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Vulnerability of marine megafauna to global at-sea anthropogenic threats
No full textMarine megafauna species are affected by a wide range of anthropogenic threats. To evaluate the risk of such threats, species' vulnerability to each threat must first be determined. We build on the existing threats classification scheme and ranking system of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species by assessing the vulnerability of 256 marine megafauna species to 23 at-sea threats. The threats we considered included individual fishing gear types, climate-change-related subthreats not previously assessed, and threats associated with coastal impacts and maritime disturbances. Our ratings resulted in 70 species having high vulnerability (v > 0.778 out of 1) to at least 1 threat, primarily drifting longlines, temperature extremes, or fixed gear. These 3 threats were also considered to have the most severe effects (i.e., steepest population declines). Overall, temperature extremes and plastics and other solid waste were rated as affecting the largest proportion of populations. Penguins, pinnipeds, and polar bears had the highest vulnerability to temperature extremes. Bony fishes had the highest vulnerability to drifting longlines and plastics and other solid waste; pelagic cetaceans to 4 maritime disturbance threats; elasmobranchs to 5 fishing threats; and flying birds to drifting longlines and 2 maritime disturbance threats. Sirenians and turtles had the highest vulnerability to at least one threat from all 4 categories. Despite not necessarily having severe effects for most taxonomic groups, temperature extremes were rated among the top threats for all taxa except bony fishes. The vulnerability scores we provide are an important first step in estimating the risk of threats to marine megafauna. Importantly, they help differentiate scope from severity, which is key to identifying threats that should be prioritized for mitigation
Exploring Student Self-Efficacy and Agency in Traditional Versus Gamified Pharmacology Tutorials: A Cross-Sectional Survey
No full textOnlinePublObjective: Gamification in tertiary education aims to improve engagement and stimulate learning. Traditional pharmacology lessons, often delivered through lectures and tutorials, are sometimes perceived as suboptimal learning experiences. The objective was also to investigate the development of student self-efficacy and agency, by comparing student behaviours in traditional versus game-based tutorials. Methods: A physical board game, modelled on the game ‘Guess Who’, featured drugs from cardiovascular pharmacology. Students in a second-year pharmacology course played in pairs, asking questions about the drugs to identify their opponent’s selected card. To evaluate the game and compare the tutorial formats, students completed a two-part anonymous survey with Likert scale and short-answer questions evaluating how each tutorial type contributed to learning outcomes. Results: Sixty-two students participated in the traditional tutorial survey and 60 in the gamified tutorial. Gamified tutorials increased motivation, engagement, and active participation. They were also more effective in assisting students to identify knowledge gaps, understand concepts and retain information. Gamified lessons also facilitated peer collaboration and promoted self-regulated learning more effectively. Traditional tutorials, however, were seen as better for grasping complex concepts and preparing for real-world applications. Conclusion: The gamified pharmacology lesson positively influenced learning, engagement, and agency. Gamified tutorials can complement traditional lessons depending on complexity of the content and learning objectives.Luca A Chiuchiolo, Wern Chai, Jack L Janetzk
Finite-Memory Cooperative Localization Based on Multisensor Information Fusion Using Neural Networks for Multiple Humanoid Robots
No full textDate of Publication: 18 September 2025Cooperative localization (CL) is a method for achieving accurate and reliable localization of multiple robots by sharing sensor measurements or position information through wireless communications among the robots and has been successfully applied to various mobile robots. However, in humanoid robots, swaying of the body caused by walking results in significant errors in LiDAR sensor measurements, degrading the accuracy of CL. To address this problem, we propose a novel CL algorithm aided by odometry information that is less affected by the swaying of humanoid robots. First, we design a finite-memory CL (FMCL) algorithm based on wireless sensor networks and LiDAR measurements that has a finite-memory structure, preventing the accumulation of errors in sensor measurements or models. Second, we process the odometry information with an artificial neural network (ANN) to obtain auxiliary position estimates. Third, the position estimates obtained by the two methods are integrated with another ANN to complete the odometry-aided FMCL (OAFMCL). Finally, we conduct CL experiments using multiple humanoid robots and demonstrate the superiority of the proposed OAFMCL over state-of-the-art localization algorithms.Dong Hyeon Kim, Jung Min Pak, Peng Shi, Choon Ki Ah
Wastewater analysis as a global toxicovigilance tool for the monitoring of new psychoactive substances
No full textData source: supplementary materials, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.124847New psychoactive substances are a group of synthetic or naturally occurring drugs that mimic the effects of controlled illicit drugs. With limited information around potency, effects and health risks, there is international concern around their use and thus surveillance efforts are needed for public health. This study presents a global assessment of new psychoactive substances in influent wastewater from 52 sites across 20 countries during the 2022/2023 New Year period. Using solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, 21 new psychoactive substances were detected with mitragynine, 3-methylmethcathinone, and eutylone being the most prevalent. Notably, 3,4-methylenedioxy-PV8 was identified for the first time in sites in Australia and the United States. A retrospective analysis of population normalised mass loads for 3-methylmethcathinone at European sites revealed downward trends in 2022/2023 sampling period compared to the previous years, suggesting a possible impact of regional scheduling measures. Additionally, this work demonstrates the stability of new psychoactive substances in loaded cartridges for up to four months when stored at -20 °C. These findings highlight the value of wastewater-based epidemiology for global monitoring of emerging new psychoactive substances threats and policy evaluation
Responsible Global Leadership
No full textThis chapter explores what it means to be a “responsible” leader, specifically by considering the challenges and dilemmas facing executives in four key corporate social responsibility (CSR) domains: diversity, ethics, sustainability, and citizenship. It describes three prototypical approaches to CSR—global, local, and transnational—and discusses their implications for global executives, with a particular focus on the tensions and possible trade-offs between globally integrated and locally adapted CSR strategies, the constraints they impose on managerial behavior, and the competencies they require in global leaders. The chapter focuses mainly on the ethical responsibility domain but also considers the economic and legal dimensions of CSR when necessary. A transnational approach adopts a hybrid strategy, resting on the assumption that global and local approaches to CSR are not mutually exclusive. A transnational approach to CSR is most demanding in terms of required managerial and leadership skills, in that it requires managers to reconcile the different, and often conflicting, expectations of their global and local stakeholders
Contrasting Microbial Taxonomic and Functional Colonisation Patterns in Wild Populations of the Pan-Palaeotropical C4 Grass, Themeda triandra
No full textFirst published: 26 September 2025The interactions between native plants and soil microbiota are not well characterised, despite growing recognition of their importance for host plant fitness and ecological functioning. We used shotgun metagenomics to examine microbial taxonomic and functional colonisation patterns in wild populations of the pan-palaeotropical C4 grass, Themeda triandra, across a globally representative aridity gradient (aridity index 0.318–0.903). We investigated these patterns through the two-step selection process whereby microbes are recruited from bulk soils into rhizospheres (soil on the root surface), and root interiors (endospheres). We provide clear evidence of this process through decreasing microbial taxonomic diversity from bulk soil to T. triandra roots. Surprisingly, microbial functional potential showed the opposite trend: the diversity of potential functions (exponent of Shannon's diversity) increased from bulk soil to the rhizosphere and endosphere, but functional richness did not. Finally, we found that increasing aridity was associated with rhizospheres that were more compositionally similar, yet remained highly diverse in functional potential. Overall, aridity is strongly associated with the root-associated microbiome of T. triandra, selecting for microbiota that likely support plant resilience under dry conditions. Furthermore, microbial functional potential closely tracks taxonomic composition and aridity trends, highlighting how native plants can shape their microbial communities.Riley J. Hodgson, Christian Cando-Dumancela, Tarryn Davies, Elizabeth A. Dinsdale, Michael P. Doane, Robert A. Edwards, Craig Liddicoat, Shawn D. Peddle, Sunita A. Ramesh, Jake M. Robinson, Martin F. Bree
Agent-based approaches for distributed space systems and mission management: Methodologies, current practices and challenges
No full textRecently, we have faced a transformative shift in aerospace industry moving away from monolithic satellite systems towards distributed small satellite constellations, considering their lower costs, higher scalability, and improved mission capabilities. However, this shift has brought new challenges and complex issues including resource management, coordination, reliability in face with failures, and make real-time decisions in dynamic, large-scale networks. One promising way to address these challenges is utilising the agent-based methods through which we can have control on self-governing, decentralisation, and adaptivity in large-scale networks. However, the deployment of these solutions in distributed space systems (DSS) still faces unsolved challenges, including ensuring that different systems can work side by side smoothly (interoperability), scaling effectively under communication constraints, and integrating heterogeneous architectures. While many studies have examined individual aspects of agent-based DSS, there is still lack of a comprehensive review that brings together the main advancements and practices, existing challenges, and potential future approaches. This paper bridges this critical gap by presenting a systematic survey and taxonomy of agent-based approaches for DSS and mission management. Alongside a critical overview of existing agent-based methods in DSS, this work introduces a novel taxonomy that categorises agent-based DSS based on key parameters, including agent types, architectures, communication protocols, mission management strategies, and applications. Furthermore, a comprehensive discussion of prevailing challenges and open research questions is provided, offering valuable insights into existing limitations and potential advancements. By consolidating existing knowledge and findings and highlighting future directions, this survey serves as a foundational reference for researchers and practitioners seeking to advance agent-based technologies for next-generation space systems
From collapse to contagion: the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) default and its ripple effects across global islamic and conventional financial sectors
