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3,673 results for “practices”
A practical approach to measuring the biodiversity impacts of land conversion
<p><span>1. Further progress in reducing biodiversity loss relies on the improved quantification of the connections between drivers of habitat loss and subsequent biodiversity impacts. To this end, biodiversity impact metrics should be able to report linked trends in specific human activities and changes in biodiversity state, accounting for both the ecology of different species, and the cumulative effects of historical habitat losses. These characteristics are not currently captured within a single metric.</span></p> <p><span>2. Here we develop a globally applicable methodological framework that uses freely and publicly available datasets to quantify the relative impacts of anthropogenic activities on biodiversity. We use species-specific habitat suitability models to link specific land uses to ensuing changes in the likelihood that local populations of those species will persist. To illustrate our approach w</span>e assess the impacts of soy expansion and other land uses within <span>the Brazilian Cerrado</span> on <span>over 2,000 species of amphibians, birds, mammals and plants</span> for three periods between 2000 and 2014.</p> <p><span>3. Our results showed that mammals and plants suffered the greatest overall reduction of suitable habitat. However, among endemic and near-endemic species – which face greatest risk of global extinction from habitat conversion in the Cerrado – birds and mammals were the most affected groups. While conversion of natural vegetation to grassland and planted pastures were together responsible for most of the biodiversity impact of recent changes, </span>soy expansion (via direct conversion of natural vegetation) had the greatest impact per unit area. The total biodiversity impact of recent land-use change was concentrated in the southern states of the Cerrado -Minas Geráis, Goiás and Mato Grosso - but the impact on biodiversity of production of soy was greatest within the agricultural frontiers of Bahía and Piauí.</p> <p><span>4. </span>The flexibility of our approach to examine linkages between biodiversity loss and specific human activities has clear potential to better characterise the pathways by which habitat loss drivers operate. Its capacity to incorporate species-specific ecological needs, through a globally applicable methodology, can improve the tangibility of biodiversity loss assessments.</p>
Mobilisation of data to stakeholder communities: Bridging the research-practice gap using a commercial shellfish species model
<p>Knowledge mobilisation is required to "bridge the gap" between research, policy and practice. This activity is dependent on the amount, richness and quality of the data published. To understand the impact of a changing climate on commercial species, stakeholder communities require better knowledge of their past and current situations. The common cockle (<i>Cerastoderma edule</i>) is an excellent model species for this type of analysis, as it is well-studied due to its cultural, commercial and ecological significance in west Europe. Recently, <i>C. edule</i> harvests have decreased, coinciding with frequent mass mortalities, due to factors such as a changing climate and diseases. In this study, macro and micro level marine historical ecology techniques were used to create datasets on topics including: cockle abundance, spawning duration and harvest levels, as well as the ecological factors impacting those cockle populations. These data were correlated with changing climate and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index to assess if they are drivers of cockle abundance and harvesting. The analyses identified the key stakeholder communities involved in cockle research and data acquisition. It highlighted that data collection was sporadic and lacking in cross-national/stakeholder community coordination. A major finding was that local variability in cockle populations is influenced by biotic (parasites) and abiotic (temperature, legislation and harvesting) factors, and at a global scale by climate (AMO Index). This comprehensive study provided an insight into the European cockle fishery but also highlights the need to identify the type of data required, the importance of standardised monitoring, and dissemination efforts, taking into account the knowledge, source, and audience. These factors are key elements that will be highly beneficial not only to the cockle stakeholder communities but to other commercial species.</p>
Data from: Socio-cultural factors influencing knowledge, attitudes and menstrual hygiene practices among Junior High School adolescent girls in the Kpando District of Ghana: A mixed method study
