An Agent-Based Model of Mediterranean Agricultural Land-Use/Cover Change for Examining Wildfire Risk

Humans have a long history of activity in Mediterranean Basin landscapes. Spatial heterogeneity in these landscapes hinders our understanding about the impacts of changes in human activity on ecological processes, such as wildfire. The use of spatially-explicit models that simulate processes at fine scales should aid the investigation of spatial patterns at the broader, landscape scale. Here, we present an agent-based model of agricultural land-use decision-making to examine the importance of land tenure and land use on future land cover. The model considers two 'types' of land-use decision-making agent with differing perspectives; 'commercial' agents that are perfectly economically rational, and 'traditional' agents that represent part-time or 'traditional' farmers that manage their land because of its cultural, rather than economic, value. The structure of the model is described and results are presented for various scenarios of initial landscape configuration. Land-use/cover maps produced by the model are used to examine how wildfire risk changes for each scenario. Results indicate that land tenure configuration influences trajectories of land use change. However, simulations for various initial land-use configurations and compositions converge to similar states when land-tenure structure is held constant. For the scenarios considered, mean wildfire risk increases relative to the observed landscape. Increases in wildfire risk are not spatially uniform however, varying according to the composition and configuration of land use types. These unexpected spatial variations in wildfire risk highlight the advantages of using a spatially-explicit agent-based model of land use/cover change.Land Use/Cover Change, Land Tenure, Wildfire, Mediterranean-Type Ecosystem, Agriculture, Spatial Heterogeneity

Diabetes educators: Perceived experiences, supports and barriers to use of common diabetes-related technologies

© 2016 Diabetes Technology Society. Background: Various technologies are commonly used to support type 1 diabetes management (continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion therapy, continuous glucose monitoring systems, smartphone and tablet applications, and video conferencing) and may foster self-care, communication, and engagement with health care services. Diabetes educators are key professional supporters of this patient group, and ideally positioned to promote and support technology use. The aim of this study was to examine diabetes educators' perceived experiences, supports, and barriers to use of common diabetes-related technologies for people with type 1 diabetes. Methods: This qualitative ethnographic study recruited across metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Australia using purposive sampling of Australian Diabetes Educators Association members. Data were collected by semistructured telephone interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Participants (n = 31) overwhelmingly indicated that overall the use of technology in the care of patients with type 1 diabetes was burdensome for them. They identified 3 themes involving common diabetes-related technologies: access to technology, available support, and technological advances. Overall, these themes demonstrated that while care was usually well intentioned it was more often fragmented and inconsistent. Most often care was provided by a small number of diabetes educators who had technology expertise. Conclusions: To realize the potential benefits of these relatively new but common diabetes technologies, many diabetes educators need to attain and retain the skills required to deliver this essential component of care. Furthermore, policy and strategy review is required, with reconfiguration of services to better support care delivery

Structural and Financial Characteristics of U.S. Farms: 2001 Family Farm Report

Family farms vary widely in size and other characteristics, ranging from very small retirement and residential farms to establishments with sales in the millions of dollars. The farm typology developed by the Economic Research Service (ERS) categorizes farms into groups based primarily on occupation of the operator and sales class of the farm. The typology groups reflect operators' expectations from farming, position in the life cycle, and dependence on agriculture. The groups differ in their importance to the farm sector, product specialization, program participation, and dependence on farm income. These (and other) differences are discussed in this report.Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS), family farms, farm businesses, farm financial situation, farm operator household income, farm operators, farm structure, farm typology, female farm operators, government payments, spouses of farm operators, taxes, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management,

The Growth of Public Service Motivation Research

Research on public service motivation, that is, motives and actions in the public domain that are intended to do good for others and shape the well-being of society, has grown significantly in the last twenty years. Over 100 studies have been conducted in more than 20 countries, most during the last decade. Among the findings of the research is that public service motivation is an important influence on a persons willingness to join and remain in a public organization. Findings related to public service motivation and individual performance are less clear cut and are likely mediated by various facets of person-organization fit. Public service motivation affects ethical behavior in both social and organizational contexts, as manifest in such behaviors as blowing the whistle and applying principled reasoning to ethical dilemmas. Despite the significant progress in the study of public service motivation, many important questions remain for future research. The joint effect of public service motivation and job security on employee behavior deserves priority attention, as does the mediating effects of person-organization fit. Public service motivation research would benefit methodologically from the use of experiments and improved measurement instruments

