Samuel and his Magic

Pinyon pines respond chemically to above- and belowground herbivory and pathogens by synthesizing and emitting secondary compounds known as monoterpenes (C10). However, whether aboveground herbivory can alter belowground monoterpene concentrations and the ecological importance of this potential systemic response remain uncertain. The overarching goal of my thesis is to determine whether foliar damage elicits an induced response by altering monoterpene concentrations in needles and roots, thus potentially changing the susceptibility of pinyon pines to needle herbivores and root pathogens. I used mechanical damage (M), the application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and the combination of the two treatments (MeJA+M) on pinyon pine seedlings as proxies for foliar herbivore damage and assessed needle and root monoterpene concentrations periodically over 20 days following the treatments. Overall, my results show that simulated foliar herbivory significantly induced monoterpene production in both needles and roots. However, the specific compounds induced differed between needles and roots, and the direction and magnitude of these changes resulted in a significant damage effect on total needle monoterpenes, but not on total root monoterpenes. The significant increase observed for most of the needle and root individual compounds was due to the application of MeJA. Time and interaction of time and damage treatment did not exhibit a significant effect on most monoterpene compounds, which may be due to variation among individual seedlings at each time interval, resulting substantial variation in monoterpene concentrations. For future work, more detailed analyses are needed to be able to assess the time effect. Moreover, the effectiveness of the induced responses in both needles and roots in defense against future herbivory and root pathogens should be a focus of future investigations

Das Eigenkapitalverständnis des IASB

Aufgrund einer im Jahr 2002 erlassenen EU-Verordnung sind kapitalmarktorientierte Konzernmutterunternehmen seit dem 01.01.2005 zur Bilanzierung nach IFRS verpflichtet (vgl. Littkemann/Schulte/Kraft 2005: 285). Auch nicht kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen haben aufgrund von Wahlrechten in der Verordnung die Möglichkeit, ihre Konzern- und Einzelabschlüsse freiwillig nach IFRS aufzustellen. Dadurch gerät die internationale Rechnungslegung mehr und mehr auch in das Betrachtungsfeld mittelständischer Unternehmen. Vor diesem Hintergrund versuchte diese Arbeit zu klären, inwieweit die IFRS auch für mittelständische Unternehmen anwendbar sind. Die Untersuchung hat ergeben, dass die auf die Informationsbedürfnisse der Anteilseigner kapitalmarktorientierter Unternehmen ausgerichteten IFRS auch diverse Vorteile für mittelständische Unternehmen bieten (vgl. Winkeljohann/ Ull 2004: 430). --

A simulation of the Neolithic transition in the Indus valley

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was one of the first great civilizations in prehistory. This bronze age civilization flourished from the end of the fourth millennium BC. It disintegrated during the second millennium BC; despite much research effort, this decline is not well understood. Less research has been devoted to the emergence of the IVC, which shows continuous cultural precursors since at least the seventh millennium BC. To understand the decline, we believe it is necessary to investigate the rise of the IVC, i.e., the establishment of agriculture and livestock, dense populations and technological developments 7000--3000 BC. Although much archaeological information is available, our capability to investigate the system is hindered by poorly resolved chronology, and by a lack of field work in the intermediate areas between the Indus valley and Mesopotamia. We thus employ a complementary numerical simulation to develop a consistent picture of technology, agropastoralism and population developments in the IVC domain. Results from this Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator show that there is (1) fair agreement between the simulated timing of the agricultural transition and radiocarbon dates from early agricultural sites, but the transition is simulated first in India then Pakistan; (2) an independent agropastoralism developing on the Indian subcontinent; and (3) a positive relationship between archeological artifact richness and simulated population density which remains to be quantified.Comment: Chapter manuscript revision submitted to AGU monograph "Climates, landscapes and civilizations", 6 pages, 2 figure

Network analysis of a corpus of undeciphered Indus civilization inscriptions indicates syntactic organization

Archaeological excavations in the sites of the Indus Valley civilization (2500-1900 BCE) in Pakistan and northwestern India have unearthed a large number of artifacts with inscriptions made up of hundreds of distinct signs. To date there is no generally accepted decipherment of these sign sequences and there have been suggestions that the signs could be non-linguistic. Here we apply complex network analysis techniques to a database of available Indus inscriptions, with the aim of detecting patterns indicative of syntactic organization. Our results show the presence of patterns, e.g., recursive structures in the segmentation trees of the sequences, that suggest the existence of a grammar underlying these inscriptions.Comment: 17 pages (includes 4 page appendix containing Indus sign list), 14 figure

Landscapes of Urbanization and De-Urbanization: A Large-Scale Approach to Investigating the Indus Civilization's Settlement Distributions in Northwest India.

Survey data play a fundamental role in studies of social complexity. Integrating the results from multiple projects into large-scale analyses encourages the reconsideration of existing interpretations. This approach is essential to understanding changes in the Indus Civilization's settlement distributions (ca. 2600-1600 b.c.), which shift from numerous small-scale settlements and a small number of larger urban centers to a de-nucleated pattern of settlement. This paper examines the interpretation that northwest India's settlement density increased as Indus cities declined by developing an integrated site location database and using this pilot database to conduct large-scale geographical information systems (GIS) analyses. It finds that settlement density in northwestern India may have increased in particular areas after ca. 1900 b.c., and that the resulting landscape of de-urbanization may have emerged at the expense of other processes. Investigating the Indus Civilization's landscapes has the potential to reveal broader dynamics of social complexity across extensive and varied environments.ER

The shell middens of Las Bela coast and the Indus delta (Arabian Sea., Pakistan)

The surveys carried out along the coast of Las Bela (Balochistan) and the Indus delta (Sindh), have shown that these two regions were inhabited since the end of the eighth millemmium uncal BP. The discovery of shell middens along the shores ofDaun Bay and lake Siranda (Las Bela), have radically changed our view of the prehistory of this territory and the northwestern coast of the Indian Subcontinent in genera

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes

Quarries in Harappa

Chert was a material of major importance to the Bronze Age inhabitants of the Indus Civilizatio, The paper updates our knowledge of teh chert mines currently known in Sindh: the Rohri Hills, Ongar and Jhimpi