Social Organisation in the Malaysian Peacock Pheasant

This thesis reports a study of the behaviour and morphology of the Malaysian peacock pheasant Polyplectron malacense, an inhabitant of lowland rain forest in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 21 months was spent in the field and museum collections were visited. Micro-habitat analysis, radio-tracking and contextual analysis of calling behaviour and call playback experiments were used to collect data on the species in the wild. Periods of calling arid display scrape maintenance were infrequent and unpredictable. Not all of the available micro-habitats within the primary forest were used by the birds as some areas were consistently avoided. Within calling periods males used particular micro-habitats to call and maintain display scrapes. Three different call types were heard. There were differences between calling periods in the number of birds calling, the types of calls given and the overall amount of calling. The number of display scrapes maintained also differed. Based on contextual observations, call playback experiments were conducted and stimulus tapes elicited responses and permitted investigation of call function. There are several morphological features of the male which seem likely to be subject to sexual selection. Males appear to possess several sexually-selected traits which show considerable variability among individuals. Several male morphological characters have evolved in. association with particular epigamic display elements, suggesting that they are potentially under selection through female choice. These results suggest that a female is presented with variation among males in several different ornamental traits. A qualitative model, based on food availability, is proposed to explain variation in calling and scrape maintenance among males. It is argued that opportunities for males to display to females may be very rare and that this may explain the evolution of the male's plumage and display. Females lay a single-egg clutch and hence only one male can fertilise a clutch, with the result that competition between males for paternity is likely to be very strong

Self-organization of intrinsically disordered proteins with folded N-termini

Thousands of human proteins lack recognizable tertiary structure in most of their chains. Here we hypothesize that some use their structured N-terminal domains (SNTDs) to organise the remaining protein chain via intramolecular interactions, generating partially structured proteins. This model has several attractive features: as protein chains emerge, SNTDs form spontaneously and serve as nucleation points, creating more compact shapes. This reduces the risk of protein degradation or aggregation. Moreover, an interspersed pattern of SNTD-docked regions and free loops can coordinate assembly of sub-complexes in defined loop-sections and enables novel regulatory mechanisms, for example through posttranslational modifications of docked regions

Religious Relationships with the Environment in a Tibetan Rural Community : Interactions and Contrasts with Popular Notions of Indigenous Environmentalism

Acknowledgments: We thank Beijing Forestry University, our field assistants Tashi Rabden, Pema Dechin, Tsewang Chomtso and Gele Chopel for their invaluable help, the Forest Bureau of Daocheng county for permission and support, and the people of Samdo for their hospitality and participation. The research was funded by the ESRC and the World Pheasant Association. This paper is a contribution to Imperial College’s Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment initiative. Two anonymous reviewers gave valuable comments on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Entrepreneurial learning in practice: The impact of knowledge transfer

The aim of this research is to provide perspectives on how entrepreneurial practitioners, specifically owners of high-tech small firms (HTSFs), engage with knowledge transfer and learn. The authors draw on extant research and report on the views and observations of the principals in two case study companies in the HTSF sector with regard to growing their ventures and developing learning while part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme. Entrepreneurial learning is an area of significant interest due to the growth of entrepreneurship and the varied ways in which learning can take place. There are many different interventions that can be used to transfer knowledge and develop learning, but there is limited, if any, consensus on their respective effectiveness. The researchers used an ethnographic approach in two companies over an 18-month period. The study concludes that the KTP intervention facilitates an opportunity for learning through disruption, with the key barrier to any new learning being established practice. Interestingly, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial learning is greatly facilitated by ‘on-the-job’ learning

Case study insights to the impact of knowledge transfer in high-tech small firms on entrepreneurial practitioner learning

