The Peel Sound Formation (Devonian) of Prince of Wales and Adjacent Islands: A Preliminary Report

Reports 1966-67 summer work in a long-range study by a Univ of Ottawa group. Discrete transitions between the laterally equivalent redbed-sandstone-carbonate facies of the Peel Sound Formation were revealed and evidence is strengthened of the role of fluvial, lagoonal and marine environments, controlled by movements of the Boothia Arch, in this sequence. Vertebrate faunas found mainly in large but isolate faunules include cyathaspidids, pteraspidids, heterostraci, osteostraci, athrodires, and a few osteichthyes; they appear to be equivalent to fauna of Downtonian and Dittonian stages.Rapport préliminaire sur la formation de Peel Sound (Dévonien) dans l'île du Prince-de-Galles et les îles adjacentes. L'étude stratigraphique et sédimentologique de la formation de Peel Sound révèle des phases de passage discontinue entre trois faciès latéralement équivalents : graviers, arènes, et carbonates. On évalue le rôle des trois milieux, fluvial, de transition et marin, pour cette séquence, qui va des sédiments clastiques rouges (redbeds) aux sédiments marins, et pour ses faunes de vertébrés qui semblent toutes comparables à celles des roches Old Red Sandstone trouvées ailleurs. L'arc de Boothia a eu une importance primordiale dans le développement de ces faciès et peut-être aussi dans la distribution locale des vertébrés de même âge. Les sédiments clastiques de la formation de Peel Sound comprennent des lithologies facilement identifiables à l'aide des roches du Paléozoïque ancien et du Précambrien qui affleurent dans les îles Somerset et du Prince-de-Galles. Les faunes de vertébrés – surtout sous forme de larges faunules isolées – semblent équivalentes à celle des étages Downtonient et Dittonien. En plus de nombreux cyathaspididés et ptéraspididés, on trouve plusieurs formes nouvelles : il s'agit surtout d'hétérostraces, mais on découvre aussi des ostéostraces, des arthrodires, et quelques ostéichthyes

On probation: pickled and nothing to say

The probation service is at risk of serious harm from the discourses of toughness and cure. People subject to community rehabilitation orders are categorised first and foremost as ‘offenders’ by probation officers, their managers and governors. Not surprisingly, people on probation are increasingly viewed as bad or as misfits, either way they have nothing intrinsically valuable to contribute to their supervision nor to the work of the probation service more generally. As a counter to this exclusion and disenfranchisement, two replacement discourses are commended: first, the language of userism/consumerism; and, second, an integration of strain and rational choice crime theories, as an alternative to the ‘psychic prisons’ of conservatism and individual positivism fast enveloping the service

Direct optimization and multiple alignment of 28S D2-D3 rDNA sequences: problems with indels on the way to a molecular phylogeny of the cryptine ichneumon wasps (Insecta: Hymenoptera)

A molecular phylogeny of the Cryptinae based on the D2–D3 region of the 28S rDNA gene, including 176 cryptines representing 139 genera and an additional 77 outgroup genera, is presented. Direct optimization and multiple alignment each with a range of gap/substitution parameters were employed. The informal higher grouping of the ichneumonids were supported, but the relationship of the Ichneumoninae and Cryptinae was not resolved. Cryptinae tribes were supported but many genera formed constant groups that did not follow earlier subtribal divisions. We investigated artifactual placements of, e.g., Agriotypinae and Brachycyrtinae, and showed that they do not possess molecular synapomophies with the Ichenumoninae where direct optimization places them. The sequences of anomalous placed taxa were markedly longer (or in some cases shorter) than those of most other taxa, and this is explained by homoplastic indels at "hot spots" in the absence of large numbers of informative substitutions. We show that multiple alignment generally resulted in taxa with large insertions or deletions being placed in more plausible positions. The relationship of the genus Alomya is also explored