A Multi-Approach Investigation of Late Quaternary Lacustrine Sediments in Southern Jordan

Past lacustrine and wetland sediments from arid regions, sensitive to changes in precipitation and evaporation, are important archives of past environmental variability. This thesis presents new data that contribute to the Quaternary records of Jordan through multi-proxy analyses of sediment archives from two study sites in southern Jordan; the Gharandal Valley and the Dead Sea Basin. Through detailed analyses of the sediments from the two study sites, the depositional environments, environmental conditions, and how these changed, and to some extent their timing were reconstructed. Sediments from the Gharandal Valley were investigated and collected from five different sedimentary sections (> 30 m sediments) and analyzed for particle size distribution, organic and carbonate content (through LOI), and elemental (through XRF) and minerogenic (through magnetic susceptibility) composition. The results indicated complex tectonic/climate-driven depositional environments prevailed in the valley, during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, alternating from fluvial in-wash to fluvio-aeolian and wetland deposition following the proposed valley outlet damming. The GH1 and GH2, the main sections in the valley, record the environmental aggradation from stream-fed wetland depositional conditions where thin wetland beds developed following in-wash events, in the lower parts, into more consistent wetland (wetter) conditions towards the top of the sections. These cycles were identified in 16 fining upward primary associations in the GH1 section and 8 fining upward primary associations in the GH2 section. The age estimate (MIS6) is consistent with wet phases recorded elsewhere in the Levant and increased monsoon precipitation recorded in southern Arabia suggesting that an influence of the two systems (the northeastern Mediterranean Cyclones and the southern tropical monsoon), which do not reach the valley site today, may have contributed to maintaining the wetland conditions in the valley during glacial stadials and interstadials. From the eastern side of the Dead Sea Basin (DSB), the lacustrine section DS1 was investigated. The section is primarily comprised of laminated pale and dark laminae and laminated detrital laminae with a thick gypsum-dominated bed. Considering the different nature of the sediments, the DS1 bulk sediments were first analysed using proxies mentioned earlier for the Gharandal Valley. In addition, the pale laminae were analysed for the carbonate isotope composition (δ13C and δ18O), mineralogy (through XRD) and carbonate crystal habit (through SEM EDS) analysis. Through preliminary U/Th dating of aragonite laminae, the DS1 section age was estimated at ca. 40 ka to 37 ka (MIS3). This places the section as part of the Lake Lisan Middle Member (ca. 58 ka to 31ka). Based on the sediment’s lithology and the multi-proxy records, the environmental history of the DS1 section, of enhanced/reduced freshwater input into the lake (P/E ratio) at millennial, centennial and close to annual scales, is recorded in four distinct lithostratigraphic units. The units record relatively high lake levels, then lake level lowering and the deposition of the gypsum bed, a lake re-filling stage and return to stable relatively high lake levels. The environmental proxies suggest that during Greenland Interstadials (GIs), the lake level was relatively higher than during Stadials (GSs). The gypsum bed, the lowest relative lake level in the record, probably coincides with Heinrich Event 4. At centennial scales, the environmental proxies apparently record lake level changes corresponding to the GIs indicating variable amounts of freshwater reaching the DSB. An initial assessment of the moisture source was done based on the aragonite initial 234U/238U ratios variability and indicated the dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean cyclones in driving the deposition of the DS1 section. The results of this thesis emphasize southern Jordan’s sedimentological and palaeoclimatic heterogeneity and the complexity of the past environmental records that can be recovered. This indicates the need for continued investigations and particularly more dating control, based on more comprehensive and detailed approaches in order to achieve a better assessment of the Quaternary sedimentological and environmental variability in the region

Media in Armed Conflicts: Is It Still a Good Idea?

[Purpose] Many recent conflicts in different places in the world are considered as a perfect illustration of the growing risks faced by media working in conflict zones. It is therefore important to call renewed attention to the fact that direct harms against the media and its role are illegal based on the principles of international humanitarian law, which is the law that regulates the conduct of war (jus in bello) and protects civilian persons and objects, as long as they are not making an effective contribution to military action. The role of media and its great value cannot be considered a legitimate target in conflicts. Respectively, the media also benefit from all measures that must be taken by the conflicting parties measures –not confined to them alone– such as the principle of proportionality and the obligation to give a warning. As of late, many books and articles have been addressing the media in the time of conflicts. They all appear to discuss it either from one perspective, or consider its role concerning one single issue, but not daring to dive too deeply into specific related issues to the media in a time of conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence on how media plays a role in armed conflicts so that can help to prevent insecurity and violent conflict, and contribute to peace and justice. It aims to help recognize the importance of media and its positive and negative potential about conflicts. [Methodology] The paper will examine the available literature on this subject specifically focusing on the challenges faced by media and underlining the knowledge gaps around media in armed conflicts. [Findings] We have directed ourselves to approach the topic from a different perspective. We hope to accomplish it, in part, by introducing the role of media in armed conflicts and whether it is still a good idea

20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia.

