Weak influence of natural vegetation in urban green spaces compared to agricultural ecosystems on House Martin populations:Insights from nationwide citizen science data in the Czech Republic

The House Martin(Delichon urbicum)is a common farmland bird species in the European landscape,yet its population numbers are currently in decline.However,it is not yet sufficiently explained why this long-term decline occurs.To fill this gap in our knowledge,we investigated how land cover composition affects the abundance of House Martins on the landscape scale by using nationwide citizen science data.Utilizing a generalised linear mixed-effect model(GLMM),we evaluated 12,094 records from the Czech Republic spanning 2009-2017.Our analysis underscores the significance of land cover type in shaping House Martin abundance.More specifically,our results indicate that within agricultural land covers“naturally managed arable lands”exhibited significant positive effect,while forests,orchards,and vineyards were deemed less favourable for House Martin populations.Within urban land covers,we found a clear distinction in the impact on House Martin populations,with a positive effect observed in urban infrastructure,development areas,and post-industrial sites(i.e.,UrbanAreas),while an indifferent impact was noted within urban green spaces and landscaped areas(i.e.,GreenUrban).Notably,our findings suggest that the simple spatial,age,and species structure typical of forests in Europe,and similarly,the uniform structure of parks and gardens,may be responsible for the decline in the abundance of the House Martin.We advocate for the preservation or enhancement of urban greenery,expansion of natural vegetation in rural areas and adoption of ecological management practices in orchards and vineyards to mitigate further declines in House Martin populations.

Diversity of Macro Invertebrates of the River Rwizi in Western Uganda: A Citizen Science-BioBlitz Approach

This study elucidates the pivotal role of citizen science-BioBlitz methodologies for rapid assessment of the macro-invertebrate taxa within the threatened River Rwizi of South-western Uganda. Utilizing a comprehensive mixed-methods approach, the investigation focused on six distinct river segments to demonstrate the efficacy of participatory citizen science-BioBlitz approaches conducted by experts, students and community volunteers. BioBlitz events included rigorous macro-invertebrate sampling at each of the selected sites along River Rwizi on nine occasions, incorporating collaborative taxonomic identification procedures involving experts, students, and the local community. Analyzing pollution concerns, diversity metrics, and community narratives yielded insights into river health and socio-ecological dynamics. A total of 43 macro-invertebrate families across 17 orders were documented with class Insecta dominating. Participants in BioBlitz events expressed predominantly positive sentiments, emphasizing satisfaction, education, and heightened awareness, besides negative sentiments rooted in historical mistrust. Intriguingly, the study unveiled an unforeseen trend in macro-invertebrate taxa richness, rising from upstream to urban sprawl and diminishing at peri-urban downstream sites. The study underscores the potential of citizen science-BioBlitz methodologies in advancing community science education and unraveling the intricate dynamics of threatened river ecosystems. The insights offered are invaluable for policymakers and conservationists seeking effective strategies to address challenges in the River Rwizi and comparable ecosystems. .

Critical Success Factors for Citizen Development

The purpose of the research was to assess the impact of Citizen Development activities on digital transformation. The research identified eight categories that contribute to the success of Low-code No-code (LCNC) projects: 1) Strategy;2) Infrastructure;3) Technology;4) Processes & Procedures;5) Governance;6) Culture;7) People;8) Goals & Metrics and selected six critical success factors from these categories: 1) Operational Efficiency;2) Time Savings;3) Timeframe to Realize Value;4) Employee Engagement;5) Participation;6) Number of Sponsored Ideas. End users of the digital transformation efforts through Citizen Development were asked to assess the six critical success measures in terms of performance and importance criteria. The research results identified that focus should be applied to improving “Timeframe to Realize Value”, on “Operational Efficiency”, and on “Time Savings” to deliver success.

Analysis of Citizen Participation in Urban Planning of Comala,Colima,Mexico-A Secondary Publication

The objective of this study was to determine the degree of citizen participation in urban planning processes in the municipality of Comala,Colima,Mexico to have a broader vision of the citizens and the environment in which they live.An instrument was designed specifically to perform this study and the instrument was validated by calculating Cronbach’s Alpha.The results showed that citizens were highly involved in issues concerning their urban environment,and the main problems of the public spaces were also identified.

