Find research datasets worth reusing

Data from: Can the soil seed bank of Rumex obtusifolius in productive grasslands be explained by management and soil properties?

Rumex obtusifolius is a problematic weed in temperate grasslands worldwide as it decreases yield and nutritional value of forage. Because the species can recruit from the seed bank, we determined the effect of management and soil properties on the soil seed bank of R. obtusifolius in intensively managed, permanent grasslands in Switzerland (CH), Slovenia (SI), and United Kingdom (UK). Following a paired case-control design, soil cores were taken from the topsoil of grassland with a high density of R. obtusifolius plants (cases) and from nearby parcels with very low R. obtusifolius density (controls). Data on grassland management, soil nutrients, pH, soil texture, and density of R. obtusifolius plants were also collected. Seeds in the soil were germinated under optimal conditions in a glasshouse. The number of germinated seeds of R. obtusifolius in case parcels was 866 ±152 m-2 (CH, mean ±SE), 628 ±183 m-2 (SI), and 752 ±183 m-2 (UK), with no significant difference among countries. Densities in individual case parcels ranged from 0 up to approximately 3000 seeds m-2 (each country). Control parcels had significantly fewer seeds, with a mean of 51 ±18, 75 ±52, and 98 ±52 seeds m-2 in CH, SI, and UK, respectively, and a range between 0 and up to 1000 seeds m-2. Across countries, variables explaining variation in the soil seed bank of R. obtusifolius in case parcels were soil pH (negative relation), silt content (negative), land-use intensity (negative), and aboveground R. obtusifolius plant density (positive). Because a large soil seed bank can sustain grassland infestation with R. obtusifolius, management strategies to control the species should target the reduction in the density of mature plants, prevention of the species' seed production and dispersal, as well as the regulation of the soil pH to a range optimal for forage production.

Data from: How can we tackle interruptions to human-wildlife feeding management? Adding media campaigns to the wildlife manager's toolbox

In recent years, wildlife managers have been seeking ways to reduce the occurrence of independent, recreational human-wildlife feeding interactions, which continue to gain global popularity and may have negative effects on the humans and wildlife involved. Current popular methods, such as signage and posters, have yielded mixed results and their application is often interrupted, though the effects of these interruptions on feeding levels are currently unknown. This has led to calls to both identify a management option that can be applied successfully from a distance and to determine whether this action may assist in recovering long-term programmes from the potential effects of interruptions. Marketing and media tools have been shown to successfully change human behaviours in conservation campaigns, flagging them as a potential tool that could be applied to human-wildlife feeding management. Here, we performed a 4-year study using a wild fallow deer population in a popular urban green space as our model system. We tracked changes in human feeding behaviours across four different management stages. These included pre-management (stage 1), during traditional management (i.e. "don't feed the deer" signage, stage 2), mid-interruption (i.e. COVID-19 pandemic, stage 3), and during the application of a structured media campaign (stage 4). We found that feeding by visitors decreased during traditional management (stage 2), but rapidly returned to pre-management levels during the interruption (stage 3) despite traditional controls still being in place. However, we discovered that feeding dropped significantly after the release of a media campaign (stage 4), despite the audience and conditions being unchanged. We also identified which imagery and educational messages resonated with viewers; information that can be applied to future campaigns in other locations. We, therefore, recommend that wildlife managers both investigate and be prepared for the negative effects that interruptions of any type (e.g. the recent COVID-19 pandemic, other interruptions to funding) may have on ongoing management campaigns of this ilk. We recommend that media campaigns be explored as a potential tool to reduce the occurrence of the unregulated feeding of wildlife by humans in these sites, thereby promoting better human-wildlife coexistence.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN DIGITAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: IMPACT ON THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

This study investigates how HR employees experience the big data phenomenon in the recruitment function of HRM and how their perceptions of the phenomenon have evolved. This study also examines how BD will affect organizational and HRM and how it can be improved in other functions of HR. In this exploratory study, which comprehensively addresses the BD phenomenon in HRM, the phenomenological design approach, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied to test the research questions and a semi-structured interview form was used for research data. Using the snowball sampling method, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 HR employees working in large and semi-structured organizations in Turkey and the interviews were analyzed with MAXQDA 20. The findings show that HRM employees are aware of BD. On the other hand, it is understood that BD technologies provide easy accessibility in recruitment, offer a strategic competitive advantage, and enable more effective management of information management, which saves HR employees' work in a facilitating way. They benefit from technology as a decision support assistant. Finally, the research results provide theoretical and practical implications for future researchers and practitioners for the development and effective use of BD technology in the field of HRM.

