Overview of international organic market development and potential export markets for organic products of Ukraine

From the Summar of the Report Production At worldwide level in year 2003 66% of the world’s organic land (total 24 mio ha) are concentrated in two continents: Australia and Latin America. In these regions extensive grazing land is widespread beside the whole game of plant production, from cereals to coffee, tea and other tropical products. In Northern America the organic farmland achieves 1,5 mio ha. Europe has 23 % of the worldwide organic land (5,5 mio ha), these 5,5 mio ha correspond to almost 2% of agricultural land managed organically. Liechtenstein is with 26 % of agricultural area managed organically the leader followed by Aus-tria with 11% and Switzerland with 10%. In most countries the organically managed surface is still increasing. In the enlarged EU the area raised 4% from year 2002 to 2003, in the new countries of the EU (Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary) the growing rates of organic farm land is over 10%. Small declines have been observed in Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. In the European Union and Switzerland the agrarian policy supports organic sec-tor with different measurers like direct payments for organically managed area, contribution for conversion, payments for environmental services and animal wel-fare, training and capacity building, research programs etc. Ukraine was the granary of the former Soviet Union. Large surfaces of fertile black soils are favourable for organic farming. In Ukraine 230’000 ha are certified organic or in conversion in year 2003. This represents 0.58% of land area under organic management. 69 production units with an average size about 3’500 ha are certified. Wheat, barley, sunflower and corn are the most important crops on these farms. The organic production increased in the last years with the expecta-tion to get access to export markets. In Ukraine certified organic fruit and vegetable producers are missing. There is also nearly no animal husbandry farm certified. The potential for conversion of plant production units is high, because many farmers use few external inputs. For smaller farms, without access to export markets, the certification costs of international certifiers are unattainable. Until now the agrarian policy doesn’t support especially organic farming. The ministry of agriculture and the commission of the parliament for agriculture are in contact with the new organic farming association Biolan Ukraine and other stake-holders for the elaboration of a law for organic production. There is advisory and training capacity for organic farming but this is still insufficient for the whole country. Market overview Europe and Northern America are responsible for 97% of organic sales to con-sumers. There is a global harmonisation of market trends and buying behaviours. The organic consumer lives in urban centres, has a higher education which is transformed in higher income, is young and has children or is older with a healthy lifestyle. Important issues for this consumer are food and health (free of dangersafety, label, certification) and food and emotions (animal welfare, regional product). Important triggers for buying organic are children, allergies and healthy life-style. The barriers for not buying organic are the price, the availability and in general less importance given to nutrition. Between the countries there are significant differences in the importance of the sales channels from direct marketing included weekly markets and box schemes, specialised organic food shops to general food shops (retailer shops, supermarkets, and discounter). General food shops are the most important sales channels over all and especially in countries with mature food markets like Austria, Den-mark, France, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Germany with a well developed organic food market is an exception with only 35 % of sales in general food shops. The organic market is in a growing phase in Northern America (15%-30%), Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Finland. The rest of the Euro-pean countries, the Ukrainian neighbours like Russia and the Baltic States, Asian countries like Korea and Chine and Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia are in the phase of emerging market. The most important markets (in value and in decreasing order) are: USA, Ger-many, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and Switzerland. In Switzerland the average consumer spends 104 Euro on organic products per annum, this is the highest amount. The price premiums for organic food paid to the farmers in the EU countries in year 2000 vary tremendous between the countries and the products. For cereals the average was 102% and the highest average price premium for plant product was reported for potatoes with 257%. The price premiums for animal products paid in EU are in average lower (milk 22%, beef 34% pork 68%) than for plant products with exception of poultry with 182% and eggs with 167%. In Europe there are supply and demand imbalances: oversupply in milk and beef and supply gaps in cereals. European organic fruit, vegetables and cereals can normally be sold as organic within Europe. Tropical, off season and exotic (eth-nic) products are imported to Europe and Northern America. In Europe the self sufficiency degree shows big variations from country to country and product to product. In cereals for example in year 2001 Belgium has 2% self sufficiency and Spain 316%, France an exporter of conventional cereals reports self sufficiency degree for organic of 35%. Even more important then the self suf-ficiency degrees are supply gaps (national production and imports are not suffi-cient). In the OMIaRD market research there were expected the following supply deficit for year 2003/04: For wheat and barley in Germany and Slovenia, for rye in Slovenia and Finland, for oilseed in Germany, Finland and Sweden, for legumi-nous fodder crops in Austria, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and United King-dom. Access to the EU and Swiss market is possible when the products are certified according to EU-standard (EU-regulations 2092/91 and 1804/99) or Swiss or-ganic ordinance. Depending on the market, other, mainly private, standards need to be fulfilled In Ukraine the national market for organic products is in the initial phase with some imported products like baby food, tea or coffee. The potential organic con-sumers are urban, younger professional women and young families with small children, from the new middle to upper class. At the moment they buy so called environmental clean products, with 20% to 100% price premium. These products are not certified; they are supposed to come from regions without relevant human made pollution and free of radioactivity. The Ukrainian consumers are aware of important organic issues like health and dangers residues. Up to now “organic” is not protected by law. Experts estimate that 5% to 10% of the Ukrainian products certified organic (mainly cereals and oilseeds) are sold as organic and exported to Western Europe

