The Neptune Islands Group and Western Kangaroo Island Marine Parks were declared as part of South Australia’s representative system of Marine protected areas (MPAs) in 2009. Sanctuary zones, located within these MPAs, prohibited commercial fishing in the state’s Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery from 2014. In 2022, dedicated surveys were undertaken both inside and outside two of the sanctuary zones to estimate the relative abundance (catch per unit effort; CPUE) and size of southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii). Survey results were then compared to estimates of abundance obtained from long-term commercial fishery-dependent data within each area. The legal-size CPUE by weight of lobsters was 389% and 411% higher inside sanctuary zones of the Neptune Islands Group and Western Kangaroo Island, respectively, compared to outside, based on survey data. Survey catch rates inside the two sanctuary zones were also considerably higher than historical catch rates estimated from commercial fishing data. Lobsters inside both sanctuary zones were larger than those outside in terms of mean weight compared to historical estimates. However, surveys recorded similar mean size in lobsters both inside and outside the Neptune Islands Group sanctuary zone, indicating a possible spillover effect of MPA protection. The Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery is currently in a biomass rebuilding phase. The results highlight the productivity potential of temperate reef ecosystems within South Australia in terms of southern rock lobster abundances.

We revisit the recently introduced concept of return risk measures (RRMs) and extend it by incorporating risk management via multiple so-called eligible assets. The resulting new class of risk measures, termed multi-asset return risk measures (MARRMs), introduces a novel economic model for multiplicative risk sharing. We point out the connection between MARRMs and the well-known concept of multi-asset risk measures (MARMs). Then, we conduct a case study, based on an insurance dataset, in which we use typical continuous-time financial markets and different notions of acceptability of losses to compare RRMs, MARMs, and MARRMs and draw conclusions about the cost of risk mitigation. Moreover, we analyze theoretical properties of MARRMs. In particular, we prove that a positively homogeneous MARRM is quasi-convex if and only if it is convex, and we provide conditions to avoid inconsistent risk evaluations. Finally, the representation of MARRMs via MARMs is used to obtain various dual representations.

This article takes a micro-history approach, focusing on the life of a man identified only in the British records as “Ned” in order to illuminate the complexity and slipperiness of categories of “race.” Ned had lived in the Zulu Kingdom and, after fleeing a civil war there, became employed in Natal by an English colonist-settler, Thomas Handley. Ned traveled with the Handley family to England in 1859, and during this time, unexpectedly “disappeared” from the Handley's residence near Sheffield. A manhunt ensued and, as locals ruminated on Ned's possible status as a “slave,” the case attracted the interest of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Ned was eventually taken to London and housed in the Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders before his tragic death a few months later. His repeated escapes transfixed the public and resulted in detailed press coverage. Numerous parties became interested in his case, and complex and changing processes of racialization were key to the shifting ways in which he was represented. In this article, we both search for Ned's agency and volition, and demonstrate how the case also speaks to major issues in British history, including race, humanitarianism, and enslavement.

This article proposes a new approach for measuring the quality of answers in political question-and-answer sessions. We assess the quality of an answer based on how easily and accurately it can be recognized among a random set of candidate answers given the question’s text. This measure reflects the answer’s relevance and depth of engagement with the question. Drawing a parallel with semantic search, we can implement this approach by training a language model on the corpus of observed questions and answers without additional human-labeled data. We showcase and validate our methodology within the context of the Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons. Our analysis reveals that while some answers only have a weak semantic connection to questions, suggesting some evasion or obfuscation, they are generally at least moderately relevant, far exceeding what we would expect from random replies. We also find meaningful correlations between the quality of answers and the party affiliation of the members of Parliament asking the questions.

