Countering Protection Rackets Using Legal and Social Approaches: An Agent-Based Test

Protection rackets cause economic and social damage across the world. States typically combat protection rackets using legal strategies that target the racketeers with legislation, strong sentencing, and increasing the presence and involvement of police officers. Nongovernmental organizations, conversely, focus on the rest of the population and counter protection rackets using a social approach. These organisations attempt to change the actions and social norms of community members with education, promotional campaigns, and discussions. We use an agent-based model, which draws on established theories of protection rackets and combines features of sociological and economic perspectives to modelling social interactions, to test the effects of legal and social approaches. We find that a legal approach is a necessary component of a policy approach, that social only approaches should not be used because they lead to large increases in violence, and that a combination of the two works best, although even this must be used carefully

Overview of organic standards globally, Trends in standard development

We are in a period of rapid development of organic standards globally. Most of the development is in terms of the number of standards, including regulations. Especially for countries with a quasi non-existent organic sector, the trend is towards fast regulatory development, which poses a number of problems. In the private standards, there is a continued trend for differentiation, however balanced by a harmonization trend as a result of the IFOAM Family of Standards

Peer effects on compliance with extortive requests

We conduct laboratory experiments to study peer effects on compliance with extortive requests. To this aim, we use an \u201cextortion game\u201d with multiple victims. In agreement with our hypothesis, our results show that when the information on peers\u2019 behavior is available, compliance with appropriative requests is triggered by conformism among victims rather than by punishment. Moreover, we find that extorted sums are rather small, requests are proportional to the victim\u2019s earnings, similar across victims, and are significantly lower when the extorter self-selects into this role. Punishment is rare, but effective. Finally, our results indicate that fairness concerns matter even in a context of extra-legal taxation, shaping both extorters\u2019 requests and victims\u2019 compliance

Strangeness Production in pp,pA,AA Interactions at SPS Energies.HIJING Approach

In this report we have made a systematic study of strangeness production in proton-proton(pp),proton-nucleus(pA) and nucleus- nucleus(AA) collisions at CERN Super Proton Synchroton energies, using$\,\,\, HIJING\,\,\, MONTE \,\,\,CARLO \,\,\,MODEL$ \\ (version $HIJ.01$). Numerical results for mean multiplicities of neutral strange particles ,as well as their ratios to negatives hadrons($$) for p-p,nucleon-nucleon(N-N),\,\,p-S,\,\,p-Ag,\,\,p-Au('min. bias')collisions and p-Au,\,\,S-S,\,\,S-Ag,\,\,S-Au ('central')collisions are compared to experimental data available from CERN experiments and also with recent theoretical estimations given by others models. Neutral strange particle abundances are quite well described for p-p,N-N and p-A interactions ,but are underpredicted by a factor of two in A-A interactions for $\Lambda,\bar{\Lambda}, K^{0}_{S}$ in symmetric collisions(S-S,\,\,Pb-Pb)and for $\Lambda,\bar{\Lambda}\,\,$in asymmetric ones(S-Ag,\,\,S-Au,\,\,S-W). A qualitative prediction for rapidity, transverse kinetic energy and transverse momenta normalized distributions are performed at 200 GeV/Nucleon in p-S,S-S,S-Ag and S-Au collisions in comparison with recent experimental data. HIJING model predictions for coming experiments at CERN for S-Au, S-W and Pb-Pb interactions are given. The theoretical calculations are estimated in a full phase space.Comment: 33 pages(LATEX),18 figures not included,available in hard copy upon request , Dipartamento di Fisica Padova,report DFPD-94-NP-4

Feeling like an object: A field study on working self-objectification and belief in personal free will

The present research aims to take a deeper look at the relationship between working self-objectification and belief in personal free will. Previous research found that working self-objectification, due to the perception of being objectified or the execution of objectifying tasks, negatively affects belief in personal free will. However, these findings have been mainly tested through laboratory studies considering undergraduates. In this work we aim to verify whether this pattern also emerges when considering workers. We conducted a field study involving employees in the production lines of different companies. They completed a questionnaire on objectifying job features, perception of being objectified by superiors, self-objectification self-perception as instrument-like and self-attribution of human mental states and belief in personal free will. As expected, objectifying job features and perceptions of being objectified were positively related to self-objectification that, in turn, was associated with decreased beliefs in personal free wil

