The handling, processing and marketing of fish in Bangladesh (ODNRI Bulletin No. 1)

In May 1987, a three-man team from the United Kingdom visited Bangladesh to carry out a review of the post-harvest fisheries sector and to identify projects for British aid. lt was decided that the first part of this assignment, the review of the postharvest sector, should be written up as an ODNRI publication and made available to all governmental and non-governmental institutions interested in fisheries development in Bangladesh, and to the public at large. This has resulted in the present report on the handling, processing and marketing of fish, and which is divided into the following sections: Section 2: An analysis of the overall supply and demand for fish and shellfish in Bangladesh and for export. Section 3: A discussion of the way fish is handled and marketed for domestic consumption, quantitative and qualitative losses, and marketing efficiency. The role of the Government and co-operatives in fish marketing is also discussed. Section 4: A discussion of the way shrimp is handled and marketed for export, associated losses and attempts to establish a system of quality control. Section 5: A discussion of the main constraints preventing improved handling, processing and marketing, and the type of measures needed to overcome them. The information required in the preparation of this report was obtained from two sources: (a) past reports and publications, and (b) a programme of field visits in the following towns: Dhaka, Narayanganj, Khulna, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Sylhet, Sunamgonj and Habiganj. The authors were surpris~d at the amount of valuable information contained in past reports and which it is hoped to make more widely known through the present publication. One report of particular note was a PhD thesis by Ahmed (1983), containing a detailed investigation of the efficiency of domestic fish marketing. Apart from this a publication of the Bay of Bengal Programme provided useful information on the small-scale marine fisheries (FAO Bay of Bengal Programme, 1985), reports by DANIDA ( 1984a, 1984b) gave in-depth descriptions of marketing in Barisal and Chittagong, while an ADB report (Aquatic Farms Ltd., 1986) provided a valuable review of the shrimp industry

The preservation of some East African freshwater fish

Quality changes during storage were investigated for several commercially important East African freshwater fish. Lates, Bagrus, Protopterus, Tilapia esculenta and T. nilotica were examined during storage in ice and at ambient temperature (250•C). After 24 hours at ambient temperature Lates and Bagrus were completely spoilt but Protopterus was still edible. In iced storage most fish were acceptable for at least 20 days. Organoleptic examination showed that T. nilotica was acceptable after 22 days storage in ice and that gutting was only marginally beneficial. Changes in physical appearance, which could form the basis of a fish inspection system, were recorded during storage. Possible chemical quality control indices were also investigated. It was found that total volatile bases and hypoxanthine are unlikely to be useful quality indices for the species studied with the possible exception of Lates. The bacterial counts of the flesh and skin of T. esculenta and T. niloticus were found to be low (a maximum of 10 organisms per sq cm of skin or per g of flesh) after 22 days storage in ice

Studies on the preparation of fish silage. 4. Economics of production

Economic aspects of producing liquid and dried silage from silver belly (Leiognathus splendens) in Sri Lanka are considered. A discounted cash flow analysis for the production of a dried fish silage/rice bran product suitable for use in compounded poultry feeds shows that the internal rate of return for a 10-year project would be between 34-77% and for a 5-year project between 26-73%. Thus it is concluded that the project would be extremely profitable

Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics of Currents in Queuing Networks

We consider a stable open queuing network as a steady non-equilibrium system of interacting particles. The network is completely specified by its underlying graphical structure, type of interaction at each node, and the Markovian transition rates between nodes. For such systems, we ask the question ``What is the most likely way for large currents to accumulate over time in a network ?'', where time is large compared to the system correlation time scale. We identify two interesting regimes. In the first regime, in which the accumulation of currents over time exceeds the expected value by a small to moderate amount (moderate large deviation), we find that the large-deviation distribution of currents is universal (independent of the interaction details), and there is no long-time and averaged over time accumulation of particles (condensation) at any nodes. In the second regime, in which the accumulation of currents over time exceeds the expected value by a large amount (severe large deviation), we find that the large-deviation current distribution is sensitive to interaction details, and there is a long-time accumulation of particles (condensation) at some nodes. The transition between the two regimes can be described as a dynamical second order phase transition. We illustrate these ideas using the simple, yet non-trivial, example of a single node with feedback.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure

Measuring the metric: a parametrized post-Friedmanian approach to the cosmic dark energy problem

We argue for a ``parametrized post-Friedmanian'' approach to linear cosmology, where the history of expansion and perturbation growth is measured without assuming that the Einstein Field Equations hold. As an illustration, a model-independent analysis of 92 type Ia supernovae demonstrates that the curve giving the expansion history has the wrong shape to be explained without some form of dark energy or modified gravity. We discuss how upcoming lensing, galaxy clustering, cosmic microwave background and Lyman alpha forest observations can be combined to pursue this program, which generalizes the quest for a dark energy equation of state, and forecast the accuracy that the proposed SNAP satellite can attain.Comment: Replaced to match accepted PRD version. References and another example added, section III omitted since superceded by astro-ph/0207047. 11 PRD pages, 7 figs. Color figs and links at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/gravity.html or from [email protected]

Data acquisition considerations for Terrestrial Laser Scanning of forest plots

The poor constraint of forest Above Ground Biomass (AGB) is responsible, in part, for large uncertainties in modelling future climate scenarios. Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) can be used to derive unbiased and non-destructive estimates of tree structure and volume and can, therefore, be used to address key uncertainties in forest AGB estimates. Here we review our experience of TLS sampling strategies from 27 campaigns conducted over the past 5 years, across tropical and temperate forest plots, where data was captured with a RIEGL VZ-400 laser scanner. The focus is on strategies to derive Geometrical Modelling metrics (e.g. tree volume) over forest plots (≥1 ha) which require the accurate co-registration of 10s to 100s of individual point clouds. We recommend a 10 m × 10 m sampling grid as an approach to produce a point cloud with a uniform point distribution, that can resolve higher order branches (down to a few cm in diameter) towards the top of 30+ m canopies and can be captured in a timely fashion i.e. ∼3–6 days per ha. A data acquisition protocol, such as presented here, would facilitate data interoperability and inter-comparison of metrics between instruments/groups, from plot to plot and over time

Effects of Enterprise Technology on Supply Chain Collaboration and Performance

Part 5: New Perspectives on EISInternational audienceSupply chain collaboration has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners in recent years. However, our understanding of how enterprise information technology facilitates supply chain collaboration is still very limited. This paper extends the theory established in enterprise information technology and supply chain collaboration literature