The Role of Cooperatives in the European Agri-food System

The book dealswith the theoretical and empirical aspects of development of agri-food cooperatives in the face of the growing drive to internationalization in many parts of the world and Europe in particular. Some important aspects of the development of cooperatives are analyzed, such as the relationships that exist between the cooperative and its associates, the role of organization and the model of governance, the economic and the social results of cooperative within the various agri-food filieres, actions for the development of the rural and less advanced areas, the role of cooperatives in the creation of a network between enterprises, and finally the difficulties and opportunities created by certain features of the internationalisation process

A non-linear finite element formulation for shells of arbitrary geometry

Based on a total Lagrangian approach, the shell element formulation developed by two of the authors is extended to non-linear field. The proposed shell element belongs to the degenerated 3D type, with a Mindlin-Reissner approach and five effective degrees of freedom per node. A detailed description of the geometry and kinematics characterisation of the element, as well as of the stress-strain relationship is presented. Numerical testing of the non-linear model indicates excellent performance of the proposed finite element shell, both in simulating large displacement and rotations, and in the buckling analysis of some classical test examples, e.g., cylinder and sphere

Reversibility of gastrointestinal motor abnormalities in chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction

A 43-year-old man with chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction is presented. He had undergone two laparotomies in an attempt to eliminate the cause of repeated episodes suggestive of obstruction. Gastrointestinal manometry showed severe abnormalities compatible with the diagnosis of chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. Laboratory tests indicated the presence of intestinal malabsorption and villous atrophy. A gluten-free diet accompanied by 10 days of treatment with tetracycline and 2 short periods of treatment with cisapride led to gradual, but apparently complete, resolution of the pseudo-obstructive syndrome. Repeated manometric studies showed progressive normalization of both the fasting and postprandial upper gastrointestinal motor pattern

Effects of dietary fat on postprandial gastrointestinal motility are inhibited by a cholecystokinin type A receptor antagonist

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