西秦岭晚古生代弧前盆地沉积与成矿作用

The Western Qinling Orogenie belt in the Taibai-Fengxian and Xihe-Lixian areas can be subdivided into three units structurally from north to south, which are the island-arc, forearc basin and accretionary wedge, respectively. The forearc basin developed in the Late Paleozoic mainly controls sedimentation and some larger lead-zinc and gold deposits in the western Qinling. Stratigraphically, the island arc is dissected into the Liziyuan Group, the Danfeng Group and the Luohansi Group. The metavolcanic rocks include basic, intermediate and acidic rocks, and their geochemistry demonstrates that these igneous rocks generated in an island arc. Where, the basalts are subalkaline series charactered by low-medium potassium, with enriched LREE, negative Eu anomaly, and positive Nd anomaly. Cr-content of volcanic rocks is 2-3 times higher than that of island arc tholeiite all over the world. In addition, the lightly metamorphosed accretionary wedge in the areas of Huixian, Chengxian, Liuba and Shiqun is dominated by terrigenous sediments with carbonatite, chert, mafic and volcanic rocks. The age of the wedge is the Late Palaeozoic to the Trassic, while previous work suggested that it is the Silurian. The Upper Paleozoic between the island arc belt and accretionary wedge are mainly the sediments filled in the fore arc basin. The fillings in the forearc basin were subdivided into the Dacaiotan Group, the Tieshan Group, the Shujiaba Group and the Xihanshui Group, previously. They outcropped along the southern margins of the Liziyuan Group. The Dacaotan Group, the Upper Devonian, is close to the island arc complex, and composed of a suite of red and gray-green thick and coarse terrestrial elastics. The Shujiaba Group, the Mid-Upper Devonian, is located in the middle of the basin, is mainly fine-grained elastics with a few intercalations of limestone. The Xihanshui Group, which distributes in the southern of the basin, is mainly slates, phyllites and sandstones with carbonatite and reef blocks. The Tieshan Group, the Upper Devonian, just outcrops in the southwest of the basin, is carbonatite and clastic rocks, and deposited in the shallow -sea environment. The faults in the basin are mainly NW trend. The sedimentary characteristics, slump folds, biological assemblages in both sides of and within those faults demonstrate that they were syn-sedimentary faults with multi-period activities. They separated the forearc basin into several sub-basins, which imbricate in the background of a forearc basin with sedimentary characteristics of the piggyback basin. The deep hydrothermal fluid erupted along the syn-sedimentary faults, supported nutrition and energy for the reef, and resulted in hydrothermal-sedimentary rocks, reef and lead-zinc deposits along these faults. The sedimentary facies in the basin varies from the continental slope alluvial fan, to shallow-sea reef facies, and then to deep-water from north to south, which implies that there was a continental slope in the Devonian in the west Qinling. The strata overlap to north and to east respectively. Additionally, the coeval sedimentary facies in north and south are significantly different. The elastics become more and more coarser to north in the basin as well as upward coarsing. These features indicate prograding fillings followed by overlaps of the different fans underwater. The paleocurrent analyses show that the forearc basin is composed of thrust-ramp-basins and deep-water basins. The provenance of the fillings in the basin is the island arc in the north. The lead-zinc deposits were synchronous with the Xihanshui Group in the early stage of development of the forearc basin. They were strongly constrained by syn-sedimentary faults and then modified by the hydrothermal fluids. The gold deposits distributed in the north of the basin resulted from the tectonic activities and magmatism in the later stage of the basin evolution, and occurred at the top of the lead-zinc deposits spatially. The scales of lead-zinc deposits in the south of the basin are larger than that of the gold-deposits. The Pb-Zn deposits in the west of the basin are larger than those in the east, while the Gold deposits in the west of the basin are smaller than those in the east. Mineralizing ages of these deposits become younger and younger to west.

