Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans

Despite decades of research, the roles of climate and humans in driving the dramatic extinctions of large-bodied mammals during the Late Quaternary period remain contentious. Here we use ancient DNA, species distribution models and the human fossil record to elucidate how climate and humans shaped the demographic history of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison and musk ox. We show that climate has been a major driver of population change over the past 50,000 years. However, each species responds differently to the effects of climatic shifts, habitat redistribution and human encroachment. Although climate change alone can explain the extinction of some species, such as Eurasian musk ox and woolly rhinoceros, a combination of climatic and anthropogenic effects appears to be responsible for the extinction of others, including Eurasian steppe bison and wild horse. We find no genetic signature or any distinctive range dynamics distinguishing extinct from surviving species, emphasizing the challenges associated with predicting future responses of extant mammals to climate and human-mediated habitat change.

Waltz and the world: neorealism as international political theory?

The recent recovery of an empirically and ethically richer realist tradition involves an explicit contrast with neorealism's more scientistic explanatory aspirations. This contrast is, however, incomplete. Although Waltz's theoretical work is shaped by his understanding of the requirements of scientific adequacy, his empirical essays are normatively quite rich: he defends bipolarity, and criticizes US adventurism overseas, because he believes bipolarity to be conducive to effective great power management of the international system, and hence to the avoidance of nuclear war. He is, in this sense, a theorist divided against himself: much of his oeuvre exhibits precisely the kind of pragmatic sensibility that is typically identified as distinguishing realism from neorealism. His legacy for a reoriented realism is therefore more complex than is usually realized. Indeed, the nature of Waltz's own analytical endeavour points towards a kind of international political theory in which explanatory and normative questions are intertwined.

A baseline study of vicine–convicine levels in faba bean (Vicia faba L.) germplasm

Vicine and convicine are anti-nutritional compounds that accumulate in the cotyledons of faba beans. When humans consume beans with high levels of these compounds, it can cause a condition called favism in individuals harbouring a deficiency in the activity of their glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. When faba beans are used in animal feeds, there can be effects on performance. These concerns have resulted in increasing interest within plant breeding in developing low vicine and convicine faba bean germplasm. In order to facilitate this objective, we developed a rapid and robust screening method for vicine and convicine, capable of distinguishing between faba beans that are either high (wild type) or low in vicine and convicine. In the absence of reliable commercial reference materials, we report an adaptation of a previously published method where a biochemical assay and spectral data were used to confirm the identity of our analytes, vicine and convicine. This method could be readily adopted in other facilities and open the way to the efficient exploitation of diverse germplasm in regions where faba beans play a significant role in human nutrition. We screened a collection of germplasm of interest to a collaborative plant breeding programme developing between the National Institute for Agricultural Botany in the UK and L'Institut Nationale d'Agronomie de Tunisie in Tunisia. We report the results obtained and discuss the prospects for developing molecular markers for the low vicine and convicine trait.

The drivers of multinational enterprise subsidiary entrepreneurship in China: a new resource-based view perspective

This paper extends the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, as applied to multinational enterprises (MNEs), by distinguishing between two critical resource dimensions, namely relative resource superiority (capabilities) and slack. Both dimensions, in concert with specific environmental conditions, are required to increase entrepreneurial activities. We propose distinct configurations (three-way moderation effects) of capabilities, slack, and environmental factors (i.e. dynamism and hostility) to explain entrepreneurship. Using survey data from 66 Canadian subsidiaries operating in China, we find that higher subsidiary entrepreneurship requires both HR slack and strong downstream capabilities in subsidiaries, subject to the industry environment being dynamic and benign. However, high HR slack alone, in a dynamic and benign environment, but without the presence of strong capabilities, actually triggers the fewest initiatives, with HR slack redirected from entrepreneurial experimentation towards complacency and inefficiency. This paper has major implications for MNEs seeking to increase subsidiary entrepreneurship in fast growing emerging markets.

Putting the emotion back: exploring the role of emotion in disengagement

This chapter explores the nature of disengagement and the role played by emotions and in doing so will disentangle the overlapping theories and definitions of both engagement and disengagement. The research that forms the basis for the chapter comes from two related studies exploring engagement and disengagement in 10 large UK public and private sector organisations. Both studies used an interpretive approach involving 75 managers and employees. The chapter suggests the that emotions play a mediating role in the process of disengagement and the emotional reaction involved provides a distinction to being ‘not engaged’. It highlights the confusion that different approaches bring to distinguishing engagement and disengagement from other job attitudes.

