Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Ancient Maya Wood Selection and Forest Exploitation at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize

The discovery of ancient wood, preserved below the seafloor in a shallow mangrove lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides the opportunity to study human-environment interaction for an aspect of society that can rarely be glimpsed. Taxonomic identification of construction wood and charcoal at Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) Chan B’i, and Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) Atz’aam Na, are reported and discussed to assess forest exploitation strategies and species selection over time. Principles of optimal foraging are applied to interpret the specific contexts of human behavior in wood selection. Insights from the Annales School of French Structural History and the temporal framework of Fernand Braudel are employed to discuss the particulars of wood selection at Paynes Creek in relation to broader socio-environmental processes and structures. Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) dominates the Early Classic construction wood assemblage. Charcoal at Chan’ Bi demonstrates a preference for four species, two mangrove and two broadleaf. The Late Classic construction wood is characterized by greater variability than the Early Classic, and an absence of mangrove species. When considered in the environmental context, identified species conform to principles of optimal foraging, with efficiency a primary concern in foraging behavior. The change in the wood assemblage over time suggests overexploitation of forest resources, resulting in deforestation of the local landscape. Land use and deforestation are linked to the wider social context in which growing inland populations created increased demand for salt, putting greater pressure on the forest resources exploited by the Paynes Creek salt works for fuel and timber

In the nation's interest: a critical discourse analysis of the issue of national security in the U.S. presidential debates of 1960 and 2000

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.Months of intense political campaigning in U.S. general election years culminate in a series of live, televised debates between the major contenders for the presidency which are produced to both inform and entertain consumers in the private domain. However, scant attention has been paid to analysis of the texts which are generated by these discursive events utilizing the approaches to media discourse advanced over the past two decades by systemic linguistics and critical discourse analysts in Europe, Australia and South America. In this contrastive analysis, the four U.S. Presidential Debates which premiered in 1960 are compared to the three debates of the most recent series of 2000 with the dual objectives of investigating how genres and discourses are drawn upon, and how shifting language and discursive practices in the media could serve as indicators of social and cultural change in the U.S. since the advent of these institutionalized events. Transcripts of the two debate series were downloaded from the home page of the Commission on Presidential Debates and a 30,000-word compilation of extracts related to the issue of national security priorities in the interview segments of the debate programming were tabulated as 3,500 clauses. The material and relational processes which constitute over 70% of the clauses are the focal point of the transitivity-based text analysis, as well as the positive and negative polarizations of the participants as depicted as in-groups and out-groups at the level of clause as representation. The results suggest that the militarized discourses of Communist containment and nuclear deterrence of the Cold War era which permeate the transcripts of the 1960 debate series have been supplanted by the discourses of despotism and nation building in the 2000 series, while traces of their successive forms of knowledge, the discourses of terrorism and preemptive warfare, also were evidenced in the texts and offer opportunities for future research endeavors in critical discourse analysis of media texts

Competitive Strategies between Formula 1 Manufacturers in the Global Mass-Market for Road Cars

This paper employs qualitative secondary source analysis to examine competitive strategies between those road car manufacturers that are also Formula 1 engine manufacturers. Particular emphasis is placed on Porter's (1980) generic strategies, the resource-based view, and the role of corporate culture and brand reputation. The external market in which these firms compete is examined. Then the internal, historical strategic development of each of the firms is reviewed. This allows future strategic recommendations to be proposed for each firm. Findings stress the importance of responding to the need for low emissions vehicles, the external threat of the large Asia-Pacific firms, and the importance of fostering a company's brand reputation

What does the evidence tell us about ‘thinking and working politically’ in development assistance?

This article provides a critical review of the evidence on ‘thinking and working politically’ (TWP) in development. Scholars and practitioners have increasingly recognised that development is a fundamentally political process, and there are concerted efforts underway to develop more politically-informed and adaptive ways of thinking and working in providing development assistance. However, while there are interesting and engaging case studies in the emerging, largely practitioner-based literature, these do not yet constitute a strong evidence base that shows these efforts can be clearly linked to more effective aid programming. Much of the evidence used so far to support these approaches is anecdotal, does not meet high standards for a robust body of evidence, is not comparative and draws on a small number of self-selected, relatively well-known success stories written primarily by programme insiders. The article discusses the factors identified in the TWP literature that are said to enable politically-informed programmes to increase aid effectiveness. It then looks at the state of the evidence on TWP in three areas: political context, sector, and organisation. The aim is to show where research efforts have been targeted so far and to provide guidance on where the field might focus next. In the final section, the article outlines some ways of testing the core assumptions of the TWP agenda more thoroughly, to provide a clearer sense of the contribution it can make to aid effectiveness

