Proximity to urban fringe recreational facilities increases native biodiversity in an arid rangeland

© 2018 Australian Rangeland Society. Urban developments affect neighbouring ecosystems in multiple ways, usually decreasing native biodiversity. Arabian arid rangeland was studied to identify the primary causes of biodiversity variation. Al Marmoum is a 990 km2 area on the urban edge of Dubai, designated for ecological \u27enhancement\u27 and outdoor recreational use. The area lacks historical biodiversity data, but is thought to be primarily influenced by Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius Linnaeus, 1758) herbivory. Perennial floral and faunal diversity was assessed at 54 sites. Counts of reintroduced ungulates (Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx (Pallas, 1777), Arabian gazelle Gazella gazella cora (C.H. Smith, 1827) and sand gazelle G. subgutturosa marica (Thomas, 1897)) were made at 79 separate sites. Correlations of observed biodiversity with substrate type, anthropogenic structures, and ungulate distribution were assessed. Native biodiversity was substantially higher in north-north-west locations near recreational facilities, with the most likely cause being differential browsing pressure. Camel browsing faced greater communal regulation in the north-north-west, whereas oryx and gazelles congregated at feed points in the south-south-east that were farther from human activity. Arid rangeland in this socioecological landscape exhibits greater natural biodiversity at the urban fringe. Human activity reduces ungulate density, enabling a greater diversity of perennial flora, which then attracts non-ungulate fauna. Anthropogenic features can therefore offer conservation value in landscapes where ungulate populations are artificially elevated

Changing styles of informal academic communication in the age of the web:Orthodox, moderate and heterodox responses

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study to investigate changes in scholarly communication practices among a group of scholars in the UK and build upon the results that were published in a previous paper. Design/methodology/approach- The study deployed a naturalistic inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research tool. A sample of 40 participants from four UK universities were interviewed to explore the changes in informal scholarly communication behaviour. Findings- The analysis of the interviews revealed that there are three ideal types of behaviour: the ?Orthodox? uses formal and traditional scholarly communication approaches; the ?Moderate? prioritises formal communication approaches, but at the same time is trying to get benefits from informal channels; and, the ?Heterodox? uses all channels available in scholarly communication. Originality and value - The value of the current study lies in using a naturalistic inquiry approach to investigate the changes in scholarly communication practices, and to explore different scholarly communication styles. In the context of this study, the use of a naturalistic approach and grounded theory principles in connection with coding provided a stance that allows for the gathering of rich information to enable understanding and explanation of scholarly communication activities in addition to uncovering themes that related to scholarly behaviour.authorsversionPeer reviewe

Factors affecting undergraduate students’ information sharing behaviour when dealing with COVID-19 misinformation: theory of reasoned action

Sharing misinformation has become a widespread phenomenon. Social media networks have significantly contributed to spreading and sharing misinformation, especially during crises and pandemics. However, little is known about why people share misinformation. The study aims to identify the factors affecting undergraduate students’ information sharing behaviour when dealing with unverified information. The study also seeks to discover any statistically significant differences (α=0.05) in students’ behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification attributed to demographic variables, self-efficiency, attitude towards verifying information, individual’s beliefs, and subjective norms. The study adopted the theory of reasoned action. A quantitative research approach was adopted via the use of questionnaires. An e-mail was sent to all undergraduate students enrolled at Sultan Qaboos University during 2020-2021, yielding 407 valid answers from various colleges. The reliability of the survey is 0.916 as a whole, 0.741 for the individual’s self-efficacy scale, 0.312 for the attitude towards verifying information scale, 0.809 for the individual’s beliefs scale, 0.916 for the subjective norms scale, and 0.846 for the behaviour of using and sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification scale. The effect of self-efficacy, Attitude Towards Verifying Information, beliefs, and Subjective norms on the behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification were tested. Quantitative data retrieved from the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS 24. Several analysis tests such as frequencies, T-test, and multiple regression tests were conducted.Results. The findings support that there’s a significant effect of demographic variables, self-efficacy, attitude towards verifying information, individual’s beliefs, and subjective norms on students’ behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification. This research showed that many factors affect information sharing behaviour. The research concluded that the students’ information behaviour could be enhanced by focusing on information literacy skills.Peer Reviewe

Scholarly communication trends in the digital age: Informal scholarly publishing and dissemination, a grounded theory approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate scholars’ attitudes toward informal publishing and dissemination to provide a view of the challenges and advantages of using such channels. Although considerable research has been carried out in relation to peer-reviewed scholarly publishing, relatively few studies have investigated the adoption of informal scholarly communication platforms in the scholarly publishing process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper deployed a grounded theory approach using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research tool. A theoretical sample of 40 researchers in 4 universities were interviewed to gather data regarding informal publishing, platforms, factors that affect the researchers’ decision and the use of informal channels in dissemination. Findings – Results of the interviews suggest that there is an increasing trend among researchers toward informal publishing and dissemination throughout the scholarly communication cycle. The paper shows that there are three types of scholars who are involved in the scholarly communication process: conventional, modern and liberal scholars. Each of these scholars carries different beliefs regarding the scholarly communication process. Research limitations/implications – This paper was conducted on a relatively small sample of academic researchers, and therefore, the results cannot be easily generalized into a wider community of scholars. Originality/value – The paper provides insight into informal scholarly publishing practices using a grounded theory approach. This approach helped to capture the changes in both scholarly publishing practices and the adoption of informal techniques among the scholarly community. </jats:sec

Deep Learning based Animal Detection and Tracking in Drone Video Footage

In this paper, we propose a multiple animal tracking system in drone footage that is designed and implemented using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) based tracking-by-detection approach. The proposed system consists of two main components, namely the sub-system for animal detection, and the sub-system for animal tracking. In the animal detection component, we exploit the effective use of YOLO-V5 to detect individual animals and in the tracking component, we use a centroid tracking algorithm to associate the location of the detected animals in consecutive video frames. The performance of the proposed system is analyzed on drone video footage containing herds of Arabian Oryx with complex patterns of movement of individual animals. All videos were recorded by using a drone flying over known oryx feeding points in the desert areas of the UAE. The experimental results showed that our tracking system can detect and track individual oryxes within herds, accurately, even when the oryxes are very close to each other, partially occluded and their walking paths cross each other

Diversity of Coronaviruses with Particular Attention to the Interspecies Transmission of SARS-CoV-2

In December 2019, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported in China with serious impacts on global health and economy that is still ongoing. Although interspecies transmission of coronaviruses is common and well documented, each coronavirus has a narrowly restricted host range. Coronaviruses utilize different receptors to mediate membrane fusion and replication in the cell cytoplasm. The interplay between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of coronaviruses and their coevolution are determinants for host susceptibility. The recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and has also been reported in domestic and wild animals, raising the question about the responsibility of animals in virus evolution. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic might also substantially have an impact on animal production for a long time. In the present review, we discussed the diversity of coronaviruses in animals and thus the diversity of their receptors. Moreover, the determinants of the susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 in several animals, with special reference to the current evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in animals, were highlighted. Finally, we shed light on the urgent demand for the implementation of the One Health concept as a collaborative global approach to mitigate the threat for both humans and animals