From Paper to Digital Maintenance With Electronic Signature

This research paper reviewed the impact of the implementation of digital maintenance records replacing paper documents in the commercial aviation through gains in efficiency and cost reduction in airplane transitions. Throughout the lifecycle of a commercial airplane, repairs are incorporated, components are replaced and maintenance tasks are accomplished every day, each of those activities generate records that need to be kept and reconciled. Lessors have strict contract terms that require operators to keep all required maintenance documents stored and available so that asset value is maintained, this process is done today mostly with paper documents and is very costly and difficult for the Industry to manage. The implementation of electronic records can help eliminate usage of up to 30,000 sheets of paper a year per aircraft, while increasing control and efficiency in the airline daily operation. Such approach would optimize processes reducing labor hours in the Maintenance Records Quality Assurance process by 50% or more. Other savings include reduction delays in the airplane transition and duplication of maintenance activities due to missing records. Besides the research, interviews were conducted with airline representatives and personnel from digital records software solution provider. Result of the study demonstrated that the Aviation Industry can greatly benefit from the migration to digital records, such benefits come from improving controls and reduce errors, remote reconciliation and audit, and decrease labor in quality assurance

Up-To-Crash: Evaluating Third-Party Library Updatability on Android

Buggy and flawed third-party libraries increase their host app’s attack surface and put the users’ privacy at risk. To avert this risk, libraries have to be kept updated to their newest versions by the app developers that integrate them into their projects. Recent researches revealed that the prevalence of outdated third-party libraries in Android apps is indeed a rampant problem, but also suggested that there is a great opportunity for drop-in replacements of outdated libraries, which would not even require cooperation by the app developers to update the libraries. However, all those conclusions are based on static app analysis, which can only provide an abstract view. In this work, we extend the updatability analysis to the runtime of apps. We implement a solution to update third-party libraries with drop-in replacements by their newer versions. To verify the feasibility of this developer-independent update mechanism, we dynamically test 3,000 real world apps for 3 popular libraries (78 library versions) for runtime failures stemming from incompatible library updates. To investigate the updatability of libraries in-depth, exploration enhanced dynamic testing is adopted to monitor the runtime behaviors of 15 apps before and after library updating. From our test, we find that the prior reported updatability rate is under real conditions overestimated by a factor of 1.57–2.06. Through root cause analysis, we find that the underlying problems prohibiting easy updates are intricate, such as deprecated functions, changed data structures, or entangled dependencies between different libraries and even the host app. We think our results not only put a more realistic light on the library updatability problem in Android, but also provide valuable insights for future solutions that provide automatic library updates or that try to support the app developers in better maintaining their external dependencies

Accaparement de terres et droits de l'homme: rôle des sociétés et des entités financières européennes dans l'accaparement de terres en dehors de l'Union européenne

Dans les travaux de recherche antérieurs sur l'accaparement de terres, les auteurs se sont initialement intéressés aux sociétés étrangères investissant dans d'autres pays et ont mis notamment l'accent sur les sociétés implantées dans des pays tels que la Chine, les États du Golfe, la Corée du Sud et l'Inde. Ces dernières années, il est devenu évident que la palette des pays d'origine des investisseurs fonciers est bien plus large et comprend des acteurs implantés en Atlantique Nord et dans l'Union européenne. Dans la présente étude, nous fournissons des données qualitatives et quantitatives pour illustrer le rôle des entités financières et des sociétés établies dans l'Union européenne dans les transactions foncières opérées en dehors de l'Union. Cette étude analyse également le phénomène international de "ruée vers la terre" avec les droits de l'homme en arrière-plan, en examinant les répercussions de certaines transactions foncières auxquelles des investisseurs basés dans l'Union européenne participent, ainsi que leurs effets sur les populations qui vivent dans les secteurs visés par les investissements. Ces recherches s'appuient en partie sur l'étude réalisée en 2014 par Cotula sur les facteurs favorisant l'accaparement de terres et les répercussions de ce phénomène sur les droits de l'homme, mais s'en écartent également par la façon dont l'accent est mis expressément sur certains cas d'abus et de violations, potentielles ou effectives des droits de l'homme dans le cadre d'activités dans lesquelles des sociétés et des entités financières européennes sont impliquées. Dans nos conclusions, nous proposons une série de recommandations sur la façon dont l'Union européenne peut s'attaquer de façon efficace à ces problèmes

