Supporting multi-organisational collaborative groups in the public sector

In this paper, the issues that arise in multi-organisational collaborative groups (MOCGs) in the public sector are discussed and how a technology-based group support system (GSS) could assist individuals within these groups. MOCGs are commonly used in the public sector to find solutions to multifaceted social problems. Finding solutions for such problems is difficult because their scope is outside the boundary of a single government agency. The standard approach to solving such problems is collaborative involving a diverse range of stakeholders. Collaborative working can be advantageous but it also introduces its own pressures. Conflicts can arise due to the multiple contexts and goals of group members and the organisations that they represent. Trust, communication and a shared interface are crucial to making any significant progress. A GSS could support these elements.

Thresholds for irreversible decline of the Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet will decline in volume in a warmer climate. If a sufficiently warm climate is maintained for a few thousand years, the ice sheet will be completely melted. This raises the question of whether the decline would be reversible: would the ice sheet regrow if the climate cooled down? To address this question, we conduct a number of experiments using a climate model and a high-resolution ice-sheet model. The experiments are initialised with ice sheet states obtained from various points during its decline as simulated in a high-CO2 scenario, and they are then forced with a climate simulated for pre-industrial greenhouse gas concentrations, to determine the possible trajectories of subsequent ice sheet evolution. These trajectories are not the reverse of the trajectory during decline. They converge on three different steady states. The original ice-sheet volume can be regained only if the volume has not fallen below a threshold of irreversibility, which lies between 80 and 90% of the original value. Depending on the degree of warming and the sensitivity of the climate and the ice-sheet, this point of no return could be reached within a few hundred years, sooner than CO2 and global climate could revert to a pre-industrial state, and in that case global sea level rise of at least 1.3 m would be irreversible. An even larger irreversible change to sea level rise of 5 m may occur if ice sheet volume drops below half of its current size. The set of steady states depends on the CO2 concentration. Since we expect the results to be quantitatively affected by resolution and other aspects of model formulation, we would encourage similar investigations with other models.

Breeding distribution and population decline of globally threatened Grey-necked Picathartes Picathartes oreas in Mbam Minkom Mountain Forest, southern Cameroon

The Grey-necked Picathartes Picathartes oreas, considered 'Vulnerable', is an enigmatic ground-dwelling bird endemic to the central African equatorial rainforest and belongs to a family of only two species. Its distribution extends to the two Endemic Bird Areas within Cameroon (Guinea Congo forest biome and Cameroon mountain arc) and its population is thought to be in decline throughout its range due to increasing habitat fragmentation and disturbance. During March-April 2003 and June and October 2007 we surveyed Grey-necked Picathartes in the north-western region of the Mbam Minkom Mountain Forest. In January-March 2006 we surveyed the entire mountain range and found go breeding and 24 potential breeding sites, mostly located on the western slopes. From the complete survey, we estimated the population at 44 breeding individuals. Populations were highest in the north-west region but had apparently declined from 40 breeding individuals in 2003 to 20 in 2007. This region accounted for 41% of the entire population on the mountain range during the 2006 survey. The Mbam Minkom/Kala Important Bird Area was designated based on the presence of Grey-necked Picathartes but is under high pressure of imminent destruction from agricultural encroachment and illegal timber exploitation. These results have important implications for decision making in delimiting forest boundaries and core areas for protection in the development of management plans. We suggest possible remedial actions, appropriate repeatable methods for future monitoring and opportunities for community involvement in the management and conservation of the site.

Behavioral changes associated with a population density decline in the facultatively social red fox

Understanding the causal mechanisms promoting group formation in carnivores has been widely investigated, particularly how fitness components affect group formation. Population density may affect the relative benefits of natal philopatry versus dispersal. Density effects on individual behavioral strategies have previously been studied through comparisons of different populations, where differences could be confounded by between-site effects. We used a single population of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the city of Bristol, UK, that underwent a natural perturbation in density to compare key changes in 1) group structure, 2) within-group relatedness, 3) mating system, 4) dispersal, and 5) dominance attainment. At high densities (19.6-27.6 adults km(-2)), group sex ratios were equal and included related and unrelated individuals. At low densities (4.0-5.5 adults km(-2)), groups became female biased and were structured around philopatric females. However, levels of within-group relatedness were unchanged. The genetic mating patterns changed with no instances of multiple-paternity litters and a decline in the frequency of extrapair litters of cubs from <= 77% to <= 38%. However, the number of genetically monogynous groups did not differ between periods. Dispersal was male biased at both high and low densities. At high density, most dominant males in the study groups appeared to have gained dominance after dispersing, but natal philopatry was an equally successful strategy at low density; conversely, most dominant females were philopatric individuals at both high and low densities. These results illustrate how density may alter behavioral strategies such as mating patterns and how this, in turn, alters group structure in a single population.

Stocking may increase mitochondrial DNA diversity but fails to halt the decline of endangered Atlantic salmon populations

Over the last 50 years, Spanish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations have been in decline. In order to bolster these populations, rivers were stocked with fish of northern European origin during the period 1974-1996, probably also introducing the furunculosis-inducing pathogen, Aeromonas salmonicida. Here we assess the relative importance of processes influencing mitochondrial (mt)DNA variability in these populations from 1948 to 2002. Genetic material collected over this period from four rivers in northern Spain (Cantabria) was used to detect variability at the mtDNA ND1 gene. Before stocking, a single haplotype was found at high frequency (0.980). Following stocking, haplotype diversity (h) increased in all rivers (mean h before stocking was 0.041, and 0.245 afterwards). These increases were due principally to the dramatic increase in frequency of a previously very low frequency haplotype, reported at higher frequencies in northern European populations proximate to those used to stock Cantabrian rivers. Genetic structuring increased after stocking: among-river differentiation was low before stocking (1950s/1960s Phi(ST) = -0.00296-0.00284), increasing considerably at the height of stocking (1980s Phi(ST) = 0.18932) and decreasing post-stocking (1990s/2002 Phi(ST) = 0.04934-0.03852). Gene flow from stocked fish therefore seems to have had a substantial role in increasing mtDNA variability. Additionally, we found significant differentiation between individuals that had probably died from infectious disease and apparently healthy, angled fish, suggesting a possible role for pathogen-driven selection of mtDNA variation. Our results suggest that stocking with non-native fish may increase genetic diversity in the short term, but may not reverse population declines.

