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This fine study fits into a long-established tradition of transatlantic scholarship. It is also the latest in a line of books discussing Irish nationalism in the US. While Lune looks at the Irish A...

Capsule: Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the burrows of Sand Martins Riparia riparia increase with depth but have no detectable impact on fledging success.Aims: To investigate whether burrow depth and CO2 concentrations influence reproductive success in Sand Martins.Methods: We monitored two Sand Martin colonies along the River Lune, Lancashire, UK, to investigate the effect of burrow depth on reproductive success. We also measured CO2 levels in a sample of burrows to test whether burrow depth predicts CO2 concentration, and to test for a relationship between CO2 concentration and breeding success.Results: Burrow depth was significantly correlated with fledging success, but the correlation was positive in first broods and negative in second broods. The highest CO2 concentration recorded was 73 650 ppm and the mean concentration across burrows was 31 757 ppm. However, while CO2 concentrations were positively correlated with burrow depth after controlling for the number and age of nestlings, ...

Hornby Castle in the Lune valley was the centre of an estate covering manors in north Lancashire and bordering Westmorland and Yorkshire. This volume by Jennifer S. Holt, a well-known economic and ...

This article is devoted to study the solvability of the Riemann–Hilbert problem, with arbitrary index, for the Cauchy–Riemann operator in a lens and two complementary lunes. We generalize the corresponding results obtained by Begehr and Vaitekhovich (Complex Var Elliptic Eqs. 2014;59:76–84). The parqueting-reflection technique is used. The boundary behaviour of related integral operators of Schwarz type and Pompeiu type is discussed. Then the expressions of the solutions are explicitly obtained.

Previous work has presented evidence that the Circle-Octagon Earthworks at Newark Ohio contain numerous features that are aligned to the lunar standstills (extreme rise and set points of the Moon). A Monte Carlo study of randomly constructed octagons is presented to investigate the statistical significance of this evidence. The study investigates the sensitivity of the statistics to a variety of plausible assumptions about the design of the earthworks, the capabilities of the builders, and the type and precision of the astronomical alignments. The results of the quantitative study establish that the statistical significance of the evidence for deliberate astronomical alignment over the entire range of plausible assumptions is far too high to be dismissed. The study reveals that the hypothesis of deliberate astronomical alignment predicts the otherwise unexplained shape of both octagonal earthworks constructed by the Hopewell Culture. The analysis compares the Newark dataset to hypothetical dataset...

