Construction and Optimization of Green Supply Chain Management Mode of Agricultural Enterprises in the Digital Economy

Digital economy is a rapidly developing economic form under the background of the information age. This article introduces the construction and optimization of the green supply chain management model of agricultural enterprises under the digital economy, and intends to provide some ideas and directions for the development of green supply chain management of agricultural enterprises based on digital economy. This paper proposes the construction and optimization research methods of the green supply chain management model of agricultural enterprises under the digital economy, including the overview of green supply chain management, the construction of the optimization management model of the green supply chain of agricultural enterprises, and the digital economy under the construction of a green supply chain management practice index system for agricultural enterprises. Experimental results show that average Cronbachα value of each scale factor of the optimized management model in this paper is 0.876, and optimized decision-making coordination mechanism has high internal consistency.

Morphological Variation in Absorptive Roots in Downy Birch (Betula pubescens) and Norway Spruce (Picea abies) Forests Growing on Drained Peat Soils

Peatland drainage based on ditch systems is a widely used forestry management practice in the boreal and hemiboreal forests to improve tree growth. This study investigated the morphological variation in absorptive roots (first- and second-order roots) across the distance gradient from the ditch with four sampling plots (5, 15, 40, and 80 m) in six drained peatland forests dominated by Downy birch and Norway spruce. The dominating tree species had a significant effect on the variation in absorptive root morphological traits. The absorptive roots of birch were thinner with a higher specific root area and length (SRA and SRL), higher branching intensity (BI), and lower root tissue density (RTD) than spruce. The distance from the ditch affected the absorptive root morphological traits (especially SRA and RTD), but this effect was not dependent on tree species and was directionally consistent between birch and spruce. With increased distance from the ditch (from plot 5 to plot 80), the mean SRA increased by about 10% in birch and 5% in spruce; by contrast, the mean RTD decreased by about 10% in both tree species, indicating a potential shift in nutrient foraging. However, soil physical and chemical properties were not dependent on the distance from the ditch. We found a species-specific response in absorptive root morphological traits to soil properties such as peat depth, pH, and temperature. Our results should be considered when evaluating the importance of morphological changes in absorptive roots when trees acclimate to a changing climate.

E-waste Management In Indian Microscale Informal Sectors – An Environmental Perspective Towards Policy Regulation

Inappropriate e-waste processing in the informal sector is a serious issue in developing countries. Field investigations in microscale informal recycling sites have been performed to study the impact of hazardous metal(loid)s (released from e-waste dismantling) on the environment (water and soil). Eight hazardous metal(loid)s (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, As, Hg, Ni and Cr) were found at elevated levels in the monitored water and soil samples (Sangrampur, West Bengal) as a consequence of widespread informal e-waste handling and primitive processing. Pd, Cu and As were found in high concentrations in water samples (1.62, 1.40, 0.03 mgL-1 respectively). Significant levels of Cu, Pd and Cd were detected in collected soil samples, both topsoil (Cu up to 2328.60 ± 217.60, Pb up to 342.90 ± 32.36 and Cd 18.34 ± 3.81 mgkg-1) and subsurface soil (2491.40 ± 276.20, 1853.33 ± 144.79, 25.90 ± 9.53 mgkg-1), compared to the levels of Zn, As, Hg, Ni and Cr. The results of seasonal variation indicated that higher levels of these hazardous meta(loids) were detected in the pre-monsoon (Nov – May) season than the rest of the year, as open dumping/burning of e-waste were practiced commonly and frequently in the monitored sites. The results highlighted that the composition and the handling of e-waste were important factors affecting the metal(loid) concentrations. E-waste policy and legislation have great influence on the handling and disposal procedures. A novel improved e-waste management practice has been proposed to encourage eco-friendly and safe e-waste disposal. It is recommended that regulatory agencies and manufacturers should create a road map to convince the informal sector to develop a systematic approach towards a more standardized formal e-waste management practices at the microscale field level.

