THE WEB OF LIFE: THE STORY OF CREATION

The worsening environmental crisis has become one of the mostpressing global issues that all nations and peoples of the worldmust give attention to. Scientists have earlier warned us that if thistrend of ecological degradation continues, it might not take longwhen the planet earth will not be able to sustain life anymore. Thispaper argues that the root cause of the current global ecologicalcrisis is mainly theological and ethical. It goes back to the issue ofhow the biblical account of creation should be interpreted andunderstood in the light of the present ecological crisis. It suggests acontextual reading of the Bible particularly the Genesis creationaccount that takes seriously the current environmental problemthat besets mankind. Specifically, it proposes a reinterpretation ofthe divine mandate to "replenish," "multiply," and "subdue" theearth which are very often used to support the human abuse andmanipulation of the environment. This paper also seeks to showthat religion and science can substantiate and support each other'sclaims and can work together for the preservation andenhancement of nature and environment

Conformal Prediction is Robust to Dispersive Label Noise

We study the robustness of conformal prediction, a powerful tool for uncertainty quantification, to label noise. Our analysis tackles both regression and classification problems, characterizing when and how it is possible to construct uncertainty sets that correctly cover the unobserved noiseless ground truth labels. We further extend our theory and formulate the requirements for correctly controlling a general loss function, such as the false negative proportion, with noisy labels. Our theory and experiments suggest that conformal prediction and risk-controlling techniques with noisy labels attain conservative risk over the clean ground truth labels except in adversarial cases. In such cases, we can also correct for noise of bounded size in the conformal prediction algorithm in order to ensure achieving the correct risk of the ground truth labels without score or data regularity

Evidence-Based Professional Development of Science Teachers in Two Countries

The focus of this collaborative research project of King?s College London, and the Weizmann Institute, Israel. project is on investigating the ways in which teachers can demonstrate accomplished teaching in a specific domain of science and on the teacher learning that is generated through continuing professional development programs (CPD) that lead towards such practice. The interest lies in what processes and inputs are required to help secondary school science teachers develop expertise in a specific aspect of science teaching. `It focuses on the design of the CPD programmes and examines the importance of an evidence-based approach through portfolioconstruction in which professional dialogue pathes the way for teacher learning. The set of papers highlight the need to set professional challenge while tailoring CPD to teachers? needs to create the environment in which teachers can advance and transform their practice. The cross-culture perspective added to the richness of the development and enabled the researchers to examine which aspects were fundamental to the design by considering similarities and differences between the domains

Metal-macrofauna interactions determine microbial community structure and function in copper contaminated sediments

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The promise of the affordable artist's studio: Governing creative spaces in London

The role of artists' organisations in populating and popularising postindustrial urban areas is well documented. However, what are less apparent are analyses of how spaces of artistic production are organised and governed in these areas. This paper explores, via an analysis of organisational documents and practices, the techniques used by London-based affordable studio providers to imagine, calculate, and make material low-cost workspace for artists. The argument made is that the negotiation of competing agendas around the production of cultural, economic, and social benefit by affordable studio providers has led to the emergence of a specific form of affordable studio. This analysis will thus show how configurations of creative space emerge from mundane techniques of measurement and governance. © 2013 Pion and its Licensors

Trophic Relationships and Food Supply of Heterotrophic Animals in the Pelagic Ecosystem of the Black Sea

