scholarly journals The Role of Peat-Free Organic Substrates in the Sustainable Management of Soilless Cultivations

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1236
Author(s):  
Giulia Atzori ◽  
Catello Pane ◽  
Massimo Zaccardelli ◽  
Sonia Cacini ◽  
Daniele Massa

Vegetable and ornamental crops require high input demand to adequately support their standard commercial quality and yield. For these crops, a very high level of agronomic use efficiency of many productive factors can be achieved in soilless culture. For example, the benefits derived from the adoption of soilless closed loops for the recirculation of the nutrient solution are well known as a benchmark of excellence for nutrient and water use efficiency. The challenges that we now face are as follows: (i) making soilless systems more inclusive of sustainable and eco-friendly growing substrates, possibly available at a local level; (ii) replacing chemicals with more sustainable products (e.g., organic active compounds) as much as possible for plant nutrition and protection. These goals can be addressed by following different approaches, but the adoption of peat-free organic substrates may play a central role. This work investigates four organic materials, i.e., biochar, coir, green compost, and wood fibers, to assess their role in plant nutrition and protection when used as components for the preparation of growing media in the soilless cultivation of containerized crops. In further detail, the work highlights how these materials may support normal agronomic practices.

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Louise I. Shelley

The murder of Valentin Tsvetkov, the governor of Magadan in central Moscow in broad day light in October 2002 highlights that organized crime and corruption are still alive and well and highly destructive of life and governance in Russia (Wines, 2002). His murder once again raises the question, “Why has Russia not been able to stop organized crime and high level corruption?” The answer is that Russia docs not have the political will at the national, regional or local level to fight these problems. This is true because the Kremlin and economic elite push their personal interests over those of the state and the society. Structural problems such as low salaries of state personnel and the embedding of organized crime and corruption make reform very difficult.


Author(s):  
Khatidja Chantler ◽  
Nughmana Mirza ◽  
Mhairi Mackenzie

Abstract This article draws from our mixed methods study of forced marriage (FM) in Scotland focusing on policy and practice responses to FM in Scotland using the concepts of candidacy and structural competency. Through an analysis of FM policy in six case-study areas, interviews with Child or Adult Protection Leads and twenty-one interviews with a range of welfare professionals, we discuss the conceptual, emotional and practical challenges of responding to FM. Despite a standard Scottish Government policy and statutory framework, the varied policy and professional responses to FM across local authorities demonstrate a need for practitioners to be fully cognisant of the ways in which structural inequalities play out in individual lives. The four key themes explored in this article are as follows: (i) patchy ownership of FM policy at a local level; (ii) ‘race anxiety’; (iii) event versus process-based understandings of FM and (iv) the challenges of protecting adults experiencing FM who have capacity. These themes are highly relevant to social work practice and offer a significant and original analysis of the ways in which structural, social and cultural factors shape practitioner understanding, response and support of victims of FM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
Samfriati S ◽  
Lilis N ◽  
Mercy N G

Academic procrastination is one of the postponement behaviors in lecture activities that are often found in students, in this study respondents experiencees a high level of procrastination that could hamper academic activities. One of the causes of procrastination is the use of gadgets that are too long to play games, music, entertainment and so on. Goals : The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the use of gadgets and academic procrastination onNursing Students level II Saint Elisabeth Medan 2019. Method : The study design is Cross Sectional. Total sampling technique sample are112 students. The measuring instrument used is a questionnaire. Result : The results shows that the majority of use of positive gadgets (92.9%) and moderate academic procrastination (63.4%). Based on the Fisher's Exact Test, it obtained p-value 0.026 (p <0.05), thus indicating a relationship between the use of gadgets and academic procrastination on nursing students level II STIKes Saint Elisabeth Medan. Conculsion: It is expected that respondents will be able to manage time well and not use gadgets for a long time for things that are not useful. Respondent s are expected to use gadgets for things that can support learning activities.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keow Ngang Tang ◽  
Abdul Ghani Kanesan Abdullah

