Ecoenzymes as Indicators of Compost to Suppress Rhizoctonia solani

Reports of disease suppression by compost are inconsistent likely because there are no established standards for feedstock material, maturity age for application, and application rate. The overall goal of the study was to evaluate a suite of biological indicators for their ability to predict disease suppression. Indicators included both commercial available methods for compost stability (Solvita™, respiration) and metrics of soil ecology not yet adopted by the compost industry (e.g., ecoenzymes, nematode community index). Damping-off by Rhizoctonia solani on radish was chosen as a model system given its global importance, competitiveness affected by carbon quality, and lack of disease management options for organic production. Biological indicators were evaluated for their ability to consistently differentiate among curing process, maturity, and feedstock material as a function of disease severity of a seedling bioassay and a compost extract assay to test competition with R. solani growth. Compost processed as vermicompost and anaerobic digestate were more suppressive against R. solani than windrow or aerated static pile. Mature composts were more suppressive than immature components. Feedstocks containing dairy manure and/or hardwood bark tended to have suppressive qualities. In contrast, poultry manure-based components were conducive to disease. Microbial ecoenzymes active on chitin and cellulose and nematode community indices were better predictors of disease suppressiveness than microbial respiration. These indicators are quicker than plant bioassays and could be adopted as tools to certify commercial products

3D Seismic, Mechanical Stratigraphy, and Petrophysical Analysis of the Marcellus Shale in Taylor County, West Virginia

The Marcellus Shale is a Devonian age black shale formed during the Acadian Orogeny along the eastern margin of North America. The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale is an unconventional shale-gas reservoir that has been a major target of seismic exploration and gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. This study focuses on analyses of seismic response, mechanical, and petrophysical properties of the Marcellus Shale and surrounding strata in Taylor County, West Virginia.;Spectral blueing was performed on the post stack migration seismic volume to enhance the resolution. The resolution of the volume was increased from 61 feet to 47 feet, which improved the detail observed in the seismic response and provided additional insights in the interpretation of the Marcellus and bounding intervals. The isochore map created from the modified Marcellus picks shows greater variability in the thickness of the Marcellus, with an overall trend of thickening to the east. Within the thicker part of the Marcellus, a second negative reflection event appeared that was not obvious in the post stack migration. This event was interpreted to be part of the Lower Marcellus Shale.;Lambda-rho and Mu-rho parameters were calculated using compressional and shear wave vibrations and density obtained from the well logs. When combined with the Young\u27s modulus and Poisson\u27s ratio, these cross-plots are indicative of favorable brittle and total organic carbon (TOC) rich zones that highlight potential drilling targets in the Marcellus. TOC was estimated using the Schmoker and Passey methods, and provide very similar estimates within the Marcellus Shale. Specifically note that the Middle and Lower Marcellus are generally the more TOC rich and productive Marcellus zones

Transcription factor target prediction using multiple short expression time series from Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: The central role of transcription factors (TFs) in higher eukaryotes has led to much interest in deciphering transcriptional regulatory interactions. Even in the best case, experimental identification of TF target genes is error prone, and has been shown to be improved by considering additional forms of evidence such as expression data. Previous expression based methods have not explicitly tried to associate TFs with their targets and therefore largely ignored the treatment specific and time dependent nature of transcription regulation. RESULTS: In this study we introduce CERMT, Covariance based Extraction of Regulatory targets using Multiple Time series. Using simulated and real data we show that using multiple expression time series, selecting treatments in which the TF responds, allowing time shifts between TFs and their targets and using covariance to identify highly responding genes appear to be a good strategy. We applied our method to published TF - target gene relationships determined using expression profiling on TF mutants and show that in most cases we obtain significant target gene enrichment and in half of the cases this is sufficient to deliver a usable list of high-confidence target genes. CONCLUSION: CERMT could be immediately useful in refining possible target genes of candidate TFs using publicly available data, particularly for organisms lacking comprehensive TF binding data. In the future, we believe its incorporation with other forms of evidence may improve integrative genome-wide predictions of transcriptional networks

