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Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and related physical distancing measures have disproportionally affected older adults living alone due to their greater social isolation. Unlike previous studies on the subject, the current research recognizes the diversity amongst older adults living alone by considering the impact of marital history. Combining information from Wave 8 of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement (SHARE), with data of SHARELIFE and the SHARE Corona survey, we investigated the differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness in older men (N = 1504) and women (N = 4822) living alone. Logistic multilevel analyses were performed on data from 26 European countries and Israel. For men, we found that the short-term widowed were more likely to report increased loneliness than the medium- and long-term widowed and those living apart together (LAT). For women, the results indicated that the short- and medium-term widowed and the divorced were at greater risk for increased loneliness than those in a LAT relationship. Also, medium-term widowed women were more likely to report increased loneliness than their long-term widowed counterparts. The three hypothesized underlying mechanisms – i.e., (i) the opportunity mechanism, (ii) the expectation mechanism, and (iii) the vulnerability mechanism – only played a small role in explaining the observed differences. In sum, our study highlights the importance of recognizing the diversity within the group of older adults living alone when investigating the effects of the pandemic on loneliness, yet the mechanisms behind the stratifying role of marital history are not fully understood.

The frailty phenotype (FP) proposed by Fried and colleagues has been shown to be strongly associated with incident disability, but its discriminative capacities remain suboptimal, with good specificity but a sensitivity of only 10-20%. The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether the addition to the FP of other biological and social variables may improve the prediction of declining functional ability in community-dwelling older people.Prospective observational study.Community-dwelling older subjects.We used data from the InChianti (N 897) and the SHARE (N 444) studies to derive and validate a scoring system consisting of FP components along with age, perceived health status and markers of socio-economic disadvantage. Backward stepwise logistic regressions were used to obtain a parsimonious model, able to predict the loss of ability to perform instrumental or basic activities of daily living over time.A scoring system derived from a model only including age, low physical activity level, exhaustion and perceived health status had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.846 in the training cohort (InChianti), and 0.745 in the testing cohort (SHARE). By applying the cut-off of 33 and 25 in the InChianti and SHARE, respectively, sensitivity raised to 0.70 and 0.62 with specificity of 0.83 and 0.70, respectively.A simple score based on anamnestic variables may be more sensitive than the FP towards worsening functional ability, while retaining good specificity. Further studies are needed to confirm its performance.

Understandings of time have long formed a fundamental part of political ideologies and served to structure political action. The articles in this special issue of the European Review of History explore different ways in which different groups of activists have drawn on, experienced or projected different understandings of time in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century, often in contexts shaped by substantial upheaval and uncertainty. This introduction outlines the strands of the historiography of time, summarizes some of the underlying themes of the following articles and examines what may be gained from writing time into the history of political activism. Les compréhensions du temps ont longtemps été un élément fondamental des idéologies politiques, et elles ont souvent structuré l’action politique. Les articles qui se trouvent dans ce numéro de la Revue d’histoire européenne étudient comment des diverses groupes d’activistes ont utilisé, ont éprouvé, et ont projeté des différentes conceptions du temps dans la deuxième moitié du vingtième siècle en Europe, souvent dans le cadre des bouleversements importants et l’incertitude intense. Cette introduction résume quelques éléments de l’historiographie sur les compréhensions du temps, souligne les thèmes qui réunissent les articles inclus ci-dessous, et suggère ce que l’on peut gagner en mettant ensemble l’histoire du temps et celle de l’activisme politique.

