746 research outputs found
Towards reflexive land and water management in Iran : linking technology, governance and culture
No full textKey words: Qanat, land and water, sustainability, Industrial and reflexive modernity This PhD thesis is concerned with the causes and consequences of the environmental crisis and explores possible trajectories towards sustainable land and water management in Iran and other countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The basic assumption underlying the conceptual framework of this thesis is that soil and water technologies, social institutions and environmental mentalities are strongly interconnected; they co-evolve, shaping and reshaping one another in the process. The main research question concerns the changes within this network of technologies, institutions and mentalities that are required for a successful transition from industrial modernity to what sociologists like Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Scott Lash have called ‘reflexive’ modernity. In order to examine the possibilities and problems of a reflexive turn in land and water management in Iran and other MENA-countries, large-scale empirical studies were conducted among farmers and village informants, soil and water experts, and policymakers. </p
The welfare impacts of buffer stock operations in agriculture in Ghana
Full text linkThis dissertation examines the impacts of buffer stock operations in Ghana, as a market intervention policy in a failing market environment to guarantee that market prices only move within a desired price band by publicly announcing floor and ceiling prices to control price movement. The dissertation aims to contribute insights into how public buffer stockholding operations, targeted at smallholder farmers in a developing world setting, impacts its actors, focusing on welfare. The dissertation contributes in four ways; first testing the efficacy of buffer stocks operations, second analysing the effect of output support on smallholder farmers income, thirdly develop a new measure to measure the impact of buffer stock intervention on food security by means of the nutrient- content household dietary diversity index, and finally, investigate the effect of buffer stocks on the well-being of smallholder farmers. The results demonstrates that buffer stocks operation is still a viable policy option for governments in developing countries to stabilize commodity prices. Beyond stabilizing commodity prices, buffer stock operations intervention improves household food and nutrition security and is a poverty reduction instrument for rural communities in low-income countries. Most importantly, buffer stock operations in agriculture improve the objective and subjective wellbeing of smallholder farmers
Muconic acid isomers as platform chemicals and monomers in the biobased economy
No full textsponsorship: The authors thank the SPICY (Sugar-based chemicals and Polymers through Innovative Chemocatalysis and engineered Yeast) project of VLAIO Catalisti for funding. (SPICY (Sugar-based chemicals and Polymers through Innovative Chemocatalysis and engineered Yeast) project of VLAIO Catalisti)status: Publishe
How near are urban inhabitants to appreciated natural areas?: An exploration of Hotspotmonitor based well-being indicators. Contribution to OECD (2014) How's Life, Chapter 1 p.32.
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Wadden monitoring in the spotlight. Cross-bordering maps on ecology and socio-economy of Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands
No full textETHICS FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS
No full textPreface -- Introduction -- Ch. 1. Ethical challenges for the life sciences / Michiel Korthals -- Researchers in organizations -- Ch. 2a. Moral complexity in organizations / Ronald Jeurissen -- Ch. 2b. Comments on Jeurissen: organization and moral complexity / Hugo Letiche -- Ch. 3a. The social role of businesses and the role of the professional / Johan Wempe -- Ch. 3b. Comments on Wempe: conditions for ethical business / Henk Zandvoort -- Responsible authorship and communication -- Ch. 4a. The responsible conduct of research, including responsible authorship and publication practices / Ruth Ellen Bulger -- Ch. 4b. Comments on Bulger: The responsible conduct of research, including responsible authorship and publication practices / Henk van den Belt -- Ch. 5a. Professional ethics and scholarly communication / Hub Zwart -- Ch. 5b. Comments on Zwart: professional ethics and scholarly communication / Tjard de Cock Buning -- Ch. 6a. Some recent challenges to openness and freedom in scientific publication / David B. Resnik -- Ch. 6b. Comments on Resnik: some recent challenges to openness and freedom in scientific publication / Tiny van Boekel -- Ethics of animal research -- Ch. 7a. Research ethics for animal biotechnology / Paul B. Thompson -- Ch. 7b. Comments on Thompson: research ethics for animal biotechnology / Mieke Boon -- Ethics for life scientists as a challenge for ethics -- Ch. 8a. How common morality relates to business and the professions / Bernard Gert -- Ch. 8b. Comments on Gert: Gert's common morality: old-fashioned or untimely? / Jozef Keulartz -- Ch. 9a. Research as a challenge for ethical reflection / Marcus Düwell -- Ch. 9b. Comments on Düwell: research as a challenge for ethical reflection / Akke van der Zijpp -- Scientists in society -- Ch. 10a. New public responsibilities for life scientists / Michiel Korthals -- Ch. 10b. Comments on Korthals: new public responsibilities for life scientists / Jan H. Koeman -- Ch. 11. Science, context and professional ethics / Ruth Chadwick -- Ch. 12a. Bioscientists as ethical decision-makers / Matti Häyry -- Ch. 12b. Comments on Häyry: assessing bioscientific work from a moral point of view / Robert Heeger -- New developments -- Ch. 13. The human genome: common resource but not common heritage / David B. Resnik -- Conclusions -- Ch. 14. Towards ethically sound life sciences / Michiel Korthals -- List of author
Venetian cardinals at the Papal Court during the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII : 1471-1492
Full text linkThe histories of particular cities and states within that myriad-faceted
slice of civilisation, the Renaissance in Italy, have received
more scholarly attention than have the diplomatic, ecclesiastical and
cultural connections between them. This study is part of a balance-redressing
process. Senior clerics traversed frontiers, owing
allegiance to their native state, their benefices and, above all, to
the Papacy. The purpose of this exploration of the curial careers of
four later quattrocento Venetian cardinals is essentially twofold : to
account for relations between Venice and the Papacy with reference to
individuals who were at once Venetian patricians and princes of the
Church; and to examine the cardinals' responses to this situation in
terms of political, ecclesiastical and cultural patronage. Where did
their loyalty lie? To Venice, with its perennial suspicion of the
Church and peculiar notion of the characteristics of a Venetian
cardinal? Or to the Pope, expressing overt hostility towards the
Republic in the War of Ferrara and placing it under an interdict?
Chapter one sets Merco Barbo, Pietro Foscari, Giovanni Michiel and
Giovanni Battista Zeno in a Venetian context. Chapters two and three
chart relations between the two powers, from the exposure of Cardinal
Zeno's involvement in a scheme to transmit Venetian state secrets to
Rome in exchange for ecclesiastical preferment, through to Ermolao
Barbaro's controversial appointment to the patriarchate of Aquileia,
via the short-lived Papal-Venetian league negotiated by Cardinal
Foscari in 1480. The fourth chapter considers their proximity to the
Supreme Pontiff and how their material fortunes varied under popes
Sixtus and Innocent, after which an assessment of the nature, extent
and effectiveness of their patronage is divided between chapters five
and six, focussing pa.rticularly on Venetian connections. Despite
diverging careers, it is concluded that all were bound by variations
of the Venetian inheritance
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