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The biotic and abiotic drivers of timing of breeding and the consequences of breeding early in changing world
Get PDFThe decision of when to breed is an important determinant of individual fitness. However, despite a multitude of studies investigating the intraspecific relationship between timing of breeding and reproductive performance, less is known about why the strength of this relationship varies between species. Furthermore, environmental change has the potential to alter the relationship between lay date and fitness, but there is still a limited understanding of what mechanisms drive these differential responses to change environmental conditions. We propose that the potential effects of environmental change on the relationship between timing of breeding and fitness are dependent on 2 primary factors: (1) the potential constraints imposed by breeding early and (2) the drivers of higher fitness of early breeders. We first summarize multiple hypotheses proposed to explain why breeding early, either based on absolute date or relative to conspecifics, increases fitness. We then summarize the factors that may constrain when individuals initiate breeding, including limits on the ability to advance their lay date or extend the length of their breeding season under favorable conditions. Understanding constraints on the timing of breeding allows for the identification of obligate (singlebrooded species that do not attempt to breed after a specific date) and facultative (predominantly multi-brooding species that have long breeding seasons) early breeding species that are likely differently affected by climate change. Finally, we propose a simple mathematical formula that incorporates the costs and benefits associated with early breeding to quantify how climate change could influence the benefits of early breeding and either mitigate or exacerbate the costs. Our cost-benefit approach provides a clear framework to predict how species may shift the timing of their breeding to maximize fitness in a changing worl
Visual to default network pathways: A double dissociation between semantic and spatial cognition
Get PDFProcessing pathways between sensory and default mode network (DMN) regions support recognition, navigation, and memory but their organisation is not well understood. We show that functional subdivisions of visual cortex and DMN sit at opposing ends of parallel streams of information processing that support visually-mediated semantic and spatial cognition, providing convergent evidence from univariate and multivariate task responses, intrinsic functional and structural connectivity. Participants learned virtual environments consisting of buildings populated with objects, drawn from either a single semantic category or multiple categories. Later, they made semantic and spatial context decisions about these objects and buildings during functional magnetic resonance imaging. A lateral ventral occipital to frontotemporal DMN pathway was primarily engaged by semantic judgements, while a medial visual to medial temporal DMN pathway supported spatial context judgements. These pathways had distinctive locations in functional connectivity space: the semantic pathway was both further from unimodal systems and more balanced between visual and auditory-motor regions compared with the spatial pathway. When semantic and spatial context information could be integrated (in buildings containing objects from a single category), regions at the intersection of these pathways responded, suggesting that parallel processing streams interact at multiple levels of the cortical hierarchy to produce coherent memory-guided cognition
Operational Research in the time of COVID-19: the ‘science for better’ or worse in the absence of hard data
Get PDFHow can policymakers and planners make informed decisions during a pandemic? What kind of (big) data are needed, and who and when is supposed to provide these? With the Operational Research community unable to get hold of reliable hard data – especially during the pandemic, the solutions promoted from analytics seem questionable. We may have to employ instead auxiliary data from social media and rapid market surveys
A Framework for Synthesizing Intervention Evidence from Multiple Sources Into a Single Certainty of Evidence Rating: Methodological Developments from a US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee
Get PDFBackgroundDespite research investment and a growing body of diverse evidence there has been no comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those in medicine and other public health fields.AimsThe National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened an ad hoc committee to develop and use methods for grading and synthesizing diverse type of evidence to create a single certainty of intervention-related evidence to support recommendations for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Research.MethodsA 13 step consensus building method was used. Experts were first canvassed in public meetings, and a comprehensive review of existing methods was undertaken. Although aspects of existing review methodologies and evidence grading systems were relevant, none adequately covered all requirements for this specific context. Starting with a desire to synthesize diverse sources of evidence not usually included in systematic reviews and using GRADE for assessing certainty and confidence in quantitative and qualitative evidence as the foundation, we developed a mixed-methods synthesis review and grading methodology that drew on (and in some cases adapted) those elements of existing frameworks and methods that were most applicable. Four topics were selected as test cases. The process was operationalized with a suite of method-specific reviews of diverse evidence types for each topic. Further consensus building was undertaken through stakeholder engagement and feedbackConclusionThe NASEM committee’s GRADE adaption for mixed-methods reviews will further evolve over time and has yet to be endorsed by the GRADE working grou
"Twoo Muche Vayne and Idle Chardge": The Precision of Inheritance in the 1601 Will of Bess of Hardwick
Get PDFIn 1601 Bess of Hardwick, the wealthiest woman in Elizabethan England (second only to the Queen herself), began her final will and testament. The precision with which Bess bequeathed her monetary and material wealth is striking: her executors and beneficiaries were left little room for interpretation and no excuse for error. This article explores the language and rhetoric of inheritance, alongside specific bequests of money, jewels, property, and clothing present in the will of Bess of Hardwick in order to understand the document as an autobiographical expression of personal and dynastic achievement, status, and ambition
The Role of Data Analytics within Operational Risk Management: A Systematic Review from the Financial Services and Energy Sectors