Land Grabbing and Human Rights: the Involvement of European Corporate and Financial Entities in Land Grabbing outside the European Union

In early research on land grabbing, the initial focus was on foreign companies investing abroad, with a particular focus on those based in countries such as China, Gulf States, South Korea, and India. In recent years, it has become evident that the range of countries land investors originate in is far broader, and includes both North Atlantic - and EU-based actors. In this study, we offer both quantitative and qualitative data illustrating the involvement of EU-based corporate and financial entities in land deals occurring outside of the EU. This study also analyses the global land rush within a human rights framework, examining the implications of particular land deals involving EU-based investors and their impact on communities living in areas where the investments are taking place. The research presented here builds partly on Cotula’s 2014 study on the drivers and human rights implications of land grabbing, but differs in that it focuses explicitly on particular cases of possible, actual or potential human rights abuses and violations, in the context of activities involving European corporate and financial entities. In our conclusions, we offer a series of recommendations on how the EU can more effectively address these issues

PERFORMANCE OF SUNFLOWER CULTIVARS IN THREE PLANTING DATES IN NORTH PLATEAU OF SANTA CATARINA STATE

The sunflower planting was stimulated in last years in Santa Catarina State, Brazil, with the aim to produce biodiesel. However, there is lack of information about the adequate cultivars and planting dates to different soil and climatic conditions of this State. The objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of ten sunflower cultivars, cultivated in three planting dates, under the soil and climatic conditions of North Plateau of Santa Catarina State. The cultivars tested were: Aguará 3, Aguará 4, Catissol, Charrua, Dow MG2, Dow M734, Embrapa 122, Helio 358, Helio 360 and IAC Iarama. These cultivars were planted in 20/07/07, 25/09/07 and 18/10/07. The treatments were arranged in a randomized block design, with four replications. There were variations in development cycle, grain yield and other agronomic traits among cultivars. Five cultivars produced more than 2,500 kg ha-1 of grains. July planting date showed the highest average grain yield.Nos últimos anos houve estímulo ao cultivo do girassol no Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil, com intuito de produção de biodiesel. No entanto, há carência em informações acerca de cultivares e épocas de semeadura adequadas às diferentes condições edafoclimáticas do Estado. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o desempenho de dez cultivares de girassol, semeadas em três épocas na região do Planalto Norte Catarinense. As cultivares testadas foram: Aguará 3, Aguará 4, Catissol, Charrua, Dow MG2, Dow M734, Embrapa 122, Helio 358, Helio 360 e IAC Iarama, semeadas em 20/07/07, 25/09/07 e 18/10/07. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o de blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. Houve variação entre cultivares quanto ao ciclo de desenvolvimento, produtividade de grãos e outras características agronômicas. Cinco cultivares produziram mais de 2.500 kg ha-1 de grãos. As maiores produtividades médias de grãos foram observadas na semeadura de julho

2,3,5-Triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium chloride as a reagent for the determination of sugar mixtures by a differential reaction-rate technique

The rates of reaction of 2,3,5-triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium chloride with the more common hexoses (glucose, fructose, mannose, sorbose and galactose) and pentoses (xylose and ribose) have been studied. Under certain conditions, over a limited range of reaction, the extent of the reaction is directly proportional to the time of reaction (a "pseudo zero-order" reaction). Also, the rates of reaction of the sugars are quite different in most cases. Thus, the behaviour of this reagent is quite satisfactory for the determination of binary mixtures of most of the sugars tested, by a simple differential rate technique developed for "zero-order" competitive reactions. The rates of reaction of 2,3,5-triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium chloride with ascorbic acid, creatinine and glutathione, often found in blood serum, which interfere with most blood serum sugar analysis methods, have also been examined to determine if they would interfere with the determination. Glutathione and creatinine do not react with the reagent and do not interfere with the analysis of sugar mixtures. Ascorbic acid, however, reacts rapidly, and as little as 1-2% leads to error in the sugar-mixture determination.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32056/1/0000100.pd