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji faktor–faktor berkaitan Pengurusan Kualiti Menyeluruh (PKM) di sekolah–sekolah menengah zon Bukit Mertajam. Faktor–faktor yang dikaji ialah budaya organisasi dan komitmen guru. Kajian yang berbentuk tinjauan korelasi ini merangkumi sejumlah 300 orang guru dari 19 buah sekolah menengah zon Bukit Mertajam yang telah dipilih dengan menggunakan kaedah persampelan rawak mudah. Satu set instrumen kajian yang terdiri daripada tiga bahagian iaitu PKM, budaya organisasi, dan komitmen guru dengan nilai alfa Cronbach masing–masing 0.881, 0.921, dan 0.852 telah digunakan dalam kajian ini. Secara deskriptifnya, dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan: (i) Kebanyakan responden iaitu 65.6 peratus mempunyai persepsi bahawa amalan PKM di sekolah mereka adalah pada tahap yang sederhana manakala persepsi 30.4 peratus responden berada pada tahap tinggi; (ii) Sebanyak 67.3 peratus responden mempunyai persepsi bahawa budaya organisasi mereka berada pada tahap yang sederhana positif; (iii) Kesemua responden berkomitmen sederhana dan tinggi. Di samping itu, penganalisisan data menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan antara budaya organisasi (r = 0.725) dan komitmen guru (r = 0.901) dengan tahap PKM pada aras signifikan 0.01. Hasil kajian daripada analisis regresi pelbagai kaedah ‘Forward’ pula menunjukkan budaya organisasi dan komitmen guru merupakan peramal yang telah berjaya menyumbang sebanyak 81.7 peratus dalam pelaksanaan PKM ini. Kata kunci: Pengurusan kualiti menyeluruh, budaya organisasi, komitmen guru The aim of this research was to study factors associated with Total Quality Management (TQM) in secondary schools Bukit Mertajam zone. Factors that were studied are organizational culture and teachers’ commitment. This descriptive correlational survey research involved a total of 300 teachers from 19 secondary schools in Bukit Mertajam zone that were selected using the simple random sampling method. A set of research instrument comprising of the three section, namely TQM, organizational culture and teachers’ commitment with Cronbach Alpha value 0.881, 0.921 and 0.852 respectively has been used in this research. In descriptive terms, the research findings showed that: (i) Most of the respondents, 65.6 percent perceived the practice of TQM in their schools was at the moderate level while 30.4 percent respondents perceived the practice of TQM was at the high level; (ii) A total of 67.3 percent respondents perceived their organizational culture as moderate positive level; (iii) All respondents were at the moderate and high commitment. In addition, the data analysis showed that there were positive and significant relationships between the organizational culture (r = 0.725) and teachers’ commitment (r = 0.901) with the level of TQM at significent level = 0.01. Findings of the “Forward” method of multiple regression showed that organizational culture and teachers’ commitment were the predictors in which have successfully contributed 81.7 percent to the practice of TQM. Key words: Total Quality Management, organizational culture, teachers’ commitment


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Lopez M. ◽  
Bernardo Chaves C. ◽  
Víctor Julio Flórez R.

The cut flower business requires exact synchronicity between product offer and demand in consumer countries. Having tools that help to improve this synchronicity through predictions or crop growth monitoring could provide an important advantage to program standards and corrective agronomic practices. At the Centro de Biotecnología Agropecuaria, SENA (SENA's Biotechnology, Agricultural and Livestock Center), located in Mosquera, Cundinamarca, a trial with standard carnation cv. Delphi grown under greenhouse conditions was carried out. The objective of this study was to build a simple model of dry matter (DM) production and partition of on-carnation flower stems. The model was based on the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) MJ m-2 d-1 and temperature as exogenous variables and assumed no water or nutrient limitations or damage caused by pests, disease or weeds. In this model, the daily DM increase depended on the PAR, the light fraction intercepted by the foliage (FLINT) and the light use efficiency (LUE) g MJ-1. The LUE in the vegetative and reproductive stages reached values of 1.31 and 0.74 g MJ-1, respectively. The estimated extinction coefficient (k) value corresponded to 0.53 and the maximum FLINT was between 0.79 and 0.82. Partitioning between the plant vegetative and reproductive stages was modeled based on the hypothesis that the partition is regulated by the source sink relationship. The estimated partition coefficient for the vegetative stage of the leaves was 0.63 and 0.37 for the stems. During the reproductive stage, the partitioning coefficients of leaves, stems and flower buds were 0.05, 0.74, and 0.21, respectively.


2020 ◽  
pp. 498-500
Author(s):  
Doroteea TEOIBAS-SERBAN ◽  
Liviu IORDACHE ◽  
Dan BLENDEA

Introduction. Pucioasa is one of the greater and sadly, almost forgotten balneological resort of Romania. Known since the 18th century, where it was discovered a record of this area on the Austrian map in 1791 with sulphurous streams, the healing waters of the “Pe Pucioasa” hill enters the therapeutic balneological circle when the first water analysis occurred – 1821-1828 by Dr. Trangot von Schobel. In 1878, Ion Ghica, a prominent figure in Romania at that time initiated the exploitation of 14 wells from the 30 known streams of sulphurous and ferruginous waters, thus obtaining enough healing mineral water for a capacity of 60 beds of the balneological establishment. Since 1841, the Resort developed, transformed into a Rehabilitation Clinic (1969) and the number of patients treated there increased from 20 in the beginning to 1000 patient per day. Many of the patients included foreign elite society members who came regularly to benefit from the waters’ healing properties, both external and internal cures, setting Pucioasa on a high level of not only balneology treatment, but also of balneological tourism. Matherials and methods: Studying local industrializations and water analysis, we concluded that there were many factors that contributed to the decline of this great and international renowned balneological resort. The first wrong step in this direction was made when building and extending de gypsum carrier, the peek being between 1970 and 1975, when the industrial forging process made the sulphurous streams to migrate, and the waters from the wells diminished in its sulphur and iron concentration. Another possible factor for the decline can be the modernisation of the medical world, development of anti-inflammatory drugs and modern medical equipment which reduced the need for the elite society to come a long distance for the balneological treatment. Results: Whichever of the reasons, the once prosperous Balneological Resort of Pucioasa fell into an unknown, unimpressive place, known and frequented only by the locals. The Rehabilitation Clinic still has 60 beds, which are occupied to the maximum each month, it still prospers on a local level, but lost its glory from almost a century ago. Conclusions: The Romanian general population and the government must take an interest to one of the many once prosperous balneological resorts in order to revive the national treasure of Romania which is balneology, which many of the developed European countries only wish that they can possess. Keywords: Balneary Resort, Pucioasa,


