Valuing meteorological services in resource-constrained settings: Application to smallholder farmers in the Peruvian Altiplano

Changing climate and weather patterns have resulted in reduced agricultural productivity in some parts of the world and put pressure on global food security. Availability and improved quality of meteorological information is seen as a potentially propitious means of adaptation to changing climate conditions. Forecasts of extreme weather events are especially valuable in resource-poor settings where climate-related vulnerability is high, such as for smallholder farmers in low- income countries. In this paper we provide estimates of frost warnings valuation in the context of small-scale quinoa production in the Peruvian Altiplano using a cross-disciplinary approach. We first present a detailed contextual assessment of quinoa production in the study region based on agrometeorological and socio-economic data that was obtained through a representative farm household survey conducted in December 2016. Building on this assessment, we propose a sto-chastic life-cycle model, replicating the lifetime cycle of a quinoa-producing household, in order to derive a theoretical valuation of frost warnings. Calibrating the model to our data we provide estimates of frost-warning valuation which are in the range of $30–50 per household per year, depending on the forecast accuracy and agents’ risk aversion. In a last step, using the observa-tional data from the farm household survey, we show that access to existing meteorological services is empirically associated with avoided losses in agricultural production that amount to$18 per average household and per year. Our findings point to high climate vulnerabilities of smallholders in the Peruvian Altiplano and potentially large welfare gains from incorporating improved meteorological services into their decision-making process. At the same time, we highlight that attention must also be paid to complementary non-meteorological interventions that bear the potential to leverage these welfare gain

Peut-on généraliser les processus de benchmarking au travers d'une plateforme générique ?

Ce document a pour objectif d’établir une étude de faisabilité et de viabilité d’une plateforme tentant de généraliser la pratique de benchmarking. Cette pratique consistant à aller constamment chercher les meilleures pratiques ailleurs pour s’adapter à l’évolution d’un secteur est très utilisée dans le monde de l’entreprise. Cependant, la complexité de cette pratique la rend très gourmande en ressources. En effet, afin d’amorcer une démarche de benchmarking, la théorie sur la pratique doit être assimilée ainsi que les processus de l’entreprise analysés en profondeur. C’est pourquoi il existe beaucoup de services d’externalisation de la pratique de benchmarking qui sont relativement onéreux. Autant de barrières pour freiner les petites entreprises telles que les PME ou microentreprise à s’intéresser au benchmarking ou simplement à se préoccuper du futur et de l’importance de s’adapter à l’évolution. Le but de cette recherche est donc de trouver comment élaborer une solution adaptée à ces entreprises afin qu’elles s’initient à la pratique et puissent y trouver un intérêt. Ce travail se base donc sur une analyse théorique des pratiques de benchmarking afin de recenser les éléments clés que doit contenir la plateforme ainsi que sur une analyse de certaines solutions de benchmarking existantes aujourd’hui. Certaines entreprises genevoises ont également accepté de discuter afin d’enrichir la recherche d’éléments pertinents et correspondants à la réalité. Le document en annexe «Analyse et Conception» décrit les spécifications d’une plateforme imaginée sur la base des recherches effectuées

Taboo and Transgression: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Migration, Integration, and Diversity