Knowledge transfer, as the term suggests, is about the exchange of knowledge between associates in a partnership. The ambition of such knowledge transfer is the pursuit and exploitation of new, innovative opportunities and the facilitation of learning. The theatre for such activity is, largely, within high technology small to medium sized firms. The partnership commonly includes those within a business venture, an academic or team of academics from a Higher Education Institute, (HEI), and government agencies. It is essentially about the transfer of tangible and intellectual property, expertise, learning and skills between academia and the non-academic community, particularly the business community. The ‘knowledge’ transferred can be formal and clearly expressed, for example, from published research, informal in terms of individual experiences and tacit as in residing in the individual without being stated and therefore difficult to articulate in direct communication. Transferring knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge, and facilitating learning, is a complex undertaking. The entrepreneurial business venturer, for example, busy with developing an enterprise, may not be fully aware of, or have thought critically about, the wealth of knowledge that resides within him/her as a consequence of years of business experience. The specific challenge to transfer ‘knowledge’ is therefore to capture, organize, create, and distribute such knowledge from one part of an enterprise to another or indeed throughout an enterprise in ways that effect a step-change in the progress of the business venture and to ensure its legacy remains valid for those within the enterprise into the future though the development of appropriate applied learning. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership, (KTP), scheme in the UK, is specifically designed to help those within entrepreneurial firms to acquire the knowledge they need to pursue growth through a greater commitment to, and development of, competencies in innovation practice and opportunity focus. The link between the entrepreneurial business venturer, the academic in the HEI and the graduate, the Associate, recruited by the HEI and lodged within the firm, are the key players in determining the potential of the scheme to facilitate learning that will have a positive impact on the future of the business. The Associate, as an agent for positive, innovative change in the business, brings with him/her new knowledge to be introduced into the business, challenging established practices and processes and supporting innovative step-changes in the business. The placements are temporary but potentially can be a ‘long-interview’. In a recent independent report, (The Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme: an impact review, From: Innovate UK, First published: 13 October 2015), it was noted, for example, that for every £1 of KTP grant invested up to £8 of net extra GVA was generated, that 94% of associates said KTP had had a positive impact on their personal/career development, that over a third said the impact had actually been transformational for their development and career, that 99% of knowledge base organisations would recommend the KTP programme and that 95% of KTP associates would recommend it to other graduates/post graduates. Knowledge transfer is, therefore, clearly both potentially valuable and challenging for those engaged in it. Many high-technology small to medium sized firms emerge as a consequence of the creativity and innovativeness of a founding entrepreneur and his or her team and the early development of such enterprises can often be characterised by organic development and considerable adhocracy. Innovation in terms of new product or process development lie at the core of what founders and their teams do although not always formally recognised and supported. Early practices that are seen to work become established. That key focus of knowledge-transfer is on supporting appropriate and sustainable learning, where the Entrepreneurial Practitioner acquires and learns to implement new knowledge of best practice in business development, where the Associate gains experience of business practice and an opportunity to apply learned theory and where the academic learns the value of their research in an applied context. The focus of this research is on the Entrepreneurial Practitioner’s learning. Cope (2003) suggests however that the entrepreneurship discipline does not currently possess sufficient conceptual frameworks to explain how entrepreneurs learn. He concluded ‘..entrepreneurial learning is not characterised by the notions of stability, consistency or predictability. Rather, evidence suggests that the concepts of metamorphosis, discontinuity and change more appropriately encapsulate the dynamics of this phenomenon’, (p. 26). When it comes to working, learning and innovation, Brown and Duguid (1991) argue that ‘Work practice is generally viewed as conservative and resistant to change, learning is generally viewed as distinct from working and problematic in the face of change and innovation is generally viewed as the disruptive but necessary imposition of change on the other two’, (p40), highlighting the tensions that often accompany the learning process within the developing HTSF. In this exploratory, ethnographic report, two of the authors were each embedded in a high-tech small firm as part of a knowledge transfer partnership, (KTP), and in the research key decision-makers in each firm are observed and interviewed over a two-year period in order to gain insights to practitioner learning over that period. In response to Cope’s suggestion, and reflecting those of Brown and Duguid, the authors’ aim is to provide perspectives on how Entrepreneurial Practitioners, owners of high-tech small firms, (HTSF), and engaged with knowledge transfer, learn

Exploring patients’ opinions of activity pacing and a new activity pacing questionnaire for chronic pain and/or fatigue:a qualitative study

Objective: Despite the frequent recommendation of activity pacing as a coping strategy for patients with chronic pain and/or fatigue, pacing is interpreted in different ways and there is an absence of a widely accepted pacing scale. We have developed a new Activity Pacing Questionnaire(APQ). The aims of this study were to explore patients’ views and beliefs about the concept of pacing, together with the acceptability of the APQ. Design: Qualitative pragmatic study using semi-structured telephone interviews. Data were analysed using Framework analysis. Participants 16 adult patients attending secondary care physiotherapy out-patient departments were recruited via purposive sampling. Diagnoses included chronic low back pain, chronic widespread pain, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. Findings: Pacing emerged as a multifaceted concept from participants’ descriptions. The implementation of pacing was influenced by participants’ age, the presence of co-morbidities and participants’ emotions. The APQ was found to be generally acceptable in comparison to two existing pacing subscales. Participants undertook activities using quota/symptom-contingent approaches. Four behavioural typologies emerged: Task avoidance, Task persistence, Task fluctuation (boom-bust) and Task modification (activity pacing). Conclusions: The APQ appears to be easy to complete, and acceptable to patients who are attending physiotherapy for the management of long-term conditions. It emerged that individual patients implemented different pacing facets to varying degrees, and that different behavioural typologies were apparent. The relationships between behavioural typologies and facets of pacing warrant further investigation to facilitate the development of effective tailored pacing interventions

