Tunnel spoil classification and applicability of lime addition in weak formations for muck reuse

Tunnel construction planning requires careful consideration of the spoil management part, as this involves environmental, economic and legal requirements. In this paper a methodological approach that considers the interaction between technical and geological factors in determining the features of the resulting muck is proposed. This gives indications about the required treatments as well as laboratory and field characterisation tests to be performed to assess muck recovery alternatives. While this reuse is an opportunity for excavations in good quality homogeneous grounds (e.g. granitic mass), it is critical for complex formation. This approach has been validated, at present, for three different geo-materials resulting from a tunnel excavation carried out with a large diameter Earth Pressure Balance Shield (EPB) through a complex geological succession. Physical parameters and technological features of the three materials have been assessed, according to their valorisation potential, for defining re-utilisation patterns. The methodology proved to be effective and the laboratory tests carried out on the three materials allowed the suitability and treatment effectiveness for each muck recovery strategy to be defined. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

CHARACTERIZATION OF THE AU SURFACE-STRUCTURE OF AL-L-AU LIGHT-EMITTING TUNNEL-JUNCTIONS

Visible light is emitted from the Au-air interface of Al-I-Au thin-film tunnel junctions (deposited over a thin layer of CaF2 on glass) as a result of the decay of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). We show the surface topography of such a Au film and relate its large-scale features to the outcoupling of fast SPP's to photons. The absence of short-scale roughness features is explained by thier disappearance through surface diffusion. To confirm this a controlled sequence of 5-nm, 20-ms scanning tunneling microscope (STM) W tip crashes has been used to produce indentations 3 nm deep with a lateral dimension of 5-7 nm on a Au crystal in air at room temperature. Four sequences of indentations were drawn in the form of a square box. Right from the start, feature decay is observed and over a period of 2 h a succession of images shows that the structure disappears into the background as a result of surface diffusion. The surface diffusion constant is estimated to be 10(-18) cm2 s-1. The lack of light output via slow mode SPPs is an inevitable consequence of surface annealing.

The latest LGM culmination of the Garda Glacier (Italian Alps) and the onset of glacial termination. Age of glacial collapse and vegetation chronosequence

In the deglacial sequence of the largest end moraine system of the Italian Alps, we focused on the latest culmination of the Last Glacial Maximum, before a sudden downwasting of the piedmontane lobe occupying the modern lake basin. We obtained a robust chronology for this culmination and for the subsequent deglacial history by cross-radiocarbon dating of a proximal fluvioglacial plain and of a deglacial continuous lake sedimentation. We used reworked dinocysts to locate sources of glacial abrasion and to mark the input of glacial meltwater until depletion. The palynological record from postglacial lake sediments provided the first vegetation chronosequence directly reacting to the early Lateglacial withdrawal so far documented in the Alps.

Glacier collapse occurred soon after 17.46 +/- 0.2 ka cal BP, which is, the Manerba advance culmination. Basin deglaciation of several overdeepened foreland piedmont lakes on southern and northern sides of the Alps appears to be synchronous at millennial scale and near-synchronous with large-scale glacial retreat at global scale. The pioneering succession shows a first afforestation step at a median modeled age of 64 years after deglaciation, while rapid tree growth lagged 7 centuries. Between 16.4 +/- 0.16 and 15.5 +/- 0.16 ka cal BP, a regressive phase interrupted forest growth marking a Lateglacial phase of continental-dry climate predating GI-1. This event, spanning the most advanced phases of North-Atlantic H1, is consistently radiocarbon-framed at three deglacial lake records so far investigated on the Italian side of the Alps. Relationships with the Gschnitz stadial from the Alpine record of Lateglacial advances are discussed

Spectral gamma-ray logs and palaeoclimate change? Permian – Triassic, Persian Gulf

