System-level change is crucial for solving society's most pressing problems. However, individual-level interventions may be useful for creating behavioral change before system-level change is in place and for increasing necessary public support for system-level solutions. Participating in individual-level solutions may increase support for system-level solutions – especially if the individual-level solutions are internalized as part of one's social identity.

In two forensic cases, radiocarbon (14C) bomb-pulse datings of human bones have been performed and analyzed using detailed models to correct for collagen-carbon turnover rates and reservoir effects. The modeled corrections are discussed and the resulting 14C ages compared to later information on actual time of birth and death of the individuals. Simple time lag corrections of bone dates are found to be inadequate, whereas modeling based on age dependent turnover rates and bomb-pulse levels through life combined with substantial reservoir age corrections can explain the observed 14C results.

A laboratory intercomparison project was carried out on 20 annually resolved late-wood samples from the Danish oak record. The project included the following three laboratories: (1) the University of Arizona AMS Laboratory, University of Arizona, USA (AA); (2) HEKAL AMS Laboratory, MTA Atomki, Hungary (DeA); and (3) Aarhus AMS Centre (AARAMS), Aarhus University, Denmark (AAR). The large majority of individual data points (96%) lie within ±2σ of the weighted mean. Further assessment of the accuracy associated with the individual laboratories showed good agreement, indicating that consistent and reliable 14C measurements well in agreement with each other are produced at the three laboratories. However, the quoted analytical uncertainties appear to be underestimated when compared to the observed variance of differences from the geometric mean of the samples. This study provides a general quality check of the single-year tree-ring 14C measurements that are included in the new calibration curve.

The concentration of radiocarbon (14C) differs between ocean and atmosphere. Radiocarbon determinations from samples which obtained their 14C in the marine environment therefore need a marine-specific calibration curve and cannot be calibrated directly against the atmospheric-based IntCal20 curve. This paper presents Marine20, an update to the internationally agreed marine radiocarbon age calibration curve that provides a non-polar global-average marine record of radiocarbon from 0–55 cal kBP and serves as a baseline for regional oceanic variation. Marine20 is intended for calibration of marine radiocarbon samples from non-polar regions; it is not suitable for calibration in polar regions where variability in sea ice extent, ocean upwelling and air-sea gas exchange may have caused larger changes to concentrations of marine radiocarbon. The Marine20 curve is based upon 500 simulations with an ocean/atmosphere/biosphere box-model of the global carbon cycle that has been forced by posterior realizations of our Northern Hemispheric atmospheric IntCal20 14C curve and reconstructed changes in CO2 obtained from ice core data. These forcings enable us to incorporate carbon cycle dynamics and temporal changes in the atmospheric 14C level. The box-model simulations of the global-average marine radiocarbon reservoir age are similar to those of a more complex three-dimensional ocean general circulation model. However, simplicity and speed of the box model allow us to use a Monte Carlo approach to rigorously propagate the uncertainty in both the historic concentration of atmospheric 14C and other key parameters of the carbon cycle through to our final Marine20 calibration curve. This robust propagation of uncertainty is fundamental to providing reliable precision for the radiocarbon age calibration of marine based samples. We make a first step towards deconvolving the contributions of different processes to the total uncertainty; discuss the main differences of Marine20 from the previous age calibration curve Marine13; and identify the limitations of our approach together with key areas for further work. The updated values for ΔR, the regional marine radiocarbon reservoir age corrections required to calibrate against Marine20, can be found at the data base http://calib.org/marine/.

Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.

The fast dissolution of certain calcium-containing compounds makes them attractive carriers for trace minerals in nutritional applications, e.g., iron and zinc to alleviate mineral deficiencies in affected people. Here, CaO-based nanostructured mixed oxides containing nutritionally relevant amounts of Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mn were produced by one-step flame spray pyrolysis. The compounds were characterized by nitrogen adsorption, x-ray diffraction, (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Dissolution in dilute acid (i.d.a.) was measured as an indicator of their in vivo bioavailability. High contents of calcium resulted in matrix encapsulation of iron and zinc preventing formation of poorly soluble oxides. For 3.6 ≤ Ca:Fe ≤ 10.8, Ca2Fe2O5 coexisted with CaO. For Ca/Zn compounds, no mixed oxides were obtained, indicating that the Ca/Zn composition can be tuned without affecting their solubility i.d.a. Aging under ambient conditions up to 225 days transformed CaO to CaCO3 without affecting iron solubility i.d.a. Furthermore, Cu and Mn could be readily incorporated in the nanostructured CaO matrix. All such compounds dissolved rapidly and completely i.d.a., suggesting good in vivo bioavailability.

