Knowledge Formation and the Great Divergence between China and Europe: Manuscripts and Printed Books, ca. 581–1840

Literature dealing with the history of Chinese printed books and printing is voluminous. Yet studies of how knowledge in general and utilitarian forms of knowledge in particular were generated, accumulated and circulated by printed books and their relationship with the long-term socio-economic transformation of China are rare. This paper aims to open up the subject by examining the long-term trends in the production of manuscripts and books and focusing on the connections between the generation and dissemination of useful knowledge in China and the production and circulation of printed books over the centuries and dynasties from circa 581 to 1840 compared to Europe. It connects trends in this indicator for knowledge formation and diffusion to economic growth, urbanization, changes in higher forms of education, the rise of literacy, the development of printing technologies, and changes in perceptions of the natural world. It concludes that human capital formation in China probably proceeded at a slower rate,which is relevant for narratives of the “divergence” between China and Europe.

Early Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100: The evidence from archaeological excavations

Overview and synthesis of early medieval Irish excavations between 1930 and the present.

Patterns of Holocene relative sea level change in the North of Britain and Ireland

Temporal and spatial patterns of relative sea level (RSL) change in the North of Britain and Ireland during the Holocene are examined. Four episodes, each defined by marked changes in the RSL trend, are identified. Each episode is marked by a rise to a culminating shoreline followed by a fall. Episode HRSL-1 dates from the Younger Dryas to early in the Holocene; HRSL-2 to HRSL-4 occurred later in the Holocene. There is extensive evidence for each episode, and on this basis the spatial distribution of the altitude data for three culminating shorelines and a shoreline formed at the time of the Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami (ca 8110 ± 100 cal. BP) is analysed. Ordinary Kriging is used to determine the general pattern, following which Gaussian Trend Surface Analysis is employed. Recognising that empirical measurements of RSL change can be unevenly distributed spatially, a new approach is introduced which enables the developing pattern to be identified. The patterns for the most widely occurring shorelines were analysed and found to be similar and common centre and axis models were developed for all shorelines. The analyses described provide models of the spatial pattern of Holocene RSL change in the area between ca 8100 cal. BP and ca 1000 cal. BP based on 2262 high resolution shoreline altitude measurements. These models fit the data closely, no shoreline altitude measurement lying more than −1.70 m or +1.82 m from the predicted value. The models disclose a similar pattern to a recently published Glacial Isostatic Adjustment model for present RSL change across the area, indicating that the overall spatial pattern of RSL change may not have varied greatly during the last ca 8000 years.

Switching between molecular switch types by module rearrangement:Ca -enabled, H-driven 'off-on-off', H-driven YES and PASS 0 as well as H, Ca-driven AND logic operations

Several logic gates and switches can be accessed from two different combinations of a single set of fluorophore, receptor and spacer components.

Flexibility of Continental Navigation and Migration in European Mallards

The ontogeny of continent-wide navigation mechanisms of the individual organism, despite being crucial for the understanding of animal movement and migration, is still poorly understood. Several previous studies, mainly conducted on passerines, indicate that inexperienced, juvenile birds may not generally correct for displacement during fall migration. Waterbirds such as the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos, Linnaeus 1758) are more flexible in their migration behavior than most migratory songbirds, but previous experiments with waterbirds have not yet allowed clear conclusions about their navigation abilities. Here we tested whether immature mallard ducks correct for latitudinal displacement during fall migration within Europe. During two consecutive fall migration periods, we caught immature females on a stopover site in southeast Sweden, and translocated a group of them ca. 1,000 km to southern Germany. We followed the movements of the ducks via satellite GPS-tracking and observed their migration decisions during the fall and consecutive spring migration. The control animals released in Ottenby behaved as expected from banding recoveries: they continued migration during the winter and in spring returned to the population's breeding grounds in the Baltics and Northwest Russia. Contrary to the control animals, the translocated mallards did not continue migration and stayed at Lake Constance. In spring, three types of movement tactics could be observed: 61.5% of the ducks (16 of 26) stayed around Lake Constance, 27% (7 of 26) migrated in a northerly direction towards Sweden and 11.5% of the individuals (3 of 26) headed east for ca. 1,000 km and then north. We suggest that young female mallards flexibly adjust their migration tactics and develop a navigational map that allows them to return to their natal breeding area.

How to classify the Oldest Old according to Health Status: A study of 1160 subjects belonging to 552 90+ Italian sibships characterised by familial longevity recruited within the GeHA EU project

The health status of the oldest old, the fastest increasing population segment worldwide, progressively becomes more heterogeneous, and this peculiarity represents a major obstacle to their classification. We compared the effectiveness of four previously proposed criteria (Franceschi et al., 2000; Evert et al., 2003; Gondo et al., 2006; Andersen-Ranberg et al., 2001) in 1160 phenotypically fully characterized Italian siblings of 90 years of age and older (90+, mean age: 93 years; age range: 90–106 years) belonging to 552 sib-ships, recruited in Northern, Central and Southern Italy within the EU-funded project GEHA, followed for a six-year-survival. Main findings were: (i) ‘‘healthy’’ subjects varied within a large range, i.e. 5.2% (Gondo), 8.7% (Evert), 17.7% (Franceschi), and 28.5% (Andersen-Ranberg); (ii) Central Italy subjects showed better health than those from Northern and Southern Italy; (iii) mortality risk was correlated with health status independently of geographical areas; and (iv) 90+ males, although fewer in number, were healthier than females, but with no survival advantage. In conclusion, we identified a modified version of Andersen-Ranberg criteria, based on the concomitant assessment of two basic domains (cognitive, SMMSE; physical, ADL), called ‘‘Simple Model of Functional Status’’ (SMFS), as the most effective proxy to distinguish healthy from not-healthy subjects. This model showed that health status was correlated within sib-ships, suggesting a familial/genetic component.

