Western Europe

The German sites bearing straight-tusked elephant remains cover a period from 400 Ka (MIS 11) to the Eemian age (MIS 5e). The material excavated since 1980, in the lacustrine sediments of Neumark Nord (Eastern Germany), is one of the most outstanding samples of straight-tusked elephants in Europe. The Neumark-Nord material enhances our knowledge of the body size, sexual dimorphism, ontogenetic growth and morphological variability of Palaeoloxodon antiquus.

The radiation of canids referable to Canis ex gr. etruscus in Western Europe, the so-called "Wolf Event" by , is an important part of a faunal renewal that occurred approximately at Pliocene-Pleistocene transition, strongly related to climatic and environmental changes. Actually, taking into account the recently available data, the meaning of the so called "Wolf-Event" must be reconsidered in a wider sense, and it has to be considered as different dispersal events occurred in a quite short time span to be placed at the end of Pliocene. The reconsideration of the available fossil record suggests that: 1) The "Wolf Event", in its original acception, is just one of the different bioevents (dispersal of Canis, Lycaon, but also Pachycrocuta and Panthera) part of the important faunal renewal that affected the carnivore guilds in Western Europe; 2) New hunting strategies (patch hunters) took place in Western Europe at this moment; 3) The dispersal of different lineages of canids has to be related to the diffusion of open habitats; 4) The "Wolf Event", in a new and wider acception, occurred during latest Pliocene, thus it cannot be considered as a "marker" of the beginning of Pleistocene.

Vialette (3.14 Ma), like Sene`ze, Chilhac, Sainzelles, Ceyssaguet or Soleilhac, is one of the historical sites located in Haute-Loire (France). The lacustrine sediments of Vialette are the result of a dammed lake formed by a basalt flow above Oligocene layers, and show a geological setting typical for this area, where many localities are connected with maar structures that have allowed intra-crateric lacustrine deposits to accumulate. Based on previous studies and this work, a faunal list of 17 species of large mammals has been established. Eight species, typical of this time period and well known, occur in the collection of the Crozatier Museum of Le Puy-en-Velay: Pliocrocuta perrieri, Lynx issiodorensis, Mammut borsoni, Anancus arvernensis, Stephanorhinus jeanvireti, Tapirus arvernensis, 'Cervus' pardinensis and Croizetoceros ramosus. The presence of Gazella cf. G. borbonica is newly established, in addition to which the oldest known occurrences of Canis sp., cf. Eucladoceros sp. and of the genus Equus in Western Europe are also described. These are the new data which pushed back the age of the arrival of the genus Equus, cf. Eucladoceros and Canis in Western Europe. Five taxa are not found in the Crozatier collection: Primates indet., Agriotherium sp., Ursus gr. minimus-thibetanus, Bovidae middle-sized (?Pliotragus ardei or ?Gallogoral meneghinii), ?Procapreolus cf. cusanus.

Burial customs underwent gradual changes during the Iron Age, sometimes revealing significant upheavals occurring in the socio-spiritual sphere of the time. Both commonalities and differences between Western and Eastern Europe can be observed in the development of Iron Age burial practices. Particular attention is paid to the differences between the western and eastern parts of Central Europe, which come to the forefront in LT C2 and are probably related to the radical change in religious ideas in the eastern part of Central Europe. Interdisciplinary investigation of the disturbed princely barrow from the Late Hallstatt period in Rovná near Strakonice (South Bohemia) produced new information that has helped clarify the studied topic.

