Living in the senses and learning with love - John MacMurray’s philosophy of embodied emotion

In this article we analyse the central role that the body plays in John MacMurray's account of learning to be human. As with Merleau-Ponty, MacMurray rejected mind-body dualisms and argued for the need to understand what it means to be a person. Through our analysis we highlight the key principles that characterize MacMurray's philosophy in relation to personhood and the body, namely: 1) all human knowledge and action should be for the sake of friendship and 2) human persons exist first and foremost in their bodies as ‘knowing agents' rather than in their minds as ‘knowing subjects'. We thereafter explain MacMurray's views on education and how it must support people to live in personal rather than functional relation with each other by attending more to bodily experience and education of the emotions. Accordingly, MacMurray considered that persons can either ‘use' their bodily senses as mere instruments for functional purposes or they can ‘live' in their bodily senses by learning to love (not ‘using' but rather apprehending the real value of) other persons. In conclusion, we suggest that MacMurray's philosophy can open up a different way of thinking about the educational value of physical activity. For MacMurray shared physical pursuits are especially educational when carried out for their own sake and when all persons' present experience moments of bodily joy and togetherness and a better understanding of each other

Using individual tracking data to validate the predictions of species distribution models

The authors would like to thank the College of Life Sciences of Aberdeen University and Marine Scotland Science which funded CP's PhD project. Skate tagging experiments were undertaken as part of Scottish Government project SP004. We thank Ian Burrett for help in catching the fish and the other fishermen and anglers who returned tags. We thank José Manuel Gonzalez-Irusta for extracting and making available the environmental layers used as environmental covariates in the environmental suitability modelling procedure. We also thank Jason Matthiopoulos for insightful suggestions on habitat utilization metrics as well as Stephen C.F. Palmer, and three anonymous reviewers for useful suggestions to improve the clarity and quality of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprintPostprintPostprintPostprin

Motivators and barriers to adoption of improved land management practices. A focus on practice change for water quality improvement in Great Barrier Reef catchments

To protect and improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland Government's Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan targets that 90% of sugarcane, horticulture, cropping and grazing lands in priority areas be managed using best management practices for sediment, nutrient and pesticides by 2025. Progress towards this target is insufficient and variable across catchments and industries. The motivation to adopt improvements in management practices is heavily influenced by social, economic, cultural and institutional dimensions. In this paper we synthesise the literature on how these human dimensions influence decision making for land management practice and highlight where future investment could be focussed. We highlight that focussing on —1) investigating systems to support landholder decision making under climate uncertainty (risk); 2) generating a better understanding of the extent and drivers of landholder transaction cost; 3) understanding if there are competing ‘right’ ways to farm; and 4) improving understanding of the social processes, trust and power dynamics within GBR industries and what these means for practice change— could improve practice change uptake in the future

An integrative modelling framework for passive acoustic telemetry

The work was supported by a PhD Studentship at the University of St Andrews funded by NatureScot, via the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), and the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling. Data were made available through the Movement Ecology of Flapper Skate project funded by NatureScot (project 015960) and Marine Scotland (projects SP004 and SP02B0). Jane Dodd, Ronnie Campbell, Roger Eaton, Francis Neat and Dmitry Aleynik supported this project. MASTS and Shark Guardian provided additional funding. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Passive acoustic telemetry is widely used to study the movements of aquatic animals. However, a holistic, mechanistic modelling framework that permits the reconstruction of fine-scale movements and emergent patterns of space use from detections at receivers remains lacking. Here, we introduce an integrative modelling framework that recapitulates the movement and detection processes that generate detections to reconstruct fine-scale movements and patterns of space use. This framework is supported by a new family of algorithms designed for detection and depth observations and can be flexibly extended to incorporate other data types. Using simulation, we illustrate applications of our framework and evaluate algorithm utility and sensitivity in different settings. As a case study, we analyse movement data collected from the Critically Endangered flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius) in Scotland. We show that our methods can be used to reconstruct fine-scale movement paths, patterns of space use and support habitat preference analyses. For reconstructing patterns of space use, simulations show that the methods are consistently more instructive than the most widely used alternative approach (the mean-position algorithm), particularly in clustered receiver arrays. For flapper skate, the reconstruction of movements reveals responses to disturbance, fine-scale spatial partitioning and patterns of space use with significant implications for marine management. We conclude that this framework represents a widely applicable methodological advance with applications to studies of pelagic, demersal and benthic species across multiple spatiotemporal scales.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Asking better questions! A review of the pedagogical strategies used in one senior level award in Scotland

