted to show the whole country. MacCulloch's geological map of Scotland, published posthumously in 1836, remains one of the great cartographic milestones in the history of geology. Earlier, MacCulloch was the first government-appointed geologist through his work on the Board of Ordnance whilst carrying out the Millstone, Meridian and Mountain surveys. MacCulloch's work often generated controversy after 1820 when others began to take an interest in Scottish geology. MacCulloch was an active member of the Geological Society and was quickly recognized as a geologist of rare ability and influence, and was appointed to several committees. He was made Vice-President in 1815 and became its fourth President in 1816. From 1820 his influence and activity in the Society began to wane as the demands of his Survey work and ill health began to take their toll. He finally resigned from the Society in 1832.
John Playfair on Schiehallion, 1801–1811
Authors: Smallwood John R.
Published: August 2009

John Playfair first visited the Scottish mountain, Schiehallion, during Nevil Maskelyne's 1774 plumbline deflection experiment, which was conducted to measure the density of the Earth. The mathematician Charles Hutton analysed the survey data from the experiment, reporting the mean Earth specific gravity as 4.5 in 1778. Playfair undertook a lithological mapping exercise in 1801, to improve the accuracy of Hutton's estimate, and reported a range of 4.56–4.87 in 1811. The computation of the gravitational effect of topography with variable subsurface density effectively made him the creator of the first geophysical model. As such, not only was Playfair's Schiehallion contribution pioneering in itself, but it was representative of his more significant works in both mathematics and geology, in that he built on existing benchmark work with novel and valuable additions of his own. Although Playfair's map of the extent of the Schiehallion quartzite was quite accurate, the Society's fourth President, John MacCulloch, having visited Schiehallion, was dismissive of Playfair's representation of the subsurface density variation. MacCulloch spent several years searching Scotland for a more favourable site for a plumbline experiment, travels that allowed him to compile the data for his 1836 geological map of Scotland.
Picturesque ruin and geological antiquity: Thomas Webster and Sir Henry Englefield on the Isle of Wight
Authors: Heringman Noah
Published: August 2009

Thomas Webster published his earliest geological observations by commission in Sir Henry Englefield's
Description of the Isle of Wight
(1816), a work concerned as much with historic architecture and picturesque landscape as with geology. This paper shows how Englefield's broad three-part agenda fostered the development of Webster's specifically geological competence and sensibility. As a professional draftsman and architect, Webster was especially well equipped to translate Englefield's architectural and picturesque idiom into a more geological register. Their collaboration also illustrates how well the style and content of local history – a traditional literary and learned genre – could be applied to geology. For Webster in particular, the image of ruins was essential for representing the historicity of geological phenomena. This paper adduces close readings of numerous passages from Englefield and Webster's work to show how strongly the traditional language and research questions of antiquarianism continued to shape geology even as it became a professional specialization.
Facts and fancies: the Geological Society of London and the wider public, 1807-1837
Authors: O'Connor Ralph
Published: August 2009

The leading lights of the Geological Society announced the birth of a newly scientific form of Earth science by claiming to dissociate geology from the grand theories, theological controversialism and flights of fancy that they felt had dominated eighteenth-century practice. For these gentlemen, geology was to comprise strict empirical induction. They cultivated a historical myth according to which their predecessors had been hopelessly romantic theory-mongers with overactive imaginations, while they themselves were sensible, sober men of science.

But if this was so, how did geology succeed in winning such an enormous middle- and upper-class public by the late 1830s? Public support required public interest, and public interest in this period was most easily stirred by the romantic, the speculative and the poetical. Older theories of the Earth remained popular for this very reason, as did biblically literalist reconstructions of Earth history. The challenge for the new school of geology was to dissociate Earth science from the content and methodology of such theories while retaining their accompanying sense of excitement, wonder and pleasure. This paper explores how members and allies of the Geological Society negotiated (or ignored) their own suspicions about the deceptive power of the ‘imagination’ when promoting geology as a science worth the public's attention.
Doctoring geology: the medical origins of the Geological Society
Authors: Lewis Cherry L. E.
Published: August 2009