The Tyranny of the Vital Few: The Pareto Principle in Language Design

Modern high-level programming languages often contain constructs whose semantics are non-trivial. In practice how- ever, software developers generally restrict the use of such constructs to settings in which their semantics is simple (programmers use language constructs in ways they understand and can reason about). As a result, when developing tools for analyzing and manipulating software, a disproportionate amount of effort ends up being spent developing capabilities needed to analyze constructs in settings that are infrequently used. This paper takes the position that such distinctions between theory and practice are an important measure o f the analyzability of a language

Engineered Structured Sorbents for the Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor from Manned Spacecraft Atmospheres: Applications and Modeling 2007/2008

In NASA s Vision for Space Exploration, humans will once again travel beyond the confines of earth s gravity, this time to remain there for extended periods. These forays will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must not only blast out of earth s gravity well as during the Apollo moon missions, but also launch the supplies needed to sustain a larger crew over much longer periods. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. This paper describes efforts to improve on typical packed beds of sorbent pellets by making use of structured sorbents and alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. The development efforts described offer a complimentary approach combining testing of subscale systems and multiphysics computer simulations to characterize the regenerative heating substrates and evaluation of engineered structured sorbent geometries. Mass transfer, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics are included in the transient simulations

Synthesis and evaluation of halogenated nitrophenoxazinones as nitroreductase substrates for the detection of pathogenic bacteria

The synthesis and microbiological evaluation of 7-, 8- and 9-nitro-1,2,4-trihalogenophenoxazin-3-one substrates with potential in the detection of nitroreductase-expressing pathogenic microorganisms are described. The 7- and 9-nitrotrihalogenophenoxazinone substrates were reduced by most Gram negative microorganisms and were inhibitory to the growth of certain Gram positive bacteria; however, the majority of Gram positive strains that were not inhibited by these agents, along with the two yeast strains evaluated, did not reduce the substrates. These observations suggest there are differences in the active site structures and substrate requirements of the nitroreductase enzymes from different strains; such differences may be exploited in the future for differentiation between pathogenic microorganisms. The absence of reduction of the 8-nitrotrihalogenophenoxazinone substrates is rationalized according to their electronic properties and correlates well with previous findings

Thinking aloud: an exploration of cognitions in professional snooker

Objectives: Presently, there is no exploration into the cognitive processes of super-elite and elite professional snooker players during real-time performance. Therefore, this study explored the cognitions of seven professional snooker players during real-time solo practice performance. Design: A Think Aloud (TA) protocol analysis. Method: This involved players verbalizing and explaining their thoughts within naturalistic practice environments. Player’s verbalizations were recorded during each solo practice performance, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed via protocol analysis. Results: Analyses revealed an array of continuous reactive-adaptive cognitions relat-ing to stressors and coping strategies during performance, as well as general snooker-specific related thoughts. Specifically, the results highlighted key stressor themes which were coded as: Table Conditions, Distractions, and Mistakes. Our main finding was: Shot Preparation being essential to problem-focused coping, with Rationalizing integral to emotion-focused coping. Further results highlighted the visualperceptual and cognitive expertise of players, with regards to identification of problem balls and cueball spatial awareness, insofar as unearthing the delib-erate structure to practice routines. Conclusions: The study’s original and novel findings lend further support to the transactional process of coping. Whilst accordingly, the utilization of TA significantly contributed to our limited understanding of super-elite and elite real-time cogni-tions in professional snooker and self-paced sports generally. Future research should continue to dissect the sport-specific nuances that underpin real-time performance, not only during prac-tices, but within competitive play. TA is an appropriate methodology to use in the domain-specific sport of snooker