Books on the topic 'Leaf level data'

The main provisions of the theory of the world economy and international economic relations are presented. The strengthening of the integrity of the world economy is justified. The most important indicators from the point of view of system analysis are given. The concepts, concepts and dynamics of development of key forms of international economic relations are revealed. The construction of the balance of payments of various countries is analyzed. In the proposed publication, to control the level of mastering the discipline on each topic, tests, topics of reports and abstracts are given, practice-oriented tasks are developed based on objective statistical data of recent years. Meets the requirements of the Federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. For bachelors studying in the field of Economics, it can be useful for teachers who lead the disciplines "World economy", "World economy and international economic relations", as well as for anyone interested in the processes taking place in the modern world economic system and the role of Russia in it.

This chapter describes kidney disorders related to occupational and environmental exposures and addresses prevention and control. Sections address assessment of kidney function, acute kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Kidney disease from acute, high-level exposures as well as lower level exposures in combination with other CKD risk factors are considered. Established nephrotoxicants, including aristolochic acid, arsenic, cadmium, lead, melamine, mercury, silica, and solvents, are discussed. The limited data available on other agents, such as perfluorooctanoic acid and fine particulate matter, are also presented. The potential for kidney function to impact biomarker levels is considered. A final section addresses a current epidemic of CKD of unknown etiology in agricultural workers in specific countries.

Under what conditions will successful nonviolent revolutions lead to democratization? While the scholarly literature has shown that nonviolent resistance has a positive effect on a country’s level of democracy, little research to date has disaggregated this population to explain which cases of successful nonviolent resistance lead to democracy and which do not. This book presents a theory of democratization in transitions initiated by nonviolent resistance based on the successful resolution of two central strategic challenges: maintaining high transitional mobilization and avoiding institutionally destructive maximalism. I test the theory, first, on a data set of every transition from authoritarian rule in the post–World War II period and, second, with three in-depth case studies informed by interviews with key decision-makers in Nepal, Zambia, and Brazil. The testing supports the importance of high mobilization and low maximalism. Both have strong, consistent effects on democratization after nonviolent resistance.

This chapter presents the different theoretical texts that informed our study and interpretation of empirical data. We review selected health services and social science literature to provide insights on the mobilization of knowledge in the health care sector, with specific attention to practice-based examples. We include a critical reading of perspectives on evidence-based management (EBMgt) which takes its lead from evidence-based medicine (EBM). Drawing on insights from the strategic management literature, and the Resource-Based View (RBV), we discuss how knowledge is understood as a valuable asset, and explore some implications for public services and health care settings. We conclude by contributing a novel perspective on the political economy of public management knowledge production—a macro-level analysis that seeks to explore how interactions at the political, economic, and policy levels shape the institutional context for management knowledge use in the public sector.

This chapter reviews several major themes in the neuroimaging of ASDs to date (see summary of representative themes in Table 3.1), including substantial and essential contributions from the modular framework. The chapter begins, however, with a discussion of several challenges related to the diversity of ASDs in terms of factors such as age, level of functioning, and symptom presentation. Progress in the ability to identify more homogenous subgroups, based on targeted phenotypic measures, opens the door to link neuroimaging with genetics findings and also with treatment outcome data. This should lead to better understanding of both the causes of ASDs and the best approaches to intervention. The chapter is divided according to two broad, related themes related to social information processing and cognitive factors in ASDs. Within these themes, the chapter considers evidence from both structural and functional imaging studies as well as relatively newer approaches to connectivity, including diffusion tensor imaging. The primary focus of this chapter is on research utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Although several early neuroimaging studies utilized positron emission tomography scanning, these studies are rare now and are not addressed in depth. New techniques such as near-infrared spectroscopy suggest tremendous promise for noninvasive imaging of expanded age groups and severity levels of ASDs; however, these studies are also few in number and are touched on only briefly.

This book provides a longitudinal perspective on change and continuity in voluntary action in recent decades in the UK. Drawing on more than 30 years of different quantitative and qualitative data, its longitudinal, mixed-methods approach offers insights into recent and contemporary British voluntary action. The book deploys a range of quantitative data sources on individual behaviour, both cross-sectional and longitudinal, to analyse aggregate trends in individual engagement in both formal and informal volunteering, in the level and frequency of engagement, the types of activities that volunteers carry out, their responses to questions concerning their motivation and the rewards they obtain from volunteering. These analyses are complemented, and given much greater depth, by the use of qualitative data from individuals who volunteer for the Mass Observation Project, through which they provide free-form written testimony about their daily lives. Tracking a subset of these individuals over time provides unique and novel insights into behaviour, motivation, and lifetime engagement. This source is also highly informative of individuals’ understandings of, and particularly their attitudes towards, voluntary action, and the balance between public and private responsibility for the provision of public services. The findings lead us to caution against any simplistic suggestions that levels of voluntary action can be increased significantly without policies that work with the grain of individuals’ everyday lives.

