Farm Lands Brochure: Heavy Artillery In the War Between the Bulldozer and the Plow

Thirteen months ago, the National Agricultural Lands Study (NALS) published a pamphlet to publicize its existence as a new federal agency

Explainability as a non-functional requirement: challenges and recommendations

Software systems are becoming increasingly complex. Their ubiquitous presence makes users more dependent on their correctness in many aspects of daily life. As a result, there is a growing need to make software systems and their decisions more comprehensible, with more transparency in software-based decision making. Transparency is therefore becoming increasingly important as a non-functional requirement. However, the abstract quality aspect of transparency needs to be better understood and related to mechanisms that can foster it. The integration of explanations into software has often been discussed as a solution to mitigate system opacity. Yet, an important first step is to understand user requirements in terms of explainable software behavior: Are users really interested in software transparency and are explanations considered an appropriate way to achieve it? We conducted a survey with 107 end users to assess their opinion on the current level of transparency in software systems and what they consider to be the main advantages and disadvantages of embedded explanations. We assess the relationship between explanations and transparency and analyze its potential impact on software quality. As explainability has become an important issue, researchers and professionals have been discussing how to deal with it in practice. While there are differences of opinion on the need for built-in explanations, understanding this concept and its impact on software is a key step for requirements engineering. Based on our research results and on the study of existing literature, we offer recommendations for the elicitation and analysis of explainability and discuss strategies for the practice. © 2020, The Author(s)

Shrinkage Stresses Generated during Resin-Composite Applications: A Review

Many developments have been made in the field of resin composites for dental applications. However, the manifestation of shrinkage due to the polymerization process continues to be a major problem. The material's shrinkage, associated with dynamic development of elastic modulus, creates stresses within the material and its interface with the tooth structure. As a consequence, marginal failure and subsequent secondary caries, marginal staining, restoration displacement, tooth fracture, and/or post-operative sensitivity are clinical drawbacks of resin-composite applications. The aim of the current paper is to present an overview about the shrinkage stresses created during resin-composite applications, consequences, and advances. The paper is based on results of many researches that are available in the literature

Ban on toxic mercury looms in sugar cane farming, but Australia still has a way to go

This month, federal authorities finally announced an upcoming ban on mercury-containing pesticide in Australia. We are one of the last countries in the world to do so, despite overwhelming evidence over more than 60 years that mercury use as fungicide in agriculture is dangerous

Background concentrations of mercury in Australian freshwater sediments : the effect of catchment characteristics on mercury deposition

Waterways in the Southern Hemisphere, including on the Australian continent, are facing increasing levels of mercury contamination due to industrialization, agricultural intensification, energy production, urbanization, and mining. Mercury contamination undermines the use of waterways as a source of potable water and also has a deleterious effect on aquatic organisms. When developing management strategies to reduce mercury levels in waterways, it is crucial to set appropriate targets for the mitigation of these contaminated waterways.These mitigation targets could be (1) trigger values or default guideline values provided by water and sediment quality guidelines or (2) background (pre-industrialization) levels of mercury in waterways or sediments. The aims of this study were to (1) quantify the differences between existing environmental guideline values for mercury in freshwater lakes and background mercury concentrations and (2) determine the key factors affecting the spatial differences in background mercury concentrations in freshwater lake systems in Australia. Mercury concentrations were measured in background sediments from 21 lakes in Australia. These data indicate that background mercury concentrations in lake sediments can vary significantly across the continent and are up to nine times lower than current sediment quality guidelines in Australia and New Zealand. This indicates that if waterway managers are aiming to restore systems to ‘pre-industrialization’ mercury levels, it is highly important to quantify the site-specific background mercury concentration. Organic matter and precipitation were the main factors correlating with background mercury concentrations in lake sediments. We also found that the geology of the lake catchment correlates to the background mercury concentration of lake sediments.The highest mercury background concentrations were found in lakes in igneous mafic intrusive regions and the lowest in areas underlain by regolith. Taking into account these findings, we provide a preliminary map of predicted background mercury sediment concentrations across Australia that could be used by waterway managers for determining management targets. Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Peter Gell” is provided in this record*

O significado da vivencia da doença crônica para o adolescente

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem, Florianópolis, 2010Esta pesquisa qualitativa do tipo exploratório-descritiva teve como objetivo compreender os significados da vivência de uma doença crônica para o adolescente hospitalizado ou em acompanhamento ambulatorial. Os aspectos teóricos acerca da adolescência evidenciam a existência de um momento de ricas transformações, no qual se torna necessário um olhar cuidadoso e amoroso sobre o cotidiano destas pessoas. Os profissionais de enfermagem, por lidarem com questões relacionadas à saúde e ao adoecimento, têm importantes contribuições a acrescentar ao processo de viver destes seres, em especial aos que vivenciam uma doença crônica. Para direcionar a pesquisa foi utilizado o Interacionismo Simbólico. Este referencial teórico está alicerçado na concepção de que os seres humanos agem em relação aos significados que as coisas têm para eles. Os locais escolhidos para o seu desenvolvimento foram a Unidade de Internação Pediátrica e o Ambulatório de Pediatria do Hospital Universitário da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Participaram onze adolescentes na faixa etária de 12 a 17 anos com diagnóstico de doença crônica (internados na Unidade de Internação Pediátrica ou que realizavam acompanhamento no Ambulatório de Pediatria) no período de março a junho de 2009. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas e registrados com sistema de gravação. A análise dos dados seguiu os passos do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo, à luz do referencial teórico. Os resultados da pesquisa são apresentados na forma de três manuscritos intitulados: 1) Doença Crônica e Adolescência, que aborda como é conviver com uma doença com características de cronicidade, quais os significados construídos pelo adolescente em suas interações e como ele se sente em relação à sua doença; 2) Cotidiano do Adolescente com Doença Crônica, que discute as alterações no processo de escolarização e as restrições alimentares no cotidiano destes adolescentes; e 3) (Con)vivendo com uma Doença Crônica durante a Adolescência, que traz questões referentes às hospitalizações, à convivência com limitações e restrições e às experiências destes adolescentes ao compartilharem seus sentimentos. O conhecimento destes processos é essencial na promoção do melhor enfrentamento de sua condição crônica. Esta pesquisa contribui para ampliar o olhar sobre a vivência da doença crônica a partir da percepção e dos significados atribuídos pelo adolescente, buscando novas formas de atuar e pensar o cuidado, a fim de propor intervenções que realmente o auxiliem no enfrentamento positivo de sua doença

Adoption of agricultural innovations through non-traditional financial services (‘INNOVATE’) : final technical report

This detailed report by the Mennonite Economic Development Associates of Canada (MEDA), provides a summary and in-depth program review of the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations through Non-Traditional Financial Services project (or ‘INNOVATE’). The project aims to assess the potential of non-traditional financial services to enable large scale adoption of agricultural innovations among men and women smallholders in South Asia, Latin America and East Africa and use the lessons to inform policymaking and programing regarding agricultural development. Key achievements, milestones, outputs, outcomes, partnerships and dissemination of research are included in the report