Subsistence and recreational mussel (Perna perna) collecting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: fishing mortality and precautionary management

Both recreational and subsistence collectors utilise Perna perna in KwaZulu-Natal. The former collect 200–2501 of mussels annually from about 110 km of rocky shore and the latter 12–501 from 3 km of rocky shore. Recreational collectors are subject to a daily bag limit of 50 mussels and so select larger mussels than subsistence collectors. In central KwaZulu-Natal, there were 700–800 mussels of the size range selected by recreational collectors per running metre of rocky shore and, at Kosi Bay, 1400–1500 mussels in the subsistence size range per running metre. This excludes stretches of rocky shore in both areas where mussels are virtually absent. Parametric bootstrapping was used to estimate variance in fishing mortality from variances in input parameters (including catch). Fishing mortality at two recreational zones was 0.6 (95% confidence interval: 0.58–0.62) and 0.46 (0.45–0.47) and at two rocky points at Kosi Bay where subsistence collectors target mussels, 0.42 (0.410.44) and 0.27 (0.26–0.28). Decision tables are provided of target fishing mortalities for three levels of risk of exceeding fishing mortality at maximum sustainable yield for each fishery vs three assumptions about the variability in catch estimates. One recreational zone requires a substantial reduction in effort to reduce fishing mortality to the target No change in subsistence collecting at Kosi Bay is required, but the limited access policy should be maintained

Religion and the Sustainable Development Goals

© 2019, © 2019 Institute for Global Engagement. Religion is a major cultural, social, political, and economic factor in many official development assistance (ODA) recipient countries. After decades of being ignored by global development processes, greater portions of development aid are now channeled via faith-based organizations, and religion is increasingly recognized as a human resource rather than just an obstacle to development. This essay explores the role that faith actors are playing in the Sustainable Development Goals process. It is based upon findings from a research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)—“Keeping Faith in 2030: Religions and the SDGs.”.AHR

Health, faith and therapeutic landscapes: Places of worship as black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) public health settings in the United Kingdom

Within the United Kingdom, there is evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations play a role in public health (PH) that has been neither properly recognised nor integrated into mainstream health systems (November, 2014). Discourses on faith and improving health outcomes have been particularly focused on 'seldom heard' groups, including 'Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic' (BAME) communities (November, 2014; Jain, 2014; Burton et al., 2017; Muhammad, 2018). In this paper we first present findings from a qualitative scoping study carried out in Leeds and Bradford, cities in the UK, between 2014 and 2015, which examined Places of Worship (PWs) as BAME PH settings. We carried out nineteen semi-structured interviews with purposively selected respondents, and three focus groups. Second, we develop a theory that originates from one in the sub-discipline of 'health geography' concerned with 'therapeutic landscapes', applying it to our research findings on PWs as BAME PH settings. The paper argues for the recentring of religion and faith settings back into the therapeutic landscapes literature, reflecting evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations are relevant to the pursuit of health and wellbeing. We also contend that a therapeutic landscapes framework provides a way of making the health relevance of PWs visible to both health practitioners and to members of PWs. We argue that PWs act as therapeutic places (i.e. specific transformative sacred sites) as well as therapeutic spaces (i.e. settings that provide adjuncts to formal PH promotion services), and are often part of therapeutic networks included in 'kinship groups and networks of care provided by family, friends, therapists and other agents of support' (Smyth, 2005: 490). This approach allows us to see how influences on health behaviour are not just confined to bio-medical settings, but that the 'healing process works itself out in places (or situations, locales, settings and milieus)' (Gesler, 1992: 743)

Religion, populism, and the politics of the Sustainable Development Goals

This article examines the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework as a political project in tension with its universal and multilateral aspirations to serve as a counterbalance to narrow populist visions increasingly dominating global politics. Building upon Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of populism and their notion of ‘radical democracy’, we conceptualise the SDGs as a struggle for hegemony and in competition with other styles of politics, over what counts as ‘development’. This hegemonial struggle plays out in the attempts to form political constituencies behind developmental slogans, and it is here that religious actors come to the fore, given their already established role in organising communities, expressing values and aspirations, and articulating visions of the future. Examining how the SDG process has engaged with faith actors in India and Ethiopia, as well as how the Indian and Ethiopian states have engaged with religion in defining development, we argue that a ‘radical democracy’ of sustainable development requires a more intentional effort at integrating religious actors in the implementation of the SDGs

The CMS Tracker Readout Front End Driver

The Front End Driver, FED, is a 9U 400mm VME64x card designed for reading out the Compact Muon Solenoid, CMS, silicon tracker signals transmitted by the APV25 analogue pipeline Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The FED receives the signals via 96 optical fibers at a total input rate of 3.4 GB/sec. The signals are digitized and processed by applying algorithms for pedestal and common mode noise subtraction. Algorithms that search for clusters of hits are used to further reduce the input rate. Only the cluster data along with trigger information of the event are transmitted to the CMS data acquisition system using the S-LINK64 protocol at a maximum rate of 400 MB/sec. All data processing algorithms on the FED are executed in large on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays. Results on the design, performance, testing and quality control of the FED are presented and discussed