ESTABILIDADE E ADAPTABILIDADE DE LINHAGENS E CULTIVARES DE FEIJÃO DO GRUPO CARIOCA

The common bean has been cultivated under different environmental conditions and technology levels. These environmental variations, linked to genotypes differences and interaction between genotypes and environments are the main reasons for those yield variations. The interaction genotype by environments has been a challenge for indication of cultivars and to select lines in breeding programs as well. The objective of this work was to evaluate the stability and adaptability of grain yield in 14 genotypes of carioca bean, studied in ten experiments of Cultivate Value and Using, carried out during agricultural years of 2000/01 and 2001/02. The experimental design utilized was the randomized blocks with four repetitions. The stability and adaptability were evaluated by non-parametric, bi-segmented and simple linear regression methodologies. The results demonstrated a concordance among methodologies for genotypes indications with exception for recommendation in unfavorable environments. The ideal genotype was not found by bi-segmented linear regression. The lines Vi 4899, Vi 0699 and Vi 4599 showed adaptability to general environments, and with LP 97-28 were indicated to unfavorable environments. In favorable environments Vi 4899, FT 97-155 and FTS Magnífico showed the better performances.O feijão é cultivado sob diferentes condições de ambientes e níveis tecnológicos. Estas diferenças aliadas às diferenças entre genótipos e à interação entre genótipos e ambientes são as principais responsáveis pelas variações nas produtividades. A interação genótipo por ambientes tem sido um desfio para a indicação de cultivares e para a seleção de linhagens nos programas de melhoramento. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a estabilidade e a adaptabilidade da produtividade de grãos de 14 genótipos de feijão carioca, avaliados em dez ensaios de Valor de Cultivo e Uso (VCU), conduzidos nos anos agrícolas 2000/01 e 2001/02. O delineamento utilizado foi de blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. A estabilidade e a adaptabilidade foi avaliada por uma metodologia não paramétrica, e metodologias baseadas em regressão linear bissegmentada e linear simples. Os resultados demonstraram que houve concordância entre metodologias na indicação de genótipos, a exceção da recomendação para ambientes desfavoráveis. O genótipo ideal, considerando os parâmetros da regressão bissegmentada para ambientes favoráveis não foi encontrado. Entre os genótipos avaliados destacaram-se especialmente as linhagens Vi 4899, Vi 0699 e Vi 4599, apresentando, de forma geral, melhor produtividade, adaptabilidade e previsibilidade. As linhagens Vi 4899, Vi 0699 e Vi 4599 apresentaram adaptabilidade à ambientes gerais e também foram indicadas junto com LP 97-28 para ambientes desfavoráveis. Em ambientes favoráveis, Vi 4899, FT 97-155 e FTS Magnífico apresentaram as melhores performances

Isolation and fine mapping of Rps6: An intermediate host resistance gene in barley to wheat stripe rust

A plant may be considered a nonhost of a pathogen if all known genotypes of a plant species are resistant to all known isolates of a pathogen species. However, if a small number of genotypes are susceptible to some known isolates of a pathogen species this plant maybe considered an intermediate host. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an intermediate host for Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), the causal agent of wheat stripe rust. We wanted to understand the genetic architecture underlying resistance to Pst and to determine whether any overlap exists with resistance to the host pathogen, Puccinia striiformis f. sp. hordei (Psh). We mapped Pst resistance to chromosome 7H and show that host and intermediate host resistance is genetically uncoupled. Therefore, we designate this resistance locus Rps6. We used phenotypic and genotypic selection on F2:3 families to isolate Rps6 and fine mapped the locus to a 0.1 cM region. Anchoring of the Rps6 locus to the barley physical map placed the region on two adjacent fingerprinted contigs. Efforts are now underway to sequence the minimal tiling path and to delimit the physical region harbouring Rps6. This will facilitate additional marker development and permit identification of candidate genes in the region

Transnational land investment web

Despite international media’s waning attention, research and political debates on global land grabbing have not subsided. We argue the importance of understanding the ‘transnational land investment web’ of corporate and state actors and institutions, which are not always immediately visible. Focusing on transnational corporations (TNCs) based in the European Union (EU), we examine five sets of actors and institutional spheres through which these actors are able to grab lands beyond Europe. It is crucial to understand these not as individual sets of actors or institutions, but as interconnected sets, comprising a web. These are EU-based: (1) Private companies using regular institutional platforms; (2) Finance capital companies; (3) Public–private partnerships; (4) Development Finance Institutions; and (5) Companies using EU policies to gain control of land through the supply chain. One implication of this complex web is that democratic governance in the context of land grabs becomes an even more daunting challenge