Faeces deposition on Amazonian Anthrosols as assessed from 5 beta-stanols

In the Amazon Basin, within a landscape of infertile soils, fertile Anthrosols of pre-Columbian origin occur (Amazonian Dark Earths or terra preta de Indio). These soils are characterized by high amounts of charred organic matter (black carbon, biochar) and high nutrient stocks. Frequently, they were considered as sign for intensive landscape domestication by way of sedentary agriculture and as sign for large settlements in pre-Columbian Amazonia. Beyond the archaeological interest in Amazonian Dark Earths, they increasingly receive attention because it is assumed that they could serve as a model for sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics (terra preta nova). Both questions lack information about the pre-Columbian practices which were responsible for the genesis of Amazonian Dark Earths. It has often been hypothesized that deposition of faeces could have contributed to the high nutrient stocks in these soils, but no study has focussed on this question yet. We analyzed the biomarkers for faeces 5 beta-stanols as well as their precursors and their 5 alpha-isomers in Amazonian Dark Earths and reference soils to investigate the input of faeces into Amazonian Dark Earths. Using Amazonian Dark Earths as example, we discuss the application of threshold values for specific stanols to evaluate faeces deposition in archaeological soils and demonstrate an alternative approach which is based on a comparison of the concentration patterns of 5 beta-stanols with the concentration patterns of their precursors and their 5 alpha-isomers as well as with local backgrounds. The concentration patterns of sterols show that faeces were deposited on Amazonian Dark Earths. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Productivity of the suffixes -ness and -ity in 17th-century English letters : A sociolinguistic approach

Tässä työssä tutkitaan englannin kielen substantiivijohtimien -ness ja -ity produktiivisuutta 1600-luvulla kirjoitetuissa kirjeissä. Näitä lähes synonyymisiä johtimia käytetään yleensä merkitykseltään abstraktien substantiivien muodostamiseen adjektiiveista (esim. productive 'produktiivinen' > productiveness tai productivity 'produktiivisuus'). Johtimista -ity on lainautunut englantiin ranskasta ja myöhemmin myös latinasta; se on sekä fonologialtaan että semantiikaltaan läpinäkymättömämpi kuin kotoperäinen -ness. Lisäksi -ity-johdinta on käytetty enimmäkseen formaaleissa tilanteissa ja tieteellisissä teksteissä, kun taas -ness on ollut yleiskäyttöisempi. Tutkielman lähestymistapa on sosiolingvistinen: oletetaan, että johtimien produktiivisuus (eli valmius muodostaa uusia johdoksia) voi vaihdella eri sosiaaliryhmissä. Sosiolingvistiikkaa ei ole aiemmin juurikaan sovellettu produktiivisuuden tutkimiseen. Tutkimusaineistona on Helsingin yliopiston VARIENG-tutkimusyksikön laatima Corpus of Early English Correspondence, varhaisista englanninkielisistä kirjeistä koostuva korpus eli elektroninen tekstikokoelma, joka on suunniteltu historiallisen sosiolingvistiikan tarpeisiin. Korpuksen 1600-luvun kirjeitten yhteenlaskettu pituus on noin 1,4 miljoonaa sanaa, ja ne on kirjoitettu vuosina 1600-1681. Tutkielman tärkeimpänä produktiivisuusmittarina käytetään johtimien avulla muodostettujen eri sanojen eli tyyppien lukumäärää. Hypoteesina on, että -ity-tyyppien määrä on keskimääräistä pienempi huonosti koulutettujen sosiaaliryhmien kirjeissä. Näitä olivat 1600-luvulla naiset sekä alhaisimmat yhteiskuntaryhmät, kuten talonpojat ja käsityöläiset. Johtimen -ness tyyppimäärissä ei odoteta esiintyvän sosiolingvististä variaatiota. Tutkielmassa käsitellään myös tyyppimäärien vertailuun liittyviä metodologisia ongelmia. Koska vaikkapa naisilta ja miehiltä on eri määrä dataa, ei heidän tyyppimääriään voida suoraan verrata keskenään. Esimerkiksi tyyppimäärien normalisointi tuhatta sanaa kohti ei myöskään ole mahdollista, koska tyyppien lukumäärä ei kasva lineaarisesti korpuksen kasvaessa. Tutkielmassa esitetään kielitieteessä harvoin käytetty tilastotieteellinen menetelmä, jonka avulla korpuksen eri osista saatuja tyyppimääriä voidaan verrata koko korpukseen ja testata, ovatko ne tilastollisesti merkittävän pieniä tai suuria. Toisin kuin monet yleisemmät menetelmät, tämä tyyppikertymiin ja permutaatiotesteihin perustuva metodi ei vaadi yksinkertaistavien oletuksien tekemistä. Tutkimustulokset vahvistavat hypoteesin oikeaksi: naisten -ity-tyyppien lukumäärä on tilastollisesti merkittävän alhainen, kun taas -ness-tyyppien määrissä ei ole tilastollisesti merkittäviä eroja. Alhaisimpien yhteiskuntaryhmien osalta tuloksia ei saada, koska niiltä on korpuksessa liian vähän dataa. Analyysissä paljastuu myös yllättävä eroavaisuus: korpuksen ajallisesti ensimmäisessä puoliskossa (1600-1639) on merkittävän vähän -ity-tyyppejä. Tämä voidaan tulkita kielelliseksi muutokseksi: -ity-johtimen produktiivisuus kasvaa kirjeissä 1600-luvun aikana. Saattaa olla, että johtimen produktiivisuus on ensin kasvanut formaalimmissa tekstilajeissa, joista lisääntynyt käyttö on sitten levinnyt myös kirjeisiin, ehkäpä 1640-luvun sisällissodan synnyttämien kontaktiverkostojen siivittämänä. Tuloksien perusteella voidaan sanoa, että sosiolingvistinen vaihtelu on merkittävä tekijä ainakin joittenkin johtimien produktiivisuudessa, joten vaihtelua on syytä tutkia enemmänkin. Tutkimuksessa käytetty metodi mahdollistaa osakorpuksien tyyppimäärien luotettavan vertailun melko pienissäkin korpuksissa, joten se soveltuu hyvin niin historialliseen kielitieteeseen kuin sosiolingvistiikkaankin.

