Crop Management with the IoT: an Interdisciplinary Survey

In this study we analyze how crop management is going to benefit from the Internet of Things providing an overview of its architecture and components from an agronomic and a technological perspective. The present analysis highlights that IoT is a mature enabling technology, with articulated hardware and software components. Cheap networked devices may sense crop fields at a finer grain, to give timeliness warnings on stress conditions and the presence of disease to a wider range of farmers. Cloud computing allows to reliably store and access heterogeneous data, developing and deploy farm services. From this study emerges that IoT is also going to increase attention to sensor quality and placement protocol, while Machine Learning should be oriented to produce understandable knowledge, which is also useful to enhance Cropping System Simulation systems

Talent recommendation system in big data era

1人才推荐系统的应用背

Improving the creation and management of collaborative networks within the European maritime sector : an operational collaboration model for the European maritime sector

The first ever model of operational collaboration for the European maritime industry is presented, built upon the established current state-of-the art in engineering collaboration modelling and addressing key industry requirements. The requirements for operational collaboration practices in the European maritime industry were identified using three approaches: an industrial survey of 69 associations, companies and institutions in the maritime sector; an analysis of prototype collaboration tools; and through an analysis of literature. These requirements were thematically grouped and consolidated where they overlapped, and then translated into model elements and interactions between them. A model that accurately abstracts service and technology collaboration provision between companies in a variety of collaboration modes was built, and validated against a series of steps that an organisation would need to undertake, to develop a particular mode of collaboration to supports their needs. It was tested in three industrial case studies, providing encouraging feedback demonstrating successful implementation. It provides the opportunity for reassessment of the employed processes and activities, and provides a structure for improving collaborative engineering design. Whilst the research was based in the European maritime industry, the model has wider applicability within the collaborative design of complicated engineering artefacts such as automotive or aerospace

Transition towards sustainability in agriculture and food systems: Role of information and communication technologies

Food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes necessary to move towards sustainable food systems. Digitization is one of the most important ongoing transformation processes in global agriculture and food chains. The review paper explores the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transition towards sustainability along the food chain (production, processing, distribution, consumption). A particular attention is devoted to precision agriculture as a food production model that integrates many ICTs. ICTs can contribute to agro-food sustainability transition by increasing resource productivity, reducing inefficiencies, decreasing management costs, and improving food chain coordination. The paper also explores some drawbacks of ICTs as well as the factors limiting their uptake in agriculture. Keywords: Sustainability transitions, ICT, Agriculture digitization, Food supply chain, Food processing, Distribution, Consumptio

Agile software development in a context of plan-based organizations

Agile software development has increasingly been used in the last fifteen years with the goal of improving traditionally time-consuming and rather non-user friendly process of developing software code. As implications of agile development and its impact on employees are still unclear, it is important to understand the benefits, opportunities and limitations of this development or collaboration mechanism. Thus, empirical evidence with implications for decision makers in the field of corporate policy and software development is an open research field. This master thesis analyzes the potentials of agile software development and how this approach can be used to support the development processes in companies, in terms of efficiency, shorter time-to-market as well as better customer fit of the developed products or services. By exploring some of the key features of different methods and processes, the potentials and limitations of the selected approaches are analyzed and linked to recent literature insights

Agile software development in a context of plan-based organizations

Agile software development has increasingly been used in the last fifteen years with the goal of improving traditionally time-consuming and rather non-user friendly process of developing software code. As implications of agile development and its impact on employees are still unclear, it is important to understand the benefits, opportunities and limitations of this development or collaboration mechanism. Thus, empirical evidence with implications for decision makers in the field of corporate policy and software development is an open research field. This master thesis analyzes the potentials of agile software development and how this approach can be used to support the development processes in companies, in terms of efficiency, shorter time-to-market as well as better customer fit of the developed products or services. By exploring some of the key features of different methods and processes, the potentials and limitations of the selected approaches are analyzed and linked to recent literature insights

