Top Performing Farmers are Information Rich: Case Studies of Sheep and Cattle Farmers in the South Island of New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to investigate the management behaviours of six top performing sheep and beef farmers from the South Island of New Zealand. Information was obtained through interviews using grounded theory qualitative research methodology. All six farmers were found to be information rich. They source information widely and with a discriminating behaviour. They read widely, typically about one hour per day. They participate in discussion groups but only when relevant information can be obtained. They regularly visit other farms and tend to associate with other high-performing people. They have well developed networks. They have challenging, relevant and achievable goals and targets. All six farmers plan well ahead but with a strong focus on flexibility. They are early adopters rather than first movers in relation to new technologies. Having decided that an innovation has merit they usually test it in a small way before making any major commitment that cannot be reversed. All were benchmarking their operations against other top operators, both formally and informally. They were particularly interested in the reasons why other farmers were achieving success, and hence liked to have direct contact with these people. All of them were interested in the financial benchmark comparisons obtained from their accountant. These top performing farmers have well developed management frameworks such that the process of planning, implementation, monitoring and reflection occurs on a daily basis. Farming is a passion as well as a career.benchmarking, farm management, sheep and beef cattle farmers, grounded theory, New Zealand, decision-making process, information sourcing, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

A Probabilistic Framework for Automatic and Dependable Adaptation in Dynamic Environments

Reviewed by Miguel P. CorreiaDistributed protocols executing in uncertain environments, like the Internet, had better adapt dynamically to environment changes in order to preserve QoS. In earlier work, it was shown that QoS adaptation should be dependable, if correctness of protocol properties is to be maintained. More recently, some ideas concerning specific strategies and methodologies for improving QoS adaptation have been proposed. In this paper we describe a complete framework for dependable QoS adaptation. We assume that during its life-time, a system alternates periods where its temporal behavior is well characterized, with transition periods during which a variation of the environment conditions occurs. Our method is based on the following: if the environment is generically characterized in analytical terms, and we can detect the alternation of these stable and transient phases, we can improve the effectiveness and dependability of QoS adaptation. To prove our point we provide detailed evaluation results of the proposed solutions. Our evaluation is based on synthetic data flows generated from probabilistic distributions, as well as on real data traces collected in various Internet-based environments. Our results show that the proposed strategies can indeed be effective, allowing protocols to adapt to the available QoS in a dependable way.EC project IST-FP6-STREP-26979 (HIDENETS), and FCT, through the Multiannual and CMU-Portugal programmes

Perceptions of Portuguese parents about the acceptability of a multicomponent intervention targeted at behavioral inhibition during early childhood

High and stable behavioral inhibition during early childhood is a risk factor for later anxiety disorders. The few available interventions targeted at behavioral inhibition have not yet been implemented in European countries. Evaluating intervention acceptability is essential when introducing interventions in new cultures. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of parents about the acceptability of the multicomponent Turtle Program in Portugal. Participants were 12 parents (from seven families) of children with a positive screening on the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire and no diagnoses of developmental disorders/selective mutism. Children's mean age was 55.86 months and most children were female and first-born. Parents and children participated in the eight-sessions Turtle Program. After each session, parents completed weekly satisfaction checklists. Following completion of the full intervention, parents were invited to participate in individual qualitative in-depth interviews. The thematic analysis revealed that both parents perceived the intervention objectives and contents as relevant. Both parents suggested the introduction of follow-up sessions, the discussion of practical experiences, the need to be sensitive to cultural differences in positive language, and the provision of more feedback about children's activities. These findings support prior research on the acceptability and cultural tailoring needed for parenting and child socioemotional learning interventions.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Guidelines on the treatment of primary immune thrombocytopenia in children and adolescents: Associacao Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular Guidelines Project: Associacao Medica Brasileira - 2012

Centro de Hematologia de São PauloUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de MedicinaCentro Infantil BoldriniUniversidade de São Paulo Faculdade de MedicinaAssociacao Medica BrasileiraHospital Ana CostaCentro de Hematologia e Hemoterapia de Santa CatarinaUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

Digital data sources and methods for conservation culturomics

Peer reviewe

Perceções das famílias portuguesas acerca do impacto da participação no turtle program

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inferring public interest from search engine data requires caution

Non peer reviewe