Effects of nestling diet quality on the growth and adult size of passerine birds

The effects of nestling diet quality (limiting nutrient k***) and quantity on the growth and adult phenotype of passerines was investigated in this study. An increase in nestling diet quality resulted in faster growth and larger adult size of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata. Tha ultrasound technique revealed differences in pectoralis thickness between groups. Mala zebra finch plumage may be affected by diet quality. Diet quality effects are likely to occur in wild zebra finch populations. A decrease in diet quality resulted in slower growth, and smaller nesting size at fledging, of house martins Delichon urbicum. Mechanisms for this effect in wild populations are discussed. Estimates of Field Metabolic Rate using the doubly-labelled water techniques were the highest yet published. Possible explanations are discussed. Brood manipulation affected great tit Parus major nestling growth, reduced broods grew faster than enlarged broods. Supplementary feeding did not alter diet quality but did increase food availability and result in faster growth of Supplemented broods. Breast Stripe size was affected by food availability, but this effect may not have been independent of body size. Those effects are likely to occur in wild populations, and their implications are discussed. The pattern of female mass loss supported the hypothesis feeding frequency is adjusted to maximise the difference between reproductive costs and benefits. Variation in diet quality may affect individual life-histories through effects on growth rate, differential growth, growth curve shape, fledging size, adult size, fledging plumage and adult plumage. The results of the study support a key assumption of the brood reduction hypothesis. Implications of the results for evolutionary and ecological studies are discussed. It is suggested that parents may maximise the quality of nestlings through maximising the quality of their nutrition, and that the quality of nestlings is a more important component of fitness than has been considered previously

Analysis of energy efficiency in South Africa's primary mineral industry: a focus on gold

Energy use is the human activity responsible for the majority of its greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010 the global energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide - the principal greenhouse gas-jumped by 5.3% from the previous year, to a record 30.4 gigatonnes (IEA 2011a). The International Energy Agency (2011) has projected that the world's primary energy demand could increase by 33% and that energy related CO2 emissions will increase by 20% to 36.4 Gt between 2010 and 2035 (IEA 2011a). South Africa is one of the most energy intensive countries in the world, measured as GHG emissions per Gross Domestic Product produced. South Africa's energy intensiveness is a result of the energy intensive nature of a number of its key industries. The mineral industry is one such industry. It plays a crucial role in South Africa's economy and is the largest industry in its primary economic sector (Chamber of Mines 2010). Energy efficiency has been identified as one of the cheapest and most effective measures to reduce energy consumption and its associated greenhouse gas emissions. The Long Term Mitigation Scenarios coordinated by the University of Cape Town's Energy Research Centre identified that South Africa's industrial sector had cumulatively the greatest potential to reduce its GHG emissions through improved energy efficiency, ahead of the commercial, residential or transport sectors(Winkler 2007). South Africa's continued reliance on unsustainable energy production, particularly coal, increases the need for maximising energy efficiency to mitigate resource consumption and the GHG emissions associated with the production and use of fossil fuel generated energy. This project aims to identify and holistically evaluate the potential opportunities that exist for the reduction of energy and climate footprints of South Africa's gold industry sub-sector, with the aim of providing guidance to both government and industry for a path towards a more energy efficient industry with lower associated GHG emissions. To this end the thesis begins with a comprehensive review of the potential drivers, barriers and opportunities for increased EE and GHG emissions mitigation for the local minerals industry

Understanding the Effectiveness of Performance Management Practices

Effective employee management is an essential element for achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. Through a variety of performance management practices organizations can translate competitive strategies into individual performance expectations and transform employee potential into desired organizational outcomes. Despite the promise of robust performance management practices, a significant research gap exists between the scientific research in Organizational Behavior (OB) and the performance management practices espoused by the “practitioners.” The purpose of this thesis research is to explore a set of performance management practices as an initial step toward providing direct, empirical support for the linkages between performance management practices, the intended behavior or attitude of employees, and the desired employee outcomes measured by perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. The selected performance management “best-practices” of goal-alignment, role-clarification, engagement, accountability, and feedback were tested via self-report survey data from a sample of active-duty military and federal civil-service employees. The results identified the relative effectiveness of the selected practices with respect to perceived organizational support and organizational commitment

Common Ethical Challenges in End of Life Care

Conflict is common in end-of-life situations. This session will be an interactive session in which we explore common conflicts that emerge between caregivers, patients, and care providers, and apply ethical principles to trying to approach these conflicts. At the end of the session, participants will be able to: Discuss an ethical framework for approaching conflict in health care Discuss the ethical challenges in balancing a patient or family’s hope for a miracle with health care providers’ concerns about providing care that is likely to be non-beneficial Discuss an approach to addressing families’ request not to provide pain medication to a person who appears to be sufferin

3D UK? 3D History and the Absent British Pioneers

The recent television ‘rediscovery’ of a small cohort of 1950s British 3D films (and the producers who made them) has offered a new route into considering how the historical stories told about 3D film have focused almost exclusively on the American experience, eliding other national contexts. This article challenges both the partiality of existing academic histories of 3D, and the specific popular media narratives that have been constructed around the British 3D pioneers. Offering a rebuttal of those narratives and an expansion of them based around primary archival research, the article considers how the British 3D company Stereo Techniques created a different business and production model based around non-fiction short 3D films that stand in contrast to the accepted view of 3D as an American feature film novelty. Through an exploration of the depiction (and absence) of these 3D pioneers from existing media histories, the article argues for a revision to both 3D studies and British cinema history

The Major

Although better known for his earlier journeys across the 'Australia Felix' of western Victoria, explorer-surveyor Thomas Livingstone Mitchell journeyed into what is now central Queensland in 1846. The journal of his expedition, published in two volumes two years later, is examined here by Queensland historian Ross Johnston. The journal remains an important account of early European exploration of Queensland and is a valuable item in the Fryer collection

Insights into the complexation of N-Allyl-4-(4-(N-phenylureido)benzylamino)-1,8-naphthalimide with various anions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.A new urea functionalised 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide based fluorescent anion sensor was synthesised in 64% yield over three steps. Fluorescence and 1H NMR titrations showed that the sensor complexes strongly with acetate and dihydrogen phosphate and to a lesser extent bromide. The corresponding binding stoichiometries were examined using 1H NMR titrations. Results show that the sensor molecule initially forms 1:1 complexes through hydrogen bonding to the urea moiety, followed by secondary complexation to form higher order host:guest stoichiometries. Specifically, oxyanions complex to the sensor via hydrogen bonding through synergistic aryl C-H and N-H anion interactions in a 1:2 sensor:oxyanion arrangement. Furthermore, 2:1 sensor:oxyanion complexes are formed through an oxyanion linkage between two urea functionalities on different host molecules. This contrasts the majority of previous reports for similar hosts, which indicate 1:1 binding stoichiometry