bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing Urban Residents' Willingness to Pay for Preserving the Biodiversity of Swamp Forest
Authors: Khai Huynh Viet
Published: September 2016

Measuring the biodiversity value in monetary could be useful information for policy-makers to estimate welfare losses caused by biodiversity reductions and perform cost-benefit analysis of biodiversity conservation projects. This study applied the approach of contingent valuation to analyze the Mekong Delta urban households' preferences and their willingness to pay for the program of biodiversity conservation in U Minh Thuong National Park, one of the largest peat swamp forests in Vietnam. The study estimated that the mean WTP of urban residents in the Mekong Delta was about VND16,510 ($0.78) per household per month for all respondents and around VND31,520 ($1.49) after excluding the protest zero and scenario rejecting respondents. Aggregately, they agreed to contribute about $10.97 million annually for the project of biodiversity conservation.
Health Impact of Water-Related Diseases in Developing Countries on Account of Climate Change – A Systematic Review
Authors: Das Sukanya
Published: September 2016

Human health is heavily dependent on clean water resources and adequate sanitation. According to the WHO, diarrhoea is the disease most attributable to quality of the local environment. It has been estimated that 88% of diarrhoea cases result from the combination of unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and improper hygiene. A meta-analysis has been conducted over the existing literature specifically targeting water-borne and water-related diseases in developing countries. The results are synthesized through the simplest meta-analysis strategy: vote-counting. Given the range of impacts on account of climate change there is an urgent need of proper intervention to counterbalance the expected increase of occurence of water-related illness But given the limited progress in reducing incidences over the past decade consorted actions effective implementation and integration of existing policies is urgently demanded.
Impact of Rapid Urbanization and Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity in Africa
Authors: Emmanuel Mutisya , Muasa Lilian , Chen Chiahsin , Mutisya Florence , Avtar Ram
Published: September 2016

Africa continues to experience serious signs of multiple crises in the context of sustainability. These crises include vulnerability to climate change, rapid urbanization, food insecurity, and many others. One crisis, that defines Africa today, is the unprecedented rapid urbanization which continues to pose a big challenge to the diminishing available resources, environmental quality and human well-being. Cities in Africa continue to experience a fast horizontal growth of settlements due to influx of people from rural areas who often settle in the economically lowest segments in urban areas. This horizontal rapid growth has eaten up land set for agriculture around cities and promoted the rapid growth of informal settlements exacerbating the impacts of climate change leading to a negative impact on agricultural production. Policies linking rapid urbanization and climate change with agricultural productivity are need. This paper explores and documents the impact of rapid urbanization on climate change policies and subsequent impact on agriculture in Africa.
Energy and Sustainability in the European Region
Authors: Zhuplev Anatoly , Shtykhno Dmitry A.
Published: September 2016

This chapter examines European energy security in the EU-Russian context. Europe is extremely dependent on Russian energy imports. This dependency requires sustainable energy solutions. Russian economy is characterized by high energy consumption and intensity. Russian energy sector needs massive investments, technological and management improvements. They become problematic due to the nation's poor investment climate, stagnating economy, and isolationist foreign policy. These, along with Russia's emerging reorientation of its energy exports toward Asia tend to worsen European energy security. The chapter explores trends in the global energy and analyses the dynamics and outlook for sustainable energy security in Europe in the context of import dependency in energy. It looks at the drivers, constrains and trends in the Russian energy sector in the Eurasian regional context. Despite technological advances, policies toward sustainable development and renewable energy, in the next two decades Europe will predominantly depend on fossil fuels and Russian energy imports.
Social Innovation
Authors: Banerjee Sayan
Published: September 2016

In this paper an attempt has been made to link the understanding relating to innovation in organisations with that of societal innovation at large which was later on extended to summarise the literature of social innovation and climate change. The organisation forms part of (and exists in) the social system. From the view point of organisational studies the social system may be seen as consisting of two levels while the immediate vicinity of the organisation encompasses the various organisational stakeholders and correlates the second level pertains to society in general. According to Savvides (1979), the second level encompasses the first which in turn encompasses the organisation. In this paper a comprehensive review has been presented for a better understanding of social innovation its correlation with climate change through the concepts used to understand organisational innovation.
Vulnerability to Climate Change
Authors: Senapati Sibananda , Gupta Vijaya
Published: September 2016