Deserts are open environments characterized by striking shifts in temperature and light regimes. We hypothesized that the abiotic environment mediates the interaction between an ant-dispersed plant, Datura wrightii (Solanaceae), ant mutualists, and rodent seed predators in the Sonoran Desert. Field experiments contrasting diurnal and nocturnal seed collection rates in the presence of ants only, vertebrates only, and in the presence of both groups indicated that 85% of seed collection by mammalian seed predators occurred at night (between 1900 and 0700). Seed collection by ants, in contrast, was similar between day and night, although seed collection decreased during very hot days and very bright nights. The total number of seeds collected by both groups foraging separately exceeded the number removed when both groups shared access to seed depots, suggesting that ants and rodents compete for seeds. However, D. wrightii plants dehisced 86% of their fruits between 0700 and 1900, increasing the likelihood of seed collection by ant mutualists rather than rodent seed predators. Dehiscence was sensitive to environmental cues: greenhouse plants kept at constant temperature and humidity dehisced 47% of their fruits between 0700 and 1900. Additional field experiments demonstrated that seed-collecting ants transported seeds considerable distances to their nests, microsites that can be rich in nutrients. The mean (± SE) seed dispersal distance was 6.1 ± 0.5 m, the longest mean dispersal distance yet reported for an ant-dispersed seed. Keywords: competition, desert, dispersal, foraging, harvester ant, moon, myrmecochory, seed predation, temperature. Resume : Les deserts sont des environnements ouverts caracterises par des changements drastiques des regimes de temperature et de lumiere. Nous avons emis l'hypothese que l'environnement abiotique agit comme mediateur au niveau de l'interaction entre une plante dont les graines sont disseminees par les fourmis, le Datura wrightii (Solanaceae), des fourmis mutualistes et des rongeurs granivores dans le desert Sonoran. Les experiences menees sur le terrain et mettant en contraste des taux diurnes et nocturnes de prelevement de graines en presence des fourmis seules, des vertebres seuls et des deux groupes d'animaux indiquent que 85 % des prelevements de graines par les mammiferes se produisent pendant la nuit (entre 19 h et 7 h). Pour leur part, les prelevements de graines par les fourmis ne different pas entre le jour et la nuit, bien qu'ils diminuent pendant les journees tres chaudes et les nuits tres lumineuses. Le nombre total de graines prelevees par les deux groupes lorsqu'ils recherchent leur nourriture separement depasse le nombre obtenu lorsque les deux groupes se partagent l'acces aux reserves de graines, ce qui suggere que les fourmis et les rongeurs entrent en competition pour s'accaparer les graines. Les plants de D. wrightii ouvrent neanmoins 86 % de leurs fruits entre 7 h et 19 h, ce qui favorise les fourmis aux depens des rongeurs. La dehiscence des fruits est toutefois sensible aux facteurs environnementaux : 47 % des fruits des plants conserves dans des serres a une temperature et un taux d'humidite constants s'ouvrent entre 7 h et 19 h. D'autres experiences menees sur le terrain montrent que les fourmis qui recoltent des graines les transportent a des distances considerables de leurs nids. La distance moyenne ( ± ET) de dissemination des graines est de 6,1 ± 0,5 m. Il s'agit de la plus longue distance moyenne de dissemination de graines rapportee pour des fourmis. Mots-cles : competition, desert, dissemination, fourmi, lune, myrmecochorie, predation de graines, recherche de nourriture, temperature. Nomenclature: Kearney & Peebles, 1960; Cole, 1968.

L’eau constitue la matiere premiere de nos metiers et est etroitement associee a l’histoire de la vie. Apres un rappel des ordres de grandeurs des differents compartiments du cycle de l’eau, nous nous interessons a la reconstitution de l’histoire de l’eau sur Terre, elements deduits des observations geologiques, des observations astronomiques, et d’etudes geochimiques. Nous en deduisons que les proto-oceans etaient presents sur Terre il y a 4,4 Ga. L’analyse des crateres d’impact sur la Lune impose que les oceans aient ete plusieurs fois partiellement ou totalement evapores dans l’histoire de la Terre. Cette analyse est completee par des donnees geochimiques sur les meteorites et les cometes pour rechercher des signatures isotopiques. Enfin, grâce a l’utilisation de modeles planetologiques, nous jetons les bases de la presence d’eau sur Terre et l’origine de la vie pour en deduire l’horizon probable du vivant sur Terre il y a 3,8 Ga.

In 1818 Laplace proposed that the Academie des Sciences in Paris set up a prize to be awarded to whoever succeeded in constructing lunar tables based solely on the law of universal gravity. In 1820 the prize was awarded to Carlini and Plana and Damoiseau by a committee of which Laplace was a member. But Laplace strongly criticized the Carlini-Plana approach to the lunar theory. A dispute ensued that is reconstructed on the basis of hitherto unknown letters exchanged between Carlini-Plana and Laplace, and on the basis of papers published in Connaissance des temps and in Zach's Correspondance. After the exchanges, public and private, between Carlini-Plana and Laplace, the latter concluded that the results of the Italian astronomers and those arrived at by Damoiseau following the method of his Mecanique Celeste were fairly close, and that the purpose of the Academie in establishing the prize had been reasonably fulfilled.

