Issues Related to Text Comprehensibility: The Future of Readability

Cet article situe la lisibilité dans une perspective historique. Il présente un tour d’horizon des différentes mesures de la lisibilité qui existent ainsi que de leur impact, s’intéresse aux différentes composantes qui influencent la construction du sens et présente des préoccupations pédagogiques relatives à l’intelligibilité.This paper places readability in an historical context, reviews the development of present day formulas and their liabilities, explores other factors that influence meaning making, and considers comprehensibility from the point of view of the educator. The authors conclude that determining how easy or how difficult a particular book may be for a particular reader is a complex task. There may be a time when it is possible to develop a formula that includes all elements that impact upon readability, but at present, estimating text comprehensibility requires personal judment

Artificial recharge by means of careo channels versus natural aquifer recharge in a semi-arid, high-mountain watershed (Sierra Nevada, Spain)

This research was undertaken as part of the project "Impact, monitoring and assessment of global and climate change on water resources in high-mountain National Parks (CCPM) ", with reference number CANOA-51.3.00.43.00 and funded by Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales from the Ministerio para la Transicion Ecologica y el Reto Demografico. The authors thank the Ibero-American Science and Technology for Devel-opment Programme (CYTED) for its financial support to the network "Wa-ter Sowing and Harvesting in Protected Natural Areas" (419RT0577) . This work is a contribution to the Research Group RNM-126 of the Junta de Andalucia. Special thanks goes to the irrigation community in Berchules and the Sierra Nevada National Park for their collaboration. We also appre-ciate the support of AEMET and REDIAM, who provided meteorological and hydrological data. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions which led to a substantial improvement of the paper.The acequias de careo are ancestral water channels excavated during the early Al-Andalus period (8th–10th centuries), which are used to recharge aquifers in the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Southeastern Spain). The water channels are maintained by local communities, and their main function is collecting snowmelt, but also runoff from rainfall fromthe headwaters of river basins and distributing it throughout the upper parts of the slopes. Thismethod of aquifer artificial recharge extends the availability of water resources in the lowlands of the river basins during the dry season when there is almost no precipitation and water demand is higher. This study investigates the contribution of the careo channels in the watershed of Bérchules concerning the total aquifer recharge during the 2014–2015 hydrological year. Several channels were gauged, and the runoff data were compared with those obtained from a semi-distributed hydrological model applied to the same hydrological basin. The natural infiltration of meteoric waters accounted for 52%of the total recharge, while the remaining 48% corresponded to water transported and infiltrated by the careo channels. In other words, the careo recharge system enhances by 92% the natural recharge to the aquifer. Our results demonstrate the importance of this ancestral and efficient channel system for recharging slope aquifers developed in hard rocks. The acequias de careo are nature-based solutions for increasing water resources availability that have contributed to a prosperous life in the Sierra Nevada. Its long history (>1200 years) suggests that the system has remarkable resilience properties, which have allowed adaptation and permance for centuries in drastically changing climatic and socioeconomic conditions. This recharge system could also be applied to—or inspire similar adaptation measures in— semi-arid mountain areas around the world where it may help in mitigating climate change effects.Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales CANOA-51.3.00.43.00Ibero-American Science and Technology for Devel-opment Programme (CYTED) 419RT0577 RNM-126Junta de Andaluci

The Recharge Channels of the Sierra Nevada Range (Spain) and the Peruvian Andes as Ancient Nature-Based Solutions for the Ecological Transition

Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Water Resources Management (NbS-IWRM) involve natural, or nature-mimicking, processes used to improve water availability in quantity and quality sustainably, reduce the risks of water-related disasters, enhance adaptation to climate change and increase both biodiversity and the social-ecological system’s resilience. United Nations and the European Commission promote their research as a cornerstone in the changeover to the Ecological Transition. In the Sierra Nevada range (Spain) and the Andean Cordillera, there is a paradigmatic and ancestral example of NbS-IWRM known as “careo channels” and “amunas”, respectively. They recharge slope aquifers in mountain areas and consist of an extensive network of channels that infiltrate the runoff water generated during the snow-thawing and rainy season into the upper parts of the slopes. The passage of water through the aquifers in the slope is used to regulate the water resources of the mountain areas and thus ensure the duration of water availability for the downstream local population and generate multiple ecosystem services. This form of water management is known asWater Sowing and Harvesting (WS&H). As shown in this work, it is a living example of a resilience and climate change adaptation tool that can be qualified as a nature-based solution.Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales from the Ministerio para la Transicion Ecologica y el Reto Demografico SPIP202102741 2768/2021Ibero-American Science and Technology for Development Programme (CYTED) 419RT0577"Severo Ochoa" extraordinary grants for excellence IGME-CSIC AECEX202

