Suchergebnisse

It has been reported that a suit of plant traits can regulate the ant-seed interaction and subsequently affect the seed dispersal. However, the role of plant volatiles in attracting the ants for seed dispersal remains little examined. We used a Y-tube olfactometer to test behavior response of a keystone seed-dispersing ant (Pristomyrmex pungens Mayr) to leaves and seeds of five co-occurring myrmecochorous Corydalis species (C. wilfordii Regel, C. racemosa (Thunberg) Persoon, C. sheareri S. Moore, C. balansae Prain and C. incisa (Thunberg) Persoon). Of the five species, only C. wilfordii and C. racemosa leaves emits heavily volatiles. We also performed seed cafeteria experiments to assess the effect of leaf volatiles from C. racemosa on seed retrieval by presenting simultaneously the seeds near the fresh leaf and the leaf immersed by diethyl ether both in the field and lab. The experiment using Y-tube showed that the ants were only significantly attracted by the fresh leaves of two species, C. wilfordii and C. racemosa. The cafeteria experiments showed that ants spent less time to detect the C. racemosa seeds which were near the fresh leaf, and transported these seeds more quickly. This indicated that the leaf volatiles can function as an attractant for the dispersing ants, and ant preference in turn enhance the seed retrieval. The findings reveal that leaf volatiles can play na important but underestimated role in shaping the ant-seed dispersing interactions.

Magnetic resonance imaging and other multifunctional diagnostic facilities, which are considered as scarce resources of hospitals, typically provide services to patients with different medical needs. This article examines the admission policies during the appointment management of such facilities. We consider two categories of patients: regular patients who are scheduled in advance through an appointment system and emergency patients with randomly generated demands during the workday that must be served as soon as possible. According to the actual medical needs of patients, regular patients are segmented into multiple classes with different cancelation rates, no‐show probabilities, unit value contributions, and average service times. Management makes admission decisions on whether or not to accept a service request from a regular patient during the booking horizon to improve the overall value that could be generated during the workday. The decisions should be made by considering the cancelation and no‐show behavior of booked patients as well as the emergency patients that would have to be served because any overtime service would lead to higher costs. We studied the optimal admission decision using a continuous‐time discrete‐state dynamic programming model. Identifying an optimal policy for this discrete model is analytically intractable and numerically inefficient because the state is multidimensional and infinite. We propose to study a deterministic counterpart of the problem (i.e., the fluid control problem) and to develop a time‐based fluid policy that is shown to be asymptotically optimal for large‐scale problems. Furthermore, we propose to adopt a mixed fluid policy that is developed based on the information obtained from the fluid control problem. Numerical experiments demonstrate that this improved policy works effectively for small‐scale problems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 287–304, 2016

AbstractChildren's right to participate has been one of the most challenging rights to implement due to dominant norms which position children under adults' authority. Notably, this has more negatively impacted girls than boys due to traditional gender norms and practices that often restrict girls' agency and are reproduced and unchallenged in many societies. To contest these struggles, young female activists (13–17 years) in Sierra Leone, who are the focus of this paper, engaged in direct actions to influence public decision‐making and prevent girls from being married during childhood. Drawing upon empirical evidence exploring the girls' activism experiences, this article explore, young female activists' practical work is an example of what intersectionality as praxis means by connecting social categories to inequalities and highlights that they saw themselves as social actors with the ability to negotiate power, take part in community‐based activism to end child marriage and network with others to seek justice for practices and attitudes they perceived to be abusive.

Purpose
The issue of conflict has been around for a long time. With the development of economic development and the diversification of industries, conflicts have shown a trend of complex development. By reviewing interorganizational conflict in construction, this study aims to identify the formation, development and evolution of conflict and to assist organizational managers in using scientific conflict management tools to deal with and resolve conflict.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers the following questions: "What is the overall research status of the interorganizational conflict in construction projects?" and "What are the trendy issues in interorganizational conflicts in construction projects?" This study uses R software's Biblioshiny program to describe the overall conflict between organizations to answer question 1. This study uses Netminer – a social network analysis (SNA) software and text mining to explore research trends and answer question 2.


Findings
Interorganizational conflict has been one of the most important topics in recent years when it comes to conflict issues. This paper intends to examine interorganizational conflict in construction in an attempt to shed light on four main topics regarding the conflict: the application of conflict theory; factors that induce conflict; the effect of conflict on performance; and methods of conflict management.


Research limitations/implications
Through a comprehensive analysis of interorganizational conflict, this study helps to increase the understanding of scholars in the field of conflict research. This study suggests future research directions and provides references for managers to improve their conflict management, decision-making and performance.


