Omschakelen naar biologisch, iets voor u?

Wat komt er kijken bij omschakelen van gangbare naar biologische boomteelt. Wat betekent biologische bomen en planten kweken in de praktijk en waar kun je terecht als er vragen rijzen. In dit Biokennis bericht wordt ingegaan op de biologische uitgangspunten, de certificering, de onkruidbestrijding en bemesting, de milieuaspecten, de marktontwikkeling en de bedrijfsnetwerken en belangenbehartiging van boomkwekerijen

Overview of VideoCLEF 2009: New perspectives on speech-based multimedia content enrichment

VideoCLEF 2009 offered three tasks related to enriching video content for improved multimedia access in a multilingual environment. For each task, video data (Dutch-language television, predominantly documentaries) accompanied by speech recognition transcripts were provided. The Subject Classification Task involved automatic tagging of videos with subject theme labels. The best performance was achieved by approaching subject tagging as an information retrieval task and using both speech recognition transcripts and archival metadata. Alternatively, classifiers were trained using either the training data provided or data collected from Wikipedia or via general Web search. The Affect Task involved detecting narrative peaks, defined as points where viewers perceive heightened dramatic tension. The task was carried out on the “Beeldenstorm” collection containing 45 short-form documentaries on the visual arts. The best runs exploited affective vocabulary and audience directed speech. Other approaches included using topic changes, elevated speaking pitch, increased speaking intensity and radical visual changes. The Linking Task, also called “Finding Related Resources Across Languages,” involved linking video to material on the same subject in a different language. Participants were provided with a list of multimedia anchors (short video segments) in the Dutch-language “Beeldenstorm” collection and were expected to return target pages drawn from English-language Wikipedia. The best performing methods used the transcript of the speech spoken during the multimedia anchor to build a query to search an index of the Dutch language Wikipedia. The Dutch Wikipedia pages returned were used to identify related English pages. Participants also experimented with pseudo-relevance feedback, query translation and methods that targeted proper names

Role of the cyclic lipopeptide massetolide A in biological control of Phytophthora infestans and in colonization of tomato plants by Pseudomonas fluorescens

Pseudomonas strains have shown promising results in biological control of late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans. However, the mechanism(s) and metabolites involved are in many cases poorly understood. Here, the role of the cyclic lipopeptide massetolide A of Pseudomonas fluorescens SS101 in biocontrol of tomato late blight was examined. Pseudomonas fluorescens SS101 was effective in preventing infection of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) leaves by P. infestans and significantly reduced the expansion of existing late blight lesions. Massetolide A was an important component of the activity of P. fluorescens SS101, since the massA-mutant was significantly less effective in biocontrol, and purified massetolide A provided significant control of P. infestans, both locally and systemically via induced resistance. Assays with nahG transgenic plants indicated that the systemic resistance response induced by SS101 or massetolide A was independent of salicylic acid signalling. Strain SS101 colonized the roots of tomato seedlings significantly better than its massA-mutant, indicating that massetolide A was an important trait in plant colonization. This study shows that the cyclic lipopeptide surfactant massetolide A is a metabolite with versatile functions in the ecology of P fluorescens SS101 and in interactions with tomato plants and the late blight pathogen P. infestans

Data protection, safeguarding and the protection of children's privacy: exploring local authority guidance on parental photography at school events

Should parents be allowed to take photographs at school events? Media reports suggest that increasingly schools are answering no to this question, either prohibiting or imposing stringent restrictions upon such photography. The legal justifications for such restrictions are, however, unclear. Accordingly, in 2013 freedom of information requests were sent to local education authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, the aim being to determine what advice local education authorities provide to schools in relation to parental photography at school events, and to identify how education authorities’ understandings of the law influence the advice they offer. That research reveals that local education authorities’ understandings of the law vary significantly and that where authorities do not fully appreciate the extent of the legal obligations arising this may have significant repercussions for the children concerned