versiteit van Amsterdam. In 1987 promoveerde zij op de uitgave van De brieven van De Schoolmeester. In De geest van de dichter (Multatuliprijs 1991) voert ze zogenaamde gesprekken met negentiende-eeuwse schrijvers. Zij is columniste van NRC Handelsblad. In 1998 ontving zij de Prins Bernhard Fondsprijs voor de Geesteswetenschappen. In 2001 verzorgde zij de uitgave in de Griffioenreeks van De gedichten van De Schoolmeester. in schoolmeesters en dominees de dienst uitmaakten. Het hele leven was bekrompen en benepen, leerde ik. De negentiende eeuw die ik kende, kreeg een masker opgezet, waardoor ik het vertrouwde niet meer herkende. Het levende gezicht werd onzichtbaar achter de onbeweeglijke en verstarde trekken van het masker. Mijn leraar Nederlands dweepte met de Tachtigers, die niet bij de negentiende eeuw gerekend werden. Ik leerde dat die pas echte literatuur geschreven hadden en dat pas daarna iets gebeurde in de Nederlandse letterkunde dat Europees niveau had. In de schoolbibliotheek vond ik werk van Jacob van Lennep, van De Schoolmeester, van Piet Paaltjens en van Nicolaas Beets. Ik vond dat niet zo heel saai als de leraar beweerde. En ook las ik Tolstoj, Alexandre Dumas, Emily , Bronte, Charles Dickens en Walter Scott. Ik vond dat heel mooi, minstens zo mooi als Jacob van Lennep. Toen ging ik studeren en weer leerde ik dat de negentiende eeuw een tijd van verval was, waarin geen letterkunde van enig niveau geschreven werd. Maar als ik de negentiende-eeuwers las, vond ik hun taalgebruik rijk en hun verhaallijnen krachtig. Ik werd eigenwijs en vond dat de Tachtigers overschat, en de vroege negentiende eeuw onderschat werd. Door een voorbestemd toeval vond ik de onuitgegeven brieven van Gerrit van de Linde, alias De Schoolmeester, in een Amsterdams ar- chief. Het was alsof ik van de achtbaan naar beneden duizelde. Die brieyen staan zo ver van elke sufheid en saaiheid af, ze zijn zo emotioneel, in zo'n ongewoon expressieve taal geschreven, zo kunstig zijn alle mogelijkheden van de taal uitgebuit, dat ik besefte dat ik die niet voor mezelf mocht houden. Ik was nog student toen ik besloot die brieven uit te geyen. Ik ging me verdiepen in de negentiende-eeuwse geschiedenis, in het alledaagse leven, de omgangsvormen, de mentaliteit kortom. Toen ontdekte ik de rijkdom van de veranderingen in de negentiende eeuw. De negentiende eeuw is een omslagpunt. Alles wat we zijn, waardoor we geen middeleeuwse primitieve maatschappij meer zijn met lijf-en doodstraffen, bloedwraak, openbaar geselen en kinderarbeid, en waardoor de slavernij afgeschaft is, is te danken aan negentiende-eeuwse be- wegingen. Doordat steeds meer mensen onderwijs kregen en de publieke debatten konden volgen, werden verlichte ideeen sneller en met meer invloed verspreid. De vrouwenbeweging, de antislavernijbeweging, de arbeidersbeweging waren internationaal georganiseerd. Voor het eerst werden wereldcongressen gehouden. De vooruitgang van de medische wetenschap heeft bijgedragen aan een mentale ommekeer. De koepokinenting, hoe fel daartegen ook geageerd werd, raakte in gebruik, waardoor de pokken uitgebannen werden. De cholera verdween uit de steden zodra er waterleiding aangelegd was. De kindersterfte nam in de loop van de eeuw gigantisch of door de verbetering van de hygiene. De uitvinding van het gipsverband maakte dat been-en armbreuken niet meer automatisch invaliditeit tot gevolg hadden. Alles wat vastgestaan had, leek te kunnen veranderen. Door de mechanisering en de stoomkracht konden er opeens dingen die nooit gekund hadden. Een schip kon varen ook als God geen wind in de zeilen blies, een machine kon meer kracht produceren dan honderd man bij elkaar. Afstanden werden bijna letterlijk verkleind door de stoomtrein. Alsof de tijd zelf snel geworden was, zo dichtte A. Beeloo het: De tijd gaat snel, de tijd der stoomkracht, die de vleugelen der winden aanschiet, neen, der stormen, niet te teugelen. Het is niet alleen het nageslacht dat die tijd een masker opgezet heeft. Om te kunnen leven tussen realiteiten en wensdromen moesten de tijdgenoten zelf met maskers lopen. Het was onmogelijk te voldoen aan alle voorschriften en idealen. Men kon een ideale huisvader willen zijn, maar de dienstmeisjes waren zo mooi. Men kon matigheid preken, maar na afloop van de vergadering van de matigheidsbeweging stond de cognac op de societeit in voile flessen te wachten. Als moeder de huisvrouw langdurig ziek in een kraambed lag, waren de hoeren aantrekkelijk. Je kon een cent geven aan een bedelaarskind, en een bedelaarsgesticht mee helpen oprichten, maar dat wilde nog niet zeggen dat je zo'n kind in huis zou nemen. De befaamde dubbele moraal van de negentiende eeuw komt voort uit het conflict tussen willen en kunnen. Ili raakte zowel geboeid door het masker dat de negentiende eeuw zichzelf opzette als door dat van het nageslacht. De verheviging van een bepaalde expressie of eigenschap is gewoonlijk het doel van een masker. Een masker concentreert de aandacht op een eigenschap. De burgerlijkheid van de negentiende eeuw is samengebald in dat masker dat haar opgedrukt is. En zeker, die eeuw was burgerlijk. Alleen vat ik burgerlijk op als een geuzennaam. De negentiende eeuw is een door en door burgerlijke eeuw, in die zin dat de burger zijn meest intensieve bewustwor-12 ding toen beleefde. Hij nam geen genoegen meer met de oude verdeling van macht en invloed. Hij wilde niet meer dat grote groepen armen, krankzinnigen, zieken, misdadigers buitengesloten werden en dus verkommerden. Hij nam krachtige initiatieven om een betere samenleving op paten te zetten. Om dit te bereiken moest hij wel een soort verheven masker opzetten. Kwam het door de Franse Revolutie dat iedereen opeens aan de slag leek te gaan om een maatschappij te creeren die beter in elkaar zat dan voorheen? In heel Europa wordt de wildheid beteugeld en wordt gebouwd aan idealen. Uitwassen zijn ongewenst. Er moet een verstandige, tedere maatschappij komen, die plaats biedt aan iedereen. Deze maatschappij moet gevormd worden zoals een gezin. Model voor de ideale samenleving is de piramidale drie-eenheid van vader, moeder, kind. Het kind is een samenvattend begrip voor nageslacht. De vader staat aan de top en is in alle opzichten het verstand, de rationaliteit, de planner. Hij staat in een liefdevolle verhouding met de moeder, die voor het evenwicht zorgt, scherpe kanten van de vader neutraliseert en de microkosmos van het gezin bestiert. Het kind is het product van de harmonie tussen de vader en de moeder. Vrouw en kind staan op dezelfde lijn, want voor beiden is de vader verantwoordelijk. De bekende dominee Otto Gerhard Heldring hield zijn kinderen in de gaten. 'De kinderkamer was mijn studeerkamer. Een afzonderlijk studeervertrek hield ik er niet op na, wel een boekenkamer, waar mijn lessenaar stond, maar ik kon het nooit over mij krijgen om daar, afgezonderd van de huisgenoten, te gaan zitten. Ik was te midden van mijn kinderen van hun eerste levensjaar af, omdat ik het als vaderplicht beschouwde in de huiskamer te zijn, waar zij speelden. Daar zag ik ze altijd onder mijn ogen, daar alleen was het mogelijk klein en groot gade te slaan en overeenkomstig hun karakter te leren behandelen. Ik had te dikwijls gezien, hoe het studeervertrek van de predikant hem al te zeer uit het midden van zijn familie trekt. Hij is dan, ofschoon vader, beter in zijn bibliotheek thuis dan in zijn kinderwereld. De kinderen hebben in huis aan hem niets, en is hij daarbuiten, dan leeft hij geheel voor de gemeente. Arme moeder!' De ideale vader uit de negentiende eeuw is aanwezig voor zijn kinderen, en betrokken bij hun ontwikkeling. Het gezinsmodel geldt ook voor de andere maatschappelijke instellingen. Om dit te begrijpen moet men wat goochelen met metaforen die in de negentiende eeuw gemakkelijk van vrouwelijk naar mannelijk en van figuurlijk naar letterlijk wisselen. Het piramidemodel is overdraag-13 De piramide van het harmonieuze gezin baar op de staat. De koning heeft hier de rol van vader, die wijs en verstandig met zijn onderdanen, de kinderen moet omgaan. Het vrouwelijk element is hier de natie, die zich heeft laten bevruchten door de koning om de onderdanen te verwekken. Onderdanen ontstaan immers alleen als zij zich deel van een natie voelen. De natie waarborgt dat tussen onderdanen en koning een evenwichtige relatie bestaat. Het beeld van de koning die als een vader voor zijn kinderen zorgt, is geliefd bij de dichters van de negentiende eeuw. '0 Koning! herder! vorst en vader, geliefd door uw vereend gezin!' zo zong Hendrik Tollens Willem i toe bij zijn kroning tot vorst in '8'5. De nieuwe massa-industrie van de eeuw gebruikt zelfs de gezinssymboliek. De werkgever is de verantwoordelijke vader die voor het heil van zijn werknemers moet zorgen. Het fabrieksproduct is hier de liefdesbaby van de rechtvaardige vader en zijn toegewijde arbeiders. Daartegenover staat de zwarte zijde van de negentiende eeuw, die verborgen moest blijven. Er heerst grote verwarring gedurende de hele eeuw. De mens is niet redelijk. Uitspattingen komen veelvuldig voor. De mens werkt aan zijn eigen ondergang door te streven naar een geoliede maatschappij. Verbeteringen brengen verslechteringen voort. Wie staatsregelingen voor prostitutie wil, erkent het kwaad van de prostitutie. Humanisering van de massale gevangenissen leidt tot trieste isolering. Meer loon betekent meer drank, meer macht leidt tot meer misbruik. Seksualiteit valt niet te beteugelen. Dit geldt ook voor de natuur, waar kindersterfte en epidemieen ondanks alle vooruitgang in de wetenschap mensenlevens opslurpen. Daar kwam bij dat de oude moraal niet meer voldeed. Welke veranderingen kwamen van de duivel, welke van God? Het Kwaad kwam in een identiteitscrisis. De oude moraal had geen antwoord op de dilemma's waar de nieuwe mens voor kwam te staan. Bovendien gebruikte het kwaad zelf een masker om zich in de maatschappij te nestelen, zoals Johannes Kneppelhout zo prachtig...

A region of approximately one megabase of human Chromosome 12 shows extensive linkage disequilibrium in Utah residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe. This strikingly large linkage disequilibrium block was analyzed with statistical and experimental methods to determine whether natural selection could be implicated in shaping the current genome structure. Extended Haplotype Homozygosity and Relative Extended Haplotype Homozygosity analyses on this region mapped a core region of the strongest conserved haplotype to the exon 1 of the Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 gene (SCA2). Direct DNA sequencing of this region of the SCA2 gene revealed a significant association between a pre-expanded allele [(CAG) 8 CAA(CAG) 4 CAA(CAG) 8 ] of CAG repeats within exon 1 and the selected haplotype of the SCA2 gene. A significantly negative Tajima's D value (À2.20, p , 0.01) on this site consistently suggested selection on the CAG repeat. This region was also investigated in the three other populations, none of which showed signs of selection. These results suggest that a recent positive selection of the pre-expansion SCA2 CAG repeat has occurred in Utah residents with European ancestry.

The paper focuses on isotopic data of bronzes from the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. The sample sets comprise bronzes from hoards, graves, and settlements from Central and Southeastern Europe as well as the Aegean and Mesopotamia. The analytical determination of tin isotopic compositions and a possible use of tin from different ore sources between the Carpathian Basin, the Aegeo-Balkan-Complex and tin bearing regions in Central and Western Europe will be discussed. Since the 2nd millennium bronzes show in general a different isotopic composition than those of the 3rd millennium, the presented analyses indicate a possible reorientation of exchange routes in Europe during the 2nd millennium BC. This is supported by the composition of a few Aegean samples from the turn of the millennia, which have heavier tin isotopic compositions than all other sample sets. This suggests that different tin sources might have been used to manufacture these bronzes.

Cet article synthétise l'ensemble des résultats obtenus concernant les variations de l'englacement postérieures au Dernier Maximum Glaciaire en Haute-Durance, en amont de Guillestre (confluence avec le Guil). Il se fonde sur un travail de terrain exhaustif, visant à inventorier les héritages géomorphologiques façonnés par les glaciers disparus, et sur l'obtention de 35 datations par radionucléides cosmogéniques. Un scénario en quatre phases principales est établi, permettant de préciser les modalités de la transition Tardiglaciaire/Holocène. Les principaux résultats sont d'ordre temporel (deux générations de moraines datées du Dryas Récent et du Préboréal) et spatial (apparition d'une dissymétrie de l'englacement dans le bassin durancien au Tardiglaciaire), apportant des éclairages nouveaux, notamment pour la communauté des paléo-climatologues.