Let G be a group such that, for any subgroup H of G, every automorphism of H can be extended to an automorphism of G. Such a group G is said to be of injective type. The finite abelian groups of injective type are precisely the quasi-injective groups. We prove that a finite non-abelian group G of injective type has even order. If, furthermore, G is also quasi-injective, then we prove that G = K × B, with B a quasi-injective abelian group of odd order and either K = Q8 (the quaternion group of order 8) or K = Dih(A), a dihedral group on a quasi-injective abelian group A of odd order coprime with the order of B. We give a description of the supersoluble finite groups of injective type whose Sylow 2-subgroup are abelian showing that these groups are, in general, not quasi-injective. In particular, the characterisation of such groups is reduced to that of finite 2-groups that are of injective type. We give several restrictions on the latter. We also show that the alternating group A5 is of injective type but that the binary icosahedral group SL(2, 5) is not.

Iron deficiency affects approximately 2 billion people worldwide, especially young women and children. Food fortification with iron is a sustainable approach to alleviate iron deficiency but remains a challenge. Water-soluble compounds with high bioavailability (e.g. the “gold standard” FeSO4) usually cause unacceptable sensory changes in foods, while compounds that are less reactive in food matrices are often less bioavailable. Solubility (and therefore bioavailability) can be improved by increasing the specific surface area (SSA) of the compound, i.e. decreasing its particle size to the nm range. Here, iron oxide-based nanostructured compounds with Mg or Ca are made using scalable flame aerosol technology. Addition of either element increased iron solubility to a level comparable to iron phosphate. Furthermore, these additions lightened the powder color and sensory changes in fruit yoghurt were less prominent than for FeSO4.

This article analyzes the iconography on a ceramic vessel collected from the site of Los Naranjos, Honduras, over 70 years ago by Danish archaeologist Jens Yde. The relatively more naturalistic representation of the scene on the vessel allows us to interpret the motifs called “dancing figures” as relating to a well-documented corpus of Mesoamerican origin mythology. We then turn our attention to the site of Los Naranjos and document the fact that the area of Lake Yojoa closely mirrors the idealized Mesoamerican landscape associated with the place of the earth's creation. Combining this insight with the depiction on the Yde vessel, we suggest that the Cave of Tauleve may have been considered the place of human creation or human emergence.

A complete structural characterization of submonoids $S$ of a polycyclic-by-finite group such that the semigroup algebra $K[S]$ over a field $K$ is right noetherian is obtained. It follows that such algebras are also left noetherian.

A class of Noetherian semigroup algebras K[S] is described. In particular, we show that, for any submonoid S of the semigroup Mn of all monomial n × n matrices over a polycyclic-by-finite group G, K[S] is right Noetherian if and only if S satisfies the ascending chain condition on right ideals. This is then used to prove that every prime homomorphic image of a semigroup algebra of a finitely generated Malcev nilpotent semigroup S satisfying the ascending chain condition on right ideals is left and right Noetherian.

Let S be a semigroup and let be an S-graded ring. Rs = 0 for all but finitely many elements s ∈ S1, then R is said to have finite support. In this paper we concern ourselves with the question of whether a graded ring R with finite support inherits a given ring theoretic property from the homogeneous subrings Re corresponding to idempotent semigroup elements e.

A description is given of the unit group for the two groups G = D12 and G = D8 × C2. In particular, it is shown that in both cases the bicyclic units generate a torsion-free normal complement. It follows that the Bass-cyclic units together with the bicyclic units generate a subgroup of finite index in for all n ≥ 3.

Let A be a subring of a commutative ring B. If the natural mapping from the prime spectrum of B to the prime spectrum of A is injective (respectively bijective) then the pair (A, B) is said to have the injective (respectively bijective) Spec-map. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a pair of rings A and B graded by a free abelian group to have the injective (respectively bijective) Spec-map. For this we first deal with the polynomial case. Let l be a field and k a subfield. Then the pair of polynomial rings (k[X], l[X]) has the injective Spec-map if and only if l is a purely inseparable extension of k.

Let G be a finite group, (ZG) the group of units of the integral group ring ZG and 1(ZG) the subgroup of units of augmentation 1. In this paper, we are primarily concerned with the problem of describing constructively (ZG) for particular groups G. This has been done for a small number of groups (see [11] for an excellent survey), and most recently Jespers and Leal [3] described (ZG) for several 2-groups. While the situation is clear for all groups of order less than 16, not all groups of order 16 were discussed in their paper. Our main aim is to complete the description of (ZG) for all groups of order 16. Since the structure of the unit group of abelian groups is very well known (see for example [10]), we are only interested in the non-abelian case.

The subgroup generated by the Bass cyclic and bicyclic units is of infinite index in the group of units of the integral group ring ZG when G is either D or

Directly indecomposable absolute subretracts that are commutative Noetherian rings are described. This is an application of our main result characterizing unital directly indecomposable absolute subretracts which contain a maximal ideal with nonzero annihilator.

In this brief note, we will show how in principle to find all units in the integral group ring ZG, whenever G is a finite group such that and Z(G) each have exponent 2, 3, 4 or 6. Special cases include the dihedral group of order 8, whose units were previously computed by Polcino Milies [5], and the group discussed by Ritter and Sehgal [6]. Other examples of noncommutative integral group rings whose units have been computed include , but in general very little progress has been made in this direction. For basic information on units in group rings, the reader is referred to Sehgal [7].