Feeding selectivity of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Loch Ness, Scotland

The aim of this study was to compare statistically the zooplankton assemblage ingested by brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Loch Ness with that of the zooplankton in the water column. This would allow the examination of the apparent paradox that very few copepods appear to be consumed by trout at a time of year when they are numerous and readily available as food. The investigation was limited to the crustacean zooplankters, since the Rotifera are generally so small that they are only of interest to fish in the first few days of life. 25 trout were obtained from anglers, and the stomach contents of non-"ferox" animals analysed. Samples of pelagic zooplankton were obtained approximately monthly from 30-m vertical net-hauls (mesh size 100 km). It is concluded that the variation in dietary composition with trout wet weight indicates an ontogenetic habitat shift producing spatial separation of young and older individuals.

Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Children's influence on mothers' beliefs, values, and social/cultural practices.

Obtaining mothers' perspectives and descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mothers' values, beliefs, and/or social or cultural practices, that is, the content of socialization, was the primary aim of this research. Bakhtin's (2004) metatheoretical account of dialogism was used to frame this study. From a dialogic perspective utterances (for example, the utterances of children in the present study) are events or acts and are presented as one way to view the process of socialization. In part this purpose, and the decision to utilize a qualitative research orientation, was to address a call (Lollis & Kuczynski, 1997) for qualitative or microanalytic analyses to help elucidate the processes of socialization. Mothers (N=10) in this study were able to provide descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mother and hence we have some description of the concept of bidirectionality, a well accepted, but undertheorized concept in developmental psychology. While the concepts of multiple sources of influence and contexts are salient areas of research in parent-child socialization, and were mentioned in the informants reporting these areas did not appear to be as salient in the mothers' accounts. Emotions and the meaning mothers 'derived' from the interactions did, however, take much more prominence in the described incidents.

Maximal compactness, min- imal Hausdor ness and reversibility of frames and a study on automorphism group of frames

One can do research in pointfree topology in two ways. The rst is the contravariant way where research is done in the category Frm but the ultimate objective is to obtain results in Loc. The other way is the covariant way to carry out research in the category Loc itself directly. According to Johnstone [23], \frame theory is lattice theory applied to topology whereas locale theory is topology itself". The most part of this thesis is written according to the rst view. In this thesis, we make an attempt to study about 1. the frame counterparts of maximal compactness, minimal Hausdor - ness and reversibility, 2. the automorphism groups of a nite frame and its relation with the subgroups of the permutation group on the generator set of the frame

Food geographies I: relational foodscapes and the busy-ness of being more-than-food

The study of foodscapes has spread throughout geography at the same time as food scholarship has spearheaded post-disciplinary research. This report argues that geographers have taken to post-disciplinarity to explore the ways that food is ‘more-than-food’ through analyses of the visceral nature of eating and politics and the vital (re)materializations of food’s cultural geographies. Visceral food geographies illuminate what I call the ‘contingent relationalities’ of food in the critical evaluation of the indeterminate, situated politics of ‘feeling food’ and those of the embodied collectivities of obesity. Questions remain, however, about how a visceral framework might be deployed for broader critiques within foodscapes and the study of human geography. The study of food’s vital materialisms opens up investigation into the practices of the ‘makings’ of meat, food waste and eating networks. Analysis of affect, embodiment and cultural practices is central to these theorizations and suggests consideration of the multiple materialisms of food, space and eating. There is, I contend, in the more radical, ‘post-relational’ approaches to food, the need for a note of caution. Exuberant claims for the ontological, vital agency of food should be tempered by, or at least run parallel to, critical questions of the real politik of political and practical agency in light of recent struggles over austerity, food poverty and food justice.

