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Negligent Combatants? Liability for negligent homicide during armed conflict: An Australian perspective
No full textThis thesis seeks to establish whether ADF members can be liable for criminally negligent homicide during armed conflict. It argues that combatants can owe a duty of care during combat, enforceable under Australian discipline law.
Wherever the ADF operates, it takes with it its own disciplinary code: the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 (Cth) (DFDA). The DFDA is a statutory code to provide the means to maintain good order and discipline in the ADF. While the DFDA incorporates many aspects of the criminal law, it operates concurrently with, but separate to, the criminal law.
The primary legal regime that applies to the ADF during an armed conflict is discipline law, not international law or domestic war crimes legislation. Only discipline law covers the field of potential offending on the battlefield, such as friendly fire incidents.
Ordinarily, the criminal law prohibits the use of lethal force. Given war is such an important Executive function, there must be Australian law that permits the use of, and limits on, lethal force by combatants. If criminal negligence is to apply to ADF members during armed conflict, then it must occur within this paradigm.
There must be a domestic law of armed conflict (DLOAC) in Australia. DLOAC is comprised of three parts: the war prerogative; criminal law; and international law that has been incorporated into Australian law. DLOAC provides the authority for, and limits on, the use of force by ADF members in armed conflict.
There are two negligent homicide offences in the DFDA: dangerous conduct with negligence as to consequences; and manslaughter by criminal negligence. Both offences use the same test for criminal negligence. A person is negligent if their conduct involves:
(a) such a great falling short of the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in the circumstances; and
(b) such a high risk that the physical element exists or will exist;
that the conduct merits criminal punishment.
For manslaughter by criminal negligence, there must also be a duty of care. For dangerous conduct with negligence as to consequences, there must be a breach of the standard of care.
Manslaughter by criminal negligence requires that a duty of care at law exist between the accused and deceased. For civil negligence, combatants involved in actual combat do not owe a duty of care to anyone. However, the policy considerations that lead to this conclusion are not the same as those for criminal or disciplinary law. Tortious negligence is concerned with compensation, and criminal law the protection of society and imposition of punishment. The purpose of discipline law is to maintain good order and discipline in the ADF in order to enhance capability. As these public policy considerations are aimed at achieving different outcomes, no duty of care arising in one area of law does not necessarily mean there will similarly be no duty of care in another area of law .
If DLOAC can authorise the use of force by ADF members, it can also, in appropriate circumstances, create a duty of care to civilians, protected persons and friendly forces
RNA surveillance and the initial steps of RNA biogenesis
No full textThe human genome is pervasively transcribed by RNA polymerases, yet only a small portion encodes proteins. Many transcripts are non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including cryptic unstable transcripts (CUTs), which are rapidly degraded by nuclear RNA surveillance. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the conserved 11-subunit MTREC complex targets CUTs to the nuclear exosome for degradation, but how MTREC distinguishes CUTs from mRNAs remains unclear.
A key submodule is the conserved CBCA complex, consisting of the cap-binding proteins Cbc1 and Cbc2, and Arsenite-resistance protein 2 (Ars2). CBCA binds the 5' cap of nearly all RNAs. Ars2 serves as the bridge between CBCA and the scaffold protein Red1, potentially linking all capped RNAs to MTREC. Properly processed mature mRNAs escape MTREC-mediated degradation, but the mechanism underlying this selectivity is not understood. Our aim was to investigate how Ars2 contributes to this process. To test the importance of Red1-Ars2 interaction, we introduced point mutations and short deletions in Red1 that disrupt its association with Ars2, impairing MTREC recruitment. Biochemical assays confirmed the loss of interaction between Ars2 and Red1, while RNA-seq revealed that under nitrogen starvation, but not normal growth conditions, short CUTs accumulate in these mutants. This indicates that the intact Ars2-CBCA module is required for efficient recognition and degradation of CUTs under stress. The phenotypes, however, were mild, suggesting redundancy with other nuclear exosome cofactors, potentially analogous to the mammalian NEXT complex.
