'There is a Lot of Noise Out There’: Self-Publishing Trends in New Zealand

As self-publishing gains a stronger foothold both inside and out of the publishing industry (Dawson, 2008; Poynter), as well as gaining prominence in the public mind (Spenser, 2012), there is an increasing need for more research and understanding of this rapidly growing area. However, so far there has been, as Dilevko & Dali (2006) say, an “awkward silence from libraries about how to deal with self-published books”. This research project aimed to shed some light onto what was really happening with self-publishing in New Zealand. This research project collected data from the National Library of New Zealand‟s OPAC from a twenty year period: every second year from 1991 to 2009. A total of 3,625 titles from the National Library‟s catalogue were sampled. Once the data was collected it was analysed, and produced some rather surprising results. The total percentage of books being self-published has not significantly increased over the twenty year period sampled. The percentage difference between 1991 and 2009 was only 2.29%. Because self-publishing is such an unknown entity this research project was working with very little background knowledge for guidance. All the information points towards self-publishing increasing even more in the future as technology, in particular e-books and e-readers, grows and changes. Libraries need to know about self-publishing and how it is affecting the material that they purchase for their collections. More research needs to be done in this area to get a clearer understanding of self-publishing in New Zealand and this research project is only the first step

Time delays modulate the stability of complex ecosystems

What drives the stability, or instability, of complex ecosystems? This question sits at the heart of community ecology and has motivated a large body of theoretical work exploring how community properties shape ecosystem dynamics. However, the overwhelming majority of current theory assumes that species interactions are instantaneous, meaning that changes in the abundance of one species will lead to immediate changes in the abundances of its partners. In practice, time delays in how species respond to one another are widespread across ecological contexts, yet the impact of these delays on ecosystems remains unclear. Here we derive a new body of theory to comprehensively study the impact of time delays on ecological stability. We find that time delays are important for ecosystem stability. Large delays are typically destabilizing but, surprisingly, short delays can substantially increase community stability. Moreover, in stark contrast to delay-free systems, delays dictate that communities with more abundant species can be less stable than ones with less abundant species. Finally, we show that delays fundamentally shift how species interactions impact ecosystem stability, with communities of mixed interaction types becoming the most stable class of ecosystem. Our work demonstrates that time delays can be critical for the stability of complex ecosystems

Reactivity of complex communities can be more important than stability

Understanding stability—whether a community will eventually return to its original state after a perturbation—is a major focus in the study of various complex systems, particularly complex ecosystems. Here, we challenge this focus, showing that short-term dynamics can be a better predictor of outcomes for complex ecosystems. Using random matrix theory, we study how complex ecosystems behave immediately after small perturbations. Our analyses show that many communities are expected to be ‘reactive’, whereby some perturbations will be amplified initially and generate a response that is directly opposite to that predicted by typical stability measures. In particular, we find reactivity is prevalent for complex communities of mixed interactions and for structured communities, which are both expected to be common in nature. Finally, we show that reactivity can be a better predictor of extinction risk than stability, particularly when communities face frequent perturbations, as is increasingly common. Our results suggest that, alongside stability, reactivity is a fundamental measure for assessing ecosystem health

A geological perspective on potential future sea-level rise

During ice-age cycles, continental ice volume kept pace with slow, multi-millennial scale, changes in climate forcing. Today, rapid greenhouse gas (GHG) increases have outpaced ice-volume responses, likely committing us to > 9 m of long-term sea-level ri

Mannheimia haemolytica serovars associated with respiratory disease in cattle in Great Britain

BACKGROUND: Mannheimia haemolytica is commonly associated with respiratory disease in cattle worldwide as a cause of fibrinous pneumonia, bronchopneumonia and pleuritis. M. haemolytica is further subdivided into 12 serovars, however not all are considered to be pathogenic in cattle. The study aim was to determine the most common serovars of M. haemolytica associated with respiratory disease in cattle in Great Britain, which is currently unknown and could be useful information for clinicians when considering preventative strategies. RESULTS: One hundred four M. haemolytica isolates isolated from bovine clinical pathology and post-mortem samples from pneumonia cases between 2016 and 2018 were tested using a multiplex PCR assay to identify M. haemolytica serovars A1, A2 and A6. 46 isolates (44.2%) typed as M. haemolytica serovar A1, 31 (29.8%) as M. haemolytica serovar A2 and 18 isolates (17.3%) as M. haemolytica serovar A6. Nine isolates (8.7%) were not A1, A2 or A6 so were considered to belong to other serovars or were not typable. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of M. haemolytica serovars other than A1 which may be responsible for respiratory disease in cattle and could help guide the veterinarian when making choices on preventative vaccination programmes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12917-021-03121-3

Junior Recital

List of performers and performances

Junior Recital

List of performers and performances