Rapid assays for detection of glyphosate-resistant Lolium spp.

Diagnosing herbicide-resistant weed populations is the first step for herbicide resistance management. Monitoring the nature, distribution, and abundance of the resistant plants in fields demands efficient and effective screening tests. Different glyphosate resistant populations of Lolium multiflorum (VA) and L. rigidum (C) were used in assays for testing their effectiveness to detect herbicide resistance. According to a Petri dish bioassay 7 days after treatment (DAT), the VA and the C populations were 27 and 31 times more resistant to glyphosate than the susceptible populations, L. multiflorum (SM) and L. rigidum (SR), respectively. On a whole-plant bioassay (21 DAT), the VA and the C populations were 6 and 11 times more resistant to glyphosate than their respective susceptible populations. The susceptible populations accumulated 2.5 and 1.4-fold more shikimic acid 48 hours after treatment (HAT), than the resistant VA and C. Glyphosate gradually inhibited net photosynthesis in all populations but at 48-72 HAT the resistant plants recovered, whereas no recovery was detected in susceptible populations. All assays were capable of detecting the resistant populations and this may be useful for farmers and consultants as an effective tool to reduce the spread of the resistant populations through quicker implementation of alternative weed management practices. However, they differed in time, costs and equipments necessaries for successfully carrying on the tests. Regarding costs, the cheapest ones were Petri dish and whole-plant bioassays, but they are time-consuming methods as the major constraints are the collection of seeds from the field and at least some weeks to evaluate the resistance. The shikimic acid and net photosynthesis assays were the quickest ones but they demand sophisticated equipments which could restrict its use.

Assessing cost-effectiveness in mental health: family interventions for schizophrenia and related conditions

Objective: Existing evidence suggests that family interventions can be effective in reducing relapse rates in schizophrenia and related conditions. Despite this, such interventions are not routinely delivered in Australian mental health services. The objective of the current study is to investigate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of introducing three types of family interventions, namely: behavioural family management (BFM); behavioural intervention for families (BIF); and multiple family groups (MFG) into current mental health services in Australia. Method: The ICER of each of the family interventions is assessed from a health sector perspective, including the government, persons with schizophrenia and their families/carers using a standardized methodology. A two-stage approach is taken to the assessment of benefit. The first stage involves a quantitative analysis based on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. The second stage involves application of 'second filter' criteria (including equity, strength of evidence, feasibility and acceptability to stakeholders) to results. The robustness of results is tested using multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Results: The most cost-effective intervention, in order of magnitude, is BIF (A$8000 per DALY averted), followed by MFG (A$21 000 per DALY averted) and lastly BFM (A$28 000 per DALY averted). The inclusion of time costs makes BFM more cost-effective than MFG. Variation of discount rate has no effect on conclusions. Conclusions: All three interventions are considered 'value-for-money' within an Australian context. This conclusion needs to be tempered against the methodological challenge of converting clinical outcomes into a generic economic outcome measure (DALY). Issues surrounding the feasibility of routinely implementing such interventions need to be addressed.

Two practical approaches to monitoring the zooplanktonic community at Lago Grande do Curuai, Pará, Brazil

The use of substitute groups in biomonitoring programs has been proposed to minimize the high financial costs and time for samples processing. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the correlation between (i) the spatial distribution among the major zooplankton groups (cladocerans, copepods, rotifers, and testaceans protozoa), (ii) the data of density and presence/absence of species, and (iii) the data of species, genera, and families from samples collected in the Lago Grande do Curuai, Pará, Brazil. A total of 55 sample of the zooplanktonic community was collected, with 28 samples obtained in March and 27 in September, 2013. The agreement between the different sets of data was assessed using Mantel and Procrustes tests. Our results indicated high correlations between genus level and species level and high correlations between presence/absence of species and abundance, regardless of the seasonal period. These results suggest that zooplankton community could be incorporated in a long-term monitoring program at relatively low financial and time costs.

"INTERMED": a method to assess health service needs. I. Development and reliability.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and to test the reliability of a new method called INTERMED, for health service needs assessment. The INTERMED integrates the biopsychosocial aspects of disease and the relationship between patient and health care system in a comprehensive scheme and reflects an operationalized conceptual approach to case mix or case complexity. The method is developed to enhance interdisciplinary communication between (para-) medical specialists and to provide a method to describe case complexity for clinical, scientific, and educational purposes. First, a feasibility study (N = 21 patients) was conducted which included double scoring and discussion of the results. This led to a version of the instrument on which two interrater reliability studies were performed. In study 1, the INTERMED was double scored for 14 patients admitted to an internal ward by a psychiatrist and an internist on the basis of a joint interview conducted by both. In study 2, on the basis of medical charts, two clinicians separately double scored the INTERMED in 16 patients referred to the outpatient psychiatric consultation service. Averaged over both studies, in 94.2% of all ratings there was no important difference between the raters (more than 1 point difference). As a research interview, it takes about 20 minutes; as part of the whole process of history taking it takes about 15 minutes. In both studies, improvements were suggested by the results. Analyses of study 1 revealed that on most items there was considerable agreement; some items were improved. Also, the reference point for the prognoses was changed so that it reflected both short- and long-term prognoses. Analyses of study 2 showed that in this setting, less agreement between the raters was obtained due to the fact that the raters were less experienced and the scoring procedure was more susceptible to differences. Some improvements--mainly of the anchor points--were specified which may further enhance interrater reliability. The INTERMED proves to be a reliable method for classifying patients' care needs, especially when used by experienced raters scoring by patient interview. It can be a useful tool in assessing patients' care needs, as well as the level of needed adjustment between general and mental health service delivery. The INTERMED is easily applicable in the clinical setting at low time-costs.

Health care provider choice in the case of patient-initiated contacts. An extended version of discrete choice of model demand

This paper analyzes the nature of health care provider choice inthe case of patient-initiated contacts, with special reference toa National Health Service setting, where monetary prices are zeroand general practitioners act as gatekeepers to publicly financedspecialized care. We focus our attention on the factors that mayexplain the continuously increasing use of hospital emergencyvisits as opposed to other provider alternatives. An extendedversion of a discrete choice model of demand for patient-initiatedcontacts is presented, allowing for individual and town residencesize differences in perceived quality (preferences) betweenalternative providers and including travel and waiting time asnon-monetary costs. Results of a nested multinomial logit model ofprovider choice are presented. Individual choice betweenalternatives considers, in a repeated nested structure, self-care,primary care, hospital and clinic emergency services. Welfareimplications and income effects are analyzed by computingcompensating variations, and by simulating the effects of userfees by levels of income. Results indicate that compensatingvariation per visit is higher than the direct marginal cost ofemergency visits, and consequently, emergency visits do not appearas an inefficient alternative even for non-urgent conditions.

Autovías y ferrocarriles: un modelo para evaluar efectos intermodales de la política de infraestructuras

La construcción de autovías disminuye el coste temporal del viaje por carretera, con efectos sobre la demanda del transporte por carretera. Pero, además de los efectos intramodales, existen efectos intermodales, puesto que las autovías afectan a la demanda en otros modos alternativos a la carretera. En este trabajo formulamos y contrastamos empíricamente un modelo que permite obtener resultados para evaluar el impacto de las autovías sobre la demanda de ferrocarril. Seguidamente se pronostican algunos efectos sobre la demanda ferroviaria de algunas actuaciones en infraestructuras viarias incluidas en el Plan Director de Infraestructuras (1993-2007).

Autovías y ferrocarriles: un modelo para evaluar efectos intermodales de la política de infraestructuras

La construcción de autovías disminuye el coste temporal del viaje por carretera, con efectos sobre la demanda del transporte por carretera. Pero, además de los efectos intramodales, existen efectos intermodales, puesto que las autovías afectan a la demanda en otros modos alternativos a la carretera. En este trabajo formulamos y contrastamos empíricamente un modelo que permite obtener resultados para evaluar el impacto de las autovías sobre la demanda de ferrocarril. Seguidamente se pronostican algunos efectos sobre la demanda ferroviaria de algunas actuaciones en infraestructuras viarias incluidas en el Plan Director de Infraestructuras (1993-2007).

