Development of a Scale to Remove Farmers’ Sustainability Barriers to Meteorological Information in Iran

Even with significant breakthroughs in the production and delivery of meteorological information, most farmers are not able to utilize such information properly and pertinently. Up to the present time, a standardized scale has not been developed to examine farmers’ sustainability barriers to meteorological information use (BMIU). Furthermore, there is no doubt that identifying indicators and dimensions of sustainability barriers to meteorological information and weather forecasts’ usage by farmers can play a major role in their adaptation and resilience to the risks of climate change. Therefore, the present study aimed to generate and validate a scale for BMIU by farmers through an eight-step approach. Accordingly, the statistical population included 9006 Iranian farmers, 368 of whom were selected as study samples. The principal component factor analysis (PCFA) and second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were further practiced to develop the scale for meteorological information and weather forecasts’ use. Factor analysis also led to the emergence of five latent factors including “educational–communicative barriers (ECBs)”, “normative barriers (NBs)”, “informational barriers (IBs)”, “infrastructural–political barriers (IPBs)”, and “professional–economic barriers (PEBs)”. The second-order CFA correspondingly confirmed these five factors and their 25 related indicators. Given the challenges facing academic scholars, decision makers, and authorities in the application and facilitation of meteorological information, the developed multidimensional scale in this study along with its implementation steps can be effective in examining the limitations of utilizing such information and measuring its impacts in different agricultural communities.

Accessibility and informational barriers to an age friendly railway

Purpose Against a backdrop in an increase in the number of older people in the United Kingdom (UK) and an increase in the amount of travel per person for this age group, the number of older people using the railway is in decline. The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation is a first step towards ascertaining why through audits of issues and problems on rolling stock and station platforms. Design/methodology/approach Rolling stock and station audits were carried out by older people across a rail network in the South West of the UK. A total of 72.2 hours of auditing took place across different sizes of station and different types of rolling stock. Findings Two main themes were found across both rolling stock and station audits: accessibility and information provision. With regards to accessibility, boarding and especially alighting from the train was the key issue. Across stations and in rolling stock luminance, was a key issue for older people with places being too dark or moving from places that were bright to dark. Use of stairs at stations between platforms, especially when the station is crowded was an issue. In terms of information, key issues were found with signage being too cluttered, small, hidden and inconsistent and audible announcements being difficult to decipher. Practical implications There must be improvements made to railways to help older people feel more safe and secure using them. It is suggested step free and level accessibility is found boarding and alighting from the train, but also from station entrance to carriage. Better signage is needed throughout the station and on trains, with large repeated fonts used. Lighting needs to be revisited throughout to ensure areas are bright and well-lit both on station platforms and onboard. Further research needs to look at these findings in relation to slip, trips and fall accident rates. Originality/value There is very little research on older people’s perceptions and barriers to railway use. This adds value in being one of the only studies to do so, especially from the perspective of older people themselves as co-researchers.

Enabling people with impairments to use Airbnb

Paid peer-to-peer accommodation networks, including Airbnb, have been accused of excluding people with impairments. This study analyses host and guest posts on the Airbnb hosting community to (1) reveal key barriers preventing people with impairments from fully participating in peer-to-peer accommodation trading, and (2) identify solutions to overcoming these barriers, using as theoretical framework the social model of disability. The key conclusion is that we may be witnessing a fundamental shift in the nature of barriers: as the growing peer-to-peer accommodation sector increases the quantity and variability of accommodation options, the primary challenge is no longer a lack of suitable accommodation (physical barrier), but the identification of suitable accommodation (informational barrier). Informational barriers are potentially easier to overcome.

The Anatomy of Stalinist Police States

This article examines the building of Communist surveillance networks in Czechoslovakia and Poland in the early 1950s, focusing on the methods employed by the operational divisions of the secret police in these countries and their system of “preventative policing,” and shows how the secret police networks shaped the information reaching Communist party leaders and Soviet advisers in East-Central Europe during the Stalinist period. By examining how the regimes collected information on the economy, religious institutions, higher education, and other areas of everyday life, the article traces how blanket surveillance networks became more institutionalized, insular, and scripted over time, hindering the state's ability to collect and process meaningful information. These problems were symptomatic of larger informational barriers facing Soviet-style regimes.

Network Determinants of Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition Decisions

This paper assesses whether cross-border M&A decisions exhibit network effects. We estimate exponential random graph models (ERGM) and temporal exponential random graph models (TERGM) to evaluate the determinants of cross-country M&A investments at the sectoral level. The results show that transitivity matters: a country is more likely to invest in a new destination if one of its existing partners has already made some investments there. In line with the literature on export platforms and informational barriers, we find a sizable impact of third country effects on the creation of new investments. This effect is sizable and larger than some of the more traditional M&A determinants, such as trade openness.

Planning for Extreme Heat: A Review

Extreme heat is a growing concern for cities, with both climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect increasingly impacting public health, economies, urban infrastructure, and urban ecology. To better understand the current state of planning for extreme heat, we conducted a systematic literature review. We found that most of the research focuses on UHI mapping and modeling, while few studies delve into extreme heat planning and governance processes. An in-depth review of this literature reveals common institutional, policy, and informational barriers and strategies for overcoming them. Identified challenges include siloed heat governance and research that limit cross-governmental and interdisciplinary collaboration; complex, context-specific, and diverse heat resilience strategies; the need to combine extreme heat “risk management” strategies (focused on preparing and responding to extreme heat events) and “design of the built environment” strategies (spatial planning and design interventions that intentionally reduce urban temperatures); and the need for extensive, multidisciplinary data and tools that are often not readily available. These challenges point to several avenues for future heat planning research. Ultimately, we argue that planners have an important role to play in building heat resilience and conclude by identifying areas where scholars and practitioners can work together to advance our understanding of extreme heat planning.

Balancing learning and knowledge protection in university-industry collaborations

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the tension between learning and protection in university-industry relationships (UIRs) and, in particular, to identify practices that facilitate ways of coping with this tension. Design/methodology/approach The empirical work for the study is based on a qualitative comparative case analysis of six successful, long-term relationships between industrial technology firms and university research groups in Finland. Findings The findings of the study reveal that the development of mutual trust, based on personal-level relationships, adaptation and reaching a consensus about the utilization of research results represent the key processes that enable partners to balance learning and protection and lower the informational barriers within the collaboration. Research limitations/implications The case data have been collected from IT industry, in which the need for knowledge is changing rapidly and the need for learning is typically high. However, generalization of the results may need additional case studies including from other industrial areas. Practical implications The results highlight a rich set of practices that can support both industrial actors and academics in improving their engagement in collaboration and to facilitate successful knowledge creation and utilization in UIRs. Originality/value This study extends the existing literature on UIR learning by presenting organizational practices, which help UIR actors to balance learning and protection in their collaboration. Along with mutual trust and adaptation achieved in long-term personal relationships, these practices allow partners to overcome organizational barriers that result from different orientations, attitudes and incentives.