Should Russia comply with EU food safety norms in the wheat sector?

The impressive volumes of wheat production in Russia on the one hand, and the good baking quality of Russian wheat on the other hand enabled Russia to become one of the important wheat producers and exporters of the world since the recent few years. However Russia has a long way to go in the “front” of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), i.e. food safety, standards. As part of a larger study, financed by the German Research Foundation, the current research addresses the objective of estimating the potentials of wheat production in Russia under more stringent food safety standards as the current Russian national SPS regulations are. The comparative advantage analysis based on the Domestic Resource Cost approach (DRC) is applied to estimate the possible compliance of Russian norms with EU SPS standards. The DRC analysis resulting in a ratio of 0,37 provides evidence of high social profitability of wheat chain in Stavropol region. Also the scenarios of compliance of Russian food safety norms with those of EU offers plausible solutions with DRC ratios varying within the range of 0,49 – 0,96 dependent on the fluctuations of model parameters. This is the third paper from the series of analysis of competitiveness of the Russian wheat sector under different food safety policies. The first paper estimated the policy of the full enforcement of national SPS regulations . The second work assessed the policy of compliance with the international SPS norms and considered also the sensitivity analysis under this policy. As far as the EU SPS norms are more stringent as the international standards, there is a necessity to assess also this policy option.DRC, wheat, food safety standards., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Sensory Characteristics and Optimization of a Low-Sodium Salt Formulation and its Food Application

Excessive consumption of sodium is associated with high blood pressure in people. Reduction of sodium intake and replacement of salt with salt substitutes are an essential component of the primary prevention of hypertension. Potassium chloride is the most widely used salt substitute. However, when used in large amounts, it imparts bitterness and metallic aftertaste. Therefore, bitterness masking agents need to be used in salt substitute formulations. L-Arginine has been reported to have bitterness masking properties. No research has yet been conducted to investigate the effects of KCl and L-Arginine on the perception of saltiness and bitterness in the mixture of NaCl, KCl, and L-Arginine. To develop acceptable reduced-salt food products, it is critical to understand how consumers perceive about saltiness and bitterness of the salt substitutes, which, will in turn, affect their decisions on product acceptance and purchase intent. The aim of the present study was to develop an acceptable low-sodium salt mixture by reducing the sodium chloride content and replacing it with potassium chloride and L-Arginine. The non-parametric R-Index approach was used to evaluate the effectiveness of L-Arginine as a bitterness masking agent in low sodium formulations. The formulations that contained 55% KCl, 35% NaCl and 10% L-Arginine in an aqueous solution at 0.5% w/v, 1.0% w/v and 1.5% w/v were not significantly different in bitterness perception from the control solution. A response surface methodology was used to optimize and characterize the sensory properties of low sodium formulations in a food system using a chicken broth as a model. Those formulations that contain 57-92% NaCl, 0-35.5% KCl, and 7.5% L-Arginine were as acceptable as the control formulation indicating that L-Arginine was able to mask the bitterness of salt formulations containing KCl. The optimized low sodium formulation was compared to existing commercial products using chicken broth as a model. The optimized product was equally accepted for all sensory attributes by consumers (n=200) compared with Morton Table Salt and Morton Lite Salt. This study demonstrated the potential of using NaCl/KCl/L-Arginine as a low sodium salt mixture by partially replacing NaCl while maintaining desirable sensory characteristics

Problems of Strategic Management Formation in Russian Agrarian Sector

The rapid changes in Russian agriculture during the last fifteen years require development of particular strategies for efficient farm management. The West-European approaches of strategic management and planning decisions are not directly applicable in the Russian agricultural economy; Russian large and medium-sized agricultural enterprises act on different organisational principles, due to the specific peculiarities of their business mentality. The objective of the research is to adopt modern strategic management concepts to the peculiarities of Russian agriculture and to work out proposals on formation of strategic planning system in agricultural production. To this end it is necessary to define the strategic planning features which take into account the nature of modern stage of the development of Russian economy and the specific character of agricultural production; to indicate the preconditions which promote the wide implementation of strategic planning into economic practice; to establish the features of the concept of strategic planning for agricultural enterprises and to elaborate a methodical set of instructions providing formalized character to strategic planning. Applying the methodologies of monographic research and expert interviews, we conducted the analysis of peculiarities and problems of Russian agricultural production, revealed and systematized the features of development of strategy for agricultural enterprises. Based on the results of our investigation we developed strategic development models for the agricultural enterprises of Stavropol region applying the approach of Strength /Neutral / Weakness (SNW) analysis of the methodology of comparative advantage. The usefulness and empirical value of the developed models have been approved on the example of “LUCH” agricultural enterprise, which is the first in the region according to effectiveness indicators and the fourth according to its relative size.Farm Management,

Random Centroid Optimization of lutein-enriched oil in water emulsion at acidic pH

