EFFECT OF COPPER ON THE GILL STRUCTURE OF A EURYHALINE CRAB, CARCINUS MAENAS (CRUSTACEA:DECAPODA)

A posterior gill of the common shore crab Carcinus maenas (Crustacea:Decapoda) was used to study the effects of sublethal copper concentrations on gill morphometry, and gill cell ultrastructure and distribution. Primarily, the ultrastructure and distribution of gill cells in the untreated gill of crabs acclimated to 35‰ seawater were characterised. Gill ultrastructure was subsequently shown to vary markedly at 10‰ compared to 35‰ seawater. Ultrastructural and distributional, rather than gross morphological, change occurred in the gill following exposure to copper at each salinity. Ultrastructural studies showed that as the length of copper exposure increased the gill epithelial layer became highly vacuolated, the number of plasma membrane infoldings and mitochondria became reduced, the microtubular network became disrupted, the endoplasmic reticulum became swollen and the cell cytoplasm contained many free ribosomes. Copper exposure also resulted in an increase in the number of haemocytes in the gill, some of which became attached to the basal epithelial cell surface or actually infiltrated into the epithelial cell cytoplasm. Ultrastructural change was more extensive when copper was administered at 35‰ rather than 10‰ seawater. These effects are described and correlated with previously documented biochemical and physiological responses to heavy metals in crustaceans. In addition, the elemental composition of the gill granular haemocytes suggested they play an important role in the immobilisation and removal of copper-from the gill. This study has shown the way forward in creating a better understanding of the mechanisms behind heavy metal toxicity in marine organisms is the use of environmentally realistic concentrations of heavy metal administered in flow-through seawater systems.ZENECA Limited, Brixham Environmental Laborator

Listening in on the forest: use of bioacoustics to preserve soundscapes and rare species

Effective monitoring and protection of tropical ecosystems has the potential to conserve vast amounts of the earth’s biodiversity. Yet logistical and technical challenges associated with species rarity, large distributions and home ranges, low detectability and inaccessibility of study sites can hinder monitoring efforts. If we are to mitigate against the threats to biodiversity and restore natural ecosystems, then we urgently need rapid and cost-effective methods to evaluate the current state of species, communities, ecosystems and the effectiveness of interventions. Here, we use passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) combined with computational approaches, as a method to effectively measure trends in biodiversity at a wide spatial scale across a biodiverse region in the tropics. In Chapter Two we used soundscape analysis to evaluate changes in acoustic diversity across the diel cycle over a gradient of land use change. We aimed to assess if soundscape indices can reveal changes in the biological community across the diel cycle and whether loss of native forests affect acoustic diversity in tropical ecosystems. In disturbed habitats, we found a loss of the characteristic dawn and dusk peaks in the diel cycle; known as the dawn and dusk chorus. This was especially prominent in palm oil plantations and grasslands, which showed a complete loss of these peaks. This suggests that in disturbed ecosystems there is likely a loss of species diversity, a shift in species composition, where forest specialists are being replaced by disturbance tolerant species, or that there are modifications in species behaviour, reinforcing the value of native old growth forests in maintaining ecosystem functionality. This loss in dawn and dusk peaks was not apparent when analysing acoustic diversity at specific times during the diel cycle, showing that evaluating acoustic diversity at this temporal scale can be misleading, but in assessing trends across the diel cycle, we can gain a much better representation of changes to biotic communities. In Chapter Three we determined if PAM and a newly developed automated detection and classification system was effective at retrieving information on the Geoffroy’s spider monkey at a wide spatial scale. We assessed how this endangered primate responds to habitat loss and human influence across a gradient of disturbance. We found that the Geoffroy’s spider monkey was absent below 80% forest cover and within 1 km of paved roads, yet was found to some extent in areas of secondary forest and near unpaved roads and buildings. The success of this methodology in the study of a vocal rare species suggests that similar rare species could be studied in the same way. Threshold values for percent forest cover and paved roads will be valuable in developing conservation strategies for the protection of this species. In Chapter Four, we investigated the effectiveness of a sustainable use forest reserve in facilitating connectivity for the Geoffroy’s Spider monkey between two National Parks. We specifically evaluated occurrence across the reserve, habitat suitability, barriers to connectivity and potential mitigation strategies to improve connectivity in the region. We found that the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve is acting as a buffer to Corcovado National Park and is able to support populations of the Geoffroy’s spider monkey, however, as occurrence was limited to the area surrounding Corcovado, it is possible that it is not facilitating connectivity as intended. Primary road and low forest cover were the most important predictors of poor habitat suitability, both acting as barriers to connectivity and potentially impeding the conservation of an endangered species. This is problematic since Piedras Blancas National Park serves as a connection between the Osa Peninsula and populations of the Geoffroy’s spider monkey in other areas of Costa Rica. In summary, we have shown how PAM, combined with computational approaches, can be used to effectively monitor trends at both fine temporal scales and wide spatial scales across a tropical ecosystem. PAM has provided an effective and rapid approach to monitor trends in biological communities across disturbance gradients, to study rare species across a challenging environment and to evaluate the effectiveness of current management interventions, overcoming many of the key logistical and technical challenges associated with biodiversity monitoring. These methods have revealed important information regarding how anthropogenic disturbance, related to land use change and human development, are threatening both species and communities, which can contribute to setting targets and developing conservation strategies for the protection of biodiversity in the Osa region and beyond.Open Acces

