bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Post-Imperial Urban Environment
Authors: Beinart William , Hughes Lotte
Published: November 2020

In this chapter we turn to themes of race, space, environmental justice, and indigenous reassertions in the post-colonial city. We will use as examples: services and urban planning in Singapore; riots in Sydney; and a comparative discussion of parks and public symbols. Although the location of cities had largely been fixed in the colonial period, they were undergoing rapid change by the mid-twentieth century as communities from the surrounding countryside poured into the urban areas. At the beginning of the twentieth century, one tenth of the world’s population lived in cities; by its end more than half did so. In 1900 the ten largest cities were located in Europe and the US, with the exception of Tokyo at seventh. By the early twenty-first century no European urban agglomerations were in this league. The balance shifted from the West to the rest, especially after 1950. Of former colonial cities, Greater Mumbai with about 16 million people, Kolkata (13 million), and Delhi (13 million) were in this group. Mumbai had housed around one million people in 1911. Cities in non-settler states became increasingly dominated, demographically, by the descendants of rural communities from their hinterlands. While English often served as a common medium of communication, regional languages also urbanized with their speakers. Overall, urbanization was linked with rising living standards. But, especially in mega-cities, the gap increased between the rich and overwhelming numbers of urban poor, most of whom were not able to make it into formal employment. Rates of growth in former settler cities were usually less sudden, but they also became increasingly culturally diverse. Canadian cities are one example. The small migrations of indigenous people were only one reason for this. Their increasing multi-ethnicity resulted largely from new sources of global migration: for example, the movement of people from non-British parts of Europe, from the Caribbean, as well as African Americans, Indians, and East Asians. Post-colonial conflict created new diasporas: some of the 80,000 Ugandan Asians expelled by Idi Amin in 1972 went to Canada, and Toronto became home to the single largest population of expatriate Somalis.
Methodology
Authors: Allison Penelope M.
Published: November 2020

As stated in the introduction, this volume presents the ‘loose finds’ from the excavations of the Insula del Menandro in a manner that is divergent from the traditional publications of Roman period sites. The methodology used to catalogue and analyse these finds is determined by the aims of this project which are to present and analyse this material and its contexts for more informed views on the functions of Pompeian household artefacts and on Pompeian domestic behaviour. However, the approach is also dependent on the nature of the available evidence. The Insula del Menandro was excavated between 1926 and 1933 and, with the exception of the Casa del Menandro, was published in the Notizie degli Scavi by Olga Elia, the excavation assistant. For each house, a list of the inventoried finds was provided at the end of the report. The room provenance of each artefact was often included but it is not always precisely the same as that in the excavation notebooks, the Giornali degli Scavi, and it does not usually include any indication of where in the room an artefact was found, or if it was from upper levels of the volcanic deposit or from disturbed volcanic deposits. The Casa del Menandro finds were singled out by the director of excavations, Amedeo Maiuri, for special publication in two volumes documenting this house. The first volume included a selection of the ‘loose finds’ that were considered the most interesting, notably the silver artefacts found in room B. The second consisted of further illustrations of this silver. Again, there are some discrepancies between the provenances provided by Maiuri and those in the Giornali degli Scavi. The information used for these publications stemmed from the Giornali degli Scavi and the artefact inventories, both currently held in the Pompeii archives. The Giornali degli Scavi A, VII, 6 (May 1912–March 1929) and A, VII, 7 (April 1929–December 1935) cover the period of the excavations of the Insula del Menandro. The archivist from November 1926 was D. Marcone. These Giornali are hand-written reports on the activity for each day of excavation.
Casa degli Amanti (I 10,10–11)
Authors: Allison Penelope M.
Published: November 2020

There are remains of coarse plaster on the lower parts of the walls of this space and the pavement is of cocciopesto. The excavators removed disturbed volcanic material mixed with plaster, particularly from the south-east corner of this room. A breach in this corner, in the east wall, would have provided access through to room 8. Near the doorway in the south wall, leading to the front hall of this house, were found: an iron handle, probably from the door; a bronze knob terminal, conceivably from a large steelyard; a small travertine base; a storage jar; a clay loom weight; and a bronze fibula. This area has been identified as a shop or workshop. The limited finds conceivably bear witness to some commercial or industrial activity having been carried out here but they are equally domestic in character, as well as fragmentary and loseable. It is quite possible that any commercial or industrial activity which might once have taken place here had ceased prior to the eruption. The walls of this entranceway were decorated in the Second Style and the pavement was of lavapesta. Ling noted repaired damage to the walls of this entranceway, which he initially attributed to the ad 62 earthquake but he has since identified the repairs as modern. The excavators removed volcanic material mixed with plaster and roof tiles from this entranceway. The only finds recorded here seem to have fallen from the upper floor (see below). The walls of this ‘atrium’ were decorated in the Fourth Style which Elia and Ling have dated to after the ad 62 earthquake. The pavement continued that of the entranceway, in lavapesta. The excavators again noted that the volcanic deposit here presented constant signs of disturbance and that nothing was preserved of the stratigraphy. At the centre of this area is a cocciopesto impluvium (inside dimensions: 2.10 m × 1.77 m). A few, scattered, loose finds were recorded in the disturbed volcanic deposit which could conceivably have been from this space (see below). Even considering the finds from disturbed deposits, the paucity of contents here is comparable to the situation in the front hall of the Casa del Menandro but contrasts with that in many other front hall in Pompeian houses.
How Ecology Has Changed
Authors: Odum Eugene P.
Published: November 2020