MC2: MPEG-7 content modelling communities

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThe use of multimedia content on the web has grown significantly in recent years. Websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr cater for enormous amounts of multimedia content uploaded by users. This vast amount of multimedia content requires comprehensive content modelling otherwise retrieving relevant content will be challenging. Modelling multimedia content can be an extremely time consuming task that may seem impossible particularly when undertaken by individual users. However, the advent of Web 2.0 and associated communities, such as YouTube and Flickr, has shown that users appear to be more willing to collaborate in order to take on enormous tasks such as multimedia content modelling. Harnessing the power of communities to achieve comprehensive content modelling is the primary focus of this research. The aim of this thesis is to explore collaborative multimedia content modelling and in particular the effectiveness of existing multimedia content modelling tools, taking into account the key development challenges of existing collaborative content modelling research and the associated modelling tools. Four research objectives are pursued in order to achieve this; first, design a user experiment to study users’ tagging behaviour with existing multimedia tagging tools and identify any relationships between such user behaviour; second, design and develop a framework for MPEG-7 content modelling communities based on the results of the experiment; third, implement an online service as a proof of concept of the framework; fourth, validate the framework through the online service during a repeat of the initial user experiment. This research contributes first, a conceptual model of user behaviour visualised as a fuzzy cognitive map and, second, an MPEG-7 framework for multimedia content modelling communities (MC2) and its proof of concept as an online service. The fuzzy cognitive model embodies relationships between user tagging behaviour and context and provides an understanding of user priorities in the description of content features and the relationships that exist between them. The MC2 framework, developed based on the fuzzy cognitive model, is deep-rooted in user content modelling behaviour and content preferences. A proof of concept of the MC2 framework is implemented as an online service in which all metadata is modelled using MPEG-7. The online service is validated, first, empirically with the same group of users and through the same experiment that led to the development of the fuzzy cognitive model and, second, functionally against the folksonomy and MPEG-7 content modelling tools used in the initial experiment. The validation demonstrates that MC2 has the advantages without the shortcomings of existing multimedia tagging tools by harnessing the ease of use of folksonomy tools while producing comprehensive structured metadata.Supported by UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

