Potential climate change effects on the habitat of Antarctic krill in the Weddell Quadrant of the Southern Ocean

Antarctic krill is a cold water species, an increasingly important fishery resource and a major prey item for many fish, birds and mammals in the Southern Ocean. The fishery and the summer foraging sites of many of these predators are concentrated between 0° and 90°W. Parts of this quadrant have experienced recent localised sea surface warming of up to 0.2°C per decade, and projections suggest that further widespread warming of 0.27° to 1.08°C will occur by the late 21st century. We assessed the potential influence of this projected warming on Antarctic krill habitat with a statistical model that links growth to temperature and chlorophyll concentration. The results divide the quadrant into two zones: a band around the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in which habitat quality is particularly vulnerable to warming, and a southern area which is relatively insensitive. Our analysis suggests that the direct effects of warming could reduce the area of growth habitat by up to 20%. The reduction in growth habitat within the range of predators, such as Antarctic fur seals, that forage from breeding sites on South Georgia could be up to 55%, and the habitat’s ability to support Antarctic krill biomass production within this range could be reduced by up to 68%. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the effects of a 50% change in summer chlorophyll concentration could be more significant than the direct effects of warming. A reduction in primary production could lead to further habitat degradation but, even if chlorophyll increased by 50%, projected warming would still cause some degradation of the habitat accessible to predators. While there is considerable uncertainty in these projections, they suggest that future climate change could have a significant negative effect on Antarctic krill growth habitat and, consequently, on Southern Ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services

What Do Book Publishers Do and How is the Book Evolving?

This PhD by Publication captures an ongoing exploration of the book industry and the changes affecting the book itself. Two central questions are examined: What do book publishers do? How is the book evolving? The thesis shows the coherence of the research questions, demonstrates the linkages between the published works, and how they contribute to the overall field of publishing studies. The thesis is constructed around nine works published over a 17-year period: three monographs, five book chapters, and one journal paper. Overall the works add coherent analysis and new insights to our understanding of the book industry, devising models, offering new interpretations, and moving on beyond simple descriptions of what publishers do. The publications show why publishing operates in certain ways, how publishers can and do add value, and what challenges they face from digital and other developments. The business model of the book remains robust, and the printed book continues to demonstrate resilience as part of a broader family including ebooks and audiobooks. Long-term trends in the UK publishing industry are identified through analysis of time series data to establish what correlation if any exists between the national income of a country and its sales of books. The methods employed in the research include semi-structured interviews, case studies, industry data and archival research. These are discussed in detail outlining some of the decisions made and the background to the methods. New concepts are advanced in the works alongside structured analysis of the industry and its operations. The publications not only explain what publishers do and how they add value – they also show why some functions are carried out by third parties. Theoretical models advanced include the value chain in publishing, which shows how publishers add value to content. The concept of digital capital shows how publishers need to connect with readers, and the importance of the co-creation of value. A tripartite concept of the book goes beyond a technical definition to advance a dynamic model which shows how a book is not just an information architecture but also occupies a special place in society, which grants it privileges such as lower taxation and prestige, and has a distinct business model

Trade Publishing

Trade publishing at Oxford University Press included those titles aimed at a broader audience, including general non-fiction, illustrated histories and encyclopedias, World’s Classics, and children’s books. Originally a separate operation of the London Business, overseas trade publishing later devolved to the branches while domestic trade titles were amalgamated into the Oxford academic lists. Trade titles involved a higher level of risk, deeper discounts to booksellers, larger author royalty payments, and investment in marketing and sales. The Press gradually minimized these risks by introducing greater oversight from the Delegates on manuscript selection, and by reducing the number of individual titles and concentrating on series. The chapter highlights the significant series and individual trade titles from across the Press, and considers the trade list both in its interaction with OUP’s wider academic and scholarly interests and within the context of commercial trade publishing

What is a book?

