Grand Scale Research Articles

Food Webs and Feedbacks: The Untold Ecological Relevance of Antimicrobial Resistance as Seen in Harmful Algal Blooms

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has long been framed as an epidemiological and public health concern. Its impacts on the environment are unclear. Yet, the basis for AMR is altered cell physiology. Just as this affects how microbes interact with antimicrobials, it can also affect how they interact with their own species, other species, and their non-living environment. Moreover, if the microbes are globally notorious for causing landscape-level environmental issues, then these effects could alter biodiversity and ecosystem function on a grand scale. To investigate these possibilities, we compiled peer-reviewed literature from the past 20 years regarding AMR in toxic freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (HABs). We examined it for evidence of AMR affecting HAB frequency, severity, or persistence. Although no study within our scope was explicitly designed to address the question, multiple studies reported AMR-associated changes in HAB-forming cyanobacteria (and co-occurring microbes) that pertained directly to HAB timing, toxicity, and phase, as well as to the dynamics of HAB-afflicted aquatic food webs. These findings highlight the potential for AMR to have far-reaching environmental impacts (including the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function) and bring into focus the importance of confronting complex interrelated issues such as AMR and HABs in concert, with interdisciplinary tools and perspectives.

Rudolf Virchow: Integrating Medicine and Social Reform for Public Health.

Rudolf Virchow, also known as Rudolf Carl Virchow, was a physician, pathologist, medical scientist, anthropologist, politician, social reformer, and role model. However, he is best known as the founder of the field of cellular pathology. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and the founder of social medicine. He was born on October 13, 1821, in Prussia (now Swidwin, Poland) and died on September 5, 1902, in Berlin, Germany. He stressed that most diseases of mankind can be understood in terms of the dysfunction of cells. His study subjects were cell theory, disease, embolus, and thrombosis. He actively promoted social reforms and helped establish anthropology as a contemporary scientific field. He was also awarded and honored by the Copley Medal in 1892 for his notable work in "Cellular Pathology as Based Upon Physiological and Pathological Histology" and "Handbuch der Speziellen Pathologie und Therapie." Virchow said, "Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale." He believed that politics and social structures could have a significant positive or negative impact on public health, that medicine and public health practices used politically might change society, and that politicians and doctors had a moral duty to improve society.Knowing about Virchow helps us appreciate his ideas that laid the groundwork for many medical and scientific practices, the historical development of medical science, and the ongoing need to address social health factors. Virchow's contributions are still relevant in today's medical and public health fields. His work on cellular pathology forms the basis for many aspects of contemporary medicine, such as cancer, infectious diseases, and genetic disorders. His focus on social determinants of health remains a core principle in public health. Today, issues such as poverty, education, housing, and nutrition are acknowledged as factors affecting health outcomes. Virchow's beliefs in ethical responsibility, social transformation, and justice have affected medical ethics and the role of health professionals in society. This article highlights Rudolf Virchow's enormous contribution to pathology, medicine, and public health.

What Are the Roots of the Nation's Poor Health and Widening Health Inequalities? Rethinking Economic Growth for a Fairer and Healthier Future.

Health inequalities are differences in health between groups in society. Despite them being preventable they persist on a grand scale. At the beginning of 2024, the Institute of Health Equity revealed in their report titled: Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short, that health inequalities caused 1 million early deaths in England over the past decade. While the number of studies on the prevalence of health inequalities in the UK has burgeoned, limited emphasis has been given to exploring the factors contributing to these (widening) health inequalities. In this commentary article I will describe how the Government's relentless pursuit of economic growth and their failure to implement the necessary regulatory policies to mitigate against the insecurity and health effects neoliberal free market capitalism (referred to as capitalism herein) causes in pursuit of innovation, productivity and growth (economic dynamism) is one key driver underpinning this social injustice. I contend that if the priority really is to tackle health inequalities and ensure health for all then there is an imperative need to move beyond regulation alone to mitigate the worst effects of capitalist production; the goal of the economy has to change to fully restore the balance between economic growth and public health.

