Geophysical survey and excavations from 2010–2016 at Lawrenz Gun Club (11CS4), a late pre-Columbian village located in the central Illinois River valley in Illinois, identified 10 mounds, a central plaza, and dozens of structures enclosed within a stout 10 hectare bastioned palisade. Nineteen radiocarbon (14C) measurements were taken from single entities of wood charcoal, short-lived plants, and animal bones. A site chronology has been constructed using a Bayesian approach that considers the stratigraphic contexts and feature formation processes. The village was host to hundreds of years of continuous human activity during the Mississippi Period. Mississippian activity at the site is estimated to have begun in cal AD 990–1165 (95% probability), ended in cal AD 1295–1450 (95% probability), and lasted 150–420 yr (95% probability) in the primary Bayesian model with similar results obtained in two alternative models. The palisade is estimated to have been constructed in cal AD 1150–1230 (95% probability) and was continuously repaired and rebuilt for 15–125 yr (95% probability), probably for 40–85 yr (68% probability). Comparison to other studies demonstrates that the bastioned palisade at Lawrenz was one of the earliest constructed in the midcontinental United States.

The preconception, pregnancy and immediate postpartum and newborn periods are times for mothers and their offspring when they are especially vulnerable to major stressors – those that are sudden and unexpected and those that are chronic. Their adverse effects can transcend generations. Stressors can include natural disasters or political stressors such as conflict and/or migration. Considerable evidence has accumulated demonstrating the adverse effects of natural disasters on pregnancy outcomes and developmental trajectories. However, beyond tracking outcomes, the time has arrived for gathering more information related to identifying mechanisms, predicting risk and developing stress-reducing and resilience-building interventions to improve outcomes. Further, we need to learn how to encapsulate both the quantitative and qualitative information available and share it with communities and authorities to mitigate the adverse developmental effects of future disasters, conflicts and migrations. This article briefly reviews prenatal maternal stress and identifies three contemporary situations (wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada; hurricane Harvey in Houston, USA and transgenerational and migrant stress in Pforzheim, Germany) where current studies are being established by Canadian investigators to test an intervention. The experiences from these efforts are related along with attempts to involve communities in the studies and share the new knowledge to plan for future disasters or tragedies.

Lead isotope analyses of 50 Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold artefacts favour a gold source in southern Ireland. However when combined with major element analysis, the artefacts are not consistent with any Irish gold deposit analysed to date. Understanding the lead isotope signatures of ore deposits within a study region allows informed inferences to be drawn regarding the likelihood that an unanalysed ore deposit was exploited in the past. If an Irish gold source is assumed, then the gold is most likely to have originated from deposits hosted by Old Red Sandstone in the Variscan ore field of south-west Ireland. However, based on our current understanding of mineralisation in the region, this scenario is considered unlikely. A non-Irish source for the gold is therefore preferred – a scenario that may favour cosmologically-driven acquisition, ie, the deliberate procurement of a material from distant or esoteric sources. Available geochemical data, combined with current archaeological evidence, favour the alluvial deposits of south-west Britain as the most likely source of the gold.

Six rumen-fistulated steers were studied over six periods of 3 days at Reading University's Animal Production Research Unit. In each period, eight dacron bags comprising two replicates of the 22 factorial treatment set consisting of untreated and NH3-treated barley straw in chopped (12–54 mm) or ground (2·5 mm screen) form were placed in the rumen of each steer. Bags were left in the rumen for a given time which was one of the set 6, 9, 15, 24, 48, 72 h. Percentage dry matter (DM) disappearance from dacron bags was consistently higher for NH3-treated than untreated straw and higher for ground than chopped straw. Analysis of variance gave F ratios for period and steer which were non-significant but of similar size, showing that using fewer animals could be compensated for by using more periods. Percentage DM disappearance as a function of time was well described by the model y = a — beet. The parameter defining rate of disappearance c, was similar for the four forms of straw. Differences between straws occurred in values of a (potential degradability) and b suggesting that physical form of material put into dacron bags needs standardizing if absolute values of a are to be used (e.g. for predicting roughage intake). Experimental designs need further research.

An experiment to study the physics of merging and of focusing ion beams is under development at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. In this design, parallel beams of ions (C+, Al+, or Al++) are accelerated to several MV and merged transversely. The merged beams are then further accelerated and the growth in transverse and longitudinal emittance is determined for comparison with theory. The completed apparatus will be used to study problems associated with focusing ion beams to a small spot as required for heavy ion fusion. Details of the accelerator design and considerations of the physics of combining beams are presented.

The European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) is a Solar virtual observatory (see Hill et al., 2002). It has been funded through the 5th Framework Program of the European Community. A dozen of laboratories, mixing Solar Physics and Information Technology, in Great Britain, France, Italy and Swiss have been involved in this project during 3 years. A grid accessing several dozens of databases and archives scattered all around the world has been developped as well as a Solar Event Catalogue and a Solar Feature Catalogue. The original aspect of this work consists in the possibility not only to search through the characteristics of observations, but also search for available data corresponding to specific kinds of events. So it is now very important to be able to follow the Sun 24 hours a day in order to enrich the events database for future queries. More informations on EGSO, catalogues and user interface can be accessd through the web site: http://www.egso.org/

This is a report of a 9-year-old female with a clinical presentation of benign intracranial hypertension (BIH) who was found to have an unruptured pial arteriovenous malformation (AVM) with a significant fistula. The AVM was completely embolized using a recently developed liquid embolic system, Onyx, after which gradual clinical improvement followed. A few cases of BIH associated with AVM have been described in adults and adolescents. Possible causal relation is discussed.

We review the processes and mechanisms by which voltage offsets occur in the hysteresis loop of ferroelectric materials. Simply stated, voltage shifts arise from nearinterfacial charge trapping in the ferroelectric. We show that the impetus behind voltage shifts in ferroelectric capacitors is the net polarization, with the net polarization being determined by the perovskite and the aligned defect-dipole components. Some common defect-dipoles in the PZT system are lead vacancy-oxygen vacancy complexes. One way to change the net polarization in the ferroelectric is to subject the PZT capacitor to a dc bias at elevated temperature; this process is spectroscopically shown to align defect-dipoles along the direction of the applied electric field. The alignment of defect-dipoles can strongly impact several material properties. One such impact is that it can lead to enhanced voltage shifts (imprint). It is proposed that the net polarization determines the spatial location of the asymmetrically trapped charge that are the cause for the voltage shifts. An enhanced polarization at one electrode interface can lead to larger voltage shifts since it lowers the electrostatic potential well for electron trapping, i.e., more electron trapping can occur. Defect-dipole alignment is also shown to increase the UV sensitivity of the ferroelectric.

1.1 This paper owes its existence on two counts to the late Jim Souness whose term of office as President of the Faculty coincided with the bulk of our research. Firstly, as President, he encouraged Faculty research groups to be active and to produce material worthy of sessional papers. More directly it was the late President who funnelled our general investigations of life office management (which had continued after the Group's 1987 sessional paper) towards the issue of demutualisation.

There have been several notable demutualisations of life offices in recent years, yet there is little published research in the UK other than case studies into the actuarial issues which these restructurings raise for the profession. Furthermore much of what has been published pertains to overseas regimes not subject to UK-style regulation. However at the time of writing we are aware that another paper (reference 20) was being written concurrently, and it relates specifically to the UK.