Reef response to sea-level and environmental changes during the last deglaciation: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 310, Tahiti Sea Level

The last deglaciation is characterized by a rapid sea-level rise and coeval abrupt environmental changes. The Barbados coral reef record suggests that this period has been punctuated by two brief intervals of accelerated melting (meltwater pulses, MWP), occurring at 14.08-13.61 ka and 11.4-11.1 ka (calendar years before present), that are superimposed on a smooth and continuous rise of sea level. Although their timing, magnitude, and even existence have been debated, those catastrophic sea-level rises are thought to have induced distinct reef drowning events. The reef response to sea-level and environmental changes during the last deglacial sea-level rise at Tahiti is reconstructed based on a chronological, sedimentological, and paleobiological study of cores drilled through the relict reef features on the modern forereef slopes during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 310, complemented by results on previous cores drilled through the Papeete reef. Reefs accreted continuously between 16 and 10 ka, mostly through aggradational processes, at growth rates averaging 10 mm yr-1. No cessation of reef growth, even temporary, has been evidenced during this period at Tahiti. Changes in the composition of coralgal assemblages coincide with abrupt variations in reef growth rates and characterize the response of the upward-growing reef pile to nonmonotonous sea-level rise and coeval environmental changes. The sea-level jump during MWP 1A, 16 ± 2 m of magnitude in ~350 yr, induced the retrogradation of shallow-water coral assemblages, gradual deepening, and incipient reef drowning. The Tahiti reef record does not support the occurrence of an abrupt reef drowning event coinciding with a sea-level pulse of ~15 m, and implies an apparent rise of 40 mm yr-1 during the time interval corresponding to MWP 1B at Barbados. © 2012 Geological Society of America

Book Review: Staging Intercultural Ireland: New Plays and Practitioner Perspectives

All scholars of world literature, especially those trained in the traditions of Western thought, must ultimately grapple with the question of privilege: In opening up a space for all voices to be heard, care must be taken to avoid coopting those voices. Academics must always be aware of our own motivations so that discussions of multi-cultural literature do not appear anthropological, mere examinations of other cultures from a worldview that seems ubiquitous but which comes from a place of unconscious-perhaps- superiority. Critics from Edward Said, in Orientalism, to Gayatri Spivak, in Can the Subaltern Speak? to Chinua Achebe in Image of Africa have famously warned against such tendencies, as the perspective of Western privilege encourages us to remain external to our projects, never fully committing ourselves to learning from others, so convinced are we that we are teachers

The other Saint Bernard: The 'troubled and varied career' of Bernard of Abbeville, Abbot of Tiron

Geoffrey Grossus' lengthy life of Bernard of Abbeville leaves unanswered many questions. Comparison with contemporary sources suggests that Bernard Was a career churchman with ail interest in ascetism and tire apostolic life, who left his original house in Poitiers because, of resistance to reforms that he had introduced as abbot. A successful search, for a patron enabled him to establish all entirely new community at Tiron in the Perche, where he was able to implement his ideas, although the community did not remain at the forefront of monastic thinking after the death of its charismatic founder is 1116

Infering Air Quality from Traffic Data using Transferable Neural Network Models

This work presents a neural network based model for inferring air quality from traffic measurements. It is important to obtain information on air quality in urban environments in order to meet legislative and policy requirements. Measurement equipment tends to be expensive to purchase and maintain. Therefore, a model based approach capable of accurate determination of pollution levels is highly beneficial. The objective of this study was to develop a neural network model to accurately infer pollution levels from existing data sources in Leicester, UK. Neural Networks are models made of several highly interconnected processing elements. These elements process information by their dynamic state response to inputs. Problems which were not solvable by traditional algorithmic approaches frequently can be solved using neural networks. This paper shows that using a simple neural network with traffic and meteorological data as inputs, the air quality can be estimated with a good level of generalisation and in near real-time. By applying these models to links rather than nodes, this methodology can directly be used to inform traffic engineers and direct traffic management decisions towards enhancing local air quality and traffic management simultaneously.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Odd fellows: Alan Riach examines the colourful work of William Lithgow and Thomas Urquhart

No abstract available

An \u3cem\u3em\u3c/em\u3e-Carboranedicarboxylic Acid Dianilide

The crystal structure of the \u27non hydrogen-bonded\u27 (according to IR data) polymorph of 1,7-bis(phenylcarbamoyl)-1,7-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane(12), C16-H22B10N2O2, has been determined. The two phenylamide groups have a Z configuration [the torsion angles 0-C-N-C are -2.3 (5) and -3.0 (5)°]. As a result both \u27active\u27 protons of these groups are almost completely shielded by other H atoms of the neighbouring carborane nucleus and phenyl substituents, and, therefore, no hydrogen-bonding contacts are found

Displaying Lives: the Narrative of Objects in Biographical Exhibitions

Biographical exhibitions are a museum practice that asks for critical consideration. Grounding the argument in critical theory, social studies and museum theory, the article explores the narrative function of objects in biographical exhibitions by addressing the social significance of objects in relation to biography and their relevance when presented into an exhibition display. Central is the concept of objects as ‘biographical relics’ that are culturally fetishized in biographical narratives. This raises questions about biographical reliability and the cultural role that such objects plays in exhibition narratives as bearers of reality and as metonymical icons of the biographical subject. The article considers examples of biographical exhibitions of diverse figures such as Gregor Mendel, Madame de Pompadour and Roland Barthes, and the role that personal items, but also portraits and photographs, play in them

Archaeologies of Sound: Reconstructing Louis MacNeice’s Wartime Radio Publics

This article approaches the problem of reconstructing the culturally situated audience experience of radio programming through the example of Louis MacNeice's wartime radio broadcasts, notably "Alexander Nevsky" and "Christopher Columbus". The article draws on audience research reports, internal correspondence, and close analysis of the broadcasts themselves in order to triangulate a listening experience that, though it ultimately cannot be recovered, can be better understood through its proximate cultural traces