Scenario-Led Habitat Modelling of Land Use Change Impacts on Key Species

Accurate predictions of the impacts of future land use change on species of conservation concern can help to inform policy-makers and improve conservation measures. If predictions are spatially explicit, predicted consequences of likely land use changes could be accessible to land managers at a scale relevant to their working landscape. We introduce a method, based on open source software, which integrates habitat suitability modelling with scenario-building, and illustrate its use by investigating the effects of alternative land use change scenarios on landscape suitability for black grouse Tetrao tetrix. Expert opinion was used to construct five near-future (twenty years) scenarios for the 800 km2 study site in upland Scotland. For each scenario, the cover of different land use types was altered by 5–30% from 20 random starting locations and changes in habitat suitability assessed by projecting a MaxEnt suitability model onto each simulated landscape. A scenario converting grazed land to moorland and open forestry was the most beneficial for black grouse, and ‘increased grazing’ (the opposite conversion) the most detrimental. Positioning of new landscape blocks was shown to be important in some situations. Increasing the area of open-canopy forestry caused a proportional decrease in suitability, but suitability gains for the ‘reduced grazing’ scenario were nonlinear. ‘Scenario-led’ landscape simulation models can be applied in assessments of the impacts of land use change both on individual species and also on diversity and community measures, or ecosystem services. A next step would be to include landscape configuration more explicitly in the simulation models, both to make them more realistic, and to examine the effects of habitat placement more thoroughly. In this example, the recommended policy would be incentives on grazing reduction to benefit black grouse.This study was part of a PhD studentship funded through the World Pheasant Association (from the Henry Angest Foundation, Howman Charitable Foundation, Mactaggart Third Charitable Trust, PF Charitable Trust and AF Wallace Charity Trust) and the Dalton Research Institute

Outcomes of patients with Juvenile Polyposis-Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia caused by pathogenic SMAD4 variants in a pan-Scotland cohort

Constitutional loss of SMAD4 function results in Juvenile Polyposis-Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia Overlap Syndrome (JP-HHT). A retrospective multi-centre case-note review identified 28 patients with a pathogenic SMAD4 variant from 13 families across all Scottish Clinical Genetics Centres. This provided a complete clinical picture of the Scottish JP-HHT cohort. Colonic polyps were identified in 87% (23/28) and gastric polyps in 67% (12/18) of screened patients. Complication rates were high: 43% (10/23) of patients with polyps required a colectomy and 42% (5/12) required a gastrectomy. Colorectal cancer occurred in 25% (7/28) of patients, at a median age of 33 years. Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations were identified in 42% (8/19) of screened patients. 88% (23/26) and 81% (17/21) of patients exhibited JP and HHT features respectively, with 70% (14/20) demonstrating features of both conditions. We have shown that individuals with a pathogenic SMAD4 variant are all at high risk of both gastrointestinal neoplasia and HHT-related vascular complications, requiring a comprehensive screening programme.</p

Outcomes of patients with Juvenile Polyposis-Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia caused by pathogenic SMAD4 variants in a pan-Scotland cohort

Constitutional loss of SMAD4 function results in Juvenile Polyposis-Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia Overlap Syndrome (JP-HHT). A retrospective multi-centre case-note review identified 28 patients with a pathogenic SMAD4 variant from 13 families across all Scottish Clinical Genetics Centres. This provided a complete clinical picture of the Scottish JP-HHT cohort. Colonic polyps were identified in 87% (23/28) and gastric polyps in 67% (12/18) of screened patients. Complication rates were high: 43% (10/23) of patients with polyps required a colectomy and 42% (5/12) required a gastrectomy. Colorectal cancer occurred in 25% (7/28) of patients, at a median age of 33 years. Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations were identified in 42% (8/19) of screened patients. 88% (23/26) and 81% (17/21) of patients exhibited JP and HHT features respectively, with 70% (14/20) demonstrating features of both conditions. We have shown that individuals with a pathogenic SMAD4 variant are all at high risk of both gastrointestinal neoplasia and HHT-related vascular complications, requiring a comprehensive screening programme.</p