Otimização e validação de método empregando quechers modificado e lc-esi-ms/ms para determinação de agrotóxicos em cebola

An evaluation of the pesticides extraction from onion using a modern sample preparation method (QuEChERS) and determination by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was carried out. All the calibration curves showed r>0.99. The recoveries ranged between 61.8 and 120.0% with relative standard deviation lower than 20% for all compounds. Due to the occurrence of matrix effect, the quantification was performed using matrix-matched calibration. The limits of quantification of the method were between 0.0005 and 0.05 mg kg-1. The method shows the advantages of not require the clean-up step and consume low volume of organic solvents, decreasing time, costs and residues.

Porvoon jalostamon haihtuvien orgaanisten yhdisteiden päästömääritysmenetelmät

Työssä käytiin läpi Porvoon jalostamon haihtuvien orgaanisten yhdisteiden päästömääritysmenetelmiä ja arvioitiin nykyisin käytössä olevien sekä uusien menetelmien soveltuvuutta Porvoon jalostamon päästömääritykseen. Nykyisten menetelmien arviointia tehtiin käymällä läpi eri alueiden 2000-luvun päästömäärät sekä vertaamalla päästömääriä muiden jalostamojen vastaaviin päästömääriin. Haihtuvista orgaanisista yhdisteistä puhuttaessa jätetään yleisesti metaani määritelmän ulkopuolelle ja käytetään termiä NMVOC-yhdisteet. Työssä laskettiin arvio Porvoon jalostamon metaanin päästömäärälle ja arvioitiin sen vaikutusta NMVOC-kokonaispäästömäärään. Metaanin kokonaispäästömäärien havaittiin olevan noin kymmenen kertaa haihtuvien orgaanisten yhdisteiden päästömääriä pienempiä, ja näin ollen niiden lisäämisellä NMVOC-päästöihin ei ole juuri vaikutusta. Myös menetelmien investointi- ja käyttökustannuksia, sekä pidemmän aikavälin kustannuksia arvioitiin. Kustannuksiltaan tällä hetkellä Porvoon jalostamolla käytössä olevat menetelmät ovat kustannustehokkaita. Uusista menetelmistä DIAL, SOF ja OGI ovat kustannuksiltaan huomattavasti kalliimpia, myös pitkän aikavälin vertailulla. Nykyisten menetelmien vuosittaiset kustannukset aiheutuvat mittausten vaatimista henkilötyötunneista. Uusista menetelmistä SOF ja DIAL vaativat ulkopuolisten mittaajien käyttämistä. Massavirran määrityksen suhteen vielä kehitysvaiheessa olevalla OGI-kameralla mitatessa voidaan käyttää mittaajina omaa henkilökuntaa. Toisin kuin DIAL- ja SOF-menetelmien laitteistot, OGI-kamera ostetaan omaksi ja näin ollen sitä voidaan käyttää tarpeen vaatiessa vuoden ympäri esimerkiksi suurien vuotajien paikallistamiseen ja LDAR-kiristysohjelman tukena. Tarkastelun perusteella olisi suositeltavaa tarkastaa nykyisin käytettävistä laskentamenetelmistä erityisesti prosessi- ja säiliöalueen sekä jätevesijärjestelmä päästömäärät käyttäen tarkempia DIAL-, SOF- tai myöhemmin OGI-menetelmiä ja muokata laskentamenetelmiä vastamaan näillä määritettyjä päästömääriä.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shipping Views of Baltic Sea Shipping Companies on the Benefits of Responsibility

