A Review of Soil-Improving Cropping Systems for Soil Salinization

A major challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals linked to Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition, under the current global crop production paradigm, is that increasing crop yields often have negative environmental impacts. It is therefore urgent to develop and adopt optimal soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) that can allow us to decouple these system parameters. Soil salinization is a major environmental hazard that limits agricultural potential and is closely linked to agricultural mismanagement and water resources overexploitation, especially in arid climates. Here we review literature seeking to ameliorate the negative effect of soil salinization on crop productivity and conduct a global meta-analysis of 128 paired soil quality and yield observations from 30 studies. In this regard, we compared the effectivity of different SICS that aim to cope with soil salinization across 11 countries, in order to reveal those that are the most promising. The analysis shows that besides case-specific optimization of irrigation and drainage management, combinations of soil amendments, conditioners, and residue management can contribute to significant reductions of soil salinity while significantly increasing crop yields. These results highlight that conservation agriculture can also achieve the higher yields required for upscaling and sustaining crop production

Examination of political behavior by middle managers in international partnerships: a strategy process approach

The strategy process is viewed as a result of deliberate and emergent events, affected from different factors. Existing research in strategy making and implementation has suggested different micro-level factors affecting strategic decision making, mainly through research in single companies. Some factors include cognition, organisational learning and the roles of the top managers. This thesis attempts to gain a better understanding of the strategic decision making process through the investigation of the impact of middle managers' politics in the strategy process within international partnerships of the high tech sector. An abductive research approach is used, to investigate four case studies, combining different qualitative research methods. The research focuses on the formal and informal activities that middle managers engage in, in order to affect strategic decisions before, during and after these are made, through the different phases of a partnership. The organisational context of the study, this being international partnerships, enables the investigation of 35 decisions, 15 of which are in intra-organisational level, and 20 in inter-organisational. Findings suggest that the impact of political activity, between individual employees and groups of them in the intra-organisational environment, can be either integrative or fractious. This however appears to depend on three different factors: firstly, the tactics being applied during the decision making period; secondly, the phase of the partnership in which these decisions are being made; thirdly, the level of autonomy that middle managers enjoy during the formal and informal communications surrounding the decision making process. This study contributes in the strategy area as it suggests a coherent framework on investigating the causes and impact of political processes in organisations. Rather than using the criticised as abstract notions of 'positive/negative' impact of politics, it focuses on the way they integrate or fragment decision makers. This impact however appears to depend on the three aforementioned factors. The study contributes in strategy research, as it stretches the need for inquiry in the emerging strategic relationships area, by focusing on firm partnerships. Moreover, it stretches the need for abductive approaches, having as a departing point existing theoretical suggestions, in order to test theories and irregularities, and offer alternative explanations. The study concludes by suggesting two different frameworks to investigate the middle manager politics in firm partnerships, offering a meticulous way in investigating them through a processual approach

Die allgemeine Umweltbesorgnis - eine Analyse im Rahmen der Studie zur Gesundheit und Umwelt bei Kindern

