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Several Centuries (several + century)
Selected AbstractsThe Case for Cameral AccountingFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2002Norvald Monsen Cameral accounting was developed as early as the 16th century onwards in order to contribute to increased control of public money. Such a control demand does not seem to be of minor importance at the threshold of a new millennium as it was several centuries ago, and therefore Ludwig Mülhaupt in the excerpt above states that ,Unfortunately there are very few researchers and practitioners who are interested in developing the cameral bookkeeping method, which is strongly to be regretted with a view to the importance of these questions.' Most of the literature dealing with cameral accounting is published in German, and it seems to be known only to a small extent beyond the German speaking countries. The purpose of this article is therefore to present this historically important accounting model to a larger audience, allowing us to draw upon the experiences of cameral accounting in our continuous attempts to control public money, including the current international debate about the introduction of commercial (accrual) accounting in the public sector. [source] A beetle's eye view of London from the Mesolithic to Late Bronze AgeGEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009Scott A. Elias The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the environmental history of the London region, based on changes in beetle faunal assemblages from the Mesolithic to Late Bronze Age. Eight sites were studied, all but one of which are within 2,km of the modern course of the Thames. The sites produced 128 faunal assemblages that yielded 218 identified species in 41 families of Coleoptera (beetles). Beetle faunas of Mesolithic age indicate extensive wetlands near the Thames, bordered by rich deciduous woodlands. The proportion of woodland species declined in the Neolithic, apparently because of the expansion of wetlands, rather than because of human activities. The Early Bronze Age faunas contained a greater proportion of coniferous woodland and aquatic (standing water) species. An increase in the dung beetle fauna indicates the presence of sheep, cattle and horses, and various beetles associated with crop lands demonstrate the local rise of agriculture, albeit several centuries after the beginnings of farming in other regions of Britain. Late Bronze Age faunas show the continued development of agriculture and animal husbandry along the lower Thames. About 33% of the total identified beetle fauna from the London area sites have limited modern distributions or are extinct in the U.K. Some of these species are associated with the dead wood found in primeval forests; others are wetland species whose habitat has been severely reduced in recent centuries. The third group is stream-dwelling beetles that require clean, clear waters and river bottoms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Human modification of the landscape and surface climate in the next fifty yearsGLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2002R. S. Defries Abstract Human modification of the landscape potentially affects exchanges of energy and water between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere. This study develops a possible scenario for land cover in the year 2050 based on results from the IMAGE 2 (Integrated Model to Assess the Greenhouse Effect) model, which projects land-cover changes in response to demographic and economic activity. We use the land-cover scenario as a surface boundary condition in a biophysically-based land-surface model coupled to a general circulation model for a 15-years simulation with prescribed sea surface temperature and compare with a control run using current land cover. To assess the sensitivity of climate to anthropogenic land-cover change relative to the sensitivity to decadal-scale interannual variations in vegetation density, we also carry out two additional simulations using observed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from relatively low (1982,83) and high (1989,90) years to describe the seasonal phenology of the vegetation. In the past several centuries, large-scale land-cover change occurred primarily in temperate latitudes through conversion of forests and grassland to highly productive cropland and pasture. Several studies in the literature indicate that past changes in surface climate resulting from this conversion had a cooling effect owing to changes in vegetation morphology (increased albedo). In contrast, this study indicates that future land-cover change, likely to occur predominantly in the tropics and subtropics, has a warming effect governed by physiological rather than morphological mechanisms. The physiological mechanism is to reduce carbon assimilation and consequently latent relative to sensible heat flux resulting in surface temperature increases up to 2 °C and drier hydrologic conditions in locations where land cover was altered in the experiment. In addition, in contrast to an observed decrease in diurnal temperature range (DTR) over land expected with greenhouse warming, results here suggest that future land-cover conversion in tropics could increase the DTR resulting from decreased evaporative cooling during the daytime. For grid cells with altered land cover, the sensitivity of surface temperature to future anthropogenic land-cover change is generally within the range induced by decadal-scale interannual variability in vegetation density in temperate latitudes but up to 1.5 °C warmer in the tropics. [source] Developing a post-fire flood chronology and recurrence probability from alluvial stratigraphy in the Buffalo Creek watershed, Colorado, USA,HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 15 2001John G. Elliott Abstract Stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence indicate floods that occur soon after forest fires have been intermittent but common events in many mountainous areas during the past several thousand years. The magnitude and recurrence of these post-fire flood events reflects the joint probability between the recurrence of fires and the recurrence of subsequent rainfall events of varying magnitude and intensity. Following the May 1996 Buffalo Creek, Colorado, forest fire, precipitation amounts and intensities that generated very little surface runoff outside of the burned area resulted in severe hillslope erosion, floods, and streambed sediment entrainment in the rugged, severely burned, 48 km2 area. These floods added sediment to many existing alluvial fans, while simultaneously incising other fans and alluvial deposits. Incision of older fans revealed multiple sequences of fluvially transported sandy gravel that grade upward into charcoal-rich, loamy horizons. We interpret these sequences to represent periods of high sediment transport and aggradation during floods, followed by intervals of quiescence and relative stability in the watershed until a subsequent fire occurred. An alluvial sequence near the mouth of a tributary draining a 0·82 km2 area indicated