288 research outputs found
Understanding citizen science and environmental monitoring: final report on behalf of UK Environmental Observation Framework
Citizen science can broadly be defined as the involvement of volunteers in science. Over the past decade there has
been a rapid increase in the number of citizen science initiatives. The breadth of environmental-based citizen
science is immense. Citizen scientists have surveyed for and monitored a broad range of taxa, and also contributed
data on weather and habitats reflecting an increase in engagement with a diverse range of observational science.
Citizen science has taken many varied approaches from citizen-led (co-created) projects with local community
groups to, more commonly, scientist-led mass participation initiatives that are open to all sectors of society. Citizen
science provides an indispensable means of combining environmental research with environmental education and
wildlife recording.
Here we provide a synthesis of extant citizen science projects using a novel cross-cutting approach to objectively
assess understanding of citizen science and environmental monitoring including: 1. Brief overview of knowledge on the motivations of volunteers.
2. Semi-systematic review of environmental citizen science projects in order to understand the variety of
extant citizen science projects.
3. Collation of detailed case studies on a selection of projects to complement the semi-systematic review.
4. Structured interviews with users of citizen science and environmental monitoring data focussing on policy, in
order to more fully understand how citizen science can fit into policy needs.
5. Review of technology in citizen science and an exploration of future opportunities
Companion planting to attract pollinators increases the yield and quality of strawberry fruit in gardens and allotments
1. Global pollinator declines have led to concern that crop yields might fall as a result of a pollination deficit. Companion planting is a traditional practice thought to increase yield of insect pollinated crops by planting a co-flowering species next to the crop.
2. Using a combination of conventional researcher-led experiments and observational citizen scientist data, we tested the effectiveness of bee-friendly borage (Borago officinalis) as a companion plant to strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). Insect visitors to the ‘Test’ (strawberry + borage) versus ‘Control’ (strawberry only) plants were observed, and strawberry fruit collected. Strawberries collected during the researcher-led experiment were also subject to fruit measurements and assessments of market quality.
3. Companion plants were found to significantly increase both yield and market quality of strawberries, suggesting an increase in insect pollination per plant. Test strawberries companion planted with borage produced an average of 35% more fruits, and 32% increased yield by weight. Test strawberry plants produced significantly more fruit of higher aesthetic quality when assessed by Marketing Standards for Strawberries.
4. Although there was no significant difference in the overall insect visits, when broken down by broad insect group there were significantly more flies visiting the test strawberries than controls.
5. These results could have implications for both gardeners and commercial growers. As consumers prefer a cosmetically perfect fruit, the production of fruit with increased aesthetics aids food waste reduction
Guidance for interpretation of CBD categories on introduction pathways
Technical note prepared by IUCN for the European Commission. This note has been drafted by a team of experts under the supervision of IUCN within the framework of the contract No 07.0202/2016/739524/SER/ENV.D.2 “Technical and Scientific support in relation to the Implementation of Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species”
Testing a Grassroots Citizen Science Venture Using Open Design, “the Bee Lab Project”
The Bee Lab project applies Citizen Science and Open Design to beekeeping, enabling participants to construct monitoring devices gathering reciprocal data, motivating participants and third parties. The presented approach uses design workshops to provide insight into the design of kits, user motivations, promoting reciprocal interests and address community problems. This paper signposts issues and opportunities in the process of designing Citizen Science tools for communities using Open Design to solve individual problems, including: downloadable design for social/local change, laypeople creating technology and repairable kits
Degradation and healing in a generalized neo-Hookean solid due to infusion of a fluid
The mechanical response and load bearing capacity of high performance polymer
composites changes due to diffusion of a fluid, temperature, oxidation or the
extent of the deformation. Hence, there is a need to study the response of
bodies under such degradation mechanisms. In this paper, we study the effect of
degradation and healing due to the diffusion of a fluid on the response of a
solid which prior to the diffusion can be described by the generalized
neo-Hookean model. We show that a generalized neo-Hookean solid - which behaves
like an elastic body (i.e., it does not produce entropy) within a purely
mechanical context - creeps and stress relaxes when infused with a fluid and
behaves like a body whose material properties are time dependent. We
specifically investigate the torsion of a generalized neo-Hookean circular
cylindrical annulus infused with a fluid. The equations of equilibrium for a
generalized neo-Hookean solid are solved together with the convection-diffusion
equation for the fluid concentration. Different boundary conditions for the
fluid concentration are also considered. We also solve the problem for the case
when the diffusivity of the fluid depends on the deformation of the generalized