The atmosphere: a transport medium or an active microbial ecosystem?

The atmosphere may be Earth's largest microbial ecosystem. It is connected to all of Earth's surface ecosystems and plays an important role in microbial dispersal on local to global scales. Despite this grand scale, surprisingly little is understood about the atmosphere itself as a habitat. A key question remains unresolved: does the atmosphere simply transport microorganisms from one location to another, or does it harbour adapted, resident, and active microbial communities that overcome the physiological stressors and selection pressures the atmosphere poses to life? Advances in extreme microbiology and astrobiology continue to push our understanding of the limits of life towards ever greater extremes of temperature, pressure, salinity, irradiance, pH, and water availability. Earth's atmosphere stands as a challenging, but potentially surmountable, extreme environment to harbour living, active, resident microorganisms. Here, we confront the current understanding of the atmosphere as a microbial habitat, highlighting key advances and limitations. We pose major ecological and mechanistic questions about microbial life in the atmosphere that remain unresolved and frame the problems and technical pitfalls that have largely hindered recent developments in this space, providing evidence-based insights to drive future research in this field. New innovations supported by rigorous technical standards are needed to enable progress in understanding atmospheric microorganisms and their influence on global processes of weather, climate, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, and microbial connectivity, especially in the context of rapid global change.

About feasibility of SpaceX's human exploration Mars mission scenario with Starship

After decades where human spaceflight missions have been reserved to low Earth orbit, recent years have seen mission proposals and even implemented plans, e.g. with the mission Artemis I, for returning to the lunar surface. SpaceX has published over various media (e.g., its official website, conference presentations, user manual) conceptual information for its reusable Starship to enable human exploration missions to the Martian surface by the end of the decade. The technological and human challenges associated with these plans are daunting. Such a mission at that distance would require excellent system reliability and in-situ-resource utilization on a grand scale, e.g. to produce propellant. The plans contain little details however and have not yet been reviewed concerning their feasibility. In this paper we show significant technological gaps in these plans. Based on estimates and extrapolated data, a mass model as needed to fulfill SpaceX’s plans could not be reproduced and the subsequent trajectory optimization showed that the current plans do not yield a return flight opportunity, due to a too large system mass. Furthermore, significant gaps exist in relevant technologies, e.g. power supply for the Martian surface. It is unlikely that these gaps can be closed until the end of the decade. We recommend several remedies, e.g. stronger international participation to distribute technology development and thus improve feasibility. Overall, with the limited information published by SpaceX about its system and mission scenario and extrapolation from us to fill information gaps, we were not able to find a feasible Mars mission scenario using Starship, even when assuming optimal conditions such as 100% recovery rate of crew consumables during flight.

Social Media in the Management of Obesity and Diabetes: An Underutilised Population Educational Tool.

Obesity and diabetes are two of the most common chronic medical conditions encountered, putting an ever-increasing strain on healthcare systems worldwide. Social media meanwhile has taken the world by storm over the last 2 decades, providing a way to distribute information instantly and on a vast scale at the click of a button. The use of social media to aid in the management of obesity and diabetes though is an underutilised tool, with the potential to help in educating and supporting these patients in numerous ways both now and in the future, on a grand scale. The caveat to this, however, is the negative side of social media, which can include the spread of disinformation and bullying. In this commentary, we discuss the methodology and wide scale of positive and negative effects of social media across the management of obesity and diabetes, as well as the possible methods we can use this to our advantage in the medical profession to help our patients going forward.