We measure multidimensional poverty in India using National Sample Survey Organization data from 2014–15 to 2017–18. We use income, health, education, and standard of living to measure the multidimensional poverty index (MPI). The MPI headcount declined from 26.9 to 13.75 per cent over the study period. The all-India estimates indicate that 144 million people were lifted from poverty during this period. We include different health dimensions, factoring in insurance, institutional coverage, antenatal care, and chronic conditions. Income is the dominant instrument with the highest contribution to the MPI, followed by insurance. Cooking, sanitation, and education also have significant weights. The decline in deprivation is steeper in rural areas than urban areas. Our state-level estimates reveal that 20 states report less than 10 per cent headcount poverty, up from six states. COVID-19 may lead to reversals of these gains, with poverty rising to pre-2014–15 levels, rising more steeply in rural areas.

The life sciences are now a significant contributor to the ever expanding digital universe of data, and stand poised to lead in both the generation of big data and the realization of dramatic benefit from it. We can now score variations in DNA across whole genomes; RNA levels and alternative isoforms, metabolite levels, protein levels, and protein state information across the transcriptome, metabolome and proteome; methylation status across the methylome; and construct extensive protein–protein and protein–DNA interaction maps, all in a comprehensive fashion and at the scale of populations of individuals. This chapter describes a number of analytical approaches aimed at inferring causal relationships among variables in very large-scale datasets by leveraging DNA variation as a systematic perturbation source. The causal inference procedures are also demonstrated to enhance the ability to reconstruct truly predictive, probabilistic causal gene networks that reflect the biological processes underlying complex phenotypes like disease.

Several episodes of market-oriented reforms in developing countries have been accompanied by a significant rise in work outside of the formal economy. This paper investigates whether the impact of increased exposure to trade on formal employment is mediated by the strength of labour regulations. We rely on data from the Brazilian Census which provides information on workers’ demographics and employment, including job formality status. Our estimation strategy exploits quasi-exogenous changes in industry-level real exchange rates to explore the likelihood of informality across employers exposed to varying degrees of de facto labour regulations. To instrument for labour enforcement, we utilize two key features of Brazilian labour institutions—budgetary decisions about the availability of resources occur at the federal level, while decisions about where to inspect occur at the local level. Our instrumental variables results suggest that strict labour regulations may lead to a precarization of employment, rather than offering protection for workers.

The elementary particles of cognition are concepts. Simple, accurate association alone can be misleading. Cognitive concepts work as valuable cognitive data compression, for example, giving a set of related items the same class name: tables, chairs, birds. Cognitive concepts also contain internal structure with good and bad examples and have fuzzy edges. Concepts can be associatively linked in semantic networks to store and retrieve information. Cognition using networks is an active search process and need not require further learning to be useful. Low-level concepts can lead to the formation of higher level abstractions. An experiment by Deidre Gentner involves perception of identity in pairs of items; some pairs the same and some not. Seeing many identical pairs allows the abstraction of “identity.” The abstract relationship “identity” can then become more powerful than the details of any single example pair.

Survey data from countries containing over 90% of the world’s population demonstrate that in recent decades, rising levels of economic and physical security have been reshaping human values and motivations, thereby transforming societies. Economic and physical insecurity are conducive to xenophobia, strong in-group solidarity, authoritarian politics, and rigid adherence to traditional cultural norms; conversely, secure conditions lead to greater tolerance of outgroups, openness to new ideas, and more egalitarian social norms. Existential security shapes societies and cultures in two ways. Modernization increases prevailing security levels, producing pervasive cultural changes in developed countries. But long before, substantial cross-sectional cultural difference existed, reflecting historical differences in vulnerability to disease and other factors. Analysts from different perspectives have described these cultural differences as Collectivism versus Individualism, Materialism versus Postmaterialism, Survival versus Self-expression values, or Autonomy versus Embeddedness, but all tap a common dimension of cross-cultural variation that reflects different levels of existential security.