Data reliability of the emerging citizen science in the Greater Bay Area of China

The potential of citizen science projects in research has been increasingly acknowledged,but the substantial engagement of these projects is restricted by the quality of citizen science data.Based on the largest emerging citizen science project in the country-Birdreport Online Database(BOD),we examined the biases of birdwatching data from the Greater Bay Area of China.The results show that the sampling effort is disparate among land cover types due to contributors’ preference towards urban and suburban areas,indicating the environment suitable for species existence could be underrepresented in the BOD data.We tested the contributors’ skill of species identification via a questionnaire targeting the citizen birders in the Greater Bay Area.The questionnaire show that most citizen birdwatchers could correctly identify the common species widely distributed in Southern China and the less common species with conspicuous morphological characteristics,while failed to identify the species from Alaudidae;Caprimulgidae,Emberizidae,Phylloscopidae,Scolopacidae and Scotocercidae.With a study example,we demonstrate that spatially clustered bird watching visits can cause underestimation of species richness in insufficiently sampled areas;and the result of species richness mapping is sensitive to the contributors’ skill of identifying bird species.Our results address how avian research can be influenced by the reliability of citizen science data in a region of generally high accessibility,and highlight the necessity of pre-analysis scrutiny on data reliability regarding to research aims at all spatial and temporal scales.To improve the data quality,we suggest to equip the data collection frame of BOD with a flexible filter for bird abundance,and questionnaires that collect information related to contributors’ bird identification skill.Statistic modelling approaches are encouraged to apply for correcting the bias of sampling effort.

Consumer Citizenship Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education in Latvia

Higher education and science determine the intellectual potential of a society, train new specialists, and consolidate and change citizenship values. Consumer citizenship education for sustainable development is an important function of higher education with a significant moral, social, political, economic, ecological and legal capacity. Consumer citizenship education plays an important role in ensuring the stability and sustainable development of any society. These approaches make it possible to develop the multi-scale thinking of future specialists and enhance their ability to analyse critically the main dilemmas created by the processes of social, legal, environmental, and economic development. The article is devoted to the experience of the Latvian system of higher education in consumer citizenship education within the context of sustainable development. It focuses more specifically on cooperation as a form of voluntary interaction between the partners involved in ensuring sustainable development. The aim of the research is to analyse the experience of consumer citizenship education in Latvian higher education within the context of sustainable development emphasizing the role of various forms of studies. Mostly theoretical research methods have been used in the present study. The starting point of for this research is a theoretical framework. There are both legal underpinnings and practical implementation aspects in this task. The features outlined above are emphasized in the normative acts referring to the Latvian higher education, the documents of the institutions of higher education, and particularly in the study programmes. The results of the research show that consumer citizenship education can be acquired as an interdisciplinary system. The goals and objectives of consumer citizenship education involve training young specialists possessing broad professional knowledge, developed critical thinking, the ability to organize and manage work in a modem way, understanding of the ethical, civic and patriotic values, as well as the ability and skills to engage in various social activities. Consumer citizenship education needs transdisciplinary knowledge if it is to solve the problems of humanity, the problems aggravated by unsustainable, unethical, even immoral consumption. The link between consumer citizenship education and sustainable development is ensured by shared common values, which reveal the sense and importance of both consumer citizenship and ethical sustainability.

“公民”观念的输入及其在近代中国的传播——从“citizen”的汉语对译词谈起

"公民"是英文"citizen"的汉语对译词。在西方不同的历史阶段,"citizen"具有不同的内涵,其身份直到17、18世纪才以法律的形式确立下来,被赋予明确的近代色彩。18世纪中期,"citizen"一词最早被丁韪良翻译为"人民",其内涵与古汉语义相去甚远,不仅指平民、百姓,君主、官员也属"人民"之列。"人民"不仅是承当义务的主体,同时也拥有广泛的权利。丁韪良译定之"人民"为知识界普遍接受。此后,又出现了多个表达"citizen"含义的汉语词汇,其中以"国民"、"公民"较为常见,它们在康有为、梁启超等学者的著述中获得新的诠释和透彻阐述。"citizen"的引入及其传播、翻新,对于近代中国人的主体意识的觉醒,对于厘清个人、民族、国家之间的关系起了相当重要的推动作用。