FIN-DM: finantsteenuste andmekaeve protsessi mudel

Andmekaeve hõlmab reeglite kogumit, protsesse ja algoritme, mis võimaldavad ettevõtetel iga päev kogutud andmetest rakendatavaid teadmisi ammutades suurendada tulusid, vähendada kulusid, optimeerida tooteid ja kliendisuhteid ning saavutada teisi eesmärke. Andmekaeves ja -analüütikas on vaja hästi määratletud metoodikat ja protsesse. Saadaval on mitu andmekaeve ja -analüütika standardset protsessimudelit. Kõige märkimisväärsem ja laialdaselt kasutusele võetud standardmudel on CRISP-DM. Tegu on tegevusalast sõltumatu protsessimudeliga, mida kohandatakse sageli sektorite erinõuetega. CRISP-DMi tegevusalast lähtuvaid kohandusi on pakutud mitmes valdkonnas, kaasa arvatud meditsiini-, haridus-, tööstus-, tarkvaraarendus- ja logistikavaldkonnas. Seni pole aga mudelit kohandatud finantsteenuste sektoris, millel on omad valdkonnapõhised erinõuded. Doktoritöös käsitletakse seda lünka finantsteenuste sektoripõhise andmekaeveprotsessi (FIN-DM) kavandamise, arendamise ja hindamise kaudu. Samuti uuritakse, kuidas kasutatakse andmekaeve standardprotsesse eri tegevussektorites ja finantsteenustes. Uurimise käigus tuvastati mitu tavapärase raamistiku kohandamise stsenaariumit. Lisaks ilmnes, et need meetodid ei keskendu piisavalt sellele, kuidas muuta andmekaevemudelid tarkvaratoodeteks, mida saab integreerida organisatsioonide IT-arhitektuuri ja äriprotsessi. Peamised finantsteenuste valdkonnas tuvastatud kohandamisstsenaariumid olid seotud andmekaeve tehnoloogiakesksete (skaleeritavus), ärikesksete (tegutsemisvõime) ja inimkesksete (diskrimineeriva mõju leevendus) aspektidega. Seejärel korraldati tegelikus finantsteenuste organisatsioonis juhtumiuuring, mis paljastas 18 tajutavat puudujääki CRISP- DMi protsessis. Uuringu andmete ja tulemuste abil esitatakse doktoritöös finantsvaldkonnale kohandatud CRISP-DM nimega FIN-DM ehk finantssektori andmekaeve protsess (Financial Industry Process for Data Mining). FIN-DM laiendab CRISP-DMi nii, et see toetab privaatsust säilitavat andmekaevet, ohjab tehisintellekti eetilisi ohte, täidab riskijuhtimisnõudeid ja hõlmab kvaliteedi tagamist kui osa andmekaeve elutsüklisData mining is a set of rules, processes, and algorithms that allow companies to increase revenues, reduce costs, optimize products and customer relationships, and achieve other business goals, by extracting actionable insights from the data they collect on a day-to-day basis. Data mining and analytics projects require well-defined methodology and processes. Several standard process models for conducting data mining and analytics projects are available. Among them, the most notable and widely adopted standard model is CRISP-DM. It is industry-agnostic and often is adapted to meet sector-specific requirements. Industry- specific adaptations of CRISP-DM have been proposed across several domains, including healthcare, education, industrial and software engineering, logistics, etc. However, until now, there is no existing adaptation of CRISP-DM for the financial services industry, which has its own set of domain-specific requirements. This PhD Thesis addresses this gap by designing, developing, and evaluating a sector-specific data mining process for financial services (FIN-DM). The PhD thesis investigates how standard data mining processes are used across various industry sectors and in financial services. The examination identified number of adaptations scenarios of traditional frameworks. It also suggested that these approaches do not pay sufficient attention to turning data mining models into software products integrated into the organizations' IT architectures and business processes. In the financial services domain, the main discovered adaptation scenarios concerned technology-centric aspects (scalability), business-centric aspects (actionability), and human-centric aspects (mitigating discriminatory effects) of data mining. Next, an examination by means of a case study in the actual financial services organization revealed 18 perceived gaps in the CRISP-DM process. Using the data and results from these studies, the PhD thesis outlines an adaptation of CRISP-DM for the financial sector, named the Financial Industry Process for Data Mining (FIN-DM). FIN-DM extends CRISP-DM to support privacy-compliant data mining, to tackle AI ethics risks, to fulfill risk management requirements, and to embed quality assurance as part of the data mining life-cyclehttps://www.ester.ee/record=b547227

Acceptance, status quo and development of digitalisation along the cooperative agro-food value chain

