Physical and financial evaluation of a group of high producing dairy farms in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science (MApplSc) in Pastoral Science, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Traditionally, New Zealand dairy production has been based on high pasture utilisation at high stocking rates, which resulted in low animal performance. Recently, a group of farmers (AGMARDT - Dairy Farm Monitoring Programme) gradually changed their production policy to a high production per hectare system achieved through high animal performance. The system is based on pre and post grazing herbage mass targets, strategic use of supplements to overcome pasture deficit and moderate stocking rates (2.7 cows/ha). This project evaluated the physical and financial characteristics of nine case study farms in the Southern North Island of New Zealand, involved in these changes. A one-year system study was conducted (2000/2001) in which physical and financial data were obtained to identify factors affecting farm production, efficiency and profitability. The results showed that the systems were effective and profitable, under the conditions in the 2000/2001 year. Average annual milksolids production per cow (411 kg MS/cow/year) and per hectare (1,100 kg MS/ha/year) for the case study farms were 33% higher than the national average. Average annual total intake for all farms was 5,257 kg DM/cow, 14,035 kg DM/ha, 59,656 MJ ME/cow and 159,232 MJ ME/ha. Mean economic farm surplus per ha for all case study farms (NZ$3,077/ha) was higher than regional averages (by 622 = 0.71) and per hectare (R 2 = 0.74) were closely correlated with pasture intake. Supplements (24$5.00/kg MS will probably not remain in the future, control of production costs should receive more emphasis, particularly supplement costs. Keywords: dairy system, pasture management, feed quality, pasture intake, supplement intake, animal performance, stocking rate, feed conversion efficiency, cost of milksolids production, profitability

Michael Dummett on social choice and voting

Michael Dummett worked on the theoretical aspects of aggregation of individual preferences and on the strategic aspects of voting theory. He also extended Black’s analysis of single-peaked preferences for majority rule to the case of voting games (majority games), offering a greater flexibility for the expression of voters’ preferences. He is also with Donald Saari one of the major advocates of the use of Borda’s rule in actual voting. In two books and a paper, he proposed many examples showing the advantages and defects of many voting rules used in the world

Desenho em série com meninas que apresentam comportamento oposicionista desafiante em sala de aula