Investigation on the Characteristics of the Senior Citizens' Activities in the Parks and Greenbelts——A Case Study of Nanjing City

From the perspective of senior citizens,questionnaire survey and field investigation were carried on and analyzed in three parks in Nanjing City.The results showed that outdoor activities are the principal ways for the senior citizens to spend their time,the parks near home is their prior choice,and the radiation range of the park and greenbelt mostly is no more than 2 km;most of the senior citizens come to parks on foot and the parks are always within 30 minutes walking distance;the senior citizens always have fixed partners and groups for their exercise-dominant activities.

The role of botanical gardens in scientific research, conservation, and citizen science

Plant diversity is currently being lost at an unprecedented rate, resulting in an associated decrease in ecosystem services. About a third of the world＇s vascular plant species face the threat of extinction due to a variety of devastating activities, including, over-harvesting and over exploitation, destructive agricul- tural and forestry practices, urbanization, environmental pollution, land-use changes, exotic invasive species, global climate change, and more. We therefore need to increase our efforts to develop integrative conservation approaches for plant species conservation. Botanical gardens devote their resources to the study and conservation of plants, as well as making the world＇s plant species diversity known to the public. These gardens also play a central role in meeting human needs and providing well-being. In this minireview, a framework for the integrated missions of botanical gardens, including scientific research, inJex situ conservation, plant resource utilization, and citizen science are cataloged. By reviewing the history of the development of Kunming Botanical Garden, we illustrate successful species conservation approaches （among others, projects involving Camellia, Rhododendron, Magnolia, Begonia, Alliurn, Ne- penthes, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, and Plant Species with Extreme Small Populations）, as well as citizen science, and scientific research at Kunming Botanical Garden over the past 80 years. We emphasize that Kunming Botanical Garden focuses largely on the ex situ conservation of plants from Southwest China, especially those endangered, endemic, and economically important plant species native to the Yunnan Plateau and the southern Hengduan Mountains. We also discuss the future chal- lenges and responsibilities of botanical gardens in a changing world, including： the negative effects of outbreeding and/or inbreeding depression; promoting awareness, study, and conservation of plant species diversity; accelerating global access to information about plant diversity; increasing capacity building and training activities. We hope this minireview can promote understanding of the role of botanical gardens.

Contribution of citizen science towards cryptic species census： “many eyes” define wintering range of the Scaly-sided Merganser in China's Mainland

Background: Citizen science has tremendous potential in advancing scientific knowledge and improving natural resource management.To detect the wintering distribution of the endangered species Scaly-sided Merganser(Mergus squamatus), national wintering surveys were organized by China Birdwatching Association.Methods: The surveys of M.squamatus were conducted in three successive winters from 2014 to 2016.A total of 2019 people from 102 organizations participated in the surveys.With three groups of 13 environmental variables, species distribution model for its wintering distribution of each year was developed using random forest.Schoener's D index was used to compare the distribution of M.squamatus in 3 years.Results: Totally, 441, 634 and 1138 individuals of M.squamatus were recorded in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.Two main sites in Dabie Mountain and East Qinling mountains were verified and the wintering range of M.squamatus was defined.The wintering range was found to be highly identical for the 3 years.Conclusions: The highly overlapped distribution range among years suggested that the wintering range of M.squamatus was relatively stable.Well organized and coordinated citizen science can be used to define distribution range and improve species conservation.

