A design approach towards affording the trend of privacy

Society is affected by the consequences of data collection, and there are trends visible in law, the public debate and technology that could make a privacy-conscious future possible. We study how to avoid data collection from the perspective and the role of design, to provide a starting point for new developments in this context. We do so by presenting a portfolio that exemplifies a range of possible design contributions. We show how to design smart products for retail and smart home while avoiding data collection, how to convince clients through design, and how to use design to spread awareness. We present design notions and reflections that stem from this portfolio for the synthesis of new designs, that further explore the potential of design in practice that affords the trend of privacy

Herbivores limit the population size of big-leaf mahogany trees in an Amazonian forest

The Janzen–Connell hypothesis proposes that specialized herbivores maintain high numbers of tree species in tropical forests by restricting adult recruitment so that host populations remain at low densities. We tested this prediction for the large timber tree species, Swietenia macrophylla, whose seeds and seedlings are preyed upon by small mammals and a host-specific moth caterpillar Steniscadia poliophaea, respectively. At a primary forest site, experimental seed additions to gaps – canopy-disturbed areas that enhance seedling growth into saplings – over three years revealed lower survival and seedling recruitment closer to conspecific trees and in higher basal area neighborhoods, as well as reduced subsequent seedling survival and height growth. When we included these Janzen–Connell effects in a spatially explicit individual-based population model, the caterpillar's impact was critical to limiting Swietenia's adult tree density, with a > 10-fold reduction estimated at 300 years. Our research demonstrates the crucial but oft-ignored linkage between Janzen–Connell effects on offspring and population-level consequences for a long-lived, potentially dominant tree species

Soil organic phosphorous speciation using spectroscopic techniques

Soil Biology; Vol. 26The most commonly used differentiation of soil phosphorus (P) is between inorganic and organic forms, despite the fact that this is only the beginning of soil P speciation. Forms of inorganic and organic soil P include a large range of specific P compounds, and spectroscopic techniques can offer the best potential for determining the speciation of soil organic P. The focus of this chapter is to summarise the relative merits of three spectroscopic techniques: solution and solid state 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES). We aim to provide current and potential end-users of these techniques the ability to compare these methods on the basis of four criteria: sample preparation, sensitivity, resolution and quantitation.Ashlea L. Doolette and Ronald J. Smerni