During recent decades, the Black Sea has been affected by many negative factors that strongly changed the condition of its ecosystem. Especially trophic relationships in the Black Sea pelagic system became very vulnerable influencing the food supply, productivity and abundance of many species and populations of this marine basin. Food is one of most important link between biota and its environment. In this monograph, the role and variability of trophodynamic processes that effect the well-being (health) of main heterotrophic components of ecosystem were analysed in detail for a few key species as indicators for estimation of ecosystem condition in whole. These are most significant mass species of the Black Sea pelagic ecosystem. Among copepods this is Calanus euxinus that dominates the mesozooplankton which makes up the fodder base of planktivorous fishes. Among gelatinous these are medusa Aurelia aurita and the alien ctenophores Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata which affected strongly mesozooplankton composition. Lastly among fishes the anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus ponticus and sprat Sprattus sprattus phalericus that dominate small pelagic fishery. We considered in this monograph: • Diel feeding behaviour, in situ feeding rate of Calanus euxinus and impact of mesozooplankton on primary production and phytoplankton biomass. • The effect of vertical migrations on energy budget and its components in C. euxinus; metabolic substrates used in catabolic processes under both aerobic and hypoxic conditions, the role of reserve lipids and effect of abiotic factors on individual growth and population structure of this species. • The intensity and efficiency of ingestion and energy transformation in three gelatinous species ( jellyfish Aurelia aurita, ctenophores Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata) and their predatory impact on zooplankton community. • Nutritional condition and food supply of anchovy and sprat in the close interaction with natural biotic and abiotic and anthropogenic factors. • Tendencies in this interaction during long time space: since 1960 s till present years. • Estimation of population condition of these species and its long-term change. This monograph is the collective work of Ukrainian and Turkish scientists studying complex hydrobiological problems of the Black Sea. Its aim is to reveal the significance of nutritional factors on the ecology of Black Sea biota, including changes which have already occurred, as well as offering some insight into changes that may happen in the future. Our joint investigations started in the first half of the 1990s, when conditions for the close cooperation of researchers from the two countries were suitable after the collapse of the Soviet era. This spirit continues to the present day. Professor Ümit Unluata, Director of Erdemli Institute of Marine Sciences (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) was of paramount importance in organising and fostering the work undertaken. We would like to devote this monograph to the memory of him, who died so prematurely. We are also grateful to Academician Professor V. N. Eremeev, Director of the Sevastopol Institute of Biology of the Southern Sea (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), and to the directors of Erdemli Institute of Marine Sciences (Professor Ilkay Salihoglu, Professor Sukru Besiktepe and Professor Ferit Bingel) who also made significant contributions to the Ukrainian–Turkish collaboration. We are grateful to Dr Bill Parr from the Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project for his valuable efforts in improving earlier drafts. All these investigations were carried out within the framework of the following five NATO linkage-grants: • Pelagic animal food supply in the unstable Black Sea environment, • Will the new alien ctenophore Beroe ovata control the plankton community in the Black Sea? • Grazing, growth and production of Calanus euxinus in the Black Sea, • Bioindicators for assessment of Black Sea ecosystem recovery, • Adaptability and vulnerability of marine species in changing environments. And four TUBITAK - NASU joint projects: • Quantification of the recent ctenophore invader Beroe ovata impact in the Black Sea • Monitoring of the Black Sea anchovy and sprat, • Salinity tolerance as a key factor of invasion success of the copepods of Calanus genus into the Sea of Marmara, • Salinity tolerance as a key factor of invasion success of the mesozooplankton species into the Sea of Marmara. We hope that this publication will make a substantial contribution to future studies of the Black Sea ecosystem and offers further understanding of those features regulating biological processes in this unique marine basin

On the Quality of Experience of Content Sharing in Online Education and Online Meetings

The turn of the decade introduced a new era of global pandemics to the world through the appearance of COVID-19, which is still an active crisis at the time of this paper. As a countermeasure, the phenomena of home office and online education became not only widely available, but also mandatory in many countries. However, the performance, reliability and general usability of such real-time activities may be severely affected by unfavorable network conditions. In both contexts, content sharing is now a common practice, and the success of the related use cases may fundamentally depend on it. In this paper, we present our surveys and subjective studies on the Quality of Experience of content sharing in online education and online meetings. A total of 6 surveys and 5 experiments are detailed, addressing topics of student experience, user interface settings, sharing options of lecturers and employees of the private sector, the perceivable effects of network impairments and the related long-term adaptation, the rubber band effect of slide sharing, the overall perceived quality and the separate quality aspects of media loading times, and the preference between visual quality, average frame rate and frame rate uniformity. The findings of the subjective studies do not characterize the use cases of the investigated topics on a general, widely-applicable level, as only a single online platform is involved throughout the experiments. However, their experimental configurations are reinforced by comprehensive surveys and many results indicate statistically significant differences between the selected test conditions

On the quality of experience of content sharing in online education and online meetings

The turn of the decade introduced a new era of global pandemics to the world through the appearance of COVID-19, which is still an active crisis at the time of this paper. As a countermeasure, the phenomena of home office and online education became not only widely available, but also mandatory in many countries. However, the performance, reliability and general usability of such real-time activities may be severely affected by unfavorable network conditions. In both contexts, content sharing is now a common practice, and the success of the related use cases may fundamentally depend on it. In this paper, we present our surveys and subjective studies on the Quality of Experience of content sharing in online education and online meetings. A total of 6 surveys and 5 experiments are detailed, addressing topics of student experience, user interface settings, sharing options of lecturers and employees of the private sector, the perceivable effects of network impairments and the related long-term adaptation, the rubber band effect of slide sharing, the overall perceived quality and the separate quality aspects of media loading times, and the preference between visual quality, average frame rate and frame rate uniformity. The findings of the subjective studies do not characterize the use cases of the investigated topics on a general, widely-applicable level, as only a single online platform is involved throughout the experiments. However, their experimental configurations are reinforced by comprehensive surveys and many results indicate statistically significant differences between the selected test conditions