God’s Anger and the Demons Within

The first major period of climate shock to be studied was the early fourteenth century, especially the years between 1310 and 1325. This involved a broad and lasting era of climatic change, a time of global cooling that marked the onset of the so-called Little Ice Age. Societies around the world suffered times of shocking paranoia and conspiracy-mongering. They responded with persecutions of minorities and dissidents, leading to purges and expulsions on an appalling scale. Whole populations suffered bitter times of exile and diaspora, and those changes did much to create our familiar maps of the great faiths and their geographical concentrations. In Europe, modern ideas of witchcraft were born.

МНОГОУРОВНЕВАЯ ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ СЕКСУАЛЬНОСТИ В АНТРОПОГЕНЕЗЕ: КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНАЯ РЕКОНСТРУКЦИЯ

На основе теоретического обобщения результатов разнородных исследований человеческой сексуальности реконструированы основные этапы ее эволюции. Показана сложная динамическая связь между такими уровнями явлений и процессов как: внешняя природная и социальная среда (опасности, способы пропитания, отношения с другими группами); групповые потребности и практики в регулировании внутренних отношений, индивидуальные заботы и практики мужчин и женщин, включающие как врожденные инстинктивные программы, так и поведенческие стереотипы, внешний облик и внешние половые признаки, строение мужских и женских гениталий, устройство репродуктивных систем. Анатомические, физиологические и психофизиологические структуры несут в себе отпечаток наиболее древних социальных порядков и сексуальной жизни наших далеких предков. Вокруг репродуктивного «ядра» выстраивается множество дополнительных забот и структур самой разной природы, связанных с привлекательностью, эротическими сигналами и ответами, возбуждением, разнообразными чувствами, моральными отношениями, взаимодействиями, практиками (страсть, любовь, солидарность, долг верности, эротический престиж, власть, сексуальная собственность, ревность, насилие и др.). При этом, ментальные и поведенческие компоненты сексуальности многослойны и наряду с архаическими структурами включают более или менее гибкие, пластичные слои, меняющиеся от эпохи к эпохе, от культуры к культуре, от одних социальных порядков родства, власти, богатства, престижа, насилия – к другим порядкам. Вся эта «периферийная» сфера сексуальности обретает свою автономию со своими механизмами и закономерностями, которые тесно связаны с экологией, культурой и социальным устройством окружения, поэтому далеко не всегда и не во всем определяются заботами и структурами «ядра» – репродуктивной системы человека и наследственных механизмов адаптации. Как «ядро», так и «периферия» сексуальности характеризуются дополнительными витками сложности. Сексуальные заботы и структуры каждого пола теснейшим образом связаны с заботами и структурами противоположного пола, во многих аспектах они представляют собой и эволюционируют как целое, хоть и разделенное по индивидам обоих полов. Каждый крупный период антропогенеза наложил свой отпечаток на человеческую сексуальность. Показано, что возобновляющиеся напряжения в сексуальной сфере (в частности, связанные с супружескими изменами) указывают на некий внутренний конфликт между глубинными свойствами сексуальности и последующими социальными, культурными наслоениями. Diverse studies of human sexuality allow a conceptual reconstruction of its main evolutionary stages. There are complex dynamic interconnections between natural and social environment (hazards, subsistence strategies, intergroup relations), group needs and practices concerning intragroup interactions; individual concerns and practices of men and women including both innate instinctive programs and behavioral stereotypes; appearance and sexual characteristics; the structure of male and female genitalia and reproductive systems. Anatomical, physiological and psychophysiological structures bear the imprint of the most ancient social orders and the sexual life of our distant ancestors. Many concerns and structures of a very different nature are built around the reproductive “core”. These include attractiveness, erotic signals and responses, arousal, various feelings, emotional relations, interactions and practices (passion, love, solidarity, fidelity, erotic prestige, power, sexual property, jealousy, violence, etc.). At the same time the mental and behavioral components of sexuality are multilayered and, along with archaic structures, include more or less flexible layers that change from era to era, from culture to culture, from one social orders of kinship, power, wealth, prestige, violence to others. All this “peripheral” sexuality acquires its autonomy with its own mechanisms and patterns, which are closely related to ecology, culture and social environment, therefore, they are not always determined by the concerns and structures of the “core”: human reproductive system and hereditary adaptive mechanisms. Both the “core” and “periphery” of sexuality are characterized by additional turns of complexity. Sexual concerns and structures of males and females are closely related to the concerns and structures of the opposite sex, in many aspects they evolve as a whole, albeit divided among individuals of both sexes. Each major period of anthropogenesis has left its mark on human sexuality. It is shown that renewed tensions in the sexual sphere (in particular, associated with adultery) indicate a certain internal conflict between the deep properties of sexuality and subsequent social and cultural layers.

