Search results

Abstract

Research background: Food production financing in Nigeria has been a source of concern for many years, causing the entire country to experience intense food insecurity as a direct consequence of entirely unnecessary insensitivity to what is needful at a time. This research took all of these misgivings into consideration and aims to figure out the degree to which direct taxes could alleviate this pressure by earmarking more direct tax receipts to farming activities.

Purpose: The major and particular objective of this study is to investigate the effect of direct taxation on agricultural financing in Nigeria. For this research, direct taxes such as the hydrocarbon tax, taxable income of individuals, and corporate income tax are used.

Research methodology: The evaluation is carried out by collecting secondary data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on selected direct taxes and agricultural outlay from the Central Bank of Nigeria's Statistical Bulletin. The study runs from 2012 to 2021. The research utilizes a multiple regression strategy.

Result: The findings demonstrate that all of the direct tax types examined have a negligible impact on agricultural funding. This leads to the suggestion that Nigerian tax rules be modified to allow for a significant use of tax revenue for agriculture.

Novelty: Investigations on agricultural financing through tax receipts have been scarce. This study adds to the small amount of literature in this area and has empirically established the need for an emerging nation to have a tax system that will meet the investment requirements of agricultural productivity.

En Guadeloupe, un des trois départements français des Amériques (DFA), la question de l'évolution statutaire et donc de son affranchissement de la tutelle française est une vieille antienne qui faute d'adhésion populaire fait l'objet de procrastination de la part des acteurs locaux. Cela signe les contradictions qui traversent ces territoires mais surtout l'absence totale de projet géopolitique ambitieux partagé qui contribuerait à rendre plus lisible la nature des relations de cette supposée « rebelle Guadeloupe » avec la France. La Guadeloupe comme les autres DFA est écartelée entre le besoin d'une domiciliation de pouvoir et d'affirmation identitaire et le maintien d'un confortable niveau de vie qu'engendrent les transferts sociaux et budgétaires de l'État et autres avantages que lui confère son statut de département et de région ultrapériphérique européenne. Cet article tente d'appréhender l'irrationalisme apparent du comportement politique guadeloupéen. Tenter de saisir les enjeux de la géopolitique électorale guadeloupéenne c'est mettre à l'épreuve les contradictions et les forces centripètes qui agissent pour produire une territorialité atypique que l'on nomme « guadeloupéanité ». C'est surtout révéler la force, la prégnance des représentations historiques collectives qui nourrissent les discours démagogiques des syndicats anarcho-indépendantistes. Il en va de même du discours victimaire populiste que développe le Rassemblement national auprès d'une frange populaire de la population guadeloupéenne qui nourrit un ressentiment xénophobe de déclassé envers les populations étrangères. Ces dernières, loin de l'esprit d'assistanat en cours ici, entreprennent et réussissent pour faire vivre leurs communautés mais aussi maintenir des pans entiers de l'économie guadeloupéenne, notamment celle visant un minimum d'autonomie alimentaire et de production dans les filières que désertent les Guadeloupéens.

Abstract

Background
Cardiovascular disease and obesity affect racial and ethnic minorities disproportionally. Public health research suggests that suboptimal diet is an important contributor to health disparities. Limited evidence points at an increased dietary acid load (DAL) in certain ethnic groups. DAL is determined by the balance of acidifying foods and alkaline foods, and elevated DAL scores have been associated with numerous chronic lifestyle-related conditions. The present analysis investigated DAL scores among ethnic groups in the USA.

Methods
Using cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys (NHANES, 2007–2016), we contrasted several markers of DAL (potential renal acid load (PRAL) and net endogenous acid production (NEAP)) between Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Hispanic Blacks, Mexican Americans, Other Hispanics, and Other Race. The comparison included crude scores and adjusted scores following multivariate linear regression.

Results
The sample for this analysis comprised 19,565 participants, which may be extrapolated to represent 156,116,471 United States Americans. When compared to Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Hispanic Blacks and Mexican Americans had significantly higher crude DAL scores. PRALR was highest in Mexican Americans (20.42 (0.61) mEq/day), followed by Non-Hispanic Blacks (17.47 (0.42) mEq/day). Crude NEAPF was highest in Non-Hispanic Blacks (64.66 (0.43) mEq/day), and almost 9 mEq/day higher compared to Non-Hispanic Whites (55.78 (0.39) mEq/day). Multivariate linear regression adjusting for confounders revealed comparable interracial DAL differences.

Conclusions
We found significant DAL differences across the investigated ethnic groups. Whether these differences potentially play a role in population health inequity in the USA will be subject to additional research.

Graphical Abstract

AbstractDespite substantial evidence indicating a close link between action production and perception in early child development, less is known about how action experience shapes the processes of perceiving and anticipating others' actions. Here, we developed a novel approach to capture functional connectivity specific to certain brain areas to investigate how action experience changes the networks involved in action perception and anticipation. Nine‐ and‐12‐month‐old infants observed familiar (grasping) and novel (tool‐use) actions while their brain activity was measured using EEG. Infants' motor competence of both actions was assessed. A link between action experience and connectivity patterns was found, particularly during the anticipation period. During action anticipation, greater motor competence in grasping predicted greater functional connectivity between visual (occipital alpha) and motor (central alpha) regions relative to global levels of whole‐brain EEG connectivity. Furthermore, visual and motor regions tended to be more coordinated in response to familiar versus novel actions and for older than younger participants. Critically, these effects were not found in the control networks (frontal‐central; frontal‐occipital; parietal‐central; parietal‐occipital), suggesting a unique role of visual‐motor networks on the link between motor skills and action encoding.Highlights
Infants' motor development predicted functional connectivity patterns during action anticipation.
Faster graspers, and older infants, showed a stronger ratio of visual‐motor neural coherence.
Overall whole‐brain connectivity was modulated by age and familiarity with the actions.
Measuring inter‐site relative to whole‐brain connectivity can capture specific brain‐behavior links.
Measures of phase‐based connectivity over time are sensitive to anticipatory action.

Many organizations rely on group work to generate creativity, but existing research lacks theory on how groups' responses to recognition for creative achievement shape their subsequent creative outcomes. Through an inductive study of bands nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy from 1980 to 1990, we develop a theory of reactions to early recognition in creative groups. Our multi-method analyses include oral histories from members of each band and quantitative data, which we use to triangulate the processes they describe. Our findings reveal that groups developed sets of emergent reactions and active adjustments to the recognition and its consequences, which we call "recognition orientations." We identify three such orientations—absorbing, insulating, and mixed—that reflect how groups interpret recognition and integrate it into their subsequent processes. Most groups struggled by absorbing recognition, which led to internalizing expectations and opening their relationships to outsiders, ultimately inhibiting creativity. Some groups began to insulate themselves from recognition by externalizing expectations and bounding relationships, allowing them to sustain creative output over time. Finally, other groups developed a mixed orientation, initially experiencing the pitfalls of elevated recognition-seeking but ultimately attempting to insulate their need for external recognition by refocusing on their creative process. These findings reveal that recognition can upend the creative process, and groups that begin absorbing recognition are, ironically, less likely to earn it again in the future. Filling a critical research gap on creative production among groups that intend to continue working together, the results distinguish the skills needed to manage recognition from those needed to generate creativity, and offer insight into how groups enact longevity.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important forage source for livestock, while wild cassavas (maniçoba and pornunça – Manihot sp.), native from Brazilian semi-arid have the potential to feed ruminants in drylands. We hypothesized that maniçoba and pornunça have a chemical composition and morphophysiological responses similar to cassava cultivars. Nine Manihot plants were evaluated, six wild cassava accessions (BGMS 20, BGMS 21, BGMS 22, BGMS 26, BGMS 79, and BGMS 102), pornunça (BGMS 24) and two cassava cultivars (gema-de-ovo [GO] and engana-ladrão [EL]). We evaluated two 6-month crop cycles under a completely randomized design with four replicates. The genotype BGMS 20 had higher shoot biomass than BGMS 24, BGMS 79, EL, and GO, as well as higher leaf mass than EL and GO. Photosynthesis, leaf temperature, stomatal conductance, and transpiration were similar among the genotypes (13.83 µmol.m-2.s-1, 29.90 ºC, 0.12 mol.m-2.s-1 and 2.75 mmol.m-2.s-1, respectively). EL had a shoot crude protein content higher than the others, except for BGMS 21 and BGMS 24. Genotypes did not differ concerning in situ and in vitro (dry matter (DM)) degradability and mineral composition. BGMS 24 had a higher number of leaves than the others, and BGMS 20 had taller plants than the other genotypes, except for BGMS 21 and BGMS 22. In vitro gas production was similar among the genotypes considering total carbohydrates. Wild cassava accessions showed shoot biomass, leaf mass physiological responses, and chemical composition compatible with cassava cultivars; therefore, they show potential as alternative forages for livestock.

