9,472 research outputs found
The visual preferences for forest regeneration and field afforestation : four case studies in Finland
The overall aim of this dissertation was to study the public's preferences for forest regeneration fellings and field afforestations, as well as to find out the relations of these preferences to landscape management instructions, to ecological healthiness, and to the contemporary theories for predicting landscape preferences. This dissertation includes four case studies in Finland, each based on the visualization of management options and surveys.
Guidelines for improving the visual quality of forest regeneration and field afforestation are given based on the case studies. The results show that forest regeneration can be connected to positive images and memories when the regeneration area is small and some time has passed since the felling. Preferences may not depend only on the management alternative itself but also on the viewing distance, viewing point, and the scene in which the management options are implemented.
The current Finnish forest landscape management guidelines as well as the ecological healthiness of the studied options are to a large extent compatible with the public's preferences. However, there are some discrepancies. For example, the landscape management instructions as well as ecological hypotheses suggest that the retention trees need to be left in groups, whereas people usually prefer individually located retention trees to those trees in groups. Information and psycho-evolutionary theories provide some possible explanations for people's preferences for forest regeneration and field afforestation, but the results cannot be consistently explained by these theories.
The preferences of the different stakeholder groups were very similar. However, the preference ratings of the groups that make their living from forest - forest owners and forest professionals - slightly differed from those of the others. These results provide support for the assumptions that preferences are largely consistent at least within one nation, but that knowledge and a reference group may also influence preferences.VÀitöskirjassa tutkittiin ihmisten maisemapreferenssejÀ (maisemallisia arvostuksia) metsÀnuudistamishakkuiden ja pellonmetsitysten suhteen sekÀ analysoitiin nÀiden preferenssien yhteyksiÀ maisemanhoito-ohjeisiin, vaihtoehtojen ekologiseen terveyteen ja preferenssejÀ ennustaviin teorioihin. VÀitöskirja sisÀltÀÀ neljÀ tapaustutkimusta, jotka perustuvat hoitovaihtoehtojen visualisointiin ja kyselytutkimuksiin.
Tapaustutkimusten pohjalta annetaan ohjeita siitÀ, kuinka uudistushakkuiden ja pellonmetsitysten visuaalista laatua voidaan parantaa. VÀitöskirjan tulokset osoittavat, ettÀ uudistamishakkuut voivat herÀttÀÀ myös myönteisiÀ mielikuvia ja muistoja, jos uudistusala on pieni ja hakkuun vÀlittömÀt jÀljet ovat jo peittyneet. Preferensseihin vaikuttaa hoitovaihtoehdon lisÀksi mm. katseluetÀisyys, katselupiste ja ympÀristö, jossa vaihtoehto on toteutettu.
Eri viiteryhmien (metsÀammattilaiset, pÀÀkaupunkiseudun asukkaat, ympÀristönsuojelijat, tutkimusalueiden matkailijat, paikalliset asukkaat sekÀ metsÀnomistajat) maisemapreferenssit olivat hyvin samankaltaisia. Kuitenkin ne ryhmÀt, jotka saavat ainakin osan elannostaan metsÀstÀ - metsÀnomistajat ja metsÀammattilaiset - pitivÀt metsÀnhakkuita esittÀvistÀ kuvista hieman enemmÀn kuin muut ryhmÀt. NÀmÀ tulokset tukevat oletusta, ettÀ maisemapreferenssit ovat laajalti yhtenevÀisiÀ ainakin yhden kansan tai kulttuurin keskuudessa, vaikka myös viiteryhmÀ saattaa vaikuttaa preferensseihin jonkin verran.
Nykyiset metsÀmaisemanhoito-ohjeet ovat pitkÀlti samankaltaisia tÀssÀ vÀitöskirjassa havaittujen maisemapreferenssien kanssa. MyöskÀÀn tutkittujen vaihtoehtoisten hoitotapojen ekologisen paremmuuden ja niihin kohdistuvien maisemallisten arvostusten vÀlillÀ ei ollut suurta ristiriitaa. Kuitenkin joitakin eroavaisuuksia oli; esimerkiksi sekÀ maisemanhoito-ohjeiden ettÀ ekologisten hypoteesien mukaan sÀÀstöpuut tulisi jÀttÀÀ ryhmiin, kun taas ihmiset pitivÀt eniten yksittÀin jÀtetyistÀ puista. Informaatiomalli ja psyko-evolutionaarinen teoria tarjoavat mahdollisia selityksiÀ uudistushakkuisiin ja pellonmetsitykseen kohdistuville preferensseille, vaikkakaan tutkimuksen tuloksia ei voida tÀysin selittÀÀ nÀillÀ teorioilla
Time resolved spectroscopy of dust and gas from extrasolar planetesimals orbiting WD 1145+017
Multiple long and variable transits caused by dust from possibly
disintegrating asteroids were detected in light curves of WD 1145+017. We
present time-resolved spectroscopic observations of this target with QUCAM CCDs
mounted in the Intermediate dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System at the
4.2-m William Herschel Telescope in two different spectral arms: the blue arm
covering 3800-4025 {\AA} and the red arm covering 7000-7430 {\AA}. When
comparing individual transits in both arms, our observations show with 20
{\sigma} significance an evident colour difference between the in- and
out-of-transit data of the order of 0.05-0.1 mag, where transits are deeper in
the red arm. We also show with > 6 {\sigma} significance that spectral lines in
the blue arm are shallower during transits than out-of-transit. For the
circumstellar lines it also appears that during transits the reduction in
absorption is larger on the red side of the spectral profiles. Our results
confirm previous findings showing the u'-band excess and a decrease in line
absorption during transits. Both can be explained by an opaque body blocking a
fraction of the gas disc causing the absorption, implying that the absorbing
gas is between the white dwarf and the transiting objects. Our results also
demonstrate the capability of EMCCDs to perform high-quality time resolved
spectroscopy of relatively faint targets.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to MNRA
Strategic Design through Brand Contextualization
Providing meaningful customer experience is at the core of any successful business activity. Brands can function as vehicles to bundle the ingredients of experience together and give them structure by which consumers are able to understand and interpret products and services. To complement the technical and functional reality and experience, brands create particular narratives around products and services, within the realm of their use experience. This paper aims to contribute to understanding of strategic design and brand contextualization by looking thoroughly into a research-driven student project. The product-service design assignment given to seven teams of four to five post-graduate students was to design a new bike-sharing system, serving the sustainable urban mobility needs of the city of Gothenburg in Sweden. The task was accompanied by a request to create a fictive brand case and specific brand narrative, based on a thorough analysis of pre-selected existing brands. The paper discusses how the teams crafted their brand narratives and how different design and service elements were used to create specific and meaningful brand experiences. In addition to the contribution of the paper to design research and practice, we present a process that might be more widely useful for the education of strategic design and brand management