Previous related research on teaching effectiveness in one senior level award - Higher Still Physical Education (HSPE) in Scotland - revealed a number of extended challenges in adopting the practical experiential teaching and learning approaches advised. However, these studies were restricted by lack of observation of teaching and learning in action and of detailed analysis of the types and timings of questions asked. The present study addressed these limitations. Data were collected through observations of teaching, questionnaire responses on the uses of discussions by pupils and teachers and semi-structured teacher interviews. Findings revealed that there were encouraging signs of a broad range of purposeful question techniques being used in practical sessions. However, there was still a lack of full teacher trust in these approaches, despite high pupil endorsement for their usage. We conclude that perceived subject content and external assessment demands continue to constrain pedagogical strategies in HSPE

Seasonal and ontogenetic variation in depth use by a critically endangered benthic elasmobranch and its implications for spatial management

The project was undertaken through the Movement Ecology of the Flapper skate project at St Andrews and received support from the Ecology and Conservation Group, Marine Scotland Science, and Marine Scotland Planning & Policy and NatureScot. It was funded by Marine Scotland projects SP004 and SP02B0 and NatureScot project 015960.Seasonal and ontogenetic variation in depth use by benthic species are often concomitant with changes in their spatial distribution. This has implications for the efficacy of spatial conservation measures such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The critically endangered flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius) is the designation feature of an MPA in Scotland. This species is generally associated with deeper waters >100 m; however, little is known about its seasonal or ontogenetic variation in habitat use. This study used archival depth data from 25 immature and mature flapper skate tagged in the MPA over multiple years. Time series ranged from 3 to 772 (mean = 246) days. Generalised additive mixed models and highest density intervals were used to identify home (95%) and core (50%) highest density depth regions (HDDRs) to quantify depth use in relation to time of year and body size. Skate used a total depth range of 1 – 312 m, but home HDDRs typically occurred between 20 – 225 m. Core HDDRs displayed significant seasonal and ontogenetic variation. Summer core HDDRs (100 – 150 m) suggest high occupancy of the deep trenches in the region by skate of most size classes. There was an inverse relationship between body size and depth use, and a seasonal trend of skate moving into shallow water over winter months. These results suggest flapper skate are not solely associated with deep water, as skate, especially large females, are frequently found in shallow waters (25 – 75 m). The current management, which protects the entire depth range, is appropriate for the protection of flapper skate through much of its life-history. This research demonstrates why collecting data across seasonal scales and multiple ontogenetic stages is needed to assess the effectiveness of spatial management.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Environmental cycles and individual variation in the vertical movements of a benthic elasmobranch

This research was supported by a PhD Studentship at the University of St Andrews, jointly funded by NatureScot via the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), and the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling. The data were collected as part of research funded by NatureScot (project 015960) and Marine Scotland (projects SP004 and SP02B0) and the Movement Ecology of Flapper Skate (MEFS) project funded by the same organisations. Additional funding was provided from MASTS, in the form of a Small Research Grant, and Shark Guardian. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Trends in depth and vertical activity reflect the behaviour, habitat use and habitat preferences of marine organisms. However, among elasmobranchs, research has focused heavily on pelagic sharks, while the vertical movements of benthic elasmobranchs, such as skate (Rajidae), remain understudied. In this study, the vertical movements of the Critically Endangered flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius) were investigated using archival depth data collected at 2 min intervals from 21 individuals off the west coast of Scotland (56.5°N, −5.5°W) in 2016–17. Depth records comprised nearly four million observations and included eight time series longer than 1 year, forming one of the most comprehensive datasets collected on the movement of any skate to date. Additive modelling and functional data analysis were used to investigate vertical movements in relation to environmental cycles and individual characteristics. Vertical movements were dominated by individual variation but included prolonged periods of limited activity and more extensive movements that were associated with tidal, diel, lunar and seasonal cycles. Diel patterns were strongest, with irregular but frequent movements into shallower water at night, especially in autumn and winter. This research strengthens the evidence for vertical movements in relation to environmental cycles in benthic species and demonstrates a widely applicable flexible regression framework for movement research that recognises the importance of both individual-specific and group-level variation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe