General circulation model estimates of aerosol transport and radiative forcing during the Indian Ocean Experiment

Aerosol sources, transport, and sinks are simulated, and aerosol direct radiative effects are assessed over the Indian Ocean for the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) Intensive Field Phase during January to March 1999 using the Laboratoire de Me´te´orologie Dynamique (LMDZT) general circulation model. The model reproduces the latitudinal gradient in aerosol mass concentration and optical depth (AOD). The model-predicted aerosol concentrations and AODs agree reasonably well with measurements but are systematically underestimated during high-pollution episodes, especially in the month of March. The largest aerosol loads are found over southwestern China, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian subcontinent. Aerosol emissions from the Indian subcontinent are transported into the Indian Ocean through either the west coast or the east coast of India. Over the INDOEX region, carbonaceous aerosols are the largest contributor to the estimated AOD, followed by sulfate, dust, sea salt, and fly ash. During the northeast winter monsoon, natural and anthropogenic aerosols reduce the solar flux reaching the surface by 25 W m�2, leading to 10–15% less insolation at the surface. A doubling of black carbon (BC) emissions from Asia results in an aerosol single-scattering albedo that is much smaller than in situ measurements, reflecting the fact that BC emissions are not underestimated in proportion to other (mostly scattering) aerosol types. South Asia is the dominant contributor to sulfate aerosols over the INDOEX region and accounts for 60–70% of the AOD by sulfate. It is also an important but not the dominant contributor to carbonaceous aerosols over the INDOEX region with a contribution of less than 40% to the AOD by this aerosol species. The presence of elevated plumes brings significant quantities of aerosols to the Indian Ocean that are generated over Africa and Southeast and east Asia.

A multi-model analysis of the role of the ocean on the African and Indian monsoon during mid-Holocene

We investigate the role of the ocean feedback on the climate in response to insolation forcing during the mid-Holocene (6,000 year BP) using results from seven coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models. We examine how the dipole in late summer sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Atlantic increases the length of the African monsoon, how this dipole structure is created and maintained, and how the late summer SST warming in the northwest Indian Ocean affects the monsoon retreat in this sector. Similar mechanisms are found in all of the models, including a strong wind evaporation feedback and changes in the mixed layer depth that enhance the insolation forcing, as well as increased Ekman transport in the Atlantic that sharpens the Atlantic dipole pattern. We also consider changes in interannual variability over West Africa and the Indian Ocean. The teleconnection between variations in SST and Sahelian precipitation favor a larger impact of the Atlantic dipole mode in this region. In the Indian Ocean, the strengthening of the Indian dipole structure in autumn has a damping effect on the Indian dipole mode at the interannual time scale

Hegel’s spectre on Indian thought and its God-in-nothingness

This review discusses Arvind-Pal S. Mandair’s Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation (hereafter RSW), published in 2009 by Columbia University Press.

Melbourne’s Indian Film Festival needs to strengthen its ties

 The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) kicked off last night with Bollywood’s cult classic curry-western Sholay in 3D format. This year IFFM is screening 46 films from four countries in 17 languages, including Urdu, Nepalese, Himachli, Sinhala, and Sherdukpen. It’s the biggest film festival of its type in the southern hemisphere – but it’s attracted criticism from some in the Indian community in Melbourne for its failure to nurture ties between local filmmakers and the industry in India.

Disenchantments of secularism: the West and India

This Chapter is an exercise in comparative secularism. In this chapter I will be concerned basically with a critique of Western conceptions of secularism, beginning with Hegel’s invention of a particular reading of secularism that, through imperialist literature, gave a preeminent direction to the ideology of the less-religiously orientated Indian nationalists during their drawn-out independence struggle. My main concern will be to contrast the Western debates on ‘the secular’, particularly in its recent permutations or attempted revisions as a response to the crisis of modernity, with the current Indian debates—where ‘ the secular; has all but been hijacked by the Hindu Right—and to show—reversing Hegel’s trajectory—what impact the latter could have on the former. There is some evidence of this already occurring, particularly in Charles Taylor’s work and travels wherein he does make some gestures towards looking at non-Western experiences of secularism (which is taken more or less to be synonymous with secularization). There are severe limitations to this overture however, and the chapter hopes to sound a word of caution on the kind of excitement over which Taylor seems to have become something of a celebrity in the academe. Even more disappointingly, one does not find a similar emphatic approach or opening to non-Western experiences and rethinking of the secular in the works of other modernists; and I point to Habermas and Žižek as my examples, who I touch on, albeit very briefly. This lack or lacuna makes both the discourse of modernity and the supplementary critique of secularism much the poorer for it.

Spatial epidemiology of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in a municipality of west Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Innovative Interventions with Alcohol Problems in Rural Areas: An Indian Experience and its Relevance to Rural America

Conventional interventions used to address the complex problems of substance abuse call for multifaceted approaches reflecting the diverse backgrounds of affected populations. In this paper the rural context is highlighted as an asset in contributing to sustainable recovery from alcohol problems. Against the background of comparing two international rural contexts and recognizing shared identities, a case is made for transfer of knowledge east to west. The success elements of a unique approach to intervention with problems associated with excessive drinking in rural areas of South India, based on the experiences of Community-Based Rehabilitation camps is described. Spanning two decades of systematic implementation, the camps utilize existing community resources for planning, execution, and follow-up of treatment while simultaneously creating greater awareness about alcohol abuse through community education. After a critical examination of prevailing treatment options for problem drinking in rural America, inter-country analysis reveals contextual similarities between rural America and rural South India based on community-orientation, cost-containment, and social capital formation with implications for rural social work intervention with alcohol problems in the United States.