<p><b>Background: </b>Menstruation is scarcely discussed openly in Ghana due to social and religious beliefs concerning it. This has limited transfer of knowledge on menstruation to adolescents. In this study we examined socio-cultural factors affecting knowledge, attitudes and menstrual hygiene practices of Junior High School adolescent girls in the Kpando Municipality of Ghana.</p> <p><b>Materials and Methods:</b> A mixed method approach was employed with 480 respondents. A survey was conducted among 390 adolescent girls using interviewer administered questionnaires whilst Focus Group Discussions using a discussion guide were conducted among 90 respondents in groups of 9 members. Descriptive, inferential statistics and content analysis were used to summarize quantitative and qualitative data respectively.</p> <p><b>Results: </b>Fifty nine percent of the respondents had good knowledge of menstruation. Most (84.6%) of the students practiced good menstrual hygiene. Attending a private (AOR=0.19, 95% CI=0.09-0.40) and rural (AOR= 0.42, 95% CI=0.22-0.83, p=0.012) schools were significantly associated with reduced odds of practicing good menstrual hygiene. Good knowledge on menstruation was associated with increased odds of good hygiene practices (AOR=2.61, 95% CI=1.46-4.67, p=0.001). Qualitative results showed respondents were not given in-depth information on menstruation at menarche. Social and religious beliefs concerning menstruation were prominent and they influenced attitudes and practices such as isolation of menstruating girls and perception that menstruation was dirty and evil.</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Although, good menstrual hygiene practice was high, religious and social beliefs regarding menstruation were common. Most of these beliefs lead to menstrual related restrictions which limit desire to seek crucial menstrual information. It is necessary to expand the scope of menstrual health awareness beyond the school environment in both rural and urban areas to eradicate menstrual misconceptions and restrictions.</p>
Research Data Management in Health and Biomedical Citizen Science: Practices and Prospects
<p><b>Background:</b> Public engagement in health and biomedical research is being influenced by the paradigm of citizen science. However, conventional health and biomedical research relies on sophisticated research data management tools and methods. Considering these, what contribution can citizen science make in this field of research? How can it follow research protocols and produce reliable results?</p> <p><b>Objective:</b> The aim of this paper is to analyse research data management practices in existing biomedical citizen science studies, so as to provide insights for members of the public and of the research community considering this approach to research.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> A scoping review was conducted on this topic to determine data management characteristics of health and bio medical citizen science research. From this review and related web searching, we chose five online platforms and a specific research project associated with each, to understand their research data management approaches and enablers.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Health and biomedical citizen science platforms and projects are diverse in terms of types of work with data and data management activities that in themselves may have scientific merit. However, consistent approaches in the use of research data management models or practices seem lacking, or at least are not evident.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> There is potential for important data collection and analysis activities to be opaque or irreproducible in health and biomedical citizen science initiatives without the implementation of a research data management model that is transparent and accessible to team members and to external audiences. This situation might be improved with participatory development of standards that can be applied to diverse projects and platforms, across the research data life cycle.<b> </b></p>
Do we use FLOSS in Software Engineering Education? Mapping the Profiles and Practices of Higher Education Teachers from Brazi
<p>Context:Software Engineering (SE) is a key topic in undergraduate computing-related courses that provides the basic knowledge and skills necessary for professional practice in the software industry. Teaching SE principles, concepts and practices and relating them to real-world scenarios are challenging tasks, and the adoption of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects can help to face these challenges. On the other hand, using FLOSS projects as a didactic resource may introduce additional challenges to professors that are not familiar with the FLOSS ecosystem. Objective: This research aims to identify and map the profiles of professors of SE courses in Brazil, as well as to present the pedagogical practices used in the experience with FLOSS projects in Software Engineering Education (SEE). Method: We performed a survey with higher education professors in Brazil, used K-modes algorithm to identify clusters and Decision Tree algorithm to identify characteristics that determine the use of FLOSS projects in a sample of professors who had not used this approach in the classroom.Results:The results of the research revealed characteristics of professors who use, or not,FLOSS projects in SEE, of professors grouped in the two clusters generated by the application of the K-modes algorithm, of professors grouped by the application of the Decision Tree algorithm,in addition to presenting similar characteristics the pedagogical practices evidenced by each group of SE professors.</p>
Data Literacies & Practices in Higher Education: Educators' Perspectives
<p>Results from a summer 2020 survey exploring university educators' perspectives on educational technology and datafication in their classrooms. During COVID-19, the educational technologies we rely on for teaching are designed to translate digital experience into behavioural data, and this study seeks to establish a baseline understanding of what educators understand about this data and what they believe should happen with it, as well as how their perspectives and experiences related to teaching influence their responses to data.</p>
Practice of antibiotics use and awareness of antimicrobial resistance among undergraduate medical students
<p>Antibiotic resistance is one of the actual problems associated with the irrational use of antibiotics</p> <p>The aim of study is to investigate practice of antibiotics use and awareness of antimicrobial resistance among undergraduate medical students Siberian State Medical University (SSMU).</p> <p>Material and methods. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to assess the practice of antibiotic use and awareness of antimicrobial resistance among 5-6 year students of GP and pediatrician faculties of Siberian State Medical University.</p> <p>Results. 334 students took part in the survey. During the last year, 58.1% of respondents used antibacterial drugs. The leading reasons for the use of antibiotics were: angina - 47.3%, viral infection of upper airway- 24.4%, sinusitis and / or otitis - 20.2%, urinary tract infections - 18.3%, bronchitis - 11.5%, pneumonia - 8 %, acute intestinal infections - 5.7%. The most frequently used: amoxicillin / clavulanic acid -57.6%, amoxicillin - 29%, azithromycin - 19.4%, ciprofloxacin - 13.4%, cephalosporins of the 3rd generation - 8.1%, clarithromycin - 7.6%. Most of the students used antibiotics as prescribed by a doctor (58.8%) and adhered to the duration of treatment prescribed by the doctor. The vast majority of students (99.4%) are aware of the problem of antibiotic resistance and 95.8% consider this problem important for Russian medicine.</p> <p>Conclusions. Undergraduate students of the Siberian State Medical University demonstrated adherence to medical recommendations regarding the use of antibiotics and a high awareness of the problem of antibiotic resistance.</p>
Spatially anonymized data for: Multistate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck approach for practical estimation of movement and resource selection around central places
<p>1. Home range dynamics and movement are central to a species' ecology and strongly mediate both intra- and interspecific interactions. Numerous methods have been introduced to describe animal home ranges, but most lack predictive ability and cannot capture effects of dynamic environmental patterns, such as the impacts of air and water flow on movement.</p> <p>2. Here, we develop a practical, multi-stage approach for statistical inference into the behavioral mechanisms underlying how habitat and dynamic energy landscapes---in this case how airflow increases or decreases the energetic efficiency of flight---shape animal home ranges based around central places. We validated the new approach using simulations, then applied it to a sample of 12 adult golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) tracked with satellite telemetry. </p> <p>3. The application to golden eagles revealed effects of habitat variables that align with predicted behavioral ecology. Further, we found that males and females partition their home ranges dynamically based on uplift. Specifically, changes in wind and sun angle drove differential space use between sexes, especially later in the breeding season when energetic demands of growing nestlings require both parents to forage more widely. </p> <p>4. This method is easily implemented using widely available programming languages and is based on a hierarchical multistate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck space use process that incorporates habitat and energy landscapes. The underlying mathematical properties of the model allow straightforward computation of predicted utilization distributions, permitting estimation of home range size and visualization of space use patterns under varying conditions.</p>
Data from: Improving learner-driven teaching practices through reflective assessment
<p><strong>Objective</strong>: Reflective assessment is an effective method of teacher evaluation, serving as an approach for, assessing teaching practices, generating insights, and connecting with colleagues, ultimately supporting meaningful transformation of teaching practice. In this paper, three librarians model a reflective assessment approach in evaluating and improving their experiences implementing learner-driven teaching practices in credit-bearing courses in topics related to library and information studies.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong>: Following a model of reflective assessment, we ask ourselves how our practice can better support learner-driven teaching practices, thus assessing and improving our own teaching and improving students' learning experiences. Our process involved five steps: cohere around shared viewpoints; identify teaching practices for reflection; conduct reflection; discuss and analyze reflections to produce insights; apply insights to improve teaching.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: We reflect on five different learner-driven teaching practices: co-creative syllabus design, learner-defined personal learning goals, soliciting and responding to learner feedback, interdisciplinary discussions and exercises, self-evaluation. We discuss improvements and refinements that we implemented in response to our reflective assessment, including: more frequent checking in with students; more clarity regarding self-evaluation and grading; one-on-one meetings with all students; allowing students to negotiations, discuss, and determine assignment deadlines and dates; more flexibility with students' work products; and increased pedagogical transparency. As a further result, our reflective process models an approachable framework for engaging in reflective assessment.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: This paper presents a model for reflective assessment of teaching in an academic library. We present a discussion of learner-driven teaching practices, and we offer a practical pathway for other teachers and practitioners to assess their teaching. We find that reflective assessment is an effective and insightful approach for understanding and improving learner-driven teaching practices.</p>
A practical introduction to sequentially Markovian coalescent methods for estimating demographic history from genomic data
<p>A common goal of population genomics and molecular ecology is to reconstruct the demographic history of a species of interest. A pair of powerful tools based on the sequentially Markovian coalescent have been developed to infer past population sizes using genome sequences. These methods are most useful when sequences are available for only a limited number of genomes and when the aim is to study ancient demographic events. The results of these analyses can be difficult to interpret accurately, because doing so requires some understanding of their theoretical basis and of their sensitivity to confounding factors. In this practical review, we explain some of the key concepts underpinning the pairwise and multiple sequentially Markovian coalescent methods (PSMC and MSMC, respectively). We relate these concepts to the use and interpretation of these methods, and we explain how the choice of different parameter values by the user can affect the accuracy and precision of the inferences. Based on our survey of 100 PSMC studies and 30 MSMC studies, we describe how the two methods are used in practice. Readers of this article will become familiar with the principles, practice, and interpretation of the sequentially Markovian coalescent for inferring demographic history.</p>
FIG. 10 in The skull on the hill. Anthropological and osteological investigation of contemporary horse skull ritual practices in central Mongolia (Arkhangai province)
FIG. 10. — Structure and repositories associated with the great "foal" ovoo: A, central ovoo and small stone cairns stretching out towards the south; B, old male horse skull; C, 10 to 11-year-old male horse skull; D, 15 to 18-year-old male horse skull; E, old male horse skull wrapped in a khadag; F, central ovoo with its altar.
FIG. 7. — A in The skull on the hill. Anthropological and osteological investigation of contemporary horse skull ritual practices in central Mongolia (Arkhangai province)
FIG. 7. — A, Small ovoo with horse skulls at the top of a hill; B, bigger ovoo including wooden sticks.
A practical approach to measuring the acoustic diversity by community ecology methods
<p>The study of the diversity of animal signals on within- and among-species levels is the key to uncover mechanisms that shape the evolution of communication systems. However, the methods used to quantify acoustic diversity (like repertoire size) lack to grasp several aspects of acoustic diversity. Here, we propose a new framework for the study of animal communication, in which we decompose the acoustic diversity with the methodological toolbox from community ecology.</p> <p>We explore how different diversity estimates reflecting different aspects of acoustic diversity can be applied to characterise the complexity of acoustic signals. We propose that this approach can be used in a wide range of animal taxa to derive further insights about the function and evolution of communication systems besides the traditional methods.</p> <p>To illustrate the use of our approach in a case study, we used the song of collared flycatcher (<em>Ficedula albicollis)</em> as a model system. Based on three frequency and time variables, we calculated three diversity indies (FRic, FEve, and FDiv) to characterise the distribution of song elements (syllables) in the acoustic parameter space. We aimed to uncover the interrelations of diversity indices, reveal the degree of among-individual consistency, and investigate their relationships with certain aspects of individual quality.</p> <p>We found that the chosen diversity indices were largely independent from each other and showed different consistency patterns that were timescale dependent indicating different signalling potential of individual-specific attributes. We also found that FEve strongly related to the age of males. Our case study showed that decomposing the diversity into different components can reveal additional biologically meaningful aspects of birdsong.</p>
Adjudicating national context – elements of legal pluralism in the practice(s) of the European Court of Human Rights?