Thermodynamics/dynamics coupling in weakly compressible turbulent stratified fluids

In traditional and geophysical fluid dynamics, it is common to describe stratified turbulent fluid flows with low Mach number and small relative density variations by means of the incompressible Boussinesq approximation. Although such an approximation is often interpreted as decoupling the thermodynamics from the dynamics, this paper reviews recent results and derive new ones that show that the reality is actually more subtle and complex when diabatic effects and a nonlinear equation of state are retained. Such an analysis reveals indeed: (1) that the compressible work of expansion/contraction remains of comparable importance as the mechanical energy conversions in contrast to what is usually assumed; (2) in a Boussinesq fluid, compressible effects occur in the guise of changes in gravitational potential energy due to density changes. This makes it possible to construct a fully consistent description of the thermodynamics of incompressible fluids for an arbitrary nonlinear equation of state; (3) rigorous methods based on using the available potential energy and potential enthalpy budgets can be used to quantify the work of expansion/contraction B in steady and transient flows, which reveals that B is predominantly controlled by molecular diffusive effects, and act as a significant sink of kinetic energy.

MALDI MS profiling of post-DRE urine samples highlights the potential of b-Microseminoprotein as a marker for prostatic diseases

BACKGROUND. To use spectra acquired by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) from pre- and post-digital rectal examination (DRE) urine samples to search for discriminating peaks that can adequately distinguish between benign and malignant prostate conditions, and identify the peaks’ underlying biomolecules. METHODS. Twenty-five participants with prostate cancer (PCa) and 27 participants with a variety of benign prostatic conditions as confirmed by a 10-core tissue biopsy were included. Pre- and post-DRE urine samples were prepared for MALDI MS profiling using an automated clean-up procedure. Following mass spectra collection and processing, peak mass and intensity were extracted and subjected to statistical analysis to identify peaks capable of distinguishing between benign and cancer. Logistic regression was used to combine markers to create a sensitive and specific test. RESULTS. A peak at m/z 10,760 was identified as b-microseminoprotein (b-MSMB) and found to be statistically lower in urine from PCa participants using the peak’s average areas. By combining serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels with MALDI MS-measured b-MSMB levels, optimum threshold values obtained from Receiver Operator characteristics curves gave an increased sensitivity of 96% at a specificity of 26%. CONCLUSIONS. These results demonstrate that with a simple sample clean-up followed by MALDI MS profiling, significant differences of MSMB abundance were found in post-DRE urine samples. In combination with PSA serum levels, obtained from a classic clinical assay led to high classification accuracy for PCa in the studied sample set. Our results need to be validated in a larger multicenter prospective randomized clinical trial.

Comparing the fit between BREEAM assessment and design processes

This paper explores the mapping of the environmental assessment process onto design and construction processes. A comparative case study method is used to identify and account for variations in the ‘fit’ between these two processes. The analysis compares eight BREEAM projects (although relevant to LEED, GreenStar, etc.) and distinguishes project-level characteristics and dynamics. Drawing on insights from literature on sustainable construction and assessment methods, an analytic framework is developed to examine the effect of clusters of project and assessment level elements on different types of fit (tight, punctual and bolt-on). Key elements distinguishing between types include: prior working experience with project team members, individual commitment to sustainable construction, experience with sustainable construction, project continuity, project-level ownership of the assessment process, and the nature and continuity of assessor involvement. Professionals with ‘sustainable’ experience used BREEAM judiciously to support their designs (along with other frameworks), but less committed professionals tended to treat it purely as an assessment method. More attention needs to be paid to individual levels of engagement with, and understanding of, sustainability in general (rather than knowledge of technical solutions to individual credits), to ownership of the assessment process and to the potential effect of discontinuities at the project level on sustainable design.

Civilian casualties and nuclear weapons: the application of the rule of distinction

This chapter considers the possible use in armed conflict of low-yield (also known as tactical) nuclear weapons. The Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion maintained that it is a cardinal principle that a State must never make civilians an object of attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets. As international humanitarian law applies equally to any use of nuclear weapons, it is argued that there is no use of nuclear weapons that could spare civilian casualties particularly if you view the long-term health and environmental effects of the use of such weaponry.

