Searching the Rhone delta channel in Lake Geneva since François‐Alphonse Forel

In the late 19th century, F.A. FOREL led investigations of the Rhone River delta area of Lake Geneva that resulted in the dis- covery of a textbook example of a river-fed delta system containing impressive subaquatic channels. Well ahead of the marine counterparts, scientific observations and interpretations of water currents shaping the delta edifice for the first time documented how underflow currents carry cold, suspension-laden waters from the river mouth all the way to the deep basin. These early investigations of the Rhone delta laid the basis for follow-up studies in the 20th and 21th centuries. Sediment coring, water-column measurements, manned submersible diving, seismic reflection profiling and bathymetric sur- veying eventually provided a rich database to unravel the key erosional and depositional processes, further documenting the impact of human-induced changes in the catchment. With the merging of old and new scientific knowledge, today a comprehensive understanding prevails of how a delta changes through time, how its channels are formed, and what potential natural hazards may be related to its evolution. New and efficient bathymetric techniques, paired with novel coring operations, provided a time-series of morphologic evolution showing and quantifying the high dynamics of the delta/channel evolution in an unprecedented temporal and spatial reso- lution. Future investigations will continue to further quantify these dynamic processes and to link the evolution of the subaquatic domain with changes and processes in the catchment and with natural hazards. Its size, easy access, and large variety of states and processes will continue to make the Rhone delta area a perfect ‘laboratory’ in which general processes can be studied that could be upscaled or downscaled to other marine and lacustrine deltas.

Fog-water collection for community use

Fog is a potential source of water that could be exploited using the innovative technology of fog collection. Naturally, the potential of fog has proven its significance in cloud forests that are thriving from fog interception. Historically, the remains of artificial structures in different countries prove that fog has been collected as an alternative and/or supplementary water source. In the beginning of the 19th century, fog collection was investigated as a potential natural resource. After the mid-1980s, following success in Chile, fog-water collection commenced in a number of developing countries. Most of these countries are located in arid and semi-arid regions with topographic and climatic conditions that favour fog-water collection. This paper reviews the technology of fog collection with initial background information on natural fog collection and its historical development. It reviews the climatic and topographic features that dictate fog formation (mainly advection and orographic) and the innovative technology to collect it, focusing on the amount collected, the quality of fog water, and the impact of the technology on the livelihoods of beneficiary communities. By and large, the technology described is simple, cost-effective, and energy-free. However, fog-water collection has disadvantages in that it is seasonal, localised, and the technology needs continual maintenance. Based on the experience in several countries, the sustainability of the technology could be guaranteed if technical, economic, social, and management factors are addressed during its planning and implementation.

Paleoglaciations in Anatolia: A Schematic Review and First Results

Anatolia is situated in the Eastern Mediterranean region between 36 – 42N and 26 – 45E. The geological records of paleoglaciations in the high terrains of Anatolia are key archives to quantify paleoclimate change in the Eastern Mediterranean area. The climate of the Eastern Mediterranean region is influenced by three main atmospheric systems: the main middle to high latitude westerlies, the mid-latitude subtropical high-pressure systems, and the monsoon climate. Glacial geological studies in Turkey have started in the late 19th century. Glacial deposits are found mainly in the eastern, northeastern and southern part of the Anatolian Peninsula. Anatolia is the fundamental element to understand the interactions between paleoenvironment, climatic variations, and development of the human societies. As the Taurus and Black Sea Mountains are sensitively situated for the paleoclimatic reconstructions, a chronostratigraphic framework on the paleoglaciation should be elaborated. The timing of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Anatolia is still unknown. Our first results from Kavron Valley (Kaçkar Mountains, NE Turkey) are encouraging for the reconstruction of paleoglaciations in Turkey and related paleoclimatological interpretations although it is presently difficult to pinpoint the classical Last Glacial Maximum – Younger Dryas – Little Ice Age moraine sequences in the field.