Dating the Noceto Vasca Votiva, a unique wooden structure of the 15th century BCE, and the timing of a major societal change in the Bronze Age of northern Italy

The Noceto ‘Vasca Votiva’ (votive tank), discovered in excavations on a terrace at the southern edge of the Po Plain, northern Italy, is a unique well-preserved wooden (primarily oak) structure dated to the advanced through late Middle Bronze Age (~1600–1300 BCE). This complex monument, comprising two super-imposed tanks, is generally linked with an important but uncertain ritual role involving water. The context provides extraordinary preservation of both wooden, other organic, and cultural finds. The key question until now, hindering further interpretation of this remarkable structure, has been the precise date of the tanks. Initial work pointed to use of the two tanks over about a century. Using dendrochronology and radiocarbon ‘wiggle-matching’ we report near-absolute construction dates for both of the tanks. The lower (older) tank is dated ~1444±4 BCE and the upper (more recent) tank is dated 12 years later at ~1432±4 BCE. This dating of the construction of the Noceto tanks in the 3rd quarter of the 15th century BCE further enables us to reassess the overall period of activity of this wooden complex and its association with a major period of societal change in the Bronze Age of northern Italy starting in the later 15th century BCE.

Fritz Lang

A visual artist who studied architecture, Viennese-born Fritz Lang (b. 1890–d. 1976) began his career as a scenarist for UFA before moving into directing scripts cowritten with his eventual wife, Thea von Harbou. During this period, Lang made several masterpieces of Weimar cinema, including Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), The Nibelungen (1924), Metropolis (1927), and his first sound film, M (1931). The second major period of Lang’s career was during the golden age of Hollywood. Lang had a tendency to self-mythologize and told many versions of a story in which Joseph Goebbels invited him to be the head filmmaker for the Nazi regime. Lang claimed he fled Germany the same night. While this narrative is largely disproven, Lang (whose mother was Jewish) did leave Germany in 1933, a departure that severed both his marriage and professional relationship with Harbou. Lang journeyed to Hollywood, where he would spend the next twenty years working studio to studio, directing twenty-two films with intermittent critical and commercial success. His first film there, Fury (1936), dealt with themes of law and justice, which carried through to his final film in Hollywood, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). Perhaps his greatest contributions in Hollywood are his films noir, such as The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), and The Big Heat (1953). Lang’s Hollywood period has been the subject of major critical debate. In the 1950s and after, French critics (both in Cahiers du Cinéma and elsewhere) argued for his status as an unappreciated auteur working in the Hollywood system, whereas other critics had argued that the quality of Lang’s output dramatically dropped after he left Germany. The New Wave filmmakers’ love of Lang perhaps reached its apogee in his being cast as a character called Fritz Lang in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt (1963). These critical reappraisals resulted in attempts to link Lang’s Weimar and Hollywood periods. He would return to Germany in the late 1950s to direct his final three films, all of which were related to his earlier Weimar-era work. Although Lang is now regarded by many as an auteur in the same vein as Alfred Hitchcock, until more recently he received considerably less (in quality) scholarly analysis than the British director. Lang continued granting interviews and sharing his own thoughts on his work and career until his death in 1976.

Emotional Integration and Social Security of Adolescents at Higher Secondary Level

Quality Education will be considered for the holistic improvement of the human race. Education is the most valuable key to success for an individual. It will be considered for the lifelong learning process. Adolescence is a major period in all human life. A major change takes place during the transitions from childhood to adulthood. It is considered as a period of storm and stress. The present study focused on understanding the relationship between Social security and Emotional Integration among adolescents in the Kannur district of Kerala. Through this study, researchers need to know the role and level of social security and emotional integration among adolescents. The investigators adopted a stratified survey method considering the nature of the study random sampling technique was employed to select the sample. The investigator has used as a social security inventory and emotional integration scale for collecting the data. The sample of the present investigation has been selected from 300 higher secondary students, using a random sampling method. The samples are taken from the 4 Government and 4 aided higher secondary schools in the Kannur district of Kerala. The result of the study reveals that there was no relationship between social security and emotional integration among adolescents in Kannur. Adolescents are faced with security and emotional problems in their lives. This study suggests the urgent need to conduct counseling and guidance programs in school to improve student’s emotional integration and social security, especially during the adolescent period.

