The Sweet Life 甜美生活

Colourful, creative, whimsical and mouth-watering – pastries and desserts have gone from culinary sidekick to star of the social-media age. Some of Asia\u27s leading pastry chefs share what it takes to stand out in this competitive industry and the motivating factors that keep them dreaming up new ideas. 當色彩繽紛、創意澎湃、稀奇有趣和惹人垂涎的糕點和甜品正從佐餐小食躍身成為社交媒體明星，數位馳名亞洲的糕餅名廚分享了他們從這競爭激烈的行業突圍而出的心得，以及讓他們持續推出創意甜點的動力

Preliminary Assessment of Growing Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus sajor-caju on Coconut Husk Substrate Supplemented with Different Amounts of Copra Cake

Mushroom cultivation is a newly introduced technology in the Marshall Islands to promote food security and community health due to its soluble fiber content and nutritive values. Mushroom is also known to have naturally occurring beta-glucans that could prevent high cholesterol and some other non-communicable disease (NCDs). Majuro Atoll has an ample amount of coconut husk and copra cake, a by-product from Tobolar Copra Processing Plant. The study aimed to assess the possibility of using copra cake for mushroom cultivation. The capability of oyster mushroom in utilizing coconut by-product was assessed in terms of mycelial growth, number of fruiting body, cap diameter and biological efficiency conversion (BEC). The mushroom growing media used for this study were composed of shredded coconut husk, dolomitic lime, brown sugar and varying amounts (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%) of copra cake with 45-60% moisture content. It was hypothesized that copra cake supplementation will increase production yield. Treatments were distributed in 10 replications and data were analyzed using the Duncan’s Multiple Test Range at 5% level of significance. Mycelial growth occurred in all treatments in the following order: 10%\u3e 0%, 5%, 15% \u3e20% \u3e25%. Thin mycelial growth occurred at 0%, and slowest growth was observed for 25%. Fruiting bodies did not take place for treatment without copra cake supplementation (0%). The overall growth performance was observed to be very favorable at 10% copra cake supplementation. This result suggests that coconut husk supplemented with the right amount of copra cake could be utilized effectively as locally available materials for mushroom cultivation

Temporal shifts in top-down vs. bottom-up control of epiphytic algae in a seagrass ecosystem

In coastal marine food webs, small invertebrate herbivores (mesograzers) have long been hypothesized to occupy an important position facilitating dominance of habitat-forming macrophytes by grazing competitively superior epiphytic algae. Because of the difficulty of manipulating mesograzers in the field, however, their impacts on community organization have rarely been rigorously documented. Understanding mesograzer impacts has taken on increased urgency in seagrass systems due to declines in seagrasses globally, caused in part by widespread eutrophication favoring seagrass overgrowth by faster-growing algae. Using cage-free field experiments in two seasons (fall and summer), we present experimental confirmation that mesograzer reduction and nutrients can promote blooms of epiphytic algae growing on eelgrass (Zostera marina). In this study, nutrient additions increased epiphytes only in the fall following natural decline of mesograzers. In the summer, experimental mesograzer reduction stimulated a 447% increase in epiphytes, appearing to exacerbate seasonal dieback of eelgrass. Using structural equation modeling, we illuminate the temporal dynamics of complex interactions between macrophytes, mesograzers, and epiphytes in the summer experiment. An unexpected result emerged from investigating the interaction network, drift macroalgae indirectly reduced epiphytes by providing structure for mesograzers, suggesting that the net effect of macroalgae on seagrass depends on macroalgal density. Our results show that mesograzers can control proliferation of epiphytic algae, that top-down and bottom-up forcing are temporally variable, and that the presence of macroalgae can strengthen top-down control of epiphytic algae, potentially contributing to eelgrass persistence

Isolation of Tatumella ptyseos from Beef in Ibadan, Nigeria

Nigerian Veterinary Journal, Vol. 32(3): 2011; 222 - 22

Fidelity of optimally controlled quantum gates with randomly coupled multiparticle environments

This work studies the feasibility of optimal control of high-fidelity quantum gates in a model of interacting two-level particles. One particle (the qubit) serves as the quantum information processor, whose evolution is controlled by a time-dependent external field. The other particles are not directly controlled and serve as an effective environment, coupling to which is the source of decoherence. The control objective is to generate target one-qubit gates in the presence of strong environmentally-induced decoherence and under physically motivated restrictions on the control field. It is found that interactions among the environmental particles have a negligible effect on the gate fidelity and require no additional adjustment of the control field. Another interesting result is that optimally controlled quantum gates are remarkably robust to random variations in qubit-environment and inter-environment coupling strengths. These findings demonstrate the utility of optimal control for management of quantum-information systems in a very precise and specific manner, especially when the dynamics complexity is exacerbated by inherently uncertain environmental coupling.Comment: tMOP LaTeX, 9 pages, 3 figures; Special issue of the Journal of Modern Optics: 37th Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics, 2-6 January 200

Sharing lessons of smallholders’ pig system in South Asia and Southeast Asia: A review

South Asia and Southeast (SE) Asia have some historical links from the past in respect of religion, tradition, culture, food habits, trade, language and population migration. Pig rearing is an important part of smallholders’ livelihood and socio-cultural belief among pig producers in both regions. Its distribution is largely determined by ethnicity and religion. Because of socio-religious sentiments towards pig rearing and pork consumption, pigs population in South Asia is much smaller than in SE Asia. Vietnam and the Philippines are the two major producers of pig among the SE Asian countries while India is the leading country in South Asia. The pig sub-sector in some of the countries in SE Asia is growing at a faster pace because of industrialisation of farming system and transformation of smallholder backyard system to more commercial farming system in response to market demand. Industrialisation of pig farming in South Asia is yet to take place although the transformation is going on at a slower pace. Naturally, SE Asia is endowed by a few more productive indigenous breeds compared to South Asia. Artificial insemination in pigs is more widely prevalent in SE Asia than in South Asia, although natural breeding is still predominant at smallholders’ level in both regions. Feed regime for pigs is found to be better in SE Asia than in South Asia in terms of use of more grains and protein sources. Cultivation of food-feed crops (sweet potato, maize, cassava etc.) for feeding of pigs is more popular in SE Asia than in South Asia. The housing system in both regions is in a transformation stage from scavenging to semi-intensive to intensive although the degree widely varies among the countries. There are many common diseases affecting pigs in both regions. Among these, classical swine fever (CSF) is a major disease affecting pigs in both regions. Vaccination against CSF is more common in SE Asia than in South Asia. The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) that has been posing a major threat to the pig industry in SE Asia for the last several years has just been reported recently in South Asia (NE India). Disease prevention mechanisms through vaccination and deworming are more common and widely practiced in SE Asia. Marketing system of pig/ pork in rural areas is almost the same in both regions although it is more advanced in urban centers in SE Asia. The pig subsector in SE Asia has been a prominent component of the government development policies more than it has historically been in South Asia Export market for pork is more vibrant and growing rapidly in a few countries (eg. Thailand, Vietnam) in SE Asia while this is almost nil in South Asia. Pork safety is an important issue in both regions although there are wide country variations. Overall, the pig subsector in SE Asia is more advanced in terms of wider prevalence of better breed, feed, healthcare, processing and market infrastructure including industrial farming system and export-import market than South Asia. It could be anticipated that South Asia could be benefited from some of the lessons of pig systems in SE Asia