美国“Citizen Archivist”项目研究:驱动因素、业务内容、启示借鉴

通过对美国"CitizenArchivist"项目进行研究,为我国档案事业发展提供借鉴与参考视角。概述了美国"Citizen Archivist"项目开展情况,认为传统支撑、政策鼓励、技术驱动、思维拓展是项目开展的主要驱动因素,以信息链视角分析了项目"公民档案保管员"的主要工作内容,认为工作内容实现了信息形态从低级到高级的演变。对我国档案事业发展有4个方面启示:推动档案意识的再启蒙与觉醒,推进档案整理与利用社会化,激发个体档案记录行为,利用公益化机构推动档案整理模式革新。

Assessing citizen science opportunities in forest monitoring using probabilistic topic modelling

Background： With mounting global environmental, social and economic pressures the resilience and stability of forests and thus the provisioning of vital ecosystem services is increasingly threatened. Intensified monitoring can help to detect ecological threats and changes earlier, but monitoring resources are limited. Participatory forest monitoring with the help of ＂citizen scientists＂ can provide additional resources for forest monitoring and at the same time help to communicate with stakeholders and the general public. Examples for citizen science projects in the forestry domain can be found but a solid, applicable larger framework to utilise public participation in the area of forest monitoring seems to be lacking. We propose that a better understanding of shared and related topics in citizen science and forest monitoring might be a first step towards such a framework. Methods： We conduct a systematic meta-analysis of 1015 publication abstracts addressing ＂forest monitoring＂ and ＂citizen science＂ in order to explore the combined topical landscape of these subjects. We employ ＇topic modelling an unsupervised probabilistic machine learning method, to identify latent shared topics in the analysed publications. Results： We find that large shared topics exist, but that these are primarily topics that would be expected in scientific publications in general. Common domain-specific topics are under-represented and indicate a topical separation of the two document sets on ＂forest monitoring＂ and ＂citizen science＂ and thus the represented domains. While topic modelling as a method proves to be a scalable and useful analytical tool, we propose that our approach could deliver even more useful data if a larger document set and full-text publications would be available for analysis. Conclusions： We propose that these results, together with the observation of non-shared but related topics, point at under-utilised opportunities for public participation in forest monitoring. Citizen science could be applied as a versatile tool in forest ecosystems monitoring, complementing traditional forest monitoring programmes, assisting early threat recognition and helping to connect forest management with the general public. We conclude that our presented approach should be pursued further as it may aid the understanding and setup of citizen science efforts in the forest monitoring domain.

Colour-ring wear and loss effects in citizen science mark-resighting studies

Background: Ring wear and loss may have important consequences for mark-recapture studies that aim to estimate survival trends. Our study quantifies the rates of wear and loss from a long-running colour-ringing project of the Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) in the Netherlands. Methods: Our analysis included 8909 colour-ringed oystercatchers with 118,071 resightings, predominantly ringed and observed by citizen scientists. We quantified how ring wear and loss may vary with ring colour and age, and how this may impact resighting probabilities. We then determined how ring loss may impact survival estimates and resighting probabilities of mark-recapture models by simulating four scenarios of how citizen scientists may resight and report birds with lost colour rings. Results: Annual rates of colour ring loss averaged 2.5% compared with 1% for ring wear, but lost rings also had a higher reporting probability (31.2%) than worn rings (10.3%). Lost rings may not directly impact survival estimates since 50% of oystercatchers with lost rings could still be uniquely identified. Ring wear and loss rapidly increased between 10 and 15 years after ringing. Rates of ring loss were comparable amongst ring colours, but the wear rate appeared higher for red and white rings compared to other colours. Rates of ring wear and loss varied significantly amongst different regions in our study, which were characterised as having different habitat features. Differential rates of ring wear may have important implications for studies conducted over large geographical scales or of multiple species. Conclusions: Based on simulations of ring loss in our population, estimates of apparent survival may be 0.3–1.2% lower whilst the impact of ring wear was deemed even lower. We developed a table of recommendations containing advice for ring fitting, data collection, study design, and mark-recapture analyses, so that future colour-ringing studies can benefit from our experiences in collecting and analysing data of ring wear and loss through citizen science.

