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The effects of flower supplementation on pollinators and pollination along an urbanisation gradient
Get PDFSocietal Impact Statement
Enhancing urban greenspaces for pollinator communities by planting flower patches is increasingly common, but their efficacy for different groups of insects (bees, hoverflies and moths) is unclear. Our city-scale experiment demonstrated that the effect of adding flower patches on pollinators is complex, and direct benefits to specific insects are difficult to detect. However, adding flower patches increased pollination services, with an increase in seed set in a model horticultural crop, particularly in more urban areas. Flower patches are likely to benefit pollinator communities and, in turn, humans through pollination services, but further research needs to disentangle the multi-level mechanisms driving variation in pollination and pollinators to improve the ecological and societal benefit provided by this management intervention.
Summary
The addition of flower patches in human-modified ecosystems is a common practice to mitigate pollinator declines and boost pollination. However, the benefits of these additions for both pollinator communities and pollination services are rarely tested together, especially in urban environments.
In a city-scale experiment, we added floral resources to urban allotments and monitored the effects on communities of bees, hoverflies and moths, and tested for improved seed set in a model crop (tomato, Solanum lycopersicum).
The addition of flower patches had no detectable effect on allotment pollinator communities but led to a 25.3% increase in tomato seed set, providing evidence that flower patch augmentation can improve urban pollination. Seed set was relatively higher in more urban sites, suggesting an “oasis effect” where pollinating insects are concentrated when greenspace resources are limited. This highlights the precarity of pollination services in highly urban areas.
Our results suggest that planting flower patches can positively affect pollination services in urban areas; however, the mechanisms remain unclear. Although we did not detect strong effects on pollinator communities when we added flower patches, differences in visitation networks between major pollinator taxa suggest that flower patch addition is likely to benefit some, but not all, insects, and further research is needed to assess the suitability of current flower seed mixes for non-bee taxa. Overall, adding floral resources to urban systems may play an important role in supporting pollination but highlights the complexity of identifying the specific drivers and taxa underpinning this ecosystem service
A critical comparison of Pb-loaded organosilica and ion-exchange resins, with bispicolylamine ligands, for adsorption of iodide: evidence of a ‘matrix effect’ on uptake properties
Get PDFIon-exchange resins currently rely upon petrochemicals for their manufacture. Alternative materials are under consideration to create adsorbents for selective removal of ions from water. However, there has been little investigation of the impact on these adsorbent chemistries on the resulting fundamental adsorption behaviour. Presented here is an investigative comparison of metal-loaded polymeric and silica-based adsorbents for the remit of selective radioiodine (in the form of iodide) capture, using lead ions, chelated by bispicolylamine (BPA) ligands to create iodide affinity. The results indicate marked differences in uptake behaviour between the two materials. The ion-exchange resin (M4195-Pb) displayed more thermodynamically-favourable iodide capture, with a calculated uptake of 338 ± 12 mg g−1, and retained some selectivity in the presence of acid, and 10 M equivalents of nitrate and molybdate. The silica had much lower capacity of 46.5 ± 7.6 mg g−1, but adsorbed extremely rapidly, reaching near capacity in <1 min. Generally, the binding of both Pb2+ and iodide were significantly destabilised by the silica matrix, which was attributed primarily to a H-bonding interaction between the BPA ligand and the adsorbent surface. It did however, result in generally better thermal stability of the bound iodide. This appears to be the first report of this nature into this ‘matrix effect’ phenomenon and demonstrates that great care is required in the future design of ion-exchange and adsorption media using alternate support chemistries
Cognitive analytic therapy‐guided self‐help for depression: a mixed methods evaluation
Get PDFObjectives
To evaluate cognitive analytic therapy-guided self-help (CAT-GSH) for depression in terms of outcomes and acceptability.
Design
A parallel mixed methods case series with session-by-session outcome measurement supplemented by patient and staff interviewing.
Methods
Four psychological well-being practitioners (PWPs) delivered CAT-GSH to N = 11 patients in an NHS talking therapies service, and these patients were followed up at 1 month. Acceptability of CAT-GSH was assessed via treatment refusal and dropout rates, sessional attendance and qualitative interviewing of PWPs and patients. Outcomes were assessed by comparing group means at screening, termination and follow-up on sessional measures, calculating the case-by-case recovery rate and benchmarking against relevant research.
Results
All 11 patients offered CAT-GSH accepted; one patient dropped out, all completers attended the full 6 sessions, and 7/10 were in reliable recovery at follow-up. Treatment gains were maintained over the follow-up period, and outcomes appeared equivalent when benchmarked against the evidence base. Patients found CAT-GSH to be a mostly acceptable intervention, and this was due to mood improvements, better recognition skills and implementation of ‘exits’. CAT-GSH improved the diversity of the treatment offer for PWPs and provided professional development opportunities.
Conclusions
CAT-GSH holds promise as a low-intensity treatment for depression, but clearly more controlled research is needed
Team communication actions: Beyond the dichotomy of face-to-face versus virtual interactions in teams
Get PDFIn this article, we introduce the novel concept of team communication actions, which reflects the actions that team members perform over communication media, shaping the way they interact with each other, such as using written messages or involving multiple participants. This new concept offers a more fine-grained and nuanced understanding of the use of communication media within teams. Modern teams interact through multiple media, combining information and communication technologies (ICTs) with face-to-face interactions. However, the study of ICTs is often associated with teams that exhibit some level of virtuality, overlooking the extensive use of ICTs by all kinds of teams. Additionally, this research has often adopted a dichotomous perspective of ICTs versus face-to-face interactions, grouping all ICTs together and ignoring their unique capabilities. The idea of team communication actions allows these limitations to be addressed by integrating the ideas of relevant computer-mediated communication theories, such as Media Synchronicity Theory and non-deterministic theories of technology, with the teams literature. To achieve this, we also present a list of eight different communication actions and analyse how these can impact several teamwork processes
Towards automated materials analysis: multi-scale spatio-spectral approach for registering secondary electron hyperspectral images
No full textSecondary electron hyperspectral imaging (SEHI) is an emerging technique that allows experimental investigation of the chemical properties of material surfaces at the nanoscale. Despite advancements in automated image registration, registering SEHI images across different spatial scales remains a challenging task and it is still typically performed manually in practice. Many image registration approaches primarily focus on spatial features and they do not capture the rich spectral information in SEHI, often leading to inadequate registration. To fill in this gap, we propose a multi-scale spatio-spectral approach based on the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) to automate SEHI image registration. The main novelty of this work lies in the proposed multi-scale SIFT spatio-spectral descriptors that effectively integrate both SIFT spatial descriptor and differentiate the spectral signal profile as a function of electron energy. A new spatio-spectral descriptor matching algorithm is designed, achieving accurate image registration, with an accuracy error of less than 0.44 pixels. Results over real SEHI datasets how that the proposed approach performs better than other state of-the-art registration methods. Two performance metrics are used for evaluation, including normalized cross correlation (NCC) for examining spatial alignment and cosine similarity regarding spectral alignment. The results show that our proposed approach achieves good accuracy, with an NCC of above 82%, and a cosine similarity of over 93%. This work offers a promising solution for automated multi-scale image registration, which is an essential step for SEHI analysis tasks for material surface chemical composition and accelerating materials discovery
Exploring the Catalytic Conversion of Pyrolytic Wax Residue: Kinetics and Co-Pyrolysis