High and dry: institutional impediments to effective drought management and relief in the 1995-96 and 1998 Oklahoma droughts

Thesis (M.R.C.P.)--University of Oklahoma, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-178).This thesis examines the abilities of government entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Oklahoma to work in concert using institutional and organizational learning precepts to effectively plan for and mitigate the effects of drought. Drawing from academic literature in the areas of organizational learning, drought prediction, planning and mitigation and Oklahoma agricultural production, specifically in the areas of wheat and cattle operations, and newspaper articles in the areas of Oklahoma drought prediction, planning and mitigation, Oklahoma agricultural production, heat wave and wildfire it paints a more complete portrait of drought mitigation in Oklahoma. It develops this portrait with interviews of key individuals. Finally, survey results from a University of Oklahoma drought study provide insight into the details of mitigating drought in Oklahoma from the perspective of fire, emergency management and agricultural staffs. The droughts of 1995-96 and 1998 forced intricate inter-agency planning and mitigation between, for example, the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, and non-governmental organizations such as Feed the Children. The state government failed to experience significant learning on the double loop level, although some individual agencies, did experience single loop learning. One attempt at learning occurred during the year between the two droughts, 1997, when the state of Oklahoma authored a drought plan which this study finds seriously lacking. The plan only suggests responses; does not address responses for consistently recurring problems such as water shortages; does not contain specific, detailed instruction for implementing responses and suggests collaborations between agencies and entities that no longer exist. It provides no one agency with directorial powers. As far as one can determine from a comparison of historical data from both droughts, the plan made little to no difference in actual mitigation

Neighbourhood demolition, relocation and health: a qualitative longitudinal study of housing-led urban regeneration in Glasgow, UK

We conducted a qualitative longitudinal study to explore how adult residents of disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods (Glasgow, UK) experienced neighbourhood demolition and relocation. Data from 23 households was collected in 2011 and 2012. Some participants described moves to new or improved homes in different neighbourhoods as beneficial to their and their families’ wellbeing. Others suggested that longstanding illnesses and problems with the new home and/or neighbourhood led to more negative experiences. Individual-level contextual differences, home and neighbourhood-level factors and variations in intervention implementation influence the experiences of residents involved in relocation programmes

Comparative reproductive strategies between long-tailed ducks and king eiders at Karrak Lake, Nunavut: use of energy resources during the nesting season

