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Investigating the links between questionable research practices, scientific norms and organisational culture
No full textBackground: This study investigates the determinants of engagement in questionable research practices (QRPs), focusing on both individual-level factors (such as scholarly field, commitment to scientific norms, gender, contract type, and career stage) and institution-level factors (including industry type, researchers' perceptions of their research culture, and awareness of institutional policies on research integrity).
Methods: Using a multi-level modelling approach, we analyse data from an international survey of researchers working across disciplinary fields to estimate the effect of these factors on QRP engagement.
Results: Our findings indicate that contract type, career stage, academic field, adherence to scientific norms and gender significantly predict QRP engagement. At the institution level, factors such as being outside of a collegial culture and experiencing harmful publication pressure, and the presence of safeguards against integrity breaches have small associations. Only a minimal amount of variance in QRP engagement is attributable to differences between institutions and countries.
Conclusions: We discuss the implications of these findings for developing effective interventions to reduce QRPs, highlighting the importance of addressing both individual and institutional factors in efforts to foster research integrity
Parental self-control facilitates adolescent psychological adjustment sequentially through parents' perceived stress/mindful parenting and adolescent self-control
Get PDFAdolescence is a unique developmental period marked with significant changes and challenges. As such, maintaining optimal psychological adjustment is crucial for young people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when their adjustment became more challenging. Self-control is a vital ability assisting individuals to navigate difficulties and stay well-adjusted during turbulent times. While the associations between adolescent self-control and adjustment have been well-documented, parental self-control has been considered to play a more fundamental role in adolescent adjustment. However, this consideration has received scant research. Drawing on the intergenerational transmission model of self-regulation, we examined an understudied yet plausible idea that parental self-control facilitates adolescent adjustment through parents' lower levels of perceived stress/better mindful parenting and adolescents' improved self-control. A two-wave survey study, spanning 1 year apart, was conducted among 426 Chinese adolescents ( = 11.6 years, 53.5% boys) and their parents. Parents rated their self-control, perceived stress, and mindful parenting at T1, while adolescents rated their self-control and adjustment (i.e., psychological difficulties and life satisfaction) at T1 and T2. The results of chain mediation model showed that after controlling for demographic covariates and baseline levels of adolescent self-control and adjustment, T1 self-control facilitated T2 adolescent adjustment through fathers' lower levels of perceived stress and adolescents' improved self-control. By contrast, T1 self-control facilitated T2 adolescent adjustment through mothers' better mindful parenting and adolescents' improved self-control. These findings advance our understanding of how self-control is transmitted from parents to offspring and clarify the processes of how parental self-control facilitates adolescent adjustment
Significant inter-annual fluctuation in CO2 and CH4 diffusive fluxes from subtropical aquaculture ponds: implications for climate change and carbon emission evaluations
Get PDFAquaculture ponds are potential hotspots for carbon cycling and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) like CO and CH , but they are often poorly assessed in the global GHG budget. This study determined the temporal variations of CO and CH concentrations and diffusive fluxes and their environmental drivers in coastal aquaculture ponds in southeastern China over a five-year period (2017-2021). The findings indicated that CH flux from aquaculture ponds fluctuated markedly year-to-year, and CO flux varied between positive and negative between years. The coefficient of inter-annual variation of CO and CH diffusive fluxes was 168% and 127%, respectively, highlighting the importance of long-term observations to improve GHG assessment from aquaculture ponds. In addition to chlorophyll-a and dissolved oxygen as the common environmental drivers, CO was further regulated by total dissolved phosphorus and CH by dissolved organic carbon. Feed conversion ratio correlated positively with both CO and CH concentrations and fluxes, showing that unconsumed feeds fueled microbial GHG production. A linear regression based on binned (averaged) monthly CO diffusive flux data, calculated from CO concentrations, can be used to estimate CH diffusive flux with a fair degree of confidence (r = 0.66; p < 0.001). This algorithm provides a simple and practical way to assess the total carbon diffusive flux from aquaculture ponds. Overall, this study provides new insights into mitigating the carbon footprint of aquaculture production and assessing the impact of aquaculture ponds on the regional and global scales
We used to 'chase the rains' away in the past: the role of cultural values and beliefs in shaping farmers' perceptions of climate variability and change in North-west Ghana
Get PDFThis paper explores how cultural values and beliefs influence farmers' perceptions of climate variability and change (CVC). Using Doggoh and Tie in North-west Ghana, the study reveals four narratives linked to cultural values and beliefs explaining climate change: a decline in ritual sacrifices, young people having sex outside homes, traders holding on to rains for business, and indiscriminate murder without necessary sacrifices. The study suggests that more qualitative studies on the role of cultural worldviews in shaping farmers' interpretations of climate changes are needed, as different cultural contexts may have different worldviews about climate change causes. This will contribute to our holistic understanding of the subject matter of the causes of CVC
Female directors and CSR: does the presence of female directors affect CSR focus?
