Local preferences of mung bean qualities for food autonomy in India

The concept of food autonomy draws attention to qualities of local food and food networks that can facilitate connectivity between local food production and consumption. This article reports on a study conducted in Hisar, India, that reveals how rural producer, processor, and consumer preferences of mung bean quality interact with their aim to maintain and develop a territorial mung bean connectivity so as to reinforce food autonomy. The study showed that local mung bean food qualities related to suitability in the local cropping system, processing requirements, and consumption choice. It suggests that local preferences be integrated into a reorientation of research and scientific development agendas, and should become an essential consideration of development and extension efforts, which also carries implications for the food autonomy of local producers, processors, and consumers.     

The welfare impacts of market channel choice by smallholder farmers in Tanzania

This article analyses the impact of market channel choice on household welfare by maize and pigeon pea smallholder farmers in Tanzania, using a multinomial endogenous treatment approach. The study utilises farm household-level data collected from a randomly selected sample of 700 smallholder farmers. The results show that participation with traders in nearby markets and wholesalers in nearby towns have a positive effect on consumption expenditure per capita relative to brokers at the farmgate, for both maize and pigeon pea-farming households. The study suggests that interventions that aimed at inclusion of smallholder farmers in more profitable markets could improve household welfare and reduce poverty among rural households.     

Do Neighborhood Effects on Low-Income Minority Children Depend on Their Age? Evidence From a Public Housing Natural Experiment

We analyze data from a natural experiment involving Denver public housing that quasirandomly assigns low-income Latino and African American youth to neighborhoods. Intent-to-treat and treatment-on-treated models reveal substantial effects of neighborhood socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and safety domains on youth and young adult educational, employment, and fertility outcomes. Effects are contingent on when a youth was first assigned to public housing and the neighborhood characteristic in question. Benefits from neighbors of higher occupational prestige are stronger if a child begins experiencing them at a younger age, whereas negative consequences of neighborhood crime are only manifested for teens. Neighborhood effect sizes apparently depend on the interaction among exposure duration, disruption effects of mobility, and developmental stage-specific differences in vulnerability to the given neighborhood effect mechanism operative. Our results hold powerful and provocative implications for where assisted housing should be developed and how applicants should be assigned to neighborhoods.     

重新犯罪归因分析与预防

重新犯罪问题是困扰世界各国的一个社会问题。在我国 ,尽管 1997年刑法将累犯的构成期限从 3年延长至 5年 ,但刑满释放人员的重新犯罪率依然呈现持续升高的走势。这就需要我们多方位、多层次探讨重新犯罪的原因 ,进一步完善预防控制体系。     

Short run and long run effects of the world crude oil prices on the Malaysian natural rubber and palm oil export prices

With regard to the increasing in world crude oil prices, it is time to examine more carefully the claim that the increase in world crude oil prices tends to increase commodity prices. Hence, we examine the major commodity prices in Malaysia namely palm oil prices and natural rubber prices. We will analyse the relationship of both commodities＇ prices with world crude oil prices using the autoregressive distribution lag （ARDL） approach. Besides the analysis of bound testing approaches to see the level of relationships, short run and long run effects also are carried out in order to investigate which period has been significantly effected by the increase of world crude oil prices. The result reveals that long run relationship between world crude oil prices and both commodities prices exists.     

The ‘tenure guidelines’ as a tool for democratising land and resource control in Latin America

Abstract

The current configuration of global land politics – who gets what land, how, how much, why and with what implications in urban and rural spaces in the Global South and North – brings disparate social groups, governments and social movements with different sectoral and class interests into the issue of natural resource politics. Governance instruments must be able to capture the ‘political moment’ marked by the increasing intersection of issues and state and social forces that mobilise around these. This paper looks at whether and how the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (also known as the TGs) passed in 2012 in the United Nations Committee for Food Security (CFS) can contribute to democratising resource politics today. This work puts forward some initial ideas about how systematic research into the TGs can be done more meaningfully.     

Silos as barriers to public sector climate adaptation and preparedness: insights from road closures in Norway

Organisational perspectives propose that structural arrangements affect policy outcomes. Drawing on these perspectives, it is worthwhile to find out whether and how disagreements among public authorities create barriers to public sector adaptation and preparedness. As the literature on weather vulnerabilities and climate adaptation recommends increased public sector coordination, exploring the possibilities of governance can contribute to the improvement of lifeline conditions. Insights from a Norwegian case study suggest that the different mandates of responsible public authorities sometimes clash. Such clashes limit the abilities to sustain welfare and business conditions when avalanches and blizzards cause highway outages. The findings also show that governance might only partly improve public sector peril response measures, as there is rarely sufficient flexibility to consider specific interests or preferences, for example, to keep a highway open until a school bus or a freight delivery has passed.     

Women’s empowerment in rural Honduras and its determinants: insights from coffee communities in Ocotepeque and Copan

This article quantifies the level of women’s empowerment in western Honduran coffee-producing households through the construction of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and highlights the determinants of each empowerment indicator and their interactions. Women in the study region suffer from a lack of control over use of income and access to productive resources. Since control and ownership of assets are positively correlated with input in productive decisions and control over the use of income in this study region, it is suggested that “low-hanging fruit” to improve empowerment would be to invest in interventions that strengthen asset control and distribution.     

俄罗斯远东地区与亚太各国多方合作的基础设施

俄罗斯的石油、天然气、电能非常丰富．而东北亚各国,主要是中国、日本和韩国资源有限．不能满足经济发展的需要。这就为俄罗斯与亚太地区各国。特别是上述３国进行资源合作提供了可能。俄罗斯不仅可以出口石油、天然气、电能、还可以与各国合作开发资源。可以想象。这必然会促进亚太和东北亚地区根本的、长期的国际合作。     

Natural Law: Practical Reason and Creative Information

With nine main theses that are interspersed with each other, this paper explores and articulates some of the most important questions in natural law theory. The theses include: I. In investigating facts, one finds reasons to choose an honest self-discipline; II. Deliberating, one finds reasons similarly directing one to other intrinsic goods; III. Taken integrally, these goods and principles acquire the force of moral precepts; IV. Those precepts, natural moral law, depict our nature (humanity) in its flourishing; V. Nature and natures are best explained by free, intelligent transcendent creation; VI. Creation and other gifts past and present deserve our gratitude; VII. Natural moral law and historical revelation are two channels of information; VIII. Secular and spiritual communities are distinct and respectfully self-governing; IX. Natural moral law defines human rights but rightfully extends beyond them.