Application of Internal Control Systems in Organic Export Companies: Two Case Studies from Uganda

The organic agricultural sector of Uganda is considered the most developed in Africa with a total of 296,203 ha organic certified land and the most certified organic producers worldwide (206,800), 90% of whom are small scale farmers. They are certified organic under contract production by export and processing companies, using an Internal Control System (ICS) as a group certification scheme defined by IFOAM (2004). The ICS is a viable and well accepted tool to certify small scale producers in developing countries all over the world. In Uganda however, certification difficulties are stated among the main constraints for the organic sector development. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted from June to August 2008 that aimed at better understanding the organisational context in which the ICS is implemented and at outlining factors for improving ICS performance. Overall, 34 expert interviews after MEUSER & NAGEL (1991) were conducted with two small- to medium-sized organic export and processing companies and their contracted farmers in two districts of central Uganda. Data analysis was carried out according to RITCHIE & LEWIS (2003). Relevant areas influencing ICS implementation were identified as company management, farmers’ production, farmers’ group structures, external consultation and ICS requirements. Contracted organic producers produce quality organic products with a positive environmental effect and comply with the organic regulations. Nevertheless, the results indicate varied constraints in the situation of the contract farming, e.g. the focus on only the export crops, unsatisfactory amounts of purchases, and an increased need for controlling farmers challenging the companies’ working capacities. Developing a good ICS staff structure is hampered by inapplicable consultation and management resulting in fluctuation and conflict of interest. Although the ICS is meant to involve producers, the companies studied bear all the ICS-responsibilities. Sharing responsibilities with producers is a promising new strategy. It is complicated by a lack of trust between the companies and farmers. Farmers’ knowledge on organic farming practices needs to be developed, additional marketing options provided and farmers’ group structures strengthened. Possibilities for improving the ICS concept are in the areas of regulating control by inspectors and farmers, controlling crop purchases, adapting yield estimation and clarifying multiple registration rules. The results obtained from the two companies hint towards opportunities and constraints for improving certification of small scale farmers in developing countries

The Freedom of Speech at Risk in Cyberspace: Obscenity Doctrine and a Frightened University’s Censorship of Sex on the Internet

Fonologisk medvetenhet, ordavkodningsförmåga, bokstavskunskap och arbetsminneskapacitet har visats predicera den tidiga läsförmågan. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur dessa olika kognitiva förmågor tillsammans förklarar läsförståelse hos barn i första klass. Läsförståelse, ordavkodning, fonologisk medvetenhet, bokstavskunskap samt arbetsminne undersöktes hos 36 elever i årskurs ett med normal hörsel och svenska som modersmål. Resultatet visar att ordavkodning och fonologisk medvetenhet tillsammans förklarar 62 % av variansen i läsförståelsen hos deltagarna. Slutsatsen är därmed att ordavkodning och fonologisk medvetenhet tillsammans predicerar läsförståelse i årskurs ett.Phonological awareness, decoding skills, letter knowledge and working memory capacity predict early reading skills. The aim of the present study was to examine how these different basic cognitive abilities together can explain reading comprehension in children during first year of school. Reading comprehension, decoding, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and working memory were studied in 36 children in first grade with normal hearing and had Swedish as their native language. The results show that decoding and phonological awareness together explain 62 % of the variance in reading comprehension among the participants. The conclusion from the present study is that decoding and phonological awareness predict reading comprehension during first grade

MPs use emotive rhetoric to sway voters in high-profile debates

Covering two million parliamentary speeches held in the UK House of Commons and the Irish Parliament, Sara B. Hobolt, Moritz Osnabrügge, and Toni Rodon use a dictionary-based method to measure emotive rhetoric. They show that emotive rhetoric is more pronounced in high-profile legislative debates, such as Prime Minister’s Questions, illustrating that emotive rhetoric is one of the tools politicians can use strategically to appeal to voters

