3,606 research outputs found
Demographic consequences of rapid climate change and density dependence in migratory Arctic geese
No full textClimate change effects are being felt across ecological levels and most strongly in the Arctic. Scaling up from effects on demographic rates to the population-level, and even community-level, is a daunting task. This is particularly the case for migratory species that experience different climate and density regimes over their annual cycle. However, increasingly sophisticated statistical tools provide us with the means to do so. In this thesis, I used state-of-the-art analytical approaches to provide a mechanistic and holistic understanding of the impacts of climate change and density dependence on the population dynamics of a migratory Arctic herbivore, the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis). The study population of barnacle geese breeds in higharctic Svalbard but spends the winter at Solway Firth, UK, with a spring stopover on mainland Norway. I investigated the dynamics of a local population breeding on western Svalbard, close to the settlement of Ny-Ålesund, using 28 years of individual-based data. In paper I, I used an integrated population model to quantify density dependent effects on vital rates in this population, following their colonisation of new breeding grounds in a period of overall population increase. Local density regulation at the breeding grounds reduced population growth through negative effects on reproduction. This led to density-dependent changes in vital rate contributions to the population growth rate. These results provided empirical evidence that the population dynamics of capital breeders may be more reproduction driven. In paper II, I disentangled climate, density and trophic interaction effects on population dynamics, considering the annual cycle of barnacle geese, i.e., breeding and non-breeding season effects on vital rates. Climate change in Svalbard positively affected egg production and hatching success through rapid advancement of spring onset. However, this was offset by reduced pre-fledging survival due to increasing predation by Arctic foxes, an indirect consequence of climate change linked with changes in abundance of overwintering herbivores. In this way, climate effects on one population can cascade throughout a community. Climate and density also influenced reproduction and survival during the non-breeding season, via carryover effects. Overall, counteracting density, carryover and (direct and indirect) climate effects stabilized breeding population size. In paper III, I analysed variation in an important life-history trait: age at first reproduction (AFR). As established in paper II, advancing spring onset increased the probability of females producing goslings in general, but importantly, this effect was stronger for first-time than experienced breeders. The two week advance in spring phenology led to an earlier AFR, by more than doubling the proportion of two-year-olds reproducing (one year- olds do not reproduce). How the effects of environmental change on such demographic rates are coupled to traits reflecting body condition is important to understand and predict population growth. Body mass is a key fitness related trait for herbivores and fluctuates with resources, which are highly variable in the Arctic. Consequently, coupled trait-demography responses may be important in Arctic herbivores, particularly geese, where body mass has declined in response to habitat degradation. In paper IV, I quantified population-dynamic consequences of changes in body mass in barnacle geese. Despite a 10% decline in body mass, and positive effects of mass on survival and reproduction, this did not translate into trait-mediated effects on population growth. Consequently, the population dynamics of Arctic geese, and possibly other Arctic herbivores, may be more resilient to changing body condition than expected. In this thesis, I highlight the sensitivity, but also resilience, of an Arctic herbivore population to climate change, and other sources of environmental change, and the complex mechanisms by which effects of climate change are translated into changes in population dynamics and abundance. The dynamics of this population were predominantly driven by variation in reproduction, which is the demographic rate most affected by climate change, directly and indirectly. However, mechanisms buffering population dynamics against environmental variation were also evident, such as the lack of demographic effects of declining body condition on the population growth rate. Overall, this work illustrates that a holistic approach, jointly modelling vital rates and the mechanisms for how they influence population dynamics, are necessary to understand effects of e.g. climate change
Spatiosonic dialogues: Exploring architecture's role in music composition and performance
No full textThis chapter reflects on a project made as part of a larger body of practice-based architectural research which examines poetic and practical relationships between the spatial and sonic practices of making space and making sound, through the medium of site-responsive composition. The project compares two performance spaces with extremely contrasting acoustic characteristics, as a means of examining these relationships in detail. Historically, architecture and music have enjoyed a productive symbiosis, as evidenced in the spatially diverse compositions of Adrian Willaert (c. 1490) and more recently in collaborations such as the one between composer Luigi Nono and architect Renzo Piano for the opera Prometeo (1984). To build upon such work, this chapter discusses the composition and performance of a duet, created by the author. This duet was performed at the acoustically dry location of an anechoic chamber