A review of the financial costs and benefits of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification: Implications for future research

Author(s):  
Yeong Sheng Tey ◽  
Mark Brindal ◽  
Marcel Djama ◽  
Ahmad Hanis Izani Abdul Hadi ◽  
Suryani Darham
2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeev Winstok ◽  
Zvi Eisikovits ◽  
Richard Gelles

Most theories dealing with the escalation of intimate violence have examined the components of escalation, rather than the dynamic processes involved. This paper develops a theoretical model addressing the structure and dynamics of escalation. To develop the model, we studied the transition between nonviolent and violent realities of cohabitant couples from the male partner's perspective. A sample of 25 interviews was selected from a database consisting of 120 in-depth qualitative interviews that were collected for a larger study dealing with the experience of violence among cohabiting couples that remained together in spite of the violence. Sampling, data collection, and data analysis followed the principles of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Findings indicate that the men interviewed perceive themselves as entitled and obligated to defend their dyadic existential frameworks, while recognizing the costs and benefits involved in the use of violence to achieve this end. These men tend to create the rules, judge when the rules are being infringed upon, and take steps to enforce the rules. Their evaluation of the extent of their control over their own actions and the related cost–benefit considerations are highly influential in their attempts to reestablish the lost balance in their dyadic life. The process of constructing a reaction to their partner's behavior consists of two distinctive but interrelated phases: (a) identifying an action by the partner and constructing it into being worthy of reaction; (b) constructing an appropriate reaction. Men's construction of the escalation process is not random or situational, but rather constructed within a set of personal, interpersonal, and socially recognized scripts that delineate the boundaries of the entire process. Theoretical and practical implications for assessing the risk of violence and subsequent societal reaction are suggested, as well as directions for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-180
Author(s):  
Afees Salisu ◽  
Abdulsalam Abidemi Sikiru

In this study, we extend the literature analyzing the predictive content of commodity prices for exchange rates by examining the role of palm oil price. Our analysis focuses on Indonesia and Malaysia, the two top producers and exporters of palm oil, and utilizes daily data covering the period from December 12, 2011 to March 29, 2021, which is partitioned into two sub-samples based on the COVID-19 pandemic. Relying on a methodology that accommodates some salient features of the variables of interest, we find that on average the in-sample predictability of palm oil price for exchange rate movements is stronger for Indonesia than for Malaysia. While Indonesia’s exchange rate appreciates due to a rise in palm oil price regardless of the choice of predictive model, Malaysia’s exchange rate only appreciates after adjusting for oil price. However, both exchange rates do not seem to be resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic as they depreciate amidst dwindling palm oil price. Similar outcomes are observed for the out-of-sample predictability analysis. We highlight avenues for future research and the implications of our results for portfolio diversification strategies.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujit Chakravorti

Credit cards provide benefits to consumers and merchants not provided by other payment instruments as evidenced by their explosive growth in the number and value of transactions over the last 20 years. Recently, credit card networks have come under scrutiny from regulators and antitrust authorities around the world. The costs and benefits of credit cards to network participants are discussed. Focusing on interrelated bilateral transactions, several theoretical models have been constructed to study the implications of several business practices of credit card networks. The results and implications of these economic models along with future research topics are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 917-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Knoefler ◽  
Lars I.O. Leichert ◽  
Maike Thamsen ◽  
Claudia M. Cremers ◽  
Dana Reichmann ◽  
...  

The era in which ROS (reactive oxygen species) were simply the ‘bad boys of biology’ is clearly over. High levels of ROS are still rightfully considered to be toxic to many cellular processes and, as such, contribute to disease conditions and cell death. However, the high toxicity of ROS is also extremely beneficial, particularly as it is used to kill invading micro-organisms during mammalian host defence. Moreover, a transient, often more localized, increase in ROS levels appears to play a major role in signal transduction processes and positively affects cell growth, development and differentiation. At the heart of all these processes are redox-regulated proteins, which use oxidation-sensitive cysteine residues to control their function and by extension the function of the pathways that they are part of. Our work has contributed to changing the view about ROS through: (i) our characterization of Hsp33 (heat-shock protein 33), one of the first redox-regulated proteins identified, whose function is specifically activated by ROS, (ii) the development of quantitative tools that reveal extensive redox-sensitive processes in bacteria and eukaryotes, and (iii) the discovery of a link between early exposure to oxidants and aging. Our future research programme aims to generate an integrated and system-wide view of the beneficial and deleterious effects of ROS with the central goal to develop more effective antioxidant strategies and more powerful antimicrobial agents.


