809 research outputs found
Adoption and diffusion of no tillage practices in Southern Spain olive groves
No full textThis paper analyses the process of adoption of no tillage in South-eastern Spain’s olive groves. Olive tree groves in South-eastern Spain’s mountainous areas are subject to a high risk of soil erosion, which is the main environmental problem for this crop, and have to incur in high costs of soil conservation. This results in a greater difficulty to comply with the practices required to benefit from both the single payment and agri-environmental schemes. In many high-steeped areas, farmers have opted for non-tillage practices as an alternative to other conservation practices. Using our own data from a survey carried out in 2006 among 215 olive tree farmers from the Granada Province in Southern Spain regarding the adoption of soil conservation and management practices, we model the diffusion process of no tillage practices using several specifications (logistic, Gompertz and exponential). We also estimate an ordered probit model to analyse which socio-economic and institutional factors determine the adoption of no tillage. Our results show that 90% of farmers in the area of study perform no tillage with either localized (21%) or no localized (69%) application of weedicides. The diffusion process of no tillage has been very intense since the middle nineties, and has been based on the interactions among farmers in the area of study rather than in external factors such as EU policies or extension services. Among other relevant factors that positively affect the adoption of no tillage practices in general, such as farm size and irrigation, the probability of a farmer adopting no tillage with non-localized application of weedicides increases when there is a relative that will continue with the farming activity, what causes the farmer to incorporate long term effects in his farming decisions, when the farmer is only a manager or when he bought the farm rather than inherited it (i.e. on more professionalized farms), and with his educational level. These results confirm some findings from previous studies in other nearby areas.Spanish olive groves, soil erosion, no tillage, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use,
Three-dimensional spectral measurements of paint samples using optical coherence tomography
No full textIn this study, we describe a method for measuring the spectral reflectance of a paint layer at both the surface and in the volume of the paint layers. We first present a fringes model which illustrates the possibilities for spectral reconstruction using a Short-Time-Fourier-Transform algorithm. We investigate the remaing percentage errors and identified that there is a strong fluctuation along the wavelength range of the spectrometer. Then, we demonstrate the validity of our approach experimentally by measuring the spectral reflectance of a paint layer using a custom-made visible light optical coherence tomography system. There, we reconstruct the spectral reflectance of a paint layer by probing the surface and a depth range below the surface. Finally, we show the importance to include a wavelength sensitive correction in the reconstruction for taking into account the spectral shape of the light in the reference path of the interferometer. This work is part of the Down To The Ground project, in which the results of the OCT inspection will be used directly by a consortium of technical art historians and conservators.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Structural Integrity & Composite
Training through drama for work
No full textIl testo in inglese propone l’analisi di quattro personaggi - la Figliastra da Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore di Luigi Pirandello, Callimaco da La Mandragola di Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Becket da Assassinio nella cattedrale di T.S. Eliot e Portia da Il mercante di Venezia di William Shakespeare - per rispondere alla domanda chiave: “Quali spunti possiamo trarre da questi quattro personaggi per applicarli in ambito lavorativo?”
Prendendo spunto da un’ampia gamma di idee, da concetti di training e coaching, il testo propone una prospettiva innovativa sui temi dello sviluppo professionale e personale applicabili nel mondo del lavoro dove la performance - a volte comica, persino tragica - costituisce il fondamento di gran parte delle iniziative.
Le opere scelte appartenendo al canone teatrale europeo sono state già ampiamente analizzate. Eppure, rimangono una straordinaria fonte d’ispirazione e apprendimento. Le idee presentate nel testo costituiscono un punto di vista personale, quindi ogni altra interpretazione è egualmente possibile. Il testo va pertanto considerato come un “passo lungo il cammino” anziché una conclusione allo studio dei testi.
Il volume è corredato da una bibliografia selezionata e da un ampio glossario inglese-italiano, che copre la terminologia dei campi relativi: teatro, management e leadership, sviluppo professionale e personale.This book in English puts forward an analysis of four characters -The Stepdaughter from Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, Callimaco from The Mandragola by Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Becket from Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot, and Portia from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare - in answer to the key question ‘What input can these four mavericks offer us as training for the workplace?’
Drawing on a rich pool of ideas, training and coaching concepts, it furnishes an innovative perspective on professional and personal development themes applicable to work where performance - sometimes comic, even tragic - forms the bedrock of most endeavours.
As part of the canon of European drama, the selected pieces have already undergone much inspection and yet remain splendid sources of insight and learning. The ideas expressed here represent a personal viewpoint and different interpretations are equally possible. Accordingly, this book should be considered as a ‘step along the way’ rather than a conclusion to the studies of the texts.
