Effective Management Policies Research Articles

Signature whistles of the demographic unit of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) inhabiting the Eastern Ligurian Sea: characterisation and comparison with the literature

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) make extensive use of narrowband whistles with individually distinctive frequency modulations to broadcast their identity: the signature whistles. The acoustic structure of the signature whistles tends to be stable over decades. Therefore, these vocalisations have the potential to be used for monitoring individuals over time. Our study investigated the acoustic structure of the signature whistles of the demographic unit of bottlenose dolphins inhabiting the Eastern Ligurian Sea (Italy), within the Pelagos Sanctuary. Through visual categorisation of spectrograms, we identified 941 whistle contours, 469 of them were classified as signature whistles using the SIGnature IDentification (SIG-ID) method. We further grouped these into 19 different categories based on their stereotyped frequency modulation patterns. To support our categorisation, we used a combination of a visual classification task conducted by six naïve judges and an automated analysis, the principal component analysis. Overall, this study characterises the signature whistles of the demographic unit of bottlenose dolphins inhabiting the Ligurian Sea for the first time. Furthermore, when comparing the acoustic features of these whistles with those of other different demographic units available from the literature, we observed differences in the values of the minimum and maximum frequencies. Considering the critical vessel traffic of our study area, we interpreted these variations in light of the high levels of anthropogenic noise. We recommend further investigations to understand the mechanisms underpinning the acoustic variation of bottlenose dolphins’ signature whistles and to elaborate effective management and protection policies for this species.

How has the literature contributed to creating effective risk management policies in non-profit organisations

How has the literature contributed to creating effective risk management policies in non-profit organisations

How has the literature contributed to creating effective risk management policies in nonprofit organisations

How has the literature contributed to creating effective risk management policies in nonprofit organisations

УПРАВЛІННЯ ЦИФРОВОЮ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЄЮ ЕКОНОМІКИ МАЙБУТНЬОГО: СВІТОВИЙ ДОСВІД ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ПРИЧОРНОМОРСЬКОГО РЕГІОНУ

The global digital transformation of the economy of the future and rapid changes in the present orient the need for transition from traditional economic policy management to modern innovation and investment models of economic policy of the Black Sea region through digitalization, introduction of modern advanced IT technologies S.M.A.R.T. and HR management, e-government, next-generation information tools based on fully digital intelligent smart management. Digital transformation of the future economy in the world, significant acceleration of e-government, introduction of modern advanced IT technologies S.M.A.R.T. and HR-management open new unique opportunities for development and contribute to a radical improvement of quality in the field of economic, social life of citizens and digitalization of business processes of the Black Sea region. Emergence of new digital tools, political changes require: formation of high-quality innovative and creative approaches in management, global cooperation and support of flexible transformation on the basis of multilevel network structures of the Black Sea region and exclusivity are the priority vectors of the global digital economy of the future. The digital future, improving the quality of economic and social life of citizens, digitalization of business processes and e-government are integral to effective and high-quality economic management policy of any country in the world. The article identifies global processes of digital economic transformation. The expediency of ensuring openness of creative tendencies of modeling of e-government development policy is substantiated. An analysis of the implementation of modern advanced IT technologies S.M.A.R.T. and HR-management in the leading countries of the world and consideration of the map of investment attractiveness, digitalization of business processes, establishment of economic prosperity, strengthening of social stability, ecological sustainability of the Black Sea region. Comparison of countries by location in the Network Readiness Index in 2020. The Black Sea region is ready to take the next step to become even more efficient and competitive in the world market.

State and regional policy on industrial waste management: the EU experience for Ukraine

Purpose. To identify the main trends caused by the divergence of the policy of Ukraine and the EU in the formation and accumulation of waste and threats to the environment. Methodology. Using the methods of content analysis, quantitative and qualitative comparison, EU policy on waste management is analyzed and logical generalization is used to establish the features of waste management financing for industries and regions. Findings. Regional irregularities of industrial waste accumulation, including hazardous waste, trends of their change are revealed. The reasons for regional peculiarities of waste management in the EU and Ukraine are established. It is established that the distribution of capital investments both in environmental protection in general and in waste management in particular does not always coincide with the leading regions of accumulation. It is established that limitation of financial instruments for waste management only by budgetary resources leads to a reduction in capital investment. A comparison of trends in environmental spending and waste management indicated a significant difference. Analysis of environmental investment by polluting industries, which are unevenly represented in different regions, revealed a significant difference between them. Originality. Regions that are the main polluters have been identified. The discrepancy between trends of capital investments in environmental protection and waste management was revealed. It is established that the list of leading regions in terms of capital investments in environmental protection does not correlate with the list of leading regions of waste accumulation. It is pointed out that uneven investment creates risks of increasing the rate of waste accumulation, in particular hazardous waste. Forecasting of indicators of waste management of the following periods is carried out. Practical value. There are risks of increasing the rate of waste accumulation, especially hazardous waste, both in Ukraine in general and in some regions, inequalities in some areas in the amount of capital investment into environmental protection, which will form an effective waste management policy. Identifying common features and differences in waste management in the EU and Ukraine will allow implementing effective environmental protection tools, reducing risks in industrial waste management.

Urban landscape attributes affect occupancy patterns of the San Joaquin kit fox during an epizootic

The federally endangered and California state threatened San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) persists in relatively high density in the urban environment of Bakersfield, California, USA. Coyotes (Canis latrans), red foxes (V. vulpes), and gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) are natural competitors of San Joaquin kit foxes, and their presence in Bakersfield potentially impacts kit foxes. We used annual camera survey data in 111 randomly selected 1-km2 grid cells to investigate the influence of landscape attributes and the presence of canid competitors on San Joaquin kit fox occupancy from 2015 to 2019 in Bakersfield. Of 59 candidate models, our results indicated that occupancy patterns of urban kit foxes were driven primarily by a selection for campuses (e.g. schools, churches, and medical centres), followed by an avoidance of paved roads. Presence of other canids was associated with kit fox presence during surveys but did not have a discernable effect on occupancy, possibly due to a relatively low number of detections. Kit fox occupancy was estimated to have declined by 40% in Bakersfield over the 5-year study, likely due to sarcoptic mange (canis variety skin mite, Sarcoptes scabiei) disease as evidenced by a 37–49% extinction probability as a result of mange. Despite mange, the San Joaquin kit fox population in Bakersfield is one of the largest remaining populations. Awareness of the selection for campuses and avoidance of paved roads by San Joaquin kit foxes can help to develop effective land management and mitigation policy for kit foxes affected by urban development.

Towards a Shared, Conceptual Model-Based Understanding of Proteins and Their Interactions

Understanding the human genome is a big research challenge. The huge complexity and amount of genome data require extremely effective and efficient data management policies. A first crucial point is to obtain a shared understanding of the domain, which becomes a very hard task considering the number of different genome data sources. To make things more complicated, those data sources deal with different parts of genome-based information: we not only need to understand them well, but also to integrate and intercommunicate all the relevant information. The protein perspective is a good example: rich, well-known repositories such as UniProt provide a lot of valuable information that it is not easy to interpret and manage when we want to generate useful results. Proteomes and basic information, protein-protein interaction, protein structure, protein processing events, protein function, etc. provide a lot of information is that needs to be conceptually characterized and delimited. To facilitate the essential common understanding of the domain, this paper uses the case of proteins to analyze the data provided by Uniprot in order to make a sound conceptualization work for identifying the relevant domain concepts. A conceptual model of proteins is the result of this conceptualization process, explained in detail in this work. This holistic conceptual model of proteins presented in this paper is the result of achieving a precise ontological commitment. It establishes concepts and their relationships that are significant in order to have a solid basis to efficiently manage relevant genome data related to proteins.

The Importance of Well Yield in Groundwater Demand Specification

The implementation of effective resource management policies critically depends on accurate estimates of the price elasticity of resource demand. In the case of groundwater, previous research estimating well-level groundwater demand has largely ignored the importance of well yield, which is a physical limit on the rate of groundwater extraction. In this research, we empirically estimate the price elasticity of demand for groundwater using well-level data from Colorado. Our results demonstrate that when well yield is omitted, price elasticity is overestimated. This in turn creates inaccurate predictions of the effect of price-based conservation policies on groundwater use and welfare impacts.

Decision support system for flood risk reduction policies: The case of a flood protection measure in the area of Vicenza

Abstract Climate change is one of the most significant and pressing issues faced by humanity; it frequently results in major natural disasters, such as catastrophic floods, which require the establishment of effective management policies by local and national authorities. These policies involve complex multistep decision-making processes that require combined assessment of various sources of data by different stakeholders. Even though an abundance of data is being collected to monitor climate change and estimate its consequences on the society, the environment, and the economy, policy-making is still largely based on intuition rather than evidence due to lack of a structured approach for modeling the decision-making process and considering the appropriate use of data in every step of the process. The goal of this work is to introduce a novel decision support system that can guide policy makers through a structured data-driven decision-making process aiming to create policies for flood risk management. The proposed system is a multifacet platform that guides policy makers through five phases—inform, advise, monitor, evaluate, and revise—of the policy cycle. For each phase, different dashboards provide relevant information regarding the environmental, social, and economic conditions. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed system, we use it to assess a flood protection policy in the city of Vicenza, Italy. The results reveal the benefits and challenges of the proposed decision support tool for public administrations involved in flood risk management.