Temporal Variation and Source Analysis of Carbonaceous Aerosol in Industrial Cities of Northeast China during the Spring Festival: The Case of Changchun

Carbonaceous aerosol, one of the major components of atmospheric aerosols, significantly affects haze episodes, climate change, and human health. Northeastern China suffers severe air pollution, especially in some periods (e.g., the Spring Festival). However, studies on carbonaceous aerosols in typical northeast industrial cities (i.e., Changchun) are rare, limiting further comprehension of the atmospheric haze formation. In this study, we monitored the concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols (i.e., OC and EC) in Changchun during the Lunar New Year of 2018 (i.e., from Lunar 20 December to Lunar 20 January), and analyzed the temporal variation and source contributions via the HYbrid-Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model with the potential source contribution factor weights (PSCF) method. The daily concentrations of OC and EC were 9.00 ± 2.81 and 1.57 ± 0.46 µg m−3, respectively, and were significantly lower at nighttime than at the day during the Spring Festival. The concentrations during the major period (i.e., OC: 8.13 ± 2.93 µg m−3; EC: 1.47 ± 0.47 µg m−3 in festival days), including the Lunar Little New Year; the Lunar New Year’s Eve; New Year’s Day; Lunar 5 January, and the Spring Lantern Festival, were mainly from the northwestward with the wind speed of 4–6 m/s being lower than that of normal period (OC: 9.87 ± 2.46 µg m−3; EC: 1.67 ± 0.44 µg m−3) from the southeastward with a wind speed of 6–7 m/s. The direction of the airflow trajectory was mainly in local, northwestward, and northward, carrying particulate matter and gaseous pollutants. In major period, the daily concentration of atmospheric pollutants presented a bimodal trend, with peaks appearing regularly from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m., which might be related to traffic, cooking, and firecrackers. The OC/EC was greater than 2 during the whole period, indicating the generation of secondary organic aerosols (i.e., SOC). This study was essential to understand the formation mechanisms of severe pollution episodes and develop control measures for the industrial cities of Northeast China during the Spring Festival.

Modeling of major cliff destabilizations and subsequent lahars in the Prêcheur catchment, Martinique.

<p>The Prêcheur river is located to the West of Montagne Pelée, in the Northern part of Martinique island. For several decades it has produced numerous lahars that directly threaten the Prêcheur village, at the mouth of the river. In recent years, the most important lahars have been correlated to massive collapses of the Samperre cliff, 9 km upstream from the sea, that create a reservoir of loose material at the bottom of the cliff. In 2010, a lahar started from this reservoir, destroyed a bridge and inundated part of the Prêcheur village. A new major period of collapses of the Samperre cliff started on 2 January 2018, involving more than 4 × 10<sup>6</sup> m<sup>3</sup> of material. In the following days, intense rainfalls triggered several lahars that reached the Prêcheur village but remained confined in the river bed. Since then, lahars and collapses have continued to occur, even though their frequency has decreased with time and their intensity is smaller compared to the onset of the crisis. One single lahar overflowed the river bed on 22 February 2018 without significant impact on infrastructures.</p><p>In this study, we test different possible scenarios to model the first and most important phase of the collapse of the Samperre cliff, that occurred in early January 2018, with the shallow-water model SHALTOP. We constrain the collapse geometry with photogrammetric 3D models and LIDAR topographic surveys, acquired in 2010 and in late January 2018. We also consider an intermediate volume to take into account a possible retreat of the cliff face between 2010 and 2018. The modeled traveled distances are compared to field observations. Finally, we use geomorphological and geological observations to identify potentially unstable structures within the cliff, and model the associated collapses.</p><p>These simulations provide insights on the possible geometry (extent and depth) of the debris reservoir at the bottom of the cliff, after a major collapse episode. This is of prior importance in order to estimate the location and volume of future lahars. In order to investigate their dynamics, we model the major 2010 lahar, for which the initial debris reservoir volume is known (about 2 Mm<sup>3</sup>). We first simulate the progressive remobilization of the reservoir by water with the r.avaflow numerical code. In a second test, we impose instead a constant flow discharge upstream until the same volume has been released. We test different parameters to identify which ones have the most significant influence on the lahar travel time, from its initiation until it reaches the Prêcheur village.</p>

