This is the user manual for SPARKS - Single Population Analysis and Records Keeping System software from ISIS.
This software has been created to assist you in assembling, editing, analyzing and producing reports on the status of captive populations held in multiple facilities. It has been built on a valuable base of generously shared experience from other, volunteered, software packages for similar purposes.
This manual is intended to show you how to install SPARKS software on your computer, to load, convert or create and edit studbook data, produce many different kinds of "studbook" reports from your data, to analyze your data with analytical routines within SPARKS and perform further analysis with routinesprovided by others. SPARKS runs on PC’s and compatibles, and will perform best for you on the fastest available equipment. SPARKS includes considerable context-sensitive help - if you’re unsure of what to do try the [F1] key.
SPARKS is intended to give you considerable power to do what is typically necessary, as well as filexibilily to handle unique circumstances. SPARKS emphasizes data-quality-control plus ready analysis and comparison of different subsets of your data. Particularly important in SPARKS is the idea of a "VIEW" of the data. For example, SPARKS allows you to look at, list, and demographically analyze the last 5 years captive population history for the North American SSP population of your taxon, compare this to the entire North American population, then compare it to the same time period for the European EEP population, then with the period 1980-1984 for three selected facilities chosen by you. Or alternatively, you can readily compare age-specific fecundity for hand-reared versus parent-reared individuals (assuming you can assemble the rearing data), in a particular geographic area and/or managed population and/or time period of your choice.
SPARKS has built-in capabilities to export appropriate parts of your dataset to commonly used stand-alone demographic and genetic analysis programs, such as GENES from Dr. Robert Lacy (built on an initial core from Dr. Georgina Mace), and Laurie Bingaman and Jon Ballou’s demographic spreadsheet analyses (inspired from earlier work by Seal and Foose).
SPARKS is also intended to help you be careful. Many genetic and demographic analyses are quite sensitive to an individual datum; bad data can cause very bad results. SPARKS is provided with both a powerful stand-alone data editor (LOADEDIT) and extensive interactive editing of data entered through your keyboard; both perform numerous checks on the biological integrity of your data. We strongly suggest that you run the LOADEDIT editor on any set of data you import into SPARKS, and even from time to time on any dataset you are building or maintaining yourself with SPARKS.
Furthermore, the various analytical routines in SPARKS are designed to carefully process each individual specimen’s history - move by move, and decide whether each period in a specimen’s lifetime is relevant to the analysis and "view" you have selected -including or excluding each period from reports and calculations on that basis. This is not the fastest approach, but we believe it is the most accurate. As genetic and demographic techniques applicable to the conservation-oriented management of small populations further develop, we hope to extend SPARKS, as resources permit.
We have tested SPARKS on model and real population data, evaluating the results for internal consistency, for consistency with routines written by others, and for small data sets, for consistency with manual calculations. We cannot guarantee that it is perfect, but we are committed to deal with problems which are identified. We would welcome suggestions and constructive criticism from anyone at any time. Written remarks supported by examples will receive the highest priority. Suggestions on how to improve this User
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Manual are also welcome.
SPARKS would not have been possible without cooperation and suggestions from the authors of several pioneer programs - notably Jon Ballou, Laurie Bingaman, Robert Lacy Ph.D., Georgina Mace Ph.D., Andy Odum, Randy Rockwell, and Andrew J. Teare DVM. Several individuals contributed significantly to testing, especially Judi Milolai and Joanne Earnhardt. We are also grateful to Tom Foose Ph.D., Frank Princee Ph.D., Ulysses Seal Ph.D., and others we have doubtless forgotten to recognize, for suggestions and discussion.
Development of SPARKS was supported financially by the U.S. Institute of Museum Services Conservation Program (enabled through the generosity of the Minnesota Zoological Garden), and the J.N.Pew Jr. Memorial Trust (enabled through the generosity of the AAZPA).
| Paul N Scobie | Nate Flesness |
| ISIS Systems Design | ISIS Executive Director |
We’re mere human slaves in a big floating zoo...(Rock Steady, Sting)
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SPARKS will run on IBM compatible micro computers running DOS operating systems and including a hard disk drive. It was designed on a 20 MHz 80386 machine. It benefits from the fastest possible processor and hard disk. At least 512K of free RAM is required. A graphics board, though not required, will allow you to view several different types of graphs on the screen. Printers which support graphics allow you to produce hard copy of these graphs. There is no attempt to install networking.
ISIS developed and distributes SPARKS in an effort to promote sound and consistent methods of animal population management. With SPARKS, we are making a direct commitment to supporting conservation goals. As new and improved methods of analysis come along we will add them to SPARKS as resources permit.
ISIS will make a good-faith effort to deal with any SPARKS problems identified to ISIS in writing. ISIS can accept no consequential liability for SPARKS use. Any modifications to SPARKS performed by the user, or any direct access to SPARKS files without using SPARKS, are at the user’s own risk.
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