Integrating traditional crop genetic diversity for mountain food security

Introduction brochure to the project 'Integrating Traditional Crop Genetic Diversity into Technology: Using a Biodiversity Portfolio Approach to Buffer against Unpredictable Environmental Change in the Nepal Himalayas'. The project aims to contribute to the conservation of globally important crop biodiversity, which form the basis for food security in areas of high environmental instability and variability in many high-elevation agricultural systems throughout the world. It is implemented by UNEP and executed by Bioversity International, NARC, DoA and LI-BIRD

Gambler's Fallacy: A Gambler's Dilemma

The gambler’s fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy or the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future. It may also be stated as the belief that, if something happens less frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen more frequently in the future. In situations where the outcome being observed is truly random and consists of independent trials of a random process, this belief is false. The fallacy can arise in many situations, but is most strongly associated with gambling, where it is common among players

Tourists' perceptions of memorable experiences: testing the Memorable Tourism Experience scale (MTEs) among tourists to Rovaniemi, Lapland

This study investigates the relationship between the eight dimensions of the Memorable Tourism Experience Scale (MTEs) - hedonism, novelty, local culture, refreshment, meaningfulness, involvement, knowledge and adverse feelings and visitor's behavioral intention. Adverse feeling is an addition to the scale. The sample population of this study consists of tourists who have visited Rovaniemi. The sampling frame was obtained by contacting the Rovaniemi Tourist Information Center and local and foreign travel agencies offering trips to Rovaniemi. Facebook was used to approach potential respondents. Primary data was collected using a web-based self-administered questionnaire. A sample of 100 tourists who have visited Rovaniemi completed the questionnaire. The results indicate that two factors of the Memorable Tourism Experience Scale, i.e. local culture and novelty, significantly influences tourists’ behavioral intention to a destination. All the others were not statistically significant. The findings of this present study suggest that tourism activities and on-site experiences should be thoroughly evaluated whether they satisfy the identified memorable tourism experiential components, especially social interaction with local culture and novelty. After evaluating the tourism programs based on the identified memorable tourism experiential dimensions, tourism operators and travel planners in Rovaniemi can design, promote, market and deliver programs that are novel and involve social interaction with local culture, in order to enhance the probability of delivering memorable experiences

Examining the Antecedents of Spillover within the Context of Tourism : Activities, Memorable Tourism Experiences, Culinary-Gastronomic Experiences and Souvenir Perspective

Postmodernin käsityksen mukaan jokapäiväinen elämä heijastuu matkailuun ja vastaavasti matkailu heijastuu kotiin. Tästä syystä näkemys, että kotona olemisen ja matkustamisen välillä olisi kuilu, on ongelmallinen. Kun kotona ja matkoilla olemista tarkastellaan heijastusvaikutuksen käsitteen kautta, samankaltaisuus on ilmeinen. Silti tätä heijastusvaikutusta ja siihen vaikuttavia asioita on tutkittu vain vähän. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan kotona olemisen ja matkustamisen välistä yhteyttä käsitteen heijastusvaikutus kautta. Väitöskirjassa selvitetään kolmen tutkimuskysymyksellä: 1) Heijastuvatko kodin vapaa-ajan aktiviteetit matkailuun? 2) Miten vapaa-ajan osallistuminen, vapaa-ajan tavat ja psykologinen sitoutuminen korreloivat potentiaalisina kotoa tulevina heijastusvaikutusta edeltävinä tekijöinä matkoilla olon kanssa – tutkimuksessa etenkin lomakäyttäytymisen kanssa, joka liittyy vapaa-ajan mieluisimpaan aktiviteettiin osallistumiseen? 3) Heijastuvatko mieleenpainuvan matkailukokemuksen ulottuvuudet, kulinaaris-gastronomiset kokemukset ja matkamuistot matkoilta kotiin ja kuinka? Tutkimuskysymyksiä käsitellään neljässä eri empiirisessä tutkimuksessa, jotka esitellään kappaleissa 1–4. Tulokset osoittavat samanlaisen käyttäytymismallin perhelomailijoiden vapaa-ajan aktiviteeteissa kotona ja matkakohteessa. Heijastusvaikutus näkyy sekä vapaa-ajan osallistumisen että vapaa-ajan tapojen kautta. Myös oleskelun kesto ja matkakumppani vaikuttivat samojen aktiviteettien harjoittamiseen kotona ja matkakohteessa. Tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan myös hedoniset ja merkitykselliset matkailukokemukset, kulinaaris-gastronomiset kokemukset ja matkamuistot, joilla on heijastusvaikutuksia kotiin ja muuhun elämään matkakokemuksesta saatujen muistojen ja subjektiivisen hyvinvoinnin kautta.The postmodern conceptualisation suggests that everyday life is not different from tourist experiences and problematizes the gap between home and away. The spillover concept is in line with this conceptualisation and the similarities between home and away is more dominant when viewed from this concept. However, the antecedents of spillover from home and away and vice versa have received much less research attention. The purpose of this dissertation is to create a broader understanding of the antecedents of spillover from home to away and vice versa, based on the spillover concept, and consists of three research questions: 1) Does the spillover from home to away hold true with regard to leisure activities that tourists bring to a tourism destination? 2) How does leisure involvement, leisure habits and psychological commitment as potential antecedents of the spillover from home correlate with away, in this case, vacation behaviour linked to favourite leisure activity participation? 3) Do dimensions of a memorable tourism experience scale, culinary-gastronomic experiences and souvenirs trigger a spillover from away to home and how? The research questions are addressed in four distinct empirical studies reported in Articles 1–4. The findings of this study indicate a similar behavioural pattern among family vacationers regarding the activities undertaken at home and at the destination. The study identifies two antecedents of spillover in terms of activities from home to away: leisure involvement and leisure habits. Length of stay and travel companion also had an impact in doing the same activities at home and at the destination. The study also identifies hedonic and meaningful tourism experiences, culinary-gastronomic experiences and souvenirs as antecedents from away or a sub-domain of travel that influences other life domain, home life through memories of a trip experience and subjective well-being.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Emerging Technologies for Automated Information Services and Management(ET)Training Course (October 13, 1997 - January 16, 1998)

This report described role of training in LIS field and different library automation softwar

A guide to the identification and importance of custodian farmers

We often talk about custodian farmers; several countries recognized them by facilitating awards and we often interact with them about what they do on their farm? However, some questions remain, “what do we really mean by custodian farmers?", “what are the characteristics of such custodian farmers?”, "what role they for on-farm and in situ conservation projects and beyond?", “what potential roles they can play?” This guide aims to help practitioners to identify and document such farmers in a systematic manner for better understanding and to enable targeted support towards custodian farmers?

Farmers' management of rice varietal diversity in the mid-hills of Nepal: implications for on-farm conservation and crop improvement

Season-long monitoring of on-farm rice (Oryza sativa, L.) plots in Nepal explored farmers' decision-making process on the deployment of varieties to agroecosystems, application of production inputs to varieties, agronomic practices and relationship between economic return and area planted per variety. Farmers deploy varieties [landraces (LRs) and modern varieties (MVs)] to agroecosystems based on their understanding of characteristics of varieties and agroecosystems, and the interaction between them. In marginal growing conditions, LRs can compete with MVs. Within an agroecosystem, economic return and area planted to varieties have positive relationship, but this is not so between agroecosystems. LRs are very diverse on agronomic and economic traits; therefore, they cannot be rejected a priori as inferior materials without proper evaluation. LRs have to be evaluated for useful traits and utilized in breeding programmes to generate farmer-preferred materials for marginal environments and for their conservation on-farm