scholarly journals The Cost of Gathering Among the Baka Forager-Horticulturalists From Southeastern Cameroon

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandrine Gallois ◽  
Amanda G. Henry
Keyword(s):  
Time Allocation ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Food Acquisition ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Metabolic Equivalent Of Task ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Subsistence Activities

What present-day foragers do for their living and what they eat have long been privileged areas for exploring human behavior, global health, and human evolution. While many studies have focused on hunting and meat acquisition, less attention has been given to gathering and plant foods. Despite evidence of variation in both nutritional quality and energetic costs of gathering different plants, the overall effort spent on gathering in relation to other subsistence tasks is still under explored. In the current context of economic, climate, and social changes, many forager societies also rely on other subsistence strategies, including agriculture and wage labor. In this study, we aim to explore the place of gathering in the livelihood of a mixed economy society, the Baka forager-horticulturalists of southeastern Cameroon, by comparing the involvement and the costs of activities related to food acquisition. From a pool of 153 adult participants (97 women and 56 men), we collected 246 daily records using a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker combined with heart rate monitor and time allocation recalls. We compared the duration, distance traveled, and the intensity of work, measured by calculating the metabolic equivalent of task (MET), of subsistence activities related to food acquisition. Results from this work show that gathering activities, performed by both women and men, are energetically costly, with higher MET values than hunting and fishing activities. Furthermore, the MET values vary depending on the targeted plant foods. We discuss these insights in the overall framework of subsistence patterns, merging them with the socio-cultural and environmental factors that might explain Baka livelihood and subsistence strategy.

Factors affecting the future of the Scottish hydrometric network

1987 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Poodle
Keyword(s):  
Data Acquisition ◽  
Computer Systems ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Data Standards ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
A Minor ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Minor Extent

ABSTRACTThe Scottish Hydrometric Network consists of a number of river gauging stations which have been located at sites considered suitable to provide long term flow records. Economic recession has placed some stress on the gauging programme, and has given rise to extensive closures of gauging stations in England and, to a minor extent so far, in Scotland. The way in which the network became established provides a mixture of strengths and weaknesses which could have unpredictable consequences in an adverse economic climate. Changing technology provides some opportunity to reduce the cost of data acquisition and improve the deployment of manpower, while maintaining data standards. In these changing circumstances, particularly with extensive use of computer systems, it is important that standards are established for data returned to the Water Archive and that the network is not allowed to degenerate by default.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Nicoli Nattrass ◽  
Jeremy Seekings
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Surplus Labour ◽  
Wage Increases ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
Intensive Development

In this introduction to our book, Inclusive Dualism, we revisit W. Arthur Lewis’s famous model of development with surplus labour. Lewis emphasized the benefits of dualism, by which he meant economic differentiation and the coexistence of sectors (and of firms within sectors) characterized by different levels of productivity and wages. He proposed an expansion of relatively low-wage, labour-intensive jobs that would raise productivity by drawing ‘surplus’ labour out of subsistence activities. When such surplus labour dried up, wages would rise. In contrast to Lewis, post-2000 advocates of decent work fundamentalism promote wage increases as an instrument to increase labour productivity irrespective of labour market conditions. In the presence of surplus labour, this can have dystopic consequences, as the South African case shows. In South Africa, with its very high unemployment rates, strategies to promote relatively high-wage, high-productivity jobs came at the cost of labour-intensive development and even job destruction, thereby exacerbating poverty and inequality.

Current Research and Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Northern Africa, III

1988 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela E. Close
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
North African ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Khartoum Mesolithic ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
First Time

This article reports on developments in archaeological research in North Africa during the last four years, as these are reflected in the 350, or thereabouts, radiocarbon (and thermoluminescence) dates that have appeared since the last review. The number of new dates, and new data, becoming available indicate that North African archaeology is flourishing, although, in contrast to the earlier decades of this century, the focus seems now to be moving toward the eastern part of the region, and toward matters of adaptation rather than of simple classification, as exemplified by the new interpretations of the Dhar Tichitt Neolithic in Mauritania.The lower Nile Valley has yielded evidence for an intensification of subsistence activities in the Late Palaeolithic in two areas, Makhadma and Kubbaniya, both involving fish-harvesting and the latter also witnessing the use of plant-foods on a scale hitherto undocumented for this period.At the beginning of the Holocene, there is now good evidence for an eighth millennium bc Neolithic in northern Niger, complete with sophisticated ceramics, which complements the evidence already known for similar phenomena further east in the Sahara. There is even a possibility that the Khartoum Mesolithic of the central Nile Valley might be equally old. Our understanding of the Sudanese Neolithic has greatly increased. For the first time, there appears to be a development from the Khartoum Mesolithic into the Khartoum Neolithic, albeit located outside the Valley. The Khartoum Neolithic is more or less confined to the fourth millennium bc, but did give rise to the later Kadada Neolithic. After Kadada, the focus of settlement seems to have shifted outside the Valley until Meroitic times.In the protohistoric and historic periods, we have a better understanding of the chronology of the Egyptian Predynastic, although not yet of its development; what models exist will be radically modified if the pyramids are indeed as old as the dates on them now indicate. Finally, far from the Nile Valley in northern Niger, there comes detailed evidence of the development of a precocious metallurgical tradition within a Neolithic context.

