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Societal and environmental change not only coincide during the period 1250–1380, they interact: What has been long discussed as the 'Crisis of the 14th Century' is happening during a shifting climatic regime, from the Medieval Climate Anomaly to the onset of the Little Ice Age. The volume highlights this 'teleconnections' between environment and society with a set of interdisciplinary and regionally diverse contributions on Europe and beyond.

Climate crisis --- humans --- Middle Ages

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This impressive collection celebrates the work of Peter Kershaw, a key figure in the field of Australian palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Over almost half a century his research helped reconceptualize ecology in Australia, creating a detailed understanding of environmental change in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Within a biogeographic framework one of his exceptional contributions was to explore the ways that Aboriginal people may have modified the landscape through the effects of anthropogenic burning. These ideas have had significant impacts on thinking within the fields of geomorphology, biogeography, archaeology, anthropology and history. Papers presented here continue to explore the dynamism of landscape change in Australia and the contribution of humans to those transformations. The volume is structured in two sections. The first examines evidence for human engagement with landscape, focusing on Australia and Papua New Guinea but also dealing with the human/environmental histories of Europe and Asia. The second section contains papers that examine palaeoecology and present some of the latest research into environmental change in Australia and New Zealand. Individually these papers, written by many of Australia’s prominent researchers in these fields, are significant contributions to our knowledge of Quaternary landscapes and human land use. But Peopled Landscapes also signifies the disciplinary entanglement that is archaeological and biogeographic research in this region, with archaeologists and environmental scientists contributing to both studies of human land use and palaeoecology. Peopled Landscapes reveals the interdisciplinary richness of Quaternary research in the Australasian region as well as the complexity and richness of the entangled environmental and human pasts of these lands.

landscape assessment --- australia --- landscape changes --- archaeology --- human ecology --- humans --- nature

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Echolocation has evolved in different groups of animals, from bats and cetaceans to birds and humans, and enables localization and tracking of objects in a dynamic environment, where light levels may be very low or absent. Nature has shaped echolocation, an active sense that engages audiomotor feedback systems, which operates in diverse environments and situations. Echolocation production and perception vary across species, and signals are often adapted to the environment and task. In the last several decades, researchers have been studying the echolocation behavior of animals, both in the air and underwater, using different methodologies and perspectives. The result of these studies has led to rich knowledge on sound production mechanisms, directionality of the sound beam, signal design, echo reception and perception. Active control over echolocation signal production and the mechanisms for echo processing ultimately provide animals with an echoic scene or image of their surroundings. Sonar signal features directly influence the information available for the echolocating animal to perceive images of its environment. In many echolocating animals, the information processed through echoes elicits a reaction in motor systems, including adjustments in subsequent echolocation signals. We are interested in understanding how echolocating animals deal with different environments (e.g. clutter, light levels), tasks, distance to targets or objects, different prey types or other food sources, presence of conspecifics or certain predators, ambient and anthropogenic noise. In recent years, some researchers have presented new data on the origins of echolocation, which can provide a hint of its evolution. Theoreticians have addressed several issues that bear on echolocation systems, such as frequency or time resolution, target localization and beam-forming mechanisms. In this Research Topic we compiled recent work that elucidates how echolocation – from sound production, through echolocation signals to perception- has been shaped by nature functioning in different environments and situations. We strongly encouraged comparative approaches that would deepen our understanding of the processes comprising this active sense.

Biosonar --- Communication --- sensory biology --- Behavior --- bats --- marine mammals --- Birds --- Humans

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This edited book brings together research reports on the asymmetry of brain function in various species, including humans, dogs, birds, lizards and bees. As shown in a wide range of species, and, as we now know, not solely in humans, the left and right sides of the brain process information in different ways and control different responses or patterns of behaviour. Since this discovery, many new methods have become available to reveal the processes involved in the development, function and evolution of this important attribute of the brain. Chapters consider the evidence for asymmetry of sensory receptors, left–right differences in information processing and asymmetrical control of behaviour. The latter includes lateralization of bird song and use of the magnetic compass in navigation. Other chapters report studies on handedness, hemispheric asymmetries in emotional processing and perception of symmetry in humans. The importance of the degree, or strength, of asymmetry is discussed and the conclusion is that asymmetry of the brain enhances its efficiency. Other chapters provide evidence that early experience influences the development of asymmetry. All of the contributors have strong backgrounds in research and they discuss up-to-date discoveries on lateralized brain and behaviour.

Behavioural asymmetry --- brain asymmetry --- lateralization --- attention --- handedness --- development --- evolution --- humans --- vertebrates --- invertebrates

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Els plantejaments i les recomanacions que es fan en aquest Document desitgen promoure millores en la qualitat de vida de les persones grans, fomentant la presa de decisions prèvies —tant individuals com socials— i reivindicant la promoció dels valors de solidaritat i de no-discriminació.

Persones grans, Drets humans, Envelliment, Bioètica, Older people, Human rights, Aging, Bioethic