Demography and perturbation analyses of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Implications for management

The coffee berry borer (CBB) Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari is the most serious pest of coffee worldwide. Management of the CBB is extremely difficult because its entire life cycle occurs inside the fruit, where it is well protected. Knowing which life stages contribute most to population growth, would shed light on the population dynamics of this pest and help to improve CBB management programs. Two staged-classified matrices were constructed for CBB populations reared in the lab on artificial diets and CBB populations from artificial infestations in the field. Matrices were used to determine demographic parameters, to conduct elasticity analyses, and to perform prospective perturbation analysis. Higher values of the intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) and population growth rate (λ): were observed for CBB populations growing in the lab than in the field (rm: 0.058, λ: 1.74 lab; rm: 0.053, λ: 1.32 field). Sensitivity values for both CBB populations were highest for the transitions from larva to pupa (G2: 0.316 lab, 0.352 field), transition from pupa to juvenile (G3: 0.345 lab, 0.515 field) and survival of adult females (P5: 0.324 lab, 0.389 field); these three vital rates can be important targets for CBB management. Prospective perturbation analyses indicated that an effective management for the CBB should consider multiple developmental stages; perturbations of >90% for each transition are necessary to reduce λ to <1. However, when the three vital rates with highest sensitivity are impacted at the same time, the percentage of perturbation is reduced to 25% for each transition; with these reductions in survival of larvae, pupae and adult females the value of λ was reduced from 1.32 to 0.96. Management programs for CBB should be focused on the use of biological and cultural measures that are known to affect these three important targets.

Transimperial Negotiations and Cultural Anxieties from the Sensation Novel to the Adventure Story

The sensation novels of the 1860s expressed the anxieties of the age, challenged realism, and sought to revive wonder. Within the transformations of modernity, these novels were read and exchanged across the British Empire. Sensation fiction mixed romance and realism and its sensational elements reflected modern tensions and concerns. Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret probed the sources of violence, the cultural measures of sanity, and underscored the transgressions of an oppressed female figure in her search for freedom. Wilkie Collins’s Woman in White likewise challenged cultural certainties, as he observed the expanding popular reading audience. The rise of the adventure story within the imperial designs of colonization expressed a sense of mystery and an encounter with otherness that is interrogated here.

National Culture and the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence

This is the first study to explore the relationship between Inglehart and Baker’s national cultural measures and the stream analogy of lethal violence. Using data for 70 developed and developing countries, the regression analysis indicates that a country with self-expressionism or secularism is likely to have a high suicide rate relative to its homicide rate. In contrast, a country with a survivalism or traditionalism orientation is likely to have a high homicide rate relative to its suicide rate. This study suggests that national culture is related to the direction of lethal violence (i.e., suicide vs. homicide).

Perceived food safety and food defense responsibility for farmers, transporters, retailers and consumers

PurposeContaminated food is a major source of illnesses around the world. This research seeks to learn how people assign responsibility for two food contamination risks and how they allocate costs to reduce these risks to four members of the food supply chain. The aims are to identify differences between countries and test options to control for cultural differences.Design/methodology/approachA random sample of online panellists from six countries (N = 6,090) was surveyed on how they assigned responsibility for controlling natural and accidental food contamination (traditional food safety) and for controlling intentional contamination (food defense) to farmers, transporters/distributors, retailer grocery stores/restaurants and consumers. They were also asked how they would allocate food safety and defense costs to the four groups. Differences between countries were tested with dummy variables and cultural measures.FindingsIn nearly every country, respondents assigned the least responsibility and allocated the smallest cost shares to consumers. In multivariate models, responsibility and cost-share results differed, suggesting that preferences varied by country and that respondents did not allocate costs the same way they assessed responsibility. The food safety and defense models also differed, implying that the respondents believed the two sources of contamination represented different risks.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine how adults allocate the responsibility and costs for food safety and defense to farmers, transporters/distributors, retailer grocery stores/restaurants and consumers. Other research did not differentiate between these two food risks. This study also compared Hofstede's cultural measures with the recently developed Minkov's cultural measures.

Haplaxius crudus (American palm cixiid).

Haplaxius crudus, commonly known as American palm cixiid, is native to the American tropics and subtropics. The species was first described from Jamaica in 1907 and is currently known from northern South America, Central America, certain islands of the Caribbean, and Florida and southern Texas in the USA. The adults of H. crudus feed mainly on palms, particularly coconut palms, while the nymphs feed mainly on grasses. The main economic impact of H. crudus is as a vector of coconut (or palm) lethal yellowing (LY) caused by Candidatus Phytoplasma palmae, a highly destructive disease that affects at least 37 species of palms, including coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) and date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). Control of LY is best achieved by the planting of resistant cultivars integrated with cultural measures such as ground cover management because chemical control of H. crudus is not practical. International trade in palms from LY-infected areas is prohibited because of the threat of the disease and vector spreading not only to coconuts and date palms, but also to palms that are important as ornamental plants or as local sources of food or fibre.

