Local Cooperation Research Articles

Health in a post-COVID-19 world

In the previous article in this issue (S Afr J Sci. 2022;118(11/12), Art. #13165), the emergence and spread of COVID-19 pari passu with climate change and planetary degradation were interpreted as late manifestations in the trend towards gradual decline into disorder (entropy) in an unstable and ecologically threatened planet. In this article, as we contemplate a post-COVID world, the question is whether new insights could generate courageous, prescient leadership towards new paradigms of health, politics, economics, society, and our relationship with nature. A gloomy prognosis is postulated because of the power of many impediments to such changes, both in an increasingly polarised world and in South Africa as a microcosm. Despite many squandered opportunities and a decline in local and global cooperation between all who have a stake in the future, some hope is retained for innovative shifts towards sustainable futures. Significance: Precarious local and global instabilities are vivid reminders of our interconnectedness with each other and with nature. Insights into local and global threats and opportunities, call for paradigm shifts in thinking about and taking action towards a potentially sustainable future in a country that has its own unique history and problems but is also a microcosm of the world. The impediments to making appropriately constructive paradigm shifts in many countries with their tendencies to authoritarianism that threaten peace and democracy, are even more complex in South Africa, where opportunities for dialogue and cooperation are diminishing. Retaining some hope, with vision and courage for innovative shifts towards a sustainable economic/ecological paradigm locally and globally, is arguably essential.

Collective computational intelligence in biology – Emergence of memory in somatic tissues

Role of memory in the function of biological tissues, organs and organisms remains unexplored with many unanswered questions. In this study, the emergence of associative memory in somatic (non-neural) tissues and its potential relation to tissue function was explored using a number of biologically plausible network topologies in in silico tissues with computing cells. These topologies were local cooperation; complete system-wide cooperation or inhibition; and local cooperation and short- or long-range inhibition. These were tested with and without self-feedback on two-dimensional (2D) three-dimensional (3D) cell networks, resulting in various forms of fully and partially connected networks. Further, both binary inputs with threshold processing and real-valued inputs with nonlinear processing were considered. Results revealed the emergence of diverse forms of tissue memory. In full cooperation, networks produced one fixed attractor indicating the propensity towards a stable memory pattern which in a real tissue could correspond to an invariable physiological state, such as bioelectric homeostasis. The local neighbourhood cooperation produced both a fixed and a limit cycle attractor that could be beneficial for a tissue to hold few associative memories including circadian rhythms. Most interesting results were found for the local cooperation with short- or long-range inhibition topologies that produced a cluster of fixed and limit cycle attractors offering diverse memories. Fixed attractors could correspond to inactive tissue states and active nonrhythmic functional states and limit cycles could correspond to circadian rhythms such as pumping in heart, kidney or liver in various oscillatory regimes. In all topologies, self-feedback abolished or drastically reduced the limit cycles in favour of fixed stable state. These attractor patterns were found to be largely invariant to scale (2D or 3D) and type of inputs and processing. We also explored the self-optimising ability of the ‘local cooperation with global (short- or long-range) inhibition’ 2D topologies with Hebbian learning with fixed and flexible topologies. The fixed topology learned to self-model to consolidate memory towards fewer more stable attractors. The flexible topology even formed new connections to bring the system to a single fixed state. Thus local cooperation with global inhibition topology can offer greater freedom to create diverse memory pattens that can be tempered by learning, self-feedback, and to some extent continuous processing to simplify and consolidate memory towards manageable forms.

Impacts of Cross-Border Interaction from the Perspective of Cross-Border Cooperation Actors

Cross-border cooperation represents a "laboratory" of the international integration process, in which synergy is created between the diverse political, economic, cultural and social characteristics of the actors involved. The present paper examines perceptions of local cross-border cooperation actors in Slovak-Ukrainian borderlands. It is aimed 1) to identify their perceptions regarding the impact of more intensive cross-border interaction and expected impacts of the Association Agreement and 2) to verify the relationship between their views on the effects of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement implementation, as well as on deepening cross-border interaction and their tendency to perceive the EU, Ukraine or Slovakia as reliable partners. The empirical research and the statistical analysis were based on the approach proven within the EXLINEA research project. The results have revealed that the more intensive cross-border interaction has, as perceived by local actors on both sides of the border, a rather positive impact on borderlands. At the same time, perceptions regarding the reliability of Ukraine's partnership with Slovakia and the EU are seen as relatively significant correlates of attitudes of local cross-border cooperation actors. Namely, their attitudes to the effects of cross-border economic interaction, cross-border cooperation and the impacts of the Association Agreement implementation.