Prevalence and Postpartum Screening Practice for Type 2 Diabetes following GDM in King Abdulaziz Medical City: A 3-Years Retrospective Cohort Study

Aim: GDM patients were associated to develop T2DM but mostly failed to undergo screening after delivery. This study aims to examine the practice of T2DM screening and prevalence of developing T2DM among women who had GDM in King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), Saudi Arabia. Methods: Retrospective study involving 642 pregnant women with GDM. Medical records on screenings conducted, delivery mode, GDM and diabetes family history were collected and investigated. Statistical analysis was conducted. Frequencies and percentages were used for categorical variables while means and SD for continuous. Chi-square and t-test were used to establish relationship of categorical and comparing two group means, respectively. Results: Patients were 98.8% Saudi nationals, mean weight, height, parity and number of pregnancies were 76.96 kg, 2.74 m, 3.37 and 1.35, respectively. Majority were obese (56.9%), SVD (56.4%) mode of delivery and good lifestyle (91.4%) as management practice. OGTT was used for screening T2DM with 0 hr fasting and 2-hrs after consuming 75g of glucose, physician ordered 6 weeks after delivery. Only 20% had screening for T2DM and 3.9% developed postpartum diabetes with high number of women not returning for ordered OGTT screening (65.6%). Significant predictors identified were parity and mode of delivery for development of T2DM, while only mode of delivery for both screening for T2DM and management of GDM.Conclusion: Low prevalence of developing T2DM but high number of women failed to follow the ordered OGTT screening. Effort on the implementation of OGTT screening for T2DM needs improvement.

Detecting Natural Hazard-Related Disaster Impacts with Social Media Analytics: The Case of Australian States and Territories

Natural hazard-related disasters are disruptive events with significant impact on people, communities, buildings, infrastructure, animals, agriculture, and environmental assets. The exponentially increasing anthropogenic activities on the planet have aggregated the climate change and consequently increased the frequency and severity of these natural hazard-related disasters, and consequential damages in cities. The digital technological advancements, such as monitoring systems based on fusion of sensors and machine learning, in early detection, warning and disaster response systems are being implemented as part of the disaster management practice in many countries and presented useful results. Along with these promising technologies, crowdsourced social media disaster big data analytics has also started to be utilized. This study aims to form an understanding of how social media analytics can be utilized to assist government authorities in estimating the damages linked to natural hazard-related disaster impacts on urban centers in the age of climate change. To this end, this study analyzes crowdsourced disaster big data from Twitter users in the testbed case study of Australian states and territories. The methodological approach of this study employs the social media analytics method and conducts sentiment and content analyses of location-based Twitter messages (n = 131,673) from Australia. The study informs authorities on an innovative way to analyze the geographic distribution, occurrence frequency of various disasters and their damages based on the geo-tweets analysis.

Individual Creativity in Digital Transformation Enterprises: Knowledge and Ability, Which Is More Important?

Digital technological innovation is reshaping the pattern of industrial development. Due to the shortage of digital talents and the frequent mobility of these people, the competition for talents will be very fierce for organizations to realize digital transformation. The digitization transformation of China’s service industry is far ahead of that of industry and agriculture. It is of great significance to study the organizational management and talent management of service enterprises to reduce the negative impact of insufficient talent reserve and meet the needs of digital development. Based on 378 valid questionnaires from China’s service industry, this paper applied polynomial regression and a response surface model to analyze the impact of two kinds of person-environment fit on work engagement and individual creativity. The results show that: (1) under the combination of high morality and high talent, work engagement and individual creativity are the highest; (2) individual creativity is stronger under the condition of high morality and low talent than under low morality and high talent; and (3) work engagement mediates the influence of morality and talent on individual creativity. The research reveals the internal mechanism by which morality and talent cooperatively promote individual creativity, which provides theoretical guidance for management practice of service firms to improve individual creativity in the process of digital transformation.