A decentralized path planning model based on deep reinforcement learning

The escalating usage of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) on a grand scale accentuates the scalability limitations inherent in traditional, centrally-controlled path planning algorithms. Addressing this challenge, we introduce a pioneering decentralized path planning model, DPPDRL, built upon the foundations of deep reinforcement learning. Drawing inspiration from human path planning and dynamic coupling techniques, DPPDRL imbues AGVs with the autonomy to independently dictate and dynamically adapt their paths in real time. Notably, DPPDRL champions the adoption of diverse policies, thereby facilitating efficient collision avoidance and exploration of potential routes. Simulation-based evidence substantiates critical findings, including remarkable improvements in training speed and scalability, heightened adaptability to environmental variations and agent number changes, and applicability across any number of AGVs, provided a reasonable task distribution. However, DPPDRL's performance becomes limited when tasks are densely concentrated. Addressing this issue through task distribution and hierarchical reinforcement learning is a promising direction for future research. These findings underscore the transformative potential of DPPDRL in managing extensive, dynamic AGV operations.

The Ten-Bel project: Tourism on a grand scale

Ten-Bel was built in the Canary Islands in the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, it was one of the largest holiday resorts in Spain and a pioneering site of touristic development in the south of Tenerife. More than five thousand tourist beds were integrated into a modern architecture with large green areas, where the guests were offered a wide range of leisure activities and international shows. In the 1980s, however, the lack of investment led to a loss of prestige, and it became increasingly difficult for Ten-Bel to compete with the growing number of new offers in the nearby tourist areas. At the beginning of the new millennium, after several unsuccessful attempts to renovate the complex and make it more profitable, the resort was split up and sold off in parts. This confusing division occurred without first finding a solution for the municipal utilities, which were centralized for each tourist complex and did not offer an individual option for the new owners. In addition, there was no agreement on the maintenance of the common areas and parks. These were left in a state of dilapidation. Ten-Bel is an exceptional case, not only because of its outstanding architecture, commercial success or innovative management, but also because it illustrates the problems that arise when a tourist complex is converted to residential use. It is a paradigmatic example to examine the beginnings of touristification in Spain and the contradictions of this new utopia.

Religious suasion: introduction to the special issue

AbstractIn this introduction, we outline a comparative tool for studying communicative ideologies and practices, which we call ‘religious suasion’. Developing a conversation about religious forms of ‘suasion’ is important because it provides a vocabulary for comparing parallel practices of religious influence across different religious communities, allowing for more nuanced understandings of what might commonly – and negatively – be termed ‘proselytizing’. The proposed analytical frame is not concerned with how the ‘convert’ might experience religious change, nor with how social and religious change unfolds on a grand scale. Rather, it interrogates and puts into dialogue multiple forms of discursive practice, demonstrations of virtue, and material forms of religion to reach beyond suasive strategies based on formal doctrines about religious propagation that tend to be associated with traditionally evangelistic religious communities, especially with Christianity. Focusing on the rhetorical strategies, religious imaginaries, and ethical evaluations that underpin how religious actors pursue change in others and in and of the world, ‘religious suasion’ contributes to the development of an anthropology of influence.

A survey of autonomous vehicles for traffic analysis

Autonomous vehicles stand at the forefront of technological advancement, promising to alter fundamentally how we navigate, with implications for everything from intercity logistics to daily commuting. The expected benefits of this technology include advancements in safety protocols, streamlining of traffic flow, and superior comfort for those onboard. However, the path to widespread integration is paved with significant barriers that need to be overcome. This article provides a thorough review of the historical development of autonomous driving technologies, beginning with the early vehicles powered by internal combustion engines and extending to the present excitement over Apple’s Project Titan. Rumors suggest this particular project involves the creation of an electric vehicle fully capable of operating without traditional manual controls, including steering wheels and seats. The article concludes by spotlighting the potential for autonomous vehicles to enable disruptive changes in the transport sector, while also considering the myriad of challenges that must be surmounted for their adoption on a grand scale.

