Parental exposure to elevated pCO2 influences the reproductive success of copepods

Substantial variations are reported for egg production and hatching rates of copepods exposed to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations (pCO2). One possible explanation, as found in other marine taxa, is that prior parental exposure to elevated pCO2 (and/or decreased pH) affects reproductive performance. Previous studies have adopted two distinct approaches, either (1) expose male and female copepoda to the test pCO2/pH scenarios, or (2) solely expose egg-laying females to the tests. Although the former approach is more realistic, the majority of studies have used the latter approach. Here, we investigated the variation in egg production and hatching success of Acartia tonsa between these two experimental designs, across five different pCO2 concentrations (385–6000 µatm pCO2). In addition, to determine the effect of pCO2 on the hatching success with no prior parental exposure, eggs produced and fertilized under ambient conditions were also exposed to these pCO2 scenarios. Significant variations were found between experimental designs, with approach (1) resulting in higher impacts; here >20% difference was seen in hatching success between experiments at 1000 µatm pCO2 scenarios (2100 year scenario), and >85% at 6000 µatm pCO2. This study highlights the potential to misrepresent the reproductive response of a species to elevated pCO2 dependent on parental exposure.

Responses to interactive playback predict future pairing success in nightingales

Birdsong is a sexually selected trait that serves in territory defence and mate choice. Individual song traits can be affected by the body condition of the male and thus may reflect his quality. Such relations between male quality and general singing performance raise the question whether differences in male quality also affect response strategies used in dyadic interactions. To address this question, we studied the relation between pairing success of male common nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos, and their responses to rivals posing different levels of threat. Using interactive playback, we exposed males prior to mating to either aggressively or moderately singing rivals (by song overlapping and song alternating, respectively). Males that remained unpaired throughout the season (bachelors) interrupted their singing significantly more often after being overlapped than after alternating playback, whereas subsequently mated males kept the number of singing interruptions more constant across playback treatment. This suggests that subsequently paired males are less discriminative than are bachelors when challenged by rivals varying in aggressiveness. Regardless of playback treatment, males that later became paired responded significantly more strongly than did bachelor males. Thus, an increase in singing after a vocal interaction prior to mating predicted future mating success. (c) 2006 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aggressive responses to broadband trills are related to subsequent pairing success in nightingales

In sexually selected signals, distinct components often have specific signal value in mate choice or male-male competition. In songbirds, structural song traits such as trills, that is, a series of repetitive notes, can be important in female choice. However, little is known about their signal value in male-male interactions. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that males assess the competitive abilities of rivals based on the use and performance of rapid broadband trills produced within songs. Using a 2-speaker playback experiment, we exposed territorial male nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos, that differed in their subsequent pairing success, to a simulated vocal interaction between 2 unfamiliar rivals. The singing of the 2 simulated rivals differed in the number of songs containing rapid broadband trills. Subjects responded significantly more strongly to the loudspeaker that broadcast songs containing such trills than to the loudspeaker that broadcast exclusively songs without such trills. Moreover, responses also depended on the fine structure of trills. Males that became paired later in the season significantly increased their response intensity with increasing trill performance, whereas males that remained unpaired responded in the opposite way and decreased their response intensity with increasing trill performance. These results indicate that rapid broadband trills are a signal of aggression and that the nature of the response in vocal interactions reflects aspects of the challenged male's fitness. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved.


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Meeting the Requirements of the CDM Regulations: Identification of Critical Success Factors of Small to Medium Sized Contractor’ Compliance in the UK Construction Industry

The Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations (2007) is one of the most important set of health and safety regulations in the construction industry today. The aim of this research is to examine critical success factors for CDM compliance in small to medium size contractors in the UK construction industry. The objectives of the research include the identification of critical barriers in doing so along with the identification of success factors where CDM is incorporated. A mixed method approach is adopted in the identification and categorisation of the various factors encompassing a literature review, interviews and questionnaire survey. The key finding which emerge is the lack of knowledge and understanding with regards the CDM regulations with the recommendation to encourage small and medium contractor compliance through illustrating the benefits attainable. The practicality of the research is evident based on the significant uptake in the CDM by larger contractors, yet the research indicates that further insight and guidance is required to educate and inform those working within small to medium sized contractors in the UK. Where such acknowledgement and compliance is adopted, it is envisaged that this sector will benefit from reduced incidents and accidents, increased productivity while ultimately leading to a safer and more productive industry as a whole.

Cradling ashes : a surrealist opera : how music and psychology can function together to express depraved heart syndrome : for countertenor, soprano, tenor, violin, viola, horn in F, piano, and tape.

Original wav file in this record was 0 bytes; re-extracted a new wav file from the CD in Special Collections Nov 2016 and replaced the original wav file in this record.

An Evaluative Case Study of a Career Coaching Approach to Improving Student Placement Success in a UK Business School

Describes the innovative approach adopted in a UK business school to improve the number of student placements. A module was designed to provide students with the skills to search, apply for and gain a year-long placement as part of a degree ‘sandwich’ course. A blend of workshops, recorded lectures, online formative feedback exercises and one-to-one career coaching created a tailored, practical approach to skill enhancement. This session provides the presentation of the adopted methodology the results of the evaluative research, a live demonstration of the coaching approach and a discussion with the audience of ideas for development of the approach.

How to take advantage of wine tourism: Creation of a new concept for central Alentejo based on its potential and worldwide success factors

Wine Tourism is gaining importance in today’s world and more destinations and establishments have been arising. After understanding the importance of this economic activity and the factors it must have to succeed, a new project was conceived for Central Alentejo taking into account its potential. This project is an example of how to take advantage of Wine Tourism in wine regions that are underexplored, such as Aldeias de Montoito, the village near Redondo to which a Business Plan will be created, explaining the strategies to pursue in order to have a successful Wine Tourism destination.

Leadership in Angola and Mozambique: How Portuguese leaders overcome the human resources challenge and contribute to organizational success

This Work Project presents human resources as one of the major challenges that Portuguese leaders meet in Angola and Mozambique. The main goal is to understand the role of leaders in translating this challenge into benefits for their own business and the African society. To conduct this study 13 leaders who work in Portugal and Africa were interviewed. Then, a framework was constructed based on the two ways these leaders recognize the importance of their employees for sustainable growth – financial incentives or/and personal development. The main conclusion here is that individually, incentives and personal development are not effective methods. Because of this, an employee empowerment process is proposed that encloses both, along with the leaders’ personal qualities needed to implement that “ideal” process.

Cultured human fetal astrocytes can be induced by interferon-gamma to express HLA-DR.

Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) modulates the expression of Class II major histocompatibility antigens (MHC), thus providing a potential regulatory mechanism for local immune reactivity in the context of MHC-restricted antigen presentation. Within the central nervous system (CNS), the expression of MHC Class II antigens has been demonstrated on human reactive astrocytes and glioma cells. In order to investigate the modulation of HLA-DR on normal astrocytes, two cell lines were grown from a 20-week-old fetal brain. In situ none of the fetal brain cells expressed HLA-DR as determined by immunohistology on frozen tissue sections. The two cell lines, FB I and FB II, expressed GFAP indicating their astrocytic origin. FB I was HLA-DR negative at the first tissue culture passages, but could be induced to express HLA-DR when treated with 500 U/ml IFN-gamma. FB II was spontaneously HLA-DR positive in the early passages, lost the expression of this antigen after 11 passages and could also be induced to express HLA-DR by IFN-gamma. The induction of HLA-DR expression was demonstrated both by a binding RIA and by immunoprecipitation using a monoclonal antibody (MAB) directed against a monomorphic determinant of HLA-DR. The HLA-DR alloantigens were determined on FB II cells after IFN-gamma treatment, by immunofluorescence and by cytotoxicity assays, and were shown to be DR4, DR6, Drw52, DRw53 and DQwl. These results show that human fetal astrocytes can be induced to express HLA-DR by IFN-gamma in vitro and support the concept that astrocytes may function as antigen-presenting cells.