Alternative competitive strategies and the cost of food acquisition in juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Aquaculture ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 167 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin E Adams ◽  
Felicity A Huntingford ◽  
James F Turnbull ◽  
Christopher Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Salmon ◽  
Salmo Salar ◽  
Competitive Strategies ◽  
Food Acquisition ◽  
Atlantic Salmon Salmo Salar ◽  
Juvenile Atlantic Salmon ◽  
The Cost

scholarly journals Predictive coding over the lifespan: Increased reliance on perceptual priors in older adults – a magnetoencephalography and dynamic causal modelling study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason S. Chan ◽  
Michael Wibral ◽  
Patricia Wollstadt ◽  
Cerisa Stawowsky ◽  
Mareike Brandl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Illusory Percept ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Band Activity

AbstractAging is accompanied by unisensory decline; but to compensate for this, two complementary strategies are potentially relied upon increasingly: first, older adults integrate more information from different sensory organs. Second, according to predictive coding (PC) we form ‘templates’ (internal models or ‘priors’) of the environment through our experiences. It is through increased life experience that older adults may rely more on these templates compared to younger adults. Multisensory integration and predictive coding would be effective strategies for the perception of near-threshold stimuli, but they come at the cost of integrating irrelevant information. Their role can be studied in multisensory illusions because these require the integration of different sensory information, as well as an internal model of the world that can take precedence over sensory input. Here, we elicited a classic multisensory illusion, the sound-induced flash illusion, in younger (mean: 27 yrs) and older (mean: 67 yrs) adult participants while recording the magnetoencephalogram. Older adults perceived more illusions than younger adults. Older adults had increased pre-stimulus beta(β)-band activity compared to younger adults as predicted by microcircuit theories of predictive coding, which suggest priors and predictions are linked to β-band activity. In line with our hypothesis, transfer entropy analysis and dynamic causal models of pre-stimulus MEG data revealed a stronger illusion-related modulation of cross-modal connectivity from auditory to visual cortices in older compared to younger adults. We interpret this as the neural correlate of increased reliance on a cross-modal predictive template in older adults that is leading to the illusory percept.

scholarly journals The Changes of Forms of Public Contestation in PostDemocracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-143
Author(s):  
Roman V. Savenkov
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Funding ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Basic Institution ◽  
The Cost

The paper discusses the main trends in changing forms of political contestation of citizens in contemporary competitive and non-competitive political regimes. Social transformations led to the destruction of traditional social groups capable of joint political action. Along with social changes in the political sphere, the nature of the basic institution of political contestation - political parties - has changed, acting as political opposition. Contemporary political party reduces the scale of citizen involvement in political action, increasing the cost of political advertising, thereby becoming dependent on influential economic interest groups and state funding. The weakening of the political pressure of society through institutionalized channels led to the disappointment of the democratic system as a whole. Citizens in the contemporary world increasingly prefer noninstitutionalized and illegitimate forms of political action. However, observations of dispute practices in North Africa, the Middle East, Spain, the United States, France, and Russia in the 2010s demonstrate that the dominant position of institutional channels of influence on political and public decisions has been maintained. New opportunities of the Internet for organizing collective actions of citizens have not led to the formation of a new identity of dissatisfied people and the consolidation of effective online deliberation practices.

scholarly journals Never let me go? A case study of deaccessioning and disposal undertaken at Museum of Wellington City and Sea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Loud
Keyword(s):  
Rational Approach ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Systematic Planning ◽  
Strategic Relationships ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Museum Practice

<p>In the current economic climate museums are increasingly being asked to do more with less. For museums that hold collections, this poses a unique challenge. With the cost of collections being relentlessly accumulative, questions are being raised about the long term financial sustainability of current collecting practices. Deaccessioning is being suggested as a way in which museums can improve the quality of their collection without increasing its size. Yet the literature on deaccessioning suggests that the process is fraught with ethical and practical difficulties. By highlighting the negatives aspects of the process, writing in museum studies and practice does little to explore how deaccessioning might be used to achieve positive outcomes. This research addresses this gap by asking whether deaccessioning is a positive tool that, if used appropriately, can assist a museum in improving the quality and manageability of their collection through systematic planning. To understand how and why a museum may permanently remove objects from their collection, the study focuses on one New Zealand museum’s response to the challenge of redeveloping a collection through the process of deaccessioning and disposal. The Museum of Wellington City and Sea’s deaccessioning process is analysed through documentary research and interviews with Museum staff. The interviews offer an understanding of the thought processes and motivations involved in selecting objects to be deaccessioned. The data collected reveals both the challenging aspects of the process but also offers insights into how these aspects can be mitigated or resolved. The conclusions presented in this dissertation suggest that deaccessioning is an integral part of current museum practice that can be used positively to actively shape and refine a museum collection. I argue that some of the beneficial outcomes of the process include greater understanding of collections, improved knowledge and context, resolution of historical collecting problems, strategic relationships built with other museums and improvement in how objects are stored and utilised. More importantly deaccessioning allows museums to determine the character and content of their collections. In order for this to be achieved, I recommend that museums adopt a rational approach to reviewing their collections that is multi-disciplinary, transparent and acknowledges how their collection is used in the achievement of their institution’s mission.</p>

