Prepositional phrases and case in North American (heritage) Icelandic

The paper investigates the use of PPs, specifically prepositions and the case marking on their DP arguments, in moribund North American (heritage) Icelandic (NAmIce), using data from a map task experiment. Since prepositional phrases combine semantic properties with morpho-syntactic properties, PPs allow us to investigate the relative vulnerability of both domains at once. Our results show that while the prepositional inventory of NAmIce is not reduced as compared to Modern Icelandic, the choice of prepositions is subject to crosslinguistic influence from the dominant language English. For case, we find an increase in the use of nominative and accusative case at the expense of the dative; prepositions may take over case functions too. Our results are in line with previous research on case in heritage languages as well as studies on language change, while partially contradicting the assumption that loss is reversely related to acquisition.

Distilling Professional Opinion to Gauge Vulnerability of Guam Avifauna to Brown Treesnake Predation

The avifauna of Guam was devastated by the introduction of the Brown Treesnake, and the restoration of native birds would need to address the problem with eradication or suppression of BTS. With eradication of the snake unlikely in the near term, and suppression capabilities limited to specific finite areas, key information for reintroductions is how low BTS abundance will likely need to be for each bird species to be re-established based on their vulnerability to BTS predation. Here, we estimate vulnerability, which can no longer be measured directly, so biologists who are familiar with one or more of seven Guam birds were surveyed to obtain their knowledge and produce quantitative vulnerability estimates. As is typical of birds adapted to islands devoid of predators, respondents judged that our focal species exhibit few predator avoidance and tolerance traits, leaving body size as the prime determinant of vulnerability. Respondent opinion also holds that any behavior that reduces the likelihood of an encounter by BTS, e.g., roosting/nesting in palm crowns, cavity nesting, and in particular urban dwelling, substantially reduces vulnerability. Our results can help inform species-specific decisions about when it may be safe to consider the release of birds on Guam depending on the relative vulnerability of each species to predation by BTS.

Vulnerability of Road Pavements to Climate Change in Abia and Imo States of Nigeria

Around the world today, road pavement is increasingly vulnerable and Southeast Nigeria is no exception. To this end, the Delphi technique is used in this study to ascertain experts opinions in order to identify and prioritize road pavements vulnerable to climate change in Abia and Imo states of Southeast Nigeria. As a measure of stability, standard deviation of two rounds of questionnaire responses was used to assess the level of convergence of opinions of 10-member Delphi panel. The Delphi panel achieved acceptable level of agreement at threshold values of standard deviation = 0.10 for stability and mean = 0.20 for consensus. Out of 14 federal roads considered in the study, 1 road had high vulnerability status, 5 roads had medium vulnerability status, 5 roads were rated low vulnerability and 2 roads were rated very low vulnerability. The only highly vulnerable road is from Abia state. This study has shown that the vulnerability of road pavements to climate change can be assessed comprehensively using collective and subjective judgement in the form of Delphi technique. Government should therefore apply adaptive maintenance plans that reflect the relative vulnerability rating of these roads.

Geospatial indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to assess neighbourhood variation in vulnerability to climate change-related health hazards

Background Although the frequency and magnitude of climate change-related health hazards (CCRHHs) are likely to increase, the population vulnerabilities and corresponding health impacts are dependent on a community’s exposures, pre-existing sensitivities, and adaptive capacities in response to a hazard’s impact. To evaluate spatial variability in relative vulnerability, we: 1) identified climate change-related risk factors at the dissemination area level; 2) created actionable health vulnerability index scores to map community risks to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke, and ground-level ozone; and 3) spatially evaluated vulnerability patterns and priority areas of action to address inequity. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the determinants of health hazards among populations impacted by CCRHHs. Identified determinants were then grouped into categories of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity and aligned with available data. Data were aggregated to 4188 Census dissemination areas within two health authorities in British Columbia, Canada. A two-step principal component analysis (PCA) was then used to select and weight variables for each relative vulnerability score. In addition to an overall vulnerability score, exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity sub-scores were computed for each hazard. Scores were then categorised into quintiles and mapped. Results Two hundred eighty-one epidemiological papers met the study criteria and were used to identify 36 determinant indicators that were operationalized across all hazards. For each hazard, 3 to 5 principal components explaining 72 to 94% of the total variance were retained. Sensitivity was weighted much higher for extreme heat, wildfire smoke and ground-level ozone, and adaptive capacity was highly weighted for flooding vulnerability. There was overall varied contribution of adaptive capacity (16–49%) across all hazards. Distinct spatial patterns were observed – for example, although patterns varied by hazard, vulnerability was generally higher in more deprived and more outlying neighbourhoods of the study region. Conclusions The creation of hazard and category-specific vulnerability indices (exposure, adaptive capacity and sensitivity sub-scores) supports evidence-based approaches to prioritize public health responses to climate-related hazards and to reduce inequity by assessing relative differences in vulnerability along with absolute impacts. Future studies can build upon this methodology to further understand the spatial variation in vulnerability and to identify and prioritise actionable areas for adaptation.

