Landforms of High Mountains By Alexander Stahr and Ewald Langenscheidt. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, 2015. viii + 158 pp. ISBN 978-3-642-53714-1. (Book Review)

Reviewed: Landforms of High Mountains. By Alexander Stahr and Ewald Langenscheidt. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, 2015. viii + 158 pp. US$ 129.99. Also available as an e-book. ISBN 978-3-642-53714-1

Pictures, Privacy, Augustine, and the Mind: A Unity in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations

This paper weaves together a number of separate strands each relating to an aspect of Wittgenstein’s PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS. The first strand introduces his radical and incoherent idea of a private object. Wittgenstein in § 258 and related passages is not investigating a perfectly ordinary notion of first person privacy; but his critics have treated his question, whether a private language is possible, solely in terms of their quite separate question of how our ordinary sensation terms can be understood, in a philosophical context, to acquire meaning. Yet it is no part of his intention to demonstrate logically that ordinary sensations are not intrinsically meaningful. This is a tempting yet misleading picture, the picture also expressed through the idea of Augustine’s child who is conceptually articulate prior to learning how to talk. This picture lies behind the born Crusoe, an idea at the centre of the dichotomy between language as essentially shared and essentially shareable, a dichotomy considered here to result from a misconception of two quite separate but related aspects of Wittgenstein’s treatment of following a rule. The notion of a misleading picture, in both its pre-theoretical and philosophical aspects, also plays a crucial role in a treatment of Saul Kripke’s well-known “Postscript: Wittgenstein and Other Minds.

Loch Lomond Stadial Plateau Icefields in the Lake District, Northwest England

Detailed geomorphological mapping has revealed evidence for the development of plateau icefields in the central fells of the English Lake District during the Loch Lomond (Younger Dryas) Stadial (c. 12.9-11.5 ka BP). The largest plateau icefield system, which covered an area of approximately 55 km2 (including outlet glaciers), was centred on High Raise. To the west, smaller plateau icefields developed on Grey Knotts/Brandreth, Dale Head and Kirk Fell, covering areas of 7 km2, 3 km2 and 1 km2 respectively. The geomorphological impact of these plateau icefields appears to have been minimal on the summits, where the survival of blockfields and other frost-weathered debris (mostly peat-covered) implies the existence of protective, cold-based ice (the Loch Lomond Stadial was the last major episode of periglacial activity to have affected upland Britain). As such, these represent the first reported occurrences of Loch Lomond Stadial ice masses which were not wet-based throughout. Cold-based conditions would have been promoted by a combination of thin, slow-moving ice plus the influence of low mean annual air temperatures on the summits. Ice-moulded bedrock at some plateau edges, however, document a transition to wet-based, erosive conditions. At these locations, steeper slopes would have resulted in increased strain heating within the ice. In many cases, prominent moraine systems were produced by outlet glaciers which descended into the surrounding valleys where their margins became sediment traps for supraglacial debris and inwash. In some valleys, ice-marginal moraines record successive positions of outlet glaciers which actively backwasted towards their plateau source. Given the virtual absence of periglacial trimlines within the area, reconstructed palaeo- ice margins constitute the single most important line of evidence in the identification of plateau icefields in the geomorphological record. The virtual absence of ice-marginal control points in the upper reaches of these plateau icefield systems means that their reconstructions are somewhat speculative. Ice thicknesses on the summits (40-50 m) are estimates based on the theoretical relationship between plateau icefield depth and summit breadth. A regional Loch Lomond Stadial firn line of 500 m OD is suggested for the central Lake District. This corresponds to a mean annual precipitation of 2,000-2,500 mm, assuming a mean July temperature of

Editorial: Teaching palaeosciences to future generations

Sec. Paleoecology This article is part of the Research Topic: Teaching Palaeosciences to Future Generation

Detection of Oversized Material in a Hydrotransport Slurry Pipe Using Non-Invasive Acoustic Method

Large material, such as rocks, in a hydrotransport system of fine particles can damage pumps and equipment. A reliable, non-intrusive, and on-line acoustic method was developed for the detection of this large material. Analysis of signals recorded by microphones attached to the pipe wall allows for the reliable detection of rocks of different sizes and shapes, with no false positives

