Efficiency and Equity in Learning Communities and schools

Traditionally, school efficiency has been measured as a function of educational production. In the last two decades, however, studies in the economics of education have indicated that more is required to improve school efficiency: researchers must explore how significant changes in school organization affect the performance of at-risk students. In this paper we introduce Henry Levin’s adoption of the X-efficiency approach to education and we describe the efficient and cost-effective characteristics of one Learning Communities Project School that significantly improved its student outcomes and enrollment numbersand reduced its absenteeism rate to zero. The organizational change that facilitatedthese improvements defined specific issues to address. Students’ school success became the focus of the school project, which also offered specific incentives, selected teachers, involved parents and community members in decisions, and used the most efficient technologies and methods. This case analysis reveals new two elements—family training and community involvement—that were not explicit parts of Levin’s adaptation. The case of the Antonio Machado Public School should attract the attention of both social scientists and policy makers

Hydrology, light and the use of organic and inorganic materials as structuring factors of biological communities in Mediterranean streams

Hydrological disturbances, light availability and nutrients are the most relevant factors determining the structure of the biological communities in Mediterranean rivers. While some hydrological disturbances are able to induce catastrophic effects, which may cause a complete reset in physical and biological conditions, continued enrichment or changes in light availability are factors leading to the progressive shift in the communities of autotrophs and heterotrophs in the systems. Primary production in Mediterranean streams shows relevant seasonal changes which mainly follows the variations in light availability. In most forested streams, the algal community is shade-adapted. Nutrient enrichment (especially phosphorus) leads to marked increases in primary production, but this increase is not lineal and there is a saturation of algal biomass even in the most enriched systems. The heterotrophs (bacteria, fungi) are related to the pattern of DOC availability (which most depends on the seasonal discharge and leaf fall dynamics) and to the available substrata in the stream. It has been repeatedly observed that shorttime increases of extracellular enzyme activities are related to the accumulation of autochthonous (algal) and/or allochthonous (leaves) organic matter on the streambed during spring and summer, this being more remarkable in dry than in wetter years. Flow reduction favours detritus concentration in pools, and the subsequent increase in the density and biomass of the macroinvertebrate community. In Mediterranean streams collectors are accounting for the highest density and biomass, this being more remarkable in the least permanent systems, in accordance with the effect of floods on the organic matter availability. Nutrients, through the effect on the primary producers, also affect the trophic food web in the streams by favouring the predominance of grazers

Zonation patterns of benthic communities in an upwelling area from de western Mediterranean (La Herradura, Alboran Sea)

Species composition and distribution of marine benthic communities from La Herradura (Alboran Sea, western Mediterranean) are described to characterise its rocky and sedimentary bottoms bionomically. Rocky bottoms were studied by means of several underwater transects and soft bottoms with fixed stations along a bathymetric gradient. The study of the floristic and faunistic composition of the rocky benthic communities highlights depth as the main axis of variation. Factorial Correspondence Analysis segregates deep-water communities below 25 m depth (circalittoral communities) from shallower communities (axis I), and communities thriving between 5 and 25 m depth (lower infralittoral communities) from communities thriving close to the surface (shallow infralittoral communities) (axis II). The study of the sedimentary bottoms also suggests that depth, together with physical sedimentary properties, is the main axis of variation in species distribution. Floristic and faunistic records show the particular composition of La Herradura benthic communities, compared to Mediterranean and Atlantic ones. Mixing of Mediterranean and Atlantic waters, together with deep water upwelling episodes typical of this area, probably determine the peculiar composition of the benthic communities

The dynamics of biofilm bacterial communities is driven by flow wax and wane in a temporary stream

Biofilm communities are exposed to long periods of desiccation in temporary streams. We investigated how water flow intermittency affected the bacterial community structure colonizing three different streambed compartments in a Mediterranean stream. Massive parallel sequencing revealed different bacterial communities in biofilms from sand sediments and cobbles. Bacterial communities were similar (62% of shared operational taxonomic units) in the epipsammic and hyporheic biofilms, and more diverse than those in the epilithic biofilms. The non-flow phase caused a decrease of bacterial diversity in the biofilms, when communities included only bacterial taxa assumed to be adapted to water stress. The most sensitive bacterial communities to flow intermittency were in the epilithic, where the exposure to physical stress was the highest. In sand sediments a wide group of bacterial taxa was tolerant to desiccation. During non-flow the proliferation of opportunistic taxa in the superficial compartments evidenced the biological link with the terrestrial environment. Bacterial communities better tolerate rewetting than desiccation, since a major number of taxa tolerant to rewetting occurred in all biofilms. Overall, bacterial communities in sandy compartments showed higher resistance to flow intermittency than those in epilithic biofilms

Designing features for supporting social interactions in online communities

This Master's thesis studies the development of interaction and socialization in online communities. A large number of online communities fade away even before they really get started. In many occasions the reason is that the community does not give anything new, or even if they do, the delivery does not satisfy the users. In this thesis guidelines were developed to help to see important things, which might be forgotten when developing an online community. The thesis goes through the characteristic of an online community and human behaviour related to them and also compares behaviour in the Internet and real life. In addition, usability is an important part of the online communities and thus it is also covered in this thesis. As a result of this thesis an 8-step guideline was developed to ease the design of an online community. Guidelines were also applied to two real life cases which are described as one part of this work.