several previous post-fire flood cycles in the watershed. Dendrochronologic and radiocarbon ages of material in this deposit span approximately 2900 years, and define three aggradational periods. The three general aggradational periods are separated by intervals of approximately nine to ten centuries and reflect a ,millennium-scale' geomorphic response to a closely timed sequence of events: severe and intense, watershed-scale, stand-replacing fires and subsequent rainstorms and flooding. Millennium-scale aggradational units at the study site may have resulted from a scenario in which the initial runoff from the burned watershed transported and deposited large volumes of sediment on downstream alluvial surfaces and tributary fans. Subsequent storm runoff may have produced localized incision and channelization, preventing additional vertical aggradation on the sampled alluvial deposit for several centuries. Two of the millennium-scale aggradational periods at the study site consist of multiple gravel and loam sequences with similar radiocarbon ages. These closely dated sequences may reflect a ,multidecade-scale' geomorphic response to more frequent, but aerially limited and less severe fires, followed by rainstorms of relatively common recurrence. Published in 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Tree-ring reconstructions of precipitation and streamflow for north-western TurkeyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Ünal Akkemik Abstract We describe tree-ring reconstructions of spring (May-June) precipitation and spring-summer (May-August) streamflow for north-western Turkey, both beginning in AD 1650. These are among the first such reconstructions for the region, and the streamflow reconstruction is among the first of its kind for Turkey and the entire Middle East. The reconstructions, which both emphasize high-frequency variations, account for 34 and 53% of their respective instrumental variance. Comparison to precipitation and runoff data provides some means of verification for the instrumental streamflow record, which is very short (30 years). Drought and flood events in the reconstructions are compared to historical archives and other tree-ring reconstructions for Turkey. The results reveal common climatic extremes over much of the country. Many of these events have had profound impacts on the peoples of Turkey over the past several centuries. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Evolutionary Frameworks for Language Change: The Price Equation ApproachLINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010Brady Clark Models and concepts from biology have informed the study of language change for several centuries. In this article, I take a comparative look across the disciplines of historical linguistics and evolutionary biology and ask if an evolutionary perspective on language change drawing on Darwin's theory of adaptation through natural selection can contribute in a substantive way to theorizing within the study of language change. This article discusses a framework for language change that borrows concepts from evolutionary theory, the framework presented in Mufwene (2008). Building on Jäger (2008), I suggest that George Price's "General Theory of Selection" provides a useful and precise framework in which to mathematically represent evolutionary frameworks for language change such as Mufwene's. In the final part of the paper, I propose that the Price equation approach to the levels of selection debate in biology can provide insight into the ways in which different levels of linguistic information interact during language change. [source] Dissecting the components of quinine accumulation in Plasmodium falciparumMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2008Cecilia P. Sanchez Summary Although quinine, the active ingredient of chinchona bark, has been used in the treatment of malaria for several centuries, there is little information regarding the interactions of this drug with the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. To better understand quinine's mode of action and the mechanism underpinning reduced responsiveness, we have investigated the factors that contribute to quinine accumulation by parasites that differ in their susceptibility to quinine. Interestingly, passive distribution, in accordance with the intracellular pH gradients, and intracellular binding could account for only a small fraction of the high amount of quinine accumulated by the parasites investigated. The results of trans -stimulation kinetics suggest that high accumulation of quinine is brought about by a carrier-mediated import system. This import system seems to be weakened in parasites with reduced quinine susceptibility. Other data show that polymorphisms within PfCRT are causatively linked with an increased verapamil-sensitive quinine efflux that, depending on the genetic background, resulted in reduced quinine accumulation. The polymorphisms within PfMDR1 investigated did not affect quinine accumulation. Our data are consistent with the model that several factors, including acidotropic trapping, binding to intracellular sites and carrier-mediated import and export transport systems, contribute to steady-state intracellular quinine accumulation. [source] Limiting Global Cooling after Global Warming is Over , Differentiating Between Short- and Long-Lived Greenhouse GasesOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 4 2003Axel Michaelowa Current climate policy does not take into account that, after greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to an extent that atmospheric concentrations stabilise and then start to fall, natural decay of greenhouse gases will lead to a global cooling phase spanning several centuries. This cooling will lead to damage to humans and ecosystems that depends on the rate of temperature change. Current climate policy should thus concentrate on the reduction of short- and medium-lived greenhouse gases, while exempting long-lived gases. This reduces the cooling rate. Another policy option is to sequester carbon in geological reservoirs that allow controlled release in the future. [source] The Common Law Power of the Legislature: Insurer Conversions and Charitable FundsTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2005JILL R. HORWITZ New York's Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield conversion from nonprofit to for-profit form has considerable legal significance. Three aspects of the conversion make the case unique: the role of the state legislature in directing the disposition of the conversion assets, the fact that it made itself the primary beneficiary of those assets, and the actions of the state attorney general defending the state rather than the public interest in the charitable assets. Drawing on several centuries of common law rejecting the legislative power to direct the disposition of charitable funds, this article argues that the legislature lacked power to control the conversion and direct the disposition of its proceeds and that its actions not only undermined the nonprofit form but also raised constitutional concerns. [source] | ||||||||||||||||