iCapture: Facilitating Spontaneous User-Interaction with Pervasive Displays using Smart Devices

Abstract. The eCampus project at Lancaster University is an inter-disciplinary project aiming to deploy a wide range of situated displays across the University campus in order to create a large per-vasive communications infrastructure. At present, we are conducting a series of parallel research activities in order to investigate how the pervasive communications infrastructure can support the daily needs of staff, students and visitors to the University. This paper introduces one of our current research investigations into how one is able to mediate spontaneous interaction with the pervasive display infrastructure through camera equipped mobile phones (i.e. smart devices).

Future climate warming and changes to mountain permafrost in the Bolivian Andes

Water resources in many of the world’s arid mountain ranges are threatened by climate change, and in parts of the South American Andes this is exacerbated by glacier recession and population growth. Alternative sources of water, such as more resilient permafrost features (e.g. rock glaciers), are expected to become increasingly important as current warming continues. Assessments of current and future permafrost extent under climate change are not available for the Southern Hemisphere, yet are required to inform decision making over future water supply and climate change adaptation strategies. Here, downscaled model outputs were used to calculate the projected changes in permafrost extent for a first-order assessment of an example region, the Bolivian Andes. Using the 0 °C mean annual air temperature as a proxy for permafrost extent, these projections show that permafrost areas will shrink from present day extent by up to 95 % under warming projected for the 2050s and by 99 % for the 2080s (under the IPCC A1B scenario, given equilibrium conditions). Using active rock glaciers as a proxy for the lower limit of permafrost extent, we also estimate that projected temperature changes would drive a near total loss of currently active rock glaciers in this region by the end of the century. In conjunction with glacier recession, a loss of permafrost extent of this magnitude represents a water security problem for the latter part of the 21st century, and it is likely that this will have negative effects on one of South America’s fastest growing cities (La Paz), with similar implications for other arid mountain regions

Using in situ management to conserve biodiversity under climate change

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The accepted author manuscript version of this article is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18829Successful conservation will increasingly depend on our ability to help species cope with climate change. While there has been much attention on accommodating or assisting range shifts, less has been given to the alternative strategy of helping species survive climate change through in situ management.Here we provide a synthesis of published evidence examining whether habitat management can be used to offset the adverse impacts on biodiversity of changes in temperature, water availability and sea-level rise. Our focus is on practical methods whereby the local environmental conditions experienced by organisms can be made more suitable.Many studies suggest that manipulating vegetation structure can alter the temperature and moisture conditions experienced by organisms, and several demonstrate that these altered conditions benefit species as regional climatic conditions become unsuitable. The effects of topography on local climatic conditions are even better understood, but the alteration of topography as a climate adaptation tool is not ingrained in conservation practice. Trials of topographic alteration in the field should therefore be a priority for future research.Coastal systems have the natural capacity to keep pace with climate change, but require sufficient sediment supplies and space for landward migration to do so. There is an extensive literature on managed realignment. While the underlying rationale is simple, successful implementation requires careful consideration of elevation and past land use. Even with careful management, restored habitats may not attain the physical and biological attributes of natural habitats. Synthesis and applications. The recent literature provides a compelling case that some of the adverse effects of climate change can be offset by appropriate management. However, much of the evidence for this is indirect and too few studies provide empirical tests of the long-term effectiveness of these management interventions. It is clear from the existing evidence that some techniques have a higher risk of failure or unexpected outcomes than others and managers will need to make careful choices about which to implement. We have assessed the strength of evidence of these approaches in order to demonstrate to conservation professionals the risks involved.A.J.S. was funded by a NERC grant, ref: NE/L00268X/1

Climatic Disequilibrium Threatens Conservation Priority Forests

AcceptedArticle in PressThis is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley Open Access via the DOI in this record.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.We test the hypothesis that climatic changes since 1800 have resulted in unrealized potential vegetation changes that represent a "climatic debt" for many ecosystems. Caledonian pinewoods, an EU priority forest type, are used as a model system to explore potential impacts of two centuries of climatic change upon sites of conservation importance and surrounding landscapes. Using methods that estimate topographic microclimate, current and preindustrial climates were estimated for 50 m grid cells and simulations made using a dynamic vegetation model. Core Caledonian pinewood areas are now less suitable for growth of pine and more favorable for oak than in 1800, whereas landscapes as a whole are on average more favorable for both. The most favorable areas for pine are now mainly outside areas designated to conserve historical pinewoods. A paradigm shift is needed in formulating conservation strategies to avoid catastrophic losses of this habitat, and of many others globally with trees or other long-lived perennials as keystone species.Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/I011234/

