Precision farming integrates satellite coordination and information communication technologies into farming practices to deliver self-driving and auto-regulating machinery and equipment to farmers, who can afford to invest, right across the globe. It is often sold on the basis that it can help clean up or ‘ecologically modernise’ conventional, industrial agriculture. It should also increase production rates in industrial agriculture to help to ‘feed the world’ as well as being cost effective in ways that could make farmers more money – miracle-grow formula and win-win technology. There are critical concerns that precision farming facilitates a continuing trend of transnational firms appropriating control over agricultural industries. Many neo-Marxist or neo-Weberian critics contend that any ‘green’ benefits fall secondary to the more dominant social and economic trend of ongoing capital accumulation, increasing rationalisation and industrial progress that has been deemed detrimental to natural environments and human populations. These social and economic pressures are actually the real drivers in change. Rather than greening industrial agriculture, precision farming is another way of masking over and profiting from the risks caused by ongoing capitalist accumulation and industrial agriculture. The other set of concerns are to do with human culture and labour. Farming is the grass roots of modern civilisation and dependent upon human labour, knowledge and cultural methods. With the introduction of data over knowledge, and auto-steering tractors over human labour and skills, what kinds of impacts will this have on farm families, rural cultures within countryside landscapes in Britain or other countries where precision farming is being adopted? As a farmer’s son, I was concerned about the impact the computerisation of agriculture will have on family farms, nature and rural communities. I spent four years interviewing and working with a cooperative group of Duchy of Cornwall farmers in the West Country of England. I wanted to know why they were using these new technologies and the kinds of benefits, impacts or outcomes that they experienced following adoption. The results tend to confirm critics’ concerns, unfortunately. Precision farming has much more to do with the organising of agricultural production. The restructuring of farming by way of precision farming greater empowers transnational agribusinesses and Agri-Food supply chains, rather than protecting the environment, feeding hungry people or making family farming more sustainable. I conclude my research by suggesting that it is not technology, or agricultural technologies such as precision farming that will deliver these end goals in and of them selves. There could be room to improve precision farming systems if they are coupled with well-managed policy designs and agri-environmental schemes.

Submitted by Rosivalda Pereira (mrs.pereira@ufma.br) on 2017-09-22T18:29:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaLaisMonte.pdf: 3899898 bytes, checksum: 80c6c2eab407e3030e826f9938538169 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-22T18:29:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaLaisMonte.pdf: 3899898 bytes, checksum: 80c6c2eab407e3030e826f9938538169 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-24 / The present research is a study about the importance of the clothing tech pack in the development of products in clothing industry, considering its information content. The objective is to identify the different types of tech packs in the industries and to understand how their informational design can facilitate the productive process, avoiding errors and waste. For that, the survey was carried out in clothing industries from São Luís (MA), and the tech packs used in the production process were collected, which were organized regarding the different types found, considering the models proposed by Araújo (1999), Rigueiral (2002) and CITEVE (2005). Next, the informational contents of tech packs were analyzed based on the variables of Mijksenaar (2001), concluding with the elaboration and application of a questionnaire in order to understand how the users understand the importance of the tech pack. As result, it was evident that tech packs are still little used in the industries of São Luís – MA, mainly by the employees. The tech packs did not present a good hierarchy, creating noises that can difficult legibility and readability, the space for graphic representations is insufficient or has no description of details and information is still insufficient for users. The only positive common point among all tech packs is the use of fonts with size greater than 8 pt. Theses results are due to the lack of parameters to elaborate a good informational design for tech packs / A presente pesquisa é um estudo sobre a importância da ficha técnica de vestuário no desenvolvimento de produtos nas indústrias, considerando o seu conteúdo informacional. O objetivo é identificar os diferentes tipos de fichas técnicas nas indústrias e entender como o seu design informacional pode facilitar o processo produtivo, evitando erros e desperdícios. Para tanto, a pesquisa foi realizada nas indústrias de vestuário de São Luís (MA), tendo sido feito o levantamento das fichas técnicas utilizadas no processo produtivo, as quais foram organizadas quanto aos diferentes tipos encontrados, considerando-se os modelos propostos por Araújo (1999), Rigueiral (2002) e CITEVE (2005). Em seguida, analisou-se o conteúdo informacional das fichas técnicas com base nas variáveis de Mijksenaar (2001), concluindo com a elaboração e aplicação de questionário a fim de compreender como os usuários entendem a importância da ficha técnica. Como resultado, ficou evidente que as fichas ainda são pouco utilizadas nas indústrias de São Luís – MA, sobretudo pelos funcionários. As fichas não possuíam uma boa hierarquização, criando ruídos que possam dificultar a legibilidade e leiturabilidade, o espaço para o desenho é insuficiente ou não possui descrição dos detalhes e as informações ainda são escassas para os usuários. O único ponto positivo em comum para todas as fichas técnicas é o uso de fontes com tamanho maior que 8. Esses resultados ocorrem devido à falta de parâmetros para elaboração de um bom design informacional das fichas técnicas

