scholarly journals Distribution, habitat and biology of a rare and threatened eastern Australian endemic shark: Colclough's shark, Brachaelurus colcloughi Ogilby, 1908

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Kyne ◽  
Leonard J. V. Compagno ◽  
Joanna Stead ◽  
Micha V. Jackson ◽  
Michael B. Bennett

Despite increasing research effort and conservation focus on sharks, small species of little commercial value are often overlooked, although they make a considerable contribution to global diversity. The poorly known Colclough’s shark, Brachaelurus colcloughi, is naturally rare to uncommon and is encountered only irregularly. Collating all known records (n = 50), we review the species’ geographic and bathymetric distribution, habitat, reproductive biology and diet. All but four B. colcloughi records are from within a core distribution of <2° latitude on the Australian east coast. Bathymetric distribution is from less than 4 to 217 m depth, with all but three records from less than 100 m depth. The species shelters on rocky reefs during the day and is thought to forage nocturnally around reefs and adjacent substrates. B. colcloughi is viviparous, with litter sizes of 6–7. Mature males and females have been observed from 61.0- and 54.5-cm total length, respectively. Gravid females have been collected in austral winter months. Dietary analysis indicates a predominantly piscivorous diet. Our results are placed in the context of existing threats and future research and management directions, demonstrating that shark species with low abundances and restricted ranges, such as B. colcloughi, require a suite of management arrangements to ensure long-term population viability.

Koedoe ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Izak P.J. Smit ◽  
Edward S. Riddell ◽  
Carola Cullum ◽  
Robin Petersen

Researchers interested in studying the effects of fire or herbivory in the Kruger National Park (KNP) often focus their research activities on the experimental burn plots or herbivore exclosure camps, respectively. These are manipulated sites that apply treatments, for example annual fires or total exclusion of fire and herbivores. However, many projects aim to study or monitor patterns and processes emerging under non-manipulated conditions, typically at sites with contrasting geologies and rainfall. Yet, these sites are usually selected in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner for different projects and, as a consequence, it is often not possible to integrate datasets and knowledge. An alternative to the ever-increasing number of unrelated sites scattered across the park are the ‘KNP research supersites’ which have been earmarked to geographically focus future research effort, acting as data-rich, long-term sites for monitoring and research. In this paper, we introduced the four recently established KNP research supersites, which cover the rainfall gradient and geological contrast of the KNP, presenting their rationale, selection criteria and location, along with existing datasets that describe their herbaceous biomass, woody cover, phenology, fire history, levels of herbivory. Additional site-specific datasets, which are already available, or which are in preparation, were outlined together with details for assessing these open-source datasets online.Conservation implications: The KNP research supersites will become increasingly used for research, monitoring and remote-sensing calibration and ground-truthing purposes. Scientists are encouraged to gain from, and contribute towards, these sites, which will facilitate long-term data collection, data-sharing and co-learning and, ultimately, lead to a more integrated, multiscaled and multitemporal understanding of savannahs.


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross L. Goldingay

Many hundreds of species of wildlife worldwide are dependent on tree hollows (cavities) for their survival. I reviewed the published literature for hollow-using Australian birds and microbats to document their tree-hollow requirements and to guide future research and management. Such information is vital to the conservation of these species. The hollow requirements of only 35 of 114 hollow-using bird species and 15 of 42 hollow-using microbat species were documented in some detail. This overall paucity of information limits the ability to manage for the future requirements of species. However, some generalisations can guide management until further studies are conducted. Most species used a variety of available tree species, and the extensive use of dead trees probably reflects the high likelihood of these trees containing hollows. Birds (other than large parrots) and bats chose hollow entrances of a size close to body width. Large parrots require large hollows, with a preference for large vertical spouts and trunk hollows. Few birds or bats demonstrated an absolute requirement for high (>10 m) tree hollows, with most (70%) using some hollows with entrances ≤5 m above ground. Temperature has been postulated to influence roost selection among microbats because it enables passive rewarming from torpor and there is some evidence from Australian bats to support this. Many studies suggest a future shortage of hollow-bearing trees. Currently, artificial hollows appear to be the most likely interim solution to address this. Knowledge of the natural hollow requirements of species can be used to refine artificial-hollow designs. An increase in research effort is needed to address the many gaps in knowledge that currently exist. Priorities for research include (1) many additional studies to document the characteristics of the hollow-bearing trees used by species of microbat, (2) the need to conduct long-term bioregional studies of hollow-bearing tree attrition to help identify where management responses are most needed and (3) investigating whether fire plays a significant role in the creation of tree hollows of a range of size classes and therefore may have a management use. Such information has broad relevance because it will provide ecological insight that can be applied to the management of hollow-using birds and bats elsewhere in the world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danton H. O'Day