We present results from a study on the diet of Saker falcon (n = 15 nests) and Eastern imperial eagle (n = 2 nests) from south Kazakhstan, on the basis of food remains and pellets collected during the 2009 breeding season. The main prey for Saker falcon was predominantly rodents living in middle-size colonies - Spermophilus erytrogenys and Rhombomys opimus . We also present the results from the diet of two pairs of Eastern imperial eagles nesting close to Balkhash Lake.

In western Europe, forest area has been expanding rapidly since the 19th century, mainly on former agricultural land. Previous studies show that plant diversity differs between these recent forests and ancient forests that were already forested at the time of first national cadastral surveys, around 1800. Here, we investigated the duration of such agricultural aftereffects. In northeastern France, large areas were deforested during the Roman occupation and thereafter abandoned to forest. In one such forest that was farmed during the period AD 50-250, we show that species richness and plant communities vary according to the intensity of former agriculture. These variations are linked to longterm changes of chemical and structural soil properties. Hence, we suggest that such effects of past agricultural land use on forest biodiversity may be irreversible on an historical time scale.

The Black Sea is an inland sea between south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is connected to the Oceans by way of the Mediterranean Sea via the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, the Aegean Sea, the Gibraltar Strait and the Suez Canal. The Black Sea served as a transport node for many centuries. The Silk Road is one of the World's oldest and historically most important trade routes and is the longest land bridge of the time between Asia and Europe for more than 1000 years. It lost its importance in times when the security of transit no longer existed. Most of the east- west trade hence shifted to shipping transport through the Suez Canal and Malacca Straits. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 revitalisation of the Silk Road was taken up and gained momentum. TRACECA (TRAnsport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is such a project to connect Europe to Central Asia. It is planned a continuous railway to run from the Yellow Sea to Western Europe via the Black Sea. Black...

The difficulty in identifying acts of intentional injury in the past has limited the extent to which archaeologists have been able to discuss the nature of interpersonal violence in prehistory. Experimental replication of cranial trauma has proved particularly problematic due to the lack of test analogues that are sufficiently comparable to the human skull. A new material now overcomes this issue, and for the first time allows accurate insight into the effects of different weapons and different blows in inflicting cranial injury; in this case, blunt force trauma caused using a replica of the 'Thames Beater' Neolithic wooden club.

The subject of this article is the radiocarbon dating on bones in the western European Neolithic. By gathering 14C dates for 2 examples, one chosen in the middle Neolithic of the Rhine region and the other in the end of the early Neolithic in the same region and in the Paris Basin, a significant gap appears between the sum probabilities of dates on charcoals and the ones obtained with bones. A comparison between these results with the few available dendrochronological dates shows that dates on bones seem too young, while the sequence based on charcoals fits. The existence of too-young 14C dates of bones is not new: this phenomenon was already indicated in previous studies. Most explanations agree that there was a source of contamination, during the…

This paper examines the profound transformation of European politics through the lens of farright influence from 2000 to the present. Far-right parties have fundamentally altered the European political landscape not merely through direct electoral success, but through their capacity to set political agendas, force mainstream party adaptation, and normalize previously marginal positions. This study analyzes the mechanisms through which far-right movements have reshaped immigration policies, European integration discourse, democratic norms, and social values across diverse European contexts. Through comparative analysis of Western, Central, and Eastern European cases, the paper demonstrates that far-right influence operates through multiple channels: direct electoral power, agenda-setting capabilities, and the strategic responses of mainstream parties. The findings reveal significant variations in impact across different European regions, with implications for democratic quality, European integration, and social cohesion. The paper concludes that while institutional resilience has prevented complete democratic breakdown, the far-right's influence has created lasting changes in European political discourse and policy frameworks that extend well beyond their immediate electoral success.

Adenovirus infection has been shown to increase adiposity in chickens, mice, and nonhuman primates. Adenovirus type 36 (Ad‐36) DNA was detected in adipose tissues in these animal trials. In the United States, Ad‐36 significantly correlates with obesity as illustrated by an Ad‐36 seroprevalence of 30% in obese individuals and 11% in nonobese individuals. We investigated the possibility of a similar correlation of Ad‐36 in Dutch and Belgian persons. In total, 509 serum samples were analyzed for Ad‐36 antibodies using a serum neutralization assay. In addition, PCR was used to detect adenoviral DNA in visceral adipose tissue of 31 severely obese surgical patients. Our results indicated an overall Ad‐36 seroprevalence of 5.5% increasing with age. BMI of Ad‐36 seropositive humans was not significantly different from seronegative humans. No adenoviral DNA could be found using PCR on visceral adipose tissue. In conclusion, this first Ad‐36 study in the Netherlands and in Belgium indicates t...

Europe will remain the most visited touristic destination in the world with a total of 717 million tourists in 2020. The foreseen increase rate is 3.1% per year. This is one point lower the world average, leading to a loss of market quota of Europe from almost 60% in 1995 70 465 in 2020. This paper presents the features of Southern-Western European tourism in 2020. The paper analyses the European touristic level according to the tourist arrivals in the Southern and Western Europe, as well as to the money collections. It has been foreseen that the number of tourist international arrivals will increase reaching to almost 1.6 billion in 2020 (25 times more comparing to the value registered at the end of 1990). Collections from international tourism are to reach 2,000 billion USD until 2020. The empirical results of the research will demonstrate the evolutions and tendencies of S-W European tourism. In case the dynamics of the European tourism will remain the same in the future, as the experts of OMT/UNWTO anticipate, it is necessary for stimulation measures to be adopted, as well as measures of supporting the tourism industry.

