Soilborne fungi and bacteria symbiotically associated with Steinernema spp. acting as biological agents against Fusarium wilt of tomato

An isolate of Gliocladium virens from disease affected soil in a commercial tomato greenhouse proved highly antagonistic to Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, used together with an isolate of the nematophagus fungus Verticillium chlamydosporium. Significant disease control was obtained when young mycelial preparation (on a food-base culture) of the G. virens together with V. chlamydosporium was applied in potting medium. Similar results were observed when a Trichoderma harzianum isolate was treated in combination with the V. chlamydosporium isolate. Most promising, in terms of minimizing the Fusarium wilt of tomato incidence, was also the effect of the bacteria associated with entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinernema spp.), Pseudomonas oryzihabitans and Xenorhabdus nematophilus.

Information sources and advice used by small business tenants when leasing commercial property

Many small businesses lease commercial premises. The terms of a lease can affect the ability of the business to grow and adapt and have an impact on cashflow. Ensuring that they have the information with which to negotiate terms is part of the UK government policy focus on small businesses. Such information is most effectively disseminated through the sources of advice that small businesses use during the leasing process. Therefore these sources of advice need identifying. An interview survey of small business tenants who have recently taken leases provides initial results that suggest small businesses do not seek out advice during the leasing process or see the need to be better informed. The only formal professional input is from solicitors but this is not until after the main commercial terms have been agreed. The landlords’ letting agents play a key, but ambiguous, role in providing information as well as advice. These results suggest that the most effective way of disseminating information by government could be via the letting agents, the very people with whom the tenants are negotiating.

Are property agents to blame for upward only rent reviews?

In negotiating commercial leases, many landlords and tenants employ property agents (brokers) to act on their behalf; typically these people are chartered surveyors. The aim of this paper is to explore the role that these brokers play in the shaping of commercial leases in the context of the current debate in the UK on upward only rent reviews. This role can be described using agency theory and the theories of professionalism. These provide expectations of behaviour which show inherent tensions between the role of agent and professional, particularly regarding the use of knowledge, autonomy and the obligation to the public interest. The parties to eleven recent lease transactions were interviewed to see if the brokers conformed to the expectations of agency theory or professionalism. Brokers that acted for industrial and office tenants behaved as professionals in using their expertise to determine lease structures. However, those acting for landlords and retail tenants simply followed instructions and behaved as conduits for their clients, a role more usually associated with that of an agent within the principal-agent relationship. None of the landlords’ brokers saw themselves as having responsibilities beyond their clients and so they were not promoting the discussion of alternatives to the UORR. The evidence from these case studies suggests that agents are not professionals; to behave entirely as an agent is to contradict the essential characteristics of a professional. While brokers cannot be held entirely responsible for the lack of movement on the UORR, by adopting predominantly agent roles then they must take some of the blame. However, behind this may be a much larger issue that needs to be explored; the institutional pressures that lead to professionals behaving in this way.

Intelligent agents enabling negotiated control of pervasive environments

One of the important goals of the intelligent buildings especially in commercial applications is not only to minimize the energy consumption but also to enhance the occupant’s comfort. However, most of current development in the intelligent buildings focuses on an implementation of the automatic building control systems that can support energy efficiency approach. The consideration of occupants’ preferences is not adequate. To improve occupant’s wellbeing and energy efficiency in intelligent environments, we develop four types of agent combined together to form a multi-agent system to control the intelligent buildings. Users’ preferential conflicts are discussed. Furthermore, a negotiation mechanism for conflict resolution, has been proposed in order to reach an agreement, and has been represented in syntax directed translation schemes for future implementation and testing. Keywords: conflict resolution, intelligent buildings, multi-agent systems (MAS), negotiation strategy, syntax directed translation schemes (SDTS).