Spectral gamma ray (SGR) logs are used as stratigraphic tools in correlation, sequence stratigraphy and most recently, in clastic successions as a proxy for changes in hinterland palaeoweathering. In this study we analyse the spectral gamma ray signal recorded in two boreholes that penetrated the carbonate and evaporate-dominated Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) in the South Pars Gasfield (offshore Iran, Persian Gulf) in an attempt to analyse palaeoenvironmental changes from the upper Permian (Upper Dalan Formation) and lower Triassic (Lower Kangan Formation). The results are compared to lithological changes, total organic carbon (TOC) contents and published stable isotope (δ18O, δ13C) results. This work is the first to consider palaeoclimatic effects on SGR logs from a carbonate/evaporate succession. While Th/U ratios compare well to isotope data (and thus a change to less arid hinterland climates from the Late Permian to the Early Triassic), Th/K ratios do not, suggesting a control not related to hinterland weathering. Furthermore, elevated Th/U ratios in the Early Triassic could reflect a global drawdown in U, rather than a more humid episode in the sediment hinterlands, with coincident changes in TOC. Previous work that used spectral gamma ray data in siliciclastic successions as a palaeoclimate proxy may not apply in carbonate/evaporate sedimentary rocks.

Film, History and Memory

Film, History and Memory examines the relationship between film and history, exploring the multiplicity of ways in which films depict, contest, reinforce or subvert historical understanding. This volume broadens the focus from 'history', the study of past events, to 'memory', the processes – individual, generational, collective or state-driven – by which meanings are attached to the past. This approach acknowledges how the significance of the historical film lies less in its empirical qualities than in its powerful capacity to influence public thinking and discourses about the past, whether by shaping collective memory, popular history and social memory, or by retrieving suppressed or marginalized histories. This study aims to contribute to the growing literature on history and film through the breadth of its approach, both in disciplinary and geographical terms. Contributors are drawn not only from the discipline of history but also film studies, film practice, art history, languages and literature, and cultural studies.

Promoting Harmonious Relations and Equitable Well-Being: Peace Psychology and “Intractable” Conflicts

The chapter explores Bar-Tal’s legacy in relation to key concepts, perspectives, and findings that comprise the growing field of peace psychology, specifically the promotion of sustainable peace through the indivisible constructs of harmonious relations and equitable wellbeing. Analyzed through a peace psychology lens, Bar-Tal’s work highlights both the barriers to and bridges for achieving sustainable peace. Central concepts from his work, such as fear, insecurity, and an ethos of conflict, demonstrate key obstacles to fostering harmonious intergroup relations based on social justice. Bar-Tal’s work also identifies processes that can overcome these barriers, which is consistent with peace psychology’s emphasis on the development of constructive responses to violence and conflict. For example, the chapter outlines how confidence-building mechanisms, mutually respectful identities, and reconciliation processes, may help foster an ethos of peace that can be embedded in the structure of societies through peace education. The chapter concludes with implications and suggestions for future research, with a focus on the role of young people in settings of prolonged intergroup division and generational approaches to peacebuilding, as conceptualized through a peace psychology lens.

John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology

We describe the career of John Birks as a pioneering scientist who has, over a career spanning five decades, transformed palaeoecology from a largely descriptive to a rigorous quantitative science relevant to contemporary questions in ecology and environmental change. We review his influence on students and colleagues not only at Cambridge and Bergen Universities, his places of primary employment, but also on individuals and research groups in Europe and North America. We also introduce the collection of papers that we have assembled in his honour. The papers are written by his former students and close colleagues and span many of the areas of palaeoecology to which John himself has made major contributions. These include the relationship between ecology and palaeoecology, late-glacial and Holocene palaeoecology, ecological succession, climate change and vegetation history, the role of palaeoecological techniques in reconstructing and understanding the impact of human activity on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and numerical analysis of multivariate palaeoecological data.

