Field Excursions Research Articles

Lessonsi Sustainable Dairy Farming to Kenyan Dairy Sector from the Dutch Dairy Sector

Dutch dairy sector is a premier player in the global arena. The Dutch have also been associated with the world’s most productive dairy cattle in Friesian-Holstein. There are many important breakthroughs on sustainable intensification and successful running of a dairy farm from the Dutch. Kenya on the other hand is just entering the transitionary phase in dairy development. It is already an important player in dairy farming in Africa whose production is second only after South Africa. There are several lessons that the dairy industry in Kenya may be able to learn in order to rise to its optimal potential. This paper, through an intensive interrogation of the Dutch dairy sector through; field excursions, group discussions, expert presentations, and lectures makes important situational analysis of the Dutch dairy sector and compares this to the Kenyan dairy industry situation. The Kenyan dairy industry situation was studied through a thorough desktop review of major government, Non-government organizations, discussions with experts and other major players in Kenyan dairy landscapes’ publications. This study makes cognizant the fact that in designing any interventions in the Kenyan dairy industry it is vital to understand the trends and the drivers that shape the dairy industry in Kenya. Based on these prevailing circumstances it has discussed the vital lessons that the Kenyan dairy sector may learn from the Dutch dairy industry to ensure that any gains from the improvement in the Kenyan dairy sector remains sustainable.

ジオツアー参加者の景観評価とインタープリテーション

The objective of this study is to clarify how the landscape is evaluated by participants of geo-tours on Izu-Oshima Island. The Visitor-employed photography (VEP) method is used to identify places where landscape evaluations are concentrated and objects are photographed frequently. Further, this study discusses the impact of interpretations by tour guides on the landscape evaluations of participants. Izu-Oshima Island, located 120 km south of Tokyo, is a volcanic island which was certified as a geopark in 2010. In this study, university students, who were part of a field excursion, were divided into two groups and accompanied by two tour guides. The results of a Kernel density estimation shows that the locations of photographs taken by the tour participants are concentrated in areas where the tour guides provide interpretations. These locations differ by tour group, which indicates that landscape evaluations are influenced interpretations. Each participant chose five favorite photographs from among their own photographs. Photographs of people were preferred. Tour participants took photographs of geological and geographical features as records; however, photographs of people were preferred as happy memories with friends during the tour. It is important to have both academic and entertaining contents in interpretations during educational activities of Geoparks.

Cub biometry, litter size and reproductive period of giant oters (Pteronura brasiliensis) at the Balbina Hydroelectric Reservoir, Amazonas, Brazil

According to the literature, giant otters produce one to six cubs at each gestation, with birth peaks occurring from the end of the flood season to the beginning of the low-water period. With the aim of describing some reproductive parameters of the giant otters living in a hydroelectric lake, 56 field excursions to Balbina Hydroelectric Reservoir, hereafter Balbina Lake, were carried out between September 2001 and September 2010 in order to gather information about cub weight and length, litter size and reproductive period of the species in that area. About 80% of the birth records occurred between September and December, characterized by the receding water season and the beginning of the dry season. The number of cubs per gestation varied from one to three animals (mean = 2; n = 36) and average weight and length of neonates were 316.25 ± 64.21g (n = 4) and 31.75 ± 4.86cm (n = 4), respectively. The reproductive period and the litter size produced by giant otters in Balbina Lake were within the range reported in literature for non-dammed areas, indicating that these reproductive parameters were not changed by the reservoir. The weight of cubs analyzed in the reservoir was in average 35% greater than the weight of captive newborn cubs reported in the literature. However, as the animals here analyzed were healthy, it is reasonable to assumethat they represent the weight of free-ranging newborn cubs. Artificial lakes had been reported in the literature as favorable environments for giant otters in Guyana, and the results obtained here seem to corroborate this hypothesis and show the plasticity of the species in its use of different habitats as long as the habitats are inside some category of protection, in this way minimizing additional impacts caused by an intense human occupation of the area.

Pre-Mission Input Requirements to Enable Successful Sample Collection by a Remote Field/EVA Team

Pre-Mission Input Requirements to Enable Successful Sample Collection by a Remote Field/EVA Team

43rd Biennial Convention and Centennial Celebration The University of Kansas: March 27-29, 2015

Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the national honor society in the Earth Sciences, held its 43rd Biennial Convention on the campus of the University of Kansas March 27-29, 2015 in conjunction with its centennial celebration. Alpha Chapter, Sigma Gamma Epsilon’s first chapter, hosted the events. During the convention, Dr. Anthony Walton of the Department of Geology at KU led a half-day field excursion on the Pennsylvanian Stratigraphy of Douglas County, Kansas: Glacioeustatically Modulated Cyclic Deposition on a Remarkably Smooth Shelf. This report provides a summary of the deliberations and actions of the participants at the convention and highlights of the field trip and centennial celebration.