A set of newly collected 2D seismic reflection data allows the mapping of two distinct cross-cutting reflectors across the Falkland/Malvinas Plateau. Reflector XR-F/MB in the Falkland/Malvinas Basin appears as a bottom simulating reflector that mimics the geometry of the present seafloor, whereas reflector XR-F/MT in the Falkland/Malvinas Trough is a non-bottom simulating reflector that mimics a shallower reflector representing theEarly-Middle Miocene unconformity. The discordant geometry of these two reflectors with respect to the hoststratigraphyis argued to be associated with Opal-A to Opal-CT diagenesis, which is primarily a function of temperature. However, the estimated temperature at the present depth for reflector XR-F/MB lies below the minimum temperature for the onset of silica diagenesis. Based on their geometry and seismic characteristics, the two reflectors are interpreted to be fossilized silica diagenetic fronts, formed under palaeo-thermal conditions different from today. We hypothesize that the erosional action of intensified deep and bottom water masses subsequent to Antarctic glaciations during the Early-Middle Miocene may have driven the fossilization of the diagenetic front in the study area. It is estimated that erosion of a minimum of 270 m of overburden would account for the temperature drop driving the fossilization of the silica diagenetic fron.

Knowledge about the timing, amplitude and spatial gradients of Holocene environmental variability in the circum-Baltic region is key to understanding its responses to ongoing climate change. Based on a multi-dating and proxy approach, we reconstruct changes in productivity using total organic carbon (TOC) contents in sediments of Lake Kälksjön (KKJ) from west–central Sweden spanning the last 9612 (+255/-114) years. An exception is the period from 1878 CE until today, in which sedimentation was dominated by anthropogenic lake level lowering and land use. In-lake productivity was higher during periods of warmer winters with shortened ice cover and prolonged growing seasons. A multi-millennial increase in productivity throughout the last ∼ 9600 years is associated with progressively warmer winters in northwestern Europe, likely triggered by the coinciding increase in Northern Hemisphere winter insolation. Decadal to centennial periods of higher productivity in KKJ tend to correspond to warmer winters during a more positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) polarity, as reconstructed for the last 8000 years. In consequence, we assume our decadal to centennial productivity record from KKJ sediments for the complete ∼ 9600 years to provide a qualitative record of NAO polarity. A shift towards higher productivity variability at ∼ 5450 cal a BP is hypothesized to reflect a reinforcement of NAO-like atmospheric circulation variability, possibly driven by more vigorous changes in North Atlantic deep-water formation.

AbstractAccording to the final report of the European Union OMC expert group on strengthening cultural heritage resilience for anthropogenic climate change, the impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, on cultural heritage in Europe have become increasingly evident in recent years and are progressing at an unprecedented speed and scale. Archaeological sites, museum collections, and historical buildings and structures are affected, among others, by rising temperatures or by heavy storms and precipitation events. Deep scientific knowledge about future climate projections is required to develop appropriate preservation strategies and measures to protect and adapt cultural heritage. In this paper we present the first set of results of the KERES project. The project focuses on the impacts of future extreme climate events on the built heritage and historic gardens. An ensemble of climate simulations is used to analyze changes in both climatology and extreme events for several climate variables at two cultural heritage sites in Germany. In this study, a methodology was developed to guide climate scientists on how to better tailor climate information for the needs of stakeholders in the cultural heritage sector. It would help the stakeholders to integrate the results of climate projections into the prevention and emergency management, in particular for the risk assessment of extreme events. The effects of interpolation from a model grid to a location of cultural heritage site and advantages of an ensemble approach have been demonstrated in the study.

A company's financial documents use tables along with text to organize the data containing key performance indicators (KPIs) (such as profit and loss) and a financial quantity linked to them. The KPI’s linked quantity in a table might not be equal to the similarly described KPI's quantity in a text. Auditors take substantial time to manually audit these financial mistakes and this process is called consistency checking. As compared to existing work, this paper attempts to automate this task with the help of transformer-based models. Furthermore, for consistency checking it is essential for the table's KPIs embeddings to encode the semantic knowledge of the KPIs and the structural knowledge of the table. Therefore, this paper proposes a pipeline that uses a tabular model to get the table's KPIs embeddings. The pipeline takes input table and text KPIs, generates their embeddings, and then checks whether these KPIs are identical. The pipeline is evaluated on the financial documents in the German language and a comparative analysis of the cell embeddings' quality from the three tabular models is also presented. From the evaluation results, the experiment that used the English-translated text and table KPIs and Tabbie model to generate table KPIs’ embeddings achieved an accuracy of 72.81% on the consistency checking task, outperforming the benchmark, and other tabular models.