Kino-Enthusiasmus. Die Schenkung Heimo Bachstein

Heimo Bachstein, Jahrgang 1937, war Sparkassenangestellter und Filmenthusiast. Er lebte in Marktheidenfeld unweit von Würzburg, wo er 2011 starb. In den 1960er Jahren begann er, Filmplakate und Fotografien zu sammeln, schrieb filmkritische Texte und Vorträge, korrespondierte mit Verleihern, Filmemachern und Festivalleitungen, agierte als Jurymitglied und wurde gelegentlich als Schauspieler besetzt. Im Laufe von fünf Jahrzehnten entstand auf diese Weise in seiner Wohnung ein „Filmkunstarchiv“ – so eine von Bachsteins Bezeichnungen –, das kurz vor seinem Tod als Schenkung an die Bauhaus-Universität Weimar kam

Annual Report 2010 - Institute of Radiochemistry

At the beginning of 2011, the former Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD) was fully integrated into the Helmholtz Association, as Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Therefore, the present Annual Report 2010 of the Institute of Radiochemistry (IRC) is published as the first HZDR-Report. The Institute of Radiochemistry is one of the six Research Institutes of this centre. IRC contributes to the research program “Nuclear Safety Research” in the “Research Field of Energy” and performs basic and applied research in radiochemistry and radioecology. Motivation and background of our research are environmental processes relevant for the installation of nuclear waste repositories, for remediation of uranium mining and milling sites, and for radioactive contaminations caused by nuclear accidents and fallout. Because of their high radiotoxicity and long half-life the actinides are of special interest

