Community supported agriculture membership: The benefits of spousal involvement

Fresh vegetables originating from alternative food networks (AFNs) are an increasingly popular choice all over the world. Being part of an AFN frequently redefines consumption and participation of family members in food‐related activities. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a type of AFN, providing increased access to produce in a form of risk‐sharing model between farmers and consumers, which at the same time influences organization of household resources. Thus, not only the given member of a CSA, but also his/her spousal activities in household processes should be taken in account. It is clear that entering into CSA significantly affects lifestyles and frequently requires a great deal of adaptation, possibly leading to a crisis of whether to stay within the CSA or cease membership. The objective of this study was to reveal how spouses influence CSA membership. Using an explorative design, this study has identified three emerging patterns of spousal influence: coherent, integrative and neutral/antagonistic. The spousal influence on CSA membership may represent partner activities regarding food issues but also has an effect on food preparation and culinary choices at home. Our findings suggest that membership in CSA presents challenges and thus spousal support is crucial in the long term. As a consequence, spousal influence should be examined in relation to CSA participation. Inconveniences associated with CSA membership could be avoided by providing more information about the importance of spousal support.     

A cellular automata-based land-use model as an integrated spatial decision support system for urban planning in developing cities: The case of the Bogotá region

Bogotá and the 17 neighboring municipalities make up one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Latin America. However, despite strong functional interactions within the area, there is no official government body at this level in charge of coordinating authorities and providing solutions to the wide variety of issues arising in the regional urban land system. Aiming at providing an insight on future land-use developments linked to new transport infrastructures and at offering a tool to support territorial decision-making, this paper presents a cellular automata-based (CA) model based in Metronamica® software, that allows testing different scenarios based on potential land-use policies, environmental suitability and transport alternatives.There has not been, so far, an urban planning tool that accounts for the complexities of this region. CA-based land-use simulations constitute a useful approach to understanding the impacts of urban planning policies and regulations. This tool can help to improve inter-territorial and inter-institutional coordination, which through planning and management policies seek a spatially integrated development, with a long-term perspective.The CA-based model proposed was calibrated to reproduce land-use changes between 2007 and 2016 using different methods and indicators. The model was used to simulate and analyze eight scenarios with different policy directions of transport infrastructure in the future of the region. The results of the simulations reflect the dynamics of territorial occupation. The calibration indices in the experiment indicate a high degree of suitability for the CA Bogotá model, proving its effectiveness and potential as a useful tool for decision-making. The results show that occupation scenarios with restricted developable zones within the city, tend to have the greater dispersion rate in the study area, compared to scenarios where land development plans are promoted in Bogotá, which representing a more compact development.     

The use of landslide hazard maps to determine mitigation priorities in a dam reservoir and its protection area

Despite longstanding research on the landslide hazard assessment and mapping, the use this information in regional planning applications remains largely unclear. There is still a need for novel methods to interpret the results of hazard analyses. In this respect, the main research question of this study is how the landslide hazard maps can be evaluated in planning practice. To evaluate this issue, a comprehensive case study was carried out and a new methodology, defining the order of priority for the locations where mitigation measures are applied was developed. The investigations were carried out in the Melen Dam reservoir, which provides potable water to the city of Istanbul, and the dam protection area (Duzce, Turkey) in four main stages: (i) Evaluation of the general characteristics of the study area, (ii) preparation of landslide inventory, (iii) development of landslide hazard model, and (iv) implementation of the results of hazard analyses in planning. As a consequence, a decision support system that can evaluate analytically complicated outputs “P_Combined”, “P_{AL min.}”, and “L_Total” and provide clear decisions “Urgent”, “Primary”, and “Secondary” was suggested. Considering the limited resources available for the mitigation measures, the determination of mitigation priorities for the micro-catchments constitutes the key land-use policy for the protection of the dam reservoir.     

Does the spatial representation affect criteria weights in environmental decision-making? Insights from a behavioral experiment

The need and interest to consider cognitive and motivational biases has been recognized in different disciplines (e.g. economics, decision theory, risk analysis) and has recently reached environmental decision-making. Within this domain, the intrinsic presence of a spatial dimension of both alternatives and criteria calls for the use of maps throughout the decision-making process to properly represent the spatial distribution of the features under analysis. This makes spatial Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) a particularly interesting domain to explore new dimensions of cognitive biases. This study proposes a behavioral experiment aimed at discovering to what extent the spatial visualization (i.e. maps) of criteria versus the non-spatial one (i.e. tables) can bias the weight elicitation phase of a spatial MCDA process. The experiment simulates a very common analysis in environmental and land use planning: land suitability analysis. Our findings show that there are significant consequences on how important we perceive a certain criterion to be, depending on whether it is represented as a map or as a table among a mix of maps and tables. Indeed, the map representation of the same criterion leads to higher weights attributed to that criterion compared to the table representation. Visualizing the same information as a map or as a table, although technically equivalent, is thus not psychologically equivalent for Decision Makers. The results of this experiment are expected to have implications for spatial decision-making processes, by generating better awareness on the impacts of map-mediated land suitability analysis.     

推行双语——建立和谐语言生态环境的有效措施

推行双语是建立和谐语言生态环境,延缓少数民族语言逐渐走向濒危的有效措施之一,在本文的论述中解释了双语、双语现象及其类型,阐述了推行双语的必要性、优越性和重要性,并指出了推行双语必须要树立的正确观念——和谐发展。这对于形成健康的双语社会,更好的发挥母语和通用语在社会生活中的功能和作用,有着一定的理论指导价值。     

双排钢板桩支护结构在河涌整治工程中的应用

结合工程实例,对双排钢板桩自身特点的分析,阐述了工程设计中需要计算的内容,可供工程人员参考。     

煤巷掘进支护方式探讨

介绍了煤矿在煤巷掘进时采用煤体组合梁喷碹支护的一些做法。通过对围岩变形量的观测证实,在中厚煤层中只要选择合理的支护参数,在技术和经济上采用煤体组合梁喷碹支护方式都优于架棚支护方式。     

贫困生救助体系存在的问题研究

近年来,随着高职院校招生规模的扩大,学生人数的不断增加,贫困生人数也在相应增长。如何构建贫困生救助体系并应用实施,是高校工作中一项艰巨而重大的任务。本文通过对高职贫困生救助体系中存在问题的探讨,在以人权为视阈的社会救助理念基础上,从法律支持角度,试完善高职贫困生救助的政策措施及法律体系。     

The differences in hotel selection among various types of travellers: A comparative analysis with a useful bounded rationality behavioural decision support model

This study aims to investigate the hotel selection differences among different types of travellers through online hotel reviews. Specifically, the study performs a detailed examination of the differences in hotel key factors, criterion importance and selection results among five types of travellers, namely, business, couples, families, friends and solo. Using a sample of 194,885 online reviews on TripAdvisor.com, this study identifies the hotel key factors and criterion importance by employing the term frequency-inverse document frequency algorithm and Word2Vec algorithm. Additionally, a bounded rationality behavioural decision support model with picture fuzzy information is proposed to address hotel selection problems for different traveller types. Our results suggest that different types of travellers present differences in hotel key factors, criterion importance and selection results. However, families and friends have similar hotel selection results. This study can serve as a reference for hotel managers in understanding traveller preferences and for tourism website optimisation.     

Being ignored at work: Understanding how and when spiritual leadership curbs workplace ostracism in the hospitality industry

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present study theorizes that spiritual leadership is negatively related to workplace ostracism, both directly and indirectly via job social support and that employees’ justice orientation moderates the negative relationship between spiritual leadership and workplace ostracism. Based on time-lagged (three waves, two months apart) survey data collected from 252 hospitality employees, our findings reveal that spiritual leadership is negatively associated with workplace ostracism, both directly and indirectly via job social support. We also find that justice orientation strengthens the negative relationship between spiritual leadership and workplace ostracism. These findings not only highlight core theoretical contributions towards the existing literature on spiritual leadership, job social support, justice orientation, and workplace ostracism but also offer useful practical implications for hotel managers concerned about the repercussions of workplace ostracism for employees’ and organizations’ outcomes.