The medieval castle is one of the most popular topics in medieval historiography and interest in this structure has institutionalized it in modern medieval scholarship. Unfortunately, this does not mean that modern historians understand it. The problem lies in the narrow and isolationist definition used by many scholars who see it as simply a fortified private residence representing and defending power. This thesis will demonstrate that the castle’s contemporaries understood it as an identifiable and distinguishable structure and symbol with a singular yet multi-dimensional characteristics as a fortified, personal, and multifunctional resource. The twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm has been chosen as a focus for this thesis because of the specific differences between the reigns of Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II. This period, particularly the nineteen years of Stephen’s reign, experienced significant castle warfare, which provides a great deal of material for this study. In chapters 1-3, each of the above characteristics and their corresponding details will be analysed individually. In chapter 4, three case studies will be presented to demonstrate how these independent characteristics were perceived of as acting simultaneously. Chapter 5 will compare perceptions of castles to other medieval buildings. Finally, chapter 6 will test the definition’s legitimacy by applying it beyond the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm. This dissertation will demonstrate that there was a contemporary understanding of the castle which encompassed its fortified nature, its personal possession, and its multifunctional resourcefulness. If we are to understand this phenomenon as its contemporaries did, then we need to alter our modern definition and expand our understanding in order to come to a truer and more complete appreciation of this essential resource in the Middle Ages.

Context. Debris discs are a consequence of the planet formation process and constitute the fingerprints of planetesimal systems. Their counterparts in the solar system are the asteroid and Edgeworth-Kuiper belts. Aims. The aim of this paper is to provide robust numbers for the incidence of debris discs around FGK stars in the solar neighbourhood. Methods. The full sample of 177 FGK stars with d <= 20 pc proposed for the DUst around Nearby Stars (DUNES) survey is presented. Herschel/PACS observations at 100 and 160 mu m were obtained, and were complemented in some cases with data at 70 mu m and at 250, 350, and 500 mu m SPIRE photometry. The 123 objects observed by the DUNES collaboration were presented in a previous paper. The remaining 54 stars, shared with the Disc Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in IR and Sub-mm (DEBRIS) consortium and observed by them, and the combined full sample are studied in this paper. The incidence of debris discs per spectral type is analysed and put into context together with other parameters of the sample, like metallicity, rotation and activity, and age. Results. The subsample of 105 stars with d <= 15 pc containing 23 F, 33 G, and 49 K stars is complete for F stars, almost complete for G stars, and contains a substantial number of K stars from which we draw solid conclusions on objects of this spectral type. The incidence rates of debris discs per spectral type are 0.26(-0.14)(+0.21) (6 objects with excesses out of 23 F stars), 0.21(-0.11)(+0.17) (7 out of 33 G stars), and 0.20(-0.09)(+0.14) (10 out of 49 K stars); the fraction for all three spectral types together is 0.22(-0.07)(+0.08) (23 out of 105 stars). The uncertainties correspond to a 95% confidence level. The medians of the upper limits of L-dust/L-* for each spectral type are 7.8 x 10(-7) (F), 1.4 x 10(-6) (G), and 2.2 x 10(-6) (K); the lowest values are around 4.0 x 10(-7). The incidence of debris discs is similar for active (young) and inactive (old) stars. The fractional luminosity tends to drop with increasing age, as expected from collisional erosion of the debris belts.

The present thesis provides a methodological examination of Pyla-Kokkinokremos and Maa-Palaeokastro, two settlement-sites that were established in Cyprus during the transition from the Late Cypriot IIC (roughly the thirteenth century BC) to the Late Cypriot IIIA (roughly the twelfth century BC). These two settlements were extremely short-lived and persisted for merely a couple of generations before their eventual abandonment. The period under consideration is often referred to as the “Crisis Years”, and marks a time when the politically and economically powerful land-based polities of the eastern Mediterranean were brought to an end. The foundation of Pyla-Kokkinokremos and Maa-Palaeokastro coincides with these critical years for the eastern Mediterranean and the upheaval of the settlement pattern of Cyprus. Since their excavation, the two sites have been considered as two very controversial and intriguing phenomena. Their selected position on top of naturally fortified locations and the marked absence of perennial water sources in their vicinity suggested that they were established in order to fulfil a special purpose. The original suggestion put forward by the excavator that Pyla-Kokkinokremos and Maa-Palaeokastro represent the earliest establishments of refugees fleeing from the Aegean following the palatial collapse has been questioned by a number of scholars, who insist on the Cypriot character of the two sites, and therefore consider them as outposts established by local populations. This dissertation provides a re-examination of the topographical setting of the two settlements, their architectural characteristics and their material culture, mostly pottery, aiming to determine the series of events that led to their establishment, as well as the roles and functions fulfilled by the two sites. The objective of this study is not exclusively concerned with the detailed presentation of excavated architectural and artefactual remains from Pyla-Kokkinokremos and Maa-Palaeokastro. In extent, the aims of this thesis are to define the character of Cyprus during the years marking the transition from the thirteenth to the twelfth century BC, and examine transformations in the settlement pattern of the island, its socio-political landscape and provide a holistic approach of its material culture.