This paper is based on a detail review of literature available in the area of climate change, vulnerability and impact assessment. Methodological issues pertaining to vulnerability like; development of vulnerability indicators, process of indicator selection etc are the main focus in this paper. As discussed indicators are more acceptable, easy to understand and help in comparing across regions. However, indicators also possess a number of limitations. There are issues in selecting indicators and how to aggregate their values. The current study tries to overcome those issues through a primary study. The study region is Mumbai, India and ‘Koli' fishing communities reside in the city. The socio-economic implications of climate change and vulnerability of communities depending on fishery are estimated by developing vulnerability indicators using Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Further experts opinions are considered while selecting indicators. Vulnerability indicators are derived from literature and validated through experts' opinion. Experts are chosen from higher learning institutes in the city. In the climate change literature vulnerability mainly divided into exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The indicators of sensitivity and exposure under vulnerability are combined here and categorized into two: livelihood and perceived changes. Similarly the indicators of adaptive capacity are of five categories comprising human, physical, financial, social and government policy related indicators. Thus a total 30 indicators are selected. Among five fishing villages surveyed, fishermen from Madh and Worli are found more vulnerable because of their high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity. The derived vulnerability scores are further compared and analyzed against the scores derived from experts. The overall result shows the experts value of indicators are similar with the indicator score derived in the study using simple aggregate method. This study further provides policy implications for reducing vulnerability of fishing villages.
Incremental Learning and Gradual Changes
Authors: Winarto Yunita Triwardani , Stigter Kees/Cornelis Johan
Published: September 2016

The environmental consequences of climate change in agriculture have been degrading farmers' livelihood and welfare because of their inability to cope with the unusual risks and livelihood crises due to climate change. However, state policies addressing farmers' needs to develop their coping mechanism towards the unusual consequences of climate change have not been defined appropriately. To continue relying on their conventional ways of farming would not effectively help them to survive in the midst of unusual weather conditions. A long-term educational commitment to improve farmers' agrometeorological learning is urgent. The authors present their inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborative works in providing climate services to farmers through Science Field Shops. Improving farmers' anticipation capability has been carried out through various means of learning. The authors describe the incremental learning process and the gradual changes the farmers in Indramayu Regency have gone through since 2010.
How Does Public Attention Influence Natural Gas Price?
Authors: Li Xin , Ma Jian , Shang Wei , Wang Shouyang , Zhang Xun
Published: September 2016

Public attention on natural gas price, which reflects the demand dynamics, is considered as a new factor to influence the movement of price. So investigate the impact of public attention on natural gas price is an innovative research issue in energy economics. This paper innovatively constructs a measure of public attention and examines its impact on natural gas price. A data set generated from Google Trends is used to measure public attention and then rigorous econometric models are applied to evaluate its predictive ability. The empirical study shows that (i) public attention is closely related to natural gas price, with contemporaneous positive correlation coefficient being 0.59, (ii) public attention leads natural gas price, (iii) the model including public attention data outperforms benchmark model. By using a more direct and representative way of forecasting based on the knowledge collected from the users, this paper also has important implications for applying Internet knowledge to improve the forecast accuracy of other energy price.
Science Communication as a Tool for Advancing the Environmental Education on Climate Change
Authors: Chirisa Innocent , Bandauko Elmond , Kawadza Shingai T.
Published: September 2016

The aim of this chapter to describe and explain the role of science communication as a method to advance environmental education on climate change with a special reference on Africa being one of the regions suffering from the effects of climate-induced disasters and risks in the increased anthropogenic effects of modern development. The overall impression globally and regionally is the scientists are poor communicators on what they do hence are often misunderstood by the media and society over the work they spend their life and effort doing. The buttressing methodological philosophy to this chapter is applied systems approach that views actors, processes, inputs and outputs of the climate change, policy and science as intricately related hence require a trans-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach. However, critical areas of reference are health and diseases, resilient communities, coastal adaptation and farming practices and technologies.
Learning and Climate Change Adaptation
Authors: Wilson Lynn A.
Published: September 2016

Youth play an ever-increasing role as counter-cyclical agents that can be mobilized for developing and implementing adaptation responses to build resilience in communities under stress from climate change. Organizations with a coupled research and educational focus are well situated to partner with formal and informal educational institutions to create valuable opportunities for simultaneous learning and practice for youth and their communities in building resilience to climate change. In this chapter, the author argues that climate-knowledgeable and empowered youth are positioned to show new, resilient behavior as critical environmental and social thresholds are approached. Using human health as a gauge for sustainable action, the study by NGO SeaTrust Institute that is analyzed in this chapter shows potentially effective learning approaches, programs and systems for engaging youth as transformational agents to catalyze community leadership for climate change adaptation in an age of escalating environmental and social instability.
Beyond Environment, Economy, and Equity
Authors: Sourial Jill
Published: September 2016

Future global leadership requires skills and capacities that go beyond the leadership of one individual or a select few who hold the majority of power and responsibility for making decisions on behalf of their organizations or constituencies. The challenges of the 21st century demand not only a more collaborative and distributed approach, but also one that encourages empathy, resonance, and vulnerability. This chapter focuses on climate change and the capacities needed to address it. A holistic approach to sustainability is often referred to as the “3E's” of Environment, Economy, and Equity. Given the complex nature of the challenges facing our planet and its governance systems, I argue that we have reached a critical point where it is necessary to add a fourth “E” to the sustainability framework. I would call this fourth “E” Empathy, which in very real terms encompasses a broad range of practices such a transformative conflict resolution, valuing diversity, cross-cultural dialogue, reconciliation, consensus building, collaboration, interdependency, negotiation, mediation, civic engagement, democratic governance, and social justice.
Stimulation of TLR4 Attenuates Alzheimer’s Disease–Related Symptoms and Pathology in Tau-Transgenic Mice
Authors: Qin Yiren , Liu Yang , Hao Wenlin , Decker Yann , Tomic Inge , Menger Michael D. , Liu Chunfeng , Fassbender Klaus
Published: September 2016