In 2015, annual average atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels surpassed a level of 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in three million years. This has caused widespread concern among climate scientists, and not least among those that work on natural climate variability in prehistoric times, before humans. These people are known as "past climate" or palaeoclimate researchers, and author Eelco J. Rohling is one of them. The Climate Question offers a background to these concerns in straightforward terms, with examples, and is motivated by Rohling's personal experience in being intensely quizzed about whether modern change is not all just part of a natural cycle, whether nature will not simply resolve the issue for us, or whether it won't be just up to some novel engineering to settle things quickly. This book discusses in straightforward terms why climate changes, how it has changed naturally before the industrial revolution made humans important, and how it has changed since then. It compares the scale and rapidity of variations in pre-industrial times with those since the industrial revolution, infers the extent of humanity's impacts, and looks at what these may lead to in the future. Rohling brings together both data and process understanding of climate change. Finally, the book evaluates what Mother Nature could do to deal with the human impact by itself, and what our options are to lend her a hand.

The literature shows that political connections have different effects on firms’ activities. However, the question of how political connections affect firms’ formalization has not been explored. Using data from three waves of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprise Survey for the period from 2007 to 2011, this paper aims to examine the relationship between political connections and firms’ formalization in Viet Nam. We find that firms with political connections increase their share of formal workers. The results also show that smaller firms tend to be more formalized if they have political connections. To overcome bias and inconsistency concerns due to potential omitted variables and reverse causality, we use political connections in a firm’s industry in other districts as an instrumental variable. The instrumental variable results confirm our previous results that political connections do indeed lead to a higher level of formalization.

Does secessionism lead to social polarization? Despite much research on independence movements, their relationship to polarization, a key mechanism theorized as increasing the chances of violent conflict, remains less understood. We argue that secessionist conflicts can polarize along both policy and ethnic group lines even when they take the form of non-violent disputes. However, polarization does not necessarily lead to violence. We explore the case of Catalonia, a region that experienced a deep secessionist crisis in the last months of 2017, using novel data from a panel survey fielded across two key time periods and embedded experiments. We find a society with great levels of affective polarization in that pro- and anti-independence advocates have strong negative views of one another. In addition, there is spillover in terms of the assessment of associated language groups. However, there is a group of moderates in between the two policy poles that limit the extent of this polarization. Contrary to common wisdom, these moderates have very stable preferences. Our results contribute to the understanding of the underexplored polarization dynamics of secessionist movements, particularly in places where high-intensity violence (i.e. terrorism, civil war) has not yet occurred.

This monograph provides an in-depth look at the organisation of the national cybersecurity system and the tasks and responsibilities of the entities operating within this system. The objective of the national cybersecurity system is to ensure cybersecurity at the national level, including the uninterrupted provision of essential services and digital services by achieving the appropriate level of security of the information systems used to provide these services and ensuring the handling of incidents. The EU legislators have been explicit in noting that the scale, frequency, and impact of cybersecurity incidents is growing, putting the functioning of information systems at a serious risk. These systems can be targeted by malicious attacks aimed at damaging or disrupting their operations. Such incidents can hamper the functioning of public administration and business, and cause substantial financial losses, undermine user confidence, and lead to considerable losses in national economies, as well as the EU economy at large. Defined as the resilience of information systems against actions which compromise the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity of processed data, or the related services provided by those information systems, cybersecurity is an area of concern for private and public entities alike. As far as the public-law sphere is concerned, cybersecurity tasks and powers are performed and exercised by government administration, both central and regional, as well as local and regional governments. At the core of the national cybersecurity system in Poland are the public entities which make Poland's cybersecurity policy with the aim of increasing the level of protection against cyberthreats. Despite having different statuses, tasks, and powers, and places in the public sphere, they share the objective of ensuring cyberspace security.

Research in decision making and metacognition has long investigated the calibration of subjective probabilities. To assess calibration, mean ratings on a percentage scale (e.g., subjective likelihood of recalling an item) are typically compared directly to performance percentages (e.g., actual likelihood of recall). Means that are similar versus discrepant are believed to indicate good versus poor calibration, respectively. This chapter argues that this process is incomplete: it examines only the mapping between the overt scale values and objective performance (mapping 2), while ignoring the process by which the overt scale values are first assigned to different levels of subjective evidence (mapping 1). The chapter demonstrates how ignoring mapping 1 can lead to conclusions about calibration that are misleading. It proposes a signal detection framework that not only provides a powerful method for analyzing calibration data, but also offers a variety of measures of relative metacognitive accuracy (resolution).