Author(s):  
Kate Kenski

This chapter focuses on two biases that lead people away from evaluating evidence and scientific studies impartially—confirmation bias and bias blind spot. The chapter first discusses different ways in which people process information and reviews the costs and benefits of utilizing cognitive shortcuts in decision making. Next, two common cognitive biases, confirmation bias and bias blind spot, are explained. Then the literature on “debiasing” is explored. Finally, the implications of confirmation bias and bias blind spot in the context of communicating about science are examined, and an agenda for future research on understanding and mitigating these biases is offered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 02001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inyang John ◽  
Andrew-Munot Magdalene ◽  
Syed Shazali Syed Tarmizi ◽  
Johnathan Tanjong Shirley

This paper reviews key production process for crude palm oil and highlights factors that highly influence the production of crude palm oil. This paper proposes a generic conceptual model for crude palm production process considering these factors. The conceptual model could be modified to consider other factors not included in this paper. The future research would be to construct a simulation model based on the conceptual model proposed in this paper and analyse the effect of these factors on the performance of crude palm oil production system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex R. Piquero ◽  
Wesley G. Jennings

Although the use of financial penalties is pervasive in the justice system, there has been limited (and mostly dated) empirical research that has investigated the effect of financial costs incurred by juvenile offenders and the extent to which such costs relate to the likelihood of recidivism and reintegration into society. This study uses data from a large cohort of adolescent offenders to examine how demographics and case characteristics relate to financial penalties imposed by the justice system and the degree to which such monetary penalties are related to recidivism in a 2-year follow-up. Results suggest that financial penalties increase the likelihood of recidivism. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Márquez ◽  
Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda ◽  
Adolfo Amézquita

AbstractToxicity is widespread among living organisms, and evolves as a multimodal phenotype. Part of this phenotype is the ability to avoid self-intoxication (autoresistance). Evolving toxin resistance can involve fitness tradeoffs, so autoresistance is often expected to evolve gradually and in tandem with toxicity, resulting in a correlation between the degrees of toxicity and autoresistance among toxic populations. We investigate this correlation in Phyllobates poison frogs, notorious for secreting batrachotoxin (BTX), a potent neurotoxin that targets sodium channels, using ancestral sequence reconstructions of BTX–sensing areas of the muscular voltage-gated sodium channel. Reconstructions suggest that BTX resistance arose at the root of Phyllobates, coinciding with the evolution of BTX secretion. After this event little or no further evolution of autoresistance seems to have occurred, despite large increases in toxicity throughout the history of these frogs. Our results therefore provide no evidence in favor of an evolutionary correlation between toxicity and autoresistance, which conflicts with previous work. Future research on the functional costs and benefits of mutations putatively involved in BTX resistance, as well as their prevalence in natural populations should shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms driving the relationship between toxicity and autoresistance in Phyllobates frogs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas White ◽  
Silviu Octavian Petrovan ◽  
Hollie Booth ◽  
Roberto J Correa ◽  
Yasmine Gatt ◽  
...  

The need for conservation action to be cost-effective is widely accepted and this has prompted an increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing financial costs of conservation is equally important, yet its measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sector however, 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 financial 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 direct costs of interventions (i.e. accounting costs), calculate financial benefits, and calculate cost effectiveness. Although recording cost data can be deceptively complex, this framework facilitates the improved recording of financial costs and benefits, and shows how this could enhance the assessment of cost-effectiveness across a broad range of conservation contexts.


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