推广转基因抗虫棉对次要害虫农药施用的影响分析

本研究的主要目的是分析在转基因抗虫棉有效控制棉花主要害虫(棉铃虫)、减少农药施用之后,可能导致的对棉花次要害虫的影响。通过多年的棉农生产跟踪调查和计量模型分析,研究结果表明,近年来棉农用来控制次要害虫的农药施用量有所增加,应引起有关部门的重视,但它的农药施用量远远小于采用转基因抗虫棉后整体减少施用的农药量;研究还发现,转基因抗虫棉在控制主要害虫农药施用量的减少,不是导致次要害虫农药施用量增加的主要原因,它仅仅能解释次要害虫农药施用增加量的一小部分。     

Digitalisierung im Gesundheitswesen — zwischen Datenschutz und moderner Medizinversorgung

The digital transformation of the healthcare branch is important and unstoppable. The enormous possibility of digitalisation to redesign and enhance processes has been shown in other branches. Digital technologies offer the similarly large potential to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. However, in terms of digitalisation, the German health system lags behind other European countries. But given a lack of available evidence, the effects of the digitalisation of the healthcare system cannot be reliably evaluated. Digital access to patient data necessitates constructive error cultures in organisations in order to limit defensive medicine. And digital access to health information necessitates individual competence in searching and using this information for participatory decision-making. As with all technological progress, information security is very important in order to gain citizens’ confidence in a digital healthcare system. Thus, it is necessary to simultaneously pursue both enhanced privacy standards and state-of-the-art medical technology.     

Do the physical facilities in restaurants match older Americans’ preferences?

This study investigated restaurants’ response to the aging population’s preferences. Gaps between previously identified preferences and current restaurant design were examined. The observational survey assessed: parking and outside accessibility, comfort and inside accessibility, menu readability, and restrooms. Occasional gaps were found even though restaurants were generally well-designed. Casual dining restaurants were more likely to meet consumer preferences as to the exterior, seating, and service. Limited-service restaurants better met preferences for the bathrooms, lighting, and sound. This information may be helpful when building or remodeling restaurants and may help restaurants to attract older customers.     

On tap: Foodservice operators’ perceptions of a wine innovation

An online survey explored foodservice operators’ (N = 57) perceptions of wine-on-tap, a recent trend in the United States. Adopters (39.1%) considered themselves more innovative, willing to take risks, and influential on others’ opinions than nonadopters (60.9%). Foodservice operators who currently offer wine-on-tap utilized interpersonal information sources (e.g., distributors) more frequently than nonadopters. Additionally, adopters perceived wine-on-tap’s characteristics more positively than nonadopters, indicating wine-on-tap was significantly easier to use than bottled wine. Among other implications, networking stood out as an important driver of innovative behavior in the foodservice industry.     

Attitudes Towards Foreign Products and Welfare with Capital Mobility

We develop a model of trade with imperfect competition to study the welfare implications in developing and developed countries of the asymmetry in attitudes towards foreign products. In the developed country, consumers benefit from a better perception of foreign products while the rental rate of capital declines as long as the location of capital remains unchanged. However, when capital is mobile, the developing country hosts more and more capital at the expense of the developed country as perception of varieties produced in the developed country improves and the surplus of consumers in the developed country can decrease.     

Faidherbia albida on the Tonga Plateau of southern Zambia: an agroecological analysis

Faidherbia albida is a tree species indigenous to semi-arid regions of Africa that reportedly substantially increases maize (Zea mays) yields in its immediate vicinity. In southern Zambia, F. albida is widely used in indigenous maize farming systems and this has apparently increased over the past two decades. Using a combination of interviews, group meetings, and observations, this study sought to understand why this species seems to have recently been embraced, while other technological innovations apparently have not. We observed a bimodal age distribution of the trees in agricultural fields and posit that the missing cohorts were removed as weeds as a result of evolving notions of what constituted modern farming practices in the emerging maize economy. With subsequent research and social promotion of the beneficial effects of F. albida, farmers now allow the trees to grow in their fields. A holonic analysis points to the important relationship of F. albida to contexts that shaped past and current uses of the tree by farmers on the Tonga Plateau: information, maize, cattle, land tenure, and government policy. Advice promulgated by social promotion activities took root in farmer knowledge contexts because of positive regard for F. albida and timeless injunctions against cutting mature specimens. Furthermore, cultivation of the tree was highly compatible with other important contexts in which farmers operate. However, our research also revealed the potential for adoption of the tree to create new tensions arising from the strong gendering of work and crops in the region.     

Commitment and Trust as Drivers of Loyalty in Logistics Outsourcing Relationships: Cultural Differences Between the United States and Germany

This study examines differences in loyalty formation within logistics outsourcing relationships between Germany and the United States. A model of loyalty formation on the basis of commitment and trust is developed and differences between Germany and the United States are hypothesized. They are tested based on 795 logistics outsourcing relationships in the two countries using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that these relationships differ depending on cultural traits relating to trust and commitment. The findings are relevant for practitioners and academics as they paint a more globally informed picture of loyalty formation within logistics outsourcing relationships in which to base both managerial decisions and future research.     

A note on different models of stochastic processes dealt with in the collective theory of risk

Abstract

1. For the definition of general processes with special regard to those concerned in Collective Risk Theory reference is made to Cramér (Collective Risk Theory, Skandia Jubilee Volume, Stockholm, 1955). Let the independent parameter of such a process be denoted by τ, with the origin at the point of departure of the process and on a scale independent of the number of expected changes of the random function. Denote with p(τ, n)dt the asymptotic expression for the conditional probability of one change in the random function while the parameter passes from τ to τ + dτ: relative to the hypothesis that n changes have occurred, while the parameter passes from 0 to τ. Assume further—unless the contrary is stated—that the probability of more than one change, while the parameter passes from τ to τ + dτ, is of smaller order than dτ.