Building communities: reducing energy use in tenanted commercial property

Reducing energy use in tenanted commercial property requires a greater understanding of ‘buildings as communities’. Tenanted commercial properties represent: (1) the divergent communities that share specific buildings; and (2) the organizational communities represented by multi-site landlord and tenant companies. In any particular tenanted space the opportunity for environmental change is mediated (hindered or enabled) through the lease. This discussion draws on theoretical and practical understandings of (1) the socio-legal relationships of landlords, tenants and their advisors; (2) the real performance of engineering building services strategies to improve energy efficiency; (3) how organizational cultures affect the ability of the sector to engage with energy-efficiency strategies; and (4) the financial and economic basis of the relationship between owners and occupiers. The transformational complexity stems from: (1) the variety of commercial building stock; (2) the number of stakeholders (solicitors, investors, developers, agents, owners, tenants and facilities managers); (3) the fragmentation within the communities of practice; and (4) leasehold structures and language. An agenda is proposed for truly interdisciplinary research that brings together both the physical and the social sciences of energy use in buildings so that technological solutions are made effective by an understanding of the way that buildings are used and communities behave.

Segmenting the Italian coffee market: marketing opportunities for economic agents working along the international coffee chain

Globalization, either directly or indirectly (e.g. through structural adjustment reforms), has called for profound changes in the previously existing institutional order. Some changes adversely impacted the production and market environment of many coffee producers in developing countries resulting in more risky and less remunerative coffee transactions. This paper focuses on customization of a tropical commodity, fair-trade coffee, as an approach to mitigating the effects of worsened market conditions for small-scale coffee producers in less developed countries. fair-trade labeling is viewed as a form of “de-commodification” of coffee through product differentiation on ethical grounds. This is significant not only as a solution to the market failure caused by pervasive information asymmetries along the supply chain, but also as a means of revitalizing the agricultural-commodity-based trade of less developed countries (LDCs) that has been languishing under globalization. More specifically, fair-trade is an example of how the same strategy adopted by developed countries’ producers/ processors (i.e. the sequence product differentiation - institutional certification - advertisement) can be used by LDC producers to increase the reputation content of their outputs by transforming them from mere commodities into “decommodified” (i.e. customized and more reputed) goods. The resulting segmentation of the world coffee market makes possible to meet the demand by consumers with preference for this “(ethically) customized” coffee and to transfer a share of the accruing economic rents backward to the Fair-trade coffee producers in LDCs. It should however be stressed that this outcome cannot be taken for granted since investments are needed to promote the required institutional innovations. In Italy FTC is a niche market with very few private brands selling this product. However, an increase of FTC market share could be a big commercial opportunity for farmers in LDCs and other economic agents involved along the international coffee chain. Hence, this research explores consumers’ knowledge of labels promoting quality products, consumption coffee habits, brand loyalty, willingness to pay and market segmentation according to the heterogeneity of preferences for coffee products. The latter was assessed developing a D-efficient design where stimuli refinement was tested during two focus groups.

The role of industry bodies in changing market practices through self-regulation: commercial property leasing in the UK

The UK government has sought to make changes to commercial property leasing practices. This has been the case since the recession of the 1990s. Industry self-regulation using an industry code of practice has been the vehicle for these changes. However, the code has had little direct success in changing practices. This is despite repeated threats of legislation as a constant backdrop to this initiative. The focus for this research is on the role of the industry bodies in the code initiative. They have been central to self-regulation in commercial leasing. Thus, the aim is to investigate the role of industry bodies in the process of institutional change. The context is industry self-regulation. The specific setting is commercial leasing. The main industry bodies in focus are the British Property Federation and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. An existing model of institutional change forms the framework for the research. A chronological narrative is constructed from secondary data. This is analysed, identifying the actions of the industry bodies within the conceptual stages of the model. The analysis shows that the industry bodies had not acted as convincing agents of change for commercial leasing. In particular there was a lack of theorisation, a key stage in the process. The industry bodies did not develop a framework necessary to guide their members through the change process. These shortcomings of the industry bodies are likely to have contributed to the failure of the Code. However, the main conclusion is that, if industry self-regulation is led by government, then the state must work with industry bodies to harness their potential as champions and drivers of institutional change. This is particularly important in achieving change in institutionalised environments.