Integrating crop modelling and production economics to investigate multiple nutrient deficiencies and yield gaps

A method is described for integrating crop modelling and production economics to quantify optimum applications of multiple nutrients and yield gaps. The method is demonstrated for crop production in the high‐rainfall zone of southern Australia. Data from a biophysical crop model were used to overcome the persistent problem of inadequate experimental data. The Mitscherlich function was expanded to accommodate four variable inputs – nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur – and the expansion path was used to determine the economic optimum application of all four nutrients. Modelling revealed the state‐contingent yield potential and the extent to which unrealised yield could be explained by profit‐maximising behaviour and risk‐aversion by growers. If growers and their advisors were guided by the methods described, they would be better equipped to assess crop nutrient demands and limitations, predict yield potential, additional profit and the risks associated with high input systems in a variable climate. If scientists were more aware of the extra profits and the risks involved (as well as the quantitative relationships between inputs and outputs) when thinking about what to produce and how to do so, they would be more circumspect about the net benefits to be obtained from closing yield gaps.     

Global talent management: Literature review,integrative framework,and suggestions for further research

The environment for most organizations today is global, complex, dynamic, highly competitive, and extremely volatile, and is likely to remain so for years to come. In addition to these external conditions, most organizations are also facing several global challenges including those related to: talent flow; the managing of two generations of employees, viz., older or mature workers and younger workers; and a shortage of needed competencies. One major result of these challenges for organizations is that they have to be global and that they have to be systematic in managing their human capital if they wish to have any hope of gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in the years ahead. Many human resource practitioners and consultants (HR professionals) are now recognizing this, especially those that operate globally, the multinational enterprises. Academics are also showing a strong interest as evidenced by their work in the new area referred to as “global talent management”. In this article we review that academic work and attempt to organize that literature by creating an integrative framework for understanding and advancing further research in global talent management. To guide this research our framework highlights several selected challenges in global talent management, and several drivers of those challenges. It also highlights the potential role of IHRM activities in addressing those selected challenges. A discussion of possible criteria of global talent management effectiveness completes the framework. Hopefully this integrative framework may guide further academic research on global talent management and might also inform the work of HR professionals.     

Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders

Leaders, particularly new leaders, seek to establish high levels of trust, as it has been associated with higher levels of effectiveness and group outcomes. This study is designed to understand how trust changes and develops for leaders in a new role and the implications of that change. Although calls for research on trust over time have been made for the past 2 decades, our knowledge of this phenomenon is still quite limited. The findings indicate that leader and unit performance is a function not only of absolute trust level, but is also affected by the direction and magnitude of change in trust across time periods, with the highest levels of effectiveness being associated with leaders who exhibited an increase in trust from the group over time. The data also suggest that the direction and rate at which trust grew was determined by initial expectations and transformational leadership behaviors.

     

Hospital Mergers with Regulated Prices

We study the effects of a hospital merger in a spatial competition framework where semi‐altruistic hospitals choose quality and cost‐containment effort. Whereas a merger always leads to higher average cost efficiency, the effect on quality provision depends on the strategic nature of quality competition, which in turn depends on the degree of altruism and the effectiveness of cost‐containment effort. If qualities are strategic complements, then a merger leads to lower quality for all hospitals. If qualities are strategic substitutes, then a merger leads to higher quality for at least one hospital, and might also yield higher average quality provision and increased patient utility.     

Measuring the natural rate of interest: A note on transitory shocks

We present evidence that the natural rate of interest is buffeted by both permanent and transitory shocks. We establish this result by estimating a benchmark model with Bayesian methods and loose priors on the unobserved drivers of the natural rate. When subject to transitory shocks, the median estimate for the US economy is more procyclical, displays a less marked secular decline, and is therefore higher following the Great Recession than most estimates in the literature.     

Having a share in creating a peaceful world: teaching students to become tolerant

The occurrence of terrible incidents and situations all over the world where people are dying or suffering, due to political, economic, or cultural reasons have a great impact not only on students but on all human beings. It is therefore feasible for educators to take an active role to overcome or at least to diminish the negative effects of the situations mentioned above by including human rights education in their curriculum. For these reasons, the aim of this study is to identify the perceptions of students in a multicultural setting through the content topic of human rights to meet the language objectives of the course and also to raise tolerance awareness. The researchers obtained data through interviews, paragraphs, and the teacher’s diary based on observations and content analysis is used to analyse the qualitative data while triangulation research method is used to support the validity of the results. Results of the current study demonstrate that the course had various positive effects on the students and the objectives were met concerning language together by raising more awareness towards tolerance through the content topic of human rights.

     

(Not Finding a) Sequential Order Bias in Elite Level Gymnastics

Sequential order bias is often used to refer to timing biases in sequential order judging. However, there are two distinct biases within this structure: overall order bias, a bias throughout the event, and a sequential order bias, a judgment biased by the immediately preceding performance. I independently test these forms of bias using uniquely suitable data from elite level gymnastics. After modeling overall order bias, I find evidence that this bias exists, as scores escalate throughout the competition. However, I find no evidence of a sequential order bias; scores are independent of the immediately preceding performer.     

The Economic Impact and Civic Pride Effects of Sports Teams and Mega‐Events: Do The Public and the Professionals Agree?

Often sports leagues, organising committees, and team owners justify the use of public funds to build sports stadiums by the perceived economic impacts and civic pride generated by the teams or mega‐events. Since the 1980s many economic studies have examined the economic impact and civic pride created by professional sports teams. Most of the economic literature finds sports teams or mega‐events have little or no economic impact, but there are mixed findings on the magnitude of civic pride. Overall, most of the economic literature suggests that the benefits created by sports teams or events do not outweigh the cost of public subsidies provided. We conduct a survey of public opinion on US residents’ perceptions of economic impacts and civic pride benefits from mega‐events such as the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics. Our study asks the question: Do residents believe that mega‐events and sports teams generate positive economic impacts and civic pride or not? We find that, like economists, the public doubts that public funding of mega‐events is a good idea.     

How group and perceiver characteristics affect collective blame following counterproductive work behavior

Two experimental studies, based on a model using a novel integration of theories, provide evidence that collective blame, the assignment of blame to members of a group besides the member(s) who directly caused a misdeed, in the aftermath of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is higher when a group of coworkers is perceived as a single entity. Further, the studies consistently show that this relationship is mediated by inferences about both indirect causality and common blameworthy traits among group members. These findings extend prior research, which has not considered mediation in this relationship by dual inferences. Additionally, perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character were found to moderate the inferences they favor, with inferences about indirect causality versus common traits favored by perceivers with implicit theories that people's character is malleable versus fixed, respectively. These findings extend prior research by empirically supporting the notion that the nature of perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character is related to why they perceive a group to be a single entity. The findings, future directions and implications of improved understanding of the assignment of collective blame following CWB are discussed.