A Generic Bio-Economic Farm Model for Environmental and Economic Assessment of Agricultural Systems

Bio-economic farm models are tools to evaluate ex-post or to assess ex-ante the impact of policy and technology change on agriculture, economics and environment. Recently, various BEFMs have been developed, often for one purpose or location, but hardly any of these models are re-used later for other purposes or locations. The Farm System Simulator (FSSIM) provides a generic framework enabling the application of BEFMs under various situations and for different purposes (generating supply response functions and detailed regional or farm type assessments). FSSIM is set up as a component-based framework with components representing farmer objectives, risk, calibration, policies, current activities, alternative activities and different types of activities (e.g., annual and perennial cropping and livestock). The generic nature of FSSIM is evaluated using five criteria by examining its applications. FSSIM has been applied for different climate zones and soil types (criterion 1) and to a range of different farm types (criterion 2) with different specializations, intensities and sizes. In most applications FSSIM has been used to assess the effects of policy changes and in two applications to assess the impact of technological innovations (criterion 3). In the various applications, different data sources, level of detail (e.g., criterion 4) and model configurations have been used. FSSIM has been linked to an economic and several biophysical models (criterion 5). The model is available for applications to other conditions and research issues, and it is open to be further tested and to be extended with new components, indicators or linkages to other models

Effect of vacuum packaging on the shelf-life of silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) fillets stored at 4 °C

This study was carried out to evaluate the chemical changes, microbial load and sensory attributes of silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) fillets when packaged at two vacuum levels (30 and 50 kPa) and stored at 4 °C for 14 days. The fillets packaged at 30 kPa had significantly lower pH values and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) contents than those packaged at 50 kPa and normal atmospheric pressure (control). The increase in viable bacterial population was significantly lower in samples packed at 30 kPa and the control. The results of sensory evaluation and electronic nose (E-nose) analyses showed good agreement with the results obtained from chemical and microbial analyses. Both vacuum levels combined with refrigerated storage resulted in an extension of the shelf-life of fillets; up to 11 days at 30 kPa, 9 days at 50 kPa compared to 6 days in control samples. The headspace vacuum level of 30 kPa combined with storage at 4 °C was found to significantly slow down the undesirable chemical changes, retard the lipid oxidation, improve the sensory attributes and extend the shelf-life of silver carp fillets

Lessons from a comparison of immuno-chromatographic and chemiluminescent micro-particle immunoassay in the diagnosis of syphilis

Abstract Objective To synthesize lessons from comparison of results obtained from the immuno-chromatographic SD Bioline testing method and the chemiluminescent micro-particle immunoassay Architect in the diagnosis of syphilis at Livingstone Central hospital laboratory. Results The specificity and sensitivity of SD Bioline syphilis 3.0 against the chemiluminescent immunoassay using the Architect syphilis Treponema pallidum (TP) was 85.3% and 91.3% respectively with substantial agreement between the two test methods (88%, ĸ  = 0.76; p < 0.0005). We recommend further comprehensive study with a larger sample size and clinical details to ascertain the validity of our findings. We also recommend using a non-treponemal test with the current treponemal tests being used to aid diagnosis