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. The primary component, hyperphosphorylated Tau (p-Tau), contributes to neuronal death. Recent studies have shown that autophagy efficiently degrades p-Tau, but the mechanisms modulating autophagy and subsequent p-Tau clearance in AD remain unclear. In our study, we first analyzed the relationship between the inflammatory activation and autophagy in brains derived from aged mice and LPS-injected inflammatory mouse models. We found that inflammatory activation was essential for activation of autophagy in the brain, which was neuronal ATG5-dependent. Next, we found that autophagy in cultured neurons was enhanced by LPS treatment of cocultured macrophages. In further experiments designed to provoke chronic mild stimulation of TLR4 without inducing obvious neuroinflammation, we gave repeated LPS injections (i.p., 0.15 mg/kg, weekly for 3 mo) to transgenic mice overexpressing human Tau mutant (P301S) in neurons. We observed significant enhancement of neuronal autophagy, which was associated with a reduction of cerebral p-Tau proteins and improved cognitive function. In summary, these results show that neuroinflammation promotes neuronal autophagy and that chronic mild TLR4 stimulation attenuates AD-related tauopathy, likely by activating neuronal autophagy. Our study displays the beneficial face of neuroinflammation and suggests a possible role in the treatment of AD patients.
Clients’ perceptions and satisfaction with HIV counselling and testing: A cross-sectional study in 56 HCT sites in South Africa
Authors: Matseke Gladys , Peltzer Karl , Mohlabane Neo
Published: September 2016

Background: Client satisfaction serves as a predictor for acceptance of HIV counselling and testing (HCT) services. Therefore, the study of clients’ perception and satisfaction may offer insights on how to improve HCT programmes. Aim and setting: The aim of this study was to assess clients’ satisfaction with HCT as well as describe perceived barriers to and facilitators of HIV testing by HCT clients in South Africa.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted through interviews with 498 clients purposefully selected at the end of an HCT visit at 56 HCT sites throughout the country. Results: All the 498 study participants had tested for HIV with 98.8% receiving their results. Most (88.2%) reported testing for HIV before. The vast majority (75.5%) of clients reported that they had decided to be tested for HIV by themselves. High levels of satisfaction with HCT service (89.8%), low levels (27.7%) of difficulty in making the decision to have an HIV test and high levels of perceived confidentiality (94.6%) of the HIV test results were reported in this study. The most cited perceived barrier to HIV testing was lack of awareness about the HCT service (98%), while staff attitudes (37%), confidentiality (29.6%) and privacy (23.6%) were perceived facilitators. In multivariate logistic regression, staff attitude was significantly associated with client satisfaction (p < 0.05).Conclusion: High levels of client satisfaction with HCT services were observed. Various barriers to and facilitators of – including staff attitude – HCT were identified which can help guide the improvement of HCT services in South Africa.
The Increasing Prevalence in Intersex Variation from Toxicological Dysregulation in Fetal Reproductive Tissue Differentiation and Development by Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
Authors: Rich Alisa L. , Phipps Laura M. , Tiwari Sweta , Rudraraju Hemanth , Dokpesi Philip O.
Published: September 2016

An increasing number of children are born with intersex variation (IV; ambiguous genitalia/hermaphrodite, pseudohermaphroditism, etc.). Evidence shows that endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment can cause reproductive variation through dysregulation of normal reproductive tissue differentiation, growth, and maturation if the fetus is exposed to EDCs during critical developmental times in utero. Animal studies support fish and reptile embryos exhibited IV and sex reversal when exposed to EDCs. Occupational studies verified higher prevalence of offspring with IV in chemically exposed workers (male and female). Chemicals associated with endocrine-disrupting ability in humans include organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, bisphenol A, phthalates, dioxins, and furans. Intersex individuals may have concurrent physical disorders requiring lifelong medical intervention and experience gender dysphoria. An urgent need exists to determine which chemicals possess the greatest risk for IV and the mechanisms by which these chemicals are capable of interfering with normal physiological development in children.
Migración asistida de las poblaciones forestales para la adaptación de árboles ante el cambio climático
Authors: Sáenz-Romero Cuauhtémoc , Lindig-Cisneros Roberto A. , Joyce Dennis G. , Beaulieu Jean , St. Clair J. Bradley , Jaquish Barry C.
Published: September 2016