Evaluating Firm-Hosted Online Communities

This thesis centers to three firm-hosted online communities which operate in the field of software development. The communities were analyzed by using a particular design framework. This thesis investigates how companies can benefit from firm-hosted online communities and how well the design principles are present in analyzed communities. The framework also gives perspective and indicators which enables the possibility to analyze and compare communities with each other. This thesis also discuss how well a design framework designed for measuring social software fits to measuring online communities of software development.

Differential responses of nematode communities to soybean genotypes resistant and susceptible to Heterodera glycines race 3

Heterodera glycines and Helicotylenchus dihystera were the two most abundant plant-parasitic nematodes found in two H. glycines race 3-infested fields, Chapadão do Céu, MS and Campo Alegre, MG. These fields had been planted with resistant (R) and susceptible (S) plants to cyst nematodes. In the first field, soybean (Glycine max) FT-Cristalina (S) was susceptible to H. glycines but resistant to H. dihystera, while GOBR93 122243 (R) was just the opposite. In the second field, M-Soy 8400 (R) was more resistant to the spiral nematode than M-Soy8411 (S), but the resistance to the cyst nematode was not different between the two genotypes. The total abundance of nematodes was not different between the susceptible and resistant plants in the two fields, suggesting that H. dihystera and/or bacterial feeders and other trophic groups replaced the reduced abundance of the cyst nematodes in resistant plants. Bacterial feeders acted as a compensatory factor to plant-parasitic nematodes in ecological function. The populations of fungal feeders were higher in GOBR93 122243 (R) than in susceptible FT-Cristalina (S) in Chapadão do Céu, but lower in M-Soy 8400 (R) than in M-Soy 8411 (S) in Campo Alegre. This is being attributed to the different periods of soil samplings that were made at the florescent period in the first field, and at the final growing cycle in the second field. Only four nematodes, H. glycines, H. dihystera, Acrobeles sp. and Panagrolaimus sp. dominated the nematode resistant community GOBR93 122243 (R) in Chapadão do Céu, but dominance was shared by ten genera in Campo Alegre, which explains why the five diversity indexes (S, d, Ds, H' and T) were higher in resistant plants than in susceptible plants in field two.

Evaluating Web Content Management Systems Compatibility for Implementing Online Communities

The purpose of this study is to study whether a Web CMS can be used to implement and host an online community. The study is divided into two parts. The theoretical part contains the definition of Web CMS and clarifies the relation between an online community and a social software. The first part also defines the parameters, which must be taken account when choosing a Web CMS for hosting an online community. The practical part of the study contains analyses of three Web CMSs, Drupal, Liferay and Plone. All the three Web CMSs were analyzed using the technical and social parameters discovered in the theoretical part of the study. The primary objective is to investigate whether the selected Web CMS can be used to implement and host an online community. If hosting is possible, the secondary objective is to investigate whether the selected Web CMS have an effect to the online community.

