A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FOOD QUALITY ASSURANCE SCHEMES: THE CASE OF NEULAND AND EUREPGAP

Food Quality Assurance Schemes (QAS) are widely applied in the European Union. Neuland and EurepGAP represent two different approaches. Neuland differentiates meat clearly by a strict emphasis on rules regarding animal welfare to provide consumers with meat produced at a high animal welfare standard. EurepGAP certifies the compliance to international accepted standards with regard to Good Agricultural Practise to ease the exchange of products throughout the supply chain. In terms of overall benefits and costs, the study showed that for both QAS the benefits clearly outweigh the costs. This paper compares the schemes and their implications for the agro-food chain.Quality Assurance Schemes, Food policy, Food chain, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Kritisieren und Komplimentieren : Ergebnisse kontrastiver Studien deutsch-türkisch zum Umgang mit sprachlicher Höflichkeit

Politeness has become a key qualification in intercultural competence and didactics. The paper presents parts of an empirical research of the development and shaping of verbal politeness in critical incidents investigating the way German and Turkish students of the German language deal with criticism and complimenting. The findings show that Turkish students of German as a foreign language avoid direct criticism and prefer manners considered to be polite in German. Complimenting is an expression of their own positive feelings and acts as “messages about oneself”, whereas the German students prefer “meritorious praise” referring to merits. The discriminating effects of migration within the Turkish students are smaller than expected perhaps because of the increase of transcultural knowledge. This should give new ideas for the didactics of politeness

Efficiency determination of resistive plate chambers for fast quasi-monoenergetic neutrons

Composite detectors made of stainless steel converters and multigap resistive plate chambers have been irradiated with quasi-monoenergetic neutrons with a peak energy of 175MeV. The neutron detection efficiency has been determined using two different methods. The data are in agreement with the output of Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations are then extended to study the response of a hypothetical array made of these detectors to energetic neutrons from a radioactive ion beam experiment.Comment: Submitted to Eur.Phys.J. A; upgraded version correcting some typos and updating ref.

Neuland Magazin

Stofer is a regular contributor to Neuland Magazin, contributing 13 articles since its inception in 2010. His essays have explored diverse topics including ‘Thames or not Thames’ – the impact of the temporary removal of the Thames from the tube map in 2009; ‘Chewing gum’ – gum as a permanent keeper of our DNA and its potential for cloning; ‘It doesn’t rain money in London’ – the invention of the umbrella and James Smith & Sons; ‘Kunst ist Herrlich (Art Is almighty)’ – a review of the first solo show of the Swiss-born artist Urs Lüthi at Gallery S O in London. Neuland is an online journal published every two months. It acts as a new and independent platform for discussion and exploration of new territories of thinking. It aims to promote different ways of sharing knowledge through a condensed and interdisciplinary format. Neuland has gained a reputation as an innovative online platform for new ideas and as a new model of online journalism. Stofer’s articles are written in a distinctive narrative format, with the intention of offering a close-grained observation of aspects of life in contemporary London. Their innovation lies in the concise format and juxtaposition of image and text, using words as image/pattern, a strategy which invites the reader to reflect further and ‘read between the lines’. A recent innovation has been the adoption of alternative presentation conventions, such as postcard and text messaging formats, in order to create ever more concise ways of conveying meaning. As a direct outcome of the publication of the Neuland series, Stofer was invited to give a lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (2013). The lecture, ‘To make a mark’, further explored the theme of the need to make our presence visible (a subject addressed in several of Stofer’s Neuland articles)

Casting Out from the Inside: Abolishing Felony Disenfranchisement in New York

Felony disenfranchisement laws are an archaic practice, meant to silence a population that is often forgotten and overlooked by society. On the principles of rehabilitation and accountability, New York State ought to completely abolish felony disenfranchisement. It does not deter crime. In fact, recidivism rates show a decline when incarcerated individuals have rehabilitative opportunities through New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision ( DOCCS )-facilitated programming and family services. As the arguments laid out in this Comment demonstrate, it is imperative that the New York State Legislature takes prompt action to abolish felony disenfranchisement altogether

"Kiezdeutsch goes School" : a multiethnic variety of German from an educational perspective

This article presents linguistic features of and educational approaches to a new variety of German that has emerged in multi-ethnic urban areas in Germany: Kiezdeutsch (‘Hood German’). From a linguistic point of view, Kiezdeutsch is very interesting, as it is a multi-ethnolect that combines features of a youth language with those of a contact language. We will present examples that illustrate the grammatical productivity and innovative potential of this variety. From an educational perspective, Kiezdeutsch has also a high potential in many respects: school projects can help enrich intercultural communication and weaken derogatory attitudes. In grammar lessons, Kiezdeutsch can be a means to enhance linguistic competence by having the adolescents analyse their own language. Keywords: German, Kiezdeutsch, multi-ethnolect, migrants’ language, language change, educational proposal