The impact of the event industry on local economic development: internship at intertask conferences

Dissertação de mestrado, Economia do Turismo e Desenvolvimento Regional, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014The event industry is a growing sector of the economy and offers many opportunities for local economic development. It creates positive externalities in different sectors of the economy and develops tourism. The internship undertook within the company Intertask Conferences located in Ottawa, Canada, gave a thorough insight of the event industry and its main challenges. As an intern in the company, the method adopted to address this subject has been the participant observant method. It has been revealed that the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry is an ever-changing field; it must remain up to date, especially in regards to new technologies and social media. A main challenge that the industry faces is to match the budget set by the client and their expectations. When that match is not achieved, it is the job of the event planner to either meet the expectations or find concessions with the client. Communication with the client is of paramount importance to gain their loyalty, and for the good progress of the event

Distinctive Mechanisms and Patterns of Exudative Versus Tractional Intraretinal Cystoid Spaces as Seen With Multimodal Imaging.

PurposeTo determine clear-cut distinctions between tractional and exudative intraretinal cystoid spaces subtypes.DesignRetrospective, multicenter, observational case series.MethodsA cohort of patients diagnosed with intraretinal cystoid spaces and imaged with optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescein angiography (FA), blue fundus autofluorescence (BFAF), en face OCT, and OCT angiography (OCT-A) was included in the study. All images were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated.ResultsIn this study were included 72 eyes of 69 patients. Exudative intraretinal cystoid spaces (36/72 eyes, 50%) displayed a "petaloid" morphology as seen with en face OCT, FA, and BFAF. Tractional intraretinal cystoid spaces (24/72 eyes, 33.3%), displayed a radial "spoke-wheel" en face OCT pattern. There was no leakage with FA and BFAF did not reveal specific patterns. Eyes with full-thickness macular hole (FTMH, 12/72 eyes, 16.7%) displayed a "sunflower" en face OCT appearance. FTMH showed OCT, OCT-A, and BFAF features of both exudative and tractional cystoid spaces, but without any FA leakage. Inner nuclear layer (INL) thickness was significantly lower in tractional cystoid spaces (P < .001). There were a greater number of INL cystoid spaces in both the exudative and FTMH subgroups (P = .001). The surface area of INL cystoid spaces was significantly lower in the tractional subgroup (P < .001). There was a significant reduction of the microvascular density in eyes with exudative vs tractional (P = .002) and FTMH (P < .001) subgroups.ConclusionsExudative and tractional intraretinal cystoid spaces displayed characteristic multimodal imaging features and they may represent 2 different pathologic conditions with equally different clinical implications

La mobilité du regard en géométrie au cycle 3

This reflexive scientific writing speaks about the vision’s mobility in geometry in cycle 3. This cycle is a pivotal cycle between primary school and middle school. It is also a moment for students to change the paradigm concerning geometry’s figures. This writing’s aim is to show the importance of confronting students with problem situations allowing them to use properties, such as alignment, to restore or reproduce figures and allow them to change their gaze when they analyze figures. Indeed, beyond the figure’s “surface vision”, they will perceive all the lines and underlying points. This work is based on scientific texts, analyzes of textbooks and offers experimentation’s avenues. Finally, flash geometry is presented as a ritual that can help the student to make him acquire this long gaze mobility.Cet écrit scientifique réflexif traite de la mobilité du regard en géométrie au cycle 3. Ce cycle est un cycle charnière entre l’école primaire et le collège. Il est également le lieu de changement de paradigme pour l’élève concernant les figures en géométrie. Le but de cet écrit est de montrer l’importance de confronter les élèves à des situations problèmes leur permettant d’utiliser des propriétés, comme l’alignement, pour restaurer ou reproduire des figures et leur permettre ainsi de changer leur regard lorsqu’ils analysent des figures. Effectivement, au-delà de la vision « surface » des figures, ils percevront le réseau de droites et de points sous-jacent. Ce travail s’appuie sur des textes scientifiques, des analyses de manuels scolaires et propose des pistes d’expérimentations. Enfin, la géométrie flash est présentée comme un rituel pouvant aider l’élève dans ce long processus de changement de regard

Mission-oriented Autonomic Configuration of Pervasive Systems

Abstract—In pervasive systems, software applications are dynamically composed from the services provided by the smart devices spread in the local environment. A system must react to changes that occur in the environment and reconfigure applications in order to maintain their operation and assume their missions at its best. This paper advocates the need for a mission description language, which enables service compositions. The system uses mission definitions to calculate a configuration that best executes them with the currently available resources. This optimal configuration is intended to maximize the utility of the system, considering user preferences, available resources, and mission criticality. Contextual adaptations are captured in the mission language as modes and strategies, that respectively describe evolutions of the assigned mission set and alternate ways to execute missions. These mechanisms leverage service component approach, for the dynamic deployment of missions, and agentorientation, for autonomic configuration management. Keywords-pervasive system; autonomic computing; context-awareness; service composition language. I

