Crops and cultures in the Pacific: new data and new techniques for the investigation of old questions

Fifty years ago Carl Sauer suggested, controversially and on the basis of theory rather than evidence, that Southeast Asia was the source area for agriculture throughout the Old World, including the Pacific. Since then, the archaeobotanical record (macroscopic and microscopic) from the Pacific islands has increased, leading to suggestions, also still controversial, that Melanesia was a center of origin of agriculture independent of South-east Asia, based on tree fruits and nuts and vegetatively propagated starchy staples. Such crops generally lack morphological markers of domestication, so exploitation, cultivation and domestication cannot easily be distinguished in the archaeological record. Molecular studies involving techniques such as chromosome painting, DNA fingerprinting and DNA sequencing, can potentially complement the archaeological record by suggesting where species which were spread through the Pacific by man originated and by what routes they attained their present distributions. A combination of archaeobotanical and molecular studies should therefore eventually enable the rival claims of Melanesia versus South-east Asia as independent centers of invention of agriculture to be assessed.

Palaeoenvironmental changes during the Valanginian: new insights from variations in phosphorus contents and bulk- and clay mineralogies in the western Tethys

Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes during the Valanginian carbon isotopic excursion (CIE) have been investigated in the western Tethys. For this purpose, bulk-rock and clay mineralogies, as well as phosphorus (P) contents were evaluated in a selection of five sections located in the Vocontian Basin (Angles, SE France; Alvier, E Switzerland; Malleval, E France), and the Lombardian Basin (Capriolo, N Italy; Breggia, S Switzerland). Within the CIE interval, bulk-rock and clay mineralogies are inferred to reflect mostly climate change. The onset of the CIE (Busnardoites campylotoxus ammonite Zone) is characterized by higher detrital index (DI: sum of the detrital minerals divided by calcite contents) values and the presence of kaolinite in their clay-mineral assemblages. In the late Valanginian (from the Saynoceras verrucosum Zone up to the end of the Valanginian), the samples show relatively variable DI and lower values or the absence of kaolinite. The variation in the mineralogical composition is interpreted as reflecting a change from a climate characterized by optimal weathering conditions associated with an increase in terrigenous input on the southern European margin during the CIE towards an overall unstable climate associated with drier conditions in the late Valanginian. This is contrasted by a dissymmetry (proximal vs distal) along the studied transect, the northern Tethyan margin being more sensitive to changes in continental input compared to the distal environments. P accumulation rates (PAR) present similar features. In the Vocontian basin, P content variations are associated with changes in terrigenous influx, whereas in the Lombardian basin (i.e. Capriolo and Breggia), PAR values are less well correlated. This is mainly because the deeper part of the Tethys was less sensitive to changes in continental inputs. The onset of the CIE (top of the B. campylotoxus Zone) records a general increase in PAR suggesting an increase in marine nutrient levels. This is linked to higher continental weathering rates and the enhanced influx of nutrients into the ocean. In the period corresponding to the shift itself, P contents show a dissymmetry between the Vocontian and Lombardian basins (proximal vs distal). For the sections of Malleval, Alvier and Angles, a decrease in P concentrations associated to a decrease in detrital input is observed. In Capriolo and Breggia, PAR show maximum values during the plateau, indicating a more complex interaction between different P sources. The time interval including the top of S. verrucosum Zone up to the end of the Valanginian is characterized by variable PAR values, suggesting variable nutrient influxes. These changes are in agreement with an evolution towards seasonally contrasted conditions in the late Valanginian.

Investigating the impact of defects on key stakeholders in the UK new housing sector

The UK house building sector is facing dual pressures to expand supply, along with delivering against tougher Building Regulations’ requirements, predominantly in the areas of sustainability. A review of current literature has highlighted that the pressures the UK house building industry is currently under may be having a negative impact on build quality, causing an increase in defects. A review and synthesis of the current defect literature with respect to new-build housing and the wider construction sector has found that the prevailing emphasis is limited to the classification, causes, pathology and statistical analysis of defects. There is thus a need to better understand the overall impact of individual defects on key stakeholders within the new-build housing defect detection and remediation process. As part of ongoing research to develop and verify a defect impact assessment rating system, this paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the impact of individual defects from a key stakeholder perspective by undertaking the literature review and synthesis phase. The literature review identifies the three distinct, but interrelated, dominant impact factors: cost, disruption, and health and safety. By pulling the strands of defect literature together the theoretical lens and key stakeholder sampling strategy is formed as the basis for the subsequent impact weighting development phase.

Detecting defects in the UK new-build housing sector: a learning perspective

Rapid growth in the production of new homes in the UK is putting build quality under pressure as evidenced by an increase in the number of defects. Housing associations (HAs) contribute approximately 20% of the UK’s new housing supply. HAs are currently experiencing central government funding cuts and rental revenue reductions. As part of HAs’ quest to ramp up supply despite tight budget conditions, they are reviewing how they learn from defects. Learning from defects is argued as a means of reducing the persistent defect problem within the UK housebuilding industry, yet how HAs learn from defects is under-researched. The aim of this research is to better understand how HAs, in practice, learn from past defects to reduce the prevalence of defects in future new homes. The theoretical lens for this research is organizational learning. The results drawn from 12 HA case studies indicate that effective organizational learning has the potential to reduce defects within the housing sector. The results further identify that HAs are restricting their learning to focus primarily on reducing defects through product and system adaptations. Focusing on product and system adaptations alone suppresses HAs’ abilities to reduce defects in the future.

Inflation dynamics in the new EU member states: how relevant are external factors?

In this paper we evaluate the relative influence of external versus domestic inflation drivers in the 12 new European Union (EU) member countries. Our empirical analysis is based on the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) derived in Galí and Monacelli (2005) for small open economies (SOE). Employing the generalized method of moments (GMM), we find that the SOE NKPC is well supported in the new EU member states. We also find that the inflation process is dominated by domestic variables in the larger countries of our sample, whereas external variables are mostly relevant in the smaller countries.

Placing defects at the heart of high quality new homes: a learning perspective

The UK new-build housing sector is facing dual pressures to expand supply, whilst delivering against tougher planning and Building Regulation requirements; predominantly in the areas of sustainability. The sector is currently responding by significantly scaling up production and incorporating new technical solutions into new homes. This trajectory of up-scaling and technical innovation has been of research interest; but this research has primarily focus on the ‘upstream’ implications for house builders’ business models and standardised design templates. There has been little attention, though, to the potential ‘downstream’ implications of the ramping up of supply and the introduction of new technologies for build quality and defects. This paper contributes to our understanding of the ‘downstream’ implications through a synthesis of the current UK defect literature with respect to new-build housing. It is found that the prevailing emphasis in the literature is limited to the responsibility, pathology and statistical analysis of defects (and failures). The literature does not extend to how house builders individually and collectively, in practice, collect and learn from defects information. The paper concludes by describing an ongoing collaborative research programme with the National House Building Council (NHBC) to: (a) understand house builders’ localised defects analysis procedures, and their current knowledge feedback loops to inform risk management strategies; and, (b) building on this understanding, design and test action research interventions to develop new data capture, learning processes and systems to reduce targeted defects.