How do migrants affect the political systems of their municipalities of origin? This chapter seeks to understand the factors that lead to a range of possible outcomes. To do this, it employs a comparative subnational research design to analyze ethnographic data gathered from 12 high-migration municipalities in the states of Oaxaca, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. The chapter documents how migrants have interacted with home-country political actors and evaluates the impact of these interactions. Migrant engagement resulted in some form of increased political competition in 6 of the 12 municipalities studied; in all but one of these cases, the result was factionalism and a divided opposition at best, and deep and violent social conflict at worst. In the remaining 6 municipalities, dominant political actors either incorporated migrants into the prevailing system by establishing neocorporatist equilibria or successfully blocked the influence of migrant actors all together, despite high levels of migration.

Introduction: The nursing profession in recent years has had a special recognition at the societal level. Being a nurse has been of relevance to the health and well-being of populations. Today it is recognized that the nursing profession is one of the professions with the greatest impact on communities, as it translates into significant gains for different countries. Objectives: Starting from the research question, what are the motivations that lead students of the first year of the Degree in Nursing, to want to be Nurses? in Nursing, to want to be Nurses. Methods: We developed a qualitative study, with 109 students of the 1st year of the degree in nursing. For data analysis, we used Lawrence Bardin's conceptual assumptions. Results: The main findings of this study show us that young students who opt for the nursing course yearn for the possibility of being able to take care of others, reveal a concern for the well-being of others, satisfaction in helping, understanding, and relating to others. the other, still associating a high sense of mission. Conclusions: It is emphasized through this study that young people who yearn to become Nurses are governed by ethical and moral values ??marked by altruism.

The case study developed as part of IIEP‐UNESCO Research Project ‘Open Government: Learning From Experience’ analyses how an open government approach is being applied in Ukraine to resolve the critical issue of non‐transparent school financing through parents’ donations that undermines trust among key educational stakeholders. Developed in 2016, the Open School Platform (OS) is an online tool that allows parents to visualise the school’s budget, needs and expenditures in an easy‐ to‐read format. The study shows that OS has contributed to: improved trust among key stakeholders, improved communication and collaboration between school personnel and local public authorities, and more effective planning. But it also confirms that the use of ICT can lead to inequalities in poor rural communities having low levels of Internet access or computer literacy. It concludes on the importance of open government for shifting to a new paradigm of cooperation and partnership. And it recommends providing access to information in line with the Open Data Charter; ensuring a legal framework for citizen participation; using handy and accessible technological solutions; and following a ‘learning‐by‐doing’ approach to build up social capital for constructive interaction with authorities.

Relationships have always been at the heart of business. Successful businesses develop and sustain solid relationships with suppliers, employees and customers. However, the forces of technology, globalization and litigation have dramatically reshaped workplace relationships, transforming them and in some instances damaging or dissolving them. As humans have a fundamental need to work, organizations have a similar need for workers to perform tasks optimally. Data show that attending to workplace relationships and engaging employees increases productivity, creativity, and loyalty, yielding both short-term and long-term benefits. Disruptions of these relationships can lead to significant impairment in performance as well as deterioration in workers’ mental health. The tools that managers once relied upon to restore relationships have been weakened in part because of technology, globalization and litigation. The principles discussed in this book are designed to foster high-functioning workplace relationships. The authors’ psychiatric training, coupled with the breadth of their collective years of business and legal consultation experience, offers unique wisdom about developing and sustaining a relationship-focused perspective at work. The insights integrate cutting edge previously unpublished information with prior research and understanding of the psychological dynamics and principles of the workplace on both macro and micro levels—all presented in lay terminology punctuated by useful graphics with a minimum of technical terms, making the book easily understood by mental health professionals, managers, and employees audiences alike.