During the past half century, ecology has emerged from its roots in biology to become a stand-alone discipline that interfaces organisms, the physical environment and human affairs. This is in line with the root meaning of the word ecology which is ‘the study of the household’ or the total environment in which we live. When I first came to the University of Georgia in 1940 as an instructor in the Department of Zoology, ecology was considered a rather unimportant sub-division of biology. At the end of World War II, we had a staff meeting to discuss ‘core curriculum’, or what courses every biology major should be required to take. My suggestion that ecology should be part of this core was rejected by all other members of the staff; they said ecology was just descriptive natural history with no basic principles. It was this ‘put down’, as it were, that started me thinking about a textbook that would emphasize basic principles, which eventually became the first edition of my Fundamentals of Ecology, published in 1953. In those early days ‘ecology’ was often defined as the ‘study of organisms in relation to environment’. The environment was considered a sort of inert stage in which the actors, that is the organisms, played the game of natural selection. Now we recognize that the ‘stage’ and the ‘actors’ interact with each other constantly so that not only do organisms relate to the physical environment, but they also change the environment. Thus, when the first green microbes, the cynobacteria, began putting oxygen into the atmosphere, the environment was greatly changed, making way for a whole new set of aerobic organisms. Also, when one goes from the study of structure to the study of function, then the physical sciences (including energetics, biogeochemical cycling and earth sciences in general) have to be included. And, of course, now more than ever, we have to consider humans and the social sciences as part of the environment. So we now have essentially a new discipline of ‘ecology’ that is a three-way interface.
Introduction
Authors: Ling Roger , Ling Lesley
Published: November 2020

The Present Volume takes Forward the Study of the Insula of the Menandro started with the architectural analysis of Volume I (1997). It examines the interior decorations (paintings on walls and ceilings, mosaics and other patterned pavements on floors, and stucco relief on ceilings). This is done, as in Volume I, by separating the analytical discussion, which comes first, from a full descriptive catalogue—the counterpart of the architectural gazetteer (Appendix A) of the fiirst volume— which occupies the second half. In the analytical discussion the decorations are tackled from three main viewpoints. A first section deals with typology and chronology. This involves analysing both the general syntax and also individual motifs, using comparanda from other houses at Pompeii and where necessary outside Pompeii, to determine their place within the evolution of the decorative formulae for each medium. In the second section we examine iconography, concentrating especially on mythological scenes and figures which are more than simple stereotypes. These are related to parallels in other houses to establish how far they conform to, or conflict with, the normal patterns of representation, viewed where possible from a chronological standpoint. The final section scrutinizes the relationship of the decorations to the house as a functioning unit. This entails addressing various questions: how mosaics and paintings were adapted to the shape and scale of rooms, to the position of viewers, and to patterns of circulation, how far choices of patterns and subjects may have reflected the uses to which rooms were put, and to what extent such choices justify us in drawing conclusions about the tastes and aspirations of successive householders. Once again we attempt, where possible, to look at these questions in relation to different chronological periods within the houses’ history. One of the most important aspects of our study of the Insula del Menandro is that we are analysing the whole city-block and not (as many other studies have done) isolated houses. But the nature of the material covered by the present volume leads to one major difference in structure in relation to Volume I. Our discussion (but not the catalogue) deals with the houses not in numerical order, that is proceeding counterclockwise round the block, but in a hierarchical order, that is according to size and importance.
Internationalization of the State under Japanese Quasi-Hegemony: Marginalizing Northern Workers, 1980–2000
Authors: Glassman Jim
Published: November 2020