黄东海及朝鲜海峡冰后期陆架沉积物的环境磁学研究

There are four chapters in this dissertation. The first chapter briefly synthesizes the basic theories, methods and present-day applying situation of environmental magnetism. The second chapter probes into the magnetic mineral diagenesis in the post-glacial muddy sediments from the southeastern South Yellow Sea and its response to marine environmental changes, using the muddy sediment of Core YSDP103 formed in the shelf since about 13 ka BP. The third chapter illustrates the high-resolution early diagenetic processes by investigating the rapidly deposited muddy sediments during the last 6 ka in Cores SSDP-102 and SSDP-103 from the near-shore shelf of Korea Strait. The fourth chapter presents the results of detailed rock magnetic investigation of the surface sediments from the fine-grained depositional area on the outer shelf of the East China Sea in an attempt to provide environmental magnetic evidence for the provenance of the fine-grained deposit. Core YSDP103 was retrieved in the muddy deposit under the cold eddy of the southeastern South Yellow Sea, and the uppermost 29.79 m core represents the muddy sediments formed in the shelf since about 13 ka BP. The lower part from 29.79 to 13.35 m, called Unit A2, was deposited during the period from the post-glacial transgression to the middle Holocene (at about 6 ~(14)C ka BP) when the rising sea level reached its maximum, while the upper part above 13.35 m (called Unit Al) was deposited in a cold eddy associated with the formation of the Yellow Sea Warm Current just after the peak of post-glacial sea level rise. For the the uppermost 29.79 m core, detailed investigation of rock-magnetic properties and analyses of grain sizes and geochemistry were made. The experimental results indicate that the magnetic mineralogy of the core is dominated by magnetite, maghemite and hematite and that, except for the uppermost 2.35 m, the magnetic minerals were subject to reductive diagenesis leading to significant decline of magnetic mineral content and the proportion of low-coercivity component. More importantly, ferrimagnetic iron sulphide (greigite) is found in Unit A2 but absent in Unit Al, suggesting the control of marine environmental conditions on the magnetic mineral diagenesis. Magnetic parameters show abrupt changes across the boundary between the Unit Al and A2, which reflects a co-effect of environmental conditions and primary magnetic components of the sediments on the diagenesis. Alternating zones of high and low magnetic parameters are observed in Unit A2 of Core YSDP103, which is presumably due to periodic changes of the concentration and/or grain size of magnetic minerals carried into the study area. Cores SSDP-102 and SSDP-103, two studied sediment cores from the Korea Strait contain mud sequences (14 m and 32.62 m in thickness) that were deposited during the last 6,000 years. Analyses of grain sizes and geochemistry of the cores have demonstrated that the sediments have uniform lithology and geochemical properties, however, marked down-core changes in magnetic properties suggest that diagenesis has significantly impacted the magnetic properties. An expanded view of early diagenetic reactions that affect magnetic mineral assemblages is evident in these rapidly deposited continental shelf sediments compared to deep-sea sediments. The studied sediments can be divided into four descending intervals, based on magnetic property variations. Interval 1 is least affected by diagenesis and has the highest concentrations of detrital magnetite and hematite, and the lowest solid-phase sulfur contents. Interval 2 is characterized by the presence of paramagnetic pyrite and sharply decreasing magnetite and hematite concentrations, which suggest active reductive dissolution of detrital magnetic minerals, the absolute minimum abundance of magnetite is reached at the end of this interval. Interval 3 is marked by a progressive loss of hematite with depth, and at the base of this interval, 82% to 88% of the hematite component was depleted and the bulk magnetic mineral concentration was reduced to the lowest value in the entire studied mud section. Interval 4 has an increasing down-core enhancement of authigenic greigite, which is interpreted to have formed due to arrested pyritization resulting from consumption of pore water sulfate with depth. This is the first clear demonstration from an active depositional environment for a delay of thousands of years for acquisition of a magnetization carried by greigite. This detailed view of diagenetic processes in continental shelf sediments suggests that studies of geomagnetic field behavior from such sediments should be conducted with care. Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic studies based on the magnetic properties of shelf sediments with high sedimentation rates like those in the Korea Strait are also unlikely to provide a meaningful signature associated with syn-depositional environmental processes. The rock magnetic properties of the surface sediments from the fine-grained depositional area on the outer shelf of the East China Sea, an area surrounded by sands, are investigated with a view to providing information on the sediment provenance. Multiple magnetic parameters such as magnetic susceptibility (%), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), saturation rernanent magnetization (SIRM), coercivities of SIRM (Her), and S ratios (relative abundance of low-coercivity magnetic minerals) are measured for all 179 surface samples, and partial representative samples are examined for their magnetic hysteresis parameters, temperature-dependence of magnetic susceptibility and x-ray diffraction spectra. Our research indicates that the magnetic mineralogy is dominated by magnetite with a small amount of hematite and is primarily of pseudo-single domain (PSD) to multidomain (MD) nature with a detrital origin. In the surface sediments, the granulometry of magnetic fractions is basically independent of grain sizes of the sediment containing the magnetic grains, and the composition of magnetic minerals remains almost homogeneous, that is, with a relatively constant ratio of low to high coercivity fraction throughout the area. The magnetic concentration in the study area generally decreases to the east or southeast accompanied by magnetic-particle fining to the east or to the northeast. The geographic pattern of magnetic properties is most reasonably explained by a major source of sediment jointly from the erosion of the old Huanghe River deposit and the discharge of the Changjiang River. The rock magnetic data facilitate understanding of the transport mechanism of fine-grained sediments in the outer shelf of the East China Sea.

