Podoconiosis: enfermedad olvidada por la sociedad y la comunidad médica / Podoconiosis, a society and medical community neglected disease

La podoconiosis, o «elefantiasis endémica no filariásica», es una enfermedad geoquímica que produce un tipo de linfedema de los miembros inferiores relacionado directamente con caminar descalzo por terrenos de origen volcánico en áreas con un alto índice pluviométrico anual. Posee una distribución geográfica concreta, afecta aproximadamente a un 5% de la población de las áreas endémicas, es debilitadora y desfigurante y con frecuencia lleva a la marginación social de los que la sufren. Es una enfermedad prevenible y, una vez establecida, puede mejorar con medidas terapéuticas sencillas (AU)

Podoconiosis, mossy foot or endemic non-filarial elephantiasis, is a geochemical disease that causes lower limb lymphedema; it is directly related to walking barefoot over soils of volcanic origin, in areas with a high pluviometric annual index. It has a specific geographical distribution, affecting around 5% population in areas where it is endemic. It is debilitating and disfiguring disease, which frequently leads to social margination. Podoconiosis is totally preventable and, once a diagnosis is established, it may improve with simple therapeutic measures (AU)

[Inventories of the Earth. Mineral resource appraisals and the rise of resource economics]. / Inventuren der Erde. Vorratsschätzungen für mineralische Rohstoffe und die Etablierung der Ressourcenökonomie.

How do the earth sciences mediate between the natural and social world? This paper explores the question by focusing on the history of nonfuel mineral resource appraisal from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. It argues that earth sciences early on embraced social scientific knowledge, i.e. economic knowledge, in particular, when it came to determining or deposits and estimating the magnitude of mineral reserves. After 1900, assessing national and global mineral reserves and their "life span" or years of supply became ever more important, scaling up and complementing traditional appraisal practices on the level of individual mines or mining and trading companies. As a consequence, economic methods gained new weight for mineral resource estimation. Natural resource economics as an own field of research grew out of these efforts. By way of example, the mineral resource appraisal assigned to the U.S. Materials Policy Commission by President Harry S. Truman in 1951 is analyzed in more detail. Natural resource economics and environmental economics might be interpreted as a strategy to bring down the vast and holistically conceived object of geological and ecological research, the earth, to human scale, and assimilate it into social matters.

Minério de ferro, geologia econômica e redes de experts entre Wisconsin e Minas Gerais, 1881-1914 / Iron ore, economic geology and networks of experts between Wisconsin and the state of Minas Gerais, 1881-1914

O presente artigo trata da “descoberta” do minério de ferro brasileiro a partir de duas perspectivas. A primeira analisa a crescente ênfase das geociências em sua aplicação prática e em sua globalidade desde a segunda metade do século XIX. Enquanto no Brasil a geologia econômica foi integrada passo a passo às instituições do Estado, no nível global ela viveu momento de triunfo com o 11 o Congresso Geológico Internacional, em 1910. A segunda trata de uma rede social específica com papel decisivo na corrida pelo minério de ferro brasileiro: experts transnacionais movimentandose entre as lógicas do mercado e as da academia. O artigo mostra a importância das negociações locais na incorporação do subsolo mineiro ao espaço global de mineração.

This article deals with the “discovery” of Brazilian iron ore from two perspectives. The first examines the increasing emphasis of the geosciences and their practical application and global reach since the second half of the nineteenth century. While in Brazil economic geology was integrated step by step into state institutions, at the global level it experienced its moment of triumph with the 11th International Geological Congress in 1910. The second deals with a specific social network with a decisive role in the race for Brazilian iron ore: with transnational experts juggling between the logic of the market and that of the academy. The article reveals the importance of local negotiations in the incorporation of the subsoil of Minas Gerais into the global space of mining.

[Iron ore, economic geology and networks of experts between Wisconsin and the state of Minas Gerais, 1881-1914]. / Minério de ferro, geologia econômica e redes de experts entre Wisconsin e Minas Gerais, 1881-1914.

This article deals with the "discovery" of Brazilian iron ore from two perspectives. The first examines the increasing emphasis of the geosciences and their practical application and global reach since the second half of the nineteenth century. While in Brazil economic geology was integrated step by step into state institutions, at the global level it experienced its moment of triumph with the 11th International Geological Congress in 1910. The second deals with a specific social network with a decisive role in the race for Brazilian iron ore: with transnational experts juggling between the logic of the market and that of the academy. The article reveals the importance of local negotiations in the incorporation of the subsoil of Minas Gerais into the global space of mining.

Scale determinants of fiscal investment in geological exploration: evidence from China.

With the continued growth in demand for mineral resources and China's efforts in increasing investment in geological prospecting, fiscal investment in geological exploration becomes a research hotspot. This paper examines the yearly relationship among fiscal investment in geological exploration of the current term, that of the last term and prices of mining rights over the period 1999-2009. Hines and Catephores' investment acceleration model is applied to describe the scale determinants of fiscal investment in geological exploration which are value-added of mining rights, value of mining rights and fiscal investment in the last term. The results indicate that when value-added of mining rights, value of mining rights or fiscal investment in the last term moves at 1 unit, fiscal investment in the current term will move 0.381, 1.094 or 0.907 units respectively. In order to determine the scale of fiscal investment in geological exploration for the current year, the Chinese government should take fiscal investment in geological exploration for the last year and the capital stock of the previous investments into account. In practice, combination of government fiscal investment in geological exploration with its performance evaluation can create a virtuous circle of capital management mechanism.

Exploration strategies for hydrothermal deposits.

With unlimited money the most certain strategy for finding most hydrothermal metal deposits would be by drilling to 5000 m at 50 m spacing. However, the cost would far outweigh the benefit of the discoveries. Geological knowledge and exploration techniques may be used to obtain the greatest benefit for minimum cost, and to concentrate human and material resources in the most economic way in areas with the highest probability of discovery. This paper reviews the economic theory of exploration based on expected value, and the application of geological concepts and exploration techniques to exploration for hydrothermal deposits. Exploration techniques for hydrothermal-systems on Mars would include geochemistry and particularly passive geophysical methods.