scholarly journals Shifts in honeybee foraging reveal historical changes in floral resources

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Jones ◽  
Georgina L. Brennan ◽  
Abigail Lowe ◽  
Simon Creer ◽  
Col R. Ford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Dna Metabarcoding ◽  
Pollinating Insects ◽  
Floral Resource ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Management Changes

AbstractDecreasing floral resources as a result of habitat loss is one of the key factors in the decline of pollinating insects worldwide. Understanding which plants pollinators use is vital to inform the provision of appropriate floral resources to help prevent pollinator loss. Using a globally important pollinator, the honeybee, we show how changes in agricultural intensification, crop use and the spread of invasive species, have altered the nectar and pollen sources available in the UK. Using DNA metabarcoding, we analysed 441 honey samples from 2017 and compared these to a nationwide survey of honey samples from 1952. We reveal that shifts in major plants foraged by honeybees are driven by changes in the availability of these plants within the landscape. Improved grasslands are the most widespread habitat type in the UK, and management changes within this habitat have the greatest potential to increase floral resource availability.

scholarly journals A Cross-Sectional Study of Experiences and Attitudes towards Clinical Audit of Farm Animal Veterinary Surgeons in the United Kingdom

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Katie Waine ◽  
Rachel S. Dean ◽  
Chris Hudson ◽  
Jonathan Huxley ◽  
Marnie L. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Audit ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Farm Animal ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Protected Time ◽  
Veterinary Surgeons ◽  
The Uk

Clinical audit is a quality improvement tool used to assess and improve the clinical services provided to patients. This is the first study to investigate the extent to which clinical audit is understood and utilised in farm animal veterinary practice. A cross-sectional study to collect experiences and attitudes of farm animal veterinary surgeons in the UK towards clinical audit was conducted using an online nationwide survey. The survey revealed that whilst just under three-quarters (n = 237/325; 73%) of responding veterinary surgeons had heard of clinical audit, nearly 50% (n = 148/301) had never been involved in a clinical audit of any species. The participants’ knowledge of what a clinical audit was varied substantially, with many respondents reporting not receiving training on clinical audit at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. Respondents that had participated in a clinical audit suggested that protected time away from clinical work was required for the process to be completed successfully. This novel study suggests that clinical audit is undertaken to some extent in farm animal practice and that practitioner perception is that it can bring benefits, but was felt that more resources and support were needed for it to be implemented successfully on a wider scale.

scholarly journals Technology Transfer Projects in the UK

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin George Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Business Practitioners ◽  
The Uk

This article examines how technology transfer has operated in university-company projects undertaken in small to medium sized enterprises via the UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme. It adopts a qualitative case study approach, focusing on three companies drawn from an initial review of fourteen technology transfer projects. This provides the foundation for the development of a model of 12 key factors that underpinned successful outcomes in these projects. The fourteen projects are reviewed in terms of their impact on either process change, service improvement or product development, drawing upon the post-project assessments of the funding body and the developed model. Findings suggest that using new technology to innovate internal processes and services is likely to prove more successful than projects focusing on new product development. The model provides an analytical framework that will be of interest and value to academics and business practitioners looking to develop university-industry partnerships involving technology change and innovation.

scholarly journals Multi-modal signal evolution in birds: re-examining a standard proxy for sexual selection

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1889) ◽  
pp. 20181557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Cooney ◽  
Hannah E. A. MacGregor ◽  
Nathalie Seddon ◽  
Joseph A. Tobias
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Phenotypic Data ◽  
Species Pairs ◽  
Multiple Alternative ◽  
Mating Signal ◽  
Diversification Hypothesis

