Perception of quality in certified organic pineapples by farmers in Kayunga district, Central Uganda: Implications for food security

In East Africa, Uganda is one of the major producers of organic pineapples for export. These pineapples are mainly produced in central Uganda and have to meet stringent quality standards before they can be allowed on international markets. These quality standards may put considerable strain on farmers and may not be wholly representative of their quality interpretation. The aim of this paper is therefore, to determine the Ugandan organic pineapple farmers’ quality perception, the activities they carry out in order to attain that quality and challenges (production, postharvest & marketing) faced on the same. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out among 28 organic pineapple farmers in Kayunga district, central Uganda. Findings suggest that quality of organic pineapples is mainly perceived in terms of product attributes particularly appearance followed by food security provision. Certification plays a minor role in what farmers describe as organic quality. High production input costs (labour and coffee husks) coupled with a stagnant premium are some of the major challenges faced by farmers in attaining organic quality. The paper argues that currently there are concealed negative food security effects embroiled in these pineapple schemes. It is recommended that the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) works with all relevant stakeholders to have the farmer premium price raised and an official organic policy enacted.

Las comisiones locales de Educación Intercultural : una respuesta comunitaria a la interculturalidad.

Monográfico con el título: 'La educación en una sociedad multicultural'. Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Conflicto y diálogo intercultural.

Se presenta memoria final de proyecto educativo que propone la aplicación de una metodología basada en el diálogo constructivo, la reflexión y la comunicación para la integración de la comunidad gitana y la superación de conflictos. Se realiza en el IES Francisco de los Cobos en Úbeda, Jaén. Los objetivos son: afrontar desde una posición teórica, práctica y dialógica, el problema del conflicto entre culturas, de la inmigración y de la creciente multiculturalidad de nuestras aulas; incentivar la comunicación intercultural; organización de jornadas de educación intercultural; creación del taller 'jugar y pensar'.

Educación intercultural : nuevos retos y propuestas en los centros de adultos.

Se presenta memoria final de proyecto educativo que pretende facilitar el aprendizaje del español como medio integrador del desarrollo personal, social y cultural de los inmigrantes de la zona. Por otro lado, se pretende sensibilizar a la población autóctona frente al racismo y la xenofobia con el propósito de evitar situaciones de riesgo social y desarraigo cultural en el colectivo de inmigrantes. Se realiza en el CEPER Albuñol en Albuñol, Granada. Los objetivos son: crear un clima de participación y aceptación entre todo nuestro alumnado; mejorar su sentimiento de autoestima; afirmar la identidad cultural y personal de cada uno de nuestros alumnos; facilitar la comunicación intercultural; facilitar la adquisición de una formación instrumental básica; crear aptitudes positivas de comprensión y de solidaridad entre diferentes grupos. Los resultados son: se ha mejorado la autoestima de nuestro alumnado a la hora de realizar tareas propias; se ha creado un clima de aceptación y participación; se ha facilitado la comunicación intercultural mediante la realización de actividades conjuntas; se ha facilitado la colaboración con otros organismos e instituciones; se ha potenciado el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en nuestro centro; se han mejorado las condiciones de participación en nuestras aulas y a su vez de forma paralela en nuestro municipio.

Primer Encuentro del Consejo Regional de la Regi??n de Murcia con Consejos Escolares de Centro : la escuela intercultural en la Regi??n de Murcia

El libro recoge las actas del primer encuentro regional de consejos escolares, reunidos para debatir sobre un tema de gran impacto en la Regi??n de Murcia: la situaci??n de la interculturalidad en los centros escolares. De las conferencias, ponencias, mesa redonda y comunicaciones se puede obtener un perfil bastante ajustado de la poblaci??n inmigrante, su procedencia, las tasas de escolarizaci??n, su distrubuci??n por municipios y centros, su situaci??n acad??mica inicial, los programas espec??ficos de atenci??n promovidos desde la administraci??n, la formaci??n del profesorado, las actuaciones espec??ficas de atenci??n a la diversidad y las propuestas de otras instituciones y organismos: ayuntamientos, ONGs, asociaciones, etc.

I Seminario Regional de Educaci??n Compensatoria e Intercultural en Primaria

La Consejer??a de Educaci??n y Cultura, El Centro de Animaci??n y Documentaci??n Intercultural (CADI) y el CPR Murcia II organizan estas Jornadas con el objetivo de dar a conocer la alta cualificaci??n del profesorado de educaci??n compensatoria e interculturalidad y las ??ltimas tendencias de la educaci??n intercultural, entre ??stas, una propuesta de organizaci??n escolar de compensatoria en EI y EP, el espa??ol como lengua extranjera en primaria, la intervenci??n compensatoria de acuerdo al modelo de programas, etc..

Formaci??n espec??fica en compensaci??n educativa e intercultural para agentes educativos

El recurso puede consultarse desde la p??gina educativa de la Comunidad Aut??noma de la Regi??n de Murcia (EDUCARM)

Educaci??n intercultural y democracia

Ponencia presentada en las terceras jornadas de Educaci??n y Democracia en Murcia. Los autores plantean la estrecha relaci??n entre educaci??n intercultural y democracia. No es posible una educaci??n en el respeto a la diferencia, en el reconocimiento pr??ctico de la igual dignidad de toda persona si no es en una organizaci??n democr??tica de la sociedad. La escuela ha de actuar en la doble direcci??n de reforzar y enriquecer la identidad cultural de cada grupo manteniendo sus signos b??sicos; y a la vez, ir creando espacios y equipamientos comunes para que esos grupos puedan inteactuar, es decir, pensar la educaci??n intercultural desde la pedagog??a del encuentro intercultural. La educaci??n intercultural pasa necesariamente por la adqusici??n de actitudes de tolerancia y respeto y se caracteriza por la promoci??n y defensa de los valores democr??ticos, valoraci??n del pluralismo ling????stico, cultivo metodol??gico del di logo y aceptaci??n de las diferencias como factor de maduraci??n.