岩溶上覆风化壳的粒度分布特征及其对物源和形成过程的指示意义

以贵州为中心的中国西南岩溶区是世界上连片分布面积最大的岩溶区，其上分布着厚度不一的红色土层。由于碳酸盐岩易溶蚀、酸不溶物含量极低（一般＜5％）、成土慢，同时在风化过程中伴随着巨大的体积缩小变化，原岩结构和半风化带无法保留，岩-土界面呈突变接触关系，缺失过渡层，宏观上缺乏直接的野外地质证据支持二者之间存在着明确的继承关系，因此对于岩溶上覆风化壳的物质来源，长期以来一直存在着争议。对岩溶区风化壳成因存在的不同认识，成为利用风化壳进行一系列科学研究的障碍，因此正确理解岩溶上覆风化壳的物质来源和成因显得十分紧迫和重要。本文在已有成果的基础上，选择灰岩、白云岩与碎屑岩呈镶嵌产出的贵州岩溶台地（包括湘西吉首的一个剖面）作为研究区域，尝试利用粒度分析这一反映沉积若（物）的结构组成的研究手段，通过对20条剖面的精细采样分析．系统地探讨了不同基岩与仁覆风化壳的粒度分布特征，并以此为主线，结合磁化率、pH值、地球化学和矿物学资料，对贵州岩溶上覆风化壳的物质来源和剖面演化过程进行了探讨，取得了以下几点认识：第一，在碳酸盐岩上覆风化壳的成因研究中，粒度分析是一个有效而直观的物源示踪方法。不同沉积背景下形成的沉积岩其粒度分布特征是不同的，而在此基础上发育的风化壳就继承了母岩的粒度分布特征，粒度频率分布曲线表现出和母岩的一致性和渐变过渡性，在风化程度不是特别强烈的条件下（排除如铝土矿化的红土化阶段），风化壳仍保留了“源”的信息。而由碳酸盐岩发育的风化壳就继承了基岩酸不溶物的粒度分布特征。由不同粒度组成的沉积岩发育的风化壳，其粒度组成也存在着明显的浪异。第二，通过对贵州岩溶区不同基岩（包括碎屑岩）及其上覆风化壳的粒度分析表明，各风化剖面的粒度分布特征与下伏基岩有明显的继承性，而各剖面之间的粒度分布存在着明显的差异，说明岩溶区上覆风化壳没有共同的物质来源，碳酸盐岩上覆风化壳是碳酸盐矿物溶蚀、残余酸不溶物长期积累的结果。第三，在非等体积风化过程中，风化前锋即“岩一土界，”是一个重要的地球化学作用场所，在这一狭窄的界面上，不仅碳酸盐矿物充分淋失，而且残余酸不溶物也开始了分解，同时岩一土界面的风化梯度明显强于已成风化剖而后期的演化强度。即从基岩酸不溶物到风化壳底部，风化强度突变性增大，而风化壳的后期演化则是一个缓慢的过程。第四，由于充沛的水热条件，风化壳的淋溶淀积作用普遍存在，粘粒含量在剖面七部由下向上表现为逐渐降低的“倒置”现象。在风化壳发育浅薄的石灰土剖面，淀积层甚至可以直接淀积在剖面底部。第五，石灰土尽管发育程度较低，可以看作碳酸盐岩风化壳演化的早期阶段，但是在形成石灰土的过程中，各风化指标已表现出显著的变化，具有了红色风化壳的发育特征。因此从严格意义上讲，石灰土已不具有从基岩到红色风化壳的“过渡层”身份。第六，石灰土剖面普遍具有典型残积风化的特征，粒度和地球化学指标表现为单调变化的趋势。而红色风化壳的粒度参数在整体上具有风化壳正向演化特征的基础上，在剖面上表现为强烈的波动，地球化学指标及矿物学组成在剖面上也呈现相应的波动。造成这种现象的原因可解释为：一是风化前锋向下拓展过程中风化条件的变化，二是后期古地下水位的波动对风化剖面的改造。