Within a few centuries after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the descendants of Romans who had envisioned the world in terms of moral, civilized Romans and the savage barbarian ‘other’ had come to identify with those very barbarians. This thesis explores this shift from ‘Roman’ to ‘Gothic’ and ‘Frankish’ identities in sixth- and seventh-century Spain and Gaul through an examination of the ways ethnonyms were used in contemporary sources. Within the first section on Visigothic Spain, chapter one discusses the ‘Romans’ of the East—that is, the Byzantines—as portrayed by Isidore of Seville and John of Biclar. Chapter two covers ‘Romans’ of the West—the Hispano-Romans—who appear in John of Biclar’s Chronicle, a hagiographical Life, and civil and canon law. Chapter three discusses the use of ‘Goth’ as an ethnic descriptor, a religious identifier, and a political term. Chapter four begins the Gaul section with an examination of Gregory of Tours’ writings, showing that he wrote with a Roman mindset. Chapter five illustrates that Gregory’s contemporary, Venantius Fortunatus, selected ethnic labels like ‘Roman’ and ‘barbarian’ in his poems as rhetorical tools to allude and flatter. Chapter six shows how Fredegar, in the seventh century, employed ‘Frank’ as a political term more than his predecessors had, suggesting a change in mindset. Chapter seven confirms this change in hagiographical texts across the two centuries. Chapter eight examines the contemporary expectation that separate law codes should be written for each ethnic group and concludes that, while this encouraged ethnic diversity, it did not prevent individuals from identifying with the Franks politically. By distinguishing among different modes of identification these ethnonyms represented, we see that changes in political language facilitated changes in more traditionally ethnic language, and the shift from ‘Roman’ to other ethnic identities.

Lakes Magadi (Kenya) and Manyara (Tanzania) occupy closed basins in the southern Gregory Rift valley. Water in these lakes is presently shallow and saline, testifying to the dominance of evaporation (E) over precipitation (P). Past changes in the P: E ratio, and hence in palaeoclimate, can be reconstructed from evidence of the former extent of these lakes. Lake-level fluctuations engender marked variation in water chemistry, and consequently on the composition of the limnological biota. One approach is to examine the sedimentary record of diatoms (unicellular algae), which are excellent indicators of water chemistry and relative water depth, and whose modem distribution is sufficiently well known to allow the quantitative reconstruction of chemical parameters. Diatom analysis of 116 samples from a series of radiometrically dated (14C and U/Ib) sediment cores has revealed significant changes amongst the diatom assemblages during the Late Quaternary. Conductivity and pH have been estimated from the fossil samples by transfer functions (Gasse unpublished, Gasse 1986b). However, the interpretation of fossil diatom assemblages is often problematical in hypersaline environments. Difficulties arise as a result of the operation of taphonomic and diagenetic processes which can severely alter the composition of the diatom assemblagesfr om the ambient population at the time of deposition. Probably the most important factor responsible for assemblage diagenesis in saline lakes is silica dissolution, and this is explored further by a series of laboratory experiments. Results indicate that silica dissolution acts differentially between species, by removing the smaller, more delicate taxa first, and causing the relative enrichment of large robust forms in the fossil samples. A similar dissolution gradient may be reflected in modem samples studied near hot springs at Magadi. Differential dissolution is potentially an important source of error in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, but, with the outcome of these experiments, it has been possible to assess the extent to which the dissolution process may have shaped the diatom records from Magadi and Manyara. The bulk of the palaeolimnological evidence is focussed upon two periods, 30,000-20,000 BP and 12,700-9,500 BP. The earlier period is most clearly dated in the core from Manyara, where the diatom record suggests the development of an intermediate level lake between c. 27,500 BP and c. 26,000 BP. This is a more complete representation of the same lake phase found in earlier studies from Manyara by Holdship (1976) based on diatoms, and by Casanova (1986a) on stromatolites 20M above the present lake. This time interval may also be represented by the central portion of the Magadi cores NF1 and NF2 but here dating is more problematical. The period 12,700-9,500 BP was one of major lacustrine transgression across Africa although the fine-structure of this event is less well known. Cores NF1 and NF2 from Magadi provide a detailed register of this phase indicating a major highstand from c. 12,700-11,000 BP when the lake became deep enough to stratify and deposit laminated couplets. At c. 11,000 BP the diatoms show that salinity increased greatly from fresh-oligosaline to meso-hypersaline which was probably a consequence of lake level falling.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Despite the awareness of the importance of initiating antenatal care in the first trimester of a pregnancy (before 12 weeks gestation), late initiation of antenatal care (on or after 24 weeks of gestation) remains a common trend amongst pregnant women. The late initiation of antenatal care poses such a risk, to both the pregnant women and their unborn babies that it can contribute to maternal and foetal mortality and morbidity. The late initiation of antenatal care, an entirely avoidable occurrence, has an impact on targets set by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), now focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG‟s) set out by the United Nations. This study aim to investigate the factors which contribute to and cause the late initiation of antenatal care in pregnant women in a region in the Western Cape. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence pregnant woman and contribute to late initiation of antenatal care (after 24 weeks gestational age) in one health facility/district in Cape Town. The findings of the study identified possible factors that may cause pregnant women to initiate antenatal care late in pregnancy and these findings could facilitate planning and possible interventions targeting the importance of early initiation in the community.