Níveis críticos de fósforo em Brachiaria decunbens (Stapf) Prain, Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweickerdt, Digitaria decumbens Stent, Hypharrhenia rufa (Ness) Stapf, Melinis minutiflora Pal de Beauv, Panicum maximum Jacq. e Pennisetum purpureum Schum

Plantas dos capins braquiaria brachiaria decumbens Stapf (Prain) , quicuio da Amazonia, (Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweickerdt), pangola (Digitaria decumbens Stent), jaraguá (Hyphrrhenia rufa (Ness) Stapf), gordura (Melinis minutiflora Pal de Beauv), colonião (Panicum maximum Jacq) e napier (Pennisetwn purpure um Schum) foram cultivadas em solução nutritiva completa contendo, 0,12; 0,48; 1,94; 7,75 e 31,00 mg de fósforo por litro, com o objetivo de determinar os níveis críticos internos e externos de fosforo, e avaliar a eficiência com que absorvem e utilizam o fósforo. Aos setenta e cinco dias as plantas foram coletadas, separadas em caules, folhas, bainhas e raízes. Após secagem a 80ºC, as amostras foram pesadas e analisadas para fósforo na matéria seca. Curvas representativas do peso da matéria seca e da concentração de fósforo na matéria seca em função dos níveis de fosforo da solução nutritiva foram obtidas a partir de dados calculados de equações de regressão. Verificou-se que: - As espécies diferiram quanto à necessidade externa de fósforo, sendo B. humidicola e H. rufa as menos exigentes. Seguiram-se em ordem crescente B. decumbens, M. minutiflora, P. maximum, P. purpureum e D. decumbens. - Os níveis críticos internos de fósforo variaram entre as espécies, sendo maior em D. decumbens (0,38%) que nas demais. Seguiram-se em ordem decrescente B. decumbens (0,32%), B. humidioola (0,26%), M. minutiflora (0,24%), P. maximum (o,24%) e P. purpureum (0,20%). - A eficiência de absorção e utilização, do fósforo foi maior para B. humidicola. Seguiram-se em ordem decrescente P. purpureum, P. maximum, D. decumbens , B. decumbens e M. minutiflora.

Variação sazonal do acúmulo de carboidratos e área foliar específica em Styrax ferrugineus Ness & Mart., Styrax camporum pohl. e Styrax pohlii a. dc. (Styracaceae) em áreas do cerrado paulista

Cerrado é o segundo bioma brasileiro em biodiversidade e um dos mais ameaçados de extinção pelo desmatamento, por ser uma das últimas fronteiras agrícolas do planeta. Visando contribuir para o entendimento, preservação e exploração racional desse bioma conduziu-se um estudo utilizando três espécies da família Styracaceae: Styrax ferrugineus Ness & Mart., Styrax camporum Pohl. e Styrax pohlii A. DC. O objetivo foi quantificar e medir os teores de açúcares redutores (carboidratos livres totais) e não redutores (sacarose) e de amido foliar em indivíduos adultos de Styrax ferrugineus, Styrax camporum e Styrax pohlii durante a estação úmida (fevereiro/2011), o outono (maio/2011), a estação seca (agosto/2011) e o período de retomada das chuvas (outubro/2011). Testou-se a hipótese básica fundamental de que os referidos congêneres de Styrax alteram sazonalmente os teores de carboidratos solúveis, sacarose e amido nas folhas, assim como seus valores da área foliar específica (AFE). Para tal, as principais perguntas foram: Qual espécie tem um desempenho mais modulado pela sazonalidade?; Em qual época do ano os congêneres apresentam significativa redução dos teores de carboidratos?; Existe correlação entre AFE e teores de carboidratos?. Os resultados obtidos foram submetidos à analise variância e suas médias comparadas pelo teste de Tukey a 5 % de probabilidade. A baixa disponibilidade hídrica na estação seca alterou o metabolismo de carboidratos solúveis e o conteúdo de amido da parte aérea, sobretudo para S. camporum e S. pohlii. Já S. ferrugineus, bem adaptada ao Cerrado s. str., mostrou menor relação causal entre as estações e a concentração de amido na folha. As três espécies também alteraram sua AFE, correspondendo com a sazonalidade e o local de maior ocorrência, uma vez que S. camporum e S. pohlii apresentaram menor AFE no inverno. No entanto dados de S. ferrugineus indicam que no inverno suas...

The geology of Ness and Hodgeman counties, Kansas,

Mode of access: Internet.

NESS, the National Earth Satellite Service.

Mode of access: Internet.

Hon. Jonathan Russell's letter to John P. Van Ness, Esq.

James P. Van Ness was chairman of the Jackson Corresponding Committee of the District of Columbia.