Vineyard management strategies, including vineyard floor management and crop level management, can be used to influence vine vigor and fruit composition. Two studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of these practices on Pinot Noir in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Managing crop levels is common in cool climate vineyard production though it is a costly practice. With economic pressures, the premium winegrape industry is questioning whether they can reduce production costs and increase yields without compromising quality. A crop thinning trial was conducted in 2010 and 2011 to address these concerns and to better understand the role of vine balance on fruit composition. Crop levels were moderately (35% crop removed) or severely (65% crop removed) thinned at pre-bloom, fruit set, lag phase, or véraison and compared to full crop treatments. In both years, crop thinning reduced yields but had no effect on berry weight or cluster size. In 2010, poor fruit set reduced overall yields, and thinning treatments resulted in very few differences in vine growth, cluster architecture or fruit composition, including total soluble solids (TSS), pH, titratable acidity (TA), yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), anthocyanins, phenolics and tannins. In 2011, yields were much higher due to high fruit set and larger cluster size. No differences were found in vine growth (leaf areas or pruning weights) or fruit YAN, but thinned vines had higher TSS and pH and lower TA than full crop vines at harvest. Fruit thinned at lag phase and véraison had higher TSS and lower TA than fruit thinned pre-bloom. Intensity of thinning had a stronger influence on anthocyanin and tannin concentration than timing, while phenolics were not impacted by either factor. Ravaz index values (fruit yield/pruning weight) below 2.25 and leaf area to yield ratios of 2.25 to 3.25 m²/kg improved fruit composition in 2011 as did later season thinning, though data from the remaining years of this study will provide more insight into appropriate crop load metrics for cool climate Pinot Noir. A second study was implemented in 2011 to determine the impact of crop thinning in vines with different levels of vegetative vigor caused by three vineyard floor management techniques: permanent grass (Festuca rubra spp. rubra) cover (grass), alternating grass cover and tillage (grass & tilled), and tillage of every alleyway (tilled). Crop was thinned at the BB stage of berry development (EL stage 73) to one cluster per shoot (half crop) or not thinned (full crop); all cluster wings were removed at the time of thinning. Tillage treatments had been in place four years prior to the start of the study and competition for nitrogen in grass caused reduced early season vine growth, leaf chlorophyll and canopy size at both bloom and véraison while crop thinning increased canopy size at véraison. Yields were altered by tillage and crop thinning treatments, as grass had fewer clusters per shoot and berries per cluster, and crop thinning reduced yields to 64.7% of full crop across all tillage treatments. At harvest, grass had the lowest TA while TSS and pH were not affected by tillage. Crop thinning increased TSS but did not impact pH or TA. Anthocyanins were affected by both tillage and thinning and were found to be related to vine yield, YAN, leaf N, and leaf area index. Tannins were highest in grass but were not affected by crop thinning, and phenolics were not changed by either factor. Few interactions between tillage and crop thinning were found, but as variables such as yield per vine were impacted by both treatment factors, monitoring long term effects of crop / Graduation date: 2012

Which matrices can be written as sums or products of square-zero matrices? This question is the central premise of this dissertation. Over the past 25 years a signi - cant body of research on products and linear combinations of square-zero matrices has developed, and it is the aim of this study to present this body of research in a consolidated, holistic format, that could serve as a theoretical introduction to the subject. The content of the research is presented in three parts: rst results within the broader context of sums and products of nilpotent matrices are discussed, then products of square-zero matrices, and nally sums of square-zero matrices. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Mathematics)

The effectiveness of land sharing and land sparing (LS/LS) approaches to conservation in the face of rising agricultural demands has been widely debated. While numerous studies have investigated the LS/LS framework from an ecological lens (yield-biodiversity relationship) the relevance of the framework to real life depends on broader considerations. Some of the key caveats include: i) limited knowledge regarding the feasibility of interventions given diverse stakeholders’ interests, ii) the social acceptability (uptake) of these contrasting strategies to direct land users, and iii) limited knowledge regarding their impacts on individuals’ livelihoods and food security. Without considering these social science dimensions proponents of the framework risk an incomplete picture that is not grounded in local realities and can paradoxically force into opposition the very conservation and development interests they seek to reconcile. Using a Companion Modelling approach, which comprises the development of a role-playing game (RPG) and an agent-based model (ABM), this thesis addressed these caveats. The research was based in the Nilgiris of Western Ghats India, a tropical agricultural system at the forest frontier. The main findings show that through engaging local stakeholders in a participatory process, plausible land use strategies that align with their objectives could be identified. Stakeholders proposed three land use interventions. Two of them resemble a form of land sparing (‘monofunctional’ landscapes) on the farms: sparing land for Wildflower Meadows or Tree Plantations while increasing yield on the remaining land. The third intervention asks farmers to accept yield penalties for Intercropping more trees on their farms, a form of land sharing (‘integrated’ landscapes). In terms of decision-making regarding the adoption of these three interventions by direct land users, the study reveals several findings. Firstly there are three main types of motivations that influence farmers’ decision to adopt interventions, in order of importance: monetary benefits, pro-environmental motivations and social norms. Secondly, land use, the type of management preferred on the farm and whether land users accept trees on the farm or not are factors that influence what type of interventions is socially acceptable on individual farms. These factors have been detected in the in-depth household survey and also validated by the RPG. When assessing the adoption of the three interventions, ex ante their implementation, using an ABM, there are some important differences observed between the interventions. Wildflower Meadows is the intervention adopted by the largest number of households, whereas Intercropping is adopted across the largest area of land. Forest Plantations is significantly more unpopular than the other two interventions. The third line of investigation, about the outcomes of adoption, has important policy implications. Adding a socioeconomic dimension to the ecological one adds a level of complexity and creates a less straightforward choice between the LS/LS strategies. None of the three interventions can provide optimal outcomes for production, aspects of biodiversity conservation, livelihoods and food security. Each intervention has indicators that score better compared to the other two interventions. The findings demonstrate that the ecological focus of the LS/LS framework is insufficient to deal with real-world complexities and lends itself to overly simplistic policy prescriptions. More meaningful policies could be achieved when bridging natural and social sciences to better understand the merits and limitations of the LS/LS approaches.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka några lärares uppfattningar, strategier och förutsättningar för att arbeta med STL- metoden för elever i läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Frågeställningarna som står i fokus är hur lärarna i studien uppfattar att metoden påverkar lärandet för elever i läs- och skrivsvårigheter, strategier och förutsättningar som krävs för att arbeta med metoden och anpassningar som behövs för att eleverna i läs- och skrivsvårigheter ska få ut det mesta av metoden. Studien bygger på fem semistrukturerade intervjuer med verksamma lärare i STL- metoden, skriva sig till lärande, med olika erfarenheter av läs- och skrivlärande samt olika många år inom yrket. Vid intervjuerna användes en intervjuguide och under samtalets gång ställdes följdfrågor. Intervjuerna transkriberades för att sedan blir analyserade med hermeneutiken utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Resultat visar på några faktorer som är viktiga vad det gäller STL som arbetssätt för elever i läs- och skrivsvårigheter som till exempel anpassa uppgifter, anpassa responsarbete, organisera grupp eller pararbete, uppdatera kompensatoriska hjälpmedel och arbeta med klimatet i klassen så att elever i svårigheter känner sig inkluderade, som en i gemenskapen och motiverade till sitt arbete. / The purpose of the study is to investigate some teachers' perceptions, strategies and conditions for working with the WTL (Writing to Learn) method for students in reading and writing difficulties in earlier years. The issues that are in focus is how the teachers in the study perceive that the method affects the learning of students in reading and writing difficulties such as, strategies and conditions required for working with the method and adjustments necessary for students in reading and writing difficulties, how they will get the most out of the method. The study is based on five semi-structured interviews with experienced teachers practising the WTL method, with different experiences of literacy teaching and different many years in the profession. The interviewer used an interview guide and follow-up questions were asked during the interview. The interviews were transcribed and then analyzed with hermeneutic from a sociocultural perspective. Results indicated some factors that are important in terms of the WTL method for students in reading and writing difficulties, such as adapting tasks, customize response work, organizing group or pair work, update compensatory aids and work with the climate in the class so that students in reading and writing difficulties feel themselves included as one in the community and motivated in their work.

This research seeks to adopt a post-foundationalist practical theology paradigm, as discussed by J C Müller, in order to create a bridge between the three concepts of the pastoral care perspective, the narrative perspective based on social-constructionism and post-foundationalism. Furthermore, I made use of Müller’s seven movements of methodology which laid a strong foundation to base my research on regarding married migrant women living within Korean multicultural families. Korean society which is a homogeneous culture is currently facing many challenges as a result of becoming more and more multicultural. These multicultural issues are becoming major social and political issues in South Korea. The main reason that South Korean society has become more multicultural is because of intercultural marriages which have also resulted in an increase in multicultural families. These migrant women are faced with many kinds of discrimination and prejudice as a result of their different appearance, culture and language. Furthermore, Korean culture often deprives women of having any position above men especially once they are married. After being married a woman should become invisible, voiceless, and nameless in order to become culturally acceptable. This often results in a migrant woman feeling stressed, fearful, isolated and alone which often results in the development of a low self-esteem, a lack of self-confidence and a low self-image. In my research, I sought to listen to and identify the stories of migrant women, namely foreign women who have married Korean men with a focus on the impact on their identities within a Korean multicultural family through a narrative perspective in order to have a positive growth and outcome from their intercultural differences within South Korea. I decided to view my co-researchers not as co-researchers but as companions on a journey which we could undertake together. The use of the metaphors ‘journey’ and ‘companions’ seemed to give my companions the freedom to speak more openly and placed us on an equal level. Furthermore, I not only discovered my companions’ identities through their own stories, but also developed my companions’ true identities/multi-identities through the broader, inter-relational stories of other people within multicultural communities through a six step process of Listening to the voice, Gaining voice, Giving voice, Finding alternative voice, Retelling voice and Creating future voice. I made use of the narrative approach in order to listen to my companions so that a unity would exist between their past, present and future stories. As I listened to the stories of my companions from a narrative perspective new possibilities were opened which lead to alternative and future stories. Furthermore, my companions were given the opportunity to find themselves and make new identities on the real journey of life. Through the process of my research I also developed a multicultural identity model specifically for married migrant women in South Korea, but ultimately the purpose of my research was not to show or develop a multicultural identity model regarding migrant women, but was more to help these migrant women find their identities themselves and in this become self-empowered to become contributors to Korean society. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Previous studies have shown that we can measure personality not only of humans but of animals as well including domestic cats (Felis catus). Results of studies have also shown that personality of the domestic cat might be influenced by various factors e.g. age, gender or breed of the cat. Although only a few studies were focused on association between owner personality and behavioral profile of their cat. The aim of our study was to explore association between the personality of the owners and the behavioral profile of their cats assessed by their owners. We used correlations for analysing data. The sample included 404 respondents (women), who filled in a Czech translation of BFI-2 and a Czech translation of the Feline Five Questionnaire for their cats (the cat sample consists of 194 males and 210 females). Our results showed a set of correlations between personality factors of the owner and behavioral factors of her cat. The strongest positive correlation was measured between consciousness of the owner and extraversion of her cat. One possible explanation of these associations is based on the Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis, which means that the owner chooses an animal that is similar to her in various characteristics. According to another theory the owner projects her own characteristics into...

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Teknik är nära sammanflätad med människan och internet med sin kraftfulla infrastruktur påverkar oss dagligen. Trots detta reflekterar vi sällan över det och beskriver systemet vagt och med grova förenklingar. Dagens elever ser delar av sin omvärld och kommunicerar med omgivningen via internet och behöver idag kunna hantera det som ett verktyg i undervisningen. Gymnasiekursen Teknik 1 ska enligt Skolverkets styrdokument lära ut hur internet utvecklats i samspel med samhället både ur ett tekniskt och etiskt perspektiv. Eleverna ska utifrån undervisningen kunna använda internet för informationsinhämtning och till exempel förstå vad som styr uppfattningar om kvinnligt och manligt inom systemet internet. Utbildningsvetenskaplig forskning konstaterar att både lärare och elever har svårigheter i undervisningen av komplicerade tekniska system såsom internet. Många elever visar på svårigheter att förstå de abstrakta delarna kring internet vilka är viktiga att förhålla sig till eftersom dessa påverkar oss omedvetet. De har till exempel svårt att se vilka aktörer och tjänster som finns bakom det gränssnitt som de möter i sin mobil. Tekniklärare uttrycker en osäkerhet och behöver fördjupa sina kunskaper om internet. De har en tendens att undvika det abstrakta till fördel för förenklade beskrivningar. Läromedel behöver hjälpa till att förklara dessa delar och skapa ett professionellt begreppsspråk. I detta examensarbete analyseras läromedel för gymnasiekursen Teknik 1 för att undersöka hur det tekniska systemet internet gestaltas, samt hur väl detta stämmer överens med Skolverkets styrdokument. Med hjälp av Claes Klasanders modell för tekniska system kan läromedlen kategoriseras och graderas för att få en uppfattning om hur kunskaper kring internet lärs ut. I analysen har även tydligt förekommande sätt att undervisa formats till det som valts att kallas följemeningstema. Dessa teman som grundar sig på Claes Klasanders modell (2010) beskrivervad undervisningen fokuserar på, vad målet med undervisningen är samt på vilket sätt man talar om ämnet i undervisningen. Tre olika läromedel jämförs sinsemellan, samt även med kursplanenför Teknik 1. Analysen visar att läromedlen på olika sätt svarar mot de utmaningar som nämns i teknikdidaktisk forskning och krav från Skolverket. Libers läromedel Teknik 1 från 2021 har tyngdpunkten av sin beskrivning av internet i det tema som i analysen benämns som medborgaren, tekniken och miljön (se kap. 6.3.2). Temats idé om att utbilda medvetna medborgare med god kunskap om tekniken och dess roll i samhället, stämmer till stor del med kursplanen för Teknik 1 och tillfredsställer behovet från skolan att förklara de osynliga delarna av det tekniska systemet internet. Libers äldre läromedel Teknik från 2011 och Gleerups Teknik 1 från 2022 är relativt lika och beskriver båda internet genom det tema som här kallas de tekniska systemens historia. Här saknas delar av kraven från kursplanen för Teknik 1, framförallt kring internets samverkan med samhället och naturen och systemets mer abstrakta delar. Istället ligger tyngdpunkten på den konkreta tekniska utvecklingen och vidareutveckling av systemen genom historien. / Technology and mankind are closely intertwined and the internet, with its powerful infrastructure, affects us on a daily basis. Still most of us fail to give a clear description on how it works or does it in a simplified manner. Today students view their world and communicate with their surroundings much through the internet and they need to master it as a tool for their learning. The course Teknik 1, given to Swedish tenth grade students, has a responsibility in educating about the development of the internet and its influence on our society, both from a technological standpoint as well as from an ethical point of view. Students should be taught to gather information in an educated way using the internet and for example learn to understand why there exist ideas on the internet about gender and technology. Technology didactics researchers have shown that teachers as well as students are having difficulties within the education of such complex technological systems as the internet. Students are struggling to understand the more abstract parts of the internet, which is vital, since the influence from such parts is acting subconsciously. Technology teachers feel somewhat uncertain about these complex technology systems and tend to avoid the abstract parts of the system infavor of simpler parts more easily explained. Textbooks need to help explain this complexity, so that the ”invisible” parts, such as flow of information, anonymous actors and power control, become visible. Within this master thesis a textbook analysis is carried out on course literature for Teknik 1. It investigates in which way the internet is portrayed and to what extent it aligns to the curriculum from Skolverket. With help of a theoretical model developed by Dr. Claes Klasander (2010) the textbook material has been categorized and graded to be able to measure how they educate on the subject of the internet. The analysis has also identified various themes within the education on the subject. They are based on Klasander’s companion meaning and called companion meaning theme as they describe what the education is focused on, what its goals are and with what language the subject internet is described. Three textbooks were compared with each other and against the course curriculum given by the Swedish School authority. The analysis shows that the textbooks take on the challenge of describing the internet in various ways. Liber’s textbook Teknik 1 from 2021 draws its portrait of the internet using the theme that has been named the citizen, technology and the environment (see chapter 6.3.2). Its idea is to educate conscious citizens with good knowledge in technology and its part in society corresponds a lot to the course curriculum for Teknik 1 and answers well to the schools need of explaining the invisible parts of the internet. Liber’s older textbook version Teknik from 2011 and Gleerups’ Teknik 1 from 2022 are quite similar as they both use the theme named the history of technology systems to describe and educate on the subject. This theme misses out on parts of the course curriculum, mostly regarding the internet's interaction with our society and the surrounding nature, as well as its more abstract parts. Instead focus is on the technical aspects of the development of the internet today and throughout history.