The main findings from reports published in scientific journals on the criteria and methods used to assess fitness for work were reviewed. Systematic searches were made using internet engine searches (1966-2005) with related keywords. 39 reports were identified, mostly from the US and western Europe. Assessment of fitness for work is defined by most as the evaluation of a worker's capacity to work without risk to their own or others' health and safety. It is mainly assessed at recruitment (pre-offer or post-offer), and when changes of work or health conditions occur. Five main criteria used by occupational doctors to evaluate fitness for work were identified: the determination of worker's capacity and worker's risk in relation to his or her workplace, as well as ethical, economic and legal criteria. Most authors agreed that assessment tools used need to be specific and cost-effective, and probably none gives unequivocal answers. Outcomes from fitness for work assessments range from ''fit'' to ''unfit'', with other possible intermediate categories such as ''fit subject to work modifications'', ''fit with restrictions'' or ''conditionally fit (temporarily, permanently)''. Workplace modifications to improve or adjust working conditions must always be considered. There is confusion about the decisionmaking process to be used to judge about fitness for work. There is very scarce scientific evidence based on empirical data, probably because there are no standard or valid methodologies for all professions and circumstances.

Whether political leaders playing the nationalist card to enhance their legitimacy provoke the activity of terrorist groups is an important yet underexplored question. I argue that there is a positive association between nationalist leaders and certain types of terrorist groups, depending on the ideology of the group. My analysis focuses on four specific group ideologies: ethnonationalist, leftwing, right-wing, and religious fundamentalist. Specifically, I conceptualize that: 1) nationalist leaders amplify the activity of ethnonationalist terrorist groups that advocate for the interests of ethnic others, 2) nationalist politics diminish the activity of left-wing groups primarily focused on addressing economic inequality, 3) nationalist leaders empower right-wing groups that target perceived outgroup members, and 4) nationalist politics increase the activity of religious fundamentalist groups that resist persecution based on their beliefs. The empirical findings indicate some deviations from these expectations. Nationalistic leadership is a significant driver of activity among ethnonationalist and religious fundamentalist terrorist groups, reduces the engagement of leftwing groups, and has minimal impact on right-wing groups. Overall, this analysis suggests that nationalist leaders present a security risk, as their actions likely incite, rather than mitigate, the activities of specific terrorist groups.

Party system classifications have been central in political science, especially until Sartori's influential typology in 1976. However, recent years have seen diminished attention to such classifications. Western European party systems have significantly transformed, particularly over the last 15 years due to multiple crises, affecting their core structure, or what Sartori termed 'patterns of interparty competition. ' This raises questions about whether these changes have undermined the very concept of systemness, making classifications irrelevant. This research note redefines party systems based on the number and composition of relevant political poles (governing alternatives) and, through a long-term analysis of Western Europe (20 countries since 1945), assesses their degree of systemness. Results indicate that many systems have become 'non-systems, ' with fluctuating and unstable party poles. Most Western European systems have exhibited this 'non-system' type for at least half of legislatures since 1989, thus making classifications only short-lived snapshots and inevitably useless for long-term accounts.

This paper juxtaposes changes over the last forty years in income growth and distribution with the mortality changes recorded at the aggregate level in about 170 countries and at the individual level in 21 countries with at least two Demographic and Health Surveys covering the last twenty years. Over the 1980s-and 1990s, the infant-mortality rate (IMR), under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) and Life Expectancy at Birth (LEB) mostly continued the favourable trends that characterized the 1960s and 1970s. Yet, especially, the 1990s the pace of health improvement was slower than that recorded during the prior decades. In addition, the distribution between countries of aggregate health improvements became markedly more skewed. These trends are in part explained by the negative changes recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, but are robust to the removal of the two regions from the sample. This tendency is observed also at the intra-regional level, with the exception of Western Europe. Thirdly, DHS data for 21 developing countries point to a frequent divergence over time in the within-country distribution of gains in IMR and U5MR among children living in urban vs. rural areas and belonging to families part of different quantiles of the asset distribution, while IMR differentials by level of education of the mother show mixed trends The paper concludes by underscoring the similarities and linkages between changes in income inequality and health inequality and suggests some tentative explanations of these trends without, however, formally testing them.

The Scheldt Estuary (The Netherlands) consists of two tributaries, of which the western part is heavily polluted (i.e. domestic and industrial pollutants, including heavy metals) and the eastern is relatively clean. Pollutants generally follow downstream decreasing concentration gradients, thus opposing a natural occurring salinity gradient, which decreases upstream. Hence, the Scheldt Estuary forms an interesting setting to investigate the effects of both anthropogenic and natural kind.

Fossil macrofauna are difficult to assess quantitatively compared with microand meiofaunas because of their large body size and rare occurrence, particularly in fine-gained sediments. To estimate the quantitative activity of the macrobenthos, the abundance of the fecal pellet in the Quaternary sediments can be considered. In this investigation, we used a sediment core (Site U1461) recovered off Western Australia in the eastern Indian Ocean during IODP Exp.356. We focused on horizons that clearly exhibited sedimentary cycles. The upper part of the core mainly comprised of alternating beds of dark-colored packstone/wackestone and light-colored wackestone/mudstone. Well-preserved molluscan fossils and peloids occurred in the light-colored wackestone/mudstone in the upper part of the sedimentary sequence. The morphological character and size of the peloids within the studied sediments are similar to modern fecal pellets of shallow water polychaetes. The abundance of fossil fecal pellets...

The break-up of the former Eastern European, Soviet-Bloc provides many opportunities to compare the countries that emerged with other countries from the rest of Europe. Given the great divergence between the two "systems" of communism and capitalism, differences could be expected in many areas including the way in which small, and medium-sized, enterprises The determinants chosen were: profitability, growth rate, future growth potential, asset structure (collateral), company size, company age, non-debt tax shields (depreciation), stock levels and risk. Restricted and unrestricted OLS regressions were used to test whether differences between the two groups were due to variations in the determinants or to other, more fundamental, factors. The results of the analyses show that whilst some of the differences in capital structure can be explained by variations in the determinants, some cannot. This implies that other economic and perhaps social or political, factors are at play.