The aim of this paper is to reach a level of conceptual clarity about what we call a book. The motivation for this exercise lies in the desire to chart the trajectory of the book as a cultural phenomenon in light of the gradual move to shorter textual expression that is taking place alongside the delivery of stories in other forms besides text. For this purpose the article takes a historical perspective without, however, attempting to chart all the phases in the development of the book. Concurrently with the move to shorter textual expression, in the digital reading environment the basic elements of the 1964 UNESCO definition of the book (printed, a minimum number of pages) have had to be left behind. Alongside the arrival of new publishing business models, the entire notion of the book is in jeopardy. This set of developments calls for a fundamental reconsideration of how we define a book in relation to other book-like objects and text forms. The approach taken is iterative, moving closer towards a definition of the book whilst acknowledging the arrival of offspring such as the ebook and audiobook

Spectral Diffusion Processes

Score-based generative modelling (SGM) has proven to be a very effective method for modelling densities on finite-dimensional spaces. In this work we propose to extend this methodology to learn generative models over functional spaces. To do so, we represent functional data in spectral space to dissociate the stochastic part of the processes from their space-time part. Using dimensionality reduction techniques we then sample from their stochastic component using finite dimensional SGM. We demonstrate our method's effectiveness for modelling various multimodal datasets.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, Score-based Method Workshop at 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022

The death of the monograph?

A survey of English language academic publishers in the UK, Europe and North America was undertaken in 2021. The objective was to gather data on the current landscape of academic monograph publishing in the arts, humanities, and social sciences and to identify trends. Respondents were asked about their monograph publishing activities, sales, distribution, and about the future direction of their programmes. The paper ofers independent analysis of publisher information that may be helpful in informing the debate among stakeholders as to the future of the publication of long-form research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The results offer key insights into the growth in output of titles, the level of print sales, the move towards open access, usage of monographs, and their pricing

Genome-wide gene by environment study of time spent in daylight and chronotype identifies emerging genetic architecture underlying light sensitivity

Study Objectives: Light is the primary stimulus for synchronizing the circadian clock in humans. There are very large interindividual differences in the sensitivity of the circadian clock to light. Little is currently known about the genetic basis for these interindividual differences.Methods: We performed a genome-wide gene-by-environment interaction study (GWIS) in 280 897 individuals from the UK Biobank cohort to identify genetic variants that moderate the effect of daytime light exposure on chronotype (individual time of day preference), acting as “light sensitivity” variants for the impact of daylight on the circadian system.Results: We identified a genome-wide significant SNP mapped to the ARL14EP gene (rs3847634; p < 5 × 10−8), where additional minor alleles were found to enhance the morningness effect of daytime light exposure (βGxE = −.03, SE = 0.005) and were associated with increased gene ARL14EP expression in brain and retinal tissues. Gene-property analysis showed light sensitivity loci were enriched for genes in the G protein-coupled glutamate receptor signaling pathway and genes expressed in Per2+ hypothalamic neurons. Linkage disequilibrium score regression identified Bonferroni significant genetic correlations of greater light sensitivity GWIS with later chronotype and shorter sleep duration. Greater light sensitivity was nominally genetically correlated with insomnia symptoms and risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Conclusions: This study is the first to assess light as an important exposure in the genomics of chronotype and is a critical first step in uncovering the genetic architecture of human circadian light sensitivity and its links to sleep and mental healt

Developing a New Definition and Assessing New Clinical Criteria for Septic Shock For the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3)

