Southwestern corn borer damage to maize: Influence of plant age at time of larval infestation

A maize (Zea mays L.) hybrid was infested with 30 southwestern corn borer [Diatraea grandiosella (Dyar)] larvae per plant at 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 weeks after planting in a three-year study conducted at Mississippi State, Mississippi. Visual ratings of leaf feeding damage were highest when plants were infested 5 weeks after planting. Plant height increased linearly with the age of plants at infestation. Height of infested plants was significantly less than uninfested plants only when infestations were made 4 weeks after planting. The relationship between age of plants at infestation and yield was curvilinear. Yields were significantly reduced at all infestation times; however, the least yield reduction occurred when plants were infested 6 weeks after planting. To evaluate resistance to southwestern corn borer damage, infestation at 4 or 5 weeks after planting appeared to be most satisfactory. Yield reductions following infestation at 7 and 8 weeks after planting indicated that, when infestations are late, leaf feeding damage ratings alone may not be satisfactory indicators of plant damage.     

Engaging the community at the Tampakan Copper Project: a community case study in resource development with indigenous people

There is little doubt that one of the most significant challenges facing the mining industry today is how to deal with sociocultural issues, particularly those concerning indigenous groups who are potentially affected by mineral developments. No longer is a project's success dependent on technical and economic considerations alone. Community issues are now an integral component of overall project risk. For the mining industry, therefore, the establishment of positive, strong and transparent relationships with local communities is more than just a moral imperative; it makes good business sense. A case study of WMC's Tampakan Copper Project in the Philippines provides an illustration of how mining companies are developing their capacity to deal with sociocultural concerns.     

The politics of employment liability

Employment liability is an important check and balance against employee harm at work. In practice, however, an inadvertent consequence of employment liability is a potential shift in power from organizations to employees that affects subsequent managerial decision making. In this Incubator, we discuss behavioral and attitudinal ramifications of employment liability at work. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning,response, and research

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.     

Ten ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners’ use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain‐referral survey. We then used a workshop‐based iterative and collaborative approach to whittle the list down to these final questions (which represent 10 major themes in conservation): How can global Earth observation data be used to model species distributions and abundances? How can remote sensing improve the understanding of animal movements? How can remotely sensed ecosystem variables be used to understand, monitor, and predict ecosystem response and resilience to multiple stressors? How can remote sensing be used to monitor the effects of climate on ecosystems? How can near real‐time ecosystem monitoring catalyze threat reduction, governance and regulation compliance, and resource management decisions? How can remote sensing inform configuration of protected area networks at spatial extents relevant to populations of target species and ecosystem services? How can remote sensing‐derived products be used to value and monitor changes in ecosystem services? How can remote sensing be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts? How does the expansion and intensification of agriculture and aquaculture alter ecosystems and the services they provide? How can remote sensing be used to determine the degree to which ecosystems are being disturbed or degraded and the effects of these changes on species and ecosystem functions?     

Livelihoods,conflict and aid programming: is the evidence base good enough?

In conflict‐affected situations, aid‐funded livelihood interventions are often tasked with a dual imperative: to generate material welfare benefits and to contribute to peacebuilding outcomes. There may be some logic to such a transformative agenda, but does the reality square with the rhetoric? Through a review of the effectiveness of a range of livelihood promotion interventions—from job creation to microfinance—this paper finds that high quality empirical evidence is hard to come by in conflict‐affected situations. Many evaluations appear to conflate outputs with impacts and numerous studies fail to include adequate information on their methodologies and datasets, making it difficult to appraise the reliability of their conclusions. Given the primary purpose of this literature—to provide policy guidance on effective ways to promote livelihoods—this silence is particularly concerning. As such, there is a strong case to be made for a restrained and nuanced handling of such interventions in conflict‐affected settings.     

Economically optimal nitrogen rate reduces soil residual nitrate

Post-harvest residual soil NO(3)-N (RSN) is susceptible to transfer to water resources. Practices that minimize RSN levels can reduce N loss to the environment. Our objectives were (i) to determine if the RSN after corn (Zea mays L.) harvest can be reduced if N fertilizer is applied at the economically optimal N rate (EONR) as compared to current producer practices in the midwestern USA and (ii) to compare RSN levels for N fertilizer rates below, at, and above the EONR. Six experiments were conducted in producer fields in three major soil areas (Mississippi Delta alluvial, deep loess, claypan) in Missouri over 2 yr. Predominant soil great groups were Albaqualfs, Argiudolls, Haplaquolls, and Fluvaquents. At four transects in each field, six treatment N rates from 0 to 280 kg N ha(-1) were applied, the EONR was determined, and the RSN was measured to a 0.9-m depth from five treatment plots. The EONR at sampling sites varied from 49 to 228 kg N ha(-1) depending on site and year. Estimated average RSN at the EONR was 33 kg N ha(-1) in the 0.9-m profile. This was at least 12 kg N ha(-1) lower than RSN at the producers' N rates. The RSN increased with increasing Delta EONR (total N applied - EONR). This relationship was best modeled by a plateau-linear function, with a low RSN plateau at N rates well below the EONR. A linear increase in RSN began anywhere from 65 kg N ha(-1) below the EONR to 20 kg N ha(-1) above the EONR at the three sites with good data resolution near the EONR. Applying N rates in excess of the EONR produced elevated RSN values in all six experiments. Our results suggest that applying the EONR will produce environmental benefits in an economically sound manner, and that continued attempts to develop methods for accurately predicting EONR are justified.