Get PDFOperational risks are increasingly prevalent and complex to manage in organisations, culminating in substantial financial and non-financial costs. Given the inefficiencies and biases of traditional manual, static and qualitative risk management practices, research has progressed to using data analytics to objectively and dynamically manage risks. However, the variety of operational risks, techniques and objectives researched is not well mapped across industries. This paper thoroughly reviews the emerging research area applying data analytics to operational risk management (ORM) within financial services (FS) and energy and natural resources (ENR). A systematic literature search resulted in 2,538 publications, from which detailed bibliometric and content analyses are performed on 191 studies of relevance. The literature is classified using a novel multi-layered framework, informing critical analyses of the analytics techniques and data employed. Five core themes emerge, relevant to practitioners, researchers, educators and students across any sector: risk identification, causal factors, risk quantification, risk prediction and risk decision-making. Generally, ENR studies focus on identifying causal factors and predicting specific incidents, whereas FS applications are more mature surrounding risk quantification. To conclude, the comprehensive review reveals areas where further research is needed to advance ORM within and beyond FS and ENR, in pursuit of improved decision-making
Beyond the tip of the seamount: Distinct megabenthic communities found beyond the charismatic summit sponge ground on an arctic seamount (Schulz Bank, Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge)
Get PDFOur understanding of the benthic communities on arctic seamounts and descriptions of such communities in habitat classification systems are limited. In recent years, Schulz Bank (73°52′N 7°30′E), a seamount on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR), has become well studied but the work has primarily focused on an arctic sponge ground at the summit. This has compounded a general assumption that the most biologically interesting community is on the summit alone. With the potential threat of deep-sea mining on nearby sites on AMOR, it is crucial to form a baseline understanding of the benthic megafaunal communities not only on the summit, but on the slopes and base of the seamount as well. Using video footage collected by a remotely operated vehicle in 2017 and 2018 to survey the seamount from 2700 to 580 m depth, several distinct megafauna communities on Schulz Bank were identified. Specifically, five biotopes, two of which were dominated by large structure-forming sponges, appeared to follow a depth gradient and change with the type of substrata present. The sponge-dominated communities on the summit and lower slope had the highest average community densities and number of morphotaxa per image compared to the upper slope and seamount base communities. Most notably, sponge-dominated bedrock walls on the lower slopes challenge the assumption that the summit is the most dense and diverse community on Schulz Bank. The results from this study lay the foundation for future research and conservation efforts of arctic sponge grounds by looking beyond the seamount summit to bring a full view of enigmatic sponge dominated ecosystems
Combining field and laboratory approaches to quantify N assimilation in a soil microbe-plant-animal grazing land system
Get PDFEfficient fertiliser nitrogen (N) management is critical to global food production and ecosystem health. Considering sheep grazing systems as whole ecosystems, and quantifying key ecosystem services provided by the soil microbial community, including plant N supply and N pollution mitigation, is essential in assessments of N use efficiency (NUE). Using a systems approach, we disassembled a low-intensity sheep (>5 ewe ha−1) grazed grassland, dominated by Lolium perenne, into a series of interlinked 15N-tracer experiments in North Wales during a summer growing season to assess fertiliser-N partitioning. 15N was traced into soil microbial protein-N via compound-specific amino acid 15N-stable isotope probing, with subsequent integration to provide a whole-system perspective. Retention of feed-N into sheep was low (11 %), despite high grass 15N-fertiliser uptake (58 %). The majority of grazed-N re-entered the soil N-cycle as excreta (47 % of total 15N) during the peak growing season. Quantifying 15N-assimilation into soil microbial protein (0–15 cm) demonstrated the central role soil microbes occupy in capturing excess fertiliser (16 %) and urinary-N (8 %) of the total 15N-fertiliser applied, thereby reducing N losses and subsequently supporting plant N supply. This approach emphasises how future management of moderate intensity grazing systems should target sheep NUE, alongside the role of the soil microbial community to retain, and later recycle N, for plant supply, optimising essential ecosystem service provisioning
The soil microbial community and plant biomass differentially contribute to the retention and recycling of urinary-N in grasslands
Get PDFUrine patches in grazed systems are hotspots for nitrogen (N) cycling and losses to the wider environment. Retention and subsequent recycling of urinary-N is key to minimise losses and increase ecosystem nitrogen use efficiency. Biosynthesis into the microbial organic N pool is an important N pathway but this has not been directly quantified in a urine patch. Herein, we present the results of a time course experiment using soil mesocosms sown with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and treated with 15N-labelled sheep urine to determine partitioning of the applied N between plant, soil biomass pools and leaching losses following simulated rainfall events. 15N-tracing used bulk and compound-specific 15N-stable isotope probing (SIP) to determine the fate of urinary N. Initial high leaching losses (233 kg N ha−1) were comprised of native soil N, ammonium and nitrate derived from urine by urea hydrolysis and nitrification, respectively. Leaching subsequently decreased whilst uptake into plant biomass and microbial biosynthesis increased during periods of low rainfall. Uptake into above and belowground plant biomass was the largest fate of urinary-15N after 94 d (42%), although assimilation into microbial biomass dominated for ca. 1 month after urine deposition (34%). Compound-specific 15N–SIP of amino acids and amino sugars revealed immobilisation of urinary-N following mineralisation was the dominant pathway for biosynthesis, with incorporation into bacterial organic N pools more rapid than into the fungal biomass. There was also intact utilisation of glycine derived from urine. This study provides clear evidence that direct assimilation of urine-derived N into microbial organic N pools is an important process for retaining N in a urine patch, which will subsequently support plant N supply during microbial turnover.<br/