Search results for "environments"
showing 10 items of 229 documents
Education and working life: VET adults' problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments
2015
The rapidly-advancing technological landscape in the European workplace is challenging adults' problem-solving skills. Workers with vocational education and training need flexible abilities to solve problems in technology-rich work settings. This study builds on Finnish PIAAC data to understand adults' (N?=?4503) skills for solving problems in technology-rich environments. The results indicate the critical issue that more than two thirds of adults with vocational education and training have weak skills or lack the skills in solving problems in technology-rich environments and that more than one fifth of these adults are at risk. Furthermore, this study indicates that the likelihood of havin…
Geosphere-biosphere interactions in bio-activity volcanic lakes: Evidences from Hule and Rìo Cuarto (Costa Rica)
2014
Hule and R ́ıo Cuarto are maar lakes located 11 and 18 km N of Poa ́s volcano along a 27 km long fracture zone, in the Central Volcanic Range of Costa Rica. Both lakes are characterized by a stable thermic and chemical stratification and recently they were affected by fish killing events likely related to the uprising of deep anoxic waters to the surface caused by rollover phenomena. The vertical profiles of temperature, pH, redox potential, chemical and isotopic compositions of water and dissolved gases, as well as prokaryotic diversity estimated by DNA fingerprinting and massive 16S rRNA pyrosequencing along the water column of the two lakes, have highlighted that different bio-geochemica…
Genome-Wide SNP-Genotyping Array to Study the Evolution of the Human Pathogen Vibrio vulnificus Biotype 3
2014
Vibrio vulnificus is an aquatic bacterium and an important human pathogen. Strains Of V. vulnificus are classified into three different biotypes. The newly emerged biotype 3 has been found to be clonal and restricted to Israel. In the family Vibrionaceae , horizontal gene transfer is the main mechanism responsible for the emergence of new pathogen groups. To better understand the evolution of the bacterium, and in particular to trace the evolution of biotype 3, we performed genome-wide SNP genotyping of 254 clinical and environmental V. vulnificus isolates with worldwide distribution recovered over a 30-year period, representing all phylogeny groups. A custom single-nucleotide polymorphism …
On the role of internationalization of firm-level corporate governance: The case of audit committees
2022
Research Question/IssueMotivated by the agency theory and the findings of linguistic studies, we analyze the association between the internationalization of a firm's audit committee and its corporate governance.Research Findings/InsightsBased on data from 2159 publicly traded European firms from 15 countries for the period 2000–2018, we find that firms with foreign directors on their audit committees are associated with lower financial reporting quality. The association is mitigated by stronger country-level investor protection and a higher similarity among intra-committee languages. We further find that foreign directors on the audit committee are related to stock prices being less informa…
Connecting Existing Cemeteries Saving Good Soils (for Livings)
2019
Background: Urban sprawl consumes and degrades productive soils worldwide. Fast and safe decomposition of corpses requires high-quality functional soils, and land use which competes with both agriculture and buildings. On one hand, cremation does not require much land, but it has a high energy footprint, produces atmospheric pollution, and is unacceptable to some religious communities. On the other hand, as exhumations are not practiced, “green burials” require more surface area than current burial practices, so a new paradigm for managing land use is required. Conclusions: In this paper, we propose a concept for ‘green belt communalities’ (i.e., ecological corridors with multiple, yet flex…
Handover management in heterogenous mobile and wireless networks
2015
Since 1990, networking and mobile technologies have made a phenomenal unprecedented progress. This progress has been experienced on multiple fronts in parallel; especially on the application level and the user's needs one. This rapid evolution of the technology imposed a need for the existence of heterogeneous environments where the coverage is ensured throughout the different available networks. The challenge with such architecture would be to provide the user with the ability to navigate through the different available networks in a transparent and seamless fashion. However, the navigation among different types of networks is commonly referred to as vertical Handover. The IEEE 802.21 stan…
Deep and Meaningful E-Learning with Social Virtual Reality Environments in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review
2021
Deep and meaningful learning (DML) in distant education should be an essential outcome of quality education. In this literature review, we focus on e-learning effectiveness along with the factors and conditions leading to DML when using social virtual reality environments (SVREs) in distance mode higher education (HE). Hence, a systematic literature review was conducted summarizing the findings from thirty-three empirical studies in HE between 2004 (appearance of VR) and 2019 (before coronavirus appearance). We searched for the cognitive, social, and affective aspects of DML in a research framework and studied their weight in SVREs. The findings suggest that the use of SVREs can provide aut…
Epistemic cooperation scripts in online learning environments: Fostering learning by reducing uncertainty in discourse?
2005
Using online learning environments in higher education offers innovative possibilities to support collaborative learning. However, online learning creates new kinds of problems for participants who have not previously worked with each other. One of these problems is uncertainty which occurs when participants do not know each other. According to the uncertainty reduction theory, low uncertainty level increases the amount of discourse and decreases the amount of information seeking. Therefore, uncertainty may influence online discourse and learning. This study investigates the effects of an epistemic cooperation script with respect to the amount of discourse, information seeking and learning …
Cultivation of Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) with Different Row Arrangements
2011
Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) is an annual plant from the Umbelliferae. Although in cookery also sprouts and tender leaves are used, the drug from dill is represented by the scented fruits (“seeds”), largely used for flavouring conserved foods and liqueurs, but also by the herbal and cosmetic industry. In this work, we present the results of a trial performed in Sicily, putting under comparison four different row arrangements: CR30 (continuous rows 30 cm apart), CR60 (continuous rows 60 cm apart), CR90 (continuous rows 90 cm apart) and TR (twin rows with a distance of 30 cm inside and 60 cm between twin rows). The plant population on the row (12 plants m-1) was constant and according the row…
Pedogenesis and Variability in Soil Properties in a Floodplain of a Semiarid Environment in Southwestern Sicily (Italy).
2010
We performed a pedological study of the variability in soils in a floodplain area of a semiarid region in southwestern Sicily. The objectives of our research were to (i) investigate the role of parent material, erosion, and distribution processes on soil pedogenesis and horizon differentiation; (ii) evaluate the statistical distribution of soil properties; and (iii) interpret these distributions in terms of pedogenic and other processes. Our results showed that not all soil properties examined followed a normal distribution and that even when logtransformed, the degree of normality of the soil salinity data did not improve. Furthermore, principal component analysis was performed to investig…