The internationalization of the Thai economy and the Thai state analysed in the last two chapters was—like all processes of internationalization—highly uneven. The modern Thai state was formed historically through collaboration between the Siamese monarchy, based in Bangkok, and British colonial officials, with Chinese merchants playing an important subsidiary role (Suehiro 1989; Chaiyan 1994; Thongchai 1994). By the early twentieth century, internationalization of capital and the state under this triple alliance had already led to the emergence of the Bangkok-centred political economy and strongly centralized state that has characterized Thailand throughout the past one hundred years (Dixon and Parnwell 1991). Thus, by the time rapid agrarian and industrial transformation began to take hold in the post-World War II period, it did so against a backdrop of already substantial Bangkok primacy and political dominance. The patterns of internationalization that have developed in the post-World War II period have largely strengthened this primacy and political dominance. Bangkok was the centre of the new triple alliance based on collaboration between military capitalists, Chinese merchants, and the US Cold War state (Suehiro 1989). As Cold War counter-insurgency and development projects proceeded, significant numbers of displaced peasants left agrarian society to seek urban-industrial employment and, as the overwhelmingly dominant centre of industry, Bangkok received a disproportionate share of the rural-tourban migration stream, with secondary cities remaining small and economically underdeveloped (Tables 4.1 and 4.2; London 1980; 1985). Consequently, the transformation of urban-industrial labour and the labour relations system described in Chapter 3 took place fundamentally in and around Bangkok, which remained the core area of manufacturing growth. For most of the post-World War II period up to 1985, the BMR’s industrial development was centred on low-wage, low value-added products such as textiles, garments, and low end electronics components, and though there were a number of very large firms in these lines, most manufacturers remained very small in scale, this being the case even among investment-constrained exporting firms. Small size was even more the norm with firms in upcountry regions, where manufacturing development was largely very rudimentary and generally centred in industries such as textiles, garments, and food processing (Table 4.3; Department of Labour 1985–6).
Conclusion: Thailand at the Margins
Authors: Glassman Jim
Published: November 2020

The economic crisis and the rise of the Thai Rak Thai Party supplies a paradoxical dénouement to a half-century of rapid Thai economic growth and industrial transformation—as well as to a much longer period of internationalization and general social change. The paradox, however, is not an unsolvable riddle but rather the contradictory character of dependent capitalist development, which inevitably brings destruction along in the train of creation, predicating new possibilities of accumulation on processes of violent devaluation. The Thai political economy now experiences this volatility in virtually full force, having been ‘opened’ and integrated into the rhythms of global capital accumulation over the course of more than a century. The seeming stability and predictable growth of the years between 1950 and 1995 were facilitated tremendously by Thailand’s integral role in the Cold War system, which created various ‘conjunctural’ cushions against the underlying volatility (e.g. US aid, favoured trade status). With the end of the Cold War system, the Thai political economy is now being increasingly thrust into the less predictable world of global neo-liberalism and post-Fordism and is thus less cushioned against capitalism’s ‘gales of creative destruction’. To say this is not to say that growth and industrialization are now on hold. The crisis may well open new opportunities for accumulation and even resumption of rapid growth. But even successful capitalist growth has always done damage to a significant portion of the population—creating and perpetuating enormous socio-spatial disparities—and it will very likely continue to do so in the future. At the same time, the vagaries of the era of ‘globalization’ may make the growth dynamic much rockier than in the past. Boosters of East Asian ‘miracles’ should be reminded that other political economies—e.g. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina—have been regarded as ‘miracles’ in the past, and while these remain important industrial producers today, they would hardly be invoked as models for improvement of livelihoods and social welfare. A legitimate concern regarding many of the Asian NICs, including Thailand, may well be whether or not the international accumulation processes in which they are integrated will lead in the directions previously traversed by so many of the former ‘miracle’ economies of Latin America.
Introduction
Authors: Morgan Kevin , Marsden Terry , Murdoch Jonathan
Published: November 2020

When Guillermo Vargas from Costa Rica visited the British House of Commons in 2002 to publicize Fairtrade Fortnight, he delivered a stark message. ‘When you buy Fairtrade’, he said, ‘you are supporting our democracy’. It is hard to imagine a more powerful testament to the ripple effect of our food choices. Buying food may be a private matter, but the type of food we buy, the shops or stalls from where we buy it, and the significance we attach to its provenance have enormous social consequences. Our food choice has multiple implications—for our health and well-being, for economic development at home and abroad, for the ecological integrity of the global environment, for transport systems, for the relationship between urban and rural areas and, as the Fairtrade story shows, for the very survival of democracy in poor, commodity-producing countries. Although food consumption habits show considerable differences between countries, and between social classes within countries, a number of generic trends have emerged in recent years, some of which have been attributed to the globalization of style and taste. In the processed food cultures of the US and the UK, for example, the key trends include the increasing popularity of convenience foods, the decreasing amount of time devoted to preparing meals, the falling share of money devoted to food in the household budget, the primacy of price when buying food, and, more recently, burgeoning concerns among all classes of consumer about the quality and safety of food. Some of these trends appear to be contradictory, particularly the emphasis on cheap food on the one hand and the growing demand for healthy food on the other. Another example might be the growing interest in local food, which is often equated with fresh and wholesome produce, and ‘global sourcing’, which aims to transcend the constraints of locality and seasonality. Conventional food retailers are acutely conscious of the need to accommodate these conflicting signals, as a trade body in the UK freely acknowledged when it said that ‘the industry challenge is to find a balance between supporting British farmers and reducing food miles, and satisfying consumer demand for year round availability of an increased number of products, at ever lower prices’ (IGD, 2002).
The Commodity World in Wales
Authors: Morgan Kevin , Marsden Terry , Murdoch Jonathan
Published: November 2020