Diese Reihe versammelt Beiträge zur Vermittlung grundlagenorientierter Forschung im Feld der Integrationsstudien für die wissenschaftliche Fachöffentlichkeit.:MI-CHA FLUBACHER AND SARA HÄGI-MEAD Taboo and Transgression in the Context of Migration, Integration, and Diversity 5 KATJA KANZLER (Meta-)Disparagement Humour: The Poetics and Politics of Mockery in the Sitcom Two Broke Girls 15 PAUL MECHERIL AND MONICA VAN DER HAAGEN-WULFF Accredited Affects: Discourses and Taboos around Migration and Threat 25 SARA HÄGI-MEAD Taboos and Integration: Welcome to Germany 39 LAURA RIND-MENZEL Taboos and Transgressions as a Result of Insufficient Consideration of Didactic Principles in Orientation Course Materials 59 OLGA JUBANY AND ROSA LÁZARO CASTELLANOS Virtual Platforms, Real Racism: Online Hate Speech in Europe 81 AMANDA HAYNES AND JENNIFER SCHWEPPE Hate Crime: Violently Policing Transgressions of Perceived Parameters of Acceptability 97 Author Information 111This series presents contributions to basic research in the field of integration studies for the scientific community.:MI-CHA FLUBACHER AND SARA HÄGI-MEAD Taboo and Transgression in the Context of Migration, Integration, and Diversity 5 KATJA KANZLER (Meta-)Disparagement Humour: The Poetics and Politics of Mockery in the Sitcom Two Broke Girls 15 PAUL MECHERIL AND MONICA VAN DER HAAGEN-WULFF Accredited Affects: Discourses and Taboos around Migration and Threat 25 SARA HÄGI-MEAD Taboos and Integration: Welcome to Germany 39 LAURA RIND-MENZEL Taboos and Transgressions as a Result of Insufficient Consideration of Didactic Principles in Orientation Course Materials 59 OLGA JUBANY AND ROSA LÁZARO CASTELLANOS Virtual Platforms, Real Racism: Online Hate Speech in Europe 81 AMANDA HAYNES AND JENNIFER SCHWEPPE Hate Crime: Violently Policing Transgressions of Perceived Parameters of Acceptability 97 Author Information 11

Mining sorghum biodiversity-potential of dual-purpose hybrids for bio-economy

Sweet, grain, and dual-purpose sorghums differ in a number of important traits, including biomass production, total solutes in the stem juice, and sugar accumulation across the stem. Ten dual-purpose hybrids, two sweet genotypes, and two grain landraces of sorghums were characterized under temperate environmental conditions to determine their potential for bioethanol production. Five sorghum hybrids (Ganymed, Hannibal, Tarzan, Merlin, and Zerberus) performed better with respect to cane yield, juice yield, potential sugar, and ethanol yields compared to sweet and grain genotypes. While the sweet genotype KIT1 produced the highest sugar concentration in the stem, the lowest concentration was produced by the grain landrace Razinieh. The study showed that plant height, leaf number, leaf weight, cane yield, and juice yield were positively correlated with the sugar yield in fresh stalk. Sugar accumulation was higher in the central internodes of all genotypes. Clustering analysis showed that sweet genotypes are located more closely to dual-purpose hybrids than grain landraces. We discuss the results with respect to the potential of dual-purpose sorghum hybrids for bio-economy in Germany

Öffentliche Arbeitsvermittlung und Sprachkompetenzen

Le présent rapport final expose les résultats les plus significatifs d’un projet de recherche mené à l’initiative du Centre scientifique de compétence sur le plurilinguisme (CSP). Affilié à l’Université et à la Haute Ecole pédagogique de Fribourg (Suisse), le CSP conduit des travaux de recherche appliquée concernant des questions sociétales d’actualité qui ont un rapport avec le plurilinguisme, et ce sur mandat de la Confédération (cf. art. 12 de l’Ordonnance sur les langues). Trois domaines sont au coeur de la recherche du CSP : le plurilinguisme individuel (1), l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des langues / l’évaluation des compétences langagières (2) et le plurilinguisme institutionnel et sociétal (3). Dans le cadre de ce troisième domaine, le projet « Placement public et compétences linguistiques » a été mené sur deux années (2013– 2014) et a porté sur la question sociétale pertinente de savoir quel est le rôle de la langue dans l’accès au marché du travail. Le projet de recherche a été conduit conjointement par le CSP, sous la direction du professeur Alexandre Duchêne, et par la « Section des sciences du langage et de l’information » de l’Université de Lausanne (UNIL), sous la direction du professeur Pascal Singy.Der vorliegende Schlussbericht beinhaltet die wichtigsten Resultate eines auf Initiative des Wissenschaftlichen Kompetenzzentrums für Mehrsprachigkeit (KFM) durchgeführten Forschungsprojektes. Das KFM, das der Universität und der Pädagogischen Hochschule Freiburg (Schweiz) angegliedert ist, betreibt im Auftrag des Bundes angewandte Forschung zu aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Fragen rund um die Mehrsprachigkeit (siehe Art. 12 der Sprachenverordnung). Im Zentrum der Forschungsaktivitäten des KFM stehen drei Bereiche: individuelle Mehrsprachigkeit (1), Sprachen lehren und lernen / Sprachkompetenzen beurteilen und evaluieren (2) sowie institutionelle und gesellschaftliche Mehrsprachigkeit (3). Im Rahmen dieses dritten Bereichs ist während zwei Jahren (2013–2014) das Projekt „Öffentliche Arbeitsvermittlung und Sprachkompetenzen“ durchgeführt worden, das sich mit der gesellschaftlich relevanten Frage befasste, welche Rolle Sprache beim Arbeitsmarktzugang spielt. Das Projekt wurde in einer Forschungskooperation zwischen dem KFM, unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Alexandre Duchêne, und der „Section des sciences du langage et de l’information“ der Universität Lausanne (UNIL), unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Pascal Singy, durchgeführt