Andean indigenous food crops: nutritional value and bioactive compounds

The Andean area of South America is a very important center for the domestication of food crops. This area is the botanical origin of potato, peanut and tomato. Less well- known crops, such as quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule) and kiwicha (Amaranthus caudatus), were also domesticated by ancient Andean farmers. These crops have a long history of safe use with the local populations and they have contributed to the nutrition and wellbeing of the people for centuries. Several studies have reported the nutritional value of Andean grains. They contain proteins with a balanced essential amino acid composition that are of high biological value, good quality oil and essential minerals, for example iron, calcium and zinc. They are potential sources of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and dietary fiber. The main objective of the practical work was to assess the nutritional value of Andean native grains with a special emphasis on the bioactive components and the impact of processing. The compounds studied were phenolic acids, flavonoids, betalains and dietary fiber. The radical scavenging activity was measured as well. Iron, calcium and zinc content and their bioavailability were analyzed as well. The grains were processed by extrusion with the aim to study the effect of processing on the chemical composition. Quinoa, kañiwa and kiwicha are very good sources of dietary fiber, especially of insoluble dietary fiber. The phenolic acid content in Andean crops was low compared with common cereals like wheat and rye, but was similar to levels found in oat, barley, corn and rice. The flavonoid content of quinoa and kañiwa was exceptionally high. Kiwicha did not contain quantifiable amounts of these compounds. Only one variety of kiwicha contained low amounts of betalains. These compounds were not detected in kañiwa or quinoa. Quinoa, kañiwa and kiwicha are good sources of minerals. Their calcium, zinc and iron content are higher than the content of these minerals in common cereals. In general, roasting did not affect significantly mineral bioavailability. On the contrary, in cooked grains, there was an increase in bioavailability of zinc and, in the case of kañiwa, also in iron and calcium bioavailability. In all cases, the contents of total and insoluble dietary fiber decreased during the extrusion process. At the same time, the content of soluble dietary fiber increased. The content of total phenolics, phytic acid and the antioxidant activity decreased in kiwicha varieties during the extrusion process. In the case of quinoa, the content of total phenolic compounds and the radical scavenging activity increased during the extrusion process in all varieties. Taken together, the studies presented here demonstrate that the Andean indigenous crops have excellent potential as sources of minerals, flavonoids and dietary fiber. Further studies should be conducted to characterize the phenolic compound and antioxidant composition in processed grains and end products. Quinoa, kañiwa and kiwicha grains are consumed widely in Andean countries but they also have a significant, worldwide potential as a new cultivated crop species and as an imported commodity from South America. Their inclusion in the diet has the potential to improve the intake of minerals and health-promoting bioactive compounds. They may also be interesting raw materials for special dietary foods and functional foods offering natural sources of specific health-promoting components.

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in angiosperm communities in the Baltic Sea

The biological variation in nature is called biodiversity. Anthropogenic pressures have led to a loss of biodiversity, alarming scientists as to what consequences declining diversity has for ecosystem functioning. The general consensus is that diversity (e.g. species richness or identity) affects functioning and provides services from which humans benefit. The aim of this thesis was to investigate how aquatic plant species richness and identity affect ecosystem functioning in terms of processes such as primary production, nutrient availability, epifaunal colonization and properties e.g. stability of Zostera marina subjected to shading. The main work was carried out in the field and ranged temporally from weeklong to 3.5 months-long experiments. The experimental plants used frequently co-occur in submerged meadows in the northern Baltic Sea and consist of eelgrass (Z. marina), perfoliate pondweed (Potamogeton perfoliatus), sago pondweed (P. pectinatus), slender-leaved pondweed (P. filiformis) and horned pondweed (Zannichellia palustris). The results showed that plant richness affected epifaunal community variables weakly, but had a strong positive effect on infaunal species number and functional diversity, while plant identity had strong effects on amphipods (Gammarus spp.), of which abundances were higher in plant assemblages consisting of P. perfoliatus. Depending on the starting standardizing unit, plant richness showed varying effects on primary production. In shoot density-standardized plots, plant richness increased the shoot densities of three out of four species and enhanced the plant biomass production. Both positive complementarity and selection effects were found to underpin the positive biodiversity effects. In shoot biomass-standardized plots, richness effects only affected biomass production of one species. Negative selection was prevalent, counteracting positive complementarity, which resulted in no significant biodiversity effect. The stability of Z. marina was affected by plant richness in such that Z. marina growing in polycultures lost proportionally less biomass than Z. marina in monocultures and thus had a higher resistance to shading. Monoculture plants in turn gained biomass faster, and thereby had a faster recovery than Z. marina growing in polycultures. These results indicate that positive interspecific interactions occurred during shading, while the faster recovery of monocultures suggests that the change from shading stress to recovery resulted in a shift from positive interactions to resource competition between species. The results derived from this thesis show that plant diversity affects ecosystem functioning and contribute to the growing knowledge of plant diversity being an important component of aquatic ecosystems. Diverse plant communities sustain higher primary productivity than comparable monocultures, affect faunal communities positively and enhance stability. Richness and identity effects vary, and identity has generally stronger effects on more variables than richness. However, species-rich communities are likely to contain several species with differing effects on functions, which renders species richness important for functioning. Mixed meadows add to coastal ecosystem functioning in the northern Baltic Sea and may provide with services essential for human well-being.