Mineral resources in Lower Brule Indian Reservation

On the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in South Dakota, about 3 million tons of metallic manganese are in low-grade deposits in the DeGrey Member of the Pierre Shale on the reservation. The geology and methods of mining and processing this sub-economic mineral resource have been studied extensively; technologically, extraction of manganese is possible. However, an efficient, economical method to separate manganese-bearing nodules from the shale host rocks has yet to be found. The manganiferous nodules occur in the Oacoma zone of the Sully shale member (De-Grey Member) which is a subdivision of the South Dakota Pierre Shale formation. These nodular deposits have an interesting similarity in stratigraphical position, lithology and manganese content to those of the Porcupine Mountain area in Manitoba.

Geochemistry nd isotopic composition of Indian Ocean sediments

A down-core 231Pa/230Th record has been measured from the southwestern Indian Ocean to reconstruct the history of deep water flow into this basin over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. The (231Paxs/230Thxs)0 ratio throughout the record is nearly constant at approximately 0.055, significantly lower than the production ratio of 0.093, indicating that the proxy is sensitive to changes in circulation and/or sediment flux at this site. The consistent value suggests that there has been no change in the inflow of Antarctic Bottom Water to the Indian Ocean during the last 140 ka, in contrast to the changes in deep circulation thought to occur in other ocean basins. The stability of the (231Paxs/230Thxs)0 value in the record contrasts with an existing sortable silt (SS) record from the same core. The observed equation image variability is attributed to a local geostrophic effect amplifying small changes in circulation. A record of authigenic U from the same core suggests that there was reduced oxygen in bottom waters at the core locality during glacial periods. The consistency of the (231Paxs/230Thxs)0 record implies that this could not have arisen by local changes in productivity, thus suggesting a far-field control: either globally reduced bottom water oxygenation or increased productivity south of the Opal Belt during glacials.

(Table 3) Chemical analyses from DSDP Holes 22-214, 22-215 and 22-216 in the Indian Ocean

The basalts and oceanic andesites from the aseismic Ninetyeast Ridge display trachytic, vesicular and amygdaloidal textures suggesting a subaerial volcanic environment. The normative composition of the Ninetyeast Ridge ranges from olivine picriteto nepheline-normative alkaline basalt, suggesting a wide range of differentiation. This is further supported by the fractionation-differentiation trends displayed by transition metal trace elements (Ni, Cr, V and Cu). The Ninetyeast Ridge rocks are enriched in rare earth (RE) and large ion lithophile (LIL) elements and Sr isotopes (0.7043-0.7049), similar to alkali basalts and tholeiites from seamounts and islands, but different from LIL-element-depleted tholeiitic volcanic rocks of the recent seismic mid-Indian oceanic ridge. The constancy of 87Sr/86Sr ratios for basalts and andesites is compatible with a model involving fractional crystallization of mafic magma. The variation of 87Sr/86Sr ratios between 0.97 and 2.79 may possibly be explained in terms of a primordial hot mantle and/or chemically contrasting heterogeneous mantle source layers relatively undepleted in LIL elements at different periods in the geologic past. In general, the Sr isotopic data for rocks from different tectonic environments are consistent with a "zoning-depletion model" with systematically arranged alternate alkali-poor and alkali-rich layers in the mantle beneath the Indian Ocean.

Radiolarian biostratigraphy in the central Indian Ocean

Identifiable radiolarians of stratigraphic importance were recovered at eight of the sites drilled on Leg 115. The assemblages range in age from Holocene to middle Eocene (Dictyoprora mongolfieri Zone, about 48 Ma). Faunal preservation is particularly good in two stratigraphic intervals: the Holocene through upper Miocene (0-9 Ma), and the lowermost Oligocene to middle Eocene (35-48 Ma). Fluctuating rates of silica accumulation at these drill sites during the Cenozoic reflect changing tectonic and paleoceanographic conditions. In particular, the gradual closure of the Indonesian and Tethyan seaways and the northward migration of the Indian subcontinent severely restricted zonal circulation and silica accumulation in tropical latitudes during the late Oligocene through middle Miocene. By the late Miocene the Indian subcontinent had moved sufficiently north of the equator to allow trans-Indian zonal circulation patterns to become reestablished, and biosiliceous sedimentation resumed. The composition of the radiolarian assemblages in the tropical Indian Ocean is closely comparable with that of the 'stratotype' sequences in the equatorial Pacific. However, there are some notable exceptions in Indian Ocean assemblages: (1) the scarcity of the genera Pterocanium and Spongaster in the Neogene; (2) the absence of the stratigraphically important Podocyrtis lineage, P. diamesa -> P. phyxis -> P. ampla, in the middle Eocene; and (3) the scarcity of taxa of the genus Dorcadospyris, with the exception of D. ateuchus. The succession of radiolarian events was tabulated for those stratigraphic intervals where the assemblages were well preserved. We identified 55 events in the middle Eocene to earliest Oligocene, and 31 events in the late Miocene to Holocene. The succession of events is closely comparable with that of the tropical Pacific. However, there are exceptions that appear to be real, rather than artifacts of sample preservation, mixing, and core disturbance.