Biogeochemistry of stable carbon isotopes

Biochemistry and geochemistry of stable carbon istope

Carbon isotope fractionation in the system CO2/gas/-CO2/aqueous/-HCO3-/aqueous/

Carbon isotope fractionation between gaseous carbon dioxide and aqueous bicarbonat

Molecular composition of nitrogenous compounds in sea water and recent marine sediments

Molecular composition of nitrogenous organic compounds in sea water and sediment

Book review: the social life of money by Nigel Dodd

Nigel Dodd’s The Social Life of Money is an original and comprehensive contribution, finds Philipp Degens. It is a must-read for any scholar interested in the topic as it helps to better understand the nature of money –or, of monies. Also, surely many future in-depth case studies of particular forms of money will gain enormously from this work

Amino acids and amino sugars in calcified tissues of portunid crabs

Amino acid and amino sugar in calcified tissues of portunid crab

Applying formal design methods to serious game design:a case study

An important step in the design of an effective educational game is the formulation of the to-be-achieved learning goals. The learning goals help shape the content and the flow of the entire game, i.e. they provide the basis for choosing the game’s core (learning) mechanics. A mistake in the formulation of the learning goals or the resulting choice in game mechanics can have large consequences, as the game may not lead to the intended effects. At the moment, there are many different methods for determining the learning goals; they may be derived by a domain expert, based on large collections of real-life data, or, alternatively, not be based on anything in particular. Methods for determining the right game mechanics range from rigid taxonomies, loose brainstorming sessions, to, again, not any method in particular. We believe that for the field of educational game design to mature, there is a need for a more uniform approach to establishing the learning goals and translating them into relevant and effective game activities. This paper explores two existing, non-game design specific, methods to help determine learning goals and the subsequent core mechanics: the first is through a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), which can be used to analyse and formalize the problem and the knowledge, skills, attitudes that it is comprised of, and the second is through the Four Components Instructional Design (4C-ID), which can be used to determine how the task should be integrated into an educational learning environment. Our goal is to see whether these two methods provide the uniform approach we need. This paper gives an overview of our experiences with these methods and provides guidelines for other researchers on how these methods could be used in the educational game design process

Book review by Philipp Degens: the social life of money by Nigel Dodd

Money is ubiquitous. We all take money for granted – not in the sense of having enough money in our pockets or our bank accounts, but in the sense that we weigh objects, goods, services, claims, maybe even time in a monetary standard. We seldom ask ourselves what money is. Yet, especially in times of economic crisis, money does increasingly become the object of debate. Part of this debate takes place within conventional economic theory and focuses on monetary and fiscal policy issues. Beyond these issues, however, there are more fundamental concerns about the very nature of money, questions about the value of money, how it works and how it is sustained. These questions evoke perplexities that seem to render money almost incomprehensible

Data on the distribution of stable isotopes and amino acids in Indian Ocean sediments

Originally issued as Reference No. 68-4, series later renamed WHOI-.In February-March 1965, a series of piston cores were taken aboard ATLANTIS II off the coast of Arabia, Pakistan, and India (Figure 1) in water depths of about 3,000 meters. The principal objectives of this program were (a ) to obtain information on the change in petrology of the sediments as a function of geography and depth (b) to study the microfauna in the sediment profiles, and (c) to apply geochemical tools for the elucidation of the diagenetic fate of the organic matter and the history of the sediments. This article presents data on the geochemical part of the project. Principally, we are concerned with the oxygen and carbon isotope distribution in carbonates, the carbon isotope composition of sedimentary organic matter, and the amino acid composition of the sediment material. These studies represent a part of a larger program at our Institute which is concerned with the distribution of (a) stable isotopes and (b) organic compounds such as amino acids, carbohydrates, or hydrocarbons in recent and ancient sediments, natural waters, and marine organisms.National Science Foundation under Grant GP-490