Cloud-Enabled E-Governance Framework for Citizen Centric Services

In the modern arena, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been playing a vital role in every walks of our day to day life. In order to enhance the ICT capacity and align with the global technology transformations, the developing countries have started introducing the computerization and automation processes at different levels of the governments. The several research studies revealed that the existing legacy of governance system and their services in current state have several issues and challenges in terms of timeliness, cost of services, delay in service delivery, time-bound availability of services (24/7/365), inefficiency services, ease of service and discomforts, poor service collaboration, absence of responsiveness, and limited security of sensitive information/documents. A significant question is still unanswered that how to bring the Citizens and Government bodies closer for alleviating the aforementioned issues and challenges of existing government system services. This research paper aims to investigate the issues and challenges in the current status of Governance and partial E-Governance systems which encompass the computerization or automation process. The research designs a cloud framework for effective delivery of citizen centric services in general and Ethiopia as a specific case study. After rigorous analysis of prior research efforts, along with primary survey and interview, it was clearly observed that cloud computing can be an alternative instrumental for significant transformation of governmental service delivery. The research paper used a mix of exploratory and constructive research design and methodology with qualitative & quantitative data analysis approach. Finally, a Cloud Based E-Governance (CBEG) Framework is designed for the delivery of Ethiopian Citizen Centric Services. The validation, evaluation and acceptance test of the framework proves that the revealed knowledge can provide a significant transformation towards the betterment of the E Governance Services Delivery Systems.

Developing a nomogram for predicting the depression of senior citizens living alone while focusing on perceived social support

BACKGROUND Although the number of senior citizens living alone is increasing,only a few studies have identified factors related to the depression characteristics of senior citizens living alone by using epidemiological survey data that can represent a population group.AIM To evaluate prediction performance by building models for predicting the depression of senior citizens living alone that included subjective social isolation and perceived social support as well as personal characteristics such as age and drinking.METHODS This study analyzed 1558 senior citizens(695 males and 863 females)who were 60 years or older and completed an epidemiological survey representing the South Korean population.Depression,an outcome variable,was measured using the short form of the Korean version CES-D(short form of CES-D).RESULTS The prevalence of depression among the senior citizens living alone was 7.7%.The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the experience of suicidal urge over the past year,subjective satisfaction with help from neighbors,subjective loneliness,age,and self-esteem were significantly related to the depression of senior citizens living alone(P<0.05).The results of 10-fold cross validation showed that the area under the curve of the nomogram was 0.96,and the F1 score of it was 0.97.CONCLUSION It is necessary to strengthen the social network of senior citizens living alone with friends and neighbors based on the results of this study to protect them from depression.

How Do People Understand Urban Air Pollution? Exploring Citizens’ Perception on Air Quality, Its Causes and Impacts in Colombian Cities

Similarly to other Latin American countries, urban air quality is a major concern in Colombia. The purpose of the present study was to explore citizens’ perception on local air pollution, its causes and impacts. A questionnaire was individually applied to a sample of 994 participants. Relationships between demographic features and the perception on air quality were analyzed using a logistic regression, its odds ratio (OR), and a Chi-square test. Eighty percent of the respondents perceive their local air quality as either bad or fair, 65% recognize particulate matter as the main local air pollutant, and 90% recognize negative impacts on people’s health as the main consequence of air pollution. In contrast to other studies where age and economic status are variables highly related with public perception on the level of atmospheric pollution, in this study only the size of the cities has a statistically significant relationship with the perception on local air quality regarding the level of pollution(OR ≥ 1, confidence intervals > 1 and p-values < 0.05). While area sources such as mining and infrastructure construction are identified as the main sources of pollutant emissions in small towns (less than 50,000 inhabitants), in big cities, road traffic is identified as the main source contributor to atmospheric pollution. Opposite to data from official reports, and regardless of the size of the city, households are perceived as the place with greatest contribution to personal air pollution exposure. Results show that citizens are aware of the state of air quality and its health impact is a major concern. Such findings suggest people’s opinions can be used as provisional indicators in cities without data, as well as to monitor the results of local air quality management. As a complementary process, or at the same level of importance given to technical-based policy, citizen participation can contribute to a collective construction of urban air pollution control strategies.

