Can shared surfaces be safely negotiated by blind and partially sighted people?

‘Shared Space’ schemes are designed to remove the physical distinction between pedestrian space and traffic space in the street environment to encourage more pedestrians to use the area. They may also make it easier for people with wheelchairs, prams or similar to negotiate the space. However, by removing the kerbs, blind and partially sighted people lose one of the key references that they normally use to know they are in a safe space away from vehicles and to navigate around the area. This study is intended to understand what people with visual impairments need from a surface to make it clearly detectable, given that it should not be a barrier to progress for people with other mobility limitations. With this information, some surfaces were tested to determine their suitability as a delineator. Approach and/or Methodology An experimental approach was adopted. People with mobility impairments and blind and partially sighted people were recruited. All participants used the normal street environment unaccompanied. The blind and partially sighted participants included people who use a guide dog, those who use a long cane and those who use no assistive device. The people with mobility impairments all used some form of mobility aid for example walking stick or wheelchair. The tests were run in the pedestrian testing facility PAMELA at UCL. The top surface of the test facility was predominantly concrete paving slab, but with test surfaces discretely located. The task for all participants was to travel from one designated place in the test area to another. For some of these trials the participant would encounter one of the test surfaces, but on other trials they would not. After each trial the participants were asked to rate how easy it was to detect a change in surface, or how easy it was to pass over the surface. The different surfaces included blister paving, corduroy paving, a central delineator, slopes, roughened surfaces, and traditional kerb upstands of different heights. Results or Expected Results None of the 400mm wide surfaces was detected by all participants. Changes in level through slopes were considered both positively and negatively, some people asking for steeper gradients and some less steep. Kerb heights below 60mm were not reliably detectable by blind or partially sighted people and are an obstacle to people in wheelchairs. Further tests on more surfaces are in process and the results will be incorporated into this paper. Conclusion Early suggestions for detectable surfaces – proposed in UK schemes - have been either a barrier to people with mobility impairments, or difficult to detect for blind and partially sighted people or both. The work presented in this paper shows the difficulty in finding a suitable dual purpose surface, yet clarifies the design requirements for shared space delineators for people with mobility impairments and blind or partially sighted people. This work has reinforced the point that 400mm width is insufficient to be used as a tactile surface. Further conclusions will be made after the additional surface tests. Topic Code: Ca C. Accessibility concerns and solutions for those with cognitive and sensory impairment a. Pedestrian safety at crossings and intersection

Effects of river water and salinity on the toxicity of deltamethrin to freshwater shrimp, cladoceran, and fish

Deltamethrin is a pyrethroid insecticide used extensively to control invertebrate pests on cotton and other crops. It is acutely toxic to nontarget aquatic organisms, but existing toxicity data are mostly from toxicity tests using purified laboratory water that differs greatly from the turbid, high-conductivity rivers in the cotton-growing regions of Australia. The aim of this study was to determine whether the water quality variables conductivity, suspended particles, and dissolved organic matter alter the toxicity of deltamethrin to freshwater crustaceans and a fish. We tested three Australian native species: a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia cf. dubia), a freshwater shrimp (Paratya australiensis), and larvae of the eastern rainbow fish (Melanotaenia duboulayi). Conductivity of the test solutions ranged from 200 to 750 μS/cm, but such changes did not modify the toxicity of deltamethrin to any of the test species. However, the toxicity of deltamethrin to C. cf. dubia and P. australiensis in river water was significantly decreased (1.8-fold to 6.3-fold reduction) compared to that in laboratory water. Variability in the toxicity data limited our ability to detect differences between laboratory and river water for M. duboulayi. Despite reductions in toxicity in natural waters, deltamethrin remained highly toxic [all L(E)C50 values <0.26 μg/L] to all organisms tested; thus, further investigation of the hazard of deltamethrin is warranted. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Rapid shifts in the thermal sensitivity of growth but not development rate causes temperature-size response variability during ontogeny in arthropods

Size at maturity in ectotherms commonly declines with warming. This near‐universal phenomenon, formalised as the temperature–size rule, has been observed in over 80% of tested species, from bacteria to fish. The proximate cause has been attributed to the greater temperature dependence of development rate than growth rate, causing individuals to develop earlier but mature smaller in the warm. However, few studies have examined the ontogenetic progression of the temperature–size response at high resolution. Using marine planktonic copepods, we experimentally determined the progression of the temperature–size response over ontogeny. Temperature–size responses were not generated gradually from egg to adult, contrary to the predictions of a naïve model in which development rate was assumed to be more temperature‐dependent than growth rate, and the difference in the temperature dependence of these two rates remained constant over ontogeny. Instead, the ontogenetic progression of the temperature–size response in experimental animals was highly episodic, indicating rapid changes in the extent to which growth and development rates are thermally decoupled. The strongest temperature–size responses occurred temporally mid‐way through ontogeny, corresponding with the point at which individuals reached between ~5 and 25% of their adult mass. Using the copepod Oithona nana, we show that the temperature‐dependence of growth rate varied substantially throughout ontogeny, whereas the temperature dependence of development rate remained constant. The temperature‐dependence of growth rate even exceeded that of development rate in some life stages, leading to a weakening of the temperature–size response. Our analyses of arthropod temperature–size responses from the literature, including crustaceans and insects, support these conclusions more broadly. Overall, our findings provide a better understanding of how the temperature–size rule is produced over ontogeny. Whereas we find support for the generality of developmental rate isomorphy in arthropods (shared temperature dependence of development rate across life stages), this concept appears not to apply to growth rates.</jats:p