Willingness to participate in take-out packaging waste recycling: Relationship among effort level, advertising effect, subsidy and penalty

The resource and environmental problems caused by the accumulation of take-out packaging waste have attracted wide concern and the management has become a critical need. To this end, a tripartite game model of governments, consumers and take-out platforms was built to analyze the dynamic evolution process of behavioral choice and to explore the effects of advertising, government policies and effort level on the waste system. The results showed that (1) the effort level expended by government and take-out platforms had different mechanisms for the evolution path of the system. A positive correlation existed between governments’ effort levels and evolution speed, while the correlation with the effort level in take-out platforms was negative. (2) The advertising effect positively promoted the evolution path of governments and take-out platforms. (3) The governments’ subsidies and penalties for consumers and take-out platforms had a significant positive impact on the evolution path of the two. This study provides a new perspective for the research on take-out packaging waste recycling and the conclusions can provide a reference for governments to formulate effective take-out waste management policies.

Construction and demolition wastes in Beijing: Where they come from and where they go?

Urbanization and related construction activities generate massive construction and demolition (C&D) waste, which poses considerable risks to the environment and human health. However, it is difficult to assess the significance of these issues without a quantitative understanding of spatial patterns of C&D waste generation (source), transportation (flow), and treatment (sink). This paper maps source, sinks, and flows of C&D waste by coupling a geographic information system and material flow analysis. The methodology is new in the field of C&D waste quantification at the city level, especially downscaling to 5 km × 5 km grids. The results showed that a total of 37.72 million metric tonnes (Mt) of C&D wastes were generated in Beijing, 2019, and ~72% of them were reused and recycled. In space, C&D waste generation in suburban and rural districts (28.73 Mt) was over three times more than that in the downtown area (8.99 Mt). However, the downtown area was the net source region and transported massive amounts of C&D waste to suburban and rural districts. In comparison, several suburban and rural districts had self-sufficient treatment capacity. Our study highlights that a series of C&D waste maps on multiple spatial scales are of great help to design effective policies for waste management by providing spatial details of magnitude and components, and explicitly recognizing primary source and sink areas in cities.

Building Loss in WUI Disasters: Evaluating the Core Components of the Wildland–Urban Interface Definition

Accurate maps of the wildland–urban interface (WUI) are critical for the development of effective land management policies, conducting risk assessments, and the mitigation of wildfire risk. Most WUI maps identify areas at risk from wildfire by overlaying coarse-scale housing data with land cover or vegetation data. However, it is unclear how well the current WUI mapping methods capture the patterns of building loss. We quantified the building loss in WUI disasters, and then compared how well census-based and point-based WUI maps captured the building loss. We examined the building loss in both WUI and non-WUI land-use types, and in relation to the core components of the United States Federal Register WUI definition: housing density, vegetation cover, and proximity to large patches of wildland vegetation. We used building location data from 70 large fires in the conterminous United States, which cumulatively destroyed 54,000 buildings from 2000 through to 2018. We found that: (1) 86% and 97% of the building loss occurred in areas designated as WUI using the census-based and point-based methods, respectively; (2) 95% and 100% of all of the losses occurred within 100 m and 850 m of wildland vegetation, respectively; and (3) WUI components were the most predictive of building loss when measured at fine scales.

Macroeconomic determinants of external debt in Nepal: The ARDL Approach

Background: External debt is the loan amount borrowed from the international level, payable with interest and principal. It is the major source of financing budget deficit in a developing country. Debt accumulation for productive investment is a viable strategy for long-term development. To escape the external debt burden or for the external debt burden strategy, it is crucial to study the major macroeconomic determinants of external debt.
 Objective: The principal objective of this study is to examine the major macroeconomic determinants of external debt in Nepal. 
 Methods: In this study, the external loan is taken as a dependent variable whereas, budget deficit, per capita gross domestic product, terms of trade, trade openness, foreign aid, and real effective exchange rates are taken as explanatory variables that may cause external borrowing in Nepal. The study applies the ARDL cointegration approach to trace out the relationship between the stated variables. The bound test (F-Version) has been applied for the determination of the existence of long-term cointegration among variables.Short-run dynamics is measured by the Error Correction Mechanism.
 Results: The empirical result indicates that fiscal deficit, trade openness, and foreign aid are major macroeconomic determinants of external debt in Nepal. From the obtained results, it is seen that an increase in foreign aid helps to significantly reduce external debt but trade openness and the budget deficit significantly leads to an increase in external debt both in the short-run as well as in the long-run. The error correction term is found to be significant and negative, showing proof of a strong association between the selected variable and ensures the correction of short-term disequilibrium to a stable equilibrium at the rate of 37 percent per annum.
 Conclusions: The study concludes that foreign aid, budget deficit, and trade openness are the main determinants of external debt in Nepal in both the long-run and short-run. Appropriate export-import or foreign trade policy, effective demand management policy, progressive tax system as well as monitoring tax evasion, effectual and productive utilization of available resources helps to reduce debt accumulation and saves the nation from the possible debt trap.

Impact of Internal CSR Perception on Affective Organisational Commitment among Bank Employees

The present study aims to investigate the relationship between perceived internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and affective organisational commitment. Based on a primary data sample of 300 bank employees, a structural equation model (SEM) was developed to test the research hypotheses. The results indicated that the research model fitted well with the empirical data. The findings show that employee perception of internal CSR dimensions was significantly related to affective organisational commitment. Therelationship between affective commitment and internal CSR was also investigated within a model that moderates effects on employee gender. This study provides an understanding that motivations could encourage employee’s affective commitment, which might translate to effective human resource management policies.

Hybridization Slows Rate of Evolution in Crop-Wild Compared to Wild Populations of Weedy Raphanus Across a Moisture Gradient

Hybrid offspring of crops and their wild relatives commonly possess non-adaptive phenotypes and diminished fitness. Regularly, diminished success in early-generation hybrid populations is interpreted to suggest reduced biosafety risk regarding the unintended escape of novel traits from crop populations. Yet hybrid populations have been known to evolve to recover fitness relative to wild progenitors and can do so more rapidly than wild populations, although rates of evolution (for both hybrid populations and their wild progenitors) are sensitive to environmental context. In this research, we asked whether hybrid populations evolved more rapidly than wild populations in the context of soil moisture. We estimated evolutionary rates for 40 Raphanus populations that varied in their history of hybridization and environmental context (imposed by an experimental moisture cline) in two common gardens. After five generations of growing wild and crop-wild hybrid populations across a soil-moisture gradient, hybrid populations exhibited increased seedling emergence frequencies (~6% more), earlier emergence (~1 day), later flowering (~3 days), and larger body size (15–35%)—traits correlated with fitness—relative to wild populations. Hybrid populations, however, exhibited slower evolutionary rates than wild populations. Moreover, the rate of evolution in hybrid populations was consistent across evolutionary watering environments, but varied across watering environments in wild populations. These consistent evolutionary rates exhibited in hybrid populations suggests the evolution of robust traits that perform equally across soil moisture environments—a survival strategy characterized as “jack of all trades.” Although, diverse integrated weed management practices must be applied to wild and hybrid genotypes to diversify selection on these populations, evaluating the evolutionary rates of weeds in diverse environments will support the development of multi-faceted weed control strategies and effective integrated weed management policies.

A Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationships between Work-Related Affective Feelings Expressed by Workers in Turkey.

Understanding employees’ feelings at work plays a significant role in developing practical and effective organizational and human resource management policies and practices. Furthermore, work-related emotions may have a considerable effect on workers’ health and wellbeing and affect work effectiveness and work performance. The objectives of the current study were to investigate the relationships among four work-related (WOR) affective feelings (WORAF) and to validate the WORAF questionnaire in a Turkish sample. A survey was performed including four constructs: (1) WOR feelings of happiness, (2) WOR feelings of anxiety, (3) WOR feelings of anger, and (4) WOR feelings of dejection. A total of 322 workers from various companies in Turkey completed a paper-based survey. A research model was developed, and its main components were estimated with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that dejection and anger at work play a critical role in experienced anxiety in occupational settings. Similarly, dejection, anger, and anxiety at work play a crucial role in perceived happiness at work.

Changes of Information Professional Roles and Initiatives to Support Information Management

Information professionals (IP) such as librarian, archivists, information managers, information systems specialists, and records managers play an important role in the information era to influence and inspire their users to understand and choose the right information that acquire from various resources to be used appropriately according to their nature of business. These few years, the roles of information professionals especially Librarian, have been discussed and reviewed. Thus, the similar intention of this paper is to access and explore the initiation and enhancement activities by the information professionals to support the information management in their organizations that will benefit to the department and organization. The efficient and effective information management in the organization will contribute and influence the organizational performance, including improved efficiency & productivity, better decision making, effective record management and better policy and planning. In the academic aspect, the initiative by information professional may contribute to the higher ranking of the universities or college.

Seasonal weather and climate prediction over area burned in grasslands of northeast China

Grassland fire dynamics are subject to myriad climatic, biological, and anthropogenic drivers, thresholds, and feedbacks and therefore do not conform to assumptions of statistical stationarity. The presence of non-stationarity in time series data leads to ambiguous results that can misinform regional-level fire management strategies. This study employs non-stationarity in time series data among multiple variables and multiple intensities using dynamic simulations of autoregressive distributed lag models to elucidate key drivers of climate and ecological change on burned grasslands in Xilingol, China. We used unit root methods to select appropriate estimation methods for further analysis. Using the model estimations, we developed scenarios emulating the effects of instantaneous changes (i.e., shocks) of some significant variables on climate and ecological change. Changes in mean monthly wind speed and maximum temperature produce complex responses on area burned, directly, and through feedback relationships. Our framework addresses interactions among multiple drivers to explain fire and ecosystem responses in grasslands, and how these may be understood and prioritized in different empirical contexts needed to formulate effective fire management policies.

Alinhamento entre modelos de gestão de pessoas e os níveis de sustentabilidade organizacional

A discussão das questões da sustentabilidade vem ganhando corpo nas organizações com a busca do desenvolvimento sustentável organizacional e com o consumo de produtos ecológicos, fazendo com que as indústrias implementem suas atividades e seus processos produtivos com políticas e práticas de gestão mais eficazes e eficientes. Essas exigências de mercado, atualmente, vêm mudando o conceito e as estratégias sustentáveis que a organização desenvolve; nesse contexto, a gestão de pessoas tem papel crucial nas ações, uma vez que a gestão das políticas e práticas planejadas e executadas pela gestão de pessoas tende a auxiliar na posição desejável no nível de sustentabilidade organizacional. Assim, o tema estudado merece uma reflexão mais aprofundada na academia e nas organizações. Este estudo buscou compreender de que forma acontece o alinhamento dos modelos estratégico e sustentável da gestão de pessoas e os níveis de sustentabilidade organizacional de duas indústrias de papel e celulose. Para isso, realizou-se um estudo de casos múltiplos nessas duas indústrias, as quais se configuram como empresas que estão em reestruturação das estratégias visando à implementação da sustentabilidade para o melhor desempenho organizacional. Para se alcançar o objetivo geral, foi necessário realizar uma ampla pesquisa bibliográfica, com entrevistas semiestruturadas com diretores e funcionários – estratégicos e táticos –, além de observação assistemática e análise dos documentos das empresas nos sites. Por meio da análise do conteúdo foi possível verificar que os níveis de sustentabilidade das indústrias estão relacionados ao modelo de gestão de pessoas adotado para o gerir das empresas.

Prospective Utilization of Wood Waste From Wood-based Industries in Ethiopia: Synthesis

Wood waste has the potential to be utilized for the production of various products like engineered wood products, for energy generation in the form of heat, electricity, and for mulching and animal bedding. Apart from international experience, wood waste utilization in Ethiopia is not being practiced except for firewood and engineered wood products in some cases. This review stated that the problem of wood waste management and utilization in Ethiopia is arising from the absence of relevant rules and regulations and a lack of institutions that are concerned about wood waste benefits. Institutional issues are related to the formulation of policy that encourages waste management, and involvement of investors in waste utilization, while the technical issues are concerned with the adoption of advanced technologies, the arrangement of relevant training for the workers, and the implementation of proper wood waste management. The result of the review concludes that government should formulate effective waste management policies to maximize the value of wood waste resources, because poor management and utilization of wood waste will lead to huge profit loss and, moreover, environmental pollution. Related policies should be introduced to support experience sharing and technology promotion, which will contribute to the efficient and effective utilization of wood waste resources to satisfy the growing demand for wood products. In addition to these, the policymakers should give special attention to the utilization of wood waste to adopt advanced techniques and technologies from experienced countries. Keywords: Wood waste, Wood waste management, Wood waste utilization, Wood chips, Sawdust DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/71-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2020