Virtual communities : a virtual treasure trove for end-user developers

End-user development is a very common but often largely overlooked phenomenon in information systems research and practice. End-user development means that regular people, the end-users of software, and not professional developers are doing software development. A large number of people are directly or indirectly impacted by the results of these non-professional development activities. The numbers of users performing end-user development activities are difficult to ascertain precisely. But it is very large, and still growing. Computer adoption is growing towards 100% and many new types of computational devices are continually introduced. In addition, other devices not previously programmable are becoming so. This means that, at this very moment, hundreds of millions of people are likely struggling with development problems. Furthermore, software itself is continually being adapted for more flexibility, enabling users to change the behaviour of their software themselves. New software and services are helping to transform users from consumers to producers. Much of this is now found on-line. The problem for the end-user developer is that little of this development is supported by anyone. Often organisations do not notice end-user development and consequently neither provide support for it, nor are equipped to be able to do so. Many end-user developers do not belong to any organisation at all. Also, the end-user development process may be aggravating the problem. End-users are usually not really committed to the development process, which tends to be more iterative and ad hoc. This means support becomes a distant third behind getting the job done and figuring out the development issues to get the job done. Sometimes the software itself may exacerbate the issue by simplifying the development process, deemphasising the difficulty of the task being undertaken. On-line support could be the lifeline the end-user developer needs. Going online one can find all the knowledge one could ever need. However, that does still not help the end-user apply this information or knowledge in practice. A virtual community, through its ability to adopt the end-user’s specific context, could surmount this final obstacle. This thesis explores the concept of end-user development and how it could be supported through on-line sources, in particular virtual communities, which it is argued here, seem to fit the end-user developer’s needs very well. The experiences of real end-user developers and prior literature were used in this process. Emphasis has been on those end-user developers, e.g. small business owners, who may have literally nowhere to turn to for support. Adopting the viewpoint of the end-user developer, the thesis examines the question of how an end-user could use a virtual community effectively, improving the results of the support process. Assuming the common situation where the demand for support outstrips the supply.

EFFECT OF POST-EMERGENCE HERBICIDE APPLICATIONS ON RICE CROP WEED COMMUNITIES IN TOLIMA, COLOMBIA

ABSTRACTThe weed communities of agricultural systems are dynamic and respond to changes in agronomic practices. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of post-emergence herbicide control programs made by farmers on weed communities and commercial lots of rice. The evaluations were carried out in 96 commercial lots located in the Centro, Meseta and Norte zones of the department of Tolima. In each lot, 1 ha was marked off, in which the evaluations were carried out by randomly throwing a 0.2 x 0.2 m sampling-square 5 times. Samples were taken before the first post-emergence application, after the first post-emergence application, after the second post-emergence application, and once the post-emergence applications were finished. The evaluated variables included density and cover of the weeds and the crops. The IVI of each species was calculated and the control program was analyzed in terms of decreases in the number of individuals for the 15 more encountered species. Before the applications, higher density values were found. The first and second post-emergence applications reduced the average density by 41% and 12%, respectively, throughout the department. Between the first and fourth evaluations, the density of the weeds and crops decreased throughout the department by 51.7% and 39%, respectively. The weed density variable proved to be the most influential in the populations after the herbicide programs were carried out.

Painted Into a Corner by Communities and Collections? Free Yourself with Metadata

Poster at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

A tale of two communities

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Temporal and spatial variations in the structure of macroalgal communities associated with mangrove trees of Ilha do Cardoso, São Paulo state, Brazil

Temporal and spatial variations in species composition and vertical distribution of macroalgal communities growing on mangrove trees were analyzed bimonthly in the Ilha do Cardoso State Park, São Paulo state (25°03'S and 47°55'W), Southeastern Brazil. The macroalgal communities from mangroves of Perequê and Sítio Grande rivers comprised 10 and 18 taxa respectively. Bostrychia radicans (Mont.) Mont. and B. calliptera (Mont.) Mont. were the predominant taxa, present almost throughout the year and in all the sites studied. The species composition of macroalgal communities from both mangroves presented temporal and spatial variations related to environmental factors. The highest number of taxa was observed during colder, drier months, coinciding with the highest means of high water neap and short periods of continuous emersion (April to August). Some mangrove algae such as B. calliptera, Rhizoclonium spp., Caloglossa spp., and Boodleopsis pusilla (Collins) W. Taylor, Joly et Bernatowicz showed a high degree of tolerance to desiccation, being able to tolerate continuous emersion up to six days. The spatial variations in species composition were related to light, as observed in Catenella caespitosa (Withering) L. Irvine, which occurred in well-lit sites. No pattern of vertical zonation was observed, since Rhizoclonium spp., B. radicans, and B. calliptera occur over the entire vertical range. Variations in the range of vertical distribution of macroalgae of Perequê mangrove were mainly related to the variations in the tidal levels (mean high water neap and/or mean high water spring) while those observed in Sítio Grande mangrove were related to salinity variations, except for B. calliptera and Caloglossa spp. related to tidal levels and high irradiance, respectively.