En este trabajo se presenta evidencia de que el cambio climático es un proceso que está en curso y que las poblaciones de árboles forestales son genéticamente diferenciadas en caracteres cuantitativos debido a la adaptación en hábitats específicos. Se discuten en detalle las evidencias de que el desplazamiento del hábitat climático apropiado para especies y poblaciones de árboles forestales, debido al rápido cambio climático, probablemente causará estrés importante a las poblaciones naturales de árboles. Debido a los límites físicos de la migración natural, las poblaciones de árboles serán incapaces de mantenerse acopladas al blanco móvil en el que se convertirá su hábitat climático apropiado. El consiguiente desacoplamiento entre las poblaciones naturales y el clima para el cual están adaptadas, provocará probablemente mayor declinación forestal, como ya está sucediendo en varios bosques del mundo. Con el fin de adaptarse al cambio climático, ¿Qué opciones de manejo forestal se tienen? ¿Cuáles podrían ser las consecuencias de la inacción? Se describe y discute la migración asistida, que consiste en la realineación física de poblaciones naturales con el clima para el cual están adaptadas, mediante la reforestación de los sitios donde se proyecta que el clima propicio ocurrirá en el futuro. Lo anterior se considera una opción de manejo activo para mantener los ecosistemas con árboles sanos en el futuro.
Edades óptimas de corte en bosques de álamos híbridos incluyendo captación de carbono: Un estudio de caso en Turquía
Authors: Keleş Sedat
Published: September 2016

En la actualidad, la determinación de las edades óptimas de corte, incluyendo diversos valores de ecosistemas forestales junto con la producción de madera, es extremadamente importante en la silvicultura. Este estudio presenta las edades óptimas de corte en Populus x euramericana (Dode) Guinier cv. I-214, incluyendo la producción de madera y los valores de captura de carbono en Turquía. También se evalúan los efectos de las tasas de descuento y precios del carbono en las edades óptimas de corte, utilizando el método del valor actual neto. Las curvas de crecimiento y rendimiento y los factores de conversión de carbono/biomasa con costos de plantación forestales se utilizaron para determinar las edades óptimas de corte. Los resultados del estudio de caso mostraron que la integración de los beneficios de captura de carbono con los beneficios de la madera incrementó las edades óptimas de corte de los bosques de álamo híbrido. Las edades óptimas de corte descendieron de 19 a 14 años, dependiendo del aumento en las tasas de descuento. Cuando los precios de carbono aumentaron, las edades óptimas de corte también aumentaron de 17 a 20 años. En presencia de los beneficios de captura de carbono, el aumento de las edades óptimas de corte produjo beneficios económicos netos de 374 a 1,654 USD·ha-1. Los valores actuales netos totales, obtenidos de la producción de madera y beneficios de captura de carbono, aumentaron entre 6 y 26 %, dependiendo del aumento de los precios del carbono (de 0 a 40 USD·t -1 carbono).
Detection of dimming/brightening in Italy from homogenized all-sky and
clear-sky surface solar radiation records and underlying causes (1959–2013)
Authors: Manara Veronica , Brunetti Michele , Celozzi Angela , Maugeri Maurizio , Sanchez-Lorenzo Arturo , Wild Martin
Published: September 2016

Abstract. A dataset of 54 daily Italian downward surface solar radiation (SSR) records has been set up collecting data for the 1959–2013 period. Special emphasis is given to the quality control and the homogenization of the records in order to ensure the reliability of the resulting trends. This step has been shown as necessary due to the large differences obtained between the raw and homogenized dataset, especially during the first decades of the study period. In addition, SSR series under clear-sky conditions were obtained considering only the cloudless days from corresponding ground-based cloudiness observations. Subsequently, records were interpolated onto a regular grid and clustered into two regions, northern and southern Italy, which were averaged in order to get all-sky and clear-sky regional SSR records. Their temporal evolution is presented, and possible reasons for differences between all-sky and clear-sky conditions and between the two regions are discussed in order to determine to what extent SSR variability depends on aerosols or clouds. Specifically, the all-sky SSR records show a decrease until the mid-1980s (dimming period), and a following increase until the end of the series (brightening period) even though strength and persistence of tendencies are not the same in all seasons. Clear-sky records present stronger tendencies than all-sky records during the dimming period in all seasons and during the brightening period in winter and autumn. This suggests that, under all-sky conditions, the variations caused by the increase/decrease in the aerosol content have been partially masked by cloud cover variations, especially during the dimming period. Under clear sky the observed dimming is stronger in the south than in the north. This peculiarity could be a consequence of a significant contribution of mineral dust variations to the SSR variability.
Remote sensing of volcanic CO2, HF, HCl, SO2, and BrO in the
downwind plume of Mt. Etna
Authors: Butz André , Dinger Anna Solvejg , Bobrowski Nicole , Kostinek Julian , Fieber Lukas , Fischerkeller Constanze , Giuffrida Giovanni Bruno , Hase Frank , Klappenbach Friedrich , Kuhn Jonas , Lübcke Peter , Tirpitz Lukas , Tu Qiansi
Published: September 2016