The Fertile Crescent, its hilly flanks and surrounding drylands has been a critical region for studying how climate has influenced societal change, and this review focuses on the region over the last 20,000 years. The complex social, economic, and environmental landscapes in the region today are not new phenomena and understanding their interactions requires a nuanced, multidisciplinary understanding of the past. This review builds on a history of collaboration between the social and natural palaeoscience disciplines. We provide a multidisciplinary, multiscalar perspective on the relevance of past climate, environmental, and archaeological research in assessing present day vulnerabilities and risks for the populations of southwest Asia. We discuss the complexity of palaeoclimatic data interpretation, particularly in relation to hydrology, and provide an overview of key time periods of palaeoclimatic interest. We discuss the critical role that vegetation plays in the human-climate-environment nexus and discuss the implications of the available palaeoclimate and archaeological data, and their interpretation, for palaeonarratives of the region, both climatically and socially. We also provide an overview of how modelling can improve our understanding of past climate impacts and associated change in risk to societies. We conclude by looking to future work, and identify themes of "scale" and "seasonality" as still requiring further focus. We suggest that by appreciating a given locale's place in the regional hydroscape, be it an archaeological site or palaeoenvironmental archive, more robust links to climate can be made where appropriate and interpretations drawn will demand the resolution of factors acting across multiple scales. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Water as Imagined and RepresentedScience of Water > Water and Environmental ChangeWater and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems

A Multi-Approach Investigation of Late Quaternary Lacustrine Sediments in Southern Jordan

Past lacustrine and wetland sediments from arid regions, sensitive to changes in precipitation and evaporation, are important archives of past environmental variability. This thesis presents new data that contribute to the Quaternary records of Jordan through multi-proxy analyses of sediment archives from two study sites in southern Jordan; the Gharandal Valley and the Dead Sea Basin. Through detailed analyses of the sediments from the two study sites, the depositional environments, environmental conditions, and how these changed, and to some extent their timing were reconstructed. Sediments from the Gharandal Valley were investigated and collected from five different sedimentary sections (> 30 m sediments) and analyzed for particle size distribution, organic and carbonate content (through LOI), and elemental (through XRF) and minerogenic (through magnetic susceptibility) composition. The results indicated complex tectonic/climate-driven depositional environments prevailed in the valley, during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, alternating from fluvial in-wash to fluvio-aeolian and wetland deposition following the proposed valley outlet damming. The GH1 and GH2, the main sections in the valley, record the environmental aggradation from stream-fed wetland depositional conditions where thin wetland beds developed following in-wash events, in the lower parts, into more consistent wetland (wetter) conditions towards the top of the sections. These cycles were identified in 16 fining upward primary associations in the GH1 section and 8 fining upward primary associations in the GH2 section. The age estimate (MIS6) is consistent with wet phases recorded elsewhere in the Levant and increased monsoon precipitation recorded in southern Arabia suggesting that an influence of the two systems (the northeastern Mediterranean Cyclones and the southern tropical monsoon), which do not reach the valley site today, may have contributed to maintaining the wetland conditions in the valley during glacial stadials and interstadials. From the eastern side of the Dead Sea Basin (DSB), the lacustrine section DS1 was investigated. The section is primarily comprised of laminated pale and dark laminae and laminated detrital laminae with a thick gypsum-dominated bed. Considering the different nature of the sediments, the DS1 bulk sediments were first analysed using proxies mentioned earlier for the Gharandal Valley. In addition, the pale laminae were analysed for the carbonate isotope composition (δ13C and δ18O), mineralogy (through XRD) and carbonate crystal habit (through SEM EDS) analysis. Through preliminary U/Th dating of aragonite laminae, the DS1 section age was estimated at ca. 40 ka to 37 ka (MIS3). This places the section as part of the Lake Lisan Middle Member (ca. 58 ka to 31ka). Based on the sediment’s lithology and the multi-proxy records, the environmental history of the DS1 section, of enhanced/reduced freshwater input into the lake (P/E ratio) at millennial, centennial and close to annual scales, is recorded in four distinct lithostratigraphic units. The units record relatively high lake levels, then lake level lowering and the deposition of the gypsum bed, a lake re-filling stage and return to stable relatively high lake levels. The environmental proxies suggest that during Greenland Interstadials (GIs), the lake level was relatively higher than during Stadials (GSs). The gypsum bed, the lowest relative lake level in the record, probably coincides with Heinrich Event 4. At centennial scales, the environmental proxies apparently record lake level changes corresponding to the GIs indicating variable amounts of freshwater reaching the DSB. An initial assessment of the moisture source was done based on the aragonite initial 234U/238U ratios variability and indicated the dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean cyclones in driving the deposition of the DS1 section. The results of this thesis emphasize southern Jordan’s sedimentological and palaeoclimatic heterogeneity and the complexity of the past environmental records that can be recovered. This indicates the need for continued investigations and particularly more dating control, based on more comprehensive and detailed approaches in order to achieve a better assessment of the Quaternary sedimentological and environmental variability in the region

