14 research outputs found
Fig 3 in Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov., an enigmatic new species and a new section of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Peru
No full textFig 3. Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov. A. Whole plant. B. Male and female Fower, front view. C. Female Fower, side view. D. Habit and associated vegetation. E– F. Habitat and wild population. Scale bars: A = 1 cm; B = 5 mm; C = 2 mm; D = 2 cm; E–F = 10 cm. Photographed by Peter Moonlight. All from P. Moonlight & A. Daza 318 (E).Published as part of Peter Watson Moonlight, Carlos Reynel & Mark Tebbitt, 2017, Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov., an enigmatic new species and a new section of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Peru, pp. 1-13 in European Journal of Taxonomy 281 on page 7, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2017.281, http://zenodo.org/record/32124
Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov., an enigmatic new species and a new section of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Peru
No full textThe world’s smallest Begonia, Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov., is described and illustrated from a limestone outcrop in the Amazonian lowlands of Pasco Region, Peru. It is placed within the newly described, monotypic Begonia sect. Microtuberosa Moonlight & Tebbitt sect. nov. and the phylogenetic affinities of the section are examined. Begonia elachista sp. nov. is considered Critically Endangered under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria
Linking speciation and the niche: taxonomy, phylogeny and niche evolution in neotropical Begonia
No full textBegonia L. is one of the ten largest plant genera with >1,830 currently accepted species distributed throughout the tropical Americas, Africa and Asia. This exceptional diversity offers the opportunity to study the processes underlying recent and rapid radiations, including the theory of adaptive radiations, but also poses major challenges.
Methods to test adaptive radiation theory require sufficient occurrence data to produce species distribution models for the majority of species in a group. In many groups, including Andean, Central American and Mexican Begonia, this criterion is not met. The availability of specimen data on GBIF for species distribution modelling in vascular plants as a whole was assessed. The potential contribution of databased and freely available but indetermined or non-georeferenced specimens to the field of species distribution modelling was estimated. More than half of vascular plant species are currently unavailable for species distribution modelling. Our results indicate 22% of currently unavailable species could be modelled with already available herbarium data that is not yet georeferenced or determined to species. We argue that a greater focus on georeferencing and identification skills are vital if herbaria are to contribute fully to the growing field of species distribution modelling. We highlight those families and geographic regions that would most benefit from this approach and discuss the historical factors have influenced differences among regions.
Another prerequisite for species distribution modelling is a stable species level taxonomy. In preparation for investigation involving SDM’s in Begonia, five taxonomic papers are presented, including revised species concepts, distribution data suitable for use in species distribution models, seven new species and a new section of Begonia. Three plastid markers for 574 species and 809 accessions of Begonia were used to produce the largest, most representative phylogeny of Begonia published to date. An updated sectional classification of the genus is provided. The sections of Begonia are used frequently as analogues to genera in other families but, despite their taxonomic utility, few of the current sections have been examined in the light of molecular phylogenetic analyses. The relationships among some species and sections are poorly resolved, but many sections and deeper nodes receive strong support. We recognise 77 sections of Begonia including four new sections: Astrotricha, Jackia, Kollmannia, and Stellanthera; five sections are reinstated from synonymy: Australes, Exalabegonia, Latistigma, Pereira and Poecilia; and four sections are newly synonymised. The new sectional classification is discussed with reference to identifying characters and previous classifications.