neo-Hookean solid.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Mechanics of Time-dependent
Material
Complex patterns of global spread in invasive insects: eco-evolutionary and management consequences
The advent of simple and affordable tools for molecular identification of novel insect invaders and assessment of population diversity has changed the face of invasion biology in recent years. The widespread application of these tools has brought with it an emerging understanding that patterns in biogeography, introduction history and subsequent movement and spread of many invasive alien insects are far more complex than previously thought. We reviewed the literature and found that for a number of invasive insects, there is strong and growing evidence that multiple introductions, complex global movement, and population admixture in the invaded range are commonplace. Additionally, historical paradigms related to species and strain identities and origins of common invaders are in many cases being challenged. This has major consequences for our understanding of basic biology and ecology of invasive insects and impacts quarantine, management and biocontrol programs. In addition, we found that founder effects rarely limit fitness in invasive insects and may benefit populations (by purging harmful alleles or increasing additive genetic variance). Also, while phenotypic plasticity appears important post-establishment, genetic diversity in invasive insects is often higher than expected and increases over time via multiple introductions. Further, connectivity among disjunct regions of global invasive ranges is generally far higher than expected and is often asymmetric, with some populations contributing disproportionately to global spread. We argue that the role of connectivity in driving the ecology and evolution of introduced species with multiple invasive ranges has been historically underestimated and that such species are often best understood in a global context
Constraints on Baryon-Nonconserving Yukawa Couplings in a Supersymmetric Theory
The 1-loop evolution of couplings in the minimal supersymmetric standard
model, extended to include baryon nonconserving operators through
explicit -parity violation, is considered keeping only
superpotential terms involving the maximum possible number of third generation
superfields. If all retained Yukawa couplings are required to remain in
the perturbative domain upto the scale of gauge group unification,
upper bounds ensue on the magnitudes of the coupling strengths at
the supersymmetry breaking scale, independent of the model of unification. They
turn out to be similar to the corresponding fixed point values reached from a
wide range of (including all greater than unity) at the unification
scale. The coupled evolution of the top and Yukawa couplings results
in a reduction of the fixed point value of the former.Comment: PRL-TH-94/8 and TIFR/TH/94-7, 15 pages, LaTe
Life cycle of Harmonia axyridis in central Europe
The development and reproduction, and maximum number of generations across seasons were ascertained for populations of Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in Central Europe. Number of generations was calculated using the thermal characteristics of development and summation of daily average air temperatures, in 2007–2016. This species can produce 2–3 generations per year. However, there is insufficient time for it to achieve its full reproductive potential. Delayed emigration from hibernacula (late April) shortened the period of seasonal activity by 1–6%. Breeding occurred from May to mid September. Oviposition continued into late summer, which left insufficient time for the late-hatching immatures to complete their development before the onset of winter. A high mobility, opportunistic use of prey patches and weak tendency to enter dormancy provide the potential for population increase by extending the period of development of immatures at the risk of failure if the cold period comes early
Higgs as a pseudo-Goldstone boson, the mu problem and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking
We study the interplay between the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry
of the Higgs sector and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, in the framework
of a supersymmetric model with global SU(3) symmetry. In addition to solving
the supersymmetric flavour problem and alleviating the little hierarchy
problem, this scenario automatically triggers the breaking of the global
symmetry and provides an elegant solution to the mu/Bmu problem of gauge
mediation. We study in detail the processes of global symmetry and electroweak
symmetry breaking, including the contributions of the top/stop and gauge-Higgs
sectors to the one-loop effective potential of the pseudo-Goldstone Higgs
boson. While the joint effect of supersymmetry and of the global symmetry
allows in principle the electroweak symmetry to be broken with little
fine-tuning, the simplest version of the model fails to bring the Higgs mass
above the LEP bound due to a suppressed tree-level quartic coupling. To cure
this problem, we consider the possibility of additional SU(3)-breaking
contributions to the Higgs potential, which results in a moderate fine-tuning.
The model predicts a rather low messenger scale, a small tan beta value, a
light Higgs boson with Standard Model-like properties, and heavy higgsinos.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. New section 3.3 on the mu/Bmu problem, more
detailed analytic computation in section 4.1, error in Fig. 5 corrected,
significant redactional changes (including abstract, introduction and
conclusion) in order to better emphasize the main results of the paper. Title
changed in journal. Final version to appear in Eur. Phys. J.
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