Four of the Geological Society's 13 founders were medical men: William Babington, James Parkinson, James Franck and James Laird, the Society's first Secretary. All were physicians and mineralogists except Parkinson, an apothecary surgeon and fossilist. At least 20 percent of the Society's early members were also medical practitioners whose prime interest was mineralogy. The subject was taught as part of medical training, required as it was in the fabrication of medicines, thus medical men were drawn into mineralogy and on into geology. In 1805 a number of medical practitioners broke away from the constraints of their parent body, the Medical Society of London, to form the Medical and Chirurgical Society, which became a role model for the young Geological Society when challenged by its parent body, the Royal Society. Driven by wealthy mineral collectors and patrons of science like Charles Greville, one reason – perhaps
the
reason – for founding the Society was to map the mineralogical history of Britain. Towards this endeavour, Babington's expertise in mineralogy brought people together, Laird organized them and Parkinson was invited because he was
not
a mineralogist. Franck was unable to participate significantly, being away at war for much of the time. The contribution made to the founding of the Geological Society by each of the medical founders is examined, and a biographical sketch of each man reveals the close relationship between medicine and the emergence of this new science of geology.
The Geological Society on the other side of the world
Authors: Branagan David F.
Published: August 2009

From its earliest years the Geological Society of London attracted the attention of scientifically- and technically-minded men in Australia and New Zealand. Members ‘at home’ in Britain were also eager for geological information about the antipodes. The publications of the Society acted as a major source of information about the geology of these southern lands, from vertebrate palaeontology and modern glaciation at sea level to ancient glaciations and mineralization (particularly of gold). At least 360 members were active in Australasia in the nineteenth century. Strong antipodean Society membership continued through the twentieth century. What is noteworthy is the number of mining figures, of varying scientific competence, who boasted of their membership. There were significant contributions to the Society's journals on Australasian geology from the 1820s to the early 1900s. Many topographic features on the maps of both Australia and New Zealand are named for Members and Fellows of the Geological Society. The lists of elected and ‘would-be’ antipodean members include a few enigmatic examples of chicanery, fraud and disappearance.
A year to remember
Authors: Nield Ted
Published: August 2009

The Geological Society of London is the oldest geological society in the world. On the 13 November 2007 it commemorated its 200th anniversary. Throughout 2007, even into 2008, lectures, dinners, speeches, field trips and a whole host of other events across the country celebrated the occasion.
Dining with the Founding Fathers: a personal view
Authors: Moody Richard T. J.
Published: August 2009

The History of Geology Group's (HOGG) Bicentenary celebrations included a dinner on the site of the Freemasons' Tavern where the Geological Society was founded, entitled
Dine with the Founding Fathers
. It was organized by HOGG committee member, Dick Moody, who recounts the history of the Freemasons' Tavern, the difficulties leading up to the dinner and the highlights of a memorable evening.
Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon
Authors: Herries Davies Gordon L.
Published: August 2009

Jacques-Louis, Comte de Bournon was a French soldier and mineralogist who, following the French Revolution, took refuge in England. There he was elected to the Royal Society and became a leading figure within the scientific circle of the metropolis. He conducted masterclasses in mineralogy and in 1807 he was one of the founders of the Geological Society. He remained a leading light of that Society until his return to France at the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. His final years he passed as the Director-General of the Royal Mineral Cabinet.
George Bellas Greenough's 'Theory of the Earth' and its impact on the early Geological Society
Authors: Kölbl-Ebert Martina
Published: August 2009