IMPORTANCE: Septic shock currently refers to a state of acute circulatory failure associated with infection. Emerging biological insights and reported variation in epidemiology challenge the validity of this definition. OBJECTIVE: To develop a new definition and clinical criteria for identifying septic shock in adults. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The Society of Critical Care Medicine and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine convened a task force (19 participants) to revise current sepsis/septic shock definitions. Three sets of studies were conducted: (1) a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies in adults published between January 1, 1992, and December 25, 2015, to determine clinical criteria currently reported to identify septic shock and inform the Delphi process; (2) a Delphi study among the task force comprising 3 surveys and discussions of results from the systematic review, surveys, and cohort studies to achieve consensus on a new septic shock definition and clinical criteria; and (3) cohort studies to test variables identified by the Delphi process using Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) (2005-2010; n = 28 150), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) (2010-2012; n = 1 309 025), and Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) (2009-2013; n = 1 847 165) electronic health record (EHR) data sets. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Evidence for and agreement on septic shock definitions and criteria. RESULTS: The systematic review identified 44 studies reporting septic shock outcomes (total of 166 479 patients) from a total of 92 sepsis epidemiology studies reporting different cutoffs and combinations for blood pressure (BP), fluid resuscitation, vasopressors, serum lactate level, and base deficit to identify septic shock. The septic shock–associated crude mortality was 46.5% (95% CI, 42.7%-50.3%), with significant between-study statistical heterogeneity (I2 = 99.5%; τ2 = 182.5; P < .001). The Delphi process identified hypotension, serum lactate level, and vasopressor therapy as variables to test using cohort studies. Based on these 3 variables alone or in combination, 6 patient groups were generated. Examination of the SSC database demonstrated that the patient group requiring vasopressors to maintain mean BP 65 mm Hg or greater and having a serum lactate level greater than 2 mmol/L (18 mg/dL) after fluid resuscitation had a significantly higher mortality (42.3% [95% CI, 41.2%-43.3%]) in risk-adjusted comparisons with the other 5 groups derived using either serum lactate level greater than 2 mmol/L alone or combinations of hypotension, vasopressors, and serum lactate level 2 mmol/L or lower. These findings were validated in the UPMC and KPNC data sets. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Based on a consensus process using results from a systematic review, surveys, and cohort studies, septic shock is defined as a subset of sepsis in which underlying circulatory, cellular, and metabolic abnormalities are associated with a greater risk of mortality than sepsis alone. Adult patients with septic shock can be identified using the clinical criteria of hypotension requiring vasopressor therapy to maintain mean BP 65 mm Hg or greater and having a serum lactate level greater than 2 mmol/L after adequate fluid resuscitation

Effect of immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy on risk of severe bacterial infections in HIV-positive people with CD4 cell counts of more than 500 cells per μL: secondary outcome results from a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The effects of antiretroviral therapy on risk of severe bacterial infections in people with high CD4 cell counts have not been well described. In this study, we aimed to quantify the effects of immediate versus deferred ART on the risk of severe bacterial infection in people with high CD4 cell counts in a preplanned analysis of the START trial. METHODS: The START trial was a randomised controlled trial in ART-naive HIV-positive patients with CD4 cell count of more than 500 cells per μL assigned to immediate ART or deferral until their CD4 cell counts were lower than 350 cells per μL. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to model time to severe bacterial infection, which was defined as a composite endpoint of bacterial pneumonia (confirmed by the endpoint review committee), pulmonary or extrapulmonary tuberculosis, or any bacterial infectious disorder of grade 4 severity, that required unscheduled hospital admissions, or caused death. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00867048. FINDINGS: Patients were recruited from April 15, 2009, to Dec 23, 2013. The data cutoff for follow-up was May 26, 2015. Of 4685 HIV-positive people enrolled, 120 had severe bacterial infections (immediate-initiation group n=34, deferred-initiation group n=86; median 2·8 years of follow-up). Immediate ART was associated with a reduced risk of severe bacterial infection compared with deferred ART (hazard ratio [HR] 0·39, 95% CI 0·26-0·57, p INTERPRETATION: Immediate ART reduces the risk of several severe bacterial infections in HIV-positive people with high CD4 cell count. This is partly explained by ART-induced increases in CD4 cell count, but not by increases in neutrophil count. FUNDING: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health, Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA et les Hépatites Virales, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, European AIDS Treatment Network, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, UK National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council, Danish National Research Foundation