Data from: Pest management science often disregards farming system complexities

Since the 1940s, pesticide-intensive crop protection has sustained food security but also caused pervasive impacts on biodiversity, environmental integrity and human health. Here, we employ a systematic literature review to structurally analyze pest management science in 65 developing countries. Within a corpus of 3,407 publications, we find that taxonomic coverage is skewed towards a subset of 48 herbivores. Simplified contexts are commonplace: 48% of studies are performed within laboratory confines. 80% treat management tactics in an isolated rather than integrated fashion. 83% consider no more than two out of 15 farming system variables. Limited attention is devoted to pest-pathogen or pest-pollinator interplay, trophic interactions across ecosystem compartments or natural pest regulation. By overlooking social strata, the sizable scientific progress on agroecological management translates into slow farm-level uptake. We argue that the scientific enterprise should integrate system complexity to chart sustainable trajectories for global agriculture and achieve transformative change on the ground.

Data from: Resolving a heated debate: the utility of prescribed burning as a management tool for biodiversity on lowland heath

We investigated the impact of prescribed burning and vegetation cutting on a chronisequence of heathland sites (107 in total) in the New Forest National Park, Hampshire, UK. We present data for vegetation cover, canopy active invertebrates collected with sweep nets and ground active invertebrates collected using pitfall traps. Using a multi-trophic approach, we compared the ecological impact of prescribed burning with two types of vegetation cutting (swiping and baling) as management tools for biodiversity outcomes for up to 20 years after management. Indicators included: Common Standards Monitoring assessment (CSM); vegetation species assemblage; invertebrate biodiversity; and available food resources for two characteristic heathland birds – the Dartford Warbler Sylvia undata and the Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus. When compared with swiped sites, areas managed by prescribed burning resulted in: better habitat condition (assessed by CSM); higher cover of heathers; lower bracken cover; more areas of bare ground. We found no evidence that burning is detrimental for the investigated components of biodiversity. Cutting by swiping did not replicate the benefits of burning. Swiping supported grassland conditions that suit non-heathland species. Baling resulted in habitat conditions similar to prescribed burning but restricted replication of baled sites limited our conclusions. However, swiped sites supported high invertebrate abundance and diversity, including food resources for Dartford Warbler and Nightjar.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2023View details →

Data from: Changes in environment and management practices improve foot health in zoo-housed flamingos