Originality/value
This study combines bibliometrics, SNA and text mining research methods. Multidimensional and multiperspectival assessments are performed based on the status of the research, its evolution and trends. The results of this study can be used to guide the resolution of conflict in other industries. This study also enriches the scientific theory related to the interorganizational conflict.

The semi-enclosed bays impacted by heavy anthropogenic activities have weak water exchange and purification capacities. Most of the sea bays have suffered severe eutrophication, water quality deterioration, ecosystem degradation and other problems. Although many countries and local governments have carried out corresponding environmental protection actions, the evaluation of their effectiveness still requires monitoring technology and data support for long-term water environment change. In this study, we take Yueqing Bay, the fourth largest bay in China, as a case to study the satellite-based water quality monitoring and variation analysis. We established a nutrient retrieval model for Yueqing Bay to produce a long-term series of nutrient concentration products in Yueqing Bay from 2013 to 2020, based on Landsat remote sensing images and long-term observation data, combined with support vector machine learning and water temperature and satellite spectra as input parameters, and then we analyzed its spatiotemporal variations and driving factors. In general, nutrient concentrations in the western part of the bay were higher than those in the eastern part. Levels of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) were lower in summer than in spring and winter, and reactive phosphate (PO4-P) levels were lower in summer and higher in autumn. In terms of natural factors, physical effects (e.g., seasonal variations in flow field) and biological effects (e.g., seasonal differences in the intensity of plankton photosynthesis) were the main causes of seasonal differences in nutrient concentration in Yueqing Bay. Nutrient concentration generally increased from 2013 to 2015 but decreased slightly after 2015. Over the past decade, the economy and industry of Yueqing Bay basin have developed rapidly. Wastewater resulting from anthropogenic production and consumption was transported via streams into Yueqing Bay, leading to the continuous increase in nutrient concentrations (the variation rates: aDIN>0,aPO4−P>0), which directly or indirectly caused high nutrient concentrations in some areas of the bay (e.g., Southwest Shoal at the mouth of Yueqing Bay). After 2015, the various ecological remediation policies adopted by cities around Yueqing Bay have mitigated, to some extent, the increasing nutrient concentration trends (the variation rates: aDIN 0.1). The environmental restoration of Yueqing Bay also requires continuous and long-term ecological protection and restoration work to be effective. This research can provide a reference for ecological environment monitoring and remote sensing data application for similar semi-enclosed bays, and support the sustainable development of the bay.

AbstractThere is a dearth of culturally relevant, family‐centered programs for parents raising Black autistic children, despite significant racial disparities in autism diagnoses and service access. Using a mixed‐methods convergent study design, we report qualitative and quantitative findings from a pilot trial of a peer‐to‐peer program, Parents Taking Action (PTA), adapted to primary family caregivers of Black autistic children with or at increased likelihood for autism. We aimed to understand the feasibility of delivering PTA with fidelity to the manual; participants' acceptability of program strategies; and pre–post changes in child, parent, and family outcomes. Three peer mentors ("Parent Leaders") delivered the 14‐session intervention to seven participants. All Parent Leaders and participants were mothers of Black autistic children. We interviewed participants and Parent Leaders regarding program content and outcomes. We also collected fidelity checklists and pre–post, parent‐report measures on autism knowledge, family outcomes (e.g., advocacy), stress, depression, and child behavior. Parents reported on program acceptability at post‐intervention only. We found the Parent Leaders delivered the program with overall high levels of fidelity, based on our observations and Parent Leaders' self‐reported checklists. Participants reported high acceptability of the intervention strategies and provided feedback on methods to improve application of the content. We found statistically significant pre–post quantitative improvements in parent‐reported knowledge of their rights and child advocacy, autism knowledge, and child social competence. Participants and Parent Leaders expanded on these changes in interviews, and identified improvements in autism knowledge, parent stress and depression, family outcomes, and child behavior related to program participation. We conclude PTA is a promising, culturally and contextually relevant intervention for parents of Black autistic children. A randomized controlled trial is needed to rigorously evaluate changes in child, parent, and family outcomes.

The effect of the amount of task-relevant information on shared mental models in computer-mediated and face-to-face settings was examined. A 3 × 2 factorial design combining the amount of information with communication modes was administered through a simulated experiment. Results
showed that the effects of the amount of information on the formation of shared mental models were discrepant. In the computer-mediated setting, the sharedness of mental models increased as the amount of information increased; in the face-to-face setting, the sharedness of mental models declined
as the amount of information increased. The reversed results under the two communication settings extend the shared mental models theory into more contingent facets. Theoretical interpretations and limitations are discussed.