Aspects of Armageddon: An exploration of the role of volcanic eruptions in human history and civilization

Grattan, J.P. (2006) Aspects of Armageddon: An exploration of the role of volcanic eruptions in human history and civilization, Quaternary International 151, 10-18.

'Ancient Enmities' and Modern Conflict: History and Politics in Northern Ireland

This article investigates the role of history and historical consciousness in deeply divided societies. It looks at the case of Northern Ireland. It argues that, while the conflict here is caused by contemporary divisions, perceptions of the past have had considerable influence. Recent years have seen efforts to change historical attitudes and this has aided political accommodation. An important lesson from the conflict in Northern Ireland points to the need to challenge such historical perceptions.

Economic security & reconstruction: utility, history and practice in post-conflict environments

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 P65 D53 2007

Design and Development of data mining models for the predictions of manpower placement in the technical Domain

Data mining is one of the hottest research areas nowadays as it has got wide variety of applications in common man’s life to make the world a better place to live. It is all about finding interesting hidden patterns in a huge history data base. As an example, from a sales data base, one can find an interesting pattern like “people who buy magazines tend to buy news papers also” using data mining. Now in the sales point of view the advantage is that one can place these things together in the shop to increase sales. In this research work, data mining is effectively applied to a domain called placement chance prediction, since taking wise career decision is so crucial for anybody for sure. In India technical manpower analysis is carried out by an organization named National Technical Manpower Information System (NTMIS), established in 1983-84 by India's Ministry of Education & Culture. The NTMIS comprises of a lead centre in the IAMR, New Delhi, and 21 nodal centres located at different parts of the country. The Kerala State Nodal Centre is located at Cochin University of Science and Technology. In Nodal Centre, they collect placement information by sending postal questionnaire to passed out students on a regular basis. From this raw data available in the nodal centre, a history data base was prepared. Each record in this data base includes entrance rank ranges, reservation, Sector, Sex, and a particular engineering. From each such combination of attributes from the history data base of student records, corresponding placement chances is computed and stored in the history data base. From this data, various popular data mining models are built and tested. These models can be used to predict the most suitable branch for a particular new student with one of the above combination of criteria. Also a detailed performance comparison of the various data mining models is done.This research work proposes to use a combination of data mining models namely a hybrid stacking ensemble for better predictions. A strategy to predict the overall absorption rate for various branches as well as the time it takes for all the students of a particular branch to get placed etc are also proposed. Finally, this research work puts forward a new data mining algorithm namely C 4.5 * stat for numeric data sets which has been proved to have competent accuracy over standard benchmarking data sets called UCI data sets. It also proposes an optimization strategy called parameter tuning to improve the standard C 4.5 algorithm. As a summary this research work passes through all four dimensions for a typical data mining research work, namely application to a domain, development of classifier models, optimization and ensemble methods.

Holocene palaeoenvironmental history and the impact of prehistoric salt production in the Seille Valley, Eastern France

The Seille Valley in eastern France was home to one of Europe’s largest Iron Age salt industries. Sedimentology, palynology and geochronology have been integrated within ongoing archaeological investigations to reconstruct the Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the Seille Valley and to elucidate the human–environment relationship of salt production. A sedimentary model of the valley has been constructed from a borehole survey of the floodplain and pollen analyses have been undertaken to reconstruct the vegetation history. Alluvial records have been successfully dated using optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon techniques, thereby providing a robust chronological framework. The results have provided an insight into the development of favourable conditions for salt production and there is evidence in the sedimentary record to suggest that salt production may have taken place during the mid-to-late Bronze Age. The latter has yet to be identified in the archaeological record and targeted excavation is therefore underway to test this finding. The development of the Iron Age industry had a major impact on the hydrological regime of the valley and its sedimentological history, with evidence for accelerated alluviation arising from floodplain erosion at salt production sites and modification of the local fluvial regime due to briquetage accumulation on the floodplain. This research provides an important insight into the environmental implications of early industrial activities, in addition to advancing knowledge about the Holocene palaeoenvironmental and social history of this previously poorly studied region of France.

The water vapour continuum: brief history and recent developments

The water vapour continuum is characterised by absorption that varies smoothly with wavelength, from the visible to the microwave. It is present within the rotational and vibrational–rotational bands of water vapour, which consist of large numbers of narrow spectral lines, and in the many ‘windows’ between these bands. The continuum absorption in the window regions is of particular importance for the Earth’s radiation budget and for remote-sensing techniques that exploit these windows. Historically, most attention has focused on the 8–12 μm (mid-infrared) atmospheric window, where the continuum is relatively well-characterised, but there have been many fewer measurements within bands and in other window regions. In addition, the causes of the continuum remain a subject of controversy. This paper provides a brief historical overview of the development of understanding of the continuum and then reviews recent developments, with a focus on the near-infrared spectral region. Recent laboratory measurements in near-infrared windows, which reveal absorption typically an order of magnitude stronger than in widely used continuum models, are shown to have important consequences for remote-sensing techniques that use these windows for retrieving cloud properties.

