Regional Modelling for Optimal Allocation of Agricultural Crops Considering Environmental Impacts, Housing Value and Leisure Preferences.

Regional planning should consider the impact of agricultural crops on housing value and leisure, as well as on the local environment. We designed an optimization model for allocating agricultural crops based on farmers profits as well as the impact on these three factors. Each crop creates a different landscape, as well as a different effect on shading and noise reduction. These in turn influence the value of nearby housing and the regional leisure opportunities. Each crop also has a positive and negative environmental impact, including potential use of treated wastewater as well as the effects of pesticides and fertilizers. All these factors were combined with economic considerations to suggest the optimal regional allocation of agricultural crops.

Director's leadership and burnout among residential child care workers : possible implications for practice

This commentary essay discusses the findings of a study involving direct care workers of children in residential care and their perspectives regarding aspects of leadership in their institutions, in order to identify key implications for practice. The article is based on a large study conducted in Israel that examined perspectives from children, residential care workers and directors on various aspects of the social climate of their institution. In this piece we focus on the reports of 201 direct care workers in 24 Jewish residential care settings for at-risk children on levels of burnout, including emotional exhaustion and low sense of personal accomplishment with their work. We examine correlates of this phenomenon, including, among other aspects, their perception of the leadership of their institution's director. The study uses the conceptual framework suggested by Hoy, Smith & Sweetland (2002) originally used to examine the leadership of school principals. We adapted it to the residential child care context, to examine collegial leadership and trust in the director. Collegial leadership refers to workers' perceptions of the director's commitment to them and of the openness and supportiveness expressed in the leadership behaviour of the director towards his or her workers. Trust includes workers' confidence in the reliability, intentions, competence and honesty of their director. The study found that higher levels of perceived collegial leadership and higher levels of trust in the director were linked with lower levels of workers' burnout. These findings emphasize the importance of a positive working atmosphere and trusting relationships between workers and directors. The findings also highlight the benefits of a director sharing his or her knowledge with staff and his or her openness to the staff's views. Some possible key implications of these findings, which are further discussed in this article, include recommendations for directors' training and supervision, routine monitoring of the social climate in children's residential care settings, and the development of leadership models in those settings

'They've always been there for me': grandparental involvement and child well-being

With diversifying families, increased life expectancy, growing numbers of dual-worker households and higher rates of family breakdown, grandparents are now playing an increasing role in their grandchildren’s lives. Despite growing importance there has been little empirical research exploring how grandparental involvement impacts on young people’s well-being. This national study, which includes a survey of 1596 children (aged 11—16) and in-depth interviews with 40 young people, aimed to address this deficit. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that grandparental involvement is significantly associated with child well-being — results that are reinforced by qualitative evidence. Findings suggest grandparents may be under-recognised in the policy agenda

Irrigation of field and orchard crops under semi-arid conditions

Rev. ed

Insect repellent and chemical agronomic treatments to reduce seed numberin'Afourer'mandarin. Effect on yield and fruit diameter

Obtaining citrus fruits without seeds is a recurrent objective for farmers as it is one of the most valued char-acteristics, especially in mandarins.'Afourer'tangor is a highly valuable well-established mandarin, and a highpercentage of seeded fruits are produced under cross-pollination conditions. Several agronomic techniques havebeen suggested to control presence of seeds, such as covering with nets and copper sulfate (CuSO4) and gib-berellic acid (GA3) treatments. Natural bee repellents are also proposed to reduce the number of seeds per fruit.In this study, we aimed to compare the effect of several agronomic treatments to reduce the seed number in'Afourer' mandarin. To this end, we assessed the effect of chemical and bee repellent treatments on the seednumber per fruit and the side effect on yield and fruit diameter. Under these experimental conditions the two beerepellents, one based on zinc and one based onCapsicum annuum, were not useful for reducing the seed numberper fruit in'Afourer'mandarin. The copper sulfate + GA3treatment reduced the seed number per fruit by only35%, and this efficiency was clearly not enough to reduce the seed number for commercial purposes. The mosteffective method to reduce the seed number per fruit was covering with nets, but this technique led to markedlyreduced yields. Yield data was highly variable. Fruit diameter correlated positively with the seed number, but itwas a weak relationship as the seed number explained only 15% of fruit size variability (R2= 0,15)