Following the mass shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, institutions of higher education appeared to restructure themselves and change the way that they worked with students who may pose a risk to self or others. They formed committees, sometimes known as Communities of Concern, to help review these concerns and respond appropriately. The purpose of this study was to examine how the Community of Concern Committee at the University of Kentucky was developed following the incident at Virginia Tech. Particular attention was focused on the change and learning that took place. Using the frames of single-loop and double-loop learning, this study examined six oral history accounts of the development of the Community of Concern Committee at the University of Kentucky. The oral histories coupled with historical documents provided a timeline of events related to the development of the committee. In addition, the oral histories revealed a complex learning process which blended single and double-loop learning to guide this institutional change. The comparison between this incident and other legal issues within higher education was explored as well as the opportunity to expand this exploration outside of the current case study.

Each year, almost 12% of small technology companies fail to survive, and the risks associated with high-tech startups are high for business failure due to the introduction of new technology, similar competitor technology, and the short product life cycle of new products. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the business sustainability strategies that some owners of small technology companies used to remain in operation for longer than 5 years. The population for the study was the owners of 5 small technology companies located in the southeast region of the United States. The general systems theory was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and review of company documents, 10K report, cash flow, and profit and loss statements. Methodological triangulation and member checking were used to help ensure the reliability of the study. The analysis and data management process included an examination of the data for themes, trends, redundancy and common denominators. Four themes emerged during the research: prior serial entrepreneurial success, willingness to stay the course, ability to raise sufficient capital to meet obligations and driven and passionate owners. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to improve business practices through educating small business owners, first time owners of small businesses, minority and women entrepreneurs, governments, and small business incubators that have a stake in business creation and entrepreneurial development in local communities, on sustainability strategies.

CdSe solar cells with ZnTe as the window layer deposited by CSS process have shown Voc's around 630mV. However the currents were very low and also the voltages were not meeting the desired objectives. To improve the performance the contact energy at the ZnTe/Cu interface should be minimized by doping the window layer. Thermal evaporation was used to deposit ZnTe to have more control over the composition of the film. Initial experiments were done by depositing Cu doped ZnTe films on plain glass by co-evaporating both ZnTe and Cu. The conductivity was in the order of 10e3 which shows copper present in the film in the order of 1e22 S/cm³. This accomplishes a tunneling contact with the top electrode. Using the ZnTe:Cu contacts in complete devices resulted in disappointing voltages and currents. Efforts were made to deal with the poor performance of the cells. Devices were made on different types of TCO coated glass substrates but, were resulting in the same numbers which shows the type of TCO has an insignificant effect on the performance. The Cu doping has been helping in raising the Vocs but at the same time marred the currents whose effect has been unexplainable. Further experiments have been made changing the ZnTe thickness and concentration of Cu doping. Experiments were done increasing the substrate temperature as high as 5000C during ZnTe deposition and a Se flux has been introduced so as to compensate the loss of Se from CdSe at such high substrate temperature. But these experiments resulted in dismal performance indicating the domination of defects in the undoped ZnTe layer.

<p><p>This survey's main purpose is to highlight how the two Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter writes and describes four different school shootings. We wanted to find out if there is a general pattern of how school shootings are reported by the media. Two of the shootings occured in USA, Columbine and Virginia Tech, and two in Finland, Kauhajoki and Jokela. The analysis aims at three areas: the whole event, the perpetrator and the victim.</p><p> </p><p>We have used a qualitative content analysis with a semiotic model to examine the articles in the survey. The theories in the study is based upon views on social constructionism, media logic, stereotypization, representation, morale panic/media panic and media events. With the foundation of our chosen theories we have seen a certain amount of articles that is slightly perfunctory and you can tell a template have been layed upon many articles.</p><p> </p><p>One of our conclusions from our survey is that Aftonbladet is a more frequent user of indecent and powerful metaphores and metonymies than Dagens Nyheter. For example is the term bloodbath used a couple of times by Aftonbladet but not by Dagens Nyheter. We have also found out that the perpetrator is generally described as a stereotype when his bad qualities are strenghten and his good qualities are ironed out.</p></p>

This study provides an empirical analysis of patent litigation and innovation within high-tech firms. There is a significant drop in R&D over the course of the eleven year period of interest. However, the results do not show litigation causing a significant effect on R&D investments as either a percentage of revenue or a percentage change from year to year. Secondly, there was found to be a slight drop in percentage change of patents earned per year over time, but this was not found to be significantly caused by litigation. However there is strong evidence to support that increased litigation does cause the percentage of patents classified as utility patents to fall. Since this ratio of utility patents per total patents can be viewed as an indicator of innovative quality, this trend suggests that litigation does cause overall innovative quality of a firm’s efforts to diminish.

