NAFTA and the Environment: An Update

NAFTA and the environmen

NAFTA and the Environment: An Update

NAFTA and the environmen

Investigation of Peach Fruit Bagging to Produce High Quality Fruit and to Manage Pests and Diseases

One of the main challenges of growing high quality peaches in the southeastern United States is to cope with the high pest and disease pressure caused by the humid climate in the region. Bagging fruit at an early stage of fruit development could be a viable way to physically exclude pest and diseases. Experiments were conducted for two consecutive years at a conventional farm and an organic farm and results indicate no consistent differences between treatments in fruit quality parameters, marketable yield at harvest, or post-harvest disease incidence when compared to the control not bagged fruit. Nevertheless, marketable yield in the early season cultivar had a 13% increase in 2015 and the mid-season cultivar had an 11% increase in 2016. The commercial farm had 100% yield in bagged and control treatments except when bags were placed improperly during 2016. Bagging peach fruit appeared to reduce the intensity of red blush but consumer surveys suggested color was not a decisive factor when purchasing the fruit. The benefit from the bags could stem from the increase in price consumers are willing to pay for grown-in bag fruits that have less contact with pesticides. More economic analysis needs to be done, but an increase in price could potentially offset the extra cost of labor and bagging material. In a homeowners setting non-bagged fruit was compared to bagged fruit and treated with different chemical applications and results showed that bagging the fruit can have a significant effect on yield high disease pressure

A study on rhodium and palladium mixed-media sols

Historically the majority of precious metal sols have been prepared in an aqueous medium, while a much smaller proportion have been prepared in various non‐aqueous solvents. Few however have been prepared in mixtures of the two, this paucity being the raison d’être of this study. The goal therefore was to perform a systematic investigation of the changes in the properties of rhodium and palladium sols generated in mixtures of water and another organic cosolvent across a range of volumetric compositions. Six cosolvents were investigated: methanol, dimethylsulfoxide, acetonitrile, N,N‐dimethylformamide, acetone, and tetrahydrofuran. To stabilise the resulting sols against aggregation four protecting agents were used: poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(acrylic acid), and arabinogalactan, which was a newly‐available polysaccharide extracted from the Western Larch tree. To reduce the metals from their precursor salts, sodium borohydride and hydrazine hydrate were used. The resulting colloids were analysed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS) and Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrophotometry. The size of the primary particles in the resulting sols was shown by TEM to be inversely proportional to the proportion of cosolvent in which they were generated. A theory was postulated to account for these changes based on temporary stabilisation of the metal nuclei by adsorption of cosolvent molecules. The characteristics of the aggregates observed in the TEM micrographs were shown to be independent of the cosolvent proportion, changing progressively but unpredictably across the composition ranges studied for most systems. This behaviour was believed to be caused by changes in the conformations of the protecting agents, which depended nonlinearly on the composition of the dispersion medium in which they were used. The measurements collected in‐situ by both PCS and UV/Vis were considered to be good indicators of the levels of aggregation observed in the sols ex‐situ by TEM, with any disparities between the two sets of measurements rationalised with relative ease. PCS measurements gave average hydrodynamic diameters of approximately 20 nm – 80 nm for sols generated in purely aqueous dispersion media, depending on the metal and protecting agent used. Infrared spectra were collected of carbon monoxide adsorbed to the surface of the particles of the sols in mixed‐media to determine the effect of the cosolvent proportion on ν(CO)ads. Sols generated for the aforementioned work were found to be of insufficient density for this purpose, so a series of high‐density sols were synthesised especially. Adsorbed CO was successfully detected on rhodium sols in mixtures of water and either MeOH, DMF, DMSO or MeCN. In these cases υ(CO)ads and its intensity decreased as the cosolvent proportion was increased. This behaviour was rationalised by competitive adsorption of the cosolvent molecules onto the surface of the colloidal particles, precluding the adsorption of CO molecules. The consequent decrease in surface coverage was presumed to have lead to a loss of dipolar coupling, affecting the stretching frequency. These data were used to support the theory postulated for the decrease in the average particle size of the sols generated in mixed‐media

Understanding the perception on customer experience among tourists in Labuan / Andrea Sovilea Jaine

The purpose of this particular research which is entitled "Understanding the Perception on Customer Experience among Tourists in Labuan" is to investigate the perception of consumer in regard with the three experience clues which are functional clue, humanism clue and mechanic clue. Labuan Federal Territory also known as Victoria Island is a popular getaway for a diverse range of tourists. Despite the rapid development in the tourism industry which brings about a wide business opportunity for the locals, the town still lacks accommodation to cater the demand of tourists especially during international events. Understanding tourists' perception on customer experience will enable local service providers how to better treat their customers and indirectly promotes business sustainability. Another purpose of this research is to identify the role of the main tourism service providers namely hotel, transportation provider and travel agency in contributing to the overall tourist experience and determine key aspects to increase customer satisfaction. This is because in a way or another tourists are likely to encounter at least one of the three aforementioned during their stay in Labuan. Therefore, the finding that the researcher collected through this particular research resulted in majority of the respondents having positive and satisfactory customer experience as tourists in Labuan. Each of the main tourism service providers play significant role to offer tourists a memorable experience staying in Labuan thus empowering them through the findings from this research is a privilege

The Effect of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Education Program on Knowledge, Attitudes and Sexual Behavior of Selected College Students

The problem studied in this investigation was whether a behaviorally focused Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Program affects the knowledge, sexual attitudes and sexual behavior of college students. Three hundred and six first-and third-year college students were included in the study from one university located in Southeastern Virginia. The sample was predominately female, African-American and mainly between the ages of 16-22 years of age. Freshmen students were presently enrolled in the institution\u27s HIV/AIDS education program, which was a part of a required course. The class sessions consisted of a pretest prior to student\u27s completing the reading assignment and class discussion. During the regular class session, the researcher discussed the reading assignment, provided basic information about HIV/AIDS, its transmission, prevention and treatment, and at the end of the sessions administered a posttest. Junior students were administered a posttest only. No prior reading assignment or class session was provided. The data collected was analyzed in terms of significant differences, utilizing t-tests for paired and independent groups, factor analysis and an analysis of variance. The results of the study indicated that there was little effect of HIV/AIDS education programs on knowledge, sexual attitudes and sexual behavior

Spatial, Temporal and Linguistic Displacement in Kipling’s and Maugham’s Colonial Short Stories: The Disrupting Power of the “Colonial” in Modern Short Fiction

L’article propose de réévaluer les propositions de Kipling et de Maugham autour de la nouvelle afin de montrer dans quelle mesure les nouvelles de ces deux auteurs s’articulent au modernisme, de manière respectivement proto- et para-moderniste. Tandis que les tales de Kipling mettent en œuvre des hypothèses stylistiques et poétiques qui ne sont pas sans rappeler les désormais clichés de l’esthétique moderniste – pratique de l’ellipse, de la fragmentation, instabilité de l’instance narrative, etc. – les nouvelles de Maugham s’apparentent davantage à la domestication de thèmes prisés des auteurs traditionnellement étiquetés « modernistes » : les pulsions de l’inconscient, le déclin de l’Occident, l’instabilité sexuelle et identitaire, etc. En revanche, c’est véritablement la représentation de l’exil dans une écriture elle-même déplacée de son lieu d’origine, par le fait colonial, qui conduit à la production de nouvelles représentations de l’espace et du temps, symptomatiques de la valence coloniale qui sous-tend la modernité européenne, à laquelle les modernistes auront à cœur de répondre. En d’autres termes, la duplicité de la modernité, sa spectralité, mais aussi sa diffraction en de multiples lieux et temporalités, auxquelles l’esthétique moderniste s’arrime, ne sont pas moins présentes dans les nouvelles coloniales, ce qui permet de faire de celles-ci un jalon essentiel dans le moment de transition entre ère victorienne et ère moderniste. Le colonial s’apparente en somme à une clé de compréhension de ce moment culturel complexe qui mène à l’écriture moderniste telle qu’on la pense aujourd’hui

Mutations of the “Mutiny novel”: From Historical Fiction to Historical Metafiction and Neo-Victorianism