Introduction: Theorizing local migration law and governance

Serving as an introduction to the volume, this chapter begins by setting out some of the recent dynamics in migration governance, including devolution, recentralization and the increasingly proactive stance taken by local authorities in this domain. This, in turn, brought about a “local turn” in migration scholarship. Although generally transdisciplinary and integrative of various methodologies including quantitative, historical, and ethnographic studies, scholarship on the “local turn” has failed to consider legal perspectives where it rescales analyses of migrant reception and inclusion away from the state. This chapter interrogates the relegation of the law to mere context or epiphenomenon and discusses the analytical implications of this curious demotion of a central dimension of governance. In the second instance, this contribution introduces the three themes of this volume as potential launchpads for the further theorization of migration governance based on analyses of legal debates, processes and principles. For this purpose, it offers a brief account of the already existing relevant literature that can inform empirical, conceptual and normative engagements with law as migration governance. The overview of the three themes is, in each case, complemented by a short description of the contribution that the various chapters make to their discussion

Of Bastions and Bulwarks: A Multi-Scalar Understanding of Local Bordering Practices in Europe

In recent years, local authorities in Europe have increasingly developed bordering practices that hinder or further migrant rights, such as the freedom of movement. They bypass national borders by facilitating refugee resettlement, they claim local space to welcome or shun certain migrants, and they develop or break down local impediments to migrant mobility. These local practices, we argue, can best be understood from a multiscalar perspective, which considers processes of placemaking as reproductive of power dynamics. Applying such a perspective to local bordering practices in Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, we point out the importance of the multitude of the actors involved; legal pluralism; and the contextual role of social, economic, and spatial factors. This offers a theoretical foothold for understanding the power dynamics at play when local authorities become bastions or bulwarks, in which some migrants are welcomed, and others are not

The ‘safe harbor’ of Berlin: Socio-legal constellations and complex strategies of divergence

This chapter analyzes the ‘strategies of divergence’ adopted by the City of Berlin following the widespread mobilization in Germany calling for high sea rescues. With its legal status as a city-state, Berlin is generally seen as having played a supportive role when proclaiming itself a ‘safe harbor’. By contrast, this chapter makes three observations to draw attention to the more complex reality shaping strategies of divergence from restrictive national policies. First, local authorities may pursue multiple strategies simultaneously, with the example of Berlin highlighting their interconnection and the extent to which competencies determine a given course of action. Second, the approach taken by municipal actors is shaped fundamentally by its interaction with civil society. Rather than only narrowing discretionary spaces, such movements may widen them by offering local authorities the ability to position themselves strategically. Finally, the coexistence of distinct socio-legal constellations confronting a city necessarily complicates normative assessments of the ‘local turn’ in migration policy. Particularly in the case of legally resourceful localities like Berlin, municipal approaches may seem ambiguous and contradictory, while being pragmatic and strategic from the perspective of the local authorities. This raises questions regarding the reasons behind, and viability of local strategies of divergence

Flood Inundation Mapping in the Logone Floodplain from Multi Temporal Landsat ETM+Imagery

Yearly flooding in the Logone floodplain makes an impact on agricultural, pastoral, and fishery systems in the Lake Chad Basin. Since the flooding extent and depth are highly variable, flood inundation mapping helps us make better use of water resources and prevent flood hazards in the Logone floodplain. The flood maps are generated from 33 multi temporal Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) during three years 2006 to 2008. Flooded area is classified using a short-wave infrared band whereas open water is classified by Iterative Self-organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA) clustering. The maximum flooding extent in the study area increases up to approximately 5.8K km2 in late October 2008. The study also provides strong correlation of the flooding extents with water height variations in both the floodplain and the river based on a second polynomial regression model. The water heights are from ENIVSAT altimetry in the floodplain and gauge measurements in the river. Coefficients of determination between flooding extents and water height variations are greater than 0.91 with 4 to 36 days in phase lag. Floodwater drains back to the river and to the northeast during the recession period in December and January. The study supports understanding of the Logone floodplain dynamics in detail of spatial pattern and size of the flooding extent and assists the flood monitoring and prediction systems in the catchment

Radiometric Correction and 3D Integration of Long-Range Ground-Based Hyperspectral Imagery for Mineral Exploration of Vertical Outcrops

