By examining the econometric interrelationships of rice export prices of India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, this study examines the most influential rice-exporting countries in the international rice export market. The sampled countries are the source of more than 80% of the global rice exports. In the process, this study relies on online data portals of the United Nations and country-level sources for aromatic and non-aromatic rice export price information from India, Pakistan, and Thailand. This study employed the Prais-Winsten and Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) estimation processes with the error correction procedure. Combining the findings from both models, this study concludes that in terms of interactions, the non-aromatic long-grain rice price of the U.S., and the aromatic rice price of Pakistan are the most correlated prices in the international rice market. Considering the number of countries influenced by the price of a given country, our results indicate that Vietnam is the price leader in the non-aromatic long-grain market, followed by Argentina, Brazil, and India. India, the largest exporter, is the fourth top price leader. In the case of aromatic rice, Thailand is the absolute leader. Many countries in Asia and Africa rely on rice imports to meet domestic demand, where the food security situation is already precarious. Based on the findings, this study suggests closely monitoring rice production and export trends of Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, India and Thailand to provide early warning when necessary to better manage supply shocks in the international rice market.

The aim of this article is to illustrate some key points that will hopefully encourage further reflection on the cinematic representations and meanings of populism in both an Italian and international context. Firstly, we attempt a definition of populism as applied to cinema, drawing on both political science and the literature on film history. Secondly, we turn to film critics and directors, discussing the views some of them hold on populism and film in relation to the Italian cinema of recent years. Thirdly, we discuss how the star system provides a useful point of convergence for our analysis of cinema and populism, looking in particular at postwar commedia all'italiana and the role of Totò in this context. Finally, we draw some conclusions and suggest what directions future research on the issue of populism and Italian cinema could take.

During emergency responses, public health leaders frequently serve in incident management roles that differ from their routine job functions. Leaders’ familiarity with incident management principles and functions can influence response outcomes. Therefore, training and exercises in incident management are often required for public health leaders. To describe existing methods of incident management training and exercises in the literature, we queried 6 English language databases and found 786 relevant articles. Five themes emerged: (1) experiential learning as an established approach to foster engaging and interactive learning environments and optimize training design; (2) technology-aided decision support tools are increasingly common for crisis decision-making; (3) integration of leadership training in the education continuum is needed for developing public health response leaders; (4) equal emphasis on competency and character is needed for developing capable and adaptable leaders; and (5) consistent evaluation methodologies and metrics are needed to assess the effectiveness of educational interventions.

These findings offer important strategic and practical considerations for improving the design and delivery of educational interventions to develop public health emergency response leaders. This review and ongoing real-world events could facilitate further exploration of current practices, emerging trends, and challenges for continuous improvements in developing public health emergency response leaders.

In this article, we explore whether women's underrepresentation among political and workplace decision makers may subject female citizens and employees to COVID-19-related decisions that are at odds with their preferences. We find that women overall, as well as female political party members, workers, and workplace leaders in particular, share a distinctively female perspective that more heavily emphasizes caution with respect to COVID-19 compared with men. Given the limited representation of women leaders across most industries and in politics, COVID-19 regulations are thus likely to be less cautious than would be the case if there were an equitable representation of women across leadership roles. We argue that female employees, in particular, face a representational “double whammy” for COVID-19: gender imbalances in workplace leadership create inequities that are compounded—rather than redressed—by unequal political representation. We conclude by addressing how this dynamic may enhance the movement of women away from Republican candidates moving forward.

This article revisits the foundations of prior research on the effects of plebiscitarian selection mechanisms on candidates' electoral strength. While previous studies do not nest political parties' decision making, the authors argue that party primary effects entail the interdependence of party procedures for candidate selection. The article assesses the validity of the two approaches. Using original data from seven parties and 296 regional elections in Canada, Germany and Spain, and from sixty-two pre-election polls in Germany and Spain, it shows that, other things equal, primary-selected candidates are not stronger than those selected by other procedures. However, there is evidence of a penalty for parties that do not select candidates by primary when their main rival does, in particular when the primary election is not divisive and is held closer to the general election.

It is commonly accepted that leaders play a crucial role in collective action. Existing literature has suggested a number of factors that contribute to the emergence of leaders including, among others, personality, sense of moral responsibility, community pressure, self-interest and institutional exclusion. However, current research tends to suggest that activists are driven by a particular reason to become leaders and that their motivation is static. Based on intensive fieldwork in residential communities in Beijing, this article illustrates that leaders' motivations can be mixed or multiple and that leaders may re-prioritize or adjust their objectives over the course of collective action. The re-prioritizing tends to alter the leaders' behaviour and affect group solidarity and interactions with other group members.

The schooling behaviour of the oval squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana was observed over 4 summers at 3 observation sites in the coastal waters of Okinawa Island, Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. During this field study, 3 static appearances (belt, ball and sheet shape) and 2 transitional appearances (high and low density) were noted, recorded and described. In addition to formations, a member of S. lessoniana schools also displayed particular and repeated behavioural patterns such as vanguard and intimidating display. The 3 observation sites were tropical coral reefs near the coastline at a depth of 1 to 15 m on an average. All participating observers snorkelled and were equipped with various underwater digital video and photographic cameras. The schools observed consisted of 8 to over 100 members with a wide range of body sizes. Despite these biological and locational differences, both static and transitional appearances were consistently observed with equally consistent individual behavioural patterns. There have been studies on related species, Sepioteuthis sepioidea, at the San Blas Islands along the Caribbean coast of eastern Panama, and the same species, S. lessoniana, at a different geographical location, Casuarina Beach on Lizard Island, Australia. The findings of this study are consistent with those reported previously, with some notable differences.

While there is a growing literature on the factors linked to the power held by leaders in state legislatures, the complexity of leadership power as a concept makes assessing it difficult. The author demonstrates that measures of formal leadership power derived from the written rules are uncorrelated with survey measures capturing legislators' own assessments of their leader's strength. These differences have practical importance, with each type of measure yielding different substantive findings in models predicting leadership power.

This lesson explores the use of different management leadership styles and methods that are applied to disaster management situations. Leadership and command are differentiated. Mechanisms that can be used to influence others developed include: 1) coercion; 2) reward; 3) position; 4) knowledge; and 5) admiration. Factors that affect leadership include: 1) individual characteristics; 2) competence; 3) experience; 4) self-confidence; 5) judgment; 6) decision-making; and 8) style. Experience and understanding the task are important factors for leadership. Four styles of leadership are developed: 1) directive; 2) supportive; 3) participative; and 4) achievement oriented. Application of each of these styles is discussed. The styles are discussed further as they relate to the various stages of a disaster. The effects of interpersonal relationships and the effects of the environment are stressed. Lastly, leadership does not just happen because a person is appointed as a manager – it must be earned.