Reconstructing inflationary paradigm within Effective Field Theory framework

In this paper my prime objective is to analyze the constraints on a sub-Planckian excursion of a single inflaton field within Effective Field Theory framework in a model independent fashion. For a generic single field inflationary potential, using the various parameterization of the primordial power spectrum I have derived the most general expression for the field excursion in terms of various inflationary observables, applying the observational constraints obtained from recent Planck 2015 and Planck 2015 +BICEP2/Keck Array data. By explicit computation I have reconstructed the structural form of the inflationary potential by constraining the Taylor expansion coefficients appearing in the generic expansion of the potential within the Effective Field Theory. Next I have explicitly derived, a set of higher order inflationary consistency relationships, which would help us to break the degeneracy between various class of inflationary models by differentiating them. I also provided two simple examples of Effective Theory of inflation- inflection-point model and saddle-point model to check the compatibility of the prescribed methodology in the light of Planck 2015 and Planck 2015 +BICEP2/Keck Array data. Finally, I have also checked the validity of the prescription by estimating the cosmological parameters and fitting the theoretical CMB TT, TE and EE angular power spectra with the observed data within the multipole range $2<l<2500$.

A FIELD TRIP AS PART OF THE SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH MODULE

This study focused on the value of a field excursion for final-year Social Work students as part of the research module with the aim of integrating the theory and practice of research. Students were expected to do unstructured interviewing with older persons in a deep rural community, with the main focus of the study being on the impressions and experiences of the students. Seven main themes were delineated in this study according to narratives given by participants, namely Social Work and research, feelings of the researcher, knowledge of the self, resilience, infrastructure, challenges facing the community and future perspectives.

From mantle roots to surface eruptions: Cenozoic and Mesozoic continental basaltic magmatism

Basaltic volcanism is an important process in shaping large areas of the Earth’s surface, not only in continental extensional environments and at the ocean floor. This special issue contains a collection of fifteen papers that are dedicated to recent researches on various aspects of continental basaltic magmatism from its mantle roots via the ascent paths of the melt to the surface where different styles of volcanism take place erupting lavas or through explosive volcanism depositing various types of pyroclasts. Two of the fifteen were published earlier (Downes et al. 2015; Herrero-Hernandez et al. 2015). Continental basaltic volcanism also contributes to the total terrestrial sedimentary budget not only by its primary pyroclastic deposits but also their reworked varieties. Most of the papers result from presentations at the BASALT 2013 conference, which took place from April 18–24, 2013, in Gorlitz, Germany (Buchner et al. 2013). The conference was organized by the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Gorlitz and co-organized by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth´s Interior (IAVCEI)—particularly its Commission on Monogenetic Volcanism—and the “Sachsische Landesstiftung Natur und Umwelt” LaNU Academy). Since the conference was held in the heart of Europe in Germany with accompanied field excursions to Poland and the Czech Republic, many contributions are related to the Cenozoic Central European Volcanic Province (Fig. 1). However, there was also a variety of contributions about Mesozoic and Cenozoic basaltic rocks worldwide. This variety is reflected in this issue. The issue brings together studies on different aspects of basaltic magmatism. Thus, this volume contains petrological and geochemical studies spanning from studies of mantle peridotites to those on volcanic rocks as well as papers presenting geophysical data and interdisciplinary interpretation.

Effect of the Field Excursion which utilized 3D Model in Hita City, Oita Prefecture

Effect of the Field Excursion which utilized 3D Model in Hita City, Oita Prefecture

Three centuries (1670–1970) of appreciating physical landscapes

Abstract Although modern geotourism, as a form of sustainable geoheritage tourism, was only recognized as such in the 1990s, its roots lie in the seventeenth century and the Grand Tour with its domestic equivalents. At that time, a few elite travellers recorded their experiences of landscapes, natural wonders, quarries and mines. Such travellers’ observations were supplemented by those of the antiquarians for much of the eighteenth century; at that century's close, the first modern geologists were recording their observations. The nineteenth century witnessed an explosion in public interest and engagement with geology, and field excursions were provided by the burgeoning natural history and geology societies. By the close of the nineteenth century, the Romantic movement had successfully promoted wild landscapes to a newly expanding urban population. The development of the Grand Tour and the landscape aesthetic movements, the various influential institutions, key personalities and locations are considered insofar as they provide an overview of the background to historical geotourism. All are underpinned by a theoretical consideration of the geotourism paradigm and how geotourism historical studies can contextualize modern geotourism.

