Petrochemistry, related mineralization and genesis of the Ambalavayal granite and associated pegmatites. Wynad district, Kerala

The Kerala region which forms a significant segment of the south—western Indian shield, dominantly comprises charnockites, khondalites and migmatitic gneisses of Precambrian age. Recent investigations have revealed the occurrences of a number of younger granite and syenite plutons in this region, .spatially related to regional fault—lineaments. The granite of Ambalavayal in Wynad district of northern Kerala is a typical member of this suite of intrusives. The thesis is based on a comprehensive study in terms of geology, petrology, geochemistry and petrogenesis of the Ambalavayal granite, basement gneisses, associated pegmatites, quartz veins and related mineralization that together cover an area of about 90 sq km in wynad district of northern Kerala.

Proyecto Educativo GENESIS : Asturias

Concienciar a los ni??os sobre el deterioro que est?? sufriendo el planeta. Esa es la m??xima que persigue el programa de educaci??n ambiental GENESIS, impulsado por el fot??grafo brasile??o Sebasti??o Salgado y su esposa, Lelia Wanick. El proyecto GENESIS ofrece un conjunto de materiales a partir de las fotograf??as que Sebasti??o Salgado realiz?? en distintos paisajes v??rgenes del planeta y pretende provocar en las escuelas la sensibilizaci??n y reflexi??n sobre la cuesti??n ambiental. Aunque las fotos retratan distintos y lejanos lugares del mundo, el proyecto tiene como objetivo promover estrategias formativas para la acci??n local, es decir, se espera que el alumnado asocie los problemas abordados con los de su propia experiencia de vida tomando iniciativas para mejorar esa realidad. El proyecto ofrece una combinaci??n de recursos pedag??gicos flexibles que se pueden adaptar a diferentes realidades locales y a las distintas franjas de edad y etapas educativas. Dispone de cuatro unidades did??cticas (Primeras notas; Volcanes; Gal??pagos; Gorilas del Parque Virunga) que se presentan cada una en un cuaderno y que van acompa??adas de este DVD que recoge el material audiovisual correspondiente a estas unidades did??cticas.

Sociocultural theory and genesis of second language development.

La teoría sociocultural es una teoría de la evolución de las funciones mentales superiores que tiene sus raíces en la filosofía alemana de los siglos dieciocho y diecinueve. Esta publicación integra la teoría, la investigación y la práctica en el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas extranjeras, desde una perspectiva sociocultural. También describe e ilustra el uso de la teoría como apoyo a las innovaciones conceptuales y prácticas en la educación de segunda lengua.

The timing of Quaternary calcrete development in semi-arid southeast Spain: Investigating the role of climate on calcrete genesis

Quaternary-aged calcrete horizons are common weathering products in arid and semi-arid regions. It is, however, unclear how calcrete forming processes respond to the major oscillations in climate that occur over the Quaternary period. This paper presents a U-series-based calcrete age database from the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain. The study constructs an age frequency distribution of these ages which is consequently compared to a range of palaeoenvironmental records from the Mediterranean. The age distribution presented here suggests that the formation of pedogenic calcrete horizons in the Sorbas basin primarily occurs during 'warm' isotope stages (MIS 1 and 5), with very few calcrete ages occurring during cold glacial/stadial stages (MIS 2, 3 and 4). It is suggested that this is a function of the environments that existed during 'warm' isotope stages being more conducive to calcrete development than those that existed during cold climate episodes. In a semi-arid region such as the Sorbas basin it is likely that increased aridity during glacial stages, coupled with reduced vegetation and accelerated landscape instability, was crucial in reducing rates of calcrete formation. In a semi-arid region such as southeast Spain, calcrete formation during the Quaternary, therefore, oscillates with climate change but is primarily a "warm" episode phenomenon. It is suggested that further studies are required to see how calcrete genesis responds to environmental change in more humid parts of the Mediterranean. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genesis and expansion of metazoan transcription factor gene classes

We know little about the genomic events that led to the advent of a multicellular grade of organization in animals, one of the most dramatic transitions in evolution. Metazoan multicellularity is correlated with the evolution of embryogenesis, which presumably was underpinned by a gene regulatory network reliant on the differential activation of signaling pathways and transcription factors. Many transcription factor genes that play critical roles in bilaterian development largely appear to have evolved before the divergence of cnidarian and bilaterian lineages. In contrast, sponges seem to have a more limited suite of transcription factors, suggesting that the developmental regulatory gene repertoire changed markedly during early metazoan evolution. Using whole- genome information from the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica, a range of eumetazoans, and the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis, we investigate the genesis and expansion of homeobox, Sox, T- box, and Fox transcription factor genes. Comparative analyses reveal that novel transcription factor domains ( such as Paired, POU, and T- box) arose very early in metazoan evolution, prior to the separation of extant metazoan phyla but after the divergence of choanoflagellate and metazoan lineages. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that transcription factor classes then gradually expanded at the base of Metazoa before the bilaterian radiation, with each class following a different evolutionary trajectory. Based on the limited number of transcription factors in the Amphimedon genome, we infer that the genome of the metazoan last common ancestor included fewer gene members in each class than are present in extant eumetazoans. Transcription factor orthologues present in sponge, cnidarian, and bilaterian genomes may represent part of the core metazoan regulatory network underlying the origin of animal development and multicellularity.