Characterisation of flash floods in small ungauged mountain basins of Central Spain using an integrated approach

One of the main problems of flood hazard assessment in ungauged or poorly gauged basins is the lack of runoff data. In an attempt to overcome this problem we have combined archival records, dendrogeomorphic time series and instrumental data (daily rainfall and discharge) from four ungauged and poorly gauged mountain basins in Central Spain with the aim of reconstructing and compiling information on 41 flash flood events since the end of the 19th century. Estimation of historical discharge and the incorporation of uncertainty for the at-site and regional flood frequency analysis were performed with an empirical rainfall–runoff assessment as well as stochastic and Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approaches. Results for each of the ungauged basins include flood frequency, severity, seasonality and triggers (synoptic meteorological situations). The reconstructed data series clearly demonstrates how uncertainty can be reduced by including historical information, but also points to the considerable influence of different approaches on quantile estimation. This uncertainty should be taken into account when these data are used for flood risk management.

Traktaty pedagogiczne Honoraty z Wiśniowskich Zapovej i Klementyny z Tańskich Hoffmanowej – inspiracja czy przeróbka?

As is well know, the long-lasting influence in Poland of Hoffmanowa’s conservative pedagogical treatise « Keepsake of a Good Mother » (1819) was criticized by more progressive Polish women writers of the 19th century, such as Narcyza Żmichowska and Eliza Orzeszkowa. But the unexpected success of that book in other Slav countries later in the 19th century, especially in Bohemia, is less well known. Honorata z Wiśniowskich Zapová (1825-1856), a member of the Galician Polish szlachta who moved to Prague after her marriage in 1841 to the Czech writer K. V. Zap, has been recently exhumed as a Czech writer by Czech and Polish literary criticism: apart from her essays in Czech journals on her native country, much emphasis has been laid on the value of her most important work, Nezabudky, dar našim pannám (Forget-me-not: A Gift to Our Young Ladies, published in 1859), which was the first book of pedagogy dedicated to the instruction of young women in Bohemia. In her preface to this book, Zapová mentions Hoffmanowa as being one of her many sources of inspiration. Wishing to know more about what exactly Zapová owes to Hoffmanowa, in this article I compare Hoffmanowa’s book of pedagogy with Zapová’s. I am astonished to discover that Zapová’s book is in fact an almost literal translation from Polish to Czech of „Keepsake of a Good Mother” – in other words, that it is a plagiarism of Hoffmanowa’s book. The main question I ask here is : why did no one until now, either in 19th-century criticism or in our contemporary criticism, mention this literary fraud before?

Eosinophils

In 1846, T. Wharton-Jones described a coarsely granular stage in the development of granulocytic cells in animal and human blood. Shortly thereafter, Max Schultze redefined the coarsely granular cells as a type distinct from finely granular cells, rather than just a developmental stage. It was, however, not until 1879, when Paul Ehrlich introduced a method to distinguish granular cells by the staining properties of their granules, that a classification became possible. An intensive staining for eosin, among other aniline dyes, was eponymous for the coarsely granular cell type, which thereupon became referred to as eosinophil granulocyte. Eosinophilia had already been described in many diseases by the late 19th century. The role of these cells, however, today remains a matter of continuing speculation and investigation. Many functions have been attributed to the eosinophil over the years, often linked to increasing knowledge about the granular and cytoplasmatic contents. A better understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of eosinopoiesis has led to the development of knock-out mice strains as well as therapeutic strategies for reducing the eosinophil load in patients. The effect of these therapeutics and the characterization of the knock-out phenotypes have led to a great increase in the knowledge of the role of the eosinophil in disease. Today we think of the eosinophil as a multifunctional cell involved in host defense, tissue damage and remodeling, as well as immunomodulation.