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a physiological condition that affects the elderly, diabetic patients, and leads to loss of vision. There are no effective therapies for AMD. The role of nutrition in preventing AMD is receiving strong scientific scrutiny. Lutein and zeaxanthin have been identified as dietary strategies that can delay the onset of AMD. Consumption of at least six milligrams of lutein per day has been reported to delay the onset of AMD by as much as 43%. However, most available food sources contain such low levels of lutein that it would be difficult to meet the daily requirement. It would require 2 lbs of corn, 16 lbs of tomatoes, or one salad bowl of kale to meet the minimum daily requirement. As a result, food fortification with lutein extract is appealing to health conscious consumers. The objective of this study was to prepare an oil in water emulsion containing at least 6 mg of lutein per serving size (one tablespoon) as a daily source of lutein. Random Centroid Optimization was applied to find the best conditions for preparing a stable emulsion. Experimental parameters included: lutein concentration (0.010-0.020 %w/w); pH (3.5-4.7); phosphatidylglycerol (0.018-0.1 %w/w); whey protein (1.5-3.5 %w/w); and corn oil (15-25 %w/w). Emulsions were prepared and turbidity measurements were determined as a function of half-life stability in minutes. Absorbance was measured at 500 nm for 10 min. The same measurements were carried out using the best values for four factors obtained from the RCO program. Emulsion stability was evaluated by heating samples at 90 oC from 5 to 30 min to check for oil separation. Emulsion samples were also shaken at 700 rpm for 30 min. Size distribution and zeta potential of emulsion droplets were measured, using zetameter. After 9 experiments in the first cycle and 4 experiments in centroid cycle, optimal conditions for the preparation of a stable lutein-enriched emulsion were: corn oil: 20 %, phosphatidylglycerol (0.018 %w/w), pH: 4.55, lutein concentration: (0.015 %w/w), and whey proteins concentration 2%

Modelling Interregional Trade of Energy Crops in Eastern Germany

Renewable resources gain in importance in our modern society. The line of reasoning is based on their positive effects on agriculture, the environment and the economy. To support renewable energy from biomass the EU promotes the cultivation of energy crops. A spatial equilibrium model is applied based on the concept of maximizing net welfare, to provide information whether energy crop production competes with food production for land area. The Model of Interregional Trade of Energy Crops (ITEC) refers to Eastern Germany and adjacent areas of Poland. First results show that the regions have enough feedstocks to meet the required demand for food and biofuel production. In many cases both food crops and biofuels are either traded on interregional basis or exported to "Rest of Europe" indicating that there is no competition between food and energy crops. Only green maize for biogas production strongly competes in areas where the crop is required as feed for cattle.Energy crops, spatial equilibrium analysis, interregional trade, International Relations/Trade,

Some local--global phenomena in locally finite graphs

In this paper we present some results for a connected infinite graph $G$ with finite degrees where the properties of balls of small radii guarantee the existence of some Hamiltonian and connectivity properties of $G$. (For a vertex $w$ of a graph $G$ the ball of radius $r$ centered at $w$ is the subgraph of $G$ induced by the set $M_r(w)$ of vertices whose distance from $w$ does not exceed $r$). In particular, we prove that if every ball of radius 2 in $G$ is 2-connected and $G$ satisfies the condition $d_G(u)+d_G(v)\geq |M_2(w)|-1$ for each path $uwv$ in $G$, where $u$ and $v$ are non-adjacent vertices, then $G$ has a Hamiltonian curve, introduced by K\"undgen, Li and Thomassen (2017). Furthermore, we prove that if every ball of radius 1 in $G$ satisfies Ore's condition (1960) then all balls of any radius in $G$ are Hamiltonian.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures; journal accepted versio

TB financing in East Europe promotes unnecessary hospital admissions: the case of Armenia

Based on cost-effectiveness considerations and on the risk of nosocomial transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international institutions recommend to minimize unnecessary hospitalization of tuberculosis (TB) cases. As in other Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries, the organisations of TB services in Armenia are heavily based on vertical and specialized services. In Armenia, a country of 3.2 million inhabitants, TB is one of the major public health problems with overall notification and estimated mortality rates of 41 and 8.8 cases per 100,000 population in 2011, respectively. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) was 9.4% and 43.2% among new and previously treated cases, respectively, with 11.9% of them estimated to be extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB). Specialized TB services include 9 in-patient TB departments, 73 out-patient TB units (called TB cabinets) based in general health-care facilities, and 31 laboratories providing sputum smear microscopy, while culture and drug susceptibility testing is performed in the National TB Reference Laboratory. Following WHO recommendations, the Armenian National TB Programme (NTP) expanded the basic package of services provided in out-patient settings, allowing free access/free of charge TB diagnosis and treatment to the population, to achieve the global TB targets in the WHO European Region under the National Strategic Plan 2007-2015 and Consolidated Action Plan to Prevent and Combat M/XDR-TB in the WHO European Region 2011-2015.</br

Search for signatures of extra dimensions in the diphoton mass spectrum at the Large Hadron Collider

A search for signatures of extra dimensions in the diphoton invariant-mass spectrum has been performed with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events above the standard model expectation is observed using a data sample collected in proton-proton collisions at {radical}s = 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 fb{sup -1}. In the context of the large-extra-dimensions model, lower limits are set on the effective Planck scale in the range of 2.3-3.8 TeV at the 95% confidence level. These limits are the most restrictive bounds on virtual-graviton exchange to date. The most restrictive lower limits to date are also set on the mass of the first graviton excitation in the Randall-Sundrum model in the range of 0.86-1.84 TeV, for values of the associated coupling parameter between 0.01 and 0.10