“Local cooperation has been the cornerstone”: facilitators and barriers to resilience in a decentralized health system during COVID-19 in Finland

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to elucidate facilitators and barriers to health system resilience and resilient responses at local and regional levels during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilized a qualitative research approach and conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 32) with study participants representing five different regions in Finland. Study participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. All study participants had been in management and civil servant positions during the first year of the pandemic, representing municipalities, municipalities' social and healthcare services, hospital districts and regional state administrative agencies. All interviews were completed remotely from April to December 2021 and the recordings transcribed verbatim. The authors coded the transcripts in ATLAS.ti 9.1 using directed content analysis.FindingsThe findings highlighted a wide range of localized responses to the pandemic in Finland. Facilitators to health system resilience included active networks of cooperation, crisis anticipation, transitioning into crisis leadership mode, learning how to incorporate new modes of operation, as well as relying on the competencies and motivation of health workforce. The authors found several barriers to health system resilience, including fragmented organization and management particularly in settings where integrated health care systems were not in place, insufficient preparedness to a prolonged crisis, lack of reliable information regarding COVID-19, not having plans in place for crisis communication, pandemic fatigue, and outflux of health workforce to other positions with better compensation and working conditions.Originality/valueFactors affecting health system resilience are often studied at the aggregate level of a nation. This study offers insights into what resilient responses look like from the perspective of local and regional actors in a decentralized health system. The results highlight that local capacities and context matter greatly for resilience. The authors call for more nuanced analyses on health systems and health system resilience at the sub-national level.

Decentralization and rural development policies effectiveness: a quasi-experimental evaluation of the LEADER programme

ABSTRACT This paper uses a quasi-experimental approach to test the effect of the French LEADER programme on rural development. Its main contribution is to investigate the impact of the LEADER programme on the attractiveness of treated municipalities and empirically address the role of governance design on the effectiveness of rural development policies. While the results suggest that the LEADER programme succeeds in playing the role of project activator by fostering the local dynamics and cooperation among local actors, the LEADER programme has no additional effect when it is led in parallel to granted rural development projects.

New Classification Method for Independent Data Sources Using Pawlak Conflict Model and Decision Trees.

The research concerns data collected in independent sets-more specifically, in local decision tables. A possible approach to managing these data is to build local classifiers based on each table individually. In the literature, many approaches toward combining the final prediction results of independent classifiers can be found, but insufficient efforts have been made on the study of tables' cooperation and coalitions' formation. The importance of such an approach was expected on two levels. First, the impact on the quality of classification-the ability to build combined classifiers for coalitions of tables should allow for the learning of more generalized concepts. In turn, this should have an impact on the quality of classification of new objects. Second, combining tables into coalitions will result in reduced computational complexity-a reduced number of classifiers will be built. The paper proposes a new method for creating coalitions of local tables and generating an aggregated classifier for each coalition. Coalitions are generated by determining certain characteristics of attribute values occurring in local tables and applying the Pawlak conflict analysis model. In the study, the classification and regression trees with Gini index are built based on the aggregated table for one coalition. The system bears a hierarchical structure, as in the next stage the decisions generated by the classifiers for coalitions are aggregated using majority voting. The classification quality of the proposed system was compared with an approach that does not use local data cooperation and coalition creation. The structure of the system is parallel and decision trees are built independently for local tables. In the paper, it was shown that the proposed approach provides a significant improvement in classification quality and execution time. The Wilcoxon test confirmed that differences in accuracy rate of the results obtained for the proposed method and results obtained without coalitions are significant, with a p level = 0.005. The average accuracy rate values obtained for the proposed approach and the approach without coalitions are, respectively: 0.847 and 0.812; so the difference is quite large. Moreover, the algorithm implementing the proposed approach performed up to 21-times faster than the algorithm implementing the approach without using coalitions.

Застосування в Україні успішого досвіду країн Європейського Союзу в реформуванні адміністративно-територіального устрою та кар’єрної служби

Проаналізовано шляхи проведення реформ адміністративно-територіального устрою в країнах ЄС (Німеччині, Румунії, Данії, Австрії, Естонії, Грузії, Латвії) у площині застосування в Україні успішного досвіду. Досліджено аспекти співпраці з проектами міжнародної технічної допомоги і міжнародними організаціями. Проаналізовано кар’єрну службу в органах місцевого самоврядування у ФРН.

Local Cooperatives´ Contribution to Realising a Green Economy in Nature Parks in Luxembourg

Local Cooperatives´ Contribution to Realising a Green Economy in Nature Parks in Luxembourg

CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE FOREST IN NORTH ACEH REGENCY

The life of woodland area management based totally on commonplace forest regulation has been practiced by the Acehnese. This pastime is done via the wooded area Pawang commonplace organization which has been shown in Aceh Qanun No. 10 of 2008 regarding Customary Institution. This has a look at uses empirical prison research with a qualitative approach the use of primary information and secondary information. In acquiring number one records, respondents and informants had been decided. The effects of research in North Aceh District, forest control based totally on commonplace wooded area regulation has not been practiced optimally. It can be visible that there are nevertheless numerous sub-districts in North Aceh that don't but have the woodland Pawang Customary Institution. Paradoxically, this sub-district has a huge forest area. Then the sub-district authorities and community leaders also do now not understand approximately the woodland Pawang commonplace organization as confirmed in the Aceh Governance regulation and the Qanun on customary institutions. The woodland Pawang customary organization additionally does now not have the capacity and information of forest management based totally on customary wooded area law, so they have no longer been maximal in carrying out their responsibilities. There are numerous limitations in forest management primarily based on Customary law by the wooded area Pawang, such as infrastructure and types of networks and local government cooperation.

Graph convolutional reinforcement learning for resource allocation in hybrid overlay–underlay cognitive radio network with network slicing

Nowadays, wireless communication system is facing the problems of spectrum resource shortage. Cognitive radio technology allows cognitive users to use the spectrums authorized to primary users to improve the spectrum utilization. In this paper, a cognitive network model based on hybrid overlay–underlay spectrum access mode is established. To solve the resource allocation problem, a multi-agent resource allocation algorithm based on graph convolution reinforcement learning which combines deep Q network (DQN) and graph attention network is proposed. DQN is used for action selection and graph attention network is used to obtain the information about neighbours, so as to achieve local cooperation. The proposed algorithm can adaptively optimize cognitive network throughput, spectrum efficiency, or power efficiency by controlling the transmission power and channel selection of cognitive users. To improve the information interaction efficiency, the agent's states are divided into two categories, whether it needs to interact with neighbours or not, which shortens training time and improves convergence speed. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the power efficiency of cognitive networks. Compared with Q-learning, DQN and exiting graph convolutional reinforcement learning algorithm, the proposed algorithm has faster convergence speed and higher stability, and obtains higher network power efficiency.

Determinants of functionality level of farmers training centers in north-west Ethiopia

The Ethiopian agricultural extension system is highly dependent on Farmers/Pastoralists Training Centers (F/PTCs), hereinafter training centers simply. These training centers are established at Kebele level mainly to provide advisory, information, demonstration, and training services to farmers and pastoralists. Nationally, the training centers are categorized into four levels based on their functionality level. The purpose of this study is to assess the determinants of the training centers' level of functionality in North-West Ethiopia. A cross-sectional data were collected from April to June 2020 from 44 training centers. The quantitative data were collected through a survey questionnaire filled by heads of the training centers. The qualitative data were also collected by interviewing key informants, such as Woreda and Kebele level extension workers. The ordered (adjacent-category) logistic model was employed to analyze the determinants of the training centers’ level of functionality. Working experience of development agents (DAs), annual internal revenue, availability of water, and linkage with local cooperatives were found to be significant factors affecting the functionality level of FTCs. Thus, arranging experience sharing platforms among development agents, enabling the training centers to generate their revenue, exploit available water sources, and create strong linkages with locally available cooperatives are suggested to make the low performing training centers at equal footing with the higher performing ones. This study contributes to the literature on what determines the functionality level of FTCs in Ethiopia. It has also a methodological contribution by applying the adjacent-category econometric model which is a rarely used variant of the ordered logistic regression model for ordinal response variables.

The Influence of Board Diversity and Board Conflict on Performance in Consumer Cooperatives in South Korea

Board of directors are important elements in the structure and management of cooperatives. This study examines the relationships between cooperative board diversity (i.e., value and functional) and three performance variables (social performance, operational performance, and democratic performance). Additionally, we hypothesize that conflict (task or relational) mediates these relationships. We argue that decision making, policy, and performance depend on the composition of a board. The empirical analysis, using a sample of 423 female board members in 66 local consumer cooperatives in South Korea, finds that board value diversity can have a negative effect on performance, even though their functional background diversity may be positive, while conflicts over performing tasks may mediate functional background diversity and performance. More specifically, the results indicate that board value diversity is positive and significantly related to relational conflicts, while functional background diversity is negative and significantly related to task conflicts. The findings suggest that performance of cooperatives can be improved with more diverse board with functional backgrounds. We hope that this paper could offer a significant contribution to both the board and corporate governance literature and the diversity literature.

