Assessment of environment, land management, and spatial variables on recent changes in montado land cover in southern Portugal

Montado decline has been reported since the end of the nineteenth century in southern Portugal and increased markedly during the 1980s. Consensual reports in the literature suggest that this decline is due to a number of factors, such as environmental constraints, forest diseases, inappropriate management, and socioeconomic issues. An assessment on the pattern of montado distribution was conducted to reveal how the extent of land management, environmental variables, and spatial factors contributed to montado area loss in southern Portugal from 1990 to 2006. A total of 14 independent variables, presumably related to montado loss, were grouped into three sets: environmental variables, land management variables, and spatial variables. From 1990 to 2006, approximately 90,054 ha disappeared in the montado area, with an estimated annual regression rate of 0.14 % year-1. Variation partitioning showed that the land management model accounted for the highest percentage of explained variance (51.8 %), followed by spatial factors (44.6 %) and environmental factors (35.5 %). These results indicate that most variance in the large-scale distribution of recent montado loss is due to land management, either alone or in combination with environmental and spatial factors. The full GAM model showed that different livestock grazing is one of the most important variables affecting montado loss. This suggests that optimum carrying capacity should decrease to 0.18–0.60 LU ha-1 for livestock grazing in montado under current ecological conditions in southern Portugal.

Improving understandability in consumer health information search: Uevora @ 2016 fire chis

This paper presents our work at 2016 FIRE CHIS. Given a CHIS query and a document associated with that query, the task is to classify the sentences in the document as relevant to the query or not; and further classify the relevant sentences to be supporting, neutral or opposing to the claim made in the query. In this paper, we present two different approaches to do the classification. With the first approach, we implement two models to satisfy the task. We first implement an information retrieval model to retrieve the sentences that are relevant to the query; and then we use supervised learning method to train a classification model to classify the relevant sentences into support, oppose or neutral. With the second approach, we only use machine learning techniques to learn a model and classify the sentences into four classes (relevant & support, relevant & neutral, relevant & oppose, irrelevant & neutral). Our submission for CHIS uses the first approach.

Improving Bangla ocr output through correction algorithms

Bangla OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a long deserving software for Bengali community all over the world. Numerous e efforts suggest that due to the inherent complex nature of Bangla alphabet and its word formation process development of high fidelity OCR producing a reasonably acceptable output still remains a challenge. One possible way of improvement is by using post processing of OCR’s output; algorithms such as Edit Distance and the use of n-grams statistical information have been used to rectify misspelled words in language processing. This work presents the first known approach to use these algorithms to replace misrecognized words produced by Bangla OCR. The assessment is made on a set of fifty documents written in Bangla script and uses a dictionary of 541,167 words. The proposed correction model can correct several words lowering the recognition error rate by 2.87% and 3.18% for the character based n- gram and edit distance algorithms respectively. The developed system suggests a list of 5 (five) alternatives for a misspelled word. It is found that in 33.82% cases, the correct word is the topmost suggestion of 5 words list for n-gram algorithm while using Edit distance algorithm the first word in the suggestion properly matches 36.31% of the cases. This work will ignite rooms of thoughts for possible improvements in character recognition endeavour.

Aging in China and its impact on vehicle design

This study contributes to the growth of design knowledge in China, where vehicle design for the local, older user is in its initial developmental stages. Therefore, this research has explored the travel needs of older Chinese vehicle users in order to assist designers to better understand users’ current and future needs. A triangulation method consisting of interviews, logbook and co-discovery was used to collect multiple forms of data and so explore the research question. Grounded theory has been employed to analyze the research data. This study found that users’ needs are reflected through various ‘meanings’ that they attach to vehicles – meanings that give a tangible expression to their experiences. This study identified six older-user need categories: (i) safety, (ii) utility, (iii) comfort, (iv) identity, (v) emotion and (vi) spirituality. The interrelationships among these six categories are seen as an interactive structure, rather than as a linear or hierarchical arrangement. Chinese cultural values, which are generated from particular local context and users’ social practice, will play a dynamic role in linking and shaping the travel needs of older vehicle users in the future. Moreover, this study structures the older-user needs model into three levels of meaning, to give guidance to vehicle design direction: (i) the practical meaning level, (ii) the social meaning level and (ii) the cultural meaning level. This study suggests that a more comprehensive explanation exists if designers can identify the vehicle’s meaning and property associated with the fulfilled older users’ needs. However, these needs will vary, and must be related to particular technological, social, and cultural contexts. The significance of this study lies in its contributions to the body of knowledge in three areas: research methodology, theory and design. These theoretical contributions provide a series of methodological tools, models and approaches from a vehicle design perspective. These include a conditional/consequential matrix, a travel needs identification model, an older users’ travel-related needs framework, a user information structure model, and an Older-User-Need-Based vehicle design approach. These models suggest a basic framework for the new design process which might assist in the design of new vehicles to fulfil the needs of future, aging Chinese generations. The models have the potential to be transferred to other design domains and different cultural contexts.

Developing knowledge precincts in regional towns: opportunities and challenges

While extensive literature exists on knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) focusing on large metropolitan cities, there is a paucity of literature looking into similar developments in small regional towns. The major aim of the paper is to examine the nature and potential for building knowledge precincts in regional towns. Through a review of extant literature on knowledge precincts, five key value elements and principles for development are identified. These principles are then tested and applied to a case study of the small town of Cooroy in Noosa, Australia. The Cooroy Lower Mill Site and its surroundings are the designated location for what may be called a community-based creative knowledge precinct. The opportunities and challenges for setting up a creative knowledge precinct in Cooroy were examined. The study showed that there is a potential to develop Cooroy with the provision of cultural and learning facilities, partnerships with government, business and educational institutions, and networking with other creative and knowledge precincts in the region. However, there are also specific challenges relating to the development of a knowledge precinct within the regional town and these relate to critical mass, competition and governance.

Collaboration using BIM : results of cooperative research centre for construction innovation projects

This paper discusses the issues with sharing information between different disciplines in collaborative projects. The focus is on the information itself rather than the wider issues of collaboration. A range of projects carried out by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC CI) in Australia is used to illustrate the issues.

Getting creative in health care

Health care accounts for a substantial and growing share of national expenditures, and Australia’s health-care system faces some unprecedented pressures. This paper examines the contribution of creative expertise and services to Australian health care. They are found to be making a range of contributions to the development and delivery of health-care goods and services, the initial training and ongoing professionalism of doctors and nurses, and the effective functioning of health-care buildings. Creative activities within health-care services are also undertaken by medical professionals and patients. Key functions that creative activities address are innovation and service delivery in information management and analysis, and making complex information comprehensible or more useful, assisting communication and reducing psycho-social and distance-mediated barriers, and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of services.

Barriers to effective knowledge transfer in project-based organisations

Effective knowledge transfer can prevent the reinvention of systems and ideas as well as the repetition of errors. Doing so will save substantial time, as well as contribute to better performance of projects and project-based organisations (PBOs). Despite the importance of knowledge, PBOs face serious barriers to the effective transfer of knowledge, while their characteristics, such as unique and innovative approaches taken during every project, mean they have much to gain from knowledge transfer. As each new project starts, there is the strong potential to reinvent the process, rather than utilise learning from previous projects. In fact, rework is one of the primary factors contributing to construction industry's poor performance and productivity. Current literature has identified several barriers to knowledge transfer in organisational settings in general, and not specifically PBOs. However, PBOs significantly differ from other types of organisations. PBOs operate mainly on temporary projects, where time is a crucial factor and people are more mobile than in other organisational settings. The aim of this research is to identify the key barriers that prevent effective knowledge transfer for PBOs, exclusively. Interviews with project managers and senior managers of PBOs complement the analysis of the literature and provide professional expertise. This research is crucial to gaining a better understanding of obstacles that hinder knowledge transfer in projects. The main contribution of this research is exclusive for PBO, list of key barriers that organisation and project managers need to consider to ensure effective knowledge transfer and better project management.

Legal Issues Relating to the Notification of Australian Data Breaches

Advances in information and communications technologies during the last two decades have allowed organisations to capture and utilise data on a vast scale, thus heightening the importance of adequate measures for protecting unauthorised disclosure of personal information. In this respect, data breach notification has emerged as an issue of increasing importance throughout the world. It has been the subject of law reform in the United States and in other international jurisdictions. Following the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of privacy, data breach notification will soon be addressed in Australia. This article provides a review of US and Australian legal initiatives regarding the notification of data breaches. The authors highlight areas of concern based on the extant US literature that require specific consideration in Australia regarding the development of an Australian legal framework for the notification of data breaches.