Early, late or very late? Timing acquisition and bilingualism

Research on child bilingualism accounts for differences in the course and the outcomes of monolingual and different types of bilingual language acquisition primarily from two perspectives: age of onset of exposure to the language(s) and the role of the input (Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004; Meisel, 2009; Unsworth et al., 2014). Some findings suggest that early successive bilingual children may pattern similarly to simultaneous bilingual children, passing through different trajectories from child L2 learners due to a later age of onset in the latter group. Studies on bilingual development have also shown that input quantity in bilingual acquisition is considerably reduced, i.e., in each of their two languages, bilingual children are likely exposed to much less input than their monolingual peers (Paradis & Genesee, 1996; Unsworth, 2013b). At the same time, simultaneous bilingual children develop and attain competence in the two languages, sometimes without even an attested age delay compared to monolingual children (Paradis, Genesee & Crago, 2011). The implication is that even half of the input suffices for early language development, at least with respect to ‘core’ aspects of language, in whatever way ‘core’ is defined.My aim in this article is to consider how an additional, linguistic variable interacts with age of onset and input in bilingual development, namely, the timing in L1 development of the phenomena examined in bilingual children’s performance. Specifically, I will consider timing differences attested in the monolingual development of features and structures, distinguishing between early, late or ‘very late’ acquired phenomena. I will then argue that this three-way distinction reflects differences in the role of narrow syntax: early phenomena are core, parametric and narrowly syntactic, in contrast to late and very late phenomena, which involve syntax-external or even language-external resources too. I explore the consequences of these timing differences in monolingual development for bilingual development. I will review some findings from early (V2 in Germanic, grammatical gender in Greek), late (passives) and very late (grammatical gender in Dutch) phenomena in the bilingual literature and argue that early phenomena can differentiate between simultaneous and (early) successive bilingualism with an advantage for the former group, while the other two reveal similarly (high or low) performance across bilingual groups, differentiating them from monolinguals. The paper proposes that questions about the role of age of onset and language input in early bilingual development can only be meaningfully addressed when the properties and timing of the phenomena under investigation are taken into account.

Auroral and plasma flow transients at magnetic noon

We present observations of a transient event in the dayside auroral ionosphere at magnetic noon. F-region plasma convection measurements were made by the EISCAT radar, operating in the beamswinging “Polar” experiment mode, and simultaneous observations of the dayside auroral emissions were made by optical meridian-scanning photometers and all-sky TV cameras at Ny Ålesund, Spitzbergen. The data were recorded on 9 January 1989, and a sequence of bursts of flow, with associated transient aurora, were observed between 08:45 and 11:00 U.T. In this paper we concentrate on an event around 09:05 U.T. because that is very close to local magnetic noon. The optical data show a transient intensification and widening (in latitude) of the cusp/cleft region, as seen in red line auroral emissions. Over an interval of about 10 min, the band of 630 nm aurora widened from about 1.5° of invariant latitude to over 5° and returned to its original width. Embedded within the widening band of 630 nm emissions were two intense, active 557.7 nm arc fragments with rays which persisted for about 2 min each. The flow data before and after the optical transient show eastward flows, with speeds increasing markedly with latitude across the band of 630 nm aurora. Strong, apparently westward, flows appeared inside the band while it was widening, but these rotated round to eastward, through northward, as the band shrunk to its original width. The observed ion temperatures verify that the flow speeds during the transient were, to a large extent, as derived using the beamswinging technique; but they also show that the flow increase initially occurred in the western azimuth only. This spatial gradient in the flow introduces ambiguity in the direction of these initial flows and they could have been north-eastward rather than westward. However, the westward direction derived by the beamswinging is consistent with the motion of the colocated and coincident active 557.7 nm arc fragment, A more stable transient 557.7 nm aurora was found close to the shear between the inferred westward flows and the persisting eastward flows to the North. Throughout the transient, northward flow was observed across the equatorward boundary of the 630 nm aurora. Interpretation of the data is made difficult by lack of IMF data, problems in distinguishing the cusp and cleft aurora and uncertainty over which field lines are open and which are closed. However, at magnetic noon there is a 50% probability that we were observing the cusp, in which case from its southerly location we infer that the IMF was southward and many features are suggestive of time-varying reconnection at a single X-line on the dayside magnetopause. This IMF orientation is also consistent with the polar rain precipitation observed simultaneously by the DMSP-F9 satellite in the southern polar cap. There is also a 25% chance that we were observing the cleft (or the mantle poleward of the cleft). In this case we infer that the IMF was northward and the transient is well explained by reconnection which is not only transient in time but occurs at various sites located randomly on the dayside magnetopause (i.e. patchy in space). Lastly, there is a 25% chance that we were observing the cusp poleward of the cleft, in which case we infer that IMF Bz was near zero and the transient is explained by a mixture of the previous two interpretations.