Social Networks and Citizen Participation in the Collaborative Community Policing ——A Case Study of S Community in Beijing

It is of great significance to enhance collaborative community policing for crime prevention and better community-police relationships. Understanding the relational structure of collaborative community policing is necessary to pinpoint the pattern of interactions among key actors involved in community policing and improve the effectiveness of network governance. Based on 234 surveys of citizens of S Community in Beijing from April 2017 to May 2017, this paper empirically examines the characteristics of formal network and informal network of citizen participation in the collaborative community policing. Beijing is widely known for its active involvement of neighborhood volunteers in different types of community policing. We focused on four different types of interpersonal work relationships in this study： workflow, problem solving, mentoring and friendship, among resident committees, neighborhood administrative offices, media, police station, business security personnel, neighborhood volunteers, and security activists. The nature of relationships between individuals in networks can be treated as from instrumental ties to expressive ties. Expressive ties cover relationships that involve the exchange of friendship, trust, and socio-emotional support. We extended this intra-organizational insight into a community policing inter-organizational context. The collaborative network showed the trend of the distributed network. The clustering analysis showed that in the workflow network, we should make thll use of the close interaction between the citizens and activists in the community. Meanwhile, in the problem-solving network, mentoring network and friendship network, interactions between citizens and neighborhood committee are weak.

The Status Quo, Dilemma and Path Innovation of the Citizenization of the New Generation of Migrant Workers

The citizenization of the new generation of migrant workers is the only way to promote China’s urbanization.Based on the development status of the new generation of migrant workers,this paper summarizes the difficulties encountered in the four aspects of employment,housing,social security and the education of migrant workers'children in the process of citizenization,finally explores four innovative ways of citizenization of the new generation of migrant workers,such as,strengthening vocational skills training to improve the employment quality of the new generation of migrant workers,improving the housing security mechanism to ensure that they have a place to live,improving the social security system to safeguard that they can be treated for their illnesses and the elderly,improving the distribution of educational resources to promote fair education for the children of them.

Issues concerning Citizenization Cost Sharing of the Population Transferred from Agriculture: A Case Study of Chongqing

The citizenization of the population transferred from agriculture is an inevitable process for Chinese social transformation,and one of the core issues in the course of new urbanization. The core problem in citizenization of the population transferred from agriculture lies in cost.Taking Chongqing as an example,this paper calculates the total citizenization cost to be 125038. 7 yuan for the population transferred from agriculture. Through field survey and research,this paper analyzes the current situation of citizenization cost sharing of the population transferred from agriculture in Chongqing,points out some problems in cost sharing such as inadequate governmental financial capacity,absence of business and lack of personal affordability,and finally brings forward the corresponding policy recommendations.

Using citizen science data to improve regional bird species list:A case study in Shaanxi,China

An accurate and updated regional bird species checklist is the foundation for biodiversity research and conservation.However,with ongoing climate and landscape changes,tracking the distributions of bird species is challenging,and expert-curated species lists are often limited regarding survey area and timeliness.Birdwatching in China is becoming increasingly popular,and observations recorded by citizen birders are quickly increasing as well.Assessing the value of these data for improving regional species lists and studying bird distribution needs a detailed and quantitative comparison of citizen science data and expert-curated data.We collected observation reports from the China Bird Report Center,the largest online open platform for sharing bird sightings in China.We focused on reports from 2016 to 2019 in Shaanxi Province.For expert-curated species lists,we used three sources:the latest bird field guide published by local ornithologists,the province list from Avibase,and a list generated from overlaying distribution range from BirdLife International with the outline of Shaanxi Province.In addition,we also compared the bird sighting coordinates with the species distribution maps from BirdLife International.Surprisingly,species checklists from different sources have considerable discrepancies,even among lists based on expert knowledge.Including birdwatching data,there are 616 bird species in total,but less than half of the species(294)appear in all checklists,and 17.2%of species are unique to one list.One hundred sixty-three species lack birdwatching records,but birdwatching identified 39 species new to the province.One hundred thirty-six bird species have sighting locations outside the distribution ranges from BirdLife International,suggesting that updates might be needed.The data also showed a clear trend of bird species shifting to higher latitudes than their traditional distributions.While being inadequate for generating a regional species checklist on its own,birdwatching data in China can be a valuable source for complementing expert knowledge.In particular,the coordinate information of bird sighting can help track species distribution shifts.On the other hand,comparing expert-curated lists to birdwatching data can generate a species list for targeted birdwatching and monitoring,which will improve the quality of the birdwatching data in the future.