As the first industrial nation, the UK was one of the earliest countries to experience the industrialization of agriculture, a process that led to an unprecedented increase in productivity, with more and more food produced by fewer and fewer people. Early exposure to intensive food production clearly left an abiding cultural legacy; to this day, one of the proudest boasts of the British food industry is that it renders cheap food to the consuming public at ever lower prices. This production ethos was both cause and consequence of a mainstream consumption culture which sets a high premium on price and treats food more as fuel than as pleasure. In his thousandyear history of British food, Spencer (2002) caught this aesthetic perfectly when he suggested that the British ‘were unexcited by the food they ate, but they knew that they had to get on and eat the wretched stuff’. In its attachment to cheap, processed food, the UK is far closer to the US, the quintessential fast-food nation, than to Italy, France, or Spain, countries where there continues to be a strong cultural appetite for fresh, local, and seasonal food. Although Britain’s cheap-food culture has complex and manifold causes, its origins lie in the early period of industrialization, especially in the system of colonial preferences from the Commonwealth countries, which created a low-cost template for locally produced food. In other words, the global–local interplay that did so much to shape economy and society in Britain also influenced the economics of food production and the culture of food consumption. To a greater extent than in other European countries, the supermarkets have become the key players in shaping food consumption patterns in the UK. As in California, retailer power is now the key to understanding the enormous asymmetries of power that punctuate the British agri-food chain from farm to fork. One reason why supermarkets seem to wield so much more power in the UK than their analogues in other countries is that there is less countervailing power at the production end of the UK food chain.
Seeing Double: Thinking about Natures and States
Authors: Whitehead Mark , Jones Rhys , Jones Martin
Published: November 2020

This chapter is about how we think about states, natures, and the relationships between them. Despite this book’s assertion that an understanding of the relations between states and natures is vital for any interpretation of contemporary political life or ecological existence, it is important to recognize the growing sense of antipathy towards theories of the state within work on nature. This antipathy is based on two broad critiques of state theory—one epistemological and the other ontological. At an epistemological level, challenges to work on the state can perhaps best be understood in relation to the consistent tendency of certain strands of political theory to use the definite article when referring to ‘the’ state. Reference to ‘the’ state, however innocently deployed, implicitly suggests a clearly designated, singular entity of government. But it is precisely this view of states as sovereign, territorially autonomous containers of political life that has led to a concerted wave of theoretical criticism. The reification of a definitive vision of the state has tended to create a very narrow view of the state within certain strands of contemporary political theory. It is in this context that Rose and Miller (1992) argue that the state is nothing more than a ‘mythical abstraction’ (see Chapter 1), or an attempt to simplify the complex networks and practices through which governmental power is realized into narrowly conceived, centralized visions of authority. Consequently, to many writing within what could broadly be defined as a Foucauldian school (Hobbes 1996: 82) of political theory, notions of the state are anathema to the careful and systematic study of the governmental technologies, modes of calculation, and institutional procedures through which socio-political power is realized. At an ontological level, it is argued that even if vestiges of the mythical abstractions (or ‘fantastic topologies’) associated with state theory persist, the power of states to shape the political, economic, and social worlds has been seriously undermined. Much of the purported reduction in the state’s sovereign power has been associated with the rise of globalization and the associated socio-ecological relations and transactions that now routinely traverse national territories.
Granite Coasts
Authors: Migon Piotr
Published: November 2020