From their homeland around the intersection of modern Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, Caddos had a great impact throughout the heartland of Native North America. This impact, developed over a thousand years as the westernmost Mississippians, can best be considered from a broad comparative perspective, extending over space - from the Southwest to the Plains and Southeast - and over time - from the fires of temple mounds to the fireplaces in tipis during peyote meetings of the Native American Church, spread along the Caddo diplomatic network. As with famous examples from the Northwest Coast, Caddos once had complex class rankings. The history of Caddo religion, from ancient priests to the recent prophets known as yoko, recapitulates the collapse and rebirth of the great nations of North America, except that Caddos had the sure guidance of Moon (neesh) and his changing representations

Summary A detailed description of an as yet unrecorded astrolabe quadrant in a private collection is presented. A date between 1291 and 1310 is deduced from the calendrical data engraved on it. The characteristics of the newly recorded instrument have been compared with those of six other medieval astrolabe quadrants. The newly recorded instrument appears to present an early, if not the earliest, stage of development in the history of the astrolabe quadrant. In the comparison the newly recorded instrument is also distinguished by the red and black colours applied to differentiate between the superposed scales of the astrolabe quadrant. The names and the positions of the stars on the instruments were used to establish a connection between two of the instruments studied, those in Rouen and Oxford, and a manuscript tradition on the construction of the astrolabe quadrant, exemplified by MS Oxford Ashmole 1522. The data on three other astrolabe quadrants are shown to stem from star lists in treatises on astrol...

This review is based on many publications from the US and some from the former Soviet Union. It briefly describes the sources of lunar dust. The problems posed to the past Apollo missions are summarized. The physical properties of lunar soils, such as cohesion, angle of repose, angle of friction, and bearing capacity, as reported by scientists from these two nations, are compared. The composition of lunar soils is described in terms of acidic and basic components. Since lunar soils are mainly silicates, we are the first to point out the importance of the Lewis acid-base interaction to the cohesion and adhesion of lunar dust. The adhesion of lunar dust is similar to that of a xerographic developer. For the adhesion between lunar dust and dissimilar materials, both van der Waals and electrostatic interactions can be the driving force, depending on the size of the dust particles. For particles smaller than 50 μm, van der Waals interaction predominates, while for those larger than 50 μm, electrostatic interac...

Georges Melies is usually accorded pride of place for his pioneering work in the science fiction/speculative/horror genres.1 But one wonders whether the prosaic events filmed by those protorealists, the Lumiere brothers–and Melies himself–nearly a decade before Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) were experienced as equally fantastic voyages by a fin-de-siecle viewer. Contrary to cineaste urban legend, L'Arivee d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (1895) did not send audiences screaming into Parisian streets. Nevertheless, to an audience at that brief historical moment before the introjection of standard cinematic tropes, the flickering vision of a train pulling into a station on a screen in a darkened cafe exhibition space may well have seemed as uncanny as the Jupiter landing of the space pod in 2001 (1968).

Summary This paper examines the purport of epact tables encountered on scientific instruments, and explains their use. The epact is a valuable chronological aid for calculating the age of the moon. In handbooks of chronology, usually two types of epacts are distinguished: the epact used in medieval times, and the so-called Lilian epact used after 1582 in the Gregorian perpetual calendar. By examining the rules for calculating the age of the moon, it turns out that the Julian and Gregorian epacts encountered on instruments must be distinguished from the medieval and Lilian epacts. It is shown that the Julian epact was already in use in 1478, and that, by adjusting for the shift of ten days in the date of the vernal equinox, the Gregorian epact was derived from it in 1582. The common association of the latter with the Lilian epact employed in the Gregorian perpetual calendar is incorrect. It is further shown that in contrast to the medieval and Lilian epacts, which served purely ecclesiastical purposes, the...

A hydrobiological field course for undergraduates in the Department of Biology, University of Salford has proved useful in investigating river pollution, and parts of the course may be suitable for upper school studies. The course compares the Lancashire rivers Lune, Ribble and Irwell, but could be adapted for still waters. The water quality was assessed by simple chemical methods and the bacteriological quality by multiple tube and membrane filtration techniques. These assessments were then related to the benthic inverte-brates in the rivers—dipteran larvae, oligochaete worms, leeches, molluscs, stoneflies and mayflies. The Irwell was found to be grossly polluted, the Ribble mildly polluted and the Lune relatively unpolluted.