Alternative pathway androgen biosynthesis and human fetal female virilization

ABSTRACTAndrogen biosynthesis in the human fetus proceeds through the adrenal sex steroid precursor dehydroepiandrosterone, which is converted towards testosterone in the gonads, followed by further activation to 5α-dihydrotestosterone in genital skin, thereby facilitating male external genital differentiation. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to P450 oxidoreductase deficiency results in disrupted dehydroepiandrosterone biosynthesis, explaining undervirilization in affected boys. However, many affected girls are born virilized, despite low circulating androgens. We hypothesized that this is due to a prenatally active, alternative androgen biosynthesis pathway from 17α-hydroxyprogesterone to 5α-dihydrotestosterone, which bypasses dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone, with increased activity in congenital adrenal hyperplasia variants associated with 17α-hydroxyprogesterone accumulation. Here we employ explant cultures of human fetal organs (adrenal, gonads, genital skin) from the major period of sexual differentiation and show that alternative pathway androgen biosynthesis is active in the fetus, as assessed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We found androgen receptor expression in male and female genital skin using immunohistochemistry and demonstrated that both 5α-dihydrotestosterone and adrenal explant culture supernatant induce nuclear translocation of the androgen receptor in female genital skin primary cultures. Analyzing urinary steroid excretion by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we show that neonates with P450 oxidoreductase deficiency produce androgens through the alternative androgen pathway during the first weeks of life. We provide quantitative in vitro evidence that the corresponding P450 oxidoreductase mutations predominantly support alternative pathway androgen biosynthesis. These results indicate a key role of alternative pathway androgen biosynthesis in the prenatal virilization of girls affected by congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to P450 oxidoreductase deficiency.SIGNIFICANCEIn the classic androgen biosynthesis pathway, testosterone is converted to 5α-dihydrotestosterone, a step crucially required for normal male genital virilization. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to P450 oxidoreductase deficiency (PORD) is an inborn disorder that disrupts classic androgen biosynthesis. However, some affected girls present with severe genital virilization at birth. We hypothesized that this is explained by a prenatally active, alternative biosynthesis pathway to 5α-dihydrotestosterone. We show that adrenals and genital skin cooperate to produce androgens via the alternative pathway during the major period of human sexual differentiation and that neonates with PORD still produce alternative pathway androgens during the first weeks of life. This indicates that alternative pathway androgen biosynthesis drives prenatal virilization in CAH due to PORD.

A SCRIPT FOR HERSELF: CHARACTERIZATION AND FREE INDIRECT STYLE IN CONRAD'S VICTORY

Some of the most influential studies written about Joseph Conrad in the 1950s (by Douglas Hewit, Thomas Moser and Albert Guerard) established a critical paradigm that continued to dominate Conrad studies for decades to come – especially with regard to his later novels, which according to these critics represented a decline after the achievements of his major period. The principal reason for this decline, as Moser argues, was Conrad's altered choice of subject matter from the novel Chance onwards – i.e., his newly-discovered interest in romance and female protagonists. Conrad's failure in representing intimate erotic relationship in his later novels, as Moser maintains, is inseparable from his inclination to create melodramatic and inauthentic heroines, incomparably less complex than the striking male protagonists of his earlier works.More recently, critics such as Robert Hampson and Susan Jones have proposed a different approach to the romances of Conrad's later period. A case in point is Hampson's analysis of Lena's character in Victory. Unlike the earlier critics, who accused Conrad of sentimentality in female characterizations, Hampson argues that it is Lena herself who views her own being and her role in Heyst's life through a prism of sentimental romance. Lena's subjective perception of reality amounts to writing a script for herself (Hampson 2004), which casts her in the role of a sacrificial heroine. By using free indirect style, Conrad allows us to see Lena presented through her own idiom, in a manner comparable to Joyce's treatment of Gerty McDowell in Ulysses. The paper draws on Hampson's contention, exploring Conrad's narrative strategies in Victory, while also referring to the theoretical frameworks such as Genette's Narrative Discourse and Bakhtin's Dialogic Imagination.