Predation in the marine intertidal amphipod Echinogammarus marinus Leach: implications of inter- and intra-individual variation

Studies of competition, predator–prey dynamics and food webs typically consider conspecifics as equal, however, individuals from the same population that are seemingly identical can show considerable variation with regards to a number of processes. Such phenomena may be demonstrated in terms of diet, and the quantities and types of resources that are consumed are commonly considered. The marine amphipod Echinogammarus marinus, a recently demonstrated predator on intertidal rocky shores, has been shown to consume a wide range of food types but it is unknown how this may vary between individuals. Here, we investigated the variation that occurs both among and within individuals of a population of E. marinus with respect to the mean numbers consumed of a common prey item, the isopod Jaera nordmanni. First, by comparing the length of starvation times, used as a proxy for hunger level, individuals maintained without food for up to 24 h consumed significantly less prey during feeding trials than those starved for 48 h and longer. The degree of inter-individual variation within each starvation period was also found to differ, with greater variation among individuals starved for shorter periods of time than those starved for longer time periods. Secondly, we tested whether individual amphipods tracked over time consumed consistently similar numbers of prey or whether they showed intra-individual variation, and if so, to what degree. We found that the numbers of prey consumed per individual could be predicted in the short-term between consecutive feeding trials, however over the long-term this relationship broke down. These results are discussed with respect to potential physiological and behavioural mechanisms, as well as the implications that such variation may have for stability of prey populations in the field.

Stable Isotope Dietary Analysis of Prehistoric Populations from the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia, Russia: A new chronological framework for the introduction of millet to the eastern Eurasian steppe

We report the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of 354 human and faunal samples from five archaeological cultures of the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia – Afanasyevo, Okunevo, Andronovo, Karasuk and Tagar (ca. 2700–1 BC) – a key location in Eurasia due to its position on a northern corridor linking China and central Eurasia. The results indicate that the diet of Eneolithic to Middle Bronze Age (Afanasyevo to Andronovo) populations was primarily C3-based, with C4 plants only becoming an important component of the diet in the Late Bronze Age Karasuk and Early Iron Age Tagar cultures. Freshwater fish seems to have been an important constituent of the diets in all groups. The findings constitute the earliest concrete evidence for the substantial use of millet in the eastern Eurasian steppe. We propose that it was probably introduced from Northwestern China during the Karasuk culture at the start of the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1500 BC. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the nature of pastoralist economies on the steppes.

Safe moving and handling of patients: an inter-professional approach

A gap in the medical undergraduate curriculum on safe moving and handling of patients was identified, and a project to enhance moving and handling education for undergraduates in various healthcare disciplines was undertaken. A team of nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and e-learning professionals developed a cross-discipline e-learning resource, piloted with medical and nursing students at Queen’s University Belfast. One outcome of the project was the development of a deeper recognition of the common curriculum across healthcare disciplines.

International inter-school competition to encourage children to walk to school: a mixed methods feasibility study.

Background: Active travel to school can be an important contributor to the total physical activity of children but levels have declined and more novel approaches are required to stimulate this as an habitual behaviour. The aim of this mixed methods study was to investigate the feasibility of an international walk to school competition supported by novel swipecard technology to increase children's walking to/from school. Methods: Children aged 9-13 years old participated in an international walk to school competition to win points for themselves, their school and their country over a 4-week period. Walks to and from school were recorded using swipecard technology and a bespoke website. For each point earned by participants, 1 pence (£0.01) was donated to the charity of the school's choice. The primary outcome was number of walks to/from school objectively recorded using the swipecard tracking system over the intervention period. Other measures included attitudes towards walking collected at baseline and week 4 (post-intervention). A qualitative sub-study involving focus groups with children, parents and teachers provided further insight. Results: A total of 3817 children (mean age 11.5±SD 0.7) from 12 schools in three cities (London and Reading, England and Vancouver, Canada) took part in the intervention, representing a 95% intervention participation rate. Results show a gradual decline in the average number of children walking to and from school over the 4-week period (week 1 mean 29%±SD2.5; week 2 mean 18%±SD3.6; week 3 mean 14%±SD4.0; week 4 mean 12%±SD1.1). Post intervention, 97% of children felt that walking to school helped them stay healthy, feel happy (81%) and stay alert in class (76%). These results are supported by qualitative findings from children, parents and teachers. Key areas for improvement include the need to incorporate strategies for maintenance of behaviour change into the intervention and also to adopt novel methods of data collection to increase follow-up rates. Conclusions: This mixed methods study suggests that an international walk to school competition using innovative technology can be feasibly implemented and offers a novel way of engaging schools and motivating children to walk to school.

Diagenetic Alterations and Reservoir Quality Evolution of Lower Cretaceous Fluvial Sandstones: Nubian Formation, Sirt Basin, North-Central Libya

Lower Cretaceous meandering and braided fluvial sandstones of the Nubian Formation form some of the most important subsurface reservoir rocks in the Sirt Basin, north-central Libya. Mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical analyses of sandstone samples from well BB6-59, Sarir oilfield, indicate that the meandering fluvial sandstones are fine- to very fine-grained subarkosic arenites (av. Q91F5L4), and that braided fluvial sandstones are medium- to very coarse-grained quartz arenites (av. Q96F3L1). The reservoir qualities of these sandstones were modified during both eodiagenesis (ca. <70oC; <2 km) and mesodiagenesis (ca. >70oC; >2km). Reservoir quality evolution was controlled primarily by the dissolution and kaolinitization of feldspars, micas and mud intraclasts during eodiagenesis, and by the amount and thicknessof grain-coating clays, chemical compaction and quartz overgrowths during mesodiagenesis. However, dissolution and kaolinitization of feldspars, micas and mud intraclasts resulted in the creation of intercrystalline micro- and mouldic macro-porosity and permeability during eodiagenesis, which were more widespread in braided fluvial than in meandering fluvial sandstones. This was because of the greater depositional porosity and permeability in the braided fluvial sandstones which enhanced percolation of meteoric waters. The development of only limited quartz overgrowths in the braided fluvial sandstones, in which quartz grains are coated by thick illite layers, retained high porosity and permeability (12-23 % and 30- 600 mD). By contrast, meandering fluvial sandstones underwent porosity loss as a result of quartz overgrowth development on quartz grains which lack or have thin and incomplete grain-coating illite (2-15 % and 0-0.1mD). Further loss of porosity in the meandering fluvial sandstones occurred as a result of chemical compaction (pressuredissolution) induced by the occurrence of micas along grains contacts. Otherdiagenetic alterations, such as the growth of pyrite, siderite, dolomite/ankerite and albitization, had little impact on reservoir quality. The albitization of feldspars may have had minor positive influence on reservoir quality throughthe creation of intercrystalline micro-porosity between albite crystals.The results of this study show that diagenetic modifications of the braided and meandering fluvial sandstones in the Nubian Formation, and resulting changes in reservoir quality, are closely linked to depositional porosity and permeability. They are also linked to the thickness of grain-coating infiltrated clays, and to variations in detrital composition, particularly the amounts of mud intraclasts, feldspars and mica grains as well as climatic conditions.

'Pues tanto se esconde': Elusion at (inter)play in Ana Caro's El conde Partinuplés

El conde Partinuplés (first published 1653) is one of only two extant plays written by the Sevillan poet/dramatist Ana Caro Mallén de Soto (‘la décima musa sevillana’). Despite McKendrick's dismissal of the play as ‘extremely bad’, it has been the object of substantial critical scrutiny since the 1970s, impelled in great part by the production of modern editions (Luna and Delgado) and by Kaminsky's bio-biographical study (1973). Two responses have dominated: analysis of the play's imaginative reconceptualization of source material (most notably the Classical myth of Cupid and Psyche as contained in Apuleius and transmitted via the anonymous French chivalric romance Portonopeus de Blois; and more contemporary models, such as Calderón's La vida es sueño); discussions of the play from a gender/feminist perspective. There is some inevitable entanglement in these approaches, areas of ideological concurrence, but also of contradiction. This article will offer a critical synthesis of these lines of enquiry around an analysis of the play's patterns of non-identical repetition and, following Hubert's theory of ‘double movement’, will move beyond these to consider the generative and potentially transcendent nature of the interplay of inscription (text) and transcription (interpretive performance). A subversive strategy of elusion underpins this interference, a dynamic, mobile frame within which ‘envidia’ (‘celos’) functions as a prominent dramatic catalyst, directed outwards, and mobilized both as a potent catalyst for the female dramatist's artistic creativity and as an antagonistic interrogation of broader socio-cultural forms of inequality. The play's (new) marvellous versions and inversions expand the functions of the sign beyond Renaissance resemblance and repetition, challenging its promotion of unity and stable identity, and opening up an interactive space between the represented (world/product) and the representing (stage/process). The power of authorities, as figured in/through the dramatic and rhetorical devices of the play, is self-consciously precarious, but it is this very anxious articulation that challenges the very authority of power.