Tissues and industrial co-products formed during alginate extraction from <i>Laminaria hyperborea</i> provide different metabolite profiles depending on harvest season

The metabolic profiles of different tissues and industrially relevant co-products of alginate extraction from Laminaria hyperborea samples harvested in different seasons were assessed using Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (HILIC-MS). Positive and negative mode MS data, predicted exact mass data and matching with database and literature searches, allowed the putative identification of 57 major metabolites. The metabolites ranged from known and abundant components (e.g., iodide, mannitol, and various betaines) to components not previously noted in this species and 11 major components which could not be identified. The levels of these components varied between tissues and co-products with some metabolites seemingly specific to certain samples. The components also varied between winter and summer harvested material, perhaps reflecting seasonality in their biosynthesis and accumulation in the tissues and co-products. The approach applied in this work could assess when components of potential specific commercial interest were maximally accumulated and help plan the most efficient exploitation of the harvested biomass. It could also be used to define variation in components in L. hyperborea from different locations or potential biotopes of this species. This initial work extends our ability to understand the phenotype of seaweeds whilst also identifying new components and new commercial opportunities

Colon-available raspberry polyphenols exhibit anti-cancer effects on in vitro models of colon cancer

BACKGROUND: There is a probable association between consumption of fruit and vegetables and reduced risk of cancer, particularly cancer of the digestive tract. This anti-cancer activity has been attributed in part to anti-oxidants present in these foods. Raspberries in particular are a rich source of the anti-oxidant compounds, such as polyphenols, anthocyanins and ellagitannins. METHODS: A "colon-available" raspberry extract (CARE) was prepared that contained phytochemicals surviving a digestion procedure that mimicked the physiochemical conditions of the upper gastrointestinal tract. The polyphenolic-rich extract was assessed for anti-cancer properties in a series of in vitro systems that model important stages of colon carcinogenesis, initiation, promotion and invasion. RESULTS: The phytochemical composition of CARE was monitored using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The colon-available raspberry extract was reduced in anthocyanins and ellagitannins compared to the original raspberry juice but enriched in other polyphenols and polyphenol breakdown products that were more stable to gastrointestinal digestion. Initiation – CARE caused significant protective effects against DNA damage induced by hydrogen peroxide in HT29 colon cancer cells measured using single cell microgelelectrophoresis. Promotion – CARE significantly decreased the population of HT29 cells in the G(1 )phase of the cell cycle, effectively reducing the number of cells entering the cell cycle. However, CARE had no effect on epithelial integrity (barrier function) assessed by recording the trans-epithelial resistance (TER) of CACO-2 cell monolayers. Invasion – CARE caused significant inhibition of HT115 colon cancer cell invasion using the matrigel invasion assay. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that raspberry phytochemicals likely to reach the colon are capable of inhibiting several important stages in colon carcinogenesis in vitro

Light manipulation as a route to enhancement of antioxidant properties in red amaranth and red lettuce

We are grateful to Sarah Auld for technical support.Peer reviewe

Benzothiadiazole induces the accumulation of phenolics and improves resistance to powdery mildew in strawberries

Benzothiadiazole (BTH) enhanced the accumulation of soluble and cell-wall-bound phenolics in strawberry leaves and also improved the resistance to powdery mildew infection under greenhouse conditions. The most pronounced change was seen in the levels of ellagitannins, which increased up to 2- to 6-fold 4 days after the BTH application, but persisted only in the inoculated plants. The induction of phenolic metabolism by BTH was also reflected in the fruits, several compounds being increased in inoculated, BTH-treated plants. Basal salicylic acid (SA) content was high in strawberry leaves, but increased in a similar fashion to other phenolics after the treatments. Several phenolic compounds were identified in strawberries for the first time. For example, ellagic acid deoxyhexose, three agrimoniin-like ellagitannins, sanguiin H-10- and lambertianin C-like ellagitannins in the leaves, ellagic acid, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and kaempferol hexose in the cell-wall-bound fraction of the leaves, and kaempferol malonylglucoside in the fruits. The findings show that BTH can enhance the accumulation of phenolics in strawberry plants which may then be involved in the BTH-induced resistance to powdery mildew