A preliminary analysis of the vulnerability of the Sefton coast to coastal flooding was carried out using a high-resolution DEM and census data from 2011. Results indicate that up to 12,500 people live within areas below the significant dune erosion level. Low-lying areas are clustered in two main locations, the South Formby / Hightown and Southport. High dunes from 15 to 35 m high are common in the central part of the Sefton Coast, including Formby Point and Ainsdale. This highlights the significance of the Sefton dune field system as a potential defence mechanism against coastal erosion and flooding, and the need to consider management schemes that would allow the dunes to adapt to sea level rise and climate change.

In this study we explain extreme right-wing voting behaviour in the countries of the European Union and Norway from a micro and macro perspective. Using a multidisciplinary multilevel approach, we take into account individual-level social background characteristics and public opinion alongside country characteristics and characteristics of extreme right-wing parties themselves. By making use of large-scale survey data (N = 49,801) together with country-level statistics and expert survey data, we are able to explain extreme right-wing voting behaviour from this multilevel perspective. Our results show that crossnational differences in support of extreme right-wing parties are particularly due to differences in public opinion on immigration and democracy, the number of non-Western residents in a country and, above all, to party characteristics of the extreme right-wing parties themselves.

Bulgaria has joined the official intercalibration (IC) in order to complete the state commitments for the classification of rivers based on Biological Quality Elements (BQE). The objective of this paper was to verify whether the present Bulgarian classification method for ecological status of large lowland (national type R7) and medium-sized lowland (national type R8) rivers was compliant with the normative definitions of the Water Framework Directive. Thus, a two-year study (2014 2015) on macroinvertebrate communities was conducted at 43 sites (18 from R7 and 25 from R8). Differences in qualitative and quantitative composition in the abovementioned river types, as well as indicative potential of BQE in relation to different anthropogenic pressures were analysed. Based on alternative benchmark sites (identified using the criteria defined by the EU), the High/Good boundary and a reference value for the Biotic index were defined. Class boundaries were in line with the results of the c...

The biogeographic significance of the Late Cretaceous Haţeg fauna is assessed using both faunal and phylogenetic analyses. Although extremely endemic at the species level, the Haţeg fauna is part of a larger European palaeobioprovince compared to roughly contemporary (Campanian-Maastrichtian) terrestrial faunas elsewhere in Europe. Phylogenetic analyses of five Haţeg taxa, calibrated by biostratigraphic occurrences provide evidence of long ghost lineages. The geographic distributions of kogaionids, Kallokibotion, Allodaposuchus, and Zalmoxes (together with their European sister taxa) may have arisen from vicariant events between western Europe and North America, while the distribution of Telmatosaurus is an example of European endemism of Asiamerican origin. While Haţeg seems to have acted as a dead-end refugium for Kallokibotion and Telmatosaurus, other faunal members (and their immediate sister taxa) are not restricted to Transylvania, but known otherwise from localities across southern Europe. In addition, Transylvania may have acted as an evolutionary cradle for kogaionids. Transylvania and the other southern faunas of Europe may represent a distinct division of the Late Cretaceous European palaeobioprovince. A boundary between this Tethyan Europe and the more western and northern cratonic Europe suggests something like the Wallace Line in the Malay Archipelago, in which two distinct faunal provinces with separate histories within a much larger, seemingly uniform geographic region are separated by a narrow boundary.

Introduction: Left-wing authoritarianism is a multidimensional construct that is gaining increasing interest. This study evaluated the validity and reliability of three versions of the Left-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (LWA) among Chilean university students and proposed a shortened 9-item version (LWA-9) that significantly reduces the length of the instrument and facilitates its use in applied contexts. Methods: A non-probabilistic convenience sampling method was used, involving 415 Chilean university students (69.2% women, 30.1% men, and 0.7% identifying as another gender), aged between 17 and 44 years (M = 20.06; SD = 3.42). Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the LWA scale, the Social Dominance Orientation scale (SDO-7), and the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale (RWA). Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) analyses were conducted to evaluate the factorial structure. Results: Analyses confirmed a correlated three-factor structure for all versions. The LWA-9 version stood out for better psychometric fit, high factor loadings, robust reliability levels, and factorial invariance by sex up to strict invariance, although it only reached configural invariance by age group. Convergent validity was supported by positive and significant correlations with the SDO-7 dimensions, and discriminant validity by low and non-significant correlations with the RWA scale, indicating that the LWA-9 captures a distinct construct. Discussion: These results support the structural validity of the LWA in all its versions and its empirical utility as a brief, efficient, and theoretically sound measure of left-wing authoritarianism.

The question posed in this paper is whether structural adjustment programs have had the consequences policy intended and theory predicts. It uses evidence from a micro survey of manufacturing firms in Ghana to assess whether policy has effected an expansion of the exportable sector within manufacturing, the growth of small firms and an increase in exports and investment. It is

در پی حملات ۱۱ سپتامبر ۲۰۰۱، ایالات متحده با هدف مبارزه با تروریسم و سرنگونی طالبان، که القاعده را پناه داده بود، به افغانستان حمله کرد. این اقدام منجر به تشکیل دولت جدید به رهبری حامد کرزی تحت حمایت بینالمللی در اجلاس بن شد. آمریکا با همکاری ناتو و در قالب مأموریت آیساف، به بازسازی سیاسی، امنیتی و اقتصادی افغانستان پرداخت.
در عرصه سیاسی، آمریکا از تدوین قانون اساسی، برگزاری انتخابات و تقویت نهادهای دموکراتیک حمایت کرد. در بخش امنیتی، نیروهای آیساف مسئولیت آموزش نیروهای افغان و تأمین امنیت را بر عهده گرفتند. در زمینه اقتصادی، کمکهای مالی قابل توجهی برای بازسازی زیرساختها، کشاورزی و آموزش ارائه شد.
با این حال، روابط دو کشور با چالشهای جدی مواجه شد. فساد گسترده در دولت کرزی، اختلافنظر در تعریف و برخورد با طالبان، و تنشهای سیاسی بین رهبران دو کشور از جمله عوامل تیرگی روابط بودند. کرزی معتقد بود که منشأ ناامنی در پاکستان است و آمریکا باید پناهگاههای طالبان را هدف بگیرد، نه غیرنظامیان افغان را. همچنین، اجرای نادرست پروژههای بازسازی و سوءمدیریت کمکهای خارجی موجب نارضایتی مردم شد.
در نهایت، علیرغم سرمایهگذاری کلان و تلاش برای استقرار دموکراسی، آمریکا نتوانست امنیت پایدار یا حکومتی کارآمد در افغانستان ایجاد کند و خروج نیروها در سال ۲۰۱۴ زمینه را برای بازگشت طالبان فراهم نمود.

This article examines the legal and policy implications of Indonesia's commitment to import agricultural biotechnology products from the United States, particularly in the context of Indonesia's national food self-sufficiency goals. The recent trade agreement between Indonesia and the US includes substantial imports of genetically modified crops such as soybeans and corn. While these imports may offer short-term economic benefits, they raise concerns about long-term dependency and the challenge of domestic agricultural innovation. This paper analyzes the alignment of such trade commitments with Indonesia's policy brief on supporting modern biotechnology seeds for food sovereignty. The study employs a qualitative-descriptive approach, reviewing trade documents, policy briefs, and international trade law principles. The findings suggest that Indonesia should harmonize trade liberalization with strategic support for local biotechnology development through streamlined regulations, equal treatment of domestic and imported products, and targeted policy instruments to foster innovation and ensure sustainable food security.

OVER A DECADE AGO the newsletter of the American Historical Association Perspectives carried a long lead article entitled "Teaching 'Eastern Europe' without the Iron Curtain." 1 Referring to the challenge posed by the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe to the teaching of European history, the author, Larry Wolff, saw it as "an opportunity to think critically about the ways in which the Cold War has shaped the way we teach the history of Eastern Europe." 2 He argued that the very notion of Eastern Europe was historically dubious, invented in the age of the Enlightenment "as a politically charged, cultural construction." The Cold War and the Iron Curtain gave this division of Europe "an air of geopolitical inevitability, encouraging historians to interpret earlier periods in terms of the same distinction between Western and Eastern Europe." "The idea of Eastern Europe…has become a pedagogical convenience in our history curriculum, creating a category for quick generalizations to serve as a fig leaf for our scant attention to that historical terrain." 5

Information about plant gathering by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe is scarce because of the problems of preservation of plant remains in archaeological sites and due to the lack of application of archaebotanical analysis in many of them. Botanical macrorremains -wood charcoal, seeds, fruits, leaves, etc. -provide information not only about palaeoeconomy of huntergatherers, but also about climate, landscape and vegetation dynamics. In Gravettian and Solutrean levels of Cova de les Cendres, Corema album pyrenes (Empetraceae or crowberries family) have been identified. On the contrary, wood charcoal of this species has not been documented among the remains of firewood. This differential presence of plant organs, together with the nutritional value of its fruits, which is presented here, make us hypothesize the systematic gathering of C. album fruits for human consumption. They have a high content in vitamin C, as well as potassium, magnesium and copper. Corema album is a unique species, nowadays in danger of extinction. Its main population is located on the Atlantic coast of Iberian Peninsula, but in 1996 a small population was discovered on the Mediterranean Iberian coast (Benidorm, Spain). Archaeobotanical data from Cova de les Cendres (Teulada-Moraira, Spain) presented here point to a larger population of camariña during Upper Palaeolithic on the coast of Alicante. The harsh climatic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum during Solutrean period, with colder temperatures and aridity increase, could explain the reduction of the presence of C. album remains until its absence in Magdalenian. The climatic amelioration during Upper Magdalenian did not mean the recovery of camariña population in the Moraira headland area. Probably, the rising of the sea level would affect them destroying its habitat in the dunes.

In spite of an active and sophisticated archaeological research program, the Paleolithic of the Iberian peninsula remains comparatively little known to English-speaking prehistorians, with the exception of Cantabrian Spain. The rich data set compiled by Spanish ...

Religiosity tends to decline across generations. However, religious decline is more pronounced in some countries and the diminishing aspects of religion vary by context. To explain such variation, we extend the general secular transition model, which proposes that countries undergo a similar process of secularization beginning at different points in time. We explain that secular transition happens in three steps: first, public ritual participation declines; second, the importance of religion to individuals declines; and third, people shed religious affiliation. We test this model using datasets from surveys in 111 countries (Pew Research Center), 58 countries (World Values Survey and European Values Study (WVS/EVS)), and a subset of 17 countries measured in at least five WVS/EVS waves. We show the model fits countries with Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist pluralities. While Eastern post-Soviet countries deviate from this pattern, traditionally Muslim countries appear to follow its early stages. However, we recommend caution in interpreting longitudinal claims, due to limited data.

