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Drilling during ODP Leg 133 offshore Cairns, northeast Queensland, provided a unique opportunity to document carbonate production and facies development on a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic margin. Recent studies have shown that variations in the sedimentology of Late Quaternary and Pliocene periplatform sediments (Schlager and James, 1978), deposited on continental slopes and in deep basins surrounding shallow carbonate platforms, are linked to changes in sea-level (Droxler et al., 1993; Schlager et al., 1994). However, considerable debate has arisen to the timing of the production and export of shallow water carbonate material, with respect to sea level change. Two main hypotheses have been proposed to explain the response of shallow water carbonate platforms to variation in Late Quaternary sea level: I) 'highstand shedding' and 2) 'lowstand shedding'. Proponents of highstand shedding argue that depositional systems shed most of its carbonate sediments onto the platform slopes during highstands of sea level. Conversely, during lowstands of sea level bank top production and export of carbonate material is restricted, and platform slopes are largely starved of bank derived carbonate (Schlager, 1992; Schlager et al., 1994 ). Supporters of lowstand shedding maintain that significant carbonate production and export of shallow water carbonate material occurs during lowstands (and highstands) of sea level (Bosellini, 1989; Goldhammer and Harris. 1989; Grammer and Ginsburg. 1992). In order to investigate the response of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems to variations in Late Quaternary sea level and climate change, core material was collected from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 133, Sites 819 and 823 (northeast Australian margin). These two sites form part of an eastward extending transect of drill localities, offshore Cairns, Queensland, from the outershelf/upper-slope of the Great Barrier Reef (Sites 821 /820/819), into the Queensland Trough (Site 823) and ultimately onto the flanks of the Queensland Plateau (Sites 824 and 811 /825). Pelagic to hemipelagic sediments collected from these two sites were examined for the downcore distribution of grain size, magnetic susceptibility, carbonate content, variations in carbonate mineralogy (XRD), and major and minor element (XRF) geochemistry. Using high resolution foraminiferal stable oxygen isotopes, coupled with biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic datums, well defined age models for Hole 819A and Hole 823A have been constructed, although it was not an easy task as hiatuses occur in these records. Age models for the sequences recovered from Hole 819A and Hole 823A have been further refined using correlation with existing isotopic stratigraphies in the Pacific Ocean (ODP Hole 677, Raymo et al., 1989), and comparison with high resolution sedimentologic records from other ODP Leg 133 marine sequences. Analysis of the mineralogical, sedimentological and geochemical records from Holes 819A and 823A indicate that, over the last 1.1 million years, highstands of sea level (and during the early regression) are characterized by increased shallow water carbonate production, and deposition on the upper slope. This pattern of carbonate deposition is consistent with the highstand carbonate shedding scenario outlined by Schlager et al. (1992), and Schlager et al. ( 1994 ). Lowstands of sea level (and particularly the early transgression) are characterized by increased deposition of non-carbonate (mainly terrigenous) material and/or were not diluted by shallow water carbonate platform material. During the lowstands of sea level the shallow water carbonate factories were switched off. Therefore, the sediments deposited during lowstands of sea level tend to record the greater influence of pelagic driven carbonate. Although the above mentioned scenario of highstand shedding applies to the entire record of 1.1 million years. mineralogical and geochemical data indicate that shallow burial diagenesis, and dissolution of solution sensitive carbonate, occurred in the lower part of the records. The diagenesis and dissolution, however, have played only a minor role in determining the composition of the Queensland margin sediments. Variations in the terrigenous input (Cr/Al and Ti/AI ratios) in Queensland margin sediments indicate that interglacial periods were generally wetter than corresponding glacials or lowstands of sea level, during the Late Quaternary.

This thesis looks at the transverse flute as an instrument as well as flute music in the baroque period.

