By invitation only: uses and users of the ‘entrepreneurial city’

Large-scale urban development projects (LSUDPs) are embodying the diffusion of an entrepreneurial approach into urban policy and consequently to planning, with the built environment being transformed into spaces oriented towards specific users and uses. For planning practice, this entails including urban forms and discourses that support exclusion and polarization in planning projects. This paper asks how physical planning promotes and/or hinders spatial and socio-economic integration in these projects. The analysis focuses on two UDPs in Malmö, Sweden. Official planning documents, interviews with public officials and the media are used to illustrate the discourses and practices built around these projects to glance over aspects of equity and integration in a city that is plagued by socio-economic and spatial segregation. The paper contributes to the discussions on implications and dilemmas for physical planning derived from the adoption of entrepreneurial approaches in urban policy.     

Housing context and legitimacy in the transformation of a stigmatized estate: the case of Rosengård

Large housing estates built in the post second world war era have been the object of extensive debates and research in Europe and in North America, due to their social and maintenance challenges but also their high symbolic value. A wide range of regeneration strategies has been employed in addressing issues of segregation and stigmatization of these estates. This paper examines the role of local housing and public management in the selection of regeneration strategies. The paper starts from the concept of housing context as means of explaining the selection of regeneration strategy. The paper is informed by a case study of regeneration efforts in Rosengård, where a minor regeneration effort, the Bokals, led by the municipal housing company, crystalizes a new integrated approach in regenerating the estate. This sets the stage for subsequent developments. We argue that legitimacy, in the sense of management being perceived as a credible agent of change, is critical in the cumulative strengthening and shaping of the regeneration strategy in Rosengård. We put forward the notion of legitimacy trading to capture the mutual and instrumental public support of the main actors. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate how including aspects of management legitimacy can develop the concept of housing context, by extending the range of applicability and broadening the range of regeneration strategies that can be accounted for.     

Effects of adding an automated monitoring device to the health screening of postpartum Holstein cows on survival and productive and reproductive performances

Automated monitoring devices (AMD) have become more affordable, and consequently more popular among dairy producers. We hypothesized that the addition of AMD-generated health alerts to a health-screening program improves survival, milk production, and reproductive success. In addition, we hypothesized that cows diagnosed with clinical disease that have AMD alerts are at greater risk of culling, lower milk production, and decreased risk of pregnancy than cows without AMD alerts. Holstein cows (nulliparous = 282, parous = 328) were enrolled at ?60 ± 3 d (d 0 = calving), when they were fitted with an AMD and assigned randomly to 1 of 2 health-screening strategies: (1) control: AMD alerts not provided to farm personnel; and (2) automated device: AMD alerts provided to farm personnel. Twice daily, study personnel determined which cows had AMD alerts (health index ≤79, rumination <200 min/d, or difference between current rumination and the average of the 3 preceding days <0) and provided the information to farm personnel. Farm personnel examined cows at 3, 5, and 9 d in milk (DIM) and when daily milk yield decreased ≥25% on consecutive days. We detected no differences between health-screening strategies regarding morbidity (control = 49.7 ± 3.3%, automated device = 52.8 ± 3.2%), but the interaction between health-screening strategy and parity tended to be associated with the number of clinical diseases per cow (primiparous: control = 0.46 ± 0.06, automated device = 0.65 ± 0.07 cases/cow; multiparous: 0.88 ± 0.08, automated device = 0.86 ± 0.08 cases/cow). Cows enrolled in the automated device strategy were more likely to be treated with supportive therapy (64.4 ± 3.1 vs. 55.0 ± 3.2%), whereas primiparous cows in the automated device strategy were more likely to be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs than those in the control strategy (41.6 ± 4.7 vs. 23.8 ± 4.0%). Health-screening strategy did not affect survival or total milk yield up to 22 wk postpartum, but cows in the automated device strategy had reduced risk of pregnancy after the first 2 services (54.5 ± 3.0 vs. 46.2 ± 3.2%). Cows diagnosed with a clinical disease without AMD alerts had reduced risk of removal from the herd by 150 DIM (5.7 ± 2.0 vs. 19.0 ± 3.3%), greater risk of pregnancy after the first 2 services (49.6 ± 4.5 vs. 33.6 ± 3.9%), and greater milk by 22 wk postpartum (6.7 ± 0.2 vs. 5.3 ± 0.2 × 10³ kg) than cows diagnosed with a clinical disease that had an AMD alert. Adding AMD-generated health alerts to the health screening of postpartum cows in a herd with an existing screening program did not improve survival, milk yield, or reproductive success. In addition, AMD alerts in cows diagnosed with a clinical disease may be indicative of the future success of such cows.     

