bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Panthay (Chinese Muslims) of Burma and Yunnan
Authors: Yegar Moshe 
Published: August 2009

In 1856 a Muslim Sultanate was founded in Yunnan, the southwestern Chinese province that borders Burma. In 1873, seventeen years later, this Sultanate was annihilated. The Muslim inhabitants of Yunnan are known as the Panthays.There are several versions concerning Muslim origins in Yunnan. A tradition held by the Panthays themselves tells that the Emperor of China requested the Prophet Mohammed to send some Muslims to help him to get rid of evil spirits. The Prophet sent him 360 men, with whose aid the evil spirits were routed. The Arabs were welcomed with great honour and were allowed to settle near the capital. In course of time their numbers increased to such an extent that the Imperial Government was disturbed. The Muslims were therefore dispersed to the border areas of the Empire and resettled there. This account was related to the British mission which visited the Panthay Sultanate, by the Governor of the town of Momien. A very similar Chinese version tells of a Muslim army, several thousand strong, which came to the rescue of the Emperor of China at his request. After quelling the rebellion, the Muslims feared to return home, because during their long sojourn abroad they had been polluted by pork and other prohibited things, and decided to remain in China. Eventually they were sent to Yunnan and other places and became loyal subjects of the Emperor.
Supplement to “The group E6(q) and graphs with a locally linear group of automorphisms” by V. I. Trofimov and R. M. Weiss
Authors: TROFIMOV V. I. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractLet q be a prime power and let G be a group acting faithfully and vertex transitively on a graph such that for each vertex x, the stabilizer Gx is finite and contains a normal subgroup inducing on the set of neighbours of x a permutation group isomorphic to the linear group L5(q) acting on the 2-dimensional subspaces of a 5-dimensional vector space over Fq. In a companion paper, it is shown, except in some special situations where q = 2, that the kernel of the action of a vertex stabilizer Gx on the ball of radius 3 around x is trivial. In this paper we show that these special situations cannot occur.
Black-fly and the Environment
Authors: Asibey Emmanuel O. A. 
Published: August 2009

Black-fly (Simulium spp.) occurs practically through out the world. It poses biting problems wherever it is found. In Africa, black-fly carries a human disease called Onchocerciasis or river blindness. The World Health Organization has decided on a £50 million project, spreading over 20 years, to control this disease. They propose to apply, very extensively and protractedly, larvicides which are non-selective, reasonably persistent, and only mildly toxic to Man and other higher animals but fatally toxic to Simulium larvae (the target) and some other forms of aquatic life (non-target). This will result in the reduction of the already small quantities of fish available to the people. It will also put at risk the lives of the animals that constitute the major source of the scanty protein supply of the local populace, and hence conceivably jeopardize their own lives.The decision to go ahead with the project was based on the grounds that chemical control of Simulium breeding is the only sure method of dealing with Onchocerciasis, and that the areas of West Africa to be affected are among the least developed. But foreseeable consequences of the project alone are considered serious enough to justify its reconsideration, while quite likely consequences are powerful enough in themselves to make such as review seem necessary.Until such a time as the world is able to devise a universally acceptable method of controlling black-fly, the current method of treatment preventing Onchocerciasis from causing blindness should be extended to all areas where the disease is present.
Conservation of the California Coast Redwood and its Environment
Authors: Simmons Ian G. , Vale Thomas R. 
Published: August 2009

The genus Sequoia has existed since Mesozoic times, and early Tertiary Redwoods occurred practically throughout the northern hemisphere. Today, the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the only living species of the genus, and it is restricted to the coastal environments of California and the southern extremity of Oregon. Climatic factors determine the outer limits of Redwood distribution, while edaphic, biotic, and hydrologic, variables influence the occurrence of Redwood within the climatic range.Human use of Redwood forests has altered the environmental conditions under which the Sequoia now grows. Logging has exposed the forest floor to increased light and higher temperatures, while in some places it has exposed the soil to accelerated erosion. Recent floods in the major watersheds of north-western California have been particularly disastrous in undercutting large trees along the river banks. Increased degradation rates on upper slopes have resulted in delivery of coarse sediments to floodplains, with possibly deleterious effects on living old-growth Redwoods.
Lead, Zinc, and Manganese, in Dredge-spoil Pond Ecosystems
Authors: Drifmeyer Jeffrey E. , Odum William E. 
Published: August 2009

