Resilience in Pre-Columbian Caribbean House-Building: Dialogue Between Archaeology and Humanitarian Shelter.

This paper responds to questions posed by archaeologists and engineers in the humanitarian sector about relationships between shelter, disasters and resilience. Enabled by an increase in horizontal excavations combined with high-resolution settlement data from excavations in the Dominican Republic, the paper presents a synthesis of Caribbean house data spanning a millennium (1400 BP- 450 BP). An analysis of architectural traits identify the house as an institution that constitutes and catalyses change in an emergent and resilient pathway. The "Caribbean architectural mode" emerged in a period of demographic expansion and cultural transition, was geographically widespread, different from earlier and mainland traditions and endured the hazards of island and coastal ecologies. We use archaeological analysis at the house level to consider the historical, ecological and regional dimensions of resilience in humanitarian action.Thank you to the Museo del Hombre Dominicano for collaboration on the site of El Cabo, to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University for supporting the archaeological research. Kate Crawford’s post-doctoral post at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10745-015-9741-

Population development of rice black bug, Scotinophara latiuscula (Breddin), under varying nitrogen in a field experiment

© 2017 E. The effects of nitrogenous fertilizers on black bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) colonization and population development in rice fields has not been studied previously. This study reports on the distribution of adults, eggs and nymphs of the black bug, Scotinophara latiuscula (Breddin) during a seasonal outbreak in a rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield experiment that varied nitrogen application rates. Plots at the edge of the experimental field had higher black bug densities. Adult distribution was only weakly affected by nitrogen level. Densities of egg-masses and nymphs increased linearly with increasing nitrogen rates. Nymph development was also more advanced under high nitrogen. Oviposition was highest on larger plants with high grain numbers (actively filling grain), but was otherwise unaffected by the varieties in the experiment. Our results indicate that the build-up of black bug populations in rice is influenced by nitrogen fertilizer rates mainly acting on egg-laying and nymph development

Resilience in Pre-Columbian Caribbean House-Building: Dialogue Between Archaeology and Humanitarian Shelter

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10745-015-9741-5This paper responds to questions posed by archaeologists and engineers in the humanitarian sector about relationships between shelter, disasters and resilience. Enabled by an increase in horizontal excavations combined with high-resolution settlement data from excavations in the Dominican Republic, the paper presents a synthesis of Caribbean house data spanning a millennium (1400 BP- 450 BP). An analysis of architectural traits identify the house as an institution that constitutes and catalyses change in an emergent and resilient pathway. The ?Caribbean architectural mode? emerged in a period of demographic expansion and cultural transition, was geographically widespread, different from earlier and mainland traditions and endured the hazards of island and coastal ecologies. We use archaeological analysis at the house level to consider the historical, ecological and regional dimensions of resilience in humanitarian actionThank you to the Museo del Hombre Dominicano for collaboration on the site of El Cabo, to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University for supporting the archaeological research. Kate Crawford?s post-doctoral post at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Separation and recovery of critical metal ions using ionic liquids

Separation and purification of critical metal ions such as rare-earth elements (REEs), scandium and niobium from their minerals is difficult and often determines if extraction is economically and environmentally feasible. Solvent extraction is a commonly used metal-ion separation process, usually favored because of its simplicity, speed and wide scope, which is why it is often employed for separating trace metals from their minerals. However, the types of solvents widely used for the recovery of metal ions have adverse environmental impact. Alternatives to solvent extraction have been explored and advances in separation technologies have seen commercial establishment of liquid membranes as an alternative to conventional solvent extraction for the recovery of metals and other valuable materials. Liquid membrane transport incorporates solvent extraction and membrane separation in one continuously operating system. Both methods conventionally use solvents that are harmful to the environment, however, the introduction of ionic liquids (ILs) over the last decade is set to minimize the environmental impact of both solvent extraction and liquid membrane separation processes. ILs are a family of organic molten salts with low or negligible vapour pressure which may be formed below 100 oC. Such liquids are also highly thermally stable and less toxic. Their ionic structure makes them thermodynamically favorable solvents for the extraction of metallic ions. The main aim of this article is to review the current achievements in the separation of REE, scandium, niobium and vanadium from their minerals, using ILs in either solvent extraction or liquid membrane processes. The mechanism of separation using ILs is discussed and the engineering constraints to their application are identified

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017—and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions—was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing—and in some countries reversal—of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories