77 research outputs found
Scottish Chaucerianism in older Scots literature, c.1424-1513: a re-evaluation
No full textThis thesis takes a fresh view of fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Chaucerian literature in Scotland, tracing its development from its earliest beginnings into an independent poetic tradition. In overview, this account provides a broader understanding of this body of writing as cohesive and dynamic, increasingly growing in confidence as it matures and evolves along distinct lines and revealing an awareness of itself as a native tradition in its own right as the later poets of the period respond to the work of the earlier ones.
Chapter 1 begins with The Kingis Quair (c.1424) of James I of Scotland (1394-1437), arguing that James’s poem undertakes the appropriation of an existing vernacular tradition represented by Chaucer. The Quair’s increasingly confident portrayal of the author as one who has access to Christian wisdom intersects with James’s implicit vernacular self-assertion in establishing a Chaucer tradition in Scotland.
Chapter 2 focuses on the mid-fifteenth-century poem, Richard Holland’s (d. in or after 1483) Buke of the Howlat (c.1448), which engages simultaneously with the Parliament of Fowls (c.1380-82) and The House of Fame (c.1375) as well as with the later fourteenth-century Scots poem John Barbour’s Bruce (c.1375). Holland’s narrative and thematic interest in the ugly owl relates to his sense of Scottishness as the Howlat indirectly proclaims the perspective of difference from which it answers the poetry of Chaucer.
Chapter 3 argues that a similar sense of alterity informs Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid (c.1440-1550) where it is made to assume the form of an implicit vernacular self-assertion. Chapter 3 also undertakes an original reassessment of both Henryson’s Orpheus and Eurydice, which it contends represents a reworking of the use of the mixed form in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, and the Moral Fables, which it argues consists of a response to the storytelling genre in The Canterbury Tales.
Chapter 4 of this thesis considers a selection of texts by William Dunbar (c.1460?-1513x1530) which demonstrate his awareness of an established Chaucer tradition in Scotland. Yet, Dunbar, while explicitly recognizing the existence of this native Scottish Chaucerianism, nevertheless stands at a subversive angle to this body of writing despite drawing on the earlier writers in this thesis in his poetry.
Gavin Douglas’s self-conscious situating of himself within the Scottish Chaucerian tradition is the focus of Chapter 5, which examines the influence of The Kingis Quair on the Palice of Honour (c.1503), before turning to the parallels between his later vernacular translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, the Eneados (c.1513), and the experimental framing of reading experience in the poetry of Robert Henryson
The Campbells: lordship, literature and liminality
No full textThe Campbells have the potential to offer much to the theme of literature and borders, given that the kindred’s astonishing political success in the late medieval and early modern period depended heavily upon the ability to negotiate multiple frontiers: between Highlands and Lowlands; between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland, and, especially after the Reformation, with England and the matter of Britain. This paper will explore the literary dimension to Campbell expansionism, from the Book of the Dean of Lismore in the earlier sixteenth century, to poetry addressed to dukes of Argyll in the earlier eighteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to the literary proclivities of the household of the Campbells of Glenorchy on either side of what appears to be a major watershed in 1550; and to the agenda of the Campbell protégé John Carswell, first post-Reformation bishop of the Isles, and author of the first printed book in Gaelic in either Scotland or Ireland, Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh (‘The Form of Prayers’), published at Edinburgh in 1567
Ageing in coral reef fishes: do we need to validate the periodicity of increment formation for every species of fish for which we collect age-based demographic data?
No full textThe purpose of this chapter is to consider the question "Is it necessary to validate the periodicity of increment formation in every species of fish for which we seek age-based demographic data"? The focus is on coral reef fishes. Four issues require consideration. Firstly, validation programs are expensive in terms of resources and time. This is especially important for coral reef fishes as resources available to tropical fisheries are often very limited. Secondly, many modem techniques used to validate the accuracy of age estimates require field and laboratory infrastructure that may not be available to fisheries laboratories serving coral reefs. Thirdly, the great majority of validation studies have confirmed the annual periodicity of increment formation. Fourthly, opportunities to study undisturbed populations of reef fishes from which reference age data can be derived are limited due to over-fishing and habitat alteration. We argue for a more strategic approach to age-based studies in coral reef fishes
Determination of patterns in the abundance of Pomacentrus moluccensis Bleeker on the southern Great Barrier Reef
No full textTrickery, Mockery and the Scottish Way of War
No full textThis article seeks to examine two prominent themes, those of trickery and mockery, in how warfare against England was represented in Scottish historical narratives of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Careful analysis of these specific themes allows a variety of insights to be presented. It will show some of the rich uses to which such texts can be put by exploring them in a historically informed context. One aspect of this is the endeavour to illuminate ways in which these sources, although treacherous in relation to specifics, can provide accurate, and previously unnoticed, more general insights into the cultures of war embraced by the Scots. Analysis of the texts also demonstrates the complex and changing ways in which perceptions about the practice of war have shaped Scottish senses of identity. It becomes clear that ideas about their mode of war were vital in how the Scots saw themselves. And such ideas were also fundamental in shaping the much more hostile view of them developed by their regular enemies, the English. The main sources given consideration are the Gesta Annalia II, once attributed to John of Fordun (composed c1363) (Chron Fordun)1
Uncertainty in length measurements of live coral trout: implications for compliance and enforcement of minimum legal size limits.
No full textReport on evidence of shrinkage of live coral trout during professional fishing operations on the Great Barrier Reef in 2000. Excel data includes the following fields:
Column A. Fish (fish number from 1 -24)
Column B. Bin (1-8, container the fish was held in during the experiment)
Column C. Measure (1-7, number of the measurement of each fish)
Column D. Observer (1 or 2, making the measurement)
Column E. Time 2
Column F. Time (time of the day the measurement was made)
Column G. FL (Fork Length)
Column H. TL (Total Length)
Column I. Difference (difference in length between measures)
Column J. Order
Column K. Temperature (surface water temp under the boat
Consequences of inappropriate criteria for accepting age estimates from otoliths, with a case study for a long-lived tropical reef fish
No full textFish ages estimated from increments in otoliths are uncertain because of various sources of error, including increment interpretation. Interpretation error is often addressed by reading each otolith multiple times and accepting age estimates only if readings satisfy certain consistency criteria. Choice of an inappropriate acceptance criterion may significantly bias the accepted age estimates and derived parameters such as mortality. The frequencies and magnitudes of discrepancies from replicate readings of otoliths increased with age for the red bass, Lutjanus bohar. The trend was best described by a constant probability of misinterpreting each increment, indicating an age acceptance criterion that allowed for increasing discrepancy between readings with age. Simulations of three error processes in reading otoliths, two processes of error accumulation within readings, and six acceptance criteria illustrated the biases in age-based metrics that arise from choosing inappropriate acceptance criteria. Biases were largest for static constant, rather than proportional, acceptance criteria, leading to elevated exclusion of older otoliths, overestimation of mortality, and underestimation of mean age. von Bertalanffy growth parameters were generally estimated with little bias. We recommend formal analysis of alternative models of ageing error to choose appropriate acceptance criteria and minimise biases in age-based demographic metrics
Geographic influences on and the accuracy and precision of age estimates for the red bass, Lutjanus bohar (Forsskal 1775): a large tropical reef fish
No full textThe red bass is a large tropical reef fish (Lutjanidae, tropical snappers) that is harvested to varying extents throughout a widespread Indo-Pacific distribution. The aims of this study were to investigate the accuracy and precision of age estimates from transverse sections of sagittal otoliths and to assess effects on these of the geographic area of collection and otolith preparation method. Two independent validation studies suggested an approximately annual formation of annuli in otoliths, predominantly for otoliths with 4–10 annuli but also for one otolith with 29 annuli. Otolith sections produced exceptionally high annulus counts: up to 56 annuli for samples from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia; and up to 55 annuli from the Seychelles, indicating a high longevity for this species. The precision of otolith readings from the GBR (index of average percent error, IAPE = 3.21 ± 0.26 S.E.) was within commonly accepted bounds for age estimation (IAPE up to 5%) but precision of readings from the Seychelles was significantly lower (IAPE = 9.18 ± 0.47 S.E.) and outside of this “acceptable” range. Age-based biological parameters for red bass from the Seychelles should thus be applied with greater caution than those for red bass from the GBR. If basic demographic properties are assumed relatively constant across the wide geographic range sampled, however, results from the GBR could be used as more reliable preliminary data for precautionary management strategies in the Seychelles and elsewhere
Effects of sex change on the implications of marine reserves for fisheries
No full textMarine reserves have become widely used in biodiversity conservation and are increasingly proposed as fisheries management tools. Previous modeling studies have found that reserves may increase or decrease yields, depending on local environmental conditions and on the specific life-history traits of the fishery species. Sex-changing (female-to-male) fish are targets of some of the most important commercial and recreational fisheries in the world. The potential for disproportionate removal of the larger, older sex of such species requires new theory to facilitate our understanding of how reserves will affect the yields of surrounding fisheries, relative to fishes with separate sexes. We investigated this question by modeling the effects of marine reserves on a non-sex-changing and a sex-changing population. We used demographic parameter estimates for the common coral trout as a baseline, and we conducted extensive sensitivity analyses to determine how sustainable yields of sex-changing species are likely to be affected by reserves across a broad range of life-history parameters. Our findings indicate that fisheries for sex-changing species are unlikely to receive the same yield-enhancing benefit that non-sex-changing fisheries enjoy from marine reserves, and that often reserves tend to reduce sustainable yields for a given overall population size. Specifically, the increased egg production and high fertilization success within reserves is more than offset by the reduced egg production and fertilization success in the fished areas, relative to a system in which fishing mortality is distributed more evenly over the entire system. A key reason for this appears to be that fertilization success is reduced, on average, when males are unevenly distributed among subpopulations, as is the case when reserves are present. These findings suggests that, for sex-changing populations, reserves are more suited to rebuilding overfished populations and sustaining fishery viability, rather than enhancing fishery yields. These results are robust over a range of sex-change regimes, stock-recruitment relationships, adult mortality rates, individual growth strategies, and fertilization-success functions. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the different contributions of males and females to population growth and fishery yields when evaluating the efficacy of marine reserves for enhancement of fished species
- …