Summary This dataset accompanies the publication "Changes in Environment and Management Practices Improve Foot Health in Zoo-Housed Flamingos" published in Animals. This study tracked changes in foot lesions for an individual flock of Chilean flamingos (97 birds) at Dublin Zoo (Ireland) over an 18-month period in response to management and substrate changes . Photos of each flamingo's feet were taken on May 6th 2021, when all flamingos had access to their outdoor habitat (Time Point A). Photos were taken again on 16th April 2022, following a six month period when the flamingos were restricted to their indoor habitat due to a Government order to prevent the spread of Avian Influenza (Time Point B). Final photos were taken on 9th November 2022, six months following the release of the birds back into their outdoor habitat (Time Point C). Further details can be found in the corresponding publication.  Scoring was undertaken blindly by two independent and trained evaluators. These scores reflect the scoring metric developed by Nielsen et al. 2010, and include the four types of common flamingo foot lesion: hyperkeratosis, fissures, nodular lesions, and papillomatous growths. The independently calculated foot scores were subsequently compared, and in instances where the foot scores did not match, a consensus was sought between both evaluators to provide a final value for subsequent analysis. The data presented here reflects the consensus values used in the analysis. Discrepancies in the foot scores between both evaluators are reported and discussed in the corresponding publication.  Description of the Dataset One file is provided in .csv format. The file contains the following 11 columns:  <ul> <li>Time_Point: The Time Point at which photos were taken (A = 6th May 2021, B = 16th April 2022, and C = 9th November 2022).   </li> <li>Animal_Identifier: An anonymous code used to identify individual flamingos (n = 97).</li> <li>Hyperkeratosis_Total: The total hyperkeratosis score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).</li> <li>Fissures_Total: The total fissures score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).</li> <li>Nodular_Lesions_Total: The total nodular lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).</li> <li>Papillomatous_Growths_Total: The total papillomatous growths score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).</li> <li>L_Total: The total left foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering all types of foot lesion).</li> <li>R_Total: The total right foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering all types of foot lesion).</li> <li>Overall_Total: The total foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet and all types of foot lesion).</li> <li>Sex: The sex of the flamingo (Male or Female) </li> <li>Age: The age of the flamingo (Years)</li> </ul>   Acknowledgements We acknowledge and thank all Dublin Zoo staff and volunteers for their support and assistance throughout the project. Additionally, we thank Dr. Laura Kane for her technical assistance and support.      Disclaimer Despite our best efforts at screening the data for errors and inconsistencies, some information could be erroneous.    Credit If you use this dataset, please cite the corresponding publication: Mooney, A., McCall, K., Bastow, S., & Rose, P. (2023). Changes in Environment and Management Practices Improve Foot Health in Zoo-Housed Flamingos. Animals, 13(15), 2483. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13152483">https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13152483</a>

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Data for: Direct and indirect effects of food, fear and management on crop damage by ungulates

Foraging on crops by wild ungulates may create human-wildlife conflicts through reducing crop production. Ungulates interact with and within complex socio-ecological systems, making the reduction of crop damage a challenging task. Aside from ungulate densities, crop damage is influenced by different drivers affecting ungulate foraging behavior: food availability and food quality in the landscape (i.e. the foodscape) as well as fear from hunting and scaring actions (i.e. the landscape of fear) may together affect the degree of damage via both direct and indirect effects. A better understanding of the individual effects of these potential drivers behind crop damage is needed, as is an appreciation of whether the effects are dependent on ungulate density. We investigated this by applying path analysis to test indirect and direct links between ungulate density, foodscape, landscape of fear and, human management goals on crop damage of oats and grass, respectively. Our results suggest that crop type is the major driver behind crop damage, with more damage to oats than to leys, implying that human decisions (i.e changing crop type) influence the level of crop damage. We found that management goals and actions influenced the foodscape and the landscape of fear, by affecting the amount of forage produced in the agricultural landscape and the amount of scaring actions. Additionally, we found that supplementary feeding influenced the local ungulate densities in the area. Our results highlight the importance of including human actions on multiple levels when assessing drivers behind damage by ungulates in managed landscapes. We suggest that more studies using path analysis on multiple scales are needed in order to tackle complex issues such as crop damage and other human-wildlife conflicts.

openAug 2023View details →

Raw data: Potential of different common (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) and Tartary (Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn.) buckwheat accessions to sustainably manage surrounding weeds

Twenty-nine accessions of two buckwheat species (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (common buckwheat) and Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn. (Tartary buckwheat) were evaluated for their allelopathic potential against two resistant weeds, i.e. the monocot Lolium rigidum Gaud. and the dicot Portulaca oleracea L. The bulking use of synthetic herbicides and their consequent contamination of the environment and resulting increment of resistant weeds, imminently requires a solution to achieve sustainable weed management without the use of chemical inputs. The results obtained in this study suggest that buckwheat accessions can sustainably manage weeds through plant interference as competition or allelopathy. This research showed that accessions differ in their potential for sustainably manage both weeds, with F. esculentum accessions being more effective against L. rigidum and F. tataricum accessions against both, monocot and dicot weeds. The chemical profile of buckwheat accessions was evaluated to know the content of polyphenols in common and Tartary buckwheat accessions and to know more about their ability to sustainably manage weeds. Differences in the chemical profile between the two buckwheat species were clear. While common buckwheat accessions showed more orientin, vitexin and hyperoside, Tartary buckwheat accessions had higher amounts of rutin, quercetin and kaempferol. We propose that the screening and selection of accessions with strong polyphenol content and vigorous growth can be a step towards organic farming due to its relation to the weed management.

