308,280 research outputs found
Technical and environmental characterization of dual-purpose cattle farms and ways of improving production: A case study in Colombia
There are few reports on dual-purpose cattle systems characterization in Latin America and Colombia based on
large datasets. This limits our understanding of their dynamics, and the establishment of public policies and
government programs to improve their productive performance, promotion and rural development. This study
aimed to characterize very small, small, medium, and large dual-purpose farms in Colombia from technical and
environmental perspectives. The data analysed were obtained from the GanaderÃa Colombiana Sostenible and the
LivestockPlus projects, which gathered information from a total of 1313 dual-purpose farms in Colombia. Farms
were classified as being either very small (1 to 30 bovines), small (31 to 50 bovines), medium (51 to 250 bovines), or
large farms (more than 251 bovines). Numerical and categorical variables were distributed into five components: (1)
General Farm Information, (2) Herd Composition and Management, (3) Pasture Management, (4) Production
Information, and (5) Environmental Information. Each component was analysed using the factorial analysis of mixed
data (FAMD) method. According to FAMD, for the components General Farm Information, Herd Composition and
Management, Pasture Management, and Production Information, the distribution of variables led to a spatial
separation of the centroid from each category of producers. For the component Environmental Information, there
was no separation of the centroid. In general, medium-sized and large farms showed better infrastructure, better
machinery and equipment, and better reproductive practices; however, this was not reflected in a significant
improvement of productive parameters, except for a lower mortality rate. Larger livestock producers need to plan
their livestock husbandry activities properly, based on their better available infrastructure and livestock management
practices, with the purpose of increasing productivity. The main features identified for each livestock producer
category can be the basis to guide and establish policies and programmes for their technological development.
The development of better livestock management practices and the implementation of technology, as well as
technical assistance, should focus on small- and medium-sized livestock producers, which could lead to reaching a
better productive and reproductive performance of dual-purpose systems
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Design Margins: Impact on Building Energy Performance
This paper examines the addition of design margins for building services energy infrastructure during the design process. It argues that care must be taken when applying margins; ensuring cumulative effects do not undermine the ability of systems to be energy efficient. An example of a hospital Trust is provided showing the addition of design margins impacting the energy efficiency of services provided. Tensions are found between delivery of flexibility, adaptability and other change parameters and the need for the system to be bounded, so as to encourage effectiveness
Technical considerations towards mobile user QoE enhancement via Cloud interaction
This paper discusses technical considerations of a Cloud infrastructure which interacts with mobile devices in order to migrate part of the computational overhead from the mobile device to the Cloud. The aim of the interaction between the mobile device and the Cloud is the enhancement of parameters that affect the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the mobile end user through the offloading of computational aspects of demanding applications. This paper shows that mobile user’s QoE can be potentially enhanced by offloading computational tasks to the Cloud which incorporates a predictive context-aware mechanism to schedule delivery of content to the mobile end-user using a low-cost interaction model between the Cloud and the mobile user. With respect to the proposed enhancements, both the technical considerations of the cloud infrastructure are examined, as well as the interaction between the mobile device and the Cloud
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Enhancing IT investments productivity: Integrating network QOS and it indirect costs
Increasing productivity is considered one of the major driving factors for a successful business. From an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure perspective, obtaining an optimised performance of resources is expected to improve productivity. From a technical viewpoint, the introduction of Quality of Service (QoS) models have been perceived to optimise the performance of the organisation network backbone. These models aim to provide an acceptable level of service assurance to the newly introduced applications and services such as voice and video. From a management viewpoint, the proper management of IT investments indirect costs can lead to a reduction of the overall cost portfolio. Consequently, both benefits and productivity increase are likely to be realised. This paper introduces network QoS strategy within the hierarchy of business infrastructure. In addition, it aims to identify the relationship between network QoS and IT indirect costs. Such integration demonstrates how network QoS strategy can be used to control IT indirect costs as well as enhancing network performance
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