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Market participation and subjective well-being of maize farmers in China
Get PDFThis study explores how maize farmers’ market participation influences their subjective well-being, utilizing the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey data collected by the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Three variables, including market participation (a binary variable), sales ratio (a continuous variable), and sales frequency (a categorical variable), are utilized to measure maize farmers’ market participation patterns comprehensively By estimating a conditional mixed process model, this study finds that maize farmers’ market participation significantly improves their subjective well-being captured by happiness, life satisfaction, and confidence about the future by 0.672, 0.925, and 1.125 points, respectively. Maize income mediates the positive association between farmers’ market participation and their subjective well-being. The disaggregated analyses reveal that farmers at the household income tertiles 2 and 3 obtain a higher level of happiness, life satisfaction, and confidence about the future. Meanwhile, market participation significantly improves life satisfaction and confidence about the future of farmers experiencing natural disasters, while it increases the happiness of farmers who do not have such experiences. Farmers’ market participation significantly improves their objective well-being regarding pork consumption and milk consumption by 68 g/capita/day and 56 g/capita/day, respectively. Further analysis confirms that market participation intensity, reflected by sales ratio and frequency, significantly increases farmers’ subjective well-being. These findings highlight that the government should devote more efforts to inciting maize farmers to participate in market transactions to increase farmers’ incomes and subjective well-being
Development and validation of Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI)
Get PDFThere is little evidence on the association between women’s migration, empowerment, and well-being, driven in part due to difficulty in measuring empowerment in the migration context. To better understand these linkages, we developed a Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI) and validated it with survey of 1019 returnee female migrants in Bangladesh, who had returned after working internationally, mostly from countries in West Asia. By incorporating indicators of subjective well-being from migration literature into measures of empowerment, our paper advances research over earlier assessments of women’s experiences in the migration process beyond seemingly objective indicators, such as income, health, and economic welfare. We find that 14% of all migrant women in our sample could be classified as being empowered. Lack of membership in groups, restricted mobility, and lack of asset ownership are the largest contributors to migrant women’s disempowerment in our sample. We find that WEMI is strongly correlated with other measures of well-being, including mental health and livelihood-efficacy. Women with higher empowerment scores are also less likely to experience discriminatory labor practices and unsafe work conditions. With broad applicability to migrants from low- and middle-income countries, WEMI can be used as a tool, helping to identify sources of disempowerment, and enabling stakeholders to develop interventions targeting the welfare of women migrant workers
Labs, field trips and tours during ERT: Insights from a New Zealand specialist land-based university
Get PDFStudent and lecturer insights gained on the pedagogical practices used during Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) for laboratory, field trip and tour practices, should be used to inform and improve in-person and online higher education programs for the traditionally practical-based courses of agriculture, horticulture and food. Qualitative lecturer focus group data was thematically analyzed and used to develop the online student survey. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in mid-2021 from the online survey of students. Survey qualitative data was thematically analysed and used to validate and expand on the quantitative data descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that agricultural classes with practical components can be transitioned to deliver some material online to provide additional benefits that enhance the practical components, adds to existing material, and provides benefits in the understanding of that material for students. To transition these components well requires time, funding and online pedagogy professional development to be successful
15 ways LLMs could ruin scholarly communication - and what we can do about it
Get PDFDespite the dreams of science-fiction fans worldwide, the thing being marketed as "artificial intelligence" is no more than high-powered predictive text. What it gets right is thanks to its input data created by billions of humans, and to an invisible and underpaid workforce of content moderators. What it gets wrong threatens privacy, exacerbates sexism, racism and other inequities, and may even be environmentally damaging. There are situations that are well enough defined that machine models can be useful, but scholarly communication by its nature is full of new and unique information, relying on precisely reported data, that algorithms based on probabilities can't deal with. So as a community we need to come with ways to prevent machine-generated fake papers from poisoning the well of science - and we need to be healthily sceptical of vendors selling us machine-based solutions to problems that can still only be addressed by human intelligence
Development of tannins and methoxypyrazines in grape skins, seeds, and stems of two Pinot noir clones during ripening
No full textTwo Pinot noir clones (AM10/5 and UCD5) were analyzed for tannin and methoxypyrazines (MPs) in different grape tissues during berry development using liquid chromatography and two-dimensional gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. On a per berry basis, skin tannins reached the maximum level about 2–3 weeks after véraison, seed tannins at around véraison, and stem tannins 4 weeks before véraison. Clone AM10/5 showed significantly higher levels of seed and stem tannins on a per berry basis at harvest. Tannin concentration and composition varied among the different tissues. On a per berry basis, stem tannin levels were comparable to skin tannins but were 3 to 4 times lower than seed tannins, while stem tannins had an intermediate galloylation (5–7%) between seed tannins (12–18%) and skin tannins (2%) and lower prodelphinidin (4–7%) than skin tannins (31–36%). The mean degree of polymerization of stem tannins was similar to seed tannins but lower than skin tannins. MPs, including 3-isopropyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IPMP), 3-s-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (SBMP), and 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IBMP), showed significantly higher concentrations than their sensory thresholds in grape stems but not in skins. The MPs development in stems showed an increasing trend toward véraison and then a decreasing trend toward harvest. Compared to AM 10/5, UCD5 stems showed a higher level of MPs, especially significantly higher concentrations of IPMP and IBMP at harvest. The extraction of MPs from grape stems could contribute negative green and vegetative characters to Pinot noir wines
Report and Recommendation of the Review Panel : Severe Weather Emergency (Temporary Accommodation) Order 2023
No full textA report to the Minister for Cyclone Recovery and Minister for the Environment as required under section 16 of the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Act 2023. The Panel is understanding of the need for and desirability of an effective response to the local housing need, and the opinion from local authorities that this draft Order is a way to achieve that. The report contains observations and recommendations of the Panel developed in the process of considering the Order, which the Minister may well consider to be necessary or desirable
The InterACT Disability Arts Festival: Creating revolutionary futures?