Abstract. Remote sensing of the gaseous composition of non-eruptive, passively degassing volcanic plumes can be a tool to gain insight into volcano interior processes. Here, we report on a field study in September 2015 that demonstrates the feasibility of remotely measuring the volcanic enhancements of carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and bromine monoxide (BrO) in the downwind plume of Mt. Etna using portable and rugged spectroscopic instrumentation. To this end, we operated the Fourier Transform Spectrometer EM27/SUN for the shortwave-infrared (SWIR) spectral range together with a co-mounted UV spectrometer on a mobile platform in direct-sun view at 5 to 10 km distance from the summit craters. The three days reported here cover several plume traverses and a sunrise measurement. For all days, intra-plume HF, HCl, SO2, and BrO vertical column densities (VCDs) were reliably measured exceeding 5 × 1016 molec/cm2, 2 × 1017 molec/cm2, 5 × 1017 molec/cm2, and 1 × 1014 molec/cm2, with an estimated precision of 2.2 × 1015 molec/cm2, 1.3 × 1016 molec/cm2, 3.6 × 1016 molec/cm2, and 1.3 × 1013 molec/cm2, respectively. Given that CO2, unlike the other measured gases, has a large and well-mixed atmospheric background, derivation of volcanic CO2 VCD enhancements (ΔCO2) required compensating for changes in altitude of the observing platform and for background concentration variability. The first challenge was met by simultaneously measuring the overhead oxygen (O2) columns and assuming covariation of O2 and CO2 with altitude. The atmospheric CO2 background was found by identifying background soundings via the co-emitted volcanic gases. The inferred ΔCO2 occasionally exceeded 2 × 1019 molec/cm2 with an estimated precision of 3.7 × 1018 molec/cm2 given typical atmospheric background VCDs of 7 to 8 × 1021 molec/cm2. While the correlations of ΔCO2 with the other measured volcanic gases confirm the detection of volcanic CO2 enhancements, correlations were found of variable significance (R2 ranging between 0.88 and 0.00). The intra-plume VCD ratios ΔCO2 / SO2, SO2 / HF, SO2 / HCl, and SO2 / BrO were in the range 7.1 to 35.2, 5.02 to 10.5, 1.54 to 3.43, and 2.9 × 103 to 12.5 × 103, respectively, showing pronounced day-to-day and intra-day variability.
Uncertainty budgets of major ozone absorption cross sections used in UV
remote sensing applications
Authors: Weber Mark , Gorshelev Victor , Serdyuchenko Anna
Published: September 2016

Abstract. Detailed uncertainty budgets of three major ultraviolet (UV) ozone absorption cross-section datasets that are used in remote sensing application are provided and discussed. The datasets are Bass–Paur (BP), Brion–Daumont–Malicet (BDM), and the more recent Serdyuchenko–Gorshelev (SG). For most remote sensing application the temperature dependence of the Huggins ozone band is described by a quadratic polynomial in temperature (Bass–Paur parameterization) by applying a regression to the cross-section data measured at selected atmospherically relevant temperatures. For traceability of atmospheric ozone measurements, uncertainties from the laboratory measurements as well as from the temperature parameterization of the ozone cross-section data are needed as input for detailed uncertainty calculation of atmospheric ozone measurements. In this paper the uncertainty budgets of the three major ozone cross-section datasets are summarized from the original literature. The quadratic temperature dependence of the cross-section datasets is investigated. Combined uncertainty budgets is provided for all datasets based upon Monte Carlo simulation that includes uncertainties from the laboratory measurements as well as uncertainties from the temperature parameterization. Between 300 and 330 nm both BDM and SG have an overall uncertainty of 1.5 %, while BP has a somewhat larger uncertainty of 2.1 %. At temperatures below about 215 K, uncertainties in the BDM data increase more strongly than the others due to the lack of very low temperature laboratory measurements (lowest temperature of BDM available is 218 K).
Hierarchy of climate and hydrological uncertainties in transient low-flow projections
Authors: Vidal Jean-Philippe , Hingray Benoît , Magand Claire , Sauquet Eric , Ducharne Agnès
Published: September 2016