Additional biochemical data further suggest a length-dependent model of substrate selection. Short RNAs are targeted to the MTREC/exosome pathway via the CBCA subcomplex, unless protected by transcript-specific rescue factors such as FLASH (histone mRNAs) or PHAX (snRNAs). In contrast, longer RNAs, such as mRNAs, appear to evade degradation because when the RNA export factor Mlo3 is recruited to the CBC complex, it cannot coexist with Ars2. We therefore propose that Ars2 initially associates broadly with all nascent RNA Pol II transcripts, but transcript fate diverges according to length: short RNAs are retained and degraded by Ars2-MTREC mediated exosome degradation, whereas long RNAs are saved through Mlo3-mediated displacement of Ars2 and subsequent RNA export.
The MTREC complex also plays an important role, in coordination with the CNM (Ctr1-Nrl1-Mtl1) and WGG (Wdr83-Gpl1-Gih35) complexes, in recognising and degrading mRNAs that activate quality control mechanisms during splicing. Through machine learning, RNA-seq, RNA-IP, structural analyses, and mass spectrometry, we show that CNM and WGG recognise stalled spliceosomes containing pre-mRNAs with suboptimal 5' splice sites. We further reveal that WGG maintains these spliceosomes in a catalytically dormant state and recruits CNM and disassembly factors to form a spliceosome intermediate primed for discard, termed the Bd complex. Our results also demonstrate that CNM facilitates transfer of these aberrant transcripts to MTREC for exosomal degradation, with Ctr1-Prp43 interactions contributing to spliceosome disassembly. Together, these results uncover a coordinated surveillance network that selectively eliminates defective RNAs, highlighting a multi-layered strategy for preserving transcriptome fidelity. Defects in such pathways could contribute to the accumulation of aberrant RNAs in diseases such as cancer or neurodegeneration, highlighting the broader relevance of RNA quality control mechanisms
Ocean processes influencing free floating ice melting rates
No full textThe melting of marine-terminating ice shelves, glaciers, and icebergs into the polar oceans is an issue of significant importance for Earth's climate system. Accelerated mass loss from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, driven by anthropogenic climate change, has spurred the development of ice-ocean models to predict future impacts of their decline. However, accurately modelling ice melting in large-scale ice-ocean frameworks is challenging due to the scarcity of precise data-based parameterisations. A major obstacle is the intricate interaction between submarine ice and seawater caused by complex fluid dynamics. Particularly, there is a lack of research on how ocean stratification, submarine wave-induced oscillations, and internal waves, which are prevalent phenomena in polar areas, impact melting rates. This thesis explores these interactions through simplified laboratory experiments.
In the second chapter, we investigate the melting response of a vertical wall of ice to salt stratified environments at relatively warm ambient temperatures and near-fresh salinities. Under these conditions, the melting of the ice is characterised by heterogeneity and is mainly influenced by double-diffusive convection along with buoyancy-driven flows in both the surrounding environment and the meltwater plumes. This heterogeneity leads to regular patterns called scallops, shaped by competing flows, and their vertical wavelengths determined by the theoretically suggested stratification lengthscale. Even in warm, fresh conditions, average ice melting rates are governed by temperature-dependent power laws, consistent with previous research, and are slower than those in an unstratified environment. Our findings have implications for the inclusion of stratification in iceberg and vertical glacier sidewall melting parameterisations.
In the third chapter, we investigate the melting response of ice in harmonic vertical motion in unstratified environments under geophysically relevant conditions. It is demonstrated that when oscillatory motion surpasses a certain speed, it creates a dynamically rich environment around the ice, characterised by vortices and turbulence overtaking naturally convecting meltwater plumes. The melting rate is linked to this motion through a critical velocity, determined by the meltwater plume velocity under quiescent conditions; beyond this threshold, the melting follows a power law in relation to the oscillation velocity, consistent with steady-flow models. Additionally, above a certain oscillation frequency, surface scallops appear that differ from those in stratified environments. These insights are vital for improving iceberg models, especially in capturing the effects of underwater ocean swell and waves on sidewall melting.
In the fourth chapter, we expand on both our previous investigations with melting ice in stratified environments along with the introduction of internal wavefield forcing. Integrating an internal wavefield creates a complex, spatially varying dynamic environment near the ice face, distinguished by oscillating double-diffusive layers that vary throughout the fluid column according to the internal wave dispersion relation. Under the conditions studied, melting rates are affected by the relative speed of the wave near the ice. Higher frequency waves with increased velocities result in greater average melting rates. Our findings offer significant insight into the melting dynamics that occurs when internal waves interact with ice shelves, glaciers, and large tabular icebergs.
