Working Arrangements of Fruit and Vegetable Processing Cooperatives

Organization and operations of nine working arrangements developed by fruit and vegetable processing cooperatives are described and evaluated. Three distinct approaches are identified - contractual agreement, affiliation through membership status, and formation of separate business entity. The specific structure and functions of joint undertakings reflect the needs and preferences of the participants. Benefits perceived in the cases cited included scale economies in processing and marketing, capital cost avoidance, product diversification, assured commodity supply, and enhanced market entry.Fruit and vegetable cooperatives, joint ventures, contractual agreements, marketing services, processing services, Agribusiness,

HQE²R - an European assessment tool towards sustainable neighbourhoods

The Institute of Ecological and Regional Development (IOER) is the German contractor of "Sustainable Renovation of Buildings for Sustainable Neighbourhoods" (HQE²R - Haute Qualité Environnementale et Economique Réhabilitation), partially funded by the EC under the Fifth Framework Programme. The project started in July 2001 and will continue until December 2003. Coordinated by CSTB France (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment) it combines research and demonstration aspects by cooperation of nine European partners in connection with 15 international case studies. The project's objective is to develop a new methodology and the necessary tools to promote sustainable development and quality of life on the crucial and likewise challenging level of urban neighbourhoods. HQE²R will be a decision support tool for municipalities and their local partners, focussing on the aims of inhabitants and users of neighbourhoods. In its integrated approach it is meant to be generally applicable in Europe. The project is using the case studies as model neighbourhoods for the methodology to be provided. In Germany the case study will be carried out in Dresden-Loebtau. Loebtau residential area is a traditional workers quarter, cut off from the city-centre by large roads, railroad infrastructure and extensive brownfield sites. Although renovation works have been supported by declaring districts as "rehabilitation areas", Loebtau is facing a high residential vacancy. The challenge is how the considerable success in renovations achieved on building scale can be extended into sustainable neighbourhood development. Main targets therefore are to identify urban development measures towards sustainable development, especially in socio-economic terms and to find an appropriate methodology to estimate or assess the environmental effects arising from different combinations of socio-economic, urban planning and urban infrastructure measures.At ERSA 2002 we would be glad to present the methodology of neighbourhood analysis developed within the HQE²R project. The approach will be demonstrated by the case study of Dresden-Loebtau, showing how the application of the instrument has been carried out in practice. Furthermore the assessment and decision support tool to improve the quality of measures towards a sustainable neighbourhood can be presented in its state of the art, at this time still being under development.

Rationelle Fütterung - Voraussetzung wirtschaftlicher ökologischer Lammfleischerzeugung

Im ökologischen Landbau werden Lämmer zur Fleischerzeugung meist in Weidehaltung oder einer Kombination mit Stallhaltung gemästet. In diesen Haltungsformen ist die perfekte Energie- und Proteinversorgung schwierig zu realisieren. Ein Hauptproblem sind dabei die Anforderungen an die extensive Bewirtschaftung sowie Programme zum Naturschutz, welche zu niedrigen Erträgen und einer geringen Qualität des Futters führen kann. Daher ist eine abschließende Mästung der Lämmer im Stall nötig um die Anforderungen des Marktes zu erfüllen

All Couplings of Minimal Six-dimensional Supergravity

We describe the complete coupling of $(1,0)$ six-dimensional supergravity to tensor, vector and hypermultiplets. The generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism implies that the resulting theory embodies factorized gauge and supersymmetry anomalies, to be disposed of by fermion loops. Consequently, the low-energy theory is determined by the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions, rather than by the requirement of supersymmetry. As already shown for the case without hypermultiplets, this procedure does not fix a quartic coupling for the gauginos. With respect to these previous results, the inclusion of charged hypermultiplets gives additional terms in the supersymmetry anomaly. We also consider the case in which abelian vectors are present. As in the absence of hypermultiplets, abelian vectors allow additional couplings. Finally, we apply the Pasti-Sorokin-Tonin prescription to this model.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX fil

*-Wars Episode I: The Phantom Anomaly

As pointed out, chiral non-commutative theories exist, and examples can be constructed via string theory. Gauge anomalies require the matter content of individual gauge group factors, including U(1) factors, to be non-chiral. All ``bad'' mixed gauge anomalies, and also all ``good'' (e.g. for $\pi ^0\to \gamma \gamma$) ABJ type flavor anomalies, automatically vanish in non-commutative gauge theories. We interpret this as being analogous to string theory, and an example of UV/IR mixing: non-commutative gauge theories automatically contain ``closed string,'' Green-Schwarz fields, which cancel these anomalies.Comment: 20 pages. Added references and minor typos correcte

FGF8 Acts as a Right Determinant during Establishment of the Left-Right Axis in the Rabbit

