scholarly journals Do native white-clawed crayfish impact macroinvertebrate assemblages in Mediterranean limestone headwaters?

2019 ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Juan A. Arce ◽  
Fernando Alonso ◽  
Antonio Camacho ◽  
Eugenio Rico
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Trophic Ecology ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Macroinvertebrate Assemblages ◽  
Rivers And Streams ◽  
Native White ◽  
Shed Light

Crayfish are among the largest aquatic macroinvertebrates in rivers and streams. Their trophic ecology is important for the understanding of the functioning of benthic communities. This is relevant in key areas, such as headwaters, as they partly condition the processes occurring downstream. To shed light on the effects of native white-clawed crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes, on local macroinvertebrate assemblages from running headwaters, a three-month mesocosm-based field study was designed. Collection and subsequent analysis of benthic samples under different crayfish density levels yielded a set of metrics indicative of short-term impacts at general and taxonomic scales. Neither significant positive nor negative effects on the community were evident in terms of richness, diversity, dominance and biomass. A combination of highly patched distributions of macroinvertebrates along with a weak impact of crayfish foraging activity is considered to explain this lack of effects. Only temporal changes associated with particular biological cycles appeared for some of the main taxa. Based on the results, we are not able to determine whether the white-clawed crayfish perceptibly disturbs the structure and composition of the local macroinvertebrate assemblages in the short-term. Thus, its use in future restocking projects is supported.

Butinage: The Art of Religious Mobility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonatan N Gez ◽  
Yvan Droz ◽  
Jeanne Rey ◽  
Edio Soares
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
French Word ◽  
Pollinating Insects ◽  
Shed Light

Based on comparative ethnographic research in four countries and three continents, Butinage: The Art of Religious Mobility explores the notion of "religious butinage" as a conceptual framework intended to shed light on the dynamics of everyday religious practice. Derived from the French word butiner, which refers to the foraging activity of bees and other pollinating insects, this term is employed by the authors metaphorically to refer to the "to-ing and fro-ing" of believers between religious institutions.

scholarly journals Subway Gearbox Fault Diagnosis Algorithm Based on Adaptive Spline Impact Suppression

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 660
Author(s):  
Zhongshuo Hu ◽  
Jianwei Yang ◽  
Dechen Yao ◽  
Jinhai Wang ◽  
Yongliang Bai
Keyword(s):  
Fault Diagnosis ◽  
Spline Interpolation ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Engineering Practice ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Time Domain Signal ◽  
Gearbox Vibration ◽  
Long Time

In the signal processing of real subway vehicles, impacts between wheelsets and rail joint gaps have significant negative effects on the spectrum. This introduces great difficulties for the fault diagnosis of gearboxes. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive time-domain signal segmentation method that envelopes the original signal using a cubic spline interpolation. The peak values of the rail joint gap impacts are extracted to realize the adaptive segmentation of gearbox fault signals when the vehicle was moving at a uniform speed. A long-time and unsteady signal affected by wheel–rail impacts is segmented into multiple short-term, steady-state signals, which can suppress the high amplitude of the shock response signal. Finally, on this basis, multiple short-term sample signals are analyzed by time- and frequency-domain analyses and compared with the nonfaulty results. The results showed that the method can efficiently suppress the high-amplitude components of subway gearbox vibration signals and effectively extract the characteristics of weak faults due to uniform wear of the gearbox in the time and frequency domains. This provides reference value for the gearbox fault diagnosis in engineering practice.

Open-mindedness as a Corrective Virtue

Philosophy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97
Author(s):  
Hassan Alsharif ◽  
John Symons
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Confirmation Bias ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThis paper argues that open-mindedness is a corrective virtue. It serves as a corrective to the epistemic vice of confirmation bias. Specifically, open-mindedness is the epistemically virtuous disposition to resist the negative effects of confirmation bias on our ability to reason well and to evaluate evidence and arguments. As part of the defense and presentation of our account, we explore four discussions of open-mindedness in the recent literature. All four approaches have strengths and shed light on aspects of the virtue of open-mindedness. Each mentions various symptoms of confirmation bias and some explore aspects of the corrective role of open-mindedness. However, ours is the first to explicitly identify open-mindedness as a corrective virtue to the specific epistemic vice of confirmation bias. We show how the corrective account also permits a response to the concern that open-mindedness might not actually count as a virtue.

