Création de haies-vives par semis directs : premières expérimentations en Nord Côte d'Ivoire

La délimitation du parcellaire ·par des haie-vive est un domaine en pleine extension en milieu paysan sénoufo. Depuis 1988, la station de Korhogo du Département Foresterie de l'Institut des Forêts (IDEFOR-DFO) de Côte d'Ivoire mène, avec l'appui du Centre Technique Forestier Tropical (CTFT) des recherches sur la création de haies-vives à but défensif. Un des programmes de recherche concerne la mise au point des techniques de création de haies par semis direct, Dans ce programme les thèmes abordés concernent la levée de dormance des graines et leur conservation après traitement et l'élimination de la concurrence herbacée qui est la cause majeure d'échec de création de hales par semis. Les premiers essais, menés avec des graines gonflées par trempage à l'eau montrent que la germination en milieu naturel est, pour de nombreuses espèces, bien inférieure à celle des tests en laboratoire: Il est donc important de bien maîtriser le prétraitement des graines. Ceci a eté fait pour Bauhinia rufescens et Dichrostachys cinerea. Ziziphus mauritiana décortiqué ne nécessite pas de prétraitement. Les essais ont montré que si la croissance en première année des semis était inférieure à celle des plants Issus de pépinière, le retard initial diminue en seconde année, voire disparaît pour certaines espèces ou provenances. Les premiers essais d'entretien de haies par herbicides ont permis de sélectionner un herbicide de prélevée à épandre juste après le semis de la haie. Pour les entretiens en cours de saison des pluies 2 herbicides ont donné des résultats satisfaisants. La vulgarisation du semis direct pour la création de haies peut être entreprise en pays sénoufo si, de quelque manière que ce soit, l'accès aux graines est aisé et si celles-ci sont bon marché

Création de haies-vives par semis directs : problématique, premières expérimentations en Nord Côte d'Ivoire

La délimitation du parcellaire ·par des haie-vive est un domaine en pleine extension en milieu paysan sénoufo. Depuis 1988, la station de Korhogo du Département Foresterie de l'Institut des Forêts (IDEFOR-DFO) de Côte d'Ivoire mène, avec l'appui du Centre Technique Forestier Tropical (CTFT) des recherches sur la création de haies-vives à but défensif. Un des programmes de recherche concerne la mise au point des techniques de création de haies par semis direct, Dans ce programme les thèmes abordés concernent la levée de dormance des graines et leur conservation après traitement et l'élimination de la concurrence herbacée qui est la cause majeure d'échec de création de hales par semis. Les premiers essais, menés avec des graines gonflées par trempage à l'eau montrent que la germination en milieu naturel est, pour de nombreuses espèces, bien inférieure à celle des tests en laboratoire: Il est donc important de bien maîtriser le prétraitement des graines. Ceci a eté fait pour Bauhinia rufescens et Dichrostachys cinerea. Ziziphus mauritiana décortiqué ne nécessite pas de prétraitement. Les essais ont montré que si la croissance en première année des semis était inférieure à celle des plants Issus de pépinière, le retard initial diminue en seconde année, voire disparaît pour certaines espèces ou provenances. Les premiers essais d'entretien de haies par herbicides ont permis de sélectionner un herbicide de prélevée à épandre juste après le semis de la haie. Pour les entretiens en cours de saison des pluies 2 herbicides ont donné des résultats satisfaisants. La vulgarisation du semis direct pour la création de haies peut être entreprise en pays sénoufo si, de quelque manière que ce soit, l'accès aux graines est aisé et si celles-ci sont bon marché

Difficult horses – Prevalence, approaches to management of and understanding of how they develop by equine veterinarians

Despite the considerable risk of veterinary occupational injury due to adverse horse behaviour, limited information is available about the prevalence of unwanted equine behaviours or common approaches to managing them. An understanding of learning theory may affect veterinarians’ approaches to dealing with unwanted equine behaviours, however learning theory is not widely taught. The aim of this study was to document the challenges equine veterinarians face when working with difficult horses and define their approaches to managing them, including their understanding of the processes through which horses learn. A link to an online survey was distributed via email amongst U.K. equine veterinarians. Descriptive and Kruskal-Wallis statistical analyses were performed. We found that 95% of equine veterinarians reported working with difficult horses on at least a monthly basis, resulting in 81% of them sustaining at least one injury in the last five years. The most popular methods of dealing with unwanted behaviours were physical and chemical restraint. 46% of those surveyed had never received any tuition on the processes through which horses learn. Despite 79% believing they had at least a moderate understanding of equine learning theory they performed poorly when tested, with only 10% able to get at least 5 out of 6 questions correct. Further education on the subject of learning theory may be beneficial

Detecting semantic social engineering attacks with the weakest link: Implementation and empirical evaluation of a human-as-a-security-sensor framework

The notion that the human user is the weakest link in information security has been strongly, and, we argue, rightly contested in recent years. Here, we take a step further showing that the human user can in fact be the strongest link for detecting attacks that involve deception, such as application masquerading, spearphishing, WiFi evil twin and other types of semantic social engineering. Towards this direction, we have developed a human-as-a-security-sensor framework and a practical implementation in the form of Cogni-Sense, a Microsoft Windows prototype application, designed to allow and encourage users to actively detect and report semantic social engineering attacks against them. Experimental evaluation with 26 users of different profiles running Cogni-Sense on their personal computers for a period of 45 days has shown that human sensors can consistently outperform technical security systems. Making use of a machine learning based approach, we also show that the reliability of each report, and consequently the performance of each human sensor, can be predicted in a meaningful and practical manner. In an organisation that employs a human-as-a-security-sensor implementation, such as Cogni-Sense, an attack is considered to have been detected if at least one user has reported it. In our evaluation, a small organisation consisting only of the 26 participants of the experiment would have exhibited a missed detection rate below 10%, down from 81% if only technical security systems had been used. The results strongly point towards the need to actively involve the user not only in prevention through cyber hygiene and user-centric security design, but also in active cyber threat detection and reporting