Sexual selection is proposed to be an important driver of speciation and phenotypic diversification in animal systems. However, previous phylogenetic tests have produced conflicting results, perhaps because they have focused on a single signalling modality (visual ornaments), whereas sexual selection may act on alternative signalling modalities (e.g. acoustic ornaments). Here, we compile phenotypic data from 259 avian sister species pairs to assess the relationship between visible plumage dichromatism—a standard index of sexual selection in birds—and macroevolutionary divergence in the other major avian signalling modality: song. We find evidence for a strong negative relationship between the degree of plumage dichromatism and divergence in song traits, which remains significant even when accounting for other key factors, including habitat type, ecological divergence and interspecific interactions. This negative relationship is opposite to the pattern expected by a straightforward interpretation of the sexual selection–diversification hypothesis, whereby higher levels of dichromatism indicating strong sexual selection should be related to greater levels of mating signal divergence regardless of signalling modality. Our findings imply a ‘trade-off’ between the elaboration of visual ornaments and the diversification of acoustic mating signals, and suggest that the effects of sexual selection on diversification can only be determined by considering multiple alternative signalling modalities.

scholarly journals Immigration Into the United Kingdom

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 957-967
Author(s):  
Lukáš Nevěděl ◽  
Michaela Novotná
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Identity Cards ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Strong System

Migration is a process which results in an increase or a decrease of population. When analysing the immigration policy of the United Kingdom, it is important to be aware of two key factors which influenced it: the country’s location and its colonial history. As an island, the UK has developed a very strong system of border control while at the same time there is limited control within its borders which can be demonstrated e.g. by the absence of identity cards. The aim of this article is to evaluate immigration into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland based on available statistical data between 2004 and 2012. The data will be also used for a forecast of development of the numbers of immigrants from different countries and for illustrating possible immigration trends in the future. The article will mainly focus on a question whether in the near future the UK will experience an increase or a decrease in immigration or whether the number of immigrants will stay constant. Convergence analysis will be used to evaluate the data for individual administrative regions at the NUTS II level. The article will also detail numbers of immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants and it will answer a question whether there is convergence or divergence in the number of immigrants among different regions.

scholarly journals How fast should social restrictions be eased  in England as COVID-19 vaccinations are rolled out?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Miles ◽  
Adrian Heald ◽  
Mike Stedman
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Healthcare Provision ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Education Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Life Years ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Vaccination against the COVID-19 virus began in December 2020 in the UK and is now running at 5% population/week. High Levels of social restrictions were implemented for the third time in January 2021 to control the second wave and resulting increases in hospitalisations and deaths. Easing those restrictions must balance multiple challenging priorities, weighing the risk of more deaths and hospitalisations against damage done to mental health, incomes and standards of living, education outcomes and provision of non-Covid-19 healthcare. Weekly and monthly officially published values in 2020/21 were used to estimate the impact of seasonality and social restrictions on the spread of COVID-19 by age group, on the economy and healthcare services. These factors were combined with the estimated impact of vaccinations and immunity from past infections into a model that retrospectively reflected the actual numbers of reported deaths closely both in 2020 and early 2021. It was applied prospectively to the next 6 months to evaluate the impact of different speeds of easing social restrictions. The results show vaccinations are significantly reducing the number of hospitalisations and deaths. The central estimate is that relative to a rapid easing, the avoided loss of 57,000 life years from a strategy of relatively slow easing over the next 4 months comes at a cost in terms of GDP reduction of around £0.4 million/life-year loss avoided. This is over 10 times higher than the usual limit the NHS uses for spending against Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) saved. Alternative assumptions for key factors affecting give significantly different trade-offs between costs and benefits of different speeds of easing. Disruption of non-Covid-19 Healthcare provision also increases in times of higher levels of social restrictions. In most cases, the results favour a somewhat faster easing of restrictions in England than current policy implies.

On-the-job innovations: The findings of the nationwide survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyona I. Nefedova ◽  
◽  
Marina V. Chernyshova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research University ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Innovative Behavior ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Research Project

The findings of the research project of monitoring innovative behavior carried out by the National Research University Higher School of Economics (as of 2019) are presented. The review of the studies of employees’ innovative activities and the key factors of these activities precedes the analysis.

