Reform of assignation in security: lessons from The Netherlands

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Food for talk: photo frames to support social connectedness for elderly people in a nursing home

Social connectedness is crucial to someone’s well-being. A case study is conducted to test whether the social connectedness of elderly people living in a nursing home and their family and friends can be improved through a photo frame. A SIM-based photo frame is used to keep the elderly people informed about the comings and goings of their loved ones. Eight elderly people living in a nursing home participated in this case study for 6-7 weeks. A content analysis of the photos revealed that the photos often were related to special events or holidays that happened in the past. Interviews indicated that the photos mainly served as food for talk, i.e. the photos initiated conversations between the elderly people mutually, with their family members and with the healthcare professionals. They all liked the photo frame and it didn’t serve as a means to exchange news, but as a catalyst to talk –mainly- about the past

Consumers and consumption of organic food in Central and Eastern European new member states of the European Union

Despite the significant growth of organic farms and organically managed land in Central and Eastern European new member states of the European Union (CEE NMS) the consumption of organic food in these countries remains at the very low level. The main barriers to organic food consumption growth are low availability of organic food in the sale channels where contemporary CEE NMS consumers prefer to buy food, high prices for organic products, related, inter alia, to high distribution costs and high gross margins that reflect the undeveloped nature of organic markets in CEE NMS. Further development of the organic sector in CEE NMS will contribute to the growth of organic food consumption by overcoming the supply-related barriers. Nevertheless, to increase the consumption of organic food, many efforts needed to communicate the benefits of organic food and farming to target potential consumers

Computational tasks in robotics and factory automation

The design of Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems (MPCSs) — systems that negotiate with Customers and Suppliers to exchange products in return for money in order to generate profit, is discussed.\ud \ud The computational task of MPCS components are systematically specified as a starting point for the development of computational engines, as computer systems and programs, that execute the specified computation. Key issues are the overwhelming complexity and frequently changing application of MPCSs

Improving organic market data collection by using the supply balance sheet approach

Analyses of national markets for organic agricultural products are constrained by the lack of official statistics on production, consumption or international trade in any European country. As a result there are several, often very contradictory and inconsistent estimations on the amount of the organic production or consumption in the EU or even in individual EU countries. The main sources for market data estima-tions are surveys with market actors and sometimes extrapolations of household or retailer panel studies. One possibility to reduce the problem of inconsistent market data for a geographical region is to use the method of supply balance sheets (SBS). By using SBS which compare the resources and uses of a product, it is easier to detect inconsistencies between produc-tion, consumption or foreign trade data. Additional quality checks can support the identification of inconsistencies between organic and conventional market data

Report on the evaluation of the pilot case studies (= Deliverable D4 of the Project European Information System for Organic Markets, QLK5-2002-02400), including Annex 1: National working papers on pilot applications (DCPS) in eight European countries and Annex 2 Guidelines on evaluating pilot applications (DCPS) in eight European Countries

The current situation of market information systems on organic farming in Europe shows a substantial lack of information. Although previous EU-research projects such as OFCAP (FAIR3-CT96-1794) and OMIaRD (QLK5-2000-01124) have shown that regional or national data gathering takes place in many countries, the availability of detailed and current data on various levels, such as production, consumption, prices as well as trade, on the national as well as at the European level, is not satisfactory. The main problem areas identified in regard to market information systems for organic farming can be summarised as i) the lack of market information at the national level and ii) where data are available, the lack of data harmonisation at the European level. Within the EU-funded concerted action EISfOM (European Information System for Organic Markets, QLK5-2002-02400), the aim is to build a framework for reporting valid and reliable production and market data for the European organic sector in order to meet the needs of policymakers, farmers, processors, wholesalers and other actors involved in organic markets. Based on the previous research done in Workpackages 2, 3 and 4, this report focuses on the evaluation of pilot case studies in eight European countries, showing proposals for new and/or enlarged data collection and processing systems for organic markets in Europe. This report is based mainly on the pilot application studies conducted in WP5. Following the description of objectives and the general approach of WP5 in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 focuses on the national pilot case studies, including a description of the relevant institutions and DCPS as well as an assessment of data quality. Chapter 3 provides an analysis of the DCPS investigated with regard to the problems and barriers involved with their practical implementation. Chapter 4 then analyses the critical points identified with regard to potential solutions for harmonisation of various DCPS at the national and international level. Chapter 5 deals with the analysis of the recommendations made in WP4, while Chapter 6 summarizing and concluding the results. As well as the national working papers on the results of the pilot application studies, this deliverable is also strongly linked to previous project deliverables, namely D2 “WP2: Data collection and processing systems for conventional markets and WP3: Data collection and processing systems for organic markets” (Wolfert, S. et al., 2004), deliverable D3 “Report on proposals for the development, harmonisation and quality assurance of organic data collection and processing systems. systems (Recke, G. et al., 2004) and the proceedings of the first European Seminar “Development of a European Information System for organic markets – improving the scope and quality of statistical data” (Recke, G. et al., 2004)

Entrepreneurship Education in Iranian Higher Education: The Current State and Challenges

Entrepreneurship has long been considered a significant factor for socioeconomic growth and development because it provides millions of job opportunities, offers a variety of consumer goods and services, and generally increases national prosperity and competitiveness. Due to this positive impact of entrepreneurship, recent decades have seen a tremendous rise in entrepreneurship education at various universities and colleges around the globe, including in Iran. In the middle of this expansion remains the challenges and problems of development and changes for entrepreneurship.This paper investigates the state, trends, challenges and solutions in entrepreneurship education in Iran which emerged from an extensive review of literature. The literature reviewed indicates that entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education faces with economic, political, social, and cultural challenges. Also this article offers some approaches and recommendations for resolving the challenges as well as encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship in higher education. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for policy makers, educators, students and graduate entrepreneurs. Stakeholders could use this study to make better choices in relation to the improvement of entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education system

Teaching and Learning in Interdisciplinary Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Interdisciplinary higher education aims to develop boundary-crossing skills, such as interdisciplinary thinking. In the present review study, interdisciplinary thinking was defined as the capacity to integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single disciplinary means. It was considered as a complex cognitive skill that constituted of a number of subskills. The review was accomplished by means of a systematic search within four scientific literature databases followed by a critical analysis. The review showed that, to date, scientific research into teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education has remained limited and explorative. The research advanced the understanding of the necessary subskills of interdisciplinary thinking and typical conditions for enabling the development of interdisciplinary thinking. This understanding provides a platform from which the theory and practice of interdisciplinary higher education can move forwar

Effects of precipitation uncertainty on discharge calculations for main river basins

This study quantifies the uncertainty in discharge calculations caused by uncertainty in precipitation input for 294 river basins worldwide. Seven global gridded precipitation datasets are compared at river basin scale in terms of mean annual and seasonal precipitation. The representation of seasonality is similar in all datasets, but the uncertainty in mean annual precipitation is large, especially in mountainous, arctic, and small basins. The average precipitation uncertainty in a basin is 30%, but there are strong differences between basins. The effect of this precipitation uncertainty on mean annual and seasonal discharge was assessed using the uncalibrated dynamic global vegetation and hydrology model Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed land (LPJmL), yielding even larger uncertainties in discharge (average 90%). For 95 basins (out of 213 basins for which measurements were available) calibration of model parameters is problematic because the observed discharge falls within the uncertainty of the simulated discharge. A method is presented to account for precipitation uncertainty in discharge simulations