Pb, Zn, and Mn, levels in sediment and common estuarine plants and animals colonizing dredge-spoil disposal areas were compared with levels occurring in the same materials from a natural salt-marsh. Finegrained dredge-spoil had considerabily higher levels of all three metals than did natural salt-marsh sediment, and large differences in the metals content of the spoil were observed, depending on sediment type.Pb levels in the Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio), Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus), Common Reed (Phragmites communis), Saltmarsh Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), and Saltmeadow Hay (Spartina patens), from dredge-spoil areas, were significantly higher at the 0.01 confidence level than in these species from the natural salt-marsh. Zn concentrations were significantly higher at this confidence level in the three plant species growing in dredge-spoil compared with those from the natural marsh. Mn content in Grass Shrimp from ponds in dredge-spoil disposal areas was significantly higher (0.05 confidence level) than in those from the natural marsh. Thus, dredge-spoil containing heavy metals, even though disposed of in specially designed diked containment areas, may act as a source of certain heavy metals that are potentially toxic to the biota.Data on the transfer of Pb and Mn in simple foodchains of the dredge-spoil pond ecosystem are presented and discussed in relation to feeding behaviour. Decreasing concentrations with increasing tropic level were observed for Pb and Mn, but no consistent pattern was noted with Zn.
Persisting Natural Vegetation in Northern Queens County, New York, With Proposals for its Conservation
Authors: Greller Andrew M. 
Published: August 2009

Northern Queens County, on western Long Island, has approximately 5% or less of its 145 km2 area occupied by vegetation that is still essentially natural. The history, climate, geology, and soil, of the region are discussed, and the importance of glacial geology in an understanding of the vegetation is emphasized. Vegetation is outlined for a series of upland, freshwater, and salt-influenced, types. The variants of the oak-dominated forest are presented in a table. The following freshwater vegetation types are listed: swamp and riparian forest, shrub swamp, marshes, and floating and submerged aquatic vegetation. Salt-influenced types include: tall cordgrass, salt meadow, and salt shrub swamp. The antiquity of this vegetation is suggested by its uniformity over a time-span of 50–60 or more years since its original description as natural vegetation. Extinct and endangered types are mentioned, and general sources of human impact on all persisting types are discussed. Recommendations are made for preservation, reclamation, and re-creation, of natural vegetation. Specifically, it is recommended that all persisting areas harbouring natural vegetation be preserved immediately and in perpetuity. It will be interesting to see, in due course, how effective this can be within the confines of one of the world's greatest conurbations. Consideration of topo-edaphic variation in planning for preservation is emphasized. This point is illustrated with reference to the major vegetation of northern Queens County, namely oak forest. Almost all of the typical ‘plateau upland’ forest has been lost, even though preservation of the diversity of the rich, but atypical, end moraine forests seems adequate.It is hoped that this article will stimulate investigation into means of re-creating some of the original vegetation types, in order to provide as great a representation as possible, and to alleviate the human impact on the endangered surviving types.
Inland Waterways—A New Environmental Dimension
Authors: Doerflinger Frederic 
Published: August 2009

Inland waterways provide more opportunities for the conservation and improvement of the environment and the provision of amenity, sports, and recreation, facilities than do any other means of transport. The demand for more space for leisure pursuits is world-wide, and is accompanied by a growing appreciation of the need for environmental quality and conservation of Nature in catering for this demand. Thus in seeking solutions to related leisure, environmental, energy, and transport problems, authorities everywhere are coming to recognize the unique potential of inland water in meeting the concerns and wishes of modern society.Britain, with an unparalleled exclusively amenity waterways network, leads the world in the amenity development and utilization of inland waterways. The United States is broadening its objectives to encompass amenity development within the framework of traditional commercial-priority development of its waterways. Canada has launched the most sweeping and spectacular amenity waterway corridor development in history. France has begun actively to promote ‘tourisme fluvial’, while the Netherlands is progressing with integrated planning to harmonize the interests of commercial navigation with recreation and Nature conservation. The projected waterways link between the North and Black Seas has fostered amenity waterway development by all states along the Danube. Russia, too, is beginning to cater to the requirements of increasing numbers of water-oriented leisure seekers. Many other countries, including Portugal, are looking to the development of navigable waterways for leisure pursuits to help solve mounting national problems.
Determination of the Priorities of ‘Actors’ in the Framework of Environmental Management
Authors: Royston Michael G. , Perkowski Joseph C. 
Published: August 2009