Textbook companies are increasingly including larger numbers of animations as complementary resources for students and teachers. Are all animations useful as teaching tools? The answer is no. Animations can be useful for communicating dynamic events and processes but only when specific rules are followed. The authors review the important components of effective animations and their extensive, original research on the value of animations in learning and long-term memory retention. When the rules are applied, students can learn complex material more easily and retain more of what they have learned in short and long term memory than they can by viewing static textbook figures. Our results also indicate that learning from animations and graphics differs between males and females. Insight gained from student feedback is highlighted with some final comments on future research.


Koedoe ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Izak P.J. Smit ◽  
Edward S. Riddell ◽  
Carola Cullum ◽  
Robin Petersen

Researchers interested in studying the effects of fire or herbivory in the Kruger National Park (KNP) often focus their research activities on the experimental burn plots or herbivore exclosure camps, respectively. These are manipulated sites that apply treatments, for example annual fires or total exclusion of fire and herbivores. However, many projects aim to study or monitor patterns and processes emerging under non-manipulated conditions, typically at sites with contrasting geologies and rainfall. Yet, these sites are usually selected in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner for different projects and, as a consequence, it is often not possible to integrate datasets and knowledge. An alternative to the ever-increasing number of unrelated sites scattered across the park are the ‘KNP research supersites’ which have been earmarked to geographically focus future research effort, acting as data-rich, long-term sites for monitoring and research. In this paper, we introduced the four recently established KNP research supersites, which cover the rainfall gradient and geological contrast of the KNP, presenting their rationale, selection criteria and location, along with existing datasets that describe their herbaceous biomass, woody cover, phenology, fire history, levels of herbivory. Additional site-specific datasets, which are already available, or which are in preparation, were outlined together with details for assessing these open-source datasets online.Conservation implications: The KNP research supersites will become increasingly used for research, monitoring and remote-sensing calibration and ground-truthing purposes. Scientists are encouraged to gain from, and contribute towards, these sites, which will facilitate long-term data collection, data-sharing and co-learning and, ultimately, lead to a more integrated, multiscaled and multitemporal understanding of savannahs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Éva Kállay

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Budzynski-Seymour ◽  
James Steele ◽  
Michelle Jones

Physical activity (PA) is considered essential to overall health yet it is consistently reported that children are failing to meet the recommended levels. Due to the bidirectional relationship between affective states and PA, affective responses are a potential predictor to long term engagement. Since late March 2020 the UK government enforced ‘lockdown’ measures to help control the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19); however, this has impacted children’s PA. Using online resources at home to support PA is now common. The primary aim of this research was to investigate the use of the Change4Life 10-minute Shake Ups to support PA by examining the effects of Disney branding upon children’s (n=32) post activity affective responses and perceived exertion. The secondary was to investigate the effect of the lockdown on PA habits. Children had similar positive affective responses and perceived effort to activities; however, branding was considered to be a key contributing factor based upon qualitative feedback from parents. Children’s PA levels dropped slightly since ‘lockdown’ was imposed; though online resources have been utilised to support PA. The use of immersive elements such as characters and narrative in PA sessions, as well as utilising online resources during ‘lockdown’ appear potentially promising for future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinlu Feng ◽  
Zifei Yin ◽  
Daniel Zhang ◽  
Arun Srivastava ◽  
Chen Ling