The Issue of Using Ordinal Quantities to Estimate the Vulnerability of Seabirds to Oil Spills

Oil spills can have a serious negative effect on seabirds. Numerous studies have been carried out for relative vulnerability assessment of seabirds to oil, with the majority of such works based on ordinal quantities. This study aims to assess (from the aspect of measurement theory) the methodological approaches used for calculating the vulnerability of seabirds to oil spills, and corresponding conclusions. We assess several well-known works on the vulnerability of seabirds (1979–2004). We consider the effect on derived conclusions of (a) monotonic initial data transformations on an ordinal scale, (b) multiplication operations on the same scale, and (c) the replacement of initial metric data to ordinal. Our results show the following: (a) the conclusions for arithmetic operations may not be saved with permissible monotonic transformations of ordinal quantities; (b) partially uncertain results can be obtained with arithmetic operations on an ordinal scale as compared with metric; (c) the replacement of metric values to scores changes the real relationships among initial data and affects the final result. Thus, conclusions in works which use arithmetic operations with ordinal quantities cannot be considered to be justified and correct, since they are based on unacceptable operations and, quite often, on the distorted original data.

Drought Vulnerability in the United States: An Integrated Assessment

Droughts are among the costliest natural hazards in the U.S. and globally. The severity of the hazard is closely related to a region’s ability to cope and recover from the event, an ability that depends on the region’s sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Here, the vulnerability to drought of each state within the contiguous U.S. is assessed as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, using socio-economic, climatic, and environmental indicators. The division of vulnerability into three sub-indices allows for an assessment of the driver(s) of vulnerability of a state and as such provides a foundation for drought mitigation and planning efforts. In addition, a probabilistic approach is used to investigate the sensitivity of vulnerability to the weighting scheme of indicators. The resulting geographic distribution of relative vulnerability of the states is partially a reflection of their heterogeneous climates but also highlights the importance of sustainable adaptation of the local economy to water availability in order to reduce sensitivity and to limit the impact of drought. As such, the study at hand offers insights to local and regional planners on how to effectively distribute funds and plan accordingly in order to reduce state-level drought vulnerability today and in the future.

Narrating African conflict news: An intercultural analysis of Burundi’s 2015 coup

This article adopts an intercultural narrative approach to investigate how the 2015 crisis in Burundi was represented in five online news outlets: The Guardian, the United Kingdom (English); Le Monde, France (French); Le Soir, Belgium (French); The Daily Nation, Kenya (English); and Le Renouveau, Burundi (French). As the analysis demonstrates, all the outlets, including the African ones, adopt essentialised clichés of barbaric perpetrators and innocent victims, embroiled in ethnic conflict. Various configurations of these elements of the story are identified as it travels from one context to another. In general, the international outlets focus on a brutal dictator and a passive, victimised mass, but this narrative is reversed in the government-run Burundian outlet, which assigns barbarism to the protestors and legitimacy to the president. The Daily Nation is unique in framing these elements within a broader international narrative, demonstrating Burundi’s relative vulnerability to international (neoimperial) actors. In the final discussion, the article considers how Western journalism can learn from this cross-cultural analysis, drawing on Venuti’s (1995) concepts of foreignisation and domestication. It is argued that The Daily Nation’s emphasis on neoimperial influence on Burundi may be a form of domestication to Kenyan readers but would undoubtedly be considered a foreignising strategy to Western European readers, as it would alert them to the injustices of supposedly legitimate international (Western) institutions. While recognising the challenges of such a strategy in journalism, it is argued that news outlets should nonetheless consider presenting African conflict news using less stereotyped narratives, informed by a postcolonial interpretative lens.

Ecological risks of demersal fishing on deepwater chondrichthyan populations in the Southern Indian and South Pacific Oceans

Risks to deepwater chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) from fishing are poorly understood, particularly in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We adapted productivity–susceptibility analysis (PSA) and sustainability assessment for fishing effects (SAFE) to assess the vulnerability of 173 deepwater chondrichthyans to various demersal fishing gears in the Southern Indian and South Pacific Oceans. Several species were categorized as being at high or extreme vulnerability, including some deepwater shark species in the Southern Indian Ocean that are reported to be commercially targeted. There was good concurrence between PSA and SAFE results for species categorized as being at high or extreme vulnerability by the SAFE, but as expected there was an overall greater number assessed to be as higher vulnerability using PSA due to its precautionary nature. Our results indicate probable misclassifications in the PSA relative vulnerability rankings, highlighting the value of applying more quantitative tools, such as SAFE, when adequate data are available. Our findings indicate that better catch, effort, and biological information are needed to inform the assessment and management of deepwater chondrichthyans. If targeted fishing of deepwater shark species continues in the Southern Indian Ocean, improved assessments and estimates of sustainable yields are urgently required to mitigate the risk of overexploitation.

Vulnerability to climate change of islands worldwide and its impact on the tree of life

Island systems are among the most vulnerable to climate change, which is predicted to induce shifts in temperature, rainfall and/or sea levels. Our aim was: (i) to map the relative vulnerability of islands to each of these threats from climate change on a worldwide scale; (ii) to estimate how island vulnerability would impact phylogenetic diversity. We focused on monocotyledons, a major group of flowering plants that includes taxa of important economic value such as palms, grasses, bananas, taro. Islands that were vulnerable to climate change were found at all latitudes, e.g. in Australia, Indonesia, the Caribbean, Pacific countries, the United States, although they were more common near the equator. The loss of highly vulnerable islands would lead to relatively low absolute loss of plant phylogenetic diversity. However, these losses tended to be higher than expected by chance alone even in some highly vulnerable insular systems. This suggests the possible collapse of deep and long branches in vulnerable islands. Measuring the vulnerability of each island is a first step towards a risk analysis to identify where the impacts of climate change are the most likely and what may be their consequences on biodiversity.