Innerhalb des ersten Themenbereichs (I. Status quo und Entwicklung der Digitalisierung in der deutschen Landwirtschaft) der in dieser Dissertation vorliegenden Veröffentlichung wird das Modell von Porter und Heppelmann (2014) aufgegriffen und weiterentwickelt, um den Status quo der Digitalisierung in der deutschen Landwirtschaft empirisch zu erfassen. Damit konnte festgestellt werden, dass die deutschen landwirtschaftlichen Betriebe noch nicht das Niveau des "Smart Farming" und auch nicht das Niveau der "Produktsysteme" erreicht haben. Die Art der Nutzung der FMIS hinsichtlich einer verbreiteten Nutzung webbasierter Anwendungen, einer automatisch digitalen Dateneingabe und vor allem der Nutzung von universalen Datenstandards wurden innerhalb der Studie als die größten Hemmnisse auf dem Weg zum Erreichen des Smart Farming identifiziert. Die Digitalisierung wird weiterhin als eine Voraussetzung für die zukünftige wirtschaftliche Leistungs- und Überlebensfähigkeit für Genossenschaften dargestellt, wobei vor allem ländliche Genossenschaften einem zunehmenden Wettbewerbsdruck, bedingt durch strukturelle Veränderungsprozesse, anhaltende Transformationsprozesse durch die Digitalisierung und durch das Aufkommen neuer Wettbewerber, ausgesetzt sind. Nach derzeitigem Wissensstand wurde das Themenfeld der Digitalisierung bei ländlichen Genossenschaften bisher nicht beleuchtet und steht nun erstmalig innerhalb des zweiten Themenbereichs dieser Dissertation im Fokus wissenschaftlicher Studien (II. Akzeptanz, Status quo und Entwicklung ländlicher Genossenschaften im Kontext der Digitalisierung). Bereits durchgeführte Studien bezeichneten Genossenschaften in Bezug auf die Adoption neuer Technologien als late adopter" und empfehlen, dies branchenspezifisch zu untersuchen und empirisch nachzuvollziehen. Vor dem Hintergrund der erläuterten Problematik beleuchten zwei Publikationen zunächst die Determinanten von Akzeptanzfaktoren für die Nutzung digitaler Technologien bei ländlichen Genossenschaften. Die erste vorliegende Studie beruht dabei auf der Identifikation und Analyse von Akzeptanzfaktoren bezüglich der Nutzung internetbasierter Informationssysteme (IS) entlang der genossenschaftlich geprägten WSK der Rotfleischwirtschaft aus Sichtweise von Landwirten bzw. Mitglieder/KundInnen einer Viehvermarktungsgenossenschaft. Drei nutzenstiftende Faktoren bezüglich der erwarteten Nutzung von internetbasierten IS konnten dabei als valide Akzeptanzfaktoren identifiziert werden: die Unterstützung bei der Dokumentation und einem verpflichtenden Austausch von Daten Richtung Verwaltungsorganen (B2A); der überbetriebliche Datenaustausch zwischen LandwirtIn und Viehvermarktungsunternehmen/Schlachthof (B2B); die Funktion der Integration externer Daten in das IS. Eine weitere vorliegende Studie fokussiert dabei auf die intermediäre Ebene des gesamtdeutschen genossenschaftlichen Agrarhandels aus Sichtweise der GeschäftsführerInnen, wobei die drei Akzeptanzfaktoren bezüglich der erwarteten Nutzung digitaler Technologien in den Geschäftsfeldern Beschaffung und Logistik; KundInnen-/Mitgliedermanagement und Vermarktung als nutzenstiftend identifiziert werden konnten. Als größte Herausforderung auf dem Weg zur Implementierung digitaler Technologien konnten personelle und finanzielle sowie strategische und operationelle Faktoren identifiziert werden. Chancen, die sich durch eine Mitgliedschaft im genossenschaftlichen Verbund ergeben, müssen daher gezielt genutzt werden, um Herausforderungen zu begegnen und Risiken gemeinsam abzufedern. Insgesamt konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass auf Ebene der Primärproduktion und der intermediären Stufe des genossenschaftlichen Agrarhandels eine Einstellungsakzeptanz gegenüber der Einführung digitaler Technologien besteht. Im Zuge der Analysen konnte die Determinante der Größe der Genossenschaft bzw. des landwirtschaftlichen Betriebs als einen positiven Einfluss auf die Akzeptanz digitaler Technologien zurückgeführt werden. Die letzte im Rahmen dieser Dissertation vorgelegte Veröffentlichung leistet einen Beitrag hinsichtlich der Identifizierung des Status quo der Adoption digitaler Technologien im genossenschaftlichen Agrarhandel und leitet daraus Möglichkeiten einer digitalen Differenzierung von Warengenossenschaften ab. Anhand einer Clusteranalyse konnten die Genossenschaften dem Cluster der Basic Adopters (n=48) und der Advanced service-orientated Adopters (n=18) zugeordnet werden. Vor dem Hintergrund des anhaltenden Verdrängungswettbewerbs und den in den vorliegenden Studien erlangten Erkenntnissen wird den Warengenossenschaften empfohlen, eine individuell angepasste Differenzierungsstrategie in Betracht zu ziehen und dazu konkrete digitale Kompetenzen mit einer verstärken Serviceorientierung aufzubauen, um ihr Geschäftsmodell bzw. die Geschäftsprozesse an die aktuellen Branchenentwicklungen anzupassen.Within the first subject area (I. Status quo and development of digitalization in German agriculture) in one publication presented in this dissertation, the model of Porter and Heppelmann (2014) was taken up and further developed to empirically capture the status quo of digitization in German agriculture. Using a cluster analysis, the farmers participating in the survey could be assigned to two specific development stages. 