With over 17 million children learning English, Bangladesh has one of the world’s largest English-learning populations. However, despite this, the country faces challenges in achieving the optimal level of English proficiency. English language teaching (ELT) initiatives in Bangladesh, which have evolved over time, can be broadly classified based on the Grammar-Translation Method, Communicative Language Teaching, and the English in Action project. These approaches predominantly reinforced traditional monolingual and bilingual frameworks while overlooking the rich metalinguistic, cultural, and intellectual resources that students bring to English classrooms. This article critically examines past ELT efforts, policies and their outcomes through a translanguaging lens, which challenges the rigid language separation ideology in traditional models and encourages the use of all linguistic repertoires in learning English as a target language. This article provides fresh perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of past initiatives, as well as suggestions for developing linguistically and culturally sustainable ELT models based on translanguaging scholarship.

Megacities around the world are increasingly confronted with conservation and restoration bottlenecks due to the competing demands of urban expansion and environmental conservation. This study investigates conservation prioritization strategies for balancing biodiversity protection, ecosystem service (ES) supply and landscape connectivity in rapidly urbanizing Beijing. By employing spatially explicit modelling and prioritization scenario techniques, we identify spatially heterogeneous priority zones. We demonstrate that high-value areas for ES supply, particularly carbon storage and water regulation, concentrate primarily in Beijing’s north-western mountainous regions, covering c. 62% of the city’s area. Conversely, critical habitats for threatened species and key connectivity corridors are dispersed, with 22.89% of critical habitats located within urban built-up areas. Gap analysis reveals limited alignment between Beijing’s current ecological security patterns, with only 9.6% coverage of the identified top 10% conservation priority zones, especially within the metropolitan core. The study underscores significant trade-offs among different ecological objectives and multi-criteria conservation strategies. We propose an optimized conservation framework based on zonation analysis to guide targeted landscape planning decisions. This approach provides actionable insights for urban policymakers to achieve comprehensive sustainability, emphasizing the importance of protecting critical ecological areas in both urban and rural landscapes amid ongoing urban expansion.

Heath forests, or known locally as kerangas, in Indonesia and Malaysia form a distinct and understudied ecoregion. We document the distribution and ecological significance of the largest extent of kerangas in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. We mapped 16,586 km2 of kerangas to the nearest one square kilometre across Kalimantan, showing a significant reduction from previous estimates. About 19% of this area exists as a poorly documented mosaic landscape in Central Kalimantan’s Rungan-Kahayan region. Here, peat-based forests transition to heath and dipterocarp forests, making it difficult to reliably classify these forests for conservation planning. Using remote sensing and tree plot data, we identified three forest types—kerangas, low pole, and mixed swamp. Vegetation structure is influenced by soil, topography, and hydrology, while peat depth and elevation affect species diversity. Our findings indicate that these forests are dynamic ecosystems with diverse vegetation communities adapted to peat as well as sandy soils. Lowland heath forests in Rungan-Kahayan exhibits higher tree densities compared to other Bornean heath forests, reflecting unique ecological adaptations to challenging environments. Despite covering just 3% of Kalimantan’s forest area, these ecosystems remain largely unprotected, facing threats from land conversion and fire. Our study highlights the ecological complexity of kerangas and underscores the urgent need for targeted conservation and further research on these forests.

English learners (ELs) with disabilities are disproportionately less likely than their EL peers without disabilities to be reclassified as Fluent English Proficient (FEP) in US public schools. Research has begun to explore how state reclassification policies, specifically the criteria needed to be considered FEP, may contribute to reclassification disparities. Given the complexities of measuring and understanding English language proficiency (ELP) growth for ELs with disabilities, there have been calls for states to incorporate teacher or team input as a criterion for reclassification. Research, however, has yet to examine how teachers make sense of ELP data for ELs with disabilities and ultimately make reclassification recommendations. This qualitative case study fills this gap, investigating the data interpretation and decision-making of teachers in one urban school district. It documents how teachers’ beliefs about standardized ELP assessment data coupled with a scarcity of resources and training contributed to reclassification decision-making driven not by data but by teachers’ values and instincts.