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The first extended study of supernatural discourse in Old English poetry, Supernatural Speakers in Old English Verse fills a conspicuous gap in the scholarship of early medieval literature. Drawing insights from various disciplines, including critical discourse analysis, social psychology, and oral poetry studies, Supernatural Speakers demonstrates how and why three poets - the poets of Genesis A, Christ C, and Guthlac A - marshalled their distinction as experts of the Old English poetic medium to perform the power of supernatural speech by means of masterful poetics. By offering new analytical paths through these early medieval poems, Supernatural Speakers elucidates the importance of poetics as a critical window on the social and religious functions of verbal art in early medieval England.

The combination of molecular tools, standard surveying techniques, and long-term monitoring programs are relevant to understanding environmental and ecological changes in coral reef communities. Here we studied temporal variability in cryptobenthic coral reef communities across the continental shelf in the central Red Sea spanning 6 years (three sampling periods: 2013–2019) and including the 2015 mass bleaching event. We used a combination of molecular tools (barcoding and metabarcoding) to assess communities on Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) as a standardized sampling approach. Community composition associated with ARMS for both methodologies (barcoding and metabarcoding) was statistically different across reefs (shelf position) and time periods. The partition of beta diversity showed a higher turnover and lower nestedness between pre-bleaching and post-bleaching samples than between the two post-bleaching periods, revealing a community shift from the bleaching event. However, a slight return to the pre-bleaching community composition was observed in 2019 suggesting a recovery trajectory. Given the predictions of decreasing time between bleaching events, it is concerning that cryptobenthic communities may not fully recover and communities with new characteristics will emerge. We observed a high turnover among reefs for all time periods, implying a homogenization of the cryptobiome did not occur across the cross shelf following the 2015 bleaching event. It is possible that dispersal limitations and the distinct environmental and benthic structures present across the shelf maintained the heterogeneity in communities among reefs. This study has to the best of our knowledge presented for the first time a temporal aspect into the analysis of ARMS cryptobenthic coral reef communities and encompasses a bleaching event. We show that these structures can detect cryptic changes associated with reef degradation and provides support for these being used as long-term monitoring tools.

The first extended study of supernatural discourse in Old English poetry, Supernatural Speakers in Old English Verse fills a conspicuous gap in the scholarship of early medieval literature. Drawing insights from various disciplines, including critical discourse analysis, social psychology, and oral poetry studies, Supernatural Speakers demonstrates how and why three poets—the poets of Genesis A, Christ C, and Guthlac A—marshalled their distinction as experts of the Old English poetic medium to perform the power of supernatural speech by means of masterful poetics. By offering new analytical paths through these early medieval poems, Supernatural Speakers elucidates the importance of poetics as a critical window on the social and religious functions of verbal art in early medieval England.

Introduction Academic bullying of junior doctors undermines trainee wellbeing and patient care, yet little is known about its manifestation in Sierra Leone. This qualitative study explored the experiences, perceptions, and coping strategies of junior doctors subjected to academic bullying at the University of Sierra Leone Teaching Hospitals Complex (USLTHC). Methods Guided by a social-constructivist paradigm, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 29 junior doctors across major hospitals that comprise the USLTHC. Data were collected between July 20 and August 31, 2024, using an English-language interview guide. Thematic analysis was undertaken with NVivo software. Results Eight inter-related themes emerged: (1) entrenched clinical hierarchies, (2) overt verbal abuse and humiliation, (3) punitive workloads and extended shifts, (4) lack of institutional safeguards, (5) psychological distress, (6) threatened career progression and attrition, (7) reliance on peer-support coping, and (8) proposed remedies, notably teacher-training for seniors and enforceable anti-bullying policy. Bullying was framed as a cyclical “rite of passage” perpetuated by fear of retaliation and scarce reporting channels. Conclusion Academic bullying at USLTHC is systemic, culturally rationalised, and exacerbated by resource constraints. Embedding enforceable anti-bullying policies, structured faculty-development, and accessible mental-health services is essential to protect trainees and protect Sierra Leone’s evolving health-workforce.

Increased ocean temperature due to climate change is raising metabolic demands and energy requirements of marine ectotherms. If productivity of marine systems and fisheries are to persist, individual species must compensate for this demand through increasing energy acquisition or decreasing energy expenditure. Here we reveal that the most important coral reef fishery species in the Indo-west Pacific, the large predatory coral trout Plectropomus leopardus (Serranidae), can behaviourally adjust food intake to maintain body-condition under elevated temperatures and acclimate over time to consume larger meals. However, these increased energetic demands are unlikely to be met by adequate production at lower trophic levels, as smaller prey species are often the first to decline in response to climate-induced loss of live coral and structural complexity. Consequently, ubiquitous increases in energy consumption due to climate change will increase top-down competition for a dwindling biomass of prey, potentially distorting entire food webs and associated fisheries.

Classical dynamic fracture theories predict the surface wave speed to be the limiting speed for propagation of in-plane cracks in homogeneous, linear elastic materials subjected to remote loading. This report presents experimental evidence to the contrary. Intersonic shear-dominated crack growth featuring shear shock waves was observed along weak planes in a brittle polyester resin under far-field asymmetric loading. When steady-state conditions were attained, the shear cracks propagated at speeds close to √2 times the material shear wave speed. These observations have similarities to shallow earthquake events where intersonic shear rupture speeds have been surmised.

Given projected increases in the frequency and/or severity of climatic disturbances, the persistence of corals may be more a function of their capacity for regeneration than resistance to such episodic disturbances. If so, climate change may favour those corals that regenerate fastest following acute disturbance. The tabular coral Acropora hyacinthus is fast-growing and typically dominates shallow wave-exposed habitats on the Great Barrier Reef, but it is extremely vulnerable to climate-induced coral bleaching and other disturbances (e.g. cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish). The present study explores temporal changes in percentage cover and size structure of A. hyacinthus on reefs affected by the 2001-2002 bleaching event. Annual surveys conducted at 3 mid-shelf reefs from 2008 to 2010 revealed rapid, but very patchy, recovery of A. hyacinthus. Following extensive coral loss, local cover of A. hyacinthus increased due to growth of established colonies as well as addition and subsequent growth of new colonies. At one reef, recovery was mostly due to increased abundance of small colonies, assumed to have recruited since the bleaching, whereas recovery at the 2 other study reefs (5 km away) was the sustained growth of established colonies. These results show that resilience of A. hyacinthus populations may be due to either recolonisation or -persistence, but that, either way, these corals are well suited to rapid recovery following acute -disturbance.

Social hierarchies within groups define the distribution of resources and provide benefits that support the collective group or favor dominant members. The progression of individuals through social hierarchies is a valuable characteristic for quantifying population dynamics. On coral reefs, some clownfish maintain size-based hierarchical communities where individuals queue through social ranks. The cost of waiting in a lower-ranked position is outweighed by the reduced risk of eviction and mortality. The orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, maintains stable social groups with subordinate individuals queuing to be part of the dominant breeding pair. Strong association with their host anemone, complex social interactions, and relatively low predation rates make them ideal model organisms to assess changes in group dynamics through time in their natural environment. Here, we investigate the rank changes and isometric growth rates of A. percula from 247 naturally occurring social groups in Kimbe Island, Papua New Guinea (5° 12′ 13.54″ S, 150° 22′ 32.69″ E). We used DNA profiling to assign and track individuals over eight years between 2011 and 2019. Over half of the individuals survived alongside two or three members of their original social group, with twelve breeding pairs persisting over the study period. Half of the surviving individuals increased in rank and experienced double the growth rate of those that maintained their rank. Examining rank change in a wild fish population provides new insights into the complex social hierarchies of reef fishes and their role in social evolution.

Corals reefs are subjected to multiple disturbances that modify levels of coral cover and structural complexity of the reef matrix, and in turn influence the structure of associated fish communities. With disturbances predicted to increase, insight into how changes in substrate condition will influence the recruitment of many fishes is essential for understanding the recovery of reef fish populations following biological and physical disturbances. While studies have revealed that both live coral cover and structural complexity are important for many fishes, there is a lack of understanding regarding how a combination of these changes will impact the recruitment of fishes. This study used experimentally constructed patch reefs consisting of six different habitat treatments; three levels of live coral cover (high, medium, low) crossed with two levels of structural complexity (high, low), to test the independent and combined effects of live coral cover and structural complexity on the recruitment and recovery of fish communities. The abundance and species diversity of fishes varied significantly among the six habitat treatments, but differences were not clearly associated with either coral cover or structural complexity and varied through time. More striking, however, was a significant difference in the composition of fish assemblages among treatments, due mostly to disproportionate abundance of coral-dwelling fishes on high coral cover, high complexity reefs. Overall, it appears that coral cover had a more important influence than structural complexity, at least for the contrasting levels of structural complexity achieved on experimental patch reefs. Furthermore, we found that live coral cover is important for the recruitment of some non-coral-dependent fishes. This study confirms that live coral cover is critical for the maintenance of high biodiversity on tropical coral reefs, and that sustained and ongoing declines in coral cover will adversely affect recruitment for many different species of reef fishes.

This study focuses on the static and fatigue strength analysis of the existing 5-m RUZGEM composite wind turbine blade with and without defect in the form of debonding. Puck progressive damage analysis is used to investigate the effect of defect introduced to the spar/pressure side interface on the ultimate strength under extreme flap-wise (min) by single-loading point application. In addition, fatigue life according to the Germanischer Lyod (GL) guidelines is determined. For the original blade, collapse is observed after 85% loading, whereas due to defect, failure region changes and the blade collapses after 69% loading. Blade is found to exhibit sufficient resistance against fatigue. However, the inclusion of defect decreases the fatigue life of the blade significantly.