Opportunities and Challenges in Commissioning Materiality-Driven Sustainability Reporting Towards the SDGs: The Case of Cadeler A/S

Frequently and recently tightening and expanding sustainability reporting policies and requirements can pose significant administrative burdens on SMEs upholding a strong culture of accountability to their stakeholder network. This seminal case study examines how a Danish offshore wind farm commissioner can efficiently (1) navigate towards credibility in and (2) derive actionable insights from their sustainability (reporting) integration trajectory by capitalizing on the increasingly emphasized materiality principle. Group-based Fuzzy AHP and Textual Analysis aim to excavate and assess senior managers’ and external stakeholders’ preferences based on the GRI Standards and the UN’s SDG targets. Internal priorities emphasize safety, compliance, and profitability, whereas external stakeholders’ and their groups’ priorities exhibit mixed findings on their type and extent of alignment with the former. Content elements assigned higher relative importance tend to be more robust to changes in decision-makers’ uncertainty and verbal bias. The author confirms that a simplicity-informativeness trade-off tends to be driven by stakeholder grouping and that a data-driven, subject-based, and objectifying approach should be complemented with context, managerial judgment, and process iteration. Keywords: Sustainability; materiality; prioritization; credibility; actionability.Frequently and recently tightening and expanding sustainability reporting policies and requirements can pose significant administrative burdens on SMEs upholding a strong culture of accountability to their stakeholder network. This seminal case study examines how a Danish offshore wind farm commissioner can efficiently (1) navigate towards credibility in and (2) derive actionable insights from their sustainability (reporting) integration trajectory by capitalizing on the increasingly emphasized materiality principle. Group-based Fuzzy AHP and Textual Analysis aim to excavate and assess senior managers’ and external stakeholders’ preferences based on the GRI Standards and the UN’s SDG targets. Internal priorities emphasize safety, compliance, and profitability, whereas external stakeholders’ and their groups’ priorities exhibit mixed findings on their type and extent of alignment with the former. Content elements assigned higher relative importance tend to be more robust to changes in decision-makers’ uncertainty and verbal bias. The author confirms that a simplicity-informativeness trade-off tends to be driven by stakeholder grouping and that a data-driven, subject-based, and objectifying approach should be complemented with context, managerial judgment, and process iteration. Keywords: Sustainability; materiality; prioritization; credibility; actionability

Beyond Sustainability Communication: Sustainability-integrated Corporate Communications

Research on sustainable communication is mostly limited to sustainability communication without presenting a model of sustainable communication itself. As this article argues, two things can happen if communication itself does not follow the principles of sustainability: Sustainability communication will be less credible, and society will overlook the cornerstone of how to address and overcome discrepancies between corporate behaviour and corporate communicative behaviour. The fact that earth’s natural resources are limited, is not yet incorporated in corporate communication as practised by organisations. At the borders of sustainability and communication this paper therefore argues for the development and implementation of sustainability-integrated corporate communications

Towards researching decent self-employment: a three country comparison of social protection for the self-employed

In the UK, before the Covid-19 pandemic, self-employment was at an all-time high and a distinguishing feature of the UK labour market's recovery from the last recession. Yet, the solo self-employed often earned less than employees in a comparable position. Thus, the great risk of volatile and low income for the selfemployed makes welfare provision for them a policy problem of growing importance. In this thesis, I analyse welfare systems as they relate to the solo self-employed so that we can understand them better, compare them, and research their effects. I, so, give moral and practical purpose to the process of effectively engaging the research community in the policy problem of how to shape welfare systems that enable decent self-employment. My research focus is on de-commodifying entrepreneur labour and the entrepreneurial process, applying Esping-Andersen's de-commodification concept for the first time to self-employment. I define six causes of low profit that force an entrepreneur to conceivably need de-commodification. I use this conceptual framework to compare the welfare systems of the UK, Germany, and Denmark, each with different traditions and views of the role of the welfare state, and, in so doing, consider how welfare regimes vary in enabling or constraining room for decommodification for the solo self-employed. Based on document analysis of welfare regulations and guidance, and semistructured interviews with welfare and self-employment experts, I compare and discuss the conditions linked to receiving benefits in each of the three welfare states. I also explore the policy rationale and policy discourse arising from traditional practice and economic circumstances. My research contributes to three areas of knowledge. In relation to welfare theory, for the first time, I apply the thinking on de-commodification to self-employment. In relation to entrepreneurship research, my research shows that welfare systems should be considered part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Moreover, my work challenges entrepreneurship theory as it does not usually discuss labour as an entrepreneurial resource, whereas I explicitly consider how much labour an entrepreneur is willing and able to invest. In terms of implications for decency, my work contributes to the thinking about and discussion of decent work in general and amid the rise of self-employment specifically. My research has implications for policy and opens up and important research agenda. It highlights the dilemmas that policymakers face when considering how to support entrepreneurs at risk of low or no income. Self-employment cannot be decent in all circumstances, and policymakers must consider in which circumstances the state would accept to support self-employment

