Trophic dynamics within a hybrid zone - interactions between an abundant cyprinid hybrid and sympatric parental species

1. Recent proliferation of hybridisation in response to anthropogenic ecosystem change, coupled with increasing evidence of the importance of ancient hybridisation events in the formation of many species, has moved hybridisation to the forefront of evolutionary theory.

2. In spite of this, the mechanisms (e. g. differences in trophic ecology) by which hybrids co-exist with parental taxa are poorly understood. A unique hybrid zone exists in Irish freshwater systems, whereby hybrid offspring off two non-native cyprinid fishes often outnumber both parental species.

3. Using stable isotope and gut content analyses, we determined the trophic interactions between sympatric populations of roach (Rutilus rutilus), bream (Abramis brama) and their hybrid in lacustrine habitats.

4. The diet of all three groups displayed little variation across the study systems, and dietary overlap was observed between both parental species and hybrids. Hybrids displayed diet, niche breadth and trophic position that were intermediate between the two parental species while also exhibiting greater flexibility in diet across systems.

Touching at a Distance: Resistance, Tactility, Proxemics and the Development of a Hybrid Virtual/Physical Performance System

This is a paper about resistance and affordance as they relate to music-making in the most extended sense, and perhaps about empathy if this is understood as a capacity to ‘read’ the resistances and affordances of objects, bodies, people and environments. It proceeds from a set of broad working assumptions which inform one individual’s musical practice, via a description a musical-instrument making project which is a hybrid of physical and virtual elements and is designed to test those assumptions, to a speculative finale in which it is suggested that musicking might, in some circumstances, be regarded in itself as a form of resistance. It moves from the intimate and personal, through what might be regarded as local concerns to more global observation, prefiguring the structure of the performance system it describes: the Virtual-Physical Feedback flute

Hybrid FIB milling strategy for the fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures on semiconductor substrates

The optical properties of plasmonic semiconductor devices fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) milling deteriorate because of the amorphisation of the semiconductor substrate. This study explores the effects of combining traditional 30 kV FIB milling with 5 kV FIB patterning to minimise the semiconductor damage and at the same time maintain high spatial resolution. The use of reduced acceleration voltages is shown to reduce the damage from higher energy ions on the example of fabrication of plasmonic crystals on semiconductor substrates leading to 7-fold increase in transmission. This effect is important for focused-ion beam fabrication of plasmonic structures integrated with photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers.