Giant ragweed is an extremely competitive weed and poor control in soybean could lead to significant yield losses for Ontario producers. In 2008, a giant ragweed biotype near Windsor, ON was not controlled with glyphosate and further testing confirmed it as the first glyphosate-resistant (GR) weed in Canada. Giant ragweed seed was collected from 102 locations in Essex (70), Kent (21), Lambton (10) and Waterloo (1) counties to document the occurrence and distribution of GR giant ragweed in Ontario. Giant ragweed seedlings were sprayed with glyphosate at 1800 g a.e. ha-1, and evaluated 1, 7, 14 and 28 days after application (DAA). Results from the survey concluded that there are 47 additional locations in southwestern Ontario with GR giant ragweed. The majority of the sites were found in Essex county, but there was one location in both Chatham-Kent and Lambton counties. Field trials were established at six sites with GR giant ragweed during the 2010 and 2011 growing seasons. The objectives were to determine the level of giant ragweed control with increasing doses of glyphosate, and glyphosate tank mixes applied either preplant or postemergence. Control of giant ragweed increased with higher doses of glyphosate, but only at doses that are not economical for producers. The most effective glyphosate tank mixes were 2, 4-D ester, saflufenacil, linuron, and cloransulam-methyl providing up to 98, 94, 99 and 97% control 4 weeks after application (WAA), respectively. Glyphosate plus dicamba in dicamba-tolerant soybean provided up to 100% giant ragweed control, 4 WAA at the three confined field trial locations. / Monsanto Canada Inc.; Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program; Grain Farmers of Ontario

Complexity theory investigates complex systems and how parts of a system give rise to collective behaviours. My thesis focuses upon the nature of the complex systems emerging within the classrooms of three award-winning high school physics teachers in Ontario. Using vignettes for each teacher and their classroom system, I have highlighted themes related to the emergence of collective behaviours. My interpretations found the first classroom collective agreeing to work towards academic excellence with the intention of achieving success in university. The second classroom collective was invested in relationship-building and used the resulting emphasis on teamwork and group-oriented learning to further physics understanding. The final classroom system was in the process of learning to grapple with discovering physics through following and contending with the results of their instincts. From a complex systems perspective, differences amongst teachers and students and different sets of interactions result in unique systems. Therefore, a single prescription for the emergence of certain collective behaviours is unlikely. The journal/commentary format traces my changing understandings of complexity thinking in education and how those understandings made an impact on the way I approached and reflected upon the observations of the study. As such, the thesis also documents shifts in perspectives highlighting the tensions felt between reductionist and complexivist thinking. Ultimately, complexity thinking illuminated how important it was to consider the teacher as part of the system instead of separated from it. Further issues relating to complex emergence and physics education that lead to greater pedagogical awareness are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-07-18 13:48:42.481

No description available.

Les réseaux sont présents dans pratiquement tous les aspects de la vie. Le monde quinous entoure comporte énormément de réseaux. Par exemple, les réseaux de communicationconstitués de téléphones, les réseaux électriques, les réseaux d'ordinateurs, le réseaudes lignes aériennes, ... etc, sont autant de réseaux importants dans la vie de chaque jour.Le cadre mathématique des réseaux est bien approprié pour décrire plusieurs systèmescomposés d'un grand nombre d'entités qui interagissent entre elles. Chaque entité est représentéepar un noeud du réseau et chaque interaction par un lien entre deux noeuds. Ilest donc possible de modéliser ces réseaux par des graphes. Pour la plupart de ces réseaux,la difficulté provient principalement du grand nombre d'entités, ainsi que de la façon dontelles sont interconnectées. Une approche naturelle pour simplifier de tels systèmes consistedonc à réduire leur taille. Cette simplification n'est pas faite aléatoirement, mais de tellefaçon à ce que les noeuds de la même composante aient plus de liens entre eux qu'avec lesautres composantes. Ces groupes de noeuds ou composantes sont appelés communautésd'intérêt. Notre thèse se positionne dans le domaine de l'étude des graphes sociaux. Elle s'intéresseprincipalement à l'étude de la robustesse des structures sociales émergentes dansles réseaux d'interactions. L'aspect de la robustesse des réseaux constitue un challengetrès important pour comprendre leur fonctionnement, le comportement des entités lesconstituant et surtout pour comprendre les interactions qui peuvent se produire entreelles, permettant l'émergence de certains comportements qui n'étaient pas du tout prévisiblesau préalable. Actuellement, les études de la robustesse des réseaux qui existentdans la littérature traitent cet aspect du point de vue purement structurel, i.e. toutes lesperturbations sont appliquées soit sur les noeuds, soit sur les arêtes du graphe. Pour cequi est de notre étude, nous nous sommes intéressés à définir une nouvelle stratégie qui sebase sur des perturbations appliquées sur les paramètres qui permettent l'émergence desgraphes sociaux dans les réseaux d'interaction. Cette façon d'aborder l'aspect robustessedes graphes constitue une nouvelle manière d'évaluer et de quantifier les changements quipeuvent intervenir dans les structures de ces graphes.