A multi-residue method for the determination of pesticides in high water content matrices by gas chromatography-single quadrupole mass spectrometry with electron ionisation (EI-GC/MS)

An EI-GC/MS method for the determination of pesticide residues in vegetable matrices with high water content was validated using papaya samples. The validation of a multi-residue pesticide method was in agreement with national and international regulations enabling the Ministry of the Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply of Brazil to cover a large number of matrices and pesticide residues in its monitoring and control programmes. The extraction used 60 mL of ethyl acetate and 30 g of sample previously processed. After extraction, clean-up of all the extracts was carried out by percolation through GBC cartridges. The samples were then injected in an EI-GC/MS system. Calibration curves were prepared in quadruplet by fortifying blank extracts with a standard solution containing all the pesticides studied at 0.000, 0.005, 0.010, 0.020, 0.030, 0.050, 0.080 and 0.100 mg kg(-1). For the recovery study, blank samples were fortified at 0.010, 0.020, 0.030, 0.050 and 0.080 mg kg(-1) and then submitted to the extraction procedure. The complete procedure was repeated over four different days by two analysts. The regression parameters of calibration curves were calculated for each validation day. Linearity, selectivity, specificity, robustness, limits of detection and quantification were also assessed. The uncertainty was estimated for each analyte at each spike level studied. The method had recoveries between 91% and 105% and precision results ≤ 20%. Limits of quantification were below or equal to the maximum residue limits (MRLs) regulated by Brazilian legislation. The MRLs of the selected pesticides are not regulated by CODEX Alimentarius. The results are also in agreement with SANCO/10684/2009.     

Factors that hinder the success of SIM-based mobile NFC service deployments

Near Field Communication (NFC) enables bidirectional wireless proximity communication between mobile handsets. From an end user point of view, mobile NFC services are expected to replace plastic cards (for payment, ticketing, transport, etc.) by bringing improved convenience and functionality. SIM cards have been used to secure the data and applications that implement mobile NFC services. A total of 300 commercial and pilot SIM-based mobile NFC service initiatives have been reported in 2015. However, their deployment is so complex that no commercial solution has succeeded in reaching out the mass market with few exceptions in special institutional settings (e.g. Japan). Although particularly urgent to the telecom industry, existing scientific research provides limited explanations to why these initiatives are not succeeding. We present a framework that identifies twenty-six factors that hinder the success of SIM-based mobile NFC service deployments.     

Timing of artificial insemination using fresh or frozen semen after automated activity monitoring of estrus in lactating dairy cows

The objective of this observational experiment was to determine the association between the time of artificial insemination (AI) and pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in lactating Holstein cows inseminated with either fresh or frozen semen considering different characteristics of an estrus event (i.e., onset, peak, and end) using an automated activity monitoring system. A total of 3,607 AI services based on the alert of an automated activity monitoring system (Heatime; SCR Engineers Ltd., Netanya, Israel) were evaluated from 4 commercial dairy farms in Germany. Pregnancy diagnosis was performed by transrectal palpation 38 ± 3 d after AI or by transrectal ultrasonography 30 ± 3 d after AI. Estrus intensity was categorized based on peak activity of estrus (PAE) into low (35–89 index value) and high (90–100 index value) intensity. The mean (± standard deviation) duration of an estrus event was 14.3 ± 4.6 h. The mean (± standard deviation) interval from onset of estrus (OE; moment where index value was ≥35) to AI was 16.8 ± 8.0 h, from PAE to AI was 11.9 ± 8.1 h, and from end of estrus (EE; moment where index value returned to <35) to AI was 2.5 ± 8.7 h. Primiparous cows had greater P/AI than multiparous cows, whereas first AI postpartum yielded greater P/AI compared with subsequent AI services. Type of semen was not associated with P/AI. Cows with heat stress 1 wk before AI had decreased P/AI. Cows with low estrus intensity (26.0%) were less fertile compared with cows showing high estrus intensity (32.8%). Cows with intermediate 100-d milk yield had decreased P/AI compared with cows with either low or high 100-d milk yield. There was a quadratic effect of the interval from OE to AI on P/AI. At 38 d after AI, P/AI was greatest for cows inseminated from 7 to 24 h after OE, within 18 h after PAE, or from 5 h before EE to 12 h after EE. There was no interaction between the interval from OE to AI and type of semen. There tended to be an interaction between the intervals from PAE to AI and type of semen and from EE to AI and type of semen. Cows inseminated with fresh semen within 5 h before EE had greater P/AI compared with frozen semen, whereas cows inseminated with frozen semen from 13 to 18 h after EE had greater P/AI compared with fresh semen. In conclusion, inseminating cows from 7 to 24 h after OE or 1 to 18 h after PAE yielded greatest P/AI irrespective of type of semen. In addition, high estrus intensity was positively associated with P/AI.