Cold-water coral reef frameworks, megafaunal communities and evidence for coral carbonate mounds on the Hatton Bank, north east Atlantic

Offshore banks and seamounts sustain diverse megafaunal communities, including framework reefs formed by cold-water corals. Few studies have quantified environmental effects on the alpha or beta diversity of these communities. We adopted an interdisciplinary approach that used historical geophysical data to identify topographic highs on Hatton Bank, which were surveyed visually. The resulting photographic data were used to examine relationships between megafaunal communities and macrohabitat, the latter defined into six categories (mud, sand, cobbles, coral rubble, coral framework, rock). The survey stations revealed considerable small-scale variability in macrohabitat from exposed Late Palaeocene lava flows to quiescent muddy habitats and coral-built carbonate mounds. The first reported evidence for coral carbonate mound development in UK waters is presented, which was most pronounced near present-day or former sites of topographic change, suggesting that local current acceleration favoured coral framework growth and mound initiation. Alpha diversity varied significantly across macrohabitats, but not between rock and coral rubble, or between smaller grain sized categories of cobbles, sand and mud. Community composition differed between most macrohabitats, and variation in beta diversity across Hatton Bank was largely explained by fine-scale substratum. Certain megafauna were clearly associated with particular macrohabitats, with stylasterid corals notably associated with cobble and rock habitats and coral habitats characterized by a diverse community of suspension-feeders. The visual surveys also produced novel images of deep-water megafauna including a new photographic record of the gorgonian coral Paragorgia arborea, a species not previously reported from Rockall Plateau. Further interdisciplinary studies are needed to interpret beta diversity across these and other environmental gradients on Hatton Bank. It is clear that efforts are also needed to improve our understanding of the genetic connectivity and biogeography of vulnerable deep-water ecosystems and to develop predictive models of their occurrence that can help inform future conservation measures

Effects of mechanically separated dairy cow slurry on grazing performance

No abstract available

An empirical study of student masculinities in an international school :towards a concept of 'third culture' masculinity

PhD ThesisThis research explores how masculinity is constructed by students in a European-based international school. The study has two objectives. First, it examines the interplay between the culture of the school and young men’s masculine identities and considers how the style of masculinity influences and is influenced by the culture of the school. Second, it explores this interplay by focusing on the institution, friendships and relationships between students, and the curriculum. Methodologically the research is underpinned by critical realism that recognises the mediated nature of reality, and is a situation where constructivism cannot be ignored. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach and considers both students and teachers. It draws upon questionnaires, classroom observations, and focus groups. It also integrates semi-structured interviews with a life histories method to capture young men’s gendered worlds. The research finds that existing theoretical frames that have been used to understand young men’s schooling experiences have limited analytical purchase in this context. As a consequence, the thesis argues that in order to understand young men’s gendered identities in this international school context requires a concept of ‘third culture’ masculinity. Constituted through respect, tolerance, diversity, tactical heterosexuality, and female masculinity, ‘third culture’ masculinity becomes pivotal to how young men gender themselves and others in the school. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the negotiation of masculinity in this setting is a complex process of stabilisation and fragmentation. Furthermore the thesis argues that existing educational research on masculinity may benefit from understanding the formation of gender relations in an international schooling context

Eternity and time in the theology of Karl Barth: an essay in dogmatic and philosophical theology

