Association between the squat lobster Gastroptychus formosus and cold-water corals in the North Atlantic

Although there are no previous descriptions of the habits of chirostylids in the North Atlantic, it is likely that species in the genera Uroptychus, Eumunida and Gastroptychus have close ecological ties with deep-sea corals since they have all been recorded in trawl samples containing corals from ∼200m depth. We analysed in situ distribution of Gastroptychus formosus and potential hosts using a ROV at a range of north-eastern Atlantic sites and found that this species forms a close association with deep-sea corals that resembles the chirostylid-anthozoan associations reported in shallow Indo-Pacific waters. We update the known distribution for G. formosus, confirming that it is an amphiatlantic species that occurs along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at least as far south as the Azores and along continental margins from the Canary Islands to Scotland at depths of 600-1700m. The adults have very specific habitat preferences, being only found on gorgonian and antipatharian corals with a strong preference for Leiopathes sp. as a host. This highly restricted habitat preference is likely to render chirostylids vulnerable to the impacts of demersal fishing both directly, as by-catch, and indirectly through habitat loss. © 2010 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

Adaptive Predictive Control Using Neural Network for a Class of Pure-feedback Systems in Discrete-time

10.1109/TNN.2008.2000446IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks1991599-1614ITNN

Adaptive Behaviours and Occupancy Patterns in UK Primary Schools: Impacts on Comfort and Indoor Quality

To improve the quality of school environment and reach state of comfort, it's important that teachers and students take appropriate personal and environmental adaptive behaviours. Studies on adaptive behaviours are mainly focused on adults, especially in residential and office buildings while children's adaptive behaviours at schools are not largely studied. This paper has investigated adaptive behaviours, influential factors and their impact on comfort and indoor quality by doing field studies in 4 primary schools and 15 classrooms in Coventry, UK during July, September, October and November 2017 through observations, subjective and objective measurements. The results are derived from observations on around 400 students aged 9-11 and from more than 600 surveys. Results illustrate that students usually take personal adaptive behaviours after or before breaks, and the number of these behaviours increases during warmer seasons and in afternoon sessions. Students' decisions over appropriate clothing level is related to time of year, however, 27% of students could improve their thermal vote by taking off or taking on jumpers/cardigans. Some environmental adaptive behaviours like door operation are less related to climatic factors, however, window operation is correlated to indoor temperature (R =0.29) and outdoor temperature (R =0.35). Observations show that around 80% of all environmental adaptive behaviours are done by teachers, teacher assistants or on their request, which can provide conditions that are not comfortable for children. Therefore, it is important to facilitate adaptive behaviour of children to improve their comfort level