<p>Dataset for submission til German Law Journal. See Readme.txt for details.</p>
Data from: The location of the citation: changing practices in how publications cite original data in the Dryad Digital Repository
While stakeholders in scholarly communication generally agree on the importance of data citation, there is not consensus on where those citations should be placed within the publication – particularly when the publication is citing original data. Recently, CrossRef and the Digital Curation Center (DCC) have recommended as a best practice that original data citations appear in the works cited sections of the article. In some fields, such as the life sciences, this contrasts with the common practice of only listing data identifier(s) within the article body (intratextually). We inquired whether data citation practice has been changing in light of the guidance from CrossRef and the DCC. We examined data citation practices from 2011 to 2014 in a corpus of 1,125 articles associated with original data in the Dryad Digital Repository. The percentage of articles that include no reference to the original data has declined each year, from 31% in 2011 to 15% in 2014. The percentage of articles that include data identifiers intratextually has grown from 69% to 83%, while the percentage that cite data in the works cited section has grown from 5% to 8%. If the proportions continue to grow at the current rate of 19-20% annually, the proportion of articles with data citations in the works cited section will not exceed 90% until 2030.
Data from: Predator-prey trophic relationships in response to organic management practices
A broad range of environmental conditions likely regulate predator-prey population dynamics and impact the structure of these communities. Central to understanding the interplay between predator and prey populations and their importance is characterizing the corresponding trophic interactions. Here we use a well-documented molecular approach to examine the structure of the community of natural enemies preying upon the squash bug, Anasa tristis, a herbivorous cucurbit pest that severely hinders organic squash and pumpkin production in the United States. Primer pairs were designed to examine the effects of organic management practices on the strength of these trophic connections and link this metric to measures of the arthropod predator complex density and diversity within an experimental open-field context. Replicated plots of butternut squash were randomly assigned to three treatments and were sampled throughout a growing season. Row-covers treatments had significant negative effects on squash bug and predator communities. In total, 640 predators were tested for squash bug molecular gut-content, of which 11% were found to have preyed on squash bugs, but predation varied over the season between predator groups (coccinellids, geocorids, nabids, web-building spiders and hunting spiders). Through the linking of molecular gut-content analysis to changes in diversity and abundance, these data delineate the complexity of interaction pathways on a pest that limits the profitability of organic squash production.
