The Data Management Skills Support Initiative: synthesising postgraduate training in research data management

<p>This paper will describe the efforts and findings of the JISC Data Management Skills Support Initiative (‘DaMSSI’). DaMSSI was co-funded by the JISC Managing Research Data programme and the Research Information Network (RIN), in partnership with the Digital Curation Centre, to review, synthesise and augment the training offerings of the JISC Research Data Management Training Materials (‘RDMTrain’) projects.</p> <p>DaMSSI tested the effectiveness of the Society of College, National and University Libraries’ Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model (SCONUL, 2011), and Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (‘Vitae RDF’) for consistently describing research data management (‘RDM’) skills and skills development paths in UK HEI postgraduate courses.</p> <p>With the collaboration of the RDMTrain projects, we mapped individual course modules to these two models and identified basic generic data management skills alongside discipline-specific requirements. A synthesis of the training outputs of the projects was then carried out, which further investigated the generic versus discipline-specific considerations and other successful approaches to training that had been identified as a result of the projects’ work. In addition we produced a series of career profiles to help illustrate the fact that data management is an essential component – in obvious and not-so-obvious ways – of a wide range of professions.</p> <p>We found that both models had potential for consistently and coherently describing data management skills training and embedding this within broader institutional postgraduate curricula. However, we feel that additional discipline-specific references to data management skills could also be beneficial for effective use of these models. Our synthesis work identified that the majority of core skills were generic across disciplines at the postgraduate level, with the discipline-specific approach showing its value in engaging the audience and providing context for the generic principles.</p> <p>Findings were fed back to SCONUL and Vitae to help in the refinement of their respective models, and we are working with a number of other projects, such as the DCC and the EC-funded Digital Curator Vocational Education Europe (DigCurV2) initiative, to investigate ways to take forward the training profiling work we have begun.</p&gt

Training for digital preservation in the context of the European project PLANETS

This paper outlines a training programme jointly developed and organised by the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (‘HATII’) at the University of Glasgow and the British Library, in collaboration with a number of European partner institutions, on behalf of the Preservation and Long Term Access Through Networked Services (‘Planets’) project. It describes the background to the programme and the series of events which took place during the final year of the project, focussing on the feedback received from the participants, the lessons learned from the implementation of the events, and the perceived long-term impact of the programme on future digital preservation training activities

GIS Forest Inventory and Evaluation in the Wake of Climate Change

Because climate and vegetation are so strongly associated, it is assumed that the forecast rapid changes in climate will affect plant distributions and alter the makeup of forest communities. For example, climate change could cause regional wind patterns to shift, which would be accompanied by an increase in wind speed intensity. Such shifts could impact existing rain shadow effects in some regions causing more precipitation on the windward side of mountain ranges while creating even drier conditions on the leeward sides. Fire patterns are likely to be altered as well, which could affect a variety of plant species, even those that are fire resistant or require the presence of fire to regenerate. History has shown that most species respond individually to climatic change and not as communities. Those individuals that have the ability to migrate likely will do so, resulting in a number of new associations. In addition to differences in migration rates, community types will be altered and new associations will be created due to changes in disturbance regimes and competition... --Introduction