The offering contains a select bibliography and an extensive English-Italian glossary covering the fields of drama, management and leadership, and professional and personal development
Towards understanding and improving decision-making for the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes
No full textEvidence suggests that improvements in both knowledge and actions are required to realize the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes, specifically in terms of decisionmaking. In the absence of known research in this field, this research aimed to understand and improve decision-making for the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes, using a case study in the Solent, UK. The study constructed a timeline of relevant events. It found that the majority of the events indirectly influenced the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes, and were primarily concerned with some other purpose, such as coastal flooding and erosion risk management. Furthermore, that research, legislation and policy, and practice are interconnected in a complex web, with changes in one domain being reflected in another. Yet despite the significant investment in research and consultation processes by many people over numerous years, no clear end point appears to have been reached in terms of realizing intertidal mudflat and saltmarsh conservation and sustainable use. Building on these findings, the study used multi-methodology systems intervention as a lens through which to view and make sense of what the existing decision-making process is, and how to intervene to change (improve) it. It found that the decision-making process fails to start out systemically, and that an emphasis on participation through consultation is perhaps not the best means of involving stakeholders. The gradual ‘closing down’ of options as a result of the above means that there is often inaction or delays in taking actions due to multiple diverse perspectives regarding what action is required, how, why and by who. An ‘improved’ decision-making process is suggested and trialled involving a social learning cycle based on systems thinking and practice, in which stakeholders engage in dialogue and work together to make decisions and take actions towards the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes. The outcomes from a pilot study workshop demonstrate that the ‘improved’ decision-making process generally proved very successful for this group of stakeholders. It engaged them in dialogue and in working together using skills and techniques in systems thinking, modelling, negotiating and evaluating, leading to new insights and shared understandings about the problem situation, and concerted actions to improve it. Notwithstanding that there are some refinements that can be made to further improve the decision-making process as a result of ‘lessons learned’ from the workshop, the participants’ feedback confirms that it was appropriate in this context, and may also be useful in other complex situations, particularly those involving multiple stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. However, it is recognized that whilst the study has made significant progress towards understanding and improving decision-making for the conservation and sustainable use of intertidal mudflats and saltmarshes, there is still further work required before the improvements can be implemented on a local, national or global scale
Supplementary data
No full textSupplementary data (Figures and Tables) for journal artilce entitled 'PneumoKITy: A fast, flexible, specific, and sensitive tool for Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype screening and mixed serotype detection from genome sequence data' submitted to Microbial Genomics by
Carmen. L. Sheppard, Sam Manna, Natalie Groves, David J. Litt, Zahin Amin-Chowdhury, Marta Bertran, Shamez Ladhani, Catherine Satzke, Norman K. Fry.</p
Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech on College Campuses
No full textJoin us in welcoming Suzanne Nossel, Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization. Nossel is a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally, writing and being interviewed frequently for national and international media outlets. She is author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All, which will be available for raffle at this year's Book Raffle event.
For this keynote, Nossel will be in conversation with Robert Groves, Georgetown Provost, who will help to provide the Georgetown context for these issues
Application of shearography with thermal loading for structural inspection of Rembrandt’s Night Watch
No full textThe assessment of the structural condition of cultural heritage objects is important for conservation interventions and their long-term preservation. This investigation concerns The Night Watch (1642), a large-format 17th-century canvas painting by Rembrandt van Rijn that is on display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. This painting, which has a complex treatment history, has various damaged areas and has undergone three wax-resin relinings. In 1975 the canvas was slashed twelve times with a serrated dinner knife, including several long slashes in the area of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq’s breeches. In 2021, prior to a proposed new structural intervention involving retensioning of the canvas, it was important to evaluate the structural condition of the repaired slashes and of another repair, specifically an old canvas insert in the drum. For this, an in-situ inspection was carried out in the Rijksmuseum as a part of Operation Nightwatch. 3D shearography instrument with thermal loading was used to inspect these two areas of interest on the reverse of The Night Watch. The results showed that the out-of-plane strain in the breeches does not show any large deviations, which alleviated conservators’ concerns about the adhesion of the lining canvas and stability of previous repairs in this region. The patch in the drum showed higher out-of-plane strain variations. This was explained by the lower quality of the patched canvas compared to the repaired slashes in the breeches of Banninck Cocq. Overall, 3D shearography provided valuable inspection results for assurances regarding the structural integrity of the 1975 repairs and the wax-resin lining in The Night Watch, reducing the risks and providing the confidence to proceed with the planned retensioning of the canvas.Structural Integrity & Composite
Application of shearography and the percussion method for the structural inspection of wall paintings: A case study of St. Christopher in Maria Church, Nisse
No full textStructural delamination in mural paintings is a complex phenomenon and is considered among the most frequent types of damage. In conservation practice, the most common technique to identify structural detachments is the percussion method. Full-field optical techniques based on interferometry, such as shearography, can provide a more scientifically substantiated evaluation of the condition of heterogeneous structures of wall paintings. The empirical nature of the percussion method was observed during the condition assessment of two medieval wall paintings in Maria Church, Nisse, the Netherlands. It can be argued that, to allow the formulation of specific treatment needs for structural delamination in wall paintings, accurate defect mapping and characterisation is needed. The application of shearography was believed to provide a holistic representation of the condition of the structure of the wall painting depicting St. Christopher in Maria Church. Preliminary comparison of the methods involved revealed a degree of matching between results obtained. Discrepancies, i.e. areas deemed extremely vulnerable during percussion testing that were not detected by shearography, are debatably caused by the misinterpretation of the acoustic response during percussion testing or the inability of shearography to detect in depth structural defects. Further research regarding shearography should focus on providing more information about the depth of structurally delaminated areas within the heterogeneous layered structure of wall paintings.Structural Integrity & Composite
Indicators for monitoring and improving representativeness of response
No full textThe increasing efforts and costs required to achieve survey response have led to a stronger focus on survey data collection monitoring by means of paradata and to the rise of adaptive and responsive survey designs. Indicators that support data collection monitoring, targeting and prioritizing in such designs are not yet available. Subgroup response rates come closest but do not account for subgroup size, are univariate and are not available at the variable level.We present and investigate indicators that support data collection monitoring and effective decisions in adaptive and responsive survey designs. As they are natural extensions of R-indicators, they are termed partial R-indicators. We make a distinction between unconditional and conditional partial R-indicators. Conditional partial R-indicators provide a multivariate assessment of the impact of register data and paradata variables on representativeness of response.We propose methods for estimating partial indicators and investigate their sampling properties in a simulation study.. The use of partial indicators for monitoring and targeting nonresponse is illustrated for both a a household and business survey. Guidelines for the use of the indicators are given.<br/
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