石灰土剖面形成时间短，在浅薄的风化壳发育过程中，风化条件和水文状况稳定，风化壳的发育完全是在气下由大气降水形成的风化溶液对一剖面由浅入深的风化作用形成的，未受到后期地下水的改造。而厚层红色风化壳，形成时间长，在其长期的地质演化过程中，风化条件的变化和古地下水位的波动将会频繁的发生。尤其岩一土界面是一个重要的地球化学风化界面，在风化前锋向下拓展过程中，风化条件的变化必然影响到相应层位风化程度的差异性，因此造成剖面上风化指标的波动性。在风化前锋，由风化条件的差异性导致粒度及地球化学指标的波动性，在这一过程中，粒度及地球化学指标的变化是可预测的，即强烈的风化条件可以导致粒度变细，粘粒含量增加，CIA增大，反之亦然，风化过程表现为活动元素的净带出。然而，由古地下水位的波动对风化剖面的改造作用是可变的，不可预测的，既可使剖面的物质被带出，也可以带入一些活动元素，如K、 Na等的交代。同时，地下水对剖面粒度组成的影响也很复杂，物质的带入不一定就会使粒度变粗，粘粒含量降低，而物质的带出也不一定就导致粒度变细，粘粒含量增加。在两种机理的相互叠加影响下，使风化壳的演化趋势更趋复杂化。风化剖面中，粘粒含量和CIA之间既有同步变化的层段，也有呈强烈反相关的层段，还存在没有明显相关肋层段。作为等体积变化的典型剖面-吉首剖面，其风化过程具有碎屑岩的发育特征，“粘粒含量从下向上表现为顺次增大的趋势，如果也存在古地下水对剖面的改造作用，那么说明对粒度的影响是微弱的。第七，对于红色风化壳，不管是碳酸盐岩风化过程中由于风化条件的差异造成的风化指标波动还是受后期地下水的改造作用引起的，剖面整体上仍具有向上风化程度增强的趋势。PH向上逐渐降低、磁化率的增大均表明了风化强度的增强，“这与剖面愈向上经历的风化时间愈长所对应的。第八，碳酸盐岩风化壳和结晶岩风化壳的形成过程相比，前者母岩的风化起点高，即母岩的成熟度高。由于碳酸盐岩风化壳的风化母质是基岩酸不溶物，而酸不溶物本身就是表生风化条件下的产物，因此可以说风化母岩就是风化壳，基本上不含易风化的斜长石类矿物。在A-CN-K风化趋势三角图解上，已表现为风化壳发育的第二演化阶段，即沿着A-K端线向A点逼近。第九，在结晶岩及碎屑岩类风化过程中所证实的守恒元素，在碳酸盐岩非等体积风化过程中其比值发生了显著变化，这是碳酸盐岩风化成土作用过程中的一个特点，可能会引起某些所谓的守恒元素的地球化学分异，但其成因尚不清楚。在风化剖面中守恒元素的比值保持稳定，具有其它岩类风化的特点。

The ecological effects of exotic disease resistance genes introgressed into British gooseberries

Warren, J. and James, P. (2006). The ecological effects of exotic disease resistance genes introgressed into British gooseberries. Oecologia 147(1),69-75. RAE2008

Procesy akto- i archiwotwórcze w sądownictwie wojskowym w latach 1945-2010 na przykładzie sądów poznańskich