An artificial neural network approach to the estimation of stem water potential from frequency domain reflectometry soil moisture measurements and meteorological data

Stem water potential seems to be a sensitive measure of plant water status. Nonetheless, it is a labour-intensive measurement and is not suited for automatic irrigation scheduling or control. This study describes the application of artificial neural networks to estimate stem water potential from soil moisture at different depths and standard meteorological variables, considering a limited data set. The experiment was carried out with `Navelina¿ citrus trees grafted on `Cleopatra¿ mandarin. Principal components analysis and multiple linear regression were used preliminarily to assess the relationships among observations and to propose other models to allow a comparative analysis, respectively. Two principal components account for the systematic data variation. The optimum regression equation of stem water potential considered temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and soil moisture at 50 cm as input variables, with a determination coefficient of 0.852. When compared with their corresponding regression models, ANNs presented considerably higher performance accuracy (with an optimum determination coefficient of 0.926) due to a higher input-output mapping ability.The authors are grateful to TECVASA, which obtained a subsidy from the Conselleria de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentacion de la Generalitat Valenciana (DOCV 5493, 19 April 2007, no. exp.: 2007TAHAVAL00018), and to the Valencian Institute for Agricultural Research (IVIA) for providing the meteorological data for this study.Martí Pérez, PC.; Gasque Albalate, M.; González Altozano, P. (2013). An artificial neural network approach to the estimation of stem water potential from frequency domain reflectometry soil moisture measurements and meteorological data. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 91:75-86. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2012.12.001S75869

Conflict of Interest Policies at Canadian Universities: Clarity and Content

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]Abstract Discussions of conflict of interest (COI) in the university have tended to focus on financial interests in the context of medical research; much less attention has been given to COI in general or to the policies that seek to manage COI. Are university COI policies accessible and understandable? To whom are these policies addressed (faculty, staff, students)? Is COI clearly defined in these policies and are procedures laid out for avoiding or remedying such situations? To begin tackling these important ethical and governance questions, our study examines the COI policies at the Group of Thirteen (G13) leading Canadian research universities. Using automated readability analysis tools and an ethical content analysis, we begin the task of comparing the strengths and weaknesses of these documents, paying particular attention to their clarity, readability, and utility in explaining and managing COI.This study was supported by a grant from the Institute of Genetics of the Canadian Institutes of Health Researc

The ecohydrological approach in water sowing and harvesting systems: the case of the Paltas Catacocha ecohydrology demonstration site, Ecuador

Water sowing and harvesting (WS&H), a term adopted from Latin America, is an ancestral process that involves gathering and infiltration (sowing) of rainwater, surface runoff, and groundwater to recover it (harvesting) later and/or elsewhere. The WS&H systems follow the approaches of integrated water resource management, nature-based solutions and the recovery of ancestral knowledge for water management. In this paper, we present some representative types of WS&H in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, and then, we focus on the Paltas Catacocha Ecohydrology Demonstration Site in southern Ecuador as a study case. The recovery of such local ecohydrological knowledge in the study case has made enabled the regulation and retention of water in the aquifers through the restoration of artificial wetlands (cochas) and stream dams ( tapes or tajamares). Also, this ancestral way of water management has recently supported and reactivated several biological aspects and human activities. The experience of the Paltas Catacocha site shows that there are more appropriate and sustainable alternatives to gray infrastructure projects for water resources management and denotes the need to study ancestral water and soil management systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of readability on the usefulness of online product reviews:A case study on an online bookstore

Online product reviews is an important advantage for consumers of experience goods in online marketplaces and act as a useful source of information during the purchase of a good. Furthermore in some online marketplaces consumers have the opportunity to evaluate how helpful a review was by using a binary evaluation interface provided by the online marketplace. This results to the usefulness score of a review which is calculated as a fraction of helpful votes over the total votes that this review has received. Our early results indicate that the usefulness score of a particular review is affected in a significant way by the qualitative characteristics of the review as measured by readability tests applied to a large dataset of reviews collected from the UK section of the popular online marketplace Amazon