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An increasing body of palaeobotanical data demonstrates a series of Pliocene and Pleistocene extirpationsand extinctions of plant lineages in western Eurasia, which are believed to have been determinedby the climatic properties of their related East Asian and North American sister lineages.We investigatedthe diversity of a widespread northern hemispheric plant family, Fagaceae, during the Late Pliocene ofPortugal. We found a high diversity of Fagaceae comprising extant and extinct lineages. Dispersed pollenof Castanopsis and Quercus sect. Cyclobalanopsis represent the youngest records of these Himalayan-Southeast Asian groups in western Eurasia. Likewise, fossil-species of Quercus sect. Lobatae and theNorth American clade of sect. Quercus are the youngest records of these modern New World groups inwestern Eurasia. For the extinct Trigonobalanopsis, the pollen record of Portugal is the youngest known ofthis genus. Climate data of modern representatives demonstrate that a deterministic model can explainonly a part of the Pliocene and Pleistocene extirpations. Modern cold month mean temperatures ofCastanopsis and Quercus sect. Cyclobalanopsis and their last occurrences in western Eurasia in the Pliocenefit with a deterministic model (niche conservatism). In contrast, survival or extirpation of groupswith high cold tolerance appear to have been more complex. Here, niche evolution, abundance anddiversity of a lineage during pre-Pleistocene times, and habitat availability/loss determined the fate ofFagaceae lineages in western Eurasia.

Previous paleobotanical work concluded that Paleogene elements of the sclerophyllous subhumid vegetation of western Eurasia and western North America were endemic to these disjunct regions, suggesting that the southern areas of the Holarctic flora were isolated at that time. Consequently, molecular studies invoked either parallel adaptation to dry climates from related ancestors, or long-distance dispersal in explaining disjunctions between the two regions, dismissing the contemporaneous migration of dry-adapted lineages via land bridges as unlikely. We report Vauquelinia (Rosaceae), currently endemic to western North America, in Cenozoic strata of western Eurasia. Revision of North American fossils previously assigned to Vauquelinia confirmed a single fossil-species of Vauquelinia and one of its close relative Kageneckia. We established taxonomic relationships of fossil-taxa using diagnostic character combinations shared with modern species and constructed a time-calibrated phylogeny. The fossil record suggests that Vauquelinia, currently endemic to arid and subdesert environments, originated under seasonally arid climates in the Eocene of western North America and subsequently crossed the Paleogene North Atlantic land bridge (NALB) to Europe. This pattern is replicated by other sclerophyllous, dry-adapted and warmth-loving plants, suggesting that several of these taxa potentially crossed the North Atlantic via the NALB during Eocene times.

The Late Oligocene to Early Miocene flora of the Ban Pa Kha Subbasin (Li Basin, northern Thailand) provides a record of montane dry tropical oak-pine forests. The rich ensemble of Fagaceae typical of these forests might have existed in the wider region of Southeast Asia since Eocene times and various fossil plant assemblages represented both lowland (Fagaceae, Dipterocarpaceae) and upland (Fagaceae, Pinaceae) tropical forests. These findings are in conflict with previous interpretations of vegetation development in northern Thailand, which stressed that stratigraphically older (possibly Late Oligocene) spore and pollen assemblages in northern Thailand were markedly different from the modern tropical flora and had a distinct northern temperate character. A major change in climate would have caused a dramatic shift to tropical conditions since the Mid-Miocene. Considering palaeobotanical data from adjacent regions in Southeast Asia, we suggest that differences in spore and pollen assemblages in intermontane basins in northern Thailand are more likely to represent different facies and lowland/upland settings. Assembly of these forest ecosystems, typically comprising Quercus sections Cyclobalanopsis, Ilex and Quercus, pollen of Castaneoideae with affinities to Castanopsis and Lithocarpus, and extinct fagaceous genera such as Eotrigonobalanus, most probably dates back to the Eocene. The absence of oaks of Quercus section Cerris in the spore and pollen assemblage of the Ban Pa Kha Subbasin, despite this group being part of the modern vegetation, might reflect the late arrival (secondary radiation) of this chiefly temperate group in tropical Southeast Asia., This project was funded by the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand (project number SCI 6402006S), the Swedish Research Council (VR, grant number 2021-05849) and ASEA-UNINET Staff Exchange, One Month Scholarship 2017