Wydział Historyczny

Medieval Irish vision literature: a genre study

This dissertation examines medieval literary accounts of visions of the afterlife with an origin or provenance in Ireland from the perspective of genre, analysing their structural and literary characteristics both synchronically and diachronically. To this end, I have developed a new typology of medieval vision literature. I address the question in what manner the internationally attested genre of vision literature is adapted and developed in an Irish literary milieu. I explore this central research question through an interrogation of the typological unity of the key texts, both in formal arrangement and in the eschatological themes they express. My analysis of the structure and rhetoric of these narratives reveals the primary role of identity strategies, question-and-answer patterns and exhortation for their narrative cohesion and didactic function. In addition, I was able to make a formal distinction at text-level between the adaptation of the genre as an autonomous unit and the adaptation of thematic motifs as topoi. This further enabled me to nuance the distribution of characteristic features in the genre. My analysis of the spatial and temporal aspects of the eschatological journey confirms a preoccupation with personal eschatology. It reveals a close connection between the development of the aspects of graded access and trial in the genre and a growing awareness of an interim state of the soul after death. Finally, my dissertation provides new editions, translations and analyses of primary sources. My research breaks new ground in the hitherto underexplored area of genre adaptation in Ireland. In addition, it contributes significantly to our understanding of the nature of vision literature both in an Irish and a European context, and to our knowledge of the transmission of eschatological thought in the Latin West. Discusses the visions of: Laisrén, Fursa, Adomnán, Lóchán, Tnugdal, Owein and Visio Sancti Pauli Redactions VI and XI.

The ‘Celtic’ dimension of pre-first World War religious discourse in Britain: Wellesley Tudor Pole and the Glastonbury phenomenon

This article will explore the contribution made to the construction of discourse around religion outside of mainstream Christianity, at the turn of the twentieth century in Britain, by a Celticist movement as represented by Wellesley Tudor Pole (d.1968) and his connection to the Glastonbury phenomenon. I will detail the interconnectedness of individuals and movements occupying this discursive space and their interest in efforts to verify the authenticity of an artefact which Tudor Pole claimed was once in the possession of Jesus. Engagement with Tudor Pole’s quest to prove the provenance of the artefact, and his contention that a pre-Christian culture had existed in Ireland which had extended itself to Glastonbury and Iona creating the foundation for an authentic Western mystical tradition, is presented as one facet of a broader, contemporary discourse on alternative ideas and philosophies. In conclusion, I will juxtapose Tudor Pole’s fascination with Celtic origins and the approach of leading figures in the ‘Celtic Revival’ in Ireland, suggesting intersections and alterity in the construction of their worldview. The paper forms part of a chapter in a thesis under-preparation which examines the construction of discourse on religion outside of mainstream Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century, and in particular the role played by visiting religious reformers from Asia. The aim is to recover the (mostly forgotten) history of these engagements.

A distributed architecture for the monitoring and analysis of time series data

It is estimated that the quantity of digital data being transferred, processed or stored at any one time currently stands at 4.4 zettabytes (4.4 × 2 70 bytes) and this figure is expected to have grown by a factor of 10 to 44 zettabytes by 2020. Exploiting this data is, and will remain, a significant challenge. At present there is the capacity to store 33% of digital data in existence at any one time; by 2020 this capacity is expected to fall to 15%. These statistics suggest that, in the era of Big Data, the identification of important, exploitable data will need to be done in a timely manner. Systems for the monitoring and analysis of data, e.g. stock markets, smart grids and sensor networks, can be made up of massive numbers of individual components. These components can be geographically distributed yet may interact with one another via continuous data streams, which in turn may affect the state of the sender or receiver. This introduces a dynamic causality, which further complicates the overall system by introducing a temporal constraint that is difficult to accommodate. Practical approaches to realising the system described above have led to a multiplicity of analysis techniques, each of which concentrates on specific characteristics of the system being analysed and treats these characteristics as the dominant component affecting the results being sought. The multiplicity of analysis techniques introduces another layer of heterogeneity, that is heterogeneity of approach, partitioning the field to the extent that results from one domain are difficult to exploit in another. The question is asked can a generic solution for the monitoring and analysis of data that: accommodates temporal constraints; bridges the gap between expert knowledge and raw data; and enables data to be effectively interpreted and exploited in a transparent manner, be identified? The approach proposed in this dissertation acquires, analyses and processes data in a manner that is free of the constraints of any particular analysis technique, while at the same time facilitating these techniques where appropriate. Constraints are applied by defining a workflow based on the production, interpretation and consumption of data. This supports the application of different analysis techniques on the same raw data without the danger of incorporating hidden bias that may exist. To illustrate and to realise this approach a software platform has been created that allows for the transparent analysis of data, combining analysis techniques with a maintainable record of provenance so that independent third party analysis can be applied to verify any derived conclusions. In order to demonstrate these concepts, a complex real world example involving the near real-time capturing and analysis of neurophysiological data from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was chosen. A system was engineered to gather raw data, analyse that data using different analysis techniques, uncover information, incorporate that information into the system and curate the evolution of the discovered knowledge. The application domain was chosen for three reasons: firstly because it is complex and no comprehensive solution exists; secondly, it requires tight interaction with domain experts, thus requiring the handling of subjective knowledge and inference; and thirdly, given the dearth of neurophysiologists, there is a real world need to provide a solution for this domain