The safety of shipping operations in the Baltic Sea is an extensively studied issue due to the density of traffic and the ecological sensitivity of the area. The focus has, however, mainly been on ship technology or on traffic control measures and the operative safety aspect of shipping is in a minor position in maritime safety studies and is lacking in terms of solutions. Self-regulatory and voluntary measures could be effective ways to improve the operational safety of shipping. Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is one example of a voluntary measure that the shipping companies can take. CSR can enhance maritime safety and improve the shipping companies’ competitiveness. The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge of CSR in the maritime sector and study its applicability and benefits to the shipping companies. The research comprises of a theory part and a questionnaire study, which examine the significance of corporate social responsibility in shipping companies’ maritime safety and competitiveness. The aim of the questionnaire study is to find out how corporate social responsibility is implemented in the shipping companies. According to the literature review, responsible actions can produce financial and time costs, but due to these actions cost savings in the form of learning and increased efficiency can be achieved. Responsible actions can also produce concrete improvements and a reputation of responsibility that can lead to both cost savings and increase in the company’s income. CSR is recognised as having real business benefits in terms of attracting customers and high-quality employees. In shipping, CSR usually focuses on environmental issues. Environmental social responsibility in shipping is mainly motivated by the need to comply with existing and forthcoming regulation. Shipping companies engage in CSR to gain competitive advantage and to increase maritime safety. The social aspects of CSR take into account the well-being and skills of the employees, corporation and other stakeholders of the company. The questionnaire study revealed that the most common CSR measures in shipping companies are environmental measures, and that environmental concerns are considered to be the most important reason to engage in CSR. From the preliminary question about the concept of CSR it can also be seen that safety issues are commonly considered to be a part of CSR and safety gains are the second most important reason to engage in CSR. From the questionnaire, it can also be extrapolated that gaining a better reputation is one of the most important reasons to engage in CSR in the first place. For example, the main economic benefit was seen to be the increase of customer numbers as a result of a better reputation. Based on the study, it would seem that companies are starting to realise that they might gain competitive advantage and be favoured as shippers if they engage in sustainable, responsible operations and present themselves as “green”.

Korkokattosäännöksen vaikutukset pikalainamarkkinoihin

Lyhytaikaisista, pienehköistä ja vakuudettomista pikalainoista on muodostunut nopeasti osa suomalaisia kuluttajaluottomarkkinoita. Samalla pikalainatoimintaa koskevaa lainsäädäntöä on uudistettu useaan kertaan. Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tavoitteena on ollut selvittää, miten korkokattosäännös on vaikuttanut pikalainayhtiöiden tarjoamiin tuotteisiin ja alalla toimivan yritysjoukon kokoon. Tutkimus on toteutettu laadullisin menetelmin. Aineistona on käytetty Etelä-Suomen aluehallintoviraston ylläpitämän luotonantajarekisterin tietoja, Tilastokeskuksen tilastotietoja, keskeisiä oikeustapauksia sekä erikseen tutkielmaa varten kerättyjä pikalainayhtiöiden tuotetietoja. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin korkokattosäännöksen voimaantulon vähentäneen pikalainayritysten määrää huomattavasti. Yleisin tuote toimialalla on niin sanottu limiittiluotto joustavalla lainamäärällä ja takaisinmaksulla, minkä lisäksi yhtiöt tarjoavat lyhyitä ja pitkiä kertaluottoja. Korkokattosäännöksen tultua voimaan keskimääräinen luottosumma on kasvanut ja takaisinmaksuaika pidentynyt merkittävästi. Samalla luotoista maksettavien kulujen suhde lainamäärään on pienentynyt ja lainoja on myönnetty niin euro- kuin kappalemääräisesti selvästi aiempaa vähemmän. Tulosten perusteella voidaan sanoa, että lakimuutoksella on ollut selkeitä vaikutuksia pikalaina-alaan. Luotonannon kiristyttyä laskeneet luottokustannukset hyödyttävät kuitenkin vain osaa luotonhakijoista. Muuttuneiden tuotteiden myötä pikalainatoiminta on siirtynyt lähemmäs muuta kuluttajaluottotoimintaa.

User Profile Management and Selection in Context-Aware Service Platforms for Networks Beyond 3G