Deglacial mesophotic reef demise on the Great Barrier Reef

Submerged reefs are important recorders of palaeo-environments and sea-level change, and provide a substrate for modern mesophotic (deep-water, light-dependent) coral communities. Mesophotic reefs are rarely, if ever, described from the fossil record and nothing is known of their long-term record on Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Sedimentological and palaeo-ecological analyses coupled with 67 14C AMS and U–Th radiometric dates from dredged coral, algae and bryozoan specimens, recovered from depths of 45 to 130 m, reveal two distinct generations of fossil mesophotic coral community development on the submerged shelf edge reefs of the GBR. They occurred from 13 to 10 ka and 8 ka to present. We identified eleven sedimentary facies representing both autochthonous (in situ) and allochthonous (detrital) genesis, and their palaeo-environmental settings have been interpreted based on their sedimentological characteristics, biological assemblages, and the distribution of similar modern biota within the dredges. Facies on the shelf edge represent deep sedimentary environments, primarily forereef slope and open platform settings in palaeo-water depths of 45–95 m. Two coral–algal assemblages and one non-coral encruster assemblage were identified: 1) Massive and tabular corals including Porites, Montipora and faviids associated with Lithophylloids and minor Mastophoroids, 2) platy and encrusting corals including Porites, Montipora and Pachyseris associated with melobesioids and Sporolithon, and 3) Melobesiods and Sporolithon with acervulinids (foraminifera) and bryozoans. Based on their modern occurrence on the GBR and Coral Sea and modern specimens collected in dredges, these are interpreted as representing palaeo-water depths of < 60 m, < 80–100 m and > 100 m respectively. The first mesophotic generation developed at modern depths of 85–130 m from 13 to 10.2 ka and exhibit a deepening succession of < 60 to > 100 m palaeo-water depth through time. The second generation developed at depths of 45–70 m on the shelf edge from 7.8 ka to present and exhibit stable environmental conditions through time. The apparent hiatus that interrupted the mesophotic coral communities coincided with the timing of modern reef initiation on the GBR as well as a wide-spread flux of siliciclastic sediments from the shelf to the basin. For the first time we have observed the response of mesophotic reef communities to millennial scale environmental perturbations, within the context of global sea-level rise and environmental changes.

Not all jellyfish are equal: isotopic evidence for inter- and intraspecific variation in jellyfish trophic ecology

Jellyfish are highly topical within studies of pelagic food-webs and there is a growing realisation that their role is more complex than once thought. Efforts being made to include jellyfish within fisheries and ecosystem models are an important step forward, but our present understanding of their underlying trophic ecology can lead to their oversimplification in these models. Gelatinous zooplankton represent a polyphyletic assemblage spanning >2,000 species that inhabit coastal seas to the deep-ocean and employ a wide variety of foraging strategies. Despite this diversity, many contemporary modelling approaches include jellyfish as a single functional group feeding at one or two trophic levels at most. Recent reviews have drawn attention to this issue and highlighted the need for improved communication between biologists and theoreticians if this problem is to be overcome. We used stable isotopes to investigate the trophic ecology of three co-occurring scyphozoan jellyfish species (Aurelia aurita, Cyanea lamarckii and C. capillata) within a temperate, coastal food-web in the NE Atlantic. Using information on individual size, time of year and ;delta C-13 and delta N-15 stable isotope values, we examined: (1) whether all jellyfish could be considered as a single functional group, or showed distinct inter-specific differences in trophic ecology; (2) Were size-based shifts in trophic position, found previously in A. aurita, a common trait across species?; (3) When considered collectively, did the trophic position of three sympatric species remain constant over time? Differences in delta N-15 (trophic position) were evident between all three species, with size-based and temporal shifts in delta N-15 apparent in A. aurita and C. capillata. The isotopic niche width for all species combined increased throughout the season, reflecting temporal shifts in trophic position and seasonal succession in these gelatinous species. Taken together, these findings support previous assertions that jellyfish require more robust inclusion in marine fisheries or ecosystem models.

The Sociology of Children, Childhood and Generation

Outlining sociology’s distinctive contribution to childhood studies and our understanding of contemporary children and childhood, The Sociology of Children provides a thought provoking and comprehensive account of the connections between the macro worlds of childhood and the micro worlds of children’s everyday lives.

Examining children’s involvement in areas such as the labour market, family life, education, play and leisure, the book provides an effective balance between understanding childhood as a structural phenomenon, and recognising children as meaning makers actively involved in constructing, co-constructing and reconstructing their everyday lives.