Abstract. This paper proposes a methodology for estimating the transient probability distribution of yearly hydrological variables conditional to an ensemble of projections built from multiple general circulation models (GCMs), multiple statistical downscaling methods (SDMs), and multiple hydrological models (HMs). The methodology is based on the quasi-ergodic analysis of variance (QE-ANOVA) framework that allows quantifying the contributions of the different sources of total uncertainty, by critically taking account of large-scale internal variability stemming from the transient evolution of multiple GCM runs, and of small-scale internal variability derived from multiple realizations of stochastic SDMs. This framework thus allows deriving a hierarchy of climate and hydrological uncertainties, which depends on the time horizon considered. It was initially developed for long-term climate averages and is here extended jointly to (1) yearly anomalies and (2) low-flow variables. It is applied to better understand possible transient futures of both winter and summer low flows for two snow-influenced catchments in the southern French Alps. The analysis takes advantage of a very large data set of transient hydrological projections that combines in a comprehensive way 11 runs from four different GCMs, three SDMs with 10 stochastic realizations each, as well as six diverse HMs. The change signal is a decrease in yearly low flows of around −20  % in 2065, except for the more elevated catchment in winter where low flows barely decrease. This signal is largely masked by both large- and small-scale internal variability, even in 2065. The time of emergence of the change signal is however detected for low-flow averages over 30-year time slices starting as early as 2020. The most striking result is that a large part of the total uncertainty – and a higher one than that due to the GCMs – stems from the difference in HM responses. An analysis of the origin of this substantial divergence in HM responses for both catchments and in both seasons suggests that both evapotranspiration and snowpack components of HMs should be carefully checked for their robustness in a changed climate in order to provide reliable outputs for informing water resource adaptation strategies.
Exceptional sequence of severe thunderstorms and related flash
floods in May and June 2016 in Germany. Part I: Meteorological
background
Authors: Piper D. , Kunz M. , Ehmele F. , Mohr S. , Mühr B. , Kron A. , Daniell J.
Published: September 2016

Abstract. During a 15-day episode from 26 May until 09 June 2016, Germany was affected by an exceptionally large number of severe thunderstorms. Heavy rainfall, related flash floods and creek flooding, hail and tornadoes caused substantial losses running into billions of Euros (EUR). This paper analyzes the key features of the severe thunderstorm episode using extreme value statistics, an aggregated precipitation severity index, and two different objective weather type classification schemes. It is shown that the thunderstorm episode was caused by the interaction of high moisture content, low thermal stability, weak wind speed, and large-scale lifting by surface lows, persisting over almost 2 weeks due to atmospheric blocking. For the long-term assessment of the recent thunderstorm episode, we draw comparisons to a 55-years period (1960–2014) regarding clusters of convective days with variable length (2–15 days) based on precipitation severity, convection-favoring weather patterns and compound events with low stability and weak flow. It is found that clusters with more than eight consecutive convective days are very rare. For example, a 10-day cluster with convective weather patterns prevailing during the recent thunderstorm episode has a probability of only 0.01 %.
Organizational Training Modalities: Investigating the Impact of Learner Preference on Performance
Authors: Paul Tyechia Veronica
Published: September 2016

Abstract

Employee training is a strategic business investment, a manifestation of firms’ commitment to improve service, operations, career development, and employee performance. Traditionally, training has been delivered in a face-to-face format. However, new training modalities of e-learning and mobile learning have emerged.  Managers and workforce training professionals often face the challenge of selecting training modes that are economical, convenient, effective, and in the format preferred by the employees. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether learner preference for a training modality impacts the learners’ training performance.

A group of 103 study participants completed a workforce training module in one of three training modalities, face-to-face, e-learning, and mobile learning. Study participants completed a four-step experiment, which included a pre-assessment, training intervention, post-assessment, and survey.  The research showed that although there was an interaction between training preference and training method on post-assessment performance, there was no significant difference in the training performance of learners who were trained in their preferred method versus those who not trained in their preferred method. This indicates that organizational training and development professionals should base their decision on other factors.

Keywords: training, e-learning, mobile learning, workforce development, preference, organizational training, employee training, human resource development
Transparency in Municipalities in the Southern Region of Brazil
Authors: Quintana Alexandre Costa , Jacques Flávia Verônica Silva , Macagnan Clea Beatriz
Published: September 2016

Transparency in government actions strengthens the relationship between government and society. The goal of the present study was to ascertain the level of transparency of administrative information in the south of Brazil. This descriptive study, which employed statistical methodology, found a correlation between the presence of examined indicators and municipal gross domestic product (GDP). It also revealed that population; GDP and tax revenues are variables that, if jointly analyzed, can be used to aggregate municipalities that display similar behavior in terms of transparency.
Social Media and Learning Styles as Correlates of Senior Secondary Students’ Chemistry Achievement in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria
Authors: Osokoya Modupe M. , R. Kazeem
Published: September 2016

Students spend most of the time they should have spent on reading on social media, meanwhile social media should be a tool for students to enhance their learning styles and improve their achievement in chemistry. Literatures revealed that both learning styles and social media affect the academic performance of students either positively or negatively, however little or no attempt has been made to investigate the effect of both on the academic achievement of students in chemistry. This study thus investigated the effect of learning styles and social media on the achievement of senior secondary school chemistry students in Abeokuta south local government of Ogun State, Nigeria. It is ex post facto research design. The population of study is all the public secondary schools students in Abeokuta South local government area of Ogun State. Random sampling was used to select five schools while forty SSIII chemistry students each were purposely selected from the schools to give a total of 200. The students responded to three research instruments which were Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) (reliability = 0.79), and Social Media Usage Scale (SMUS) (reliability = 0.85). Five research questions were answered and data was analysed with descriptive statistics including graphical presentations. Use of Facebook (57%) was prevalent among the students. Participative learning style (mean = 15.88, mode = 17) was found to be the style commonly used by chemistry students. Both male and female students (t (198) =1.65, p> 0.05) were found to be equal on the use of social media. Students usually shared more personal features than sharing ideas or knowledge. There was no significant relationship between the use of social media and students’ achievement in chemistry. Science students, especially chemistry students are enjoined to devote some of the time they spent on social media for academic development rather than on social affairs mainly.
Spring Triticale Varieties Forage Yield, Nutrients Composition and Suitability for Beef Cattle Production
Authors: Gill Kabal S. , Omokanye Akim T.
Published: September 2016

