The development of chronologies relies on integrating information from a number of different sources. In addition to direct dating evidence, such as radiocarbon dates, researchers will have contextual information which might be an environmental sequence or the context in an archaeological site. This information can be combined through Bayesian or other types of age-model. Once a chronology has been developed, this information can be used to estimate, for example, chronological uncertainties, rates of change, or the age of material which has not been directly dated.

Dealing with the information associated with chronology building is complicated and re-evaluation of chronologies often requires structured information which is hard to access. Although there are many databases with primary dating information, these often do not contain all of the information needed for a chronology. The Chronological Query Language (CQL) developed for OxCal was intended to be a convenient way of pulling such information together for Bayesian analysis. However, even this does not include much of the associated information required for reusing data in other analyses.

The IntChron initiative builds on the framework set up for the INTIMATE (Integrating Ice core, Marine and Terrestrial Records) chronological database (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2014) and is primarily an information exchange format and data visualization tool which enables users to pull together the types of information needed for chronological analysis. It is intended for use with multiple dating methodologies and while it will be integrated with OxCal, is intended to be an open format suitable for use with other software tools. The file format is JSON which is easily readable in software such as R, Python and MatLab. IntChron is not primarily intended to be a data depository but rather an index of sites where information is stored in the relevant format. As an initial step, databases of radiocarbon dates from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (including those for the NERC radiocarbon facility), the RESET tephra database, the INTIMATE chronological database and regional radiocarbon databases for Egypt and Southern Africa are all linked. The intention is that users of OxCal will also be able to make published data accessible to others and to store working data, visible only to the user, to be used with the associated analysis tools. The IntChron site allows data from third party sources to be accessed through a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) in a number of different formats (JSON, csv, txt, oxcal) and associated bibliographic information in BibTeX format.

The aim of the IntChron initiative is to make it easy for users to provide data (in the single JSON format with limited minimum requirements) as well as to access data and tools, while promoting robust chronologies including realistic estimates of uncertainties. It is hoped that this will help to bring the chronological research communities to a point where data access is as easy as it is in some other fields. This is particularly important for Early Career Researchers and for those seeking to use large datasets in novel ways.

Protected areas are central to global efforts to prevent species extinctions, with many countries investing heavily in their establishment. Yet the designation of protected areas alone can only abate certain threats to biodiversity. Targeted management within protected areas is often required to achieve fully effective conservation within their boundaries. It remains unclear what combination of protected area designation and management is needed to remove the suite of processes that imperil species. Here, using Australia as a case study, we use a dataset on the pressures facing threatened species to determine the role of protected areas and management in conserving imperilled species. We found that protected areas that are not resourced for threat management could remove one or more threats to 1,185 (76%) species and all threats to very few (n = 51, 3%) species. In contrast, a protected area network that is adequately resourced to manage threatening processes within their boundary could remove one or more threats to almost all species (n = 1,551; c. 100%) and all threats to almost half (n = 740, 48%). However, 815 (52%) species face one or more threats that require coordinated conservation actions that protected areas alone could not remove. This research shows that investing in the continued expansion of Australia's protected area network without providing adequate funding for threat management within and beyond the existing protected area network will benefit few threatened species. These findings highlight that as the international community expands the global protected area network in accordance with the 2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, a greater emphasis on the effectiveness of threat management is needed.

To that small band of faithful followers who are devoted to the unification of private international law, October 9 is a day to be commemorated with fetes and galas replete with jest and jollity. On that splendid day in 1986, the Senate of the United States by a vote of 98-0 gave its advice and consent to the ratification of four private law treaties:

We now inhabit what cultural critics are increasingly calling the ‘postmodern’ age. I propose to explore here some of the implications of the advent of post-modernism for our understanding of the status of images and imaging. Indeed, this question is of added relevance when one considers that post-modern culture is frequently referred to as a ‘civilization of the image’ (a phrase first used by Roland Barthes).

The International Law Commission celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of its first session on May 27, 1974—a little behind the historical course of events, for the first session had actually opened on April 12, 1949. As was to be expected, the occasion called forth almost a floodtide of oratory recounting the achievements of the Commission in the codification of international law.

At its Twenty-Fifth Session the International Law Commission determined to allot some of its limited time to each of the active subjects on its agenda. The decision was the child of necessity. The Draft Articles on the Representation of States in Their Relations with International Organizations had taken up most of the Commissions sessions in 1969, 1970, and 1971, and the Twenty-Fourth Session in 1972 had, under forced draft, produced the draft articles on the Succession of States to Treaties and on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Diplomatic Agents and Other Internationally Protected Persons. The inevitable byproduct was a mounting pressure, both within the Commission and from the General Assembly, for intensive examination of the draft articles and commentaries on State Responsibility, Succession of States in Matters Other Than Treaties, the Most-Favored-Nation Clause, and the Report on Treaties Concluded Between States and International Organizations.