Charcoal evidence for environmental change ca. 3.5 ka and its influence on ancient people in the West Liao River Basin of northeastern China

Fossil charcoals from archaeological sites provide direct evidence for the relationship between environmental change and ancient peoples’ livelihoods in the past. Our identification of 5811 fossil charcoal fragments from 84 samples suggested temperate deciduous and mixed conifer-broadleaved forests as the dominant vegetation at the Erdaojingzi site in northeastern China ca. 3500 cal yr BP; the major representative taxa were Quercus, Pinus, and Ulmus. Four woody plants probably supplied humans with food resources at the Erdaojingzi site, including Quercus, Ulmus, Amygdalus/Armeniaca, and Ziziphus. The nuts of Quercus were utilized as staple foods because of their rich starch content. The leaves of Ulmus may have been used by humans because of their massive dietary fibre. Amygdalus/Armeniaca and Ziziphus probably provided fruits for humans. Based on the coexistence approach (CA) used on the fossil charcoals, we found that the MAT anomaly was 7.9 ± 5.9°C at ca. 3500 cal yr BP, which is almost the same as the modern one (7.8°C), while the MAP was halved from 772 ± 301 mm at ca. 3500 cal yr BP to 370 mm currently. The wet climate might have facilitated significant development of rain-fed agriculture, promoted the emergence of large settlements, and eventually facilitated the birth of civilization.

The best of all possible coexistence

The writings of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) provide a window on early evolutionary thinking of a kind interestingly different from the roots of modern evolutionary theory as it emerged in the years following the French Revolution. Here we relate aspects of Leibniz’s thinking to methods of modern palaeoecology and show that, despite a different terminology and a different hierarchic focus, Leibniz emerges as a strikingly modern theoretician, who viewed the living world as dynamic and capable of adaptive change. The coexistence approach of palaeoecological reconstruction, developed by Volker Mosbrugger and collaborators, with its core assumption of harmoniously co-adapted communities with strong historical legacy, represents, in a positive sense, a more Leibnizian view than functionally based and theoretically history-free approaches, such as ecometrics. Recalling Leibniz’s thinking helps to highlight how palaeoecological reconstruction is about much more than reliably establishing the ecological and climatic situation of a given fossil locality. While reliable reconstructions of past conditions are certainly of great value in research, it is arguably the need to think deeply about how the living world really works that keeps palaeoecological reconstruction such a long-running and central aspect of evolutionary science. And while we struggle to understand the coexistence and dynamic interaction of endless levels of living agents of the living world, simultaneously large and small, global and local, the coexistence approach of palaeoecological reconstruction remains both an outstandingly operational method and part of a philosophical tradition reaching back to the very earliest evolutionary thinking.

Three (middle to) late Miocene plant macroremain assemblages (Pitsidia, Kassanoi and Metochia) from the Messara–Gavdos region, southern Crete

Based on macroremains, we describe three fossil plant assemblages from the Miocene of the Messara Basin (southern Crete) and the adjacent Gavdos Island. The palaeoflora of Kassanoi, which is the oldest (Messara Basin, Viannos Fm, Serravallian/early Tortonian), is documented mainly by leaf imprints, including a fern, a conifer (Tetraclinis cf. salicornioides) and 23 angiosperms. The assemblage is dominated by Daphnogene polymorpha, Podocarpium podocarpum and Myrica lignitum. The plant record from Pitsidia (Messara Basin, Ambelouzos Fm, early Tortonian) comprises thousands of specimens. The plant fossils are preserved as imprints often covered by an inorganic encrustation (replica). One alga, 2 ferns, at least 5 conifers and more than 45 woody angiosperms were identified. Dominant taxa are Myrica and Pinus pitsidiensis, documented by numerous vegetative and reproductive organs (Zidianakis et al., 2015, 2016). Leaves of oaks (Q. pseudocastanea, Q. kubinyii) and Daphogene polymorpha as well as twigs of Taxodium dubium are also fairly common. From the palaeoflora of Metochia, which is the youngest (Gavdos Island, Metochia Fm, middle Tortonian), (Mantzouka et al., 2015), we report further taxa, including Quercus mediterranea, Ziziphus paradisiaca and a palm (Sabalites sp.). The vegetation is assessed both empirically (phytosociologically) and by Integrated Plant Record (IPR) Vegetation Analysis. The reconstructed vegetation models are presented in detail and discussed in the context of the geological and palaeontological settings of the area. The climate is assessed based on the Coexistence Approach (CA) and the Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP). The palaeoclimatic datasets reveal a warm temperate to subtropical climate, probably with a weak seasonal drought.

Future Is Unlicensed: Private 5G Unlicensed Network for Connecting Industries of Future

This paper aims to unlock the unlicensed band potential in realizing the Industry 4.0 communication goals of the Fifth-Generation (5G) and beyond. New Radio in the Unlicensed band (NR-U) is a new NR Release 16 mode of operation that has the capability to offer the necessary technology for cellular operators to integrate the unlicensed spectrum into 5G networks. NR-U enables both uplink and downlink operation in unlicensed bands, supporting 5G advanced features of ultra-high-speed, high bandwidth, low latency, and improvement in the reliability of wireless communications, which is essential to address massive-scale and highly-diverse future industrial networks. This paper highlights NR-U as a next-generation communication technology for smart industrial network communication and discusses the technology trends adopted by 5G in support of the Industry 4.0 revolution. However, due to operation in the shared/unlicensed spectrum, NR-U possesses several regulatory and coexistence challenges, limiting its application for operationally intensive environments such as manufacturing, supply chain, transportation systems, and energy. Thus, we discuss the significant challenges and potential solution approaches such as shared maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT), handover skipping, the self-organized network (SON), the adaptive back-off mechanism, and the multi-domain coexistence approach to overcome the unlicensed/shared band challenges and boost the realization of NR-U technology in mission-critical industrial applications. Further, we highlight the role of machine learning in providing the necessary intelligence and adaptation mechanisms for the realization of industrial 5G communication goals.

Responsibility to Protect goes to China: An interpretivist analysis of how China’s coexistence policy made it a Responsibility to Protect insider

The article offers an interpretivist analysis of China’s coexistence approach to developing the Responsibility to Protect norm concerning atrocity crimes against civilians. The English school’s concept of great power legitimacy through coexistence is a central characteristic of its international society description of the international realm. The article uses an interpretivist approach to show how China’s coexistence foreign policy tradition was challenged by the liberal internationalist agenda of a Responsibility to Protect norm on atrocity crimes against civilians. The emergence of an alternative Chinese Responsibility to Protect concept coupling a state-centric and a people-centric approach with its focus on political and economic capacity-building of existing domestic institutions allowed China to position itself as a legitimate lifeline of liberal international institutions. The article shows how an illiberal state can become a prominent upholder of central institutions of the post-World War II liberal international order.