Importance of agricultural practices on functional diversity of soil microbiota: first tracks of response with a diachronic study of biogeochemical cycles

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SOFIA: Importance of agricultural practices on functional diversity of soil microbiota: first tracks of response with a diachronic study of biogeochemical cycles

In the context of biodiversity conservation, climate changes and biogeochemical cycles understanding, the project SOFIA aims at understanding impacts of agricultural practices on functional diversity of soil microbiota, particularly via a change in nutrients availability to soil organisms. The field experiment consists in series of experimental treatments varying on anthropogenic pressure according to: crop rotation, fertilisation, residue management or soil tillage. We present the diachronic response of microorganisms with modification of soil management, allowing predictive information of agroecosystem functioning. Soils enzymes are interesting indicators to approach the release of nutrients for microbial and plants growth. This diachronic study (four years), following enzymatic activities linked to C, N, P and S cycles, allows hierarchizing firstly, the importance of the anthropic factors introduced and secondly the sensibility of each cycle to these factors. Before application of different agricultural practices, enzymatic activities were homogeneous on the site, whatever the cycle considered. After four years, the amounts of active enzymes were lower with conventional tillage than under reduced tillage and zero tillage. Significant increases appear after two years in the 0-5cm surface layer with reduced tillage, for C and N cycles. P cycle evolution started after two years but significant effects on P and S cycles were observed only after four years. Increased enzyme activity under reduced tillage systems may be related to increased available carbon and/or functional diversity of soils.Results will allow us to assess the ecosystem services potentially provided by the different cropping systems, and the rapidity of the turnover of the microbiota

Regional paleofire regimes affected by non-uniform climate, vegetation and human drivers

International audienceClimate, vegetation and humans act on biomass burning at different spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we used a dense network of sedimentary charcoal records from eastern Canada to reconstruct regional biomass burning history over the last 7000 years at the scale of four potential vegetation types: open coniferous forest/tundra, boreal coniferous forest, boreal mixedwood forest and temperate forest. The biomass burning trajectories were compared with regional climate trends reconstructed from general circulation models, tree biomass reconstructed from pollen series, and human population densities. We found that non-uniform climate, vegetation and human drivers acted on regional biomass burning history. In the open coniferous forest/tundra and dense coniferous forest, the regional biomass burning was primarily shaped by gradual establishment of less climate-conducive burning conditions over 5000 years. In the mixed boreal forest an increasing relative proportion of flammable conifers in landscapes since 2000 BP contributed to maintaining biomass burning constant despite climatic conditions less favourable to fires. In the temperate forest, biomass burning was uncoupled with climatic conditions and the main driver was seemingly vegetation until European colonization, i.e. 300 BP. Tree biomass and thus fuel accumulation modulated fire activity, an indication that biomass burning is fuel-dependent and notably upon long-term co-dominance shifts between conifers and broadleaf trees

Boreal coniferous forest density leads to significant variations in soil physical and geochemical properties

International audienceAt the northernmost extent of the managed forest in Quebec, Canada, the boreal forest is currently undergoing an ecological transition between two forest ecosystems. Open lichen woodlands (LW) are spreading southward at the expense of more productive closed-canopy black spruce-moss forests (MF). The objective of this study was to investigate whether soil properties could distinguish MF from LW in the transition zone where both ecosystem types coexist. This study brings out clear evidence that differences in vegetation cover can lead to significant variations in soil physical and geochemical properties. Here, we showed that soil carbon, exchangeable cations, and iron and aluminium crystallinity vary between boreal closed-canopy forests and open lichen woodlands, likely attributed to variations in soil microclimatic conditions. All the soils studied were typical podzolic soil profiles evolved from glacial till deposits that shared a similar texture of the C layer. However, soil humus and the B layer varied in thickness and chemistry between the two forest ecosystems at the pedon scale. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to evaluate how soil properties could help distinguish the two types at the site scale. MF humus (FH horizons horizons composing the O layer) showed significantly higher concentrations of organic carbon and nitrogen and of the main exchangeable base cations (Ca, Mg) than LW soils. The B horizon of LW sites held higher concentrations of total Al and Fe oxides and particularly greater concentrations of inorganic amorphous Fe oxides than MF mineral soils, while showing a thinner B layer. Overall, our results show that MF store three times more organic carbon in their soils (B+FH horizons, roots apart) than LW. We suggest that variations in soil properties between MF and LW are linked to a cascade of events involving the impacts of natural disturbances such as wildfires on forest regeneration that determines the vegetation structure (stand density) and composition (ground cover type) and their subsequent consequences on soil environmental parameters (moisture, radiation rate, redox conditions, etc.). Our data underline significant differences in soil biogeochemistry under different forest ecosystems and reveal the importance of interactions in the soil-vegetation-climate system for the determination of soil composition

Le fonctionnement biologique des sols : site Qualiagro données actuelles

Le fonctionnement biologique des sols : site Qualiagro données actuelles. Journée scientifique du dispositif Qualiagr