The purpose of the article is to characterize the features of the formation and formation of the creative personality of B. Stupka through the prism of trends in the development of Ukrainian theatrical art and to determine the foundations and achievements of the actor's performing skills. The research methodology consists of the use of typological, empirical, art criticism, analytical, axiomatic methods of researching the concept of the professional activity of the stage master, its initial period and stage development and, analyzing the main features of B. Stupka's acting skills, her specific features in the process of working on the image, key criteria the aesthetic value of reproducing the character of the production. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematization of B. Stupka's creative achievements at the beginning of his stage activity and subsequent professional achievements, which formed the fundamental basis of his high stage skills. Conclusions. As a result of the analysis of the study, it can be concluded that formed during the work in the collective of the Lviv Theater. Maria Zankovetskaya, the features of the creative style of Bogdan Stupka received significant development on the stage of the Kyiv Drama Theater. Ivan Franko, largely thanks to close cooperation with S. Danchenko, who not only contributed to the creation of a unique repertoire, consisting of works of serious domestic and world drama, but also a specific creative atmosphere in which the actor gets all the opportunities for a deep interpretation of the image of his character and its disclosure.
Key words: Stupka Bohdan, theater, actor, acting skills.

ABSTRACTThe severe economic impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the global working population can be interpreted as both a fallout from, and a violent assertion of, a larger crisis in the world of work. While this crisis has been attributed to the pre‐existing conditions of widespread informality and precarity in the domain of remunerative work, the authors of this article dig deeper to read these conditions and the crisis tendencies as articulations of certain key contradictions that define the world of work in the present conjuncture of global capitalism. The article highlights three specific contradictions: that between capital and labour in the 'interior' space of capital; that between capital and its 'outside'; and those emerging from 'dispersion' of the circuit of capital to its 'outside'. The 'outside' is the economic space that exists within the capitalist social formation but represents the domain of unwaged work carried out in the processes of non‐capitalist production and distribution, both within and outside the space of the household. The authors argue that the expanded reproduction of capital has sharpened this triad of contradictions in the present conjuncture in specific ways in the global South and the global North through continuous informalization of work, exclusion of masses of population from the 'interior' domain of capital, and insistent dispersion of the circuit of capital to its 'outside' through various forms of 'non‐standard' labour processes and work arrangements. The article provides some illustrations of how these processes have registered and contributed to the crisis situation in the times of the pandemic.

Purpose
This study aims to evaluate the impact of a sustainable production action on consumer trust and purchase intention by a company involved in moral transgression and also analyze the effect on consumer trust and purchase intention if a company, after green marketing, is identified as greenwashing spreader.


Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative nature (n = 121) study uses scale's discriminant and convergent validity analyses, structural equation modeling and Student's t-test.


Findings
Even for previously morally transgressive brands, actions of social legitimation, such as embracing environmental causes, positively impact consumer trust and purchase intention. However, consumers drop brand trust and purchase intention when verifying that this action was greenwashing.


Research limitations/implications
Mediating or moderating variables of ecological awareness, such as religiosity or political view, were not tested.


Practical implications
This article combines the impact of positive, sustainable management actions for morally transgressive companies and the effects of new transgression on their sustainable management action. Thus, it aims to reduce the gap between organizational practice and management research.


