Liquid gold: tapping into the power dynamics of maple syrup supply chains

In 2012, the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve in Québec was the site of a major food crime, as thieves siphoned off 9600 barrels (3,000 tonnes) of ‘liquid gold’ for counterfeit sale across provincial and state borders, in what became known as the Great Maple Syrup Heist. The heist has been characterized as a rebellious response to the quota controls established by the Federation of Québec Maple Syrup Producers which has, since 1990, agreed with its members to hand over any surplus to ensure stability of supply and pricing. Although the iconography and imagery of the story of maple syrup production still heavily draws upon a nostalgic era of the small farm producer, these events suggest a powerful group which, in the wake of the heist, was branded by some rogue producers as a maple syrup ’cartel’, even though the reserve was decided by the collective membership. Quebec produces approximately 80% of the world supply, and, to consolidate its position the Federation expanded its global marketing campaign, which in 2017 saw the construction of a revised and rebranded new set of ‘4 Grades’ based on translucence, each with associated flavour profiles, and the creation of a maple flavour wheel, all designed to invoke a unique Québec maple terroir. In this paper I trace the historical evolution of Québec maple syrup production and marketing since the 1930s through to the establishment of the Federation. I consider where power and agency sits - and has shifted - within this supply chain, taking into consideration the implications for small-scale producers and consumers

Cooperatives, Agri-Tourism and Food Trails: Promoting Sustainable Food Systems in Le Marche, Italy

The growing recognition of the environmental and health costs of the post-war industrial-production food model has led to urgent calls globally to transition to more sustainable food systems (Lang and Heaseman, 2004; Willet et al., 2019). Future fixes or ‘innovations’ that are disruptive to the current model of food production have been proposed to address the challenge of achieving such ‘Great Food Transformation’ (Willet et al., 2019, p.448). Such disruptions toward sustainability can include, for example, alternative food networks or short food supply chains, a turn (or return) to local food or ‘glocalism’, refocusing on small-scale farming, emphasising biodiversity and exploring under-utilised species, and embedding social and ethical values into food supply chains (Hankins J. and C. Grassini, 2014; Renting et. al. 2003; Sethi, 2015). Underlying some of these strategies is the somewhat paradoxical idea of ‘traditional-innovations’ or or innovations based on traditional food practices – an idea born from the realization that future fixes to the food system need to be both technological and anthropological (Belasco, 2008). Some authors have even coined the term ‘traditiovations’ to capture this concept (Cannarella and Piccioni, 2011). This trend can be seen in a range of alternative food models, strategies and marketing of food products. Prominent examples range from the Slow Food movement, founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini, which aims to protect and promote traditional and local foods, to the more recent popular phenomenon of the ‘Pasta Grannies’, who share their traditional recipes via social media (Bennison, 2019). National agencies and international organizations have also recognized the great potential of food traditions to contribute to the three fundamental pillars of sustainable food systems: economic development, environmental protection, and social well-being (FAO 2019)

Feasibility Evaluation of Commercially Available Video Conferencing Devices to Technically Direct Untrained Nonmedical Personnel to Perform a Rapid Trauma Ultrasound Examination.

Introduction: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a rapidly expanding discipline that has proven to be a valuable modality in the hospital setting. Recent evidence has demonstrated the utility of commercially available video conferencing technologies, namely, FaceTime (Apple Inc, Cupertino, CA, USA) and Google Glass (Google Inc, Mountain View, CA, USA), to allow an expert POCUS examiner to remotely guide a novice medical professional. However, few studies have evaluated the ability to use these teleultrasound technologies to guide a nonmedical novice to perform an acute care POCUS examination for cardiac, pulmonary, and abdominal assessments. Additionally, few studies have shown the ability of a POCUS-trained cardiac anesthesiologist to perform the role of an expert instructor. This study sought to evaluate the ability of a POCUS-trained anesthesiologist to remotely guide a nonmedically trained participant to perform an acute care POCUS examination. Methods: A total of 21 nonmedically trained undergraduate students who had no prior ultrasound experience were recruited to perform a three-part ultrasound examination on a standardized patient with the guidance of a remote expert who was a POCUS-trained cardiac anesthesiologist. The examination included the following acute care POCUS topics: (1) cardiac function via parasternal long/short axis views, (2) pneumothorax assessment via pleural sliding exam via anterior lung views, and (3) abdominal free fluid exam via right upper quadrant abdominal view. Each examiner was given a handout with static images of probe placement and actual ultrasound images for the three views. After a brief 8 min tutorial on the teleultrasound technologies, a connection was established with the expert, and they were guided through the acute care POCUS exam. Each view was deemed to be complete when the expert sonographer was satisfied with the obtained image or if the expert sonographer determined that the image could not be obtained after 5 min. Image quality was scored on a previously validated 0 to 4 grading scale. The entire session was recorded, and the image quality was scored during the exam by the remote expert instructor as well as by a separate POCUS-trained, blinded expert anesthesiologist. Results: A total of 21 subjects completed the study. The average total time for the exam was 8.5 min (standard deviation = 4.6). A comparison between the live expert examiner and the blinded postexam reviewer showed a 100% agreement between image interpretations. A review of the exams rated as three or higher demonstrated that 87% of abdominal, 90% of cardiac, and 95% of pulmonary exams achieved this level of image quality. A satisfaction survey of the novice users demonstrated higher ease of following commands for the cardiac and pulmonary exams compared to the abdominal exam. Conclusions: The results from this pilot study demonstrate that nonmedically trained individuals can be guided to complete a relevant ultrasound examination within a short period. Further evaluation of using telemedicine technologies to promote POCUS should be evaluated

Breeding and larval rearing of the milkfish Chanos chanos (Pisces: Chanidae)

Contribution No. 11 of the Aquaculture Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, P.O. Box 256, Iloilo City 5901, Philippines.Two sexually maturing female milkfish were captured in April 1977 and induced to spawn by means of acetone-dried Pacific salmon pituitary powder. The eggs were fertilized and incubated and the resultant young reared to 74-day old, 11 cm long fingerlings. Newly fertilized eggs averaged 1.16 mm in diameter and each had a narrow perivitelline space containing several cortical granules which disappeared within a few minutes. The yolk was slightly yellowish, devoid of oil globules and very finely granulated. Embryonic development was very similar to that of other pelagic fish eggs and hatching occurred between 35 to 36 hr at a salinity of 32 ppt and a temperature range of 28.4-29.2°C.This study was partially supported through a grant to the SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department by the International Development Research Centre of Canada, under Project No. 3-P-74-0146

Improving interoperability in distributed multi-tier software stacks

Distributed multi-tier software stacks organise and deploy software components as a hierarchy of interacting tiers. The components are typically heterogeneous, i.e. each component may be written in a different language and may interoperate using a variety of protocols. Tiered software is modular but leads to a range of interoperability challenges including the following. (1) Interoperating components in multiple languages and paradigms increases developer cognitive load since they must simultaneously reason in multiple languages and paradigms. (2) There must be correct interoperation of components, e.g. adherence to the API or communication protocols between components. (3) Interoperation between different components can lead to diverse modes of failure as each component can fail in unique ways. Many of these challenges are the result of contributing factors like tight coupling or polyglot programmming. This thesis investigates techniques to improve heterogeneous interoperability in distributed multi-tier software stacks. Some common approaches include microservices and tierless languages. Microservices are perceived to offer better reliability than components in multi-tier software stacks through the loose coupling of services. The reliability of microservices is investigated by combining the established properties of dependence and state with reliability. This defines a new three-dimensional space: the Microservices Dependency State Reliability (MDSR) classification with six classes. The feasibility of statically identifying MDSR classes is demonstrated with a prototype analyser that identifies all six classes in Flask microservices web applications. The reliability implications of the different MDSR classes are evaluated by running three case study applications (Hipster-Shop, JPyL & WordPress) against a fault injector. Key results are as follows. (1) All applications fail catastrophically if a critical microservice fails. (2) Applications survive the failure of individual minor microservice(s). (3) The failure of any chain of microservices in JPyL & Hipster is catastrophic. (4) Individual microservices do not necessarily have minor reliability implications. In a tierless language, the compiler generates the code for each component and ensures their correct interoperation. They are mainly used to implement web stacks. However, their use in implementing IoT stacks is less common. This investigation compares interoperation in tiered and tierless IoT stacks through the systematic evaluation of four implementations of the prototype UoG smart campus IoT system: two tierless and two Python-based tiered. Key results of the study are as follows. (1) Tierless languages have the potential to significantly reduce the development effort for IoT systems, requiring 70% less code than the tiered implementations. (2) Tierless languages have the potential to significantly improve the reliability of IoT systems. (3) The first comparison of a tierless codebase for resource-rich sensor nodes and one for resourceconstrained sensor nodes shows that they have very similar functional structure and code sizes - within 7%. Tier elimination is a technique that removes a tier/component by integrating two tiers. Specifically, this thesis investigates the implications of eliminating the Apache web server in a 4-tier web stack: Jupyter Notebook, Apache, Python, Linux (JAPyL) and replacing it with PHP libraries in the frontend webpage to get the 3-tier (JPL). The study reveals the following. (1) The JPL 3-tier web stack requires that the developer uses fewer programming languages and paradigms than JAPyL, i.e two compared with four languages and two compared with three paradigms. (2) JPL requires 42% less code than JAPyL. (3) In JPL, some of the functionalities can be automated due to the decreased abstraction levels at the upper layers of the stack. (4) However, the latency in JPL is two to three times greater than that of JAPyL. So while tier elimination reduces developer effort and semantic friction the tradeoffs are high performance overhead & resource consumption and increasing code complexity

Regional Responses: The Sustainable Food North West Research Collaboration

This paper describes the conception and initial phase of the North West Sustainable Food Research Collaboration (SusfoodNW). It provides summary findings from exploratory work packages which commenced at the beginning of the initiative and feedback from regional stakeholders concerning the role and challenges for regional academic collaborations and sustainable food research more broadly. As such, it is a collection of reflections and research outputs that aim to illustrate: a) The process of academics from neighbouring institutions working together with a regional focus but without significant external resource b) Some findings from initial research on the region which aimed to map and understand some of the context for sustainable food in the region and provide a grounding for further research c) A snapshot of regional stakeholder opinion in relation to the focus and activities of a regional research collaboratio

Reactions and reactivity of naphthyl and benzyl carbamates.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 199

Suitability of Killai backwaters for prawn farming-a preliminary micro level survey

Brackishwater areas have been given much importance for prawn farming. No information was available on the Killai backwaters about factors like water quality, topography, contour, extent of the area, tidal amplitude, seed potential and possibilities of flooding etc. Hence during 1982-'84 Klllai area was thoroughly surveyed on the above aspects and the results have been discussed in this paper. From this it is inferred that a total area of about 155 ha is readily available for undertaking both pond and pen culture in this backwater