This thesis explores how late-Ming writers interpreted the expression “beauty is ill-fated” (hongyan boming) and how male and female writers constructed and accepted the image of the ephemeral beauty (hongyan) differently. I argue that late-Ming male literati destigmatized and immortalized hongyan, but their interpretations of hongyan reinforced male fantasies about women, and served the status quo of the patriarchal family structure as well as the established literary conventions of the time. Female writers, conversely, often rejected the image and idea of hongyan and even managed to assert female subjectivity in order to reinterpret the male-constructed hongyan. However, ultimately, female writers of the period could not escape from the containment of these patriarchal literary conventions. Even for those female writers who have preserved their voices in their writings, women’s self-expressions have always been undergoing a seemingly infinite process of reinterpretations and reconstructions by male literati.

The perception of human faces is affected by different facial features. For example, older faces are processed differently to younger ones and faces expressing diverse emotions are also processed differently. Research shows that angry faces are more attended to compared to neutral or other expressive faces, which is known as the ‘threat advantage’. This is evidenced by research on the late positive potential (LPP). The LPP is an event-related potential (ERP) component associated with affective processing, which seems to strongly respond to threats. The literature has indicated that older faces can elicit larger LPPs compared to young and neutral faces, and the LPP is more sensitive to emotional faces. The current experiment investigated subjective ratings in addition to the LPP in response to neutral and angry faces of young and old individuals, to examine how facial age influences the perception of anger. In a facial rating task, both the young and the old angry faces were rated as threatening faces, while old neutral faces were indicated to be more threatening than young neutral faces. Similarly, participants had a higher LPP for old angry faces. This data, in combination, suggests a higher emotional salience of old angry faces compared to either young angry or (young or old) neutral faces.

