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INTRODUCTION: A flight trial was conducted to determine whether breathing 60% oxygen during high performance flight maneuvers using contemporary pilot flight equipment induces atelectasis and to explore whether cabin altitude had any influence on the extent of atelectasis identified.METHODS: On 2 separate days, 14 male aircrew flew as passengers at High [14,500–18,000 ft (4420–5486 m)] and Low [4000–6000 ft (1219–1829 m)] cabin pressure altitude in a Hawk T Mk1 aircraft breathing 60% oxygen. Sorties comprised 16 maneuvers at +5 Gz, each sustained for 30 s. Lung volumes (spirometry), basal lung volume (electrical impedance tomography, EIT), and peripheral oxygen saturation during transition from hyperoxia to hypoxia (pulmonary shunt fraction) were measured in the cockpit immediately before (Pre) and after (Post) flight.RESULTS: Forced inspiratory vital capacity (FIVC) was significantly lower Postflight after High (−0.24 L) and Low (−0.38 L) sorties, but recovered to Preflight values by the fourth repeat (FIVC4). EIT-derived measures of FIVC decreased after High (−3.3%) and Low (−4.4%) sorties but did not recover to baseline by FIVC4. FIVC reductions were attributable to decreased inspiratory capacity. Spo2 was lower Postflight than Preflight in High and Low sorties.DISCUSSION: Breathing 60% oxygen during flight results in a 3.8–4.9% reduction in lung volume associated with a small decrease in blood oxygenation and an estimated pulmonary shunt of up to 5.7%. EIT measures suggest persisting airway closure despite repeated FIVC maneuvers. There was no meaningful influence of cabin pressure altitude. The operational consequence of the observed changes is likely to be small.Tank H, Kennedy G, Pollock R, Hodkinson P, Sheppard-Hickey R-A, Woolford J, Green NDC, Stevenson A. Cabin pressure altitude effect on acceleration atelectasis after agile flight breathing 60% oxygen. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2023; 94(1):3–10.

Given the recent trend towards establishing very large marine protected areas (MPAs) and the high potential of these to contribute to global conservation targets, we review outcomes of the last decade of marine conservation research in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), one of the largest MPAs in the world. The BIOT MPA consists of the atolls of the Chagos Archipelago, interspersed with and surrounded by deep oceanic waters. Islands around the atoll rims serve as nesting grounds for sea birds. Extensive and diverse shallow and mesophotic reef habitats provide essential habitat and feeding grounds for all marine life, and the absence of local human impacts may improve recovery after coral bleaching events. Census data have shown recent increases in the abundance of sea turtles, high numbers of nesting seabirds and high fish abundance, at least some of which is linked to the lack of recent harvesting. For example, across the archipelago the annual number of green turtle clutches (Chelonia mydas) is ~ 20,500 and increasing and the number of seabirds is ~ 1 million. Animal tracking studies have shown that some taxa breed and/or forage consistently within the MPA (e.g. some reef fishes, elasmobranchs and seabirds), suggesting the MPA has the potential to provide long-term protection. In contrast, post-nesting green turtles travel up to 4000 km to distant foraging sites, so the protected beaches in the Chagos Archipelago provide a nesting sanctuary for individuals that forage across an ocean basin and several geopolitical borders. Surveys using divers and underwater video systems show high habitat diversity and abundant marine life on all trophic levels. For example, coral cover can be as high as 40–50%. Ecological studies are shedding light on how remote ecosystems function, connect to each other and respond to climate-driven stressors compared to other locations that are more locally impacted. However, important threats to this MPA have been identified, particularly global heating events, and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activity, which considerably impact both reef and pelagic fishes.

The atolls and coral banks of the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory) in the central Indian Ocean were badly affected by the warm water event that started in 2015 and lasted for nearly two years. On these reefs, coral mortality was very severe, reducing coral cover to

This chapter explores E.R. Dodds’s work on Neoplatonism, which has been fundamental to the development of Neoplatonic studies over the last one hundred years. The challenge in understanding the Neoplatonists is to understand the remarkable way in which the mystical and the analytical are combined in their thought. In his scholarly work on Neoplatonism, Dodds applied the rigorous methods of traditional classical scholarship to the elucidation of Neoplatonic texts, and in his treatment of Plotinian mysticism, he stressed that for Plotinus, as for Plato, any kind of spiritual experience of a transcendent world comes only after a great deal of study of mathematics and dialectic. Ultimately, the significance of Dodds’s work on Neoplatonism lies not only in his publications on Plotinus, Proclus, and other late antique thinkers but also in his network of contacts with European scholars in the field and in his influence on individuals who went on to work on Neoplatonism themselves.

The atolls and reefs of the British Indian Ocean Territory cover approximately 60,000 km2 in the centre of the Indian Ocean. The atolls have not been inhabited for about 50 years apart from a military facility located in the southernmost atoll of Diego Garcia. All 640,000 km2 of territorial waters except those immediately around Diego Garcia were declared a no-take MPA in 2010. Shallow substrate consists mainly of coral reefs, though there are also some large patches of seagrass, but most of the area has not been explored scientifically. Until recently, the archipelago probably contained half of all reefs in the Indian Ocean that remained in good condition, supporting a reef fish biomass 6–20 times greater than anywhere else in that ocean. Between the atolls and banks, and further offshore, water is a few km deep. Changes to the reefs in the past few years have been drastic, with near-complete mortality of corals and soft corals in water to at least 15 m depth on all atolls that have been examined to date. Mortality was caused by warming water; measurements show that the average water temperature at several depths has risen from between 0.3°C and 0.5°C over the past decade. Levels of marine pollution are extremely low for all analyzed substances except for marine-borne litter and microplastics. The area is an important reference site because here ecological changes are caused entirely by ocean warming, without confounding effects from human use and pollution. On islands, the ecology was badly damaged during the 200 years of coconut plantation, but some recovery in the past few decades is noted. Management is minimal and needs to be strengthened to ensure that poaching is reduced, and to help return some islands to a pre-man condition to allow the bird life to increase.

The global decline of reef corals has been driven largely by several marine heatwaves. This has greatly reduced coral cover but has reduced coral diversity also. While there is a lack of data in most locations to detect coral species losses, reefs of the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean, have long term monitoring data extending back to the late 1970s. Severe declines in cover have occurred since the 1970s, with regional extinctions of some species and key species assemblages. There is a severe decline in coral settlement, along with a substantial loss of habitat quality which has reduced the habitat available for settlement. This is a clear precursor to positive feedback. Regional species extinctions here occur mainly when total coral cover is

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets were designed to promote and implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by providing a framework for action to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people. Specifically, Target 11 aims to protect 10% of all seas by 2020. The percentage of the world's oceans that are protected has increased steadily in recent years, mainly due to very large marine protected areas (MPAs). The issue of making major gains in achieving protection targets through ‘going big’ has brought added scrutiny to the subject of MPAs. There is economy in scale, but several people have called into question whether going large will protect representative habitat and result in true protection, or whether it is merely a politically expedient way for some nations to attain targets by creating paper parks, while avoiding tough conservation decisions. The recent creation of large MPAs has greatly enhanced the chance of achieving global protection targets. Large areas typically contain several ecosystems and habitats that interact ecologically, and allow for more holistic conservation. The interactions between ecosystems in large MPAs occur without many of the problems associated with networks of smaller MPAs, where the connectivity between sites is often affected by human activities. The disadvantages of large MPAs include difficulties of surveillance, enforcement and monitoring of vast offshore areas, as well as high total costs. While the cost per unit area may be lower for large MPAs, conducting surveillance and monitoring in such vast areas requires much more expensive technologies. Large MPAs complement and add to existing management and conservation measures. Decision makers should consider designating them as one of a suite of possible protection measures. Besides greatly enhancing the chance of reaching agreed biodiversity targets, large MPAs improve the quality of conservation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to identify the core issues that organisational leaders are facing internationally, as a result of a globalised and rapidly changing international economic environment. Appropriate leadership competencies and skills that enable organisational leaders to effectively deal with these core globalisation issues are examined in detail and are further explained through a conceptual model developed for the purpose of this study.Design/methodology/approachConventional content analysis of extant literature in the leadership, management, organisational development and human resource management fields delimited this study to the identification of three core issues, their sub‐dimensions and associated organisational leadership effectiveness strategies.FindingsThis study presents a conceptual model consolidating current scholarly understanding of the international imperatives affecting twenty‐first century organisational leaders and describes “best practice” leadership skills, competencies and models that will enable managers to lead effectively in a rapidly changing, globalised market‐place.Originality/valueThe simplicity and explicitness of the descriptive‐based conceptual model represented in this review offers an original approach to the link between theory and practice in international organisational leadership, while acting to simplify the perplexing array of viewpoints on leadership approaches. A number of research alternatives are suggested that may lead to the formation of a more predictive “international imperative” model.

The conservation status of 845 zooxanthellate reef-building coral species was assessed by using International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Criteria. Of the 704 species that could be assigned conservation status, 32.8% are in categories with elevated risk of extinction. Declines in abundance are associated with bleaching and diseases driven by elevated sea surface temperatures, with extinction risk further exacerbated by local-scale anthropogenic disturbances. The proportion of corals threatened with extinction has increased dramatically in recent decades and exceeds that of most terrestrial groups. The Caribbean has the largest proportion of corals in high extinction risk categories, whereas the Coral Triangle (western Pacific) has the highest proportion of species in all categories of elevated extinction risk. Our results emphasize the widespread plight of coral reefs and the urgent need to enact conservation measures.

1. The Chagos Archipelago was designated a no-take marine protected area (MPA) in 2010; it covers 550 000 km2, with more than 60 000 km2 shallow limestone platform and reefs. This has doubled the global cover of such MPAs. 2. It contains 25–50% of the Indian Ocean reef area remaining in excellent condition, as well as the world's largest contiguous undamaged reef area. It has suffered from warming episodes, but after the most severe mortality event of 1998, coral cover was restored after 10 years. 3. Coral reef fishes are orders of magnitude more abundant than in other Indian Ocean locations, regardless of whether the latter are fished or protected. 4. Coral diseases are extremely low, and no invasive marine species are known. 5. Genetically, Chagos marine species are part of the Western Indian Ocean, and Chagos serves as a 'stepping-stone' in the ocean. 6. The no-take MPA extends to the 200 nm boundary, and includes 86 unfished seamounts and 243 deep knolls as well as encompassing important pelagic species. 7. On the larger islands, native plants, coconut crabs, bird and turtle colonies were largely destroyed in plantation times, but several smaller islands are in relatively undamaged state. 8. There are now 10 'important bird areas', coconut crab density is high and numbers of green and hawksbill turtles are recovering. 9. Diego Garcia atoll contains a military facility; this atoll contains one Ramsar site and several 'strict nature reserves'. Pollutant monitoring shows it to be the least polluted inhabited atoll in the world. Today, strict environmental regulations are enforced. 10. Shoreline erosion is significant in many places. Its economic cost in the inhabited part of Diego Garcia is very high, but all islands are vulnerable. 11. Chagos is ideally situated for several monitoring programmes, and use is increasingly being made of the archipelago for this purpose.

For over 10 years, the English government has provided extensive funding for initiatives to raise school attendance, especially in the secondary school years, with unclear evidence of success. This paper will discuss some of the difficulties and contradictions associated with the notion of ‘raising school attendance’ and question whether it is a feasible aim. Main points will be as follows: (a) the importance of raising school attendance is based on the correlations found between poor attendance and both low academic achievement and onset of antisocial behaviour. However, the research demonstrates that these associations are not straightforward; (b) the arbitrary separation of pupils with attendance difficulties from those with behavioural/conduct problems ignores knowledge gained in the twentieth century about the causes of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, including poor attendance and recommended multimodal/multiagency interventions for such problems; and (c) legal sanctions for parents w...

Because of established links with attainment, the UK government has, over the last ten years, developed policies to improve school attendance. Legislation now makes school attendance a parental responsibility. In the small-scale study reported in this article, Anne Sheppard, manager of an Education Welfare Service Team in North Yorkshire, collected data on 57 pupils' attitudes to school and schoolwork and their perceptions of their parents' involvement in their education. In order to examine the role of these variables in relation to school attendance, ‘good’ and ‘poor’ attenders of 12 to 13 years of age, matched for ability, were compared on a number of quantifiable measures regarding their perceptions of schoolwork and their parents' behaviour in relation to aspects of their schooling. Both good and poor attenders avoided class work if possible, but good attenders were more likely to do their homework and perceived their parents as more involved in their education. Anne Sheppard argues that Education Social Welfare Services need to take account of findings from parental involvement research in their practice if they are to increase both children's school attendance and attainment.

Patterns of coral recovery are analysed across reefs of the Chagos Archipelago, which spans 400 x 250 km in the central Indian Ocean. This archipelago mostly lacks direct human impacts and is subject only to global changes such as a rise in sea surface temperature. Following very heavy coral mortality (mostly > 90%) caused by the 1998 warming event, and despite 2 further sub-lethal bleaching events, the recovery of coral cover, colony numbers and juvenile recruitment has been good in many parts of the archipelago. There was little discrimination between atolls and depths, with a notable exception of 1 atoll where a repeat of heavy mortality had occurred in 2005. In 2006, coral cover was almost restored to pre- 1998 values at most shallow sites, but had recovered much less in deeper waters. However, in shallow water, coral cover values alone are a poor indication of recovery, because present, shallow cover mainly comes from Acropora palifera and other corals that are largely encrusting in juvenile form, in contrast to their mature condition, in which they provide a 3-dimensional 'forest' structure. Recruitment of juvenile colonies in 2006 ranged from 6 to 28 m(-2). Total juvenile density showed no significant pattern with atolls or with depth, but, taking each genus of juveniles in turn, many genera showed a marked depth preference. No shift was observed towards algal domination, or to assemblages dominated by Porites or faviids, as has been reported elsewhere. Recovery in Chagos 8 yr after massive coral and soft coral mortality is discussed in relation to an absence of other, locally manageable factors such as pollution, over-fishing and sedimentation.

The UK government has encouraged schools and local authorities to promote school attendance because of its associations with academic attainment and antisocial behaviour. Legislation makes school attendance a parental responsibility. This small‐scale study collected data on parent–child interaction immediately prior to school absence to examine how such interaction influenced the development of attendance difficulties. Good and poor school attenders, of 12–13 years of age, were compared on quantifiable measures of their self‐reported requests to be absent from school, their perceived parents' responses, self‐reported whole‐day and lesson truancy, and expected parental reaction to truancy. School absence requests were significantly more frequent among the poor attenders, who gained more absence and whose parents were inconsistent in their responses to the requests. Education social work/welfare services and school pastoral staff need well‐formulated methods, backed by empirical research, if they are to wor...

