Influence of human impact and bedrock differences on the vegetational history of the Insubrian Southern Alps

Vegetation history for the study region is reconstructed on the basis of pollen, charcoal and AMS14C investigations of lake sediments from Lago del Segrino (calcareous bedrock) and Lago di Muzzano (siliceous bedrock). Late-glacial forests were characterised byBetula andPinus sylvestris. At the beginning of the Holocene they were replaced by temperate continental forest and shrub communities. A special type of temperate lowland forest, withAbies alba as the most important tree, was present in the period 8300 to 4500 B.P. Subsequently,Fagus, Quercus andAlnus glutinosa were the main forest components andA. alba ceased to be of importance.Castanea sativa andJuglans regia were probably introduced after forest clearance by fire during the first century A.D. On soils derived from siliceous bedrock,C. sativa was already dominant at ca. A.D. 200 (A.D. dates are in calendar years). In limestone areas, however,C. sativa failed to achieve a dominant role. After the introduction ofC. sativa, the main trees were initially oak (Quercus spp.) and later the walnut (Juglans regia). Ostrya carpinifolia became the dominant tree around Lago del Segrino only in the last 100–200 years though it had spread into the area at ca. 5000 cal. B.C. This recent expansion ofOstrya is confirmed at other sites and appears to be controlled by human disturbances involving especially clearance. It is argued that these forests should not be regarded as climax communities. It is suggested that under undisturbed succession they would develop into mixed deciduous forests consisting ofFraxinus excelsior, Tilia, Ulmus, Quercus and Acer.

Rapid divergence in physiological and life-history traits between northern and southern populations of the British introduced neo-species, Senecio squalidus

Alien plants provide a unique opportunity to study evolution in novel environments, but relatively little is known about the extent to which they become locally adapted to different environments across their new range. Here, we compare northern and southern populations of the introduced species Senecio squalidus in Britain; S. squalidus has been in southern Britain for approximately 200 years and reached Scotland only about 50 years ago. We conducted common garden experiments at sites in the north and south of the species’ range in Britain. We also conducted glasshouse and growth chamber experiments to test the hypothesis that southern genotypes flower later, are more drought-tolerant, germinate and establish better at warmer temperatures, and are less sensitive to cold stress than their more northern counterparts. Results from the common garden experiments are largely consistent with the hypothesis of rapid adaptive divergence of populations of the species within the introduced range, with genotypes typically showing a home-site advantage. Results from the glasshouse and growth chamber experiments demonstrate adaptive divergence in ability to tolerate drought stress and high temperatures, as well as in phenology. In particular, southern genotypes were more tolerant of dry conditions and high temperatures and they flowered later than northern genotypes. Our results show that rapid local adaptation can occur in alien species, and they have implications for our understanding of the ecological genetics of range expansion of introduced weeds.

A Brief History of Affordable Housing Cooperatives in the United States

For over 75 years housing cooperatives have been a source of affordable housing. Currently, the 376,000 dwelling units of affordable cooperatives is equivalent to seventeen percent of the rent reduction units owned by publichousing authorities. Understanding that affordable cooperatives have been developed under varying historical circumstances provides insights on how they could play a role in the future supply of affordable housing. The history of affordable co-ops starts during the 1920s and after World War II with the ethnic, union, and New York government financed co-ops. Through the 1960s and the early 1970s cooperatives were financed by various federal direct assistance programs. Since the late 1970s co-ops have been sponsored by nonprofit organizations and by federal and municipal government privatization programs. A workable institutional structure for affordable cooperatives has developed as a result of this historical evolution.

A history of Rhodesia : compiled from official sources

by Howard Hensman

A comprehensive review of the environmental impacts and human health risks associated with the occurrence of waste pharmaceuticals in water sources of the United States, and policy implications

The occurrence of waste pharmaceuticals has been identified and well documented in water sources throughout North America and Europe. Many studies have been conducted which identify the occurrence of various pharmaceutical compounds in these waters. This project is an extensive review of the documented evidence of this occurrence published in the scientific literature. This review was performed to determine if this occurrence has a significant impact on the environment and public health. This project and review found that pharmaceuticals such as sex hormone drugs, antibiotic drugs and antineoplastic/cytostatic agents as well as their metabolites have been found to occur in water sources throughout the United States at levels high enough to have noticeable impacts on human health and the environment. It was determined that the primary sources of this occurrence of pharmaceuticals were waste water effluent and solid wastes from sewage treatment plants, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, healthcare and biomedical research facilities, as well as runoff from veterinary medicine applications (including aquaculture). ^ In addition, current public policies of US governmental agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have been evaluated to see if they are doing a sufficient job at controlling this issue. Specific recommendations for developing these EPA, FDA, and DEA policies have been made to mitigate, prevent, or eliminate this issue.^ Other possible interventions such as implementing engineering controls were also evaluated in order to mitigate, prevent and eliminate this issue. These engineering controls include implementing improved current treatment technologies such as the advancement and improvement of waste water treatment processes utilized by conventional sewage treatment and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. In addition, administrative controls such as the use of “green chemistry” in drug synthesis and design were also explored and evaluated as possible alternatives to mitigate, prevent, or eliminate this issue. Specific recommendations for incorporating these engineering and administrative controls into the applicable EPA, FDA, and DEA policies have also been made.^

Hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope analyses of precipitation sampled at Erlangen (southern Germany) between 2010 and 2013

Shallow groundwater aquifers are often influenced by anthropogenic contaminants or increased nutrient levels. In contrast, deeper aquifers hold potentially pristine paleo-waters that are not influenced by modern recharge. They thus represent important water resources, but their recharge history is often unknown. In this study groundwater from two aquifers in southern Germany were analyzed for their hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope compositions. One sampling campaign targeted the upper aquifer that is actively recharged by modern precipitation, whereas the second campaign sampled the confined, deep Benkersandstein aquifer. The groundwater samples from both aquifers were compared to the local meteoric water line to investigate sources and conditions of groundwater recharge. In addition, the deep groundwater was dated by tritium and radiocarbon analyses. Stable and radiogenic isotope data indicate that the deep-aquifer groundwater was not part of the hydrological water cycle in the recent human history. The results show that the groundwater is older than ~20,000 years and most likely originates from isotopically depleted melt waters of the Pleistocene ice age. Today, the use of this aquifer is strictly regulated to preserve the pristine water. Clear identification of such non-renewable paleo-waters by means of isotope geochemistry will help local water authorities to enact and justify measures for conservation of these valuable resources for future generations in the context of a sustainable water management.

Reference list of 269 sources used for exploratory search

Today's digital libraries (DLs) archive vast amounts of information in the form of text, videos, images, data measurements, etc. User access to DL content can rely on similarity between metadata elements, or similarity between the data itself (content-based similarity). We consider the problem of exploratory search in large DLs of time-oriented data. We propose a novel approach for overview-first exploration of data collections based on user-selected metadata properties. In a 2D layout representing entities of the selected property are laid out based on their similarity with respect to the underlying data content. The display is enhanced by compact summarizations of underlying data elements, and forms the basis for exploratory navigation of users in the data space. The approach is proposed as an interface for visual exploration, leading the user to discover interesting relationships between data items relying on content-based similarity between data items and their respective metadata labels. We apply the method on real data sets from the earth observation community, showing its applicability and usefulness.

Mies van der Rohe's Illinois Institute of Technology: Analysis and History of a Compositive Development = El IIT de Mies van der Rohe: análisis e historia de un proceso compositivo

