Invasion and Extirpation Potential of Native and Invasive Spartina Species Under Climate Change

Coastal areas host some of the planet’s most productive ecosystems, providing life-sustaining ecological services and several benefits to humankind, while also being some of the most threatened areas (e.g., by globalization, climate change, and biological invasion). Salt marshes are coastal habitats with a key role in food and shelter provisioning, sediment deposition, nutrient cycling and carbon storage. Spartina spp. is a genus of grass halophytes which occurs in salt marshes worldwide, and includes species with different invasive potential. We evaluated the effect of climate change in the distribution and invasion potential of five Spartina species (S. anglica, S. alterniflora, S. densiflora, S. patens, and S. maritima) at a global scale. Species distribution models (SDMs) were applied on species occurrence data and atmospheric environmental predictors (WorldClim 2.1) to project potential changes in habitat suitability and associated changes in distribution and species co-occurrence until the end of the century, across four Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (i.e., SSP1-2.6 to SSP5-8.5). Projections showed a global trend for increasing species co-occurrence, with a general range expansion potentiated by increasing pathway severity. This study suggests that Spartina species can potentially benefit from climate change, predicting poleward expansions in the Northern Hemisphere for most species, with results pointing at increased conflict and invasion potential in Northern Europe and East Asian shorelines, already under strong invasive pressure. S. anglica is projected to remain a successful invader, with more severe scenarios likely favoring greater expansions. S. alterniflora exhibits very low expansion comparatively, despite exhibiting the same northward distribution shift. SSP1-2.6 produced the smallest change to species co-occurrence, suggesting a smaller potential for invasion-related conflicts, although still registering a potential net expansion for the Genus. Despite their limitations, SDMs can help establish general trends in climate change ecology and inform policymakers and environmental agents to ensure the correct management of these habitats and, ultimately, ecosystems.

Rethinking Richardson: Sexual Harassment Damages in the #MeToo Era

The 2014 judgment in Richardson v Oracle Corporation Australia Pty Ltd (‘ Richardson’) had a seismic effect on workplace sexual harassment claims in Australia. Overnight, the ‘general range’ of damages awarded for non-economic loss in such cases increased from between $12 000 and $20 000 to $100 000 and above. The judgment has made Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) litigation considerably more attractive for plaintiffs and resulted in greater judicial recognition of the pain and suffering experienced by sexual harassment survivors. Richardson’s impact has also been felt beyond that immediate context, with the judgment cited in support of higher damages in discrimination cases and employment disputes. However, six years and over 40 judicial citations later, Richardson’s broader significance remains unclear—particularly following the emergence of the #MeToo movement. Drawing on a doctrinal analysis of subsequent case law and qualitative interviews with prominent Australian legal practitioners, this article evaluates Richardson’s legacy and considers how sexual harassment litigation may further evolve to reflect changing societal norms.

ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF FOREIGN TOURS OF THE MOSCOW STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA HEADED BY V. B. DUDAROVA IN THE 1970S

The article considers the reasons for foreign tours of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra’s headed by V.B. Dudarova in the 1970s, the specifics of those tours, as well as their results both from the point of view of popularizing symphonic music and from the point of view of popularizing Soviet ideology abroad. Among the most important reasons for the organization of the first foreign tours by the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra of V.B. Dudarova in the 1970s, one can mention the active participation of the orchestra in numerous Soviet festivals, competitions for young performers, the preparation and performance of new works by Soviet composers, the expansion of the repertoire of performed musical works, the work with foreign conductors, Also the participation of V.B. Dudarova as a guest conductor in foreign tours with other orchestras, the musical community positive reviews and reports on the work of the orchestra as well as increasing the status and prestige of the orchestra in the general range of symphony orchestras of the USSR. The organization and conduct of foreign tours in the Polish People’s Republic and the GDR included the briefing, the development of a concert program, which provided for concerts in several major cities with a developed musical culture, as well as in the capitals of the countries selected for the foreign tour. In addition to the concerts themselves, the organization of the tour included a meeting of the Orchestra’s direction with the cultural intelligentsia of the People’s Republic of Poland and the GDR after each of the concerts, advertising concerts and the orchestra’s work in the media of the People’s Republic of Poland and the GDR, selling souvenirs and recordings of the orchestra. Thus, the concerts of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra conducted by V.B. Dudarova were only a part, or rather one of the instruments, of the national program of Soviet propaganda and the maintenance of a favorable image of the USSR abroad.

Legal nature of higher education institutions bylaws and their place in the hierarchy of law

The goals of higher education are achieved through the activities of higher education institutions, which are, in accordance with their guaranteed autonomy, performed on a basis of their bylaws and general policies. The law determines which subjects have a public authority, which subjects are competent to adopt the relevant acts as well as the general range of issues regulated by these acts. The Constitution of Republic of Serbia guarantees that everyone has the right to higher education and, in that regard, the Law on Higher Education of Republic of Serbia regulates the system of higher education, conditions, and methods of performing higher education activities including the basics of its financing and other issues. Management bodies and professional bodies of higher education institutions are specialized in adopting one type of legal acts. In this way, it is enabled these acts, according to their nature or subject matter, to be adopted appropriately. Therefore, higher education institutions, pursuant to the Law on Higher Education, regulate the area of their activities by adopting statutes, regulations, rules of procedure, and other bylaws. The aim of this paper is to point out the legal nature of higher education institutions bylaws as well as their place in the hierarchy of the legal system, and, thus, in the higher education system of Republic of Serbia.