Schwangerschaftsassoziierte Osteoporose

Jede Frau unterliegt mit einer Wahrscheinlichkeit von 30% im Laufe ihres Lebens der Gefahr, an einer Osteoporose zu erkranken. In den meisten Fällen handelt es sich dabei um die postmenopausale Osteoporose. Dass diese systemische Skeletterkrankung auch in Zusammenhang mit der Schwangerschaft und Stillzeit auftreten kann, ist ein Phänomen, das seit etwa 50 Jahren bekannt ist. In dieser Zeit wurden insgesamt ca. 80-100 Fälle einer so genannten schwangerschaftsassoziierten Osteoporose öffentlich bekannt. Eine genaue Prävalenz konnte bisher nicht erfasst werden. Im Rahmen dieser Erkrankung kommt es häufig gegen Ende der Schwangerschaft oder kurz nach der Entbindung zu Schmerzen, die in den meisten Fällen im Rücken lokalisiert sind und zu einer Bewegungseinschränkung führen können. Betroffen sind vor allem Erstgebärende zwischen 25 und 30 Jahren. Die Schwangere und junge Mutter kann durch diese Erkrankung in ihrer psychischen und physischen Verfassung stark beeinträchtigt werden, so dass Probleme in der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung, der Familienplanung und in der Arbeitswelt entstehen können. In den meisten Fällen konnte keine Ursache für die Entstehung einer schwangerschaftsassoziierten Osteoporose festgestellt werden. Unklar ist, ob eine Osteoporose in der Schwangerschaft durch die Schwangerschaft selbst verursacht wird, oder ob bereits eine verminderte Knochendichte vor der Schwangerschaft besteht, die die Entwicklung einer manifesten Osteoporose begünstigen kann. Wahrscheinlich handelt es sich um eine multifaktorielle Erkrankung, bei der aufgrund von mehreren Merkmalen und Risikofaktoren einer Frau eine Osteoporose während der Schwangerschaft entsteht. Um ein Überblick über die Krankheitshäufigkeit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zu erhalten und um mögliche Risikofaktoren für die Erkrankung herauszuarbeiten, wurde im Oktober 2004 das Deutsche Referenzzentrum für schwangerschaftsassoziierte Osteoporose gegründet. Während der ausführlichen telefonischen Gespräche mit den Betroffenen wurde nach deren Einwilligung ein Fragenkatalog bearbeitet, der vorab zusammengestellt worden war. Die Ergebnisse aus den Befragungen werden in dieser Arbeit vorgestellt. Es konnten insgesamt 102 Patientinnen befragt werden. Dies stellt das weltweit größte bisher erfasste Kollektiv von Frauen mit einer schwangerschaftsassoziierten Osteoporose dar. Zusätzlich wurden zu 71 dieser Patientinnen 71 gut vergleichbare Kontrollpersonen erfasst und ebenfalls befragt. Dadurch konnten statistisch fundierte Aussagen getroffen werden, inwiefern sich die Gruppe der Patientinnen von der Gruppe gesunder Frauen unterscheidet. In der Gruppe der Patientinnen waren mehr schlanke Frauen als in der Kontrollgruppe. Das Gewicht, bzw. das subjektive Empfinden des Körpergewichts scheint bei den betroffenen Frauen eine bedeutende Rolle zu spielen: die Patientinnen fühlten sich häufiger zu dünn als die Kontrollpersonen, jedoch nahmen sie im Laufe ihrer Schwangerschaft durchschnittlich 12% weniger zu als diese. All das könnte auf ein gestörtes Bewusstsein des eigenen Körpers hindeuten und einen falschen Umgang mit Ernährung erklären. Interessant ist des weiteren zu beachten, dass mehr Patientinnen als Kontrollpersonen an einer Milchunverträglichkeit leiden und dass sie häufiger von Zahnproblemen in der Kindheit sowie mit einer Verschlimmerung derselben durch die Schwangerschaft betroffen waren. Außerdem zeigten sie eine geringere sportliche Aktivität in der Kindheit und Adoleszenz sowie vergleichsweise längere Phasen ohne Regelblutung in der gynäkologischen Anamnese. Die schwangerschaftsassoziierte Osteoporose ist eine sehr komplexe, in ihrer Pathophysiologie nicht gänzlich erklärte Erkrankung. Bisher gibt es keine Strategien für den Umgang mit dieser Krankheit hinsichtlich Diagnostik, Therapie und Prävention. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert Hinweise, dass die Erkrankung häufiger vorkommt als bisher angenommen und stützt die Vermutung, dass eine hohe Zahl klinisch inapparenter Fälle besteht. Die hier erkannten Merkmale der betroffenen Frauen können als Risikofaktoren für die Entstehung einer Osteoporose im Zusammenhang mit der Schwangerschaft und Stillzeit gelten. Damit kann ein wichtiger Beitrag zur frühzeitigen Erkennung gefährdeter Frauen und ihrer Einteilung in Risikogruppen geleistet werden

Googlest Du noch oder recherchierst Du schon?: wie die AG Informationskompetenz der wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken Thüringens aufgrund vielfältiger Nachfragen eine Fortbildung organisierte

Die AG Informationskompetenz der Direktorenkonferenz Thüringer Wissenschaftlicher Bibliotheken (DTWB) setzt sich zum Ziel, eine verbesserte Qualität bei der Vermittlung von Informationskompetenz, vor allem bei den Hochschulangehörigen des Freistaats zu erreichen. Dabei liegt ein wichtiges Augenmerk auch auf der eigenen Fortbildung. Mit dem ersten von der AG ausgerichteten Workshop "Googlest Du noch oder recherchierst Du schon?", der am 14. September 2016 an der UB Ilmenau stattfand, wurden neben dem Wissenserwerb in Bezug auf lernpsychologische Kenntnisse auch Berufserfahrungen durch Impulsreferate ausgetauscht. The working group “Informationskompetenz” of the Direktorenkonferenz Thüringer Wissenschaftlicher Bibliotheken (DTWB) aims at improving the quality of information literacy teaching, especially in academic environments. One focus lies on enhancing our own skills. A first workshop concerning that matter took place at the University Library in Ilmenau in September 2016 and was entitled "Googlest Du noch oder recherchierst Du schon?". Objectives of the workshop were insights in the psychology of learning and keynote speeches about different information literacy activities followed by exchange of experiences