According to the budget-maximizing bureaucrat model, public sector employees should rationally seek to increase government budgets to increase their own power. In contrast to most advanced democracies, class and sectoral voting has largely been neglected in Canada. The ideological and voting preferences of the public sector has been unexamined since the 1980s. Using the Canadian Election Study (1968-2019), we revisit and expand on this literature. We find that the public sector holds more economically leftist attitudes than the public and that a sectoral cleavage has emerged, with public sector employees increasingly supporting the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP). We also find that social class moderates these two relationships, as professionals and managers in the public sector are significantly more likely to vote for the NDP and hold more leftist economic attitudes than their counterparts in both the private sector, and the routine non-manual and working class in the public sector. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Basing on morphological and molecular analyses, the existence of two undescribed species, H. diazi from north-eastern Spain and French Pyrenees, and H. fosterorum from north-central Spain is herein confirmed.These species are members of an European endemic complex of hydraenid beetles, the Hydraena emarginata-saga clade, belonging to the "Haenydra" lineage. The two new species are described and the geographic range of the widespread H. saga is revised.

We analyse the relative importance of the major crustal-scale fault zones and crustal architecture in controlling basin formation, deformation and the structural connections between basins. The North and South Permian Basins of Central Europe are usually defined by the extend of Rotliegend sedimentary and volcanic units and not by a common tectonic origin or development. Instead, the sub-basins that together form the Permian Basins are each controlled by different structural and/or rheological controls that are inherited from Early Paleozoic and older geodynamic processes, they are even located in different crustal/lithospheric domains. The North Permian basin is located on Baltic crust that was thinned during Late Proterozoic - Early Paleozoic times. South of the Thor suture, the South Permian basin and its sub-basins are located on Avalonian crust (Southern North Sea and North German Basins) and on the transition of East European cratonic and Avalonian crust (Polish Through). The ...

The invasion of Europe by the western corn rootworm, North America's most destructive corn pest, is ongoing and represents a serious threat to European agriculture. Because this pest was initially introduced in Central Europe, it was believed that subsequent outbreaks in Western Europe originated from this area. Using model-based Bayesian analyses of the genetic variability of the western corn rootworm, we demonstrate that this belief is false: There have been at least three independent introductions from North America during the past two decades. This result raises questions about changing circumstances that have enabled a sudden burst of transatlantic introductions.

Genetic variation is now routinely screened at the DNA sequence level in many studies. If the DNA region being screened has not experienced excessive amounts of recombination, it is often possible to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genetic variation in the form of a haplotype tree. This tree estimates the evolutionary pathway that interconnects all the different haplotypes (sequence variants) observed in the sample. This haplotype tree can be used to define a series of nested branches (clades) that reflects the relative temporal history of the haplotypes and groups of haplotypes. Geographical information can then be overlaid upon this temporal series to test for significant associations between geography and temporal position in the haplotype tree. This allows a reconstruction of how the genetic variation arose and spread in both space and time. Such reconstructions can yield many insights into the joint roles of recurrent events such as gene flow and of historical events such as fragmentation or range expansion. These points are illustrated with studies on the chub, Leuciscus cephalus. There is also a need to extend such nested phylogeographic analyses to a phylo/reticulate geographic analysis that incorporates both assortment and recombination between and within DNA regions. A preliminary phylo/reticulate geographic analysis is presented of the transferrin locus in the brown trout, Salmo trutta, species complex that reveals the importance of hybridization in the recent evolutionary history of this group. This example shows the inadequacy of a strictly phylogenetic approach and illustrates the need to incorporate reticulate evolution. The results of nested clade phylogeographic analysis and the new phylo/reticulate geographic analysis are then used for inferring species status of the marbled trout. The results indicate that an old hybridization event may have played a role in the origin of the marbled trout. Currently the marbled trout is primarily endangered by hybridization with introduced brown trout. These results show both the positive and negative impacts of hybridization upon biodiversity. Such phylo/reticulate geographic studies will challenge both our concepts of species and our conservation management strategies.

The Mobarak Formation in the Valiabad area (northwestern Alborz, Iran) is composed of bioclastic, oolitic and sandy limestone interbedded with black shale, and is disconformably underlain and overlain by the Cambrian Lalun and Permian Dorud formations, respectively. In this study, 104 foraminiferal species belonging to 12 families and 33 genera were determined. Among them, six genera and nine species are reported for the first time in Iran. Analysis of the foraminiferal assemblages has identified eight local biozones, which can be correlated with the MFZ8 to MFZ14 zones of the Viséan stratotypes in Belgium. The Valiabad equivalents of these biozones are essentially characterized by (1) Eoparastaffella ex gr. rotunda-'florigena'-Lysella cf. gadukensis; (2) Eoparastaffella simplex-Lapparentidiscus bokanensis; (3) Ammarchaediscus; (4) Uralodiscus-Glomodiscus; (5) Glomodiscus-Archaediscus; (6) Pojarkovella-Mstinia fallax; (7) Mstinia bulloides-Pseudoendothyra; and (8) Howchinia gibba-Howchinia bradyana-Tubispirodiscus attenuatus. Consequently, the Valiabad section appears to be one of the most complete Viséan sections in Iran. Some taxonomic precisions are provided about the principal taxa. Biogeographically, (1) the MFZ8-MFZ11 biozones are extended to all the shelves of the Palaeotethys (from Ireland to South China) and Urals oceans; nevertheless, due to the complete evolution of archaediscoids, they seem more related to the Perigondwanan assemblages from Sinai and Taurus (including the Antalya Nappes); (2) the MFZ12 assemblage appears relatively endemic; and (3) the impoverished assemblages of the biozones MFZ13-14 have marked affinities with the Kazakhstan Block. It is currently impossible to indicate precisely if these variations are related with a drift of the Alborz region to the north, or to a change of oceanic currents. Moreover, the double affinity highlights the narrowness of the Palaeotethys in Iran during the Viséan.