The objective was to explore the potentials of five spring triticale (xTriticosecale Wittmack) varieties (AC Ultima, Bunker, Companion, Pronghorn, Taza and Tyndal) for integration into beef cattle feeding systems in the north western Alberta, Canada. This was carried out over four growing seasons (2009 to 2012) at different sites, using RCBD in each year. The crop was cut at late milk stage to determine the silage (SY), dry matter (DMY) and protein (CPY) yields, and nutrition quality. The mean DMY was similar (P > 0.05) for all varieties, ranging from 8.14 to 8.53 t ha-1. The forage DM was higher (P < 0.05) in 2009 and 2012 growing seasons (8.91 and 9.40 t ha-1, respectively) and lower in 2010 growing season (5.93 t ha-1) than in 2011 (8.33 t ha-1). The forage nutritive values revealed that tested varieties have potentials in terms of protein (7.72-8.32%) and some macro (particularly Ca & K) and micro (especially Fe & Mn) mineral elements and energy contents (62.1-64.1% TDN, 1.51-1.57 Mcal kg-1ME) for pregnant cows that are in the second and third trimester stages. Levels of relative feed value (RFV) was high (110-121) and more than the minimum suggested RFV for mature beef cattle. But levels of P, Mg, Na, S, Cu and Zn were insufficient to meet the suggested amounts needed by a dry gestating cow. The growing seasons appeared to have significant (P < 0.05) effects on most of the measured parameters. The implications of these findings on uses of triticale forage in ruminant nutrition and the need for more studies are discussed.
Seed Germination and Growth of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus): Effect of Nano-Crystalline Sulfur
Authors: Albanna Luma S. , Salem Nidá M. , Awwad Akl M.
Published: September 2016

The present paper is focused on green synthesis of high purity sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs) and its effect on seed germination and seedling growth of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Synthesized SNPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The crystalline size of synthesized SNPs as calculated by Scherer equation was 40 nm. SEM analysis of the SNPs is in spherical shape and with a diameter size between 5-80 nm. In the present study, different concentrations of SNPs were used for the treatment of cucumber seeds to study the effect on bioavailability of seed germination and seedling growth of cucumber. The results of this experiment showed that an increase in concentrations of SNPs had significantly increased seed germination and seedling growth of cucumber.
Cultivar, Planting Date, and Row Spacing Effects on Mungbean Seed Composition
Authors: Bhardwaj Harbans L. , Hamama Anwar A.
Published: September 2016

Mungbean [(Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek, Fabaceae] is becoming an important food crop in the United States of America. This crop has previously been produced in the US states of Texas and Oklahoma but this production is currently not significant. Recent efforts have established that mungbean can be easily produced in Virginia, located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America. However, there is a complete lack of information related to nutritional quality of mungbean produced in this region. We grew mungbean during 2012 and 2013 using two cultivars (Berken and TexSprout), two planting dates (early and late July), and two row spacings (0.375 and 0.75 m) to characterize composition of mungbean seed produced in Virginia. Mungbean seeds produced in this study averaged 1.59, 24.3, and 4.91% oil, protein, and sugars, respectively. These mungbean seeds also contained 38.8, 61.2, 5.79, and 55.1% in saturated, unsaturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, respectively. Predominant fatty acids in the mungbean seed were C16:0 (26.1%), C18:0 (6.11%), C18:2 (36.8%), and C18:3 (18.3%). Iron and zinc contents of the mungbean seed were 8.42 and 3.88 mg·100 g-1. Concentrations of fructose, glucose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose sugars in mungbean seed were 0.45, 0.30, 0.70, 0.24, 0.84, and 2.37%, respectively. Effects of cultivars, planting dates, and row spacings on mungbean seed composition were, generally, not significant. Overall, mungbean seed compared well with nutritional quality of kidney bean, pinto bean, navy bean, and tepary bean.
Confirmation of Glyphosate- and Acetolactate Synthase (ALS)-Inhibitor-Resistant Kochia (Kochia scoparia) in Nebraska
Authors: Rana Neha , Jhala Amit J.
Published: September 2016

Kochia is an early emerging weed of increasing concern across the Great Plains region of the United States due to the evolution of resistance to herbicides. Greenhouse studies were conducted to confirm and characterize the level of glyphosate and acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicide resistance in kochia biotype collected from a field in Sheridan County in Nebraska. The response of kochia biotype to 9 rates (0 to 16×) of tribenuron and glyphosate was evaluated in a whole plant dose-response bioassay. On the basis of the values at the 90% effective dose (ED90), the putative-resistant kochia biotype had a 6- and 15-fold level of resistance to glyphosate and tribenuron, respectively. Future research will evaluate strategies for the management of glyphosate- and ALS-resistant kochia under field conditions.
Few Journal Article Organizational Structure Characteristics Affect Article Citation Rate: A Look at Agricultural Economics Articles Using Regression Analysis
Authors: Parcell Joe L. , Tonsor Glynn T. , Franken Jason V.
Published: September 2016

When reporting research findings, a journal article’s organizational structure influences whether others can easily assess the published research’s procedures, interpret the results, and synthesize the implications. Organizational structure characteristics include sufficiently explained variables, data format, number of exhibits, and presence of an appendix. This study endeavors to empirically test whether journal article organizational structure influences citation rates. Citations are used for ranking academic fields, evaluating faculty for promotion, and assessing faculty performance for merit-based salary increases. Journal editors desire higher citation rates to enhance journal exposure, and faculty target publishing in journals with higher impact factors, which reflect citation rates. To assess whether journal article organization affects citation rates, this study uses data from a survey of 68 Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics articles published between 1994 and 1998, and it uses citation rates between February 2010 and the publication date as the dependent variable. These articles were selected because they used regression methods and had all information necessary for this analysis. Using Tobit and truncated ordinary least squares regressions, this study evaluated the marginal effects of variables, including organizational structure characteristics, influencing citation rates. The results indicated a lack of statistical significance for most organizational structure variables affecting citation rates. The use of panel data use and presence of an appendix were the two only organizational structure variables that had significant effects on journal article organizational structure. They had respective positive and negative effects. Thus, little evidence supports that a professional impact, measured as citations, will result from at least this particular journal making efforts to improve article format structure. The current study may motivate future research that replicates the methods and examines other journals and article characteristics.
Evaluation of Spatial Variability of Soil Physico-Chemical Characteristics on Rhodic Ferralsol at the Syferkuil Experimental Farm of University of Limpopo, South Africa
Authors: Phefadu Kopano Conferance , Kutu Funso Raphael
Published: September 2016

Spatial variability among selected soil physical and chemical properties in twelve profiles dug across the research block of the University of Limpopo experimental farm was investigated. The soils were moderately shallow to deep, contain variable textural classes and classified as Rhodic ferralsol. Over 90% of the samples were considered as slightly alkaline based on the water-measured pHvalues but decreased to marginally over 27% when measured in KCl. The electrical conductivity of the soils revealed a generally non-saline field. Bray P1, EC, exchangeable cations, extractable Zn and effective cation exchange capacity contents differed significantly (p < 0.05) with depth while K, Mg, Ca, Mn, organic carbon and ECEC differed significantly (p < 0.05) across profiles. Semi-variograms for the measured variables had low values indicating the existence of considerable level of spatial variability. Spatial dependence among top and subsoil pH, EC, organic carbon, sand, silt clay and bulk density ranged between weak and strong. Results revealed a significant spatial variability of the characterized parameters across the research block because to differences in tillage, cropping pattern and nutrient specific application over the years.
Opkomst en voortbestaan van de Derde Weg
Authors: Oudenampsen Merijn
Published: September 2016

Rise and continuation of the Third Way. The riddle of the missing feathers.

In the 1990’s, the Dutch social democrats were trailblazers of what became known internationally as the politics of the Third Way, a new middle course between social democracy and neoliberalism. From the start, the Dutch Third Way distinguished itself from its Anglo-Saxon counterparts by its implicit character. The Dutch social democrat party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA) never fully embraced the Third Way and has sought to downplay the idea of a break with traditional social democratic thinking, combining Third Way practice with more classical social democratic rhetoric. The resulting political ambiguity, this paper argues, is at the centre of the present identity crisis of the social democrat party. Even though Third Way ideology has at times been declared dead, the range of attitudes, strategies and policy proposals that were introduced under its banner, still play a vital and prominent role in Dutch politics. While in the UK and the US, communitarianism was from the very beginning a defining feature of the Third Way, in the Netherlands this only came to the fore in 2012 under the leadership of Samsom and Asscher, and in the plea for a participation society under the Rutte II government. Leading us to conclude that the reports of the Third Way’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Media en politiek: over simpele vragen en genuanceerde wetenschappelijke antwoorden.
Authors: Vliegenthart Rens
Published: September 2016

R&D

Reflection and debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda.
Omgevingswet – omgaan met de paradox beschermen en benutten
Authors: Kruiter Albert Jan , Lammers Kristel
Published: September 2016

Dossier

In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.