In the early 2000s, the US monetary policy committee, as well as other central banks around the world, began using “forward guidance,” or changes in their statement language, to signal policy changes. Underlying this shift toward clearer communication was the idea that more comprehensible monetary policy would lead to better economic performance and lower inflation. The first three chapters of this book argue that, rather than being a lofty goal set by altruistically motivated policy makers, transparency depends on the configuration of committee members’ preferences. Monetary policy committees that have central bankers with opposing preferences are argued to communicate more precisely compared to either a single decision maker or central bankers with more similar preferences. Precise communication is then shown to have positive effects by lowering inflation. Shifting focus and using data from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), chapter 4 presents evidence that committees with opposing preferences use a lower share of uncertainty words in policy statements and make more numerous changes to public announcements. Chapter 5 shows that households in Germany change their inflation expectations when given more precise central bank information. And chapter 6 shows that the level of precision in inflation-related news articles is negatively related to inflation in a sample of countries from Latin America. In conclusion, this book offers a new way of thinking about central bank committees and transparency. It finds that appointing a more policy-diverse central bank committee can encourage intercommittee governance and accountability as well as better economic performance.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible working has become the norm for many workers. However, does flexible working really provide a better work-life balance, enhance worker’s well-being and gender equality? This volume offers an original examination of flexible working using data from 30 European countries and drawing on studies conducted across the world including China, the US and India. The book reveals how flexible working can lead to workers working longer and harder, with work encroaching on family life. This is largely due to our current work and work-life balance culture, where long hours work in the office is hailed as the ideal productive worker, compounded by the decline in workers’ bargaining power and increased levels of insecurities. Similarly, norms around gender roles and intensive parenting cultures shape how the patterns of exploitation manifests differently for women and men. Women end up exploiting themselves at home by increasing time spent on childcare and housework, reenforcing traditional gender roles. This, and assumptions around women’s flexible working can explain why women and mothers may especially be party to negative career consequences when working flexibly. However, all is not lost. The book shows changes in cultural and institutional contexts, and the wide-spread of flexible working can help change the patterns of flexibility paradox. Taking a critical stance, this book investigates the potential risks and benefits of flexible working and provides crucial policy recommendations for policy makers, managers, and workers alike in overcoming the negative consequences.

We are all fascinated by physiognomy, intrigued by the appearance of the people we admire. These perceptual portraits of more than 100 thinkers who have fashioned our understanding of mind and behavior provide an alternative view of the history of psychology that is both pleasing and puzzling. Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Pierre Broca, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ruth Benedict, Allen Newell, David Marr and scores of others whose ideas have made psychology an empirical discipline emerge from motifs specifically drawn by the author or derived from a figure or text in one of the portrayed person's books, or an apparatus he or she invented. The ingenious treatment of portrait/motifs often challenges the viewer to discern the faces embedded in them and always tells us more than how these students of mind looked: these portraits reflect their thoughts and lead us to forage further into their lives and legacies. The portraits and motifs have been manipulated in a variety of ways, using graphic and photographic procedures. They are arranged in order of birth date in a format of one page of descriptive text facing a full-page perceptual portrait. The text presents a brief synopsis of the person portrayed, that person's ideas, and the source of both the portrait and the motif. Interrelations between people are stressed, bringing to light common threads that run through the work of particular groups and adding yet another level to this unique gallery of psychology's pioneers. Bradford Books imprint

This book revisits the rally-round-the-flag phenomenon in the United States, which is characterized by a sudden and sharp increase in the public approval rating of the sitting US president in response to a war or security crisis. Notably, relatively few wars and security crises have generated rallies. Therefore, the book examines the conditions and processes through which rallies have emerged. The first chapter characterizes the rally phenomenon, explains its political importance, and discusses the book’s broader contribution. The following theoretical discussion (Chapters 2–3) critically assesses the relevance of influential arguments about public opinion for the rally phenomenon and then introduces a novel rally theory. Five empirical chapters feature an extensive comparative investigation of public reactions to US military actions and security crises in the years 1950–2020, through which the author identifies the unique sets of conditions for the emergence of rallies in this period. A sixth empirical chapter analyzes survey data to identify individual-level mechanisms of attitude shifts during rally periods. The findings reveal that rally periods have emerged in the United States in the focal period only under circumstances that lead most Americans to believe it was necessary to take military action to maintain or restore collective honor and gain the respect of other nations. In most rallies, a desire to restore collective honor and prestige stemmed from a preexisting feeling of national humiliation. In response, presidential rhetoric that appealed to national sentiment to justify military action and marked the target around a despised national enemy evoked positive emotions that motivated the majority in the public to rally behind the commander-in-chief. The book concludes by proposing future directions for research on the rally phenomenon in the United States and other countries.