The Curitiba Observatory of Urban Conflict: methodology and analytical categories

Urban conflicts, as an expression of social conflict, are significant phenomena and represent a prominent object for reflection on social dynamics and relations. The aim of this paper is to present categories and methodology that help to broaden knowledge on urban social struggles and their insertion into the most general range of social conflict based on the experience of building research instruments and theoretical contributions that contribute to the Curitiba Observatory of Urban Conflict. The global analysis of the 707 documented protests delivers elements with which to assess the theoretical-methodological potential of the proposal, thereby indicating that the protests, in different ways, have triggered demands for the qualification (improvements in infrastructure and services), appropriation (recognition of uses) and transformation (modification in production processes) of urban spaces.

The overarching framework of core-collapse supernova explosions as revealed by 3D fornax simulations

ABSTRACT We have conducted 19 state-of-the-art 3D core-collapse supernova simulations spanning a broad range of progenitor masses. This is the largest collection of sophisticated 3D supernova simulations ever performed. We have found that while the majority of these models explode, not all do, and that even models in the middle of the available progenitor mass range may be less explodable. This does not mean that those models for which we did not witness explosion would not explode in Nature, but that they are less prone to explosion than others. One consequence is that the ‘compactness’ measure is not a metric for explodability. We find that lower-mass massive star progenitors likely experience lower-energy explosions, while the higher-mass massive stars likely experience higher-energy explosions. Moreover, most 3D explosions have a dominant dipole morphology, have a pinched, wasp-waist structure, and experience simultaneous accretion and explosion. We reproduce the general range of residual neutron-star masses inferred for the galactic neutron-star population. The most massive progenitor models, however, in particular vis à vis explosion energy, need to be continued for longer physical times to asymptote to their final states. We find that while the majority of the inner ejecta have Ye = 0.5, there is a substantial proton-rich tail. This result has important implications for the nucleosynthetic yields as a function of progenitor. Finally, we find that the non-exploding models eventually evolve into compact inner configurations that experience a quasi-periodic spiral SASI mode. We otherwise see little evidence of the SASI in the exploding models.

Targeting the Most Harmful Offenders for an English Police Agency: Continuity and Change of Membership in the “Felonious Few”

Research Question How concentrated is the total harm of offences with detected offenders (identified suspects) among the complete list of all detected offenders in a given year in an English police agency, and how consistent is the list of highest-harm “felonious few” offenders from one year to the next? Data Characteristics of 327,566 crimes and 39,545 unique offenders as recorded by Northamptonshire Police in 7 years from 2010 to 2016 provide the basis for this analysis. Methods Crime and offender records were matched to harm weightings derived from the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (Sherman et al. 2016a; Sherman et al., Policing, 10(3), 171–183, 2016b). Descriptive statistics summarize a concentration of harm identifying the felonious few, changes over time in membership of the “few”, offender typologies and tests for escalation of severity, frequency and intermittency across repeated offences. Findings Crime harm is much more concentrated among offenders than crime volume: 80% of crime harm that is identified to an offender is linked to a felonious few of just 7% of all detected offenders. While chronic repeat offenders are the majority contributors to harm totals of this group, those with the most general range of offence types contribute the most harm. Individual members of the felonious few rarely maintain that position year on year; over 95% of each year’s list is composed of individuals not present in previous years. Within individual crime histories, we observe a pattern of de-escalation in crime harm per offence over time. “One-time” offenders, those with just one crime record, typically made up a third of the felonious few in both number and harm contribution. Conclusions These findings demonstrate the potential to target a small number of repeat offenders for harm reduction strategies using a metric of total crime severity, not just volume, despite a substantial portion of crime harm caused by one-time offenders that may be largely unpredictable.

THE FAUNA OF INTESTINAL PARASITES OF BISON IN TERMS OF RESERVES

Сurrently, the study of parasitic diseases of wild ruminants is a priority in the general range of animal parasitosis, as wild ruminants can be a source of infection with helminthiasis for agricultural ruminants, as well as for humans. Studies were conducted in two reserves containing bisons – FSBI Prioksko-Terrasny reserve and SNR "Kaluzhskiye Zaseki". The objects of the study were bison of different age and sex groups, the material was feces taken from the pens. The studies were conducted according to generally accepted methods. The result of helmintho-ovoscopic methods of diagnostics showed that the fauna of intestinal parasites in GPP " Kaluzhskiye Zaseki" is represented by the following species and genera of helminthes: Fasciola hepatica, Nematodirus, Trichostrongylus and Trichocephalus, as well as protozoa of the Eimeria genus and in the Federal Prioksko-Terrasny reserve it is represented by Dicrocoelium lanceatum, Moniezia expansa, Moniezia benedeni, Trichocephalus, and Trichostrongylus. The fauna of intestinal parasites of bison from the nature reserves of the Kaluzhskiye Zaseki and the Prioksko-Terrasny reserve differ, trematodes of different species of Fasciola hepatica and Dicrocoelium lanceatum have been revealed in animals, which is obviously connected with different agro-climatic conditions of the area, and also, in the Prioksko-Terrasny reserve monizia of two species have been found, and protozoans of the Eimeria genus have not been found. The prevalent helminthiasis in both reserves are gastrointestinal strongylatosis and trichocephalosis.