Natural disasters and the issue of responsibility for the victim states

Dr C. Chatterjee considers whether natural disasters are an entirely national phenomenon, or if their effects can be minimised by concerted international action. Article published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

SUSTAINABILITY OF POULTRY PRODUCTION USING THE EMERGY APPROACH: COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND ORGANIC REARING SYSTEMS

The organic production system is an important strategy, compatible with sustainable agriculture, avoiding the use of chemical compounds,limiting the intensity of production and providing controls along the entire chain of production. The aim of this study is to compare conventional and organic poultry production in terms of emergy analysis. The main differences in the two systems were the emergy cost for poultry feed and for cleaning/sanitization of the buildings between successive productive cycles. In both production systems the poultry feed represented more than 50% of the emergy flow. Regarding the agronomic phase, it was shown that almost all the organic crops, avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides, saved around 60% emergy. The emergetic costs for housing of the birds were very similar in both systems. Relating the emergy results with productive performance it is possible to show that, although the annual productive performance was much lower in organic than in conventional (206%), transformity of organic poultry was around 10% lower. Comparison of the organic poultry system with a conventional one from the viewpoint of sustainability showed that all the emergy-based indicators are in favour of the organic farming system with a higher efficiency in transforming the available inputs in the final product, a higher level of renewable inputs, a higher level of local inputs and a lower density of energy and matter flows

MEAT QUALITY OF THREE CHICKEN GENOTYPES REARED ACCORDING TO THE ORGANIC SYSTEM

The meat quality of three poultry genotypes with differing growth rates (fast-growing Ross; medium and slow growing Kabir and Robusta maculata, respectively) was compared. All the birds were reared according to the organic production system which requires a paddock with grass pasture (4 m2/bird) and a slaughter age greater than 81 d. The trial was carried out on 100 female chickens per strain. The meat quality was affected by the 20 different degree of maturity of the strains at slaughter age, which was 70% for Ross, 52 % for Kabir and 78% for Robusta maculata. Ross and Kabir were slaughtered at 81 d, whereas Robusta maculata, required 120 d to reach a commercial weight (>2 kg). The meat of all the three genotypes showed good qualitative traits. The main differences of the three genotypes regarded moisture, lipid, pHu, colour, iron, oxidative stability and overall acceptance. Compared with Kabir and Robusta maculata Ross meat had more fat, lower pHu and iron, and was 25 paler. The oxidative stability during display (24-96 h at 4° C) and acceptance were the worst. Kabir chickens, being the least mature strain, had the highest moisture content with a high cooking loss. The slower-growing genotypes showed a good adaptation to the extensive rearing conditions, while the fast-growing genotype showed unbalanced muscle response to the greater activity and the oxidative stability of the meat was reduced

Can Resilience Be Our Teacher Super-power?

Teaching is courageous work. Today\u27s teachers face heavy workloads and growing emotional responsibilities as K-12 students and families face complicated hurdles and issues such as mental health issues, immigration, and natural disasters. This essay names resilience, grit, and perseverance as essential dispositions needed to tackle the daily hurdles and unexpected circumstances found in the classroom and pre-service teacher preparation. The author’s reflections lead to practical recommendations with the intention to nurture and cultivate resilience in teachers and school communities

Preponderance of Late-spiking Neurons in Rat Lateral Amygdala

Whole-cell recordings from rat lateral amygdala (LA) revealed two populations of principal neurons, that have similar pyramid-like morphologies but differing in firing pattern: late-spiking (LS, 66%) and regular-spiking (RS, 34%). The presence of large numbers of LS neurons arguably supports recent suggestions that the LA should be considered to be a functional extension of perirhinal cortex

EFFECT OF LENGTH OF STAY ON GUEST SATISFACTION-AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF INDIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY

The unpredictable and dynamic changes experienced by the corporate world have transformed the business environment. Now the key for remaining successful is in retaining customers rather than in acquiring customers. Customer satisfaction is considered the essence of success in today's highly competitive world of business, and it has become the corporate goal as more and more companies strive for quality in their product. The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of ‘length of stay’of a guest in a hotel, on satisfaction, revisit intention and making favorable referrals. This paper considers the reaction of ‘international travelers’ who have boarded their flight from Chennai, India. Outcome of this research indicates that one of the critical challenges faced by the hoteliers is to create opportunities to their guests to experience (all) the facilities available in the hotel, especially for those who stay for a shorter period. Results shows that length of stay positively influences the satisfaction level but not revisit attitude and positive referrals. However satisfied guests tends to revisit the same hotel in future and likely to refer to their friends and relatives.’ Satisfaction is the nucleus and everything revolves around it and duration of stay is one of the major determinants of hotel factors which is a major predictor of satisfactionHotel industry, Guest satisfaction, Length of stay, purpose of visit, revisit, recommendation

Media Presence and Inner Presence: The Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality Technologies

Abstract. Presence is widely accepted as the key concept to be considered in any research involving human interaction with Virtual Reality (VR). Since its original description, the concept of presence has developed over the past decade to be considered by many researchers as the essence of any experience in a virtual environment. The VR generating systems comprise two main parts: a technological component and a psychological experience. The different relevance given to them produced two different but coexisting visions of presence: the rationalist and the psychological/ecological points of view. The rationalist point of view considers a VR system as a collection of specific machines with the necessity of the inclusion \ud of the concept of presence. The researchers agreeing with this approach describe the sense of presence as a function of the experience of a given medium (Media Presence). The main result of this approach is the definition of presence as the perceptual illusion of non-mediation produced by means of the disappearance of the medium from the conscious attention of the subject. At the other extreme, there \ud is the psychological or ecological perspective (Inner Presence). Specifically, this perspective considers presence as a neuropsychological phenomenon, evolved from the interplay of our biological and cultural inheritance, whose goal is the control of the human activity. \ud Given its key role and the rate at which new approaches to understanding and examining presence are appearing, this chapter draws together current research on presence to provide an up to date overview of the most widely accepted approaches to its understanding and measurement