Testing of OrgPlan Conversion Planning software (OF0331)

OrgPlan is a computer package designed to support farmers and consultants in planning a conversion to organic farming. It consists of two main elements: the basic planning module and a database with data for organic, in-conversion and conventional data. It was developed with DEFRA funding (OF 0159) by a partnership between the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the University of Hertfordshire, Elm Farm Research Centre and SAC. The objective of this work was to obtain feedback before its general release on the suitability of OrgPlan in supporting the process of planning a conversion to organic farming. Given the risks of the organic conversion process and the sensitive nature of the financial reports that OrgPlan can generate, further testing with consultants experienced in organic conversion planning was carried out. The work was broken down in four objectives. Independent of this, OrgPlan has been used by the contractor in the context of research work, in particular the Modelling of Strategies of Organic Milk Production (OF 0146). Objective 1: Update of standard data The contractor updated the OrgPlan database with data from the 2002/03 Organic Farm Management Handbook and other sources. Objective 2: Workshops and Field testing of the software Three workshops with a total 22 consultants were held during which they were given a basic introduction to the use of OrgPlan and had a first opportunity to use the software on their own computer or appropriate workstations. OrgPlan can effectively support several aspects of a first broad brush planning of an organic conversion (rotation planning, cropping and livestock enterprises, feasibility of a proposed organic scenario in terms of financial output, nutrient and forage budgets) and can assist with more detailed financial planning of investments, leading to Profit and Loss and Cash-Flow forecasts. OrgPlan could have a wider application in whole farm planning, but this would require extending the database to cover a wider range of enterprises common on conventional farms. Key strengths identified by the consultants (not in order of importance) • Financial planning • Availability of basic enterprise data set • Rotation planning and nutrient budgets • Combination of financial and nutrient data in one package • Create different scenarios giving instant access for reassessment of options • Possibility to ‘tweak' a scenario • Library, navigation around the collection is excellent • Help topics clear and straightforward • Broad brush planning, particularly for farms planning new enterprises Key weaknesses (not in order of importance) • Limited range of enterprises in the database, particularly for horticultural crops • Problems with set-up, use of database and understanding all functions • Need for regular updates of the dataset • P and K Fertilisers routinely included in organic enterprises • Data entry in some sections is long-winded Objective 3: Essential corrections to the software and update of advisory section • A list of problems and suggestions was compiled. All essential changes will be implemented before a release of the software. Other suggestions, which entail more complicated programming work, are included in a as ideas for future development of OrgPlan. Objective 4: Final report This is the final report submitted to DEFRA. The contractor will also submit to DEFRA a concept outlining the steps to be taken for the release of the software, which is planned for autumn 2003

An operational system for subject switching between controlled vocabularies: A computational linguistics approach

The NASA Lexical Dictionary (NLD), a system that automatically translates input subject terms to those of NASA, was developed in four phases. Phase One provided Phrase Matching, a context sensitive word-matching process that matches input phrase words with any NASA Thesaurus posting (i.e., index) term or Use reference. Other Use references have been added to enable the matching of synonyms, variant spellings, and some words with the same root. Phase Two provided the capability of translating any individual DTIC term to one or more NASA terms having the same meaning. Phase Three provided NASA terms having equivalent concepts for two or more DTIC terms, i.e., coordinations of DTIC terms. Phase Four was concerned with indexer feedback and maintenance. Although the original NLD construction involved much manual data entry, ways were found to automate nearly all but the intellectual decision-making processes. In addition to finding improved ways to construct a lexical dictionary, applications for the NLD have been found and are being developed

How to Use Electronic Information Exchange System

This booklet is an introduction to the use of EIES, Electronic Information Exchange System. EIES (pronounced eyes ) is a very powerful computerized system that allows you to communicate with others on the system in a number of different ways. The intent of this booklet is to teach you the simpler parts of the system and to make you comfortable with using the one-page User\u27s Guide For Electronic Information Exchange System. Later on, as you gain more experience with EIES, you may want to learn some of the more advanced features and tricks. EIES has been designed so that you have to learn only what you need. It\u27s just about impossible to learn how to use a computer system from a booklet without some direct experience with the machine itself. So, don\u27t be discouraged if some of the parts of this booklet seem confusing or hard to understand at first reading. The best way to learn about EIES is to use the instructions in this booklet and try them yourself to see what happens. EIES has been designed to be forgiving ; that is, if you make a mistake, nothing serious happens. You can\u27t hurt the system, so don\u27t be shy about trying new things. After reading through this booklet, plan to spend thirty minutes to an hour practicing logging on and learning to send messages. Try to find a time when you will be uninterrupted, if possible. After this beginning practice session, and with the help of this booklet, you should know enough to begin messaging other people and participating in any conference to which you belong. This booklet contains sections on: using your terminal TELENET getting into EIES sending messages message sending shortcuts text editing the EIES directory finding others in the directory participating in conferences getting printouts shortcuts for getting printouts special roles on EIES etiquette and hints for using this new communications form EIES terminology and jargon EIES checklist advanced features selected references If all you want to do is learn how to get into EIES and send a message, read only the first four sections. Save the rest for later. Read what you need

Investigating ‘Churnalism’ in real time news

Language Use in Past and Presen

Scholarly reading (and writing) and the power of impact factors: a study of distributed cognition and intellectual habits

Using observational interviews and introducing theories of embodied and distributed cognition, this study examines the scholarly reading and the intellectual habits of a group of social scientists. All participants were working at universities in task environments dominated by digital artifacts and technologies. The study found a strong connection between scholarly reading and the scholars’ writing processes and a further coupling to their digital publishing activity. While examining the participants’ print and online reading, it turned out that their reading was so tightly coupled to their writing that this entanglement had to be at the core of the analysis. In the study, scholarly reading and writing are analyzed as cognitive processes that extend beyond the brain and body and comprise cognitive artifacts of texts and their material bearers, such as printouts, digital displays, computers, and the Internet. In the process of creating text—or reading and writing—brains, bodies, and artifacts are considered to be dynamically coupled in a distributed cognitive process. Based on interviews with a sample of academics, the study analyses how their scholarly reading relates to the other elements in such an extended process and how they utilize the affordances of cognitive digital artifacts in their creative and intellectual endeavors.Scholarly reading (and writing) and the power of impact factors: a study of distributed cognition and intellectual habitspublishedVersio

A Tradition of Access: Creating a Diversity News Index Using OCLC’s CONTENTdm

OCLC\u27s CONTENTdm digital collection management software has been used as a platform for many interesting and timely archival projects. Morris Library Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) has successfully used this platform to migrate and host digitized archival photograph collections. Inspired by presentations at archival workshops, we are currently using CONTENTdm to create a campus news index documenting SIUC’s historic commitment to ethnic and racial diversity

What do U-Note? An Augmented Note Taking System for the Classroom

International audienceWe present U-Note, a new system that helps children to study their lessons. It links a paper notebook and digital doc- uments in order to reconstruct the context of the class. This system makes it possible for students to browse the teacher's documents at the state it was when he wrote the words he is currently reading. The student can also add information he found on internet. We first discuss the interviews we had with teachers, that led to the design of the system. Then we describe the system itself, which consists of a capture sys- tem, and a browsing application

Hypermedia = hypercommunication

New hardware and software technology gave application designers the freedom to use new realism in human computer interaction. High-quality images, motion video, stereo sound and music, speech, touch, gesture provide richer data channels between the person and the machine. Ultimately, this will lead to richer communication between people with the computer as an intermediary. The whole point of hyper-books, hyper-newspapers, virtual worlds, is to transfer the concept and relationships, the 'data structure', from the mind of creator to that of user. Some of the characteristics of this rich information channel are discussed, and some examples are presented

U-Note: Capture the Class and Access it Everywhere

We present U-Note, an augmented teaching and learning system leveraging the advantages of paper while letting teachers and pupils benefit from the richness that digital media can bring to a lecture. U-Note provides automatic linking between the notes of the pupils' notebooks and various events that occurred during the class (such as opening digital documents, changing slides, writing text on an interactive whiteboard...). Pupils can thus explore their notes in conjunction with the digital documents that were presented by the teacher during the lesson. Additionally, they can also listen to what the teacher was saying when a given note was written. Finally, they can add their own comments and documents to their notebooks to extend their lecture notes. We interviewed teachers and deployed questionnaires to identify both teachers and pupils' habits: most of the teachers use (or would like to use) digital documents in their lectures but have problems in sharing these resources with their pupils. The results of this study also show that paper remains the primary medium used for knowledge keeping, sharing and editing by the pupils. Based on these observations, we designed U-Note, which is built on three modules. U-Teach captures the context of the class: audio recordings, the whiteboard contents, together with the web pages, videos and slideshows displayed during the lesson. U-Study binds pupils' paper notes (taken with an Anoto digital pen) with the data coming from U-Teach and lets pupils access the class materials at home, through their notebooks. U-Move lets pupils browse lecture materials on their smartphone when they are not in front of a computer