The success of gene and cell therapy in clinic during the past two decades as well as our expanding ability to manipulate these biomaterials are leading to new therapeutic options for a wide range of inherited and acquired diseases. Combining conventional therapies with this emerging field is a promising strategy to treat those previously-thought untreatable diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has evolved for thousands of years in China and still plays an important role in human health. As part of the active ingredients of TCM, proteins and peptides have attracted long-term enthusiasm of researchers. More recently, they have been utilized in gene and cell therapy, resulting in promising novel strategies to treat both cancer and non-cancer diseases. This manuscript presents a critical review on this field, accompanied with perspectives on the challenges and new directions for future research in this emerging frontier.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 1398-1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darby J.E. Lowe ◽  
Daniel J. Müller ◽  
Tony P. George

Ketamine has been shown to be efficacious for the treatment of depression, specifically among individuals who do not respond to first-line treatments. There is still, however, a lack of clarity surrounding the clinical features and response periods across samples that respond to ketamine. This paper systematically reviews published randomized controlled trials that investigate ketamine as an antidepressant intervention in both unipolar and bipolar depression to determine the specific clinical features of the samples across different efficacy periods. Moreover, similarities and differences in clinical characteristics associated with acute versus longer-term drug response are discussed. Similarities across all samples suggest that the population that responds to ketamine’s antidepressant effect has experienced chronic, long-term depression, approaching ketamine treatment as a “last resort”. Moreover, differences between these groups suggest future research to investigate the potential of stronger efficacy towards depression in the context of bipolar disorder compared to major depression, and in participants who undergo antidepressant washout before ketamine administration. From these findings, suggestions for the future direction of ketamine research for depression are formed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110252
Author(s):  
Sebastián Valenzuela ◽  
Daniel Halpern ◽  
Felipe Araneda

Despite widespread concern, research on the consequences of misinformation on people's attitudes is surprisingly scant. To fill in this gap, the current study examines the long-term relationship between misinformation and trust in the news media. Based on the reinforcing spirals model, we analyzed data from a three-wave panel survey collected in Chile between 2017 and 2019. We found a weak, over-time relationship between misinformation and media skepticism. Specifically, initial beliefs on factually dubious information were negatively correlated with subsequent levels of trust in the news media. Lower trust in the media, in turn, was related over time to higher levels of misinformation. However, we found no evidence of a reverse, parallel process where media trust shielded users against misinformation, further reinforcing trust in the news media. The lack of evidence of a downward spiral suggests that the corrosive effects of misinformation on attitudes toward the news media are less serious than originally suggested. We close with a discussion of directions for future research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000765032110018
Author(s):  
Farley Simon Nobre ◽  
Rodrigo L. Morais-da-Silva

Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) organizations are the ones that develop a set of capabilities that contribute to create short- and long-term sustainability values inside and outside the boundaries of BoP ecosystems. Capabilities have an important role in BoP organizations’ strategies that aim to solve BoP issues. Notwithstanding its developments, BoP research still lacks theoretical contributions for the analysis of organizations. We suggest special attention to the need of advancing knowledge on capabilities of BoP organizations because this field is scattered and fragmented, misinterpreted, and still underdeveloped in the literature. We oriented our research formulating and seeking answers to our main question on what are the capabilities needed to enable organizations to create sustainability values in BoP ecosystems? We conducted an integrative review of BoP research for the period from 1998 to 2019, and we found 22 key capabilities of BoP organizations. We organized the capabilities into four major categories including BoP Responsible Consumption, BoP Responsible Business Model, BoP Responsible Management, and BoP Responsible Innovation. We advanced propositions and discussions regarding the capabilities and major categories’ popularity, interdependence and combination, short- and long-term temporal functions, sustainability roles, and effectiveness to address BoP issues. Our article organizes the field of capabilities of BoP organizations; advances contributions and implications for management, organizations, and policymaking; and opens fruitful avenues for future research.


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