The Chagos Archipelago is the most isolated and biologically diverse group of atolls in the central Indian Ocean. It contains 5 islanded atolls, including the world’s largest atoll, the Great Chagos Bank. Following the abandonment of the copra plantations, in 1973, most islands are uninhabited and have rarely been visited. The only exception is Diego Garcia, part of which is a strategic military base with appropriate infrastructure to support long range aircraft and ships which visit and reside for extended periods in the lagoon which provides anchorage. In 1996, a research programme was undertaken in Chagos (Sheppard and Seaward, 1999) to assess the atolls biodiversity, biogeographic role with respect to fisheries, and the degree of their pristine condition. Analyses of sediment samples from throughout the Archipelago revealed that hydrocarbons present were predominantly of biogenic origin (Readman et al., 1999). However, these studies also revealed some petrogenic and pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at sub to low ng g 1 dry sediment. Organochlorine analyses revealed that only some polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and the pesticide lindane were above limits of detection. It was concluded that atmospheric transport (from industrial parts of the world) was the major route for the introduction of organochlorines to the region. A parallel study (Everaarts et al., 1999), based upon analysis of anthropogenic organic contaminants and toxic metals in sediments and biota, confirmed that, at least in 1996, Chagos belonged to the category of least impacted coastal areas. During recent years, antifouling products used in boat paints have tended to incorporate organic ‘‘booster’’ biocides to enhance performance and to move away from tributyltin compounds (which were restricted in most countries due to their demonstrated toxicity to non-target organisms at very low concentrations). The booster biocide products are primarily herbicidal and contain active ingredients including: Irgarol 1051 (2-methylthio-4-tert-butylamino-6-cyclopropylamino-s-triazine), Sea-Nine 211 /kathon 5287 (4,5-dichloro-2-n-octyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one), chlorothalonil (2,4,5,6-tetrachloroisophthalonitrile), dichlofluanid (1,1-dichloro-N-[(dimethylamino)sulfonyl]-1-fluoro-Nphenylmethanesulfenamide), diuron (DCMU, [3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea]), TCMS pyridine, TCMTB, zinc pyrithione and zineb. Irgarol 1051 has recently been shown to be a potent inhibitor of coral photosynthesis in both isolated endosymbiotic coral zooxanthellae (i.e. isolated algal symbionts in vitro) and in the intact coral symbionts (i.e. in vivo) for a number of Atlantic and Pacific coral species (Owen et al., 2002, 2003; Jones and Kerswell, 2003; reviewed by Jones (2005)). In in vitro experiments, Owen et al. (2002) report no CðHCO 3 Þ incorporation in zooxanthellae isolated from the common branching coral Madracis mirabilis after a 6 h exposure to 63 ng l 1 Irgarol 1051 . In vivo, the The objective of BASELINE is to publish short communications on different aspects of pollution of the marine environment. Only those papers which clearly identify the quality of the data will be considered for publication. Contributors to Baseline should refer to ‘Baseline—The New Format and Content’ (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 42, 703–704).

This article discusses aspects of school attendance difficulties, focusing on why a minority of children decide to miss school. It is an exploratory study representing a developmental approach that aims to establish the immediate determinants of school absence to gain more understanding of the nature of attendance difficulties and eventually inform practitioner methods. Questionnaires, designed to measure attitudes, perceptions and parent–child interaction over school absence were administered to two hundred and nine 12–13 year olds attending a comprehensive school. Thirty-five individual interviews were carried out with good and poor attenders to clarify the questionnaire responses. It was concluded that school attendance difficulties develop like other defiant behaviour problems, with parental reaction playing a major role. Government policies encouraging the use of punitive measures with parents of poor attenders do not provide practitioners or pastoral staff with the sophisticated working methods nece...

In the granitic Seychelles, many shores and beaches are fringed by coral reef flats which provide protection to shores from erosion by waves. The surfaces of these reef flats support a complex ecology. About 10 years ago their seaward zones were extensively covered by a rich coral growth, which reached approximately to mean low water level, but in 1998 this was largely killed by seawater warming. The resulting large expanses of dead coral skeletons in these locations are now disintegrating, and much of the subsequent modest recovery by new coral recruitment was set back by further mortalities. A mathematical model of wave energy reaching shorelines protected by coral reef flats has been applied to 14 Seychelles reefs. It is derived from equations which predict: (1) the raised water level, or wave set-up, on reef flats resulting from wave breaking, which depends upon offshore wave height and period, depth of still water over the reef flat and the reef crest profile, and (2) the decay of energy from reef edge to shoreline that is affected by width of reef flat, surface roughness, sea level rise and 'pseudo-sea level rise' created by increased depth resulting from disintegration of coral colonies. The model treats each reef as one entity, but because biota and zonation on reef flats are not homogenous, all reefs are divided into four zones. In each, cover by both living and dead biota was estimated for calculation of parameters, and then averaged to obtain input data for the model. All possible biological factors were taken into account, such as the ability of seagrass beds to grow upwards to match expected sea level rise, reduction in height of the reef flat in relation to sea level as zones of dead corals decay, and the observed 'rounding' of reef crests as erosion removes corals from those areas. Estimates were also made of all these factors for a time approximately a decade ago, representing a time before the mass coral mortality, and for approximately a decade in the future when the observed rapid state of dead coral colony disintegration is assumed to have reached an end point. Results of increased energy over the past decade explain observations of erosion in some sites in the Seychelles. Most importantly, it is estimated that the rise in energy reaching shores protected by fringing reefs will now accelerate more rapidly, such that the increase expected over the next decade will be approximately double than that seen over the past decade. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.