Central to the theory of an adaptive radiation is that the majority of speciation events are adaptive, implying speciation driven by adaptation to different environments and resulting in niche shifts. Species in an adaptive radiation should display distinct ecological niches and environmental disparity across the group’s phylogeny should best fit a kappa ‘niche-shift’ or ‘speciational’ model of character evolution. These characteristics were tested in two clades of Neotropical Begonia. Species were compared through the comparison of their distributions in environmental space calculated from species distribution models. The fit of four models of environmental evolution (a kappa ‘niche-shift’ model, a Brownian motion model, an early-burst model, and a white noise model) to the observed niche disparity in the group were assessed using the Akaike Information Criterion
Patterns of ecological diversification in the two clades of Begonia examined strongly diverge from those predicted by an adaptive model, and we conclude Begonia is not an adaptive radiation with respects to climatic niche. Ecological disparity within Begonia clades best fits the predictions of a Brownian model of niche evolution. The characteristics of a Brownian model include constant niche evolution over the phylogeny, no increases in niche evolution during speciation, and independent niche evolution in sister lineages. This is incompatible with the predictions of an adaptive radiation. We suggest the remarkable diversity of the genus has developed through geographic speciation, and subsequent adaptation to local environments. This phenomenon may be widespread among plant radiations in topographically- and environmentally-heterogeneous areas, and a re-evaluation of putative adaptive radiations throughout the world’s montane regions may be necessary
A revision and recircumscription of Begonia Section Pilderia including one new species
No full textNovel phylogenetic data is used to show that the poorly-known species Begonia glandulifera and Begonia mariannensis form a clade with Begonia buddleiifolia, the type species of Begonia section Pilderia. A unique combination of characters is identified in this group and used to re-circumscribe the section to include these species, and two morphologically similar species: Begonia jenmanii, and Begonia humilliana. A new species is described herein as Begonia tepuiensis sp. nov. from a single tepui in the Amazonas State of Venezuela. A full taxonomic revision and key to the species of Begonia section Pilderia is presented and we assign all species to IUCN Red List categories
Making vision into power : Britain's acquisition of the world's first radar-based integrated air defence system 1935 - 1941
No full textThis thesis represents the first application of a current conceptual model of defence acquisition to analyse the historical process, the 1935 - 1941 British acquisition of an integrated air defence system pivoted upon the innovative technology of radar. For successful acquisition of a military capability, the model posits that balanced attention must be focused acoss eight 'lines of developmen' - not only equipment, but also doctrine and concepts, logistics, structures, personnel, organisation, training and information with an overarching requirement for interoperability. This thesis contrasts what turned out to be a successful acquisition, of radar to achive air interception capability by day in the Battle of Britain, with less successful acquisition, or radar to achieve the same capability at night, where an effective system arrived too late to ward off the Blitz. The results establish the validity of the model and its attendant lines of development concepts, and furnish new insights into acquisition processes and military history. Acquisition lessons are derived for the capability-based involvement of industry, for the experience and personality necessary for key managers at different 'life stages' of an acquisition and for the avoidance of over-rapid 'dysfunctional diffusion' of innovative technologies. Historical insights for the Battle of Britain include the sub-optimal performance, for trivial reasons, of key South Coast radars, and the critical importance of the human elements of the radar-based air defence system. For the Blitz, airborne radar hardware has previously been identified as a key problem, whereas research here exposes the greater need for accurate ground control radar, the sound selection and training of pilots and operators in new tactics, and provision of equipment maintainers and test gear. New evidence illustrates that pursuit of an alternative to radar significantly delayed the optimal solution, and throws fresh light both on personalities and on development process management
Writing from the shadowlands: how cross-cultural literature negotiates the legacy of Edward Said
No full textThis thesis examines the impact of Edward Said's influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said's retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly 'orientalist'.
It is well known that the release of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said's work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations.
In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said's claim that 'every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric', the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the 'traditional' profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic 'orientalism' through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against 'orientalism'. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said's influence.
While the restrictive parameters of Said's work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to 'orientalist' criticism in that he is as much an 'orientalist' as those at whom he directs his polemic
The city and landscapes beyond Harold Pinter's rooms
No full textPinter's dramas have been labelled as 'absurd', 'mysterious', 'enigmatic', 'taciturn'.
There has been a constant tendency to reduce the idea of the 'Pinteresque' to language
when Pinter is preoccupied with the tensions between reality and the world of the
imagination. He has, actually and accurately, used theatre as a 'critical act' to denote
the abstracted realities, and he has applied his language to embody his world-view - his
concerns in the contemporary capitalist world.
Pinter has journeyed from the room to the outside world, from the private to the public
social space, and has identified an inescapable sense of pessimism and alienation, and
investigated an alarming world of atrocities. There are cities and landscapes beyond
Pinter's rooms, cities peopled by wandering, displaced figures surveying the self-estranged city that is modern consciousness, and landscapes where his people retreat
into the private realms of memory and fantasy.
This thesis explores the virtual geographies beyond Pinter's rooms through the
vocabulary of some modernist theoreticians and social scientists, as there are significant
parallels between their analytical observations and the poetic perceptions of Pinter, a
practising artist, and the phantom images of his characters.