Rare-gas solids under pressure: A path-integral Monte Carlo simulation

Rare-gas solids (Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) under hydrostatic pressure up to 30 kbar have been studied by path-integral Monte Carlo simulations in the isothermal-isobaric ensemble. Results of these simulations have been compared with available experimental data and with those obtained from a quasiharmonic approximation (QHA). This comparison allows us to quantify the overall anharmonicity of the lattice vibrations and its influence on several structural and thermodynamic properties of rare-gas solids. The vibrational energy increases with pressure, but this increase is slower than that of the elastic energy, which dominates at high pressures. In the PIMC simulations, the vibrational kinetic energy is found to be larger than the corresponding potential energy, and the relative difference between both energies decreases as the applied pressure is raised. The accuracy of the QHA increases for rising pressure.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Language, integration, and investment: The regulation of diversity in the context of unemployment

Drawing on an ethnography in regional employment offices in a French-German canton in Switzerland, it is the aim of this article to articulate the complexities involved in the practices revolving around and geared towards the role of language competences in the process of professional reintegration, particularly so with regards to migrants who speak a different language. When comparing two cases of unemployed migrant job seekers and the variable treatment by their respective consultants, we will discuss the logics, ideologies, and discourses underlying the institutional regulation of the diverse body of unemployed migrants. We argue that in particular two discourses emerged in our fieldwork that seem to frame the variable approaches: the discourse of integration and the discourse of investment. It is in the interplay, tension, and confluence of the two discourses where "language” appears as a specific point of contestation. In other words: the consideration of language competences as productive for someone's employability finally appears as highly variable and contingent on individual factors

The fungal metabolite 4‐hydroxyphenylacetic acid from Neofusicoccum parvum modulates defence responses in grapevine

In a consequence of global warming, grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) have become a pertinent problem to viticulture, because endophytic fungi can turn necrotrophic upon host stress killing the plant. In Neofusicoccum parvum Bt-67, plant-derived ferulic acid makes the fungus release Fusicoccin aglycone triggering plant cell death. Now, we show that the absence of ferulic acid lets the fungus secrete 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (4-HPA), mimicking the effect of auxins on grapevine defence and facilitating fungal spread. Using Vitis suspension cells, we dissected the mode of action of 4-HPA during defence triggered by the bacterial cell-death elicitor, harpin. Early responses (cytoskeletal remodelling and calcium influx) are inhibited, as well as the expression of Stilbene Synthase 27 and phytoalexin accumulation. In contrast to other auxins, 4-HPA quells transcripts for the auxin conjugating GRETCHEN HAGEN 3. We suggest that 4-HPA is a key component of the endophytic phase of N. parvum Bt-67 preventing host cell death. Therefore, our study paves the way to understand how GTDs regulate their latent phase for successful colonisation, before turning necrotrophic and killing the vines