Creating Earthquakes

Eugenio Barba has honoured NTQ by entrusting to its pages his very personal introduction to his most recent book, Le Mie vite nel terzo teatro: Diffrenza, mestiere, rivolta (My Lives in the Third Theatre: Difference, Craft, Revolt), which has here been specially translated into English by Judy Barba, the co-dedicatee, along with Julia Varley and Vera Gaeta, of his book: the ‘origins and accomplices of my journey to the archipelago of floating islands’. NTQ received this translation, here prepared by the journal’s editor, Maria Shevtsova, ahead of the book’s launch on 5 October 2023 at the Biblioteca Bernardini in Lecce in Puglia. On a grander scale, a few days later, the occasion also saw the opening in Barba’s honour of his and the Odin Teatret archives under the banner of LAFLIS (Living Archive Floating Islands), located in a wing of the three-dimensional immersive museum of the Bernardini. LAFLIS’s rich collection includes written material, film and video documentaries, recordings of performances, and such artefacts and equipment as instruments, masks, and costumes gathered during Third Theatre work. The latter is neither established-classical nor avant-garde theatre but ‘other’ – small-group, sometimes unofficial, and often self-taught theatre. LAFLIS is not exclusively intended for researchers and scholars, but is open as well to interested members of the general public. Barba’s introduction to My Lives in the Third Theatre is here published in full, clearly signposting, together with the author’s succinct commentary, the itinerary of his life’s multifarious work, which involved, and still involves, a wide range of participants and collaborators in different times, places, and languages, and in differing forms and patterns of creativity.Barba’s account begins with his departure from Italy to Norway (1954), and his apprenticeship as a welder, and then a mariner, before tracing his move to study in Poland (1961), where he meets and works with Grotowski, his return to Oslo, where he founds Odin Teatret (1964), and then his emigration to Denmark (1966), where Odin Teatret establishes its niche within the larger framework that Barba named the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium. Barba’s journey continued, encompassing numerous theatre endeavours, including the development of the idea of a Third Theatre (the ‘floating islands’ alluded to above); the seminal ISTA (International School of Theatre Anthropology, 1979); and, although quite clearly not at journey’s end, the Fondazione Barba Varley established in 2020.

Academician Zarifa Aliyeva – 100

In 2023, the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Azerbaijani ophthalmologist, Honored Scientist, laureate of the M. Averbakh Prize, academician Zarifa Aliyeva, was celebrated. A significant chapter of academician Zarifa Aliyeva's illustrious scientific career, revealing her innate talent and unwavering dedication, is intrinsically linked to the Abdulla Garayev Institute of Physiology. In 1979, Zarifa khanum initiated and saw through the establishment of the laboratory “Physiology of the Visual Organ and Occupational Pathology." Her transition from an accomplished ophthalmologist to a pioneering theoretical scientist was a testament to her vision and leadership. The laboratory's early research focused on the topic of “Clinical-physiological and morphohistochemical characteristics of the visual organ in individuals working under the influence of various chemical factors." As a scientist, Zarifa khanum was committed to addressing the most pressing and significant issues of her era, particularly those concerning human well-being. At the time, Azerbaijan was considered a hub of the chemical industry in the former USSR. Consequently, her laboratory sought to comprehensively analyze the long-term, chronic impact of various chemical agents used in industrial settings on the visual organ, with a keen focus on early detection of associated changes. This pioneering work laid the foundation for a new direction in ophthalmology, not only in Azerbaijan but throughout the former Soviet Union, focusing on innovative approaches to studying and preventing occupational eye diseases. In recognition of her contributions, academician Zarifa Aliyeva was honored with the M.I. Averbakh Prize by the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in 1981. This research unfolded on a grand scale, encompassing over 4,000 workers and approximately 500 agricultural specialists who participated in ophthalmological examinations. This exemplified the close alignment of science and production, a cornerstone of modern scientific inquiry, in the work conducted by Zarifa khanum five decades ago. Zarifa Khanum was an innovative scientist ahead of her time who introduced electrophysiological methods alongside extensive ophthalmological examinations in her research. Her studies delved into the effects of toxic substances on the functional state of the retina, free radical processes, and neurotransmitter levels. The results of her pioneering work continue to captivate and inspire numerous scholars in modern times. A special area of Zarifa khanum's scientific inquiry was the study of age-related changes in the visual organ. Her book, “Age-Related Changes of the Eye and Optic Nerve Tract," marked the genesis of a new field within ophthalmology, known as ophthalmological gerontology. This work remains highly pertinent today, especially in the context of ongoing gerontological research at our institute. It's worth noting that her laboratory's staff continued research in this vein after her passing. In the late 1980s, the laboratory's ophthalmologists actively participated in international scientific expeditions both in Azerbaijan and in regions of the former USSR, including Crimea, as part of the “Longevity Phenomenon” international cooperation program. They studied age-related changes in the visual organ among 900 individuals over 90 years of age, publishing several highly significant scientific articles that remain relevant to specialists today. In the 1990s, due to the challenging socio-political factors, Zarifa khanum's laboratory faced an unfortunate hiatus. In 2016, we took the initiative to reestablish this laboratory. A research group called “Physiology of Vision” was formed under the directorate to continue Zarifa khanum's legacy in the realm of physiology and age-related visual pathology. This group achieved remarkable scientific success in a short time, exploring intricate links between neurodegenerative diseases and the visual system's structures. With support from the Science Development Fund, the group launched international cooperation programs, enhancing its team and, ultimately, establishing the “Physiology of Vision and Neurodegenerative Processes” laboratory in 2021. Today, the laboratory is intently focused on studying the neurophysiological mechanisms of visual impairment during neurodegenerative diseases and pioneering innovative rehabilitation methods. The scientific ideas of academician Zarifa Aliyeva grow in relevance with time. Her scientific legacy perseveres, serving the cause of a healthier society. It is incumbent upon all of us to support this legacy and carry forward the scientific traditions of this eminent scientist. The International Conference "Physiology of vision and occupational pathologies: fundamental and applied aspects" and the 6th Congress of Azerbaijan Physiologists held on October 30-31, 2023, in Baku were dedicated to the 100th anniversaries of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, and the outstanding scientist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva. The current issue of the journal is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

