Review. Precision viticulture. Research topics, challenges and opportunities in site-specific vineyard management

Precision Viticulture (PV) is a concept that is beginning to have an impact on the wine-growing sector. Its practical implementation is dependant on various technological developments: crop sensors and yield monitors, local and remote sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), VRA (Variable-Rate Application) equipment and machinery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and systems for data analysis and interpretation. This paper reviews a number of research lines related to PV. These areas of research have focused on four very specific fields: 1) quantification and evaluation of within-field variability, 2) delineation of zones of differential treatment at parcel level, based on the analysis and interpretation of this variability, 3) development of Variable-Rate Technologies (VRT) and, finally, 4) evaluation of the opportunities for site-specific vineyard management. Research in these fields should allow winegrowers and enologists to know and understand why yield variability exists within the same parcel, what the causes of this variability are, how the yield and its quality are interrelated and, if spatial variability exists, whether site-specific vineyard management is justifiable on a technical and economic basis.

Clustering of grape yield maps to delineate site-specific management zones

Zonal management in vineyards requires the prior delineation of stable yield zones within the parcel. Among the different methodologies used for zone delineation, cluster analysis of yield data from several years is one of the possibilities cited in scientific literature. However, there exist reasonable doubts concerning the cluster algorithm to be used and the number of zones that have to be delineated within a field. In this paper two different cluster algorithms have been compared (k-means and fuzzy c-means) using the grape yield data corresponding to three successive years (2002, 2003 and 2004), for a ‘Pinot Noir’ vineyard parcel. Final choice of the most recommendable algorithm has been linked to obtaining a stable pattern of spatial yield distribution and to allowing for the delineation of compact and average sized areas. The general recommendation is to use reclassified maps of two clusters or yield classes (low yield zone and high yield zone) and, consequently, the site-specific vineyard management should be based on the prior delineation of just two different zones or sub-parcels. The two tested algorithms are good options for this purpose. However, the fuzzy c-means algorithm allows for a better zoning of the parcel, forming more compact areas and with more equilibrated zonal differences over time.

Creació i transmissió de coneixement als clústers empresarials: un model de simulació

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a l’Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center de la Wharton School de la University of Pennsilvanya y, EUA entre juliol i desembre del 2007. L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és estudiar la relació entre les estratègies de gestió del coneixement i les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TIC) en l’evolució de les poblacions d’organitzacions i els seus efectes en els patrons industrials d’aglomeració espacial. Per a això s’adopta una aproximació fonamentada en la utilització d'un model basats en agents per a obtenir hipòtesis significatives i provables sobre l’evolució de les poblacions d’organitzacions al si de clústers geogràfics. El model de simulació incorpora les perspectives i supòsits d’un marc conceptual, l’Espai de la Informació o I-Space. Això permet una conceptualització basada en la informació de l’entorn econòmic que té en compte les seves dimensions espacials i temporals. Mitjançant els paràmetres del model es dóna la possibilitat d’assignar estratègies específiques de gestió del coneixement als diversos agents i de localitzar-los en una posició de l’espai físic. La simulació mostra com l'adopció d'estratègies diverses pel que fa a la gestió del coneixement influeix en l'evolució de les organitzacions i de la seva localització espacial, i que aquesta evolució es veu modificada pel desenvolupament de les TIC. A través de la modelització de dos casos ben coneguts de clústers geogràfics d’alta tecnologia, com són Silicon Valley a Califòrnia i la Route 128 als voltants de Boston, s’estudia la interrelació entre les estratègies de gestió del coneixement adoptades per les empreses i la seva tria de localització espacial, i també com això és afectat per l’evolució de les tecnologies de la informació i de la comunicació (TIC). Els resultats obtinguts generen una sèrie d’hipòtesis de rica potencialitat sobre l’impacte del desenvolupament de les TIC en la dinàmica d’aquests clusters geogràfics. Concretament, es troba que la estructuració del coneixement i l’aglomeració espacial co-evolucionen i que aquesta coevolució es veu significativament alterada pel desenvolupament de les TIC.

