Better Ate than Never: Reducing Wasted Food

Food waste in modern society is a problem which is quickly gaining traction. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more food reaches landfills than any single material in the trash. This wastes food resources, while 42 million Americans are food-insecure and in need. In order to prevent food waste from reaching landfills and incinerators, we must scrutinize the sources of waste and take novel measures to make use of all edible food. In this paper, we examine three main problems using mathematical modeling. First, we created a model to see if food waste could be used to feed the food-insecure demographic of a state, using Texas as a test example. To model this we examined data about food waste percentage in North America and data about food production in Texas. We calculated food need based on the diets of children and adults, and computed the percentage of need that could be met using food waste. We found that between pessimistic and optimistic estimates, an average of 30% and 60% of food need can be met by food waste for demographics above and below the 185% poverty level. After comparing generated food waste to the needs of the food-insecure in Texas, we examined food consumption traits and habits to determine the food waste for specific household types. These included consumer units of both low and high income with varying family dynamics and ages. To address the problem we evaluated the percent of a household\u27s income spent on various types of food prepared at home, such as fruits, meat, and vegetables. Used data about the amount of food wasted at the consumer level by food type, we calculated the percent of a household\u27s income spent on wasted food by income bracket. We then adjusted this model to include out-of-home food waste and household size, creating a cohesive model for all households. Finally, we provided mathematical models of strategies for the repurposing of wasted food in Illinois. We found the value of specific food items and their rate of purchase from farms in Illinois over a one-year period. Our strategies redirected produce deemed physically unappealing to grocery stores, salvaging $2,396,640 of food that otherwise would have gone to waste. Other waste from the grocery stores is then brought to food shelters, or used in composting to provide both an economic and an environmental boon to the state

Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War

Assassinations are a persistent feature of the political landscape. Using a new data set of assassination attempts on all world leaders from 1875 to 2004, we exploit inherent randomness in the success or failure of assassination attempts to identify assassination's effects. We find that, on average, successful assassinations of autocrats produce sustained moves toward democracy. We also find that assassinations affect the intensity of small-scale conflicts. The results document a contemporary source of institutional change, inform theories of conflict, and show that small sources of randomness can have a pronounced effect on history.

Spanish Research Report for 2020

within the National Program of collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy.Spanish catch and effort information used in this Report is based on the preliminary logbook data contributed by the Spanish Administration. The logbooks information for 2020 was available haul by haul. Table 1 presents the preliminary Spanish catches by species and Division in 2020 in NAFO Regulatory Area. Total effort of the Spanish fleet in 2020 was 1,200 fishing days. In 2020, IEO scientific observers were on board 31 fishing days that it means 3 % of the Spanish total effort. All length, age and biological information presented in this paper is based on sampling carried out by IEO scientific observers. In 2020, 37 samples were taken with 4816 individuals of different species examined (Table 2).The collection of the data presented in this document has been funded by the European Union through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)Versión del editor

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 320)

This bibliography lists 125 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during January, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Force Modulating Dynamic Disorder: Physical Theory of Catch-slip bond Transitions in Receptor-Ligand Forced Dissociation Experiments

Recently experiments showed that some adhesive receptor-ligand complexes increase their lifetimes when they are stretched by mechanical force, while the force increase beyond some thresholds their lifetimes decrease. Several specific chemical kinetic models have been developed to explain the intriguing transitions from the "catch-bonds" to the "slip-bonds". In this work we suggest that the counterintuitive forced dissociation of the complexes is a typical rate process with dynamic disorder. An uniform one-dimension force modulating Agmon-Hopfield model is used to quantitatively describe the transitions observed in the single bond P-selctin glycoprotein ligand 1(PSGL-1)$-$P-selectin forced dissociation experiments, which were respectively carried out on the constant force [Marshall, {\it et al.}, (2003) Nature {\bf 423}, 190-193] and the force steady- or jump-ramp [Evans {\it et al.}, (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA {\bf 98}, 11281-11286] modes. Our calculation shows that the novel catch-slip bond transition arises from a competition of the two components of external applied force along the dissociation reaction coordinate and the complex conformational coordinate: the former accelerates the dissociation by lowering the height of the energy barrier between the bound and free states (slip), while the later stabilizes the complex by dragging the system to the higher barrier height (catch).Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitte

Labour Market Institutions Without Blinders: The Debate over Flexibility and Labour Market Performance

The debate over the influence of labour market flexibility on performance is unlikely to be settled by additional studies using aggregate data and making cross-country comparisons. While this approach holds little promise, micro-analysis of workers and firms and increased use of experimental methods represent a path forward. Steps along this path could help end the current 'lawyer's case' empiricism in which priors dominate evidence.

An algorithm for the computation of multiple Hopf bifurcation points based on Pade approximants

International audienceRecently, a numerical method was proposed to compute a Hopf bifurcation point in fluid mechanics. This numerical method associates a bifurcation indicator and a Newton method. The former gives initial guesses to the iterative method. These initial values are the minima of the bifurcation indicator. However, sometimes, these minima do not lead to the convergence of the Newton method. Moreover, as only a single initial guess is obtained for each computation of the indicator, the computational time to obtain a Hopf bifurcation point can be quite long. The present algorithm is an enhancement of the previous one. It consists in automatically computing several initial guesses for each indicator curve. The majority of these initial values leads to the convergence of the Newton method. This method is evaluated through the problem of the lid-driven cavity with several aspect ratios in the framework of the finite element analysis of the 2D Navier-Stokes equations. The results prove the efficiency and the robustness of the proposed algorithm

Effect of Wrapping Materials on the Microbial Quality of some Street Vended Ready- to - Eat Rice

In many parts of Africa especially in Nigeria, ready-to-eat rice is commonly sold in several locations within the big cities and villages. In this study, one hundred samples of ready-to-eat rice were analyzed in some selected areas in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. The effects of wrapping materials on the microbial quality of the rice samples were determined from seven different locations. The total bacterial counts ranged from 5.66 to 7.30 log10 cfu/g ,total coliform counts ranged from 5.07 to 7.33 log10 cfu/g and total fungal counts ranged from 5.19 to 6.03 log10 cfu/g. The b acterial species isolated from these samples were Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus while the fungal species isolated include Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor spp., and Penicillium sp. Factors such as improper storage as well as handling of the wrapping-materials of the food coupled with the attitude and practices of the vendors are likely to be responsible for the growth of these microorganisms. It was also discovered that improper cooking may contribute to microbial growth. Provision and enforcement of strict hygienic practices would go a long way in improving the quality of the ready-to-eat foods