My mother-in-law does not like it: resources, social norms, and entrepreneurial intentions of women in an emerging economy

This paper provides new evidence at the intersectionality of gender, family status, and culture by focusing on a previously little researched group of middle-class women in an emerging economy. While the existing literature examines both structural and normative constraints for women entrepreneurship, little is known about the gains from relaxing structural constraints for women when compared to men. In addition to examining this new question, the paper sheds light on the binding nature of normative constraints for women entrepreneurship that persist in a patriarchal developing economy even when structural constraints are significantly eased. Using a mixed-methods approach, the empirical results suggest that higher resource availability differentially impacts the entrepreneurial intentions of women when compared to men indicating the strong presence of normative barriers that inhibit their entrepreneurship. These normative barriers emerge through the roles people play within women life spheres inhibiting their entrepreneurial intentions.

Social Entrepreneurship In MSME Development

The creative industry through community-based industry on the scale of MSMEs, has developed quite well. The creative industry has the opportunity to continue to increase, because the industry is responsive to absorb the accumulation of social phenomena in society and pour it into the context of products and services. The problems faced by MSMEs are still homework, the problems include fulfilling the market aspect, which is caused by the availability of the goods produced. This study aims to obtain problem information and the right solution approach in answering the existing problems. The results of the study indicate that the problem of human resource availability can be done with alternative solutions in the form of a social entrepreneurship approach with the involvement of the community around the industry

The Fight Against Climate Change From an Indigenous System Perspective

The 21st century has witnessed that climate change has become an acute daily agony. In Africa, to be specific, it has made the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals a myth. It is argued that the implications of climate change are evident in numerous ways on the African continent: incessant floods, cyclones, droughts, and heat waves. These have introduced disastrous outcomes: a heightened threat of food security, inadequate water resource availability, diminished biodiversity, decline in human health viability, and increasing land degradation. At the centre of all this, a more robust understanding of climate change and appropriate palliatives is called for. In South Africa, conservation by the state and numerous stakeholders on the thorny issue of climate change has tended to favour and privilege Western scientific interpretations at the expense of the “indigenous” interpretations as informed by their indigenous epistemologies.

Study of the impact of available healthcare resources on the population’s mortality rate using the hierarchical linear modelling

Introduction. The uneven development of the medical material and technical base and resources is observed worldwide. At the same time, healthcare resource availability is associated with the territorial characteristics of the population’s mortality rate. In order to reduce mortality, a better understanding of this relationship is needed. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of healthcare resource availability on mortality, taking into account the hierarchical nesting of municipalities in subjects of the Russian Federation with further funding for health care and demographic indicators. Material and methods. For these purposes, hierarchical linear modelling is used. The assessment was carried out on the data of 265 municipalities attributed to 6 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The data sources are the Territorial Bodies of the Federal State Statistics Service and the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (www.fedstat.ru). Results. As a result of modelling, the health care resources (doctors, medical personnel, beds) at the municipal level were determined to reduce the population mortality rate positively. At the same time, an ambiguous influence of the actual cost of the territorial compulsory medical insurance program was revealed at the regional level. Conclusion. The results obtained correspond to studies devoted to the regional diversity of the population mortality rate and the available healthcare resources. However, they make it possible to determine the influence of factors taking into account the level of their formation (regional, municipal). The proposed models make it possible to improve the quality of managerial decision-making in the health care system since, taking into account the hierarchical nesting, they share the influence of regional and local factors on the variation of municipalities in terms of the mortality rate of the population.

Landscape Integrity Eclipses Local Effects of Floral Resource Availability on Bumble Bee (Bombus Spp.) Abundance in a Water-Limited Island Ecosystem