One major source of uncertainty in industrial planning is due to the conflicting uses of environmental components by the proponent of an action and the various ‘actors’ who share the proponent's environment. These actors may be government agencies, health authorities, conservancy organizations, or individual citizens. As they all share the environment with the proponent of the action, there should also be a sharing of the decision-making process.Difficulties of identifying potential actors at the non-governmental level can be reduced by undertaking a rigorous analysis of the environmental components, of the uses which they serve, of the way in which the uses may be impaired by proposed activities, and hence of which users are most likely to be concerned.The result of such an approach, which constitutes a new style of management ‘from the outside–in’ rather than ‘from the inside–out’, is that industry must involve itself in a broader-based and more imaginative planning process than hitherto. Failure by industry to do this will result in either a progressive erosion of the freedom of decision-making (by increased government interference) or in progressive blocking of industry's plans and consequently a reduction in its ability to achieve its corporate objectives of profit–growth–security in the face of conflict over its operations, its siting proposals, and its products.Suitable realization by managements of the interdependence of their actions with those of others should lead to the addition of a truly environmental dimension to their traditional function—even without the governmental intervention and pressure-group counteractivity which have become increasingly evident with the growth of the environmental movement in recent years.
Integrating Scientific Knowledge for Professional Education in Environmental Management
Authors: Matthews William H. , Perkowski Joseph C. 
Published: August 2009

A major challenge in developing programmes for professional education in environmental management is presented by the need to determine how the vast amount of scientific and professional knowledge required for effective environmental management can be efficiently transmitted to prospective or practising ‘environmental coordinators’ in the private and public sectors of society. This paper describes the work conducted at M.I.T., in collaboration with C.E.I., to provide a conceptual and substantive base for such programmes.The conceptual framework is based on a simplified model of the decision-making steps in environmental management processes. Such a model can be used for isolating certain types of decisions and roles in different social, cultural, administrative, or political, contexts. When once this has been done, the responsibilities and the educational needs of specific classes of ‘environmental managers’ can be identified through studies and interviews.The substantive base for new educational programmes requires the development of outlines and the identification of reference material for the major bodies of knowledge that comprise the ‘field’ of environmental management. This paper briefly describes the major subject-areas treated in this study: values and perceptions, ecology, environmental effects, environmental indicators, environmental impact assessment methodology, modelling, monitoring, growth and its implications for the future, economics of externalities, environmental law, and administrative processes.The approach and materials described in this paper are now being used at C.E.I, in the development of educational programmes for practising professionals, and at M.I.T. for graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines. Thus far, these efforts have been well received and have provided additional information with which to continue designing additional programmes.
The Collection, Maintenance, and Environmental Importance, of the Genetic Resources of Wild Plants
Authors: Thompson Peter A. 
Published: August 2009

Plants are major factors conditioning an environment, and conservation of particular environments depends fundamentally on the maintenance of existing plant communities. In many parts of the world, the destruction of such communities is occurring so rapidly and so completely that entire natural systems are subject to, or threatened with, total destruction. In such cases artificial methods of conserving plant germplasm for ultimate regeneration, for supplementing natural populations, for study, or for use by Man as an economic resource, may be of great significance as one possible means of averting total loss. Under less extreme pressures, the availability of representative propagules of significant taxa or populations may be of crucial assistance as an aid to research directed towards a better understanding of factors affecting survival or competitive advantage in the wild, or as a means of providing stocks for assessment of the potential economic value of existing reserves of wild species.This paper discusses methods of recording, maintaining, and evaluating, collections of populations of wild species. Plant resources of this kind are extremely vulnerable when maintained under artificial conditions, and a very high proportion of collections are lost within a few years, remain unavailable for general use, or fail to be used owing to inadequate documentation. Conservation of plant germ-plasm as an international resource, in a usable form, depends on a wide acceptance and practice of greatly improved methods of documentation, and requires the creation of effective organizations for surveying, maintaining, and coordinating, plant resources on an international scale.
Population Explosions ofAcanthaster planciand Associated Destruction of the Hard-coral Cover of Reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Authors: Endean Robert , Stablum William 
Published: August 2009

Population explosions of the Crown-of-thorns Starfish,Acanthaster planci, first reported on reefs of the Great Barrier Reef in the Cairns region near lat. 17° S during the early 1960s, have since spread to numerous other reefs. The spread has been predominantly southwards, the principal region of infestation currently lying between lat. 19° S and lat. 19°20' S. South of this region, scattered infestations of reefs have recently been reported. Available data indicate that most reefs in the middle third of the Great Barrier Reef were infested during the last decade, and it is postulated that most reefs in the southernmost third will be infested during the next decade.The bulk of the hard-coral cover of most of the inner platform reefs infested, and a lower but significant percentage of the hard-coral cover of the outer platform reefs affected by the infestations, have been devastated. Recovery of devastated reefs is in progress but is slow.TheA. planciinfestations appear to the authors to be man-induced, and it is suggested that international action be taken to assess the magnitude of theA. planciproblem and to coordinate possible control activities in the Indo-West Pacific region.
Environment and Human Evolution
Authors: Cloudsley-Thompson John L. 
Published: August 2009