Hybrid inflation with Planck scale fields

Observable B-mode polarization in the CMBR would point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. Although they are unlikely to be described by weak coupling models, effective field theories compatible with known features of cosmology do exist. These models can be viewed as generalizations to a large field regime of hybrid inflation. We note close parallels to small and large field axion models. This paper outlines the requirements for successful modular inflation, and gives examples of effective field theories which satisfy them. The required tunings are readily characterized. These models can also be thought of as models of chaotic inflation, in a way we describe. In the modular framework, one would expect that any would-be Peccei-Quinn symmetry would likely be badly broken during inflation, and the axion would have Hubble scale mass; in this situation, isocurvature fluctuations would be suppressed and the initial misalignment angle would be fixed, rather than being a random variable.

The “ANTHROPOCENE”: What is its geological utility? (Answer: It has none!)

Since proposed in 2000, the concept of the “Anthropocene” has filtered through the geological literature (See Zalasiewicz,, et al, In Press, for a brief summary review). Inevitably, it attracted the attention of the IUGS which formed a Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) to examine it. Although the base of the “Anthropocene” is diachronous (Edgeworth et al, 2015), the chair of the ICS Working Group on the Anthropocene has proposed that the “Anthropocene’s” base should be defined now by the isotopic signature of the world’s first nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945, at Alamogorda, NM, (Zalasiewicz,et al, In Press). Other work (Corcoran et al, 2014) shows that plastic garbage makes an anthropogenic global marker as well. The real question is, does the “Anthropocene” even have utility? Granted, human reworking is observable at the surface or near surface, but is it geologically regional in scale? How would one map the proposed isotopic marker in the field? Will it mean repeated trips to the field to collect samples, analyze them isotopically in the laboratory, and then go back to the field to place the boundary thus increasing a field geologist’s carbon footprint? Or will geologists now be required to carry a Geiger counter or portable Gamma Ray tool to be sure not to miss the critical basal boundary? (I see a business opportunity here to develop miniaturized versions for field use). Where will the type section be? Alamogorda, NM, where the original atomic bomb test took place, is a military restricted area requiring extensive security clearances to even visit, much less do field work, if it will even be allowed. Obviously, a search for a standard section will be required, but where will it be and who decides? How long will it take and how many international field excursions will be required before the ICS makes such a decision? Has the isotopic signature representing the base of the “Anthropocene” ever been identified and correlated in deep sea piston cores recovered by oceanographic institutions? (DSDP, IPOD and ODP cores have disturbed tops so are unusable). Has anyone even checked? Tyrrell (20l1) summarized a range of potential oceanographic scenarios but little in the way of data pinpointing diagnostic signatures. Looks like a potential PhD thesis for someone. What is the long-term preservation potential of any identifying criteria for the so-called “Anthropocene”? Likely it will be small because most of the studies describing evidence of human alterations occur in geomorphic areas that are dominantly erosional. Few examples have been reported from areas of sediment deposition that have larger preservation potential (See references cited above). A working limestone quarry operates near my residence. Is the changing vertical cut and quarry floor an “excavation surface”? Is the “excavation surface” in a quarry ten miles away and abandoned 50 years ago coeval? Perhaps the IGC should form a subcommittee to evaluate that surface for its utility in “Anthropocene” sequence stratigraphy. If the reader is offended by my questions and bemusement, please be advised that the following quote,

Large tensor mode, field range bound and consistency in generalized G-inflation

We systematically show that in potential driven generalized G-inflation models, quantum corrections coming from new physics at the strong coupling scale can be avoided, while producing observable tensor modes. The effective action can be approximated by the tree level action, and as a result, these models are internally consistent, despite the fact that we introduced new mass scales below the energy scale of inflation. Although observable tensor modes are produced with sub-strong coupling scale field excursions, this is not an evasion of the Lyth bound, since the models include higher-derivative non-canonical kinetic terms, and effective rescaling of the field would result in super-Planckian field excursions. We argue that the enhanced kinetic term of the inflaton screens the interactions with other fields, keeping the system weakly coupled during inflation.