Although no estimate of the aggregate length of granite rock coasts around the world is available, they surely make up quite a significant proportion of the total, especially around the Fennoscandian and Canadian Shield (Bird and Schwartz, 1985). However, in contrast to the vast amount of literature about inland granite landforms, granite coastal scenery has attracted significantly less attention, in spite of the fact that some of the most spectacular coastal landscapes are supported by granite (Plate 6.1). Detailed studies of granite coastal geomorphology are surprisingly few, although the structural adjustment of the coastline in plan at the regional scale is a recurrent observation (Bird and Schwartz, 1985). One probable reason for this discrepancy between the length of granite coasts, their scenic values, and scientific knowledge are the low rates of geomorphic change expected along them. Therefore they are poor candidates for any process-oriented studies, which dominate contemporary coastal geomorphology. It is probably because of this scarcity of information that contrasting opinions have been expressed about the specifics of granite coasts. Whereas Twidale (1982: 2) asserts that: ‘In coastal contexts, too, the gross assemblage of forms is due to the processes operating there and not to properties peculiar to granites. . . . Orthogonal fracture sets also find marked expression but, with few exceptions, granite coasts are much the same as most others’; Trenhaile (1987: 173) goes on to say: ‘Igneous coasts are usually quite different from other rock coasts’. On the one hand, many granite coasts consist of an all-too-familiar assemblage of cliffs, coves, joint-aligned inlets, stacks, and sea arches. From this point of view, no components of coastal morphology are likely to be demonstrated to be unique to granite. But this is also true for granite landforms in general, as was indicated in the introduction to this book. On the other hand, there seems to be enough observational material to claim that certain granite coastal landforms have developed specific characteristics, different from those supported by other rocks, as well as that there exist certain very specific sections of granite coasts which hardly have parallels in other lithologies.
The Parisian Basin
Authors: Dewolf Yvette , Pomerol Charles
Published: November 2020

The Parisian basin is a geographical entity whose limits are easily defined by the Armorican massif, the Massif Central, the Vosges, the Ardennes, and the English Channel. Both Burgundy and Poitou are transitional areas. The Paris basin, a more restrictive term, corresponds according to some geologists (Cavelier and Lorenz 1987) essentially to the Tertiary ‘part’ of the basin: the Île de France and surroundings. The relief of the Parisian basin results from two sets of factors: tectonic and climatic. These have operated from Triassic times until the Pleistocene and have led to the development of a geographically simple whole in its gross structure and form. However, within this framework individual natural regions (or geotypes) may be recognized. The Parisian basin is frequently considered as a model for sedimentary basins, displaying as it does, a classic framework of sedimentary formations (Pomerol 1978; Cavelier and Pomerol 1979; Cavelier et al. 1979; Pomerol and Feugueur 1986; Debrand-Passard 1995). This is evident from the geological map of France, and on the related cross-section. Indeed, the section shows the superposition of strata in a subsiding area, with a maximal thickness (3,200 m) in the Brie country. This arrangement illustrates the geometric definition of the Parisian basin, an intracratonic basin, 600 km in diameter, limited towards the west by the Armorican massif, the south by the Massif Central, the east by the Vosges, and the north-east by the Ardenno-Rhenan massif. The following geological overview is based upon the previously mentioned studies and the geological time scale. However, the analysis of the evolution of these sedimentary areas from Triassic to Neogene shows that the area named as the ‘Parisian basin’ was included in successive palaeogeographies (which were strongly influenced by adjacent seas) and overflowed across the basement regions that now act as the limits of the basin. The chronological order of the geological formations involved in the evolution of the Parisian basin according to Robin et al. (2000) is used in the following text. During the Triassic, the future Parisian basin was a gulf of the German Sea. This sea transgressed westwards and reached the meridian of Paris during the Keuper.
French Alps and Alpine Forelands
Authors: Battiau-Queney Yvonne
Published: November 2020

The French Alps are the western part of the 1,200-km-long Alpine range extending eastward to the Vienna basin. They have the highest summits of the range, in the Mont-Blanc massif (4,807 m a.s.l.). In France, the chain has an arcuate form, convex to the north and west. It lies between Lake Geneva (46° 25′ N) and the Mediterranean coast (approximately 43° 35′ N). The Rhône valley forms a clear geological and morphological western limit. To the north (towards the Jura range) and the south-west (towards the ridges of Provence) the boundary is not so well defined. The French Alps and Alpine forelands have been thoroughly studied for over a century by many researchers from the Universities of Grenoble, Lyons, Aix-en-Provence, Nice, and Chambéry. First, it is necessary to outline the great diversity of landforms in relationship to the complex geological history, tectonics, and lithology. The importance of the Alpine karst landforms and caves must be emphasized; studies of these forms have been extended substantially in the last twenty years and they give many new insights into the Plio-Pleistocene tectonics and climates of this region. The past and present role of glaciers is another important topic in this chapter. From recent studies, we now have a much better knowledge of the transition from the last glacial period to the Holocene. It was impossible to write a chapter on the Alps and ignore the fact that the inhabitants of the Alps have to cope with many permanent natural hazards. The chapter ends with a short synthesis of the main morphogenic systems, which characterize the French Alps and forelands. In the north, the climate is oceanic and precipitation is evenly distributed throughout the year. A high relief, with landforms oriented transverse to the general western atmospheric circulation, results in a great variety of regional climates: from west to east, the continental effect is marked by a decreasing precipitation at the same altitude. Exposure and altitude combine to create contrasting local climates. Temperature inversion is frequent, especially when cold air is trapped in deep valleys.
Climate: Mean State, Variability, and Change
Authors: Schuurmans Cor
Published: November 2020