scholarly journals Catchment water quality in the year preceding and immediately following restoration of a drained afforested blanket bog

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul P. J. Gaffney ◽  
Mark H. Hancock ◽  
Mark A. Taggart ◽  
Roxane Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Nutrient Release ◽  
Pass Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Peatland Restoration ◽  
Blanket Bog ◽  
Quality Threshold ◽  
Policy Incentives

AbstractThe restoration of drained afforested peatlands, through drain blocking and tree removal, is increasing in response to peatland restoration targets and policy incentives. In the short term, these intensive restoration operations may affect receiving watercourses and the biota that depend upon them. This study assessed the immediate effect of ‘forest-to-bog’ restoration by measuring stream and river water quality for a 15 month period pre- and post-restoration, in the Flow Country peatlands of northern Scotland. We found that the chemistry of streams draining restoration areas differed from that of control streams following restoration, with phosphate concentrations significantly higher (1.7–6.2 fold, mean 4.4) in restoration streams compared to the pre-restoration period. This led to a decrease in the pass rate (from 100 to 75%) for the target “good” quality threshold (based on EU Water Framework Directive guidelines) in rivers in this immediate post-restoration period, when compared to unaffected river baseline sites (which fell from 100 to 90% post-restoration). While overall increases in turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, iron, potassium and manganese were not significant post-restoration, they exhibited an exaggerated seasonal cycle, peaking in summer months in restoration streams. We attribute these relatively limited, minor short-term impacts to the fact that relatively small percentages of the catchment area (3–23%), in our study catchments were felled, and that drain blocking and silt traps, put in place as part of restoration management, were likely effective in mitigating negative effects. Looking ahead, we suggest that future research should investigate longer term water quality effects and compare different ways of potentially controlling nutrient release.

scholarly journals Characterization of Short-Term Heat Stress in Holstein Dairy Cows Using Altered Indicators of Metabolomics, Blood Parameters, Milk MicroRNA-216 and Characteristics

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 722
Author(s):  
Jang-Hoon Jo ◽  
Jalil Ghassemi Nejad ◽  
Dong-Qiao Peng ◽  
Hye-Ran Kim ◽  
Sang-Ho Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Stress ◽  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Milk Yield ◽  
Milk Fat ◽  
Blood Parameters ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Lactating Cows ◽  
Humidity Index ◽  
Holstein Dairy Cows

This study aims to characterize the influence of short-term heat stress (HS; 4 day) in early lactating Holstein dairy cows, in terms of triggering blood metabolomics and parameters, milk yield and composition, and milk microRNA expression. Eight cows (milk yield = 30 ± 1.5 kg/day, parity = 1.09 ± 0.05) were homogeneously housed in environmentally controlled chambers, assigned into two groups with respect to the temperature humidity index (THI) at two distinct levels: approximately ~71 (low-temperature, low-humidity; LTLH) and ~86 (high-temperature, high-humidity; HTHH). Average feed intake (FI) dropped about 10 kg in the HTHH group, compared with the LTLH group (p = 0.001), whereas water intake was only numerically higher (p = 0.183) in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Physiological parameters, including rectal temperature (p = 0.001) and heart rate (p = 0.038), were significantly higher in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Plasma cortisol and haptoglobin were higher (p < 0.05) in the HTHH group, compared to the LTLH group. Milk yield, milk fat yield, 3.5% fat-corrected milk (FCM), and energy-corrected milk (ECM) were lower (p < 0.05) in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Higher relative expression of milk miRNA-216 was observed in the HTHH group (p < 0.05). Valine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, lactic acid, 3-phenylpropionic acid, 1,5-anhydro-D-sorbitol, myo-inositol, and urea were decreased (p < 0.05). These results suggest that early lactating cows are more vulnerable to short-term (4 day) high THI levels—that is, HTHH conditions—compared with LTLH, considering the enormous negative effects observed in measured blood metabolomics and parameters, milk yield and compositions, and milk miRNA-216 expression.