Male body size and breeding tubercles are both linked to intra-sexual dominance and reproductive success in the minnow

Male dominance hierarchies are usually linked to relative body size and to weapon size, that is, to determinants of fighting ability. Secondary sexual characters that are not directly used as weapons could still be linked to dominance if they reveal determination or overall health and vigour and hence, indirectly, fighting ability. We studied the mating behaviour of the minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus, a cyprinid fish in which males develop breeding tubercles during the spawning season. The function of these breeding tubercles is still not clear. Using microsatellite markers, we determined male reproductive success under controlled conditions. The minnows were territorial and quickly established a dominance hierarchy at the beginning of the spawning season. Dominance was strongly and positively linked to fertilization success. Although body size and number of breeding tubercles were not significantly correlated in our sample, both large males and males with many breeding tubercles were more dominant and achieved higher fertilization success than small males or males with few tubercles. We found multimale fertilization in most clutches, suggesting that sperm competition is important in this species. Females showed behaviour that may be linked to spawning decision, that is, male dominance might not be the only determinant of male reproductive success in minnows

The Midnight express phenomenon : a historical materialist approach to the reception of the film Midnight express /

This thesis examines the Midnight Express phenomenon focusing on the film's reception by audiences in Europe, North America, and Turkey between 1978-2003. Using and enhancing the "historical materialist approach" to film reception developed by Janet Staiger, the thesis considers the historical determinants of the film's nationally and culturally differential readings in different periods and of the transformations in those readings. The thesis argues that while Midnight Express was most likely read in the late 1970s as an attempt to reaffirm American social identity by projecting Turks as an instance of the negative Other, there has been an important shift in the reception of the film in the West during the 1990s due to the changes in the discursive contexts in which the film has been circulating. One does not observe any specific reference to Turkish prisons as a part of the issue of human rights violations in Turkey in the initial reception of the film by European and American critics, whereas these issues appear to be important constituents of a particular reception of the film in the West in the present. The thesis explains this shift by pointing to the constitution of a particular discourse on human rights violations in Turkey after 1980, and especially throughout the 1990s, which has become a part of the discursive repertoires of the Western audience. Therefore, the thesis argues that today, Midnight Express functions as a more legitimate political statement about Turkey in the eyes of some Western audiences than it had been in the 1970s. On the other hand, parallel to the increasing desire of Turkey to connect itself to the West, particularly to become a member of the European Union, one observes an immense increase in the belief in and defense against the negative effects of Midnight Express on Turkey's international representation since the 1990s. The historical and current discourses that audiences, both in Turkey and abroad, bring into play suggest that these audiences engage with Midnight Express by assuming or denying not only the subject positions constructed by the film text but also certain history-specific extra-filmic subject positions produced by other social and discursive formations.

Aboriginal women in education : Honouring our experiences a vision of access to and success within the university

This thesis explores Aboriginal women's access to and success within universities through an examination of Aboriginal women's educational narratives, along with input from key service providers from both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community. Implemented through the Wildfire Research Method, participants engaged in a consensusbased vision of accessible education that honours the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical elements necessary for the success of Aboriginal women in university. This study positions Aboriginal women as agents of social change by allowing them to define their own needs and offer viable solutions to those needs. Further, it connects service providers from the many disconnected sectors that implicate Aboriginal women's education access. The realities of Aboriginal women are contextualized through historical, sociocultural, and political analyses, revealing the need for a decolonizing educational approach. This fosters a shift away from a deficit model toward a cultural and linguistic assets based approach that emphasizes the need for strong cultural identity formation. Participants revealed academic, cultural, and linguistic barriers and offered clear educational specifications for responsive and culturally relevant programming that will assist Aboriginal women in developing and maintaining strong cultural identities. Findings reveal the need for curriculum that focuses on decolonizing and reclaiming Aboriginal women's identities, and program outcomes that encourage balance between two worldviews-traditional and academic-through the application of cultural traditions to modern contexts, along with programming that responds to the immediate needs of Aboriginal women such as childcare, housing, and funding, and provide an opportunity for universities and educators to engage in responsive and culturally grounded educational approaches.