Winckelmann and the invention of antiquity: history and aesthetics in the age of Altertumswissenschaft

This volume provides a new perspective on the emergence of the modern study of antiquity, Altertumswissenschaft, in eighteenth-century Germany through an exploration of debates that arose over the work of the art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann between his death in 1768 and the end of the century. This period has long been recognised as particularly formative for the development of modern classical studies, and over the past few decades has received increased attention from historians of scholarship and of ideas. Winckelmann's eloquent articulation of the cultural and aesthetic value of studying the ancient Greeks, his adumbration of a new method for studying ancient artworks, and his provision of a model of cultural-historical development in terms of a succession of period styles, influenced both the public and intra-disciplinary self-image of classics long into the twentieth century. Yet this area of Winckelmann's Nachleben has received relatively little attention compared with the proliferation of studies concerning his importance for late eighteenth-century German art and literature, for historians of sexuality, and his traditional status as a 'founder figure' within the academic disciplines of classical archaeology and the history of art. Harloe restores the figure of Winckelmann to classicists' understanding of the history of their own discipline and uses debates between important figures, such as Christian Gottlob Heyne, Friedrich August Wolf, and Johann Gottfried Herder, to cast fresh light upon the emergence of the modern paradigm of classics as Altertumswissenschaft: the multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, and historicizing study of the ancient world.

History and attributes of selected Australian multi-tenure reserve networks

The need for conservation planning across the landscape, regardless of tenure, is widely recognised. In Australia, attempts to coordinate the management of conservation lands are characterised by models such as Biosphere Reserves and Conservation Management Networks. This paper outlines the history behind the formation and development of three networks in Australia—the Bookmark Biosphere Reserve, the Gippsland Plains Conservation Management Network, and the Grassy Box Woodlands Conservation Management Network—with particular emphasis on the tenure and protection attributes of the various components within these networks. Despite having a similar number of components, the total area represented in the networks varied markedly. There were few similarities in the proportion of components of various tenures and protection mechanisms among networks. Composition of networks is likely to be strongly influenced by both historical factors (degree of subdivision, land ownership and remaining vegetation) and contemporary factors (aims of the network and willingness of landowners to participate). Continued research into both the evolution and the physical and social dynamics of multi-tenure reserve networks enables a better understanding of their operation, and will ultimately assist in improved conservation planning across the landscape.

Learning from arid planning and design history and practice : from Woomera to creating the new Roxby Downs communities

The principles and knowledge about arid planning and design have much applicability to contemporary Australian planning discourses because of climate change evidence and policy shifts that sketch a hotter and more unreliable future climate with an emphasis upon a semi-arid environment for Australia. Despite this merit and intent, we appear to have learnt little from the past and are failing to draw upon the pioneering planning and design knowledge that underpinned community development and scaffolding in numerous Australian arid and semi-arid communities, and to bring this knowledge into our future planning processes and strategies.

This paper considers the essential attributes and variables of three Australian arid planning and design, drawing upon historical practice and research that have been explored in the planning of semi-arid and arid places including Port Pirie, Whyalla, Monarto, Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Leigh Creek, Andamooka, Olympic Dam Village and Roxby Downs. It specifically reviews Woomera Village (1940s) Shay Gap (1970s) and the proposed extensions to Roxby Downs (2010s) as models of how to better plan and design communities in arid environments. Instrumental in these innovations is the use of landscape-responsive urban design strategies, water harvesting and irregular rainfall capture, arid horticulture, building design, colour and materiality, orientation and shading strategies, and social community construction under difficult isolationist circumstances. The paper points to key strategies that need to be incorporated in future climate change responsive community developments and policy making.

The promise of a new media and development agenda

The role of the press is underpinned by a concern for public welfare, and the discourses and debates in journalism practice and theory stem from the notion that the press is one of the pillars of a democracy and an essential element of the public sphere (Rosen, 2005; Dahlgren and Sparks, 1991). The public sphere, in turn, is linked to the theory of modernisation and the development agenda of a society, where the media are expected to play an important function as watchman, policy disseminator and teacher (Schramm, 1964). This article looks at citizen journalism’s potential to provide yet another opportunity to disadvantaged communities in India to communicate with the world, via information and communication technologies. The new media also open up the possibility of these earlier disenfranchised communities becoming partners in the country’s development and democratic agenda. This is a discussion paper based on a survey of initiatives undertaken by various community groups in India to provide a voice to local communities who would otherwise remain silent. It explores the impact of these citizen journalism initiatives on local communities vis-à-vis their effectiveness as a tool for development and social change, and argues that the growth and success of these initiatives around the world, though piecemeal, should become an important part of discourse concerning the role of journalism in society.