Energy demands can be particularly high in arctic-nesting birds that face harsh, unpredictable conditions during the breeding season. Consequences of these demands, particularly energy-partitioning during egg laying and incubation, are fundamentally important for arctic nesters. This study investigated differences in breeding strategies between Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) and King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) in the central Canadian arctic. The focus was on ecological variables and influences of variation in nutrient resources used during incubation and egg production. Research was done at Karrak Lake, Nunavut, where both species nest sympatrically at relatively high densities, permitting comparative research about breeding strategies.This study used stable-carbon (d13C) and nitrogen (d15N) isotope analysis to investigate origins and allocation of endogenous (stored) and exogenous (external) nutrients used in egg production. Remote temperature sensors were placed in nests to estimate and compare incubation rhythms and gain insight into capital and income incubating strategies of both species. Results suggest that breeding Long-tailed Ducks and King Eiders used a “mixed” breeding strategy, that is they relied on both exogenous and endogenous resources for reproduction. Close correspondence between d13C and d15N values of egg components and potential diet items indicated that King Eiders allocated exogenous nutrients for egg production (albumen 98.1%, yolk protein 96.8%, whole yolk 98.4%, and yolk lipids 84%). Female King Eiders relied on endogenous nutrients for incubation, as evidenced by high incubation constancy (96%). Conversely, the range of d13C values in components of Long-tailed Duck eggs and d13C values of diet items suggested that although some females allocated endogenous reserves for egg production, most females allocated exogenous resources for egg production (albumen 98.5%, yolk protein 78.3%, whole yolk 84.9%, and yolk lipids 38.3%). Long-tailed Duck females had an 84% incubation constancy, suggesting less reliance on endogenous nutrients for incubation than was estimated for female King Eiders. Knowledge about the relative importance of endogenous reserves and exogenous nutrients for egg production and incubation may help direct management decisions to specific winter/staging and or breeding areas used by King Eiders and Long-tailed Ducks

Algebraic cycles and the classical groups II: Quaternionic cycles

In part I of this work we studied the spaces of real algebraic cycles on a complex projective space P(V), where V carries a real structure, and completely determined their homotopy type. We also extended some functors in K-theory to algebraic cycles, establishing a direct relationship to characteristic classes for the classical groups, specially Stiefel-Whitney classes. In this sequel, we establish corresponding results in the case where V has a quaternionic structure. The determination of the homotopy type of quaternionic algebraic cycles is more involved than in the real case, but has a similarly simple description. The stabilized space of quaternionic algebraic cycles admits a nontrivial infinite loop space structure yielding, in particular, a delooping of the total Pontrjagin class map. This stabilized space is directly related to an extended notion of quaternionic spaces and bundles (KH-theory), in analogy with Atiyah's real spaces and KR-theory, and the characteristic classes that we introduce for these objects are nontrivial. The paper ends with various examples and applications.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol9/paper27.abs.htm

Different measures, different informants, same outcomes? Investigating multiple perspectives of primary school students' mental health

Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisherStudent wellbeing is of central concern for parents and teachers and for state and national governments. Policies on wellbeing are now articulated within all educational systems in Australia (e.g. DECS 2008). Effective enactment of policy depends in part on the suitability of judgements made about students’ mental health. This paper investigates teacher and parent/caregiver assessments of students’ mental health based upon data from the evaluation of the KidsMatter mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention pilot Initiative in 100 primary schools across Australia. Goodman’s (2005) Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was completed by parents/caregivers and teachers of almost 4900 primary school students in KidsMatter schools. The SDQ was developed as a brief mental health screening instrument and is widely used in many nations, including Australia (Levitt, Saka et al. 2007). A second measure, the Flinders Student Competencies Scale (SCS), which was specifically developed for this study, canvassed the five core groups of indicators of students’ social and emotional competencies identified by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL 2006), namely, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making, as well as students’ optimism and problem solving capabilities. This second measure was also completed by the students’ teachers and parents/caregivers. A third measure was based on a non-clinical assessment by teachers and school leadership staff, who identified students in their school who were considered to be ‘at risk’ of social, emotional or behavioural problems. The first focus of this paper investigates how closely the three measures of identification of the mental health status of students correlate. The second focus of this paper investigates relationships between teachers’ and parent/caregivers’ ratings using the SDQ and the Flinders SCS. Results indicate that significant associations were found between the three measures of students’ mental health. This suggests that non-clinical ratings, by teachers and leadership staff in the school, can provide one means of identifying students ‘at risk’, according to comparisons with the SDQ and the Flinders SCS. In triangulating the three sources of measurement, we provide a detailed picture of the mental health status of primary school students in the 2007-2008 KidsMatter schools. This paper provides a national snapshot of the mental health status of Australian primary school children. It also contributes to the growing body of literature examining the psychometric characteristics of the SDQ in the Australian setting, and to alternative measures for assessing student mental health in school settings

