The lure of the local: community activism and place in Australia

The intertwined relationship between the built and natural environments characterises and defines coastal towns, especially those with significant heritage values. Our research is located in the context of the “sea change” phenomenon, which is fundamentally changing the coastal towns of Australia. Barbara Norman, a past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), summarised the current struggle occurring in many of Australia’s coastal regions when she wrote: “the Australian coastline is littered with exhausted communities battling to save the character and environment of their townships” (Norman, 2008). The Australian National Sea Change Taskforce was established in 2004, as a response to these wider community and professional concerns, and seeks “to ensure that coastal development is managed with a focus on the sustainability of coastal communities and the coastal environment” (Gurran et al., 2006) concluded that more detailed research is needed to develop new responses to coastal development, particularly in terms of promoting community wellbeing, strengthening social cohesion, avoiding socio-economic and socio-spatial polarisation and preserving sense of place.

Influence of cooling rate on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of Al-Fe alloys

The effect of Fe in Al is technologically important for commercial Al-alloys, and in recycled Al. This work explores the use of the novel rapid solidification technology, known as direct strip casting, to improve the recyclability of Al-alloys. We provide a comparison between the corrosion and microstructure of Al-Fe alloys prepared with wide-ranging cooling rates (0.1. °C/s to 500. °C/s). Rapid cooling was achieved via direct strip casting, while slow cooling was achieved using sand casting. Corrosion was studied via polarisation and immersion tests, followed by surface analysis using scanning electron microscopy and optical profilometry. It was shown that the corrosion resistance of Al-Fe alloys is improved with increased cooling rates, attributed to the reduced size and number of Fe-containing intermetallics.

Evaluation of corrosion behaviour of biodegradable base oils using electrochemical techniques

© 2015 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute. This paper describes an interesting attempt to quantitatively evaluate the corrosion behaviour of base oils using a novel approach based on electrochemical techniques. The present study evaluates the corrosion behaviour of biodegradable base oils with and without additives in an aqueous chloride solution using electrochemical measurements. Potentiodynamic polarisation and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were used to quantitatively determine the corrosion behaviour of these oils, and the results were compared to the conventional immersion tests. Both these electrochemical measurements were carried out in a three-electrode system where AS1020 mild steel alloy was used as a working electrode in a purpose made pipette cell. The results obtained from the electrochemical measurements help to evaluate the best biodegradable base oil for formulating eco-friendly industrial lubricants.

Performance Evaluation Of SMOS Soil Moisture Retrieval Parameters For Hydrological Application

Microwave remote sensing has high potential for soil moisture retrieval. However, the efficient retrieval of soil moisture depends on optimally choosing the soil moisture retrieval parameters. In this study first the initial evaluation of SMOS L2 product is performed and then four approaches regarding soil moisture retrieval from SMOS brightness temperature are reported. The radiative transfer equation based tau-omega rationale is used in this study for the soil moisture retrievals. The single channel algorithms (SCA) using H polarisation is implemented with modifications, which includes the effective temperatures simulated from ECMWF (downscaled using WRF-NOAH Land Surface Model (LSM)) and MODIS. The retrieved soil moisture is then utilized for soil moisture deficit (SMD) estimation using empirical relationships with Probability Distributed Model based SMD as a benchmark. The square of correlation during the calibration indicates a value of R2 =0.359 for approach 4 (WRF-NOAH LSM based LST with optimized roughness parameters) followed by the approach 2 (optimized roughness parameters and MODIS based LST) (R2 =0.293), approach 3 (WRF-NOAH LSM based LST with no optimization) (R2 =0.267) and approach 1(MODIS based LST with no optimization) (R2 =0.163). Similarly, during the validation a highest performance is reported by approach 4. The other approaches are also following a similar trend as calibration. All the performances are depicted through Taylor diagram which indicates that the H polarisation using ECMWF based LST is giving a better performance for SMD estimation than the original SMOS L2 products at a catchment scale.

Brazil’s electorate : still polarised but in a new way

Back in November, we wrote about an analysis of tweets in Brazil that illustrated the extreme polarisation of the country’s voters on the eve of the presidential election on October 26. A striking image (seen in miniature on the left) generated by Marco Aurélio Ruediger and colleagues at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, an educational institution in Rio de Janeiro, showed voters on each side of the two-way race talking exclusively among themselves and almost never to each other.

Twitter snapshots show Venezuela’s government isolated from its people

How isolated is Venezuela’s government from the people it supposedly represents? Very isolated indeed, according to a study commissioned by beyondbrics from Marco Ruediger and colleages at FGV DAPP, the department of public policy analysis at the Fundação Getulio Vergas in Rio de Janeiro. The study, derived from activity on Twitter, demonstrates the extreme polarisation of opinion in the country and suggests that Venezuela’s media, often either controlled or suppressed by the government, is increasingly lining up with opposition voices.

Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: the share of the rich is what it’s all about

This paper examines the current global scene of distributional disparities within-nations. There are six main conclusions. First, about 80 per cent of the world’s population now live in regions whose median country has a Gini not far from 40. Second, as outliers are now only located among middle-income and rich countries, the ‘upwards’ side of the ‘Inverted-U’ between inequality and income per capita has evaporated (and with it the statistical support there was for the hypothesis that posits that, for whatever reason, ‘things have to get worse before they can get better’). Third, among middle-income countries Latin America and mineral-rich Southern Africa are uniquely unequal, while Eastern Europe follows a distributional path similar to the Nordic countries. Fourth, among rich countries there is a large (and growing) distributional diversity. Fifth, within a global trend of rising inequality, there are two opposite forces at work. One is ‘centrifugal’, and leads to an increased diversity in the shares appropriated by the top 10 and bottom 40 per cent. The other is ‘centripetal’, and leads to a growing uniformity in the income-share appropriated by deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, half of the world’s population (the middle and upper-middle classes) have acquired strong ‘property rights’ over half of their respective national incomes; the other half, however, is increasingly up for grabs between the very rich and the poor. And sixth, Globalisation is thus creating a distributional scenario in which what really matters is the income-share of the rich — because the rest ‘follows’ (middle classes able to defend their shares, and workers with ever more precarious jobs in ever more ‘flexible’ labour markets). Therefore, anybody attempting to understand the within-nations disparity of inequality should always be reminded of this basic distributional fact following the example of Clinton’s campaign strategist: by sticking a note on their notice-boards saying “It’s the share of the rich, stupid”.

The revenge of the market on the rentiers why neo-liberal reports of the end of history turned out to be premature

Starting from the perspective of heterodox Keynesian-Minskyian-Kindlebergian financial economics, this paper begins by highlighting a number of mechanisms that contributed to the current financial crisis. These include excess liquidity, income polarisation, conflicts between financial and productive capital, lack of intelligent regulation, asymmetric information, principal-agent dilemmas and bounded rationalities. However, the paper then proceeds to argue that perhaps more than ever the ‘macroeconomics’ that led to this crisis only makes analytical sense if examined within the framework of the political settlements and distributional outcomes in which it had operated. Taking the perspective of critical social theories the paper concludes that, ultimately, the current financial crisis is the outcome of something much more systemic, namely an attempt to use neo-liberalism (or, in US terms, neo-conservatism) as a new technology of power to help transform capitalism into a rentiers’ delight. And in particular, into a system without much ‘compulsion’ on big business; i.e., one that imposes only minimal pressures on big agents to engage in competitive struggles in the real economy (while inflicting exactly the opposite fate on workers and small firms). A key component in the effectiveness of this new technology of power was its ability to transform the state into a major facilitator of the ever-increasing rent-seeking practices of oligopolistic capital. The architects of this experiment include some capitalist groups (in particular rentiers from the financial sector as well as capitalists from the ‘mature’ and most polluting industries of the preceding techno-economic paradigm), some political groups, as well as intellectual networks with their allies – including most economists and the ‘new’ left. Although rentiers did succeed in their attempt to get rid of practically all fetters on their greed, in the end the crisis materialised when ‘markets’ took their inevitable revenge on the rentiers by calling their (blatant) bluff.

Influence of aged Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al alloy microstructure on chemical and electrochemical behavior in the Kroll reagent for metallographic etching

The chemical and electrochemical behaviour of the Ti-1 5V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al alloy in Kroll reagent has been studied after ageing at 350-600degreesC, to optimise metallographic etching. Etching tests and polarisation curves showed that samples aged at higher temperatures have been more susceptible to corrosion. It has been attributed to the formation of intra- and intergranular alpha-phase precipitates during ageing.

Anisotropia sísmica crustal na região de Cascavel - CE

This dissertation presents a study on crustal seismic anisotropy in Cascavel - CE. The earthquake data employed here are from the Seismological Laboratory at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and were colected from 29 September 1997 to 05 march 1998 using six three-component digital seismographic stations. In general, the cause of the observed seismic anisotropy in many regions of the world is interpreted in terms of fluid-filled stress aligned microcracks in the rockmass (EDA). In other words, the polarisation direction of the faster shear-wave splitting is parallel to SHmax. However, other researches on seismic anisotropy carried out in NE Brazil have shown a remarkable consistency of the faster shear-wave polarisation direction with the direction of the Precambrian fabric. The present work is another case study that is used to investigate this issue. In order to map the Precambrian fabric we used aeromagnetic data, since the study area is mostly covered with sediments (up to 50m thick) and in-situ field mapping would be very difficult to be carried out. According to the results from the present research, the observations of the faster shear-wave polarisation directions in two seismographic stations in Cascavel region are best explained in the framework of EDA. For the remaining two stations, the observed anisotropy may have two interpretions: (i) - 90_ flips of the direction of polarisation of the faster shear-wave, since that the event-to-station ray path would be through the fracture zone and hence would travel under a higher pore pressure and (ii) - the observed seismic anisotropy would agree with the direction on the ductile Precambrian fabric

