P-T-t estimation of syn-kinematic strain in low-grade quartz-feldspar bearing rocks using thermodynamic modeling and 40Ar/39Ar dating techniques: example of the Plan-de-Phasy shear zone unit (Briançonnais Zone, Western Alps)

Pressure–Temperature–time (P–T–t) estimates of the syn-kinematic strain at the peak-pressure conditions reached during shallow underthrusting of the Briançonnais Zone in the Alpine subduction zone was made by thermodynamic modelling and 40Ar/39Ar dating in the Plan-de-Phasy unit (SE of the Pelvoux Massif, Western Alps). The dated phengite minerals crystallized syn-kinematically in a shear zone indicating top-to-the-N motion. By combining X-ray mapping with multi-equilibrium calculations, we estimate the phengite crystallization conditions at 270 ± 50 °C and 8.1 ± 2 kbar at an age of 45.9 ± 1.1 Ma. Combining this P–T–t estimate with data from the literature allows us to constrain the timing and geometry of Alpine continental subduction. We propose that the Briançonnais units were scalped on top of the slab during ongoing continental subduction and exhumed continuously until collision.

Integrated Disaster Reduction Approach: LforS Learning and Simulation Game

Main objective of the game is to increase the coping capacity of players and familiarise them with the Integrated Disaster Reduction Approach. The game is intended to prepare for and introduce the players to a subsequent Learning for Sustainability capacity building workshop for community leaders. The game represents a typical emergency situation resulting from a natural disaster. Before and after the event, adequate measures help to prevent or minimise potential damages. Once a disaster has occurred, concerted actions and immediate measures need to be taken to rescue as much as possible (human lives, livestock, material) and safeguard the village against further damage and losses. In the course of the game, each playing team can proof its knowledge on adequate measures that have to be taken in order to avoid or reduce losses related to natural disasters. Such measures relate to assessment and monitoring of risks, prevention and mitigation measures, preparedness and response as well as recovery and reconstruction.

Stratégies de ménages et développement communal: LforS learning and simulation game

Au travers de stratégies appropriées, les ménages, appelés ici Unités de Production et de Consommation (UPC), cherchent à faire face à différents évènements et à améliorer leur situation économique et sociale tout en tenant compte des conditions écologiques. Au travers de l’Assemblée Générale Communale (AGC), les UPC peuvent créer des conditions cadres locales plus ou moins favorables aux stratégies qu’ils poursuivent. Par le développement d’une stratégie d’investissement communale mise en œuvre par l’AGC et une bonne coordination entre les UPC, les joueurs peuvent optimiser leurs investissements au niveau des ménages. Vainqueur est l’UPC qui à la fin du jeu dispose du plus grand patrimoine.

CONMICOM – conflict mitigation in communities: LforS learning and simulation game

Three extended families live around a lake. One family are rice farmers, the second family are vegetable farmers, and the third are a family of livestock herders. All of them depend on the use of lake water for their production, and all of them need large quantities of water. All are dependent on the use of the lake water to secure their livelihood. In the game, the families are represented by their councils of elders. Each of the councils has to find means and ways to increase production in order to keep up with the growth of its family and their demands. This puts more and more pressure on the water resources, increasing the risk of overuse. Conflicts over water are about to emerge between the families. Each council of elders must try to pursue its families interests, while at the same time preventing excessive pressure on the water resources. Once a council of elders is no longer able to meet the needs of its family, it is excluded from the game. Will the parties cooperate or compete? To face the challenge of balancing economic well-being, sustainable resource management, and individual and collective interests, the three parties have a set of options for action at hand. These include power play to safeguard their own interests, communication and cooperation to negotiate with neighbours, and searching for alternatives to reduce pressure on existing water resources. During the game the players can experience how tensions may arise, increase and finally escalate. They realise what impact power play has and how alliances form, and the importance of trust-building measures, consensus and cooperation. From the insights gained, important conflict prevention and mitigation measures are derived in a debriefing session. The game is facilitated by a moderator, and lasts for 3-4 hours. Aim of the game: Each family pursues the objective of serving its own interests and securing its position through appropriate strategies and skilful negotiation, while at the same time optimising use of the water resources in a way that prevents their degradation. The end of the game is open. While the game may end by one or two families dropping out because they can no longer secure their subsistence, it is also possible that the three families succeed in creating a situation that allows them to meet their own needs as well as the requirements for sustainable water use in the long term. Learning objectives The game demonstrates how tension builds up, increases, and finally escalates; it shows how power positions work and alliances are formed; and it enables the players to experience the great significance of mutual agreement and cooperation. During the game and particularly during the debriefing and evaluation session it is important to link experiences made during the game to the players’ real-life experiences, and to discuss these links in the group. The resulting insights will provide a basis for deducing important conflict prevention and transformation measures.