Hard mtm_t Corrections as a Probe of the Symmetry Breaking Sector

Non-decoupling effects related to a large $m_t$ affecting non-oblique radiative corrections in vertices ($Z\bar{b}b$) and boxes ($B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and $\epsilon_K$) are very sensitive to the particular mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We analyze these corrections in the framework of a chiral electroweak standard model and find that there is only one operator in the effective lagrangian which modifies the longitudinal part of the $W^+$ boson without touching the oblique corrections. The inclusion of this operator affects the $Z\bar{b}b$ vertex, the $B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and the CP-violating parameter $\epsilon_K$, generating interesting correlations among the hard $m_t^4 \log m_t^2$ corrections to these observables, for example, the maximum vertex $Z b\bar{b}$ correction allowed by low energy physics is about one percent.Comment: LaTex, 8 pages, 1 postscript figure include

Spatial and temporal variability in recruitment of intertidal mussels around the coast of southern Africa

Intensity of intertidal mussel recruitment was compared across a range of different spatial and temporal scales around the coast of southern Africa between June 1995 and October 1996. Comparison of the east and west coasts revealed significantly higher recruit densities on the west coast, corresponding to larger adult densities. This difference between the two coasts reflects biogeographic disparities in mussel species composition, growth rates and spawning intensities, oceanographic conditions and productivity. Significant spatial variations in recruitment were recorded between regions 100–1000 km apart and between localities 1–25 km apart. Results suggest that the influence of dispersal processes on recruitment patterns acts at a relatively small scale, and may affect the distribution and abundance of adults among shores only a few kilometres apart. The high variability in recruitment intensities at a scale of metres indicates that larva! supply to the shore may be locally patchy, or that settlement preferences of recruits may be sensitive to subtle small-scale differences in adult density within mussel clumps. Small-scale differences in post-settlement mortality (e.g. owing to patchy predation pressure) may also play a role. This small-scale variability in recruitment is likely to reinforce the mosaic distribution of mussels evident on many of the shores. Significant temporal variability in recruit density was recorded, both between 3-monthly sampling intervals and interannually. Seasonal differences were absent for the north-west regions, whereas asynchronous seasonal patterns were displayed in the other regions. Results suggest that temporal cycles of recruitment are irregular and episodic, which may have important consequences for the dynamics of adults. Significant positive correlations were obtained between maximal recruitment and adult abundance, measured by density, or total number of adults on the shore (stock). This could be explained by the density-dependent role of adult conspecifics in providing suitable settlement habitat, or supply-side recruit limitation. These results have important implications for the management of exploited populations of mussels around the coast of southern Africa. Exploitation may influence recruitment success via at least two processes: reduction of larval supply by depletion of adult stock, and alteration of habitat suitable for settlement. Thus, overexploitation will compromise recruitment, which is itself the only mechanism of recovery. The west-coast mussel populations are likely to be more resilient to exploitation as recruitment is more predictable over time, stocks are larger and recruitment intensities high. This brings into question the present regulations for mussel harvesting because, paradoxically, more lenient regulations are applied on the east coast, where stocks and recruitment are low, than on the west coast, where biomass, recruitment and potential for recovery are high

New Physics at the LHC. A Les Houches Report: Physics at TeV Colliders 2009 - New Physics Working Group

We present a collection of signatures for physics beyond the standard model that need to be explored at the LHC. First, are presented various tools developed to measure new particle masses in scenarios where all decays include an unobservable particle. Second, various aspects of supersymmetric models are discussed. Third, some signatures of models of strong electroweak symmetry are discussed. In the fourth part, a special attention is devoted to high mass resonances, as the ones appearing in models with warped extra dimensions. Finally, prospects for models with a hidden sector/valley are presented. Our report, which includes brief experimental and theoretical reviews as well as original results, summarizes the activities of the "New Physics" working group for the "Physics at TeV Colliders" workshop (Les Houches, France, 8-26 June, 2009).Comment: 189 page

Recent Results on the Performance of the CMS Tracker Readout System

The CMS Silicon Tracker comprises a complicated set of hardware and software components that have been thoroughly tested at CERN before final integration of the Tracker. A vertical slice of the full readout chain has been operated under near-final conditions. In the absence of the tracker front-end modules, simulated events have been created within the FED (Front End Driver) and used to test the readout reliability and efficiency of the final DAQ (Data Acquisition). The data are sent over the S-Link 64 bit links to the FRL(Fast Readout Link) modules at rates in excess of 200 MBytes/s per FED depending on setup and conditions. The current tracker DAQ is fully based on the CMS communication and acquisition tool XDAQ. This paper discusses setup and results of a vertical slice of the full Tracker final readout system comprising 2 full crates of FEDs, 30 in total, read out through 1 full crate of final FRL modules. This test is to complement previous tests done at Imperial College[3] taking them to the next level in order to prove that a complete crate of FRLs using the final DAQ system, including all subcomponents of the final system both software and hardware with the exception of the detector modules themselves, is capable of sustained readout at the desired rates and occupancy of the CMS Tracker. Simulated data are created with varying hit occupancy (1-10%) and Poisson distributed trigger rates (<200KHz) and the resulting behaviour of the system is recorded. Data illustrating the performance of the system and data readout are presented