Local and Remote Cooperative Control of Hybrid Distribution Transformers Integrating Photovoltaics in Active Distribution Networks

This paper proposes a hybrid distribution transformer integrating photovoltaics (HDT-PV) with local and remote cooperative control in an active distribution network (ADN). HDT-PVs, regarded as promising devices with high reliability and easy engineering in ADNs, can not only realize the on-site maximum utilization of distributed solar energy but also solve the various power quality problems that follow. Moreover, the reactive power flow in the ADN can be optimized through remote cooperative control of multiple HDT-PVs. In this situation, the two objectives of voltage regulation and network power loss decrease are achieved in the ADN. If the power electronic device in the HDT-PV fails, the HDT-PV is able to work as a conventional distribution transformer by cutting off all power electronic devices and PV systems. Even when a small number of HDT-PVs malfunction, the system can still run stably. Finally, the simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Voice of the Silenced Peoples in the Global Cold War: The Assembly of Captive European Nations, 1954–1972

Voice of the Silenced Peoples in the Global Cold War: The Assembly of Captive European Nations, 1954–1972

Financial analysis of residual vegetable oil reverse logistics on a Park Road, Brazil

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reverse logistics of residual vegetable oil (RVO) in the restaurants on a Park Road in Brazil by identifying their waste disposal methods and analysis of the economic and financial ratio of four reverse channel scenarios proposed by the authors: (1) private-sector transformation of RVO into biodiesel; (2) transformation of RVO into biodiesel by local cooperatives and public administration; (3) RVO reused for soap production by the private sector; (4) RVO reused for soap production by local cooperatives and public administration. The methodology used was a qualitative and quantitative research. The questionnaire applied through personal interview was the method for data collection. The analysis of the results was supported by the capital budgeting techniques: net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and discounted payback. To determine the economic risk of each scenario, the Monte Carlo method was used. The main results showed that there was a monthly production of 1,134 liters of RVO; reverse waste logistics achieve a high rate of adequate disposal, but some problems remain to be solved, such as periodicity of collection; lack of return to the local community and incentive for waste collection. Among the considered proposed scenarios to a better reverse logistics, the production of artisanal soap through a partnership with the public administration was predicted to perform best. In this scenario the estimated payback time of the invested capital was 3 years and 2 months.

Visitor’s Motivational Framework and Wine Routes’ Contribution to Sustainable Agriculture and Tourism

Wine Routes develop inside the larger context of wine tourism (WT), which is increasingly important for rural communities. Italy is one of the most important countries in the world for wine production and tourism. Sicily is one of the leading regions in Italy for wine production and wine tourists. This study focuses on the Sicilian wine routes (SWRs) and gives an excursus of their development during the last ten years, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the study wants to make an attempt to bridge the existing gap in the literature and highlight the nature and extent of the contribution of the SWR to the development of the WT ‘product’ from the perspective of the increasingly booming sustainable–rural tourism. Face-to-face interviews were conducted along the SWRs with 283 wine tourists, 65 wine enterprises, and eight expert stakeholders. The motivations for tourists to visit the first time and their intention to return were investigated by the explorative factor analysis. Moreover, the wine tourist profile was highlighted. Findings outline some specific features of the general experience economy model where visitors’ emotional involvement and local cooperation appear crucial for the integrated territorial development of the backward rural areas of wine regions in different parts of the world. Managerial implications of findings are discussed.

The Role of the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and Labor Office in empowering Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) in the Handicraft Sector in Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan Province

The purpose of this study is to describe the role and strategy of the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and Labor Office in empowering micro enterprises in sasirangan, purun and knotted in Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan Province. This research uses qualitative methods with descriptive analysis and uses the role theory of Siagian with Innovator and Modernisator indicators and empowerment theory from Kartasasmitra with Enabling, Empowering and Protecting indicators. Informants were taken by purposive sampling, then snowball sampling was carried out. The results of this research, The Role of the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and Labor Office that has been carried out are the assistance of mikro enterprises and IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). For roles that are still not optimal, namely in utilizing the free shipping assistance program, KREDIT USAHA RAKYAT subsidies and the use of umkmjuara.id applications. and roles that have not been implemented are the SME's bazar and assistance of RT Mandiri. The suggestions in this study for strategies is to use the SO (Strange Opportunity), need to be made regulations to use local SME's products and need intense cooperation and coordination with villages, sub-districts and the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) and Labor Office in empowering SMEs in Banjarbaru City.