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Technologien wie Sensoren können dabei helfen, die Fortschritte und Zustände der Lernenden (z.B. Langeweile, Verhaltensweisen des Aufgebens) zu verstehen, und diese erkannten Zustände können genutzt werden, um ein Unterstützungssystem zu entwickeln, das als Begleiter fungiert. Zu diesem Zweck werden in dieser Dissertation drei Forschungsfragen untersucht: 1) Wie können multimodale Sensordaten wie physiologische und eingebettete Sensordaten genutzt werden, um Lernbegleiter zu entwickeln, die den Lernenden ein Bewusstsein für ihre Zustände vermitteln? als erste Forschungsfrage, 2) Wie können Lernbegleiter auf verschiedenen Modalitätsschnittstellen entworfen werden, wie z.B. bildschirmbasierte Agenten und verkörperte Roboter?, um verschiedene Möglichkeiten zu untersuchen, wie Lernende effektiv beraten werden können, und 3) Wie können nicht-technische Nutzer bei der Gestaltung und Nutzung multimodaler Lernbegleiter für ihre Anwendungen unterstützt werden? Zur Beantwortung der obengenannten Forschungsfragen wurde als Methode der Design-Based Research (DBR) Ansatz gewählt, bei der Theorie und Praxis gleichermaßen berücksichtigt wurden. Die daraus abgeleiteten Designüberlegungen dienten als Leitfaden für die Gestaltung von Lernbegleitern und der Plattform zur Entwicklung multimodaler Lernbegleiter. / This dissertation investigates three research questions: 1) How can multimodal sensor data such as physiological and embedded sensor data be used to design learning companions to provide learners with an awareness of their states?, 2) How can learning companions be designed for different modality interfaces, such as screen-based agents and embodied robots? to investigate various means to provide effective advice to learners, and 3) How can non-technical users be supported in designing and using multimodal learning companions in their various use cases? To answer these research questions, design-based research (DBR) methodology was utilized, considering both theory and practice. The derived design considerations were employed to guide the design of the learning companions as well as the platform to design multimodal learning companions. The findings from this dissertation reveal an association between the change in physiological sensor values and the arousal of emotion, which is also endorsed by prior studies. It was also found that using sensor devices such as mobile and wearable devices and Facial Expression Recognition (FER) can add to the methods of detecting learners’ states. Furthermore, designing a learning companion requires a consideration of the different modalities of the involved technology, in addition to the appropriate design of application scenarios. It is also necessary to integrate the stakeholders (e.g. teachers) into the design process while also considering the data privacy of the target users (e.g. students). The dissertation employs DBR to investigate real-life educational issues, considering both theories and practical constraints. Even though the studies conducted are limited, as they involved only small sample sizes lacking in generalizability, some authentic educational needs were derived, and the corresponding solutions were devised and tested in this dissertation.