These laboratory experiments reveal key insights into the complicated dynamics of the ice-fluid interface and introduce refined parameterisations for future ice-ocean models. Although some important aspects of real ocean settings are not included, these experiments deliver new and significant data sets that are beneficial for testing numerical models and comparing with oceanographic data
Fibred models of dual-context type theory and Kripke-Joyal forcing
No full textThe algebraic structures that feature in constructive, presheaf-based models of homotopy type theory have been studied in two ways: using the diagrammatic reasoning of category theory, and by reasoning with judgements in the internal type theory. These approaches are connected by the standard semantics for extensional type theory in a presheaf category E, and more recently, have been explicitly related using a generalisation of Kripke-Joyal forcing semantics. An exception is the universal uniform fibration, a type-theoretic construction that requires the modal operator of crisp type theory, a fragment of Shulman's spatial type theory. Since this type theory is not internal to E, the existing methods of relating the category-theoretic and type-theoretic descriptions do not immediately apply.
Towards precisely relating these two constructions of the universal uniform fibration, we begin by identifying the categories for which crisp type theory serves as an internal language. We develop a fibred version of Awodey's natural models to capture the language's dual-context structure of modal and non-modal variables. The intended model of crisp type theory is a specific presheaf topos with an idempotent comonad; we show that any category C with an idempotent comonad admits a fibred natural model of dual-context type theory. To move to a style of semantics more convenient for later applications, we show that if C has a classifier of a stable class of maps, it admits a fibred version of a category with a classified stable class of maps that models the dual-context structure.
Next, we specialise to the intended model arising from a presheaf category E with a particular idempotent comonad. We specify how this determines a fibred category with a classified stable class of maps and show that this language validates rules of crisp type theory, notably those for crisp Pi-types. We develop Kripke-Joyal forcing semantics for this internal crisp type theory. Finally, we return to the motivating problem, using the understanding of crisp type theory as an internal language to precisely relate the category-theoretic and type-theoretic versions of the construction of a universal uniform fibration.
In addition to this main project, the thesis includes distinct work on the hyperdoctrine semantics of quantified modal logic. Lawvere hyperdoctrines give categorical semantics for intuitionistic predicate logic but are flexible enough to be applied to other logics and extended to higher-order systems. We return to Ghilardi's hyperdoctrine semantics for first-order modal logic and extend it in two directions--to weaker, non-normal modal logics and to higher-order modal logics. We also relate S4 modal hyperdoctrines to intuitionistic hyperdoctrines via a hyperdoctrinal version of the Godel-McKinsey-Tarski translation
Vision Language Model Guided Zero-shot Classification
No full textAmong various core tasks in Computer Vision, 2D image and 3D object classification are fundamental tasks which serve as the foundation for numerous applications including scene understanding, robotics and autonomous navigation. Vision Language Model (VLMs) are deep learning architectures designed to process and understand both visual and textual information simultaneously. This thesis takes a close look at Vision-Language Models in classification tasks, with a particular emphasis on zero-shot settings in both 2D and 3D scenarios. We provide a comprehensive overview of Vision-Language Models, focusing on their pretraining datasets, architectural components, learning strategies, and representative models. By comparing with supervised 2D approaches including shell learning along with conventional 3D classification methods, in-depth experiments and analysis have been conducted from various perspectives, including classification performance, semantic clustering and computational efficiency
Lost Landscapes and Stolen Times: Dispossession, Indigeneity, and Extr-'activism' in the Mining Tracts in Odisha, India
No full textThis thesis demonstrates how Indigenous epistemologies fundamentally reconceptualise the framing of injustice and collective action in anti-mining resistance. Drawing on multisited ethnographic research conducted in Odisha, Eastern India, this study reveals how framing in movements challenges dominant assumptions in Western theories of natural resource conflict. Through this research, I contribute to social movement theory, Indigenous methodologies, and the mining-resistance literature in general, and within the particular context of India. At the heart of this research is the conceptualisation of jal (water), jangle (forest), jameen (land) as a master frame that operates simultaneously across material, spiritual, and temporal domains. To further this discussion, I build upon the analytical conceptualisation of Indigenous indigeneity, claimed indigeneity, and ascribed indigeneity, and extend