58.2 % of the respondents were assigned to the second development stage of "users of smart products". 41.8 % of the respondents could be classified as "users of smart, connected products", among whom the use of complex systems that connect individual mechanical and electrical components are particularly widespread. Thus, it could be determined that German farms have not yet reached the level of "smart farming" and also not the level of "product systems". The nature of the use of FMIS in terms of widespread use of web-based applications, automatic digital data entry and, above all, the use of universal data standards were identified within the study as the greatest obstacles on the way to achieving "smart farming". Digitzation is also presented as a prerequisite for future economic performance and survival for cooperatives, with rural cooperatives in particular facing increasing competitive pressure due to structural change processes, ongoing transformation processes through digitization and the emergence of new competitors. According to the current state of knowledge, the topic of digitization in rural cooperatives has not been examined yet and is now, for the first time, the focus of scientific studies within the second subject area of this dissertation (II. Acceptance, status quo and development of rural cooperatives in the context of digitization). Two publications first shed light on the determinants of acceptance factors for the use of digital technologies among rural cooperatives. The first study presented here is based on the identification and analysis of acceptance factors regarding the use of internet-based information systems (IS) along the cooperative value chain of the red meat industry from the perspective of farmers or members/customers of a livestock marketing cooperative. Three benefit-generating factors regarding the expected use of internet-based IS could be identified as valid acceptance factors: the support in documentation and an obligatory exchange of data towards administrative bodies (B2A); the inter-farm data exchange between farmer and livestock marketing company/slaughterhouse (B2B); the function of integrating external data into the IS. Another study focuses on the intermediary level of German agricultural trade and commodity cooperatives from the perspective of the managing directors, with the three acceptance factors relating to the expected use of digital technologies in the business areas of procurement and logistics, customer/member management, and marketing being identified as having a beneficial effect. Personnel and financial factors as well as strategic and operational factors were identified as the greatest challenge on the way to implementing digital technologies. Opportunities arising from membership of the cooperative network therefore need to be exploited in a targeted manner to address challenges and jointly mitigate risks. Overall, it was possible to demonstrate that there is an "attitudinal acceptance" of the introduction of digital technologies at the level of primary production and the intermediate level of agricultural trade and commodity cooperatives. In the course of the analyses, the determinant of the size of the cooperative or farm could be attributed as a positive influence on the acceptance of digital technologies. The final paper presented as part of this dissertation makes a contribution with regard to identifying the status quo of digital technology adoption in agricultural trade and commodity cooperatives and derives opportunities for a digital differentiation for these cooperatives. Based on a cluster analysis, the cooperatives could be assigned to the cluster of "Basic Adopters" (n=48) and "Advanced service-oriented Adopters" (n=18). Against the backdrop of ongoing cut-throat competition and the findings obtained in the present studies, it is recommended that agricultural trade cooperatives consider an individually tailored differentiation strategy and, to this end, build up concrete digital competencies with an increased service orientation in order to adapt their business model or business processes to current industry developments