Using gene-history and expression analyses to assess the involvement of LGI genes in human disorders

Mutations in the leucine-rich, glioma-inactivated 1 gene, LGI1, cause autosomal-dominant lateral temporal lobe epilepsy via unknown mechanisms. LGI1 belongs to a subfamily of leucine-rich repeat genes comprising four members (LGI1–LGI4) in mammals. In this study, both comparative developmental as well as molecular evolutionary methods were applied to investigate the evolution of the LGI gene family and, subsequently, of the functional importance of its different gene members. Our phylogenetic studies suggest that LGI genes evolved early in the vertebrate lineage. Genetic and expression analyses of all five zebrafish lgi genes revealed duplications of lgi1 and lgi2, each resulting in two paralogous gene copies with mostly nonoverlapping expression patterns. Furthermore, all vertebrate LGI1 orthologs experience high levels of purifying selection that argue for an essential role of this gene in neural development or function. The approach of combining expression and selection data used here exemplarily demonstrates that in poorly characterized gene families a framework of evolutionary and expression analyses can identify those genes that are functionally most important and are therefore prime candidates for human disorders.

The inter-section of political history and health policy in Asia - the historical foundations for health policy analysis

One of the challenges for health reform in Asia is the diverse set of socio-economic and political structures, and the related variability in the direction and pace of health systems and policy reform. This paper aims to make comparative observations and analysis of health policy reform in the context of historical change, and considers the implications of these findings for the practice of health policy analysis. We adopt an ecological model for analysis of policy development, whereby health systems are considered as dynamic social constructs shaped by changing political and social conditions. Utilizing historical, social scientific and health literature, timelines of health and history for five countries (Cambodia, Myanmar, Mongolia, North Korea and Timor Leste) are mapped over a 30-50 year period. The case studies compare and contrast key turning points in political and health policy history, and examines the manner in which these turning points sets the scene for the acting out of longer term health policy formation, particularly with regard to the managerial domains of health policy making. Findings illustrate that the direction of health policy reform is shaped by the character of political reform, with countries in the region being at variable stages of transition from monolithic and centralized administrations, towards more complex management arrangements characterized by a diversity of health providers, constituency interest and financing sources. The pace of reform is driven by a country's institutional capability to withstand and manage transition shocks of post conflict rehabilitation and emergence of liberal economic reforms in an altered governance context. These findings demonstrate that health policy analysis needs to be informed by a deeper understanding and questioning of the historical trajectory and political stance that sets the stage for the acting out of health policy formation, in order that health systems function optimally along their own historical pathways.

Access to knoledge in Brazil: new research on intellectual property, innovation and development

The present volume is the fruit of a research initiative on Access to Knowledge begun in 2004 by Yochai Benkler, Eddan Katz, and myself. Access to Knowledge is both a social movement and an approach to international and domestic policy. In the present era of globalization, intellectual property and information and communications technology are major determinants of wealth and power. The principle of access to knowledge argues that we best serve both human rights and economic development through policies that make knowledge, knowledge-creating tools, and nowledgeembedded goods as widely available as possible for decentralized innovation and use. Open technological standards, a balanced approach to intellectual property rights, and expansion of an open telecommunications infrastructure enable ordinary people around the world to benefit from the technological advances of the information age and allow them to generate a vibrant, participatory and democratic culture. Law plays a crucial role in securing access to knowledge, determining whether knowledge and knowledge goods are shared widely for the benefit of all, or controlled and monopolized for the benefit of a few.

An essay on private equity: the history and fundamentals of fundraising in Brazil

O impacto positivo dos investimentos de Private Equity e Venture Capital (PE/VC) na economia e no mercado de capitais está amplamente documentado pela literatura acadêmica internacional. Nos últimos 40 anos, diversos autores têm estudado a influência desta classe de ativos na criação, no desenvolvimento e na transformação de milhares de empresas ao redor do mundo, especialmente nos Estados Unidos. Entretanto, os estudos sobre os determinantes da captação de recursos de PE/VC têm se desenvolvido apenas mais recentemente, e seus resultados estão longe de ser uma unanimidade. No Brasil, a pesquisa sobre a indústria de PE/VC ainda é escassa. Embora a indústria local venha crescendo rapidamente desde 2006, tendo alcançado US$36,1 bilhões em capital comprometido em 2009, ainda não há estudos sobre as variáveis que influenciam na alocação de capital pelos investidores nesta modalidade de investimento no Brazil. Entender esta dinâmica é importante para o equilíbrio e a eficiência de mercado. Baseado no trabalho de Gompers e Lerner (1998) sobre os determinantes da indústria de PE/VC nos Estados Unidos, este trabalho contribui com a literatura de PE/VC ao: (i) revisitar o começo desta indústria no Brasil; e (ii) identificar quais as variáveis influenciam no desenvolvimento da indústria de PE/VC local. Os resultados deste estudo contribuem para o desenvolvimento acadêmico da indústria de PE/VC no Brasil. Além disso, as discussões aqui apresentadas poderão impactar outras áreas de estudo que são permeadas pelo tema, tais como Gestão de Investimentos, Governança Corporativa, Empreendedorismo e Estratégia. Profissionais de mercado também deverão se interessar no trabalho. As discussões sobre a história e os fundamentos da indústria fornecem aos investidores, empreendedores, gestores de investimentos e formuladores de políticas públicas, entre outros, um melhor entendimento sobre como o ecossistema de PE/VC funciona no Brasil.