The Social Imaginary of Culture/Civilization in the Arabic Literary Tradition

Charles Taylor’s contribution to social imaginaries offers an interpretive framework for better understanding modernity as secularity. One of its main aspects is conceiving of human society in linear, homogenous time (secular time). Looking into the Arabic intellectual tradition, I will argue in my paper that Taylor’s framework can help us understand major social and intellectual transformations. The Ottoman and Arabic modernization process during the 19th century has often been understood by focusing on certain core concepts. One of these is tamaddun, usually translated as “civilization.” I will be mostly talking about the works of two “pioneers” of Arab modernity (which is traditionally referred to as an-nahḍa, the so-called Arab Renaissance): the Syrian Fransīs Marrāsh and the Egyptian Rifāʿa aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī. First I will focus on Marrāsh’s didactic novel “The Forest of Truth” (1865), as it offers a complex view of tamaddun, which has sometimes been construed as merely a social and political reform program. The category of "social imaginary,” however, is useful in grasping the wider semantic scope of this concept, which is reading it as a signifier for human history conceived of in secular time, as Taylor defines it. This conceptualization of human history functioning within the immanent frame can also be observed in the introduction to “The Extraction of Pure Gold in the Description of Paris” (1834), a systematic account of a travel experience in France that was written by the other “pioneer,” aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī. Finally, in translating tamaddun as “the modern social imaginary of civilization/culture,” the talk aims to consider this imaginary as a major factor in the emergence of the “secular age.” Furthermore, it suggests the importance of studying (quasi-) literary texts, such as historiographical, geographical, and self-narratives in the Arabic literary tradition, in order to further elaborate continuities and ruptures in social imaginaries.

Sammlung Ryhiner. Karten, Pläne und Ansichten aus dem 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert

Vierbändiger, gedruckter Katalog zur Kartensammlung Ryhiner. Die Kartensammlung Ryhiner zählt zu den wertvollsten und bedeutendstenden der Welt. Sie umfasst ca. 16'000 Landkarten, Pläne und Ansichten aus dem 16. bis frühen 19. Jahrhundert, wobei die Bestände den ganzen Erdball abdecken. Zusammen mit den 20'000 Manuskriptkarten des Staatsarchivs verfügt Bern damit über ein weltweites geographisches Gedächtnis. Karto-bibliographischer Katalog der Sammlung Ryhiner in vier Bänden mit 1786 Seiten und 16258 Katalognummern (ohne Illustrationen).

Language ideologies: the formation and legitimisation of New Zealand English

New Zealand English first emerged at the beginning of the 19th century as a result of the dialect contact of British (51%), Scottish (27.3%) and Irish (22%) migrants (Hay and Gordon 2008:6). This variety has subsequently developed into an autonomous and legitimised national variety and enjoys a distinct socio-political status, recognition and codification. In fact, a number of dictionaries of New Zealand English have been published1 and the variety is routinely used as the official medium on TV, radio and other media. This however, has not always been the case, as for long only British standard norms were deemed suitable for media broadcasting. While there is some work already on lay commentary about New Zealand English (see for example Gordon 1983, 1994; Hundt 1998), there is much more to be done especially concerning more recent periods of the history of this variety and the ideologies underlying its development and legitimisation. Consequently, the current project aims at investigating the metalinguistic discourses during the period of transition from a British norm to a New Zealand norm in the media context, this will be done by focusing on debates about language in light of the advent of radio and television. The main purpose of this investigation is thus to examine the (language) ideologies that have shaped and underlain these discourses (e.g. discussions about the appropriateness of New Zealand English vis à vis external, British models of language) and their related practices in these media (e.g. broadcasting norms). The sociolinguistic and pragmatic effects of these ideologies will also be taken into account. Furthermore, a comparison will be carried out, at a later stage in the project, between New Zealand English and a more problematic and less legitimised variety: Estuary English. Despite plenty of evidence of media and other public discourses on Estuary English, in fact, there has been very little metalinguistic analysis of this evidence, nor examinations of the underlying ideologies in these discourses. The comparison will seek to discover whether similar themes emerge in the ideologies played out in publish discourses about these varieties, themes which serve to legitimise one variety, whilst denying such legitimacy to the other.