Accounting for the human when designing with AI : challenges identified

Now that the application of Artificial Intelligence (Al) is becoming more mainstream, it is applied in many different fields, and consequently, it is starting to play a more prominent role in design processes. In current mainstream HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) design frameworks, the human (or user) is seen as the main focus, and stakeholders' perspectives are taken into account throughout the whole problem-solving process to design thoughtful solutions. The increased complexity of design processes caused by the rise of Al, however, poses new challenges to these existing approaches, particularly for involving the human in the design process. Five challenges that can be of influence on accounting for the human in design processes involving Al are identified and elaborated upon: 1) insufficient Al literacy of designers and users, 2) the black-box nature of neural networks, 3) where to start: design vs data, 4) customized solutions for narrow user segments, and 5) thinking ahead: an extended collaborative design process. These challenges arise across the exploration, design, implementation, evaluation, and deployment phases. This extended abstract discusses possible approaches per challenge on how to warrant integration of the human perspective

Love your city! An interactive platform empowering citizens to turn the public domain into a participatory domain

In the past years, governments have recognized the potential of interactive technology to bridge the gap with citizens. The right tools and guidance could enhance citizenship and enable co-creation between citizens and (local) governments. However, this opportunity does not automatically lead to a participatory practice. In the current article, we introduce six participation parameters, i.e., certainty, communication, freedom, responsibility, sympathy and support, to guide the design of a means that facilitates people to participate and co-create with other citizens and local government. We describe and reflect upon these parameters and the resulting ‘Love your city’ concept. An interactive platform that allows and empowers citizens to personally tackle issues they encounter in their direct environment, with the aim to contribute to a participatory domain.Industrial DesignIndustrial Design Engineerin

Participatory data gathering for public sector reuse: lessons learned from traditional initiatives

Part 2: Open Government Data and TransparencyInternational audienceLocal governments are increasingly looking for new ways to involve citizens in policy and decision-making, for example by combining public sector data sources with data gathered by citizens. Several examples exist of data gathering where personal mobile devices act as data collectors. While these efforts illustrate the technical capability of data sourcing, they neglect the value of local knowledge where people use their senses to capture and interpret data. Traditional data gathering initiatives, however, exploit this local knowledge to inform policy makers, e.g., neighborhood policing. To understand data gathering processes of these traditional data gathering initiatives, three cases are examined. We analyze these cases, focusing on the various elements they contain, concluding how digital data gathering can be informed by these traditional variants, concerning what the benefits of using digital means can be for data gathering and how traditional initiatives ensure data re-use by the public sector

Emergent technologies in mixed and multimethod research: incorporating mobile technologies

This chapter presents an overview of the developments and potentials of mobile technologies and their major impact on society and the daily activities of individuals. The increase of sensors embedded in everyday objects enable these objects to sense the environment and communicate. This creates new possibilities to gather and process large amounts of data. We show how these opportunities can trigger a paradigm shift in the social sciences. Social scientists no longer collect data but use data that is available and collected for other reasons. These data will vary in validity and quality. It can come from sensors in personal mobile devices, smart environments, or social infrastructures. This asks a strong interpretive approach from multimethod- and mixed methods researches to harness these data

Participatory data gathering for public sector reuse: lessons learned from traditional initiatives

Local governments are increasingly looking for new ways to involve citizens in policy and decision-making, for example by combining public sector data sources with data gathered by citizens. Several examples exist of data gathering where personal mobile devices act as data collectors. While these efforts illustrate the technical capability of data sourcing, they neglect the value of local knowledge where people use their senses to capture and interpret data. Traditional data gathering initiatives, however, exploit this local knowledge to inform policy makers, e.g., neighborhood policing. To understand data gathering processes of these traditional data gathering initiatives, three cases are examined. We analyze these cases, focusing on the various elements they contain, concluding how digital data gathering can be informed by these traditional variants, concerning what the benefits of using digital means can be for data gathering and how traditional initiatives ensure data re-use by the public sector

De toekomst is open: Rotterdam open data in onderzoek en praktijk

Het idee om overheidsdata vrij beschikbaar te stellen aan de samenleving is relatief nieuw en heeft een groot innovatief potentieel. Rotterdam speelt in op internationale bewegingen om informatie uit de publieke sector vrij te geven als open data. Om dit proces in gang te zetten en te bespoedigen heeft de Hogeschool Rotterdam samen met een aantal gemeentelijke clusters en afdelingen het onderzoeksproject ‘Professionals Supported – Rotterdam Open Data’ (PSROD) opgezet. Dit project verkent de drempels en kansen van data ontsluiting binnen de gemeente Rotterdam. Het is een praktijkgericht onderzoeksproject, dat niet alleen streeft naar het vergaren en ontwikkelen van kennis, maar ook naar het daadwerkelijk ontsluiten van data. De Hogeschool, gemeente en bedrijven hebben open data in Rotterdam de laatste jaren gezamenlijk op de rails gezet, met projecten als PS-ROD en ROD(S) 2.0. Dit boek toont de resultaten van PS-ROD, aangevuld net interviews met en tekstuele bijdragen van betrokkenen