Le premier chapitre présente différentes focales permettant de situer les publications dans des revues académiques (AERES, diagramme en araignée et Google Scholar). Le deuxième chapitre traite du marketing des services innovants de télécommunications. On présente les résultats d'une centaine d'études de marché appliquées à ce type de services. On montre ensuite quel bilan peut être effectué de deux co-encadrements en master et en thèse de sciences de gestion. Emerge alors une question. Pourquoi le marché est-il à ce point fétichisé alors que les innovations de services dans le champ de la high tech ont le plus souvent concerné des marchés qui n'existaient pas : services mobiles, internet, réseaux sociaux. Les chapitres 3 et 4 sont plus théoriques et interrogent la rationalité dans les organisations. La rationalité n'est-elle pas plus la règle que l'exception dans les organisations high tech ? Si la règle est l'exception, il faut alors définir à partir de quel paradigme traiter cette exception. La sociologie pense avoir une réponse dans la lignée de Durkheim et de Weber : on peut diminuer l'anomie organisationnelle en s'appuyant sur les sciences sociales. Ce n'est certes pas faux mais la sociologie s'attache au fait que le monde social est divisé tandis que l'acteur social est unifié ou pourrait l'être. La psychanalyse postule au contraire que le sujet est divisé et que le monde social est (relativement) cohérent, en tout cas qu'il représente la loi symbolique sans laquelle aucun lien social n'est possible. Le chapitre 5 présente des observations et interprétations concernant un grand opérateur européen de télécoms. La question de recherche est celle du signifiant-maître qui constitue généralement la clé de voûte du couplage structure-culture dans ce type d'entreprise. Pourquoi des managers ordinaires ont-ils été subitement autorisés par le système de signifiants d'une organisation high tech à mettre en place des processus visant à sidérer certains de leurs collaborateurs ? Le chapitre 6 permet de situer les travaux de recherche par rapport aux dernières avancées de l'approche lacanienne dans le champ des organisations. Quelle position subjective pour un directeur des systèmes d'informations ? Lacan était il un théoricien homophobe et patriarcal ? Quelle est l'utilité des concepts lacaniens en marketing critique et en Gestion des Ressources Humaines ? Quelle est aujourd'hui la production d'articles lacaniens dans le champ de la recherche en gestion ? On propose pour terminer d'appliquer un des quatre concepts lacaniens fondamentaux de la psychanalyse, celui du " réseau des signifiants " à l'organisation high tech en prenant des exemples dans le domaine des services de télécommunications mobiles.

This research examines on the importance of considering context as design criteria for technology integration and technology design, and in particular, what that means for teacher education. While others (Fishman, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Soloway, 2004) have broadly considered context as a factor in supporting technology integration, this current research uses a Human-Tech framework (Vicente, 2003) to identify and examine the implications of individual contextual constraints for the design of technology-enhanced learning; therefore, the researcher begins to answer the important - and arguably unexplored - question of how the complexities of varying contexts ought to be used to inform design. Broadly, this design research study explores the impact of using a Human-Tech framework for understanding technology integration in education and specifically, to inform the design of technology-enhanced learning practices in the context of teacher education. Further, the research reports on the impact of an open online research support forum - designed using a Human-Tech framework - on the experiences of teacher candidates while carrying out classroom-based research as part of their initial teacher education program. Overall, results of the research study suggest that using a Human-Tech framework for understanding technology integration was helpful in supporting a broader and more systematic approach to designing for more effective use of technology in the context of teacher education. In terms of the design of the open online research support forum, findings suggest that there were key Organizational constraints that likely continued to have a limiting impact on the innovations across the two-year design study. Therefore, this research also points to future technology-specific and non technology-specific design strategies which may have implications for technology integration, and fulfilling the functional purposes of the program more broadly.

This research examines on the importance of considering context as design criteria for technology integration and technology design, and in particular, what that means for teacher education. While others (Fishman, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Soloway, 2004) have broadly considered context as a factor in supporting technology integration, this current research uses a Human-Tech framework (Vicente, 2003) to identify and examine the implications of individual contextual constraints for the design of technology-enhanced learning; therefore, the researcher begins to answer the important - and arguably unexplored - question of how the complexities of varying contexts ought to be used to inform design. Broadly, this design research study explores the impact of using a Human-Tech framework for understanding technology integration in education and specifically, to inform the design of technology-enhanced learning practices in the context of teacher education. Further, the research reports on the impact of an open online research support forum - designed using a Human-Tech framework - on the experiences of teacher candidates while carrying out classroom-based research as part of their initial teacher education program. Overall, results of the research study suggest that using a Human-Tech framework for understanding technology integration was helpful in supporting a broader and more systematic approach to designing for more effective use of technology in the context of teacher education. In terms of the design of the open online research support forum, findings suggest that there were key Organizational constraints that likely continued to have a limiting impact on the innovations across the two-year design study. Therefore, this research also points to future technology-specific and non technology-specific design strategies which may have implications for technology integration, and fulfilling the functional purposes of the program more broadly.