Social implications
This article shows that embracing society's emerging causes and helping the world be a better place to live, moving toward the 2030 United Nations agenda, have practical repercussions for organizations.


Originality/value
This article contributes both to the literature and managerial implications by combining the impact of positive, sustainable management actions for morally transgressive companies and the effects of new transgression on their sustainable management action, thus reducing the gap between management research and organizational practice by unveiling the relations between sustainable actions and their perceived consequences.

Purpose
The inclusion of sustainability in higher education courses has been debated in recent decades and has gained particular emphasis throughout the COVID-19. This paper aims to show how the context of the pandemic, which demanded the transition from in-person classes to virtual classes, was used to illustrate better the concepts of life cycle assessment (LCA) for Production Engineering students in a Brazilian University.


Design/methodology/approach
The research strategy used was action research. Throughout the discipline offering, the environmental impacts resulting from in-person and remote classes were comparatively assessed through a practical activity using LCA. Students' behaviour and perception of the activities were recorded by the professor and discussed with the other researchers on the team. At the end of the course, students answered a questionnaire to assess their satisfaction with different aspects of the discipline, and these data were analysed via Fuzzy Delphi.


Findings
The results focus on discussing the pedagogical aspects of this experience and not the environmental impacts resulting from each class modality. It was possible to notice a greater engagement of students when using a project that directly involved their daily activities (food, transportation, use of electronics, etc.) compared to the traditional approach of teaching LCA concepts. In this traditional approach, the examples focussed on the industrial sector, a more distant context from the reality of most students. Student feedback demonstrated great acceptance by them regarding the approach adopted.


Originality/value
This study contributes to expanding debates about sustainability insertion in higher education and the training of professionals more aligned with the sustainable development agenda.

AbstractIn the early years of the common European Energy policy, France has been labelled a black sheep or a bad pupil when it came to applying European and international energy, climate and energy market frameworks. As the country is currently engaged, in its own energy transition process (la transition énergétique) the question arises if these attributions are still valid. This article argues that several points of conflict between Paris and Brussels in the field of energy policy can still be identified today, especially in the areas of market liberalisation, the non-ETS sector and the promotion of renewable energy. Following the EU-compliance theory, the reasons for Paris' deviations can be identified as both intentional and unintentional. On the one hand France is still politically reluctant to fully commit to Brussels energy policy objectives as they clash with the country's view on the energy sector as a public welfare task. On the other hand, France faces systemic constraints due to its strong nuclear fleet, that dominates the country's energy sector and therefore reduces Paris' manoeuvrability within the European Energy framework. Because of this, France should be seen as an involuntary black sheep today, when it comes to non-compliance in EU-energy policy. Based on recent policy developments as well as energy production, consumption and GHG-emission data this article describes the current state of French and European energy and climate policies before analysing Paris' performance towards the European framework goals as well as political reasons and structural constraints that inhibit further progress.

Abstract
Background
Biochar is an important material for remediation of Cd in contaminated paddy soils. However, different biochars have variable effects on bioavailability of Cd while single biochar cannot properly amend immobilized Cd. Co-production of biochar from peanut shells and maize straw at different mass mixing ratios (1:0, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3). The characteristics, properties and effects of co-pyrolysis biochars on amendments of Cd polluted paddy soil was evaluated.

Results
Our research revealed that yield, ash, elemental contents and specific surface area of co-pyrolysis biochars have variable amendment effects compared with single biochar. The co-pyrolysis biochars have produced rich oxygen-containing functional groups and crystal structure, especially 1P3M (co-pyrolysis biochar produced from peanut shell and maize straw in mass ratios of 1:3). The addition of biochar has significantly enhanced pH and EC value, however, content of available Cd during incubation was significantly reduced compared with control treatment. The efficiency of biochars have reduced available Cd in order of 1P3M > M > 1P1M > 1P2M > 2P1M > 3P1M > P after incubation. The 1P3M was most effective in reducing CaCl2-extractable Cd concentration up to 43.97%. The BCR sequential extraction method has produced lowest exchangeable fraction Cd content and highest residual fraction Cd content in 1P3M among all biochar amended treatments.