Гэсэрийн туужийн өгүүлэмжийг бүтцийн онолын үүднээс задлан шинжлэх нь

The renowned “Epic of Geser Khan” is a vital part of Mongolian cultural heritage, woven with captivating folklore and legends. When it gained popularity in Mongolia, it led to various versions like “Peking woodblock printed Geser,” “Nomch Khatan’s Geser,” “Monk Zaya Pandita’s Geser,” “Zamlin Senchin’s Biography,” “Mongolian Lin Geser,” “Story of Tseveen’s Geser,” and “Geser in clear script.” In 1959 and 1960, B. Renchin and Ts. Damdinsuren contributed introductions and published these versions in the ‘Mongolian Memorial Writing Conference’ series, providing concise and detailed summaries in terms of content and size.
 Scholars believe that the narrative structures of the versions of “Peking woodblock printed Geser,” “Monk Zaya Pandita’s Geser,” “Nomch Khatan’s Geser,” and “Story of Tseveen’s Geser” share the similarity. It is suggested that “Yun Fu Se’s Geser,” published in 1716, is considered the subsequent volume of the “Peking woodblock printed Geser.” Hence, the objective is to scrutinize the narrative patterns within the novels “Yun Fu Se’s Geser” and “Peking woodblock printed Geser”, aiming to clarify and explain the interrelationship between these versions.
 It is a method of imagining epic events without a specific sequence. When comparing the two volumes, Firstly, it follows a common sequence in Mongolian epics. Time is often emphasized at the start, detailing the hero, his loyal companion, the assisting knight, and sworn oaths. Various obstacles are then introduced in diverse ways.
 Secondly, despite the Hero’s triumph, a contradiction arises as the seeds of suffering ripen within him. In Geser’s youth, an archenemy seizes his possessions and robs his parents, leading to Geser’s growth into a hero. This recurring pattern shapes the overall structure of the novel. The ensuing analysis employs structural theory to explicate internal connections, detailing how a fixed typology was utilized to iterate and elaborate upon the content of Geser’s novel.
 Thirdly, the queen gets captured, the hero’s home faces an invasion, and the hero chases and rescues, restores order, defeats enemies, and gains glory. The story of the Mongolian epic revolves around two main themes: the adventure of the hero’s wedding, and the battle against the monster, witch, or the other tribes. Based on these two themes, the new chapters of Geser’s novel, enriched with stories of heroes’ adventures, and heroic battles were created in interaction with oral and written traditions.
 Chapters XII and XIII of “Yun Fu Se’s Geser” exhibit a similar syntagmatic structure to the battle group featuring Sharaygol’s three kings in “Beijing Tiger’s Geser.” However, in “Yun Fu Se’s Geser” the events unfold on a grand scale, characterized by a high narrative frequency and a rich linguistic composition. Notably, these chapters align more with the tradition of written literature, preserving a distinct emphasis on detailed character descriptions and pronounced event depictions, in contrast to the oral tradition.

