Hampshire College

About: Hampshire College is a education organization based out in Amherst Center, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Genetic programming & Population. The organization has 461 authors who have published 998 publications receiving 40827 citations.

Fluvial suspended sediment yields over hours to millennia in the High Arctic at proglacial Lake Linnévatnet, Svalbard

Abstract: Sediment yield can be a sensitive indicator of catchment dynamics and environmental change. For a glacierized catchment in the High Arctic, we compiled and analyzed diverse sediment transfer data, spanning a wide range of temporal scales, to quantify catchment yields and explore landscape response to past and ongoing hydroclimatic variability. The dataset integrates rates of lake sedimentation from correlated varve records and repeated annual and seasonal sediment traps, augmented by multi-year lake and fluvial monitoring. Consistent spatial patterns of deposition enabled reconstruction of catchment yields from varve- and trap-based fluxes. We used hydroclimatic data and multivariate modeling to examine annual controls of sediment delivery over almost a century, and to examine shorter-term controls of sediment transfer during peak glacier melt. Particle-size analyses, especially for annual sediment traps, were used to further infer sediment transfer mechanisms and timing. Through the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, there were no apparent multi-century trends in lake sedimentation rates, which were over three times greater than those during the mid-Holocene when glaciers were diminished. Twentieth-century sedimentation rates were greater than those of previous millennia, with a mid-century step increase in mean yield from 240 to 425 Mg km-2 yr-1. Annual yields through the twentieth century showed significant positive relations with spring/summer temperature, rainfall, and peak discharge conditions. This finding is significant for the future of sediment transfer at Linnevatnet, and perhaps more broadly in the Arctic, where continued increases in temperature and rainfall are projected. For 2004-2010, annual yields ranged from 294 to 1330 Mg km-2 yr-1. Sediment trap volumes and particle-size variations indicate that recent annual yields were largely dominated by spring to early summer transfer of relatively coarse-grained sediment. Fluvial monitoring showed daily to hourly sediment transfer to be related to current and prior discharge, diurnal hysteresis, air temperature, and precipitation.

Designing interactive multimedia (panel)

Abstract: This paper presents contrasting metaphors and paradigms for designing interactive media interfaces. Multimedia interface designers and researchers with diverse backgrounds discuss their own design approaches and important design ‘issues. Discussion of these issues is continued beyond this paper through a web site:

Let's call a Truce...for now: The silent bared-teeth face expression in Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) during baseline and post-conflict conditions

Abstract: The distinction between signals that are friendly and those that are non-aggressive but motivationally neutral (signals of benign intent, SBIs) has not often been well elucidated in the literature. Although both signals occur in similar contexts, friendly signals should be exchanged more often between animals with good relationships whereas SBIs should be more commonly exchanged between animals with poor or unpredictable relationships. The importance of this distinction is particularly salient in the post-conflict context, because the two different types of signals may have disparate distributions and functions. This study examines the nature of the silent bared-teeth face (SBTF) in captive mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) both during baseline interactions and following aggressive conflicts. We report that the SBTF is most commonly exchanged between mandrills with high rates of agonism. In addition, the SBTF is the most common post-conflict signal exchanged, and the mandrills exchanging this signal after fighting also have poor relationships. We conclude that, although one must be careful in generalizing from studies of captive populations, the mandrill SBTF observed in this study is most accurately classified as a signal of benign intent, but not a truly friendly signal and discuss problems with interpreting post-conflict data without distinguishing between these types of signals.

Dowry or Inheritance? Kinship, Property, And Women's Agency in Lisbon, Venice, and Florence (1572)

Abstract: The marital property regimes, inheritance practices, and kinship structures of Renaissance Italy and early modern Portugal were at opposite ends of a spectrum. In Italy, the legitimacy of marriage was defined as the outcome of dowry exchange governed by exclusio propter dotem , thus conceptually linked to the disinheritance of daughters and wives. In Portugal, where the Roman principle of equal inheritance was never abolished, domestic unions qualified as marriages insofar as joint ownership was established. Kinship structures were rigidly agnatic in Italy, but cognatic, even residually matrilineal, in Portugal. An investigation of notarial records from Lisbon, Venice, and Florence shows how women's capacity for full legal agency as property owners in both societies differed. Female legal agency, however, whether measured by women's capacity to engage in property transactions independently of their marital status (Portugal), or as the manipulation of limited legal resources, even resistance against a system of dispossession (Italy), always unfolded within the context of larger agendas that were beyond women's control, such as the processes of state formation in medieval Italy and empire-building in Portugal.

Autobiographical narratives of deaf and hearing adults: an examination of narrative coherence and the use of internal states.

Abstract: To examine the impact of early linguistic experiences on later verbal report of autobiographical memory, 13 hearing adults and 13 deaf adults born to hearing parents described events that occurred before and after the age of 10 years. The contextual, temporal, and thematic coherence of the narratives was rated. The use of emotional, perceptual, mental, and physiological states was also recorded. There were differences in the coherence of the narratives and use of internal states according to the age at which the events occurred. There were no group differences in coherence, but hearing adults provided longer narratives than deaf adults. When narrative length was controlled, deaf adults included more emotional states than hearing adults. Results suggest that early unavailability of language does not impact the coherence of adults' narratives, although certain features of linguistic expression specific to ASL may result in greater saturation of emotional states references in autobiographical narratives of deaf adults.