Conclusions
It is concluded that 1P3M has a much greater potential to decreased the bioavailability of Cd in contaminated paddy soil. And 1P3M was highly effective for transporting Cd from soluble form to less toxic stable forms in polluted paddy soils.

Graphical Abstract

AbstractAdvances in image acquisition technology have made it convenient and economic to collect large amounts of image data. In manufacturing and service industries, images are increasingly used for quality control purposes because of their ability to quickly provide information about product geometry, surface defects, and nonconforming patterns. In production line monitoring, image data often take the form of image streams in the sense that images from the process are being collected over time. In such applications, a fundamental task is to properly analyze image data streams. This image monitoring problem is challenging for several reasons. First, images often have complicated structures such as edges and singularities, which render many traditional smoothing methods inapplicable. Second, a typical grayscale image contains tens of thousands of pixels, so the data is high‐dimensional. It has been shown in the statistical process control (SPC) literature that conventional multivariate control charts have limited power of detecting process shifts when the data dimension is high. In this article, we propose to transform images using a two‐dimensional wavelet basis and monitor the wavelet coefficients by sparse learning‐based multivariate control charts. By adapting the sparse learning algorithm to our quality control problem, the proposed method is able to detect shifts in the wavelet coefficients in a timely fashion and simultaneously identify those shifted coefficients. Combining this feature with the localization property of the wavelet basis, our method also enables accurate diagnosis of faulty image regions. In addition, the proposed charting statistics have explicit formulas, so they are easy to compute. Theoretical justifications and numerical comparisons with an existing method show that our method works well in applications.

Culture scholars have shown that cultural intermediaries play a crucial role in the reproduction of inequalities in consecration (Corse and Westervelt, 2002; Maguire Smith and Matthews, 2012; Miller, 2014; Ridgeway, 2011; Steinberg, 1990 cited in Bourdieu, 2010). However, the analysis of gender inequalities in reception and canonization has focused on individual bias, neglecting the contribution of scholars of hegemonic masculinity about the importance of patterned practices in the reproduction of men's dominance over women (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). Given that art worlds are not settings where typical markers of hegemonic masculinity are valued, such as money and physical prowess, what are the tools of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds? I answer this question through a comparative analysis of the reception of two iconic Canadian feminist novels: L'Euguélionne (2012 [1976]) by Louky Bersianik and The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood. Building on feminist scholarship, I find that the discursive apparatus of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds consists of a derogatory method of reading employed by critics in newspapers. This method of reading is founded on three discursive components: (i) a reductive reading of feminist politics; (ii) a man-centred assessment of feminism and (iii) a questioning of women's creative credibility which belittles the contribution of feminist authors. By translating the concept of boys' club (Delvaux, 2019) and identifying its derogatory method of reading, I propose a framework that illuminates how critical appraisal shapes discursive resources available for both professional and non-professional readers to draw upon for evaluation and classification of women's cultural productions and feminist engagements.

Small scale mining largely remains an informal and unexplored economic sector. Mining is generally dominated by big players in the form of multinational corporations (MNCs) who are characterised by large scale for profit production at the expense of smaller players. In particular, the participation of youth and women in extractive industries is usually restricted to either illegal or small-scale mining. Whilst artisanal and smallscale mining (ASM) is promising and has a potential in terms of employment creation and enterprise development, this sector remains at the periphery of options and is deemed the sector of last resort for most youth and women. The sector is marked by lack of government regulation and neglect with regards to issues of safety, health and environmental protection. Observations from across the African continent and the rest of the developing world indicate that ASM is a formidable source of employment and economic development for poor communities. It could therefore be argued that for youth and women on the continent ASM proffers opportunities and thus needs to be formalised and promoted as a viable option for economic participation especially within poor communities. Using secondary data sources, this paper foregrounds the cooperatives approach, as championed across sectors in South Africa, as a tried and tested model that could be replicated across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to complement existing policy instruments such as the SADC mining protocol and the African Union (AU) Mining Vision. This paper contends that cooperatives offer a low entrance barrier type of formalisation of ASM initiatives for youth and women whereby legal entities within the extractive industries could be established.