Through the concept of 'generagency' Madeleine Leonard offers a model for examining and illuminating how structure and agency are activated within interdependent relationships influenced by generational positioning. This framework provides a conceptual tool for thinking about the continuities, challenges and changes that impact on how childhood is lived and experienced.

Abrupt Climate Changes: Climate and Biogeochemical consequences

Hosted in a wide depression within the Berici Hills (Venetian Plain), outside the maximum extent reached by LGM glaciers, Lake Fimon preserves an almost continuous archive of landscape and climate changes from the penultimate glacial maximum onwards. The stratigraphic succession deposited at the lake bottom has been investigated in three deep cores by means of pollen analysis, petrographic composition, magnetic susceptibility, LOI, and geochronology. Tephra layers have been identified and are currently under study.
Pollen data provide the first continuous vegetation record in northern Italy for the last 150 ky. Terrestrial vegetation varied from interglacial warm-temperate broad leaved to oceanic mixed forests, from boreal conifer forests to open forest-steppes of colder climate. Phases of major forest expansion and reduction have been correlated to isotopic events described in ice (NGRIP), stalagmite (Antro del Corchia) and marine records. Persistent afforestation recorded in northern Italy even during cold phases of the full pleniglacial is consistent with mesoscale paleoclimate simulations suggesting that a sharp rainfall gradient across the Alps enabled the survival of woody species in the southern alpine foreland.
Integrating litho- and biostratigraphical data, we identified sedimentation regìmes, accumulation rates, sediment sources and supply both for the Lake Fimon cores and the adjacent Venetian Plain, allowing a direct comparison with major glacial advances in the Alpine area, deglaciation pulses, and glacio-eustatic displacements of the northern Adriatic shoreline.

'When I Land in Islamabad I Feel Home and When I Land in Heathrow I Feel Home': Gendered Belonging and Diasporic Identities of South Asian British Citizens in London, in Leicester and in North England

According to Deleuze and Guattari (1987) ‘de-territorialization’ is followed by a moment of re-territorialization. This moment, however, has to be regarded as a continuing educational process that becomes a different spatial site of social practices. It is argued in this chapter that regional, local as well as global identification override national and mono-ethno cultural identities, while shaping particular notions of gendered belonging and creating specific diasporic practices. Based on a sample of interviews with professional and academic South Asian British citizens in London, in Leicester, and in a number of Northern English cities gendered and generational patterns in terms of local diasporic identities are explored. Apart from multiple cultural belonging, foremost, territorial bonds and notions of group loyalty collapse at a point where temporary migration and settlement alternate in individual biographies.

Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century

Climate change is expected to have an impact on plant communities as increased temperatures are expected to drive individual species' distributions polewards. The results of a revisitation study after c. 34years of 89 coastal sites in Scotland, UK, were examined to assess the degree of shifts in species composition that could be accounted for by climate change. There was little evidence for either species retreat northwards or for plots to become more dominated by species with a more southern distribution. At a few sites where significant change occurred, the changes were accounted for by the invasion, or in one instance the removal, of woody species. Also, the vegetation types that showed the most sensitivity to change were all early successional types and changes were primarily the result of succession rather than climate-driven changes. Dune vegetation appears resistant to climate change impacts on the vegetation, either as the vegetation is inherently resistant to change, management prevents increased dominance of more southerly species or because of dispersal limitation to geographically isolated sites.

Reconciliation's Contributions to Quality Peace

In this chapter we ask what unique contributions reconciliation can make toward building quality peace. We begin by briefly reviewing some of the diverse approaches to understanding the term reconciliation, and settle on a formulation consistent with the emerging perspective of a quality of peace. We then identify three levels – international, state-citizen, intergroup – at which reconciliation can impact peace. We explore how reconciliation may function at each level and how specific factors may advance a more robust and lasting peace process. We synthesize this analysis by identifying key aspects of reconciliation that advance our understanding of a quality of peace: inclusive participation, balancing symbolic and material actions, integrating psychosocial processes, and emphasizing generational approaches. The chapter concludes with suggestions of possible indicators and future research that may support the links between reconciliation and peace processes.