Mètriques de productivitat de programari per a la gestió de projectes

En aquest document s'introdueixen els conceptes bàsics necessaris per a l'execució de mètriques de productivitat de programari. Després de la introducció, s'estudien amb detall les mètriques de productivitat més emprades actualment, que són línies de codi (mètrica orientada a les dimensions del projecte), punts de funció (orientada a la funcionalitat del projecte, específica per a projectes de gestió), punts de característica (semblant a punts de funció, però més genèrica i útil per a altres tipus de projectes) i punts de casos d'ús (també orientada a la funció i específica per a projectes d'orientació a objectes). S'hi explica com es pot aconseguir, a partir d'aquestes mètriques i amb l'ajut de models d'estimació de productivitat, com ara el model COCOMO II, les estimacions de l'esforç necessari per a desenvolupar un projecte de programari i la distribució de l'esforç en totes les etapes del projecte a partir de les estimacions de la fase de desenvolupament. També es tracta, encara que no amb tanta profunditat, de la mètrica

Network revenue management with product-specific no-shows

Revenue management practices often include overbooking capacity to account for customerswho make reservations but do not show up. In this paper, we consider the network revenuemanagement problem with no-shows and overbooking, where the show-up probabilities are specificto each product. No-show rates differ significantly by product (for instance, each itinerary andfare combination for an airline) as sale restrictions and the demand characteristics vary byproduct. However, models that consider no-show rates by each individual product are difficultto handle as the state-space in dynamic programming formulations (or the variable space inapproximations) increases significantly. In this paper, we propose a randomized linear program tojointly make the capacity control and overbooking decisions with product-specific no-shows. Weestablish that our formulation gives an upper bound on the optimal expected total profit andour upper bound is tighter than a deterministic linear programming upper bound that appearsin the existing literature. Furthermore, we show that our upper bound is asymptotically tightin a regime where the leg capacities and the expected demand is scaled linearly with the samerate. We also describe how the randomized linear program can be used to obtain a bid price controlpolicy. Computational experiments indicate that our approach is quite fast, able to scale to industrialproblems and can provide significant improvements over standard benchmarks.

A priori parameterisation of the CERES soil-crop models and tests against several European data sets

Mechanistic soil-crop models have become indispensable tools to investigate the effect of management practices on the productivity or environmental impacts of arable crops. Ideally these models may claim to be universally applicable because they simulate the major processes governing the fate of inputs such as fertiliser nitrogen or pesticides. However, because they deal with complex systems and uncertain phenomena, site-specific calibration is usually a prerequisite to ensure their predictions are realistic. This statement implies that some experimental knowledge on the system to be simulated should be available prior to any modelling attempt, and raises a tremendous limitation to practical applications of models. Because the demand for more general simulation results is high, modellers have nevertheless taken the bold step of extrapolating a model tested within a limited sample of real conditions to a much larger domain. While methodological questions are often disregarded in this extrapolation process, they are specifically addressed in this paper, and in particular the issue of models a priori parameterisation. We thus implemented and tested a standard procedure to parameterize the soil components of a modified version of the CERES models. The procedure converts routinely-available soil properties into functional characteristics by means of pedo-transfer functions. The resulting predictions of soil water and nitrogen dynamics, as well as crop biomass, nitrogen content and leaf area index were compared to observations from trials conducted in five locations across Europe (southern Italy, northern Spain, northern France and northern Germany). In three cases, the model’s performance was judged acceptable when compared to experimental errors on the measurements, based on a test of the model’s root mean squared error (RMSE). Significant deviations between observations and model outputs were however noted in all sites, and could be ascribed to various model routines. In decreasing importance, these were: water balance, the turnover of soil organic matter, and crop N uptake. A better match to field observations could therefore be achieved by visually adjusting related parameters, such as field-capacity water content or the size of soil microbial biomass. As a result, model predictions fell within the measurement errors in all sites for most variables, and the model’s RMSE was within the range of published values for similar tests. We conclude that the proposed a priori method yields acceptable simulations with only a 50% probability, a figure which may be greatly increased through a posteriori calibration. Modellers should thus exercise caution when extrapolating their models to a large sample of pedo-climatic conditions for which they have only limited information.

