Performing right: legal constraints and Beckett’s plays on BBC television

Drawing on BBC archival documentation, this article outlines how BBC television versions of Beckett’s plays were affected by copyright. Rights to record and broadcast original drama for the screen differ from those governing adaptations of existing theatre plays. Rights can be assigned for specific territories and periods of time, and are negotiated and traded via complex contractual agreements. Examining how Beckett’s agents and the BBC dealt with rights sheds new light on the history of his work on television.

Experimental evolution for generalists and specialists reveals multivariate genetic constraints on thermal reaction norms

Theory predicts the emergence of generalists in variable environments and antagonistic pleiotropy to favour specialists in constant environments, but empirical data seldom support such generalist–specialist trade-offs. We selected for generalists and specialists in the dung fly Sepsis punctum (Diptera: Sepsidae) under conditions that we predicted would reveal antagonistic pleiotropy and multivariate trade-offs underlying thermal reaction norms for juvenile development. We performed replicated laboratory evolution using four treatments: adaptation at a hot (31 °C) or a cold (15 °C) temperature, or under regimes fluctuating between these temperatures, either within or between generations. After 20 generations, we assessed parental effects and genetic responses of thermal reaction norms for three correlated life-history traits: size at maturity, juvenile growth rate and juvenile survival. We find evidence for antagonistic pleiotropy for performance at hot and cold temperatures, and a temperature-mediated trade-off between juvenile survival and size at maturity, suggesting that trade-offs associated with environmental tolerance can arise via intensified evolutionary compromises between genetically correlated traits. However, despite this antagonistic pleiotropy, we found no support for the evolution of increased thermal tolerance breadth at the expense of reduced maximal performance, suggesting low genetic variance in the generalist–specialist dimension.

Morphological awareness and reading development in bilingual English-Chinese children in Singapore

Addressing two aspects of morphological awareness – derivational and compound, this study investigates the relationships between morphological awareness and vocabulary and reading comprehension in English-Chinese bilingual primary 3 children in Singapore (N = 76). Comparable tasks in Chinese and English were administered to examine the children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The results show that morphological awareness is highly related to vocabulary and reading comprehension, with higher correlations between morphological awareness and reading comprehension than between morphological awareness and vocabulary. This indicates that morphological awareness may have direct influence on reading comprehension beyond the mediating effect of vocabulary. Furthermore, the results indicate that children displayed more compound than derivational morphological awareness for Chinese due to the dominance of compound morphology in Chinese. However the children also displayed similar levels of derivational and compound morphological awareness for English despite far more derivatives than compounds in English. The robust cross-linguistic correlations suggest that Chinese compound morphological knowledge plays a facilitating role not only in learning English compounds, but also in learning transparently derived words that do not involve phonological or orthographic shifts.

Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: evidence from eye movements during reading

A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.

Physiological and morphological adaptations of herbaceous perennial legumes allow differential access to sources of varyingly soluble phosphate

The aim of this study was to investigate the capacity of three perennial legume species to access sources of varyingly soluble phosphorus (P) and their associated morphological and physiological adaptations. Two Australian native legumes with pasture potential (Cullen australasicum and Kennedia prostrata) and Medicago sativa cv. SARDI 10 were grown in sand under two P levels (6 and 40 µg P g−1) supplied as Ca(H2PO4)2·H2O (Ca-P, highly soluble, used in many fertilizers) or as one of three sparingly soluble forms: Ca10(OH)2(PO4)6 (apatite-P, found in relatively young soils; major constituent of rock phosphate), C6H6O24P6Na12 (inositol-P, the most common form of organic P in soil) and FePO4 (Fe-P, a poorly-available inorganic source of P). All species grew well with soluble P. When 6 µg P g−1 was supplied as sparingly soluble P, plant dry weight (DW) and P uptake were very low for C. australasicum and M. sativa (0.1–0.4 g DW) with the exception of M. sativa supplied with apatite-P (1.5 g). In contrast, K. prostrata grew well with inositol-P (1.0 g) and Fe-P (0.7 g), and even better with apatite-P (1.7 g), similar to that with Ca-P (1.9 g). Phosphorus uptake at 6 µg P g−1 was highly correlated with total root length, total rhizosphere carboxylate content and total rhizosphere acid phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.2) activity. These findings provide strong indications that there are opportunities to utilize local Australian legumes in low P pasture systems to access sparingly soluble soil P and increase perennial legume productivity, diversity and sustainability.

Observational constraints on atmospheric and oceanic cross-equatorial heat transports: revisiting the precipitation asymmetry problem in climate models

Satellite based top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and surface radiation budget observations are combined with mass corrected vertically integrated atmospheric energy divergence and tendency from reanalysis to infer the regional distribution of the TOA, atmospheric and surface energy budget terms over the globe. Hemispheric contrasts in the energy budget terms are used to determine the radiative and combined sensible and latent heat contributions to the cross-equatorial heat transports in the atmosphere (AHT_EQ) and ocean (OHT_EQ). The contrast in net atmospheric radiation implies an AHT_EQ from the northern hemisphere (NH) to the southern hemisphere (SH) (0.75 PW), while the hemispheric difference in sensible and latent heat implies an AHT_EQ in the opposite direction (0.51 PW), resulting in a net NH to SH AHT_EQ (0.24 PW). At the surface, the hemispheric contrast in the radiative component (0.95 PW) dominates, implying a 0.44 PW SH to NH OHT_EQ. Coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 (CMIP5) models with excessive net downward surface radiation and surface-to-atmosphere sensible and latent heat transport in the SH relative to the NH exhibit anomalous northward AHT_EQ and overestimate SH tropical precipitation. The hemispheric bias in net surface radiative flux is due to too much longwave surface radiative cooling in the NH tropics in both clear and all-sky conditions and excessive shortwave surface radiation in the SH subtropics and extratropics due to an underestimation in reflection by clouds.

Variation in morphological and physiological parameters in herbaceous perennial legumes in response to phosphorus supply

Change in morphological and physiological parameters in response to phosphorus (P) supply was studied in 11 perennial herbaceous legume species, six Australian native (Lotus australis, Cullen australasicum, Kennedia prorepens, K. prostrata, Glycine canescens, C. tenax) and five exotic species (Medicago sativa, Lotononis bainesii, Bituminaria bituminosa var albomarginata, Lotus corniculatus, Macroptilium bracteatum). We aimed to identify mechanisms for P acquisition from soil. Plants were grown in sterilised washed river sand; eight levels of P as KH2PO4 ranging from 0 to 384 μg P g−1 soil were applied. Plant growth under low-P conditions strongly correlated with physiological P-use efficiency and/or P-uptake efficiency. Taking all species together, at 6 μg P g−1 soil there was a good correlation between P uptake and both root surface area and total root length. All species had higher amounts of carboxylates in the rhizosphere under a low level of P application. Six of the 11 species increased the fraction of rhizosphere citrate in response to low P, which was accompanied by a reduction in malonate, except L. corniculatus. In addition, species showed different plasticity in response to P-application levels and different strategies in response to P deficiency. Our results show that many of the 11 species have prospects for low-input agroecosystems based on their high P-uptake and P-use efficiency.

Morphological and fecundity traits of Culex mosquitoes caught in gravid traps in urban and rural Berkshire, UK

Culex pipiens s.l. is one of the primary vectors of West Nile Virus in the USA and Continental Europe. The seasonal abundance and eco-behavioural characteristics of the typical form, Cx. pipiens pipiens, make it a key putative vector in Britain. Surveillance of Culex larvae and adults is essential to detect any changes to spatial and seasonal activity or morphological traits that may increase the risk of disease transmission. Here we report the use of the modified Reiter gravid box trap, which is commonly used in the USA but scarcely used in the UK, to assess its suitability as a tool for British female Culex mosquito surveillance. Trapping was carried out at 110 sites in urban and rural gardens in Berkshire in May, July and September 2013. We tested if reproductively active adult female Culex are more abundant in urban than rural gardens and if wing characteristic traits and egg raft size are influenced by location and seasonal variations. Gravid traps were highly selective for Culex mosquitoes, on average catching significantly more per trap in urban gardens (32.4 ± 6.2) than rural gardens (19.3 ± 4.0) and more in July than in May or September. The majority of females were caught alive in a good condition. Wing lengths were measured as an indicator of size. Females flying in September were significantly smaller than females in May or July. Further non-significant differences in morphology and fecundity between urban and rural populations were found that should be explored further across the seasons.

Earth hummocks in north-east Okstindan, northern Norway: morphology, distribution and environmental constraints

Earth hummocks (also termed pounus or thúfur) are a common form of periglacial non-sorted patterned ground. The study objectives were to determine the morphology, distribution and development on slopes of earth hummocks in north-east Okstindan, Norway, an area with many hummocks but few documented accounts. The methodology involved detailed geomorphological mapping and precise measurement with a profileometer. The internal structure of the hummocks was investigated through excavations and sediment sample analyses. Fourteen sites with well-developed earth hummocks (accounting for over 650 individual hummock forms) were investigated. The sites have an average altitude of 750 m and occur on slopes with an average gradient of 7°. The hummock heights are in the range 0.11–0.52 m and their diameters 0.7–1.5 m, although coalescent forms are up to 5 m in length. The hummock morphology is characterised by a variable plan form, asymmetry with respect to upslope and downslope forms, downslope elongation, coalescence, and superimposed microtopography. The hummocks’ distribution appeared to have been controlled by the existence of a frost-susceptible ‘host’ sediment, but moisture availability and topographic position played a role. The authors conclude that differential frost heave and vegetation cover stability are critical for the hummocks’ longevity in the studied landscape.

Relative importance of transpiration rate and leaf morphological traits for the regulation of leaf temperature

Urban greening solutions such as green roofs help improve residents’ thermal comfort and building insulation. However, not all plants provide the same level of cooling. This is partially due to differences in plant structure and function, including different mechanisms that plants employ to regulate leaf temperature. Ranking of multiple leaf/plant traits involved in the regulation of leaf temperature (and, consequently, plants’ cooling ‘service’) is not well understood. We therefore investigated the relative importance of water loss, leaf colour, thickness and extent of pubescence for the regulation of leaf temperature, in the context of species for semi-extensive green roofs. Leaf temperature were measured with an infrared imaging camera in a range of contrasting genotypes within three plant genera (Heuchera, Salvia and Sempervivum). In three glasshouse experiments (each evaluating three or four genotypes of each genera) we varied water availability to the plants and assessed how leaf temperature altered depending on water loss and specific leaf traits. Greatest reductions in leaf temperature were closely associated with higher water loss. Additionally, in non-succulents (Heuchera, Salvia), lighter leaf colour and longer hair length (on pubescent leaves) both contributed to reduced leaf temperature. However, in succulent Sempervivum, colour/pubescence made no significant contribution; leaf thickness and water loss rate were the key regulating factors. We propose that this can lead to different plant types having significantly different potentials for cooling. We suggest that maintaining transpirational water loss by sustainable irrigation and selecting urban plants with favourable morphological traits is the key to maximising thermal benefits provided by applications such as green roofs.

Intraspecific trait variation is correlated with establishment success of alien mammals

Many studies have aimed to identify common predictors of successful introductions of alien species, but the search has had limited success, particularly for animals. Past research focused primarily on mean trait values, even though genetic and phenotypic variation has been shown to play a role in establishment success in plants and some animals (mostly invertebrates). Using a global database describing 511 introduction events representing 97 mammalian species, we show that intraspecific variation in morphological traits is associated with establishment success, even when controlling for the positive effect of propagule pressure. In particular, greater establishment success is associated with more variation in adult body size but, surprisingly, less variation in neonate body size, potentially reflecting distinct trade-offs and constraints that influence population dynamics differently. We find no mean trait descriptors associated with establishment success, although species occupying wider native distribution ranges (which likely have larger niches) are more successful. Our results emphasize the importance of explicitly considering intraspecific variation to predict establishment success in animal species and generally to understand population dynamics. This understanding might improve management of alien species and increase the success of intentional releases, for example, for biocontrol or reintroductions.