An analysis of calls to the Maryland Poison Center was performed to assess whether a relationship exists between the moon periods and poison exposure calls. A given period was defined as the day of the lunar event +/- 2 days. Thirteen lunar cycles in which 22,079 calls occurred were analyzed. A larger proportion of total calls to the center and unintentional poisoning calls occurred during the full moon period. A significantly larger number of unintentional poisonings occurred in the full moon period compared to suicide attempts and drug abuse which occurred most frequently during the new moon period. The lunar cycle had no effect on the distribution of victim's age or sex or the location of treatment.

Weekly, twice-monthly, and monthly lunar related rhythms have been alleged for various animal reproductive processes. Herein gestation times of 213 types of terrestrial placental mammals were analyzed for best-fit integer multiples approximating length of any of the above lunar related rhythms. At the same time numeric controls were constituted of a completely random, a block randomized, and a sequential set of numbers spanning the data set. Among test integers 6 through 33, the number 30, approximating the 29.53-day lunar-synodic month, was consistently and statistically a best-fit multiple to the data. This might suggest a once-monthly lunar illumination, but not a twice-monthly gravitational or near-weekly tidal, influence upon animal reproduction. As for a receptor mechanism, the tapetum, or reflective layer of the retina, present in most land mammals, but absent in humans, enhances dim illumination. A suggestion is that because of this visual enhancer, cycling moonlight might be a circa-lunar physiologic timer for many terrestrial mammals.

Collections were made regularly from a substratum of rounded stones in the River Lune, England, by lifting the superficial stones and sweeping a net beneath them. Three species of Ecdyonurus emerge one after the other from May to October. Months elapse between emergence and the capture of larvae of the new generation in the R. Lune but elsewhere, when the species occur alone, larvae abound in every month. It is concluded that the life histories are similar in the various types of water‐body but that, when more than one species is numerous, small larvae do not come to the upper layers of the substratum until larger larvae of another species have vacated them.

After a long course over a stony substratum, the River Lune, England, runs over flat rock covered with moss. Larvae of four species of Ephemeroptera are abundant in this moss‐covered area from spring to autumn. They overwinter in the egg stage. Baetis rhodani abundant in much of the river at all times of year, is numerous in this stretch in winter but absent from most summer collections. This absence is tentatively attributed to exclusion by the summer species.

The actual calendars of Indo-European peoples do show intercalary additions to the lunar year but these take the form of intercalary months. Frazer was aware of this, saying that 'there are grounds for thinking that at a very early time the Aryan peoples sought to correct their lunar year, not by inserting twelve supplementary days every year, but by allowing .the annual deficiency to accumulate for several years and then supplying it by a whole intercalary month.' 2 He expressed his puzzlement over this in connection with the Celts of Gaul, commenting: 'Why they abandoned the simple and obvious expedient of annually intercalating twelve days, and adopted instead the more recondite system of intercalating a month of thirty days every two and a half years, is not plain.'3 The answer I have to offer is that the Indo-Europeans never did employ a twelve-day intercalary period but kept the months of the lunar year in line with the natural seasons by inserting intercalary months when required, and that the place of the twelve days in the calendar was not outside the lunar year but inside it. As I see it, the possibility of having a group of twelve days that stand in a functional relationship to the rest of the year arises when the month used in the calendar is not the synodic month of twenty-nine or thirty days but the shorter light month, the period of the moon's visibility. Ten years before Frazer published his remarks, W. H. Roscher had studied the matter of month length in connection with Greek weeks and festivals and had concluded that months of two different lengths-27-8 days and 29-30 days-were known in antiquity, but that the use of the short month of 27-8 days was the older.4 Frazer made no mention of this finding in his discussion of the twelve days, and yet the two ideas of the light month and a set of special days can be seen as complementary and I shall consider them together here. The longest period of the moon's visibility is twenty-eight days and the moon goes through its cycle from new moon, through full moon, to the last crescent of the waning moon in this time. As Plutarch expressed it, referring to the number twenty-eight: 'Such is the number of the moon's illuminations and in so many days does it revolve through its own cycle.'5 Between each pair of light months there is a gap which was called by the Romans the 'interlunium' or 'intermenstruum,' that is, the interval between the moons or the months.6 The treatment of this time of the dark of the moon

(1949). On Hearing Debussy's Clair de Lune. The Educational Forum: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 140-140.