Caring as a moral practice: an analysis of the construction of care for elderly people in Austria and the UK

This thesis investigates the meaning of care in our societies. Everyone will be concerned with care in some way at some point in his/her life. In the UK and Austria economic and social developments challenge traditional family arrangements while the need for care for the elderly is increasing. But how do we understand care and which meaning does care have for us, for our relationships, for our identities and for our understanding of society? How do we want to live together, and how do we want to experience the process of ageing? Understanding the construction of care helps to understand aspects of people’s ideals, motives, attitudes, imaginations, aspirations and desires in life. This study bridges the theoretical level of broad moral questions and their application in particular situations. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis in combination with a sample of newspapers and the organisation of focus groups in each country enable an identification of the ‘moral grammar’ of care, i.e. the discourses in which care is constructed. The result is an everyday morality, referring to the way people understand and make sense of their experiences, histories and emotions about care for elderly people. This moral construction situates care in opposition to an economisation and/or individualisation of society. Care reflects an ambivalent desire of people which can be described as being there for each other. By exploring themes such as relationships, home, community, independence and the commodification of care this thesis demonstrates that, on the one hand, moral assumptions and ideals are underlying the organisation of care and, on the other hand, care itself represents an ideal of being moral. This construction has important consequences for all those involved in caring relationships (as carers and as those being cared for) and any policy making needs to be conscious of it

Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers

This article investigates the experience of male spousal carers of women living with dementia. While discourses on, and the provision of care are highly gendered, social scientific research often addresses care relationships in gender-neutral terms. Setting out to address this matter, this qualitative research incorporated semi-structured joint interviews with 10 couples where the male spouse cared for the woman with dementia. The aim was to explore how couples negotiate relationships and care following a diagnosis of dementia. The focus of this paper is on the perspectives expressed in these joint interviews by the male carers. Thematic analysis was undertaken to establish key content of the men’s accounts. Three principal themes were identified: making sense of the condition; treating dementia as a problem to be solved; and engaging with professionals and support. The gendered basis of experience for male carers is explored within these themes, demonstrating how societal norms on masculinity intersect with caring roles. The paper concludes that a nuanced research approach to dementia care must continue to be developed, accounting for how gender shapes personal responses to the navigation of care relationships. Practitioners and policymakers must also consider how gendered experience shapes the identities and strategies of male carers

The Spousal Unit and Dementia: Investigating the Relational Basis of the Couplehood Concept

A strong emphasis is consistently placed upon the relational basis of experience within social scientific dementia research. Within this research corpus, the concept of couplehood is increasingly employed, albeit in rather undefined and loosely theorised ways. Moreover, the evaluation highlights that couplehood is often defined by a normative position that seeks to convey an affirmative perspective on dementia and spousal relationships. The lack of theoretical foundation, however, weakens the explanatory potential of the concept, both for theorising dementia, as well as for empirical research. This article critically evaluates the utility of the couplehood concept by delineating three underlying theoretical conceptions: phenomenological, interactional and relational perspectives. It will be argued that those theoretical threads offer different analytical angles and research opportunities. More thorough ontological development, however, can guide understandings of the complexities that underpin the relational experience of dementia. This will promote a conceptual starting point that offers a more balanced and multifaceted accommodation of two persons and their relationship