it to social movement theory, and, in particular, to framing theory, by illustrating how Indigenous actors strategically navigate overlapping identities to assert multidimensional justice claims. This thesis shows that extractive disruption leads to the temporal dispossession and systematic erosion of Indigenous communities' capacity to envision and sustain intergenerational futures. The thesis, therefore, also contributes to critiques of post-material assumptions in 'New' social movement theory by showing that Indigenous resistance integrates both material survival and cultural continuity. Within this framework, injustice is not a fixed category but rather a contested, evolving concept shaped by intersectional identities and situated lifeworlds. Writing from my positionality as a Santal Indigenous scholar, I employ a decolonising ethnographic methodology grounded in the principles of respect, reciprocity, relevance, and reverence. By combining talking circles and conversational methods with traditional Western ethnographic tools, this thesis shows how Indigenous research paradigms can generate theoretical insights while advancing the knowledge-making process. Empirically, the findings in this thesis indicate that Indigenous resistance is both temporally dynamic and contextually adaptive. In Koraput, communities mobilise through grassroots organisations such as Maliparbat Surakhya Samiti (MPSS), framing their claims through sacred, procedural, recognition, and distributive narratives against bauxite extraction. Conversely, in Keonjhar, with a longer history of iron ore mining, communities have shifted towards negotiated benefit-sharing and procedural claims. These patterns underscore how Indigenous in/justice framing is recalibrated over time in response to shifting threats, opportunities, and governance structures. A feminist political ecology (FPE) lens further reveals how Indigenous women articulate injustice by prioritising intergenerational responsibilities and relational ethics. FPE perspective challenges masculinist assumptions in resistance narratives and the essentialist framing of women's environmental roles. Furthermore, I propose moolnivasi as an emergent hybrid category of indigeneity that fosters solidarities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups through shared experiences of temporal dispossession, thereby expanding understandings of political alliance building while affirming cultural specificity. Situated at the intersection of anthropology of development and public policy, this thesis demonstrates that contemporary Indigenous Peoples' movements cannot be fully understood without considering the simultaneity of cultural preservation and political mobilisation, the strategic fluidity of indigeneity, and the entanglement of local ontologies with legal-constitutional structures
Haemostatic defects in B-cell malignancies
No full textOptimal platelet, coagulation and vascular bed functions are crucial for haemostasis, with impairments resulting in bleeding and thrombosis. Waldenstrom Macroglobulinaemia (WM) is a rare lymphoma, characterised by the myeloid differentiation primary response (MYD)88L265P mutation in 92% of patients. Clinical features include bone marrow (BM) infiltration and immunoglobulin (Ig)M paraprotein hypersecretion by malignant lymphoplasmacytoid B cells, and hyperviscosity and bleeding symptoms. WM is treated with Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKis), which can exacerbate bleeding. Haemostatic functions are understudied in WM. This thesis aimed to evaluate platelet and coagulation functions in untreated (n=13) and BTKi-treated (n=5) WM patients, compared to healthy donors (HDs, n=15). Distinct phenotypes were identified using multivariate analyses. The effects of IgM paraprotein on haemostasis and the presence of MYD88L265P in the platelet-producing megakaryocytes (MKs) were also assessed. Untreated WM patients displayed mildly reduced platelet counts (151+/-79x109/L), which correlated with 3.8-fold increased thrombopoietin (TPO) levels. Platelets from untreated but not BTKi-treated WM patients displayed reduced reticulation and desialylation, possibly indicating deranged age and lifespan. These platelets displayed normal levels of adheso-signalling surface receptors and responses to physiological agonists, however contributions to the acceleration of thrombin generation were decreased by 74% relative to HD platelets. Despite untreated WM patients being stable and not displaying bleeding symptoms, multivariate analyses distinguished their platelet phenotypes from HDs with relative accuracy, based on reduced platelet counts, reticulation and fibrinogen binding to unstimulated platelets, and elevated TPO levels. These analyses also accurately distinguished BTKi-treated from untreated WM patient platelets based on reduced glycoprotein (GP)VI-mediated platelet activation response and GPVI, CD9 and soluble GPVI levels. WM patient plasma samples displayed delayed and reduced thrombin generation compared to HDs. Coagulation factor contributions to thrombus amplitude were increased in WM patient whole blood samples, possibly indicating increased fibrinogen contribution. Multivariate analyses accurately distinguished coagulation phenotypes in WM patients with cardiovascular comorbidities from those without, based on accelerated and increased thrombin