Losses because of risk attitudes or time preference: off-farm cold storage and intertemporal marketing of apple growers in China

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between prudence in risk attitudes and patience of time preference of Chinese apple growers regarding off-farm cold storage of production and marketing in non-harvest seasons. The authors also consider the effect of farmer participation in cooperative-like organizations known as Farm Bases (FBs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors use multiple list methods and elicitation strategies to measure Chinese apple farmers' risk attitudes and time preferences. Because these farmers can either sell their apples immediately to supermarkets or intermediaries or place them in storage, the authors assess correlations between their storage decisions and their preferences regarding risk and time. The authors also differentiate risks involving gains and losses and empirically examine individual risk attitudes in different scenarios.FindingsMarketing decisions are moderately associated with risk attitudes but not time preference. Farmers with memberships in local farmer cooperatives are likely to speculate more in cold storage. Thus, risk aversion behavioral and psychological motives affect farmers' decision-making of cold storage and intertemporal marketing activities. However, membership in cooperatives does not always result in improved income and welfare for farmers.Research limitations/implicationsThe research confirms that behavioral factors may strongly drive vulnerable smallholder farmers to speculate into storage even under seasonal and uncertain marketing volatility. There is the need to think deeper about the rationale of promoting cooperatives and other agricultural forms, because imposing these without careful consideration can have negative impacts.Originality/valueDo risk and time preferences affect the decision of farmers to utilize storage facilities? This question is important because it is not clear if and how risk preferences affect the tradeoff between consuming today and saving for tomorrow, especially for farmers in developing countries.

Gendered precarious employment in China's gig economy: exploring women gig drivers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and resistances

ABSTRACT The article offers a timely study of the gendered experience of gig work in China and prioritises the nexus of an intersectional feminist approach to explore women workers’ situated problematics and precarious employment in ride-hailing platforms. Drawing on ‘chatnography’, conducted over a period of 17 months and semi-structured interviews with 30 women platform drivers, this article makes two important contributions to the robust scholarship of gender and precarious work in the gig economy. First, this research argues that gendered precarious work relations are still prevalent in China's on-demand economy, especially in male-dominated ride-hailing platforms. The patriarchal gender norms and oppressive work relations perpetuate gender inequality and women's oppression. On the one hand, women platform drivers experience gender discrimination from passengers, netizens and followers, male platform drivers, and algorithms. On the other hand, women platform drivers are subject to risks and women's health problems. Second, this study highlights women platform workers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and their resistance to precarious employment and argues that working-class, migrant, and single mothers are in the most perilous situation. This article proposes that platform co-operatives are an alternative organisation of the gig economy, which creates gender-egalitarian, democratic working conditions for platform workers, especially marginalised women workers, and calls for support, actions, and funding for platform co-operativism from international and local agencies, grassroots organisations, governments, universities, co-operatives, and active consumers.

Assessment on Beeswax Production, Processing and Marketing in Selected Districts of Kafa Zone, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia

The study was conducted in the three districts of Kafa Zone of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region being; Chena, Gimbo and Gesha and three peasant associations (PAs) from each district. The main intention was to identify the production, processing and marketing status of beeswax. The districts were purposively selected based on their potential for honey and beeswax production and marketing. The survey data was collected from 239 selected beekeepers and key informants. According to the survey’s result, 94.98% of beekeepers do not practice any processing of honey and sale it in crude form. Only 24(13%) of the respondents practicing collection of beeswax from old combs, ‘tej’ houses and discarded or broken combs while the majorities (87%) of them discarding it as a byproduct. Of those who were collecting beeswax, only 7(29%) were processing it for selling to central markets and other local purposes such as foundation sheet making, smearing top bars and traditional candle/‘tuaf’making. This implies the trends of collecting, processing and marketing of beeswax is at its very infant stages at beekeepers level .Whereas, local mead houses and cooperatives are considered the major actors engaged in processing and marketing of beeswax. According to personal observation during survey, local mead houses are the major sources where beeswax is readily available year round. However, the overall management practice of beeswax at this market segment is very poor. Keywords: beeswax; production, processing; marketing; Kafa zone. DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/119-03 Publication date: September 30 th 2022