Middle to late Holocene chironomid-inferred July temperatures for the central Northwest Territories, Canada

We analyzed subfossil chironomids, sediment organic matter and sediment particle size data from a 1.11-m-long freeze core collected from Carleton Lake (unofficial name), located approximately 120 km north of the modern treeline. This well-dated core spans the last ca. 6,500 years. Two chironomid transfer functions were applied to infer mean July air temperatures. Our results indicated that the chironomid-inferred temperatures from this lake sediment record did not pass a significance test, suggesting that other factors in addition to temperature may have been important in structuring the chironomid community through time. Although not statistically significant, the chironomid-inferred temperatures from this site do follow a familiar pattern, with highest inferred temperatures occurring during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (~6–4 cal kyr BP), followed by a long-term cooling trend, which is reversed during the last 600 years. The largest change in the chironomid assemblage, which occurred between ca. 4,600 and 3,900 cal yr BP is possibly related to the well-documented northward advance and subsequent retreat of treeline in this region.

Does wave exposure determine the interactive effects of losing key grazers and ecosystem engineers?

The consequences of biodiversity loss in the face of environmental change remain difficult to predict, given the complexity of interactions among species and the context-dependency of their functional roles within ecosystems. Predictions may be enhanced by studies testing how the interactive effects of species loss from different functional groups vary with important environmental drivers. On rocky shores, limpets and barnacles are recognised as key grazers and ecosystem engineers, respectively. Despite the large body of research examining the combined effects of limpet and barnacle removal, it is unclear how their relative importance varies according to wave exposure, which is a dominant force structuring intertidal communities. We tested the responses of algal communities to the removal of limpets and barnacles on three sheltered and three wave-exposed rocky shores on the north coast of Ireland. Limpet removal resulted in a relative increase in microalgal biomass on a single sheltered shore only, but led to the enhanced accumulation of ephemeral macroalgae on two sheltered shores and one exposed shore. On average, independently of wave exposure or shore, ephemeral macroalgae increased in response to limpet removal, but only when barnacles were removed. On two sheltered shores and one exposed shore, however, barnacles facilitated the establishment of fucoid macroalgae following limpet removal. Therefore, at the scale of this study, variability among individual shores was more important than wave exposure per se in determining the effect of limpet removal and its interaction with that of barnacles. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the interactive effects of losing key species from different functional groups may not vary predictably according to dominant environmental factors.

SURFACE-PLASMON ENHANCED LASER-ABLATION OF THIN METAL-FILMS

Surface plasmon enhancement of laser ablation of thin Al films is examined with a view to its application in metal film patterning and nano-structuring. Al films, deposited on silica prisms, are first characterized by attenuated total reflection using a broadband UV source and appropriate interference filter. The films are subsequently subjected to excimer laser radiation of wavelength 248 nm under conditions both of direct incidence from the air side of the film, and of surface plasmon excitation in which light is incident through the prism at greater than critical angle. For a given level of ablation damage in a particular film the fluence required using the surface plasmon technique is 3-5 times less than that needed when direct incidence is used. This is roughly in line with the energy absorbed in the film. From a practical standpoint it is clear that ablation of metal films can be achieved with much lower fluences than has hitherto been possible, thus reducing the requirements on laser output and relaxing the power handling constraints on any input optical elements.

Viscosity and Carbon Dioxide Solubility for LiPF6, LiTFSI, and LiFAP in Alkyl Carbonates: Lithium Salt Nature and Concentration Effect

Middleware mechanisms for agent mobility in wireless sensor and actuator networks

This paper describes middleware-level support for agent mobility, targeted at hierarchically structured wireless sensor and actuator network applications. Agent mobility enables a dynamic deployment and adaptation of the application on top of the wireless network at runtime, while allowing the middleware to optimize the placement of agents, e.g., to reduce wireless network traffic, transparently to the application programmer. The paper presents the design of the mechanisms and protocols employed to instantiate agents on nodes and to move agents between nodes. It also gives an evaluation of a middleware prototype running on Imote2 nodes that communicate over ZigBee. The results show that our implementation is reasonably efficient and fast enough to support the envisioned functionality on top of a commodity multi-hop wireless technology. Our work is to a large extent platform-neutral, thus it can inform the design of other systems that adopt a hierarchical structuring of mobile components. © 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

