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Evaluating methods for setting thresholds for good status in marine ecosystems
Get PDFEstimating thresholds to distinguish between good and degraded ecosystem states is key for assessing and managing marine environments. Numerous methods are used to estimate thresholds; however, there is no standardized framework to evaluate their accuracy and reliability, which reduces the consistency and transparency of thresholds estimated for \u27good\u27 status. Statistical robustness of four methods was evaluated by varying stochastic noise, sample size, and shape of the pressure-state relationship of simulated indicator data. Range of natural variation and statistically detectable change methods, which quantify natural variation in undisturbed reference conditions, reliably estimated status thresholds for noisy, small datasets, but thresholds were lower than what would have been estimated without noise present or with a greater sample size. Tipping points and distance to degradation methods, which estimate the point at which a system is about to reach, or has reached, a degraded state, failed to estimate thresholds or fit models that were consistent with the underlying relationship as noise increased and sample size decreased. Therefore, for small or noisy datasets, range of natural variation is most suitable to estimate ecologically meaningful, reliable, and transparent thresholds for good status, while for larger datasets with low noise levels, all four methods are likely to be useful
The Nature of the Interplay of Classical and Biblical Intertexts in Milton\u27s Poetry
Get PDFCatabasis, the hero’s descent and return from the underworld, was the supreme heroic feat in classical myth and literature because it represented the accomplishment of the impossible: the conquest of death. Two out of three of the great ancient epics, Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid, therefore, set the catabasis at the centre of the poem to mark its distinction. Previous scholarship has argued that Milton removed catabasis from the centre to outlying sections of Paradise Lost. My published work charts a new path in Milton studies, arguing that, by accommodating the action of his War in Heaven to the three-day pattern of Christ’s death and Resurrection, and setting the event in book 6 of a twelve-book epic (the book consecrated by Virgil to catabasis), Milton marked the episode as his epic’s main catabasis. There is little question that Milton’s setting of his catabasis in book 6 of a twelve-book epic is, firstly, Virgilian in reference. With regard, however, to the dramatic and social setting of the episode, there are aspects, I have argued, where the Homeric influence predominates, the method, for instance, by which Raphael relates the story of the War of Heaven in book 6, embedded narrative, is also how Homer tells the story of his hero’s catabasis in the Odyssey. Two of my articles also tie this allusive parallel to Milton’s re-working of the Homeric hospitality code called xenia.Much has been said in Milton criticism about Milton’s Hell, little, however, about God’s creation thereof. Within the space of the Son’s two-day absence from the three-day War in Heaven, my published work argues, the Son descends to Chaos and creates Hell, returning on ‘the third sacred morn’ when ‘he . . . rose’ (6.748, 746) to drive the rebel-angels to that a new, hitherto uncreated, netherworld realm, Hell. This sheds light on two longstanding, yet seldom pursued, mysteries of the War in Heaven: the Son’s whereabouts during days one and two, and ‘the timing and circumstances of Hell’s creation’. This also informs the episode’s classical catabatic character by adding a distinctly physical descent and return from a netherworld region to the equation.Previous scholarship has noted the numerological significance of the book-division numbers of the four-book Paradise Regained and the twelve-book 1674 Paradise Lost to the Virgilian triadic career, respectively, to the Georgics and the Aeneid. By tying the ten-division structure of the 1667 Paradise Lost to the ten-division Eclogues, my published work completes the picture of the distinctive 10, 4, 12 symbolic Virgilian signature with which Milton crowned his career.In the midst of this symbolic Virgilian triadic progression, Paradise Regained, this integrative summary also discusses, Milton delivers his most scathing denunciation of colonial imperialism. The imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi) is the highest moral imperative of Christianity. By placing this rebuke in the mouth of Christ himself, therefore, Milton holds up anti-imperialism/colonialism as something not just worthy, but worthiest of imitation. Milton’s classicism, therefore, helps us appreciate the depth of his anti-imperialism, especially when read in connection with his poems’ biblical frames of reference. The study of the nature of the interplay of Milton’s biblical and classical frames of reference, therefore, has much to teach that matters today about Milton’s poetry, his world, and ours
For a Decolonial Approach to Game Design Methods Beyond Representation
Get PDFThis article draws attention to game design methods in decolonialist studies. As the importance of systematization in game design starts to become apparent, there is an opportunity to challenge the normalization of values, tropes, and power fantasies that have shaped the industry over the years. The article discusses the ways in which colonialist values permeate recurrent elements of game design, contrasting it with characteristics found in pre-colonial games and how they can be related to indigenous perspectives, which usually do not fit capitalist premises
The Impact of Talent Management on Process Innovation Implementation in The Upstream Oil and Gas Sector
