Diurnal variation of overdense meteor echo duration and ozone

The diurnal variation of the median duration of overdense sporadic radar meteor echoes is examined. The meteors recorded in August, December, and January by the Ondrejov meteor radar during the period 1958-1990 were used for the analysis. A maximum median echo duration 1-3 hours after the time of local sunrise in the meteor region confirms the already known sunrise effect. Minimum echo duration occurring at the time of sunset seems to be the most important point of diurnal variation of the echo duration, when ozone is no longer dissociated by solar UV radiation. The effect of diurnal changes of the echo duration should be considered when the mass distribution of meteor showers is analyzed

Virtual form of education in lifelong learning - chance for the country

The availability of education, including lifelong learning, is one of the value measures of quality of life in advanced countries. However, there are still significant differences between a township and a rural region. Centres of education are mainly situated in big cities; smaller municipalities are separated from these centres by tens or hundreds of kilometers (according to the conditions of the Czech Republic). While educating young people, it is usually accepted that they commute towards education; there is a whole range of social and cultural aspects; and above all, they have time for that - it is their main “working†load. The opposite situation is the case in lifelong learning, which is conducted in parallel with full-time employment but is necessary for effective and competitive performing of the employment. For participants of lifelong learning it is impossible to commute big distances; their working load does not allow it. Thus, those forms, in which so called „education which goes to the studentsâ€, are chosen. ICT brings an enormous opportunity to bring education closer to the rural regions. A text form of e-learning is practically already standard; but a voice and image broadcast give us inexhaustible possibilities of usage. The aim of this paper is to propose and verify methods of distant (virtual) education with the use of multimedia tools.E-learning, virtual education, lifelong learning, rural development, multimedia, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland: effects of cattle management and soil conditions

Traditionally, dairy cattle spend a substantial part of the year on pastures. For organic farming within EU it is specified that ”all mammals must have access to pasturage or an open-air exercise area” which they must be able to use whenever ”weather conditions and the state of the ground permits” (Council Regulation [EEC] No 2092/91 ). Dairy production systems are characterized by a considerable N surplus, and N deposited during grazing represents a significant risk for environmental losses, including N2O emissions. Excess N is excreted mainly in the urine, the composition of which is influenced by factors such as lactation stage, sward quality and intake of supplements. Resulting N concentrations in urine patches can range from 20 to 80 g N m-2, and soil environmental conditions associated with such a range of N inputs could affect the potential for N2O production via nitrification and denitrification. Soil properties and fertilization also influence N2O emissions. This presentation shows results from a work package within the MIDAIR project which aimed to describe known sources of variability within the grazing system, and their impact on N2O emissions. The objective was to evaluate if management changes can be proposed that will reduce the risk for N2O emissions associated with grazing. Field studies have addressed the heterogeneity of soil physical, chemical and microbiological properties, while plot-scale and laboratory experiments have examined the fate of urinary C and N and the microbial response to urine deposition

Social Networks as an Integration Tool in Rural Areas – Agricultural Enterprises of the Czech Republic

Social networks have been growing at a rapid pace. Social media represent one of the most significant phenomena of today's world and are more and more integrated from the private sphere into the commercial one (e.g. into marketing where social media already play a substantial role). The present paper is aimed at introducing an initial study on the use of social media in agricultural enterprises. The study was thus targeted at agricultural enterprises – both legal entities (public limited companies, limited liability companies and last but not least cooperatives) and natural persons (farmers) that farm the total area of more than 100 hectares (a basic selection criterion of the survey). This interesting study was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey that included information on social media awareness, development and use within the respective group of respondents (bigger agricultural enterprises). The paper deals with social media as such and naturally with the survey results. The data retrieved from the questionnaire were used not only for monitoring social networks integration in the agrarian sector (important factor in rural areas) but as well for exploring the potential of modern information tools in agriculture promotion. The survey has been carried out in mutual cooperation of the Department of Information Technologies with the Information and Consulting Centre, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.Social media, social network, Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, agrarian sector, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, GA, IN,

Distributed Recognition of Reference Nodes for Wireless Sensor Network Localization

