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Identifies five levels of effectiveness: outcomes, behavior, learning, reaction, and participation, and discusses these levels within the context of research evidence for education within the medical profession. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/YDS)

Geoprivacy protection is a significant concern when sharing data. To support sustainable land management by leveraging existing agricultural data, research is needed to identify how the polygon nature of static field parcels can be obfuscated to allow data sharing among individuals and organizations. In this study, five adaptive polygon‐based obfuscation methods including PN*Rand, PDonut‐k, PDensity‐k, PAHilb, and PDonut_AHilb methods were developed and applied on the Irish Nutrient Management Planning Online (NMP Online) agricultural dataset. The polygon‐based obfuscation methods introduced in this study were designed with the consideration of properties of spatial polygon objects including the spatial coordinates, shape and size of the polygon, topology, and spatial relationship between adjacent polygons that can be used to identify real‐world objects. These methods were developed to guarantee that there is no false‐identification and non‐unique obfuscation which is important for static polygon objects in terms of accuracy and privacy protection. Qualitative approaches were developed to identify the optimal values of inner and outer radii of donut shape based on k‐anonymity satisfaction and subsequently obtain the optimal value of k‐anonymity. Several evaluation methods were implemented to compare the methods performance. Density‐based methods particularly PDonut‐AHilb provide the best trade‐off between field parcel confidentiality and spatial pattern preservation and should be considered for researchers and practitioners obfuscating polygon data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A soil's responses to phosphorus (P) input differs based on its chemical composition. Soil acidity and the presence of metallic cations dictate a soil's chemical composition. Currently, soil P application recommendations are universal and do not account for differing soil composition. A targeted soil‐specific approach is required to optimize P efficiency and availability. A pot incubation experiment was established to explore the effects of contrasting lime and P application rates across a range of soils (25), characterized by fine particle size and high levels of soil organic matter. Three contrasting rates of P were applied (0, 50, and 150 kg P ha−1) both with and without ground lime (CaCO3) at 5 tonne ha−1 over a 140‐day incubation period. The addition of lime buffered the soil, increasing nutrient availability and reducing P fixation. The 50 kg P ha−1 treatment rate was required to achieve sufficient plant available P in both mineral soil textural classes. Current legislative recommendations however do not allow the application of such rates, which has an impact on agronomic performance. Loam soils experienced a greater increase in M3 soil P in comparison to clay and organic soils. Organic soils posed a major threat to water quality due to poor P retention. A re‐evaluation of P recommendations is required to account for soil variability as current P allowances are insufficient on these particular soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is potential for using the Illinois soil nitrogen rest (ISNT) to improve N fertilizer recommendations for crops in the southeastern United States. The ISNT has been previously calibrated to predict N rates for corn (Zea mays L.) in North Carolina. This study evaluated the effects of sampling time, sampling depth, crop rotation, and fertilizer application on soil ISNT-N during a 2-yr period in the humid Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions of North Carolina. Ten sites were repeatedly sampled at 0- to 10-, 10- to 20-, and 20- to 30-cm depths in fall, mid-winter, and spring between October 2006 and May 2007. Illinois soil nitrogen test N, KCl-extractable soil N[O.sub.3]-N and N[H.sub.4]-N, and soil organic matter (SOM) derived by loss-on-ignition (LOI) were evaluated at each sampling. Temporal changes in these soil parameters were evaluated for various crop rotations and N fertilizer applications. Soil ISNT-N decreased with depth and showed significant variation with time at all three depths at all sites. Soil ISNT-N was influenced by crop rotation and tillage but was not significantly affected by N fertilizer applications. Considering all sites together, ISNT-N was well correlated with LOI; however, ISNT-N was not correlated with LOI across time within sites. This suggests that the ISNT measured a fraction of SOM that behaved somewhat independently with time. Abbreviations: ASN, amino sugar nitrogen; ISNT, Illinois soil nitrogen test; LOI, loss-on-ignition; SOM, soil organic matter. doi: 10.2136/sssaj2009.0253

Growing sustainability demands on land have a high knowledge requirement across multiple scientific domains. Exploring networks can expose opportunities for targeting. Using mixed-methods combining social network analysis (SNA) and surveys, networks for key soil functions in case studies in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands are explored. We find a diversity of contrasting networks that reflect local conditions, sustainability challenges and governance structure. Farmers were found to occupy a central role in the agri-environmental governance network. A comparison of the SNA and survey results indicate low acceptance of messages from many central actors indicating scope to better harness the network for sustainable land management. The source of the messages was important when it came to the implementation of farm management actions. Two pathways for enhanced farmer uptake of multi-functionality are proposed that have wider application are; to increase trust between farmers and actors that are agents of multi-functional messages and/or to increase the bundling or multi-functionality of messages (mandate) of actors trusted by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]