European university-based study programmes in evaluation: characteristics and future challenges

This chapter examines the state of evaluation training programs at European universities in 2012. It summarises the results of a survey that was conducted among representatives of 15 programs located in Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Some basic information about the programs are reported (e.g. organising body, degree offered, admission requirements, duration in months, price), as well as the programs’ core subjects and learning outcomes. The chapter discusses the challenges for university-based study programmes that arise from the current situation of the evaluation profession, and concludes with some thoughts on education and training as requirements for professionalisation in evaluation

Physical Health Problems and Environmental Challenges Influence Balancing Behaviour in Laying Hens

With rising public concern for animal welfare, many major food chains and restaurants are changing their policies, strictly buying their eggs from non-cage producers. However, with the additional space in these cage-free systems to perform natural behaviours and movements comes the risk of injury. We evaluated the ability to maintain balance in adult laying hens with health problems (footpad dermatitis, keel damage, poor wing feather cover; n = 15) using a series of environmental challenges and compared such abilities with those of healthy birds (n = 5). Environmental challenges consisted of visual and spatial constraints, created using a head mask, perch obstacles, and static and swaying perch states. We hypothesized that perch movement, environmental challenges, and diminished physical health would negatively impact perching performance demonstrated as balance (as measured by time spent on perch and by number of falls of the perch) and would require more exaggerated correctional movements.We measured perching stability whereby each bird underwent eight 30-second trials on a static and swaying perch: with and without disrupted vision (head mask), with and without space limitations (obstacles) and combinations thereof. Video recordings (600 Hz) and a three-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (100 Hz) were used to measure the number of jumps/falls, latencies to leave the perch, as well as magnitude and direction of both linear and rotational balance-correcting movements. Laying hens with and without physical health problems, in both challenged and unchallenged environments, managed to perch and remain off the ground. We attribute this capacity to our training of the birds. Environmental challenges and physical state had an effect on the use of accelerations and rotations to stabilize themselves on a perch. Birds with physical health problems performed a higher frequency of rotational corrections to keep the body centered over the perch, whereas, for both health categories, environmental challenges required more intense and variable movement corrections. Collectively, these results provide novel empirical support for the effectiveness of training, and highlight that overcrowding, visual constraints, and poor physical health all reduce perching performance.

Workshop on FAMIX and Moose in Software Reengineering (FAMOOSr 2008)

The increasing amount of data available about software systems poses new challenges for re- and reverse engineering research, as the proposed approaches need to scale. In this context, concerns about meta-modeling and analysis techniques need to be augmented by technical concerns about how to reuse and how to build upon the efforts of previous research. Moose is an extensive infrastructure for reverse engineering evolved for over 10 years that promotes the reuse of engineering efforts in research. Moose accommodates various types of data modeled in the FAMIX family of meta-models. The goal of this half-day workshop is to strengthen the community of researchers and practitioners who are working in re- and reverse engineering, by providing a forum for building future research starting from Moose and FAMIX as shared infrastructure.

Workshop on FAMIX and Moose in Software Reengineering (FAMOOSr 2009)

The increasing amount of data available about software systems poses new challenges for re- and reverse engineering research, as the proposed approaches need to scale. In this context, concerns about meta-modeling and analysis techniques need to be augmented by technical concerns about how to reuse and how to build upon the efforts of previous research. MOOSE is an extensive infrastructure for reverse engineering evolved for over 10 years that promotes the reuse of engineering efforts in research. MOOSE accommodates various types of data modeled in the FAMIX family of meta-models. The goal of this half-day workshop is to strengthen the community of researchers and practitioners who are working in re- and reverse engineering, by providing a forum for building future research starting from MOOSE and FAMIX as shared infrastructure.

The Assessment of Multiple Processes Underlying the Attentional Blink: A Fixed - links Modeling Approach based on Behavioral and Electrophysiological Data

When observers are presented with two visual targets appearing in the same position in close temporal proximity, a marked reduction in detection performance of the second target has often been reported, the so-called attentional blink phenomenon. Several studies found a similar decrement of P300 amplitudes during the attentional blink period as observed with detection performances of the second target. However, whether the parallel courses of second target performances and corresponding P300 amplitudes resulted from the same underlying mechanisms remained unclear. The aim of our study was therefore to investigate whether the mechanisms underlying the AB can be assessed by fixed-links modeling and whether this kind of assessment would reveal the same or at least related processes in the behavioral and electrophysiological data. On both levels of observation three highly similar processes could be identified: an increasing, a decreasing and a u-shaped trend. Corresponding processes from the behavioral and electrophysiological data were substantially correlated, with the two u-shaped trends showing the strongest association with each other. Our results provide evidence for the assumption that the same mechanisms underlie attentional blink task performance at the electrophysiological and behavioral levels as assessed by fixed-links models.

QCD and Strongly Coupled Gauge Theories: Challenges and Perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.