What is professional development for mental health promotion in schools like? Perspectives from school leaders and teachers in 100 Australian KidsMatter primary schools

Mental health promotion is a very new area of learning for many school staff. Using data from questionnaires, written reports and focussed interviews, this paper reports school leaders' and teachers' perspectives about the professional development program that accompanied the KidsMatter Primary Mental Health Promotion (KidsMatter) pilot initiative in 100 Australian schools. Findings include that 50 to 60 per cent of staff strongly agreed that the professional development program had improved their knowledge and capabilities. Thematic analysis indicated that the professional development confirmed existing good practices, provided opportunities for raising staff awareness of mental health strengths and difficulties, reduced stigma, provided a common language, and provided a mechanism for including all staff in processes of school renewal. In particular, the enthusiasm and expertise of the KidsMatter Project Officers was highly valued by staff. The thematic analysis also indicated ways for continued improvements in school-based professional development, including assessing relevance to local contexts, sufficiency, timetabling, and accommodating staff turnover. Conceptualising professional development as professional learning for school renewal, managing the sequencing of learning activities to accommodate initial and sustained learning, drawing from the distributed expertise of inter-disciplinary teams, and exploiting on-line technologies are suggested as ways of sustaining professional learning for mental health promotion in schools

Newly Qualified Nurses’ Early Experiences of Working as Unqualified Mentors

Although a wealth of research examines varying facets of mentorship within nursing, to date, the voices and perspectives of newly qualified nurses working as mentors without formal preparation have largely been excluded from the literature. This research stems from three exploratory studies undertaken as part-fulfilment for this EdD. These preliminary studies identified the questions that, to date, have not been answered in the literature. This initial work provided impetus for the focus of this dissertation and ultimately led to the conceptual framework laying the foundation for the aims and research questions. The research questions asked were how newly qualified nurses are prepared for mentorship; how they acquire knowledge and skills for mentorship in the reality of practice; how they transition into the mentor role whilst still novice staff nurses; and, finally, how they identify as mentors. This study presents a qualitative, constructivist interpretation of newly qualified nurses’ early experiences of working as unqualified mentors. Using the principles of Smith et al.’s (2013) Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework, a qualitative hermeneutic approach guided the research process and the analysis of transcribed interview-texts. Four superordinate themes emerged from the data. These were: 1) Proactive Strategies in Becoming Prepared, where participants took a pragmatic, hands-on approach to mentoring, took an active personal involvement with reflection on past experiences of being mentored, and sought ways to find emotional support; 2) Experiential Learning, where participants engaged in active learning and learnt from their peers and through trial and error and the use of intuition; 3) Development of Resilience in Transition, where participants learnt to cope with transitional shock, but experienced being in a liminal phase during their transition; and 4) Attaining Professional Identity, where participants sought the approval of others as professional mentors to attain professional identity. Having a sense of belongingness to a professional group provided participants with the professional identity they strived for to be valued as part of the mentorship team. This study challenges and contributes to the existing body of knowledge and professional practice in four ways. Firstly, the findings narrow an existing gap in the mentorship literature and advances understanding of the experiences of newly qualified nurses who support students in everyday practice. Secondly, the findings contribute to the existing concepts of preparedness, professional identity, transition, and ways of learning in the context of mentorship. Thirdly, although there is a plethora of studies around mentorship, this is the first study to explore newly qualified nurses’ experiences of working as unqualified mentors before undergoing formal preparation. Finally, this study will help inform educators and policy makers and enable them to enhance further the preparation of nurses for the new role of practice supervisor