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As part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) SARS-CoV-2 Assessment of Viral Evolution (SAVE) effort to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, [...]

The history of agricultural terraces remains poorly understood due to problems in dating their construction and use. This has hampered broader research on their significance, limiting knowledge of past agricultural practices and the long-term investment choices of rural communities. The authors apply OSL profiling and dating to the sediments associated with agricultural terraces across the Mediterranean region to date their construction and use. Results from five widely dispersed case studies reveal that although many terraces were used in the first millennium AD, the most intensive episodes of terrace-building occurred during the later Middle Ages (c. AD 1100-1600). This innovative approach provides the first large-scale evidence for both the longevity and medieval intensification of Mediterranean terraces. Keywords: Mediterranean, landscape archaeology, agricultural terraces, OSL-PD, Introduction Landscapes are widely recognised as precious ecological, environmental and cultural assets, as well as key contributors to individual and social well-being (Council of Europe 2000). Their character is shaped [...]

A report by Women Lawyers On Guard, entitled "Still Broken," reported the results of a 2019 survey about sexual harassment and misconduct in the legal profession. It concluded that issues relating to sexual harassment and misconduct in the legal profession had not improved in the past thirty years. This Article looks at the Alaska Rules of Professional Conduct's rule regarding harassment and discrimination by lawyers and argues that the rule does not sufficiently address workplace harassment by lawyers. Alaska Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(f), enacted in 2021, prohibits harassment or invidious discrimination by a lawyer "in the lawyer's dealings with the lawyers, paralegals, and others working for that lawyer or for that lawyer's firm" only if "the lawyer's conduct results in a final agency or judicial determination of employment misconduct or discrimination." But the nature of employment discrimination law and harassment in the legal profession means that very few instances of workplace harassment will result in formal findings by an agency or court. The Article therefore recommends Alaska Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(f) be amended to prohibit harassment or invidious discrimination "in the lawyer's dealings with the lawyers, paralegals, and others working for that lawyer or for that lawyer's firm"--subject to normal bar disciplinary proceedings and without any requirement of findings from an outside agency or a court. The Article also recommends adding a comment to the rule stating that firms, or at least large firms, should have and regularly disseminate an anti-harassment policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately dating the creation and development of earthwork features is a long-standing problem for archaeologists. This article presents results from Bosigran (Cornwall, UK), where boundary banks believed to be prehistoric in origin are assessed using optically stimulated luminescence profiling and dating (OSLPD). The results provide secure construction dates for different boundaries in the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as chronologies for their early medieval and later development. The research demonstrates not only the prehistoric origins of these distinctive Cornish field systems, but also a practical and costelfective methodology suitable for dating earthworks around the world. Keywords: Britain, Cornwall, Bronze Age, Iron Age, landscape archaeology, OSL-PD, field systems, Introduction In an evocative article published in Antiquity in 1936, O.G.S. Crawford described the beauty and variety of the historic field boundaries in Cornwall in south-west Britain: 'I had hoped', [...]

Change and persistence are often richly entangled facets of landscapes. While many studies use land use/land cover (depicted as polygons) to illustrate landscape evolution, this paper draws on approaches from landscape archaeology to investigate how lines and points can also be used to examine landscape morphologies. The study uses three distinct spatial elements: points (graves), lines (field boundaries), and polygons (land use) to represent landscape transformations and reflect time depth in the landscape. The paper aims to identify the most enduring landscape elements within the region and uncover the underlying mechanisms of persistence. It is suggested that the time depth exhibited in field boundaries surpasses that of land use in this case. Field boundaries provide a useful way to examine agricultural intensification, whereas land use is more sensitive to agricultural commercialization and urbanization. In addition, the Chinese Feng Shui funeral culture emerges as a stabilizing force that encourages landscape persistence. This cultural driver ensures the persistence of field patterns surrounding graves, making these fields the most ancient plots within the study area. In conclusion, representing the time depth of landscapes through linear features and points can serve as an important supplement to the study of landscape change based on land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Court in Rucho v. Common Cause held that the issue of partisan gerrymandering--that is, the drawing of political districts in a way that favors the party in power--presented a political question that was outside the competency of the courts to solve, at least through constitutional law. This article argues that Rucho does not close the door to judicial action in the face of partisan gerrymandering but instead closes the door only to the remedy proposed in the case. As with practically all major constitutional cases in recent memory, the Rucho plaintiffs were seeking relief that was equitable in nature: they were asking for the courts to order the relevant state legislatures to redraw their district maps and, if the legislatures refused, for the courts to draw new maps themselves. This article takes the position that it was this framing of the case that caused the Court to throw up its hands and declare the issue to be one for the political branches to solve. Rucho should not present a barrier to plaintiffs seeking to sue individual mapdrawers for money damages for maliciously denying them the full right to vote. While there traditionally has been no judicial recourse to challenge district maps as being unfair, there is a long line of authority for suing at law, rather than at equity--that is, suing for money damages rather than for specific performance--individuals who abuse their positions of power to harm specific people, including to keep people from voting. Additionally, private suits against individual mapdrawers for money damages would not suffer from the same concerns that led the court in Rucho to conclude that there was no judicially manageable standard for judging the fairness of, and potentially redrawing, district maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "The Evolution of Historic Agroforestry Landscape in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and Its Consequences for Slope Geomorphic Processes." The correction addresses errors in Figure 7, Figure 8, and Table 2 of the original publication. The corrected figures and table are provided in the document. The authors clarify that the scientific conclusions of the study are unaffected by these errors. The article discusses the potential benefits of restoring historic agroforestry systems in the area to mitigate soil erosion processes. [Extracted from the article]

"Devastation, Dislocation and (re-)Settlement: Breaking/replacing the people-place connection in landscape" is an interdisciplinary research project and network funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), running from 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2024. The project is jointly conducted by the Käte Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (University of Heidelberg, Germany) and the McCord Centre for Landscape (Newcastle University, UK), both interdisciplinary research institutes focused on studying the complex intertwinement of humans with their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]