Population genetic analyses reveal distinct geographical blooms of the jellyfish Rhizostoma octopus (Scyhpozoa)

Understanding the spatial integrity and connectivity of jellyfish blooms is important for ecologists and coastal stakeholders alike. Previous studies have shown that the distribution of jellyfish blooms can display a marked consistency in space and time, suggesting that such patterns cannot be attributed to passive processes alone. In the present study, we used a combination of microsatellite markers and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequences to investigate genetic structuring of the scyphozoan jellyfish Rhizostoma octopus in the Irish and Celtic Seas. The mitochondrial data indicated far higher levels of population differentiation than the microsatellites: ΦST[MT] = 0.300 vs. ΦST[NUC] = 0.013. Simulation studies indicated that the low levels of nuclear differentiation were not the result of limited power because of low levels of polymorphism. These findings, supported by palaeodistribution modelling and mismatch distribution analysis, are consistent with expansion of R. octopus from a single, limited refugium after the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by subsequent isolation, and that the discrepancy between the mitochondrial and nuclear markers is a result of the nuclear loci taking longer to reach mutation–drift equilibrium following the expansion as a result of their four-fold larger effective population size. The populations studied are probably not well connected via gene flow, and thus genetically as well as geographically distinct, although our findings also highlight the need to use a combination of organellar and nuclear markers to enable a more complete understanding of population demography and structure, particularly for species with large effective population sizes.

A STUDY ON THE HOLOGRAPHIC TRANSFORM FOR ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION FROM SURFACES

We break down photoelectron diffraction intensities into four terms in analogy to optical holography and discuss the effect of each term on reconstructed images. The second term involving products of scattered waves SIGMA-SIGMA-O(i)O(j)*, is in this case not structure-less. Theoretical analysis and simulations demonstrate that this term may lead to spurious features in real space images in holographic transforms of medium energy electron diffraction patterns. If it is small enough the problem may be overcome by an iterative correction process.

MHD wave modes resolved in fine-scale chromospheric magnetic structures

Within the last decade, due to significant improvements in the spatial and temporal resolution of chromospheric data, magneto hydrodynamic (MHD)wave studies in this fascinating region of the Sun's atmosphere have risen to the forefront of solar physics research. In this review we begin by reviewing the challenges and debates that have manifested in relation to MHD wave mode identification in fine-scale chromosphericmagnetic structures, including spicules, fibrils and mottles. Next we goon to discuss how the process of accurately identifying MHD wave modes also has a crucial role to play in estimating their wave energy flux.This is of cardinal importance for estimating what the possible contribution of MHD waves is to solar atmospheric heating. Finally, we detail how such advances in chromospheric MHD wave studies have also allowed us, for the first time, to implement cutting-edge magneto seismological techniques that provide new insight into the sub-resolution plasma structuring of the lower solar atmosphere.

High-resolution genetic analysis reveals extensive gene flow within the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca (Scyphozoa) in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea

Despite the importance of gelatinous zooplankton as components of marine ecosystems, both ecologically and socio-economically, relatively little is known about population persistence or connectivity in jellyfish. In the present study, we employed a combination of nuclear microsatellite markers and sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene to determine levels and patterns of population genetic structuring in the holoplanktonic jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca across the northeast Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Our results indicate a high degree of connectivity in P. noctiluca, with little evidence of geographical structuring of genetic variation. A small but significant differentiation of Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean stocks was detected based on the microsatellite data, but no evidence of differentiation was observed with the mtDNA, probably due to the higher power of the microsatellites to detect low levels of genetic structuring. Two clearly distinct groups of genotypes were observed within the mtDNA COI, which probably diverged in the early Pleistocene, but with no evidence of geographical structuring. Palaeodistribution modelling of P. noctiluca at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ca. 21 KYA) indicated large areas of suitable habitat south of the species’ current-day distribution, with little reduction in area. The congruent evidence for minimal genetic differentiation from the nuclear microsatellites and the mtDNA, coupled with the results of the palaeodistribution modelling, supports the idea of long-term population stability and connectivity, thus providing key insights into the population dynamics and demography of this important species

Architecture as Pedagogy: Alive and Kicking

This workshop draws on an emerging collaborative body of research by Lovett, Morrow and McClean that aims to understand architecture and its processes as a form of pedagogical practice: a civic pedagogy.