generation measurements. IgM paraprotein was enriched from WM plasma to a purity of 83%. When included in platelet assays, 50-60 mg/mL IgM (equivalent to levels observed in hyperviscosity patients) reduced HD platelet adhesion, spreading and aggregatory responses to physiological agonists. IgM bound to activated platelets, possibly electrostatically. IgM reduced plasma thrombin generation potential by 6%. Haematopoietic cells were sorted from WM patient BM aspirates. MYD88L265P was identified in isolated B cells in 67% (6/9) patients, and intriguingly, also in 50% (3/6) lymphoid progenitors, 33% (2/6) stem cells and 20% (2/10) MKs. Platelets from a WM patient with MYD88L265P in the BM displayed 38% increased Toll-like receptor-mediated platelet activation, upstream of Myd88, compared to a WM patient without the mutation. This novel finding suggests that constitutively active Myd88L265P may be present in WM platelets and may alter inflammatory signalling responses to relevant pathogens. This is the first study to investigate haemostasis in a WM cohort of this size, using modern, sensitive, research techniques. This work identified platelet and coagulation defects in stable, well-managed WM patients, which were exacerbated by BTKi therapy or inclusion of IgM paraprotein. These defects may underpin bleeding in symptomatic WM patients. Monitoring of platelet and coagulation properties using multivariate analyses may help stratify patients for bleeding risk and personalise treatments accordingly
Unoriented 3D Point Cloud Reconstruction by Optimising Differential Fields
No full textReconstructing 3D objects from sensor data, such as point clouds, is a fundamental problem in computer vision and graphics, with applications in augmented and virtual reality, robotics, medical imaging, and industrial inspection. While numerous techniques exist, implicit field-based methods have gained significant traction due to their flexibility and ability to model complex shapes. Recent advances in differentiable fields, particularly fields modelled by neural networks, have further improved reconstruction quality by leveraging deep learning and gradient-based optimisation.
This thesis focuses on the challenging task of surface reconstruction of watertight shapes, characterised by distinct interior and exterior regions, from unoriented point clouds, which do not have normals. Without orientation information, determining a consistent inside-outside partitioning becomes difficult, and so optimisers typically find poor local optima. We address this issue through four major contributions. The first three contributions relate to improving neural signed distance function (SDF) approaches for unoriented surface reconstruction. First, we propose a divergence-based regularisation with an annealing schedule to encourage smooth and reliable gradient orientations, guiding optimisation toward more favourable minima. Second, we introduce a novel energy function over volume partitions for discrete surface reconstruction, optimised via a move-making algorithm. This discrete solution is then used to inform the neural SDF, improving coarse orientation and reducing the risk of poor local minima. Third, we develop a homotopy-based optimisation strategy that incrementally deforms an initially simple problem into the full reconstruction task, stabilising the optimisation path and preventing premature convergence to suboptimal solutions. In our final contribution, we explore the recent improvements for the task with generalised winding number optimisation, and analyse their benefits over neural SDFs. We then improve upon the existing approximation of winding numbers for point clouds, deriving a better approximation and showing that this improves two distinct approaches for winding number optimisation.
Beyond surface reconstruction, we further contribute to the broader study of implicit neural representations (INRs), a class of neural networks that includes neural SDFs. Specifically, we improve the trade-off between representation capacity and parameter size using a mixture-of-experts framework, allowing specialised expert regions to be optimised during reconstruction. Additionally, we introduce a general initialisation strategy that applies to any activation function, unifying and improving upon existing initialisation methods. We demonstrate that this is particularly valuable for INRs, where non-standard activation functions with vastly different properties are commonly used.
These contributions enhance the robustness and efficiency of differentiable field-based surface reconstruction, improving both implicit neural representations and optimisation techniques. Our findings provide new insights into overcoming the challenges of unoriented reconstruction and contribute to the broader field of 3D computer vision
Market-Efficient and Robust Integration of DER in Unbalanced Distribution Systems
No full textUptake of distributed energy resources (DER) is accelerating across the globe. There is growing need for coordination frameworks to ensure high volumes of DER can participate effectively in existing market structures at the transmission-scale, while also satisfying technical constraints at the distribution-scale. Dynamic operating envelopes (DOE) have emerged as the leading approach in Australia for enabling effective integration of DER into power systems.
