Information technology in educational management as an emerging discipline

This chapter introduces the application of computerized management information systems in schools and presents a brief history of the dynamic area of Information Technology in Educational Management (ITEM). Subsequently, the background of this special issue and a framework for its contents are portrayed. Finally, an overview is presented of the contents of the special issue

American Bardo

Ethnographic poetry allows me to describe the often viscous, clumsy, awkward encounters between self and other that leave both parties covered in the complex residues of each Other. This poem came out of a summer of visits I made to the homes of Bhutanese elderly in Burlington, Vermont. I was trying to get a sense of their well-being, levels of isolation, challenges, and hopes. Poetry allows for a kind of ethnographic fabric, woven from the ethnographer and the subjects’ voices, memories, expectations and doubts, which resists more linear, one dimensional descriptions. The Bhutanese elderly so obviously carried their pasts, religious beliefs, and conceptions of self right on into the ethnographic present, just as I came to meet them riddled with my own questions, anticipation, and confusion

Disease suppression of potting mixes amended with composted biowaste

Peat mining destroys valuable nature areas and contributes to the greenhouse effect. This warrants the search for alternatives for peat in potting mixes. Composted biowaste could provide such an alternative. An additional advantage of (partially) replacing peat by compost is the increased disease suppressiveness. In this study, nine commercial composted biowastes were tested for disease suppressiveness using the pathosystems Pythium ultimum-cucumber, Phytophthora cinnamomi-lupin and Rhizoctonia solani-carrot. Increased disease suppression was found in compost-amended potting mixes for all three pathosystems. The level of disease suppression ranged from slight stimulation of disease to strong suppression. Suppressiveness against one disease was not well correlated with that against the other diseases. The CO2 production, a measure of general microbial activity, was the parameter most strongly correlated with the level of disease suppression. Wetsieving the biowaste with tap water over a 4-mm sieve prior to composting yielded a compost with an 2.4-fold increase in organic matter and a twofold decrease in EC and Cl--concentration of the compost. The latter reductions allow for an increase of the amount of peat that can be replaced by compost. A linear relation was found between the amount of compost added to the potting mix and the level of disease suppression indicating the potential for increasing disease suppressiveness of potting mixes by replacing peat by high-quality composted biowastes