There is considerable research evidence indicating that rates of psychiatric disorders are higher in homeless individuals, although in some cases, psychiatric illness itself may lead to homelessness if no safety net is available. These rates of psychiatric disorders across nations, be they high-income countries or low- and middle-income countries, are broadly similar. Homelessness and psychiatric disorders are both strongly affected by various social determinants and may feed into each other. Exploring these issues across the globe, this volume aims to provide up-to-date research and policy evidence from across different countries and cultures. The bidirectional relationship between homelessness and mental ill health is still far from being completely understood, but the impact of social and psychological factors is of interest. In addition, the result of transgenerational factors on people’s mental health is crucial. The devastating and well-proven association between homelessness and mental illness needs to be approached at all levels of governmental policy in each country with policy changes as needed. There needs to be a joined-up approach across departments. Every nation needs to develop optimal models of social care and rehabilitation that build on the particular local research-driven needs of homeless people with mental illnesses. This volume aims to provide a more cultural and international overview with contributors and experts from across continents.

The aim of the study was to determine the influence of different disturbances (both natural and anthropogenic) on species composition and stand structure of old-growth mixed mountain forests in the Western Carpathians. These stands are usually dominated by beech, fir and spruce, mixed in different proportions. The tree main species represent different growth strategies, and they compete against each other. The longevity of trees makes the factors influencing the stand structure difficult to identify, even during longitudinal studies conducted on permanent research plots. That is why dendroecological techniques, based upon the annual variability of tree rings, are commonly used to analyze the disturbance histories of old-growth stands. Dendroecological methods make it possible to reconstruct the stand history over several centuries in the past by analyzing the frequency, intensity, duration and spatial scale of disturbances causing the death of trees. Combining the dendroecological techniques with the detailed measurements of stand structure, snag volume, CWD volume, and the analyses of regeneration species composition and structure allows us to identify the factors responsible for the changes in dynamics of mixed mountain forests. Various disturbance agents affect some species selectively, while some disturbances promote the establishment of tree seedlings of specific species by modifying environmental conditions. Describing the disturbance regime requires a broad scope of data on stand structure, on dead wood and tree regeneration, while various factors affecting all the stages of tree growth should be taken into consideration. On the basis of the already published data from permanent sample plots, combined with the available disturbance history analyses from the Western Carpathians, three research hypotheses were formulated. 1. The species composition of mixed mountain forests has been changing for at least several decades. These directional changes are the consequence of simultaneous conifer species decline and expansion of beech. 2. The observed changes in species composition of mixed mountain forests are the effect of indirect anthropogenic influences, significantly changing tree growth conditions also in the forests that are usually considered natural or near-natural. Cumulative impact of these indirect influences leads to the decrease of fir share in the tree layer (spruce decline has also been observed recently),and it limits the representation of this species among seedlings and saplings. The final effect is the decrease of fir and spruce share in the forest stands. 3. Small disturbances, killing single trees or small groups of trees, and infrequent disturbances of medium size and intensity dominate the disturbance regime in mixed mountain forests. The present structure of beech-fir-spruce forests is shaped both by complex disturbance regime and indirect anthropogenic influences. The data were gathered in permanent sample plots in strictly protected areas of Babia Góra, Gorce, and Tatra National Parks, situated in the Western Carpathians. All plots were located in the old-growth forest stands representing Carpathian beech forest community. The results of the measurements of trees, snags, coarse woody debris (CWD) and tree regeneration were used for detailed description of changes in the species composition and structure of tree stands. Tree ring widths derived from increment cores were used to reconstruct the historical changes in tree growth trends of all main tree species, as well as the stand disturbance history within the past two to three hundred years. The analyses revealed complex disturbance history in all of the three forest stands. Intermediate disturbances of variable intensity occurred, frequently separated by the periods of low tree mortality lasting from several decades up to over one hundred years. The intervals between the disturbances were significantly shorter than the expected length of forest developmental cycle, in commonly used theories describing the dynamics of old-growth stands. During intermediate disturbances up to several dozen percent of canopy trees were killed. There were no signs of stand-replacing disturbances, killing all or nearly all of canopy trees. The periods of intense tree mortality were followed by subsequent periods of increased sapling recruitment. Variability in disturbance intensity is one of the mechanisms promoting the coexistence of beech and conifer species in mixed forests. The recruitment of conifer saplings depended on the presence of larger gaps, resulting from intermediate disturbances, while beech was more successful in the periods of low mortality. However, in the last few decades, beech seems to benefit from the period of intense fir mortality. This change results from the influence of long-term anthropogenic disturbances, affecting natural mechanisms that maintain the coexistence of different tree species and change natural disturbance regimes. Indirect anthropogenic influence on tree growth was clearly visible in the gradual decrease of fir increments in the twentieth century, resulting from the high level of air pollution in Europe. Synchronous decreases of fir tree rings’ widths were observed in all three of the sample plots, but the final outcomes depended on the fir age. In most cases, the damage to the foliage limited the competitive abilities of fir, but it did not cause a widespread increase in tree mortality, except for the oldest firs in the BGNP (Babia Góra National Park) plot. BGNP is located in the proximity of industrial agglomeration of Upper Silesia, and it could be exposed to higher level of air pollution than the other two plots. High level of fir regeneration browsing due to the deer overabundance and insufficient number of predators is the second clear indication of the indirect anthropogenic influence on mixed mountain forests. Game impact on fir regeneration is the most pronounced in Babia Góra forests, where fir was almost completely eliminated from the saplings. Deer browsing seems to be the main factor responsible for limiting the number of fir saplings and young fir trees, while the representation of fir among seedlings is high. The experiments conducted in fenced plots located in the mixed forests in BGNP proved that fir and sycamore were the most preferred by deer species among seedlings and saplings. In GNP (Gorce National Park) and TNP (Tatra National Park), the changes in species composition of tree regeneration are similar, but single firs or even small groups of firs are present among saplings. It seems that all of the analysed mixed beech-fir-spruce forests undergo directional changes, causing a systematic decrease in fir representation, and the expansion of beech. This tendency results from the indirect anthropogenic impact, past and present. Fir regeneration decline, alongside with the high level of spruce trees’ mortality in recent years, may lead to a significant decrease in conifers representation in the near future, and to the expansion of beech forests at the cost of mixed ones.

