Automatic TV advertisement detection from MPEG bitstream

The Centre for Digital Video Processing at Dublin City University conducts concentrated research and development in the area of digital video management. The current stage of development is demonstrated on our Web-based digital video system called Físchlár (Proceedings of the Content based Multimedia Information Access, RIAO 2000, Vol. 2, Paris, France, 12–14 April 2000, p. 1390), which provides for efficient recording, analysing, browsing and viewing of digitally captured television programmes. Advertisement breaks during or between television programmes are typically recognised by a series of ‘black’ video frames simultaneously accompanying a depression in audio volume which separate each advertisement from one another by recurrently occurring before and after each individual advertisement. It is the regular prevalence of these flags that enables automatic differentiation between what is programme and what is a commercial break. This paper reports on the progress made in the development of this idea into an advertisement detector system that automatically detects the commercial breaks from the bitstream of digitally captured television broadcasts

After the Crash: Examining Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Business Ethics

Research has shown that business students are less ethical than students in other disciplines (Segal et al., 2011), which is a worrying finding, considering that unethical business practices are seen as a major feature leading to the world economic recession in 2008. However, business schools across the globe have consistently taught the subject of ethics in order to instil an ethical mind-set in their graduates. The way business ethics is embedded in the curriculum has been the subject of much debate, with a range of pedagogical approaches taken. This paper examines the current teaching of ethics, by examining two business programmes that take different pedagogical approaches at Cork Institute of Technology. The findings suggest that there is little difference in how business ethics is perceived by students regardless of how it is taught, and points to ethical values and principles being formed much earlier in a person’s life

Unlocking Tourism Innovation Potential through Academic Research: A Transformational Learning Approach

Stimulating new tourism product ideas and developing an innovative culture within destinations is fundamental to enhance the current and future competitiveness of the tourism industry. Although academic research is generally considered a necessary precursor to innovation, tourism academic research is criticized as inward looking and failing to create new opportunities. This paper describes a case study of tourism academics working with tourism businesses and destination management agencies to unlock business innovation potential and start an innovation conversation in a destination. Drawing upon the principles of transformational learning theory, the academics built long-term research relationships with tourism businesses and challenged them to develop innovative and appealing products for a new market (the Asian international student market). The successful results provide a model for academic research that challenges established views, disrupts routine thinking and finds ways to innovatively adapt products for new markets

Preliminary soil and groundwater assessment of the Mantinea Development area, East Kimberley, Western Australia

In 2008, the Ord Stage 2 or ‘Ord East Kimberley Expansion Project’ was initiated by the Western Australian Government. The goal of the project was to advance development in the East Kimberley and to bring to market the Weaber Plain (Goomig Farmlands) and Knox Plain. In addition to the existing Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) Stage 1 (14 000ha), current Goomig and proposed Knox Plain areas (14 300ha), an estimated 50 000ha of land has potential for irrigation in the region. One of the areas proposed for future development is the Mantinea Development area. It is located on the south bank of the Ord River, 30km from Kununurra. It is north-west of the existing ORIA, which is located on the Ivanhoe and Packsaddle plains, and south-west of the most recent Stage 2 Goomig Farmlands, released in 2012. For the Mantinea Development, the state government is seeking a proponent from the private sector to manage the development process and operate the new farmlands created. The potential development area covers about 9500ha, 430ha of which has been set aside in the Mantinea conservation excision. To support the development process, DAFWA has reviewed relevant soil and water data and undertaken a preliminary assessment of that information. The Mantinea Flat – Carlton Plain area was identified as potentially suitable for irrigated agriculture by the Department of Agriculture and CSIRO as early as 1944, following soil surveys of about 12 000ha in the area. Preliminary soil survey results show that the soils of the proposed development area comprise a mixture of modern alluvial sediments, from fine cracking clays (1500ha, 17%) to sands and loams (6600ha, 73%), and stony soils (800ha, 10%). From this limited data, 4796ha (53%) of the proposed development area has a potentially high capability for irrigated agriculture, 2876ha (32%) is potentially capable but requires further investigation, and 1395ha (15%) of the area has a low capability. Areas assessed as having low capability for irrigated agriculture predominantly have salinity risk, poor drainage, shallow basement or unsuitable soil types

A simple guide for describing soils

Soils are enormously diverse and can be very confusing to understand and talk about. This simple guide for describing soils helps to identify the most important parts of a soil profile and provide an easy way to understand and explain what you see. It gives you a step-by-step guide of what soil properties to describe and how to describe them, along with the tools to make basic soil classifications. The soil descriptors help you to identify the soil type and aid in assigning a simple and standardised name to the soil. While this guide is designed to link with a simple classification system already in use for Western Australia — the Soil Groups of Western Australia — the soil description standards used here are applicable everywhere. This guide is suitable for anyone who is interested in understanding the basics of soil morphology, characteristics and description. Experts in other scientific fields, industry consultants, students and interested lay readers will also benefit from using this guide as a stepping stone to a more advanced understanding of soil

The IITA Agripreneur Movement: A Dynamic Approach to Youth Empowerment across Africa

The Agripreneur Movement of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) allows youth to assume their rightful place in African agricultural transformation. It started as a single exploratory agribusiness incubation at IITA Headquarters in 2012, involving 37 youths. It has since grown to 10 countries through nine sponsoring organizations. We compiled the characteristics and outcomes of 40 Agripreneur projects between 2012 and 2021 to describe the movement’s growth. With time, the movement operated across 195 locations engaging 518 trainers within 493 training cohorts and 263 different learning enterprises. These efforts led to the training of 25,616 youth in modern agriculture and agribusiness, resulting in 1,661 modernized farms and 2,592 business start-ups. Of the learning enterprises, 38% involved crops, 32% involved agro-processing, and 30% involved animal husbandry, suggesting a sound balance in promoting agribusiness opportunities. About $38.5 million was directed toward the training and support of Agripreneurs between 2012 and 2021. We trace the origins of the Agripreneur Movement as isolated agribusiness incubations in Nigeria through its expansion to other countries and its adoption within the youth empowerment agendas of other development organizations, including the African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Mastercard Foundation. In this way, the legion of youth working with and inspired by the IITA Agripreneur Movement makes major contributions to and secures their rightful place within a complex array of rural development opportunities. What must occur next is its mainstreaming across the vocational agriculture systems and developmental sovereign loans of African countries