This chapter gives a description of the main characteristics of present-day climate. In describing the mean state and its variability, attention is also given to the underlying causes. For comparison, there is a short summary of early European climate, from the last glacial maximum, through the Holocene and up to the Little Ice Age (the period AD 1400–1850). The chapter finishes with a comprehensive section on climate change, with emphasis on the anthropogenic causes of recent changes. The climate of western Europe has a maritime character. The weather mainly originates from the North Atlantic Ocean and its neighbouring seas. Further inland, in what is usually called central Europe, climate changes to a more continental type, but certain maritime features are still present. It is therefore called an altered maritime climate. Only in the most southern part, southern France for instance, is the Atlantic character lost and several new features are present. These features are characteristic of a Mediterranean climate. Climates may be called cold or warm, dry or wet, gloomy or sunny, depending on the prevailing temperatures, amount and frequency of precipitation, and the number of hours of bright sunshine. Such terms, however, are not objective unless certain, generally accepted, reference values are used. In the past different sets of reference values were proposed, each of them defining a system of climatic types. A well-known classification system was the one developed by Köppen (1936). The Köppen system distinguished eleven main climate types, based on well-defined temperature and precipitation characteristics. These were mainly referring to the response of vegetation, natural as well as cultivated, to climatic conditions. The eleven Köppen climates are indicated by the letters A–E, with some subdivision, using other letters. In the Köppen classification the whole of western Europe has a Cf climate, which means a moist, temperate climate, without a specific dry season. Cf climates occupy 22% of the globe (oceans included). A second method to describe climate is by using the well-known definition of climate as being the average weather conditions in a certain area, over a given period of time. In practice, however, there is no direct information about weather conditions.
Geoconservation
Authors: Gonggrijp Gerard
Published: November 2020

The detailed descriptions of the physical geography in the previous chapters show the rich geodiversity of north-western Europe, reflected in its many geological landscapes (landscapes without the biological and cultural ‘furnishing’). The various geological forces, acting in time and space have created the foundation for this richness. The landscape’s framework has mainly been designed by such endogenic processes as tectonics, orogenesis, and volcanism, while its details have been sculptured by such exogenic processes as weathering, gravity, and glacial-, fluvial-, aeolian-, and marine activities. These modelling processes resulted in a very diverse geology, geomorphology, and pedology. The long scientific tradition and the rich geodiversity made north-western Europe one of the classical areas for geological research. It therefore includes many of the international case studies in earth sciences and became the cradle of numerous international reference localities such as Emsian (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany), Dinantian (Ardennes, Belgium), Aptian (Provence, France), Danian—Dane is Latin for Denmark (Stevens Klint), Tiglian (Middle Limburg, The Netherlands), Eemian (river in western Netherlands), etc. The chronological division of glacial and fluvioglacial features is primarily based on type localities (villages, rivers, etc.) in Denmark, northern and southern Germany, and The Netherlands. Moreover, a multitude of Tertiary and Pre-Tertiary stages of the standard geological timetable have been named after type localities of geological and prehistoric sites in France. Geological landscapes such as the Maare system of the Eifel, the volcanoes on the Massif Central (France), the Saalian and Weichselian ice-pushed ridges of Germany, The Netherlands, and Denmark as well as the impressive dunes along the coast from France to the northernmost tip of Denmark have been subjects of detailed research. These geological landscapes form a unique geological patchwork. The activities of humans, especially in the last century, have damaged or destroyed many of these landscapes and sites of geological interest. However, selected sites and areas representing the geogenesis of the earth should be preserved for the benefit of science, education, and human welfare. In all European countries attention is given to landscape preservation; however, policy and practice have mainly been based on specific biological, historical-cultural, and visual landscape qualities.
The Contribution of Antoninus Pius
Authors: Thomas Edmund
Published: November 2020