Encouraging Sustainable Urban Access: An Exploratory Student Approach to Design of Product Service Systems
Urban access is a key trans-disciplinary design axiom looking to ensure that every member of the society can reach those locations and resources one needs for a sustainable standard of living and productivity. This should be achieved in a way that does not deprive others from their right to access the same urban environment. Crafting the future of urban transportation design is a dynamic process that depends on developing a thorough understanding of the complexity of the human needs that associate with delivering ways to support urban access and, in particular, more sustainable and socially inclusive mobility patterns. New market demands and customer expectations force public and private organisations to expand their commitment to cross-border collaborations to provide attractive alternative transport modes. This paper discusses the challenge of utilizing design innovation as a tool for eco-branding and how an exploratory approach to this has been used in a post-graduate course in Visual Brand Identity and Product Design. Seven research teams, closely guided by the authors, were affiliated with designing an innovative hypothetical bike-sharing scheme for the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, with the potential to captivate road usersâ acceptability. An overall description of the project concept and a brief summary of the results produced are presented herein. More specifically, this paper concentrates solely on one of the most innovative projects delivered within the course and discusses how the students adopted the challenge, as well as the actual project outcome and its contribution to the overall learning experience
Innovative Bike-Sharing Design as a Research and Educational Platform for Promoting More Livable Urban Futures
Studying the viability of innovative urban access design is the key in achieving optimum results when attempting to transform dogmatism referring to conventional car-orientation into a meaningful driver of modal change founded on the actual societal needs for future transportation. An efficient public bicycle scheme could be the very definition of a system that could encourage and even facilitate, in real terms, such a transition. This paper is discussing how a post-graduate course embraced, through the means of a service-oriented design exercise, the potential introduction of such a system. More specifically, seven research teams, closely guided by the three authors, were affiliated with designing a new hypothetical bike-sharing scheme in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden more captivating than the existing one. The paper reports on: a) the novel educational approach the tutors employed, b) the taught experiences that helped the students utilize their potential as learners but also as inventive designers, c) the research in terms of design results and d) the overall transition from solely serving the needs of automotive mobility in urban environments, to creating a knowledge platform that actually illustrates an improved design-innovation process to tackle future urban demands and eventually have a real-life context impact on the city of Gothenburg
PAPR Constrained Power Allocation for Iterative Frequency Domain Multiuser SIMO Detector
Peak to average power ratio (PAPR) constrained power allocation in single
carrier multiuser (MU) single-input multiple-output (SIMO) systems with
iterative frequency domain (FD) soft cancelation (SC) minimum mean squared
error (MMSE) equalization is considered in this paper. To obtain full benefit
of the iterative receiver, its convergence properties need to be taken into
account also at the transmitter side. In this paper, we extend the existing
results on the area of convergence constrained power allocation (CCPA) to
consider the instantaneous PAPR at the transmit antenna of each user. In other
words, we will introduce a constraint that PAPR cannot exceed a predetermined
threshold. By adding the aforementioned constraint into the CCPA optimization
framework, the power efficiency of a power amplifier (PA) can be significantly
enhanced by enabling it to operate on its linear operation range. Hence, PAPR
constraint is especially beneficial for power limited cell-edge users. In this
paper, we will derive the instantaneous PAPR constraint as a function of
transmit power allocation. Furthermore, successive convex approximation is
derived for the PAPR constrained problem. Numerical results show that the
proposed method can achieve the objectives described above.Comment: Presented in IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)
201
Three-dimensional U(1) gauge+Higgs theory as an effective theory for finite temperature phase transitions
We study the three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory (Ginzburg-Landau model) as
an effective theory for finite temperature phase transitions from the 1 K scale
of superconductivity to the relativistic scales of scalar electrodynamics. The
relations between the parameters of the physical theory and the parameters of
the 3d effective theory are given. The 3d theory as such is studied with
lattice Monte Carlo techniques. The phase diagram, the characteristics of the
transition in the first order regime, and scalar and vector correlation lengths
are determined. We find that even rather deep in the first order regime, the
transition is weaker than indicated by 2-loop perturbation theory. Topological
effects caused by the compact formulation are studied, and it is demonstrated
that they vanish in the continuum limit. In particular, the photon mass
(inverse correlation length) is observed to be zero within statistical errors
in the symmetric phase, thus constituting an effective order parameter.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figure
Benzothiadiazole induces the accumulation of phenolics in strawberry
We have studied the potency of benzothiadiazole against powdery mildew disease in strawberry under greenhouse conditions, where the disease can be a problem.
The results show that, in addition to other cultivation techniques, BTH-induced resistance could be exploited to obtain fruits with higher amount of beneficial health compounds
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