Sources and Expressions of power in global food coordination and rural sites: domination, counter domination and alternatives

Editorial Introductio

The negotiation of quality standards: A social interactionists approach to fruit and vegetable distribution in Argentina

This article addresses food quality standards. It suggests that writing on standards creates a flat view of the subject, failing to grasp the richness of the multiple self-organizing practices that shape quality within functioning markets. The article documents the social dimension of quality and the ‘quality strategies’ developed by fresh-food wholesalers, greengrocers and producers in the Buenos Aires Wholesale Central Market, Argentina. These strategies assemble the freshfood market and construct a representation of quality as an aspect of trade in places where food exchanges are conducted. Using a social interactionist approach, we propose that attention needs to be given to the settings in which food quality standards are negotiated and used by different actors. In so doing we suggest that studies that focus on the diffusion of ‘global’ quality standards should not omit consideration of differential responses to these standards, even if the conditions appear relatively homogeneou

Methods for interpreting lists of affected genes obstained in a DNA microarray experiment

Background - The aim of this paper was to describe and compare the methods used and the results obtained by the participants in a joint EADGENE (European Animal Disease Genomic Network of Excellence) and SABRE (Cutting Edge Genomics for Sustainable Animal Breeding) workshop focusing on post analysis of microarray data. The participating groups were provided with identical lists of microarray probes, including test statistics for three different contrasts, and the normalised log-ratios for each array, to be used as the starting point for interpreting the affected probes. The data originated from a microarray experiment conducted to study the host reactions in broilers occurring shortly after a secondary challenge with either a homologous or heterologous species of Eimeria. Results - Several conceptually different analytical approaches, using both commercial and public available software, were applied by the participating groups. The following tools were used: Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, MAPPFinder, LIMMA, GOstats, GOEAST, GOTM, Globaltest, TopGO, ArrayUnlock, Pathway Studio, GIST and AnnotationDbi. The main focus of the approaches was to utilise the relation between probes/genes and their gene ontology and pathways to interpret the affected probes/genes. The lack of a well-annotated chicken genome did though limit the possibilities to fully explore the tools. The main results from these analyses showed that the biological interpretation is highly dependent on the statistical method used but that some common biological conclusions could be reached. Conclusion - It is highly recommended to test different analytical methods on the same data set and compare the results to obtain a reliable biological interpretation of the affected genes in a DNA microarray experimen

Value contestations in development interventions: community development and sustainable livelihoods approaches

This study examined the work histories of 7,228 homeless persons with mental illness who were enrolled into the multi-site Access to Community Care and Effective Services and Supports (ACCESS) research demonstration program. Multiple logistic regression analyses suggest that use of vocational services is significantly associated with increased likelihood of paid employment. The role of vocational rehabilitation services in removing persons from homelessness and improving their quality of life is discussed

Global Developments, Markets, and Well-being

The relationship among global development, markets, and well-being is an important theoretical and methodologicalassociation to address and analyze theoretical ways of ‘value framing and talking’ among experts, institutions, and people.These relations may take the forms of interfaces, dislocations, and disjunctions, which are expressed under the notion of ‘new materialities’, encompassing the encounter of social and biological sciences. Main social concerns still are civic manifesta-tions, knowledge encounters and policy dilemmas present on contemporary global modernities. This interrelatedness of concepts, ethnography studies, and imagined spaces represents a cosmopolitan configuration that focus on the reflexivity of development studies and direct us to critically reconsider dualistic ways of thinking about the world. Today actors involve themselves arduous laboring of becoming engaged in development processes through social action to organize and materialize their meaning, values, and new subjectivities, as an expectation of becoming 'new' social actors. This orientation reaches the core of anthropology of development endeavor