This project examines the term autopoiesis and contextualizes it into the realm of Landscape Architecture. Autopoiesis is defined as self-generating, self-producing, self-maintaining organization, used to describe the resilience of a living system. This practicum presents autopoiesis as a process condition that describes incidences of phenomena and the resulting emergent behaviors. Through illustration, photography, simulation and experimental studies, an understanding of autopoiesis through visual representations was attained. This practicum creates a space that uses the dynamics of autopoiesis to both inform and form the design of an urban condition. Located along the coast of Incheon, South Korea, a 1.6km2 site of reclaimed tidal-flat land was investigated. Autopoiesis was understood through phenomena and emergent behaviors that resulted by integrating the fluctuating tidal system into the creation, realization and functioning of the site. The intention of this project is to articulate the notions of autopoiesis through the design of a flexible condition that responds, reacts and engages with contingencies and disturbances, allowing these types relationships to become integral component to the overall development and functioning of the designed site.

Cette recherche est consacrée à l'étude des dynamiques permettant de transformer des idées abstraites en innovations concrètes. Notre perspective stratégique vise à comprendre les mécanismes qui sont à l'œuvre lorsqu'il s'agit d'évaluer le potentiel des idées, d'organiser les ressources et de conduire le processus de passage de l'idée au projet d'innovation. Une idée abstraite devient une innovation concrète à travers un mouvement collectif de réalisation. Ce mouvement n'est possible que quand les acteurs parviennent à donner du sens à leur engagement. Ce postulat nous conduit à adopter une approche sociocognitive qui met le processus de construction de sens au cœur de l'analyse. Pour étudier un processus concret d'émergence de l'innovation, notre cadre conceptuel et méthodologique mobilise essentiellement la construction collective de sens de Weick, la sociologie de la traduction de Callon et Latour, et l'analyse processuelle de Pettigrew. Cette grille combine d'autres travaux moins répandus jusqu'à maintenant dans le management de l'innovation : la noologie de Morin, la philosophie de la technique de Simondon et l'ethnotechnologie de Gaudin. L'investigation empirique consiste en l'étude de cas d'une innovation majeure au sein de l'entreprise Air Liquide: dix ans de développement des garnissages pour la distillation cryogénique des gaz. L'étude de cas conforte la pertinence de notre approche sociocognitive. Tout particulièrement, elle permet de mettre en évidence deux dynamiques fondamentales et complémentaires dans la construction de sens : traduction et reconnaissance. Ce résultat conduit à tout à la fois remettre en cause et compléter la sociologie de la traduction en la reliant à la théorie de l'état naissant d'Alberoni à travers la " re-co-naissance " comme dynamique collective : plutôt que de se rallier par intérêt bien compris (l'intéressement / la traduction), les acteurs qui constituent le premier noyau actif, comme ceux qui se convertissent plus tard, " se reconnaissent " autour d'une idée dont ils " reconnaissent " ensemble le potentiel innovant et la capacité de transformation et de refondation de l'organisation (re-naissance / reconnaissance). Cette re-conceptualisation ouvre des perspectives théoriques et pratiques nouvelles pour la gestion des processus d'innovation.

Despite the widely hailed success of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy it was apparent by the mid-2000s that beneath the veneer of stability lay a country facing serious social and economic challenges. The employment and labour market participation rates were uniquely low among emerging markets. Protest action against the state had reached levels last encountered in the volatile 1980s and early 1990s. The budget and current account deficits had reached unsustainable levels. By its own admission the government realised that the country was not recording GDP growth rates necessary to make dramatic inroads into poverty, unemployment and inequality levels. A number of analysts and commentators therefore came to question the future stability of South Africa’s political system. Trade unions and some Cabinet ministers routinely described unemployment as a “ticking time bomb”. The Chairman of the Institute of International Affairs wrote in Business Day that he could predict when South Africa’s “Tunisia Day” would arrive. The respected Economist newspaper ran a front page feature on what it called South Africa’s “downhill slide”. Former President FW de Klerk warned that South Africa was approaching a precipice. Clem Sunter, South Africa’s most renowned scenario planner, upped his prospects that South Africa may become a failed state. Global ratings agencies downgraded South Africa citing the fear that government policy could not meet popular demands. Amidst such speculation it is vitally important that the prospects for instability be investigated and determined, not via opinion or speculation, but rather against a sound body of theory. This task is complicated by the fact that the feared instability may only occur at a point in the future. The theory must therefore be applied via a methodology capable of overcoming the weak track record of political science in accurately anticipating major shifts in political systems. This problem statement will be addressed by showing that complex systems theory holds the key to a series of units of analysis via which the stability or instability of any political system can be objectively determined, compared to any other political system, and tracked over time. Secondly that there are scenario planning methodologies that can overcome the uncertainty inherent in the futures of all complex systems and thereby the poor track record that political scientists have in anticipating dramatic future changes in the systems they study. When combined into a single complex systems/scenario model, these theoretical and methodological points of departure will allow the long term prospects for stability or instability of any political system to be accurately and objectively determined. / PhD (Development and Management) North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Despite the widely hailed success of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy it was apparent by the mid-2000s that beneath the veneer of stability lay a country facing serious social and economic challenges. The employment and labour market participation rates were uniquely low among emerging markets. Protest action against the state had reached levels last encountered in the volatile 1980s and early 1990s. The budget and current account deficits had reached unsustainable levels. By its own admission the government realised that the country was not recording GDP growth rates necessary to make dramatic inroads into poverty, unemployment and inequality levels. A number of analysts and commentators therefore came to question the future stability of South Africa’s political system. Trade unions and some Cabinet ministers routinely described unemployment as a “ticking time bomb”. The Chairman of the Institute of International Affairs wrote in Business Day that he could predict when South Africa’s “Tunisia Day” would arrive. The respected Economist newspaper ran a front page feature on what it called South Africa’s “downhill slide”. Former President FW de Klerk warned that South Africa was approaching a precipice. Clem Sunter, South Africa’s most renowned scenario planner, upped his prospects that South Africa may become a failed state. Global ratings agencies downgraded South Africa citing the fear that government policy could not meet popular demands. Amidst such speculation it is vitally important that the prospects for instability be investigated and determined, not via opinion or speculation, but rather against a sound body of theory. This task is complicated by the fact that the feared instability may only occur at a point in the future. The theory must therefore be applied via a methodology capable of overcoming the weak track record of political science in accurately anticipating major shifts in political systems. This problem statement will be addressed by showing that complex systems theory holds the key to a series of units of analysis via which the stability or instability of any political system can be objectively determined, compared to any other political system, and tracked over time. Secondly that there are scenario planning methodologies that can overcome the uncertainty inherent in the futures of all complex systems and thereby the poor track record that political scientists have in anticipating dramatic future changes in the systems they study. When combined into a single complex systems/scenario model, these theoretical and methodological points of departure will allow the long term prospects for stability or instability of any political system to be accurately and objectively determined. / PhD (Development and Management) North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This project examines the term autopoiesis and contextualizes it into the realm of Landscape Architecture. Autopoiesis is defined as self-generating, self-producing, self-maintaining organization, used to describe the resilience of a living system. This practicum presents autopoiesis as a process condition that describes incidences of phenomena and the resulting emergent behaviors. Through illustration, photography, simulation and experimental studies, an understanding of autopoiesis through visual representations was attained. This practicum creates a space that uses the dynamics of autopoiesis to both inform and form the design of an urban condition. Located along the coast of Incheon, South Korea, a 1.6km2 site of reclaimed tidal-flat land was investigated. Autopoiesis was understood through phenomena and emergent behaviors that resulted by integrating the fluctuating tidal system into the creation, realization and functioning of the site. The intention of this project is to articulate the notions of autopoiesis through the design of a flexible condition that responds, reacts and engages with contingencies and disturbances, allowing these types relationships to become integral component to the overall development and functioning of the designed site.

Integrating cultural weed management practices with herbicides is an important strategy to reduce wild oat (Avena fatua L.) populations in Alberta, Canada. The purpose of this thesis is to expand the knowledge on wild oat seed banks and seedling emergence within integrated weed management systems. Field experiments were conducted from 2006-2007 to examine the impact of crop rotation, barley cultivar, barley seeding rate and herbicide rate on wild oat seed bank density, seed mortality, seedling emergence and seedling survivorship. Management systems consisting of diverse crop rotations, tall barley cultivars and increased barley seeding rates reduced wild oat seed bank density, seedling emergence and seedling survivorship, especially at low herbicide rates. Wild oat seed banks predicted subsequent wild oat emergence, whereas biomass and emergence strongly predicted seed banks. Lastly, 50% wild oat emergence was achieved at 537 and 509 growing degree days in 2006 and 2007, respectively, in Lacombe, Alberta. / Plant Science