The Consequences of Increasing Ocean Acidification on Local and Global Fishing Industries

As human activities continue to generate accelerating levels of carbon dioxide emissions, the world’s oceanic resources are threatened by variability in seawater chemistry, known as ocean acidification. Recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have resulted in decreased carbonate ion concentrations and ocean pH levels, leading to increasingly acidic waters. The exact consequences of these chemical changes on ecosystems and individual species are difficult to predict; however, research has shown that economically valuable calcifying species will experience reduced reproductive fitness and population declines. Ocean acidification, therefore, poses an immediate risk to both fish stocks and fishery industries. From a local perspective, individual regions will need to implement dynamic management strategies to prepare for anticipated economic consequences. In a global context, international cooperation is required for further research and collaborative efforts must be made to reduce future acidification

Anti-aliasing with stratified B-spline filters of arbitrary degree

A simple and elegant method is presented to perform anti-aliasing in raytraced images. The method uses stratified sampling to reduce the occurrence of artefacts in an image and features a B-spline filter to compute the final luminous intensity at each pixel. The method is scalable through the specification of the filter degree. A B-spline filter of degree one amounts to a simple anti-aliasing scheme with box filtering. Increasing the degree of the B-spline generates progressively smoother filters. Computation of the filter values is done in a recursive way, as part of a sequence of Newton-Raphson iterations, to obtain the optimal sample positions in screen space. The proposed method can perform both anti-aliasing in space and in time, the latter being more commonly known as motion blur. We show an application of the method to the ray casting of implicit procedural surfaces

Flame spray synthesis under a non-oxidizing atmosphere: Preparation of metallic bismuth nanoparticles and nanocrystalline bulk bismuth metal

Metallic bismuth nanoparticles of over 98% purity were prepared by a modified flame spray synthesis method in an inert atmosphere by oxygen-deficient combustion of a bismuth-carboxylate based precursor. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis and scanning electron microscopy confirming the formation of pure, crystalline metallic bismuth nanoparticles. Compression of the as-prepared powder resulted in highly dense, nanocrystalline pills with strong electrical conductivity and bright metallic glos

Changing Minds: The Work of Mediators and Empirical Studies of Persuasion

The use of mediation has grown exponentially in recent years in courts, agencies, and community settings. Yet the field of mediation still operates to a considerable extent on folklore and opinion, rather than reliable knowledge. Mediator attempts at persuasion are pervasive in a wide variety of mediation contexts, yet “persuasion” is, for some, a pejorative word and a contested norm in the field. Perhaps as a result, there has been little, if any, evidence-based writing about what kinds of persuasive appeals might be effective in mediation, how they might operate, and how they might be experienced by disputants. In an effort to begin to fill that void, this article examines empirical research findings on persuasion from such diverse fields as advertising, public health, communications, politics and race relations. It focuses on studies of both indirect or behavioral approaches to persuasion (role reversal, apology, group brainstorming) and different types of direct persuasive appeals (questions vs. statements, more vs. less explicit statements, use of “negative” emotions such as fear and guilt, and sequential vs. straightforward requests for concessions). As almost none of the empirical work on persuasion has involved dispute resolution, the article raises questions about how these social science findings might apply to the work of mediators. Some of the research findings described in this article are unsurprising, while others may challenge common assumptions. Where the research appears at odds with conventional mediation wisdom, the authors discuss its potential implications for ongoing philosophical and skills-based debates in the field. Of particular note, the literature canvassed in this article may cast new light on old debates about facilitative versus evaluative mediation, and the importance of mediators having substantive, as well as process, expertise

Improving Lawyers’ Judgment: Is Mediation Training De-Biasing?

When people are placed in a partisan role or otherwise have an objective they seek to accomplish, they are prone to pervasive cognitive and motivational biases. These judgmental distortions can affect what people believe and wish to find out, the predictions they make, the strategic decisions they employ, and what they think is fair. A classic example is confirmation bias, which can cause its victims to seek and interpret information in ways that are consistent with their pre-existing views or the goals they aim to achieve. Studies consistently show that experts as well as laypeople are prone to such biases, and that they are highly resistant to change, in large part because people are generally unaware that they are operating. When they affect lawyers, egocentric, partisan and role biases can hinder the ability to provide objective advice to clients, lead to overly optimistic forecasts about the probability of future events, and promote “we-they” thinking that can exacerbate and prolong conflicts, imposing substantial costs on both clients and society. There is reason to believe that by placing people in a mediative stance—one in which people impartially try to help disputants resolve a conflict—they can develop habits of objectivity crucial to much of what lawyers are called upon to do. That this is so is supported by social science research on two specific strategies for de-biasing judgment—considering alternative scenarios and taking another’s perspective—both core mediator mindsets. Research also shows that active engagement in such de-biasing activity is more effective in achieving objectivity than is mere instruction about the existence of cognitive biases. The authors consider the implications of this research for law school clinical programming and legal education in general