GEORGIA IN THE PLANS OF GERMANY AND ITS ALLIES AT THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE WORLD WAR I (MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE TRANSCAUCASUS FRONT)

Nugzar zosidze
 E-mail: n.zosidze@bsu.edu.ge
 Associate Professor, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University 
 Batumi, Georgia
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2613-3365
 
 Abstract. In the early twentieth century, two large opposing hostile coalitions have formed in Europe: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente.
 The Triple Alliance initially included: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. After the start of the World War I, the latter withdrew from the bloc, but Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined it, thus forming the Quadruple Alliance. The countries included in it demanded a "place under the sun" and assumed to take the colonies from the Entente countries through war. 
 The core of the "Entente" consisted of the world's largest colonial empires of that time - Great Britain, France and Russia. It was between these two imperialist groups that the World War I of 1914-1918 broke out, involving thirty-eight states from different continents. 
 The war was imperialistic, unjust and conquering on both sides, resulting in the deaths and maiming of millions of people, destruction and extermination on a grand scale.
 Germany and its allies had significant plans for Transcaucasia and the expulsion of Russia from there. This unity of these interests largely led to the Ottoman Empire joining the Alliance, following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. After the Revolution, three leaders distinctively stood out in the political life of the Ottoman Empire: Enver Pasha, Military Minister and and de facto dictator of the Ottoman Empire; Talaat Pasha, Minister of Internal Affairs; and Ahmed Djemal Pasha, Minister of Marine. Those three were obviously prone to Germanophilism. 
 Young Turks, in their attempts to find ways for quickly reorganizing their army defeated in the Balkan wars, looked at Germany with hope. That is why they happily met Germany's proposal to send a military mission to the Ottoman empire, which was received. On 8 October 1913, an agreement was signed between Germany and the Ottoman Empire, which gave the Sanders military mission extensive rights (M.Larcher, La guerre Turque dans la guerre mondiale: 609-610).
 The German military mission undertook considerable work in the Ottoman Empire prior to the war. The members of the mission had responsible positions in the local general staff, border corps and fortifications. The history of the period in question became especially relevant from the beginning of the 50s of the twentieth century. However, many details and features of these liasons have not yet been fully investigated, comprehensively studied and scientifically substantiated.

Vibrational Responses of an Ultra-Large Cold-Water Pipe for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion: A Numerical Approach

The transportation of seawater on a grand scale via an ultra-large cold-water pipe situated within the context of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) floating installations inherently presents challenges associated with instability and potential malfunction in the face of demanding operational circumstances. This study endeavors to augment the stability and security of cold-water pipe (CWP) operations by scrutinizing their vibrational attributes across diverse boundary configurations. Initially, we invoke Euler–Bernoulli beam theory to forge the analytical framework and proffer a semi-analytical resolution by utilizing the generalized integral transform technique (GITT). Subsequently, we authenticate the convergence and precision of our proposed approach through comparative analysis with extant theories. Our findings underscore the conspicuous influence of boundary conditions on the convergence of transverse displacement. The influence of internal flow on the transverse displacement and the natural frequency manifests substantial variability under different boundary conditions. Significantly, an escalation in the internal flow velocity triggers a concomitant reduction in the natural frequency, ultimately culminating in instability once the critical velocity threshold is reached. Additionally, the reliance of the transverse displacement and the natural frequency on the clump weight at the bottom is markedly pronounced. Our discoveries propose that pipe stability can be ameliorated by adjusting the clump weight at the bottom. Furthermore, the novel insights obtained through our proposed approach can significantly aid in the early-stage design and analysis of CWP.

Farming and feasting during the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Britain (ca. 900–500 bce): multi-isotope evidence for societal change

The Late Bronze Age saw the rise of a new site type in southern Britain, commonly termed a midden. These vast monumental mounds, some comprising tens of thousands of artefacts/ecofacts dominated by animal bone and ceramics, signal a societal refocus towards agricultural intensification and communal feasting on a grand scale. These sites point to agricultural produce being the mainstay of the economy, with bronze having a reduced social and economic importance. This likely created new regimes of managing landscapes and livestock and new networks and agricultural catchments anchored on the sites. Major questions remain surrounding the strategies employed to enhance agricultural productivity, how landscapes and livestock were managed, and how different sites and regions met these challenges at a time of climatic deterioration. This article employs multi-isotope analyses on domestic and wild fauna to address these questions. It presents carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S, respectively) isotope analyses on 235 animals from 6 midden sites in 2 major regions of midden accumulation: the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire and the Thames Valley. The results demonstrate distinct differences in approaches to maximising agricultural productivity, with varied strategies apparent at a site, species, and regional level. Some sites, such as Potterne and Runnymede, clearly drew domestic fauna from a wide catchment where wide-ranging management and foddering regimes were employed. Other sites, such as East Chisenbury, had a more restricted catchment but a tightly controlled, intensive management regime. These data provide new insights into regional responses to the reorganisation of the economy, landscape use, and developing agricultural networks during the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Britain, revealing dynamic and evolving societal change.

Corporate Liability within the IACC Framework

The current proposal for an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) provides a much-needed opportunity to assess the current state of global anti-corruption efforts and explore opportunities to enhance the legal mechanisms to combat grand corruption and the harms that it generates. An important element of the corruption equation is the role of corporations as suppliers of bribes to corrupt officials and kleptocrats. These corporations profit from continued public sector corruption and need to be held accountable for their role in contributing to corruption on a grand and global scale. This article argues that the proposal for an IACC should include liability for legal persons (corporations), to strengthen the existing anti-corruption framework and support the emerging norm of corporate responsibility for contributing to crimes with global scope and impact. The article begins with a brief reviewing the proposal by Wolf, Goldstone and Rotberg for the development of an IACC. It then goes on to emphasis the role played by corporations in contributing to grand corruption, making the argument that ignoring their role weakens the potential for the proposed court to achieve its ambitious goals. Following this, the article surveys the existing approaches to corporate liability for bribery, under international and domestic legal frameworks. It then presents possible avenues for inclusion of corporate liability within IACC, noting some of the key challenges including establishing a model for attributing corporate fault and ensuring the operation of the complementarity principle. The goal of the article is to provide a jumping off point for the exploration of corporate liability under international law, arguing that corruption and the development of an IACC provides the perfect opportunity to expand the scope of corporate liability and harden the mechanisms of corporate accountability at the international level.

Anthropogenic Object Localization: Evaluation of Broad-Area High-Resolution Imagery Scans Using Deep Learning in Overhead Imagery.

