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NATIONAL BESTSELLERWas one of the most unheralded captains of the Toronto Maple Leafs also one of the greatest players in the history of hockey's most popular team? In telling his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles, Rick Vaive finally sets the record straight.In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82. He did it three years in a row (only two others have scored 50 since) before being unceremoniously stripped of his captaincy and traded out of town, and he did it for a promising team that was nonetheless largely stuck at the bottom of the standings. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs'rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as Gilmour, Sundin and Clark? You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media...Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. He'd know. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of long-term catch crop application on the structural properties of humin, which is considered the most recalcitrant fraction of soil organic matter. Soil samples from a 30-year field experiment on triticale cultivated with and without catch crops were analysed to determine the total organic carbon content and fractional composition of humic substances. Meanwhile, humin isolated from bulk soil was analysed to determine its elemental composition and spectroscopic properties measured with UV-Vis, fluorescence, and 13C-CPMAS-NMR. It was found that catch crop farming enhanced the formation of highly reactive humus substances, like low-molecular-weight fractions and humic acids, while decreasing the humin fraction. The higher H/C and O/C atomic ratios of humin and the UV-Vis, fluorescence, and 13C-CPMAS-NMR results confirmed a higher share of oxygen-containing functional groups in humin isolated from the soil with catch crop rotation, also corroborating its greater aliphatic nature. Under the conditions of our field experiment, the results indicated that organic residues from catch crops quickly undergo the decay process and are transformed mainly into highly reactive humus substances, which can potentially improve soil health, while mineral fertilisation alone without catch crops favours the stabilisation and sequestration of carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automating contact-rich manipulation of viscoelastic objects with rigid robots faces challenges including dynamic parameter mismatches, unstable contact oscillations, and spatiotemporal force-deformation coupling. In our prior work, a Compliance-Aware Tactile Control and Hybrid Deformation Regulation (CATCH-FORM-3D) strategy fulfills robust and effective manipulations of 3D viscoelastic objects, which combines a contact force-driven admittance outer loop and a PDE-stabilized inner loop, achieving sub-millimeter surface deformation accuracy and ±5% force tracking. However, this strategy requires fine-tuning of object-specific parameters and task-specific calibrations, to bridge this gap, a CATCH-FORM-ACTer is proposed, by enhancing CATCH-FORM-3D with a framework of Action Chunking with Transformer (ACT). An intuitive teleoperation system performs Learning from Demonstration (LfD) to build up a long-horizon sensing, decision-making and execution sequences. Unlike conventional ACT methods focused solely on trajectory planning, our approach dynamically adjusts stiffness, damping, and diffusion parameters in real time during multi-phase manipulations, effectively imitating human-like force-deformation modulation. Experiments on single arm/bimanual robots in three tasks show better force fields patterns and thus $10\%-20\%$ higher success rates versus conventional methods, enabling precise, safe interactions for industrial, medical or household scenarios.

The use of marine protected areas (MPAs) is expanding around the world. MPAs can have a wide variety of objectives (e.g., science, conservation, food security, cultural value), and scientific guidance on how to design MPAs to achieve objectives is often based on simulation modeling. Many different models may all provide an answer to questions such as the predicted change in population biomass and fisheries catches resulting from th implementation of an MPA. When multiple levels of model complexity are all in theory capable of answering the same question, and the models cannot be confronted with data directly, the decision of what level of model complexity to use can be ad hoc. In this, paper I compare the predicted effects of MPAs on catch and biomass produced by a spatially explicit age-structured multi-species and multi-fleet (High-definition) model to the predictions generated by a two-patch surplus production (Low-definition) model, fitted to emulate the High-definition model. I found that in many cases, the predictions made by the two models were markedly different, with the Low-definition model frequently predicting substantially higher biomass benefits from MPAs than the High-definition model, and in some cases incorrectly estimating the direction (positive or negative) of the MPA effects. However, I also found that the Low-definition model has strategic value for broad classification and ranking exercises. My results show that care should be taken in selecting and interpreting the results of MPA simulation models and that research is needed to understand what models are best suited to what policy recommendations when multiple viable options exist.

Spillover is a term commonly applied to the dispersal of fish and/or larvae from inside a closed area to areas open to fishing. The presence of spillover is often quantified by measuring gradients in attributes such as abundance or catch rates near the boundaries of closed areas or by measuring higher abundance inside closed areas compared to outside. It is commonly assumed that such gradients or ratios indicate that the closed area has benefitted the fishery and the total abundance of fish. We explore this assumption using a spatially explicit model of closed areas with different intensities of fishing and fish movement, and we find that such gradients will be expected any time there is higher abundance inside the closed area. However, such gradients do not necessarily indicate a benefit to the fishery either in terms of total catch or catch rate, and unless pre-closure fishing was intense, total abundance is not expected to rise significantly. We examine case studies that argue that spillover exists and leads to fishery benefits. We then evaluate the evidence for net benefits in these case studies and find those with evidence of net benefits all come from places where fishing pressure was intense. While most analysis come from quite small coastal closed areas, two studies of very large open-ocean closed areas are discussed, and we find that both suggest little overall impact on the tuna populations that support the main commercial fisheries affected by the closures in question.

Fish welfare is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed in fisheries. Thus, the scope of the fair-fish database - an online open-access platform - was expanded from aquaculture (farm branch) to fisheries (catch branch). It provides farm and catch welfare profiles (WelfareChecks) of aquatic species based on literature reviews. In the catch branch, each WelfareCheck encompasses a species in relation to a specific fishing method used to catch it, assessing 10 criteria covering welfare hazards throughout the steps of the catching process: prospection, setting, catching, emersion, release from gear, bycatch avoidance, sorting, discarding, storing, and stunning/slaughter. In each criterion, we assess the likelihood and potential of experiencing good welfare under minimal and high-standard fisheries conditions, respectively, besides the certainty level about these. A final WelfareScore is provided for each profile, which serves as a benchmark for assessing and improving fish welfare. Since its publication in 2023, we have published five WelfareChecks. The goal is to increase the number of profiles for several fished species and catching methods over time. In conclusion, the catch branch of the fair-fish database serves as an open-access source providing an overview of the welfare of a fished species given a certain catching method. It is a reliable tool that raises public awareness of fish welfare, provides scientists with insight into knowledge gaps, and offers practitioners with suggestions about how to avoid welfare risks.