Este estudio investigó las correlaciones entre la participación en sesiones terapéuticas de dibujo en serie, no dirigido, y la presencia o ausencia de mejoría en el comportamiento oposicionista desafiante (COD) de cinco niñas, de ocho a diez años de edad, estudiantes de una escuela pública en Londres, Inglaterra. Cada niña participó en quince sesiones individuales de cuarenta minutos, una vez por semana. A las niñas se les invitó a dibujar lo que ellas quisieran y a contarle a la investigadora la historia de su dibujo. Los profesores completaron el cuestionario sobre COD para evaluar si las niñas presentaban dicha conducta. Se identificaron cambios en el comportamiento y respuestas emocionales de las niñas en el aula a través del Cuestionario Semanal sobre COD, el cual fue respondido por sus profesores. Estos docentes también completaron el Cuestionario de Capacidades y Dificultades (SDQ, por sus siglas en inglés) antes de la primera y después de la décima quinta sesión. Se utilizó el método casaárbol- persona (HTP, por sus siglas en inglés) durante las sesiones uno, ocho y quince, y sus resultados fueron interpretados por la investigadora. Al terminar el estudio, los profesores respondieron el Formulario Final de las sesiones de dibujo. Cuatro niñas presentaron mejoría en sus síntomas de COD, mientras que una de ellas mostró solo un ligero progreso. Los resultados sugieren que el uso de dibujos en serie y no dirigidos promueve que las niñas con COD expresen sus pensamientos y emociones de una forma simbólica y dentro de un ambiente seguro, lo que reduce la frecuencia y la intensidad de sus respuestas emocionales y comportamentales en el aula.This study investigated the correlations between participation in therapy sessions involving non-directive serial drawing and subsequent improvements, or lack thereof, in the oppositional defiant behavior (ODB) of five girls aged eight to ten years in an inner-city school in London, England. Each child individually attended fifteen forty-minute sessions on a weekly basis. Each child was invited to draw anything that she wished and then to tell the story of her drawing to the researcher. The class teachers completed the ODB Questionnaire to determine a baseline measurement of this conduct. Changes in the girls' emotional and classroom behaviors were identified based on the ODB Weekly Questionnaire completed by their teachers. The teachers also completed a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) before the first therapy session and after the fifteenth. The House-Tree-Person (HTP) method was used on sessions one, eight and fifteen, and the results were assessed by the researcher. At the end of the study, the teachers completed the Drawing Sessions End Form. Four of the five girls showed improvements in their ODB symptoms, and one demonstrated a slight progress. Results suggested that the use of non-directive drawing encourages girls with ODB to express their thoughts and emotions in a symbolic way within a safe environment, which reduces the frequency and intensity of their emotional and behavioral outbursts in the classroom. Key words: serial drawings, emotional difficulties, behavioral problems.Este estudo pesquisou as correlações entre a participação em sessões terapêuticas de desenho em série, não dirigido, e a presença ou ausência de melhoria, no comportamento oposicionista desafiante COD) de cinco meninas, de oito a dez anos de idade, estudantes de uma escola pública em Londres, Inglaterra. Cada menina participou em quinze sessões individuais de quarenta minutos, uma vez por semana. As meninas foram estimuladas para desenhar o que quisessem e contar à pesquisadora a história do seu desenho. Os professores completaram o questionário sobre COD para avaliar se as meninas apresentavam essa conduta. Identificara-se mudanças no comportamento e respostas emocionais das crianças na sala de aula através do Questionário Semanal sobre COD, que foi respondido por seus professores. Estes docentes também completaram o Questionário de Capacidades e Dificuldades (SDQ, pelas suas siglas em inglês) antes da primeira e depois da décima quinta sessão. Utilizou-se o método casa-árvore-pessoa (HTP, pelas suas siglas em inglês) durante a primeira, oitava e décima-quinta sessão, e seus resultados foram interpretados pela pesquisadora. Depois de terminar o estudo, os professores responderam o Formulário Final das sessões de desenho. Quatro meninas apresentaram melhoria em seus sintomas de COD, enquanto que uma delas mostrou somente um leve progresso. Os resultados sugerem que o uso de desenhos em série e não dirigidos permite que as meninas com COD expressem seus pensamentos e emoções de uma forma simbólica e dentro de um ambiente seguro, o que reduz a frequência e a intensidade de suas respostas emocionais e comportamentais em sala de aula

Valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services: why linking economic values with Nature?

The evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity has become an important field of inquiry for economists. Although this development has been largely motivated by the search for arguments in favour of more ambitious conservation policies, both the methods and the meaning of the results continue to be controversial. This article aims to clarify the interests and limitations of this works, by revisiting a number of issues, such as the economic qualification of the services that human societies take from nature, the specificities of their contribution to human well-being, or the consequences of a valuation of biodiversity based on ecosystem services. We conclude with a discussion of the purposes of evaluations: improving public policies or creating new markets?

SentiTur: Building Linguistic Resources for Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis in the Tourism Sector

The use of linguistic resources beyond the scope of language studies, i.e. commercial purposes, has become commonplace since the availability of massive amounts of data and the development of tools to process them. An interesting focus on these materials is provided by Sentiment Analysis (SA) tools and methodologies, which attempt to identify the polarity or semantic orientation of a text, i.e., its positive, negative, or neutral value. Two main approaches have been made in this sense, one based on complex machine-learning algorithms and the other relying principally on lexical knowledge (Taboada et al., 2011). Lingmotif is an example of lexicon-based SA tool offering polarity classification and other related metrics, together with an analysis of the target segments evaluated (Moreno-Ortiz, 2017). Sentiment has been shown to be domain-specific to a large extent (Choi & Cardie, 2008) and it is therefore necessary to study and describe how sentiment is expressed not only in general language, but also in specialized domains. The availability of annotated, domain-specific corpora could greatly enhance the capacity of SA tools. Furthermore, the demand for a more fine-grained approach requires the identification of specific domain terminology, allowing the recognition of target terms associated with the polarity (Liu, 2012). Most available SA corpora are annotated at the document level, which allows systems to be trained to return the overall orientation of the text. However, more detail is necessary: what aspects exactly are being praised or criticized? This type SA is known as Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA), and attempts to extract more fined-grained knowledge. ABSA has attracted the attention of recent SemEval shared-tasks (Pontiki et al., 2015)