Declination

Built well over 3,000 years ago (c. 1380 BCE), the Eugal (Sum. é.u.gal) ziggurat at Dūr-Kurigalzu in southern Iraq still dominates the landscape.  Although in a heavily deteriorated state, the original ziggurat, along with modern reconstruction efforts and other buildings unearthed during archaeological excavations at Dūr-Kurigalzu can be viewed using satellite imagery from Google Earth. This work explores possible celestial orientations for various points of the ziggurat, as well as possible sunlight and shadow scenarios pertaining to Mesopotamian justice and/or divination.

Declined forms of the stems: vaṇij  (वणिज् - a merchant, trader) pacat (पचत् - cooking, roasting) bhagavat (भगवत् -  holy mainly applied to gods,) marut (मरुत् -the god of the wind ) mahat (महत् -  great) suhṛd (सुहृद् - a friend, ally) tādṛś (तादृश् - such like)

Prepared jointly with Shri Mahabal P. S. under the guidance of Swami Vedarthananda, RKMVERI, Belur Math, as a study aid for Sanskrit students.

NOTE: For some technical issue, the pdf shows some mistakes. Those who want to use it  please download.

Declined forms of the stems: ātman (आत्मन् - the soul),  ājanr (राजन् - king), guṇin (गुणिन् -  endowed with good qualities or merits), pathin (पथिन् - range), puṃs (पुंस् - human being),  vidvas (विद्वस् - wise man), vedhas (वेधस् - wise), śreyas (श्रेयस् - most excellent)   

Prepared jointly with Shri Mahabal P. S. under the guidance of Swami Vedarthananda, RKMVERI, Belur Math, as a study aid for Sanskrit students.

NOTE: For some technical issue, the pdf shows some mistakes. Those who want to use it  please download.

This study highlights a significant methodological and practical issue involving the use of a magnetic compass in aeolian studies in the field. Geomagnetic declination can significantly affect field measurements of wind direction from anemometers as well as measurement of the orientation of geomorphic features such as sand dunes, depending on geographic location. It is therefore surprising how often methodological descriptions of published aeolian studies, including those in southern Africa, neglect to describe any declination corrections applied to field measurements or instrumental records. This results in uncertainty in the validity of data reported in such studies, particularly where actual wind directions may be very different (>20° in some cases) from measured values. Drawing from examples in the literature from southern Africa and other key locations globally, this study discusses the need for greater clarity in the declination corrections applied when wind direction is being measured and reported, especially where wind datasets from different sources are being used or integrated, or when published studies are being compared.

In the article are described the features of the Russian case system, the special attention is attended to pronominal declension which saved plenty of cases with a local meaning. This indicates that the local cases of pronouns are consistently formed from different bases, thus not only in the Russian but also in the Slovak language.

L'A. propose une approche didactique pour le traitement des erreurs qu'il appelle des erreurs de developpement, en faisant reference aux approches mentalistes en sciences cognitives. Cette approche prend en compte l'existence de processus cognitifs deja presents avant tout apprentissage d'une langue seconde. Il s'agit pour l'enseignant de fournir a l'etudiant les moyens d'activer ce dispositif cognitif deja present. L'A. appuie son etude sur l'analyse de deux type d'erreurs : la transgression de la regle verbe second et la morphologie de la declinaison dans l'apprentissage de l'allemand langue etrangere

We report a high-resolution record of a Miocene polarity transition (probably the Chron C6r-C6n transition) from glacimarine sediments in McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, Antarctica, which is the first transition record reported from high southern latitudes. The transition is recorded in two parallel cores through a 10.7 m stratigraphic thickness. The sediments are interpreted as having been deposited in a marine environment under the influence of floating ice or seaward of a glacier terminus from which a large sediment load was delivered to the drill site. The core was recovered using rotary drilling, which precludes azimuthal orientation of the core and determination of a vector record of the field during the transition. However, constraints on transitional field behaviour are provided by the exceptional resolution of this record. Large-scale paleomagnetic inclination fluctuations in the two cores can be independently correlated with each other using magnetic susceptibility data, which suggests that the sediments are reliable recorders of geomagnetic field variations. Agreement between the two parallel transition records provides evidence for highly dynamic field behaviour, as suggested by numerous large-scale inclination changes (˜90°) throughout the transition. These large-scale changes occur across stratigraphically narrow intervals, which is consistent with the suggestion of rapid field changes during transitions. In one intact portion of the core, where there is no apparent relative core rotation between samples, declinations and inclinations are consistent with the presence of a stable cluster of virtual geomagnetic poles within the transition (although the possibility that this cluster represents a rapid depositional event cannot be precluded). These observations are consistent with those from other high-resolution records and provide a rare detailed view of transitional field behaviour compared to most sedimentary records, which are not as thick and which appear to have been smoothed by sedimentary remanence acquisition processes.

The crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) had declined severely from a common species to only two pairs in last century. To analyze the declining process, we established a GIS database with historical occurrences of the crested ibis based on published literatures, and layers of environmental factors such as elevation, wetland, and human activities. We compared the environmental factors at the occurrence sites in different periods to quantify the changes of habitat use across time. To address the spatial deviation of the occurrences and check the effect of measuring scale on habitat use, we calculated the environmental factors in a serial measuring scales from 1 to 161 × 161 km2. Our results indicated that the crested ibis traditionally lives in habitat with higher wetland density and higher human impact, then it gradually moved to areas with higher elevation and lower human impact in last century. In 1980–2000 the crested ibis stayed at a very high elevation, lower wetland density and lower human impact as possible consequences of human activities such as using fertilizer and pesticide, drying the over wintering rice paddies, and direct hunting. Our quantitative analysis of the habitat use matched well the previous published statements (which have no numerical evidences) on the declination of the crested ibis. We suggest to reestablish the habitat with traditional farming practice that the bird has adapted as a major solution for applications such as conservation planning and reintroduction.