AbstractBackground: FGF8 has been implicated in the transfer of left-right (L-R) asymmetry from the embryonic midline (node) to the lateral plate mesoderm (LPM). Surprisingly, opposite roles have been described in chick and mouse. In mouse, FGF8 is required for the left-asymmetric expression of nodal, lefty2, and Pitx2. In chick, FGF8 represses nodal and Pitx2 on the right side. This discrepancy could reflect evolutionary differences between birds and mammals. Alternatively, the right-asymmetric expression of fgf8, which is not found in mouse, at the chick node may be a prerequisite of right-sided function. Finally, chick (blastodisc) and mouse (egg cylinder) differ with respect to the topology of the early gastrula/neurula embryo.Results: The rabbit blastodisc was investigated as an additional mammalian L-R model system. While nodal, lefty, and Pitx2 showed asymmetric expression in the left LPM, fgf8 and all other midline marker genes were symmetrically expressed at the node like in mouse. Left-sided application of FGF8 repressed the endogenous transcription of nodal as well as ectopic expression induced by the parallel administration of BMP4. Right-sided inhibition of FGF8 signaling induced bilateral marker gene expression, demonstrating that, in rabbit, FGF8 acts as a right determinant like in chick.Conclusions: These findings suggest that the anatomy of the early embryo (blastodisc versus egg cylinder) rather than taxonomical differences or asymmetry in expression constitutes an important determinant of FGF8 function in L-R axis formation. The rabbit may provide a useful model for early human embryogenesis, as human embryos develop via a blastodisc as well

MSX Mid infrared imaging of massive star birth environments. II: Giant HII regions

We conduct a Galactic census of Giant HII regions, based on the all sky 6cm dataset of Kuchar & Clark, plus the kinematic distances obtained by Russeil. From an inspection of mid-IR Mid-course Space Experiment (MSX) and far-IR IRAS Sky Survey Atlas images we identify a total of 56 GHII regions in the Milky Way, of which 15% (65%) can be seen at optical (near-IR) wavelengths.The mid to far-IR fluxes from each GH {\sc ii} region are measured, and sample the thermal emission from the ubiquitous dust present within the exciting clusters of OB stars, arising from the integrated luminosity of the hot stars heating the cluster dust, for which we obtain log L(IR)=5.5-7.3 L_sun. The mid-IR 21micron spatial morphology is presented for each GHII region, and often indicates multiple emission sources, suggesting complicated cluster formation. IR colour-colour diagrams are presented, providing information about the temperature distribution and optical depth of the dust. For the clusters of our study, the dust is not optically thick to all the stellar radiation, thus the measured infra-red luminosity is lower than the L(bol). As the dust environment of a cluster begins to dissipate, the thermal emission and its optical depth ought to decrease even before the stars appreciably evolve. We see evidence of this in our empirical relationship between the integrated IR and Lyman continuum luminosities.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures (+ 10 figures for electronic edition). Accepted for MNRAS. Substantive revisions, including sample selection, based on referees comment

Bovine polledness

The persistent horns are an important trait of speciation for the family Bovidae with complex morphogenesis taking place briefly after birth. The polledness is highly favourable in modern cattle breeding systems but serious animal welfare issues urge for a solution in the production of hornless cattle other than dehorning. Although the dominant inhibition of horn morphogenesis was discovered more than 70 years ago, and the causative mutation was mapped almost 20 years ago, its molecular nature remained unknown. Here, we report allelic heterogeneity of the POLLED locus. First, we mapped the POLLED locus to a ∼381-kb interval in a multi-breed case-control design. Targeted re-sequencing of an enlarged candidate interval (547 kb) in 16 sires with known POLLED genotype did not detect a common allele associated with polled status. In eight sires of Alpine and Scottish origin (four polled versus four horned), we identified a single candidate mutation, a complex 202 bp insertion-deletion event that showed perfect association to the polled phenotype in various European cattle breeds, except Holstein-Friesian. The analysis of the same candidate interval in eight Holsteins identified five candidate variants which segregate as a 260 kb haplotype also perfectly associated with the POLLED gene without recombination or interference with the 202 bp insertion-deletion. We further identified bulls which are progeny tested as homozygous polled but bearing both, 202 bp insertion-deletion and Friesian haplotype. The distribution of genotypes of the two putative POLLED alleles in large semi-random sample (1,261 animals) supports the hypothesis of two independent mutations

What Causes the Dependency between Perceived Aesthetics and Perceived Usability?

Several studies reported a dependency between perceived beauty and perceived usability of a user interface. But it is still not fully clear which psychological mechanism is responsible for this dependency. We suggest a new explanation based on the concept of visual clarity. This concept describes the perception of order, alignment and visual complexity. A high visual clarity supports a fast orientation on an interface and creates an impression of simplicity. Thus, visual clarity will impact usability dimensions, like efficiency and learnability. Visual clarity is also related to classical aesthetics and the fluency effect, thus an impact on the perception of aesthetics is plausible. We present two large studies that show a strong mediator effect of visual clarity on the dependency between perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. These results support the proposed explanation. In addition, we show how visual clarity of a user interface can be evaluated by a new scale embedded in the UEQ+ framework. Construction and first evaluation results of this new scale are described