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (313) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja Małgorzata Graczyk

The city of Heidelberg has won twice the price of European Sustainable City Award. The paper presents the latest author’s investigation (July 2014) about the sustainable development in the Heidelberg. The aim of the article is an analyses and assessment of the implementation of sustainable development in the city. The policy and economical instruments implemented at the local level at the very early stage (early 90s) help the city to build ecological education and shape ecological style of life.. The city citizens have a very high level of ecological awareness and very often participate in policy decisions, shaping sustainable development goals of the Heidelberg. The main local priorities for sustainable development are: climate and environment protection, rising energy efficiency by using renewable energy sources, local heat district, ecological transport and building in passive standard.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Moysiadis ◽  
Naoum Tsolakis ◽  
Dimitris Katikaridis ◽  
Claus G. Sørensen ◽  
Simon Pearson ◽  
...  

The advent of mobile robots in agriculture has signaled a digital transformation with new automation technologies optimize a range of labor-intensive, resources-demanding, and time-consuming agri-field operations. To that end a generally accepted technical lexicon for mobile robots is lacking as pertinent terms are often used interchangeably. This creates confusion among research and practice stakeholders. In addition, a consistent definition of planning attributes in automated agricultural operations is still missing as relevant research is sparse. In this regard, a “narrative” review was adopted (1) to provide the basic terminology over technical aspects of mobile robots used in autonomous operations and (2) assess fundamental planning aspects of mobile robots in agricultural environments. Based on the synthesized evidence from extant studies, seven planning attributes have been included: (i) high-level control-specific attributes, which include reasoning architecture, the world model, and planning level, (ii) operation-specific attributes, which include locomotion–task connection and capacity constraints, and (iii) physical robot-specific attributes, which include vehicle configuration and vehicle kinematics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-708
Author(s):  
Bjørn Stensaker ◽  
Elisabeth Hovdhaugen ◽  
Peter Maassen

Purpose In recent decades, higher education institutions have been encouraged to develop their own internal management systems as a response to perceived quality challenges in the sector. These quality management (QM) systems have often been found to mainly reflect external accountability requirements, with less focus on coherent study programme development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between QM practices and study programme delivery in Norwegian higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach The study examined how coordination and control of quality work with respect to educational activities take place, using data from a survey to study programme leaders in a large sample of Norwegian higher education institutions. Findings The main findings show that a majority of institutions have established formal advisory bodies with a QM mandate, contributing to more coherent thinking, even though the division of labour between these bodies and formal decision-making structures often is unclear. The study also shows a high level of diversity in the collaboration practices among different actors involved in QM work, indicating that QM practices are adapted to local needs. Originality/value The paper provides new knowledge as to how QM is conducted in practice at the local level. It nuances earlier studies by showing the involvement of collegial bodies in QM although such bodies may have unclear mandates and, thus, an unclear role in the QM process.


Author(s):  
Steven A. Kidwell

I. THE NEED. A. In high pressure feedwater heaters, a tube leak quickly claims several neighboring tubes as collateral victims. B. Prompt detection of the initial leak would save the neighboring tubes from damage and preclude a potential turbine water induction incident. II. EXAMPLE. A. A Midwest generating station replaced 12 old high pressure heaters. The new heaters contained 304N SS tubes. In one of the new heaters, an unknown localized contaminant caused a single tube leak within the first year. This single leak went undetected until several surrounding tubes were lost due to impingement from the initial leak. And even the conservatively sized normal and emergency drains were overwhelmed, causing the heater to trip on high level. III. CAPABILITY OF SMART LEVEL CONTROLS. A. There are three known possibilities that would cause high drain-flow conditions in a feedwater heater. 1. High Unit Load. 2. The upstream feedwater heater is out of service. 3. A tube leak. B. Traditional Local level controls can sense high flow conditions, but cannot tell why. Most systems will alarm the opening of the emergency drain valve, but by that time, the collateral tube damage is usually severe. “Smart” Level Controls have the capability to distinguish between these conditions, thus allowing it to give early notification of a tube leak, before collateral damage becomes severe.


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