scholarly journals Effects of Multiple Dimensions of Intangible Distance on Agro-food Exports: Evidence from China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Xinran Liu

Intangible distance may play a role as both trade barriers and competitive advantages in cross-border trade. Moreover, for agro-food products, intangible distance reflects the discrepancy between eating habits of the importing and exporting countries, and thus affects agro-food trade also as “eating-habit distance”. This paper investigates the effects of four dimensions of intangible distance on China’s agro-food exports, namely, cultural distance, institutional distance, distance in education, and distance in industrial development. A panel data of 78 countries covering the period 2002-2016 is used, and an extended gravity model is employed. We control for the effects of quality or level of institution, education, and industrial development of China and its trading partners to distinguish the “quality effects” from “distance effects” and to test the robustness of the results. To explore the (possible) different effects of intangible distance on different categories of agro-food products, we consider not only the total agro-food exports, but also the individual samples of the four agro-food categories classified according to the Harmonized System codes. We find that all these dimensions of intangible distance influence China’s agro-food exports significantly, at least for certain categories of agro-food products. Distance in institution, education, and industrial development function as measures of trade costs, whereas cultural distance functions more like a reflection of competitive advantage. Furthermore, when the distance in institution, education or industrial development increases in favor of the importing countries, the negative effects of intangible distance are partly neutralized by the importers’ improved level of institution, education or industrialization.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Wollum ◽  
Shelly Makleff ◽  
Sarah E. Baum

Background: The Individual-Level Abortion Stigma (ILAS) scale is a tool to measure multiple dimensions of stigma among people who have abortions. Despite use of the scale globally, little is known about participant experiences completing the scale. We assessed reactions to and experiences with the scale among women who obtained abortions in Mexico, exploring how the items made them feel about themselves and their abortion.Methods: We conducted 10 in-depth interviews with women approximately 6 months after their abortion. We explored experiences answering the ILAS overall as well as each sub-scale (self-judgement; worries about judgement; isolation; community condemnation). We used thematic analysis to examine overall experiences with the ILAS and framework analysis to summarize responses by sub-scale.Results: Many respondents reported positive experiences responding to the scale or said it served a therapeutic purpose. Other participants said the scale caused strong or mixed emotions or generated doubts. Women generally described mixed and negative reactions to the “worries about judgement” and “community condemnation” sub-scales, and more neutral or positive reactions to the “isolation” and “self judgement” sub-scales. Nearly all respondents hypothesized that completing the ILAS at the time of their abortion would be more difficult than responding months after their abortion.Conclusions: People can experience both positive and negative effects when responding to abortion stigma scales. Use of the scales may cause discomfort and introduce concepts that further perpetuate stigma. This study highlights the importance of carefully considering when it is appropriate to implement the scale and exploring safeguards for participants.


2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (8) ◽  
pp. 290-297
Author(s):  
Stephan Hatt

The expansion of the traffic network, in particular the construction of highways, has continuously diminished and divided into small sections the habitat of wild-living animals during the last decades. However, these negative effects can be minimised if suitable measures with regard to line-conduction and construction are taken against. One of these possibilities are the sown-down overbridges. It is essential that these constructions are planned and built in order to meet the requirements of their future users – the various wild-living animals. This study investigates the success of one of these sown-down overbridges. It is this the Loterbuck-overbridge on the A 4.2.9 near Henggart in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. The focus of this investigation was to find out which species of wild-living animals use the bridge and how much it is frequented. Local people and specialists of the region were interviewed and tracks were picked up on site. Taking into consideration five criteria (species of wild-living animals, positioning and number of overbridges nearby, dimensioning and design of the individual overbridges), the interviews and tracks were assessed. The Loterbuck-overbridge is used by all larger wild-living animals of the region. Especially the browsing and rubbing tracks of deer show that the overbridge has been accepted not only as sown-down overbridge but also as habitat.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1354
Author(s):  
Sergio E. Medina-Cuéllar ◽  
Deli N. Tirado-González ◽  
Marcos Portillo-Vázquez ◽  
Sergio Orozco-Cirilo ◽  
Marco A. López-Santiago ◽  
...  