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of female directors on CSR by drawing on social role theory and literature about female leadership style. Using a sample of Chinese firms from 2007 to 2021, we show a strong correlation between female directors and an enhancement in aggregate and particularly, internal CSR engagement. The relationship between female director and external CSR is negative but not significant. Further analysis reveals that in regions with stronger societal expectations towards females, the contributions of female directors to CSR activities become more pronounced. Our findings further demonstrate that a critical mass of female directors on the board is necessary to exert substantial influence on internal CSR initiatives. Notably, we find that female directors in independent and monitoring roles particularly effective in advancing internal CSR initiatives
What is the contribution of convergence zones to global precipitation? Assessing observations and climate models biases
Get PDFConvergence zones (CZs) are known drivers of precipitation regimes from regional to planetary scales. However, there is a scarcity of accounts of the contribution of CZs to the global precipitation. In this study, we build upon a recently developed Lagrangian diagnostic to attribute precipitation to CZ events in observations and simulations submitted to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6). Observed CZs are identified using ERA5 reanalysis wind and attributed precipitation from observational products based on satellite estimates and rain gauges. We estimate that approximately 54% (51%–59%, depending on the precipitation product) of global precipitation falls over CZs; in some regions, such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and subtropical monsoon regions, this proportion is greater than 60%. All CMIP6 simulations analyzed here attribute about 10% more precipitation to CZ events than what the observations suggest. To investigate this overestimation, we decompose the precipitation error in terms of frequency and intensity of CZ precipitation and find that all models present a substantial positive bias in the frequency of CZ precipitation, suggesting that climate models trigger precipitation too easily in regions of airmass confluence; such positive frequency biases in CZ precipitation help explaining well-known biases in climate models, such as the double-ITCZ in the Pacific. We also find that models with better mass conservation present an apportionment of CZ precipitation closest to the observational estimates, demonstrating the relevance of mass conservation in advection schemes
Regional climate change: consensus, discrepancies, and ways forward
Get PDFClimate change has emerged across many regions. Some observed regional climate changes, such as amplified Arctic warming and land-sea warming contrasts have been predicted by climate models. However, many other observed regional changes, such as changes in tropical sea surface temperature
and monsoon rainfall are not well simulated by climate model ensembles even when taking into account natural internal variability and structural uncertainties in the response of models to anthropogenic radiative forcing. This suggests
climate model predictions may not fully reflect what our future will look like. The discrepancies between models and observations are not well understood due to several real and apparent puzzles and limitations such as the “signal-to-noise paradox” and real-world record-shattering extremes falling outside of the possible range predicted by models. Addressing these discrepancies, puzzles and limitations is essential, because understanding and reliably predicting
regional climate change is necessary in order to communicate effectively about the underlying drivers of change, provide reliable information to stakeholders, enable societies to adapt, and increase resilience and reduce vulnerability.
The challenges of achieving this are greater in the Global South, especially because of the lack of observational data over long time periods and a lack of scientific focus on Global South climate change. To address discrepancies
between observations and models, it is important to prioritize resources for understanding regional climate predictions and analyzing where and why models and observations disagree via testing hypotheses of drivers of biases using observations and models. Gaps in understanding can be discovered and filled by exploiting new tools, such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, high-resolution models, new modeling experiments in the model hierarchy, better quantification of forcing, and new observations. Conscious efforts are needed toward creating opportunities that allow regional experts, particularly those from the Global South, to take the lead in regional climate research. This includes co-learning in technical aspects of analyzing simulations and in the physics and dynamics of regional climate change. Finally, improved methods of regional climate communication are needed, which account for the underlying uncertainties, in order to provide reliable and actionable information to stakeholders and the media
Seminatural areas act as reservoirs of genetic diversity for crop pollinators and natural enemies across Europe
Get PDFDespite increasing recognition of the importance of the multiple dimensions of biodiversity, including functional or genetic diversity as well as species diversity, most conservation studies on ecosystem service-providing insects focus on simple diversity measures such as species richness and abundance. In contrast, relatively little is known about the genetic diversity and resilience of pollinators or natural enemies of crop pests to population fragmentation and local extinction. The genetic diversity and demographic dynamics of remnant populations of beneficial insects in agricultural areas can be a useful indicator proving additional insights into their conservation status, but this is rarely evaluated. Although gene flow between agricultural and seminatural areas is key to maintaining genetic diversity, its extent and directionality remain largely unexplored. Here, we apply a pan-European sampling protocol to quantify genetic diversity and structure and assess gene flow between agricultural and nearby seminatural landscapes in populations of two key ecosystem service-providing insect species, the lady beetle Coccinella septempunctata, an important predator of aphids and other crop pests, and the bee pollinator Andrena flavipes. We show that A. flavipes populations are genetically structured at the European level, whereas populations of C. septempunctata experience widespread gene flow across the continent and lack any defined genetic structure. In both species, we found that there is high genetic connectivity between populations established in croplands and nearby seminatural areas and, as a consequence, they harbor similar levels of genetic diversity. Interestingly, demographic models for some regions support asymmetric gene flow from seminatural areas to nearby agricultural landscapes. Collectively, our study demonstrates how seminatural areas can serve as genetic reservoirs of both pollinators and natural enemies for nearby agricultural landscapes, acting as sources for recurrent recolonization and, potentially, contributing to enhancing ecosystem service and crop production resilience in the longer term
The meaning of carbon budget within a wide margin of appreciation: the ECtHR’s KlimaSeniorinnen judgment
Get PDFAlthough the KlimaSeniorinnen judgment discusses a number of rights of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including Article 6 (right of access to a court), Article 2 (right to life), and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), the focus of this blog post is on its discussion of Article 8 (right to private, home and family life). The question raised by that discussion is whether the judgment is one that will “frighten the horses” and lead to oppositional cries of judicial overreach around the separation of powers, or if it is more an unexceptional case of “move on, nothing to see here.” My argument is that the judgment is mostly the latter but that it has what, in computer gaming terms, is known as an “Easter egg” – a hidden element included by the developers to surprise and reward those who look carefully. That could turn out to be more controversial