Refining the Chronology and Occupation Dynamics of the Mound Villages of South-Eastern Acre, Brazil

This paper summarises recent test excavations at five Mound Village sites in the south-eastern sector of Acre state, Brazil, including Caboquinho, Boa Esperança, Tocantins, Dos Circulos IV and V. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the excavation of this site refine the chronology of this archaeological tradition. To improve the chronologies of the mound villages in Acre for which radiocarbon dates were available, we modelled them using Bayesian statistics. We conducted the analysis in ChronoModel, which is better suited for regional models. Bayesian modelling of new radiocarbon dates from basal contexts of nine sites in the region establish the beginning of this archaeological tradition at ~ AD 952-1216.  Nine dates from ten construction phases at the Caboquinho site establish the longest sequence from ~ AD 1169-1309 to colonial times. The stratigraphy of the test units reported in this study confirms previous results indicating that mounds are the result of alternating construction and occupation episodes. Dates from the Dos Circulos IV Rectangular Mound Village ~ AD 1367-1451 indicates that Rectangular Villages are broadly contemporaneous with Circular Mound Villages. Single dates from three superimposed villages at Dos Circulos V suggest the succession of village construction. Overall, these preliminary results make a contribution to a better understanding of the timing of emergence and demise of Mound Village construction

Optical and UV Light Curves of the Accretion Disk Corona Source 4U 1822-371

The eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary 4U is the prototypical accretion disk corona (ADC) system. We have obtained new time-resolved UV spectrograms of 4U with the Hubble Space Telescope and new V- and J-band light curves with the 1.3-m SMARTS telescope at CTIO. We present an updated ephemeris for the times of the optical/UV eclipses. Model light curves do not give acceptable fits to the UV eclipses unless the models include an optically-thick ADC.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, from A Population Explosion: The Nature and Evolution of X-ray Binaries in Diverse Environment

Political strategies of external support for democratization

Political strategies of external support to democratization are contrasted and critically examined in respect of the United States and European Union. The analysis begins by defining its terms of reference and addresses the question of what it means to have a strategy. The account briefly notes the goals lying behind democratization support and their relationship with the wider foreign policy process, before considering what a successful strategy would look like and how that relates to the selection of candidates. The literature's attempts to identify strategy and its recommendations for better strategies are compared and assessed. Overall, the article argues that the question of political strategies of external support for democratization raises several distinct but related issues including the who?, what?, why?, and how? On one level, strategic choices can be expected to echo the comparative advantage of the "supporter." On a different level, the strategies cannot be divorced from the larger foreign policy framework. While it is correct to say that any sound strategy for support should be grounded in a theoretical understanding of democratization, the literature on strategies reveals something even more fundamental: divergent views about the nature of politics itself. The recommendations there certainly pinpoint weaknesses in the actual strategies of the United States and Europe but they have their own limitations too. In particular, in a world of increasing multi-level governance strategies for supporting democratization should go beyond preoccupation with just an "outside-in" approach

A panchromatic study of BLAST counterparts: total star-formation rate, morphology, AGN fraction and stellar mass

We carry out a multi-wavelength study of individual galaxies detected by the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) and identified at other wavelengths, using data spanning the radio to the ultraviolet (UV). We develop a Monte Carlo method to account for flux boosting, source blending, and correlations among bands, which we use to derive deboosted far-infrared (FIR) luminosities for our sample. We estimate total star-formation rates for BLAST counterparts with z < 0.9 by combining their FIR and UV luminosities. Star formation is heavily obscured at L_FIR > 10^11 L_sun, z > 0.5, but the contribution from unobscured starlight cannot be neglected at L_FIR < 10^11 L_sun, z < 0.25. We assess that about 20% of the galaxies in our sample show indication of a type-1 active galactic nucleus (AGN), but their submillimeter emission is mainly due to star formation in the host galaxy. We compute stellar masses for a subset of 92 BLAST counterparts; these are relatively massive objects, with a median mass of ~10^11 M_sun, which seem to link the 24um and SCUBA populations, in terms of both stellar mass and star-formation activity. The bulk of the BLAST counterparts at z<1 appear to be run-of-the-mill star-forming galaxies, typically spiral in shape, with intermediate stellar masses and practically constant specific star-formation rates. On the other hand, the high-z tail of the BLAST counterparts significantly overlaps with the SCUBA population, in terms of both star-formation rates and stellar masses, with observed trends of specific star-formation rate that support strong evolution and downsizing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 44 pages, 11 figures. The SED template for the derivation of L_FIR has changed (added new figure) and the discussion on the stellar masses has been improved. The complete set of full-color postage-stamps can be found at http://blastexperiment.info/results_images/moncelsi