Taller de cuentos multimedia : un proyecto intercultural : actividad extraescolar.

El libro contiene el cuento en español titulado: El laberinto de Al-zaqqâq y el CD, además de la versión española, otra en árabe con audio y un vocabulario de 300 palabras.

A Note on Object Class Representation and Categorical Perception

We present a novel scheme ("Categorical Basis Functions", CBF) for object class representation in the brain and contrast it to the "Chorus of Prototypes" scheme recently proposed by Edelman. The power and flexibility of CBF is demonstrated in two examples. CBF is then applied to investigate the phenomenon of Categorical Perception, in particular the finding by Bulthoff et al. (1998) of categorization of faces by gender without corresponding Categorical Perception. Here, CBF makes predictions that can be tested in a psychophysical experiment. Finally, experiments are suggested to further test CBF.

Reciprocal Interactions Between Motion and Form Perception

The processes underlying the perceptual analysis of visual form are believed to have minimal interaction with those subserving the perception of visual motion (Livingstone and Hubel, 1987; Victor and Conte, 1990). Recent reports of functionally and anatomically segregated parallel streams in the primate visual cortex seem to support this hypothesis (Ungerlieder and Mishkin, 1982; VanEssen and Maunsell, 1983; Shipp and Zeki, 1985; Zeki and Shipp, 1988; De Yoe et al., 1994). Here we present perceptual evidence that is at odds with this view and instead suggests strong symmetric interactions between the form and motion processes. In one direction, we show that the introduction of specific static figural elements, say 'F', in a simple motion sequence biases an observer to perceive a particular motion field, say 'M'. In the reverse direction, the imposition of the same motion field 'M' on the original sequence leads the observer to perceive illusory static figural elements 'F'. A specific implication of these findings concerns the possible existence of (what we call) motion end-stopped units in the primate visual system. Such units might constitute part of a mechanism for signalling subjective occluding contours based on motion-field discontinuities.

Exploring Object Perception with Random Image Structure Evolution

We have developed a technique called RISE (Random Image Structure Evolution), by which one may systematically sample continuous paths in a high-dimensional image space. A basic RISE sequence depicts the evolution of an object's image from a random field, along with the reverse sequence which depicts the transformation of this image back into randomness. The processing steps are designed to ensure that important low-level image attributes such as the frequency spectrum and luminance are held constant throughout a RISE sequence. Experiments based on the RISE paradigm can be used to address some key open issues in object perception. These include determining the neural substrates underlying object perception, the role of prior knowledge and expectation in object perception, and the developmental changes in object perception skills from infancy to adulthood.

Role of Low-level Mechanisms in Brightness Perception

Brightness judgments are a key part of the primate brain's visual analysis of the environment. There is general consensus that the perceived brightness of an image region is based not only on its actual luminance, but also on the photometric structure of its neighborhood. However, it is unclear precisely how a region's context influences its perceived brightness. Recent research has suggested that brightness estimation may be based on a sophisticated analysis of scene layout in terms of transparency, illumination and shadows. This work has called into question the role of low-level mechanisms, such as lateral inhibition, as explanations for brightness phenomena. Here we describe experiments with displays for which low-level and high-level analyses make qualitatively different predictions, and with which we can quantitatively assess the trade-offs between low-level and high-level factors. We find that brightness percepts in these displays are governed by low-level stimulus properties, even when these percepts are inconsistent with higher-level interpretations of scene layout. These results point to the important role of low-level mechanisms in determining brightness percepts.

Global Depth Perception from Familiar Scene Structure

In the absence of cues for absolute depth measurements as binocular disparity, motion, or defocus, the absolute distance between the observer and a scene cannot be measured. The interpretation of shading, edges and junctions may provide a 3D model of the scene but it will not inform about the actual "size" of the space. One possible source of information for absolute depth estimation is the image size of known objects. However, this is computationally complex due to the difficulty of the object recognition process. Here we propose a source of information for absolute depth estimation that does not rely on specific objects: we introduce a procedure for absolute depth estimation based on the recognition of the whole scene. The shape of the space of the scene and the structures present in the scene are strongly related to the scale of observation. We demonstrate that, by recognizing the properties of the structures present in the image, we can infer the scale of the scene, and therefore its absolute mean depth. We illustrate the interest in computing the mean depth of the scene with application to scene recognition and object detection.

The Perception of Subjective Surfaces

It is proposed that subjective contours are an artifact of the perception of natural three-dimensional surfaces. A recent theory of surface interpolation implies that "subjective surfaces" are constructed in the visual system by interpolation between three-dimensional values arising from interpretation of a variety of surface cues. We show that subjective surfaces can take any form, including singly and doubly curved surfaces, as well as the commonly discussed fronto-parallel planes. In addition, it is necessary in the context of computational vision to make explicit the discontinuities, both in depth and in surface orientation, in the surfaces constructed by interpolation. It is proposed that subjective surfaces and subjective contours are demonstrated. The role played by figure completion and enhanced brightness contrast in the determination of subjective surfaces is discussed. All considerations of surface perception apply equally to subjective surfaces.