Advances in Contextual Action Recognition: Automatic Cheating Detection Using Machine Learning Techniques

Teaching and exam proctoring represent key pillars of the education system. Human proctoring, which involves visually monitoring examinees throughout exams, is an important part of assessing the academic process. The capacity to proctor examinations is a critical component of educational scalability. However, such approaches are time-consuming and expensive. In this paper, we present a new framework for the learning and classification of cheating video sequences. This kind of study aids in the early detection of students’ cheating. Furthermore, we introduce a new dataset, “actions of student cheating in paper-based exams”. The dataset consists of suspicious actions in an exam environment. Five classes of cheating were performed by eight different actors. Each pair of subjects conducted five distinct cheating activities. To evaluate the performance of the proposed framework, we conducted experiments on action recognition tasks at the frame level using five types of well-known features. The findings from the experiments on the framework were impressive and substantial

The palaeoenvironmental potential of the eastern Jordanian desert basins (Qe'an)

This paper presents a summary of work undertaken by the authors and their teams on a series of Qe'an (plural of Qa’), in the Badia of eastern Jordan. These basins are foci for settlement in the region, with the sites described here (Shubayqa, Wisad and the Qa’ Qattafi) edged by archaeological sites dating from the late Epipalaeolithic (ca. 14,500 - 11,600 cal BP) and the Neolithic (ca. 11,700 - 6100 cal BP), and in areas still used by people today as seasonal wetlands for watering animals and growing cereal. We assess here the potential for the Qe'an sediments to provide what would be rare continuous palaeoenvironmental records for this part of SW Asia. The paper presents the first dates from the Qe'an of this region and the outline sedimentology. Much of the fill is of Holocene age, which leads to discussion of climate and landscape change over the last 15,000 years, particularly due to the close geographical relationship between these basins and archaeology. Our optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating of the basin fill suggests that there was significantly more space in the landscape for water storage in the early Holocene, which may have therefore provided this resource for people and their livestock or game for a longer duration each year than that seen today. Linked to this are hypotheses of a more vegetated landscape during this time period. Given the environmentally marginal nature of our study area subtle changes in landscape and/or climate, and human exploitation of these resources, could have led to significant, and likely detrimental for its inhabitants, environmental impacts for the region, such as desertification. Our data are suggestive of desertification occurring, and sets up a clear hypothesis for testing by future work in the region

20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia.

The Fertile Crescent, its hilly flanks and surrounding drylands has been a critical region for studying how climate has influenced societal change, and this review focuses on the region over the last 20,000 years. The complex social, economic, and environmental landscapes in the region today are not new phenomena and understanding their interactions requires a nuanced, multidisciplinary understanding of the past. This review builds on a history of collaboration between the social and natural palaeoscience disciplines. We provide a multidisciplinary, multiscalar perspective on the relevance of past climate, environmental, and archaeological research in assessing present day vulnerabilities and risks for the populations of southwest Asia. We discuss the complexity of palaeoclimatic data interpretation, particularly in relation to hydrology, and provide an overview of key time periods of palaeoclimatic interest. We discuss the critical role that vegetation plays in the human-climate-environment nexus and discuss the implications of the available palaeoclimate and archaeological data, and their interpretation, for palaeonarratives of the region, both climatically and socially. We also provide an overview of how modelling can improve our understanding of past climate impacts and associated change in risk to societies. We conclude by looking to future work, and identify themes of "scale" and "seasonality" as still requiring further focus. We suggest that by appreciating a given locale's place in the regional hydroscape, be it an archaeological site or palaeoenvironmental archive, more robust links to climate can be made where appropriate and interpretations drawn will demand the resolution of factors acting across multiple scales. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Water as Imagined and RepresentedScience of Water > Water and Environmental ChangeWater and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems