Argumentation schemes for collaborative planning

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Glacial geomorphology of the Neutral Hills Uplands, southeast Alberta, Canada: The process-form imprints of dynamic ice streams and surging ice lobes

The Neutral Hills Uplands of southern Alberta, Canada is an area of complex and varied glacial landforms dominated by glacitectonic compressional structures but also containing expansive areas of hummocky terrain and kame and kettle topography. It lies between the strongly streamlined trunks of the former Central Alberta (CAIS) and Maskwa palaeo-ice streams of the SW Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and hence comprises an inter-ice stream regional moraine zone, constructed at around 15.5 cal ka BP. This study aimed to compile a regional map of the glacial geomorphology of central southeast Alberta in order to decipher the landform-sediment signatures of overprinted ice stream margins in terrestrial continental environments, and to refine the palaeoglaciological reconstructions for the southwest LIS. Detailed mapping from LiDAR and aerial imagery identifies distinctive glacial landsystems diagnostic of the partial overprinting of cross-cutting ice stream trunks and fast flow lobes. Widespread evidence of surge-diagnostic features indicates that the ice streams experienced repeated flow instabilities, consistent with the broader scenario of a highly dynamic and unstable SW LIS, characterised by markedly transitory and cross-cutting palaeo-ice streams. The inter-ice stream moraine zone is characterised by spectacular glacitectonic compression of bedrock, cupola hill construction and mega raft displacement but also displays evidence of multi-phase stagnant ice melt-out, where partially overprinted surge lobes advanced into large areas of buried glacier ice. Contemporaneous ice melting led to the widespread development of glacier karst and the production of eskers at a range of scales, the largest of which record deranged drainage patterns indicative of ice-walled channel sedimentation controlled by the regional bedrock slope towards the northeast. These process-form regimes have created a significant local relief that is a product of not only glacitectonic compression of bedrock but also the creation and melting of a melange of ice and bedrock/sediment blocks of variable ice volume, which are representative of former buried snout ice with a glacier karst system that was repeatedly proglacially thrust due to surging. Widespread evidence for subglacial channel cutting is likely strongly linked to the transitory, surging and cross-cutting nature of the palaeo-ice streams in the region, whereby ice streams switched on and surged in response to the build-up, migration and marginal outbursts of subglacial water reservoirs. In addition to the reduced basal friction caused by the low permeability of the Cretaceous bedrock, pressurized groundwater and potentially also shallow biogenic gas deposits were likely important to the process-form regimes of surging lobes of soft-bedded ice streams in a region where ice flow was against an adverse bed slope; a scenario that gave rise to a variety of enigmatic landforms such as doughnuts, doughnut chains, apparent blow-out features and possible till eskers, as well as glacitectonic mega-rafts

Observaciones sobre las madrigueras y comportamiento enterrador de Brachynotus gemmellari y otras especies de los fondos de Squilla en Ancona, Adriático Central

The paper presents information on the burrows of a number of species that occur on Squilla grounds in the coastal Adriatic off Ancona, Italy. The burrows and burrowing behaviour of Brachynotus gemmellari are described for the first time. For Upogebia tipica, Solecurtus strigilatus and Gobius niger, the observations add to sparse burrow information in the literature. Little is known of the burrows of Echiura in the Mediterranean: those of two species are briefly described from surface features.Este trabajo presenta información sobre las madrigueras de diversas especies presentes en los fondos de Squilla en las costas de Ancona, Italia, en el Adriático central. Se describen por vez primera las madrigueras y el comportamiento excavador de Brachynotus gemmellari. En el caso de Upogebia tipica, Solecurtus strigilatus y Gobius niger, las presentes observaciones se añaden a información dispersa sobre las madrigueras de Echiura en el Mediterráneo: se describen brevemente las de dos especies a partir de características de la superfície

De novo Cryoglobulinaemic Mononeuritis Multiplex during Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Infection: A Viral Effect or Induced by Pegylated Interferon Alpha?

Cryoglobulinaemic mononeuritis multiplex (MNM) is an extrahepatic manifestation of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection for which interferon-based antiviral therapy is currently the treatment of choice. Rarely MNM can be associated with HCV treatment though generally in the setting of pre-existing cryoglobulinaemia and detectable HCV viraemia. We report an unusual case of de novo MNM occurring late during the course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy for chronic HCV infection, following a prolonged period of viral suppression. The patient had no evidence of cryoglobulinaemia prior to HCV treatment and undetectable HCV RNA levels at the time of presentation with MNM. The case raises the possibility that MNM could develop as an adverse immunomodulatory effect of pegylated interferon therapy

Time-in-area represents foraging activity in a wide-ranging pelagic forager

Successful Marine Spatial Planning depends upon the identification of areas with high importance for particular species, ecosystems or processes. For seabirds, advancements in biologging devices have enabled us to identify these areas through the detailed study of at-sea behaviour. However, in many cases, only positional data are available and the presence of local biological productivity and hence seabird foraging behaviour is inferred from these data alone, under the untested assumption that foraging activity is more likely to occur in areas where seabirds spend more time. We fitted GPS devices and accelerometers to northern gannets Morus bassanus and categorised the behaviour of individuals outside the breeding colony as plunge diving, surface foraging, floating and flying. We then used the locations of foraging events to test the efficiency of 2 approaches: time-in-area and kernel density (KD) analyses, which are widely employed to detect highly-used areas and interpret foraging behaviour from positional data. For KD analyses, the smoothing parameter (h) was calculated using the ad hoc method (KDad hoc), and KDh=9.1, where h = 9.1 km, to designate core foraging areas from location data. A high proportion of foraging events occurred in core foraging areas designated using KDad hoc, KDh=9.1, and time-in-area. Our findings demonstrate that foraging activity occurs in areas where seabirds spend more time, and that both KD analysis and the time-in-area approach are equally efficient methods for this type of analysis. However, the time-in-area approach is advantageous in its simplicity, and in its ability to provide the shapes commonly used in planning. Therefore, the time-in-area approach can be used as a simple way of using seabirds to identify ecologically important locations from both tracking and survey data

D-optimal designs via a cocktail algorithm

A fast new algorithm is proposed for numerical computation of (approximate) D-optimal designs. This "cocktail algorithm" extends the well-known vertex direction method (VDM; Fedorov 1972) and the multiplicative algorithm (Silvey, Titterington and Torsney, 1978), and shares their simplicity and monotonic convergence properties. Numerical examples show that the cocktail algorithm can lead to dramatically improved speed, sometimes by orders of magnitude, relative to either the multiplicative algorithm or the vertex exchange method (a variant of VDM). Key to the improved speed is a new nearest neighbor exchange strategy, which acts locally and complements the global effect of the multiplicative algorithm. Possible extensions to related problems such as nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation are mentioned.Comment: A number of changes after accounting for the referees' comments including new examples in Section 4 and more detailed explanations throughou

FIRI - a Far-Infrared Interferometer

Half of the energy ever emitted by stars and accreting objects comes to us in the FIR waveband and has yet to be properly explored. We propose a powerful Far-InfraRed Interferometer mission, FIRI, to carry out high-resolution imaging spectroscopy in the FIR. This key observational capability is essential to reveal how gas and dust evolve into stars and planets, how the first luminous objects in the Universe ignited, how galaxies formed, and when super-massive black holes grew. FIRI will disentangle the cosmic histories of star formation and accretion onto black holes and will trace the assembly and evolution of quiescent galaxies like our Milky Way. Perhaps most importantly, FIRI will observe all stages of planetary system formation and recognise Earth-like planets that may harbour life, via its ability to image the dust structures in planetary systems. It will thus address directly questions fundamental to our understanding of how the Universe has developed and evolved - the very questions posed by ESA's Cosmic Vision.Comment: Proposal developed by a large team of astronomers from Europe, USA and Canada and submitted to the European Space Agency as part of "Cosmic Vision 2015-2025

Alkalinity to calcium flux ratios for corals and coral reef communities: variances between isolated and community conditions

Calcification in reef corals and coral reefs is widely measured using the alkalinity depletion method which is based on the fact that two protons are produced for every mole of CaCO3 precipitated. This assumption was tested by measuring the total alkalinity (TA) flux and Ca2+ flux of isolated components (corals, alga, sediment and plankton) in reference to that of a mixed-community. Experiments were conducted in a flume under natural conditions of sunlight, nutrients, plankton and organic matter. A realistic hydrodynamic regime was provided. Groups of corals were run separately and in conjunction with the other reef components in a mixed-community. The TA flux to Ca2+ flux ratio (ΔTA: ΔCa2+) was consistently higher in the coral-only run (2.06 ± 0.19) than in the mixed-community run (1.60 ± 0.14, p-value = 0.011). The pH was higher and more stable in the mixed-community run (7.94 ± 0.03 vs. 7.52 ± 0.07, p-value = 3 × 10−5). Aragonite saturation state (Ωarag) was also higher in the mixed-community run (2.51 ± 0.2 vs. 1.12 ± 0.14, p-value = 2 × 10−6). The sediment-only run revealed that sediment is the source of TA that can account for the lower ΔTA: ΔCa2+ ratio in the mixed-community run. The macroalgae-only run showed that algae were responsible for the increased pH in the mixed-community run. Corals growing in a mixed-community will experience an environment that is more favorable to calcification (higher daytime pH due to algae photosynthesis, additional TA and inorganic carbon from sediments, higher Ωarag). A paradox is that the alkalinity depletion method will yield a lower net calcification for a mixed-community versus a coral-only community due to TA recycling, even though the corals may be calcifying at a higher rate due to a more optimal environment

Chlorophyll fluorescence-based high-throughput phenotyping facilitates the genetic dissection of photosynthetic heat tolerance in African (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian (Oryza sativa) rice.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the University of Nottingham glasshouse staff for their assistance with general plant maintenance. We acknowledge the insight of two anonymous reviews whose comments greatly improved this manuscript. JR and JNF were supported by the Palaeobenchmarking Resilient Agriculture Systems (PalaeoRAS) project funded by the Future Food Beacon of the University of Nottingham.Peer reviewedPostprin

Jockeying for position: the construction of masculine identities

In this paper we examine the construction of masculine identities within a real-life social situation. Using data from an extensive series of interviews with small groups of sixth-form (17-18-year-old) students attending a UK-based, single-sex independent school, the analysis looks at the action orientation of different constructions of identity. More specifically, it focuses upon how the identity talk of one particular group of students were oriented towards managing their subordinate status within the school. In a number of instances the identity of the `new man' was adopted as a strategy of resistance. However, it was found that the more common strategy involved buying back into values embodied within a more traditional definition of masculinity