It is frequently assumed that the reign of Antoninus Pius—Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Antoninus, surnamed ‘Pius’—was less remarkable than that of Hadrian in the matter of architectural patronage, more sparing in the construction of new buildings, and marked chiefly by the restoration of older structures. Some scholars, arguing that ‘the reaction against the practice of Hadrian is palpable’, have concluded that this was the result of imperial policy. Such a view is based partly on the chance survival of a rescript of Pius, in which the emperor decreed that builders should spend money on the renovation of old buildings, rather than on new ones. But this declaration, which is not precisely dated, having been extracted from its context by the later compilers of the Justinianic digest of Roman law, represents only one side of architectural policy in Antoninus’ reign. Moreover, it implies a very different concept of restoration from that with which we are familiar today, involving, as it does, substantial new structural work. The traditional view of Antoninus Pius also derives from the statement of his adopted son and successor as emperor, Marcus Aurelius, that Pius was ‘not personally interested in building’. But this opinion is designed to detach Marcus’ positive view of his predecessor from the negative image of aedificatio. It plays on a pattern in the ancient sources, which compares the works of successive emperors. The difference between examples to be commended and those to be avoided is defined in terms of the distinction between aedificatio, the self-indulgent and trivial pursuit of building for its own sake, and publica magnificentia, concern for embellishing the buildings of the state and serving the public good. The history of imperial building can be seen in terms of the desire of successive emperors to achieve the virtue of magnificentia without slipping into the vice of aedificatio. The positive image of Augustus’ building, promoted in his res gestae and in Tiberius’ funeral oration, brings into focus the restraint of Tiberius himself, who, in order to avoid the negative associations of aedificatio, shunned even the virtue of magnificentia.
The Symbolic Significance of Architectural Form
Authors: Thomas Edmund
Published: November 2020

In the Roman Empire, where the vast majority of inhabitants were either illiterate or had only a very basic literacy, it was natural to communicate ideas and beliefs visually. For some groups, even the Christians, for whom religion had a strong textual basis, visual symbols played a large role in addition to more direct forms of expression, as they propagated hidden meanings which could be recognized by the faithful alone. Historians of ancient art have recently begun to study more closely the ways in which forms of art served to conceptualize the divine. There is still little investigation of architectural form itself as a field for symbolism in the same way as representative arts like painting and sculpture. As the late Richard Krautheimer wrote, over sixty years ago, ‘symbolic significance’ in architecture had ‘a more or less uncertain connotation which was only dimly visible and whose specific interpretation was not necessarily agreed upon’. Yet the visibility of the basic geometrical forms deployed by buildings offered considerable potential for symbolic meaning, as many written sources confirm. The Christian writer Clement of Alexandria exercised his ingenuity by keenly speculating on all kinds of symbolism, including that expressed by architecture. But not all architectural symbolism was the rarefied sport of intellectuals. It provided a means of imaginative thinking for the illiterate, and therefore gives access to the responses of those large sections of the population whose views and perceptions are least recorded. Because the impact of architectural forms was visual and spatial, the meanings they expressed were taken for granted and are not always documented in surviving literary sources. Where written accounts are lacking, the appearance of architectural forms themselves often demonstrates more than a purely practical convenience. It would, of course, be an oversimplification to conclude that all symbolic meanings were equally apparent to all viewers. But it is possible to outline some general directions in which buildings offered fields for deeper meaning. In this chapter I shall use both written and archaeological material to interpret the different levels of this symbolic framework underlying the perception of buildings in the Roman Empire.
Conclusions
Authors: Walton Christopher
Published: November 2020

At the start of this book we outlined the challenges of automatic computer based processing of information on the Web. These numerous challenges are generally referred to as the ‘vision’ of the Semantic Web. From the outset, we have attempted to take a realistic and pragmatic view of this vision. Our opinion is that the vision may never be fully realized, but that it is a useful goal on which to focus. Each step towards the vision has provided new insights on classical problems in knowledge representation, MASs, and Web-based techniques. Thus, we are presently in a significantly better position as a result of these efforts. It is sometimes difficult to see the purpose of the Semantic Web vision behind all of the different technologies and acronyms. However, the fundamental purpose of the Semantic Web is essentially large scale and automated data integration. The Semantic Web is not just about providing a more intelligent kind of Web search, but also about taking the results of these searches and combining them in interesting and useful ways. As stated in Chapter 1, the possible applications for the Semantic Web include: automated data mining, e-science experiments, e-learning systems, personalized newspapers and journals, and intelligent devices. The current state of progress towards the Semantic Web vision is summarized in Figure 8.1. This figure shows a pyramid with the human-centric Web at the bottom, sometimes termed the Syntactic Web, and the envisioned Semantic Web at the top. Throughout this book, we have been moving upwards on this pyramid, and it should be clear that a great deal of progress that has been made towards the goal. This progress is indicated by the various stages of the pyramid, which can be summarized as follows: • The lowest stage on the pyramid is the basic Web that should be familiar to everyone. This Web of information is human-centric and contains very little automation. Nonetheless, the Web provides the basic protocols and technologies on which the Semantic Web is founded. Furthermore, the information which is represented on the Web will ultimately be the source of knowledge for the Semantic Web.
The Small Molecules of Life
Authors: Cordes Eugene H.
Published: November 2020