Ra isotopes and Rn as a tool for the water management resources: the Alberquillas aquifer (Málaga-Granada)

The aim of this project is to evaluate the importance of submarine groundwater discharge sector in order to improve the water balance in Málaga-Granada region. The approach of this study arose from the the geology and the aquifers that indicate that there could be some discharge to the sea between Maro (Málaga) and Almuñécar (Granada) and the Andalusian’s Government and its Water Agence were really interested in evaluating it because there is a lot of population and few water available and the magnitude of groundwater discharge has generated controversy. Is well known that water is a scarce resource in this area and it’s very important for the society and for the environment. The legislation, the water policies, the knowledge of the aquifer and the geology, the water dynamics, the land use and the water perception in the society might help the management of this resource not just in Andalusia but in all the Mediterranean basin. The main objective is to evaluate the submarine groundwater discharge from the Alberquillas Aqufier to the sea by measuring 222Rn and Ra isotopes. Specific objectives have been established to achieve the main objective: A) Reveal the importance of water resources in the Mediterranean basin; B) Learn radiometric techniques for the study of groundwater discharge to the sea; C) Learn of sampling techniques of water samples for the measurement of Ra and Rn; D) Learn the techniques for measuring Ra (RaDeCC) and Rn (RAD7); E) Interpretation and discussion of results. During this semester, and in addition of the present study in Málaga- Granada region, the author has participated in the initial phase (sampling, analysis and interpretation of preliminary results) of other research projects focused on the study of submarine groundwater discharges through the use of Ra isotopes and 222Rn. These studies have been developed in different areas, including Alt Empordà (Roses and Sant Pere Pescador), Maresme with CMIMA’s group (Mediterranean Center for Marine and Environmental Research), Delta de l’Ebre, Peñíscola and Mallorca with the IMEDEA’s group (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies).

Entorns col•laboratius virtuals asíncrons basats en Web i enfocats en la gestió del coneixement = Web-based Asynchronous Collaborative Environments Focused on Knowledge Management

Report for the scientific sojourn at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, from september 2007 until july 2008. Communities of Learning Practice is an innovative paradigm focused on providing appropriate technological support to both formal and especially informal learning groups who are chiefly formed by non-technical people and who lack of the necessary resources to acquire such systems. Typically, students who are often separated by geography and/or time have the need to meet each other after classes in small study groups to carry out specific learning activities assigned during the formal learning process. However, the lack of suitable and available groupware applications makes it difficult for these groups of learners to collaborate and achieve their specific learning goals. In addition, the lack of democratic decision-making mechanisms is a main handicap to substitute the central authority of knowledge presented in formal learning.

Estràtegies de gestió per al manteniment de la biodiversitat a la sabana brasilera: control d'especies exòtiques amb foc

Report for the scientific sojourn at the Instituto de Biociências, of the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 2007 to 2009. African exotic grasses, used as forage crops for cattle, found optimal conditions in Brazilian savannas for their spread. They established as invasive grasses in almost all conservation units, becoming a serius threat to native biote and to most ecological processes. Fire is a cyclical event in Brazilian savannas and can be used as a management tool for enhancing competitivity of native grasses and controlling exotic grasses. Seeking for alternatives for the management of these grasses, this study investigates the effect of recurrent burnings in different periods of the year (fire regimes) on: distribution patterns of exotic grasses and their associations wotih native grasses, the local edaphic characteristics, the nutrient pool of the aerial biomass of both native and exotic grasses, and soil seed banks. This project is held on the IBGE Ecological Reserve, in Brasília (Brazil), in an area destined specifically for research of fire effects on brazilian savannas. The project quantifies: aerial biomass of native and exotic grasses, soil seed bank of exotic grasses, nutrient pool in soil and also in grasses tissues. Spatial relationships for any association between species, as well as for nutrient pools in soil and in plant tissues will be established. A better understanding of these processes will provide useful tools for adopting specific policies on the management of exotic grasses in Brazilian savanna.