Comparative Studies of the Petrochemistry of Sn–W‐Mineralized Granitoids: Continent vs. Island Arc

AbstractGranitic rocks obtained during field excursions of the famed mineralized regions of the Erzgebirge, Germany (mainly tin‐bearing), and South China (mainly tungsten‐bearing) have been geochemically analyzed and their results are compared with similar (mainly tungsten‐bearing) granites in the island‐arc setting of Southwest Japan. The studied granitoids all belong to the ilmenite‐series. The collision‐related Erzgebirge granitoids are rich in K2O and P2O5, have high A/CNK ratios (1.11–1.24, i.e. S type), but are also high in Ga/Al ratio (i.e., having some A‐type characteristics). In South China, the Xihuashan granites, in contrast, are very low in P2O5, and have A/CNK slightly above 1.0 (1.01–1.05), indicative of I type granites. The (Sn‐) W‐related granites of southwest Japan have similarly low P2O5 and A/CNK ratios, indicative also of I‐type. Both in the Xihuashan and southwest Japan, the tungsten‐related granites have high whole‐rock δ18O values implying involvement of W‐rich crustal rocks. Sn and W contents of the unaltered granites are lowest in the island‐arc setting where the related Sn–W deposits are smallest in size relative to the collision and continental margin settings of the Erzgebirge and South China.

Spinodal instabilities and super-Planckian excursions in natural inflation.

Models such as Natural Inflation that use pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons as the inflaton are attractive for many reasons. However, they typically require trans-Planckian field excursions ΔΦ>MPl, due to the need for an axion decay constant f>MPl to have both a sufficient number of e-folds and values of ns,r consistent with data. Such excursions would in general require the addition of all other higher dimension operators consistent with symmetries, thus disrupting the required flatness of the potential and rendering the theory nonpredictive. We show that in the case of Natural Inflation, the existence of spinodal instabilities (modes with tachyonic masses) can modify the inflaton equations of motion to the point that versions of the model with f<MPl can still inflate for the required number of e-folds. The instabilities naturally give rise to two separate phases of inflation with different values of the Hubble parameter H, one driven by the zero mode, the other by the unstable fluctuation modes. The values of ns and r typically depend on the initial conditions for the zero mode, and, at least for those examined here, the values of r tend to be unobservably small.

Age‐specific vibrissae growth rates: A tool for determining the timing of ecologically important events in Steller sea lions

AbstractSteller sea lions (SSL; Eumetopias jubatus) grow their vibrissae continually, providing a multiyear record suitable for ecological and physiological studies based on stable isotopes. An accurate age‐specific vibrissae growth rate is essential for registering a chronology along the length of the record, and for interpreting the timing of ecologically important events. We utilized four methods to estimate the growth rate of vibrissae in fetal, rookery pup, young‐of‐the‐year (YOY), yearling, subadult, and adult SSL. The majority of vibrissae were collected from SSL live‐captured in Alaska and Russia between 2000 and 2013 (n = 1,115), however, vibrissae were also collected from six adult SSL found dead on haul‐outs and rookeries during field excursions to increase the sample size of this underrepresented age group. Growth rates of vibrissae were generally slower in adult (0.44 ± 0.15 cm/mo) and subadult (0.61 ± 0.10 cm/mo) SSL than in YOY (0.87 ± 0.28 cm/mo) and fetal (0.73 ± 0.05 cm/mo) animals, but there was high individual variability in these growth rates within each age group. Some variability in vibrissae growth rates was attributed to the somatic growth rate of YOY sea lions between capture events (P = 0.014, r2 = 0.206, n = 29).

New Paleomagnetic results and evidence for a geomagnetic field excursion during the pleistocene-holocene transition at Pichincha province, Ecuador