In recent years, progress in the area of mobile telecommunications has changed our way of life, in the private as well as the business domain. Mobile and wireless networks have ever increasing bit rates, mobile network operators provide more and more services, and at the same time costs for the usage of mobile services and bit rates are decreasing. However, mobile services today still lack functions that seamlessly integrate into users’ everyday life. That is, service attributes such as context-awareness and personalisation are often either proprietary, limited or not available at all. In order to overcome this deficiency, telecommunications companies are heavily engaged in the research and development of service platforms for networks beyond 3G for the provisioning of innovative mobile services. These service platforms are to support such service attributes. Service platforms are to provide basic service-independent functions such as billing, identity management, context management, user profile management, etc. Instead of developing own solutions, developers of end-user services such as innovative messaging services or location-based services can utilise the platform-side functions for their own purposes. In doing so, the platform-side support for such functions takes away complexity, development time and development costs from service developers. Context-awareness and personalisation are two of the most important aspects of service platforms in telecommunications environments. The combination of context-awareness and personalisation features can also be described as situation-dependent personalisation of services. The support for this feature requires several processing steps. The focus of this doctoral thesis is on the processing step, in which the user’s current context is matched against situation-dependent user preferences to find the matching user preferences for the current user’s situation. However, to achieve this, a user profile management system and corresponding functionality is required. These parts are also covered by this thesis. Altogether, this thesis provides the following contributions: The first part of the contribution is mainly architecture-oriented. First and foremost, we provide a user profile management system that addresses the specific requirements of service platforms in telecommunications environments. In particular, the user profile management system has to deal with situation-specific user preferences and with user information for various services. In order to structure the user information, we also propose a user profile structure and the corresponding user profile ontology as part of an ontology infrastructure in a service platform. The second part of the contribution is the selection mechanism for finding matching situation-dependent user preferences for the personalisation of services. This functionality is provided as a sub-module of the user profile management system. Contrary to existing solutions, our selection mechanism is based on ontology reasoning. This mechanism is evaluated in terms of runtime performance and in terms of supported functionality compared to other approaches. The results of the evaluation show the benefits and the drawbacks of ontology modelling and ontology reasoning in practical applications.

Perfil logístico de Colombia una visión hacia el mejoramiento estratégico de las operaciones nacionales e internacionales

El propósito de este texto, es realizar un informe investigativo que genere conocimientos claros en temas referentes a la logística del sector agrícola, buscando determinar la mayor producción de ciertos bienes en áreas específicas, la clasificación de productos para consumo interno y externo, las rutas, el tiempo, los costos, los flujos logísticos y demás factores relevantes para el análisis del perfil agrícola, con el fin de facilitar los procesos de distribución, almacenamiento y producción, que generen competitividad dentro de un marco global en el mismo, desafortunadamente, a pesar que es un sector que podría aportar bastante a la economía y desarrollo del país, únicamente aporta el 9% al PIB nacional, evidenciando la importancia de este estudio para reconocer las falencias del sector.

K-Surfer: a KNIME extension for the management and analysis of Human brain MRI FreeSurfer/FSL data

Human brain imaging techniques, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), have been established as scientific and diagnostic tools and their adoption is growing in popularity. Statistical methods, machine learning and data mining algorithms have successfully been adopted to extract predictive and descriptive models from neuroimage data. However, the knowledge discovery process typically requires also the adoption of pre-processing, post-processing and visualisation techniques in complex data workflows. Currently, a main problem for the integrated preprocessing and mining of MRI data is the lack of comprehensive platforms able to avoid the manual invocation of preprocessing and mining tools, that yields to an error-prone and inefficient process. In this work we present K-Surfer, a novel plug-in of the Konstanz Information Miner (KNIME) workbench, that automatizes the preprocessing of brain images and leverages the mining capabilities of KNIME in an integrated way. K-Surfer supports the importing, filtering, merging and pre-processing of neuroimage data from FreeSurfer, a tool for human brain MRI feature extraction and interpretation. K-Surfer automatizes the steps for importing FreeSurfer data, reducing time costs, eliminating human errors and enabling the design of complex analytics workflow for neuroimage data by leveraging the rich functionalities available in the KNIME workbench.

Income composition, endogenous fertility and schooling investments in children

This paper studies how the eomposition of ineome between mothers and fathers affeets fertility and sehooling investments in ehildren, using data from the 1976 and 1996 PNAD, a Brazilian household survey. Ineome composition affeets the time eost of fertility because mothers and fathers alloeate different amounts of time to child-rearing. These effects are in turn transmitted to investments in ehildren through a tradeoffbetween quantity and quality of ehildren. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it derives new implications about the relationship between household ineome composition and schooling investments in ehildren. Seeond, this paper devises and implements an empirieal approaeh to assess these implieations, using two eross-seetions of fertility and schooling data from Brazil. The main empirical findings of the paper ean be summarized as follows. First, the empirical analysis shows that a larger negative effect of the mother's labor in come on fertility in 1996 is associated with a larger positive effect on the adult child's schooling, refleeting the interaction between quantity and quality of children. Second, the larger negative effect of the mother's labor income on fertility in 1996 is associated with a reduction in the effect of other determinants of number of children. This suggests that an increase in the relative importanee of time costs of fertility may be an important determinant of variations in fertility over time in Brazil and other developing countries .