A Field Study of the Effects of Asynchronous Groupware Support on Process Improvement Groups

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 245-259
Author(s):  
Ned Kock ◽  
Robert Mcqueen
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Process Improvement ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Electronic Messaging ◽  
Process Adoption ◽  
Incremental Process ◽  
Main Change

Process improvement (PI) groups have been among the main change instruments of widely adopted and publicized organizational development approaches such as total quality management and business process re-engineering. Asynchronous groupware tools, such as electronic messaging systems, have found widespread use in organizations yet very little field research exists on how PI groups are affected by such tools. We try to fill this gap with a field study of the effects of asynchronous groupware support on seven PI groups in two New Zealand organizations. Our study indicates that, while not having perceived negative effects on group effectiveness, asynchronous groupware support was perceived as increasing process adoption, hierarchy suppression, departmental heterogeneity and contribution length and decreasing discussion duration, cost and interaction in PI groups. We argue that, based on these findings, the use of asynchronous groupware tools is likely to be beneficial in PI projects, particularly where a large number of PI groups proposing incremental process changes is conducted.

Do researchers impact their study populations? Assessing the effect of field procedures in a long term population monitoring of sea kraits

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 365-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Fauvel ◽  
François Brischoux ◽  
Marine Jeanne Briand ◽  
Xavier Bonnet
Keyword(s):  
Body Condition ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Stress Hormones ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Population Monitoring ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Head Morphology

Long term population monitoring is essential to ecological studies; however, field procedures may disturb individuals. Assessing this topic is important in worldwide declining taxa such as reptiles. Previous studies focussed on animal welfare issues and examined short-term effects (e.g. increase of stress hormones due to handling). Long-term effects with possible consequences at the population level remain poorly investigated. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of widely used field procedures (e.g. handling, marking, forced regurgitation) both on short-term (hormonal stress response) and on long-term (changes in body condition, survival) scales in two intensively monitored populations of sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) in New Caledonia. Focusing on the most intensively monitored sites, from 2002 to 2012, we gathered approximately 11 200 captures/recaptures on 4500 individuals. Each snake was individually marked (scale clipping + branding) and subjected to various measurements (e.g. body size, head morphology, palpation). In addition, a subsample of more than 500 snakes was forced to regurgitate their prey for dietary analyses. Handling caused a significant stress hormonal response, however we found no detrimental long-term effect on body condition. Forced regurgitation did not cause any significant effect on both body condition one year later and survival. These results suggest that the strong short-term stress provoked by field procedures did not translate into negative effects on the population. Although similar analyses are required to test the validity of our conclusions in other species, our results suggest distinguishing welfare and population issues to evaluate the potential impact of population surveys.

Drugs and their impact on the individual and society

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 63-96
Author(s):  
INTISAR SHAHBAZ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Addiction ◽  
Drug Addicts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Negative Behaviors ◽  
Deviant Behaviors ◽  
Positive Behaviors ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Breakdown ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The problem of drug addiction for individuals, especially young people, is one of the most dangerous pests that cause many problems in various health, social and psychological aspects facing every society, but rather the whole world. The phenomenon of drug addiction often leaves individuals with dangerous negative effects on their behavior, whether towards themselves or towards others, and this requires the relevant institutions to strive for important and constructive solutions to reform such individuals, and then rid them of their negative behaviors, rehabilitate them and integrate them into society, to become active and effective individuals through their adoption of positive behaviors that are acceptable in line with the values, customs and traditions of their societies to which they belong. Therefore, our current study came to shed light on the most important effects resulting from the phenomenon of drug addiction among individuals through achieving the two research objectives which seek to know: 1- Causes of addiction to drug use among individuals 2- The effect of drug abuse on society. Upon verifying the two research objectives by relying on the analytical method of literature and previous studies, the two researchers reached the following results: First - The most important causes of youth addiction to drugs are poverty, begging, loss of one or both parents, the presence of a criminal in his family, invalid education and other various phenomena and deviations. Second - The symptoms of drug addiction push the addicted person to adopt deviant behaviors, as well as afflicting the addicted individual to psychological and mental pressures, and then afflicting his family with chronic diseases, in addition to the family breakdown occurring in the homes of drug addicts. Key words: drugs; Drug effect; The individual and society.

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