Information systems for water resources management improvement in developing countries

Water resources management, as also water service provision projects in developing countries have difficulties to take adequate decisions due to scarce reliable information, and a lack of proper information managing. Some appropriate tools need to be developed in order to improve decision making to improve water management and access of the poorest, through the design of Decision Support Systems (DSS). On the one side, a DSS for developing co-operation projects on water access improvement has been developed. Such a tool has specific context constrains (structure of the system, software requirements) and needs (Logical Framework Approach monitoring, organizational-learning, accountability and evaluation) that shall be considered for its design. Key aspects for its successful implementation have appeared to be a participatory design of the system and support of the managerial positions at the inception phase. A case study in Tanzania was conducted, together with the Spanish NGO ONGAWA – Ingeniería para el Desarrollo. On the other side, DSS are required also to improve decision making on water management resources in order to achieve a sustainable development that not only improves the living conditions of the population in developing countries, but that also does not hinder opportunities of the poorest on those context. A DSS made to fulfil these requirements shall be using information from water resources modelling, as also on the environment and the social context. Through the research, a case study has been conducted in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, an endhorreic basin 160 km south of Addis Ababa. There, water has been modelled using ArcSWAT, a physically based model which can assess the impact of land management practices on large complex watersheds with varying soils, land use and management conditions over long periods of time. Moreover, governance on water and environment as also the socioeconomic context have been studied.

Exploring Cross-layer power management for PGAS applications on the SCC platform

Technological limitations and power constraints are resulting in high-performance parallel computing architectures that are based on large numbers of high-core-count processors. Commercially available processors are now at 8 and 16 cores and experimental platforms, such as the many-core Intel Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) platform, provide much higher core counts. These trends are presenting new sets of challenges to HPC applications including programming complexity and the need for extreme energy efficiency.In this work, we first investigate the power behavior of scientific PGAS application kernels on the SCC platform, and explore opportunities and challenges for power management within the PGAS framework. Results obtained via empirical evaluation of Unified Parallel C (UPC) applications on the SCC platform under different constraints, show that, for specific operations, the potential for energy savings in PGAS is large; and power/performance trade-offs can be effectively managed using a cross-layerapproach. We investigate cross-layer power management using PGAS language extensions and runtime mechanisms that manipulate power/performance tradeoffs. Specifically, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of such a middleware for application-aware cross-layer power management of UPC applications on the SCC platform. Finally, based on our observations, we provide a set of recommendations and insights that can be used to support similar power management for PGAS applications on other many-core platforms.

Knowledge management for systems biology a general and visually driven framework applied to translational medicine

