COLLECTIVE POLITICS OF FOODGRAINS MARKETS IN SOUTH ASIA

Summary With the help of case material from Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Bangladesh, the politics of market organization is examined. Political parties do not have consistent positions on private trade and are responded to opportunistically by foodgrains traders. Traders are politically active in a variety of local religious and social service institutions within which they build networks. The commodity association is the principal arena of mercantile politics. Formed defensively in response to threats by the state or by unionized labour, they have developed systematic lobbying capability. They have also developed self?regulatory functions, extending to physical security, law and order and enforcement of the terms of participation of smaller traders. The article concludes by discussing the implications of such politics for state intervention. Resumé La politique collective des marchés de graine alimentaire en Asie du sud L'article examine l'aspect politique de l'organisation des marchés sous forme d'études de cas au Tamil Nadu, au Bengal de l'Ouest, et au Bangladesh. La position des partis politiques sur le commerce privé est ni uniforme ni constante, ainsi la réponse des négociants en graine alimentaires y est opportuniste. L'activité politique des négociants se constate dans une variété d'institutions locales (religion; services sociaux) au sein desquelles elles fondent des réseaux. L'association commoditaire est le plus important foyer de la politique mercantile. Formées en tant que réponse défensive à la menace de l'état ou de la syndicalisation de la main?d'oeuvre, ces associations ont développé des capacités de sollicitation systématique. Elles ont également développé des fonctions autorégulatrices qui pénètrent jusque dans la sécurité physique, l'ordre public, et la mise en vigueur des termes de participation qui contrôlent les moins importants négociants. L'article aboutit à une discussion des implications des politiques de ce genre sur l'intervention de l'état. Resumen La política colectiva de los mercados de granos en Asia del sur Se examinan en este artículo las políticas de organización de mercado con la ayuda de información proveniente de experiencias en Tamil Nadu, Bengala Occidental y Bangladesh. Los partidos políticos no mantienen posiciones consistentes con respecto al comercio privado y reciben reacciones oportunistas por parte de los comerciantes en granos. Estos últimos son políticamente muy activos en una variedad de instituciones de servicio sociales y religiosas dentro de las cuales construyen redes de comunicación. La asociación de productores es el principal escenario de la política mercantil. Formada como defensa a las amenazas del estado o de los sindicatos, ha desarrollado una sistemática capacidad para cabildeos. También has desarrollado funciones auto?regulatorias, que se extienden hasta la seguridad física, el orden público y la aplicación efectiva de los términos de participación de los pequeños comerciantes. El artículo concluye examinando las implicaciones que estas pautas pueden tener para la intervención estatal

Determining the economic costs and benefits of conservation actions: A decision support framework

The need for conservation action to be cost-effective is widely accepted, resulting in increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing the financial and economic costs of conservation is equally important for assessing cost-effectiveness, yet their measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sector, in contrast, has made substantial progress in identifying and including costs in decision-making. Here, we consider what conservation can learn from this experience. We present a three-step framework for identifying and recording the relevant economic costs and benefits of conservation interventions where the user (1) describes the costing context, (2) determines which types of cost and benefit to include, and (3) obtains values for these costs and benefits alongside metadata necessary for others to interpret the data. This framework is designed to help estimate economic costs but can also be used flexibly to record the direct costs of interventions (i.e., financial costs) and calculate financial and economic benefits. Although recording data on economic costs and benefits is deceptively complex, this framework facilitates improved recording, and indicates how collating this data could enhance the assessment of cost-effectiveness across conservation contexts using a range of decision-making tools. © 2022 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for ConservationWe thank Alec Christie, Ashley Simkins, and Anthony Waldron for helpful discussions and Arcadia, MAVA, and the David and Claudia Harding Foundation for funding. We thank two anonymous reviewers, and Gwen Iacona for detailed comments that helped improve the manuscript. The work was completed by Thomas White as part of a PhD supported by a Balfour studentship at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Walking with lions: why there is no role for captive-origin lions Panthera leo in species restoration

Despite formidable challenges and few successes in reintroducing large cats from captivity to the wild, the release of captives has widespread support from the general public and local governments, and continues to occur ad hoc. Commercial so-called lion Panthera leo encounter operations in Africa exemplify the issue, in which the captive breeding of the lion is linked to claims of reintroduction and broader conservation outcomes. In this article we assess the capacity of such programmes to contribute to in situ lion conservation. By highlighting the availability of wild founders, the unsuitability of captive lions for release and the evidence-based success of wild-wild lion translocations, we show that captive-origin lions have no role in species restoration. We also argue that approaches to reintroduction exemplified by the lion encounter industry do not address the reasons for the decline of lions in situ, nor do they represent a model that can be widely applied to restoration of threatened felids elsewher

Self-adapting method for the localization of quantum critical points using Quantum Monte Carlo techniques

A generalization to the quantum case of a recently introduced algorithm (Y. Tomita and Y. Okabe, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 572 (2001)) for the determination of the critical temperature of classical spin models is proposed. We describe a simple method to automatically locate critical points in (Quantum) Monte Carlo simulations. The algorithm assumes the existence of a finite correlation length in at least one of the two phases surrounding the quantum critical point. We illustrate these ideas on the example of the critical inter-chain coupling for which coupled antiferromagnetic S=1 spin chains order at T=0. Finite-size scaling relations are used to determine the exponents, $\nu=0.72(2)$ and $\eta=0.038(3)$ in agreement with previous estimates.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published versio

The Physics of Cluster Mergers

Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. Some of the basic physical properties of mergers will be discussed, with an emphasis on simple analytic arguments rather than numerical simulations. Semi-analytic estimates of merger rates are reviewed, and a simple treatment of the kinematics of binary mergers is given. Mergers drive shocks into the intracluster medium, and these shocks heat the gas and should also accelerate nonthermal relativistic particles. X-ray observations of shocks can be used to determine the geometry and kinematics of the merger. Many clusters contain cooling flow cores; the hydrodynamical interactions of these cores with the hotter, less dense gas during mergers are discussed. As a result of particle acceleration in shocks, clusters of galaxies should contain very large populations of relativistic electrons and ions. Electrons with Lorentz factors gamma~300 (energies E = gamma m_e c^2 ~ 150 MeV) are expected to be particularly common. Observations and models for the radio, extreme ultraviolet, hard X-ray, and gamma-ray emission from nonthermal particles accelerated in these mergers are described.Comment: 38 pages with 9 embedded Postscript figures. To appear in Merging Processes in Clusters of Galaxies, edited by L. Feretti, I. M. Gioia, and G. Giovannini (Dordrecht: Kluwer), in press (2001

Crossovers in Unitary Fermi Systems

Universality and crossover is described for attractive and repulsive interactions where, respectively, the BCS-BEC crossover takes place and a ferromagnetic phase transition is claimed. Crossovers are also described for optical lattices and multicomponent systems. The crossovers, universal parameters and phase transitions are described within the Leggett and NSR models and calculated in detail within the Jastrow-Slater approximation. The physics of ultracold Fermi atoms is applied to neutron, nuclear and quark matter, nuclei and electrons in solids whenever possible. Specifically, the differences between optical lattices and cuprates is discussed w.r.t. antiferromagnetic, d-wave superfluid phases and phase separation.Comment: 50 pages, 15 figures. Contribution to Lecture Notes in Physics "BCS-BEC crossover and the Unitary Fermi Gas" edited by W. Zwerge