A vital interest in the affairs of Latin America has grown recently in Australia. There, in that land “in back of the beyond,” professors are offering new programs of Latin American studies while their librarian counterparts have strengthened their holdings through active participation in the Latin American cooperative acquisition program (LACAP) and in the seminars on the acquisition of Latin American library materials (SALALM). The move of claudio Véliz from the universidad de chile to the chair of the department of sociology, La Trobe University (Bundoora, Victoria), will stimulate further the development of Latin American studies in the antipodes, while the resurgence of trans-pacific sailings during the past decade is attracting the interest of the Australians to the nations across the Pacific. It is worth noting that last year Professor Gilbert Butland of the University of New England, Armidale (New South Wales) published a general study entitled The other side of the Pacific: Problems of Latin America (Sydney, 1972).

Finding less complicated coils that have adequately low field errors is a crucial step in stellarator development. One coil metric that is of high importance is the maximum curvature of the coil centreline, or coil single filament. Conductors cannot be bent below some threshold minimum radius of curvature. High coil curvatures can cause strains to exceed acceptable levels, especially in superconducting coils. We investigate three ways to optimize coil curvature and find that applying penalty functions to the coil curvature solves for coils that have a constrained maximum curvature and low field error. Penalty functions are implemented in FOCUS and coil solutions optimized for an HSX-like ‘plasma boundary’ are presented.

The EVOSHEEP project combines archaeozoology, geometric morphometrics and genetics to study archaeological sheep assemblages dating from the sixth to the first millennia BC in eastern Africa, the Levant, the Anatolian South Caucasus, the Iranian Plateau and Mesopotamia. The project aims to understand changes in the physical appearance and phenotypic characteristics of sheep and how these related to the appearance of new breeds and the demand for secondary products to supply the textile industry.

A national need is to prepare for and respond to accidental or intentional disasters categorized as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE). These incidents require specific subject-matter expertise, yet have commonalities. We identify 7 core elements comprising CBRNE science that require integration for effective preparedness planning and public health and medical response and recovery. These core elements are (1) basic and clinical sciences, (2) modeling and systems management, (3) planning, (4) response and incident management, (5) recovery and resilience, (6) lessons learned, and (7) continuous improvement. A key feature is the ability of relevant subject matter experts to integrate information into response operations. We propose the CBRNE medical operations science support expert as a professional who (1) understands that CBRNE incidents require an integrated systems approach, (2) understands the key functions and contributions of CBRNE science practitioners, (3) helps direct strategic and tactical CBRNE planning and responses through first-hand experience, and (4) provides advice to senior decision-makers managing response activities. Recognition of both CBRNE science as a distinct competency and the establishment of the CBRNE medical operations science support expert informs the public of the enormous progress made, broadcasts opportunities for new talent, and enhances the sophistication and analytic expertise of senior managers planning for and responding to CBRNE incidents.

As one of the major components of the Himalayan–Tibetan Orogeny, the Lhasa terrane plays a key role in understanding the origin and evolution of this giant orogenic belt and the opening and closure of the Tethys oceans. The eclogite-bearing Sumdo Complex in the central Lhasa terrane was recognized as the main suture of the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean between the north and south Lhasa sub-terranes. Despite the eclogite having been studied for a long time, no attempts have been applied to studying the country rocks, causing confusion in understanding the relationship between the eclogite and the adjacent schist. Petrological investigations and phase equilibrium calculations on the garnet-bearing mica schist of the Sumdo Complex have been performed to constrain its metamorphic evolution. The P–T conditions for three metamorphic stages are constrained as P1 (480–500°C, 2.6–2.7 GPa), P2 (580–600°C, 1.3–1.4 GPa) and R (530°C, 0.9 GPa), which represent the prograde, temperature peak and retrograde stages. Two possible P–T paths were constructed, which experienced isothermal decompression (PT1) or heating with a decompression process (PT2), corresponding to the growth and extinction of garnet porphyroblasts in the matrix. The LA-MC-ICP-MS U–Pb dating method yielded a metamorphic age of 229.7±3.5 Ma, which was interpreted as the age of amphibolite-facies metamorphism at c. 600°C, 1.2–1.4 GPa during the closure of the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean, resulting in the aggregation of the north and south Lhasa sub-terranes. The close relationship between the eclogite and garnet-bearing mica schist, and their similar P–T–t paths indicate an in situ tectonic evolution rather than tectonic juxtaposition during exhumation.

Wood strength is highly anisotropic, due to the inherent structural hierarchy of the material. In the framework of a combined random-periodic multiscale poro-micromechanics model, we here translate compositional information throughout this hierarchy into the resulting anisotropic strength at the softwood level, based on “universal” elastic properties of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, and on the shear strength of the latter elementary constituent. Therefore, derivation of the elastic energy in a piece (representative volume element – RVE) of softwood, stemming from homogeneous macroscopic strains prescribed in terms of displacements at the boundary of the RVE and from pressure exerted by water filling the nanoporous space between the hemicelluloses-lignin network within the cell walls, with respect to the shear stiffness of lignin, yields higher order strains in the lignin phase, approximating micro-stress peaks leading to local lignin failure. Relating this (quasi-brittle) failure to overall softwood failure (or strictly speaking, elastic limit of softwood) results in a macroscopic microstructure-dependent failure criterion for softwood. The latter satisfactorily predicts the biaxial strength of spruce at various loading angles with respect to the grain direction. The model also predicts the experimentally well-established fact that uniaxial tensile and compressive strengths, as well as the shear strength of wood, depend quasi-linearly on the cell water content, but highly nonlinearly on the lumen porosity.

Even at first glance, one can see remarkable similarities in the topography, geography and patterns of land use of the west coast republics of South America and of the states of Australia which stretch along that continent's eastern and southeastern shores. Not only are the latitudinal parameters comparable, but similarities in climate and patterns of agriculture abound. The resemblances are particularly defined as we consider the geographical extravagance of Chile and compare it alone to the eastern edge of Australia.

Although virtually unstudied, the introduction of the philosophy of positivism into Chile acted as a catalyst upon the development of that country during the decade before the War of the Pacific. Scholars have given appropriate attention to the influence of positivism as it became significant in other Latin American countries during the eighteen-seventies, and Leopold Zea has discussed the importance of that philosophic system in Chile during the years which followed the west coast conflict of 1879-1883. However, despite the ever increasing number of articles and monographs dealing with positivism, the historians of Latin America have ignored the philosophy's growth in the Republic of Chile before the war and the effect of that growth upon the ideologies already extant in the Pacific coast nation.

Historians specializing in the study of Latin America are not making the fullest use of the theories of Bolton, Turner, and Webb. Herbert Eugene Bolton proposed his schema of a comprehensive history for the Americas almost fifty years ago, while this year we mark the seventy-seventh anniversary of the full expression of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier theory. The views of these two scholars, while provocative, did not lead to revolutionary new interpretations in the history of Latin America—nor, despite the hopes of the two advocates, did their ideas succeed in moving the historian of the United States away from a narrow and chauvinistic base. Nevertheless, the theories of Turner and Bolton have caused discussions and debates that have been of great interest.