Community-based Data Validation Practices in Citizen Science

Technology-supported citizen science has created huge volumes of data with increasing potential to facilitate scientific progress, however, verifying data quality is still a substantial hurdle due to the limitations of existing data quality mechanisms. In this study, we adopted a mixed methods approach to investigate community-based data validation practices and the characteristics of records of wildlife species observations that affected the outcomes of collaborative data quality management in an online community where people record what they see in the nature. The findings describe the processes that both relied upon and added to information provenance through information stewardship behaviors, which led to improved reliability and informativity. The likelihood of community-based validation interactions were predicted by several factors, including the types of organisms observed and whether the data were submitted from a mobile device. We conclude with implications for technology design, citizen science practices, and research.

The Catford Riddim on the 202

This presentation is about a song, ”Catford Riddim” by the A-Team, a group of grime artists from South London, specifically about how it came to be played, perhaps a bit too loudly, in the back of the 202 bus one January morning on a teenager’s mobile phone. As an illustration of how social networks and technological networks converge, the ”Catford Riddim,” insisting on the music’s own provenance from the SE6 postcode, shows the formation of a local ethnoscape in the global networks of peer-to-peer file sharing and online DIY distribution sites such as MySpace. Contesting the narrative of online social networks as routes to fame, I suggest that on the contrary they illustrate the emergence of local, even insular, ”scenes” of musicians, events and audiences.

The palaeoenvironment and stratigraphy of Late Cretaceous Chalks

Since the publication of Hancock's ‘the Petrology of the Chalk’ there have been numerous developments in our appreciation of the palaeoenvironment and stratigraphie correlation of the UK Chalk. This work presents a review of some of the key developments over the last 30 years. Our detailed understanding of Chalk lithostratigraphy and advances in our understanding of chalk sedimentation indicate that large-scale mass transport and re-sedimentation of chalks by low-angle suspension flows is required to explain the observed thickness variations. The provenance of clay minerals and the process of flint and granular phosphate formation are discussed. The growing importance of isotopic studies in high resolution stratigraphy and improving our understanding of the late Cretaceous oceans and climate are emphasized. Developments in lithostratigraphic studies and recent proposals for a new stratigraphie division of the Chalk in the UK are evaluated.

North European last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT; 15-9 ka) tephrochronology: extended limits and new events

High-precision correlation of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental records is crucial for testing hypotheses of synchronous change. Although radiocarbon is the traditional method for dating late Quaternary sedimentary sequences, particularly during the last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT; 15–9?ka), there are inherent problems with the method, particularly during periods of climate change which are often accompanied by major perturbations in atmospheric radiocarbon content. An alternative method is the use of tephras that act as time-parallel marker horizons. Within Europe, numerous volcanic centres are known to have erupted during the LGIT, providing considerable potential for high-precision correlation independent of past radiocarbon fluctuations. Here we report the first identification of the Vedde Ash and Askja Tephra in Ireland, significantly extending the known provenance of these events. We have also identified two new horizons (the Roddans Port Tephras A and B) and tentatively recognise an additional horizon from Vallensgård Mose (Denmark) that provide crucial additional chronological control for the LGIT. Two phases of the Laacher See Tephra (LST) are reported, the lower Laacher See Tephra (LLST) and probably the C2 phase of the Middle Laacher See Tephra (MLST-C2) indicating a more northeasterly distribution of this fan than reported previously.

