The Minicontainer-test, first described by Eisenbeis (1993), was designed to study the kinetics of organic residue decomposition
at a microsite level. It is derived from the litterbag technique and consists of polyethylene minicontainers (volume about
1.5 cm3) filled with a test substrate (litter, straw, cellulose, etc.). The minicontainers (MCs) are closed at either end with plastic
gauze discs of variable mesh size (e.g. 20 μm, 250 μm, 500 μm or 2 mm). A definite number of such units are inserted into
PVC-bars, which can be implanted into the soil horizontally or vertically, or be exposed on the soil surface horizontally.
The bars are very stable and can be exposed in different environments for months to years. If required, the bars can be removed
temporarily and stored, e.g. during soil cultivation. Should fresh litter be used, two phases of decomposition can be distinguished:
a fast initial phase, which can be mainly related to the effect of leaching, and a second slow phase depending mainly on the
activity of soil organisms and litter quality. Several questions can be addressed to investigations using MCs, e.g. 1) parts
of the soil fauna which are involved in decomposition (nematodes, microarthropods, and smaller specimens of the macrofauna,
e.g. enchytraeidae, diplopods and dipteran larvae) can be extracted from the litter substrate using a miniscale high gradient
extractor, 2) the organic mass loss of litter can be determined, 3) microbial biomass (Cmic, Nmic) can be assessed by fumigation extraction and 4) microbial activity (respiration) in the test substrate can also be assessed
by use of standardised methods. Compared to litterbag studies, the larger number of small replicate units improves the statistical
evaluation. Until today the Minicontainer-test has been applied in forestry and agriculture, e.g. studying the effects of
liming, soil restoration and the application of insecticides, e.g. Diflubenzuron (Dimilin) and Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var.kurstaki). 相似文献
Objective: Lane departure, caused by inattention, distraction, drowsiness, or any unusual driver behavior, is a typical risk threatening the driver as well as other road users. Accurate perception of such situations through effective warnings would help drivers to avoid serious consequences. With regard to critical functions of warning symbols for risk communication, the present study focused on providing effective and easily perceivable symbols, compatible with human cognitive capabilities. Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to design and cognitively appraise 6 newly designed dynamic symbols, candidates for a new type of lane departure warning system.
Methods: Simplicity, familiarity, concreteness, meaningfulness, and semantic closeness were the major assessment criteria, defining cognitive features by the earlier researchers in the field. A total number of 187 driving license applicants, with a mean age of 20.58 years (SD = 3.20), participated in the present survey. The participants rated cognitive features of the 6 dynamic symbols along a 0–100 scale.
Results: Significant main effect of the element factor type of the designed symbols on rating cognitive features revealed that the existence of car element was the best predictor for illustrating lane departure. The interaction of both element factor and location of element factor significantly affected the ratings. However, the location of element factor did not solely have any strong effect on the ratings. The results also demonstrated that semantic closeness received the highest overall mean score across symbols (M = 61.80), especially within the symbols that include the car element (M = 75.67). Moreover, a significant difference was observed between the average ratings of the cognitive features, despite the fact that a significant correlation was found between cognitive features.
Conclusion: The most considerable result of the current study was the match between the symbol with the highest ratings and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-related icon in appearance. Because previous studies demonstrated a strong correlation between comprehension scores of the symbol and both semantic closeness and meaningfulness, high-level comprehensibility of the best ranked symbol is expected. 相似文献