Diet and cuisine: farming and its transformations as reflected in pottery

In the absence of direct evidence from organic residues, the character of pottery assemblages provides valuable indications of changes in diet and cuisine. This paper considers the possibility of major innovations in food-processing in the millennia following the introduction of farming, and relates these to contemporary processes of urbanisation in the Near East.Keramika nam daje dragocene podatke o spreminjanju prehrane in kuhanja, saj neposrednih organskih ostankov nimamo. V članku se ukvarjamo z možnostjo, da je v tisočletjih po uvedbi kmetovanja prišlo do velikih sprememb v pripravljanju hrane. Te spremembe primerjamo s sodobnimi procesi urbanizacije na Bližnjem vzhodu

Concepts of good practice in residential and nursing homes for elderly people

This unit has the following aims: 1. To help students get a better understanding of old age; 2. To show that old age is not just about physical changes to the body, but about other factors, such as people\u27s attitudes and ageism; and 3. To see how ageism can affect the services we provide to older people

UK construction safety: a zero paradox?

The zero accident mantra has become embedded within the safety discourse of large UK construction organisations, but the extent to which zero-focused approaches yield reductions in accident frequency is yet to be empirically investigated. By way of an evidence-based critique, we examine the relationship between major accidents and zero approaches by drawing on Health and Safety Executive accident data over a 4 year period, together with an analysis of major contractors’ safety approaches. This reveals that working on a project subject to a zero safety policy or programme actually appears to slightly increase the likelihood of having a serious life-changing accident or fatality; a possible ‘zero paradox’. Although these findings should be treated with caution, they suggest that the apparent trend towards abandoning zero amongst some large organisations is well-founded. As such, if zero policies stymie learning whilst failing to reduce accidents, the need for a countervailing discourse is clear

Responses to the vision zero articles

Responses to the vision zero article

CRETE, GREECE AND THE ORIENTIN THE THOUGHT OF GORDON CHILDE (WITH AN APPENDIX ON TOYNBEE AND SPENGLER: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE MINOANS IN EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY)

Reconstructing the patterns of thought of our intellectual ancestors requires two exercises: to bear in mind the state of knowledge at the time, and to consider the assumptions which underlay discussion of this information. Childe was both a theoretician with his own agenda (to some extent Marxist, but to a greater extent in the tradition of his teachers, John Myres and Arthur Evans) and also a great inductive prehistorian, whose reading encompassed the literatures of prehistoric Europe, the Aegean, and the Near East. His work is therefore an unusual combination of synthesis and creative historiography, which strove to make sense of interconnections and relationships between these areas. This chapter sets Childe’s attempt in the context of discussions at the time, noting the gaps in existing knowledge and the generally accepted assumptions on the part of himself and his contemporaries. The presentation of the Minoans is particularly significant, with an inherent ambiguity between their ‘oriental’ background and their role as the ‘first European civilisation’. These tensions are explored as part of a continuing coming to terms with the longer past revealed by archaeology, and still demanding explicit answers

Trends in the sand: directional evolution in the shell shape of recessing scallops (Bivalvia: Pectinidae)

Directional evolution is one of the most compelling evolutionary patterns observed in macroevolution. Yet, despite its importance, detecting such trends in multivariate data remains a challenge. In this study, we evaluate multivariate evolution of shell shape in 93 bivalved scallop species, combining geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods. Phylomorphospace visualization described the history of morphological diversification in the group; revealing that taxa with a recessing life habit were the most distinctive in shell shape, and appeared to display a directional trend. To evaluate this hypothesis empirically, we extended existing methods by characterizing the mean directional evolution in phylomorphospace for recessing scallops. We then compared this pattern to what was expected under several alternative evolutionary scenarios using phylogenetic simulations. The observed pattern did not fall within the distribution obtained under multivariate Brownian motion, enabling us to reject this evolutionary scenario. By contrast, the observed pattern was more similar to, and fell within, the distribution obtained from simulations using Brownian motion combined with a directional trend. Thus, the observed data are consistent with a pattern of directional evolution for this lineage of recessing scallops. We discuss this putative directional evolutionary trend in terms of its potential adaptive role in exploiting novel habitats

Boom for a load handling machine

A boom (12) for a load handling machine (10), the boom (12) has a mounting (20) by which the boom (12) is mounted on a body (11) of the machine (10), and first and second telescoped sections (24), the boom (12) carrying in use, at or towards its outermost end, a load handling implement (27), the second boom (24) section being telescoped within the first section and being extendible and retractable relative to the first boom sections (22) by actuating means, characterised in that at least one of the boom sections (22, 25) includes a plurality of walls (25a, 25b, 25c, 25d) each being a web made at least predominantly of a composite material, and where adjacent walls meet there being bearing members (30/35; 30a) which extend along a substantial length of the boom section (22, 25) to provide bearing surfaces (31) during sliding of the second boom section (25) relative to the first boom section (22)