191 research outputs found
PACE into fruit tree spraying practice
A concerted effort was made over a 2 year period (2012-13) to transfer the webpage linked PACE (Pesticide dose Adjustment to the Crop Environment) (Walklate and Cross 2013a) system into commercial practice in the UK and to test the results of its implementation on 7 commercial tree fruit farms, feeding back the results to growers and industry. The aim of PACE is to support lo
A LiDAR crop scanner for managing pesticide dose adjustment
This paper gives a brief description of a LiDAR Crop Scanner (LCS) and associated software for recording and processing sequential range measurements of tree-row structures. The data processing methods have been described in previous publications (Walklate et al., 2002 and Walklate and Cross, 2013). The results of apple orchard measurements show examples of output
Evaluation of laser range-finder mapping for agricultural spraying vehicles
In this paper, we present a new application of laser range-finder sensing to agricultural spraying vehicles. The current generation of spraying vehicles use automatic controllers to maintain the height of the sprayer booms above the crop.
However, these control systems are typically based on ultrasonic sensors mounted on the booms, which limits the accuracy of the measurements and the response of the controller to changes in the terrain, resulting in a sub-optimal spraying process. To overcome these limitations, we propose to use a laser scanner, attached to the front of the sprayer's cabin, to scan the ground surface in front of the vehicle and to build a scrolling 3d map of the terrain. We evaluate the proposed solution in a series of field tests, demonstrating that the approach provides a more detailed and accurate representation of the environment than the current sonar-based solution, and which can lead to the development of more efficient boom control systems
Deconstructing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender victim of sex trafficking: Harm, exceptionality and religion–sexuality tensions
Contrary to widespread belief, sex trafficking also targets lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) communities. Contemporary social and political constructions of victimhood lie at the heart of regulatory policies on sex trafficking. Led by the US Department of State, knowledge about LGBT victims of trafficking constitutes the newest frontier in the expansion of criminalization measures. These measures represent a crucial shift. From a burgeoning range of preemptive measures enacted to protect an amorphous class of ‘all potential victims’, now policies are heavily premised on the risk posed by traffickers to ‘victims of special interest’. These constructed identities, however, are at odds with established structures. Drawing on a range of literatures, the core task of this article is to confront some of the complexities and tensions surrounding constructions of LGBT trafficking victims. Specifically, the article argues that discourses of ‘exceptional vulnerability’ and the polarized notions of ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’ inform hierarchies of victimhood. Based on these insights, the article argues for the need to move beyond monolithic understandings of victims, by reframing the politics of harm accordingly
Governance of policing and cultural codes: interpreting and responding to policy directives
In terms of governance, British policing seems to arise from a history of local traditions influenced more recently by centralist managerial demands. A creeping process of privatisation has led social scientists to argue that patterns of governance in British policing are changing in several directions. This has included the way police officers not only are challenged, but also challenge these changing modes of governance in terms of ethical codes of behaviour. There is evidence that police officers, as meaningful actors, have made attempts to diverge from these strictures and have forged their own ways, via their cultural knowledge and practices, to ‘do policing’, rather than relying upon codes of practice or rules and regulations
Recommended from our members
Identification of sequence changes in myosin II that adjust muscle contraction velocity.
The speed of muscle contraction is related to body size; muscles in larger species contract at slower rates. Since contraction speed is a property of the myosin isoform expressed in a muscle, we investigated how sequence changes in a range of muscle myosin II isoforms enable this slower rate of muscle contraction. We considered 798 sequences from 13 mammalian myosin II isoforms to identify any adaptation to increasing body mass. We identified a correlation between body mass and sequence divergence for the motor domain of the 4 major adult myosin II isoforms (β/Type I, IIa, IIb, and IIx), suggesting that these isoforms have adapted to increasing body mass. In contrast, the non-muscle and developmental isoforms show no correlation of sequence divergence with body mass. Analysis of the motor domain sequence of β-myosin (predominant myosin in Type I/slow and cardiac muscle) from 67 mammals from 2 distinct clades identifies 16 sites, out of 800, associated with body mass (padj 0.05). Both clades change the same small set of amino acids, in the same order from small to large mammals, suggesting a limited number of ways in which contraction velocity can be successfully manipulated. To test this relationship, the 9 sites that differ between human and rat were mutated in the human β-myosin to match the rat sequence. Biochemical analysis revealed that the rat-human β-myosin chimera functioned like the native rat myosin with a 2-fold increase in both motility and in the rate of ADP release from the actin-myosin crossbridge (the step that limits contraction velocity). Thus, these sequence changes indicate adaptation of β-myosin as species mass increased to enable a reduced contraction velocity and heart rate
The decline and rise of neighbourhoods: the importance of neighbourhood governance
There is a substantial literature on the explanation of neighbourhood change. Most of this literature concentrates on identifying factors and developments behind processes of decline. This paper reviews the literature, focusing on the identification of patterns of neighbourhood change, and argues that the concept of neighbourhood governance is a missing link in attempts to explain these patterns. Including neighbourhood governance in the explanations of neighbourhood change and decline will produce better explanatory models and, finally, a better view about what is actually steering neighbourhood change
Gender norms in Portuguese college sudents' judgments in familial homicides: bad men and mad women
The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in
judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students
regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of
these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included
303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and
engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based
on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to
infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of
the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results
show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being
more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized
by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized
than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency
toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender
norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for
intervention against the punitive tendency of this population
Voices of deficit: Mental health, criminal victimisation and epistemic injustice
People who endure mental and emotional distress experience a plethora of negative experiences beyond the effects of the symptoms themselves. For centuries, the designation of labels of difference; that is, those which transgress approved social norms, have affected the lived experiences of those individuals, and more widely in structuring responses, engagements with, and attitudes between society and the individual. Understanding the creation of tainted identities, particularly of those with experience of mental and emotional distress have been well rehearsed in the sociological literature of the second half of the twentieth century. Central to much of this analysis has been to understand the nature of the manufacture of deviant identities, how they are sustained and the impact of these identities on those who experience them. This paper explores the experience of those with mental and emotional distress as a victim of crime. The interconnectedness of matters of identity created though the application of a diagnosis of illness/disorder is addressed as is the crisis of criminal victimisation. This is achieved via an exploration of contemporary concerns surrounding victims of crime with experience of mental and emotional distress, including the (further) loss of voice and agency when interfacing with agencies of the State
The social nature of serial murder: The intersection of gender and modernity
The literature on the aetiology of serial killing has benefited from analyses which offer an alternative perspective to individual/psychological approaches and consider serial murder as a sociological phenomenon. The main argument brought to bear within this body of work identifies the socio-economic and cultural conditions of modernity as enabling and legitimating the motivations and actions of the serial killer. This article interrogates this work from the standpoint of a gendered reading of modernity. Using the Yorkshire Ripper case, it emphasizes how in addition to the political economy, gender relations and masculinity shape the dynamics of serial murder and its representation
- …