ContextHabitat loss threatens to exacerbate climate change impacts on pollinator communities, particularly in Mediterranean-type ecosystems where late season floral resource availability is limited by seasonal drought. While gardens have been found to supplement floral resources in water-limited urban landscapes, less is known about the role of natural habitat diversity in sustaining late season floral resources in more intact landscapes. ObjectivesWe investigated the importance of habitat integrity and diversity for bumble bees in a water-limited ecosystem, observing bumble bee community response to seasonal drought across gradients of disturbance and soil moisture.MethodsWe applied hierarchical models to estimate the effects of local site conditions versus landscape scale estimates of matrix habitat on bumble bee abundance. Floral resources, soil moisture, and other environmental variables were sampled along randomly distributed belt transects. Geospatial estimates of matrix habitat were derived from terrestrial ecosystem data. Bumble bees were sampled with blue vane traps.ResultsIn the late season we found that modified wet areas supported more floral resources and bumble bee workers as compared to dry semi-natural environments. Wetlands also supported more late season floral resources and bumble bee workers, though the latter effect was not significant. Despite higher levels of late season floral resources in modified wet environments, modified matrix habitat was negatively associated, and natural matrix positively associated, with workers in June and late-flying queens in July and August. We also detected differences in bumble bee community composition in disturbed versus undisturbed environments.ConclusionsThough wet modified habitats sustained the highest levels of late season floral resource availability and worker abundances in our study, bumble bee diversity and abundance were limited primarily by the availability of natural matrix habitat at the landscape scale. The conservation of natural habitat integrity and diversity can help support critical nesting and foraging habitat, and should be prioritized in efforts to foster the resilience of pollinator communities.

Biomass Valorization to Bioenergy: Assessment of Biomass Residues’ Availability and Bioenergy Potential in Nigeria

The bioenergy sector in Nigeria currently lacks a proper assessment of resource availability. In this study, we investigated the bioenergy potential of agricultural residues and municipal solid and liquid waste using data from 2008 to 2018, and we applied a computational and analytical approach with mild assumptions. The technical potential for the production of cellulosic ethanol and biogas was estimated from the available biomass. It was discovered that higher energy was generated from biogas than cellulosic ethanol for the same type of residue. The available crop residue technical potential of 84 Mt yielded cellulosic ethanol and biogas of 14,766 ML/yr (8 Mtoe) and 15,014 Mm3/yr (13 Mtoe), respectively. Biogas has diverse applications ranging from heat to electric power generation and therefore holds great potential in solving the current electricity crisis in Nigeria. It will also position the nation towards achieving the 7th sustainable development goal (SDG 7) on clean and affordable energy.

Forest Fires Reduce Snow-Water Storage and Advance the Timing of Snowmelt across the Western U.S.

As climate warms, snow-water storage is decreasing while forest fires are increasing in extent, frequency, and duration. The majority of forest fires occur in the seasonal snow zone across the western US. Yet, we do not understand the broad-scale variability of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and water resource availability. Using pre- and post-fire data from 78 burned SNOTEL stations, we evaluated post-fire shifts in snow accumulation (snow-water storage) and snowmelt across the West and Alaska. For a decade following fire, maximum snow-water storage decreased by over 30 mm, and the snow disappearance date advanced by 9 days, and in high severity burned forests snowmelt rate increased by 3 mm/day. Regionally, forest fires reduced snow-water storage in Alaska, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest and advanced the snow disappearance date across the Rockies, Western Interior, Wasatch, and Uinta mountains. Broad-scale empirical results of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and snowmelt inform natural resource management and modeling of future snow-water resource availability in burned watersheds.

Game of theories: an agent-based model of how variation in contest cost-benefits determines the evolution of contest resolution rules

Game-theory based models are used to understand rules that animals use to settle contests over indivisible resources. However, the empirical literature of contests indicates controversial support to models, with some species supporting different models and other species showing no support to any model. Since strategies used to resolve contests may have different associated costs, it is possible that different conditions have determined the evolution of distinct assessment strategies used by animals. We used an agent-based model to explore the importance of the following conditions: resource availability, probability of reproduction with resource, and damage costs on evolution of assessment strategies. We used self- and mutual-assessment models as a heurist framework to build agents with different assessment strategies. In our model, agents competed for resources in scenarios with different combinations of resource availability, probability of reproduction with resource, and damage costs. We found that agents following the self-assessment with damage strategy were prevalent in scenarios with no probability of reproduction without the resource, independently of other variables. We also found that agents following the non-aggressive strategy occurred in all scenarios. However, agents using the non-aggressive strategy were prevalent only in scenarios with probability of reproduction with the resource. Finally, we observed that agents using mutual-assessment occurred only in a scenario with high risk of damage, low availability of resources, and with probability of reproduction without the resource. These results indicate that agents following the self-assessment with damage and non-aggressive strategies may be able to stay at most scenarios.