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.

Energy, industrial development, air and atmospheric pollution and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean: new policies, lessons, best practices and opportunities for horizontal cooperation

Includes bibliography

The institutionality of gender in the State: new analytical perspectives

Includes bibliography

Informe de la Reunión Interinstitucional para Coordinar la Ejecución del Programa de Trabajo del CDCC, Nueva York, 28-30 junio 1976 = UN Inter-Agency Meeting on Co-ordination for Implementation of the Work Programme of the CDCC, New York, 28-30 June 1976

El símbolo ECLA/POS/76/10 corresponde al documento en inglés solamente

Report on Expert Group Workshop on macroeconometric modelling in the Caribbean: new challenges and new directions

.--I. Background and justification.--II. Critical issues in macroeconometric modelling in the Caribbean.--III. Critical issues in macroeconometric modelling in the Caribbean.--IV. Economic modelling to determine the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean.--V. Wrap up

Report on expert group meeting on macroeconomic modelling in the Caribbean: new challenges and new directions

The purpose of the expert group meeting was to bring together modelling practitioners to share experiences and to reflect on how to overcome new and old challenges to model building in the Caribbean. As part of the rationale for such a meeting, it was argued that since a major objective of policymaking in the Caribbean was to create the conditions for growth with equity while reducing vulnerability to economic and environmental shocks, model builders must develop strategies to properly address those questions in a unified way. It was further suggested that those goals, though straightforward, required a concentrated technical effort to clarify and update understanding of the workings of Caribbean economies. The emphasis on addressing issues of growth, equity and vulnerability was urgent because Caribbean economies were at a crossroads, with major challenges to the foundations and premises on which the economies had been built.

Report on expert group workshop on macroeconomic modelling in the Caribbean: new challenges and new directions.

The purpose of the expert group meeting was to bring together modelling practitioners to share experiences and to reflect on how to overcome new and old challenges to model building in the Caribbean. As part of the rationale for such a meeting, it was argued that since a major objective of policymaking in the Caribbean was to create the conditions for growth with equity while reducing vulnerability to economic and environmental shocks, model builders must develop strategies to properly address those questions in a unified way. It was further suggested that those goals, though straightforward, required a concentrated technical effort to clarify and update understanding of the workings of Caribbean economies. The emphasis on addressing issues of growth, equity and vulnerability was urgent because Caribbean economies were at a crossroads, with major challenges to the foundations and premises on which the economies had been built.

Dimensional reduction of the massless limit of the linearized 'New Massive Gravity'

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The Carmaphycins: New Proteasome Inhibitors Exhibiting an alpha,beta-Epoxyketone Warhead from a Marine Cyanobacterium

Two new peptidic proteasome inhibitors were isolated as trace components from a Curacao collection of the marine cyanobacterium Symploca sp. Carmaphycin A (1) and carmaphycin B (2) feature a leucine-derived a,beta-epoxyketone warhead directly connected to either methionine sulfoxide or methionine sulfone. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive NMR and MS analyses and confirmed by total synthesis, which in turn provided more material for further biological evaluations. Pure carmaphycins A and B were found to inhibit the beta 5 subunit (chymotrypsin-like activity) of the S. cerevisiae 20S proteasome in the low nanomolar range. Additionally, they exhibited strong cytotoxicity to lung and colon cancer cell lines, as well as exquisite antiproliferative effects in the NCI60 cell-line panel. These assay results as well as initial structural biology studies suggest a distinctive binding mode for these new inhibitors.