This interdisciplinary volume presents a comprehensive framework to understand political awareness. Political awareness has become an important part of research on political attitudes and political behavior since the publication of John Zaller's work on political opinion. The authors elaborate on his theory and present a new conceptualization, which stipulates that political awareness is the attentiveness, knowledge, and understanding of politics. Hence, the book discusses different aspects, such as the concept of political awareness, its formation, significance, measurement, and exploration. The result is a new framework that addresses conceptual, theoretical, and methodological questions, such as: What does the concept mean? How to study political awareness? How is it connected to other orientations? How do children and youth develop political awareness? Addressing researchers and graduate students, as well as scholars in political science, sociology, and education, this book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of political awareness.

Public organisations are starting to show an interest in automated decision-making (ADM). So far, existing research focuses on the governmental perspective on this phenomenon. Less attention is paid to citizens' views on ADM. The aim of this study is to provide empirical insights into citizen awareness of and beliefs about ADM in public-sector services. To this end, we participated in an annual national survey in Sweden carried out by the SOM Institute at Gothenburg University concluding that a minority of the citizens know about the use of ADM in public-sector services. Furthermore, when computers instead of civil servants make decisions in the public-sector, citizens expect decisions by computers to become less legally secure but more impartial. They also expect ADM to take personal circumstances into account to a lesser degree and become less transparent. Finally, we found that citizens with that awareness expect decisions by computers to become more reliable and impartial. Based on our empirical findings in relation to previous research, we suggest four hypotheses on citizen's awareness and beliefs about public-sector ADM.

This interdisciplinary volume presents a comprehensive framework to understand political awareness. Political awareness has become an important part of research on political attitudes and political behavior since the publication of John Zaller's work on political opinion. The authors elaborate on his theory and present a new conceptualization, which stipulates that political awareness is the attentiveness, knowledge, and understanding of politics. Hence, the book discusses different aspects, such as the concept of political awareness, its formation, significance, measurement, and exploration. The result is a new framework that addresses conceptual, theoretical, and methodological questions, such as: What does the concept mean? How to study political awareness? How is it connected to other orientations? How do children and youth develop political awareness? Addressing researchers and graduate students, as well as scholars in political science, sociology, and education, this book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of political awareness.

The late Early Pleistocene was the last time of equable climate in northern Central Italy, reflected in its large mammal fauna and numerous palynological records. Reliably dated leaf fossils from this time are rare, but provide crucial information onlocal and regional vegetation, biogeographic relationships, and species turnover coinciding with the assembly of modern forest biomes. Here we investigated a rich assemblage of leaf and fruit impressions (63 fossil-taxa) from the Oriolo quarry, Faenza (Ravenna), dated to the latest Calabrian, preserved in transgressive coastal deposits. The fossil assemblage represents riparian vegetation and xeric alluvial habitats in the lowlands and forest vegetation above the alluvial plain. Forest-building trees were deciduous, but comprised several taxa characteristic of open scrubland or forest edges. The composition of the flora reflects a dynamic process of assembling modern forest biomes in western Eurasia. While most taxa correspond to modern submediterranean and temperatewoody species, some others represent late occurrences of taxa today confined to refugia outside Italy (Parrotia, Gleditsia, Pterocarya), and a few are Miocene/Pliocene relics indicating final floristic links with East Asia (Japan) and/or North America (Tsuga cf.chiarugii, Carya cf. minor) and Pleistocene endemism in Italy (Berberis auriolensis, Acer aemilianum).