The Illinois Institute of Technology (iit) campus, Chicago, by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is often considered as a transitional work, usually acknowledged as significant for the reorientation of his professional career after he emigrated to the United States. Moreover, its favorable recognition today is somehow indicative of its relevance as a model for urban intervention in the contemporary American city and for contemporary city planning in general, not to mention the profound impact that it had on the cityscape of Chicago. However, today we know it was rather the result of a close collaboration between he and Ludwig Hilberseimer —later on, to be completed with Alfred Caldwell— who merged their personal ideas and expertise in the design for the first time. In addition to this, when one tries to locate the design within its own historical context and evaluate the sources of its approach to it, some contradictions arise. The major impact of the images produced by Mies to promote its realization —widely disseminated in most contemporary architectural periodicals— probably outshined the particular circumstances in which the design was conceived. In fact, it would never be materialized as originally presented, but it was, instead, continuously reworked according to land availability in the site —a circumstance often ignored by subsequent architectural critic, that enthusiastically praised the design even before it was fully completed. One of the main consequences of looking at iit from such a standpoint is that, when historically contextualized, one can appreciate that, due to the urban scale of its implementation process, the design had to face a complex reality very different to that initially planned by the architect, often far from his actual possibilities of intervention. Such approach is in contradiction with the common description of the design as a ‘tabula rasa’ that allegedly would have been formulated on the basis of a full denial of its context. On the contrary, the ever-changing circumstances of the design motivated a necessary re-interpretation of the relation between its executed fragments, in order to keep the original identity of the whole in an ever-changing context. This situation implied a continuous transformation of the design by means of a steady re-composition of its elements: as the number of completed buildings increased in its successive stages, their relation to their site-specific context changed, in a very particular process that these lines try to delineate. Requiring decades to be erected, neither of its authors would ever see the design finished as planned, partially because of the difficulties in acquiring the extension of land that it required. Considering the study of this process as able to provide a valuable gateway to understand the urban discourse that the architects entailed, the aim of these lines is to analyze the problems that the iit campus design had to face. As a starting point, a relationship between practice and theory in the activity of the authors implied in iit campus design has been assumed. Far from being interrupted during World War ii, strong historical evidence can be found to infer that both were developed in parallel. Consequently, the historical sequence of the preserved testimonies has been put into context, as well as their transformation while Mies remained in charge for the campus Master Plan. Notably, when seen from this perspective, some ideas already expressed during his previous European practice were still present during the design process. Particularly, Mies's particular understanding of certain architectural concepts — such as those of ‘order’ and ‘structure’—can be traced paralleling the theories about urban planning from his collaborators, a fact that possibly facilitated the campus successful development. The study of the way these ideas were actually redeveloped and modified in the American urban context, added to the specific process of the implementation of iit campus design, sheds a new light for a critical interpretation of the reasons that made it possible, and of the actual responsibility of Mies's collaborators in its overall development and final completion. RESUMEN El campus del Illinois Institute of Technology (iit) de Chicago, obra del arquitecto Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, es a menudo considerado como una obra de transición que, por lo general, ha venido siendo reconocida como relevante para la reorientación de su carrera profesional posterior a su exilio en los Estados Unidos. El reconocimiento del que goza el proyecto es indicativo, de algún modo, de su importancia como modelo para la intervención urbana en la ciudad norteamericana contemporánea y el planeamiento de la ciudad contemporánea en general, sin olvidar el profundo impacto que ha tenido sobre el paisaje urbano de Chicago. Sin embargo, hoy sabemos que el resultado se benefició de su estrecha colaboración con Ludwig Hilberseimer y se completaría más tarde con la de Alfred Caldwell, quienes unieron sus ideas y experiencia profesional en el proyecto por primera vez. Asimismo, cuando se intenta ubicar el proyecto dentro de su propio contexto histórico y evaluar los criterios de su manera de abordarlo, surgen algunas contradicciones. El considerable impacto de las imágenes producidas por Mies para impulsar su ejecución —ampliamente difundidas en la mayoría de publicaciones de arquitectura de la época— probablemente eclipsó las particulares circunstancias en las que el proyecto fue concebido. De hecho, nunca llegó a materializarse tal y como fue inicialmente presentado. Por contra, fue reelaborado de manera continua, de acuerdo a la disponibilidad de suelo en el emplazamiento; una circunstancia a menudo ignorada por la crítica posterior, que elogió con entusiasmo el proyecto antes siquiera de que fuese terminado. Una de las principales consecuencias de contemplar el iit desde semejante punto de vista es que, una vez contextualizada históricamente su puesta en obra, se puede apreciar que el arquitecto tuvo que enfrentarse a una compleja realidad urbana muy diferente a la inicialmente prevista —probablemente debido a la escala del proyecto— a menudo lejos de sus posibilidades reales de intervención. Este enfoque contradice la descripción habitual del proyecto como una ‘tabula rasa’, que supuestamente se habría formulado sobre la base de una negación completa de su contexto. Por el contrario, las circunstancias cambiantes del proyecto obligaron una necesaria reinterpretación de la relación entre sus frag mentos ejecutados, con el fin de mantener la identidad original del conjunto en un contexto en constante cambio. Esta situación implicó una continua transformación del proyecto por medio de una permanente re-composición de sus elementos: según se incrementaba el número de edificios construidos en las etapas sucesivas de desarrollo del conjunto, variaba su relación con el contexto específico en que se emplazaban, en un proceso muy particular que estas líneas tratan de perfilar. Al necesitar décadas para ser levantado, ninguno de sus autores vería el conjunto terminado según lo planificado, en parte debido a las dificultades para la adquisición de la extensión de suelo que demandaba. Asumiendo que el estudio de este proceso es capaz de proporcionar una valiosa puerta de entrada para elucidar el discurso urbano asumido por los Mies, el objetivo de estas líneas es analizar los problemas a los que el proyecto del campus del iit tuvo que enfrentarse. Como punto de partida, se ha supuesto una relación entre la práctica y la teoría en la actividad de los autores implicados en el proyecto del campus del iit. Lejos de interrumpirse durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, existen evidencias históricas sólidas para deducir que ambas vertientes se desarrollaron en paralelo. En consecuencia, se ha contextualizado la secuencia histórica de los testimonios conservados, así como su transformación durante el periodo en que Mies estuvo a cargo del Plan General del campus. Significativamente, al ser contempladas bajo esta perspectiva, algunas ideas ya expresadas durante su práctica europea anterior resultan aún presentes durante la redacción del proyecto. En concreto, se puede trazar un paralelismo entre la comprensión particular de Mies de ciertos conceptos arquitectónicos —como los de ‘orden’ y ‘estructura’— y las teorías sobre el urbanismo de sus colaboradores, hecho que posiblemente facilitó el exitoso desarrollo del proyecto. El estudio de la manera en que estas ideas fueron reelaboradas y modificadas en el contexto urbano estadounidense, sumado al proceso específico de su aplicación en el proyecto del campus del iit, arroja una nueva luz para una interpretación crítica tanto de las razones que lo hicieron posible, como del papel real que los colaboradores de Mies tuvieron en su desarrollo y ejecución final.

The Mammalian faunas of the Washakie Formation, Eocene Age, of Southern Wyoming. Introduction: The geology, history, and setting / William D. Turnbull --.

v.33:no.30(1978)

American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. By Henry C. McCook.

v.2 1890

American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. By Henry C. McCook.

v.3 1893

An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions, from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102d meridian, by Nathaniel Lord Britton ... and Hon. Addison Brown ...

v. 1

American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. By Henry C. McCook.

v.3