Horseradish roots, due to the content of many valuable nutrients and substances with healing and pro-health properties, are used more and more in medicine, food industry and cosmetics. In Poland, the cultivation of horseradish is considered minor crops. In addition, its limited size causes horseradish producers to encounter a number of unresolved agrotechnical problems. Infectious diseases developing on the leaves and roots during the long growing season reduce the size and quality of root crops. The small range of protection products intended for use in the cultivation of horseradish generates further serious environmental problems (immunization of pathogens, low effectiveness, deterioration of the quality of raw materials intended for industry, destruction of beneficial organisms and biodiversity). In order to meet the problems encountered by horseradish producers and taking into account the lack of data on: yielding, occurrence of infectious diseases and the possibility of combating them with methods alternative to chemical ones in the years 2012–2015, rigorous experiments have been carried out. The paper compares the impact of chemical protection and its reduced variants with biological protection on: total yield of horseradish roots and its structure. The intensification of infectious diseases on horseradish leaves and roots was analyzed extensively. Correlations were examined between individual disease entities and total yield and separated root fractions. A very important and innovative part of the work was to learn about the microbial communities involved in the epidemiology of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. The effect was examined of treatment of horseradish cuttings with a biological preparation (Pythium oligandrum), a chemical preparation (thiophanate-methyl), and the Kelpak SL biostimulator (auxins and cytokinins from the Ecklonia maxima algae) on the quantitative and qualitative changes occurring in the communities of these microorganisms. The affiliation of species to groups of frequencies was arranged hierarchically, and the biodiversity of these communities was expressed by the following indicators: Simpson index, Shannon–Wiener index, Shannon evenness index and species richness index. Correlations were assessed between the number of communities, indicators of their biodiversity and intensification of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. It was shown that the total yield of horseradish roots was on average 126 dt · ha–1. Within its structure, the main root was 56%, whereas the fraction of lateral roots (cuttings) with a length of more than 20 cm accounted for 26%, and those shorter than 20 cm for 12%, with unprofitable yield (waste) of 6%. In the years with higher humidity, the total root yield was higher than in the dry seasons by around 51 dt · ha–1 on average. On the other hand, the applied protection treatments significantly increased the total yield of horseradish roots from 4,6 to 45,3 dt · ha–1 and the share of fractions of more than 30 cm therein. Higher yielding effects were obtained in variants with a reduced amount of foliar application of fungicides at the expense of introducing biopreparations and biostimulators (R1, R2, R3) and in chemical protection (Ch) than in biological protection (B1, B2) and with the limitation of treatments only to the treatment of cuttings. The largest increments can be expected after treating the seedlings with Topsin M 500 SC and spraying the leaves: 1 × Amistar Opti 480 SC, 1 × Polyversum WP, 1 × Timorex Gold 24 EC and three times with biostimulators (2 × Kelpak SL + 1 × Tytanit). In the perspective of the increasing water deficit, among the biological protection methods, the (B2) variant with the treatment of seedlings with auxins and cytokinins contained in the E. maxima algae extract is more recommended than (B1) involving the use of P. oligandrum spores. White rust was the biggest threat on horseradish plantations, whereas the following occurred to a lesser extent: Phoma leaf spot, Cylindrosporium disease, Alternaria black spot and Verticillium wilt. In turn, on the surface of the roots it was dry root rot and inside – Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. The best health of the leaves and roots was ensured by full chemical protection (cuttings treatment + 6 foliar applications). A similar effect of protection against Albugo candida and Pyrenopeziza brassicae was achieved in the case of reduced chemical protection to one foliar treatment with synthetic fungicide, two treatments with biological preparations (Polyversum WP and Timorex Gold 24 EC) and three treatments with biostimulators (2 × Kelpak SL, 1 × Tytanit). On the other hand, the level of limitation of root diseases comparable with chemical protection was ensured by its reduced variants R3 and R2, and in the case of dry root rot, also both variants of biological protection. In the dry years, over 60% of the roots showed symptoms of Verticillium wilt, and its main culprits are Verticillium dahliae (37.4%), Globisporangium irregulare (7.2%), Ilyonectria destructans (7.0%), Fusarium acuminatum (6.7%), Rhizoctonia solani (6.0%), Epicoccum nigrum (5.4%), Alternaria brassicae (5.17%). The Kelpak SL biostimulator and the Polyversum WP biological preparation contributed to the increased biodiversity of microbial communities associated with Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. In turn, along with its increase, the intensification of the disease symptoms decreased. There was a significant correlation between the richness of species in the communities of microbial isolates and the intensification of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. Each additional species of microorganism contributed to the reduction of disease intensification by 1,19%.

