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Antarctic continental ice masses fluctuated considerably during the Oligocene "coolhouse", at elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations of similar to 600-800 ppm. To assess the role of the ocean in the Oligocene ice sheet variability, reconstruction of past ocean conditions in the proximity of the Antarctic margin is needed. While relatively warm ocean conditions have been reconstructed for the Oligocene offshore of Wilkes Land, the geographical extent of that warmth is unknown. In this study, we reconstruct past surface ocean conditions from glaciomarine sediments recovered from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 274 offshore of the Ross Sea continental margin. This site, located offshore of Cape Adare is ideally situated to characterise Oligocene regional surface ocean conditions, as it is situated between the colder, higher-latitude Ross Sea continental shelf and the warm-temperate Wilkes Land margin in the Oligocene. We first improve the age model of DSDP Site 274 using integrated bio- and magnetostratigraphy. Subsequently, we analyse organic walled dinoflagellate cyst assemblages and lipid biomarkers (TEX86, TetraEther indeX of 86 carbon atoms) to reconstruct surface palaeoceanographic conditions during the Oligocene (33.7-24.4 Ma). Both TEX86 based sea surface temperature (SST) and microplankton results show temperate (10-17 degrees C +/- 5.2 degrees C) surface ocean conditions at Site 274 throughout the Oligocene. Oceanographic conditions between the offshore Wilkes Land margin and Cape Adare became increasingly similar towards the late Oligocene (26.5-24.4 Ma); this is inferred to be the consequence of the widening of the Tasmanian Gateway, which resulted in more interconnected ocean basins and frontal systems. Maintaining marine terminations of terrestrial ice sheets in a proto-Ross Sea with offshore SSTs that are as warm as those suggested by our data requires a strong ice flux fed by intensive precipitation in the Antarctic hinterland during colder orbital states but with extensive surface melt of terrestrial ice during warmer orbital states. This research has been supported by the NWO Polar Programme (grant no. ALW.2016.001.); the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (grant no. CTM2017-89711-C2-1-P/CTM2017-89711-C2-2-P), co-funded by the European Union through FEDER funds; and the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation PhD research grant (grant no. F ZL 016-1/2015-2016). Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness CTM2017-89711-C2-1-P/CTM2017-89711-C2-2-P Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation PhD research grant F ZL 016-1/2015-2016 European Union through FEDER funds NWO Polar Programme ALW.2016.001

Laugerie-Haute is one of the key sequences of the European Upper Paleolithic. However, the absolute chronologyof the sequence is not well-established, and recently the integrity of the layers has been called into question. Inthis paper, we present new radiocarbon dating results for the entire sedimentary sequence at Laugerie-HauteOuest, which contains important “Aurignacian V” and Solutrean assemblages. Our results show that the entireLaugerie-Haute Ouest sequence was deposited in a period of 8500–0,000 years, dating between 28 and19 cal. kBP.

As global climate warms and sea level rises, coastal areas will be subject to more frequent extreme flooding and hurricanes. Geologic evidence for extreme coastal storms during past warm periods has the potential to provide fundamental insights into their future intensity. Recent studies argue that during the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e, ∼128-116 ka) tropical and extratropical North Atlantic cyclones may have been more intense than at present, and may have produced waves larger than those observed historically. Such strong swells are inferred to have created a number of geologic features that can be observed today along the coastlines of Bermuda and the Bahamas. In this paper, we investigate the most iconic among these features: massive boulders atop a cliff in North Eleuthera, Bahamas. We combine geologic field surveys, wave models, and boulder transport equations to test the hypothesis that such boulders must have been emplaced by storms of greater-than-historical intensity. By contrast, our results suggest that with the higher relative sea level (RSL) estimated for the Bahamas during MIS 5e, boulders of this size could have been transported by waves generated by storms of historical intensity. Thus, while the megaboulders of Eleuthera cannot be used as geologic proof for past "superstorms," they do show that with rising sea levels, cliffs and coastal barriers will be subject to significantly greater erosional energy, even without changes in storm intensity.

Instrumental measures of speech intelligibility typically produce an index between 0 and 1 that is monotonically related to listening test scores. As such, these measures are dimensionless and do not represent physical quantities. In this paper, we propose a new instrumental intelligibility metric that describes speech intelligibility using bits per second. The proposed metric builds upon an existing intelligibility metric that was motivated by information theory. Our main contribution is that we use a statistical model of speech communication that accounts for noise inherent in the speech production process. Experiments show that the proposed metric performs at least as well as existing state-of-the-art intelligibility metrics. (Best student paper award) Signal Processing Systems

I dette bidrag til en bog om kulturel evolution beskriver forfatterne religionens kulturel evolution. Kapitlet forsøger ved anvendelsen af en bred vifte af metoder og data at forklare kompleksiteten og variationen i religion inden for og på tværs of grupper gennem historien.

The IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon calibration curves have been revised utilizing newly available and updated data sets from 14C measurements on tree rings, plant macrofossils, speleothems, corals, and foraminifera. The calibration curves were derived from the data using the random walk model (RWM) used to generate IntCal09 and Marine09, which has been revised to account for additional uncertainties and error structures. The new curves were ratified at the 21st International Radiocarbon conference in July 2012 and are available as Supplemental Material at www.radiocarbon.org. The database can be accessed at http://intcal.qub.ac.uk/intcal13/.