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Fate of lost fishing gears: Experimental evidence of biofouling colonization patterns from the northwestern Mediterranean Sea
No full textALDFGs (abandoned, lost or otherwise discharged fishing gears) represent a major pollutant in the world’s oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea, but very little is known about their long-term fate in the underwater environment. Here we investigate the destiny of ALDFGs in a coralligenous benthic community by studying the biofouling growing on them at 30 m depth over a three-year period. Results indicate that ALDFGs are quickly covered by biofouling, reaching maximum values of cover in one year. At this depth, the biofouling community results highly influenced by light-dependent seasonal cycles and a general four-steps colonization scheme is tentatively depicted: i) biofouling community is initially dominated by fast-growing organisms, with algae and hydrozoans settling after two weeks; ii) small-sized carbonatic organisms (e.g. bryozoans) appear after two months; iii) the same organisms (including coralline algae) become abundant after five to eight months; iv) conspicuous carbonatic skeletons (serpulids, bivalves and bryozoans) occur after one year increasing in complexity in the following months. The biofouling settled on ALDFGs, as well as growth rates of large carbonatic species, could provide useful information to estimate the age of lost lines and nets in retrieved material and in situ photo footage complementing the overview of the fishing impact in this specific environment. Finally, no signs of nylon degradation are reported, suggesting that the prevailing physical conditions and the biofouling cover extent could alter microplastics release from nylon ALDFGs
Abooks and the AIM project
Get PDFDuring the last decades, learning has once again become a key topic. However, this time, not only for students and professors but also in political and economic contexts. One reason for this is that a high level of education and skills of nations, organizations, and individuals are considered both necessary and crucially competitive advantages in the present knowledge society and the globalized market. Therefore, obtaining a quality education is fundamental for all of us in today\u27s competitive business world. In particular, adult learning within the maritime sector has been important for the success of this industry for ages. The question now is how to streamline and facilitate the learning process for the learners, the lecturers, the authors, and the learning institutions. TERP has taken on the challenge of improving this learning process by introducing Abooks, electronic textbooks based on principles of pedagogy (the science of learning), and andragogy (the science of learning focusing on adults) that adapt to the learner through artificial intelligence. Abooks also introduces the opportunity of utilizing immersive techniques. This is being developed in the AIM project; Adapting to the Individual through Machine learning, a research project led by the research department in TERP in collaboration with the University of Stavanger and the Norwegian Computing Center
Psycholinguistic features of successful transformation of engineering thinking in speech
Get PDFIn this article, we try to answer the question of what makes it difficult for future engineers to express their ideas on technical topics in oral speech. The theoretical basis of the organizational procedure of the study was the concept, according to which a comprehensive description of the professional linguistic personality can be conducted on the verbal (professional speech) and cognitive (professional picture of the world) levels. We studied future engineers’ thinking patterns and found out which parts of speech were their first associations in technical, business, and everyday communication. The purpose of the study was to identify the fundamental tendencies of engineers’ thinking that influence the speaking process. The results create psychological conditions for the actualization of the mechanisms of thought for speech. This mechanism involves the use of an algorithm that has common features when speaking in both a native and a foreign language. We worked out practical recommendations on how to make this process less time consuming and offer a hypothesis on how to successfully convey ideas into a statement. Identifying the peculiarities of thinking for speaking both in native and foreign languages allows the development and application of techniques to improve engineers’ speaking culture. The combination of understanding the features of engineering thinking in general and features of thinking for foreign language speaking c
An evaluation of MAAP’s Train the Simulator Trainer and Assessor (IMO Model Course 6.10): trainees’ perspectives and reverberations
Get PDFThe study aims to analyze how the trainees evaluate the “Train the simulator trainer and assessor” (IMO Model Course 6.10) provided by the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) for free in cooperation with the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The training is regularly rendered as one of the extension services of MAAP. The study utilized the data from the evaluation form accomplished by the eight batches corresponding to 94 trainees in 2019. Results showed that the trainees regarded the training as “Excellent” in terms of the General Information. The trainees likewise rated the training as “Excellent” in terms of the Topics/Exercises. Statistics showed that there was no significant difference between the evaluation of the trainees on the training on IMO Model Course 6.10 when they are grouped according to batches both in General Information and Topics/Exercises
The effect of new western land-sea corridor on ports in East China (a case study of Shanghai port)
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