Background: To enhance our understanding of complex biological systems like diseases we need to put all of the available data into context and use this to detect relations, pattern and rules which allow predictive hypotheses to be defined. Life science has become a data rich science with information about the behaviour of millions of entities like genes, chemical compounds, diseases, cell types and organs, which are organised in many different databases and/or spread throughout the literature. Existing knowledge such as genotype - phenotype relations or signal transduction pathways must be semantically integrated and dynamically organised into structured networks that are connected with clinical and experimental data. Different approaches to this challenge exist but so far none has proven entirely satisfactory. Results: To address this challenge we previously developed a generic knowledge management framework, BioXM™, which allows the dynamic, graphic generation of domain specific knowledge representation models based on specific objects and their relations supporting annotations and ontologies. Here we demonstrate the utility of BioXM for knowledge management in systems biology as part of the EU FP6 BioBridge project on translational approaches to chronic diseases. From clinical and experimental data, text-mining results and public databases we generate a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) knowledge base and demonstrate its use by mining specific molecular networks together with integrated clinical and experimental data. Conclusions: We generate the first semantically integrated COPD specific public knowledge base and find that for the integration of clinical and experimental data with pre-existing knowledge the configuration based set-up enabled by BioXM reduced implementation time and effort for the knowledge base compared to similar systems implemented as classical software development projects. The knowledgebase enables the retrieval of sub-networks including protein-protein interaction, pathway, gene - disease and gene - compound data which are used for subsequent data analysis, modelling and simulation. Pre-structured queries and reports enhance usability; establishing their use in everyday clinical settings requires further simplification with a browser based interface which is currently under development.

Toward integrated management of cerebral aneurysms

In the last few years, some of the visionary concepts behind the virtual physiological human began to be demonstrated on various clinical domains, showing great promise for improving healthcare management. In the current work, we provide an overview of image- and biomechanics-based techniques that, when put together, provide a patient-specific pipeline for the management of intracranial aneurysms. The derivation and subsequent integration of morphological, morphodynamic, haemodynamic and structural analyses allow us to extract patient-specific models and information from which diagnostic and prognostic descriptors can be obtained. Linking such new indices with relevant clinical events should bring new insights into the processes behind aneurysm genesis, growth and rupture. The development of techniques for modelling endovascular devices such as stents and coils allows the evaluation of alternative treatment scenarios before the intervention takes place and could also contribute to the understanding and improved design of more effective devices. A key element to facilitate the clinical take-up of all these developments is their comprehensive validation. Although a number of previously published results have shown the accuracy and robustness of individual components, further efforts should be directed to demonstrate the diagnostic and prognostic efficacy of these advanced tools through large-scale clinical trials.

Health care management autonomy: Evidence from the Catalonian hospital sector in a decentralised Spain

The organisation of inpatient care provision has undergone significant reform in many southern European countries. Overall across Europe, public management is moving towards the introduction of more flexibility and autonomy . In this setting, the promotion of the further decentralisation of health care provision stands out as a key salient policy option in all countries that have hitherto had a traditionally centralised structure. Yet, the success of the underlying incentives that decentralised structures create relies on the institutional design at the organisational level, especially in respect of achieving efficiency and promoting policy innovation without harming the essential principle of equal access for equal need that grounds National Health Systems (NHS). This paper explores some of the specific organisational developments of decentralisation structures drawing from the Spanish experience, and particularly those in the Catalonia. This experience provides some evidence of the extent to which organisation decentralisation structures that expand levels of autonomy and flexibility lead to organisational innovation while promoting activity and efficiency. In addition to this pure managerial decentralisation process, Spain is of particular interest as a result of the specific regional NHS decentralisation that started in the early 1980 s and was completed in 2002 when all seventeen autonomous communities that make up the country had responsibility for health care services.Already there is some evidence to suggest that this process of decentralisation has been accompanied by a degree of policy innovation and informal regional cooperation. Indeed, the Spanish experience is relevant because both institutional changes took place, namely managerial decentralisation leading to higher flexibility and autonomy- alongside an increasing political decentralisation at the regional level. The coincidence of both processes could potentially explain why some organisation and policy innovation resulting from policy experimentation at the regional level might be an additional featureto take into account when examining the benefits of decentralisation.

Variations in national management accounting approaches

During the 1990's studies of management accounting practices in Europe and in Latin America have given us data on 23 countries. In this paper we use this data to identify five distinct aspects of national management accounting culture being:1. The influence of regulations on official recommendations;2. The source of management accountants;3. Influence from one country to another;4. Variations in use of specific techniques;5. Variations in the objectives of the management accounting system.We then identify seven significant implications of the manager operating in the multinational environment.