Military doctrine, command philosophy and the generation of fighting power: genesis and theory

Military doctrine is one of the conceptual components of war. Its raison d’être is that of a force multiplier. It enables a smaller force to take on and defeat a larger force in battle. This article’s departure point is the aphorism of Sir Julian Corbett, who described doctrine as ‘the soul of warfare’. The second dimension to creating a force multiplier effect is forging doctrine with an appropriate command philosophy. The challenge for commanders is how, in unique circumstances, to formulate, disseminate and apply an appropriate doctrine and combine it with a relevant command philosophy. This can only be achieved by policy-makers and senior commanders successfully answering the Clausewitzian question: what kind of conflict are they involved in? Once an answer has been provided, a synthesis of these two factors can be developed and applied. Doctrine has implications for all three levels of war. Tactically, doctrine does two things: first, it helps to create a tempo of operations; second, it develops a transitory quality that will produce operational effect, and ultimately facilitate the pursuit of strategic objectives. Its function is to provide both training and instruction. At the operational level instruction and understanding are critical functions. Third, at the strategic level it provides understanding and direction. Using John Gooch’s six components of doctrine, it will be argued that there is a lacunae in the theory of doctrine as these components can manifest themselves in very different ways at the three levels of war. They can in turn affect the transitory quality of tactical operations. Doctrine is pivotal to success in war. Without doctrine and the appropriate command philosophy military operations cannot be successfully concluded against an active and determined foe.

Genesis of quantum nonlocality

We revisit the problem of an otherwise classical particle immersed in the zero-point radiation field, with the purpose of tracing the origin of the nonlocality characteristic of Schrodinger`s equation. The Fokker-Planck-type equation in the particles phase-space leads to an infinite hierarchy of equations in configuration space. In the radiationless limit the first two equations decouple from the rest. The first is the continuity equation: the second one, for the particle flux, contains a nonlocal term due to the momentum fluctuations impressed by the field. These equations are shown to lead to Schrodinger`s equation. Nonlocality (obtained here for the one-particle system) appears thus as a property of the description, not of Nature. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

GENESIS: an efficient, transparent and easy to use cluster operating system

Present operating systems are not built to support parallel computing––they do not provide services to manage parallelism, i.e., to globally manage parallel processes and computational resources. The cluster operating environments that are used to assist the execution of parallel applications do not provide support for both programming paradigms, message passing (MP) or distributed shared memory (DSM)––they are mainly offered as separate components implemented at the user level as library and independent server processes. Due to poor operating systems users must deal with clusters as a set of independent computers rather than to see this cluster as a single powerful computer. A single system image (SSI) of the cluster is not offered to users. There is a need for an operating system for clusters. We claim and demonstrate in this paper that it is possible to develop a cluster operating system that is able to efficiently manage parallelism; use cluster resources efficiently; support MP in the form of standard MP and PVM, and DSM; offer SSI; and make it easy to use. We show that to achieve these aims this operating system should inherit many features of a distributed operating system and provide new services which address the needs of parallel processes, cluster's resources, and application developers. In order to substantiate the claim the first version of a cluster operating system managing parallelism and offering SSI, called GENESIS, has been developed.

The development of an efficient checkpointing facility exploiting operating systems services of the GENESIS cluster operating system

Recent research efforts of parallel processing on non-dedicated clusters have focused on high execution performance, parallelism management, transparent access to resources, and making clusters easy to use. However, as a collection of independent computers used by multiple users, clusters are susceptible to failure. This paper shows the development of a coordinated checkpointing facility for the GENESIS cluster operating system. This facility was developed by exploiting existing operating system services. High performance and low overheads are achieved by allowing the processes of a parallel application to continue executing during the creation of checkpoints, while maintaining low demands on cluster resources by using coordinated checkpointing.

Exploiting operating system services to efficiently checkpoint parallel applications in GENESIS

Recent research efforts of parallel processing on non-dedicated clusters have focused on high execution performance, parallelism management, transparent access to resources, and making clusters easy to use. However, as a collection of independent computers used by multiple users, clusters are susceptible to failure. This paper shows the development of a coordinated checkpointing facility for the GENESIS cluster operating system. This facility was developed by exploiting existing operating system services. High performance and low overheads are achieved by allowing the processes of a parallel application to continue executing during the creation of checkpoints, while maintaining low demands on cluster resources by using coordinated checkpointing.