Widespread effects of climate change on local plant diversity

Human activity has sent many measures of biodiversity into long-term decline, and there are suggestions that the sheer scale of this impact is sufficient to consider the modern era as a geological epoch of its own, known as “The Anthropocene”. However, recent meta-analyses show that local alpha diversity is often stable or slightly increasing. Here, we show that the local alpha diversity (species richness) of plants found in quadrats and transects has increased the most in cooler regions of the world that have experienced the highest absolute changes (i.e., changes in either direction) in climate. The greatest statistical support is for the effects of precipitation change. On average, alpha diversity declined slightly (−4.2% per decade) in the third of sites that experienced the lowest precipitation change but increased (+10.8% per decade) in the third of sites with the highest precipitation change. These results suggest that the “perturbation” of local communities during climatic transitions increases the average number of species, at least temporarily, an effect likely to remain important as climate change continues

Fine-scale climate change: modelling spatial variation in biologically meaningful rates of warming

The existence of fine‐grain climate heterogeneity has prompted suggestions that species may be able to survive future climate change in pockets of suitable microclimate, termed ‘microrefugia’. However, evidence for microrefugia is hindered by lack of understanding of how rates of warming vary across a landscape. Here, we present a model that is applied to provide fine‐grained, multidecadal estimates of temperature change based on the underlying physical processes that influence microclimate. Weather station and remotely derived environmental data were used to construct physical variables that capture the effects of terrain, sea surface temperatures, altitude and surface albedo on local temperatures, which were then calibrated statistically to derive gridded estimates of temperature. We apply the model to the Lizard Peninsula, United Kingdom, to provide accurate (mean error = 1.21 °C; RMS error = 1.63 °C) hourly estimates of temperature at a resolution of 100 m for the period 1977–2014. We show that rates of warming vary across a landscape primarily due to long‐term trends in weather conditions. Total warming varied from 0.87 to 1.16 °C, with the slowest rates of warming evident on north‐east‐facing slopes. This variation contributed to substantial spatial heterogeneity in trends in bioclimatic variables: for example, the change in the length of the frost‐free season varied from +11 to −54 days and the increase in annual growing degree‐days from 51 to 267 °C days. Spatial variation in warming was caused primarily by a decrease in daytime cloud cover with a resulting increase in received solar radiation, and secondarily by a decrease in the strength of westerly winds, which has amplified the effects on temperature of solar radiation on west‐facing slopes. We emphasize the importance of multidecadal trends in weather conditions in determining spatial variation in rates of warming, suggesting that locations experiencing least warming may not remain consistent under future climate change

A Modest Addendum to the English Sediment Core Meta-Database

Compilations of previous studies provide researchers with a source of valuable secondary data for re-analysis, an access route to identify relevant literature and an opportunity to systematically evaluate the research which is conducted and published. Recently Suggitt et al. (2015 Veg Hist Archbot 24, 743–747) presented a valuable compilation of core records for England. Here we present an extended version of this English Sediment Core Meta-database which includes data for 100 additional cores and improves the consistency of presentation. Despite these additions there are clearly large gaps remaining. Maximising the value of such meta-databases requires a community effort and we hope that this contribution will be a first step towards achieving this

The influence of hypoxia and energy depletion on the response of endothelial cells to the vascular disrupting agent combretastatin A-4-phosphate

Combretastatin A-4 phosphate (CA4P) is a microtubule-disrupting tumour-selective vascular disrupting agent (VDA). CA4P activates the actin-regulating RhoA-GTPase/ ROCK pathway, which is required for full vascular disruption. While hypoxia renders tumours resistant to many conventional therapies, little is known about its influence on VDA activity. Here, we found that active RhoA and ROCK effector phospho-myosin light chain (pMLC) were downregulated in endothelial cells by severe hypoxia. CA4P failed to activate RhoA/ROCK/pMLC but its activity was restored upon reoxygenation. Hypoxia also inhibited CA4P-mediated actinomyosin contractility, VE-cadherin junction disruption and permeability rise. Glucose withdrawal downregulated pMLC, and coupled with hypoxia, reduced pMLC faster and more profoundly than hypoxia alone. Concurrent inhibition of glycolysis (2-deoxy-D-glucose, 2DG) and mitochondrial respiration (rotenone) caused profound actin filament loss, blocked RhoA/ROCK signalling and rendered microtubules CA4P-resistant. Withdrawal of the metabolism inhibitors restored the cytoskeleton and CA4P activity. The AMP-activated kinase AMPK was investigated as a potential mediator of pMLC downregulation. Pharmacological AMPK activators that generate AMP, unlike allosteric activators, downregulated pMLC but only when combined with 2DG and/or rotenone. Altogether, our results suggest that Rho/ROCK and actinomyosin contractility are regulated by AMP/ATP levels independently of AMPK, and point to hypoxia/energy depletion as potential modifiers of CA4P response