Single-Voxel Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Thalamus in Idiopathic Epileptic Dogs and in Healthy Control Dogs

The role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the investigation of brain metabolites in epileptic syndromes in dogs has not been explored systematically to date. The aim of this study was to investigate metabolites in the thalamus in dogs affected by idiopathic epilepsy (IE) with and without antiepileptic drug treatment (AEDT) and to compare them to unaffected controls. Our hypothesis is that similar to humans with generalized epilepsy and loss of consciousness, N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) would be reduced, and glutamate-glutamine (Glx) would be increased in treated and untreated IE in comparison with the control group. In this prospective case-control study, Border Collie (BC) and Greater Swiss Mountain dog (GSMD) were divided into three groups: (1) healthy controls, IE with generalized tonic-clonic seizures with (2) and without (3) AEDT. A total of 41 BC and GSMD were included using 3 Tesla single-voxel proton MRS of the thalamus (PRESS localization, shortest TE, TR = 2000 ms, NSA = 240). After exclusion of 11 dogs, 30 dogs (18 IE and 12 healthy controls) remained available for analysis. Metabolite concentrations were estimated with LCModel using creatine as reference and compared using Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences in the NAA-to-creatine (p = 0.04) and Glx-to-creatine (p = 0.03) ratios between the three groups. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test further showed significant reduction in the NAA/creatine ratio in idiopathic epileptic dogs under AEDT compared to epileptic dogs without AEDT (p = 0.03) and compared to healthy controls (p = 0.03). In opposite to humans, Glx/creatine ratio was significantly reduced in dogs with IE under AEDT compared to epileptic dogs without AEDT (p = 0.03) and controls (p = 0.02). IE without AEDT and healthy controls did not show significant difference, neither in NAA/creatine (p = 0.60), nor in Glx-to-creatine (p = 0.55) ratio. In conclusion, MRS showed changes in dogs with IE and generalized seizures under AEDT, but not in those without AEDT. Based upon these results, MRS can be considered a useful advanced imaging technique for the evaluation of dogs with IE in the clinical and research settings

MODELS FOR THE BUS HEADWAY DISTRIBUTION IN THE FLOW BEHIND A TRAFFIC SIGNAL

Several results concerning the distribution of the headway of busses in the flow behind a traffic signal are presented. In the main focus of interest is the description of analytical models, which are verified by the results of Monte-Carlo-Methods. The advantage of analytical models (verified, but not derived by simulation methods) is their flexibility with respect to possible generalizations. For instance, several random distributions of the flow incoming to the traffic signal can be compared. The attention will be directed at the question, how the primary headway H (analyzed in front of the traffic signal) is mapped to the headway H’ analyzed behind of the traffic signal and how the random distribution of H is mapped to that of H’. For the traffic flow in front of the traffic signal several models will be discussed. The first case considers the situation, that busses operate on a common lane with the individual motor car traffic and the traffic flow is saturated. In the second situation, busses operate on a separated bus lane. Moreover, a mixed situation is discussed to model as close to reality as possible

Phosphocholine – an agonist of metabotropic but not of ionotropic functions of alpha9-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

We demonstrated previously that phosphocholine and phosphocholine-modified macromolecules efficiently inhibit ATP-dependent release of interleukin-1beta from human and murine monocytes by a mechanism involving nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). Interleukin-1beta is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine of innate immunity that plays pivotal roles in host defence. Control of interleukin-1beta release is vital as excessively high systemic levels cause life threatening inflammatory diseases. In spite of its structural similarity to acetylcholine, there are no other reports on interactions of phosphocholine with nAChR. In this study, we demonstrate that phosphocholine inhibits ion-channel function of ATP receptor P2X7 in monocytic cells via nAChR containing alpha9 and alpha10 subunits. In stark contrast to choline, phosphocholine does not evoke ion current responses in Xenopus laevis oocytes, which heterologously express functional homomeric nAChR composed of alpha9 subunits or heteromeric receptors containing alpha9 and alpha10 subunits. Preincubation of these oocytes with phosphocholine, however, attenuated choline-induced ion current changes, suggesting that phosphocholine may act as a silent agonist. We conclude that phophocholine activates immuno-modulatory nAChR expressed by monocytes but does not stimulate canonical ionotropic receptor functions