Too often, the testing and evaluation of object detection, as well as the classification techniques for high-resolution remote sensing imagery, are confined to clean, discretely partitioned datasets, i.e., the closed-world model. In recent years, the performance on a number of benchmark datasets has exceeded 99% when evaluated using cross-validation techniques. However, real-world remote sensing data are truly big data, which often exceed billions of pixels. Therefore, one of the greatest challenges regarding the evaluation of machine learning models taken out of the clean laboratory setting and into the real world is the difficulty of measuring performance. It is necessary to evaluate these models on a grander scale, namely, tens of thousands of square kilometers, where it is intractable to the ground truth and the ever-changing anthropogenic surface of Earth. The ultimate goal of computer vision model development for automated analysis and broad area search and discovery is to augment and assist humans, specifically human-machine teaming for real-world tasks. In this research, various models have been trained using object classes from benchmark datasets such as UC Merced, PatternNet, RESISC-45, and MDSv2. We detail techniques to scan broad swaths of the Earth with deep convolutional neural networks. We present algorithms for localizing object detection results, as well as a methodology for the evaluation of the results of broad-area scans. Our research explores the challenges of transitioning these models out of the training-validation laboratory setting and into the real-world application domain. We show a scalable approach to leverage state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural networks for the search, detection, and annotation of objects within large swaths of imagery, with the ultimate goal of providing a methodology for evaluating object detection machine learning models in real-world scenarios.

A test of memory for stimulus sequences in great apes.

Identifying cognitive capacities underlying the human evolutionary transition is challenging, and many hypotheses exist for what makes humans capable of, for example, producing and understanding language, preparing meals, and having culture on a grand scale. Instead of describing processes whereby information is processed, recent studies have suggested that there are key differences between humans and other animals in how information is recognized and remembered. Such constraints may act as a bottleneck for subsequent information processing and behavior, proving important for understanding differences between humans and other animals. We briefly discuss different sequential aspects of cognition and behavior and the importance of distinguishing between simultaneous and sequential input, and conclude that explicit tests on non-human great apes have been lacking. Here, we test the memory for stimulus sequences-hypothesis by carrying out three tests on bonobos and one test on humans. Our results show that bonobos' general working memory decays rapidly and that they fail to learn the difference between the order of two stimuli even after more than 2,000 trials, corroborating earlier findings in other animals. However, as expected, humans solve the same sequence discrimination almost immediately. The explicit test on whether bonobos represent stimulus sequences as an unstructured collection of memory traces was not informative as no differences were found between responses to the different probe tests. However, overall, this first empirical study of sequence discrimination on non-human great apes supports the idea that non-human animals, including the closest relatives to humans, lack a memory for stimulus sequences. This may be an ability that sets humans apart from other animals and could be one reason behind the origin of human culture.

“Words, Words, Words”: Mourid Barghouti’s Appropriation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in I Saw Ramallah

Abstract This article examines Mourid Barghouti’s appropriation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) in his memoir I Saw Ramallah published originally in Arabic in 1997 and translated into English in 2000. The memoir documents his temporary return to Palestine after 30 years of exile and his criticism of the delusional life of Palestinians post Oslo accords which, as he argues, undermined the rights of Palestinians for autonomy, sovereignty and self-determination. Barghouti associates post-Oslo Palestinians with the fictional figure of Hamlet who is unpacking his heart with words rather than taking action against Claudius. According to Barghouti, Hamlet’s merry jests and laughter have striking similarities with many post-Oslo Palestinians who romanticize their injuries, turning their defeat into victory and their tragedy into comedy. Furthermore, Barghouti associates his feeling of displacement and internal exile with that of Hamlet who is displaced in his homeland, Denmark. Both Hamlet and Barghouti retreat behind the wall of silence and turn their exile and displacement into a subjective space of creativity and critical consciousness. We argue that Barghouti writes the Palestinian present through the classic, and we illustrate that Barghouti’s I Saw Ramallah has rendered the personal and national larger and global, permitting the specific and multifarious Palestinian oppression to be understood on grander scales. Thus, I Saw Ramallah suggests broad ethical messages, gerneralizing the Palestinian struggle to the level of significant moral questions of oppression, injustice and valor.