Integrated Assessment Modelling of Complexity in the New Zealand Farming Industry

As New Zealand farming industry pursues more productivity this has implication for environment and makes land use and agricultural policy decision processes more complex for which integrated assessment modeling (IAM) can support. The purpose of this review paper is to propose means through which IAM can be improved specifically to minimize uncertainties and increase relevance, reliability, and utility of outputs of different models. Literature suggests that the general motivation for land use change is that farmers do consider the environment, but need to maintain profitability. There are handful decision support tools for land use and land policy decisions but one common feature of most of the models is that each seems suitable for only a part of the complexity. An appropriate framework for linking different models in an integrated assessment is still needed. As integrated assessment often goes beyond an individual researcher‘s role, research institutions need to align their research portfolio across the dimensions of the complexity by creating an appropriate mechanism to integrate individual research into integrated assessments while individual researchers need to present modelling results in a compatible format for integration into another model‘s application.integrated assessment, modeling, complexity, farming industry, New Zealand, Agribusiness, Land Economics/Use,

Exemplary Legal Writing 2018: Five Recommendations

A brief review of five recommended exemplary legal books published in 2018

Professional Learning Communities in the Expanded Learning Field

This white paper uses twelve evaluation reports of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) initiatives, as well as interviews with PLC participants and facilitators, to better understand how the PLC model is used in the Expanded Learning field, to demonstrate the benefits to participating staff and expanded learning programs, and to share best practices for youth-serving organizations interested in using PLCs

The challenges of girl-child education and alternative jobs in Nigeria

The real life experiences of Nigerian girl children indicate that the current Global Economic Crisis (GEC) has worsened their situation. This study examines the effects of GEC on the education of the girl-child and their engagement in alternative jobs. Data were obtained from 1,200 female children between 6–14 years of age, selected with a purposive random sampling-technique, who were engaged in hawking in three Nigerian states. About twenty parents were also selected to go through in-depth interview sessions. They responded to a semistructured questionnaire. Findings show that 45% of girls had recently dropped out of school and engaged in hawking to enhance their lives and that of their family household, making an average daily gain of one U.S. dollar. They hawk in crowded markets, hotels and at busy road junctions. There are reported cases of child-sexual abuse. Four percent of girls performing paid housework were impregnated, resulting in clandestine abortions. An improvement in the socioeconomic conditions of parents and a social protection policy for girl-children are recommended

The American Electorate in Black & White: A Measure of Candidate Selection and Policy Preferences

Introduction: In American society various social and antipoverty policies remain highly controversial among American voters. As one might expect, the relevance of race in relation to such policies can also be quite controversial. Incorporated within this research is an investigation of political attitudes and policy preferences of American voters. Using a variety of dependent variables, I gauge the effects of respondents’ race, ideology and party identification on policy preferences and other behavior patterns as they relate to political preferences. This measure of attitudes will contribute to a further understanding of race, social and antipoverty policies, and the ways in which these variables interact within the American political system. Both affirmative action and welfare spending are hot-button political topics among both white and black Americans, though not necessarily for the same reasons. Affirmative action programs tend to lack the support of white voters, as a vast majority of white Americans believe that preferential treatment of minorities is unfair to whites (Swain, 2006). In opposition, as beneficiaries, black voters are more likely to be supportive of such policies. Overall, blacks also tend to be more favorable of redistributive programs than whites; this means that there exists a higher likelihood that black voters will be supportive of social initiatives that include efforts such as increasing state welfare spending than will white voters (Swain, 2006). In addition to further understanding policy preferences, Americans’ overall perceptions on candidate electability are also worth additional investigation when attempting to gauge the effects of race on political processes. Not only are racial differences significant in terms of their impact on formal political participation within the American political system, but these differences are also closely intertwined with the distribution of power in the United States (Dalton & Klingemann, 2007). Therefore, I conduct further analyses regarding the likelihood of white voters to display racial resentment attitudes and assign positive traits to minority candidates for office

2014 in Black & White: A Measure of Social Policy Attitudes

Introduction: In American society, various social and antipoverty policies remain highly controversial among American voters. As one might expect, the relevance of race in relation to such policies can also be quite controversial. Incorporated within this research is an investigation of political attitudes and policy preferences of American voters. Using affirmative action and state welfare spending as dependent variables, I gauge the effects of respondents’ race and party identification on policy preferences and other behavior patterns. This measure of attitudes will contribute to a further understanding of race, social and antipoverty policies, and the ways in which these variables interact within the American political system. Both affirmative action and welfare spending are hot-button political topics among both white and black Americans, though not necessarily for the same reasons. Affirmative action programs tend to lack the support of white voters, as a vast majority of white Americans believe that preferential treatment of minorities is unfair to whites (Swain, 2006). In opposition, as beneficiaries, black voters are more likely to be supportive of such policies. Overall, blacks also tend to be more favorable of redistributive programs than whites; this means that there exists a higher likelihood that black voters will be supportive of social initiatives that include efforts such as increasing state welfare spending than will white voters (Swain, 2006)

Leveraging Technology to Achieve Food Security in Nigeria

In Nigeria today, hunger prevalence is on the rise and in paying attention to the country\u27s food production level, the difficulty experienced in meeting domestic food needs and the challenge in exporting our local products, it is easy to conclude that Nigeria Is food insecure. The petroleum based economic model of the Nigerian economy has made it lose its force as an export led economy and as the government makes effort to diversify the economy towards achieving food security, it is important to learn about how technology can help achieve this objective. This paper reviews recent attempts by some Nigerian innovators to leverage technology to disrupt the food production and Agriculture sector and examines how public private partnership can foster holistic development in the sector. It is hoped that this study will inform agricultural development practitioner about how technology can end hunger and achieve food security in Nigeria