Die Erfassung der Umweltbesorgnis im Sinne einer umweltbezogenen Gesundheitsbesorgnis ist für die klinischen Umweltmedizin und Epidemiologie von Bedeutung. Für ein besseres Verständnis des Konstrukts der Umweltbesorgnis (nach Hodapp et al., 1996) kann die Kenntnis über Zusammenhänge mit soziodemographischen und gesundheitsbezogenen Variablen hilfreich sein. Die bisherigen Forschungsergebnisse zu der Beziehung soziodemographischer Merkmale mit der Umweltbesorgnis sind widersprüchlich und die Bedeutung der Umweltbesorgnis für die Gesundheit und insbesondere für die Nutzung des Gesundheitswesens ist wenig untersucht. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, einen weiteren Beitrag auf diesem Gebiet zu leisten. Hierzu wurden von März bis Mai 2011 im Rahmen der Studie zur Gesundheit und Umwelt bei Kindern von Erziehungsberechtigten mit Kindern im Alter von 6 bis 14 Jahren entsprechende Daten erhoben. Im Zentrum der Analysen steht hierbei die Subskala der allgemeinen Umweltbesorgnis (nach Rethage, 2007) - eine gesellschaftsbezogene Gesundheitsbesorgnis gegenüber der Umwelt im Allgemeinen. Die multiple Regressionsanalyse (n=77) zeigte, dass das weibliche Geschlecht und ein junges Lebensalter mit einer höheren allgemeinen Umweltbesorgnis einhergehen, während der Sozialstatus (nach Winkler) und der Wohnort (Stadt/ Land) der Erziehungsberechtigten sich in diesem Modell nicht als geeignete Prädiktoren herausstellten. Der Vergleich mit bisherigen Studien zu dieser Thematik verdeutlicht erneut die Inkonsistenz der Ergebnislage, was mitunter auf methodische Unterschiede zurückzuführen ist. Im Umgang mit der Umweltbesorgnis sind soziodemographische Variablen als Confounder zu beachten. Um Konfundierung zu vermeiden, sollten soziodemographische Merkmale daher sorgfältig erhoben und studienspezifisch berücksichtigt werden. Vermutete Zusammenhänge zwischen der allgemeinen Umweltbesorgnis der Erziehungsberechtigten und deren Neigung zu Erkrankungen aus dem atopischen Formenkreis sowie deren psychischen Lebensqualität (SF-12) konnten mittels Korrelationsanalyse nicht bestätigt werden. Es zeigte sich allerdings eine statistisch signifikant positive Korrelation zwischen der allgemeinen Umweltbesorgnis der Erziehungsberechtigten und der Anzahl der Besuche beim Kinderarzt und/ oder Allgemeinmediziner, die für das teilnehmende Kind in den letzten 12 Monaten wahrgenommen wurden. Auch wenn keine Kausalitätsschlüsse diesbezüglich möglich sind, kann dieses Ergebnis als Anhaltspunkt für einen bewussteren Umgang mit dem Thema „umweltbezogene Gesundheitsbesorgnis“ im Patienten-Arzt-Kontakt gewertet werden. Weitere Forschungsarbeit auf diesem Gebiet ist in einer Zeit steigender Gesundheitsausgaben wünschenswert

Preliminary Water Assessment Reports of The Test Basins of The Watch Project

This report presents the initial plans of the case studies how they link to rest of the Watch project and on which water resources they will focus. This report will function as the basis for further discussions on how to improve the integration of the case studies within the project and to develop a more general protocol for each of the case studies. Currently 5 catchments are used within the Watch project, they differ in climatic and hydro-geological features and expected climate changes: the Glomma River basin (Eastern Norway), the upper Guadiana basin (Central Spanish Plateau), the Nitra River basin (central Slovakia), the Upper-Elbe basin (part of the Elbe River) and the island of Crete. Also the water resources issues vary over these cases. Agricultural (and domestic) water use is under pressure in the Mediterranean catchments probably aggravating with the expected increase in drought frequency under future climate. The Norwegian catchment provides hydropower services under threat of precipitation increase rather than decrease. The central European catchments are threatened mainly by increased variability, i.e. increased frequencies of extremes in a densely populated environment, and river flow may need additional buffers (reservoirs) to reduce floodrisk and store water for dry period

The effect of autonomy in sustaining social entrepreneurial intention through management education: the cases of Malaysia and Scotland

he study examines what is the role of autonomy on individual social entrepreneurial intention (EI) for students. Furthermore, it examines the differences between the emerging market setting and developed market to gather an understanding of context differences. Using principal component analysis the study finds that the motivators of EI can be divided into 5 components. Following from that the autonomy variable can be divided into 3 sub components. The results present differences in propensity towards EI in the two country settings along with differences in propensity towards social entrepreneurship. The results are unique as they test EI variables from the literature on social entrepreneurship and in an emerging market context. The role of autonomy as a bridge between education and attitude or intention is presented

Climate change impact on the frequency of hydrometeorological extremes in the island of Crete

© 2019 by the authors. Frequency analysis on extreme hydrological and meteorological events under the effect of climate change is performed in the island of Crete. Data from Regional Climate Model simulations (RCMs) that follow three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5) are used in the analysis. The analysis was performed for the 1985-2100 time period, divided into three equal-duration time slices (1985-2010, 2025-2050, and 2075-2100). Comparison between the results from the three time slices for the different RCMs under different RCP scenarios indicate that drought events are expected to increase in the future. The meteorological and hydrological drought indices, relative Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Runoff index (SRI), are used to identify the number of drought events for each RCM. Results from extreme precipitation, extreme flow, meteorological and hydrological drought frequency analysis over Crete show that the impact of climate change on the magnitude of 100 years return period extreme events will also increase, along with the magnitude of extreme precipitation and flow events