at University College London and at the acoustically reflective space of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família (BSF) in 2017. The Sagrada Familia’s interior has an average reverberation time of approximately 12 seconds. This is problematic for achieving speech intelligibility in the delivery of sermons. Many engineers and designers have attempted to fix this problem with proposals to retrofit acoustic absorbers. However, the composition discussed in this paper takes advantage of this unique condition, by locating musicians at different points around the space and using the building’s reverberation to blend their soloistic parts into a series of undulating harmonic events. By contrast, the anechoic chamber offers a completely dry acoustic condition. This project examines the role of architecture in musical performance. It comes at a time when concert hall design is becoming more standardised due to design trends that favour acoustic certainty for clients and occupants. In this research, Architecture is examined as an active component of music composition and performance as opposed to a mere container for such events
Guidelines for Data Annotation
No full textIncluded here are a coding manual and supplementary examples of gesture forms (in still images and video recordings) that informed the coding of the first author (Kate Mesh) and four project reliability coders
Declining Unionization, Rising Inequality: an Interview with Kate Bronfenbrenner
No full textKate Bronfenbrenner is director of labor education research at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She worked for many years as an organizer with the United Woodcutters Association in Mississippi and the Service Employees International Union in Boston. She is the author, co-author and editor of numerous books and articles on union strategies
Kate Richards: madness
No full textKate Richards’ bleakly beautiful, confronting and important book, Madness: A Memoir, describes her 15 years coping with psychosis and depression, and her long, hard-won journey back to sanity, with the help of a wise and compassionate psychologist.
In this video, she speaks with Ranjana Srivastava, an oncologist and fellow author, about her experience – and about being able to write from deep within it, with expertise as both a medical researcher and writer.
 
Book signing by SC author and illustrator Kate Salley Palmer
No full textPhotograph of Book signing by SC author and illustrator Kate Salley Palme
SC author and illustrator Kate Salley Palmer signing book
No full textPhotograph of SC author and illustrator Kate Salley Palmer signing boo
Replication Data for Statistical Analysis
No full textIncluded here is a dataset with gesture form coding from the study author (Kate Mesh). Statistical analysis of the dataset was performed using R version 3.6.1 (R Core Team, 2019), with the package, lmer (Bates, Maechler, Bolcher & Walker, 2015). An R script is attached for the purposes of replication.
R Core Team (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/.
Douglas Bates, Martin Maechler, Ben Bolker, Steve Walker (2015). Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1-48. doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Influence of health-system change on treatment burden: a systematic review
No full textBackground: Treatment burden is a patient-centred concept describing the effort required of people to look after their health and the impact this has on their functioning and wellbeing. High treatment burden is more likely for people with multiple long-term conditions (LTCs). Validated treatment burden measures exist, but have not been widely used in practice or as research outcomes. Aim: To establish whether changes in organisation and delivery of health systems and services improve aspects contributing to treatment burden for people with multiple LTCs. Design and setting: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the impact of system-level interventions on at least one outcome relevant to previously defined treatment burden domains among adults with ≥2 LTCs. Method The Embase, Ovid MEDLINE, and Web of Science electronic databases were searched for terms related to multimorbidity, system-level change, and treatment burden published between January 2010 and July 2021. Treatment burden domains were derived from validated measures and qualitative literature. Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) methodology was used to synthesise results and study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias (version 2) tool. Results: The searches identified 1881 articles, 18 of which met the review inclusion criteria. Outcomes were grouped into seven domains. There was some evidence for the effect of system-level interventions on some domains, but the studies exhibited substantial heterogeneity, limiting the synthesis of results. Some concern over bias gave low confidence in study results. Conclusion: System-level interventions may affect some treatment burden domains. However, adoption of a standardised outcome set, incorporating validated treatment burden measures, and the development of standard definitions for care processes in future research would aid study comparability
Oral history interview with Kate Hart
No full textKate Hart, author and artist, talks her youth and how she became interested in writing young adult literature. She discusses her book, After the Fall, explaining the circumstances that led her to write the book. Hart comments on the creativity side as well as her process of writing and briefly talks about some of her other work.The Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Collection is a series of interviews with authors who discuss their lives, work, and creative processes
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