Pinter's plays and film adaptations tend to portray the city as a colonial present, and the
country as a mythological past. The 1970s' plays portray a community of isolation,
urban decay, dispossession and suffering, through the figure of the 'flâneur' - his
characters' subjective experiences, memories and fantasies in the metropolis. In these
memory plays, men and women have different mental landscapes and desires. To some
extent the city is both a male-constructed world and an image of the twentieth century;
in both senses it is anti-human and in decline.
In his 1980s mature plays, Pinter's lyrical interiors and serene landscapes are colonised
by the metropolis. Here Pinter investigates a universally oppressive space filled with
misery and social dislocation. The city destroys humanity in a decaying modem world.
These plays identify the global city as the locus of existential alienation and as the
centre of political power and oppression - a world of brute masculine power.
The last two plays, in this study explore other wastelands of human isolation and
suffering, and criticise the British suspicion of the 'intelligentsia'. Using scenes that are
ingrained in the contemporary audience's physical memory, Pinter makes the
distinction between being an active participant and being a witness, a 'spectator' in this
alarming world. And thus, he criticises the tradition of mockery of the artistic and the
intellectually curious in Britain, and urges a need for a 'politically curious', at politically questioning theatre-going society
Harold Pinter and the Performance of Power: Considerations of Affect in Select Plays, Screenplays and Films, Poetry and Political Speeches
No full textThis thesis looks at selections of Harold Pinter's work across multiple media: written dramatic texts, screenplays and poetry, activity in theatrical and film production and his political activism. It has been argued that Pinter's dramatic medium is exceeded by movements, intensities and
forces that operate on and circulate within the corporeal bodies of Pinter's 'audiences'. However, approaches to Pinter to date remain overly focused on representation and hermeneutics and tied to a decidedly idealist conception of being, perception and knowledge. I argue that in order to
appreciate the politics of Pinter's aesthetics, readings of Pinter's work need to move in a more decidedly materialist direction. To do so, I enlist the conceptual tools of Gilles Deleuze and felix Guattari, specifically 'affect'. In bringing affect theory to Pinter I illustrate how 'the direct, mutual involvement of language and extra-linguistic forces,1 must be taken into account at every
critical step, and that meaning need be construed as a material process, the expression of forces
acting upon each other. The diversity of Pinter's work is explored over six chapters with a view to its aesthetic disposition and function, how it enters into noteworthy relations with those who engage with it, and how it establishes conditions that are propitious for transitory but ultimately productive trans formative encounters. Proceeding as such necessitates appraisal of ethical and
political positions in relation to Pinter's expression without distinguishing politics from aesthetics - a trend common to intellectual enterprise. Rather, the three keywords in the title of this thesis - performance, power and affect - function as concepts to advance the argument for Pinter's aesthetics as a politics. In considering the aesthetics of Pinter's work in varied media, this thesis invites the reader to see the strategies by which Pinter intervenes in each area as interrelated and political
Making change happen
No full textThis book is a unique window into a dynamic time in the politics and history of Australia. The two decades from 1970 to the Bicentennial in 1988 saw the emergence of a new landscape in Australian Indigenous politics. There were struggles, triumphs and defeats around land rights, community control of organisations, national coalitions and the international movement for Indigenous rights. The changes of these years generated new roles for Aboriginal people. Leaders had to grapple with demands to be administrators and managers as well as spokespeople and lobbyists. The challenges were personal as well as organisational, with a central one being how to retain personal integrity in the highly politicised atmosphere of the ‘Aboriginal Industry’. Kevin Cook was in the middle of many of these changes – as a unionist, educator, land rights campaigner, cultural activist and advocate for liberation movements in Southern Africa, the Pacific and around the world. But ‘Cookie’ has not wanted to tell the story of his own life in these pages. Instead, with Heather Goodall, a long time friend, he has gathered together many of the activists with whom he worked to tell their stories of this important time. Readers are invited into the frank and vivid conversations Cookie had with forty-five black and white activists about what they wanted to achieve, the plans they made, and the risks they took to make change happen
Bibliographie der Filmmusik
No full textIn die folgende Bibliographie sind Hinweise von Claudia Bullerjahn, Michael Hergt, Ludger Kaczmarek, Ingo Lehmann und Mirkko Stehn eingegangen. Die namentlich gekennzeichneten Annotationen sind uns freundlicherweise vom Projekt „Bibliographie für die Musikwissenschaft“, hrsg. v. Staatlichen Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, überlassen worden (online: http://www.sim.spk-berlin.de/start.php). Wir danken Herrn Carsten Schmidt für seine Kooperationsbereitschaft
