Implementing sustainable food forests: Extracting success factors through a cross-case comparison

Food forests are multistrata ecosystems that pro­vide healthy food, livelihood opportunities, as well as social-cultural and environmental services. With these features, food forests address several prob­lems industrial food systems cause. While the overall number of food forests is continuously increasing worldwide, the rate of uptake is still low. This study reconstructs in detail how different types of food forests (n=7) were realized, mostly in Europe, with a focus on organization and manage­ment. Findings confirm and add to previous studies indicating that the successful implementa­tion of food forests depends on long-term land access, sufficient start-up funds, and adequate farming and entrepreneurial know-how, among other factors. While these are not unique factors compared to other farm and food businesses, sustainable food forests face particular obstacles to secure them. This study offers guidance to food entrepreneurs, public officials, and activists on how to successfully implement food forests to realize their full sustainability potential.

Dinamika Stres Pengasuhan Pada Orangtua dengan Anak Bibir Sumbing

This study aims to explore the dynamics of parenting stress experienced by parents with cleft children. Previous studies were conducted with quantitative methods. therefor a qualitative approach is used to better understand the dynamics of parenting stress through parents' perspective. Purposive sampling is used with the help of NGO who facilitate families with cleft children. The data is analyzed with thematic analysis and cross-case comparison. Result shows that parenting stress began with a stressor, which is the fact that parents had clef children. Parents then showed emotional and behavioral responses which potentially trigger parenting stress influenced by risk and protective factors. Existing risk factors could predict a higher level of parenting stress, meanwhile protective factors are able to reduce the level of parenting stress. This study further finds that mixed emotion could appear as an emotional response, also that religious value played an important role as a protective factor.

Theory vs. Practice: Does Fiscal Policy Crowd Out Business Investment during Crises?

In 2020, the South Korean government aimed to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by enacting a fiscal stimulus package worth 66.8 trillion won. Traditional economic theory warns that such deficit-financed expansionary fiscal policies can have the adverse effect of crowding out business investment, but the current literature is more divided: some argue that the crowding-out effect outweighs the multiplier effect of fiscal stimulus; some claim that the two effects cancel each other out; and others assert that the scale of crowding out is small, at least in recessions. It is important to study the existence and scale of crowding out during recessions to evaluate the soundness of fiscal policies as a countercyclical tool. Thus, this paper examines whether Korea’s fiscal policy crowded out business investment during two severe economic downturns: the “great recession” of 2008 and the “great lockdown” of 2020. The paper uses a cross-time case comparison of the two economic crises in the hopes of drawing generalizable conclusions for South Korea over time. The findings show that Korea’s facility investment continued to increase during the recent pandemic but decreased during the 2008 financial crisis. Was this due to crowding out? Further analysis suggests that the decrease in investment during the 2008 crisis was due to factors other than crowding out. Hence, the paper concludes that Korea’s fiscal responses to the two crises did not crowd out business investment and thus encourages the continued use of appropriately sized and targeted fiscal stimulus during recessions.

Improving the Hydraulic Effects Resulting from the Use of a Submerged Biofiter to Enhance Water Quality in Polluted Streams

Water scarcity is one of the most serious problems facing many countries. In addition, water pollution could lose more water. A submerged biofilter (SB) is used to enhance the self-purification process in polluted streams. However, most previous studies have focused on the efficiency of SB to remove pollutants and there is a lack of studies investigating the hydraulic changes in streams. The current paper aimed to study the hydraulic effects of SB on the flow behavior in streams and how to improve it. An empirical equation for determining the flow rate through SB was developed. Different cases were studied to improve the hydraulic effects resulting from the use of SB. The effect of increasing SB length was tested using different SB lengths. The results showed that increasing the length increased the upstream water depth (h1) and relative heading up (h1/h2). In the second case, comparison between continuous and fragmented SB was tested. The results showed that a fragmented biofilter increased the upstream water depth and the relative heading up. Case three tested the effect of SB height. Different SB heights were tested with a fixed length and constant flow rate. The results revealed that the upstream water depth and relative heading up decreased when the biofilter height decreased. Case four tested the effect of SB with a fixed volume and constant flow rate. In this case, the length and height of SB were changed where the volume was fixed. The results showed that the relative heading up decreased when the SB height decreased and the length increased, which revealed that the SB height can improve the hydraulic impacts. Finally, the use of SB to improve the water quality in polluted streams led to an increase of the relative heading up, which can be reduced by decreasing the height of SB.

Reliability of COVID-19 symptom checkers as national triage tools: an international case comparison study

ObjectivesTriage is a critical component of the pandemic response. It affects morbidity, mortality and how effectively the available healthcare resources are used. In a number of nations the pandemic has sponsored the adoption of novel, online, patient-led triage systems—often referred to as COVID-19 symptom checkers. The current safety and reliability of these new automated triage systems remain unknown.MethodsWe tested six symptom checkers currently in use as triage tools at a national level against 52 cases simulating COVID-19 of various severities to determine if the symptom checkers appropriately triage time-critical cases onward to healthcare contact. We further analysed and compared each symptom checker to determine the discretionary aspects of triage decision-making that govern the automated advice generated.ResultsOf the 52 clinical presentations, the absolute rate of onward referral to any form of healthcare contact was: Singapore 100%, the USA 67%, Wales 65%, England 62%, Scotland 54% and Northern Ireland 46%. Triage decisions were broadly based on either estimates of ‘risk’ or ‘disease severity’. Risk-based symptom checkers were more reliable, with severity-based symptom checkers often triaging time-critical cases to stay home without clinical contact or follow-up.ConclusionThe COVID-19 symptom checkers analysed here were unable to reliably discriminate between mild and severe COVID-19. Risk-based symptom checkers may hold some promise of contributing to pandemic case management, while severity-based symptom checkers—the CDC and NHS 111 versions—confer too much risk to both public and healthcare services to be deemed a viable option for COVID-19 triage.

Conclusion

This chapter draws together the findings from the qualitative comparative analysis and the case studies (cross-case comparison) to debunk the demand-side account of compliance and qualify the impact of the number of veto players. It makes the case that the EU’s response to adverse WTO rulings is best explained by supply-side factors and that policy makers are motivated primarily by the rationalist considerations of reciprocity and reputation. The chapter considers how generalizable these conclusions are beyond the EU. It also reflects on the implications of the analysis for the effectiveness of the WTO and the character of the EU as an international actor. It concludes by reflecting on the utility of the concept of compliance.