If we want to consider the meaning of Olympia and the role of her far reaching symbolism in human culture, we need first to define the symbol and symbolism as such. When we talk of anything symbolic or symbolism we think about a set of signs, either words or images, and the practice and convention of using them as representations of some ideas or things. A symbol, in turn, according to most dic...

In many countries with a written constitution, constitutional development in the second half of the 20th century was dominated by concepts of human rights. For example, Canada and South Africa gained Bills of Rights* 1 while the United States saw an existing Bill of Rights expanded through judicial interpretation. In other nations, international norms and the proliferation of treaties and conve...

Anthropogenic habitat modification often has a profound negative impact on the flora and fauna of an ecosystem. In parts of the Middle East, ephemeral rivers (wadis) are characterised by stands of acacia trees. Green, flourishing assemblages of these trees are in decline in several countries, most likely due to human-induced water stress and habitat changes. We examined the importance of health...

To examine the effect of nitrogen (N) fertilization on forest carbon (C) sequestration and water loss, we used an artificial neural network model to estimate C fluxes and evapotranspiration (ET) in response to N fertilization during four post-fertilization years in a Pacific Northwest chronosequence of three Douglas-fir stands aged 61, 22 and 10 years old in 2010 (DF49, HDF88 and HDF00, respect...

15 The endemic pine, Pinus canariensis, forms one of the main forest ecosystems in the 16 Canary Islands. In this archipelago, pine forest is a mosaic of natural stands (remnants 17 of past forest overexploitation) and artificial stands planted from the 1940’s. The 18 genetic makeup of the artificially regenerated forest is of some concern. The use of 19 reproductive material with uncontrolled ...