The suggestion is made that Man evolved orthograde posture and bipedal locomotion at the fringe of tropical forest rather than in open savanna. The primary adaptive function of bipedal locomotion was for walking and stalking game from the cover of trees, in the absence of undergrowth. Hairlessness was thermally advantageous when Man emerged from the trees, yet would have imposed no great hardship on our hominid ancestors while they were inside the forest, where the climate was constantly warm. Man's primitive skin-colour was probably pale-brown. It is thought that dark skins were later acquired primarily as a protection against ultraviolet radiation in tropical regions, whereas depigmentation occurred as an adaptation that enhanced the synthesis of calciferol in regions of low light-intensity.Man's so-called ‘racial’ adaptations occurred when his scavenging and hunter-gathering technology was unable to counter natural selection. Recently, however, he has ceased to respond to environmental feed-back. Unless he begins to do so again soon, degradation of the environment may accelerate beyond the point of no return and our species be doomed.
Pelagic Tar in the Mediterranean Sea, 1974–75
Authors: Morris Byron F. , Butler James N. , Zsolnay Adam 
Published: August 2009

During the period 6 December 1974 to 20 January 1975, the R/V Westward circumnavigated the Mediterranean Sea and took quantitative samples of pelagic tar at 48 stations. These have been compared with a similar survey made in 1969 by the R/V Atlantis II and with some data published in the USSR. In the ‘Ionian Sea’ (between Crete and the Strait of Sicily) the geometric mean of tar concentration has decreased significantly—from 60 mg/m2 in 1969 to 5 mg/m2 in 1974–75. In other regions of the Mediterranean, no significant changes were found. However, in both the ‘Tyrrhenian Sea’ west of Italy and the ‘Alboran Sea’ along the Algerian-Moroccan coast, tar concentrations have increased by about a factor of two, roughly corresponding to the relative increase in tanker traffic in the Mediterranean as a whole. In the ‘Balearic Sea’, 1975 levels were lower than those of 1969, but the data may not be comparable because of the different geographic regions covered.At present, the total standing stock of pelagic tar in the Mediterranean is lower than in 1969, due to the decrease in pollution of the eastern basin. With the reopening of the Suez Canal, changes in the amounts of tar should be carefully monitored as a measure of pollution control effectiveness.
Possible Means of Large-scale Use of Wind as a Source of Energy
Authors: Bockris John O'M. 
Published: August 2009

To circumvent the coming energy crisis the development of new sources is popularly associated with the gasification of coal and with atomic breeder reactors, although solar and nuclear fusion sources are distant possibilities. But coal is limited in supply and breeders will not be ready in time to replace the remaining oil and natural gas; wind offers a more likely possibility.The practical equation for electricity obtained after conversion to hydrogen, passage, and reconversion to electricity, is:for a rotor of 100 m radius in a location where the mean annual wind is v k.p.h. Thus, for v = 30, Pelec≃ 5 MW per rotor.The concept of large sea-borne rotors in high-velocity wind-belts with long-distance hydrogen transmission offers a more readily attainable (and more environmentally acceptable) prospect than atomic, or solar, possibilities.
World Models, Resources, and Environment
Authors: Biswas Asit K. 
Published: August 2009

World models are still in the early phases of development, and the majority of the ones built so far do not deal with the resources and environment sectors adequately. Of the models available, only the Leontief input-output model considers these two sectors in some detail. Even then the results should be taken as ordersof-magnitude guesses rather than as figures that can be used in an operational sense. Furthermore, the Leontief model suffers from a basic defect: it is a pollution abatement model. From the resources and environmental standpoint, it would be much more preferable to consider this as a sector within an overall management framework in which pollution control could play an important part.Modelling of world problematique is still in an early stage of development, and much work remains to be done to improve its basic structures, underlying assumptions, and data availability. Because of the difficulties—both conceptual and practical—many important areas are not considered in the resources and environment fields, or, if considered, are dealt with only superficially. An example is the consideration of the extent of recycling, conservation, and materials substitution, as prices of individual resources increase—owing either to economic market forces or man-made factors. While the general direction of the main thrusts are known, it is still difficult to define limits and determine interlinkages with any high degree of confidence. Much further work will be necessary to establish these interrelationships, the components of which will also need to have an adequate data-base.
Persistent Pollutants in Audouin's Gull (Larus audouinii) in the Western Mediterranean: A Case-study with Wide Implications?
Authors: Bijleveld M. F. I. J. , Goeldlin P. , Mayol J. 
Published: August 2009

The possibility of persistent pollutants playing an adverse role in the reproductive success of Audouin's Gull in the western Mediterranean was examined through chemical analyses of 7 eggs of this species that did not hatch. Residues of organochlorine compounds and mercury were found.The conclusion has been reached that a further increase of present levels of DDE may well lead to a decline of the reproductive success of the species in the western Mediterranean, especially in the northern part. These observations, although limited, could have implications for further species as is already indicated by other work cited.