All for the good

The Guise of the Good thesis has received much attention since Anscombe's brief defence in her book Intention. I approach it here from a less common perspective - indirectly, via a theory explaining how it is that moral behaviour is even possible. After setting out how morality requires the employment of a fundamental test, I argue that moral behaviour involves orientation toward the good. Immoral behaviour cannot, however, involve orientation to evil as such, given the theory of evil as privation. There must always be orientation to good of some kind for immorality even to be possible. Evil can, nevertheless, be intended, but this must be carefully understood in terms of the metaphysic of good and evil I set out. Given that metaphysic, the Guise of the Good is a virtual corollary.

The classification of involuntary musical imagery: the case for earworms

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI) is the subject of much recent research interest. INMI covers a number of experience types such as musical obsessions and musical hallucinations. One type of experience has been called earworms, for which the literature provides a number of definitions. In this paper we consider the origins of the term earworm in the German language literature and compare that usage with the English language literature. We consider the published literature on earworms and conclude that there is merit in distinguishing between earworms and other types of types of involuntary musical imagery described in the scientific literature: e.g. musical hallucinations, musical obsessions. We also describe other experiences that can be considered under the term INMI. The aim of future research could be to ascertain similarities and differences between types of INMI with a view to refining the classification scheme proposed here.

Climate variability and human impact in South America during the last 2000 years: synthesis and perspectives from pollen records

An improved understanding of present-day climate variability and change relies on high-quality data sets from the past 2 millennia. Global efforts to model regional climate modes are in the process of being validated against, and integrated with, records of past vegetation change. For South America, however, the full potential of vegetation records for evaluating and improving climate models has hitherto not been sufficiently acknowledged due to an absence of information on the spatial and temporal coverage of study sites. This paper therefore serves as a guide to high-quality pollen records that capture environmental variability during the last 2 millennia. We identify 60 vegetation (pollen) records from across South America which satisfy geochronological requirements set out for climate modelling, and we discuss their sensitivity to the spatial signature of climate modes throughout the continent. Diverse patterns of vegetation response to climate change are observed, with more similar patterns of change in the lowlands and varying intensity and direction of responses in the highlands. Pollen records display local-scale responses to climate modes; thus, it is necessary to understand how vegetation–climate interactions might diverge under variable settings. We provide a qualitative translation from pollen metrics to climate variables. Additionally, pollen is an excellent indicator of human impact through time. We discuss evidence for human land use in pollen records and provide an overview considered useful for archaeological hypothesis testing and important in distinguishing natural from anthropogenically driven vegetation change. We stress the need for the palynological community to be more familiar with climate variability patterns to correctly attribute the potential causes of observed vegetation dynamics. This manuscript forms part of the wider LOng-Term multi-proxy climate REconstructions and Dynamics in South America – 2k initiative that provides the ideal framework for the integration of the various palaeoclimatic subdisciplines and palaeo-science, thereby jump-starting and fostering multidisciplinary research into environmental change on centennial and millennial timescales.

Anger, preoccupied attachment and domain disorganisation in borderline personality disorder

Emotional dysregulation and attachment insecurity have been reported in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Domain disorganization, evidenced in poor regulation of emotions and behaviors in relation to the demands of different social domains, may be a distinguishing feature of BPD. Understanding the interplay between these factors may be critical for identifying interacting processes in BPD and potential subtypes of BPD. Therefore, we examined the joint and interactive effects of anger, preoccupied attachment, and domain disorganization on BPD traits in a clinical sample of 128 psychiatric patients. The results suggest that these factors contribute to BPD both independently and in interaction, even when controlling for other personality disorder traits and Axis I symptoms. In regression analyses, the interaction between anger and domain disorganization predicted BPD traits. In recursive partitioning analyses, two possible paths to BPD were identified: high anger combined with high domain disorganization and low anger combined with preoccupied attachment. These results may suggest possible subtypes of BPD or possible mechanisms by which BPD traits are established and maintained.