Ontogeny-Specific Skeletal Deformities in Atlantic Haddock Caused by Larval Oil Exposure

Bone deformities are one of the main effects of crude oil exposure in marine fish larvae. Craniofacial and jaw deformities, if severe enough, may restrict feeding and ultimately kill the developing larvae. This study aimed to examine the impact of dispersed crude oil on bone development in Atlantic haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) larvae, a fish species spawning in areas approached for oil and gas exploration in the North Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic haddock larvae were exposed to low (60 μg oil/L), high (600 μg oil/L), or pulsed (0–600, average 60 μg oil/L over time) dispersed crude oil from 0 to 18 days post hatch (dph). Endpoints included survival and growth, bone integrity, and transcriptional parameters, which were assessed during (0–18 dph) and after exposure until the fish reached 8 months of age (243 dph). The results showed that the larvae in the high treatment group had reduction in growth at 2–19, 44, 134, and 243 dph. Craniofacial abnormalities were most severe at 8 and 19 dph. These deformities were not present at 44 dph, possibly because the larvae with deformed jaws failed to feed properly and died. Higher prevalence of spinal deformities was observed in haddocks that survived for 243 dph. Three genes encoding proteins critical for osteoblast function, sp7, postn, and col10a1, were downregulated in the high treatment group larvae. We discuss possible mechanisms of action in the developing larvae after oil exposure. In conclusion, this study shows that larval exposure to oil can potentially have long-term effects on growth and bone integrity in Atlantic haddock.publishedVersio

The contributions of flower strips to wild bee conservation in agricultural landscapes can be predicted using pollinator habitat suitability models

1. Sowing flower strips along field edges is a widely adopted method for conserving pollinating insects in agricultural landscapes. To maximize the effect of flower strips given limited resources, we need spatially explicit tools that can prioritize their placement, and for identifying plant species to include in seed mixtures. 2. We sampled bees and plant species as well as their interactions in a semicontrolled field experiment with roadside/field edge pairs with/without a sown flower strip at 31 sites in Norway and used a regional spatial model of solitary bee species richness to test if the effect of flower strips on bee species richness was predictable from the modelled solitary bee species richness. 3. We found that sites with flower strips were more bee species rich compared to sites without flower strips and that this effect was greatest in areas that the regional solitary bee species richness model had identified to be particularly important for bees. Spatial models revealed that even within small landscapes there were pronounced differences between field edges in the predicted effect of sowing flower strips. 4. Of the plant species that attracted the most bee species, the majority mainly attracted bumblebees and only few species also attracted solitary bees. Considering both the taxonomic diversity of bees and the species richness of bees attracted by plants we suggest that seed mixes containing Hieracium spp. such as Hieracium umbellatum, Pilosella officinarum, Taraxacum spp., Trifolium repens, Lotus corniculatus, Stellaria graminea and Achillea millefolium would provide resources for diverse bee communities in our region 5. Spatial prediction models of bee diversity can be used to identify locations where flower strips are likely to have the largest effect and can thereby provide managers with an important tool for prioritizing how funding for agri-environmental schemes such as flower strips should be allocated. Such flower strips should contain plant species that are attractive to both solitary and bumblebees, and do not need to be particularly plant species rich as long as the selected plants complement each other. agri-environmental schemes, bees, flower strips, networks, pollinators, restoration, spatialpublishedVersio

Economic Growth and the Diffusion of Clean Technologies: Explaining Environmental Kuznets Curves

Production often causes pollution as a by-product. Once environmental degradation becomes too severe, regulation is introduced by which society forces the economy to make a transition to cleaner production processes. We model this transition as a change in general purpose technology" and investigate how it interferes with economic growth driven by quality-improvements. The model gives an explanation for the inverted U-shaped pollution-income relation found in empirical research for many pollutants (Environmental Kuznets Curve). We provide an analytical foundation for the claim that the rise and decline of pollution can be explained by policy-induced technology shifts and intrasectoral changes

Evaluation of Musical Creativity and Musical Metacreation Systems

The field of computational creativity, including musical metacreation, strives to develop artificial systems that are capable of demonstrating creative behavior or producing creative artefacts. But the claim of creativity is often assessed, subjectively only on the part of the researcher and not objectively at all. This article provides theoretical motivation for more systematic evaluation of musical metacreation and computationally creative systems and presents an overview of current methods used to assess human and machine creativity that may be adapted for this purpose. In order to highlight the need for a varied set of evaluation tools, a distinction is drawn among three types of creative systems: those that are purely generative, those that contain internal or external feedback, and those that are capable of reflection and self-reflection. To address the evaluation of each of these aspects, concrete examples of methods and techniques are suggested to help researchers (1) evaluate their systems' creative process and generated artefacts, and test their impact on the perceptual, cognitive, and affective states of the audience, and (2) build mechanisms for reflection into the creative system, including models of human perception and cognition, to endow creative systems with internal evaluative mechanisms to drive self-reflective processes. The first type of evaluation can be considered external to the creative system and may be employed by the researcher to both better understand the efficacy of their system and its impact and to incorporate feedback into the system. Here we take the stance that understanding human creativity can lend insight to computational approaches, and knowledge of how humans perceive creative systems and their output can be incorporated into artificial agents as feedback to provide a sense of how a creation will impact the audience. The second type centers around internal evaluation, in which the system is able to reason about its own behavior and generated output. We argue that creative behavior cannot occur without feedback and reflection by the creative/metacreative system itself. More rigorous empirical testing will allow computational and metacreative systems to become more creative by definition and can be used to demonstrate the impact and novelty of particular approaches