Technology Transfer Projects in the UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 383-405
Author(s):  
Martin George Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Business Practitioners ◽  
The Uk

This article examines how technology transfer has operated in university-company projects undertaken in small to medium sized enterprises via the UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme. It adopts a qualitative case study approach, focusing on three companies drawn from an initial review of fourteen technology transfer projects. This provides the foundation for the development of a model of 12 key factors that underpinned successful outcomes in these projects. The fourteen projects are reviewed in terms of their impact on either process change, service improvement or product development, drawing upon the post-project assessments of the funding body and the developed model. Findings suggest that using new technology to innovate internal processes and services is likely to prove more successful than projects focusing on new product development. The model provides an analytical framework that will be of interest and value to academics and business practitioners looking to develop university-industry partnerships involving technology change and innovation.

Optimisation of resource management in construction projects: a big data approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habeeb Kusimo ◽  
Lukumon Oyedele ◽  
Olugbenga Akinade ◽  
Ahmed Oyedele ◽  
Sofiat Abioye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges faced in resource management in the UK construction industry and to propose some solutions to these problems. Design/methodology/approach Based on a qualitative research methodology, 14 experts from the UK construction industry were chosen to be participants in the study. The participants were equally divided into two focus groups to discuss resource management using five projects as case studies. Thematic analysis of the discussion reveals seven key factors that affect resource management. Findings The results show that most of the problems identified are due to poor data management processes and the practice of having data in silos. Overcoming this challenge requires the adoption of big data approaches for resource management to allow the integration of large and different forms of data. Originality/value This study seeks to bring to the fore challenges faced in resource management by the UK construction industry and to outline some solutions to address them.

scholarly journals Post-Truth Politics in the UK's Brexit Referendum

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Marshall ◽  
Alena Drieschova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Technological Changes ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Oxford Dictionary ◽  
The Uk

The term post-truth became the 2016 Oxford Dictionary word of the year, yet many scholars question whether the term signals anything new, or whether post-truth is just lying, which has always been a part of politics and media. This paper contributes to this discussion by critically evaluating the extent to which the Brexit referendum, the UK's vote to exit the European Union, was based on post-truth politics. The paper develops the argument that Brexit is a key example of post-truth politics, and that two key factors ushered in this new form of politics into the UK: 1) technological changes associated with social media, which lead to a situation in which a significant portion of the population acquire their news online, while anybody can post anything online without checks on the accuracy of the claims; 2) a growing distrust in democratic institutions, political elites, expertise, and traditional media gatekeepers which leads, in turn, to a loss of trust in established expert knowledge, leaving the population willing to rely on information originating from questionable sources. This combination of a decline in trust of politicians and experts with social media reliance, drove the British public to emotionally charged, value-based decision making to a greater extent than before, which thus supports the claim that post-truth politics is indeed a novel phenomenon. Our analysis of the Brexit referendum raises the need for scholars to study the daily activities of the population and focus on its role as an active regime shaper.

scholarly journals Population Growth and Insecticide Residues of Honey Bees in Tropical Agricultural Landscapes

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damayanti Buchori ◽  
Akhmad Rizali ◽  
Windra Priawandiputra ◽  
Dewi Sartiami ◽  
Midzon Johannis
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Stingless Bees ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Stingless Bee ◽  
Home Garden

Global decline of pollinators, especially bees, has been documented in many countries. Several causes such as land-use change and agricultural intensification are reported to be the main drivers of the decline. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of land use on honey bee and stingless bee populations. Research was conducted in Bogor and Malang to compare between two different geographical areas. Managed bees such as honey bees (Apis cerana and A. mellifera) and stingless bees (Tetragonula laeviceps) were investigated to examine the effect of agricultural intensification. Field experiments were conducted by placing beehives in selected habitats (i.e., beekeeper gardens, forests areas, and agriculture areas). Population growth and neonicotinoid residue analysis of bees in different hive locations were measured to study the effect of habitat type. Population growth of bees represents the forager abundance and colony weight. Based on the analysis, we found that habitat type affected forager abundance and colony weight of honey bees (p < 0.05), although the patterns were different between species, region, as well as season. Forests could support the stingless bee colony better than agriculture and home garden habitats. Insecticide (neonicotinoid) was barely recorded in both honey bees and stingless bees.

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