This thesis consists of three papers, each touching on a different aspect of the theory of rings of differential operators and D-modules. In particular, an aim is to provide and make explicit good examples of D-module directimages, which are all but absent in the existing literature.The first paper makes explicit the fact that B-splines (a particular class of piecewise polynomial functions) are solutions to D-module theoretic direct images of a class of D-modules constructed from polytopes.These modules, and their direct images, inherit all the relevant combinatorial structure from the defining polytopes, and as such are extremely well-behaved.The second paper studies the ring of differential operator on a reduced monomial ring (aka. Stanley-Reisner ring), in arbitrary characteristic.The two-sided ideal structure of the ring of differential operators is described in terms of the associated abstract simplicial complex, and several quite different proofs are given.The third paper computes the monodromy of the period integrals of Laurent polynomials about the singular point at the origin. The monodromy is describable in terms of the Newton polytope of the Laurent polynomial, in particular the combinatorial-algebraic operation of mutation plays an important role. Special attention is given to the class of maximally mutable Laurent polynomials, as these are one side of the conjectured correspondance that classifies Fano manifolds via mirror symmetry. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The international community proclaims victory when a conflict-ridden state is able to get rid of the main cause of the conflict. However, all the problems of the state do not end with that victory. It rather triggers a whole new set of problems, which combined with the aftermath of the conflict, leads the country to a larger crisis. Afghanistan, after the fall of Taliban regime in 2001, faced various social, political and economic challenges that marked the beginning of a transition period that was much more challenging than the previous period. In this paper, I discuss the major problems of transition-period Afghanistan and how the handling of these problems has shaped the image of the government inside the country and outside. I look into various variables that have played leading roles in Afghanistan in the past ten years (legitimacy, corruption, and state capacity), analyze their interconnectedness, and examine the state‘s vulnerability, leading to a discussion of whether there is an immediate need for a changed approach by national leadership. I demonstrate the complex interaction of the variables in connection with their impact on economic development. Towards the end, I suggest the need for a balanced approach, including but not limited to the increase in sub- national capacity, which will involve strong leadership from the government to define and divide the functions of various actors involved in the stabilization of the country. We will see that Afghanistan‘s geographical location, its natural capacity and the international support it has been receiving provide it with immense prospect for stabilization and even development, providing that the variables analyzed in the paper are addressed.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 / Cyperaceae (sedge) nutlets dominate the archaeobotanical assemblage of fruits and seeds recovered from the Middle Stone Age deposits at the rock shelter Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Sievers 2006). My aim is to investigate the implications of the nutlet presence in terms of human behaviour and to demonstrate that the nutlets were likely brought into the shelter on sedge culms (stems) deliberately harvested by people and informally placed on the shelter floor to provide “bedding”, a surface for working, resting or sleeping. I use various empirical and experimental approaches to confirm the use of sedges for bedding at Sibudu as early as ~77 000 years ago, almost 50 000 years earlier than any previously identified archaeological bedding. The bedding consists of the sedges Cladium mariscus subsp. jamaicense, Scleria natalensis, S. melanomphala, Cyperus sp. and a panicoid grass, identified through Scanning Electron Microscopy To investigate repeated and deliberate burning of bedding at Sibudu, I use experimental micromorphology and I compare the signatures of the Sibudu sediments with burned fresh sedge and grass bedding. I undertake further fire experiments, also in open air situations, to answer questions about burning sedge beds and the taphonomic implications. Experimental sedge bedding fires are hot and brief. The matrix beneath the fires affects the temperatures achieved both on the surface directly under the fire, and at depths of 2 cm and 5 cm below the surface; an ash matrix conducts heat more effectively than a matrix of 1–2 mm sized particles and allows for carbonisation of buried nutlets. The burning of dry and green bedding indicates that once the bedding is burning, the temperatures are sufficient to carbonise sedge nutlets below both dry and moist bedding. The methodological innovations I introduce are the use of experimental micromorphology to address an archaeobotanical question and the use of GIS-based coexistence analysis of southern African archaeobotanical data to make interpretations about past climate. The analysis develops previous palaeovegetation research in the area (Sievers 2006; Wadley et al. 2008) and provides an environmental context for people/plant activities at Sibudu.

Chan Suk-mei. / "October 2000." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-188). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.