Calculating dynamic operating envelopes in a manner that enables effective DER participation while providing robust guarantees of network-feasible outcomes is a complex computational task. Sources of complexity include non-linear and non-convex formulations of power flow and network operational constraints, the uncertainty of DER dispatch within envelopes due to their flexibility, and the balancing of various objectives (including efficient system operation, maximising assigned flexible capacity and ensuring fair outcomes) arising from the multitude of actors whose interests may not align. As the technical readiness level of dynamic operating envelope frameworks approach wide-spread deployment in industry, there are several aspects to their design which warrant further consideration by the research community. In this thesis we delve into three aspects.
We first develop an operating envelope optimisation framework that maximises the market efficiency of expected wholesale market outcomes, as opposed to existing methods that maximise total import and export capacity or metrics of fairness. Our proposed formulation incorporates projections of wholesale market prices in energy and reserve markets, constituting a novel form of TSO-DSO coordination in envelope calculation. Our objective function maximises expectations of producer and consumer surplus as defined in microeconomics, effectively prioritising the expected value-generating potential of DER, across a range of potential market price outcomes. As a result, our framework navigates a trade-off between allocating capacity to efficient bidders and maximising total allocated capacity as a function of evolving TSO needs. We employ a stochastic programming formulation to handle price uncertainty, demonstrating robust performance even during periods of significant price volatility.
Our second contribution addresses feasibility considerations in unbalanced three-phase networks by proposing a completion of voltage constraints. We develop a linearised proxy for voltage unbalance factor by applying first-order Taylor series expansion to the Line Voltage Unbalance Rate (LVUR) with linearised phase angle recovery. This approach enables efficient large-scale calculations despite introducing conservatism due to the LVUR approximation and the need to ensure constraint satisfaction under improbable dispatch scenarios.
Our final contribution mitigates the conservatism of robust DOE approaches through aggregator coordination. Rather than calculating independent operating envelopes, we develop an approach to partition high-dimensional representations of unused network capacity amongst aggregators using robust polytopic projection. This framework provides aggregators with scalar functions to calculate DER-level envelopes as a function of feeder-scale dispatch outcomes. Results show this approach can significantly increase the aggregate flexible allocations of import and export capacity compared to an alternative robust DOE approach in literature. This is achieved by steering aggregators away from dispatch outcomes that would cause significant levels of voltage unbalance in the network, thereby mitigating the risk of constraint violations caused or exacerbated by phase couplings through mutual impedance.
The methods developed in this thesis provide new avenues for distribution system operators to enhance the effectiveness of DER integration, including into wholesale markets, while ensuring safe operation of distribution networks
New Zealand deep-sea black coral (Antipatharia) age and growth rates: Insights into early life growth patterns
No full textBlack corals (Order Antipatharia) are a diverse group found worldwide and in high abundance around Aotearoa New Zealand where their spatial distribution extends from coastal regions to the deep sea. They provide biologically important habitats and host various benthic invertebrate organisms. There is concern however, that black corals are under threat from anthropogenic activities such as mining and bottom fishing as well as from environmental changes in temperature and dissolved oxygen concentrations. Understanding the potential for black corals to recover after disturbance requires knowledge of their longevity and growth rates. Fortunately, the proteinaceous skeletons of black corals can be radiometrically dated to high precision providing age and growth data to help inform impacts. Ten black corals from two genera (Antipathella and Leiopathes) were selected from the invertebrate collection at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and radiometrically dated using radiocarbon and uranium-thorium disequilibrium (U-Th) techniques. Coral lifespans ranged from 71 years (Antipathella fiordensis) up to 2221 years (Antipatharia), and skeletons show radial growth rates ranging from 2.6 (Leiopathes sp.) – 126.7 μm/yr (A. fiordensis). High-resolution age-depth models (1.7–42.7 years/sample) were generated from U-Th age measurements leading to observations of an early life radial growth rate pattern that could provide further insights for black coral physiology. This pattern is comprised of a large growth slump after colony birth followed by a triple peak pattern which contained the maximum growth rate. These data advance our knowledge of longevity for these corals, the variability in ages and growth rates between species and regions, and their vulnerability to physical disturbances due to slow recovery rates.Peer-reviewe