Topographic microclimates drive microhabitat associations at the range margin of a butterfly

Journal Article© 2014 The Authors. Ecography published by Nordic Society Oikos.The habitat associations of individuals underpin the dynamics of species distributions. Broad-scale gradients in climate can alter habitat associations across species' geographic ranges, but topographic heterogeneity creates local microclimates which could generate variation in habitat use at finer spatial scales. We examined the selection of microhabitats for egg-laying by populations of a thermally-constrained butterfly, the skipper Hesperia comma, across 16 sites with different regional temperatures and topographic microclimates. Using models of thermal microclimate, we examined how the association between eggs and warm bare ground microhabitats varied with ambient temperature, and predicted bare ground associations in 287 existing H. comma populations, to investigate the relative impacts of regional temperatures and topographic microclimates on microhabitat use. Eggs were most strongly associated with bare ground in relatively cool sites, indicating climate-driven changes in microhabitat use. The majority of temperature variation between study sites was attributable to topographic microclimates rather than regional temperature differences, such that changes in microhabitat associations occurred principally between north- and south-facing slopes within the same region. Predicted microhabitat associations across the UK distribution of H. comma showed that, due to the large temperature differences generated by topography, most of the between-population variation in microhabitat use occurs locally within 5 km grid squares, with a smaller proportion occurring at a regional level between 5 km squares. Our findings show how microclimatic variation generated by topography alters the habitat associations of populations at fine spatial scales, suggesting that microclimate-driven changes in habitat suitability could shape species' distribution dynamics and their responses to environmental change.NERCUniversity of Exete

Active Management of Protected Areas Enhances Metapopulation Expansion Under Climate Change

Journal ArticleCopyright © 2013 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.There is a need to adapt biodiversity conservation to climate change, but few empirical studies are available to guide decision-making. Existing networks of protected areas (PAs) have been preferentially colonized during species' range expansions, but this could be due to their original habitat quality and/or to ongoing management activity. Here, we examine how PA status and active conservation management have influenced the range expansion of a butterfly Hesperia comma through fragmented landscapes. PAs under active conservation management were over three times more likely to be colonized than unprotected, unmanaged sites of the same basic vegetation type. Conservation action also increased the survival rate of existing populations inside and outside of PAs. We conclude that PAs facilitate range expansions by preventing habitat degradation and encouraging active conservation that improves habitat quality, and that conservation interventions on nondesignated sites also have a role to play in adapting conservation to climate change.NERCUniversity of Exete

Observations on acoustic emissions from a line contact compressed into the plastic region

Some observations from acoustic emissions recorded during a yield test of a bearing raceway compressed into plasticity using a rolling element are presented. The general objective of the study is to establish whether there is enough evidence of the onset of sub-surface plasticity in the acoustic emissions signature. It is discussed here how acoustic emissions monitoring during compression could indicate the onset of subsurface plasticity as a precursor to damage propagation to the surface. Some comparisons are drawn between the acoustic emissions activity levels and time-frequency response during elastic deformation and at yield loads

Investigating the causes of patient anxiety at induction of anaesthesia: A mixed methods study

Aim: To investigate patient anxiety at anaesthetic induction and whether this is affected by anaesthetic room interventions. Methods: A mixed methods study was carried out: pre-induction interventions were directly observed. Patient anxiety was assessed quantitatively with cardiovascular changes, the visual analogue scale and the state-trait anxiety inventory. Interviews allowed qualitative assessment. Results: Patient-reported anxiety did not correlate with cardiovascular changes. Anaesthetic room interventions were not predictive of anxiety. Postoperative interviews identified five sources of anxiety, mostly related to preparation for surgery. Staff responses to anxiety were also highlighted. Discussion: Patient-reported anxiety and its biological response are not correlated. Pre-induction interventions do not contribute to anxiety. Anxiety levels at induction are similar to or lower than earlier in the preoperative period. Conclusions: On induction of anaesthesia, patients have little control over their situation but are actively reassured and distracted by theatre staff. Our data suggest staff are good at this. More could still be done to reduce preoperative sources of anxiety

Sexual selection predicts the rate and direction of colour divergence in a large avian radiation

Sexual selection is proposed to be a powerful driver of phenotypic evolution in animal systems. At macroevolutionary scales, sexual selection can theoretically drive both the rate and direction of phenotypic evolution, but this hypothesis remains contentious. Here, we find that differences in the rate and direction of plumage colour evolution are predicted by a proxy for sexual selection intensity (plumage dichromatism) in a large radiation of suboscine passerine birds (Tyrannida). We show that rates of plumage evolution are correlated between the sexes, but that sexual selection has a strong positive effect on male, but not female, interspecific divergence rates. Furthermore, we demonstrate that rapid male plumage divergence is biased towards carotenoid-based (red/yellow) colours widely assumed to represent honest sexual signals. Our results highlight the central role of sexual selection in driving avian colour divergence, and reveal the existence of convergent evolutionary responses of animal signalling traits under sexual selection