scholarly journals The multisourcing model of safe supply chain management

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Lesia Kostiuchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Change ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Supply Channel ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Right ◽  
Supply Costs ◽  
The Cost ◽  
A Company

The logistics outsourcing concept is to address the feasibility of using its own capabilities and sources of supply to perform certain logistics functions that the company can entrust to an external partner. However, in the current context of rapid change, it is important to make a quick and efficient decision on sources of supply: regardless of the sourcing model of the company. That is, what is the usual supply strategy for the company. Security (reliability and stability) of supplies is at the first place. Therefore, a quick decision on the optimal source of supply is the optimal solution. More precisely is the optimal combination of the use of internal resources of the company and the resources of external suppliers. Multisourcing is a type of outsourcing used by many companies in conditions of frequent changes. Unlike traditional outsourcing, the multisourcing model involves the use of several different vendors for the same product at different times. The decision depends on the level of security. For example, with multiple sources, a company can choose the best supplier for a particular task. By outsourcing certain operations, a company can perform critical tasks on its own. These actions can achieve optimization of operating costs. However, when deciding on multisourcing, it is important to assess the risks. It is important to estimate the cost of supply according to different options. You should compare the results of calculations and compare with the risks. These actions can ensure security of supply. So, the proposed economic and mathematical model is able to help to make the right decision of the rational choice of supply channel from several alternatives and, as a consequence, to achieve the following main goals: improving the quality of supply management; reduction of the logistics cycle; reduction of supply costs; increase the reliability of supply

Four-Year Experience of Digital Slide Telepathology for Intraoperative Frozen Section Consultations in a Two-Site French Academic Department of Pathology

2020 ◽  
Vol 154 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-423
Author(s):  
Astrid Laurent-Bellue ◽  
Eric Poullier ◽  
Jean-François Pomerol ◽  
Eric Adnet ◽  
Marie-José Redon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Frozen Section ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Digital Slide ◽  
Intraoperative Frozen Section ◽  
Period 2 ◽  
Implementation Period ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives To share our experience with digital slide telepathology for intraoperative frozen section consultations (IOCs) and to describe its evolution over time by reporting performance metrics and addressing organizational and economic aspects. Methods Since 2013, a technician has been alone at the surgical site. At the other site, the pathologist opens the digital slide from a local server via the intranet. Three periods were compared: a 6-month period of conventional IOC (period 1), a 24-month period of telepathology at 6 months after implementation (period 2), and a 12-month period of telepathology at 3.5 years after implementation (period 3). Results In total, 87 conventional IOCs and 464 and 313 IOCs on digital slides were performed respectively during periods 1, 2, and 3; mean turnaround time was 27, 36, and 38 minutes, respectively, and there were a mean number of 1.1, 1.1, and 1.3 slides, respectively, per IOC. Diagnostic accuracy was achieved in 95.4%, 92.7%, and 93.9%, respectively, of IOCs (not significant). The additional cost is in the same range as the cost of urgent transport by courier. Conclusions Developing IOC with digital slides is a challenge but is necessary to optimize medical time in the current context of pathologist shortage and budget restrictions.

Feasibility Assessment of the Implementation of Solar and Wind Energy Technologies in the Current Context of Iran-Case Study: Kerman

2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danial Monsefi Parapari ◽  
Shima Taslim ◽  
Arezou Shafaghat
Keyword(s):  
Wind Energy ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Renewable Energies ◽  
Feasibility Assessment ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Private Households ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost

One of the most important issues in various energy issues is to decrease fossil fuel energy usage and promote renewable energies in developing countries. Iran as a developing country began exploiting renewable resources from the early 1990s. This paper investigates the financial viability of renewable energy technologies in Kerman, which is located in the hot and dry parts of Iran and has a high potential of solar and wind energy. First the potential for solar and wind energy sources are studied and afterwards through two quantitative methods, the cost of this implementation is compared to the benefits gained. The results prove that without a massive financial support by the government, renewable energies would not be economically feasible to be implemented into private households.

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