Exploitation, secondary extinction and the altered trophic structure of Jamaican coral reefs

Coral reef communities of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean have a long history of anthropogenic disturbance, driven by the exploitation for food of both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Exploitation, coupled with region wide declines of coral environments has resulted in local and regional vertebrate extinctions. The impact of those extinctions on reef communities, however, remains largely unexplored. Here we show, using a highly resolved model coral reef-seagrass food web, that at least 40 of 188 expected vertebrate species are absent from Jamaican coral reefs. Twenty one of the absent species are of high trophic level and are exploited by humans. The remainder of the absent species are unexploited, and comprises a significantly high proportion of specialized reef foragers. Many of those species are also more trophically specialized than their closest trophic competitors. We conclude that the absence of unexploited species from Jamaica is caused by the overexploitation of high trophic level species, and consequent trophic cascades and secondary extinction among their prey in an increasingly degraded reef environment. The result is a reef community depauperate of both exploited high trophic level predators, and unexploited, specialized lower trophic level reef foragers

East Indian Women and Leadership Roles During Indentured Servitude in British Guiana 1838-1920

The following article examines leadership roles among indentured East Indian women in British Guiana (now Guyana). The research shows that leadership roles among indentured East Indian women were not as broad as those among indentured East Indian men. The main reasons for this are that Indian women were recruited from the lower ranks of Indian society, which stymied leadership roles, and the authoritarian structure of the plantation system, which supported patriarchal trends. Moreover, the colonial records do not reveal leadership roles among Indian women because the records are based on imperial domination and exploitation, reflecting anecdotal rather than analytical evidence. The article shows that in spite of restrictions, indentured Indian women did engage in leadership roles on the sugar plantations but were not as open about these roles as their male counterparts were. Nonetheless, their engagement in leadership roles was instrumental in turning adverse circumstances to their advantage, and they used strategies that were not altogether obvious to the supporters of patriarchy

Interview with Patricia Mohammed: The Status of Indo-Caribbean Women: From Indenture to the Contemporary Period

The following interview with Patricia Mohammed discusses the status of Indo-Caribbean women from indenture to the contemporary period. The interview seeks to understand why Indo-Caribbean women have been marginalized in the general historiography of the Caribbean and how the status of Indo-Caribbean has evolved in a predominantly patriarchal Caribbean plantation system. Some central questions in the interview are as follows: Are women better off in the Caribbean than their ancestral home in India. Are they still subjected to patriarchal trends in the home and at the work place, or any other place in the Caribbean? If they are, what sort of strategies Indo-Caribbean women have used to improve their situation? How are Indo-Caribbean perceived by other ethnic groups in the Caribbean. The interview reveals that while an unknown segment of Indo-Caribbean are trapped in a male dominated Caribbean, some they have turned adverse circumstances to their advantage, some have participated in all sectors of society and have made significant social, economic and political contributions to their respective communities. Some have become role models for the young Indo-Caribbean women to emulate

Book Review: Bindi: Multifaceted Lives of Indo-Caribbean Women

Review of Bindi: Multifaceted Lives of Indo-Caribbean Women by Rossanne Kanhai; Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2011

Networks, Extinction and Paleocommunity Food Webs

Food webs represent trophic interactions among species in communities. Those interactions both structure and are structured by species richness, ecological diversity, and evolutionary processes. Geological and macroevolutionary timescales are therefore important to the understanding of food web dynamics, and there is a need for the consideration of paleocommunity food webs. The fossil record presents challenges in this regard, but the problem can be approached with combinatoric analysis and network theory. This paper is an introduction to the aspects of those disciplines relevant to the study of paleo-food webs, and explores a probabilistic and numerical approach

Motor for High Temperature Applications

A high temperature motor has a stator with poles formed by wire windings, and a rotor with magnetic poles on a rotor shaft positioned coaxially within the stator. The stator and rotor are built up from stacks of magnetic-alloy laminations. The stator windings are made of high temperature magnet wire insulated with a vitreous enamel film, and the wire windings are bonded together with ceramic binder. A thin-walled cylinder is positioned coaxially between the rotor and the stator to prevent debris from the stator windings from reaching the rotor. The stator windings are wound on wire spools made of ceramic, thereby avoiding need for mica insulation and epoxy/adhesive. The stator and rotor are encased in a stator housing with rear and front end caps, and rear and front bearings for the rotor shaft are mounted on external sides of the end caps to keep debris from the motor migrating into the bearings' races

Book Review: Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre

Review of Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre by Mary Njeri Kinyanjui, Zed Books, London, 2014

The study of the degradation of hexabromocyclododecane in a heterogeneous system containing Fe(II) adsorbed to the iron oxide Hematite.

The reaction of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), a widely used brominated flame retardant, was studied in a heterogenous mixture containing reactive Fe(II) adsorbed to the iron oxide hematite. The adsorbed Fe(II)/iron oxide system has shown to be a potent reductant in the transformation of organic contaminants with relatively water soluble organic contaminants. There currently aren’t many studies involving hydrophobic organic contaminants, such as HBCDD, in this reducing Fe(II)/iron oxide system. The results indicate that across the pHs 6.86, 6.95, 7.15 and 7.35 γ and β-HBCDD are degraded within a couple days. The pseudo-first order rate constants at pH 6.95 are 0.049 hr-1 for β-HBCDD and 0.043 hr-1 γ-HBCDD, reaching their half-life within 15 hours of the reaction. These experiments also illustrate the isomers experience slightly different reactivities with different pHs with α-HBCDD reacting the slowest

Library Support for Researchers

This presentation was given to faculty and graduate student researchers at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management on March 27, 2019. Topics include: about the UCF Libraries, finding materials, off campus access, getting help, citation management, STARS, publishing resources, copyright, research profiles, and research impact