Architectural education can be valued not only as a process that delivers architecture-specific skills and knowledges, but also as a process that transforms people into critically active contributors to society. We are keen to examine how and where those skills are developed in architectural education and trace their existence and/or application within practice. We intend to examine whether some architectural and spatial practices are intrinsically pedagogical in their nature and how the level of involvement of clients, users and communities can mimic the project-based learning of architectural education – in particularly in the context of ‘live project learning’

1. This workshop begins with a brief discussion paper from Morrow that sets out the arguments behind why and how architecture can be understood as pedagogy. It will do so by presenting firstly the relationship between architectural practice and pedagogy, drawing out both contemporary and historical examples of architecture and architects acting pedagogically. It will also consider some other forms of creative practice that explicitly frame themselves pedagogically, and focus on participatory approaches in architectural practice that overlap with inclusive and live pedagogies, concluding with a draft and tentative abstracted pedagogical framework for architectural practice.

2. Lovett will examine practices of architectural operation that have a pedagogical approach, or which recognise within themselves an educational subtext/current. He is most interested in a 'liveness' beyond the 'Architectural Education' of university institutions. The presentation will question the scope for both spatial empowerment / agency and a greater understanding and awareness of the value of good design when operating as architects with participant-clients younger than 18, older than 25 or across varied parts of society. Positing that the learning might be greatest when there are no prescribed 'Learning Outcomes' and that such work might depend on risk-taking and playfulness, the presentation will be a curated showcase drawing on his own ongoing work.

Both brief presentations will inform the basis of the workshop’s discussion which hopes to draw on participants views and expereinces to enrich the research process. The intention is that the overall workshop will lead to a call for contributors and respondents to a forthcoming publication on ‘Architecture as Pedagogy’.

Stock structure of Atlantic herring Clupea harengus in the Norwegian Sea and adjacent waters

The genetic structure of Atlantic herring Clupea harengus L. was investigated in its north-easterly distribution in the Norwegian Sea and adjacent waters, using 23 neutral and one non-neutral (Cpa111) microsatellite loci. Fish from the suspected 2 main populations - the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (NSSH) and the Icelandic summer-spawning herring (ISSH) - were collected at spawning locations in their respective spawning seasons from 2009 to 2012. Samples were also collected from Norwegian autumn spawning locations, from different local Norwegian fjords such as the inner part of Trondheimsfjorden, Lindås pollene, Landvikvannet and Lusterfjorden, as well as from suspected Faroese spawning components. The observed level of genetic differentiation was significant but low (F_ST = 0.007) and mostly attributable to the differentiation of the local Norwegian fjord populations. The locus Cpa111, which was detected to putatively be under positive selection, exhibited the highest FST value (0.044). The observed genetic patterns were robust to exclusion of this locus. Landvikvannet herring was also genetically distinguishable from the 3 other fjord populations. In addition, the present study does not support genetic structuring among the ISSH and the NSSH.

Prying into the intimate secrets of animal lives; software beyond hardware for comprehensive annotation in 'Daily Diary' tags

BACKGROUND: Smart tags attached to freely-roaming animals recording multiple parameters at infra-second rates are becoming commonplace, and are transforming our understanding of the way wild animals behave. Interpretation of such data is complex and currently limits the ability of biologists to realise the value of their recorded information.

DESCRIPTION: This work presents Framework4, an all-encompassing software suite which operates on smart sensor data to determine the 4 key elements considered pivotal for movement analysis from such tags (Endangered Species Res 4: 123-37, 2008). These are; animal trajectory, behaviour, energy expenditure and quantification of the environment in which the animal moves. The program transforms smart sensor data into dead-reckoned movements, template-matched behaviours, dynamic body acceleration-derived energetics and position-linked environmental data before outputting it all into a single file. Biologists are thus left with a single data set where animal actions and environmental conditions can be linked across time and space.

CONCLUSIONS: Framework4 is a user-friendly software that assists biologists in elucidating 4 key aspects of wild animal ecology using data derived from tags with multiple sensors recording at high rates. Its use should enhance the ability of biologists to derive meaningful data rapidly from complex data.