Influence of spraying parameters on the electrochemical behaviour of HVOF thermally sprayed stainless steel coatings in 3.4% NaCl

Stainless steel coatings obtained by High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) were characterized using optical (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe micro-analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), open-circuit potential (E-OC) measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarisation tests. Differences among coated steels were mainly related with the gun-substrate distance parameter (310 nm for samples A and B and 260 min for C and D). The open-circuit potential values measured for all the samples after 18 h of immersion in aerated and unstirred 3.4% NaCl solution were: - 0.334, - 0.360, - 0.379 and - 0.412 V vs. Ag/AgCl,KClsat. for samples A to D, respectively. For EIS measurements, Nyquist plots showed higher capacitive semi-circle for samples sprayed at longer distance, indicating higher corrosion resistance in NaCl solution. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of thickness coating on the electrochemical behaviour of thermal spray Cr3C2-NiCr coatings

Thermally sprayed HVOF coatings are increasingly being used in industrial applications where high wear and corrosion resistance are needed [1,2]. In this paper, electrochemical ac and de experiments were used in order to obtain the corrosion resistance of coated steel with different numbers of Cr3C2-NiCr layers. This work has been performed in order to determine the role of coating thickness in the corrosion behaviour of a steel protected with cermet thermally sprayed coatings. It is known that a thicker layer protects better against corrosion when a metallic coating is evaluated. But cermet coatings, such as Cr3C2-NiCr, contain higher levels of porosity and residual stresses than metallic coatings, which really could influence the corrosion resistance of the deposited layer. Electrochemical measurements, such as Open-Circuit Potential (E-Osubset of), Polarisation Resistance (RP) and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), were performed in an aerated 3.4 NaCI media (%wt.). Electrochemical Impedance Measurements (EIS) were also done in order to obtain a mechanism that explains the corrosion process. Structural Characterisation was carried out by means of Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopes (OM, SEM) with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometry analyser (EDS). Results show that the corrosion resistance of the complete system is mainly influenced by the substrate behaviour. The application of a higher number of deposited layers did not substantially increase their anticorrosive properties. Stress generation during the spraying deposition process plays an important role in the behaviour of the coated steel against corrosion phenomena. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V All rights reserved.

Strain behavior of lanthanum modified BiFeO3 thin films prepared via soft chemical method

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Influence of thermal treatments in the corrosion behaviour of HVOF Cr 3C2-NiCr coatings

Thermal spray coatings as Cr3C2-NiCr obtained by high velocity oxy-fuel spraying (HVOF) are mainly applied due to their behaviour against aggressive erosive-abrasive and corrosive atmospheres and their thermal stability at high temperatures [1]. In order to increase the corrosion protection that it offers to the substrate trying to close the interconnected pores, it is possible to apply a thermal treatment with the gun during the spraying of the coating. This treatment could be applied in different ways. One of these ways consists of spraying only a few layers of coating followed by thermal treatment and finally the spray of the rest of layers. This thermal treatment on spraying is studied related to the corrosion properties of the system. The study comprises the electrochemical characterisation of the system by open circuit potential (OC), polarisation resistance (Rp), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and impedance spectroscopy measurements (EIS). Optical and scanning electron microscopy characterisation (OM and SEM) of the top and cross-section of the system has been used in order to justify the electrochemical results.

Um estudo sobre a corrosão aquosa de ligas de alumínio 7xxx submetidas a diferentes tratamentos térmicos

This job aim has been to study the aqueous corrosion of the 7xxx heattreatable aluminium alloys, used in the aeronautical industry. The 7010, 7050 and 7475 alloys, have been supplied in the T7 condition and submitted to the annealed and aging thermal treatments of in order to study their behaviours front to corrosion in 5% NaCl pH 6,0, air-saturated and deaerated solutions. The electrochemical study has been accomplished through potential measures in open circuit, potentiodynamic polarisation curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The aged alloy resulted to be the most resistant to corrosion and annealed the less resistant ones. In spite of it they have different chemical compositions, in each mean, the alloy with the same thermal treatment has behaved in a similar way. In aerated solution, the process is controlled by oxygen diffusion and in oxygen absence for dissolution through a film. Hardness and mass loss measures, after corrosion test, have supported this research.