What has Karl Barth (considered by some to be the greatest theologian of the twentieth century) to say about the problem of time and thus eternity? Has what he wrote much significance and how does it relate to both the history of theology and philosophy as well as the modern era?The Enlightenment conditioned the thought of the nineteenth century particularly as regards the possible foundations of systematic theological thought. The dialectic of antitheses (that is of eternity and time, finite and infinite) was subsumed in the complex agnosticism of Kant's transcendental idealism; resolved into overall monistic synthesis by Hegel; broken apart in Trendelenburg's critique; and, finally, reasserted in existential paradox by Kierkegaard. Barth in his early work extended Kierkegaard's precarious Christological Paradox to destruction in a logical reductio thus making a new theological starting-point an imperative need.Barth posited this new beginning in the Word of God, the threefold occurrence of which is grounded upon God and thus the doctrine of God. The historicity of God's own being in his trinitarian life constitutes the 'possibility' of the 'reality' of revelation and as such contains within itself an understanding of time. It is this which is explicated in the main body of the thesis.God's being in the Trinity is being in act and the temporal correlate of this fundamental reality is the doctrine of eternity. Given the exclusive source of the iv knowledge of God in revelation, the 'full contemporaneity* of the divine act assumes crucial significance because the basis of the time of revelation is to be given in revelation itself. The doctrine of *God's time* (eternity) posits the active triumph of God's dynamic freedom in his unseparated past, present and future over the division and loss of 'before' and 'after* in time. The theological impulse of Barth's thought is expressed in the integration of God's being and his perfections.The central doctrine of 'God's time' is exploited throughout the Church Dogmatics in the doctrines of God, election, incarnation, Christology, creation and of 'Man in his Time*. The latter passage, usually seen as Barth's definitive statement on time is in fact merely the overt consummation of a theological theory of time which has been used extensively. Barth's doctrine is a creative develop¬ ment of many strands to be found in the Christian tradition. It contains, however, certain flaws and ambiguities which reflect upon the whole theological structure of the Church Dogmatics. Most serious of these is the linguistic dialectic apparent in the negation of man's time and yet the creative derivation of 'God's time' from a selective analysis of common-sense concepts of time. This is the logical Achilles' heel of the finest theological theory of time in the history of the western tradition

Biodiversity of Spongosorites coralliophaga (Stephens, 1915) on coral rubble at two contrasting cold-water coral reef settings

The authors would like to thank Bill Richardson (Master), the crew of the RRS James Cook, Will Handley and the Holland-I ROV team. We also thank all the specialists in taxonomy that provided important help with identification of species: Professor Paul Tyler (ophiuroids), Dr. Tammy Horton (amphipods), Dr. Graham Oliver (bivalves), Dr. Rob van Soest (sponges), Susan Chambers, Peter Garwood, Sue Hamilton, Raimundo Blanco Pérez (polychaetes). Also we would like to thank Val Johnston (University of Aberdeen) for her contribution to cruise preparations and John Polanski (University of Aberdeen) for his help onboard the RRS James Cook. Special thanks to Dr. Alexios P. Lolas (University of Thessaly, Greece) for all the artwork. Funding for the JC073 cruise was provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) UK Ocean Acidification (UKOA) research programme’s Benthic Consortium project (NE/H017305/1 to JMR). JMR acknowledges support from Heriot-Watt University’s Environment and Climate Change theme. GK was funded by a Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) Ph.D. scholarship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Some Remarks on the Education of the Library Assistant: a Plea

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Mosquito detection with low-cost smartphones: data acquisition for malaria research

Mosquitoes are a major vector for malaria, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths in the developing world each year. Not only is the prevention of mosquito bites of paramount importance to the reduction of malaria transmission cases, but understanding in more forensic detail the interplay between malaria, mosquito vectors, vegetation, standing water and human populations is crucial to the deployment of more effective interventions. Typically the presence and detection of malaria-vectoring mosquitoes is only quantified by hand-operated insect traps or signified by the diagnosis of malaria. If we are to gather timely, large-scale data to improve this situation, we need to automate the process of mosquito detection and classification as much as possible. In this paper, we present a candidate mobile sensing system that acts as both a portable early warning device and an automatic acoustic data acquisition pipeline to help fuel scientific inquiry and policy. The machine learning algorithm that powers the mobile system achieves excellent off-line multi-species detection performance while remaining computationally efficient. Further, we have conducted preliminary live mosquito detection tests using low-cost mobile phones and achieved promising results. The deployment of this system for field usage in Southeast Asia and Africa is planned in the near future. In order to accelerate processing of field recordings and labelling of collected data, we employ a citizen science platform in conjunction with automated methods, the former implemented using the Zooniverse platform, allowing crowdsourcing on a grand scale.Comment: Presented at NIPS 2017 Workshop on Machine Learning for the Developing Worl