All life on Earth is unified. Life may have flickered into being, only to be subsequently extinguished, many times during the early days of our planet’s evolution. But on exactly one occasion, life on Earth did arise and persist. Every living organism is a descendent of that life. We are all hatched from the same primeval egg. The universal roles of the big molecules of life—proteins and nucleic acids—reflect this unique origin. The genetic code that links the language of nucleic acids to that of proteins is universal throughout the amazing diversity of living organisms. Protein relatives serve the same or similar functions in living organisms from wheat to humans. We are going to have a closer look at the proteins as we move forward: protein structure in chapter 3, protein function in chapter 4, and proteins as targets for drug discovery in chapters 6 through 12. This is not to argue that there are no differences among the molecules of life. Clearly, there are. For example, bacteria are isolated from their environment by a surrounding cell wall. There is no related structure in mammalian cells. We take advantage of these differences to sustain and restore human health. For example, many antibiotics act by preventing construction of bacterial cell walls. We will see two examples in what follows: Primaxin and fludalanine. The unity of life extends to the small molecules of life as well. There is compelling similarity among the small molecules that carry out critical functions of life. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the universal energy currency of life; molecules that transmit messages from one nerve cell to another are shared between sea snails and humans. Molecules on the routes of metabolic pathways are much the same in fruit flies and flying bats, and on and on.
What Comes Naturally and Not So Naturally
Authors: Fox Michael H.
Published: November 2020

“How many of you who moved to Colorado from Texas or Florida took into account that you were nearly tripling your annual dose of natural radiation by studying here?” That is the first question I ask students in my radiation biology class at Colorado State University, and of course none of the students considered that they were increasing their exposure to radiation by a large factor simply by moving here to live. And none of them would have used that as a reason to not study here. In contrast, if they were moving near a nuclear power plant in their state, they might have had second thoughts, even though they would be exposed to far less radiation than by coming to Fort Collins, Colorado. There is no place on earth where you are not exposed to radiation. As I said in the previous chapter, life evolved in a radiation environment. But where does the radiation come from, and why is it higher in Colorado than elsewhere in the United States? Are there other areas in the world where it is even higher? Do we get a lot more cancer in Colorado than in other lower radiation states because we are exposed to more radiation? These are important questions—they help us to understand the risk from a particular dose of radiation and put into perspective the exposure to radiation from the nuclear fuel cycle. We are exposed to radiation that comes from the skies, from the earth, and from our food. These are all natural sources, and there is not much we can do about it except decide where we want to live. But our decisions as to where we want to live almost certainly do not take into account the exposure to background levels of radiation from natural sources. The other main not-so-natural source of radiation exposure comes from medical procedures, a source that is increasing rapidly.
New Paradigms: Lessons and Recommendations
Authors: Araújo Kathleen
Published: November 2020

There is an old saying that history is about revolution and evolution. This book considered history in the context of disruptive and incremental change within energy systems. In doing so, the research advances new tools and theory-building, while emphasizing broader lessons, particularly for policymakers, regarding the strategic management of energy transitions. This chapter discusses key insights from the study. It also identifies avenues for further research. There is no set formula for a country to shift to low carbon energy (or, for that matter, to undertake any energy transition). Whether transitions emerge or are driven, there is room for strategic management. • Focusing events, like oil shocks, can provide an opportunity for the rapid mobilization of an energy transition, despite differences in views. Such windows of opportunity, however, have a limited shelf life. Common tensions between competing interests will re-emerge and can undermine progress. Here, cross-sectoral collaboration and learning can provide important traction amidst a transition for meeting longer term objectives. • Least-cost economics can play a role in energy decision-making, yet policymakers should recognize that this approach does not adequately reflect all important objectives, costs or benefits. Co-benefits, including the flexibility to adapt in otherwise irreversible decisions, may matter for a society in an energy transition. Such benefits can be difficult to value in planning and analysis, but warrant scrutiny. Here, analysts and decision-makers can be pivotal by ensuring that viable options which add important value are not crowded out. • It is clear from the preceding pages that governments have a role to play in the energy playing field, even if government is not the driving force. The fundamental importance of energy, the widely entrenched nature of such systems, and the intersecting aspects of energy-related challenges with other public priorities reinforce this point. Here, public actors and policy can be instrumental in bridging gaps at critical junctures in a way that no other individuals may adequately address. • Societal views about ways to govern natural resources will factor in whether an energy transition depends on markets, government, or other means.