Where there is smoke, there is (the potential for) fire: soft indicators of research and policy impact

There is a growing literature examining the impact of research on informing policy, and of research and policy on practice. Research and policy do not have the same types of impact on practice but can be evaluated using similar approaches. Sometimes the literature provides a platform for methodological debate but mostly it is concerned with how research can link to improvements in the process and outcomes of education, how it can promote innovative policies and practice, and how it may be successfully disseminated. Whether research-informed or research-based, policy and its implementation is often assessed on such 'hard' indicators of impact as changes in the number of students gaining five or more A to C grades in national examinations or a percentage fall in the number of exclusions in inner city schools. Such measures are necessarily crude, with large samples smoothing out errors and disguising instances of significant success or failure. Even when 'measurable' in such a fashion, however, the impact of any educational change or intervention may require a period of years to become observable. This paper considers circumstances in which short-term change may be implausible or difficult to observe. It explores how impact is currently theorized and researched and promotes the concept of 'soft' indicators of impact in circumstances in which the pursuit of conventional quantitative and qualitative evidence is rendered impractical within a reasonable cost and timeframe. Such indicators are characterized by their avowedly subjective, anecdotal and impressionistic provenance and have particular importance in the context of complex community education issues where the assessment of any impact often faces considerable problems of access. These indicators include the testimonies of those on whom the research intervention or policy focuses (for example, students, adult learners), the formative effects that are often reported (for example, by head teachers, community leaders) and media coverage. The collation and convergence of a wide variety of soft indicators (Where there is smoke …) is argued to offer a credible means of identifying subtle processes that are often neglected as evidence of potential and actual impact (… there is fire).

Restricted gene flow in fragmented populations of a wind-pollinated tree

Fragmentation of natural populations can have negative effects at the genetic level, thus threatening their evolutionary potential. Many of the negative genetic impacts of population fragmentation can be ameliorated by gene flow and it has been suggested that in wind-pollinated tree species, high or even increased levels of gene flow are a feature of fragmented populations, although several studies have disputed this. We have used a combination of nuclear microsatellites and allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) analysis of chloroplast single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to examine the levels and patterns of genetic diversity and population differentiation in fragmented populations of juniper (Juniperus communis) in Ireland and inform conservation programs for the species. Significant population differentiation was found for both chloroplast and nuclear markers, indicating restricted gene flow, particularly over larger geographic scales. For conservation purposes, the existence of genetically distinct clusters and geographically localised chloroplast haplotypes suggests that the concept of provenance should be taken into account when formulating augmentation or reintroduction strategies. Furthermore, the potential lack of seed dispersal and seedling establishment means that ex-situ approaches to seed and seedling management may have to be considered.

Missing Links, Cultural Modernity and the Dead: Anatomically Modern Humans in the Great Cave of Niah (Sarawak, Borneo)

The Great Cave of Niah in Sarawak (northern Borneo) came into the gaze of Western Science through the work of Alfred Russell Wallace, who came to Sarawak in the 1850s to search for ‘missing links’ in his pioneering studies of evolution and the natural history of Island Southeast Asia and Australasia. The work of Tom and Barbara Harrisson in the 1950s and 1960s placed the Great Cave, and particularly their key find, the ‘Deep Skull’, at the nexus of the evolving archaeological framework for the region: for decades the skull, dated in 1958 by adjacent charcoal to c.40,000 BP, was the oldest fossil of an anatomically modern human anywhere in the world and thus critical to ideas about human evolution and dispersal. Although several authorities later questioned the provenance and antiquity of the Deep Skull, renewed investigations of the Harrisson excavations since 2000 have shown that it can be attributed securely to a specific location in the Pleistocene stratigraphy, with direct U-series dating on a piece of the skull indicating an age for it of c.37,500 BP and the first evidence for associated human activity at the site going back to c.50,000 BP. The new work also indicates that the skull is part of a cultural deposit, perhaps a precursor to the long tradition in Borneo of processing of the dead and secondary burial. These indicators of cultural complexity chime with the complexity of the subsistence behaviour of the early users of the caves discussed by Philip Piper and Ryan Rabett in chapter ten of this volume.