Utilization of maize stover to the production of meat and milk and saving the grains for human consumption would be one strategy for the optimal usage of resources. Variance and tendency analyses were applied to find the optimal nitrogen (N) fertilization dose (0, 100, 145, 190, 240, and 290 kg/ha) for forage (F), stover (S), cob (C), and grain (G) yields, as well as the optimal grain-to-forage, cob-to-forage, and cob-to-stover ratios (G:F, C:F, and C:S, respectively). The study was performed in central Mexico (20.691389° N and −101.259722° W, 1740 m a.m.s.l.; Cwa (Köppen), 699 mm annual precipitation; alluvial soils). N-190 and N-240 improved the individual yields and ratios the most. Linear and quadratic models for CDM, GDM, and G:F ratio had coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.20–0.46 (p < 0.03). Cubic showed R2 = 0.30–0.72 (p < 0.02), and the best models were for CDM, GDM, and the G:F, C:F, and C:S DM ratios (R2 = 0.60–0.72; p < 0.0002). Neither SHB nor SDM negatively correlated with CDM or GDM (r = 0.23–0.48; p < 0.0001). Excess of N had negative effects on forage, stover, cobs, and grains yields, but optimal N fertilization increased the proportion of the G:F, C:F, and C:S ratios, as well as the SHB and SDM yields, without negative effects on grain production.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Yuan Ma ◽  
Jingzhi Men ◽  
Mingyu Li ◽  
Xiaoyan Li

Rapid industrial development has caused a series of environmental problems, which is not conducive to sustainable development of society as a whole. It is necessary to build a sustainable development evaluation system. Most of the existing literature has evaluated corporate sustainable performance from the economy, environment and society on the basis of triple bottom lines. Considering the research gap and the practice need, an evaluation system is established from four dimensions, referred to as economy, society, environment and responsibility management, and 29 indicators are designed to measure these four dimensions. Twenty seven listed Chinese mining corporations are selected as research samples, and the entropy-weight-based Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is applied to calculate indicators’ weights. Results show that the four dimensions of sustainable performance weights from high to low are society, environment, economy, and management process.


Author(s):  
Mario Martínez-Avella ◽  
Ángela Alarcón-León ◽  
Giovanni Hernández-Salazar

The relation between the cultural distance and the firm’s entry modes to foreign countries has received considerable research attention, and studies have shown the role of experience in this relation. However, previous research has only studied direct experience and neglected the study of vicarious experience. Using a sample of 355 foreign companies that entered Colombia (2007–2017), this research reviews the effect of cultural distance on entry mode choice (e.g., Acquisition vs. Greenfield) and examines the moderating role of vicarious experience in this relationship. The study concludes that the cultural distance positively affects the entry probability by acquisition, and the vicarious experience negatively affects this relationship in four cultural dimensions. If firms have vicarious experience, the effect of cultural distance on the acquisition probability is less and positively influences the entry probability by Greenfield when the cultural distance is in power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and long-term orientation. Nevertheless, vicarious experience has the opposite effect when considering the masculinity dimension. Consequently, we highlight the importance of considering vicarious experience as a different variable of direct experience and the individual effects of cultural distance dimensions for cross-cultural studies in management.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetiana Nechytailo ◽  
Halyna Fesun ◽  
Tetiana Kanivets ◽  
Alla Simak

The article is devoted to the psychological peculiarities of the manifestation of coping-resources of educators. The teaching profession belongs to the category of professions especially vulnerable to stress, since the teacher has to solve various professional tasks in the absence of time and information, constant open contact with people, which entails considerable emotional energy. The professional activity of a modern teacher requires constant and maximum mobilization of their personal resources. Maintaining or enhancing a person's stress resistance is associated with finding and using resources well enough to help the educator overcome the negative effects of stressful situations. The article reveals such characteristics of personality and social environment that facilitate or make possible adaptation to life stresses, promotes the development of a means of overcoming it, and increases stress resistance. These personal structures help a person cope with threatening circumstances and facilitate adaptation. The author analyzes the scientific and psychological approaches to understand personal resources, determinants of the choice of coping-strategies, and the influence of the characteristics of professional activity on the behavior of the individual. Questions about structure, functions, and types of coping behavior are raised. According to the majority of modern researchers, the generalized classification of the methods of mastering stressful circumstances is analyzed: coping aimed at evaluation; problem-oriented coping; coping aimed at emotions. Also presented were the most up-to-date and most modern models of coping resources, which can be viewed from different angles to look at the choice of coping-resources by the personality of the teacher, taking into account the conditions of his professional activity. The organization and methods of conducted research of the features of manifestation of coping-resources in teachers are described. The presented quantitative and qualitative results are disclosed according to the stages of the study. In particular, the analysis of teacher’s coping-strategies depending on the level of emotional burnout, ways of overcoming difficult life situations, as well as the methods of coping-behavior of the respondents. Relationships between teachers' coping-resources and emotional and mental stress as well as the monotony of professional activities are also identified. Adaptive and non-adaptive coping behaviors are differentiated in terms of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral coping strategies are analyzed separately. Based on the theoretical analysis of the scientific literature and empirical research, the author substantiates the relevant conclusions and recommendations for school educators on the effective use of their own coping resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 63-96
Author(s):  
INTISAR SHAHBAZ ◽  

Abstract The problem of drug addiction for individuals, especially young people, is one of the most dangerous pests that cause many problems in various health, social and psychological aspects facing every society, but rather the whole world. The phenomenon of drug addiction often leaves individuals with dangerous negative effects on their behavior, whether towards themselves or towards others, and this requires the relevant institutions to strive for important and constructive solutions to reform such individuals, and then rid them of their negative behaviors, rehabilitate them and integrate them into society, to become active and effective individuals through their adoption of positive behaviors that are acceptable in line with the values, customs and traditions of their societies to which they belong. Therefore, our current study came to shed light on the most important effects resulting from the phenomenon of drug addiction among individuals through achieving the two research objectives which seek to know: 1- Causes of addiction to drug use among individuals 2- The effect of drug abuse on society. Upon verifying the two research objectives by relying on the analytical method of literature and previous studies, the two researchers reached the following results: First - The most important causes of youth addiction to drugs are poverty, begging, loss of one or both parents, the presence of a criminal in his family, invalid education and other various phenomena and deviations. Second - The symptoms of drug addiction push the addicted person to adopt deviant behaviors, as well as afflicting the addicted individual to psychological and mental pressures, and then afflicting his family with chronic diseases, in addition to the family breakdown occurring in the homes of drug addicts. Key words: drugs; Drug effect; The individual and society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 05012
Author(s):  
Taisiya Kolesnik ◽  
Elena Dergacheva

The processes of socialization of the individual in the conditions of substitution of the biosphere by the technosphere are analyzed. It is concluded that the rapid rate of change is aligned with the evolutionarily developed mechanisms of adaptation. This causes deterioration of human health and results in the inability of people to protect themselves from the negative effects of the anthropogenic world. At this conjuncture, the correction of the processes of socialization and adaptation, as well as the development of a system of values that provides for preserving of the biosphere world and life, become the fundamental tasks of education. The results of the analysis show that modern education is losing traction in the process of mindset formation, delegating these functions to other information spheres, virtual reality, and spontaneous areas of Masscult. As a result, the traditional socialization process is broken. Humane correction of the current trends requires a change in the philosophical strategy of education development. As a basis for such a strategy, we propose social pedagogy that directly studies the processes of socialization of individuals. The concept of this discipline allows using the socio-natural approach as the basis for analyzing the processes, taking place in the world and in life.


2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 469-480
Author(s):  
Giang-Nguyen T. ◽  
Byron Havard ◽  
Barbara Otto

<p>Students drop out of schools for many reasons, and it has negative effects on the individual and society. This paper reports a study using data published in 2015 from the Educational Longitudinal Study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics to analyze the influence of parental involvement on low-achieving U.S. students’ graduation rates from high school. Findings indicate that both students and parents share the same perspective on the need for parental involvement in their academic progress. For low-achieving high school students, parental involvement in academic work is a positive factor influencing students’ graduation from high school.</p>


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