The aim of this book is to present the most important issues related to sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). They are discussed from a macro and micro perspective, both in the form of theoretical foundations of these concepts and practical examples of companies operating in Central and Eastern European countries that have implemented these ideas in their daily operations and translated them into corporate and functional strategies. The book consists of four parts. The first one is theoretical in its assumptions and is devoted to explaining the key concepts of sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The authors describe the determinants of sustainable development in the contemporary world, including the most important ones, such as globalization, climate change, poverty, unlimited consumption, as well as limited access to natural resources - all in relation to the goals of sustainable development. The chapter also discusses the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is now recognized as the process by which business contributes to the implementation of sustainable development. How sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are incorporated into the organization's strategies and influence the corporate strategy on the corporate and functional areas of the organization is presented in the last chapter of the first part of the e-book. The next part of the e-book helps readers understand the concepts of SD and CSR in the field of organizational strategy - in strategic management, and at the level of functional strategies—marketing, human resources, marketing research, accounting and operational management. The authors explain the reasons why companies need to consider the local and global perspective when setting SDGs, and the existence of potential conflicts within them. Taking into account the area of ​​marketing, the authors point to the increase in environmental and social awareness of all stakeholders, which translates into changes in the criteria for decision-making by managers and risk assessment. The issue of sustainability is also the subject of market research. Companies producing products and services, institutions dealing with environmental or consumer protection, scientists and students conduct many research projects related to, inter alia, much more. How to use secondary data for analysis and how to prepare, conduct, analyze and interpret the results of primary research in that area are discussed in detail in the next chapter of this section. The concept of SD also refers to the basic functions of human resource management (HRM)—recruitment, motivation, evaluation and control. They should take into account SD not only for the efficiency of the organization and long-term economic benefits, but also for ethical reasons. Thanks to the SHRM, the awareness and behavior of the entire organization can strongly express sustainable goals in the planning and implementation of the overall corporate strategy. The growing importance of the idea of ​​SD and the concept of CSR also resulted in the need for accounting and finance to develop solutions enabling the provision of information on the methods and results of implementing these concepts in entities operating on the market. This part of the book also examines manufacturing activities in the context of sustainability. As a result, many problems arise: waste of resources, mismanagement, excessive energy consumption, environmental pollution, use of human potential, etc. The chapter presents such concepts as: zero-waste, lean-manufacturing, six-sigma, circular production, design and recycling products in the life cycle as well as ecological and environmentally friendly production. The next two parts of the e-book contain examples of companies from Central and Eastern Europe that used SD goals in their strategies, questions and tasks for readers.