Feeding ecology of hummingbirds in the Serra do Mar, southeastern Brazil

Comportamiento alimentario de picaflores en la Serra do Mar, sudeste de Brasil. El comportamiento alimentario de picaflores fue estudiado en noviembre y diciembre de 1983 en Boracéia, una selva muy húmeda en la Serra do Mar a 800-900 m. Seis especies de picaflores estuvieron presentes en el área y fueron registrados tomando néctar de 25 especies de plantas nativas, de las cuales 15 o 16 fueron consideradas estar adaptadas a picaflores. Tanto el número de especies de picaflores como de individuos fue menor comparado con los números ocurridos en otras áreas de selvas húmedas neo tropicales. El porcentaje de visitas a plantas nativas para alimentarse fue bajo y la cantidad de consumo de insectos fue relativamente alta. Se argumenta que la baja diversidad y abundancia de picaflores está en relación a una escasa provision de néctar. Sobre la base de los limitados datos disponibles, parece que dos familias de plantas que son importantes para picaflores en los Andes y otras áreas montañosas neotropicales, como son las Rubiaceae y Ericaceae, proveen poco néctar para picaflores de selvas en la Serra do Mar, y que esto puede parcialmente explicar la ausencia de diversidad en la longitud del pico de los picaflores. La forma en la cual la comunidad de picaflores que viven en un área explotan las flores es de interés tanto desde el punto de vista ornitológico como botanico. Es también de gran interés evolutivo, por·que puede explicar la coevolución de picaflores y plantas.The feeding behaviour of hummingbirds was studied in November and December 1983 at Boracéia, an area of very humid forest in the Serra do Mar, SE Brazil at 800-900 m. Six species of hummingbirds were present in the area, and were recorded taking nectar from 25 native plant species, of which 15 or 16 were considered to be hummingbird-adapted. Both the number of hummingbird species and the number of individuals were small compared with the numbers occurring in humid forest e1sewhere in the neotropics. The rate of feeding·visits to native plants was low, anther amount of insect-foraging was relatively high. It is argued that low hummingbird diversity and abundance were related to a sparse nectar supply. On the. basis of the limited data available, it seems that two plant families that are important for hummingbirds in the Andes and in other montane areas in the neotropics, the Rubiaceae and Ericaceae, provide littie nectar for forest hummingbirds in the Sena do Mar, and that this may partly account for the lack of diversity in hummingbird bill lengths. The way in wich the·community of hummingbirds living in an area exploits the flowers of that area is of both omithological and botanical interest. It is also of wider evolutionary interest, as it may throw light on the coevolution of hummingbhds and plants

Aviation Opportunities in Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a specialized form of tourism designed to allow the exploration of unique natural and cultural areas while creating a positive impact on local communities. As the primary mode of international transportation, aviation stands to benefit further from the burgeoning ecotourism market. This paper presents data that demonstrate the unprecedented growth of ecotourism in recent years and suggests opportunities the industry offers those in the field of aviation. Also discussed is the potential for achieving a greater degree of economic and ecologic sustainability for ecotour destinations

Making sense: talking data management with researchers

Incremental is one of eight projects in the JISC Managing Research Data programme funded to identify institutional requirements for digital research data management and pilot relevant infrastructure. Our findings concur with those of other Managing Research Data projects, as well as with several previous studies. We found that many researchers: (i) organise their data in an ad hoc fashion, posing difficulties with retrieval and re-use; (ii) store their data on all kinds of media without always considering security and back-up; (iii) are positive about data sharing in principle though reluctant in practice; (iv) believe back-up is equivalent to preservation. <br></br><br></br> The key difference between our approach and that of other Managing Research Data projects is the type of infrastructure we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology. <br></br><br></br> We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure. <br></br> <br></br> Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence. The key difference between our approach and that of other MRD projects is the type of ‘infrastructure’ we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology. We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure. Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We’re achieving this by: - re-positioning existing guidance so researchers can locate the advice they need; - connecting researchers with one-to-one advice, support and partnering; - offering practical training and a seminar series to address key data management topics. We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence

New Insights on Interstellar Gas-Phase Iron

In this paper, we report on the gas-phase abundance of singly-ionized iron (Fe II) for 51 lines of sight, using data from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). Fe II column densities are derived by measuring the equivalent widths of several ultraviolet absorption lines and subsequently fitting those to a curve of growth. Our derivation of Fe II column densities and abundances creates the largest sample of iron abundances in moderately- to highly-reddened lines of sight explored with FUSE, lines of sight that are on average more reddened than lines of sight in previous Copernicus studies. We present three major results. First, we observe the well-established correlation between iron depletion and and also find trends between iron depletion and other line of sight parameters (e.g. f(H_2), E_(B-V), and A_V), and examine the significance of these trends. Of note, a few of our lines of sight probe larger densities than previously explored and we do not see significantly enhanced depletion effects. Second, we present two detections of an extremely weak Fe II line at 1901.773 A in the archival STIS spectra of two lines of sight (HD 24534 and HD 93222). We compare these detections to the column densities derived through FUSE spectra and comment on the line's f-value and utility for future studies of Fe II. Lastly, we present strong anecdotal evidence that the Fe II f-values derived empirically through FUSE data are more accurate than previous values that have been theoretically calculated, with the probable exception of f_1112.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 669, 378; see ApJ version for small updates. 53 total pages (preprint format), 7 tables, 11 figure