Paleomagnetic data from three sedimentary sections in Pichincha province -Quito City (QC), Mullimica (Mu) and El Tingo (ET)- Ecuador (northwestern South America) are reported. Analysis of natural remanent magnetization directions obtained from 109 oriented samples taken at 4 sites, shows that some samples recorded a magnetic component different from the normal present geomagnetic field (GMF). The characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) was determined by progressive AF demagnetization. The analysis shows that the sections recorded ChRM of normal, intermediate and reverse polarities during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and Holocene. Normal directions were recorded in QC, while normal and intermediate polarity directions at Mu and, reverse VGPs at ET. QC and the upper portion of Mu correspond to the paleosecular variation Holocene record for Ecuador during the ∼≤4.7 ka BP. On the other hand, the lower portion of Mu logs represents the transition from normal to intermediate directions occurring at ∼≥5.6 ka BP. Sites from ET recorded two stable oblique reverse records with a large fluctuation far from the present GMF at ∼10.5 ka BP. The transitional virtual geomagnetic poles generally agree with those registered during the possible Pleistocene-Holocene excursion observed in other places of the planet. When plotted in a present world map, VGPs calculated from normal samples at QC are very well clustered in Northern North America, Greenland and Northern Europe; most VGP's calculated from Mu are situated between 30° and 60° northern latitude in Northern North America, Greenland, western Europe, Africa and North Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, the majority of the reverse directions from ET conforms a patch located in southern Africa, and a few ones are situated in central Africa, eastern Australia and Antarctica. An Ecuadorian paleopole was calculated with data resulting from QC and Mu. Also other paleopoles of the same age were processed from other North and South American sites. Remarkably they agree well, although they do not agree with the geographical pole showing ∼15o angular difference in relation to the rotation's axis of the Earth. Finally, is discussed the hypothesis of the global excursional state of the GMF during the last ∼11.0 ka BP and the potential use as dating tool the excursion dated at 10.5 ka BP.

Can Effective Field Theory of inflation generate large tensor-to-scalar ratio within Randall–Sundrum single braneworld?

In this paper my prime objective is to explain the generation of large tensor-to-scalar ratio from the single field sub-Planckian inflationary paradigm within Randall–Sundrum (RS) single braneworld scenario in a model independent fashion. By explicit computation I have shown that the effective field theory prescription of brane inflation within RS single brane setup is consistent with sub-Planckian excursion of the inflaton field, which will further generate large value of tensor-to-scalar ratio, provided the energy density for inflaton degrees of freedom is high enough compared to the brane tension in high energy regime. Finally, I have mentioned the stringent theoretical constraint on positive brane tension, cut-off of the quantum gravity scale and bulk cosmological constant to get sub-Planckian field excursion along with large tensor-to-scalar ratio as recently observed by BICEP2 or at least generates the tensor-to-scalar ratio consistent with the upper bound of Planck (2013 and 2015) data and Planck+BICEP2+Keck Array joint constraint.

Tunneling dynamics in multiphoton ionization and attoclock calibration.

The intermediate domain of strong-field ionization between the tunneling and multiphoton regimes is investigated using the strong-field approximation and the imaginary-time method. An intuitive model for the dynamics is developed which describes the ionization process within a nonadiabatic tunneling picture with a coordinate dependent electron energy during the under-the-barrier motion. The nonadiabatic effects in the elliptically polarized laser field induce a transversal momentum shift of the tunneled electron wave packet at the tunnel exit and a delayed appearance in the continuum as well as a shift of the tunneling exit towards the ionic core. The latter significantly modifies the Coulomb focusing during the electron excursion in the laser field after exiting the ionization tunnel. We show that nonadiabatic effects are especially large when the Coulomb field of the ionic core is taken into account during the under-the-barrier motion. The simple man model modified with these nonadiabatic corrections provides an intuitive background for exact theories and has direct implications for the calibration of the attoclock technique.

A new species of Baiera from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of southeastern Jilin, China

The Early Cretaceous Yingzuilazi Formation is exposed in the Baishan Basin, Baishan region of the southeastern Jilin Province, China. So far, no reports on fossil plants from this formation have been published. During recent field excursions, abundant faunal remains belonging to the Early Cretaceous Lycoptera–Ephemeropsis–Eosestheria assemblage of the Jehol Biota and numerous fossil plants were collected from the lacustrine beds of the lower part of this formation. A new species of Ginkgoales from this formation, Baiera baishanensis n. sp., is described based upon the leaf morphology and epidermal characters. This is the first report about fossil plants from the Yinzuilazi Formation, the easternmost distribution area of the Jehol Biota. The discovery of the new species extends significantly the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of Baiera in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota as well as the Eurasia. It also shows that Baiera was a common member of Ginkgophytes once lived in the Early Cretaceous deciduous forest of Northeast China. The new species also improves our knowledge on understanding the leaf morphology, epidermal features, and diversity of Baiera during the Early Cretaceous. Analysis of the epidermal characters of the new species and other associated plants reveals that the plants grew in a warm and humid climate in the temperate zone. The presence of some deciduous plants, including gingkgoaleans, czekanowskialeans, and some conifers, demonstrates a climate with seasonal fluctuations and precipitation.