Habitat correlates of distribution and local population decline of the endemic Sardinian newt Euproctus platycephalus

Habitat-based statistical models relating patterns of presence and absence of species to habitat variables could be useful to resolve conservation-related problems and highlight the causes of population declines. In this paper, we apply such a modelling approach to an endemic amphibian, the Sardinian mountain newt Euproctus platycephalus, considered by IUCN a critically endangered species. Sardinian newts inhabit freshwater habitat in streams, small lakes and pools on the island of Sardinia (Italy). Reported declines of newt populations are not yet supported by quantitative data, however, they are perceived or suspected across the species' historical range. This study represents a first attempt trying to statistically relate habitat characteristics to Sardinian newt occurrence and persistence. Linear regression analysis revealed that newts are more likely to be found in sites with colder water temperature, less riparian vegetation and, marginally, absence of fish. The implications of the results for the conservation of the species are discussed, and suggestions for the short-term management of newt inhabited sites suggested. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimation of population growth or decline in genetically monitored populations

This article introduces a new general method for genealogical inference that samples independent genealogical histories using importance sampling (IS) and then samples other parameters with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). It is then possible to more easily utilize the advantages of importance sampling in a fully Bayesian framework. The method is applied to the problem of estimating recent changes in effective population size from temporally spaced gene frequency data. The method gives the posterior distribution of effective population size at the time of the oldest sample and at the time of the most recent sample, assuming a model of exponential growth or decline during the interval. The effect of changes in number of alleles, number of loci, and sample size on the accuracy of the method is described using test simulations, and it is concluded that these have an approximately equivalent effect. The method is used on three example data sets and problems in interpreting the posterior densities are highlighted and discussed.

Customer satisfaction and organisational justice

Applies organisational justice theory to facilities management with the aim of increasing customer satisfaction with the service received. Provides an overview of organisational justice theory, and reviews the numerous different forms that this may take. Although there is strong theoretical support for participative decision making, in practice it often leads to conflict and delays. Two-way communication appears to represent the most effective form. The conclusions are based upon theoretical support as well as semi-structured interviews and observations in an organisational setting. The conclusions drawn do not have the benefits of more objective quantitative research methods. Contributes to practical understanding of how to maintain customer satisfaction in the facilities management industry and the theoretical reasons why the proposed methods will be effective. Argues that the impact of organisational justice on employee satisfaction can be applied to customer satisfaction with specific reference to facilities management.

Age-related decline in the ability to decode emotional prosody: primary or secondary phenomenon?

Emotion processing deficits can cause catastrophic damage to a person's ability to interact socially. While it is known that older adults have difficulty identifying facial emotions, it is still not clear whether this difficulty extends to identification of the emotion conveyed by prosody. This study investigated whether the ability of older adults to decode emotional prosody falls below that of young adults after controlling for loss of hearing sensitivity and key features of cognitive ageing. Apart from frontal lobe load, only verbal IQ was associated with the age-related reduction in performance displayed by older participants, but a notable deficit existed after controlling for its effects. It is concluded that older adults may indeed have difficulty deducing the emotion conveyed by prosody, and that while this difficulty can be exaggerated by some aspects of cognitive ageing, it is primary in origin.

Requirements analysis for an e-government system to support multi-organisational collaborative groups

We present a conceptual architecture for a Group Support System (GSS) to facilitate Multi-Organisational Collaborative Groups (MOCGs) initiated by local government and including external organisations of various types. Multi-Organisational Collaborative Groups (MOCGs) consist of individuals from several organisations which have agreed to work together to solve a problem. The expectation is that more can be achieved working in harmony than separately. Work is done interdependently, rather than independently in diverse directions. Local government, faced with solving complex social problems, deploy MOCGs to enable solutions across organisational, functional, professional and juridical boundaries, by involving statutory, voluntary, community, not-for-profit and private organisations. This is not a silver bullet as it introduces new pressures. Each member organisation has its own goals, operating context and particular approaches, which can be expressed as their norms and business processes. Organisations working together must find ways of eliminating differences or mitigating their impact in order to reduce the risks of collaborative inertia and conflict. A GSS is an electronic collaboration system that facilitates group working and can offer assistance to MOCGs. Since many existing GSSs have been primarily developed for single organisation collaborative groups, even though there are some common issues, there are some difficulties peculiar to MOCGs, and others that they experience to a greater extent: a diversity of primary organisational goals among members; different funding models and other pressures; more significant differences in other information systems both technologically and in their use than single organisations; greater variation in acceptable approaches to solve problems. In this paper, we analyse the requirements of MOCGs led by local government agencies, leading to a conceptual architecture for an e-government GSS that captures the relationships between 'goal', 'context', 'norm', and 'business process'. Our models capture the dynamics of the circumstances surrounding each individual representing an organisation in a MOCG along with the dynamics of the MOCG itself as a separate community.