Organic chains in the United Kingdom and Germany: lessons for Dutch organic agribusiness

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. This paper presents lessons for Dutch organic agribusiness based on a study of the UK and Germany. The following lessons are drawn: public-private cooperation is desirable for the sake of further development; the supermarket chain is necessary in order to achieve a large market share; consumers and supermarket chains subject organic products to at least the same demands that they have for regular products; communication: [1] a task for the government and market parties, [2] striving for one mark of quality [3] health is the driving motivation, although not communicated as such; organic agriculture has more chains and more segments

A permeabilized cell model for studying cell division: a comparison of anaphase chromosome movement and cleavage furrow constriction in lysed PtK1 cells.

After lysis in a Brij 58-polyethylene glycol medium, PtK1 cells are permeable to small molecules, such as erythrosin B, and to proteins, such as rhodamine-labeled FAB, myosin subfragment-1, and tubulin. Holes are present in the plasma membrane, and the mitochondria are swollen and distorted, but other membrane-bounded organelles of the lysed cell model are not noticeably altered. After lysis, the mitotic apparatus is functional; chromosomes move poleward and the spindle elongates. Cells lysed while in cytokinesis will continue to divide for several minutes. Addition of crude tubulin extracts, MAP-free tubulin, or taxol to the lysis medium retards anaphase chromosome movements but does not affect cleavage. On the other hand, N-ethylmaleimide-modified myosin subfragment-1, phalloidin, and cytochalasin B inhibit cleavage but have no effect on anaphase chromosome movements under identical lysis conditions. These results suggest that actomyosin plays no functional role in anaphase chromosome movement in mammalian tissue culture cells and that microtubule depolymerization is a rate-limiting step for chromosome-to-pole movements

Continuous measurements of real-life bidirectional pedestrian flows on a wide walkway

Employing partially overlapping overhead \kinectTMS sensors and automatic pedestrian tracking algorithms we recorded the crowd traffic in a rectilinear section of the main walkway of Eindhoven train station on a 24/7 basis. Beside giving access to the train platforms (it passes underneath the railways), the walkway plays an important connection role in the city. Several crowding scenarios occur during the day, including high- and low-density dynamics in uni- and bi-directional regimes. In this paper we discuss our recording technique and we illustrate preliminary data analyses. Via fundamental diagrams-like representations we report pedestrian velocities and fluxes vs. pedestrian density. Considering the density range $0$ - $1.1\,$ped/m$^2$, we find that at densities lower than $0.8\,$ped/m$^2$ pedestrians in unidirectional flows walk faster than in bidirectional regimes. On the opposite, velocities and fluxes for even bidirectional flows are higher above $0.8\,$ped/m$^2$.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Slechts enkeling winkelt bewust

Negen op de tien mensen winkelen zonder nadenken. Slechts een kleine minderheid is actief op zoek naar informatie over duurzaamheid en dierenwelzijn. Eten moet vooral lekker, gezond, makkelijk en betaalbaar zijn, blijkt uit onderzoek van het LE

Monitoring groene grondstoffen

Het Platform Groene Grondstoffen heeft een monitoringsmethodiek laten ontwikkelen waarmee het aandeel biomassa dat bijdraagt aan de economie kan worden vastgesteld. Dit rapport beschrijft hoe de monitor is ontwikkeld en waar nog hiaten in de kennis zitten

Verandering laat zich lastig sturen

Hoe de overheid de overgang naar een biobased economy moet aansturen is een ingewikkeld vraagstuk. Dat laat onderzoek van het LEI zien. Er ligt geen afvinklijstje klaar waarmee de overheid deze transitie kan redigeren. De overheid kan zich het best goed verdiepen in wat het bedrijfsleven wil en kan, en daar haar beleid op afstemme

Differentiated Threat and the Genesis of Prejudice: Group-Specific Antecedents of Homonegativity, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Immigrant Attitudes

In this article we argue that an exclusive focus on the generalized aspect of prejudice limits understanding of the structure and genesis of prejudice towards particular out-groups. In order to conceptualize the specific nature of particular prejudices, we propose the differentiated threat approach. This framework postulates that different out-groups challenge diverse realistic and symbolic interests, and that these out-group specific threats affect various socio-economic strata and cultural groups differentially. The differentiated threat approach is applied to analyse majority-group Belgians’ attitudes towards immigrants, Muslims, Jews and homosexuals. The results show that a common denominator of prejudice can be distinguished, but that the prejudices towards the various out-groups contain substantively relevant unique components that are influenced by socio-demographic and attitudinal predictors in diverging ways. Gender traditionalism is found to reinforce homonegativity and temper Islamophobia at the same time. Feelings of relative deprivation are more strongly related to Islamophobia than to other forms of prejudice, and are unrelated to homonegativity. Religious involvement plays a more decisive role in the formation of antiSemitism and homonegativity than it does in the other forms of prejudice. Anti-immigration attitudes show a class gradient that is absent in attitudes towards other out-groups. Our results evidence that the concrete realization of attitudes towards a specific out-group cannot be understood without paying attention to structural and contextual factors, such as social positions, the nature of inter-group relations, power balances and elite discourses