Recognition to Come: Towards a Deconstructive Encounter with Iranian Identity in a Globalized World

Considering the “relativization of identity”, “the positive recognition of the other”, “the mutual evaluation of cultures”, and the “creation of a normative world culture” as “four main kinds of cosmopolitan relationships” and, therefore, using the term cosmopolitanism in a “post-Western” register of meaning, I will make a case that Iranian identity in a post-Islamist condition needs a kind of struggle for recognition if it wants to locate itself at the interface of the local and the global. Taking the correlation between the discourse of post-Islamism and a deconstructive theory of identity into consideration, this paper addresses a central question in identity studies: can a downgraded identity rooted in a decent civilization—one in which both “moral” and “material” values for the globalized word have demoted—be reinvented? I argue that being accorded recognition, however, is different from self-congratulation within the boundaries of a local identity. In the former case, a nation’s identity is recognized for something it offers to the multifacetedness and multidimensionality of the contemporary world. In the latter, that identity retreats to the civilizational memory of ancestors now no longer relevant to the world issues. For a nation to reinvent its cultural identity from a universal vantage point, it is necessary to articulate its experiences in particular cultural forms which can be understood by others. It is only then that one’s self becomes known to the other, as well as to oneself. This paper will deconstruct the concept of identity and then discuss the challenges and prospects of reinventing identity in the particular context of post-Islamist Iran. Challenges refer to the crises of an identity that could prevent its revitalization such as a persistent failure to acknowledge the historical crisis of an identity in terms of both “material” and “cultural” measures. Prospects refer to the availability of internal mechanisms that could enable reinvention of an identity, e.g., the availability of internal mechanisms that would allow the reinvention of cultural identity.

PREVENTION OF TAKING UP THE HIGHEST POSITION IN THE CRIMINAL HIERARCHY: CULTURAL ASPECT

The paper analyzes the features of the criminal subculture that contribute to strengthening the criminal hierarchy and occupying the highest position in it. Regulatory and attributive features of the criminal subculture are highlighted. The corresponding cultural measures aimed at prevention of taking up the highest position in the criminal hierarchy are reduced to overcoming totalitarianism and extremism, the cult of criminal leaders’ personality, restriction on the use of cult tattoos, jargon, and other attributes of the criminal subculture. It is specified that when identifying a person who holds the highest position in the criminal hierarchy, special knowledge is essential not only regarding the mental sphere of the criminal but also about the criminal “world”, which in its whole forms a certain criminal subculture. It is proved that the attributive elements of the criminal subculture perform a number of functions in the criminal world, such as communication, conspiracy identification, and stratification as they allow to establish affiliation of a particular individual to a particular criminal caste. The paper specifies cultural determinants of taking up the highest position in the criminal hierarchy, and on their basis describes criminological approaches to prevent this type of crime. It is emphasized that the subject of cultural expertise in establishing the fact that a person holds a higher position in the criminal hierarchy is the specific status of this individual, the features of its acquisition, and the presence of distinctive attribute elements. The main task of the expert is to determine the conformity of the process of taking up a specific criminal status by a person to existing norms and traditions of the criminal community. The examples from investigations and court practice demonstrate the possibilities of forensic cultural expertise to establish the facts and circumstances that contributed (could have contributed) to the occupation of the highest position in the criminal hierarchy.

PRESTIGE OF THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE – GUARANTEE OF ITS VITALITY

In the era of globalization, the problem of maintaining linguistic diversity is often discussed. Language, with its external and substantial features, reflects the thought system, the conceptual apparatus, the everyday and cultural differences of the ethnic group. Determining the place of the Kazakh language in the list of languages used and the areas of its use is one of the urgent problems in linguistics. Studies in the field of the language situation in the country and on the levels of knowledge of the Kazakh language make it possible to determine the priorities of the language policy and organize timely and relevant social, cultural, measures to improve the prestige of the state language.The article examines the research of world scientists in the field of determining the vitality of a language and ranking languages by levels. An analysis was made of the functioning of the Kazakh language in Kazakhstani society and proposals were made to improve the viability of the state language.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND HAPPINESS: DOES NATIONAL CULTURE MATTER?

Considerable research has been conducted in the field of entrepreneurship. However, very few studies have explored the impact of entrepreneurship on the life satisfaction/happiness of individuals. Furthermore, they have yet to analyze the extent to which the impact of entrepreneurship is mediated by national cultures. The present study explores the effect of entrepreneurship on the life satisfaction/happiness of individuals and analyzes the extent to which such impact is mediated by ‘national cultures.’ Resorting to fixed effect panel data techniques, this study was conducted using the 2016 World Values Survey dataset, encompassing 90350 individuals from 60 countries over the 2010–2013 period, combined with information provided by the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Framework on cultural measures. We found that being an entrepreneur increases the chances of happiness across the entire set of countries analyzed. Culture does matter in such relation as the impact of entrepreneurship on happiness varies across the sample, being positive for sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe and negative for the Middle East culture cluster. Governments should implement active policies to foster the emergence of new businesses because new ventures enable countries not only to increase their output per capita, but also to achieve economic development by stimulating well-being and happiness. Nevertheless, this study highlights the danger of ‘blind’ recipes/formulas to promote entrepreneurship without considering the ‘entrepreneurship ecosystem’ and, at a more general level, the countries’ culture.