Relationship of osmosis : rise of Emirates, the airline and Dubai, the city

A relationship of economic osmosis is noticed between an airline and the country whose flag it flies. Economic impact studies prepared by government organisations and airline managements usually point out the economic benefits of setting up a new airline or flying a new route. These benefits arise for the airline’s home base by way of greater connectivity with the world and include a number of tangibles such as growth in tourism, increase in retail revenue from transit passengers, access to cargo transport for importers and exporters, employment opportunities and a host of indirect benefits that the local populace can gain from exposure to other countries and cultures. One also notices two very important intangibles associated with an airline and the nation of origin- national pride and national security. This paper analyses the remarkable success story of mutual growth shared by Emirates, the airline and Dubai, the city, over the past twenty-five years and the opportunities that the success of this duo signifies for others in the region.

A comparison of the seasonal movements of tiger sharks and green turtles provides insight into their predator-prey relationship

During the reproductive season, sea turtles use a restricted area in the vicinity of their nesting beaches, making them vulnerable to predation. At Raine Island (Australia), the highest density green turtle Chelonia mydas rookery in the world, tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier have been observed to feed on green turtles, and it has been suggested that they may specialise on such air-breathing prey. However there is little information with which to examine this hypothesis. We compared the spatial and temporal components of movement behaviour of these two potentially interacting species in order to provide insight into the predator-prey relationship. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that tiger shark movements are more concentrated at Raine Island during the green turtle nesting season than outside the turtle nesting season when turtles are not concentrated at Raine Island. Turtles showed area-restricted search behaviour around Raine Island for ~3–4 months during the nesting period (November–February). This was followed by direct movement (transit) to putative foraging grounds mostly in the Torres Straight where they switched to area-restricted search mode again, and remained resident for the remainder of the deployment (53–304 days). In contrast, tiger sharks displayed high spatial and temporal variation in movement behaviour which was not closely linked to the movement behaviour of green turtles or recognised turtle foraging grounds. On average, tiger sharks were concentrated around Raine Island throughout the year. While information on diet is required to determine whether tiger sharks are turtle specialists our results support the hypothesis that they target this predictable and plentiful prey during turtle nesting season, but they might not focus on this less predictable food source outside the nesting season.

Packing as practice: creative knowledges through material interactions

Contemporary travellers are presented with a range of material, spatial, bodily and environmental interactions, and may use these to develop experiential modes of creative knowledge production. The study of tourism has had many recent calls for a greater awareness to the interactions between humans and non-humans, particularly the importance of material encounters we have in-transit.

Examining the process of packing a bag, this paper advocates the need for a greater understanding of materiality within travel processes that leads to collaborative and creative knowledges. In addition the process of packing a bag evolves into a creative practice that facilitates a series of strategies that assist in reconceptualising traditional notions of materiality. A rethinking of material interactions presents affirmative, global, and nomadic encounters for a multitude of actors and situations. In the rigorous, daily process of packing, objects are transformed into fluid, malleable forms – as a mass of material that is being collaboratively negotiated.

A range of interdisciplinary propositions, such as Bruno Latour’s collective action and Rosi Braidotti’s nomadic theory, suggest how we may conceive of objects not as singular forms situated within specific representations. These theories open up methods of embodied and situated knowledge production that informs how we, as global citizens, shift between individual and collective modes of experience. Drawing on interviews and photographic documentation of travellers, this paper discusses the potential of creative practices to reveal an array of affective, relational situations that hold potential for collaborative forms of knowledge production.

Movement patterns for a critically endangered species, the Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), linked to foraging success and population status

Foraging success for pelagic vertebrates may be revealed by horizontal and vertical movement patterns. We show markedly different patterns for leatherback turtles in the North Atlantic versus Eastern Pacific, which feed on gelatinous zooplankton that are only occasionally found in high densities. In the Atlantic, travel speed was characterized by two modes, indicative of high foraging success at low speeds (<15 km d−1) and transit at high speeds (20–45 km d−1). Only a single mode was evident in the Pacific, which occurred at speeds of 21 km d−1 indicative of transit. The mean dive depth was more variable in relation to latitude but closer to the mean annual depth of the thermocline and nutricline for North Atlantic than Eastern Pacific turtles. The most parsimonious explanation for these findings is that Eastern Pacific turtles rarely achieve high foraging success. This is the first support for foraging behaviour differences between populations of this critically endangered species and suggests that longer periods searching for prey may be hindering population recovery in the Pacific while aiding population maintenance in the Atlantic.

The role of infrequent and extraordinary deep dives in leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea)

Infrequent and exceptional behaviours can provide insight into the ecology and physiology of a particular species. Here we examined extraordinarily deep (300–1250 m) and protracted (>1h) dives made by critically endangered leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in the context of three previously suggested hypotheses: predator evasion, thermoregulation and exploration for gelatinous prey. Data were obtained via satellite relay data loggers attached to adult turtles at nesting beaches (N=11) and temperate foraging grounds (N=2), constituting a combined tracking period of 9.6 years (N=26,146 dives) and spanning the entire North Atlantic Ocean. Of the dives, 99.6% (N=26,051) were to depths <300 m with only 0.4% (N=95) extending to greater depths (subsequently termed `deep dives'). Analysis suggested that deep dives: (1) were normally distributed around midday; (2) may exceed the inferred aerobic dive limit for the species; (3) displayed slow vertical descent rates and protracted durations; (4) were much deeper than the thermocline; and (5) occurred predominantly during transit, yet ceased once seasonal residence on foraging grounds began. These findings support the hypothesis that deep dives are periodically employed to survey the water column for diurnally descending gelatinous prey. If a suitable patch is encountered then the turtle may cease transit and remain within that area, waiting for prey to approach the surface at night. If unsuccessful, then migration may continue until a more suitable site is encountered. Additional studies using a meta-analytical approach are nonetheless recommended to further resolve this matter.

Flexible foraging movements of Leatherback turtles across the North Atlantic Ocean

Some marine species have been shown to target foraging at particular hotspots of high prey abundance. However, we show here that in the year after a nesting season, female leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in the Atlantic generally spend relatively little time in fixed hotspots, especially those with a surface signature revealed in satellite imagery, but rather tend to have a pattern of near continuous traveling. Associated with this traveling, distinct changes in dive behavior indicate that turtles constantly fine tune their foraging behavior and diel activity patterns in association with local conditions. Switches between nocturnal vs. diurnal activity are rare in the animal kingdom but may be essential for survival on a diet of gelatinous zooplankton where patches of high prey availability are rare. These results indicate that in their first year after nesting, leatherback turtles do not fit the general model of migration where responses to resources are suppressed during transit. However, their behavior may be different in their sabbatical years away from nesting beaches. Our results highlight the importance of whole-ocean fishing gear regulations to minimize turtle bycatch.

A machine learning approach to predicting winning patterns in track cycling omnium

This paper presents work on using Machine Learning approaches for predicting performance patterns of medalists in Track Cycling Omnium championships. The omnium is a newly introduced track cycling competition to be included in the London 2012 Olympic Games. It involves six individual events and, therefore, requires strategic planning for riders and coaches to achieve the best overall standing in terms of the ranking, speed, and time in each individual component. We carried out unsupervised, supervised, and statistical analyses on the men’s and women’s historical competition data in the World Championships since 2008 to find winning patterns for each gender in terms of the ranking of riders in each individual event. Our results demonstrate that both sprint and endurance capacities are required for both men and women to win a medal in the omnium. Sprint ability is shown to have slightly more influence in deciding the medalists of the omnium competitions.

Influence of field position and phase of play on the physical demands of match-play in professional rugby league forwards

This article describes the utilisation of an unsupervised machine learning technique and statistical approaches (e.g., the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) that assist cycling experts in the crucial decision-making processes for athlete selection, training, and strategic planning in the track cycling Omnium. The Omnium is a multi-event competition that will be included in the summer Olympic Games for the first time in 2012. Presently, selectors and cycling coaches make decisions based on experience and intuition. They rarely have access to objective data. We analysed both the old five-event (first raced internationally in 2007) and new six-event (first raced internationally in 2011) Omniums and found that the addition of the elimination race component to the Omnium has, contrary to expectations, not favoured track endurance riders. We analysed the Omnium data and also determined the inter-relationships between different individual events as well as between those events and the final standings of riders. In further analysis, we found that there is no maximum ranking (poorest performance) in each individual event that riders can afford whilst still winning a medal. We also found the required times for riders to finish the timed components that are necessary for medal winning. The results of this study consider the scoring system of the Omnium and inform decision-making toward successful participation in future major Omnium competitions.