Statistical analysis of 'White Riesling' (Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa L.) clonal performance at 16 locations in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany between 1971 and 2007

Performance trials have been evaluated of 30 'White Riesling' clones grown at 16 locations in the Rheinland-Pfalz region between 1971 and 2007. A mixed linear model approach was used to handle the highly-unbalanced data structure. Environmental factors accounted for about 95 % of the variation for individual observations. Genotypic clone variation contributed only 0.65 % to the total variation for grape yield, 0.29 % for total soluble solids (TSS) and 0.22 % for acidity. F-tests for clonal differences showed significant F-values for each characteristic. Estimated clone means ranged from 107.4 to 130.8 kg·ar-1 (1 ar = 100 m2) for grape yield, from 72.0 to 75.2 °Oechsle for TSS and from 12.5 to 13.4 g·l-1 for acidity. Significant mean differences were found only for clones located near the lower and upper extremes of the performance range. Long-term time trends of clonal performance are also present. On average over the 36 year period, grape yields increased by 2.00 kg·ar-1 each year and TSS by 0.87 °Oechsle each year, whereas acidity decreased by 0.21 g·l-1 each year. No significant deviations of individual clones from the general long-term trends were verifiable for grape yield but some clones showed significant deviations for TSS and acidity.A closer look at the linear trend for grape yield displayed a discontinuity around 1989. Before 1989 a linear gain of about 3.99 kg·ar-1 was apparent whereas, after this time a very slight decrease of 0.28 kg·ar-1 was observed. For mean daily temperature, the long-term trend was remarkably parallel to that of grape yield and TSS. For the Rheinland-Pfalz region, daily temperature increased significantly by 0.046 °C per year, whereas average daily sunshine showed a no significant change over time.

Использование информационно-коммуникационных источников для усовершенствования знаний старшекласников

This article examines the impact of the globalization process on individual life courses and employment careers in modern societies from an international comparative perspective. Empirical results are summarized from the GLOBALIFE research project (Life Courses in the Globalization Process), which studied the effects of globalization on life courses for the first time. As the results demonstrate, the globalization process has had diverse effects on different phases of the life course. Qualified men in their mid-careers are broadly protected from the effects of globalization, while young adults are the losers of the globalization process. We also find that educational and class characteristics determine the extent to which an individual faces increasing labour market risks. Under globalization, these effects have intensified. The results of the GLOBALIFE project thus indicate that globalization triggers a strengthening of existing social inequality structures. Another central finding is that globalization has not led to the same outcome across various modern societies. Globalization appears to be distinctly filtered by deeply embedded national institutions. These institutional packages entail diverse strategies of labour market flexibilization which themselves differentially shape patterns of social inequality in modern societies

Challenges and practices in promoting (ageing) employees working career in the health care sector – case studies from Germany, Finland and the UK

Background The health and social care sector (HCS) is currently facing multiple challenges across Europe: against the background of ageing societies, more people are in need of care. Simultaneously, several countries report a lack of skilled personnel. Due to its structural characteristics, including a high share of part-time workers, an ageing workforce, and challenging working conditions, the HCS requires measures and strategies to deal with these challenges. Methods This qualitative study analyses if and how organisations in three countries (Germany, Finland, and the UK) report similar challenges and how they support longer working careers in the HCS. Therefore, we conducted multiple case studies in care organisations. Altogether 54 semi-structured interviews with employees and representatives of management were carried out and analysed thematically. Results Analysis of the interviews revealed that there are similar challenges reported across the countries. Multiple organisational measures and strategies to improve the work ability and working life participation of (ageing) workers were identified. We identified similar challenges across our cases but different strategies in responding to them. With respect to the organisational measures, our results showed that the studied organisations did not implement any age-specific management strategies but realised different reactive and proactive human relation measures aiming at maintaining and improving employees’ work ability (i.e., health, competence and motivation) and longer working careers. Conclusions Organisations within the HCS tend to focus on the recruitment of younger workers and/or migrant workers to address the current lack of skilled personnel. The idea of explicitly focusing on ageing workers and the concept of age management as a possible solution seems to lack awareness and/or popularity among organisations in the sector. The concept of age management offers a broad range of measures, which could be beneficial for both, employees and employers/organisations. Employees could benefit from a better occupational well-being and more meaningful careers, while employers could benefit from more committed employees with enhanced productivity, work ability and possibly a longer career

Pension systems compared : a polarised perspective, a diverse reality

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Globalisation and international competition have a spillover effect on the reforms of pension systems that imposes a similar pattern of dismantling, hardening access to pensions, reducing expenditure and retrenchment in said reforms. The comparative analysis of four countries with different pension systems: two liberal (United Kingdom and Chile) and another two with contributory-proportional systems (Spain and Argentina) serves to determine the details of the reform processes, which discursively seem to have a shared pattern recommended by the international financial and economic institutions. But the reality of the four case studies shows considerable differences in the implementation of the pension reform policies. The reforms depend on the societal context, institutions, history, the role of unions, the government in power, demographic factors and economic perspectives, among other matters. Many countries need to sustain pension systems because they are associated with many pensioners' political vote. Therefore, the spillover effect of globalisation and the convergence in certain uniform patterns of reforms is far from reality in the four countries, and as such, the measures adopted are specific for each country

Active ageing, pensions and retirement in the UK

The ageing population has led to increasing concerns about pensions and their future sustainability. Much of the dominant policy discourse around ageing and pension provision over the last decade has focussed on postponing retirement and prolonging employment. These measures are central to productive notions of ‘active ageing’. Initially the paper briefly sets out the pension developments in the UK. Then it introduces active ageing and active ageing policy, exploring its implications for UK pension provision. It demonstrates that a more comprehensive active ageing framework, which incorporates a life-course perspective, has the potential to assist the UK to respond to the challenges of an ageing population. In doing so it needs to highlight older people as an economic and social resource, and reduce barriers to older people’s participation in society

Is it adaptive to disengage from demands of social change? Adjustment to developmental barriers in opportunity-deprived regions

This paper investigates how individuals deal with demands of social and economic change in the domains of work and family when opportunities for their mastery are unfavorable. Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that with unattainable goals and unmanageable demands motivational disengagement and self-protective cognitions bring about superior outcomes than continued goal striving. Building on research on developmental deadlines, this paper introduces the concept of developmental barriers to address socioeconomic conditions of severely constrained opportunities in certain geographical regions. Mixed-effects methods were used to model cross-level interactions between individual-level compensatory secondary control and regional-level opportunity structures in terms of social indicators for the economic prosperity and family friendliness. Results showed that disengagement was positively associated with general life satisfaction in regions that were economically devastated and has less than average services for families. In regions that were economically well off and family-friendly, the association was negative. Similar results were found for self-protection concerning domain-specific satisfaction with life. These findings suggest that compensatory secondary control can be an adaptive way of mastering a demand when primary control is not possible

Trends and determinants of retirement transition in Europe, the USA and Japan : a comparative overview

This comparative chapter serves as a stylized frame of comparison for the single-country chapters of the book. It briefly contrasts the development of retirement transitions in the 13 countries selected for this book by showing older workers’ employment trends over the last decades and allowing us to contrast trends in early retirement (in the 1970s and 1980s) with active aging (since the late 1990s). Furthermore, it provides an overview on the context of retirement transitions that reflects on institutional, workplace, and individual conditions. In sum, the results of our international comparison suggest a close relationship between older workers’ employment levels and contextual factors at the institutional, the workplace, and the individual level