All known localization techniques for wireless sensor and ad-hoc networks require certain set of reference nodes being used for position estimation. The anchor-free techniques in contrast to anchor-based do not require reference nodes called anchors to be placed in the network area before localization operation itself, but they can establish own reference coordinate system to be used for the relative position estimation. We observed that contemporary anchor-free localization algorithms achieve a low localization error, but dissipate significant energy reserves during the recognition of reference nodes used for the position estimation. Therefore, we have proposed the optimized anchor-free localization algorithm referred to as BRL (Boundary Recognition aided Localization), which achieves a low localization error and mainly reduces the communication cost of the reference nodes recognition phase. The proposed BRL algorithm was investigated throughout the extensive simulations on the database of networks with the different number of nodes and densities and was compared in terms of communication cost and localization error with the known related algorithms such as AFL and CRP. Through the extensive simulations we have observed network conditions where novel BRL algorithm excels in comparison with the state of art

Organic farms in the Czech Republic – Map Portal presentation opportunities

The paper is aimed at presenting the map portal of organic farms in the Czech Republic. The pilot project is concerned with the South Bohemia Region. Extensive map data and resources are displayed by means of a purpose-developed universal software solution called Regional Development Map Portal (RDMP) version 1.0. The database was generated and updated on the basis of detailed content validation and strives for maximum accuracy of map object location. The software solution – apart from supporting all standard functions – represents qualitatively a brand new perspective of map data creation and entails many original elements and functionalities

Information Services and ICT Development in Agriculture of the Czech Republic

The paper presents results of KIT (Department of Information Technologies) research which maps the actual state and expected development trends of information and communication technologies in conditions of CR agriculture. It includes results of investigation realized in 2008 with connection to the actually carried out inquiry in the first half-year 2009.Broadband, ADSL, FTTx, Wi-Fi, CDMA, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, G, A, I, N,

Map Resources – ECO Farms in the Czech Republic

The present paper deals with the creation of maps for the sake of a special map portal using the database of eco farms in the Czech Republic. The map output is being developed and implemented within the framework of the Research Program in mutual cooperation of the Department of Information Technologies, Information and Consulting Centre, other departments of the Faculty of Economics and Management CULS Prague with external partners, especially with the Ministry of Agriculture (Environment and Ecological Agriculture Section, Department of Ecological Agriculture) and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (UZEI) - Division of Agro-environmental Policy in Brno. The maps are visualized by means of MPPR 1.0 system and have been processed – in the pilot stage - for the South Bohemian Region eco farms. The results represent initial data from 2009 (as at 31st December 2009) that have been processed, verified and complemented in the course of 2010

New Version of the AGRIS Web Portal – Overcoming the Digital Divide by Providing Rural Areas with Relevant Information

The present paper brings the outcomes of the second stage of a complex AGRIS web portal upgrade (technological, functional, content and design upgrade) called Agris 5.0. The Agris 5.0 version is recently being tested and will be launched in January 2012 on http://www.agris.cz. Agris 5.0 is built and runs on Microsoft technologies (MS Windows Server 2008, MS IIS 7 web server, MS SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, SP2) using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) SW architectural pattern version 3, .NET framework 4, programming language C#, Razor template system, XML and XHTML 1.1 markup languages, CSS 2.1 styles and JavaScript encoding with the jQuery framework. From the user point of view, the Agris portal usability and availability meeting international standards were the utmost priority of the present upgrade.Agris, portal, MVC, digital divide, agrarian sector, rural areas, information resource., Agribusiness, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, GA, IN,

Map Resources – ECO Farms in the Czech Republic

The present paper deals with the creation of maps for the sake of a special map portal using the database of eco farms in the Czech Republic. The map output is being developed and implemented within the framework of the Research Program in mutual cooperation of the Department of Information Technologies, Information and Consulting Centre, other departments of the Faculty of Economics and Management CULS Prague with external partners, especially with the Ministry of Agriculture (Environment and Ecological Agriculture Section, Department of Ecological Agriculture) and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (UZEI) - Division of Agro-environmental Policy in Brno. The maps are visualized by means of MPPR 1.0 system and have been processed – in the pilot stage - for the South Bohemian Region eco farms. The results represent initial data from 2009 (as at 31st December 2009) that have been processed, verified and complemented in the course of 2010.Map portal, web browser, Google Maps, eco farm, ecological agriculture, Act No. 242/2000 Coll, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management, GA, IN,