George Bellas Greenough, co-founder and first President of the Geological Society of London, became interested in geology when he went to study law in Göttingen. There he attended lectures given by Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, an admirer of Jean-André de Luc, who greatly influenced Greenough's geological ideas. Greenough himself was not an original researcher, but saw his scientific task as a most diligent gatherer of information and as a critical and – as he felt – impartial reviewer of his fellows' research. In 1819 he published a book entitled
A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology in a Series of Essays
. In this book, as well as in many of his numerous private notes, he struggled with the question of how to develop a proper scientific method for the new science of geology, striving for firm principles and definitions as a basis for geological observations. Although he despised theorizing on general principles, especially when it concerned those whom he called the Huttonians or Plutonists, he himself was not free of a theoretical concept in which he judged the validity of data. This bias sometimes became a drag on scientific ‘progress’ because his preoccupation with his own Theory led him to dismiss important developments such as William Smith's biostratigraphy when they did not fall within his horizon of interest. Thus Greenough, and with him the new Society, was slow to recognize their importance and value.
Dissenting science: the Quakers among the Founding Fathers
Authors: Torrens Hugh S.
Published: August 2009

Only three of the 13 founding members of the Geological Society of London were Quakers: William Allen and the brothers Richard and William Phillips. As dissenters, they sought to play a significant part in this new scientific development because they were in many ways excluded from English civil society. Such exclusion had encouraged their entry into trade and commerce, and they saw science as a means of improving the world and their place in it. Their great agitation against slavery, at its height just as the Geological Society of London was founded, significantly enhanced their coherence as a group. One of the first fruits of their interest in science was the Askesian Society, founded in 1796 by Allen and William Phillips, among others. With over half of its membership made up of Quakers, the Askesian was amongst the earlier of the London scientific societies. From its membership, in 1799, grew the British Mineralogical Society, which planned, by survey and analysis, to produce a mineral history of Britain. With Allen, and soon both Phillips brothers, involved in manufacture, analysis and lecturing in the field of chemistry, these interests inevitably led them to want to better understand, and use, mineral resources and to contribute to the founding of the Geological Society.
The early Geological Society in its international context
Authors: Rudwick Martin J. S.
Published: August 2009

The Geological Society was the world's first formal learned society to be devoted to the earth sciences, but these sciences were already flourishing in other social forms. In Continental Europe, state-supported ‘academies of sciences’, natural history museums, mining schools and universities all supported many ‘savants’, who would now be classed as professionals. In Britain and Ireland, in contrast, mineral surveyors and managers of mines worked entirely in the private sector. Throughout Europe, however, all such professionals relied on an infrastructure of ‘amateur’ observers and collectors (often very far from ‘amateurish’), including groups of lower social status such as miners and quarrymen, to provide local information and specimens. The leading figures regarded themselves as belonging, despite the wars, to an informal and cosmopolitan network of savants; they used the international language of French to communicate across national boundaries, and treated Paris as the centre of their intellectual world. The Geological Society modelled itself first on other informal scientific clubs and then on the botanical Linnean Society. It chose to model its periodical on the Royal Society'sPhilosophical Transactionsrather than the more utilitarianJournal des Minesedited in Paris. It considered adopting the well-established epithet ‘mineralogical’, but chose instead the rather novel and previously contentious word ‘geological’, in order to signal its intended focus on careful outdoor fieldwork rather than indoor work with specimens. At the same time it rejected the speculative ambitions of the genre of ‘theory of the Earth’ in favour of an ostentatious focus on supposedly atheoretical ‘facts’.
Geology beyond the Channel: the beginnings of geohistory in early nineteenth-century France
Authors: Taquet Philippe
Published: August 2009

As Martin Rudwick has emphatically underlined, the beginning of the nineteenth century was marked in France by an intense intellectual awakening that allowed, in the scope of Earth Sciences, new applications of research. Indeed, the joint study of rocks and their associated fossils was made in France in its earliest years by pioneers, afterwards amplified by the endowed work of Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart on the ‘Géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris’. But the integration of the study of fossils into a new geognostic practice was made possible by the combination of a number of favourable circumstances: the presence in France of such new institutions as the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle and the Ecole des Mines where ambitious and rigorous scientific programmes, backed by a determined political power, were brought together. In these institutions young talented naturalists within premises entirely devoted to research and teaching, coupled with the presence of very diverse collections of natural history, the recruitment of competent staff and significant financial support, led to spectacular results. These studies did, of course, contribute to the rise of geology in France, but they also brought celebrity to their authors, increased the prestige of the institutions and of the authorities in place.