Undeclared animal species in dry and wet novel and hydrolyzed protein diets for dogs and cats detected by microarray analysis

Abstract Background Although the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) stated that labels must be accurate and provide detailed information on the ingredients, mislabeling of pet food has been documented by several authors. This phenomenon is of particular concern when related to products used as elimination diets for the diagnosis of adverse food reaction (AFR) in dogs and cats because the presence of undeclared ingredients may negatively interfere with the trial and prevent the veterinarian from making an appropriate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to shed light upon the problem of contamination and mislabeling in both dry and wet novel protein diets (NPDs) and hydrolyzed protein diets (HPDs) using a microarray-based commercial kit which tests for the presence of 19 animal species. Results Of the 40 analyzed products (9 dry NPDs, 22 wet NPDs, 6 dry HPDs and 3 wet HPDs), ten presented a content that correctly matched the label, while five did not contain the declared animal species, twenty-three revealed the presence of undeclared animal species, and two had a vague label that did not allow the evaluation of its accuracy. The most frequently contaminants identified in both dry and wet pet foods were pork, chicken and turkey. The presence of undeclared animal species was higher in dry than wet pet foods; furthermore, a lower number of contaminating animal species was identified in HPDs than NPDs (4 vs 10), and a lower number of contaminated HPDs (6 out of 9, 67%) than contaminated NPDs was detected (24 out of 31, 77%). Thirteen out of 14 brands tested presented at least one mislabeled product. Conclusions Mislabeling seems to be a widespread issue in pet foods used as elimination diets. Contamination can occur in all types of products used for the purpose, although dry NPDs are the main issue. Due to the high risk of contamination, particular attention should be given to both the selection of raw material suppliers and the production process

Effects of extruded corn on milk yield and composition and blood parameters in lactating dairy cows

According to a 2x2 cross over design, fourteen Holstein dairy cows at 99±55 DIM were fed two diets containing 21.5% DM of either ground corn (GC) or extruded corn (EC). Performance and metabolic profile were detected during the third week of each experimental period. DMI and milk yield were not affected by dietary treatments. Milk fat and protein percentage of EC diet were significantly (P<0.10) lower than those of GC diet. Probably the higher rumen degradability of starch from EC thesis modified the synthesis of specific fatty acids leading to a milk fat depression event. Diets did not influence blood parameters, except for lower values of total protein and glucose content in EC diet-fed cows. Results suggested that the dietary inclusion of extruded corn should not be used at the tested level of substitution

Effect of Finnsheep crossbreeding on Lamon sheep performance: post-mortem traits

This experiment was conducted in order to study the effects of crossbreeding of the local breed Lamon (L) with Finnsheep (F),on the post-mortem performance of F, lambs (F x L). Nine L and 8 F x L ram-lambs were fattened with a diet (11.6 MJ M.E./kg d.m.) based on maize silage, dried sugar beet pulp and soybean meal, and slaughtered at 40.5 ± 5.9 kg live weight at the age of 22 weeks. Genotype did not affect dressing percentage on empty body weight (E.B.W.) but the crossbred lambs showed a lower incidence of the pelt (18,4 vs 20.2 % on E.B.W.;

Fostering Trust and Forgiveness Through the Acknowledgment of Others\u2019 Past Victimization

The present work examines the acknowledgment of past ingroup victimization by adversary outgroup leaders as an effective means to promote intergroup trust. More specifically, through an experimental study we demonstrated that Israeli-Jewish participants who were exposed to Palestinian leaders\u2019 messages acknowledging the Jews\u2019 suffering from anti-Semitic persecutions (past victimization condition) displayed more trust toward outgroup leaders than participants who were exposed to messages acknowledging the Jews\u2019 sufferings from the ongoing conflict (present victimization condition) and participants who were exposed to a control message condition. Further, trust mediated the relationship between acknowledgment of past victimization by rivals and forgiveness toward the outgroup as a whole. The implications of these results for restoring fractured intergroup relations are discussed