Revisiting the concept of the critical period of weed control

Weeds are a major biotic constraint to the production of crops. Studies on the critical period of weed control (CPWC) consider the yield loss due to the presence of all weeds present in the crop cycle. The CPWC is the time interval between the critical timing of weed removal (CTWR) and the critical weed-free period (CWFP), and the weed presence before and after the extremes of CTWR and CWFP may not significantly reduce crop yield. The crop yield is taken into consideration and weed density or biomass of individual weeds (annual or perennial) is not so important while calculating the CPWC. Only weed density or biomass is considered for calculating weed control efficiency of a particular management practice for which the weed seed bank is also a criterion. However, weed biomass is the outcome after competition experienced by each weed species with the fellow crop and the weeds. Consequently, the weed pressure in the subsequent season will be the cumulative effect of the preceding season too, which is unaccounted for in CPWC. It is argued that in organic farming or low-input farming systems, where herbicides are not used, the concept of CPWC can be misleading and should be avoided. It is concluded that CTWR is more meaningful than the CPWC.

Assessment of Biostimulation Methods based on Chemical Communication in Female Doe Reproduction

Biostimulation is an animal management practice that helps improve reproductive parameters by modulating animal sensory systems. Chemical signals, mostly known as pheromones, have a great potential in this regard. This study was conducted to determine the influence of short-term female rabbit exposure to different conditions, mainly pheromone-mediated, on reproductive parameters of inseminated does. Groups of 60 females/each were exposed to 1) female urine, 2) male urine, 3) seminal plasma and 4) female-female interaction, just before artificial insemination, and compared to isolated females controls (female-female separated). The following reproductive parameters were analyzed for each group: receptivity (vulvar color), fertility (calving rate), prolificacy and number of born alive and dead kits ⁄ litter. Our results showed that the biostimulation methods employed in this experiment did not significantly improve any of the analyzed parameters. However, female doe exposure to urine, especially to male urine, slightly increased fertility levels when compared to the rest of the experimental conditions. Female-female interaction before artificial insemination, which is a common practice in rabbit farms, did not have any effect, which suggests its removal to avoid unnecessary animal management and time cost. On the other hand, fertility ranges were lower for animals with pale vulvar color whereas no differences were noticed among the other three colours which measure receptivity (pink, red, purple), thus suggesting that these three colours could be grouped together. Additionally, equine chorionic gonadotropin injection could be replaced with various biostimulation methods, therefore reducing or replacing current hormonal treatments, and contributing to animal welfare and to a natural image of animal production.

Effectiveness of rent recovery strategies on residential real estate in Ibadan, Nigeria

PurposeThe upward rise of the prolonged payback period and the inability of the project to generate estimated income that has been linked with the irregular rent payments has been a major problem confronting real estate investment. Given the fact that real estate investment is a risky investment venture with a highly uncertain future stream of income, this paper examines the effectiveness of rent recovery strategies in the emerging Nigeria residential real estate practice.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an exploratory research design. The study identified the five recovery strategies adopted by the estate surveying and valuation firms in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria. The study adopts a purposive sampling method to select 52 registered estate firms in the study area and a questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale was used to elicit information. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.FindingsThe result showed that the rent recovery strategies adopted by the respondents include email approach, rent reminder notice, adequate maintenance, eviction notice and dialogue approach. The perceived top-rated strategies that could influence estimated income were dialogue and rent reminder notice. Also, the findings showed the factors that influence the choice of strategy are property type, company policy and the proportion of rent to the tenant's income.Practical implicationsThe study has an implication for real estate investors and property practitioners regarding the willingness of the investors to invest in real estate investment.Originality/valueThis paper is relevant given the fact that the rental property market is prone to risk that could impede the regular streamflow of income. This serves as a need for examination of the effectiveness of adopted rent recovery strategies as it relates to real estate property management practice and investment viability.