Recently, ground-based hyperspectral imaging has come to the fore, supporting the arduous task of mapping near-vertical, difficult-to-access geological outcrops. The application of outcrop sensing within a range of one to several hundred metres, including geometric corrections and integration with accurate terrestrial laser scanning models, is already developing rapidly. However, there are few studies dealing with ground-based imaging of distant targets (i.e., in the range of several kilometres) such as mountain ridges, cliffs, and pit walls. In particular, the extreme influence of atmospheric effects and topography-induced illumination differences have remained an unmet challenge on the spectral data. These effects cannot be corrected by means of common correction tools for nadir satellite or airborne data. Thus, this article presents an adapted workflow to overcome the challenges of long-range outcrop sensing, including straightforward atmospheric and topographic corrections. Using two datasets with different characteristics, we demonstrate the application of the workflow and highlight the importance of the presented corrections for a reliable geological interpretation. The achieved spectral mapping products are integrated with 3D photogrammetric data to create large-scale now-called “hyperclouds”, i.e., geometrically correct representations of the hyperspectral datacube. The presented workflow opens up a new range of application possibilities of hyperspectral imagery by significantly enlarging the scale of ground-based measurements

Addressing the challenges of modern DNS:a comprehensive tutorial

The Domain Name System (DNS) plays a crucial role in connecting services and users on the Internet. Since its first specification, DNS has been extended in numerous documents to keep it fit for today’s challenges and demands. And these challenges are many. Revelations of snooping on DNS traffic led to changes to guarantee confidentiality of DNS queries. Attacks to forge DNS traffic led to changes to shore up the integrity of the DNS. Finally, denial-of-service attack on DNS operations have led to new DNS operations architectures. All of these developments make DNS a highly interesting, but also highly challenging research topic. This tutorial – aimed at graduate students and early-career researchers – provides a overview of the modern DNS, its ongoing development and its open challenges. This tutorial has four major contributions. We first provide a comprehensive overview of the DNS protocol. Then, we explain how DNS is deployed in practice. This lays the foundation for the third contribution: a review of the biggest challenges the modern DNS faces today and how they can be addressed. These challenges are (i) protecting the confidentiality and (ii) guaranteeing the integrity of the information provided in the DNS, (iii) ensuring the availability of the DNS infrastructure, and (iv) detecting and preventing attacks that make use of the DNS. Last, we discuss which challenges remain open, pointing the reader towards new research areas

Integration of Vessel-Based Hyperspectral Scanning and 3D-Photogrammetry for Mobile Mapping of Steep Coastal Cliffs in the Arctic

Remote and extreme regions such as in the Arctic remain a challenging ground for geological mapping and mineral exploration. Coastal cliffs are often the only major well-exposed outcrops, but are mostly not observable by air/spaceborne nadir remote sensing sensors. Current outcrop mapping efforts rely on the interpretation of Terrestrial Laser Scanning and oblique photogrammetry, which have inadequate spectral resolution to allow for detection of subtle lithological differences. This study aims to integrate 3D-photogrammetry with vessel-based hyperspectral imaging to complement geological outcrop models with quantitative information regarding mineral variations and thus enables the differentiation of barren rocks from potential economic ore deposits. We propose an innovative workflow based on: (1) the correction of hyperspectral images by eliminating the distortion effects originating from the periodic movements of the vessel; (2) lithological mapping based on spectral information; and (3) accurate 3D integration of spectral products with photogrammetric terrain data. The method is tested using experimental data acquired from near-vertical cliff sections in two parts of Greenland, in Karrat (Central West) and Søndre Strømfjord (South West). Root-Mean-Square Error of (6.7, 8.4) pixels for Karrat and (3.9, 4.5) pixels for Søndre Strømfjord in X and Y directions demonstrate the geometric accuracy of final 3D products and allow a precise mapping of the targets identified using the hyperspectral data contents. This study highlights the potential of using other operational mobile platforms (e.g., unmanned systems) for regional mineral mapping based on horizontal viewing geometry and multi-source and multi-scale data fusion approaches