Anthropogenic features provide direct evidence of human activities that took place during the occupation of a site and as such are valuable sources of information for inferring past behaviour. Their identification and interpretation is essential for archaeological research, and geoarchaeology has the potential to unravel their nature and place them into context. One of the main goals in the analysis of archaeological features is to investigate the relationship between humans and fire. A major issue in the investigation of human evolution and pyrotechnology is that fire and the ability to produce it are seen by some as one of the primary characteristics that distinguish modern humans from Neanderthals. Around this main debate, other threads open up. In fact, features like hearths can also provide insights into site maintenance, social organization, and settlement dynamics. Here I investigate the anthropogenic features from two important Palaeolithic caves in Europe, Fumane Cave (IT) and Hohle Fels (DE). Both sites cover the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic, providing the unique opportunity to explore Neanderthal and modern human settlements. First, I analysed the thin sections using micromorphology to understand the nature of the features and their link to human activities. Second, I obtained complete information by applying complementary analyses to selected samples. Third, I executed experimental work on burning bones in a controlled environment to understand better changes in bones heated at low temperatures. The results show a diverse set of anthropogenic features such as hearths, hearth bases, dumps, occupational horizons and laminated/trampled surfaces. Their presence reflects different activities, including combustion and site maintenance/use, carried out by humans within the site. Further, I infer fuel choice, occupation of sites and the mobility of the groups that inhabited them. Fumane Cave and Hohle Fels appear as a complex system of human behaviour based on a close relationship with the surrounding landscape. Finally, experimentation on charred bones reveals the potential of organic petrology in investigating fat-derived char and determining a range of combustion temperatures. This dissertation shows the importance of a micro-contextual approach within archaeological research, the potential of the investigation of anthropogenic features to reconstruct past human activities, and the need to consider them part of the cultural material. An anthropogenic feature is comparable to many other artefacts and must be treated as such to gain information on both natural processes and human behaviour.

Abstract. The mid-Pliocene warm period (3.264–3.025 Ma) is the most recent geological period in which the atmospheric CO2 concentration was approximately equal to the concentration we measure today (ca. 400 ppm). Sea surface temperature (SST) proxies indicate above-average warming over the North Atlantic in the mid-Pliocene with respect to the pre-industrial period, which may be linked to an intensified Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Earlier results from the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2 (PlioMIP2) show that the ensemble simulates a stronger AMOC in the mid-Pliocene than in the pre-industrial. However, no consistent relationship between the stronger mid-Pliocene AMOC and either the Atlantic northward ocean heat transport (OHT) or average North Atlantic SSTs has been found. In this study, we look further into the drivers and consequences of a stronger AMOC in mid-Pliocene compared to pre-industrial simulations in PlioMIP2. We find that all model simulations with a closed Bering Strait and Canadian Archipelago show reduced freshwater transport from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic. This contributes to an increase in salinity in the subpolar North Atlantic and Labrador Sea that can be linked to the stronger AMOC in the mid-Pliocene. To investigate the dynamics behind the ensemble's variable response of the total Atlantic OHT to the stronger AMOC, we separate the Atlantic OHT into two components associated with either the overturning circulation or the wind-driven gyre circulation. While the ensemble mean of the overturning component is increased significantly in magnitude in the mid-Pliocene, it is partly compensated by a reduction in the gyre component in the northern subtropical gyre region. This indicates that the lack of relationship between the total OHT and AMOC is due to changes in OHT by the subtropical gyre. The overturning and gyre components should therefore be considered separately to gain a more complete understanding of the OHT response to a stronger mid-Pliocene AMOC. In addition, we show that the AMOC exerts a stronger influence on North Atlantic SSTs in the mid-Pliocene than in the pre-industrial, providing a possible explanation for the improved agreement of the PlioMIP2 ensemble mean SSTs with reconstructions in the North Atlantic.