Replication Package for "On the Practice of Semantic Versioning for Ansible Galaxy Roles: An Empirical Study and a Change Classification Model"
<p>Replication package for our analysis of Semantic Versioning in Ansible Galaxy role repositories.</p> <p>This replication package consists of three parts:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Classification Model: Contains Jupyter notebooks used to train and evaluate a Random Forest classification model based on structural features. Training and evaluation data is included.</p> </li> <li> <p>Quantitative Notebooks: Contains Jupyter notebooks used to perform quantitative analyses of versions and changes.</p> </li> <li> <p>data: CSV files of the data used in the Quantitative Notebooks, and the source data for the classification model. Should be downloaded separately fromthe classification model. Should be downloaded separately from <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4991955">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4991955</a>.</p> </li> </ul> <p>The data is under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 license. The source code is under the GNU General Public License.</p>
Data from: Logical validation and evaluation of practical feasibility for the SCRuM (School Clinical Rugby Measure) test battery developed for young adolescent rugby players in a resource-constrained environment
There is a growing impetus towards usage of test batteries in talent identification (TID) programmes in rugby. Consequently, there are many test batteries in existence profiling anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific skills. There is no consensus in the literature on the constituent variables and corresponding tests required to inform TID programs. Following development of a new test battery called the SCRuM (School Clinical Rugby Measure), this study aimed at establishing face, logical validity and practical feasibility of included tests. The test battery, initially comprised of 23 items, had its face and logical validity evaluated by five (5) adolescent rugby coaches and 20 rugby experts, respectively. Logical validation was conducted in two questionnaire-based rounds with Content Validity Index (I-CVI) calculated for each variable. Subsequently, a cross-sectional study targeting 30 local rugby coaches was conducted to determine the perceived practical feasibility of each test item. The results showed excellent I-CVI (>0.78) for 17 variables (speed, weight, height and skin fold measures, repeated high-intensity exercise performance ability, prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability, change of direction speed, anaerobic capacity, lower-and upper body muscular power and strength, muscular flexibility, reactive agility, passing for accuracy, tackling proficiency, and catching). However, three tests, namely, Reactive Agility, One Repetition Maximum Back Squat and One Repetition Maximum Bench Press had low test-feasibility indices (T-FI< 35) suggesting practicality concerns with implementation in the Zimbabwean context. Thus, these findings suggest the need for substitution or development of new practically feasible tests for upper-and lower body muscular strength and reactive agility.
Data from: Whole-genome sequencing approaches for conservation biology: advantages, limitations, and practical recommendations
Whole-genome resequencing (WGR) is a powerful method for addressing fundamental evolutionary biology questions that have not been fully resolved using traditional methods. WGR includes four approaches: the sequencing of individuals to a high depth of coverage with either unresolved (huWGR) or resolved haplotypes (hrWGR), the sequencing of population genomes to a high depth by mixing equimolar amounts of unlabelled-individual DNA (Pool-seq), and the sequencing of multiple individuals from a population to a low depth (lcWGR). These techniques require the availability of a reference genome. This, along with the still high cost of shotgun sequencing and the large demand for computing resources and storage, has limited their implementation in non-model species with scarce genomic resources and in fields such as conservation biology. Our goal here is to describe the various WGR methods, their pros and cons, and potential applications in conservation biology. WGR offers an unprecedented marker density and surveys a wide diversity of genetic variations not limited to single nucleotide polymorphisms (e.g. structural variants and mutations in regulatory elements), increasing their power for the detection of signatures of selection and local adaptation as well as for the identification of the genetic basis of phenotypic traits and diseases. Currently though, no single WGR approach fulfills all requirements of conservation genetics, and each method has its own limitations and sources of potential bias. We discuss proposed ways to minimize such biases. We envision a not distant future where the analysis of whole genomes becomes a routine task in many non-model species and fields including conservation biology.
Data from: The trouble with triplets in biodiversity informatics: a data-driven case against current identifier practices
The biodiversity informatics community has discussed aspirations and approaches for assigning globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) to biocollections for nearly a decade. During that time, and despite misgivings, the de facto standard identifier has become the "Darwin Core Triplet", which is a concatenation of values for institution code, collection code, and catalog number associated with biocollections material. Our aim is not to rehash the challenging discussions regarding which GUID system in theory best supports the biodiversity informatics use case of discovering and linking digital data across the Internet, but how well we can link those data together at this moment, utilizing the current identifier schemes that have already been deployed. We gathered Darwin Core Triplets from a subset of VertNet records, along with vertebrate records from GenBank and the Barcode of Life Data System, in order to determine how Darwin Core Triplets are deployed "in the wild". We asked if those triplets follow the recommended structure and whether they provide an easy and unambiguous means to track from specimen records to genetic sequence records. We show that Darwin Core Triplets are often riddled with semantic and syntactic errors when deployed and curated in practice, despite specifications about how to construct them. Our results strongly suggest that Darwin Core Triplets that have not been carefully curated are not currently serving a useful role for relinking data. We briefly consider needed next steps to overcome current limitations.
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These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.