Get PDFThe oil and gas industry is vital industry in the world. Specifically, the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry plays a crucial role in the global economy, serving as a primary source of energy and revenue generation. It involves exploration and development activities, where exploration involves identifying petroleum resources, including drilling and seismic surveys. In contrast, production involves a way to extract petroleum from the ground. Moreover, the oil and gas industry is highly competitive and rapidly evolving. Process innovation implementation plays an important role in the success and sustainability of organizations in the oil and gas industries. The successful implementation of process innovation is contingent upon effective talent management practices. Talent management is crucial as it enables organizations to effectively attract, develop and retain the essential employees. Accordingly, in addressing these challenges, top management, middle management, and supervisory level employees need to engage in the decision-making process personally. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research linking talent management practices together and their influences on process innovation implementation.Therefore, the aim of this study is to build and test substantive theory for talent management practices, including talent attraction, talent development, and talent retention and their impact on the process innovation implementation in the Upstream Oil and Gas sector. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, incorporating triangulation through interviews. A total of 291 valid responses were collected in the quantitative phase to analyse the causal relationships between the study variables using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Subsequently, 15 interviews were conducted with top management, middle management, and supervisory level employees during the qualitative phase, which were analysed thematically to provide insights into the findings from the quantitative stage. The findings from the quantitative stage demonstrated that talent management practices (attraction, development, and retention) have a positive effect on process innovation implementation. Additionally, the qualitative results supported and validated the outcomes of the quantitative analysis.These results contribute significantly to the body of knowledge regarding the relationship between talent management practices and process innovation implementation. Additionally, the results provide a better understanding of how these practices influence process innovation implementation. In terms of practical implication, the findings provide numerous recommendations for researchers, decision-makers, policymakers, regulations, managers, executives, and trainers. Lastly, the study outlines its limitations and offers recommendations for future research
Do we need an urgent ultrasound clinic for patients with rheumatological conditions? A service evaluation
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What are the effects of time-restricted eating upon metabolic health outcomes in individuals with metabolic syndrome: A scoping review
Get PDFThe primary objective of this scoping review (ScR) was to assess the breadth and type of evidence related to time-restricted eating (TRE) as an intervention to modify metabolic health outcomes in individuals with diagnosed metabolic syndrome (MetS), a major health challenge due to increasing prevalence and association with other chronic diseases. MetS comprises three or more of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, dyslipidaemia, dysregulated glucose homeostasis, and abdominal obesity. TRE, also known as time-restricted feeding (TRF), restricts food intake to specific time windows within a day, for example, a 10-h eating period between 10:00 and 20:00. Via multiple mechanisms, TRE interventions may provide an effective tool to prevent and treat metabolic disease such as MetS. While studies have assessed TRE in populations with components of MetS, there is a gap in the knowledge of how effective TRE can be for people with diagnosed MetS. A search of studies published in English in the PubMed (Medline), Embase, Cochrane, and PROSPERO databases was performed in February 2024. Of 3449 articles, 45 underwent full text analysis, and three were accepted into the ScR. These studies, comprising 10 and 8 h TRE interventions for 12 weeks, showed mixed benefits to body composition markers such as body weight, fat mass, and abdominal fat, blood pressure, and blood markers of lipid and glucose homeostasis. Future research into TRE and MetS will aim to more closely define optimal formulations of TRE interventions to improve MetS and its components
Hadronic Vacuum Polarization for the Muon g-2 from Lattice QCD: Long-Distance and Full Light-Quark Connected Contribution
Get PDFWe present results for the dominant light-quark connected contribution to the long-distance window of the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to the muon g-2 from lattice quantum chromodynamics. Specifically, with a new determination of the lattice scale on MILC\u27s physical-mass HISQ ensembles, using the Ω^{-} baryon mass, we obtain a result of a_{μ}^{ll,LD}(conn)=400.2(2.3)_{stat}(3.7)_{syst}[4.3]_{total}×10^{-10}. Summing this result with our recent determinations of the light-quark connected contributions to the short- and intermediate-distance windows, we obtain a subpercent precision determination of the light-quark-connected contribution to HVP of a_{μ}^{ll}(conn)=655.2(2.3)_{stat}(3.9)_{syst}[4.5]_{total}×10^{-10}. Finally, as a consistency check, we verify that an independent analysis of the full contribution is in agreement with the sum of individual windows. We discuss our future plans for improvements of our HVP calculations to meet the target precision of the Fermilab g-2 experiment
An Efficient NSGA-II-based Algorithm for Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning
Get PDFThis work presents an algorithm based on the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to solve multi-objective offline Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning (MCPP) problems. The proposed algorithm embeds a donation-mutation operator and a multiple-parent crossover that gener-ates solutions which maintain the longest path while minimizing the average path length. The algorithm also uses a library of elitism-selected high-fitness robot paths, and tournament-selected high min-max fitness paths, to construct high multi-objective fitness offspring. We evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm against the state-of-the-art NSGA-II extended with an improved Heuristic Genetic Algorithm Crossover, and we demonstrate that for different instances of the MCPP problem, the Pareto-fronts of our proposed algorithm are not dominated by any of the points of the fronts generated by the state-of-the-art NSGA-II. A comparison hasalso been performed in a virtual environment simulating five drones inspecting three wind turbines. Results show that our approach exhibits a higher convergence rate for higher values of the ratio between the number of points to visit and the number of drones
Assessing the effects of antibiotic selectivity and temperature on the antimicrobial activity of isolates derived from the deep-sea sponge Pheronema capenteri
Get PDFThe rapid increase of antibiotic resistance necessitates the discovery of novel antibiotic compounds capable to tackle these resistant bacteria. Deep-sea sponges accommodate a diverse and dense microbiome filled with an array of bacterial communities that have the potential to produce novel antimicrobials. Some discovered novel strains have already shown their capability in producing secondary metabolites that are effective against clinically relevant strains. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of different culture conditions; antibiotic selectivity and temperature, on the antimicrobial activity of isolates recovered from three different Pheronema carpenteri deep-sea sponges. Using culture-dependant methods, a total of 59 bacterial isolates were obtained, and their antimicrobial activity was tested against 6 different indicator strains using both solid and liquid assays. The results indicate that 42 (71.2%) of the 59 tested exhibited antimicrobial activity against at least one of the indicator strains. A larger distribution of isolates cultured with no antibiotics showed activity in both the simultaneous antagonism and well-diffusion assays. Similarly, a higher number of active isolates culture under a lower temperature (20°C) showed activity in both the simultaneous antagonism and well-diffusion assays. Whilst a negligible difference in isolate activity was observed using the cross-streak method on either culture condition, a larger portion of isolates grown under the higher temperature (28°C) showed greater inhibition strengths. The 2 isolates that showed great antimicrobial activity in all assays were selected for further phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequencing
The impacts of ocean warming on phytoplankton dynamics and links to fisheries management around St Helena Island, South Atlantic Ocean
Get PDFIn the context of a rapidly changing climate, understanding how ocean warming is reshaping the foundation of marine ecosystems has never been more important. This research investigates factors contributing to ocean warming, and where anthropogenically influenced climate change plays a critical role in the functionality of the physical marine environment, phytoplankton, and trophodynamics throughout the pelagic zone. Phytoplankton, whilst microscopic, are vital; they are regulated by physical oceanographic factors that control their access to growth-limiting factors, such as nutrients. With the formidable climate-driven physical and biological changes occurring in the marine environment, alongside the decline in fish stocks, it is imperative that oceans are closely monitored using an ecosystem-based approach, with phytoplankton being one of the key indicators of broader environmental health.
Therefore, it was important to focus on the impacts of global warming on physical environmental conditions—such as sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth—and how these affect ocean biology through changes in phytoplankton biomass and phenology. Cost-effective satellite data from NASA’s Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) were used, with changes in phytoplankton dynamics indicating potential implications for fish stocks and current fisheries management around St Helena Island. St Helena’s territorial waters include a 200 nautical mile Category 6 sustainable use marine protected area, underscoring the need to understand and safeguard this ecologically and economically vital region. In this marine hotspot region, interannual variability in sea surface temperature, mixed layer depth, and chlorophyll-α concentration was analysed to identify long-term trends. Additionally, annual phytoplankton blooms were characterised, and shifts in phytoplankton phenology were investigated.
Notably, results of sea surface temperature displayed an increase, with intensified temperature-influenced stratification strengthening, causing the mixed layer depth to become shallower, decreasing phytoplankton biomass, and a non-significant earlier initiation of annual phytoplankton blooms to occur around St Helena. The negative changes in the pelagic layer physics and biology around the island that are linked to ocean warming provided insight into the implications for ocean productivity, fish stocks, and fisheries management. With very little known and understood about St Helena Island’s oceanography, it is crucial that its condition is monitored closely. This is important for the residents dependent on productive regions in their territorial sea for their economy and food security. Finally, it was found that phytoplankton are reactive species to climate change and its indirect effects. Making it an important component of ecosystem-based management as an ecological indicator in pelagic fisheries management