opencc-by-4.0May 2021View details →

Data Management Workflows with CaosDB

A figure illustrating how the open source research data management system CaosDB can be integrated into data management workflows. It is shown that data is typically integrated into the system using a file crawler. Afterwards data can be accessed using e.g. the web frontend or other client interfaces.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Data from: Past population control biases interpretations of contemporary genetic data: implications for future invasive Sitka black-tailed deer management in Haida Gwaii

Invasive species management practices often include genetic analyses to better inform decision-making and resource allocation. Yet, past management actions may artificially bias recovered patterns of genetic variation; for example, a population bottleneck caused by contemporary culling may mirror some patterns associated with historical isolation. Here, we aimed to disentangle the impacts of past management activities from natural processes for Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis), an invasive species that has been repeatedly culled on two islands, SGang Gwaay and Reef, within the Haida Gwaii archipelago (Canada). We applied a recently developed Genotyping-in-Thousands by sequencing panel to contemporary (e.g., blood, serum, tissue, muscle, feces) and archived deer samples, the latter collected prior to management activity within the system (c. 1997–1998), which allowed us to contextualize conflicting patterns of isolation and connectivity previously observed on SGang Gwaay and Reef. Successful genotyping (92.6%) and population genetic analysis of 292 individuals at 236 SNPs revealed signals of historical isolation on SGang Gwaay and Reef, provided evidence of a founder effect during initial colonization, and indicated an absence of ongoing gene flow. Furthermore, our spatiotemporal analyses consistently supported a priori predictions associated with bottlenecks within post-cull populations, such as within-island loss of genetic variation, elevated within-island kinship, and increased levels of among-island genetic differentiation. These findings are promising for future management of deer on SGang Gwaay and Reef, suggesting that eradications on these islands may be durable. More broadly, our work highlights the importance of understanding management history before interpreting contemporary population genetic data.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

Data from: A novel protein-based fruit fly trap in melon flies Bactrocera cucurbitae for effective pest control management

Agriculture remains a major source of subsistence for local communities in India. However, agricultural yield can be strongly affected by agricultural pest outbreaks. This can result in economic losses for small-scale farmers who already experience socioeconomic challenges, such as lack of appropriate infrastructure and subsidies. Sophisticated pest management techniques (e.g., sterile insect technique) are less accessible to small farmers in developing countries and therefore, alternative cost-effective approaches for pest management are needed. Here, we report our findings of a three-year-long field trial (2018 to 2020) in India which was designed to test for the potential effectiveness of a novel, slow-release formulation protein-based trap, compared to standard Cuelure traps against melon flies Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae). Protein-bait traps can attract flies from both sexes (as opposed to males-only, chemical traps), bearing the potential to have greater long-term impact on pest populations by decreasing future reproductive potential of trapped individuals. We found that Cuelure had overall higher trapping performance, while protein-bait traps, despite trapping at lower efficiency, were equally effective for males and females. Simulations with our field data revealed that protein-bait traps can have an 'inclusive' advantage by trapping females and thereby preventing future individuals. Overall, our study highlights the potential benefits of using this alternative trapping technique to supplement pest management in developing countries.

Development of a Dietary Intervention Model Based on Genetic Data as an Implementation of a Healthy Lifestyle in the Management of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT07183007. IPD Sharing: NO. Countries: 1. Publications: 1.

Comparative Outcomes Management With Electronic Data Technology (COMET) Study

ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT01461473. IPD Sharing: NO. Countries: 1. Publications: 2.

Dynamic Data-Driven Management of Atrial Fibrillation Using Implantable Cardiac Monitors: The MONITOR-AF Study

ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT06352060. IPD Sharing: NO. Countries: 1. Publications: 4.

i-Matter: Investigating an mHealth Texting Tool for Embedding Patient-reported Data Into Diabetes Management

ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT03652389. IPD Sharing: NO. Countries: 1. Publications: 2.