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In 2021, three specimens of the Lessepsian yellowstripe barracuda Sphyraena chrysotaenia and eight specimens of the Indo-Pacific needle-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum were recorded along the coasts of Zakynthos Island, some within the Marine Protected Area., U 2021. godini, tri primjerka lesepsijske tupousne barakude Sphyraena chrysotaenia i osam primjeraka indo-pacifičke vrste ježinca Diadema setosum su pronađeni u području oko otoka Zakintos, neki unutar morskog zaštićenog područja.

The early detection of invasive non-native species (INNS) is important to allow for informed management actions. Established monitoring methods require the collection or observation of specimens, which is unlikely at the beginning of an invasion when densities are likely to be low. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a highly promising technique for the detection of INNS – particularly during the early stages of an invasion. Here, we compared the use of traditional kick-net sampling with two eDNA approaches (targeted detection using both conventional and quantitative PCR, and passive detection via metabarcoding) for detection of quagga mussel, Dreissena rostriformis bugensis; a high priority INNS, along a density gradient on the River Wraysbury, UK. All three molecular tools outperformed traditional sampling in terms of detection. Conventional PCR and qPCR both had 100% detection rate in all samples, and outperformed metabarcoding when the target species was at low densities. Additionally, quagga mussel DNA copy number (qPCR) and read count (metabarcoding) had a significant negative relationship with distance from source population. Synthesis and application . All three molecular approaches were more sensitive than traditional kick-net sampling for the detection of the quagga mussel in flowing water, and both qPCR and metabarcoding enabled estimates of relative abundance. Targeted approaches were more sensitive than metabarcoding, but metabarcoding has the advantage of providing information on the wider community, and consequently impacts of INNS.

If the possible ends of art criticism are taken to include not only the\ud provision of a detailed evaluation of the artwork, but, cognately, an elaboration\ud upon how one has been, or believes oneself to have been, changed by a\ud particular artistic encounter, then the very praxis of art criticism stands to benefit\ud from a theoretical elucidation of the possible nature of the subjective\ud transformations that may flow from the critical appreciation of art. We are\ud entitled to enquire, in particular, into the conditions under which, and indeed the\ud extent to which, such putative change at the personal level can be explicated in\ud moral epistemological terms. It is pertinent in this context also to investigate the\ud phenomenal character of the experiences that have been operative and their\ud essential structures; to enquire, in short, into the phenomenology of the\ud transformative artistic encounter. In this thesis, the bearing, in particular, of\ud intersubjectivity upon the content and modalities of disclosure in a literary\ud context will be investigated. It will be shown how an understanding of the\ud relevance of intersubjectivity to the phenomenology of literary experience can\ud inform an assessment of the claims of literary aesthetic moral cognitivism.\ud Yet the intention to clarify the connection between literary experience\ud and intersubjectivity also requires reflection upon what it is in the first place to\ud encounter someone else, and to apperceive a foreign subjectivity and its\ud motivations. For this reason, the contributions of Edmund Husserl and Edith\ud Stein to the investigation of the phenomenology of empathy will be discussed\ud and evaluated. This discussion will in turn be shown to be of assistance in\ud clarifying the role of the imagination in the apperception and comprehension of\ud another person’s mental life. The thought of Jean Starobinski will prove to\ud elucidate the question of why the insights of the phenomenological tradition are\ud highly pertinent to the investigation of literary experience, and to the\ud development, in particular, of a conception of an imagined ‘Other’ who is (in a\ud sense that will be clarified) embedded within the literary text, a person, that is, to\ud whom one might coherently refer as the “implied author”.\ud For reasons which will emerge in the course of this study, it will be\ud argued that authentic empathy, in its fulfilling explication (in the Steinian sense),\ud is given to the empathising consciousness in the manner of a semblance, and,\ud consonantly, that the phenomenological structure of authentic empathy is\ud characterised in its mature phases by an homological relation to pictureconsciousness.\ud The epistemological significance of literature’s capacities for\ud moral suggestion will be explicated principally in terms of the unfolding of\ud values within the human personality, and in terms of the disclosure of the\ud phenomenal character and structures of virtuous experience. It will be explained\ud why the structure of empathy has implications for the aesthetic value of\ud literature. The question of the relation between aesthetic and ethical value will\ud be clarified. In this context, it will be argued on phenomenological grounds that\ud the appresentation of moral virtue in an implied author could contribute to the\ud aesthetic value of a literary work, although it will also be shown that implied\ud authorial moral virtue could conflict irremediably with other qualities like moral\ud doubt and uncertainty, which may themselves be important sources of aesthetic\ud value. For this reason, the thesis will conclude by challenging the ethicist view\ud that an aesthetically relevant ethical flaw in a literary work must count as an\ud aesthetic flaw.

Conservation and management of chondrichthyans are becoming increasingly important, as many species are particularly vulnerable to fishing activities, primarily as bycatch, which leads to incomplete catch reporting, potentially hiding the impact on these organisms. Here, we aimed at implementing an eDNA metabarcoding approach to reconstruct shark and ray bycatch composition from 24 hauls of a bottom trawl fishing vessel in the central Mediterranean. eDNA samples were collected through the passive filtration of seawater by simple gauze rolls encapsulated in a probe (the “metaprobe”), which already showed great efficiency in detecting marine species from trace DNA in the environment. To improve molecular taxonomic detection, we enhanced the 12S target marker reference library by generating sequences for 14 Mediterranean chondrichthyans previously unrepresented in public repositories. DNA metabarcoding data correctly identifies almost all bycaught species and detected five additional species not present in the net, highlighting the potential of this method to detect rare species. Chondrichthyan diversity showed significant association with some key environmental variables (depth and distance from the coast) and the fishing effort, which are known to influence demersal communities. As DNA metabarcoding progressively positions itself as a staple tool for biodiversity monitoring, we expect that its melding with opportunistic, fishery-dependent surveys could reveal additional distribution features of threatened and elusive megafauna.