No full textPurpose: This exploratory study seeks to understand whether an arts event designed with/by/for disabled people (the InterACT Disability Arts Festival in New Zealand) has the potential to create revolutionary futures, defined as those which help determine new paths, make the future less fearsome and allow more positive outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was taken in this study. Interviews were carried out with ten disabled event attendees, two support workers, one family member, four event volunteers, two activity providers and the main event organiser of the 2019 festival. Active participant observation was also used to collect data. Deductive thematic analysis was used to determine themes and subthemes in the material.
Findings: The findings suggest the case study arts event does help to create revolutionary futures for disabled attendees through disrupting the narratives of disability, making sense of lives lived and changing lives yet to be lived.
Research limitations/implications: Limited windows of opportunity were available to interact with attendees, and just 17 in-the-moment interviews were conducted. However, the findings still have value as data saturation was reached. A “revolutionary futures” conceptual framework is presented to understand the nexus between disability worlds and events and thus amplify the benefits for attendees.
Originality/value: Research carried out to date has provided much-needed understanding about the challenges facing disabled people at events, but this study turns this deficit approach around to focus on the opportunities provided by event participation
Risk assessment of terrestrial protected areas to extreme wind hazards: A case study in Queensland, Australia
No full textTerrestrial protected areas (TPAs) are vital for ecosystem conservation and can easily be threatened by human activities or natural disasters. The causes and impacts of human intervention on TPAs have been documented in previous studies, while assessing the exposure and vulnerability of TPAs to natural hazards, particularly wind hazards, is scarce. This study developed a model for assessing the risk of TPAs’ habitat destruction to wind hazards. The model was built upon the risk components of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability and has been applied to wind risk assessment of TPAs in Queensland, Australia. A TPA risk map has been created by integrating the intensity and frequency of cyclones, gusts, and tornados from 1970 to 2018; the lands, animals, vegetation and water of TPAs exposed to wind hazards; and environmental and socio-economic vulnerability. We also compared the risk of different TPA types and developed a district-based risk map at the administrative level to understand the TPA risk better. The results show that the risk assessment model could successfully identify high-risk TPAs (e.g., Staaten River), high-risk TPA types (e.g., National Park Aboriginal), and high-risk districts (e.g., Carpentaria) in Queensland. The successful application of the model in the study area demonstrates a useful approach for quantifying the potential risk of TPAs to wind hazards, facilitating effective risk adaptation and management
Effect of enyzmes on the quality and predicting glycaemic response of Chinese steamed bread
No full textThe present study investigates the individual and interactional effects of α-amylase (6 and 10 ppm), xylanase (70 and 120 ppm) and cellulase (35 and 60 ppm) on the physicochemical characteristics and nutritional quality of Chinese steamed bread (CSB) incorporated with 15% oat bran. As a result, the single enzyme can significantly improve the specific volume and texture of CSB. Compared to the single enzyme, the combined enzymes improved the specific volume of CSB up to the highest value (2.51 mL/g) and decreased the hardness to the minimum value (233.61 g) when the concentration was 6, 70 and 35 ppm. With respect to chemical and nutritional properties, the addition of single enzyme had no great changes, while the combined enzymes (6, 70 and 35 ppm) significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the total starch from 37.52 to 34.11% and hence increased the area under the reducing sugar release curve during 2 h in vitro digestion (AUC) from 344.61 to 371.26. Consequently, enzymes combination can significantly improve the quality of oat bran CSB whereas reduce the nutritional value of oat bran CSB