Middle to late Holocene chironomid-inferred July temperatures for the central Northwest Territories, Canada

We analyzed subfossil chironomids, sediment organic matter and sediment particle size data from a 1.11-m-long freeze core collected from Carleton Lake (unofficial name), located approximately 120 km north of the modern treeline. This well-dated core spans the last ca. 6,500 years. Two chironomid transfer functions were applied to infer mean July air temperatures. Our results indicated that the chironomid-inferred temperatures from this lake sediment record did not pass a significance test, suggesting that other factors in addition to temperature may have been important in structuring the chironomid community through time. Although not statistically significant, the chironomid-inferred temperatures from this site do follow a familiar pattern, with highest inferred temperatures occurring during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (~6–4 cal kyr BP), followed by a long-term cooling trend, which is reversed during the last 600 years. The largest change in the chironomid assemblage, which occurred between ca. 4,600 and 3,900 cal yr BP is possibly related to the well-documented northward advance and subsequent retreat of treeline in this region.

Electron excitation of Ca XVII

Electron-excitation collision strengths have been calculated for transitions between the ten lowest levels of Ca XVII (2sS, 2s2p P, 2s2p P, 2pP 2p D, 2pS ). At high impact energies, where all the channels are open, the calculation was carried out in the LS-coupling approximation by means of the R-matrix method. Transitions between the fine structure levels were then determined by application of a unitary transformation to the LS-coupled K-matrices. At low impact energies, where some of the channels may be closed, an extension of the R-matrix method was employed to take account of relativistic effects directly in the scattering equations. In general, results are in good agreement with recent distorted-wave calculations. Electron-excitation rates are given for a range of electron temperatures.

Re-inoculation of autoclaved soil as a non-sterile treatment for xenobiotic sorption and biodegradation studies

Autoclaved soil is commonly used for the study of xenobiotic sorption and as an abiotic control in biodegradation experiments. Autoclaving has been reported to alter soil physico-chemical and xenobiotic sorption characteristics such that comparison of autoclaved with non-autoclaved treatments in soil aging and bioavailability studies may yield misleading results. Experiments could be improved by using autoclaved soil re-inoculated with indigenous microorganisms as an additional or alternative non-sterile treatment for comparison with the sterile, autoclaved control. We examined the effect of autoclaving (3 x 1 h, 121°C, 103.5 KPa) on the physico-chemical properties of a silt loam soil (pH 7.2, 2.3% organic carbon) and the establishment of indigenous microorganisms reintroduced after autoclaving. Sterilisation by autoclaving significantly (p ≤ 0.05) decreased pH (0.6 of a unit) and increased concentrations of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC; nontreated = 75 mg kg^-1; autoclaved = 1526 mg kg^-1). The initial first-order rate of ¹⁴C-2,4-dichloro-UL-phenol (2,4-DCP) adsorption to non-treated, autoclaved and re-inoculated soil was rapid (K₁ = 16.8-24.4 h^-1) followed by a slower linear phase (K₂). In comparison with autoclaved soil (0.038% day^-1), K₂ values were higher for re-inoculated (0.095% day^-1) and nontreated (0.181% day^-1) soil. This was attributed to a biological process. The Freundlich adsorption coefficient (K(f)) for autoclaved soil was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher than for re-inoculated or non-treated soil. Increased adsorption was attributed to autoclaving-induced changes to soil pH and solution composition. Glucose-induced respiration of autoclaved soil after re-inoculation was initially twice that in the non-treated control, but it decreased to control levels by day 4. This reduction corresponded to a depletion of WSOC. 2,4-DCP mineralisation experiments revealed that the inoculum of nonsterile soil (0.5 g) contained 2,4-DCP-degrading microorganisms capable of survival in autoclaved soil. The lag phase before detection of significant 2,4-DCP mineralisation was reduced (from 7 days to ≤3 days) by pre-incubation of re-inoculated soils for 7 and 14 days before 2,4-DCP addition. This was attributed to the preferential utilisation of WSOC prior to the onset of 2,4-DCP mineralisation. Cumulative ¹⁴CO₂ evolved after 21 days was significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) from non-treated soil (25.3%) than re-inoculated soils (ca 45%). Experiments investigating sorption-biodegradation interactions of xenobiotics in soil require the physico-chemical properties of sterile and non-sterile treatments to be as comparable as possible. For fundamental studies, we suggest using re-inoculated autoclaved soil as an additional or alternative non-sterile treatment.