No full textThis study quantifies the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) and abnormal returns (ARs) of the global Sharia and non-Sharia-compliant sectors surrounding the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse. We integrate daily global financial stress indices (FSI), geopolitical risk (GPR), and the oil price volatility index (OVZ) into an OLS regression to control for global uncertainties. We estimate the SVB implosion's moderating effects on the global Islamic and non-Islamic crosssectoral conditional connectedness between the Sharia and non-Sharia-compliant returns. The findings show that non-Sharia-compliant sectors-energy, industrials, and materials-incurred smaller cumulative abnormal losses than their Sharia-compliant counterparts. However, the global non-Sharia-compliant financial sector was more negatively affected by the SVB implosion. The SVB implosion positively moderates the dynamic conditional connectedness between the Islamic and non-Islamic sectors. However, cross-market correlations diminished for specific Islamic-non-Islamic sectoral stock pairs during the event date and the subsequent adjustment phase, indicating enhanced opportunities for risk mitigation and portfolio diversification. Using the DCC-GARCH-t copula method to formulate a hedge ratio strategy reveals that, during prolonged volatility in most non-Sharia-compliant industries, the most cost-effective risk mitigation is a short position in the Sharia-compliant Energy sector
External stakeholder engagement with state government physical activity strategies: a qualitative exploration
No full textIssue Addressed: Despite substantial investment in government-funded physical activity initiatives, there is limited evidence on how external stakeholders are engaged in their development and implementation. Gathering stakeholder feedback is often challenging, particularly without established mechanisms for ongoing evaluation. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how external stakeholders interacted with a government-funded population-based physical activity portfolio of initiatives in South Australia and examine key factors influencing its implementation, including challenges and opportunities to optimise future implementation.
Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews (n=18) were conducted with stakeholders working at relevant agencies in South Australia. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically to identify key themes related to stakeholder interaction and implementation insights.
Result: Four key themes were identified related to: (1) awareness and engagement, (2) benefits and challenges to participation,(3) benefits and challenges to organisational partnerships, and (4) opportunities to enhance implementation. Funding, networking, and communication significantly influenced the promotion and engagement of the initiatives. Expanding funding and improving decision-making were identified as opportunities to improve the implementation of future initiatives, with stakeholders emphasising transparency and the importance of monitoring and evaluation
Conclusion: This study highlights the crucial role of external stakeholders and the need for more funding and effective communication to enhance engagement in state government physical activity initiatives.
So What? These findings provide policymakers with insights into stakeholder relationships and emphasise the importance of strengthening collaborative approaches to enhance stakeholder contributions to government-led physical activity initiatives
Experiencing the Dispositif of Educational Leadership: Performativity and the Ethics of Leading Critically
No full textAbstract only
Published onlineWhen asked to respond to the effects of policy demands, educational leaders might pose three key questions. First, how is my work being constituted; second, how am I being asked to perform as a leader and third, how will I act according to my (critical) interpretations of the expectations placed upon myself? We invite readers to engage with these questions which serve as a pedagogical through line to help reader’s respond to their encounter with critical theoretical concepts presented throughout this chapter. In this chapter we draw on Foucault’s (1980a) key analytic concept of dispositif, which we bring into conversation with Butler’s (1997) notion of performativity to help make visible and sensible the struggles educational leaders face when responding to our questions and negotiating the performative demands of leadership. As we will discuss in greater detail, the analytic concept of dispositif is multifaceted, within which we note the institutionalized presence of knowledge-making practices (discourses), the production and dissemination of regimes of truth that are invested in the management of human populations, the circulation of power relations between existents and the formation of particular selves (subjectivities) (Foucault 1982, 2005). In doing so, this chapter captures the notion of performativity in the work of educational leaders and how their relations are composed out of a complex network of sense-making practices that appear as a (fabricated) set of intelligible reasons to act in particular ways. We will use these conceptual tools to problematize how educational leaders can be caught in a complex web of power relations, conflicting ideologies and external pressures specific to their contexts. The contexts we draw upon surface from policies that govern educational leaders’ work in Pakistan and Australia. However, we wish to move beyond the contingencies and constraints of questions one and two to examine how Principals may not only critically recognize the circulation of knowledge-making practices on their subjectivity in an unfolding dispositif but also express a certain autonomy and, through acting out of an ethical commitment to the conditions they are experiencing, contribute to the dispositif’s shaping. In acknowledging differences and similarities between these contexts, we hint at an enveloping and organic dispositif that may, in its emergence, appear as practices that are familiar to educational leaders across the world. Before discussing the concept of dispositif with its intersecting modes of discourse, power/knowledge, regimes of truth and subjectivity, we introduce two contexts that we will use to ground our discussion.Saadia Adnan and Stephen Kell