A Multi-Phase Anglo-Saxon Site in Ewelme

New evidence is presented for a middle Anglo-Saxon ‘productive’ site on hilly ground north-west of Ewelme in south Oxfordshire. Coins and other finds from metal-detecting activity suggest the existence of an eighth- to ninth-century meeting or trading point located close to the Icknield Way. Th is place takes on an added significance because of its proximity to an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery and probably a late Anglo-Saxon meeting place. Th e authors provide an initial assessment of the site, its likely chronological development and its relationship with wider Anglo-Saxon activity in the upper Thames region and beyond. Some suggestions are made about the implications of the existence of such a long-lasting or recurring centre of activity for early medieval inhabitants’ perceptions of landscape

Australian foreign policy and news media: national identity and the sale of uranium to India and China

Published online: 02 Mar 2016This article explores the utility of a constructivist-media communications approach to understanding the production of national identity in Australia through a case study of the Australian Labor Party's 2011 decision to allow uranium sales to India. The decision came at a time when Australian foreign policy, political debate and news media discourse were increasingly concerned with India and China, as ‘rising’ superpowers whose prominence offered opportunities for economic prosperity even as it undermined settled regional power balances. This article finds that, rather than a matter of rational strategy, the decision was made in a context of considerable anxiety about the ‘Asian century’ as the Australian public, politicians and policymakers struggled to comprehend geopolitical change. It further argues that the constructivist project in international relations can benefit from engaging with insights from media and communications methodologies and by taking a less hierarchical approach to ‘elite’ and ‘non-elite’ discursive agency.Alexander E. Davis & Stephanie Brooke

Trade unions and democracy in South Africa: union organisational challenges and solidarities in a time of transformation

Based on a nationwide survey, this article focuses on the perceptions of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) members on two of the central issues that have dominated debates on the South African labour movement: the advisability of COSATU's Alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the extent of internal union democracy. The survey revealed that the ANC-Alliance continues to enjoy mass support, while internal democracy remains robust. At the same time, the federation faces the challenges of coping with — and contesting — neoliberal reforms, retaining and re-energizing rank and file in the post-apartheid era, and in reaching out to potential members in the informal sector and other areas of insecure work

A Combined EIS-NVSS Survey Of Radio Sources (CENSORS) III: Spectroscopic observations

The Combined EIS-NVSS Survey Of Radio Sources (CENSORS) is a 1.4GHz radio survey selected from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and complete to a flux-density of 7.2mJy. It targets the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) Patch D, which is a 3 by 2 square degree field centred on 09 51 36.0, -21 00 00 (J2000). This paper presents the results of spectroscopic observations of 143 of the 150 CENSORS sources. The primary motivation for these observations is to achieve sufficient spectroscopic completeness so that the sample may be used to investigate the evolution of radio sources. The observations result in secure spectroscopic redshifts for 63% of the sample and likely redshifts (based on a single emission line, for example) for a further 8%. Following the identification of the quasars and star-forming galaxies in the CENSORS sample, estimated redshifts are calculated for the remainder of the sample via the K-z relation for radio galaxies. Comparison of the redshift distribution of the CENSORS radio sources to distributions predicted by the various radio luminosity function evolution models of Dunlop & Peacock 1990, results in no good match. This demonstrates that this sample can be used to expand upon previous work in that field.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. This version has some reduced resolution figures and 13 associated gif files. A version with all figures incorporated (at full resolution) is available at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~pnb/papers/censors_spectro.pd

Theatres of Closure: Process and Performance in Inhumation Burial Rites in Early Medieval Britain