Get PDFThis study explores the valorization of pyrolysis waxy residue (PWR), a semi-solid byproduct remaining after the distillation of lighter fractions from paper and plastic waste derived pyrolysis oil, with the aim of optimizing hydrocarbon production. Three strategies were assessed: (1) co-pyrolysis of PWR with sawdust (SD) at varying ratios, (2) catalytic pyrolysis using molecular sieves (MS) and ZSM-5 catalysts, and (3) catalytic co-pyrolysis combining PWR, SD, and catalysts. Thermal decomposition analysis of the PWR revealed maximum volatile release, with complete conversion achieved at 550 °C. Kinetic parameters were estimated using Coats Redfern method and the activation energy was found in the range of 31.3 – 38.9 mol‾¹ (avg: 35.3 mol‾¹). Non catalytic fixed-bed co-pyrolysis at the optimum temperature of 550 ˚C showed a 3:1 PWR-to-SD ratio maximizing the hydrocarbon content (79.0 %) but resulted in low oil yields of (∼13 %,). In contrast, catalytic pyrolysis of PWR with MS resulted in a significantly higher hydrocarbon yield with negligible phenolic compounds, while ZSM-5 enhanced the gas production to 32.5 % but slightly reduced hydrocarbon yield to 65.9 %. Catalytic co-pyrolysis using MS provided higher oil yields of ∼40 % with hydrocarbon content at 71.0 %. Despite the challenge of converting long-chain hydrocarbons into oily sludge, the findings highlight the potential for complete conversion and maximized liquid yields through catalysts and co-pyrolysis with biomass mixtures
Wood ants on the edge:How do the characteristics of linear edges effect the population dynamics of an edge specialist?
Get PDFLandscape structure modulates species dispersal by presenting barriers or opportunities. Slow-dispersing edge specialists, e.g. the northern hairy wood ant (Formica lugubris), are likely to be most affected by topography and land management practices, because they require adjacent contrasting habitats, e.g. to access both food and sunlight. In managed forests, canopy gaps are often linear and anthropogenic, such as paths, firebreaks, and roads (collectively ‘rides’), and their orientation determines shade distribution. Using data spanning 10 years, we ask how ride orientation and width affect the distribution and dispersal of three F. lugubris populations in the North York Moors, UK. Ride orientation clearly affected nest abundance, with a higher nest density on rides oriented north-south (N-S) or east-west (E-W) (cardinal directions) than on those oriented NE-SW or NW-SE (intercardinal directions). Conforming to predictions based on sunlight availability, N-S oriented rides were occupied more symmetrically than E-W ones, where the north side was used predominantly. Nests were generally larger on narrower rides. Ride orientation also clearly affected dispersal: wood ants dispersed c15 m/year along rides oriented in cardinal directions, compared with only c5 m/year on rides oriented intercardinally. Our results show that ride characteristics (width, orientation), resulting directly from forestry practices, influence the distribution and dispersal of an ecosystem engineer woodland species; this may also apply to other forest-edge specialists. As wood ants can suppress defoliating pests, these findings could benefit forest management; forest planners could encourage wood ant colonisation of plantation forest by ensuring linear features contribute to north-south and east-west connectivity
The role of human capital and Industry 4.0 in socio-technical dynamic capabilities for freight transport resilience
Get PDFThis study examines the role of socio-technical dynamic resources and capabilities in enhancing the resilience of freight transport firms. Focusing on unique characteristics of freight transport sector, this study considers human capital and Industry 4.0 as socio-technical resources whereas network integration and operations planning as socio-technical capabilities. A survey is conducted on freight transport managers in the UK and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to analyse the data. Our findings indicate that human capital and Industry 4.0 positively affect network integration and operations planning, which in turn enhance perceived resilience. Among two dynamic capabilities, network integration has a stronger impact on resilience than operations planning. Mediation analysis shows technical resources and capabilities partially enhance the impact of social resources and capabilities in SEM model. Our results suggest that socio resources and capabilities are at least as important as technical ones for building resilience in the freight sector. Practical and policy implications in our study suggest that freight transport firms and policy makers should invest and support skill-building initiatives, digital tools, supply chain analytics and collaboration platforms to increase freight transport resilience
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