The Peruvian cocoa sector has been growing quickly since the beginning of this century due to international demand for this commodity together with concentrated international cooperation, including NGOs and governmental agencies. Similarly, certification among cocoa producers has been growing quickly. Little is known regarding how certification impacts environmental and socioeconomic...
Active participation and collaboration of community members are crucial to the continuation and expansion of open source software projects. Researchers have recognized the value of community in open source development and studied various aspects of it including structure of communities, motivations for participation, and collaboration among members. However, the majority...
Keeping FOSS developers motivated is a challenging problem, and their motivation levels can affect the team's productivity and satisfaction, leading to higher or lower productivity. Using reputation systems as a motivator has become the de-facto standard for many online communities, rewarding user's activity through badges of honor or achievement levels....
Aniba rosaeodora commonly known as rosewood is a tree species of great socio-economic value in the Amazon because it is harvested for the extraction of its essential oil, which is used in the production of cosmetics. Since rosewood is a wild species included on the Convention on International Trade in...
Merge conflicts have long plagued software development. With larger and more dispersed teams comes greater risk of developers working on the same code at the same time. While merge conflicts are known to be painful, their exact impact on software is still largely unknown. Are merge conflicts an isolated problem,...
The number of endangered species is rapidly increasing while paucity of adequate information and resources delays establishment of conservation actions. The IUCN’s listing system is insufficient to determine conservation priorities and many species lack information even to be evaluated (i.e., “data deficient”). Here I proposed and tested the Rapid Endangered...
Social interactions are a ubiquitous part of our lives, and the creation of online social communities has been a natural extension of this phenomena. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) development efforts are prime examples of how communities can be leveraged in software development, where groups are formed around communities...
Our confidence in software systems depends on our confidence in the exhaustiveness of our testing. As software systems get more complex, the task of exhaustive testing becomes more complex and even infeasible in some cases. In order to build less error prone systems, we therefore need to not only focus...
Free / Open Source Software developers come from a myriad of different backgrounds. While some contribute for personal reasons, many become involved because they receive compensation from corporations or foundations. The motivation for participating in a project can have dramatic impacts on how and what contribution an individual makes. These...
Visual information presented in diagrams promotes information processing both in an individual and in collaborative work. Previous literature has identified the role of diagrams in
understanding information processing in a variety of disciplines. In software engineering, diagrams are a prevalent method involved in process development: diagrams are used for system...
Over the past few decades, the ratio of women to men in many traditionally maledominated fields has become much more equal. However, in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields the ratio has not improved at the same rate. In computer science the ratio is still very uneven. Today women...
Science has a critical role to play in guiding more sustainable development trajectories. Here, we present the Sustainable Amazon Network (Rede Amazonia Sustentavel, RAS): a multidisciplinary research initiative involving more than 30 partner organizations working to assess both social and ecological dimensions of land-use sustainability in eastern Brazilian Amazonia. The...
In light of water scarcity and the impacts of climate change, there is an increased need to understand the interaction between land use characteristics and ecohydrologic processes in semiarid regions. Additionally, many semiarid and arid regions face various land management challenges, including woody plant encroachment, decreased snowpack, and increased stream...
Software systems are becoming an essential part of the lives of both individuals and organizations, and as a consequence, these systems are getting bigger and more complex. Because of this, the tasks of maintaining the quality in these complex software systems are becoming increasingly difficult. Furthermore, these systems are subject...
This paper aims to increase the knowledge on establishment practices for four fast-growing species (Guazuma crinita Mart., Eucalyptus grandis x E. urophylla, Bixa orellana L., Psidium guajava L.) in areas degraded by gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon. The study was carried out in Madre de Dios region, located in...
The purpose of this investigation was to examine the
literature in education and library science to determine
why standards for education libraries have not been
realized, in the light of the specific criteria for other
areas of teacher education accreditation. Educators and
librarians in favor of strict standards for education...
Riparian zone conservation is vital as species’ ability to adapt to a changing climate and pressure from land use is constantly tested. The unique microclimates of riparian zones offer cooler temperatures and resourceful habitats for aquatic and terrestrial organisms. This is essential during seasonal ceased flow regimes when water availability...
The purpose of this report is to provide the IDB with the available information on the current status of aquaculture in most of its South American member countries.
Tropical dry forests are the most threatened forest type in the world yet a paucity of research about them stymies development of appropriate
conservation actions. The Paran~a River Basin has the most significant dry forest formations in the Cerrado biome of central Brazil
and is threatened by intense land conversion...
This study investigated the design of a new type of
postsecondary educational institution for Venezuela that
would meet the vocational education and training needs of
postsecondary students and the skilled labor demands of the
nation. Venezuela's educational system was analyzed to
delineate a center for a suitable two-year vocational
technical...