Inhumation burials are recorded in Britain and Europe during excavations in a standardized way, especially graves of early medieval date. Just a limited number of attributes are usually foregrounded and these mainly concern skeletal identification, the grave plan and, when a burial is furnished, a list of objects, particularly metalwork, as well as occasional reference to burial structures, if present. In this paper, we argue that concealed within these recorded details are attributes that often receive little attention, but which can provide evidence for community investment in the individual funerary rite. These include grave orientation, grave morphology, the body position and the empty spaces in the grave, as well as categories of material culture. We argue here that these factors enable us to define communal burial profiles and can facilitate the identification of group perceptions and actions in dealing with death. By capitalizing on these additional aspects of funerary ritual, archaeologists can move away from a general dependency on well-furnished burials as the main stepping-off point for discussion of social and cultural issues. This has particular relevance for regions where unfurnished burial rites are the norm and where furnished rites do not rely on a wealth of metalwork

Interpreting Rock-Cut Grave Cemeteries: the early medieval necropolis and enclosure of São Gens, Portugal

EXCAVATION AT SÃO GENS (Guarda district) in central Portugal has revealed an early medieval rock-cut grave cemetery and settlement, along with Roman and prehistoric evidence. The site presents an exceptionally rich palimpsest of archaeological monuments. This paper reviews the findings and seeks to address the problem of interpreting rock-cut grave cemeteries, by describing a spatial analytical methodology that draws on comparisons with early medieval cemeteries in England, as a means of enhancing the information deficit of such necropolises. In the light of these analyses, an interpretation of the São Gens site is offered in conclusion

Hole-depletion of ladders in Sr14_{14}Cu24_{24}O41_{41} induced by correlation effects

The hole distribution in Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ is studied by low temperature polarization dependent O K Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure measurements and state of the art electronic structure calculations that include core-hole and correlation effects in a mean-field approach. Contrary to all previous analysis, based on semi-empirical models, we show that correlations and antiferromagnetic ordering favor the strong chain hole-attraction. For the remaining small number of holes accommodated on ladders, leg-sites are preferred to rung-sites. The small hole affinity of rung-sites explains naturally the 1D - 2D cross-over in the phase diagram of (La,Y,Sr,Ca)$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

An industry-level analysis of potential intangible and economic impacts affecting Australian pork producers during an emergency animal disease control program

Emerging and transboundary diseases have been responsible for dramatic impacts on human health, the economy, trade, animal health and biodiversity in Australia and around the world. The Australian pig industry’s health status provides it with a competitive advantage. Freedom from major transboundary diseases – such as foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever – secures access to international markets and enables producers to invest in their businesses free from the complication of major disease incursions, ensures the industry’s future sustainability and allows it to meet community standards for food production. Planning for a disease response is driven by many factors. Among these factors, the cost of the response is often the single most important driving factor. However, cost involves more than the actual financial cost of the response. It involves a number of intangible elements and the views of a diverse range of stakeholders. For example, human health, environmental and sociological consequences need to be considered. Currently, a unifying framework for such decision-making is unavailable. Application of a newly developed framework to several diseases that concern the Australian pig industry will facilitate dialogue on what is the best response to minimize the impact of incursions of such diseases. This novel framework for economic analysis of animal health emergencies incorporates risk assessment, tangible and intangible elements and a value-added cost-benefit analysis. These case studies assess the comparability, applicability and accountability of different response actions through producer perspectives. An example of the application of this framework for a disease which threatens the Australian pig industry will be presented

Preserving Liveness Guarantees from Synchronous Communication to Asynchronous Unstructured Low-Level Languages

In the implementation of abstract synchronous communication in asynchronous unstructured low-level languages, e.g. using shared variables, the preservation of safety and especially liveness properties is a hitherto open problem due to inherently different abstraction levels. Our approach to overcome this problem is threefold: First, we present our notion of handshake refinement with which we formally prove the correctness of the implementation relation of a handshake protocol. Second, we verify the soundness of our handshake refinement, i.e., all safety and liveness properties are preserved to the lower level. Third, we apply our handshake refinement to show the correctness of all implementations that realize the abstract synchronous communication with the handshake protocol. To this end, we employ an exemplary language with asynchronous shared variable communication. Our approach is scalable and closes the verification gap between different abstraction levels of communication