Food distribution's socio-economic relationships and public policy: Mexico City's municipal public markets

Traditional food supply systems, like municipal public markets (MPM), are in crisis. Nevertheless, MPMs continue to demonstrate importance in the lives of the cities. In this article we discuss the case of Mexico City and the importance of the public markets for its neighbourhoods. We present the results of two research projects, completed in Mexico City at two different historical times and interpreted longitudinally. The results demonstrate the importance of socio-economic relationships for MPM's survival and potential. The article concludes with public policy recommendations to permit conservation, given the MPM's importance for the city's social cohesion.     

Farmer-to-farmer extension: opportunities for enhancing performance of volunteer farmer trainers in Kenya

Farmer-to-farmer extension (FFE) is playing a complementary role to formal extension services in facilitating the spread of agricultural technologies and improving farmers’ capacities. The effectiveness and sustainability of such programmes depend on volunteer farmer trainers (VFTs) having technical skills and overcoming process-related challenges that hinder them from achieving the desired outcomes. This article uses quantitative and qualitative data collected from seven sites to explore the challenges experienced by VFTs as they share their knowledge on livestock feed innovations in a dairy development project in Kenya. Sustainable opportunities for enhancing VFTs’ performance are discussed.     

Rural development from the ground up: agro-food initiatives in Tasmania

Concerns about the decline of rural agricultural communities have recently refocused on new economic opportunities available in regional food production. This article analyses three on-the-ground case studies of rural development projects in Tasmania, Australia that aimed to develop new regional food opportunities. It analyses these projects to identify how local food producers can create viable economic alternatives in rural settings. The projects illustrate that the existence of regional food assets alone is not enough to guarantee economic development success: rural producers need connections into relevant knowledge networks if they are to identify and respond to new agro-food market opportunities.     

Collective action in small-scale mushroom production in Swaziland: does organisational form matter?

While substantial literature is available on the determinants of small-scale farmers’ participation in collective action, and the welfare impacts of producing and/or marketing collectively, studies on the likely implications of organisational form on producers’ collective behaviour remain scant. This article attempts to address this knowledge gap by using an example of different forms of small-scale mushroom-producing groups in Swaziland. Given the importance of collective action in sub-Saharan Africa, the overall results of this article provide valuable insights into alternative means of coordinating commercial small-scale agricultural activities, which can improve producers’ ultimate benefits while reducing the likelihood of internal free-riding.     

Erstwhile villages in urban India

In the process of urbanisation villages are becoming parts of cities or towns, and are becoming almost irreversibly transformed as a result. Erstwhile villages, now parts of cities and towns, are on the margins of an urbanising India. They are lagging behind other parts of the cities in terms of receiving basic urban services and infrastructures. Urban development processes should look at the specific issues and concerns of these villages independently from the need and scope of planning for the city at large. This would make the transition from rural to urban status fair and inclusive for erstwhile villagers.     

Identification of Natural Images and Computer‐Generated Graphics Based on Statistical and Textural Features

To discriminate the acquisition pipelines of digital images, a novel scheme for the identification of natural images and computer‐generated graphics is proposed based on statistical and textural features. First, the differences between them are investigated from the view of statistics and texture, and 31 dimensions of feature are acquired for identification. Then, LIBSVM is used for the classification. Finally, the experimental results are presented. The results show that it can achieve an identification accuracy of 97.89% for computer‐generated graphics, and an identification accuracy of 97.75% for natural images. The analyses also demonstrate the proposed method has excellent performance, compared with some existing methods based only on statistical features or other features. The method has a great potential to be implemented for the identification of natural images and computer‐generated graphics.     

论自然垄断行业中企业合并的法律控制标准问题

由于自然垄断行业诸多的特殊性,有关这些行业中企业合并的法律控制标准问题相对比较复杂。它不仅涉及到反垄断法上控制标准与行业法上控制标准的适用,而且还涉及到因自然垄断行业的公益性而产生对控制标准的特殊需求。我们有必要适度借鉴相关国家和地区的做法来完善我国相关内容,保证自然垄断行业的健康发展。     

简论道德领导的动力源泉与现实基础--进化论视角下的领导学解释

根据进化论的自然选择法则,自利性和优胜劣汰的竞争机制不仅是推动物种进化的动力,也是推动领导理论不断进化的动力,道德领导就是领导理论发展进化的一个产物。在新的历史时期,领导活动的生态环境已发生了明显的变化,从而推动领导理论开始向道德维度拓展。根据物种进化的逻辑,道德与领导相结合不仅是必然的,也是合理的。     

废弃电子产品回收处理体系构建及实现路径

废弃电子产品富含许多珍贵的矿产资源和有机物,若处置不当,不仅不能有效回收利用这些资源,还会引发严重的环境问题。当前中国经济发展明显受资源、环境的瓶颈制约,若能充分回收利用废弃电子产品,无疑是缓解资源、环境问题的有效途径。该文对中国加快回收利用废弃电子产品的动因及废弃电子产品回收处理现状进行了分析,梳理了国外废弃电子产品回收处理体系建设的经验。在此基础上,该文尝试构建适于中国的废弃电子产品回收处理体系,并指出实现该体系的具体路径。     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Adopting Open Educational Resources in an Introductory American Government Course

In this article, we present findings from a grant-funded initiative to replace traditional, proprietary textbooks with an open content textbook under a Creative Commons license in the introductory American government course (POLS 1101) at Middle Georgia State University. We find that the use of an open content textbook led to somewhat negative effects on student learning outcomes and student course satisfaction, although the associated lower textbook cost increased textbook accessibility to students. We conclude with some suggestions to those adopting textbooks in this course and to the wider discipline regarding measures that may lead to more unequivocally positive outcomes than those experienced in this study.