A baixa temperatura média anual (< 18ºC), a localização em zona de altitude elevada (> 1500 m) e a diversidade florística, bem representativa da parte sul da serra da Mantiqueira, tornam a região de Monte Verde (município de Camanducaia, sudeste do Estado de Minas Gerais), propícia para a investigação de mudanças climáticas ocorridas no Quaternário tardio, meta desta Dissertação. Para buscar esta meta, propõe-se como objetivo a análise e descrição da sucessão paleoflorística, integrada ao aporte sedimentar e às condições geoquímicas de deposição nesta região, com base de dados palinológicos, sedimentológicos (granulometria, concentração de matéria orgânica e teor e tipos de minerais pesados) e geocronológicos (datações 14C por espectrometria de aceleração de massa). A área amostrada foi a margem esquerda do Córrego dos Cadetes, afluente do rio Jaguari. Trata-se de um vale fluvial encaixado em alvéolo de relevo acidentado, onde se coletou testemunho raso (2,10m) contínuo, com equipamento vibrocorer (vibro-amostrador). Os depósitos sedimentares tertemunhados são argilo-arenosos orgânicos e turfosos. Sua análise sedimentológica demonstra a ocorrência de variações graduais e cíclicas relacionadas a mudanças no balanço entre aporte sedimentar terrígeno e biodretítico e/ou orgânico, controlado por alterações no tipo de processo deposicional, e, por extensão, na cobertura vegetal, esta possivelmente influenciada por oscilações climáticas do Quaternário Tardio. As cinco datações obtidas ficaram compreendidas no intervalo entre 20830-20370 anos 14C cal A.P. (100 cm de profundidade) e 2350?2150 anos 14C cal A.P. (10 cm). Os dados palinológicos permitem interpretar que durante todo esse período a região foi dominada por floresta, principalmente com a presença de Araucaria angustifolia, sob clima predominantemente frio e úmido, porém com possíveis oscilações de umidade. Para efeito de inferências paleoclimáticas, quatro fases principais foram identificadas, expressas a seguir em idades extrapoladas. A primeira fase corresponde ao intervalo de 17000 a 15000 anos A.P., no qual há oscilação da cobertura vegetal e aumento de erosão nas encostas, sob clima frio e úmido. Na segunda fase, de 15000 a 9000 anos A.P., detectou-se aumento de umidade acompanhado da redução do aporte trativo. A terceira fase, correspondente ao intervalo de 9000 a 8000 anos A.P., registra decréscimo na umidade e aumento da taxa de sedimentação. Nos últimos 8000 anos A.P., ocorre a manutenção da floresta de Araucaria em condições climáticas frias e úmidas. / Low annual average temperature (< 18ºC), the localization in a zone of high altitude (> 1500 m) and high floristic diversity, representative of the southern part of the Serra da Mantiqueira highlands, turn the Monte Verde region (city of Camanducaia, Southeast of the State of Minas Gerais), propitious for the inquiry of Late Quaternary climatic changes, the aim of this dissertation. The objective of the study is to analyze and describe the paleofloristic succession based on palynology, integrated with sedimentological (grain size and heavy mineral analysis), geochemical (quantification of organic matter) and geochronological (14C AMS dating) data. The sampled area is located at the left margin of the Cadetes stream, a tributary of the Jaguari River. A 2.10 m long sediment core was collected on the fluvial valley with a vibrocore equipment. The sandy-clay sediments show a high organic content and are similar in appearance to peatbog deposits. The sedimentological analysis demonstrate the occurrence of gradual and cyclic variations related to the change in incoming of terrigenous biodetrital/organic sediments, controlled by alterations in the type of depositional process, and, therefore, possibly by the vegetation cover. All these changes were possibly influenced by climatic oscillations of the Late Quaternary. The five 14C AMS dates obtained encompass the period between 20830-20370 14C cal. A.P. (100 cm of depth) and 2,350-2,150 years 14C cal. A.P. (10 cm). The palynological results indicate that in the last 20,000 years the landscape was characterized by Araucaria angustifolia forest under predominantly cold and humid climates, with minor oscillations of humidity. Four pollen phases had been identified, with extrapolated ages for paleoclimatic inferences. The first one corresponds to the interval between 17,000 and 15,000 years A.P. with oscillation of the forest cover under cold and humid climate. Between 15,000 and 9,000 years A.P., there is an increase of humidity and reduction of tractive sedimentary supply. The third interval corresponds to the period between 9,000 and 8,000 years A.P. with a decrease in humidity and increase of the sedimentation rate. In the last 8,000 years A.P. Araucaria forest was maintained under cold and humid climatic conditions, as it did during the Late Pleistocene.

A pesquisa ter por objetivo analisar a escrita da história na Antigüidade Tardia à luz de dois dos mais importantes autores do período: Gregório de Tours e Isidoro de Sevilha. Desta forma, esperamos compreender as razões que levaram os autores a escolher o gênero histórico para narrar os acontecimentos que tomavam curso na Gália e na Hispânia. Defendemos que é só mediante a análise do papel outorgado pelos bispos aos francos e visigodos que é possível compreender efetivamente as intenções que motivaram a produção dos Decem Libri Historiarum e da Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum et Sueborum. / The objective of our research is analyze the writing of history in Late Antiquity in the light of the two most important authors of the period: Gregory of Tours and Isidore os Seville. Thereby, we aim to understand the reasons which made they choose the historical narrative gender to describe the events which took course in Gaul and Hispania. We advocate that it is only through the studing of the role awarded by the bishops to the Franks and Visigoths that is possible to appreciate the intentions which motivated the production of the Decem Libri Historiarum and the Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum et Sueborum.