This article aims to offer a limited panorama of the novels that compose the genre of Mutiny fiction and to analyse its mutations through time. By tracing the generic origins of the Mutiny novel and analysing how it variously draws on the chivalrous tradition, the Gothic, and other genres (adventure fiction, romance, and melodrama, among others), I would like to show that the various examples of the Mutiny novel genre have often been used to promote imperial values, or to criticise the Empire retrospectively, as Flaminia Nicora’s work has shown, but also that these novels have continuously responded to historical events. My contention is that the Mutiny motif has been instrumental in building a historical narrative of England and that its continued presence merits being studied

O caso petruhhin e o princípio do nível mais elevado de proteção no tocante aos direitos fundamentais no âmbito da União Europeia

Na era da globalização, em que as relações sociais não estão mais limitadas por distâncias territoriais, em um mundo em que o poder estatal está sendo, sistematicamente, testado por poderes transnacionais, a cidadania, no entendimento clássico de pertencimento a um Estado passa a ser questionada e revisada, a ponto de ser possível juridicamente se pensar em múltiplas cidadanias. O presente trabalho tem por escopo entender como os direitos fundamentais são protegidos no âmbito do direito da União Europeia e, por consequência, qual o seu papel na evolução e solidificação da cidadania decorrente dos Tratados instituidores do processo de integração. Para tanto, um caso apreciado e decidido pelo Tribunal de Justiça da União Europeia (caso Petruhhin) será apresentado, tendo por base a aplicação do princípio do nível mais elevado de proteção dos direitos fundamentais. Observa-se que a livre circulação de pessoas implica muito mais do que a liberdade de ir e vir. Implica em um processo de integração. Implica em conceder um conjunto de direitos sem olvidar os deveres. Diferencia-se cidadania da União de nacionalidade dos Estados-Membros, e oportunizar o cidadão da União a fazer uso dos direitos fundamentais daí decorrentes até mesmo contra seu Estado-Membro, em uma relação de simbiose. Quanto a metodologia, utilizou-se o método indutivo com a prática da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental

Orientalising London and the Victorian Era: Questioning Neo-Victorian Politics and Ideologies

Cet article étudie la manière dont le Londres victorien circule aujourd’hui dans le monde à travers les objets culturels néo-victoriens. Certaines œuvres littéraires, télévisuelles et filmiques véhiculent une image de l’Angleterre victorienne métonymiquement contenue dans celle de Londres. Cette représentation de Londres oscille entre une vision monumentale de la capitale et une vision de celle-ci comme ville double constituée d’un envers mystérieux, ce qui n’est pas sans rappeler le discours orientaliste tel qu’il a été théorisé par Edward Said en 1978. La construction littéraire et visuelle du Londres néo-victorien participe donc d’une stratégie néo-victorientaliste présentant la ville comme un « autre », à la fois à craindre et à domestiquer. Dans Neo-Victorianism and the Memory of Empire (2012), Elizabeth Ho montre que les productions néo-victoriennes constituent une réaction à la décolonisation et la chute des empires européens. Alors que Sherlock Holmes, le plus célèbre détective du XIXe siècle, est catapulté dans notre monde dans la série de la BBC et que Penny Dreadful nous plonge dans un Londres gothique et fantasmé, on s’interrogera sur les modalités d’engagement des spectateurs et spectatrices avec les Victoriens. Comment l’articulation entre le politique, l’économie globale de production et de circulation des objets culturels et les œuvres néo-victoriennes nous permet-elle de penser les enjeux politiques, idéologiques et éthiques de notre engagement contemporain avec les Victoriens ?In this essay, I am looking at how Victorian/Imperial London circulates around the world nowadays through Neo-Victorian productions. In Neo-Victorianism and the Memory of Empire (2012), Elizabeth Ho argues that Neo-Victorian productions emerged as a critical response to the crises of decolonisation and imperial collapse. While Sherlock Holmes, the most famous detective of the nineteenth century, is transposed into our contemporary world in the BBC show, one may wonder to what extent the series, and us viewers, engage with the Victorians. London, as it is imagined in Neo-Victorian productions, will be the main focus of this article. Is the representation of Victorian London in Neo-Victorian TV shows not part of a Neo-Victorientalist strategy which would consist in presenting the city as an “other” to be both feared and domesticated, echoing Edward Said’s theorisation of Orientalism? What are the political and ideological implications of such re-visions? Questions bringing together Neo-Victorian works, politics and the global economy of production, circulation and consumption—which we have precisely inherited from the Victorians—will be addressed here