The Hartford Food System: A Review of Assets, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract Healthy food systems hold potential to improve a city’s social, health, and economic well-being. Currently, there is a worldwide trend in refocusing food systems to invest in the local community rather than relying on hyper-industrial food value chains that erect barriers for local residents in a city’s food sector. It is the purpose of this report to assess how Hartford’s food sector currently is working so that the city may move in a more innovative direction with its food sector, improving the social, health, and economic conditions for the city and its residents. Thus, this report examines Hartford’s food assets and challenges as well as its opportunities for growth and improvement. In doing so, it investigates if investing in the food economy as an industry cluster is right for Hartford in terms of its cultural, health, and economic progress and identifies which recommendations may make these improvements viable. Through a combination of a food system literature review and 22 interviews with a representative sample of Hartford food stakeholders, this report analyzes the current functionality of Hartford’s food system. Through this analysis, Hartford is found to be a quasi food desert, where food is available but is not consumed to a high degree because of lower healthy food quality, a possible consequence of the higher costs associated with offering healthy options, as well as overall store quality. Likewise, the Hartford food system lacks systems for aggregation and is losing quality young talent. While City leadership and the food community are bourgeoning in terms of their influence in the food system, there is work to be done in terms of explicitly supporting the local food economy, collaborating and aggregating resources, and incentivizing local food business. Recommendations for addressing these findings include improving urban grocery stores, advocating for food aggregation, engaging the private sector, increasing food education, streamlining the food business startup process, amending the city’s zoning ordinance, and developing a food investment syndicate

Shaping Sustainability in Classroom Curricula in Singapore: Educators and Students as Collaborative Change Agents

Climate change is a global crisis, and in Singapore, a low-lying city-state, its geography makes it susceptible to extreme weather events and zoonotic diseases. Singapore\u27s alignment with global commitments like the United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development is elevated by its presence as a leader in urban sustainability. Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper explores sustainability as a classroom concept and educators\u27 role in translating curriculum standards into learning that informs, educates, and empowers students to become agents of change. Sharing these perspectives will help develop collaborative learning programs that center educators and students, improving understanding of this important field

Does religion spoil your sex life? Exploring sexual satisfaction in the Jewish community

This thesis aimed to explore whether religion, sexual knowledge and sexual attitudes impact sexual satisfaction amongst Orthodox Jews. This thesis intended to address weaknesses of previous research by using robust multidimensional measures of religion and sexuality and focusing on a specific religious group. 515 participants completed measures circulated through an online survey. The measures used were: The New Sexual Satisfaction Scale; Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS); threes subscales of the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale (Permissiveness, Communion and Instrumentality); and a new measure, the Brief Sexual Knowledge scale, developed for this study. Participants were also presented with optional open-ended questions that asked about their sexual expectations and sexual education. Religious level was categorised using self-defined groups for Religious Culture; Ultra-Orthodox, Modern-Orthodox and Non-Orthodox groups as well as CRS categories for Religious Practice; Highly Religious, Religious, Not Religious. The findings show significant differences in the sexual satisfaction between Religious Practice groups but not Religious Culture groups. Significant differences in sexual knowledge and sexual attitudes were found for both types of religious variables. A correlation analysis revealed that sexual satisfaction is positively correlated with CRS and Communion scores whilst negatively correlated with Sexual Knowledge, Permissiveness and Instrumentality scores. Communion and Sexual Knowledge were significant predictors of sexual satisfaction in a multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study enhance theoretical understanding of religion and sexuality and address gaps in the literature. Clinical implications for therapists working with Orthodox Jewish clients suffering from sexual dissatisfaction are discussed

Comparison of the Hindin Proteins of Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, S. purpuratus, and Lytechinus variegatus: Sequences involved in the Species Specificity of Fertilization

Bindin is the sea urchin sperm acrosomal protein that is responsible for the species-specific adhesion of the sperm to the egg. Two new bindin cDNA sequences that contain the entire open reading frame for the binding precursor are reported: one for Strongylocentrotus franciscanus and one for Lytechinus variegatus. Both contain inverted repetitive sequences in their 3' untranslated regions, and the S. franciscanus cDNA contains an inverted repetitive sequence match between the 5' untranslated region and the coding region. The middle third of the mature bindin sequence is highly conserved in all three species, and the flanking sequences share short repeated sequences that vary in number between the species. Cross-fertilization data are reported for the species S. purpuratus, S. franciscanus, L. variegatus, and L. pictus. A barrier to cross-fertilization exists between the sympatric Strongylocentrotus species, but there is no barrier between the allopatric Lytechinus species