The Role of Inter-Organizational Leadership in Agri-Food Value Chains

For many years research on marketing channel behaviour was focused on power and conflict between channel members. More recently, as a result of globalisation, firms have become more dependent on each other and more collaborative models of channel behaviour have developed to meet the demands of the global marketplace. Research suggests that closer relationships involving trust, commitment, co-operation, co-ordination, and collaboration are needed between chain members to ensure the success of their value chains. The major challenge is to identify and develop leadership styles that foster efficient and collaborative value chains. Generally, the literature suggests that supply chain effectiveness and survival is linked to leadership behaviour. Leader behaviour has needed to adapt to the competitive global environment, which tends to focus on fostering inter-organisational co-operation rather than competing in an adversarial way. In this climate, leaders need to possess supply chain management skills and, perhaps more critically, the ability to establish and maintain effective inter-organisational networks. Early exploratory research in manufacturing suggested that a participatory leadership style is most effective in fostering co-operation and increased supply chain performance.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

TVL₁shape approximation from scattered 3D data

With the emergence in 3D sensors such as laser scanners and 3D reconstruction from cameras, large 3D point clouds can now be sampled from physical objects within a scene. The raw 3D samples delivered by these sensors however, contain only a limited degree of information about the environment the objects exist in, which means that further geometrical high-level modelling is essential. In addition, issues like sparse data measurements, noise, missing samples due to occlusion, and the inherently huge datasets involved in such representations makes this task extremely challenging. This paper addresses these issues by presenting a new 3D shape modelling framework for samples acquired from 3D sensor. Motivated by the success of nonlinear kernel-based approximation techniques in the statistics domain, existing methods using radial basis functions are applied to 3D object shape approximation. The task is framed as an optimization problem and is extended using non-smooth L1 total variation regularization. Appropriate convex energy functionals are constructed and solved by applying the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers approach, which is then extended using Gauss-Seidel iterations. This significantly lowers the computational complexity involved in generating 3D shape from 3D samples, while both numerical and qualitative analysis confirms the superior shape modelling performance of this new framework compared with existing 3D shape reconstruction techniques

Gestalt Theory in Visual Screen Design — A New Look at an old subject

Although often presented as a single basis for educational visual screen design, Gestalt theory is not a single small set of visual principles uniformly applied by all designers. In fact, it appears that instructional visual design literature often deals with only a small set of Gestalt laws. In this project Gestalt literature was consulted to distil the most relevant Gestalt laws for educational visual screen design. Eleven laws were identified. They deal with balance/symmetry, continuation, closure, figure-ground, focal point, isomorphic correspondence, prŠgnanz, proximity, similarity, simplicity, and unity/harmony. To test the usefulness of these laws in visual screen design they were applied to the redesign of an instructional multimedia application, 'WoundCare', designed to teach nursing students wound management. The basic text-based screens in the original WoundCare application were replaced with graphical user interface screens, that were designed according to these principles. The new screen designs were then evaluated by asking students and others to compare the designs. The viewers were also asked to rate directly the value of using the eleven Gestalt design principles in the redesign, both for improving the product's appearance and improving its value for learning. The evaluation results were overwhelmingly positive. Both the new design and the value of applying the eleven Gestalt laws to improve learning were strongly supported by the students' opinions. However, some differences in the value of applying particular Gestalt laws to the interface design were identified and this forms a useful direction for future research

Assessment of satellite and aircraft multispectral scanner data for strip-mine monitoring

The application of LANDSAT multispectral scanner data to describe the mining and reclamation changes of a hilltop surface coal mine in the rugged, mountainous area of eastern Kentucky is presented. Original single band satellite imagery, computer enhanced single band imagery, and computer classified imagery are presented for four different data sets in order to demonstrate the land cover changes that can be detected. Data obtained with an 11 band multispectral scanner on board a C-47 aircraft at an altitude of 3000 meters are also presented. Comparing the satellite data with color, infrared aerial photography, and ground survey data shows that significant changes in the disrupted area can be detected from LANDSAT band 5 satellite imagery for mines with more than 100 acres of disturbed area. However, band-ratio (bands 5/6) imagery provides greater contrast than single band imagery and can provide a qualitative level 1 classification of the land cover that may be useful for monitoring either the disturbed mining area or the revegetation progress. However, if a quantitative, accurate classification of the barren or revegetated classes is required, it is necessary to perform a detailed, four band computer classification of the data

An Ethnographic Look into Farmer Discussion Groups through the Lens of Social Learning Theory

This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordFarmer discussion groups (FDGs) are a collaborative mechanism through which farmers can engage and learn from and with their peers. Participants cite numerous benefits from FDGs, e.g., economic, social, etc., but how learning happens in these contexts from an adult cognitive learning theory perspective is not well understood. Thus, Bandura’s social learning theory was used to study seven FDGs in the South West of England. The objective was to determine whether social learning was occurring through the FDGs’ interactions, examined according to three elements: (1) behaviour modelling, (2) role modelling and (3) self-reflexivity. An ethnographic methodology was utilised to gather rich empirical data through participant observation of 42 meetings and 24 semi-structured interviews. The results from 12 months attending FDG meetings demonstrated that behaviour modelling and role modelling were present in all FDGs. Self-reflexivity, however, was not evidenced as being promoted by all groups’ interactions, which (facilitated) critical discourse amongst the FDG participants was found to foster. Thus, evidence of social learning was not found to be occurring as a result of all the FDGs’ interactions. Collaborative learning processes that aim to promote social learning should build participants’ capacity and skills, structure engagement and train facilitators to foster critical discourse that may help promote self-reflexivity from behaviour modelling and role modelling.University of Exete